Wow, one of my first MMO's that I truely was "addicted" too back in 2004... even though I havent played it in about 5 years, its sad to see it go. End of an era...
I enjoy undercutting people in the market place - it's the only PvP a crafter gets.
I am really getting fed up of MMOs now. first SWG, and now this.
I certainly will not be getting in to Guild Wars 2 now or any other NCsoft game. I am sure with the revenue from GW2, they could have kept COH going.
Companies these days just milk you for all your money, and then take it all away with a shut down / major change etc.
The last year has been just bad news after bad news - SWG closing, EQOA closing, SWTOR being a failure (as a MMO), SOE porting europeans off to a crappy company called ProSeiben that are actually far worse than SOE, now this.
This is known as robing Peter to pay Paul. This mentality bankrupts companies. If COH is not profitable, It needs to be made profitable, sold off, or shut down.
I am really getting fed up of MMOs now. first SWG, and now this.
I certainly will not be getting in to Guild Wars 2 now or any other NCsoft game. I am sure with the revenue from GW2, they could have kept COH going.
Companies these days just milk you for all your money, and then take it all away with a shut down / major change etc.
The last year has been just bad news after bad news - SWG closing, EQOA closing, SWTOR being a failure (as a MMO), SOE porting europeans off to a crappy company called ProSeiben that are actually far worse than SOE, now this.
This is known as robing Peter to pay Paul. This mentality bankrupts companies. If COH is not profitable, It needs to be made profitable, sold off, or shut down.
It is how SOE rolls, and how it has managd to keep their low populated MMOs like Vanguard alive, despiie it only having 2 servers and both dead
CoH needs to only be shut down if all their games combined are not profitable.
Why now bother getting into GW2, when that could end up getting shut down too? It all seems a waste of time to me, especially when there are a tonne of players online still. Not shutting down CoH, encourages more to play GW2.
Profitablity seems to be lately from a wide range of needed subs. Vanguard has 2 dead servers and has been P2P for over 5 years. SWTOR has 200 servers, has about 500k subs, and is now struggling to remain profitable, as needs 500k subs to break even, so now goes F2P within its first year.
Chances are that someone offered to buy Paragon Studios for a large sum of money.
In Neighbours, Andrew and Tash created a gambling app called Odds on (which tells you if you have a chance of winning), which they then put out for people to buy. Sales were slow, and then a gambling company wanted to buy it off them for $25,000 and then they upped the price to $50,000. The reason it sems for them doing this is so that they can bury the app, as it would lose them profits, if people do not gamble so much.
City of Heroes could still be profitable currently, but another company buys them out for more money than they rekon they will make for its future, or something like that anyway.
Something happned that made them suddenly do this, asthe game was ticking along nicely, with updates planned and still happening, and there was no pause in development.
It reminds me of SWGs shut down, and got shut down as LA asked for the IP fee again, when apparently they waived it for the past few years so they could get some money from the game. No IP fee = revenue from subs and TCG. IP fee = SOE shutting down SWG as not able to pay fee and no revnue from tha game at all. With SWTOR coming along with its millions of players, they knew they would get the IP fee from EA, and also probably thought it not fair EA paying and SOE not. SOE could not afford the fee, so SWG got shut down.
With SWTOR now losing all those subs, will LA ask EA for the IP fee again, or will they waive it like they did with SWG? If the IP fee is taken into consideration with the 500K subs needed, then EA may not have the money to pay for it, and SWTOR gets shut down too. If LA waive the fee, then SWTOR may carry on.
Which then also leads to another possibility - NCsoft thinks that GW2 is geting enough money and people, they feel that CoH is not worth the bother in manpower, but if later drops off like SWTOR, then they will get in the same hot water as EA/LA is in now.
I played CoH from Beta until about a year ago when I quit because I couldn't stand the incarnate system. Its rather ironic that a friend of mine just pulled me back into the game a week ago. The first thing that struck me was how dead this game was. Servers were ghost towns. Even the "high" pop servers were a shell of what they once were.
If you want to be angry at NC Soft for HOW they dropped the shut down on its players, this is a valid complaint. But if your argument is that they're shutting it down, you have no argument.
Why should a company continue to run a game that isn't making money?
