Boycottncsoft.com has been set up to raise awareness of NCSoft's business practices and, although it may be too late for City of Heroes players, that doesn't mean more gamers should potentially suffer.

Were you a City of Heroes Player?  Tabula Rasa?  Dungeon Runners? Exteel? Auto Assault?  They want YOUR stories, so please drop by and let them know.

Originally posted by therain93

Boycottncsoft.com has been set up to raise awareness of NCSoft's business practices and, although it may be too late for City of Heroes players, that doesn't mean more gamers should potentially suffer.

Were you a City of Heroes Player?  Tabula Rasa?  Dungeon Runners? Exteel? Auto Assault?  They want YOUR stories, so please drop by and let them know.

For the love of pete - every company has this issue. It is not only related to NCSoft. Going to boycott all of them?

Originally posted by DSWBeef
Oh for the love of. If a game isnt making money or only making enough to support itself then why wouldnt they shut it down. I love Tabula Rasa but im not on some crusade against ncsoft becuase its gone.

Originally posted by botrytis

Originally posted by therain93

Boycottncsoft.com has been set up to raise awareness of NCSoft's business practices and, although it may be too late for City of Heroes players, that doesn't mean more gamers should potentially suffer.

Were you a City of Heroes Player?  Tabula Rasa?  Dungeon Runners? Exteel? Auto Assault?  They want YOUR stories, so please drop by and let them know.

For the love of pete - every company has this issue. It is not only related to NCSoft. Going to boycott all of them?

Originally posted by GwapoJosh
It's funny when people think companies should keep a game going even if it's not making any money.. NCSOFT isn't running games for charity!

Those are really great questions -- you must be outraged then that CIty of Heroes was closed down, considering it apparently was doing better than breaking even.  Even the local Korean Financial Analysts have a hard time understanding how closing the game makes sense (http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2012/12/602_126197.html).

Aside from the odd circumstances surrounding the closing of City of Heroes, consider that it has been 15 years since Ultima Online opened -- shouldn't life after non-profitability or unsatisfactory profitability start to become a consideration for mmo communities and their publishers? 

A saying goes "the best time to have planted a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time to plant one is today".  All those NCsoft games as well as many other publishers' are gone, but if this market is going to mature, then the consumer needs to start standing up for what they want and expect.

NCsoft hasn't.
Activision has though. I miss Netstorm!

I am not bothering with NC Soft games any more, as they have a history of being unreasonable, and shut down games way more easily than any other company, which makes getting involved with them pointless as MMO are long term commitments. COH had 8 years but only 1 year in F2P, which was a waste of time, money and development. They were unreasonable with the shut down of Tabula Rasa especially with Richard Garriott and Auto Assault, and now COH which was making a profit. I think they realised their mistake from the petitions, but then stuck with their decision.

Also they did offer to sell the COH IP but it came with unreasonable demands. If  NC Soft were reasonable and sold the COH IP, then 1) COH could have lived on under a new company and 2) Would have gotten more money they desperately need and may have reduced some of the layoffs.

Still if they do go bankrupt then COH may return.

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,6267.0.html

Fifth of all, I am not giving up hope that we'll still be able to acquire City of Heroes at some point. Right now, NCsoft is suffering a massive PR black eye (gee, really?) for their unwillingness to sell or license the IP for reasonable terms. I've heard some of the terms they were demanding, and they really are unreasonable. Needless to say, claiming that they had "exhausted all efforts" was disingenuous at best. People have been taking to their Facebook, Twitter, and other public pages to let the larger gaming community know what's going on. While I'm not directly leading those efforts, as a gamer myself, I have been encouraging people to share how they feel to other communities so that even if City of Heroes can't be saved, it gives game publishers a heavy dose of reality to chew on.

And speaking of NCsoft, they're not doing so well right now. Their stock price is currently down to 169,000 KRW. The 52-week low? That's right, 169,000 KRW. They are a whopping 52.5% off their 52-week high and have been consistently falling almost since the closure of City of Heroes was announced. While I don't think that investors care so much about City of Heroes specifically, I do think that they are taking note that it represents NCsoft's floundering presence in the North American market. While Guild Wars 2 launched to much fanfare, I honestly don't think it will be the stable long-term source of income that City of Heroes was, and there is a lot of negative attention being given to Blade and Soul even before it launches.

I mention all of this because if NCsoft goes bankrupt or is sold to some kind of holding company, there's a distinct possibility that the IP and/or code base could be acquired at liquidation or fire sale price. It's definitely something that we are keeping a very close eye on and hopeful about.
 

Nope, while I've played a lot of NCSoft games, I had long since left them behind years ago before NC decided to shut them down.

No loss here, except perhaps over Lineage 1, but that was mostly nostalgia.

