City of Heroes Players Make an Awesome Gesture

[Memnir]

City of Heroes is closing, and that sucks.
When the game closes it's doors - so does the studio behind it, and all it's employees will loose their jobs. This sucks more.


Players of City staged a massive in-game rally in support of the Devs. In three hours, they raised $1000 to treat the staff of Paragon Studios to diner at a restaurant they frequent as a gesture of respect and thanks on behalf of the game they all love.


Given the sudden nature of the closure announcement, and the rapid shut down of the game (only about 3 1/2 months warning from announcement to the game being shuttered forever) I think this is a really great thing for the players to have pulled off. Something nice in a bad situation.

Story Link (http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/13/city-of-heroes-fans-buy-paragon-studios-a-meal-and-proclaim-alle/)

[Galeria]

That is really awesome.

[Produktion_Malphunktion]

City of Heroes is closing, and that sucks.
When the game closes it's doors - so does the studio behind it, and all it's employees will loose their jobs. This sucks more.


Players of City staged a massive in-game rally in support of the Devs. In three hours, they raised $1000 to treat the staff of Paragon Studios to diner at a restaurant they frequent as a gesture of respect and thanks on behalf of the game they all love.


Given the sudden nature of the closure announcement, and the rapid shut down of the game (only about 3 1/2 months warning from announcement to the game being shuttered forever) I think this is a really great thing for the players to have pulled off. Something nice in a bad situation.

Story Link (http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/13/city-of-heroes-fans-buy-paragon-studios-a-meal-and-proclaim-alle/)

The last day of Looking Glass some fan had 10 cases of beer delivered to the studio. It was much appreciated. Having your beloved studio close totally sucks, both for the fans, and for the developers. I know a few of the dudes over there and they are highly talented and passionate about their game. Personally I'm a big fan of CoH. I think they did a bunch of things better than the rest of us, and I always appreciated that they...like DDO...did not readjust the game to fit in with the 800 lb Gorilla. They will be missed...but, and I know this as a former LGS guy...from the ashes of Paragon will come great things. Guys from LGS are responsible for some of the great parts of Oblivion and Skyrim, Left 4 Dead ,Half Life 2, Deus Ex, Bioshock and the list goes on and on. The same will happen to Paragon.

[LOOON375]

That's too bad. City of Hero's was the first and only massive mulitplayer online game I ever played until I found DDO. That was years ago.

I played a tank with super jump and he was level 32 when real life got in the way. Good times.

[Feihung]

CoX is closing its servers?:(


That was a fun game, it isn't surprising to hear of the players gestures to the staff...the staff worked hard for the players it seemed.


That was one of my favorite games for character customization, you couldn't beat it.

[MeliCat]

I just heard about this from a friend who doesn't play MMOs when I went out to dinner :/ Pretty sad. You would have thought they would at least sweat the asset or whatever. Once the software is developed surely they could do a wind back approach so that at least people could still play? Who is going to own the IP now? Are they just going to sit on it and do nothing? Sounds like the fanbase won't let them do that quietly though.

Sad to think of endings. Things like this make you wonder about DDO. If you ever start dropping hints about which restaurants you go to and what kinds of alcohol you like devs, we'll start to worry :D

[bmorrison]

Well frankly the only reason anyone's hear as far as why City of Heroes is Closing is becuase the publisher NcSoft "wants to focus on their titles that appeal to the asian market" City of heroes Failed Miserably when they attempted to launch it in Korea, NcSoft's home market. the development team had no clue this was coming and were starting devolpment on their 25th "issue" update with #24 just about ready to launch.

[Arnhelm]

Nice gesture by the players.

[LordPiglet]

CoH has always had a real good community. I played there for 6 years before I moved to DDO full time.

[bigolbear]

As a dev my self (not ddo) - and read 'code monkey', this kind of gesture is truly apreciated.

I remember a time I solved a particularly taxing issue for BAe and to say thanks they took me up in a fighter plane for a quick spin around the country. That is a memory I will tresure for a long time, its nice to have recognition.

As Majmalfunktion said - watch where the Devs go - software houses come and go but codemonkeys, designers and artists live on and move on to bigger and better projects.

Black isle is probly the best example in the games industry - Although black isle itself does not exist any more the individuals can now be found making headway in companies such as obsidian, bioware, and bethesda. Looking at the games produced by these companies it is easy to see clear development cycles still in place with such things as the party and npc favour systems and also references to old games such as the giant minature space hamster in masseffect.

Its a real shame about city of heroes, and real nice of the player base to do what they are doing. And I hope all the guys at COH land on their feet and continue to inovate and break the mould.

@ Maj: it warms my heart and realy... cough.. WOW's me..cough to hear your honest opionon of the big competition - 800lb gorilla indeed ;) Im happy to hear one dev at turbine come out and say how important inovation is in the sofware industry.

[Karavek]

Greetings. We are doing more then that there. I am Bentley Berkeley of the virtue server an old blaster who has spent years mentoring the new heroes who came to paragon.

