those who couldn't live yesterday (pt. IV)

(Continued from part III.)

[Help] Stormitron: we can do this!
[Help] tweterdfg: well looks like the "Occupy Paragon" movement is in ull wing...
[Help] Beestyle: So just hang out around the steps of City Hall, or if you want to, go to Atlas Park 11 if you can get in, where Massively is recording.
[Help] Figment Malaise: How can we hack the activists to say "Save CoH, Take a Flyer"?
[Help] Liquid Platinum: As a 6 + year vet, could I get a title?

I don't think anyone's left to give out titles, now.

[Help] Tanelorn: ok, what the heck is going on? why are there so many atlas's

There's always one who doesn't read the memo.

[Help] Teide: there was a save cox rally at 5pm est
[Help] Fragdoll: Time to head out. Work tonight. Thank you, all of you, sincerely, for such a strong show of support and for being such an awesome community.
[Help] MainBattleTank: Server flood
[Help] Lady of Broken Toys: there was a rally. there was a huge queue.
[Looking For Group] Electo-nerd: What do we want?
[Looking For Group] Mr Davis: Pizza?

Yeah, okay, I think in the short term, too. Pizza would be nice.

[Looking For Group] Electo-nerd: when do we want it?
[Looking For Group] Mr Davis: Now?

Anytime after now.

[Help] Matt Millionaire: 11 may be full, but contest is just to show support, nobody in 11 gets any prize that somebody else wouldn't. Hang out in some Atlas of your choosing and somebody will be by to look. If they like it, they may opt to hand out some knicknack.
[Help] Teide: There were 33 APs, a 300 queue to join virtue then freedom filled, then onto infinity plus other AP rallies in other servers
[Looking For Group] Electo-nerd: .... close enough [Help] Nephele: If anyone hasn't been involved with Titan Network before and wants to get started, now's the time. IM me if you want help getting plugged in to the Save Paragon City efforts!
[Help] Blood Eidolon: the power of love will save City of Heroes!

No, no it won't. But it's a good thought.

[Help] Lady of Broken Toys: [Help] I dunno, the power of love is usually pretty sticky.

That too.

[Broadcast] O r i g i n: How's the protest coming?
[Broadcast] Literal Lass: Tapering down. But Massively put up their rally coverage already: http://www.twitch.tv/massivelytv/b/331522098
[Looking For Group] Surge280: everyone should be dancing on the steps in our native people's dance, the Monkey, till we've saved CoH!
[Help] Socrati: power of love? lol.. more like power of money
[Help] Valdis Verdandi: Apparently Freedom is the same
[Looking For Group] Increbidle Hulk: Hulk like game

Apparently Hulk not like spelling, though. Which is a shame, since Hulk very intelligent, just very angry.

[Looking For Group] Mini Slowa: Yo Dawg, I heard you like city of heroes soundstracks and livestream, so I put the city of heroes soundtrack in my livestream. WHEEEEEEEW
[Looking For Group] War Witch: I heard someone say something about pizza...
[Help] SAVE.COH: just read the recap of TonyV's speech on the main forums. I'm glad to see that our efforts aren't going unnoticed. I'm proud of this community.
[Looking For Group] Moondreams: My controller is rocking the "Last Line of Defense" badge.
[Help] Lord Azazel: apparently we filled up virtue and freedom at the start
[Looking For Group] Sovereign Savior: I'm also last line of defense
[Looking For Group] Trollkin Claws: Credible Hulk appreciates the game for it's diverse character creation tool.
[Help] Teide: Masterpost of how to save Cox what you can do to help http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296401
[Looking For Group] Burp: HELL NO WE WONT GO!!! HELL NO WE WONT GO!!!!
[Help] Jenie in a Bottle: FB n Twitter all the way... :)

There was a lot of Facebook and Twitter action today. For one solid hour during the protest, #saveCOH was in the top ten trending topics WORLDWIDE. That's impressive.

[Looking For Group] Mini Slowa: Credible hulk has credibility.
[Help] Agent Naomi: Don't forget to bookmark http://www.cityofheroveterans.com/ - Keep in touch with your global friends!

That's what's been so amazing to me about this--most people really aren't going "wah, they're taking away my toys". Instead, they're mourning over the inevitability of friends drifting away (because they're long-distance friends), and astounding each other with how much positive, social good the game has done.

Don't believe me? There are people who went to AA after talking to friends in City of Heroes. There are people who dealt with the deaths of pets, children, siblings, spouses and parents, and got through it because of City. Hundreds of people met their loves, moved in with them, and married them.

Sound familiar? Second Life, anyone? But this goes deeper--there were supergroups devoted solely to having fun and helping people, over just leveling up and PvP. There were folks who played priests and doctors not out of any desire to cyber with other people, but to hear confessions and give medical support. (Not advice, support--things like, "Well, I'm a doctor and I'd start looking on this site" or "here's the number of the Dial-a-Nurse service in your area").

There was at least one supergroup who started because they wanted a place where any female hero was welcome--and they didn't draw the line at beyond-the-screen differences. (I know that, because that was the supergroup I was in.)

Want more? Second Life became a resource center within hours of Hurricane Katrina touching down--but so did City of Heroes. City of Heroes held multi-supergroup gatherings to get people in touch with each other in the Occupy movement. And there were innumerable people who realized the power of playing a hero could transition to other realms, and started getting active in charities locally.

This was not just another MMO.

[Help] Teide: They had 20 APs an hour before the start
[Help] Afro-Fist: Exalted representing
[Looking For Group] Xaladin: Face your death with some courage.
[Looking For Group] Atlas Park Bum: Spare change?
[Help] Temple Divine: I prefer my love in pills. easier to swallow.
[Looking For Group] Vis Viva: Ho-Ho Hey-Hey CoH has got to stay!
[Looking For Group] AmygdaIa: Going to head back to Champion for a server picture. Good luck folks. :)
[Looking For Group] Increbidle Hulk: closing CoH hurt Hulk
[Help] Electric T: Tell me its not true

And this keeps happening. People who just logged in for the first time in a few weeks, or months, even, and suddenly are hit with the game's closing. Some of these people just collapse; we've at least got the luxury of having dealt with it for longer.

[Looking For Group] Savage Protest: Link to TonyV's forum repose please?
[Looking For Group] River Guardian: How we lookin?
[Looking For Group] Xaladin: Lets hope this game stays online
[Looking For Group] Schwarzen Strike: http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,5017.msg46826.html#msg46826
[Looking For Group] Sparkus Saberus: Tnx for the link
[Looking For Group] Fairfield: We'll fight til the end, either way. Because that's what we do.

Yeah. It is.

