Thank you NCSOFT

[Zep]

I dont know if anyone from NCSoft watches the forums here. You guys sure make it hard to contact the company directly.

 

Thank you much for Licensing COH to Homecoming.

 

I've been looking at Throne and Liberty. will be the first money spent on NCSoft in 20 years. Might pick up some GW2 as well.

 

-edit: fixed a font issue

Edited January 5 by Zep

[Water]

Congratulations NCSoft for adopting Homecoming. You are beginning to redeem yourselves.

[Scarlet Shocker]

I have one question before I congratulate them: Would we have this, if the game wasn't already in the wild?

 

I agree they made the right call in the end but it took a very very very long time and they could have made money for a decade had they listened.

 

In many ways they are bowing to force majeure and this is the only way they can maintain any control over something they once threw away.

 

The real heroes in my book are those nameless who got this back up and running. NCSoft have not been the players allies since sunset.

[Healix]

Quote

The real heroes in my book are those nameless who got this back up and running.

This...one quadrabazillion percent

 

[Liquid Death]

i never thought i would say it, but Thank you NCsoft 

its nice to have the game back for real (legit) and to any of the "homecoming" crew, and just any and all who worked to get the game back

 

Thank You!

[Crossie]

You're welcome. 

[Snarky]

[DoctorDitko]

I tried to echo this sentiment...

But I kept having acid reflux.

[Snarky]

6 minutes ago, DoctorDitko said:

I tried to echo this sentiment...

But I kept having acid reflux.

Let it out

[SupaFreak]

On 1/6/2024 at 4:07 PM, Scarlet Shocker said:

I agree they made the right call in the end but it took a very very very long time and they could have made money for a decade had they listened.

 

Oh, I was on their website daily giving them hell with the rest of the crowd after the Sunset announcement...

 

But as time went on and I got time to reflect and put myself in their shoes... I understand from a business point why they sunset the game even if it were making a small profit.

 

Paragon Studios, like it or not, was continuing to drop the ball with the big releases from a business standpoint:

April 8, 2009: Mission Architect ---> Newcomers came along hoping to create stories others would play, farmers exposed a massive flaw in their design, stories took the backseat and so those newcomers likely left disappointed.

August,17, 2010: Going Rogue ---> Newcomers were given a third starting experience in new the low level zones of Praetoria, likely left disappointed by low population of their Praetorian experience never reaching level 20.

September 27, 2011: Freedom ---> Any previous newcomers that tried it again would find they did nothing to remedy the past errors and likely didn't stick around long.

 

I base what I say about newcomers coming and going because I did team and interact with a few and heard their complaints.  Their global friends names were never around long afterwards.  I can only imagine it was widespread and the general consensus of the newcomers.

 

I guess NCSoft thought it was better to just shut it down than try and find a team to replace Paragon Studios.  And honestly, PO'd and heartbroken as I was - I can't say I blame them.  The job of Paragon Studios was to grow and expand the population base, not stagnate it.

If Mission Architect & Going Rogue were done correctly, I would venture to say the City of Heroes: Sunset edition would've never happened.

[Mopery]

Scene: Summer 2012

Event: The Avengers just broke $1 billion in box office sales, a record for a comic book hero movie.

Soon after: NCSoft announces CoH sunset...

 

There is a business lesson here just waiting to be taught, I think?

[Doc_Scorpion]

On 1/6/2024 at 1:07 PM, Scarlet Shocker said:

I agree they made the right call in the end but it took a very very very long time and they could have made money for a decade had they listened.

Some money, maybe.  But the stark reality is that CoX (Live edition) was a dying game - it's population slowly and inexorably shrinking.  (From the limited data we had at the time, it seems to have peaked about I2, and except for a spike when COV was released, steadily declined thereafter.)  This idea, popular among the playerbase, that NCSoft killed some kind of golden goose is bunk.
 

 

3 hours ago, Mopery said:

Scene: Summer 2012

Event: The Avengers just broke $1 billion in box office sales, a record for a comic book hero movie.

Soon after: NCSoft announces CoH sunset...

 

There is a business lesson here just waiting to be taught, I think?

Scene: Summer 2008
Event: Iron Man (the first of a long run of MCU movies) is released
The effect on CoX...  essentially nada.  The game's population continued to decline.

The lesson:  The Avengers set a record because it was the capstone to four years of well received and high grossing superhero movies.  And those four years and five movies had no visible or long lasting effect on CoX's population.

Seriously, this another mythperception among CoX players - that there's a significant market just dying for a superhero themed MMORPG.  There wasn't and there isn't.

[Snarky]

4 hours ago, Mopery said:

Scene: Summer 2012

Event: The Avengers just broke $1 billion in box office sales, a record for a comic book hero movie.

Soon after: NCSoft announces CoH sunset...

 

There is a business lesson here just waiting to be taught, I think?

No one can predict the future.  But it must have stung to shit on the super community, close out your super themed game, just as the entire world overwhelmingly fell in love with super everything.

[Mopery]

2 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Scene: Summer 2008
Event: Iron Man (the first of a long run of MCU movies) is released
The effect on CoX...  essentially nada.  The game's population continued to decline.

The lesson:  The Avengers set a record because it was the capstone to four years of well received and high grossing superhero movies.  And those four years and five movies had no visible or long lasting effect on CoX's population.

Seriously, this another mythperception among CoX players - that there's a significant market just dying for a superhero themed MMORPG.  There wasn't and there isn't.

I guess you're right, it was actually a good thing that they shut down CoH as it's been a dying game for so very, very long. Almost makes me wonder what any of us are doing here...

[Shenanigunner]

On 1/6/2024 at 2:07 PM, Scarlet Shocker said:

I have one question before I congratulate them: Would we have this, if the game wasn't already in the wild?

 

I agree they made the right call in the end but it took a very very very long time and they could have made money for a decade had they listened.

 

In many ways they are bowing to force majeure and this is the only way they can maintain any control over something they once threw away.

 

The real heroes in my book are those nameless who got this back up and running. NCSoft have not been the players allies since sunset.

 

This. I respect and appreciate that they saw the value of granting permission to this rogue colony. Seriously.

 

But the reported corporate reasons for killing the game abruptly are not that easily forgotten.

[Scarlet Shocker]

50 minutes ago, Shenanigunner said:

 

This. I respect and appreciate that they saw the value of granting permission to this rogue colony. Seriously.

 

But the reported corporate reasons for killing the game abruptly are not that easily forgotten.

 

Indeed. It would have cost them little if they put the game in maintenance mode and arguably caused them a great deal less hassle in the long run.

 

I may be being overly cynical here but I strongly suspect they felt that they had to give HC a licence as their least bad option. They were never going to be able to put the smoke back in the bottle and having an "officially sanctioned" operation means they retain at least a modicum of control over it.

[Xalon]

If they released cel Shading with Going Rogue, then it Def would have sold a lot more.

 

I'm thankful to play CoH as it is meant to be played. I always loved how this game really gave players the ins and outs of being a superhero or villain. Not just rush rush action, but the slower pace that makes everything feel more like a comic. 

 

Love love love it! I even took a break from Wow, AoC, STO, CO, DCUO and others to just focus on CoH for a while.

 

I hope that Homecoming peeps can start a kickstarter to collect funding for some real development and maybe a new expansion one day! 

[DougGraves]

10 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Seriously, this another mythperception among CoX players - that there's a significant market just dying for a superhero themed MMORPG.  There wasn't and there isn't.

 

Just like D&D is not a very good TTRPG (it isn't terrible, but it is far from the best).  But it remains by far the most popular game.

 

Champions was a better TTRPG in the 1980's, but superhero games just are not popular.