Over five thousand City of Heroes players gathered together recently to send a message to NCSoft that they want to save their favorite superhero game. Called the "Unite Rally", the in-game event lasted over two hours and even featured a contest for players to costume themselves as their favorite Paragon Studios dev.

The efforts of the City of Heroes players have been spreading throughout the Internet.  Celebrities such as actor Sean Astin, actress Tara Platt, authors Neil Gaiman, Mercedes Lackey, John C. Wright, Laurell K. Hamilton, and web comic artist and illustrator John Kovalic have publicly offered their support in social media outlets.  Long-time player and best-selling author Mercedes Lackey has even offered to NCsoft CEO Taek-Jin Kim free promotion of NCsoft’s titles if City of Heroes is allowed to continue.

Grab a custom banner at the CoH Titan site.

Where were all these supporters before the closing announcement? I see petitions and all this support talk but if so many love CoH and want it to stay alive why werent you all subbing to it in the first place?

So if they manage to keep it alive I hope the server pop is flowing because of all these supporters that are so up in arms about the closing, yet im sure 97% werent even playing the game to begin with.

Originally posted by Calhoun619

Where were all these supporters before the closing announcement?

Good point... and I'm guilty in that matter as well. :I

When NCsoft announced the closing, there was a huge thread for it in the news section. You could see the same pattern, almost everyone said, how they love the game, how many years played, how great is the mechanic, and what fond memories they keep, BUT most of them didn't play it at the moment. (Myself included, I blamed the too many games vs. so little free time...)

Which is sad. I'm sure I'll be reinstall the client one last time before the end, and say goodbye to my alts, but honestly I can't picture myself as a regular CoH player again. There are many games covering my playtime already (and at least 3 more coming out which I intend to try out at least...)

Anyway, I hope the guys at Titan manage somehow to save the game for the active playerbase.

Originally posted by Calhoun619

Where were all these supporters before the closing announcement? I see petitions and all this support talk but if so many love CoH and want it to stay alive why werent you all subbing to it in the first place?

So if they manage to keep it alive I hope the server pop is flowing because of all these supporters that are so up in arms about the closing, yet im sure 97% werent even playing the game to begin with.

We were all still playing and paying and subbing, but the thing is, the game is jiust being shut down for no good reason, other than a change in business direction by NC Soft "In a realignment of company focus and publishing support"

The game was still doing good, and if the game shuts  down then  it will just make it as easy to shut down another game doing well.

If you value your MMO (any, even Guild Wars 2 which could most likely suffer the same fate next year, especailly as it is by NC soft too), and do not want it to shut down, then vote for City of Heroes to stay alive. Developers and publishers will think twice before deciding to shut down a MMO again, and will only shut down a game when it is ready to shut down.

Paragon Studios are trying to save the game too,  and it is not just players, and they even encourage players to put effort into saving City of Heroes.  If the game was not in a position to be saved,  they would not do this.

With both Paragon Studios and the players trying to save the game, there is a very strong chance the game will be saved, as  it is just a poor decision by NC Soft, and not one that has to be made

The petition can be found at here

Even if you do not play, then sign it if this closure makes you feel that whatever MMO you play, it now leaves you feeling unsecure,  which it should do. MMOs do shut down, when their time has come, but this is clearly not the case with City of Heroes.

The announcement to close City of Heroes only came about a week ago, and even when SOE went to shut down EQmac, it took them over 2 weeks to change their minds,  and that was even with Smedley saying "no" afew days after EQmac was said to close following emails and petitions.

27th Jan 2012: The closure announcement

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=182821

31st Jan 2012: John Smedleys letter to the community,

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=182907

with him saying a bunch of reasons for its closure and that he is a MAC fan, it showed no hope of the closure being aborted

But then, 2 weeks later he changed his mind:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=183280

There is still plenty of time to help save City Of Heroes (to help save the MMO you play from an unfair closure too)

The game just didnt do it for me, maybe I have outgrown superheroes but I wish all you players the best of luck.

Sux when a game you like closes down. :(

Originally posted by Calhoun619

Where were all these supporters before the closing announcement? I see petitions and all this support talk but if so many love CoH and want it to stay alive why werent you all subbing to it in the first place?

So if they manage to keep it alive I hope the server pop is flowing because of all these supporters that are so up in arms about the closing, yet im sure 97% werent even playing the game to begin with.

didnt help that everyone who was playing was PLing through mission architect instead of actually playing the game

I played this game for a while.  I thought it was repetitive and, once the luster of playing a superhero wore off, there wasn't much of a game there.