If you want to be angry at NC Soft for HOW they dropped the shut down on its players, this is a valid complaint. But if your argument is that they're shutting it down, you have no argument.
Why should a company continue to run a game that isn't making money?
But is it not making money? That is the point . The only argument we have is that it is shutting down. It not making money is just pure speculation. Also they only need to give 1 months notice, so HOW they dropped the shut down, is pretty much acceptable, as will have longer than 1 month, so no need for argument there either. So the only argument is the WHY, as without fully understanding why it shut down, it is just all frustrating.
All they have said is it is being closed "In a realignment of company focus and publishing support" It could be down to licences being renewed between Cryptic/Perfect and NCsoft. The companies have gone through so many changes, that now licences may be beyond renewing.
Usually when a MMO stops making money they slow right down on updates to non existent, and you go for 6 months or so without seeing any updates, and then comes the shutdown announcement, and people still play as the game has plenty of content to still keep you amused. This was not the case with CoH, updates were still coming, and there was more updates to come.
Have you seen their books and see them losing money?
Companies are showing lately that they shut down MMOs even if it is making money. Just that it is not making enough, or get offered a windfall that will be guaranteed vs a risky future.
SWG was making money, at time of closure, as LA waived the IP fee, but with the IP fee it would not have done.
SWG was shut down due to LAs decision, that they wanted more money.
First MMO I played where I actually enjoyed only doing PvE due to how fun the combat was and team oriented gameplay. However the end-game was weak so this shut-down was long overdue.
Too bad there is no other Super Hero game to take the reins. Champions Online and DCU are garbage and Marvel MMO seems way off still...
First MMO I played where I actually enjoyed only doing PvE due to how fun the combat was and team oriented gameplay. However the end-game was weak so this shut-down was long overdue.
Too bad there is no other Super Hero game to take the reins. Champions Online and DCU are garbage and Marvel MMO seems way off still...
Sadly the Marvel MMO doesnt look much better. from what ive been reading they will be forcing us to play as pre existing Sup's
Because i can. I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out. Logic every gamers worst enemy.
If you want to be angry at NC Soft for HOW they dropped the shut down on its players, this is a valid complaint. But if your argument is that they're shutting it down, you have no argument.
Why should a company continue to run a game that isn't making money?
But is it not making money? That is the point . The only argument we have is that it is shutting down. It not making money is just pure speculation. Also they only need to give 1 months notice, so HOW they dropped the shut down, is pretty much acceptable, as will have longer than 1 month, so no need for argument there either. So the only argument is the WHY, as without fully understanding why it shut down, it is just all frustrating.
All they have said is it is being closed "In a realignment of company focus and publishing support" It could be down to licences being renewed between Cryptic/Perfect and NCsoft. The companies have gone through so many changes, that now licences may be beyond renewing.
Usually when a MMO stops making money they slow right down on updates to non existent, and you go for 6 months or so without seeing any updates, and then comes the shutdown announcement, and people still play as the game has plenty of content to still keep you amused. This was not the case with CoH, updates were still coming, and there was more updates to come.
Have you seen their books and see them losing money?
Companies are showing lately that they shut down MMOs even if it is making money. Just that it is not making enough, or get offered a windfall that will be guaranteed vs a risky future.
SWG was making money, at time of closure, as LA waived the IP fee, but with the IP fee it would not have done.
SWG was shut down due to LAs decision, that they wanted more money.
No, I think what the point is, the cold fact of what this all boils down to.
What NCSoft wants is not what you want.
For what its worth, I had some find memories of my Fire/Fire tank and my Energy/Invul tank. At least before the CoV balance patch. That killed the game for me. The nerf bat hit so hard, it knocked the fun out of the game.
Yeah this is sad news. CoX was on my top 5 MMO list. Played from beta till WAR. Great character creator, travel powers, combat, and community. It even made PUGs fun. I made some real life friends there, and will always remember some really great times with it.
The game had a good run, but looking at most of the post here there is a common theme. Most are saying "It was a great game but I don't play it anymore", so I guess we shouldn't be too suprised.
Farwell Crimson Mystic, and the Angry Angels of Virtue.
