Tensions In City Of Heroes Building

City Of Heroes (CoH), the MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) game that I so love, is starting to show signs of the pending demise that NCSoft announced back on August 31st. No, I am NOT saying that the game itself is no longer playable. It is still the best Super Hero game going. The problem is that as the weeks go by and the end date grows nearer I am seeing fewer and fewer people logging in and actually playing. There is also signs of people getting on each other's nerves in the game...

What is really sad is that I have been running into people who are obviously new to the game, even with the impending doom of the servers shutting down (scheduled for November 30th by all accounts.) I was in Atlas Park 33 when someone tried to get a Death From Below (DFB) trial going (a mission designed for low level character that earns them a lot of experience... I have seen characters go from 1st level to 7th in just a couple of runs.) Sadly, I was the only person who asked to join before they became discouraged by all the people who had toons (toon is a slang term for a character) standing on the stairs in front of City Hall, holding torches while the actual players was non-responsive... there are ways of keeping the game from putting you in AFK (away from keyboard) mode, which would eventually sign you out.

Circle Le Faye and some team mates fighting a Hydra Head in a DFB mission

As to people getting on each other's nerves in the game... I know I had a bit of a breakdown after the person who had tried to start the DFB run left (the last thing they said indicated that they would not be back, they were so discouraged.)

I basically announced what had happened to the CoH world at large... and got all kinds of negative feedback from the few people that were actually paying attention. They took it as if I was blaming them for not joining up on the DFB mission. WRONG! The complaint that I did make was that too few of the people that were signed in were there to play the game at all. There were the aforementioned torch holding toons, and a group in Perez Park that were holding a walk... What really is going to make a difference is keeping the chatter up OUTSIDE the game. Start up a blog, hit the forums, write letters... do things that get attention in the real world. The best thing you can do when signed into CoH to prove how much you love the game IS TO PLAY THE GAME!

Circe Le Faye

While the in world rallies have gotten the us some attention, and I do still feel there is some value in doing them, we need to take into consideration that they can also have adverse effects. I would not doubt that, if there are any negotiations still going on, that all parties involved in them may well have people signing into the game to see what is happening. If all they see is a bunch of people holding torches, few of whom are actually paying any attention to what is going on? I do not think that is going to help our cause.

One thing that has discouraged people is that Star Trek Online, developed and owned by Cryptic Studios (original developers of CoH) announced that they have hired in some of the developers that had been laid off by Paragon Studios when NCSoft dropped the bomb on CoH.

To those people I would have to say that all the efforts to save CoH were never going to save Paragon Studios. Anyone that thought we could change the minds of NCSoft were not really thinking things through. As soon as you get laid off/fired, if you are a rational person, you start looking for your next job. What we need to hope for is a buyer, someone willing to take CoH off the hands of NCSoft... and we also need to hope that NCSoft will be willing to sell.

Let us start with Cryptic Studios, the original developers of the game. They still have a page up dedicated to City Of Heroes, though it is in need of updating. As they have just hired a group of developers from Paragon Studios to work on Star Trek, they could easily be slide back over to working on CoH. Still, odds are against Cryptic buying CoH back, as that would give them two Super Hero MMOs (they designed Champions Online before selling CoH off to NCSoft. Could there be an issue with the license between Cryptic and Hero Games, though? Pipe dream that, I suppose... but I have tried playing Champions Online, and will probably switch to it once CoH is dead... but I will never PAY for it.)

That said, I really would not want to see CoH end up in anyone's hands if they would not support it properly (not that NCSoft ever did.. from the start they could have advertised it better.) Plus, I do not really know that much of any other MMO companies, as I am strictly a Super Hero MMO player. If anyone knows enough about the other companies out there that might be interested in the game, please post a comment...

In the end, I wish I had enough money of my own to give NCSoft an offer they could not refuse.



Anyone know where I can get a multi-billion dollar winning lottery ticket?