HOWEVER:  I can understand that people completely disagree with me and played this game for years.  I can understand how you feel when a part of your life for a number of years is suddenly gone.

MY OPINION:  The petitions and in-game activities will matter not one whit when the final decision is made to throw the switch.  The only thing that is going to save this game is for someone to figure out how to make money running it.

Originally posted by Skooma2

I played this game for a while.  I thought it was repetitive and, once the luster of playing a superhero wore off, there wasn't much of a game there.

 

HOWEVER:  I can understand that people completely disagree with me and played this game for years.  I can understand how you feel when a part of your life for a number of years is suddenly gone.

 

MY OPINION:  The petitions and in-game activities will matter not one whit when the final decision is made to throw the switch.  The only thing that is going to save this game is for someone to figure out how to make money running it.

Smart multi-product companies do well not to ignore public outcries regarding one of their products. This would not be the first instance a product gets saved by the public, not so much because of the petition itself but because of what it means. It's up to the company to figure out how to make it work or face the risk of losing customers and reputation. 

Personally, I hope NCsoft thinks long and hard about this one.

Perhaps "all" 5k of you can sign a contract to pay $500 a month ,for the next 2 years,to keep the game going ?

Or

Perhaps "all" 5k of you can start a kickstarter  association,collect cash in it,to buy and run the game yourselves ?

Or

Perhaps "all" 5k of you can go out and buy a whole lot of scratch off lottery tickets......and buy the game with your "sure" winnings......

OR

Buy up every antique lamp you can find ?

Or

Ask for the game to be  included in some countries next stimulus money throwaway program ?

Or

Perhaps you can bring back 8tracks,and use the "sure"  massive profits from the all the people who still like 8tracks,to fund the game ?you can probaly find about 5k people who would go out and regurarly buy the 8tracks.......

Or

Perhaps "all" 5k of you can get together and build windmills,then use the "massive and regular" power production of such to power the game,sellling off the "massive" extra power to fund the game ......

Or

Perhaps "all" 5k of you, can realize the game was beyond saving before it even went retail,and simply accept how fortunate ,how incredibly lucky ,you were that it wasnt put down far sooner.

yea, i know ,that last one is really "reaching"  :P

Oh, and try to stand back when it hits the bug zapper.

If any community can, it will be this one.

GL guys.

gl to keep it alive.

Originally posted by Calhoun619

Where were all these supporters before the closing announcement? I see petitions and all this support talk but if so many love CoH and want it to stay alive why werent you all subbing to it in the first place?

So if they manage to keep it alive I hope the server pop is flowing because of all these supporters that are so up in arms about the closing, yet im sure 97% werent even playing the game to begin with.

This!

Seriously. You can petition your rear end off. Even get a million people to sign.

In the end... all that matters to NCSoft is enough people subbing to the game to support it, maintain it, pay salary of the staff and studio and make a profit!

The game isn't profitable anymore, hence the closing down!  Case closed!

Just move on. Better for your own health. The shutting down process is set in motion and there is nothing you can do to stop it!

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Calhoun619

Where were all these supporters before the closing announcement? I see petitions and all this support talk but if so many love CoH and want it to stay alive why werent you all subbing to it in the first place?

So if they manage to keep it alive I hope the server pop is flowing because of all these supporters that are so up in arms about the closing, yet im sure 97% werent even playing the game to begin with.

We were all still playing and paying and subbing, but the thing is, the game is jiust being shut down for no good reason, other than a change in business direction by NC Soft "In a realignment of company focus and publishing support"

Actually there is empirical proof that most people was not playing the game any more and that it was the bottomfeeder in the company.

Originally posted by tawess

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Calhoun619

Where were all these supporters before the closing announcement? I see petitions and all this support talk but if so many love CoH and want it to stay alive why werent you all subbing to it in the first place?

So if they manage to keep it alive I hope the server pop is flowing because of all these supporters that are so up in arms about the closing, yet im sure 97% werent even playing the game to begin with.

We were all still playing and paying and subbing, but the thing is, the game is jiust being shut down for no good reason, other than a change in business direction by NC Soft "In a realignment of company focus and publishing support"

Actually there is empirical proof that most people was not playing the game any more and that it was the bottomfeeder in the company.

Link it then, or quit trolling. Thanks.