Sad to see you go CoH. This was my first MMORPG and had a lot of fun playing it.
It's also one of the last group focused mmorpg's out there.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. -- Herman Melville
Very sad I just recently hopped back in for a bit to play this game again. I had a level 50 all ready to go. Hadn't played him in a few years. I hopped back in and man I had a ton to learn. They could of done a better job in regards to that.
Ahwell, I guess F2P isn't the holy saviour that its talked up to be.
If you want to be angry at NC Soft for HOW they dropped the shut down on its players, this is a valid complaint. But if your argument is that they're shutting it down, you have no argument.
Why should a company continue to run a game that isn't making money?
But is it not making money? That is the point . The only argument we have is that it is shutting down. It not making money is just pure speculation. Also they only need to give 1 months notice, so HOW they dropped the shut down, is pretty much acceptable, as will have longer than 1 month, so no need for argument there either. So the only argument is the WHY, as without fully understanding why it shut down, it is just all frustrating.
All they have said is it is being closed "In a realignment of company focus and publishing support" It could be down to licences being renewed between Cryptic/Perfect and NCsoft. The companies have gone through so many changes, that now licences may be beyond renewing.
Usually when a MMO stops making money they slow right down on updates to non existent, and you go for 6 months or so without seeing any updates, and then comes the shutdown announcement, and people still play as the game has plenty of content to still keep you amused. This was not the case with CoH, updates were still coming, and there was more updates to come.
Have you seen their books and see them losing money?
Companies are showing lately that they shut down MMOs even if it is making money. Just that it is not making enough, or get offered a windfall that will be guaranteed vs a risky future.
SWG was making money, at time of closure, as LA waived the IP fee, but with the IP fee it would not have done.
SWG was shut down due to LAs decision, that they wanted more money.
No, I think what the point is, the cold fact of what this all boils down to.
What NCSoft wants is not what you want.
What I want is there to be cold facts, but there is not. If it is down to the reason that they were not making money on it then fair enough, but no one know, and we are all left speculating, and trying to put people down with their opinions as cold facts.
"I'm a long time CoH Vet, but the announcement doesn't completely shock me, especially with Cryptic/Perfect World (not Atari, as they sold Cryptic months ago) owning the engine CoH used (Cryptic only sold the City of Heroes I.P. to NCSoft, the engine was licensed to NCSoft), and the license supposedly coming up for renewal at the 5 year mark (of which it now is).
Rumors that Perfect World might have upped the fee enough that NCSoft (which lost $6 million in revenue last quarter, down to $130 million) might have felt the fee was just too high, sound right. No official word on that, however. Many at Paragon seem surprised by the move (I had two friends there) as they really were working on new content to release soon.
Alas, no more. Development has ceased 100%, and the studio is gone like** that**-- some 80+ people now laid off."
which is exactly what was said about SWG.
The cold fact is there is no cold facts about the situation, and we are all just speculating, and people like you seem to enjoy antagonising fans of a closed game, with what you THINK is the reason. That is what I do NOT want. I got that plenty with SWG, and do not want to go through it all again.
So what I want is cold hard facts and no speculating. Is that what you thought I wanted?
Originally posted by madazz Ahwell, I guess F2P isn't the holy saviour that its talked up to be.
Aye, F2P is a gamble for some games, it all depends on what F2P model they're using and I liked CoH's F2P model, SWTOR's F2P model is going to be terrible because of the lame restrictions and it obviously won't save SWTOR after the amount spent on it ($300-500 mil).
But most posters in this thread are right, CoH felt dead the last time I logged in, my outfit (Repeat Offenders) seems to have the same 4 or 5 active players everyday when 3 or so years ago we had 15-20 different members everyday.
This is the only superhero game I like, I don't like CO or DCU.
I am not really surprised, the game have lost a lot of players the last few years and it didnt exactly age with grace either.
Still, really sad for the players still around, it was a good game when it came out (even though I just played it a little, I realized that superhero MMOs just aint my thing).
As possibly one of the most adamant supporters of CoH here on mmorpg.com, I'm truly dying on the inside. The game has been a part of my life for 8 years now and sadly, I still haven't seen it all (I am working on a bucket list). The forums are in a sad state of shock, diasppointment, anger, (false) hope, and resignation.
