If NCSoft gave it's blessing.........

[Dazl]

What would you want to see Homecoming do to get the word out that the game is back as a non-profit service?

 

I would start will ads on all the MMO sites.

[Peacemoon]

If NCSoft gave its blessing I would like to see the volunteers able to be paid for their services. 
I’d also like the game to be added to Steam!

[Zeraphia]

18 minutes ago, Peacemoon said:

If NCSoft gave its blessing I would like to see the volunteers able to be paid for their services. 
I’d also like the game to be added to Steam!

This above all else. I would love to see more developers for updates and more frequent updates to the game so that there is more content. Hiring dev's or allowing for some sort of contract work would be great!

[Redletter]

I for one think compensating developers, volunteer or no, is a horrible decision! No one got anywhere, ever, by PAYING code monkeys. Come on now, let's not get crazy ideas in our head about ethical treatment and pay for these... creatures.

 

No no, what I would want to see is the lead developer run off and take all the money! That guy would be so smart, handsome, and talented!

 

This post brought to by The Ghost of Statesman

[Greycat]

If NC gave its blessing to HC? I'd want it - assuming they have these archived somewhere - to come with the tools used to actually *add* pieces, geometry, graphics and effects to allow them to create *even more.*

[Vulpoid]

I have never understood this desire to share the fragile, beautiful things that make you happy in life with the common rabble.
Imagine your favorite restaurant packed every night with tourists and their screaming children.
...your favorite nature walk now littered with ripe poo bags and broken beer bottles.

...having to take a number like at a deli counter before enjoying an evening with your significant other.

We have absolutely nothing to gain by inviting more bloated bioforms into out perfect game.

 

Quit it.  Shhhhhh........

[Shred Monkey]

I like a crowded server personally, so I'm OK with any successful membership drive.  Personally, I think the best thing to do to increase awareness has already been done.  Allowing streaming and posting of videos is the biggest thing they can do to attract new players outside of actually running adds (like RAID: Shadow Legends).  

 

We also already get articles written about them on Massively (How is it that happens so often, btw?  I suspect someone here knows the answer to this... so... umm.. perhaps I should say thank-you?)

 

[Snarky]

Speculation about improbabilities and then using that as a platform for ideas about growth.  Might as well write male enhancement ads.

[The_Warpact]

5 minutes ago, Snarky said:

 Might as well write male enhancement ads.

Two things, one Snark stop with your wishful thinking.

 

 

Two, either way I still wouldn't mind going over to tp their building, and putting a flaming bag of poo on their front porch.

[Pzn]

2 hours ago, Vulpoid said:

I have never understood this desire to share the fragile, beautiful things that make you happy in life with the common rabble.
Imagine your favorite restaurant packed every night with tourists and their screaming children.
...your favorite nature walk now littered with ripe poo bags and broken beer bottles.

...having to take a number like at a deli counter before enjoying an evening with your significant other.

We have absolutely nothing to gain by inviting more bloated bioforms into out perfect game.

 

Quit it.  Shhhhhh........

My farts smell great too

[Dazl]

Part of me would like to see things stay the way they are and keep NCSoft at a distance. On the other hand it would great to get more eyes on the fact the game is back, some of our shards could use more people.

[Glacier Peak]

Worth a read if you haven't already:

 

 

[JasperStone]

2 hours ago, Snarky said:

Speculation about improbabilities and then using that as a platform for ideas about growth.  Might as well write male enhancement ads.

Can I talk to you about your car warranty ......

[A Cat]

I guess having popular content creators play the game? That seems to be the in thing right now. 

[Albion]

MULTIPLE BODY PARTS AURAS... oh and yes, we should probably feed the Devs now and then, but not after midnight, trust me, don't do that...

[Lunchmoney]

7 hours ago, Peacemoon said:

game to be added to Steam!

Like this?

[Techwright]

11 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

We also already get articles written about them on Massively (How is it that happens so often, btw?  I suspect someone here knows the answer to this... so... umm.. perhaps I should say thank-you?)

 

 

I'm pretty sure Massively and every other gamer news site, especially those that reported the CoH was back in 2019, would created a massive free advertising blitz with trumpeting the news of an official NCSoft sanction.  That alone would probably double the population, and that doesn't include the potential recruits from the dropping of comment bombs in the general chat of other games, and even "water cooler" talk at work and school.

 

One thing you could put into advertising is this game's ability to work with older graphics cards, something that's becoming more necessary for players on a budget as the graphics cards continue to be overpriced and sometimes hard to acquire.

 

That all would be a short-term boost.  The trick is converting the curious into long-term players, and recruiting beyond that initial rush.  That likely means reaching a younger generation.  In an age of impressive graphics being more or less a standard, I'm not sure how my nieces' generation would appreciate the game for anything more than an old-school curiosity, like Pong or Pac-Man.  Perhaps I'm too harsh, though. They, as a collective player group, may have more tolerance for "old school" than I credit them for.

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Techwright

[Riverdusk]

6 hours ago, Lunchmoney said:

Like this?

