Ten Years Ago

[Megajoule]

On August 31, 2012, we all got the bad news: in a few months, City of Heroes would be shut down.  ("Sunset", they called it.  Such a lovely euphemism.)

 

I found out shortly after noon Pacific time, browsing the official forum at lunchtime on a quiet pre-holiday Friday.  Somehow I kept it together for the rest of the day.  My plans for that evening, and the weekend, went out the window; I logged in not to play but simply to try to connect with people, to vent and commiserate and trade contact info.  By Sunday, I couldn't even manage that - I had to stand up and walk away from the computer, do chores, go outside and reassure myself there was a world out there that would keep spinning past November 30. 

 

With that bit of respite and self-care, I was able to get back into the forums and the game that night and the next day (Monday, September 3, Labor Day), still crying and grieving but also smiling and even laughing now and then.  There was a cross-server vigil, the first of many, and some people (including Samuraiko) were gathering data for demos.  I liked one comment (by @Ironik) enough to record it in a journal entry:

 

Monster Child: When I first logged in to the City of Heroes beta, the very first thing I saw was a cop running down the street waving his arms and screaming like a little girl because of a misplaced sound effect. I thought: "This city needs me."
Monster Child: Now I realize that I need it, too.

 

As for me, I made a vow that weekend:  "This game let me fly. So I'll fly. Right up 'til the end."   And I did.   Shortly after midnight on 12/1/2012, when Virtue finally shut down, Miss Megajoule was in the air over Atlas Park.

 

And now, ten years later... here we are.

[Fire Chief]

bitter/SWEET

[Glacier Peak]

3 hours ago, Megajoule said:

On August 31, 2012, we all got the bad news: in a few months, City of Heroes would be shut down.  ("Sunset", they called it.  Such a lovely euphemism.)

 

I found out shortly after noon Pacific time, browsing the official forum at lunchtime on a quiet pre-holiday Friday.  Somehow I kept it together for the rest of the day.  My plans for that evening, and the weekend, went out the window; I logged in not to play but simply to try to connect with people, to vent and commiserate and trade contact info.  By Sunday, I couldn't even manage that - I had to stand up and walk away from the computer, do chores, go outside and reassure myself there was a world out there that would keep spinning past November 30. 

 

With that bit of respite and self-care, I was able to get back into the forums and the game that night and the next day (Monday, September 3, Labor Day), still crying and grieving but also smiling and even laughing now and then.  There was a cross-server vigil, the first of many, and some people (including Samuraiko) were gathering data for demos.  I liked one comment (by @Ironik) enough to record it in a journal entry:

 

Monster Child: When I first logged in to the City of Heroes beta, the very first thing I saw was a cop running down the street waving his arms and screaming like a little girl because of a misplaced sound effect. I thought: "This city needs me."
Monster Child: Now I realize that I need it, too.

 

As for me, I made a vow that weekend:  "This game let me fly. So I'll fly. Right up 'til the end."   And I did.   Shortly after midnight on 12/1/2012, when Virtue finally shut down, Miss Megajoule was in the air over Atlas Park.

 

And now, ten years later... here we are.

The FEEEEEELs!!! Well said!

[Grouchybeast]

After the shutdown news, I couldn't bear to log in to the game again, except for once when I used the Titan export tool to take copies of all my characters just in case a miracle happened.  I never stopped missing the City.  Every year or so I'd watch SamuraiKo's One Last Day video and think about the game, and have a little cry.  I don't remember how I found out that the City was back in 2019, but it did feel like a kind of miracle.

[Coyotedancer]

*nods*

My world was pretty unsettled around that time. I guess that's why, even now, the whole Sunset process feels like it made less of an impact on me than it otherwise might have. The City going away was certainly a hit, but I had other things to deal with that honestly put it on a back burner. I think I just couldn't spare the Spoons to really process it because there were other, more important demands on my brain-space. (Scary medical issues. Not my own, but probably even more terrifying because they weren't.)

 

I did my massive screenshot project and later the Titan thread...

FCM and I FRAPSed a lot of runs with our favorites for remembrance's sake...

 

But it was all just -A Thing That Happened- rather than *The* Thing, if that makes any sense.

 

I eventually found myself in the City again a couple of years later via an invite to the SCoRE server, and it wasn't until that point that I really had the chance to think about it and realize how much I'd missed playing the game. Leila had made me plushie versions of my favorites by then, and I had resin versions of them as well, so the characters had never really gone away... The two drawings I'd commissioned of Kestrel & Cardinal and Ty'ree & Asherion were still on the wall next to my desk. But the physical act of playing the game? I honestly hadn't thought about how much of a missing link that was.

