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COH no more....

Started by RTTingle, August 31, 2012, 07:34:40 PM

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RTTingle

Sigh.  All the info is at the COH site.  Damn... this leaves a hole in my heart.

Figure Fan


catwhowalksbyhimself

#2
Well that was sudden.

They just released a powerset last week.  Another one is about to be released.  A new issue is in mid beta stage.  Several other things in various stages of production.

NCSoft pulled a sudden decision on everyone here, because the devs obviously didn't know either.  I will be trying my best to avoid their games in future.

I guess I"m going back to not playing MMOs at all.  I never did before COH.  I enjoyed every moment of it, loved playing and had a blast with you guys.

Not sure if it's even worth it to play any more.  Have a ton of unspent points, lots of stuff I never even got to.  I also just paid for my 6 month subscription that is no a huge waste of money.

On the upside I guess I have more free time now.  AT least I hope that's an upside.

EDIT:  I just checked in an fact a new build of the beta was published just yesterday.  The devs are as surprised as we were, apparently.  Boo on NCSoft for treating us and them like this.  Boo I say!
I am the cat that walks by himself, all ways are alike to me.

BigAl1775

You could always join the gang of us over in DCUO. We would enjoy the fresh blood infused into the league. Check out the DCUO forum for the people to contact.  :thumbup:
Dreadlok-Officer of Freedom Reborn on DCUO (PC)
              -Founder of Freedom Reborn on Marvel:Contest of Champions (tablet)

catwhowalksbyhimself

#4
Really?  A sudden loss of our favorite game and you want to use it as a recruiting drive?  No consideration for anyone's feelings or anything?

EDIT:  Anyhow, it's been pointed out that while NCSoft and Paragon owned the characters and universe, competitor Cryptic owns the game engine, and their licence to use it hits it's 5th year anniversary on the very day the game will shut down.  Folks are suspecting that maybe NCSoft isn't the one pulling the plus, maybe Cryptic figures they'd take one of it's biggest competitors very few profitable titles out when the had the chance to by pulling the game engine license.
I am the cat that walks by himself, all ways are alike to me.

MikeB7

It's heartbreaking how sudden and final it was.  No 'we're stopping development after the next update'; it was 'Everyone is fired and development stops NOW'.  NCSoft really screwed Paragon Studios and the player base.  I feel bad for the employees, what they made gave me such joy over the years.  I don't know if I'll find another MMO I'll actually want to play like this one.  But what I'll miss the most is hanging out with FR buddies every night cracking jokes, being goofy, teasing FI...it was like an epic action packed chat shack. 

I'm still shellshocked, but from logging in a bit this morning, I'm not sure I even want to play til 11/30.  Playing just made me sad the entire time.  :(  COH was all I did when not messing with music or housework stuff.  I had an absolute blast with everyone from the very start, duoing with Spud (BIGGIANTFREAKINOCTOPUS!!) to the Simulding group, to Tort and his AFBL, Wee Beasties and Circus, to the Sunday night groups Relativity and the toy-based VG, to the total awesomness of my VG the Freaky-Deakies, to going nuts building bases with Meejeedoubledeebubbleboo, and to these past couple years of complete arse-kicking with Eph, TW, FI, Rain, TT, etc. 

I'll be logging in occasionally to see if people are migrating to another game, or to take screenshots of toons, or just to hang out.  I still had so much planned in the game with both existing characters and looking forward to what had been announced like new powersets and features.  I had just created a new toon yesterday morning even.   :(

Outcast

I haven't really played the game since my internet connection sucks. But if it weren't for that, i think it would have been a great game.

Maybe i'm just weird but i kinda feel sad as well that such a cool game had to end that way. Makes me wonder why. I thought it still had a lot of players supporting it.

laughing paradox

I never really played the game, but it is a bummer for the people who actively played it. Sorry to hear about that, it sucks.

Lionheart

Quote from: catwhowalksbyhimself on September 01, 2012, 01:50:04 AMEDIT:  Anyhow, it's been pointed out that while NCSoft and Paragon owned the characters and universe, competitor Cryptic owns the game engine, and their licence to use it hits it's 5th year anniversary on the very day the game will shut down.  Folks are suspecting that maybe NCSoft isn't the one pulling the plus, maybe Cryptic figures they'd take one of it's biggest competitors very few profitable titles out when the had the chance to by pulling the game engine license.