Currently there is a petition you can sign. Anyone not just coh players can sign this. We would happily welcome aid from any fellow MMO gamers. Just go to paragonwiki and a link will be there to take you to the site.

A few words to all fellow MMO players about the dangerous precedent that will be set with the closing of CoH and paragon studios should it happen.

The situation is this. NC Soft the parent company had a bad business quarter and went into the red. For no reason given beyond NC soft is losing interesting in the western market, they decided to shut down paragon studios and City Of Heroes. Despite Paragon Studios being in the black, and actually having done one of its better earning periods in its entire history. The game was in the middle of a revival as the Devs where cranking out new content, power sets, and expanding the long stagnant end game in a fashion far less damaging to the over all game then our epic lvls and ED have done to DDOs population.

The games two main servers Virtue(RP) and Freedom(PowerGamers) where both regularly hitting peak population meaning more then 30,000 players on each of those servers alone.

The news came with no warning and has left us all feeling sucker punched. Even the Devs had no reason to see this coming. Paragon Studio currently is trying to negotiate with NC Soft to let them be sold to another game company. However word is, and history shows NC Soft is prone to kill off MMO rather then sale them and risk it becoming a future rival.

This is a major blow to all MMO players, as it changes the standard for stability we have had previously thanks to long running MMO like Ultima Online, EQ, and DAOC. MMOs used to give a certain sense of long term security. That even if the game shrunk to a few thousand players, at 10-15 a month from each that added up to enough to justify keeping servers open and showing your loyal players a sense of appreciation.

If the new standard is a parent company can and will shut down an MMO and its development studio as a sacrificial lamb tossed under a bus so the higher ups can avoid taking pay cuts or giving up a nice 6 figure bennies pack then what real sanity is left in us if we keep investing in games that are more truly built upon sand then stone.

I used to try and reassure friends when I got them into MMO that it was rare to close an MMO, most had lasted for years even with stagnant old content and graphics like EQ the game kept going and is loved by a solid and loyal fanbase.

Even games like old SWG which had been on life support for years only got brought down upon the arrival of the next gen SW MMO TOR.

So really why should any one ever invest in another MMO ever again when compared to a stand alone game I buy for 60 bucks and can play forever with friends networked together like the old baldurs gate or NWN games should we risk spending hundreds on a game that might vanish over night with no warning at no fault of its own or lack of players spending on it?

So I ask you all, hero and adventurer alike, make a FTP account on coh and come to virtue to hold a torch in atlas park. I do for a few hours every day and havent bothered playing any mmo actively until the end comes or is avoided. If the end comes I am quitting all MMO for good and I know many others who intend to as well.

This is a moment of potential change for the MMO industry and its era may well be coming to an end.

I would of gladly got GW2 but that to is an NC Soft product. and who knows what the next business quarter will bring. GW2 might well be one of the best looking next gen MMO to be developed in a while, but its built by a a company who looks at its game players as cards to be blown away, not saplings to be nurtured.

[Memnir]

ough black isle itself does not exist any moreActually, Interplay just revived (http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/27/3271246/black-isle-studios-is-back-in-name-only-interplay)the Black Isle Studios brand. Only problem is - it's literally just reviving the name, none of the people involved with the original BIS are returning.


To me, this sounds like Interplay trying to bank on past accomplishments and name recognition. The company is still in trouble, having sold-off Fallout and then losing the lawsuit regarding the Fallout MMO. Wizards of the Coast has said they have nothing to do with the new BIS, so no new Planescape or Balder's Gate.

While I was initially overjoyed to see the studio brought back to life - I do not expect anything to the level they created before. I could be wrong, and love to be surprised in things like this... but the cynic in me just sees Interplay hoping nostalgia for the name brings in the money.

[Karavek]

Actually, Interplay just revived (http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/27/3271246/black-isle-studios-is-back-in-name-only-interplay)the Black Isle Studios brand. Only problem is - it's literally just reviving the name, none of the people involved with the original BIS are returning.


To me, this sounds like Interplay trying to bank on past accomplishments and name recognition. The company is still in trouble, having sold-off Fallout and then losing the lawsuit regarding the Fallout MMO. Wizards of the Coast has said they have nothing to do with the new BIS, so no new Planescape or Balder's Gate.

While I was initially overjoyed to see the studio brought back to life - I do not expect anything to the level they created before. I could be wrong, and love to be surprised in things like this... but the cynic in me just sees Interplay hoping nostalgia for the name brings in the money.

Sounds alot like what went down with Atari. sad days.

[bigolbear]

nice info mem, and indeed karavk.

btw - for players of coh - if the company is giving it up its worth looking into whether or not the game is going to become abandonware - if it is thats potentialy great news, you just need to get hold of the server side code(i suspect there may be many disgrunteled devs so not too hard) and any one would legaly be albe to host a server. Code abandoened by companies moves is no longer covered by copy right, this happens if either the company chooses to no longer publish and gives up its rights or if the company goes bust.

Thats what happened with EQ1.

Theres still hope.