It's a shame they never went for a CoX2. They had a good core to the game and it was completely unique in the social aspect (never, ever played a game with so much teaming going on) and I think with a totally new engine, a load of extra flexibility and updated features etc, it would've been a roaring success.
Or not. It may have faced the issues that both CO and DCUO faced.
Still, yeah - each time they upgraded some of the visual aspects of the game - changed a little here or there - I was hoping that at some point we'd see CoX2.
I've no idea where I'm going to get my CoX experience out there now. It was my go to game for when I just felt like hitting something and watching it go flying...heh. Have to wonder if the world's going to get angrier without CoX...lol, meh.
I despised DCUO. From the controls on up.
CO started out OK in beta then every time they made a change to it in beta it got worse. I stayed away from it on release.
But I agree nothing else out there along the same path of CoX and will miss that.
Paragon Studios deserved better. Most games get bloated, over-developed, and over-extended as they age. CoX was one of the few that has remained on track in terms of scope and feel.
I would even say, Paragon's work has been the best efforts CoX has ever seen. Some really awesome stuff! There have been some missteps but Paragon has a good feel for what made CoX tick.
Sad to see it go. I know the community was really behind the game and the devs for the most part. Lots of love in that game.
I played from CoH Beta through till just after CoV released.
Fun game for awhile. Sad to see it go.
Still have all the Original Episode Comics they issued during the first year.
Wonder what a collector might pay for those....?
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT Playing: Skyrim Following: The Repopulation I want a Virtual World, not just a Game. ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
My heart plummeted when I saw this post roll through on the news feed.
CoH was my first MMORPG (unless you count Neverwinter Nights), and to this day it is still the standard I compare new games to. Brilliant character creation, intriguing world design, roleplay friendliness, and quite possibly a combat system that was the most fun of any MMORPG I've ever played - the utter chaos of eight super-powered characters blasting anything that moves across the screen doesn't ever get old to me.
If any Paragon Studios people are reading this (or any of the orginal Cryptic team that initially built the game), please know that your game was a work of art and I've be very happy with the years of enjoyment I had in Paragon City. You guys and gals are heroes.
I would consider NWN and TSOY as mmorpgs of their day. The problem is that the term mmorpg came after their day in the sun.
City of Heroes was perhaps my favorite mmorpg to date.
Character Creator Achievment system (badges): title with each badge some gave character bonuses exploration rewarded not just killing Scaling difficulty setting Sidekicking World Events such as the rikti invasions Travel powers are fun! Inspiration system Mobs that were the same color to level 1 to 50 characters in the same fight. Higher level ambush mobs spawning in lower level zones adding flavor Costume Contests Ability to slot powers with bonuses as you level at release Ease of both grouping without losing solo game play The community
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
I have been a paying subscriber to CoX since the game's release. I have made some great real world friends and had some amazing experiences because of this game and it's wonderful community. My wife and I have been playing together for longer than we have been married.
The developers were friendly and open to discussion and often contributed to the official forums. They kept bringing us amazing new content and had some amazing stuff just over the horizon. I am sorry to see them out of work because they treated their players like real people and not just customers.
I did not enjoy CO or DCUO and will probably not be playing any more MMOs after this. I will certainly never invest my time in another NCSoft game if it could be yanked from me at any moment. This is very sad news.
Originally posted by Aeolron Sorry to see it go but when you have games like gw2 these sub based games are in trouble, my guess is that future mmorpgs will follow in gw2 footsteps
Sorry to harsh your moment of GW2 fanboy gloat but, CoH was F2P.
You're a shining example for your peers.
CoH has been free to play model for a while. More a case of NCsoft having too many games in its stable and shuting one down.
CoH has been free to play model for a while. More a case of NCsoft having too many games in its stable and shuting one down.
In a tinfoil hat sort of way, I kind of wondered about this. Given how crowded the market is in general, are they killing off the competition by killing off their own games? What will be next to get the axe from them...?
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
CoH shutdown had more to do with the studio than with the game itself. CoH was actually pulling in more money than GW1, but I guess they wouldn't dare pull the plug on all might ANET's first-born.