[Help] Icy Pop: This was a very successful day even if Freedom did not fill up. Virtue was packed with 33 AP's and 350 in queue
[Looking For Group] Vis Viva: If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die with my cape on!
[Help] Star of Destiny: Amen!
[Help] Blood Eidolon: guys, if you want to really help CoH, send physical letters to NCsoft

Yeah, if you want to support the game, do not send emails. Send actual, physical letters. This is a page of direct NCSoft contact addresses, worldwide. And, if you want to write Nexon, the current major shareholders for NCSoft, and mention this to them, too, here's how to do that.

[Help] Electric T: Why are they shutting it down
[Help] Minde Bender: profits
[Help] O Sheet Lightning: realignment...
[Help] Haze of Fury: It's the "Coming Storm" we were warned about...
[Help] TameDragon: cause Aion and GW2 fail so hard they shutting down the one that actually makes them profit....
[Help] Dev-stiny: unknown reasons. Conjecture is non-income related reasons.
[Looking For Group] Final Alternative: wearing my 7 Year Vet title with pride
[Looking For Group] Smoking Mirrors: This is the world we live in. And these are the hands we're given. Use them and let's start trying. To make it a place worth living in!
[Help] Hell NO WE won't GO: CoX profits were, NCsoft were not
[Help] XIII Mastermind: Aion lost more money and GW was a hit
[Help] Rakuzion: stop the aoe heals the server already crashed once [Help] Literal Lass: Well, and don't forget "we need to shore up Aion, which lost 2 million in sales in three months"
[Looking For Group] Surge280: I'm just gonna say it now, the end of City of Heroes is the end of the world this year. Just saying...

It feels like that, yeah.

[Help] Hell NO WE won't GO: they spend millions on 'Blade and Soul' launch for Korea, development for GW2 and Wildstar.. things that do not show a return investment yet
[Looking For Group] MattPositronMiller: thank you phil collins
[Looking For Group] Cimerian Nova: this is our home not ncsoft s
[Help] Jay Dove: GW2 is doing so well they had to stop online sales for a while because they had no more room to put people on their servers.
[Help] Temple Divine: Radio Noise Zrrrt ." This is Temple Divine . . .I am standing by . .until . . well as long as it takes. As long as we have. There are survivors. Portal Corp has opened a gateway. .Zrrzzzt Radio Noise** ((Shards of Virtue SG Champions))

So far I've heard of two diaspora groups in Champions: "Shards of Virtue", and "Paragon Refugees".

[Help] Hell NO WE won't GO: plus, NCsoft has been showing decline in profit for a while now
[Looking For Group] Socrati: this feels like Armageddon :/
[Looking For Group] Kozzma: Thank you WW and all the Dev's for supporting US in City.
[Looking For Group] Star Ranger 4.0: Nooo... they took away your super dev buttons already ms Bianco??? ting , everyone.
[Looking For Group] War Witch: I know right???? I could have sworn they were RIGHT HERE....

And this bears its own little pain, because admittedly, I'd been looking forward to news of the devs, lurking. Throwing up design ideas in the D that never saw the light of day before now, and never will again past this point. (I'll be posting pics later, of at least the Nemesis Warhorses.)

But now, they have no admin powers. There may be nothing they can do past this point. Not to sound overly fatalistic, but I'm not sure the game's going to survive until November 30th, even, at this point.

[Looking For Group] Blue Gem: Lincoln Davis, NCsoft West director of corporate communications said....
[Looking For Group] Blue Gem: ..... "Both NCsoft and Paragon Studios are incredibly proud of the success of City of Heroes, but ....
[Looking For Group] Blue Gem: .... unfortunately, the continued support of the franchise no longer fits within our long term goals for the company

Yeah. That's depressing as hell, too.

[Looking For Group] Fairfield: Even if it is, we'll go down fighting.
[Help] Electric T: If they do cancel COH they can go out with a bang
[Looking For Group] Finnish: keep it real
[Looking For Group] Nessanthra: Thx to rvryone for coming out today. I hope the peeps at NCsoft are listening :)
[Space Vixens]Neo-Gabi: HI-K4R1 (Hologram 2): We had 318 in queue when I logged in today. O_O
[Space Vixens]Forever Zer0: Yeah, Freedom became the overflow server, then Defiant or something.
[Space Vixens]Neo-Gabi: HI-K4R1 (Hologram 2): Also people on infinity and champs last I heard.

Wait, people in Champions Online were protesting? ...Okay, that's kind of cool. I'll see if anyone posts about it, if true.

[Space Vixens]Hellslinger: {Stampede Sally}: Hiya Bell!
[Space Vixens]Literal Lass: Is a MIRACLE, I got in. :)
[Space Vixens]Forever Zer0: Hiya :)
[Space Vixens]Forever Zer0: I know people were here for this 12 hours ago.
[Space Vixens]ThunderCrest: me too and i wanted to slap them
[Space Vixens]Forever Zer0: I figured, I'd log on about an hour and a half early, get my cape and costume for Beyonda on blueside soe others can recognize Bell
[Space Vixens]Forever Zer0: After doing that, with 40 minutes to go, I got in AP 22...
[Broadcast] Witty Librarian: whats next
[Broadcast] Nuclear Gecko: The Cape supports Titan Network, Paragon Studios, and The Players trying to #SaveCOH. Tune in on your media player for a Heroic Soundtrack!
[Broadcast] Proteas: Well, I guess the server load is starting to lighten up a bit, my computer's fan isn't running at full speed and the graphics aren't lagging anymore.
[Broadcast] Witty Librarian: yay
[Broadcast] Witty Librarian: good luck, virtue server!
[Space Vixens]Forever Zer0: Bellonda: WEll, I'm back.
[Local] Razaar: Hello LIteral ...nice to see you again.

Yeah, I'm schmaltzy, I kept this in even though it's personal. Razaar is the big horned goof who married my wife (he married one of her Minotaur characters in City of Heroes; she's my wife RL).

[Local] Literal Lass: Hello there!
Stampede Sally lights the Afk on fire
Razaar smiles

It meant a lot to me, just to put this down in print, that he stood beside her during the protest. She's been a wreck through this whole thing, and needs all the support she can get. I'm grateful and honored that Razaar understands this.

[Space Vixens]Forever Zer0: Bellonda: Ok all, I'm logging off for the day. take care everyone.
[Space Vixens]Forever Zer0: Bellonda: Remember to help out on our Guild Portal Forums with names and such!

A lot of the bigger supergroups are turning over their forums to contact information posts--where people are going, what their names are there, what their RL names/locations are, should they choose to divulge that. The diaspora has begun, but many are pledging to still remain friends and in contact after the game departs. And who knows, they may be right.

[Local] Razaar: Yes i was keeping track....It has been cool to be involved.
[Local] Stampede Sally: Me too
[Local] Razaar: It has been a glorious event.
[Local] Literal Lass: Dunno if it will change anything, but no one can say that over the past few weeks, we haven't TRIED.
[Local] Razaar: I agree....Though I hear Ncsoft is watching.

Let's hope they are. And keep in mind, for a while (at least on Twitter), the world was watching. I still believe that makes a difference.

those who couldn't live yesterday (pt. III)

(Continuing from part II.)

