The fight goes on...
Monday, May 27, 2013 at 9:50AM Gaming wise I've gotten back into Skyrim lately a lot. I started another few characters , each unique. But some of it is getting old. The Elder Scrolls online game can't come out fast enough.
I even tried a little bit of Fallout3. I used to play that to death -- but it now seems clunky and dated. Not as bad as Oblivion or Morrowind. Try as I might, I still can't get into Oblivion due to the interface. I can't make heads or tales out of what is set or not -- so I don't know what is going on. Listing to Elder Scrolls Off The Record podcast it sounds liike I'm missing something in not playing the games.
Picked up Gunslinger (Call of Juarez) -- cheap but fun so far. Tricky , lots of cliche's. Like the way the work stuff in to the story by having the storyteller have to work against the dime novel versions of the story and show BOTH ways the story would have played out.
Tried a little of Defiance and Champions. Neither is really pulling me in. Maybe ESO will break the MMO blight I'm suffering from now.
That being said I've come to a realization on the NCSoft actions versus City of Heroes. It hurts, but I think I see what THEY see.
They want as many BIG titles as they can in their roster. They want big numbers. Not just profitable, but something that brings in the money. World of Warcraft numbers of old are a Holy Grail as it were, and probably aren't doable because there aren't that many MMO players in existance. Or at least not enough that actually have funds.
I think that when DCUO and Champions hit the market they expected City's numbers to fall, and then they could get rid of it. But that didn't happen. To NCSoft the numbers weren't high enough to justify a sequel, but not low enough to outright cancel. I think they expected City to fade away to the point they could get rid of it easily. But City proved to be the game that would not die. It had a high equilibrium of numbers that didn't fall far enough for NCSoft to declare the party over.
Paragon Studios probably helped with that. Ultra Mode graphics and stuff made the engine less dated and the game look far better. At least to the point it could contend with more modern games. I have to wonder if NCSoft was clear on what they were doing. The end result gave the game more life.
I think the Free to Play approach was something else NCsoft probably thought was a game-ender. But there was too much that made you want to pay to play DESPITE it being free. Vet awards, new content, and other perks kept people paying and playing. How many Free To Play players came in that way and eventually started paying so they could join in on that fun? And even for those not paying, they were in the form of micro-transactions so they could get those precious costume pieces. It kept that level of profitibility high enough that it was't a superhit -- but it wasn't a failure either.
I suspect that NCSoft desired to get rid of it and try something else better suited for success. Look at their current offering. Wildstar excepted, it is ALL variations on a theme. I don't hold much hope for Wildstar. Unless it goes superhit, under NCSoft I expect it to be axed in under 3 years. Maybe even 2.
So we get to the point last year -- NCSoft finally decides to get rid of City. They can't publicly say why becaus that would show how easily they could justify the termination of ANY game. They can't sell the property because it has a history. There might be legal implications -- Remember Cryptic had owned it originally, and other companies got involved when comic books were made. And Novels. The cost of clearing everybodies hold on the property might up the cost of selling to the point it would lose them money. But selling it might mean that someone else could remake it into a superhit. A non-NCSoft City of Heroes 2 would have been a night mare for them if it got popular. Can you imagine them explaining stock holders that a new competitor is using their old product against them? So City gets an "execution" date, less than 2 paragraph of say-nothing nonsense as "explanation", and that's that. Right?
Not so. The Unity rally a week after their annoucment spawned the 33 zones of Atlas Park. in hours. Despite the somber last days of the game, people still played up to the end. I saw more people on that last day that I've not seen in years than ever before.
But now we have Heroes & Villains, The Pheonix Project, Missing World Media, Icon 5, etc. all focused on bringing together a new Super hero MMO in the likeness of City of Heroes. And it looks like they are further along than I would have thought -- going strong. We might just one or more of these things seeing the light of day. One can only hope.
Most of the people I knew in City have shown up in Champions. While not the same as City, it is the closest of the two remaining Superhero MMOs. I've seen several characters inferring City concepts quite cleverly. There is a City of heroes global channel on Champions that is ALWAYS busy with ex-City players talking away.
And if you go to social media like Twitter, check out posts involving @NCSoftGames. You'll find it MOSTLY posts by City supporters who do not support NCSoft, and still daily demand their game back or the IP released. Such steady negative publicity against NCSoft is not going to go over well indefinitely. Check out #SaveCoH #CityofHeroes #AvengeCoH and others. People aren't happy and still demand to be heard.
How long can NCSoft ignore it? They tried the MMO equivalent of a Scored Earth policy to make sure this game was history. And expected players to accept that. And that in itself is the problem. If you make these artificial worlds you are obligated to keep them running until it isn't possible. NOT until you don't feel like it. City was the game that wouldn't die -- so they tried to bury it. Alive. They've got to be confused if not appauled that it is not only still kicking in its own way, but that it is spawning NEW properties they don't control.
Eventually I expect NCSoft to speak out again. Whether that is in defense of its actions, to quell complaints and anti-NCSoft commentary, or to sue someone for use of their property, I do expect them to come out again. I expect the players to continue to revolt against them. I expect NCSoft to become less and less a big name in the business and more a pariah to be left alone and not touched at all. In essense, trying to kill City only started them down a path to their own corporate demise. At the very least I expect them to DITCH the now stained NCSoft name and come up with a new name & logo, hoping they can hide behind that mask.
I don't see anything working for them now.