Originally posted by Aeolron Sorry to see it go but when you have games like gw2 these sub based games are in trouble, my guess is that future mmorpgs will follow in gw2 footsteps
Sorry to harsh your moment of GW2 fanboy gloat but, CoH was F2P.
Thanks for the memories CoH (primarily), and CoV (some). You broke the mold of sword and sorcery and had great sucess. The combat model was amazing. Chaos was encouraged not a death sentence. You helped introduce 'mentoring' with side kicking and exemplaring. So many things done that were unique. My Storm/Dark Defender will live on in my memories.... What fun he was!
All that said, I still gotta think that it would have been possible to figure out a model where the they kept the game's lights on for a while. But then in a year or so it would be a shell of it's former self. So maybe it's best that it goes out while it's still not completely washed up. We can remember it as we loved it....
I'm just curious how it went from that to, "Hey that's it boys. Lets close up shop." Hell, even the end of the article has Matt Miller saying, "2012 is shaping up to be one of the best years for City of Heroes in terms of content and updates. And I haven’t even started talking about 2013". I guess he didn't talk about it because he knew it wasn't going to be around?
From what I have been given to understand, actually, this was out of the blue for everyone, Matt Miller included.
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what
it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience
because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in
the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you
playing an MMORPG?"
8 year vet of COH/COV will miss it a lot. they had been upgrading the story and engine a lot lately, revamping zones, adding new events. summer blockbuster event for 1 example.really getting into the swing of things. the best thing was the very casual feel of the game, could just log on chat a bit and maybe do 1 or 2 missions with PUG or solo,lots of new things in the works like bio armor.
If the reason was lack of money I can live with that, if it was because of back door dealings like engine licence issues, I can not.
tried the other two super hero games, not impressed. tried swtor,it is a fine game but i see very little repeatablilty. i have a bounty hunter and jedi stuck in the 40 range will finish when it goes totally F2P but have no desire to repeat the story arcs
i wonder what if any Gag order/nda the devs will be under st they can NOT tell us what happened,i f they know.
It's a shame they never went for a CoX2. They had a good core to the game and it was completely unique in the social aspect (never, ever played a game with so much teaming going on) and I think with a totally new engine, a load of extra flexibility and updated features etc, it would've been a roaring success.
Or not. It may have faced the issues that both CO and DCUO faced.
Still, yeah - each time they upgraded some of the visual aspects of the game - changed a little here or there - I was hoping that at some point we'd see CoX2.
I've no idea where I'm going to get my CoX experience out there now. It was my go to game for when I just felt like hitting something and watching it go flying...heh. Have to wonder if the world's going to get angrier without CoX...lol, meh.
Yeah, it could've gone wrong for sure. I think the mix of mechanics that made CoX so good was as much by accident as it was by design and it's definitely something that I haven't seen in any subsequent MMO. The fact that Cryptic managed to miss so much of what CoX got right when they did CO proves that I think. And I'm totally with you on your last paragraph, I always said that CoX's most basic pull was that you could press a button and kick a guy down some stairs. It was instant and kinetic in ways that other games haven't come close to achieving.
I didn't much like DCUO (it was fun for a couple of weeks then I just lost all interest) and CO seemed to miss so much of what CoX got right, although I still play CO regularly and have come to really love it for what it gets right. I would've loved the character building and progression from CO in a teaming and mission environment like CoX. For me CO's biggest failing is in it's missions - it's far too linear and locked into mission chains that have always worked against PUGging in every MMO they've been employed in. For character development and ongoing customisation, CO is still my go to game though and it's been improving in leaps and bounds over the last year or so. But it'll never be CoX.
If you were soloing in CoX you had the storylines and could follow them, but you could still do the missions in groups just for the sheer fun of it and didn't need to take any notice of the storylines. You didn't miss out because there were always loads at your own level and it didn't matter if you repeated them so much anyway, which was great for alting too.
And then there were the sheer number of mobs in missions. So many times in CoX I'd feel my ringpiece tighten when our group came into a room and saw it packed with mobs of all strengths. You'd buff your tanks, refresh your clickies, take a deep breath and dive in. And CoX is still the only MMO where you could pull back a fight and win it even when the whole team was redlining.