[Help] Vince Hurth: If it helps, I DID sign the petition.

At this point, there aren't even 18,000 folks who've signed the petition yet. While there's some doubt as to how effective it's going to be in the long run, in the short run it's going to fall without ripples into the vast technology pond.

[Help] White Fire: Regardless, even if NCSoft doesn't rescind their decision (which is likely), the amount of community feedback substantially increases their chances of selling it rather than just torpedoing the IP.
[Looking For Group] Cyber Maiden: think this is best mmo out there :), ty devs !
[Help] Bogh Galloo: btw, get all your friends to sign. Even if NCSoft shuts it down the level of participation will help draw other investors!
[Help] Don't Cancel Me Man: Here's the thing: CoH is still profitable. It will never be published by NcSoft, but it's still possible that someone will buy the IP and either keep the game going and rehire the dev team, or start building CoH2
[Looking For Group] PrincessCleo: I've been playing CoH off and on since launch. My boyfriend has played since the beta. I have met so many wonderful people while playing this game. I'm not ready for this to end.
[Help] Cordovan Sev: also check out http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/ for discussion of some of the various options that are being explored -- asking NCSoft to rescind their decision isn't the end-strategy.
[Help] Parabot: Say none of what we're doing helps.....would you rather die willingly, like a sheep led to slaughter, or die with a sword in your hand and a song on your lips, fighting until the end?

I've been on the front lines of a lot of protests, though only rarely has it been a situation where I was risking my own life to protest. Still, that's happened once or twice, and even given the ratio of fear to confidence in those instances, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Protesting takes passion, courage, and conviction. It doesn't mean you're not scared. It doesn't mean you don't dread the future. It means you're willing to put your words, your name, or even your life on the line for what you believe in.

[Looking For Group] Electo-nerd: I know if CoH goes down, NC soft won't get any more of my buisness
[Looking For Group] Solaar Fyre: so how many AP's are there now?
[Looking For Group] Teenage Legacy: LOTS

This was around quarter after four, four-thirty pm PST, something like that.

[Looking For Group] Apollinaris: I mean have you ever played Lineage 2? They should pay you to play it.
[Looking For Group] lil red 1: COH is most a western game, US and europe and i no PLENTY of people who are VIP in the US
[Help] Sister Brighid: Article on 'not quite CNN' -- go vote it up!

To vote for it, you'll need a CNN account, which seems to be free.

[Help] Final Armageddon: Coh has saved my life let CoH live!!!!!
[Help] Mender Quinch: This has sure as hell been... interesting.
[Help] Blytz: did i hear a rumor that the dev are working on buying the licencing and trying to run with CoH on thier own?

Cannot confirm. Haven't heard this. I'd say it's just a rumor.

[Looking For Group] Apollinaris: It's worse than that. The Lineage 2 servers are full of chinese gold farms. It's nothing but a gank fest.
[Help] Mender Quinch: Tony, how many people did you expect to show up?

TonyV's the fellow behind the Titan Network who started advertising for today's protest.

[Looking For Group] PnJ Time': we love coh..i think ncsoft ceo dosent care if he destroyes ncsoft as long as he gets his golden parachute
[Help] TonyV: I expected a lot, but I ain't gonna lie. 33 Atlas Parks blows my mind.
[Help] Deidrelaythe Dunlevy: On not just one, but two servers, Tony.

Actually, at least three that we know of--Virtue, Freedom and Infinity.

[Help] Gieger Maenad: And they seem to be focused on "mobile platform" games, and pay per hour = about $8 an hour internet cafe games in japan
[Help] Osborn Elmidore: The devs are and Titan wants to crowdsource it, it's up to NCSoft if they'll sell or sit on it. IF they sell I'll buy NC SOft games again, but if they sit on it I'm done with being their rounding error.
[Help] Stormitron: THANK YOU TONYV
[Help] Mender Quinch: I think noise has officially been made.
[Looking For Group] Cimerian Nova: we love cox ncsoft so look and take notice
[Help] Alexander Hamilton: It was a magnificent show by the community :-)
[Looking For Group] Alaina Thomas: Save our game.
[Help] Pebble Peppy Pennie: what you really need to know is on the Save Paragon City form of titan network
[Looking For Group] Electo-nerd: wow [Help] Blytz: *agrees with Osborn
[Help] Blood Eidolon: Imust admit, 33 atlas parks are an awesome feat
[Help] Alexander Hamilton: Well done, everyone :-)
[Help] DJ Angelica: How about a round of applause for Tony V and all his folks over at Titan Network for providing us ParagonWiki, Mids' Hero Designer, and more....

He's doing a lion's share of the work, yes, though he is receiving support in various ways from the community. Already he's put out Sentinel Plus, an archival program that will save "snapshots" of your character--all costume pieces, all mesh sliders, everything in inventory, everything held in badges--just in case the game is saved.

[Looking For Group] Schwarzen Strike: 75 per zone, I believe
[Looking For Group] Mobile Suit Gun Dame: I think it was around 100 per instance
[Looking For Group] Moondreams: AP holds 75-100 people according to HIt Streak.
[Help] Xeyu: I thank everyone for uniting as a City Of Heroes and standing up for the game we all Love! :D
[Help] Crimson Rook: *claps*
[Help] Light of the Phoenix: The Virtue server welcomes our guests. But I think we may be out of party dip already.
[Help] Pebble Peppy Pennie: I never played console or any other games because of that...and it is the only reason I can play this MMO
[Help] Lexia Star: Hell no we wont go!!
[Looking For Group] Electo-nerd: Lemme guess.... we're socialists nerds terrorizing a poor defenseless corporation
[Help] M WW B: Thanks you TonyV and Titan and Massively and everyone that plays city.
[Looking For Group] 6 of Sally: many servers...one home...it is Paragon City
[Help] Temple Divine: Wahoo Redline Virtue way to go.
[Looking For Group] Kad-One: It branched out onto Freedom
[Looking For Group] Kad-One: And then Infinity

This? If you haven't already gotten this idea, this was huge. I don't know if it will make a difference; I only know, now, that I was humbled by the outpouring of support.

[Help] Void Dancyr: hey tonyv....sent+ is a godsend
[Looking For Group] Electo-nerd: that lady walked through a lion
[Looking For Group] Mini Slowa: VIRTUE ATLAS PARK I AM STREAMING IN YOU
[Looking For Group] Ms. Chernobyl: This is our city, we will not give up without a fight.
[Help] Jackson Storm: APB was dead and buried for at least a year, but GamersFirst revived it and have put a lot of development into it.

While I don't want City of Heroes to pull an APB, because the designers had to recreate a lot of game assets after so much time has passed...it's good to remember that things revive all the time, these days: cover songs, retconned storylines, updates to classic (and not so classic) movies, reinvention of existing technologies...it's not completely outside the realm of possibility to take the next year, crusade and talk up the game to potential investors, and have it return.

