Question concerning the W.I.S.D.O.M. super group

[Techwright]

A question concerning the W.I.S.D.O.M. super group:

 

(for those who don't know W.I.S.D.O.M. was designed for the Asian server's opening.  That server didn't last long.)

 

We have Foreshadow as trainer in The Hollows, and Mirror Spirit as trainer in Faultline.   I know Rose Star and Spark Blade are not in game, but have their NPCs been retained in the game code?  I'm wonder if there's enough there to someday add them as trainers in other zones.

[Greycat]

I don't know that they were ever *given* NPCs. (The trailer animations were most definitely *not* in game graphics!)

[Techwright]

2 hours ago, Greycat said:

I don't know that they were ever *given* NPCs. (The trailer animations were most definitely *not* in game graphics!)

Okay.  I'm making an assumption, of course, but since the Korean server went live, at least for a time, I'd assumed there were NPC models in the code.

 

[Greycat]

My main reason for thinking there's not is that Rose Star and Spark Blade only have concept art on Paragon Wiki. Given this community 🙂 someone would either have grabbed screenshots of them from when the Korean version was up and running or found a way to PIGG dive and grab them.

 

Plus (again according to PWiki,) City of Hero (the Korean version) was never officially released - it never got out of beta.

 

Quote

 

City of Hero

Main Article: [City of Hero]
Beta Release Date: January 18, 2006
 

This Korean version never received an official release, and was shut down in June, 2007. Korean players were offered certificates to the American version as compensation. The two new signature characters who would have been added, Mirror Spirit and Foreshadow, were eventually worked into the American game as combat NPCs and trainers in Faultline and The Hollows, respectively

 

 

Still an assumption on my part, granted, and frankly I'd love to see some content generated around these guys - plus, of the missing two, Spark Blade is *almost* createable with player pieces (missing the angled belt and what looks like a metal collar.) It just doesn't sound like they were ever made as in game models to me - I assume they saw how it wasn't catching on over there and stopped work on developing the other models and any associated missions, seeing it as just throwing money away.

[Techwright]

Ah, my bad.  I thought the Korean version actually released and was shut down within a short time.    Guess that resolve that, unless someone has new info.

 

So, next on my list...about that 5th Column moonbase...

[ZorkNemesis]

56 minutes ago, Techwright said:

So, next on my list...about that 5th Column moonbase...

In a post-shutdown interview, the moonbase was actually brought up.  There were plans to fight the Batalion on the moon that were sadly never realized.  After years of joking and memeing about it, when they finally decided to do it they got the axe.  It sucks.

[Gulbasaur]

5 hours ago, Techwright said:

  I thought the Korean version actually released and was shut down within a short time.   

I think it was basically a localisation beta rather than a content beta, if that makes sense.

 

I gather it was deemed too western for the Korean market which favours different gameplay trends and the superhero genre was deemed as too culturally foreign for the market in the same way that anime-style and wuxia-themed games haven't ever really held a market share outside of Asia.

[Soyuz]

This has always puzzled me a little. Why did NCSoft buy the property in the first place? Surely they must have done their market research and known this ahead of time. Were they just trying to break into the western MMO marketplace and the Korean product was a sideshow?

[Hew]

4 hours ago, Soyuz said:

This has always puzzled me a little. Why did NCSoft buy the property in the first place? Surely they must have done their market research and known this ahead of time. Were they just trying to break into the western MMO marketplace and the Korean product was a sideshow?

Yes. They have tried to break into the us market a few times, with xox master or whatever that top down game was called, and some very small endeavours that i cant remember the names of offhand.

[srmalloy]

5 hours ago, Gulbasaur said:

I think it was basically a localisation beta rather than a content beta, if that makes sense.

The regionalization, and the slew of anime-themed costume pieces. But they didn't really do anything with the gameplay to make it more attractive to the Korean market.

 

When the first MMOs were released in Korea, there were virtually no home computers that had the graphics capability to run them, so the publishers worked out deals with the 'bangs' (internet cafés) to supply computers if they'd make their games available. This created the fundamental difference between Asian and Western MMO styles. Where with a Western MMO, a player would go home, fire up their computer, log in to the MMO, and either meet people there or solo, in Korea you'd get together with your friends, go down to the bang, sit down at adjacent computers, and play as a group. So Asian MMOs gravitated quickly to being team-centric once you were out of the starting zone, while Western MMOs remained solo-friendly. So the whole playstyle of 'City of Hero' was going up against what the Korean market expected an MMO to be, which meant that it would be a rude and lengthy uphill climb to get even a tiny sliver of the market, and it wasn't deemed worth the effort.

[Sakura Tenshi]

I'm not sure why Rose Star was never added as her costume and powers are pretty simple, but I think Spark Blade presented a number of technical challenges if they wanted to use him.

 

He existed before actual trenchcoats had been added, so they might not have known how to. He also wears a duster-type coat that has a mantle over the shoulders and looking at the chest underneath, they might not have felt he'd look good (no reason he couldn't be redesigned though like Foreshadow). But the biggest issue I'd see with Spark Blade is that he has a VERY unique powerset: he wields a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. A swashbuckler assault if you will, and I don't think the developers were interested in investing that kind of time into a semi-obscure NPC.

[Techwright]

10 hours ago, Sakura Tenshi said:

But the biggest issue I'd see with Spark Blade is that he has a VERY unique powerset: he wields a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other. A swashbuckler assault if you will, and I don't think the developers were interested in investing that kind of time into a semi-obscure NPC.

You make a good point.  I would merely add that as soon as players saw a functional sword/pistol dual wielder that howls would commence for it to be a playable option.

[Sakura Tenshi]

40 minutes ago, Techwright said:

You make a good point.  I would merely add that as soon as players saw a functional sword/pistol dual wielder that howls would commence for it to be a playable option.

Yeah, and even after City of Villains launched and assaults became a thing, I imagine Devs would have been reluctant to add something like it mostly because the benefit of Assault sets was that they're supposed to be an 'easy' powerset recycled from a bunch of other powers. A swashbuckling assault would have been wholly unique, and might have felt like a waste with assault powers being restricted to a single AT.

 

As a sort of a side note: you might remember from live, and even now that when the ToV became a thing, so many people wanted Sorceress Serene's Autumnal Assault. Even if it was a fat chance it would ever happen. (for one thing the set's ultimately incomplete, then there's the whole thing where some of its attacks deal three types of damage)

[Greycat]

9 hours ago, Techwright said:

You make a good point.  I would merely add that as soon as players saw a functional sword/pistol dual wielder that howls would commence for it to be a playable option.

While not *exactly* the same..... DP/*/Ninja mastery Sentinel. >.>