City Of Heroes is an mmo truly unlike any other and it polarized people.
It has superheroes;
it has heavy instancing;
it encourages alts over mains;
it's mostly PvE;
it has one of the most robust costume/character creators ever;
it isn't itemized in the traditional sense;
crafting is stricly optional
marketing is strictly optional
it has the greatest team-up system of any mmo (super-sidekicking!)
it has flight
it has physics
it doesn't rely on the holy trinity
it emphasizes story with a tight lore
it has an amazing community and the best relationship between developers and that community
For those who loved the game, they really loved it. It will be a shame when City of Heroes shuts down and I don't expect I will play another mmo again when the plug is pulled. It has been an amazing 8 years and I will be there at the end.
As possibly one of the most adamant supporters of CoH here on mmorpg.com, I'm truly dying on the inside. The game has been a part of my life for 8 years now and sadly, I still haven't seen it all (I am working on a bucket list). The forums are in a sad state of shock, diasppointment, anger, (false) hope, and resignation.
City Of Heroes is an mmo truly unlike any other and it polarized people.
It has superheroes;
it has heavy instancing;
it encourages alts over mains;
it's mostly PvE;
it has one of the most robust costume/character creators ever;
it isn't itemized in the traditional sense;
crafting is stricly optional
marketing is strictly optional
it has the greatest team-up system of any mmo (super-sidekicking!)
it has flight
it has physics
it doesn't rely on the holy trinity
it emphasizes story with a tight lore
it has an amazing community and the best relationship between developers and that community
For those who loved the game, they really loved it. It will be a shame when City of Heroes shuts down and I don't expect I will play another mmo again when the plug is pulled. It has been an amazing 8 years and I will be there at the end.
I understand many people loved this game. Heck I even sunk 180 hours into it in the summer of 2010. The fact remains however, just as in nature, only the strong survive. In this case we have to add profitablity to Darwins theory too. It's not a good idea to put all your emotional eggs in one basket. One thing that always killed me in CoH was the rooting effect in combat. Thankfully, GW2 has made that a thing of the past. EIther way, you won't quit mmos. These addictive games are in our blood and you can't and won't give them up!
As possibly one of the most adamant supporters of CoH here on mmorpg.com, I'm truly dying on the inside. The game has been a part of my life for 8 years now and sadly, I still haven't seen it all (I am working on a bucket list). The forums are in a sad state of shock, diasppointment, anger, (false) hope, and resignation.
City Of Heroes is an mmo truly unlike any other and it polarized people.
It has superheroes;
it has heavy instancing;
it encourages alts over mains;
it's mostly PvE;
it has one of the most robust costume/character creators ever;
it isn't itemized in the traditional sense;
crafting is stricly optional
marketing is strictly optional
it has the greatest team-up system of any mmo (super-sidekicking!)
it has flight
it has physics
it doesn't rely on the holy trinity
it emphasizes story with a tight lore
it has an amazing community and the best relationship between developers and that community
For those who loved the game, they really loved it. It will be a shame when City of Heroes shuts down and I don't expect I will play another mmo again when the plug is pulled. It has been an amazing 8 years and I will be there at the end.
I understand many people loved this game. Heck I even sunk 180 hours into it in the summer of 2010. The fact remains however, just as in nature, only the strong survive. In this case we have to add profitablity to Darwins theory too. It's not a good idea to put all your emotional eggs in one basket. One thing that always killed me in CoH was the rooting effect in combat. Thankfully, GW2 has made that a thing of the past. EIther way, you won't quit mmos. These addictive games are in our blood and you can't and won't give them up!
Originally posted by therain93 As possibly one of the most adamant supporters of CoH here on mmorpg.com, I'm truly dying on the inside. The game has been a part of my life for 8 years now and sadly, I still haven't seen it all (I am working on a bucket list). The forums are in a sad state of shock, diasppointment, anger, (false) hope, and resignation. City Of Heroes is an mmo truly unlike any other and it polarized people. It has superheroes; it has heavy instancing; it encourages alts over mains; it's mostly PvE; it has one of the most robust costume/character creators ever; it isn't itemized in the traditional sense; crafting is stricly optional marketing is strictly optional it has the greatest team-up system of any mmo (super-sidekicking!) it has flight it has physics it doesn't rely on the holy trinity it emphasizes story with a tight lore it has an amazing community and the best relationship between developers and that community For those who loved the game, they really loved it. It will be a shame when City of Heroes shuts down and I don't expect I will play another mmo again when the plug is pulled. It has been an amazing 8 years and I will be there at the end.