 

And then a few years after that, the code finally got to "fly free" and this place came online, meaning I could play with friends who hadn't, for one reason or another, been in on the Hidden City. And then we talked the CoyoteNephews and their mom into playing. And I've taken a few thousand more screenshots.  👍

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Coyotedancer

[EmperorSteele]

I forget exactly when it was, but I remember someone had posted graphs of NCSoft's revenue streams. And I noticed that CoH was like, only 3% of their profit (whereas Guildwars or whatever was like, 40%). I dared to ask if this meant CoH was on the chopping block. Everyone assured me that profit was profit, and that the 3% still equaled millions of dollars, so everything would be fine.

 

A few months later, the "Sundown" was announced.

 

While we can only speculate NCSoft's motives, and only guess at the accuracy of various rumors, well, let's just say it never felt worse to "be right".

 

=/

 

Also, 10 years already? Damn we're old!

[Frostbiter]

NCSoft made the dumbest decision ever and that was deciding to go Free to Play and giving the game to the very people keeping it going with their subs. Incarnates being behind a paywall were not enough of a carrot to survive that.

 

Having said that, I was thrilled to see the game return in any form. Thank you to those that made it happen.

 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Frostbiter

[srmalloy]

26 minutes ago, Frostbiter said:

NCSoft made the dumbest decision ever and that was deciding to go Free to Play and giving the game to the very people keeping it going with their subs.

According to Positron, though, they were making more money from CoH after it went F2P.

 

I suspect that one of the reasons why NCsoft decided to shutter CoH was that the way that the Paragon store was set up in the code, it couldn't be monetized the way they did with their other MMOs -- a microtransaction store where you paid with NCcoin, which you had to buy directly from NCsoft. But we're unlikely to ever know for sure.

[Frostbiter]

9 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

According to Positron, though, they were making more money from CoH after it went F2P.

 

I suspect that one of the reasons why NCsoft decided to shutter CoH was that the way that the Paragon store was set up in the code, it couldn't be monetized the way they did with their other MMOs -- a microtransaction store where you paid with NCcoin, which you had to buy directly from NCsoft. But we're unlikely to ever know for sure.

 

I know. That's why I'm free to speculate as to the cause. Seems pretty obvious to me though. Not enough whales playing CoH to make up for all the subs they lost.

[Megajoule]

IIRC, there was also a certain amount of "Not Invented Here" involved - that's a Western game, a game the Western market likes.  Not worth supporting when only the domestic (Korean) market truly matters.  And when some of their properties there started performing less well, what's the first place to start making cuts?

[golstat2003]

3 hours ago, Grouchybeast said:

After the shutdown news, I couldn't bear to log in to the game again, except for once when I used the Titan export tool to take copies of all my characters just in case a miracle happened.  I never stopped missing the City.  Every year or so I'd watch SamuraiKo's One Last Day video and think about the game, and have a little cry.  I don't remember how I found out that the City was back in 2019, but it did feel like a kind of miracle.

 

2019 . . . the year the pandemic started . . . and the year a super hero returned to our lives to help us get through!

[Black Zot]

38 minutes ago, Megajoule said:

IIRC, there was also a certain amount of "Not Invented Here" involved - that's a Western game, a game the Western market likes.  Not worth supporting when only the domestic (Korean) market truly matters.  And when some of their properties there started performing less well, what's the first place to start making cuts?

 

Especially when the devs of said game actually dared to question or even argue with the higher-ups.  You never, ever question authority in Korean corporate culture.

[srmalloy]

14 minutes ago, Black Zot said:

Especially when the devs of said game actually dared to question or even argue with the higher-ups.  You never, ever question authority in Korean corporate culture.

And the Paragon Studios management having the presumption to think that they could buy themselves free of NCsoft to become independent may have been another nail in the coffin -- get rid of those waegukin who didn't have the proper attitude toward their superiors.

[golstat2003]

I remember this day.  . . and choose to pretend like it never happened. 😞 

[Bill Z Bubba]

I was on the beta server, the last to fall, when the lights turned off.

 

There's a great deal of bitterness toward those that had this game up and running but kept silent about it, somewhat checked by the fact that what we have now is in thanks to them.