I've seen that speculation as well. However, as someone else on the CoH forums pointed out, usually there are renewal clauses in such agreements. It's entirely possible that NCSoft simply decided not to renew. Not allowing for renewal might leave Cryptic open to anti-trust allegations. I'm leaning toward this being on NCSoft; right now I think Cryptic would try to avoid negative press.

Lionheart

Quote from: BigAl1775 on September 01, 2012, 01:09:40 AM
You could always join the gang of us over in DCUO. We would enjoy the fresh blood infused into the league. Check out the DCUO forum for the people to contact.  :thumbup:

Tried DCUO (was even a beta tester); won't play it again. Tried Champions; not overly impressed with that one either.

One thing that stood out to me while I was beta testing Champions was that when I was logged in playing CO and my wife was sitting next to me playing CoH, my eyes kept being drawn back to CoH. There is no superhero MMO currently on the market that rivals CoH.

bearded

WoW has ppl runnin independant servers, (without permission), i wonder if coh could do the same?

MikeB7

Rain, Eph, TT and I just celebrated by running a 4-man +4x8 ITF and listening to Barbara Streisand's "The Way We Were". 



Meeeeeemorieeeeeeeeeees........


:wub:

catwhowalksbyhimself

I popped in briefly yesterday, but can't stand to come back. I've already uninstalled the game and still don't know what to do with me time.  I will miss it.

Now that the game is dead, folks from closed beta and such are breaking the ban on talking about stuff and there was a ton of great sound new powerset either being developed or being planned.  Well over a dozen in fact.  It really is sad that none of that will come about now.
I am the cat that walks by himself, all ways are alike to me.

DrMike2000

Its sad, isn't it?

I've been on the receiving end of this kind of decision professionally. Its all part of the games industry. Its usually sudden and brutal like this, one day evrythings fine, the next day the plug's pulled. I feel for the people at Paragon Studios.

I've seen beloved games come and go, thinking here of Freedom Force, which dwindled out of my life at my own pace. That was different though - I chose to leave, and I could come back and made Amazanauts when I felt like it.

This is a new experience though, having a game that I play forcibly close down on me. Guess I'll have to find something else to do with my spare time. Thats probably not a bad thing entirely.

Stranger Than Fiction:
The Strangers, Tales of the Navigator and Freedom Force X
www.fundamentzero.com

Randomsense

I haven't played City for quite a while but it has always held a special place in my heart. It was a combinitation of the game, the friends, the devs, everything. It was a pretty magical time when it all first began. I played it pretty solidly for 5 years. Its the only MMO I've done that with. Even after I would occasionally go back and revisit it.
Vector (Gravity/Kinetics) - Freedom
Howitzer Howard (Blaster) - AFBL: Skyway City Towers
Althea Haven (Illusion/Force Field) - Freedom (The New Assembly)

Verfall

This is going to sound lame, but fark it, I actually felt like bloody crying when I found out. The new job wasn't giving me the time to play, but what this game gave to me over the last 8 years I'll never, ever, forget.

Great friends, people I had never met face to face, but were nearly as close to me as the friends I sit down and have beers with. When my back blew up, this game and you guys saved me from falling into a deep depression. It sounds pathetic to some degree, but I always say that I owe my sanity during those 5 years of hell to City of Heroes and the friends I bonded with in that world. And you'd think you'd want to keep a super hero game going when freaking Avengers is the biggest thing out there for kids.

Fark you NCsoft. Point blankly. Fark. You.
"My word and world holds ground and is real
Your word is like floods of poisoned water
A language spoken with spit from different tongues
You can never corrupt me again"

Bujin

That's really sad - I haven't played in quite awhile, but popped in briefly now and again (mainly out of nostalgia).   :(
- Bujin

Kommando

Yeah definitely a lot of good times to be had. Hanging out with everyone in real time was awesome. This was the only MMO I really really could get into. Whether runing ITF after ITF after ITF, levelling new toons,power levelling with PUGs (because that had its own charm and sometimes it was just fun and you got to try different strategies) or just levelling toons solo while chatting on the FR channel. It was all good.

JeyNyce

It is sad, I remember first getting the game and playing with some of you guys online.  To me this was our second chapter to Freedom Force.
I don't call for tech support, I AM TECH SUPPORT!
It's the internet, don't take it personal!