It's not highly likely, but it's not completely implausible.

[Looking For Group] rootstock: yeah go tony v, way to get titan some publicity

I laud everyone at the Titan Network for their tireless efforts to save City of Heroes.

More in part IV.

those who couldn't live yesterday (pt. II)

(Continuing from part I.)

[Help] Mobile Suit Gun Dame: Spilled over onto -- and filled up -- Freedom, too.

For a while, Virtue was maxed out. Freedom was the overflow. Then Freedom maxed out. Infinity became the overflow. At one point on each of these servers they had over thirty instances of Atlas Park, each, for the protest.

[Help] Icerific: What is the Massive site?

Here.

[Looking For Group] Alaina Thomas: Keep it alive people. I meet my best friends on here. If it was not for C0H I would not have such great friends here
[Help] rootstock: i give my suppoert to ncsoft now. No way will i support mugs who come here just to clog the system and dont even play. Go NC shut it tomorrow. Pleaaaaaassssssseeeeeee

There's always someone.

[Help] Exo-buster: I actually managed to see my character on the composite image.
[Looking For Group] Green Bearet: With all due respect, Jack's a tool.

Maybe, but Emmert had nothing to do with shutting down City of Heroes. That was all NCSoft--and possibly their major shareholders, Nexon.

[Looking For Group] StrikeFalcon: Emmert was a great man when the game first started... unfortunately, he was seduced by the dark-side of MMO making

Eh, I think it was more he went into management, over playing and developing games on the ground.

[Looking For Group] Battle'Maiden: Yea, CO had promise but the cartoony look and feel and the terrible camera angles ruined it for me
[Looking For Group] Rosa Luxemburg: Save CoH so the Crazy 88's can burn more inf!
[Looking For Group] Element Z: 8 MORE YEARS!!!!!
[Help] Lady of Broken Toys: [Help] dcuo sucks by all reports. fair action but the community makes you want to do brain surgery on yourself with an immersion heater.
[Help] Freem Propulsion: At least with this Rally we learned some of the folks we need to /ignore for being less than supportive of saving our city.
[Looking For Group] Angry Rabble: best trailer for coh
[Help] War Melissa: Marvel didn't just "Pull out." They had to due to having licensing agreements with Activision

Now, that last one is somewhat important--that's War Witch. She was upper upper management in Paragon Studios. She also used to come in as a redname admin. Now? NCSoft's stripped her--and most of the other devs we know about--of all powers. Based on this evidence, they might have even blocked account access, so that they can no longer access their trademark characters.

And sure, yes, fine, those trademark characters do belong to NCSoft...but that's on the asset level. Think about how any of us might feel if the company who owns the game we play in was able to just delete us with no recourse. There are a lot of folks who've had it happen in SL, after all. But bump that up a notch--what if the character you'd spent so much time outfitting, powering up, making perfect, and playing with was a Linden, say? Who suddenly got axed in the layoff round? No appreciable warning, and though you could make another character, your main character is just--gone.

Melissa Bianco is one of those who now knows exactly how that feels.

[Help] Vince Hurth: I don't want to sound like a troll, I'm not trying to offend or piss anybody off...
[Help] Vince Hurth: But nothing is going to save CoH. The team is fired, the decision is made.
[Help] Final Armageddon: lets show ncsoft we will not take this shutting CoH down!!!!!!
[Help] rootstock: Wont save CoH full stop

Maybe not. But if we never protest for what we believe, then we don't really believe it.

[Help] Mobile Suit Gun Dame: I don't hate on the other games NCSoft runs; I merely decline to provide them with any of my support.
[Looking For Group] Cimerian Nova: save our home
[Looking For Group] Betty Louise Svenson: There should be a Melancholia badge for anyone on the last day.
[Help] Rattletrapp: Any remaining RedName folk, there's lots of us still not flying Paragon Backer flags on the steps

This is generally a shout-out to the devs to drop by. Normally, because the devs had been very involved in the day-to-day operation of the game world, that'd do it. Today, none of the devs we saw at the various protests had admin powers anymore.

Past this point, there may be no "Paragon Backer" titles given out. There may be no special oddities happening in the D. No Hallowe'en event, if one was even trying to be organized.

[Help] Xeyu: Dont forget to sign the City Of Heroes petition everyone if you haven't already. Its on change.org. You can just go to Google and type in City Of Heroes petition and it should be the first link.
[Looking For Group] 6 of Sally: This is as dear to me as my family
[Help] DJ Angelica: They're bouncing instances.

This was the first news, about half past three pm PST, that NCSoft was trying to close down instances of Atlas Park to stop the protests.

[Looking For Group] Coquettish Kitten: its more than a game its a community of people we have gotten close to
[Help] Sechmeth: even if it was a business decision, they will have to worry about PR
[Looking For Group] 6 of Sally: Tis not just a video game...This is about FAMILY
[Help] Trillium: Rally was also held on Freedom
[Help] Blood Eidolon: le'ts jsut hope CoH doesn't get run by EA *shudders*

Really. More in part III.

those who couldn't live yesterday (pt. I)

This is gonna be pretty rough, I'm currently in a maxed-out server holding a torch on the Atlas Park steps, in the twelfth instance of Atlas Park (at its height, the rally had 33 instances of Atlas Park, and there was at least one attempt--from NCSoft direct--to restrict AP spawns to ten. Apparently that didn't work). These are all comments from Looking For Group channel, Help channel, my supergroup's chat feed (the Space Vixens), or Broadcast. This is one of four.

[Looking For Group] Save Our City 1971: Long live City Of Heroes!!!! Its not just a game, its a way of life. A community!!!
[Looking For Group] Captain Cymru.: @Starbright cant get into virtue so is holding a vigil with some others in support - wish him luck! :)
[Looking For Group] Kritikal Mass: Save our City, so that we can keep saving the world!
[Looking For Group] DrAsinineSaveParagon: Again, they are making money. It doesn't make sense for them to cut it at all. Even if they just did the status quo letting the devs do what they've been doing...they'd STILL be gaining lots of money. For basically doing nothing. I dun get it.
[Help] Lady Darquette: where is the CC? All the Atlas's are full
[Looking For Group] Trollkin Claws: Currently at 33 APs
[Help] Adjective-Noun: It seems we may have maxed out at 33 APs. =/

"CC" in this instance stands for "costume contest". They have them frequently in City of Heroes. It's like SL contests--show up dressed according to the theme, dance, socialize, have a chance to win cash (influence or infamy) and prizes.

[Space Vixens]Neo-Gabi: HI-K4R1 (Hologram 2): We had 318 in queue when I logged in today. O_O

(from the City of Heroes album; my queue notice earlier)

[Looking For Group] SaveCOXPleaseMa: I was in overflow in Freedom then got in. yay
[Looking For Group] Burp: has NC said anything yet or is this just a big circle jerk
[Looking For Group] Cimerian Nova: i beta tested this mmo .. and many here did
[Help] No End?: I love City of Heroes, I hate WoW, I hate GW2, I hate Champions Online!!!
[Looking For Group] von Stroheim: Wasn't there a licensing issue with Cryptic?