I feel like for all its strengths, Cryptic / NCSoft never really understood the CoH players. Every big new development they thought would bring a brand new base (PvP, Architect, the Incarnate tiers) ended up being very hard to absorb. Even the Invention System, which was actually ingenious in several ways, was also pretty inscrutable for a casual user trying to get into IOs.
What I loved about CoH was the inherent complexity. How dramatically different ATs and powersets within one could be. How teams could function without the holy trinity, often better than with it. How open-ended the concept of enhancements was.
And yet, those same things can make mass adoption quite difficult. As limiting as "the trinity" may be, it does make automated team building quite easy. And it's a lot easier to figure out a +5dps weapon is an upgrade, than a piece of a set that gives 5 bonuses all different than the 5 you currently have. Not all MMO audiences want to run HeroBuilder on the side. (I like to optimize, but doing so can take away from actual play.)
I think the lesson from CoH's success is that designers shouldn't be afraid to be different. It's OK to scale challenges to team size. Maybe there are more options than heal/tank/dps. And if you want players to love the game, let them build characters they love starting with the look.
But let's also learn from City's demise. MMOs are social networks, and it should be a continual goal to make interaction easy and fun. When populations are split up and teaming requires an hour of broadcasting and /tell begging, you're hurting what's right by attaching all this work to it.
I just tried DCUO for the first time this summer, and although it's a much more simplistic game in a lot of ways, I'm impressed at how the complexities have been pushed back to subtleties to take a lot of the confusion and busywork out. And (not surprising given its development history) I can see a lot of CoH influence in it. Not to suggest that DC would be a substitute to homeless CoH players - nothing will. But I am happy to see that some things - like the concept of a Controller alongside the classic trinity - are going to live on.
Comments
It's third strike with NCSoft for me. Auto Assault, ExTeel, and now CoX. I never got into Tab....but I feel for the folks with that one.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
I enjoy undercutting people in the market place - it's the only PvP a crafter gets.
This is known as robing Peter to pay Paul. This mentality bankrupts companies. If COH is not profitable, It needs to be made profitable, sold off, or shut down.
It is how SOE rolls, and how it has managd to keep their low populated MMOs like Vanguard alive, despiie it only having 2 servers and both dead
CoH needs to only be shut down if all their games combined are not profitable.
Why now bother getting into GW2, when that could end up getting shut down too? It all seems a waste of time to me, especially when there are a tonne of players online still. Not shutting down CoH, encourages more to play GW2.
Profitablity seems to be lately from a wide range of needed subs. Vanguard has 2 dead servers and has been P2P for over 5 years. SWTOR has 200 servers, has about 500k subs, and is now struggling to remain profitable, as needs 500k subs to break even, so now goes F2P within its first year.
Chances are that someone offered to buy Paragon Studios for a large sum of money.
In Neighbours, Andrew and Tash created a gambling app called Odds on (which tells you if you have a chance of winning), which they then put out for people to buy. Sales were slow, and then a gambling company wanted to buy it off them for $25,000 and then they upped the price to $50,000. The reason it sems for them doing this is so that they can bury the app, as it would lose them profits, if people do not gamble so much.
City of Heroes could still be profitable currently, but another company buys them out for more money than they rekon they will make for its future, or something like that anyway.
Something happned that made them suddenly do this, asthe game was ticking along nicely, with updates planned and still happening, and there was no pause in development.
It reminds me of SWGs shut down, and got shut down as LA asked for the IP fee again, when apparently they waived it for the past few years so they could get some money from the game. No IP fee = revenue from subs and TCG. IP fee = SOE shutting down SWG as not able to pay fee and no revnue from tha game at all. With SWTOR coming along with its millions of players, they knew they would get the IP fee from EA, and also probably thought it not fair EA paying and SOE not. SOE could not afford the fee, so SWG got shut down.
