Imagine if CoH Were to Go Commercial Again

[Sirius.Games]

Only way I see CoX coming back in a commercial way is through a remaster. 

 

That being said the cost of a remaster is likely not going to make financial sense. The concept of cox isnt flawed the many different avenues they attemped (looking at you arena) and dividing the player base through freedom is the problem.

 

CoX only viable future is through crowd sourced projects. The game has too many things that seperated the player base into different camps and doomed the game financially.

 

[Glacier Peak]

Like Luminara touched on somewhat, the HC Team has made clear since launch that their #1 mission is to have this game remain free to play. 

[TaxibotJoe]

On 12/30/2021 at 6:00 AM, FrogTheToad said:

…they might open a Patreon and gain continuous support that way.

I would support via patreon, but I don’t think there’s a way to close that once monthly goals are reached. 

[Without_Pause]

11 minutes ago, TaxibotJoe said:

I would support via patreon, but I don’t think there’s a way to close that once monthly goals are reached. 

If its a commercial product, there shouldn't be a cap. Not having a cap means they have the money to do additional things. 

[biostem]

10 hours ago, Without_Pause said:

If its a commercial product, there shouldn't be a cap. Not having a cap means they have the money to do additional things. 

My concern would be them overpromising or failing to deliver consistent quality of additions/updates...

[Without_Pause]

3 hours ago, biostem said:

My concern would be them overpromising or failing to deliver consistent quality of additions/updates...

There's a lot of "that depends" in there though. Like, what is the team size at that point? What is there vision for the game? Just because it goes commercial doesn't mean they suddenly have a dev team of 30 and putting out quarterly page releases. 

[KaizenSoze]

I would be happy to pay a monthly fee to play the game. As it is I never get a donation in in time.

 

What I do not want is a large corporation to own the game. Then the MBAs get involved and start micro-optimizing costs and profits.

 

Next thing micro transaction appear and after that *shudder* NFTs. 😞

[Sirius.Games]

2 hours ago, KaizenSoze said:

I would be happy to pay a monthly fee to play the game. As it is I never get a donation in in time.

 

What I do not want is a large corporation to own the game. Then the MBAs get involved and start micro-optimizing costs and profits.

 

Next thing micro transaction appear and after that *shudder* NFTs. 😞

You mean what ncsoft was doing before sunset? I'm still pissed they had micro transaction's then shut the game down. Literally squeezed as much as the could out of the player base then stopped providing access to the purchased items.

[UltraAlt]

On 12/29/2021 at 1:33 PM, cohRock said:

That said, here's a thought experiment.  What would it take to make CoH commercially viable?

 

Why would you want to make it commercially viable?

 

Don't you enjoy playing City of Heroes?

 

What is your problem with the way it is now?

[UltraAlt]

On 12/29/2021 at 3:00 PM, cohRock said:

It would eliminate the ghost hanging over our heads.

 

 

 

 

[KaizenSoze]

3 hours ago, Sirius.Games said:

You mean what ncsoft was doing before sunset? I'm still pissed they had micro transaction's then shut the game down. Literally squeezed as much as the could out of the player base then stopped providing access to the purchased items.

I wasn't around for that, but yes exactly that kind of crap.

 

The MBAs would say, but that got 1.2% greater profit, while causing more people to sour on the game.

 

This kind of nickle and dime stuff is corrosive on any product.

[cohRock]

10 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

Why would you want to make it commercially viable?

 

Don't you enjoy playing City of Heroes?

 

What is your problem with the way it is now?

I enjoy playing CoH a lot.  The advantages of it being a well-run commercial game is updates on a regular schedule, and a focused blueprint of where the game could go in the future. I would also feel like I am actively supporting something I like a lot.

[UltraAlt]

19 minutes ago, cohRock said:

The advantages of it being a well-run commercial game is updates on a regular schedule, and a focused blueprint of where the game could go in the future

 

The DEVs on Homecoming have a focused blueprint for what they are doing, and they are releasing updates on a fairly regular schedule.

I think in some ways, they are release updates faster than was happening in CoH before the Sunset.

 

And I have to say, that many of the "rapid"/regular schedule updates were P2W and microtransactions. 

I'm not a fan of either, though as a subscriber I did benefit from some of the P2W advantages.

 

23 minutes ago, cohRock said:

I would also feel like I am actively supporting something I like a lot.

 

By participating in the forums on Homecoming, you are actively supporting the game.

I think you are locked into the mindset that "supporting" a game means providing money versus working to support the community through the forums, hosting teams in game, and participating  in the wiki.

You have plenty of ways that you can "support" Homecoming without it needing to become "commercial".

 

I find Homecoming to be far superior to where CoH was before the Sunset, but, that should be obvious, I'm playing Homecoming now and cancelled my subscription to CoH a year before the Sunset because I didn't like the direction the game was going at that time.

I don't want to see a game that I love go back to the game that I loved that turned into something I found distasteful and had to stop playing because of it.