No. There was no licensing issue with Cryptic. That's been confirmed as a rumor based on nothing but supposition.

[Looking For Group] Save Our City 1971: City Of Heroes, the number one mmo in my book!! Who's with me??
[Looking For Group] Real Codewalker: DrAsinine: They probably think they can make MORE money by spending it somewhere else.
[Looking For Group] Trillium: The financials are the reason, this was the bottom barrel game financially
[Looking For Group] Mender Quinch: [Lv46 mind/emp] Nope. License granted FOREVEEEERRR.
[Looking For Group] Branda Sharp: the DJ on cape radio said Neil Gaiman has COH on his blog

Not quite--on September 6th, Samuraiko asked Gaiman to retweet a plea to save City of Heroes. He did. Then Laurell K. Hamilton picked that up, and retweeted it.

[Looking For Group] Cimerian Nova: im honoured to see such efforts to save a game and its worth it
[Looking For Group] THlS lS NONSENSE: THANKS ALL OF U FOR HIJACKING THE LFG CHANNEL WITH USELESS CHATTER

Save for, we don't think it's useless.

[Space Vixens]Forever Zer0: I know people were here for this 12 hours ago.
[Looking For Group] Order A Pizza: Theres 33 Instances
[Looking For Group] DrAsinineSaveParagon: Again to people who say financials. It's in the black. It's making money. Why throw out a game that is still MAKING money? If it was in the hole I'd understand
[Looking For Group] Lochlain: I don't understand all the hate for CO. It looks different but I don't think it looks bad. Hell I played it for years and liked it fine.

Okay, just to insert here: Lochlain's right. It's another game. Games look different, and a lot of my current bitterness towards Champions is because it's not City of Heroes. I am blaming it precisely because it's its own game.

And let's also be completely fair, here: I had fun last night, playing Champions. HOWEVER, to also be completely fair, what I mostly spent four hours doing was running around a parking lot outside the jail blowing up cop cars.

Not even kidding. Mm. Allen and I had been running around taking out prisoners in the jailbreak, until we realized we could get just as many random anniversary gift drops by blowing up objects.

So, brief armchair analysis: I had fun in a game I profess not to like, because I wasn't doing anything story-related, or level-related. I was just randomly being violent and lighting cars on fire.

[Looking For Group] Rattletrapp: Where is the livestream coverage of this being broadcast?

Here.

[Looking For Group] Electo-nerd: wow... this is crazy
[Looking For Group] Broad SSR: we should all get on top of the globe to show support of our "World"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Looking For Group] Life Energy: Save our city
[Looking For Group] Jane Ashland: *laughs* guess we are about to break the server ?
[Looking For Group] Smoking Mirrors: Dear community. At this point I have no hatred for any other game or any company. Only love, love for the community. Let's try to do this with positive feelings. Regardless of the outcome, I want this to be a positive experience and memory.
[Looking For Group] Element Z: So NCSoft was/is losing money keeping COH alive?
[Looking For Group] Obsidian Rabbit: how many atlas parks do we have now?
[Looking For Group] Half Hitch: Save Our City!!!!! C'mon ya'll....Sing Along!!!!
[Looking For Group] Apollinaris: I think the reason for the shutdown is pretty obvious. NcSoft isn't making money and it's easier to ax someone across the pacific than in house.
[Looking For Group] Soundtrack: It was an honor being with you all today. Be safe, heroes/villains!
[Looking For Group] Glass Goblin: This community is why I've been here since April 1, 2004.
[Looking For Group] Order A Pizza: 33 instancesx of AP
[Looking For Group] Alaina Thomas: I let my 4 year play this game. Now he is 12 and it is a clean game. No blood or guts on it. That is why I let him start out early
[Looking For Group] Battle'Maiden: Yea Krit. COs figures looked like Popeye figures, bleh!

That's pretty much solely because of the ginormous oven-mitt hands on the mesh.

[Looking For Group] Cimerian Nova: save our home ....its not alone ncsoft choice to abandon a thriving community
[Help] Lady Darquette: Composite view of the Atlas's crowds

Basically, what they did was go through each of the thirty-plus Atlas Parks, captured each hero for a few seconds, then quickly through up a montage. I'm in there somewhere, so is everyone else in my household and 1,997 other people.

[Looking For Group] 6 of Sally: CO is just visually ugly

Well...yeah.

[Looking For Group] Captain Saskatchewan: CO's graphics look like they were made in 2000 not 2012

Part of that really does come down to the game's style. They wanted that look, fought hard for it. And folks are right, disparaging how their avatars look, when the creative team wanted that look, is completely specious and judgemental.

Doesn't help the feeling, but at least I know I'm being superficial.

[Help] PO'ed Geode: http://www.adultswim.com/bumps/AnimeGamer/save-coh-39901.html

Due to the overwhelming popularity of Adult Swim's "bumps", they've started flipping up suggestions they got. That was one of them. It's been airing.

[Looking For Group] Bishop Saint': What was the livestream link again?
[Looking For Group] All this and brains: well have played WoW, Swtor, even Forsaken/perfect world. Would give them and all my 100+Wow mounts up to keep this game
[Looking For Group] evoL 4ever coh: the costume creator in CO was super annoying
[Looking For Group] Zanriel: http://massively.joystiq.com/livestream
[Looking For Group] Bishop Saint': thanks

On to part II.

did you really think I'd let you kill this chorus?

[Looking For Group] Shock and Awesome: Is kickstarter not an option?

I've heard this a lot over the past few days. There are deep and inherent problems in approaching this from a crowdfunded angle, namely: while Paragon Studios runs (or ran) City of Heroes, Cryptic was the first originator, and NCSoft is the holder of copyright on the IP now. Would NCSoft release the IP? It's highly doubtful. So, essentially, it would be almost instantly killed as a concept even were it to make it to the Kickstarter launch post page. Why? Because if you don't control the property, you can't ask for money to fund it, and Kickstarter's own internal rules would knock it down--likely before it ever saw the light of day.

[Looking For Group] Gadgette: Kickstarter is ONLY an option if NCsoft agrees that they'd sell the game if X amount of money was made.

Right, but even were that highly unlikely eventuality to come to pass, they'd have to have either already sold the property back to Paragon, or have signed a binding intention to sell with the company. Neither of these are likely to happen, either.