BlueBard

It's sad, but have to confess that I haven't been playing CoH for awhile now.  Star Trek Online is taking all of my time-and-money budget for gaming.  Still, I have to say that I liked CoH's gameplay better than CO or DCUO, and at least it had a well-developed storyline.

Some of the long-time Cryptic Devs who worked on CoH are also feeling a little sad, judging from comments made on the STO forums.  I'm hoping that now that Cryptic is expanding that they will be able to hire in some of the devs from Paragon Studios for work on their various games.  I suspect they could use some code jockeys who are already somewhat familiar with Cryptic.
STO/CO: @bluegeek

Lionheart

Just a side note with regard to the rumor of Cryptic possibly playing games with the license: Back Alley Brawler (aka Tic-Toc) posted to the CoH forums today that Jack Emmert told him that the IP was sold completely to NCSoft and the license was set in perpetuity. The license did not run out.

catwhowalksbyhimself

Then it has to be the other 2 major possibilities

1.  NCSoft wanted to close stuff down to make room for GW2

2.  CoH, while not losing money, did not benefit at all from the transition to f2p.  This is rather unusual and they might have taken it as a sign that the game was on its way out.
I am the cat that walks by himself, all ways are alike to me.

Stopman

Wow. That bites.

I know I left as a regular subscriber at the 5 year mark due to boredom with the game itself, not the player base and group of friends I was fortunate to play with. I have been involved with other games since then, but have never encountered such a supportive community as this one. Thanks and hope to play with you again sometime. It was great while it lasted.
"The new EAT is a Stalker/Controller mix!!"

Randomsense

I did run across this blurb on tomshardware...

UPDATE: Here's the response we received from NCsoft:

Both NCsoft and Paragon Studios are incredibly proud of the success of City of Heroes, but unfortunately, the continued support of the franchise no longer fits within our long term goals for the company. All employees at Paragon Studios are affected by this decision, including the management team.

Here is the link to the original: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Paragon-Studios-City-of-Heroes-MMORPG-Andy-Belford-NCsoft,17315.html
Vector (Gravity/Kinetics) - Freedom
Howitzer Howard (Blaster) - AFBL: Skyway City Towers
Althea Haven (Illusion/Force Field) - Freedom (The New Assembly)

Midnite

Quick notes (view the recording of today's TwitchTV stream here): http://www.twitch.tv/paragonstudios/b/331167163