Also, you really could feel like a hero. I remember load of TFs when the team had planted except for one or two guys who, somehow, managed to stay up and save the day. When you were that guy it was the most satisfying feeling you'll ever have in an MMO. You really felt like a superhero. And even when the whole team planted, there were so many times when everyone respawned saying "man that was an awesome fight!"
When you got that one guy who came on after a team wipe with "U noobs, wtf was that!" and all that stuff, the /tells would go round the rest of the team saying stuff like "Jesus, this guy's a proper knob". It was just a different game, a different experience and it was never about getting it perfect evertime. You could take insane risks and sometimes they'd come off and when they did it made up for all the other times when they didn't. I always said that if you weren't ending every big fight with a red health bar you were playing it wrong.
It's sad to see CoX go just because, but I think it's even sadder that what CoX gave to us has never been given in any other MMO since, and probably never will be. It was a true gem and we'll not see its like again.
There will be one day that this game going to fall, however all I am worried about is not the fall of this aging mmo, but who will going to replace this famous first Superhero mmorpg game and become x4 better then what City of Heroes was by community vote.
I'm also suprised that nobody started a kickstarter to help get Paragon Studios into a different company and resurrect itself. Some Company with a nice reputation to take it under it's wing.
one more thought, a lot has been said about the amount of money wasted on the game. well first it was entertainment. second the 15.00 per month is about what it would cost for a cable channel like HBO or Showtime to be added to your account. after 8 years of either what do you have to show for it? with COX you met people, engaged in problem solving. and hopefuly had a fun time.
Originally posted by Aeolron Sorry to see it go but when you have games like gw2 these sub based games are in trouble, my guess is that future mmorpgs will follow in gw2 footsteps
Sorry to harsh your moment of GW2 fanboy gloat but, CoH was F2P.
You're a shining example for your peers.
one person does not represent a community, your last comment could easaly be directed at you just for making that sort of statement.
Its to bad CoX is getting shut down, had some real fun times playing. Sucks that the F2P model did not work for them .
I wish all the peeps at pragon studios the best, thank you for all your hard work in keeping CoX fun.
Originally posted by Teala If this proves anything, it proves that even decent free to play games can meet with the chopping block, and no game is immune.
I got this message today after not being on for a few days and I am stunned. This was my first MMO and the only one I have been playing with no break. I'm an 8 year vet and for all intents and purposes, it looked as if the game was going to be around for a while. Matt Miller himself thought so apparently. I was excited also so this announcement has really got me baffled, bummed, and just despondent. I absolutely love this game. I wasn't even interested in any other MMORPG though I tried a few. DCUO and CO...no thank you. LotRO? Eh. DDO? Awww...HECKY naw. Runescape..blech. I wasn't even interested in any other game seriously until GW2. Secret World had an interesting concept but I knew it wasn't going to be done well after much research. Same with SWtOR. Man...seriously sad about this.
This has me reevaluating MMORPGs altogether and seriously returning to the progenitor of them which is table top RPGs. One thing that will not happen with a tabletop RPG is something like this. Yes, a publisher may stop printing material for it but a game can keep going from a good fanbase for years after the game is gone and you can always go back and play the game. I wish that was the same for CoH but it won't be. The only thing I see that could save it is someone picking up the game and letting it continue. That would be fantatstic. Barring that, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed myself beyond measure and I want to thank Paragon Studios for all the fine work they did in making a good game great. God bless.
I have not play CoX for years, but it was great in it's time. It is sad news, but I guess it makes sense after so many years. It was indeed the best Super Hero MMO, and set a new standard for character creation and really made a different sort of game.
*Salut to the Freedom Phalax, the Satesman and all my former hero fellows* ^^
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Comments
I despised DCUO. From the controls on up.
CO started out OK in beta then every time they made a change to it in beta it got worse. I stayed away from it on release.
But I agree nothing else out there along the same path of CoX and will miss that.
Paragon Studios deserved better. Most games get bloated, over-developed, and over-extended as they age. CoX was one of the few that has remained on track in terms of scope and feel.
I would even say, Paragon's work has been the best efforts CoX has ever seen. Some really awesome stuff! There have been some missteps but Paragon has a good feel for what made CoX tick.