[Help] Airdancer: It is hard to want to do something when you know it's all pointless now. Still I've been here so long i can't think of anything else to do when I get off work
[Looking For Group] Ecco Dolpheus: is all i looked foward to when i was coming home from work
[Looking For Group] Rita Ramjet: and its all you can continue to look forward to till nov 30

Laugh if you want, but think about this in the larger sense of games. How many people plan their lives around weekly WoW raids? I personally know someone who made the choice to travel to BlizzCon, pay for hotel tickets, and pay for content offered there (signatures, admission, et cetera), knowing she'd be coming home to a house empty of food, with rent paid but not power paid, and hoping beyond hope her parents helped her so she could keep the lights on. It was that important to her. She didn't bring food, either--she was humbly, deeply grateful to a friend that heard about her plans on Twitter, and the first night of the convention, dragged up an ice chest full of crackers, peanut butter, cheese, and refreezable ice packs. She also handed over a shopping back of "just add water" soups--both mug soups and noodle pots. That is how my friend ate while she was there.

People do this for games. They suffer a loss, they think of friends online over friends in RL--and to be utterly honest about this, too, some of these folks don't have many friends RL. For many, the game world is their support network.

How many people play in SL, have lives, husbands, and children, yet ignore the husbands, wives, or children they have beyond the screen? It happens, far more often than you think.

[Looking For Group] Shadow Marshal Luger: it is a little fishy that the other money losing games NCSoft owns arnt being suddenly shut down and CoH that makes marginal profit is

The key word there is "marginal". It was making profit for the company, it just wasn't making enough.

[Help] Screaming Patriot: the horrors of learning to ski at the chalet...
[Help] Grand Grimoire: only winter tho
[Help] Jericho Phears: was looking to do that this yer, got the gold in both last year

Well, the Chalet's open again, for what it's worth.

[Help] Boomtown Titan: I'm downloading CO since it's closer to this but damn those graphics are goofy

(from the Champions album; Annika in Millenium City)

I think I've figured out part of why. There are directly photosourced textures in City of Heroes--usually in caves, which is why they're so jarring when they show up--but in Champions, even the photosourced textures have this odd, clean-edged gloss to them. The entire world looks closer to an 80's comic book at times--which may have been the intent.

The problem is, that's also a heavy detraction. I'm not crazy about viewing the world in Comic Sans, or in looking at SL-style, vintage 2008 trees. It doesn't make me want to play the game.

(from the Champions album; Annika and Nighthawk in a cut scene still.)

Take this, for example. There's still self-insertion into cut scenes as part of the experience--on the theory that we tie better to what we see on screen if something we identify as "us" is also in the scene--but check out the shine on that tile floor. If we look up, there's nothing to cast the reflection lights on the floor. And if it's that shiny, the problem becomes--why don't we see ourselves in the reflections?

SL solves this by having settings that pre-generate reflections and/or shadows, though most viewers just don't bother, thereby solving the problem. In City of Heroes, the only places with high reflection and shine were internally solved--and we've seen this in SL, too, where a 'reflective' floor is reflective because a mirror image of the structures above the floor lies underneath it.

In this case, it's just bad photosourcing, with no attempt to correct it.

(from the Champions album; flying in Millenium City)

I don't want to say it's "too clean", because that's not really the complaint. I don't mind clean lines in a game; hells, I play Minecraft, land of the clean sharp lines. For me, it goes deeper into the entire ethos behind the world: there's very little attempt at complication, by design. It's not stucco on an apartment building; it's just olive paint. The places where they do choose to add detail and visual complication are thus jarring and out of place, like photosourced tiles, or photosourced asphalt by the docks.

(from the Champions album; water off the docks in Millenium City)

Or let's talk about water. Which this is. No, seriously.

(from the City of Heroes album; off Striga Isle)

This is a shot taken when flying into Striga Isle. Even though all the oceans in City of Heroes average about two feet deep, there's still a strong impression that it goes down further, and there are active, ongoing, animated reflections on the surface water.

(from the City of Heroes album; underground lake in First Ward)

Or here, where the source light is an unearthly, ambient teal glow, and the water itself is charged and moving with eldritch reflections and colors. Even given the potential supernatural nature of this water, it still looks like water.

The water in Champions? Looks like someone tried to mix mercury with oil, or made one of those swirling bottles that have glitter blended with dyed water. Save that in this case, the water's just vaguely silvery-grey. This is my alternative??

[Looking For Group] Rita Ramjet: sadly this is the real world...and the villains sometimes win.

Yeah. And for me, the thing is, I liked City of Heroes because I liked the storylines, not because I had a desperate need to be a superhero and fly around the city. I'm currently in the (long, long, SO long, and involved) process of downloading Perfect World International, because I already have a Perfect World account (since Perfect World bought out Cryptic, everyone who had a Cryptic account to play Champions had to convert over to Perfect World), and I'm more interested in fantasy games anyway.

But going through these has generated yet another depressing day. I had about fifteen potential entries saved and titled; since last night, I'm down by eight, because I just selected everything and cleared the space. I'll use the title later, but it's just too much right now.

does it matter that much when you're ten miles down?

[Help] Dr Pulsar: meh, I tried CO. might play it for a bit, or try out secret world. Might take a break from MMO's for a while and see what happens after the dust settles.

It's not like there aren't enough games to play out there, after all. MMORPG has a list containing thousands of titles.

But I could count the super-hero genre ones on one hand and have fingers left over.

[Help] Fury Prince: all your major players are already leaving
[Help] Undergrowth Hunter: Your point? Even if there are many players leaving there will still be those who want to enjoy the game for what time is still left
[Help] Undergrowth Hunter: Still it's better than jumping ship when we still have two months and bit remaining

People are saying that, but then, I log into world and...well, it's remarkably like walking around in Second Life, these days. Entire zones where I never see even one other player.

[Looking For Group] Ultranationalist: I honestly don't think they even left people behind to take care of weekly maintainance

So far, at least, there's someone somewhere turning off the lights and rebooting things. We know this, at least, because City went down very late Wednesday morning, and it came back up Thursday. Is it anyone that formerly worked at Paragon? Who knows? I can tell you one thing for sure--we don't. We don't know who's running the game, but we do know one more thing--support questions aren't being answered, because there's no one there to offer in-game support.

[Looking For Group] Operative Emeral: We were told months ahead of time that SWG would be closing and the same goes for MxO, the anger is at feeling betrayed.
[Looking For Group] Weaver Ant: You got that right, one day bam, the devs are fired

I have to admit, that's part of the hurt over this. And yeah, at least to me, it feels remarkably like the Linden layoffs--one week, no notice, a third of the Linden staffers are out on the street. Just like here, only it was one day, no notice, the entirety of Paragon Studios was fired. Why? Comes down to the bottom line again.

