An Update from The Homecoming Team

[reconfigureyourface]

On 8/13/2019 at 3:29 PM, GM Widower said:

As I said earlier and will likely be saying regularly for the next month, that wasn't Titan Network, that was the guy who was in charge of the wholly separate City of Titans, though to the best of my knowledge he wasn't negotiating as lead of City of Titans, either. (It's complicated.) You read about it on Titan Network, but none of them were involved; kind of like how you can watch Congressional proceedings on C-SPAN, but C-SPAN isn't run by Congress.

So Then WWE isn't related to Titan Network and City of Titans since they are Titan Sports and operate out of Titan Tower? 🤔 /s by the way...

[Ago]

Nor do we endorse Nissan in any way.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Tahquitz

[Korbian]

But Titan Network is definitely in charge of Teen Titans, right? 😝

[Ironblade]

39 minutes ago, Korbian said:

But Titan Network is definitely in charge of Teen Titans, right? 😝

I did a task force yesterday with Teena Titan.  Clearly, she's in cahoots with Titan Network.

[Duuk]

In this thread, we discover that the Titan Network designed the Titanic...

[SCREAMIN' DELTA DEMON]

Just wanna give my props. As much as I love SWG and loathe it's downfall as well, what you are doing is so much grander in scale and on a game that generally worked in the ways the latter didn't. Being able to being an energy blaster again and juggle my opponents via knocking them off ledges has reminded me that I still consider this the best MMO of all time, and with recent trends I don't see that changing. I'll gladly pay a subscription to resurrect CoH. The possibilities beyond that point are endless, and imagining my beloved knockback with update physics just makes me all gooey.

[Murcielago]

So anyone wanna help me download my characters and make a local private server just in case this deal goes belly up?

[Marine X]

One other aspect of this that I haven't heard mentioned much.

 

The MARVEL Cinematic Universe and the BILLIONS they have made for Marvel/Disney.

 

If you don't think NCSoft has thought,

 

" Marvel's really Raking it in, Hey we used to have a Superhero MMORG that we didn't understand the appeal of that we shut down. 

Super Heroes are now the hottest thing in Media and hey, what did we do with that Old thing, oh.....there it is....... over there.......and those people are fiddling with it.

Wow, are there really that many people still interested in that old thing, We still don't get it.....maybe if we watch them for a while we'll learn something.........."

 

Never Know, but maybe their trying to figure out how to jump on the coattails of all that. If CoX had come out 5 Years ago instead of 15 Years ago can you imagine how different this all might have turned out.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Marine X

[Display Name]

On 8/12/2019 at 12:18 PM, Remidi said:

I agree that 'stabbing in the heart' is too personal and ascribing malice where there wasn't any.  Back when the live game folded, this was going around, and I think it perfectly describes the situation.  NCSoft blithely thought that, like some other game communities, we would go chase the latest new shiney.  They seriously underestimated the depth of feeling of the CoH fanbase.

 

 

I started playing this game for the first time in May of this year and I already know I would feel this way in this situation.

[Abraxus]

2 hours ago, Murcielago said:

So anyone wanna help me download my characters and make a local private server just in case this deal goes belly up?

First, I'm not sure character data (outside of costume, and power customization) transfer is even an option being offered.  Second...really?  Preparing for the end before we know anything of substance?  I get being anxious about the outcome, but lets not build our A-bomb bunkers quite yet. 😉

 

[Kigo]

Seeing this thread shows me simply that so many of you just do not understand WHY NCSoft shut down CoH. Let me explain things to those of you who fail to understand the logic behind the decision.

 

Before I begin, let me say I am as avid about the game as most of you and was so happy it was brought back and sad to see it go. But all of us only look at things from the mindset of a player. We loved CoH and it felt like a betrayal in some ways to yank it out from under us. But the decision had nothing to do with aion or GW2 or Lineage 2 or any other game NCSoft was supporting at the time. It had nothing to do with future games they were planning on producing.

 

It also, believe it or not, had almost nothing to do with the player numbers and how much money they were making profit wise. Rather it all comes down to one issue. Both Marvel and DC were constantly filing new legal at NCSoft en masse. Dozens of claims were being made and NCSoft had to defend against each one of them. Now most of them were completely baseless and the judges would eventually toss them out or at least deny sub claims. But the lawyers for the two big comic companies were throwing so much manure at the walls that some of it stuck, and even the stuff that didn't still had to be cleaned away by NCSoft's janitorial staff (ie their house or retainer lawyers).

 

That alone was bad, but what was worse was that some of the filings were actually not being thrown out by judges. In particular I remember seeing one legal transcription that showed NCSoft was facing some pretty hefty fines for trademark infringement. And whether the DC/Marvel law teams won or lost one particular motion or suit the onslaught did not stop. New filings were being made almost like clockwork. One particularly nasty suit that posed some nasty fines if it succeeded was being debated in the judges chambers the very day before the press release came out about the servers going to be shut down. A judgement was not made because the shutdown was announced and the law team for the other party backed off in a surprising twist (unless a backroom deal was made regarding the shutdown). We may never know exactly how the situation would have ended without the shutdown, but someone up in NCSoft corporate offices saw the potential risk of fines as being too much of a risk. And the shutdown came to be.

 

People in this thread and in game talk about NCSoft making mistakes and missing out on millions, but the truth is that on risk/cost versus reward basis they probably took the only path they could.

 

I still did not like losing a favored game, but at least intellectually I can understand why it probably happened.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Kigo

[Frostbiter]

42 minutes ago, Display Name said:

I started playing this game for the first time in May of this year and I already know I would feel this way in this situation.

5/10. Not enough skin and boobage to be a Korean MMO.