With SWTOR now losing all those subs, will LA ask EA for the IP fee again, or will they waive it like they did with SWG? If the IP fee is taken into consideration with the 500K subs needed, then EA may not have the money to pay for it, and SWTOR gets shut down too. If LA waive the fee, then SWTOR may carry on.
Which then also leads to another possibility - NCsoft thinks that GW2 is geting enough money and people, they feel that CoH is not worth the bother in manpower, but if later drops off like SWTOR, then they will get in the same hot water as EA/LA is in now.
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
I played CoH from Beta until about a year ago when I quit because I couldn't stand the incarnate system. Its rather ironic that a friend of mine just pulled me back into the game a week ago. The first thing that struck me was how dead this game was. Servers were ghost towns. Even the "high" pop servers were a shell of what they once were.
If you want to be angry at NC Soft for HOW they dropped the shut down on its players, this is a valid complaint. But if your argument is that they're shutting it down, you have no argument.
Why should a company continue to run a game that isn't making money?
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
But is it not making money? That is the point . The only argument we have is that it is shutting down. It not making money is just pure speculation. Also they only need to give 1 months notice, so HOW they dropped the shut down, is pretty much acceptable, as will have longer than 1 month, so no need for argument there either. So the only argument is the WHY, as without fully understanding why it shut down, it is just all frustrating.
All they have said is it is being closed "In a realignment of company focus and publishing support" It could be down to licences being renewed between Cryptic/Perfect and NCsoft. The companies have gone through so many changes, that now licences may be beyond renewing.
Usually when a MMO stops making money they slow right down on updates to non existent, and you go for 6 months or so without seeing any updates, and then comes the shutdown announcement, and people still play as the game has plenty of content to still keep you amused. This was not the case with CoH, updates were still coming, and there was more updates to come.
Have you seen their books and see them losing money?
Companies are showing lately that they shut down MMOs even if it is making money. Just that it is not making enough, or get offered a windfall that will be guaranteed vs a risky future.
SWG was making money, at time of closure, as LA waived the IP fee, but with the IP fee it would not have done.
SWG was shut down due to LAs decision, that they wanted more money.
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
First MMO I played where I actually enjoyed only doing PvE due to how fun the combat was and team oriented gameplay. However the end-game was weak so this shut-down was long overdue.
Too bad there is no other Super Hero game to take the reins. Champions Online and DCU are garbage and Marvel MMO seems way off still...
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Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
Sadly the Marvel MMO doesnt look much better. from what ive been reading they will be forcing us to play as pre existing Sup's
Because i can.
I'm Hopeful For Every Game, Until the Fan Boys Attack My Games. Then the Knives Come Out.
Logic every gamers worst enemy.
THAT makes you feel old? I must be an ancient.
Ya since I was in the beta for UO I guess I outdate dirt.
RIP CoX. Was a fun game. Will miss it. Went back to it a few times.
No, I think what the point is, the cold fact of what this all boils down to.
What NCSoft wants is not what you want.
For what its worth, I had some find memories of my Fire/Fire tank and my Energy/Invul tank. At least before the CoV balance patch. That killed the game for me. The nerf bat hit so hard, it knocked the fun out of the game.
And here I though SOE was bad when it came to MMO shutdowns (MxO and SWG)
Yeah this is sad news. CoX was on my top 5 MMO list. Played from beta till WAR. Great character creator, travel powers, combat, and community. It even made PUGs fun. I made some real life friends there, and will always remember some really great times with it.
The game had a good run, but looking at most of the post here there is a common theme. Most are saying "It was a great game but I don't play it anymore", so I guess we shouldn't be too suprised.
Farwell Crimson Mystic, and the Angry Angels of Virtue.
Sad to see you go CoH. This was my first MMORPG and had a lot of fun playing it.
It's also one of the last group focused mmorpg's out there.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
Very sad
I just recently hopped back in for a bit to play this game again. I had a level 50 all ready to go. Hadn't played him in a few years. I hopped back in and man I had a ton to learn. They could of done a better job in regards to that.
Ahwell, I guess F2P isn't the holy saviour that its talked up to be.
