no way to make it up now, no room for regret

And more from Depression Central, City of Heroes.

[Help] Neslogaria-Hebira: Alright I am getting off....going to try to recreate this character on Champions...*whimpers*
[Help] Neslogaria-Hebira: Are there any other games like this one I should try incase I don't like champions?
[Help] Surtr Omega Cyborg: u wont
[Help] Stormbuster: NO OTHER GAME LIKE THIS ONE
[Help] Eumi: I'm not going to champions. I'm done. Just done.

There's a Marvel MMO coming out towards the end of the year. There's Champions. There's DCUO. That's...about it for the superhero/supervillain genre, unless you're talking kiddie games, in which I have less than no interest.

[Help] Mortis Thorn: No MMO even close to this one. Champions is, well, not as immersive.
[Help] Storm-Line: i think what forced their hand was a 6 million loss this quarter.
[Help] Yukkuri: A 6 million loss CoH wasn't responsible for
[Help] Warped One: This game was lucky from the beginning, the many things it survived shaped it into something amazing.
[Help] Iron One: Does that mean they will not help us anymore if we send a petition?

Yesterday, sure. Tomorrow and today? No clue.

[Help] Storm-Line: ncsoft is looking to rebrand and CoX is not in their immediate future.
[Help] Mortis Thorn: NCSoft is gonna streamline to GW2.
[Help] Surtr Omega Cyborg: all about the money, bean counters running things not gamers

As of (very) late last night, the general consensus seemed to be, moving to Guild Wars 2 was the best option. I have problems with that:

1. It's not a superhero game. It's basic fantasy. I want basic fantasy, I'll download Runes of Magic again.
2. The basic system specs of the game itself, while fine for my new system, mean the game cannot be played by the ladies I live with.
3. There is no free-to-play version, so other friends I might want to play with won't be able to come in unless they, too, can purchase a box set--and some of them cannot.
4. And ultimately, while it's managed by ArenaNet (just like City was Paragon Studios), it's still carried by NCSoft. What happens if one of their other games--like Aion--dips into the non-profitability it's showing now, and they decide to axe Guild Wars instead? We'd just be here, all over again.

[Help] Ab Normal: wtf, couldn't they at least sell it instead of killing it?
[Help] Surtr Omega Cyborg: no why just did

Pretty much. And worst of all? They not only did this with a game profitable for them, but fired the entirety of Paragon Studios, staff, coders, management and support, yesterday. No warning. Right now, we don't even know if they got a severance package, or even a letter of recommendation.

[Help] Mortis Thorn: Community Coffee Talk next week, if it happens, will be depressing as Hell.

Yeah, no friggin' doubt.

[Help] Pumpkinator: Guild Wars 2 is like a D&D type game isnt it?
[Help] Carnage Unleashed: yeah
[Help] Pumpkinator: Damnit
[Help] Surtr Omega Cyborg: looks like I'll be playing solitaire and minesweep
[Help] Pumpkinator: I came here for the superhero genre

We all did. While I briefly played Champions Online--and wasn't extraordinarily favorable towards it--City was really, start to finish, the better game for flights and tights.

[Help] Whazoo: So much for playing free forever
[Help] Warped One: Depression will probably eventually creep back to me, and i'll just become a loner :C

I heard this a lot, too. People were very depressed over this, all day long.

[Help] Mortis Thorn: I got laid off in April, so I can just totally rlate to what they are going through at Paragon Studios, this recession sucks ass.
[Help] Surtr Omega Cyborg: boycotting works better than a petition but takes awhile
[Help] Pumpkinator: Everyone petition Marvel to pick up this game and add their content!

Yeah, that's never going to happen. One, Marvel's planning their own MMO. Two, Marvel already took NCSoft to court once, and likely part of that settlement agreement is that Marvel never takes the game over.

[Help] Cpt. Shwan: North america accounts for a whopping 4% of revenue for NCsoft.
[Help] New Knight.: Won't work, Fumi. Do remember the NA market is a very small portion of their profits.
[Help] New Knight.: They're mainly asian.
[Help] Surtr Omega Cyborg: 4%? really
[Help] High TIdes: it will however hurt
[Help] High TIdes: no more new games here
[Help] Phantom Atom: I wonder how people will take WoW shutting down when it finally goes. it will go one day, after all

All things do. I have friends who've organized their lives around weekly raids and BlizzCon appearances, so I'm pretty comfortable saying there will be just as much confusion, rage and hurt that's happening now.

The problem, though? Even as much as I despise Blizzard's handling of Diablo III, I really think that if they decide to axe World of Warcraft, they will tell their dev team. NCSoft didn't.

[Help] Whazoo: Check out League of Legends you can play for free
[Help] Yukkuri: I have always been suspicious of a game named "LOL"

They have a point.

[Help] Steady Flames: I quit League of Legends because of the non-community there...
[Looking For Group] Fornos: so i wonder when the servers are going down

We're all flailing on this one, trying to figure out when we should jump, where we should jump. We even discussed SL briefly--my loves and I. The consensus was that we cannot make the jump to SL as another heavy time investment, because the state of SL RP, according to the lady wife, is beyond abysmal. She said the last time there was anything she's experienced even halfway decent--that she hasn't generated herself with friends--was in Lumindor.

And, as much as I was tied to living there, Lumindor was toxic, start to finish. So it can't be Second Life.

(from the City of Heroes album; protest on the Atlas Park steps the day of the announcement)

From broadcast chat:

[Broadcast] PWRD ATTCK Armor: remember mechwarrior is making a comback just head to mwomercs.com
[Broadcast] Starshot Sentinel: CoH is dying before AO, before EQ, and before AC - it's just not right

(from the City of Heroes album; protest on the Atlas Park steps the day of the announcement. The bright streak of light is Mm. Allen's character, Celerin, darting to the left.)

[Broadcast] Dancing Circus Bear: shows how out of touch the powers that be were with the whole scenario
[Broadcast] Dancing Circus Bear: end of the world scenario and so thus it fulfills itself

(from the City of Heroes album)

[Broadcast] Lil'ith: would be funny if this is what the Mayans were talking about...
[Broadcast] Malice Control: Omega Incarnate destroys Paragon City and the game gets shut down. Only to be used for the setting of Fallout 4.
[Broadcast] Jessie Atom: Our Picket signs are our artifacts, charged with the power of the Well. FIGHT! We are ALL Omega Incarnates on this day!!!

(from the City of Heroes album; the protest without point)

More when I get there. There's a lot to wade through.