only a moment ago we had nothing but time

[Help] BIazeshadow: who knew when the Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012 they meant this one?

I doubt this is what they meant.

[Help] Celerin: I won't lie. If we can get an Emulator at least working enough to use the character creator? I'll be pretty happy.

I admit, I would too. As much as that would sacrifice the whole of the rest of the game...all the missions, all the lore, all the plaques on all the walls...yeah. That might be enough to survive on.

[Help] Golden Man: Someone will pick up the super hero mantle again. Maybe this time, sometone will do it right.
[Help] Golden Man: Champs and DCUO are seriously lacking.
[Help] Daddy Slickback: man, this game was so much better than either of those... just so much customization in this one, and each build really feels unique
[Help] Percentage: Given the development time of an MMO and the way launches have gone lately, I am not optimistic for the next great superthero MMO.

And that's the big question, isn't it? The way the gaming world is going at present, everything's becoming cookie-cutter clones of everything else. Every game starts to look like every other game. And maybe that's why losing this one hurts so much, because it wasn't just another cookie-cutter clone.

Just like Matrix Online.

Just like Second Life.

[Help] Major Kilgannon: Well if I wind back up on CO, feel free to check the clubs for Kilgannon there. Though in place of a Ex-Soldier, be prepared to find a giant, partying Cthulhu looking beast

New games, new rules. We all change. We all find new faces for the new places we find ourselves in. Isn't that part of it too?

[Help] Dr. Magnus Faust: Torchlight 2 is better

Oh, I wouldn't go that far.

[Help] High TIdes: this is it folks, enjoy it while you can
[Help] Jungle Jen: well i for one wont go anywhere, no coh no more mmos for me
[Help] Koldash.: Dont' forget Aion

How can we? Aion is one of the failing games that NCSoft is sacrificing City of Heroes to keep.

[Looking For Group] Unwanted Son: im sorry did i see that line correctly. COH is shutting down? I didn't get that memo
[Looking For Group] Joey Scars: lol the one guy who doesnt read the news in the launcher, i kinda wish i didnt either
[Looking For Group] Dread Rain: Just announced today.
[Looking For Group] Energy Babe: that pretty much covers it...
[Looking For Group] Golden Blizzard: I wish it was a joke.

When I grabbed these chat bursts for publication, I didn't expect there'd still be so many questions on whether or not the game's closing down. Let me catch everyone up:

1. City of Heroes is closing in November of this year. If there is no activity on the game code, or no bids on the property that NCSoft accepts, in December of 2012 the game data database will be completely wiped. That's fact.
2. NCSoft fired everyone at Paragon Studios. That's fact.
3. Some of the former Paragon staffers have already gotten other jobs. The holidays are coming, after all. That's also fact.

[Help] Pumpkinator: Would have loved to have been at the most recent ncSoft meeting to see what the hell went on
[Looking For Group] Energy Babe: the news says they were loosing money on COH
[Looking For Group] Bamboo Knight: they were not
[Looking For Group] G0D 0F HELLFIRE: they lost 64% in profits last quarter.

That's NCSoft's overall loss, that's not Paragon Studios' loss. And even with that, it's not their overall loss this year. The numbers are wrong.

[Looking For Group] Spirit of the West: CoH sales have been constant

But not stellar. I'm beginning to think what NCSoft wanted was an absolute blowout second quarter for City, instead of what they did get--constancy. Stability. No flash, no dollar-sign eyes in that.

[Looking For Group] Golden Man: Good luck everyone. I hope that the last few weeks of CoH treats you all well.

We're all hoping.

[Help] Black Tree: and let's be clear, they were shut down, by their parent company
[Help] Black Cyclone: The devs wouldn't have released a new power on the 21st and previewed more things for i24 if they knew they were going to be tossed in the trash this morning
[Help] Warped One: You know, Jack emmert is the most elaborate mother F****er to ever live.
[Help] Warped One: He can't stop trying to finally kill coh.

And I have to say again, no. That's not what's happening. Jack Emmert was not, in any way, involved in the closure of City of Heroes.

[Help] Sky Rage: i read that it has nothing to do with how COH did, NCSOFT lost millions from Aion and Soul and Blade

Mostly Aion.

[Looking For Group] Ehxaak: Unfortunately I bought GW2 before I knew about this stuff.
[Looking For Group] Prime Empyrean: Man, when they plan a Coming Storm, they don't mess around...
[Looking For Group] Conventus: Who would of thought that the Coming Storm was NCSoft?

Yeah, really. The irony in all this was the "Coming Storm"--which had been widely hinted at for several issues--was supposed to be worldwide devastation for heroes and villains alike to cope with.

[Help] Atomic Rom: Give GW2 some time.

No. I hate that the fall-out from this is going to hit another game company, but no. Not playing another NCSoft game. No Guild Wars, no Lineage, nothing they newly acquire. I'm done.

[Help] High TIdes: what kills me...is first I get this post giving away codes for the kirby dots this morning
[Help] Ultimate Gunner: I wonder if they gave the codes knowing that it will all close down, or they found out after

They found out after.

[Looking For Group] Shade of the Sun: SGs are really spending time to recruit?

Surprisingly, yes. It's been bizarre to watch. And the usual response is something rude and unprintable, because the last thing many of us want to deal with is supergroup cheerleading when the world's drawing to a close.

[Help] Literal Lass: This morning, Paragon staffers hunted up all the random codes they had and dumped them into the forum. Absolutely every product code that tied to any costume part or power set, went out in a series of forum posts.
[Help] Literal Lass: I figure, they thought they might as well, since this might be their last day.
[Looking For Group] Matchless Flame: goin down with the ship

Kinda, yeah.

[Help] Yukkuri: Someone said earlier that CoH is being executed rather than dying, it's a pretty apt description.

Unfortunately.

[Looking For Group] Kate Kills: unsubject.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/why-ncsoft-doesnt-sell-off-its-failures

And I quote:

NCsoft doesn’t sell off its failures because it doesn’t make sense to them to do so. Firstly, they can use any failures as a tax write-off and if they go down this path, the larger the cost the better (to a point, obviously). Secondly, they don’t want to be creating competition for their own titles further down the line. Finally, someone else turning your failure into their success is just embarrassing. I’m not going to pretend I’m an expert on the cultural impact of embarrassment in Korea, but I suspect that avoiding embarrassment is something NCsoft Korea would attempt to do.

This sounds plausible, actually. And as unfortunate as it is on the ground, likely what happened here: NCSoft perceived a loss on a game they didn't want to ditch (yet), so sacrificed one they're not invested in that doesn't have millions of players.

The fact that it still has hundreds of thousands of players doesn't faze them.

[Help] Black Cyclone: They obviously don't want people to be able to save the game, if they wanted it to still make money, they wouldn't have shut down the market [Help] Sky Rage: all the other mmos from NCSOFT are all fantasy based, its really stupid because in one way or another i think their games cannibalize each other

Because they can. Because one fantasy game can resemble another fantasy game and still have people who play it. Hells, if you make them just similar enough in the basics, and just dissimilar enough in the details, you could get a roving horde of players that play all of them. Why stop at just one game?

In that sense, it's the different ones that would stand out. City of Heroes? Is not a fantasy game.

[Help] Alien Titania: well now. WHAT HAPPENED?

And here we go again.