[Looking For Group] Harbinger Vox: Interesting, DJ Zero in Pocket D isn't hovering like he usually is. Just standing there.
[Looking For Group] Weaver Ant: Same here, Valdis.
[Looking For Group] Valdis Verdandi: there have been many strange occurances Harbinger, GM spawns in Atlas and Pocket D for instance
[Looking For Group] Levi Nox: So, would that be messed up coding or someone screwing with the code?
[Looking For Group] Valdis Verdandi: someone is spawning them, its not accidental or coincidence
[Looking For Group] Galaxy Mystic: haha means someone still has access :)

Someone does. Several someones, actually. The problem is they only have the access they had before the mass firing. So, for instance, one GM will be able to "pop in" to all the servers, another will only be able to hit one. Some have early prototypes of designs they still had in inventory, others just have enemy spawns. Still, they're doing what they can to keep involved. That tells me something, too: you don't care this much for the game, or its players, and continue to interact with both after you've been fired, unless that game really means a lot to you. To these GMs and developers, it did.

[Help] Celerin: They did promise a post sometime this week to explain the lore and what would have happened and stuff.

And that post is now live.

did the stars come up? did the world spin 'round?

[Help] Kasima: COs character creator does offer alot more over COH
[Help] Kasima: but the one issue I have with it is
[Help] Kasima: there just are not some parts offered
[Help] Kasima: that COH uses
[Help] Kasima: like the tucked in pants look
[Help] Kasima: theres no real way to get that look in CO
[Help] Kasima: and alot of my costumes here used that look

And that's not the only costume option that Champions just purely lacks. They have more places to put on more things--like, you can have arm bracers, THEN upper-arm bands, THEN shoulder ornaments, versus City, where you could have a variety of shoulder pads and that was it.

But there are still many things missing, and it's making me twitch.

[Help] Kasima: come nov 30
[Help] Kasima: if you wanna be a hero
[Help] Kasima: CO is the only real alternative

That's unfortunately the literal truth, and not just because City of Heroes is closing. In Champions Online, you can play a hero...or, well, a hero. There is no Champions: Villains game. You're a superhero, or you're not playing the game.

About half my characters in City of Heroes are villains. I mean, sure, the first restriction sucks--if I don't subscribe and go Gold, over stay free and stay Silver, I get two character slots. TWO. Granted, I was a subscriber to City of Heroes, but I had twenty-two characters on Virtue alone.

[Help] Master Setsuke: if CoX doesn't get sold and there's no private server i will likely play nothing of this type

Believe me, I'm seriously considering that.

[Help] Vexs Goblin: No, i'll stay until the last days. i was here when this game started, so i'll be here, when it ends.

But it's getting more and more depressing, the more time goes on.

[Help] Kasima: I just personally think publishers are a bad idea
[Help] Kasima: they dont make the games
[Help] Kasima: they just pay for them
[Help] Kasima: and thats dangerous
[Help] Kasima: theres a disconnect there
[Help] Master Setsuke: they kind of are. but pubs that don't do much development themselves are especiially bad

I really can't argue with that. At that point, it becomes a strict numbers game. They're not invested, they're just interested in profit. Whatever doesn't match their expections--well, the human cost means less than nothing, it's just about the bottom line.

[Help] Kasima: next year they will be in the red again
[Help] Kasima: since they didnt actually fix the problem
[Help] Kasima: they just patched the wound
[Help] Kasima: thye will have to axe something else again
[Help] Kasima: soon

I think she's right here, too. The bigger question is not what will NCSoft axe next, but when.

[Help] Void Dancyr: the devs were happily posting concept art 2 hrs before the announcement
[Help] Void Dancyr: they got blindsided just as bad as we did
[Help] Mekkee: Yep
[Help] Mekkee: It's just money

In the end, maybe everything's just a numbers game.

that doesn't mean that it's okay, that doesn't mean I'm ready

[Help] Dr Pulsar: smartphones and app games are doing their part in killing PC gaming.
[Help] Boomtown Titan: LOL! Yes, phone games killed the MMO...

This is a complaint heard often, but to be fair, they have a point. Big, sprawling games like most MMOs are now take a lot of time investment. Most of us? We don't have that much time to spend.

Just to take it personal, for a moment, I have an iPod. When I have a few minutes, I play Triple Town, sometimes a letter game called That Word. Could I spend those moments in an MMO? Sure. But the iPod's portable--I can carry it around, I can flip the case open if I can't sleep and play a few rounds of whatever without getting up--and with insomnia, not getting up can be as much a success as actually sleeping.

[Help] Rita Ramjet: character creation looks really plasticy in CO...im thinking to pass on it
[Help] Kasima: only cause DCO sucks more
[Help] Kasima: at least from what i played of it
[Help] Kasima: maybe they tightened up the game
[Help] Kasima: but the beta of DCO was terrible

Pictures help with this. This was something taken two days ago in City of Heroes:

(from the City of Heroes album)

That's my main character, Literal Lass, with the horns, standing next to Melissa Bianco, who--when she's not pulling up avatars more-or-less matched to herself in City, plays one of the signature heroes, War Witch.

(from the Champions album)

Versus...Annika. The game of Champions, overall, looks more like a cartoon than a virtual world, but to be fair, Annika's a rather dark character--and I mean that literally: most of her colors are muted variations on a theme, and she's got dead black skin.

(from the Champions album)

So let's talk Niamh, pulled up on a whim as more of a healer (though in Champions, healing/support characters are about as useful as wheels on a fish until around level 10 or 15). I'd say the difference is startlingly obvious, but again, I have a closer view.

(from the Champions album)

This is Niamh close up. With very, very few exceptions, all female characters look like this in Champions Online--aggressively carved lips, thin faces, hipslung dancer bodies, and--until I tracked down the individual slider controls--HUGE oven-mitts of doom for hands.

There is a setting, once in the official game, where the cel-shading can be turned off, which helps the game look better by about 7.5%. In other words, it's not a huge gain, but seriously, every little bit helps.

The problem? This is our alternative. DCUO interests me not at all. Marvel (either the kid-safe versions they have now, or the upcoming Marvel MMO) doesn't pique even random curiosity. Secret World I might be interested in, save that I'd be the only one in the house playing it. No sale.

No, unfortunately, it's City of Heroes, or Champions. And City of Heroes leaves in November, and Champions...is just a terrible, ugly, abortively crippled game. But that's my lot.

Things aren't looking good from here, frankly.

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.

if I could would I remain, another life or another dream

[NPC] Praetor Duncan: We'll be carting Diabolique off now. Say goodbye to your friends, Tammy.
[Caption] ArE yoU fooLiSH eNOuGH
[Caption] tO thInK I aM
[Caption] stIlL limiTED in mY
[Caption] feaSTing to JuST the
[Caption] guiLTY outSIdE of mY
[Caption] doMAIN aLLoW me tO
[Caption] demOnSTRATE my grOWing PoWER
[NPC] Praetor Duncan: What?!

Okay, this goes a bit into the City of Heroes end-game; but at this point spoilers don't much matter. If you're not already a player, I'm not even sure you can make new accounts, frankly. But I did think that this was a really interesting way to deal with a high-level, world-changing boss.