 

Was going to say, I already added a link to it from both Steam and GoG Galaxy. 

 

GoG Galaxy can also track your playtime, so you can see how many hours you are wasting...I mean enjoying playing CoH.  Steam doesn't seem to want to track playtime of "non-steam" games.

[Without_Pause]

News outlets would take care much of it, so Steam would be the primary way to do it. I do wonder if it would still be free with monthly donations or have a small fee as a buy-in. A fee might be good so it could be lowered for sales and get some added mentions during their sales. 

[macskull]

13 hours ago, Vulpoid said:

I have never understood this desire to share the fragile, beautiful things that make you happy in life with the common rabble.
Imagine your favorite restaurant packed every night with tourists and their screaming children.
...your favorite nature walk now littered with ripe poo bags and broken beer bottles.

...having to take a number like at a deli counter before enjoying an evening with your significant other.

We have absolutely nothing to gain by inviting more bloated bioforms into out perfect game.

 

Quit it.  Shhhhhh........

This take is as bizarre now as it was the first time you posted it and I'm still not sure this isn't just Poe's Law at work.

 

At its peak (issue 5-6 timeframe) the game had 180k subscribers and was down to 125k by issue 13 which is the last time I've been able to find data for. It almost certainly continued falling off over the last four years of the game's retail run. Number Six's post from earlier this month reveals there were 18,588 unique user agents over a one-week period in late November/early December. Keep in mind that's not a direct measurement of unique players since it's only measuring unique pings to an update server but it's probably a fairly accurate estimate. Also keep in mind that it was a weekend immediately following a major update which as we've seen results in a population surge which lasts a couple weeks before waning off again.

 

TL;DR: The scenario you describe wasn't happening with a playerbase ten times what it is now. On the list of things which pose a threat to this game's existence "an influx of players" is probably well below "drone strike takes out every OVH server and a black ops commando team simultaneously infiltrates every location where backups of the game are stored."

[Glacier Peak]

1 hour ago, macskull said:

This take is as bizarre now as it was the first time you posted it and I'm still not sure this isn't just Poe's Law at work.

 

At its peak (issue 5-6 timeframe) the game had 180k subscribers and was down to 125k by issue 13 which is the last time I've been able to find data for. It almost certainly continued falling off over the last four years of the game's retail run. Number Six's post from earlier this month reveals there were 18,588 unique user agents over a one-week period in late November/early December. Keep in mind that's not a direct measurement of unique players since it's only measuring unique pings to an update server but it's probably a fairly accurate estimate. Also keep in mind that it was a weekend immediately following a major update which as we've seen results in a population surge which lasts a couple weeks before waning off again.

 

TL;DR: The scenario you describe wasn't happening with a playerbase ten times what it is now. On the list of things which pose a threat to this game's existence "an influx of players" is probably well below "drone strike takes out every OVH server and a black ops commando team simultaneously infiltrates every location where backups of the game are stored."

If it's a couple of Mastermind Mercenaries, those server racks got nothing to fear. 

[Wavicle]

20 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

If it's a couple of Mastermind Mercenaries, those server racks got nothing to fear. 

 

ouch, way to kick a guy when he's down 😂

[Redletter]

8 hours ago, Techwright said:

 

One thing you could put into advertising is this game's ability to work with older graphics cards, something that's becoming more necessary for players on a budget as the graphics cards continue to be overpriced and sometimes hard to acquire.

 

In an age of impressive graphics being more or less a standard, I'm not sure how my nieces' generation would appreciate the game for anything more than an old-school curiosity, like Pong or Pac-Man.  Perhaps I'm too harsh, though. They, as a collective player group, may have more tolerance for "old school" than I credit them for.

 

I mean, Im 21? I dont know how young your niece is, but Im here because This game's ability to work with older graphics cards, something that's become more necessary for my budget as the graphics cards continue to be overpriced and sometimes hard to acquire.

 

It's also totally free and devoid of predatory pay models, which ALSO keeps my wallet really happy

[Peacemoon]

19 hours ago, Lunchmoney said:

Like this?

Oh how did you add HC to Steam? I wasn’t aware you could do that!!

 

Also I meant adding to the Steam Store I guess in my original post 😃

[Shred Monkey]

13 hours ago, Techwright said:

hat all would be a short-term boost.  The trick is converting the curious into long-term players, and recruiting beyond that initial rush.  That likely means reaching a younger generation.  In an age of impressive graphics being more or less a standard, I'm not sure how my nieces' generation would appreciate the game for anything more than an old-school curiosity, like Pong or Pac-Man.

 

I completely agree with you comments about hooking the next generation.

 

My boys' favorite game is Roblox.  Not exactly high end graphics.  I think to get the newer generation's interest you just need to get a high profile youtuber playing CoH.  Or get a CoH player to become a high profile youtuber.

 

A built-in audio chat system for teams and leagues might be good as long as its very simple to use and reliable.

 

Also... it needs to stay 100% free to play.

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by Shred Monkey