Originally posted by DSWBeef
Oh for the love of. If a game isnt making money or only making enough to support itself then why wouldnt they shut it down. I love Tabula Rasa but im not on some crusade against ncsoft becuase its gone.

Actually its been stated when they announced the decision that CoX was making money.

They've shut down FOUR games I played and enjoyed. Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, and now City of Heroes / Villains.

Granted I wasn't playing CoX at the time it was shut down, but I certainly was playing the others, and enjoying them quite a bit. NCSoft's business practices and obvious dislike for games from western development houses really make me worry about Carbine Studios and Wildstar.

They shut down Lineage in the west.  I wasn't playing at the time so I wasn't immediately impacted but I did play it from time to time.  I also played Dungeon Runners from time to time - that was a hilarious game that didn't take anything seriously.  Sure I wish they would offer up a way for us to keep playing, but it's their game to do with as they wish.

I'm not boycotting anything.  Well, maybe Aion now because that bard class is embarrassing to even watch.  I had to pour scalding bleach in my eyes after I saw that.  *shudder*  Seriously it didn't make it back on my hardrive after a reinstall because of that.

Originally posted by GwapoJosh
It's funny when people think companies should keep a game going even if it's not making any money.. NCSOFT isn't running games for charity!

CoH was definately in the black. They were just tired of it....or it wasn't making 'as much' as they'd like. That being said, your point is still taken - they are low down slimy bastards, i.e. a normal business.

I lost City of Heroes, a game that captured my imagination like no other. And with the death of CoH, my interest in MMOs is now at an all time low. Why would I bother buying, investing in, and playing an NCSoft ganme when I know it could all be gone tomorrow? Why would any gamer buy a game and put hours into it and money into it when they know it could get shuttered by an executive for no real reason?

All you nay-sayers who are saying that these games were losing money: A) No, this is untrue, it turns out that CoH was running a profit. NCSoft shuttered it for no real reason, or maybe to boost sales of GW2, or maybe to save Aion, nobody really knows. B) If a relatively popular game that has been around for years and years, profitable for years and years, and has even entered the collective consciousness can get the axe, then what game is next? C) Even IF a game is "not profitable" but has been around for YEARS and long ago recouped any asnd all development costs, then I have to question the competency of the company that runs that game. If NCSoft is so incompetent that they can't keep CoH running, then they are too imcompetent to run themselves as a business.

The number of games outright shuttered by NCSoft, their shady business practices, everything about that company gives me a bad taste in my mouth, and if I was an investor, I'd council others to avoid buying NCSoft and to sell whatever NCSoft they do own. If the comopany can't even keep a game in the black, like City of Heroes, open, then that company probably has deep structural problems that will one day lead to that company's failure.

We don't really know why NCSoft shuttered CoH, and that fact is a huge warning bell to me. If they can't give us real answers, if they can't even give their own shareholders real answers, then they are probably a bad company with bad governance issues.

Anyone who currently plays an NCSoft game, like Aion, GW1, GW2, etc, should see CoH as a warning that your game could be killed at any time for no reason at all.

There is no cause to have any sort of confidence in a shitty company like NCSoft.

Originally posted by Xondar123

Anyone who currently plays an NCSoft game, like Aion, GW1, GW2, etc, should see CoH as a warning that your game could be killed at any time for no reason at all.

That's true of any online game.  I've loved and played GW1 since it released and someday they will close it down.  That could be tomorrow or years from now.  That's the way online gaming is.  That doesn't mean you have to be happy about it though but don't expect the rest of us to stop gaming or stop playing NCSoft games because of it.

NC has given sub money back in the past and/or given credit to other things.  I think that is a good business gesture.

Lot of people will not agree with me. But if I were to own any or all of them games and was not making worth while money I would still run it as a pet project as long as a few people were actually logging on once and a while. That is me though I enjoy running game servers and I like to try to make people happy. Its not going to break the bank especially since half their files been leaked on the internet and we see how little req it is to maintain a server with easily 1000+ Players on it.. Its a joke at this point the costs at a datacenter with a multicore server and 32 gigs of ram is like $200 a month at most...

NCsoft is not diff then EA.

PS: If they don't want to run it I will run it for them. Zing. Now whats their excuse I'm sure they will make lots like publisher this publisher that.

Originally posted by GwapoJosh
It's funny when people think companies should keep a game going even if it's not making any money.. NCSOFT isn't running games for charity!

No, NCSoft is not running a charity, but if they can't keep a game that LONG ago recouped its development costs, and has made a profit for years and years, open (even if its some sort of no/minimal development/one or few servers/barely running for whoever is left playing,) then I question the competency and governance of the managment of that company.

It's bad business to shut down a service that still gets used and is still relatively popular, especially onme that still earns money.

It isn't about charity, it's about a strong, capable, competent company running these little worlds essentially forever. There must be a way to do it, and if NCSoft is incapable of thart, then they are a bad company.