[justicebeliever]

5 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

First, I'm not sure character data (outside of costume, and power customization) transfer is even an option being offered.  Second...really?  Preparing for the end before we know anything of substance?  I get being anxious about the outcome, but lets not build our A-bomb bunkers quite yet. 😉

 

Well to be fair, if the outcome you are worried about is NCSoft shutting everything down (personally, I’m not worried), then the right course of action would be to ensure you get all that you need from Ourodev before it goes offline (and even with the deal, it really might).

 

Personally, if this all goes that far underground, I’m out...I have no interest in playing this game where the total server pop is 5 or 20....

[dollface33]

All I know is right now I love that I am back playing the game I fell in love with so many years ago. I just hope all goes well and we can continue to play for years to come <3

[Murcielago]

1 hour ago, Abraxus said:

First, I'm not sure character data (outside of costume, and power customization) transfer is even an option being offered.  Second...really?  Preparing for the end before we know anything of substance?  I get being anxious about the outcome, but lets not build our A-bomb bunkers quite yet. 😉

 

Its never too early to become a dooms day prepper *puts on tinfoil hat*

[BurningDezireA]

I am definitely worried about everything getting shut down again. I would not want to go through losing CoH again. CoH is the one and only game I love to play.  I'm wondering why negotiate with NCSoft? Does this not pose a risk of everything being shut down again? Why not keep it as it is?

[justicebeliever]

3 minutes ago, BurningDezireA said:

I am definitely worried about everything getting shut down again. I would not want to go through losing CoH again. CoH is the one and only game I love to play.  I'm wondering why negotiate with NCSoft? Does this not pose a risk of everything being shut down again? Why not keep it as it is?

A.) NCSoft already knows we exist - we were an article in Newsweek a few months ago...the risk of them shutting us down already exists, with or without negotiation

B.) Because of A, negotiation is the best chance to ensure we continue to exist at all, and hopefully, on terms that are favorable to HC and the community

[Chuckers]

1 hour ago, dollface33 said:

All I know is right now I love that I am back playing the game I fell in love with so many years ago. I just hope all goes well and we can continue to play for years to come ❤️

Amen.

[BurningDezireA]

1 hour ago, dollface33 said:

All I know is right now I love that I am back playing the game I fell in love with so many years ago. I just hope all goes well and we can continue to play for years to come ❤️

Yep. Fingers crossed.

[Skyhawke]

[Tony Amore]

3 hours ago, dollface33 said:

All I know is right now I love that I am back playing the game I fell in love with so many years ago. I just hope all goes well and we can continue to play for years to come ❤️

Your next cocktail at Pocket D is on the house.

[Obsidius]

5 hours ago, Display Name said:

I started playing this game for the first time in May of this year and I already know I would feel this way in this situation.

Or trying to pass off Blade and Soul to soon-to-be-former CoH players. It just showed that NCSoft didn't really understand this audience, and that many players didn't want a fantasy MMO - otherwise we would have probably been playing WoW with the rest of the world 😛

[ShardWarrior]

17 hours ago, Korbian said:

But Titan Network is definitely in charge of Teen Titans, right? 😝

Not sure about that, but the (mini) Teen Titans (almost) have a base here in CoH!

[Abraxus]

5 hours ago, Kigo said:

Seeing this thread shows me simply that so many of you just do not understand WHY NCSoft shut down CoH. Let me explain things to those of you who fail to understand the logic behind the decision.

 

Before I begin, let me say I am as avid about the game as most of you and was so happy it was brought back and sad to see it go. But all of us only look at things from the mindset of a player. We loved CoH and it felt like a betrayal in some ways to yank it out from under us. But the decision had nothing to do with aion or GW2 or Lineage 2 or any other game NCSoft was supporting at the time. It had nothing to do with future games they were planning on producing.

 

It also, believe it or not, had almost nothing to do with the player numbers and how much money they were making profit wise. Rather it all comes down to one issue. Both Marvel and DC were constantly filing new legal at NCSoft en masse. Dozens of claims were being made and NCSoft had to defend against each one of them. Now most of them were completely baseless and the judges would eventually toss them out or at least deny sub claims. But the lawyers for the two big comic companies were throwing so much manure at the walls that some of it stuck, and even the stuff that didn't still had to be cleaned away by NCSoft's janitorial staff (ie their house or retainer lawyers).

 

That alone was bad, but what was worse was that some of the filings were actually not being thrown out by judges. In particular I remember seeing one legal transcription that showed NCSoft was facing some pretty hefty fines for trademark infringement. And whether the DC/Marvel law teams won or lost one particular motion or suit the onslaught did not stop. New filings were being made almost like clockwork. One particularly nasty suit that posed some nasty fines if it succeeded was being debated in the judges chambers the very day before the press release came out about the servers going to be shut down. A judgement was not made because the shutdown was announced and the law team for the other party backed off in a surprising twist (unless a backroom deal was made regarding the shutdown). We may never know exactly how the situation would have ended without the shutdown, but someone up in NCSoft corporate offices saw the potential risk of fines as being too much of a risk. And the shutdown came to be.

 

People in this thread and in game talk about NCSoft making mistakes and missing out on millions, but the truth is that on risk/cost versus reward basis they probably took the only path they could.

 

I still did not like losing a favored game, but at least intellectually I can understand why it probably happened.

This is the first I have heard about any lawsuits, beyond the original one that got the Devs to be on the lookout for trademarked characters/costumes being used in-game, and police any violators.  After that, my understanding was that a settlement was reached, and Marvel went on to do their own MMO/RPG, which came, and went very soon after those events.  If there were additional lawsuits all during the years of the game's existence, right up to the end, that certainly comes as news to me, and likely a lot of others too.

How is it you know this?

[Myrmidon]

One thing is certain. If this deal goes through, there are people in-game that should be ready for a visit from the Trademark Police.