What I want is there to be cold facts, but there is not. If it is down to the reason that they were not making money on it then fair enough, but no one know, and we are all left speculating, and trying to put people down with their opinions as cold facts.
On the DCUO forums one person posted this:
"I'm a long time CoH Vet, but the announcement doesn't completely shock me, especially with Cryptic/Perfect World (not Atari, as they sold Cryptic months ago) owning the engine CoH used (Cryptic only sold the City of Heroes I.P. to NCSoft, the engine was licensed to NCSoft), and the license supposedly coming up for renewal at the 5 year mark (of which it now is).
Rumors that Perfect World might have upped the fee enough that NCSoft (which lost $6 million in revenue last quarter, down to $130 million) might have felt the fee was just too high, sound right. No official word on that, however. Many at Paragon seem surprised by the move (I had two friends there) as they really were working on new content to release soon.
Alas, no more. Development has ceased 100%, and the studio is gone like** that**-- some 80+ people now laid off."
which is exactly what was said about SWG.
The cold fact is there is no cold facts about the situation, and we are all just speculating, and people like you seem to enjoy antagonising fans of a closed game, with what you THINK is the reason. That is what I do NOT want. I got that plenty with SWG, and do not want to go through it all again.
So what I want is cold hard facts and no speculating. Is that what you thought I wanted?
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012
But most posters in this thread are right, CoH felt dead the last time I logged in, my outfit (Repeat Offenders) seems to have the same 4 or 5 active players everyday when 3 or so years ago we had 15-20 different members everyday.
This is the only superhero game I like, I don't like CO or DCU.
I am not really surprised, the game have lost a lot of players the last few years and it didnt exactly age with grace either.
Still, really sad for the players still around, it was a good game when it came out (even though I just played it a little, I realized that superhero MMOs just aint my thing).
As possibly one of the most adamant supporters of CoH here on mmorpg.com, I'm truly dying on the inside. The game has been a part of my life for 8 years now and sadly, I still haven't seen it all (I am working on a bucket list). The forums are in a sad state of shock, diasppointment, anger, (false) hope, and resignation.
City Of Heroes is an mmo truly unlike any other and it polarized people.
I understand many people loved this game. Heck I even sunk 180 hours into it in the summer of 2010. The fact remains however, just as in nature, only the strong survive. In this case we have to add profitablity to Darwins theory too. It's not a good idea to put all your emotional eggs in one basket. One thing that always killed me in CoH was the rooting effect in combat. Thankfully, GW2 has made that a thing of the past. EIther way, you won't quit mmos. These addictive games are in our blood and you can't and won't give them up!
Dungeon Runners! Oh how I miss the humor in that game.
What I loved about CoH was the inherent complexity. How dramatically different ATs and powersets within one could be. How teams could function without the holy trinity, often better than with it. How open-ended the concept of enhancements was.
And yet, those same things can make mass adoption quite difficult. As limiting as "the trinity" may be, it does make automated team building quite easy. And it's a lot easier to figure out a +5dps weapon is an upgrade, than a piece of a set that gives 5 bonuses all different than the 5 you currently have. Not all MMO audiences want to run HeroBuilder on the side. (I like to optimize, but doing so can take away from actual play.)
I think the lesson from CoH's success is that designers shouldn't be afraid to be different. It's OK to scale challenges to team size. Maybe there are more options than heal/tank/dps. And if you want players to love the game, let them build characters they love starting with the look.
But let's also learn from City's demise. MMOs are social networks, and it should be a continual goal to make interaction easy and fun. When populations are split up and teaming requires an hour of broadcasting and /tell begging, you're hurting what's right by attaching all this work to it.
I just tried DCUO for the first time this summer, and although it's a much more simplistic game in a lot of ways, I'm impressed at how the complexities have been pushed back to subtleties to take a lot of the confusion and busywork out. And (not surprising given its development history) I can see a lot of CoH influence in it. Not to suggest that DC would be a substitute to homeless CoH players - nothing will. But I am happy to see that some things - like the concept of a Controller alongside the classic trinity - are going to live on.
Currently playing:
DC Universe
Planetside 2
Magic Online
Simunomics, the Massive Multiplayer Economic Simulation Game. Play for free.