 

I miss CuppaJo. And Castle and BAB. I know a lot of people dog on Castle but he was a good frood.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Bill Z Bubba

[Nostromo21]

Know exactly how you felt! My wife doesn't play CoH, but in similar fashion mourns the loss of Marvel Heroes (she can't do 3D, only iso due to her eyesight).

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Homecoming guys for keeping this dream/fantasy alive!

[Trike]

On 8/31/2022 at 6:35 AM, Megajoule said:

With that bit of respite and self-care, I was able to get back into the forums and the game that night and the next day (Monday, September 3, Labor Day), still crying and grieving but also smiling and even laughing now and then.  There was a cross-server vigil, the first of many, and some people (including Samuraiko) were gathering data for demos.  I liked one comment (by @Ironik) enough to record it in a journal entry:

 

Monster Child: When I first logged in to the City of Heroes beta, the very first thing I saw was a cop running down the street waving his arms and screaming like a little girl because of a misplaced sound effect. I thought: "This city needs me."
Monster Child: Now I realize that I need it, too.

😮 You’re quoting me! That’s so cool! And feels a little weird, if I’m being perfectly honest. No one ever quotes me like that.

 

Speaking of flying until the end, I made this back then:

 

https://www.deviantart.com/dashmccool/art/RIP-CoH-336332244

https://ibb.co/vZcZ3Zd

 

Here’s the only online pic I have of Monster Child, from an Ouroboros mission where he encountered his future self.

https://www.deviantart.com/dashmccool/art/Not-The-Future-I-Wanted-151745611

[Megajoule]

And here we are again, in what was once the Last Month.  I was chasing badges on a few characters and trying to preserve something of the game; I managed to record demos of all the zones (I still have that archive).  Many were wrapping up their own projects, or saying their goodbyes.  A few still hoped for some last-minute reprieve.  And through it all, we still had jobs and other things to attend to on the other side of the screen.

 

On Virtue, some of the well-known players got together to organize one last big event and write our own ending:  a "crisis crossover" with a massive super-battle to hold off -- Rularuu? the Battalion? both?  I forget -- while others worked to shift that Earth off into its own little bubble of spacetime (or dreams) where it might, might survive the oncoming multiversal apocalypse.  My recollection is that it was very chaotic (as most such things are) but ultimately "successful", and a lot of fun.

 

Does anyone else have stories or memories to share of the Last Month?

[Snarky]

On 8/31/2022 at 8:36 AM, Grouchybeast said:

After the shutdown news, I couldn't bear to log in to the game again, except for once when I used the Titan export tool to take copies of all my characters just in case a miracle happened.  I never stopped missing the City.  Every year or so I'd watch SamuraiKo's One Last Day video and think about the game, and have a little cry.  I don't remember how I found out that the City was back in 2019, but it did feel like a kind of miracle.

Same.  I was soooo angry.   Well, you guys can probably guess how angry.  

 

But after a few years gibbering in my gore splattered lair, I found out about Homecoming!

[Techwright]

I wasn't there for "sunset".  I was off long-term Beta testing Firefall, at one time a truly promising game until a bizarre gutting of the game by the Chinese company that bought it. Gutting to the point of non-functional.  Firefall fans, though smaller in number, pine just as much over the loss of their game.  Anyway, I tried to come back to CoH only to discover it was gone.  I always deeply regretted that. Around 2018 I was told someone had managed to reactivate the costume designer and the zones, but not the NPCs or other gameplay elements, and I gratefully recreated my favorite characters and went into the matrix to look around.  I was struck by how empty it was.  Took my shots and vids, and didn't go back.  Then around May 2019 a coworker gave me the news of Homecoming, and I must have busted his eardrum yelling in shock and delight.  I wasn't the best worker the rest of the day (glad he told me mid-afternoon) and I rushed home to install and hear those dulcet opening notes.

[srmalloy]

38 minutes ago, Techwright said:

Around 2018 I was told someone had managed to reactivate the costume designer and the zones, but not the NPCs or other gameplay elements, and I gratefully recreated my favorite characters and went into the matrix to look around.  I was struck by how empty it was.  Took my shots and vids, and didn't go back. 

I would fire up Paragon Chat periodically, but I could never stay there for more than about fifteen minutes; it just felt like the zombified corpse of the game.

[Megajoule]

or an Echo.

(Galaxy City feels a lot like that to me, even now.)

[Zect]

On 9/1/2022 at 2:32 AM, srmalloy said:

According to Positron, though, they were making more money from CoH after it went F2P.