- This may be the last livestream (maybe not, who knows?)
- <Zwill gets a little verklempt on the coffee talk>
- Trying to enable VIP for ALL players & Double XP on ALL servers, as well as "as many holiday events as possible" (probably just one at a time, lamentably)
- Due to possible stability issues, I24 will not be launched to Live, but it is on beta.
- Beta Server is now open to ALL PLAYERS (even non-VIPs)
- I24 is on Beta, and all the Market items are zeroed out (will not do on Live "just in case"; they don't want to possibly ruin the economy (presumably in case the game is saved via deus ex machina))
- Cryptic did NOT kill CoH by witholding an engine license; the license was purchased in perpetuity for CoH and another unreleased project
- SOE is not interested in purchasing CoH
- Paragon Studio employess have to sign NDAs upon their termination which keeps them from discussing the closure of the studio.
- <SkippySidekick shows Zwill how to use the "Magisterium Nuke" power (it's only an effect, but a huge one>; Zwill's favorite power is the "Hamidon Defeated" effect.>
- CoH cannot be Kickstarted because it is not a new project
- Indie studio aspirations are unlikely, but they would love to do it if there was capital, backing, etc.
- If fans could raise enough funds, could CoH be saved? Unknown, ask the folks in Korea.
- Ultimately unfeasible MA wish list items (due to dev hours required) - changing the rating system to a "Like" system; branching dialogue trees; UI work; map maker (would require base fix first); hooking up LUA (scripting language) to MA.
- You'll never get to see the moon base  (presumable was in development)
- Base redesign - possible monotization options for apartment system, but never got past discussion phase
- Servers run on Linux (of course)
- Server maintenance must be run once a week to keep things running straight
- Game/Engine will Never be released released for free to the public (presumably because the game code is proprietary and the engine is licensed from Cryptic)
- No dev swag giveaways because it requires legal (legal is no longer available, the studio is closing)
- There was a lot of stuff still in development
- Last Friday was a very hard day, but ended up being inspirational, a last party and a sharing of memories, with beers afterwards.
- Is there any hope? There's always hope...
- Probably no I24 trailer
- Unfortunately no word re: refunds, but wait for NCSoft to send more word.
- Zwill and others will stay on as long as possible to turn the lights on/off
- Turn on base raids? No, would require hard code.
- Will VIPs remain so until close? Unknown, will verify to try to ensure that no one drops VIP.
- No schedule of events b/c staff needs to be on moment's notice for job interviews, but will randomly pop in and do stuff
- No ideas re: Omega slots
- No special End of World event due to no devs, maybe spawning a bunch of stuff instead
- Hugs for all!
- Servers still scheduled to go dark Nov. 30th
- Don't know what will happen to server/data assets when game ends
- Devs play different MMOs (part of their job, actually)
- If there is a pending lawsuit (ex: Worlds.com), they wouldn't be able to talk about it
- Best bet to see where people end up? Follow them on social networks (Twitter, etc.). Can't talk about that stuff.
- Zwill & staff appreciate the groundswell of support/ petitions/ etc. from the community!
- Nothing in the works for *huge* PvP changes; Arbiter Hawk proposed a lot of changes, but it would have required a lot of time & resources required for other projects
- Probably could NOT dedicate teams of devs or resources to PvP (PvP would never be the primary focus). Also, with the release of new powersets so frequently, PvP balance would have been "a nightmare".
- Super secret project? Under NDA, and cancelled with the studio closure.
- No new ATs were in the works
- Matt Miller on Twitter: @MMODesigner
- Melissa Bianco on Twitter:@MelissaBianco
- Jesse Lawrence on Twitter: @HitStreak
- Zwill's fondest memories: Player Summits (and player interactions on the forums)
- NCSoft still has the right to use your characters (technically; whether or not they would choose to exercise that right is doubtful ("IANAL"))
- I24 included mouse pointer scaling to change the size of the pointer
- Private server possibility? "IANAL", but probably not legal.
- <Zwill summons Cthuluh (a lot of Lusca tentacles)>
- Discussion of CoH as a dating service due to RL marriages of CoH players
- Half Life 3 is a MYTH!
- Went 1/2 hour over their normal coffee talk duration
- "Thank you to everybody who tuned in today. Hopefully today won't be the last coffee talk, but if it is, it's been an honor and a pleasure. Thank you all."

The_Baroness

Here some links

I know I have not been active here for a couple of years, but have been lurking around.

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/board,134.0.html

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/177229/Gamers_Rally_to_Save_City_of_Heroes.php

Attempts to save the game are underway.

It is a longshot but worth trying. We are heroes, this is what we do!

Tortuga

CoH is one of the things that changed my life.  Imagining and socializing in an open world.  I'm going to do my best to hook up with the gang once the new school year pandemonium dies down.  I need to remember how to take screen shots...sadly, a bunch of my toons are locked out and I'm not going to pay to open them up now, heh.

What time are you guys usually on in the evening?

Ooga (sniff) booga.

catwhowalksbyhimself

Actually, I think they said they unlocked VIP for everybody, so all your toons should be unlocked. Unless I misread that, of course.
I am the cat that walks by himself, all ways are alike to me.

Randomsense

I think I read that too but don't remeber if it was good to go or what they were going to try to get going.

I'll see if I can join up as well for a few missions when that time comes :)
Vector (Gravity/Kinetics) - Freedom
Howitzer Howard (Blaster) - AFBL: Skyway City Towers
Althea Haven (Illusion/Force Field) - Freedom (The New Assembly)

BigAl1775

Quote from: catwhowalksbyhimself on September 01, 2012, 01:50:04 AM
Really?  A sudden loss of our favorite game and you want to use it as a recruiting drive?  No consideration for anyone's feelings or anything?

Wasn't intending to sound heartless. Just wanted to give an option. I'm sorry to hear the bad news. Just letting you know if you wanted a new home, we had one for ya.
Dreadlok-Officer of Freedom Reborn on DCUO (PC)
              -Founder of Freedom Reborn on Marvel:Contest of Champions (tablet)