Unfortunately, it turns out I have no images of this specific event, and I don't know if I'm going to be going through the Dark Astoria arc again before the end of the game. Things are still really off-balance in City of Heroes, in a lot of different ways. But I'll take a stab at explaining.

Mot is the biggest bad in City of Heroes--literally. He's designed to be the very worst, most dangerous, most threatening thing in the game for heroes and villains both. This is Mot--or, more precisely, Mot's dead-but-still-present, reality-affecting, disturbingly-preserved corpse.

Why is it disturbing? Two reasons:

1. Mot is insane. And
2. Mot still talks to you.

And when he--or it--talks, it's in this strangely capitalized, dark-red-on-bright-red staggered text across the screen, and in [NPC] dialog in your chat box, an example of which starts this entry off.

And this starts happening on nearly the very first Dark Astoria arc in the series, and continues all the way to the end--Mot communicates with you, feeding you misinformation, idle threats, morbid asides and outright insanity through every mission that follows. It's unnerving, it's disturbing, and it's really well done.

[Help] Dark-ling: ((Is anyone interested in RPing Daft Punk with me? I think we could do it with the costume options!))
[Help] Shadow Judge Mehio: I am more into ERP myself
[Help] Dark-ling: ((I would ERP with both of Daft Punk....
[Help] Kommando Kobold: "I don't listen to hip hop."

This came out of the blue a couple weeks back, when I first started coding this entry up for publishing. I get the whole star-struck thing, I even get that people have fantasies about having sex with rock stars, but...seriously. Erotic roleplay where one person's pretending to be a supervillian and asking another person--or people--to roleplay...what? DJs in masks? Actual musical robots? I mean, what's the base story here? Does she even know?

[Help] Shadow Judge Mehio: ((it would have to be damn good sorta story based erp I ma not that easy))

[Help] Doctor Rhinoceros: (Yeah, could we -not- discuss erotic roleplay in a public channel?
[Help] Doctor Rhinoceros: (Please?)
[Help] Doctor Rhinoceros: (I mean goddamn.)
[Help] Doctor Rhinoceros: (This -is- still subject to the Terms of Service, right?)

He's got a point. Sure, if there's a special group strictly for ERP (and I'm sure there were, though I never bothered to find out one way or the other), it would be allowed there. But in help chat? Help chat is NOT the place for erotic discussion, even were everyone guaranteed on City of Heroes to be over the age of majority in their countries.

[Help] Accalon: You should have heard the riveting Statesman/Recluse slash fiction people used to shout in Pocket D back in the day.
[Help] Doctor Rhinoceros: (Thank heavens that isn't happening, but I would've called them out on that shit too.)

Yeah, because wau. Now, there are slips--bits of wandering RP that people send into main chat in their zone when they intended to send them privately--but we've seen that all the time on SL, it's no big deal.

Still, if it was pretty obvious that it wasn't a wrong window situation? Yeah, that's just not good, either.

[Help] Doctor Rhinoceros: (Oh. Sorry. -stuff-. But we have a censor, anyway.)
[Help] Emperor Harkur I: I don't
[Help] Literal Lass: Not all of us run with a censor.

There's a click option to remove yourself from censored chat. You can have it off, or on, about all it does is remove curse words and replace them with random symbols.

[Help] Final Outrage: irony is pulling out "terms of service" on someone then violating them by cussing P:
[Help] Lord Ironbeef: Putting ERP in public channels is almost just as bad as publicly reading the numerous "50 Shades" books in a public place.

Well...no. Putting ERP in public channels is tacky, and possibly offensive, depending on the level of description. Reading "50 Shades of Gray" in a public place simply means you suck at comprehension, literacy, and life.

[Help] Firefox Pooka: The unfortunate truth is that ERP has such a bad reputation because of a few bad apples on both sides of the fence. I'm not against it. But, I do agree, it does not belong in a public channel.
[Help] Hexamancer: A few bad apples? lolololololololol

Bad RP is bad RP is bad RP, it's everywhere.

[Help] Canyon digger: what about chaging topic entirely ? I see weather is pretty nice here

There isn't any weather in City of Heroes...oh. Right. Yeah, it's pretty nice.

I can't be the thing I was before

So, before all the drama regarding City of Heroes, remember the Marketplace JIRA? Yep. Still not fixed.

From Amadeus Beattie:

i have now had this issue for over 4 months and i think been very patient... my sales have decreased by over 60% since the bug started and the amount of customer support messages i get from clients is taking too much time to answer... i still have over 30 products with wrong images or products getting unlisted by itself

This issue was first entered into the JIRA at the end of March. It's now the beginning of September. It's been over six months that the merchants of Second Life have been struggling with this issue.

Let me repeat that, because it sounds vaguely important: For over six months, Second Life merchants have been affected by a Marketplace coding issue that has resulted in, at least, a 40% loss of total sales (for those merchants who haven't noticed a 60% drop in total sales).

You'd think that Linden Lab would care a bit more about these sales, because it's not just folks creating little art projects and sending them off, gratis, into the wide cold world. These are the people who own sims (that are now selling them or giving them back to the Lindens because they can't afford sim rentals while losing so much in sales). These are the people who widely advertise in in-world Search and on the Marketplace itself (activities which, in some cases, also stop cold when the merchant realizes just how much they're losing). These are the people who buy items from other merchants to decorate those stores (which they're now closing when they add up the numbers), or buy props and poses for product pictures (which they won't need once the businesses close).

When we toss a pebble into a pond, there's a ripple effect. We see where the pebble landed in the pond, and we can watch the rings expand and subside. The problem is, this isn't a pebble. This is a goddamn meteorite from space landing on fire in the Pacific ocean and causing tsunami devastation when the water reaches shore. Or, to switch metaphors, this is not a papercut, it's a sucking chest wound.

Speaking of the ripple effect...a couple days back, UStream struck a deal with WorldCon to broadcast the Hugo speeches live. In the middle of Neil Gaiman's acceptance speech for his episode of Doctor Who--"The Doctor's Wife"--the feed went dead. Why? Because the animated copyright service Vobile had detected copyrighted material being used in the broadcast.

What's so shocking about this is not that the feed went down--technical glitches happen, things go buggy, it's sad, but it's a fact of net life now and again. No, the true tragedy here is that it wasn't a glitch. During an awards speech by a very famous author, regarding a very famous property, wherein clips from Doctor Who and other shows were shown--which WorldCon had specific rights to broadcast granted by the companies who actually own those copyrights...automated infringement detectors went off and removed the feed.

And UStream, at that point (and in my mind, even more shockingly), never restored the feed.

Let me say that again, because it's key to why this is such an outrage:

UStream had crippled their own internal broadcast service by using Vobile in such a way that they--who also had full legal rights to broadcast this stream live--could not restore it.

Does that scare anyone? UStream paid Vobile to do their work for them, in a sense, but because they'd struck that deal, they abrogated their own rights to clear the killcode and then go on with the broadcast.

Brave new world, people. It only gets worse from here.