 

That's not how capitalists see things, though. It's not good enough to make more money than last year; you need to make enough to justify the investment, and be competitive vs other potential investments. If you're making 25 cents per dollar invested, but say, BDO is making thrice as much, then the lights get turned off and the servers go to BDO instead.

 

I see some people blame a culture clash, but I doubt anything like that was the critical factor. Cultural differences do not stop liberal democracies from investing heavily in authoritarian dictatorships. They do not stop repressive regimes from seeking critical technologies from their ideological rivals. And in the case of Korea and overseas markets, they are more than happy to sell everything from tanks to Poland, to cars to China. Samsung will even sell chips to Apple, one of its chief rivals. The only motivation involved in the game's closure was one of the oldest humanity has known - greed.

 

CoH player numbers had been stagnant the last few times they reported player numbers, hovering at under 300k active subs. The premium server was deader than dead (you probably don't even remember it existed). The expansion zones were a no man's land. In hindsight, the death of the game should have been obvious to anyone willing to see.

 

On 9/1/2022 at 5:08 AM, Bill Z Bubba said:

There's a great deal of bitterness toward those that had this game up and running but kept silent about it, somewhat checked by the fact that what we have now is in thanks to them.

 

Which is why it may be for the best if Homecoming never gets that coveted "official successor" recognition that they have been in talks with NC for since forever.

 

No offense, devs. You do a very great job here, far better than can be expected from a fan-run private server (especially on the technical and networking side - there's real professionalism there.) But history has proven that entrusting everything to 1 single group, be that NCSoft or SCoRE or whoever else may come, sooner or later invites disaster. What's best for the future of the game is to ensure that if someone mucks it up, others can carry on the torch. Rather than having one particular server be declared "the official one" and cause everyone to congregate there while legal action shuts down all competitiors, I'd prefer to see a healthy community of many different private servers.

[Mister Mass]

Yes, a lot of people on the forums over the years have been unwilling to accept the idea that NCSoft pulled the plug on CoH for legitimate business reasons & so have been happy to seize upon other explanations, like culture clash or the like.  It is certainly easy to see that CoH's numbers were not bad at the time of the decision to shut down the game & then assume that economics couldn't be the real cause.  But as you note businesses have other metrics, & if the ROI (Return on Investment) of the existing option doesn't match the expected ROI on another option, then it is prudent to leave the existing option behind.

 

It is worth noting that CoH had just seen off several rivals in the superhero RPG - & yet, despite clearly being the biggest fish left in that (smallish) pond, did not experience a big increase in its player base.  My pet theory is that NCSoft was willing to accept what they considered relatively weak revenues from CoH during the period of strong competition, but had been expecting a big surge in CoH's popularity once the competing superhero games waned.  When that surge didn't materialize NCSoft decided to allocate its resources to projects that they expected to be more profitable.

 

It is also worth noting that computer game companies were beginning to focus on microtransactions as the way to maximize revenues in their products at this point.  Many CoH players were (like me) quite resistant to that model & I get the impression that the dev team might have been as well.  It makes sense to me that if NCSoft figured that they couldn't maximize CoH revenues via microtransactions due to a resistant player base (& perhaps dev team) then it should invest its resources in games where it could use that model to better effect.

 

I sometimes wonder if the sunset of CoH was the best thing for the game, since it likely spared CoH from being bloated with the Pay-to-Win microtransaction model.  If that had been the alternative future to sunsetting the game, I likely would have soured on CoH soon enough.  Homecoming's resurrection of the game without that annoying economic model is arguably the best result that we could have gotten. 🤷‍♂️

[MistressOhm]

At the time the sunset was announced, I was just getting into GW2, as an alternative to World of Warcraft.  And I'd already started to sink "extra cash" into the cash shop within GW2, which was a LOT more than the shop within CoH.  

 

At that point, I wrote a ticket to the GW2 moderation team, explaining that no, I didn't need help with a bug, or a quest, or a troublesome player. I just wanted to let them know that the decision to shutter CoH (after the decidedly wise decisions to close down Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, neither of which really did well out of the gate) had told me that NCSoft didn't bank on longterm players, they banked on wealthy casuals who needed to be fleeced before they (or their parents) caught on.  And I was out, no more money sunk into NCSoft games ever again. 

 

I sent the ticket, gave away what bits in my inventory could be traded, and closed the account. 

 

I'm glad to see that SCoRE and Homecoming were able to bring my favorite MMO back... but NCSoft can still DIAF as far as I'm concerned.