Sad to see it go. I know the community was really behind the game and the devs for the most part. Lots of love in that game.
I played from CoH Beta through till just after CoV released.
Fun game for awhile. Sad to see it go.
Still have all the Original Episode Comics they issued during the first year.
Wonder what a collector might pay for those....?
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
I would consider NWN and TSOY as mmorpgs of their day. The problem is that the term mmorpg came after their day in the sun.
City of Heroes was perhaps my favorite mmorpg to date.
Character Creator
Achievment system (badges):
title with each badge
some gave character bonuses
exploration rewarded not just killing
Scaling difficulty setting
Sidekicking
World Events such as the rikti invasions
Travel powers are fun!
Inspiration system
Mobs that were the same color to level 1 to 50 characters in the same fight.
Higher level ambush mobs spawning in lower level zones adding flavor
Costume Contests
Ability to slot powers with bonuses as you level at release
Ease of both grouping without losing solo game play
The community
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
I have been a paying subscriber to CoX since the game's release. I have made some great real world friends and had some amazing experiences because of this game and it's wonderful community. My wife and I have been playing together for longer than we have been married.
The developers were friendly and open to discussion and often contributed to the official forums. They kept bringing us amazing new content and had some amazing stuff just over the horizon. I am sorry to see them out of work because they treated their players like real people and not just customers.
I did not enjoy CO or DCUO and will probably not be playing any more MMOs after this. I will certainly never invest my time in another NCSoft game if it could be yanked from me at any moment. This is very sad news.
CoH has been free to play model for a while. More a case of NCsoft having too many games in its stable and shuting one down.
In a tinfoil hat sort of way, I kind of wondered about this. Given how crowded the market is in general, are they killing off the competition by killing off their own games? What will be next to get the axe from them...?
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
CoH shutdown had more to do with the studio than with the game itself. CoH was actually pulling in more money than GW1, but I guess they wouldn't dare pull the plug on all might ANET's first-born.
Agreed
Thanks for the memories CoH (primarily), and CoV (some). You broke the mold of sword and sorcery and had great sucess. The combat model was amazing. Chaos was encouraged not a death sentence. You helped introduce 'mentoring' with side kicking and exemplaring. So many things done that were unique. My Storm/Dark Defender will live on in my memories.... What fun he was!
All that said, I still gotta think that it would have been possible to figure out a model where the they kept the game's lights on for a while. But then in a year or so it would be a shell of it's former self. So maybe it's best that it goes out while it's still not completely washed up. We can remember it as we loved it....
From what I have been given to understand, actually, this was out of the blue for everyone, Matt Miller included.
Many of you have seen this before but it's a nice coh bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usgKxVkvjiw
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
8 year vet of COH/COV will miss it a lot. they had been upgrading the story and engine a lot lately, revamping zones, adding new events. summer blockbuster event for 1 example.really getting into the swing of things. the best thing was the very casual feel of the game, could just log on chat a bit and maybe do 1 or 2 missions with PUG or solo,lots of new things in the works like bio armor.
If the reason was lack of money I can live with that, if it was because of back door dealings like engine licence issues, I can not.
tried the other two super hero games, not impressed. tried swtor,it is a fine game but i see very little repeatablilty. i have a bounty hunter and jedi stuck in the 40 range will finish when it goes totally F2P but have no desire to repeat the story arcs
i wonder what if any Gag order/nda the devs will be under st they can NOT tell us what happened,i f they know.
Thanks! great vid
Yeah, it could've gone wrong for sure. I think the mix of mechanics that made CoX so good was as much by accident as it was by design and it's definitely something that I haven't seen in any subsequent MMO. The fact that Cryptic managed to miss so much of what CoX got right when they did CO proves that I think. And I'm totally with you on your last paragraph, I always said that CoX's most basic pull was that you could press a button and kick a guy down some stairs. It was instant and kinetic in ways that other games haven't come close to achieving.
I didn't much like DCUO (it was fun for a couple of weeks then I just lost all interest) and CO seemed to miss so much of what CoX got right, although I still play CO regularly and have come to really love it for what it gets right. I would've loved the character building and progression from CO in a teaming and mission environment like CoX. For me CO's biggest failing is in it's missions - it's far too linear and locked into mission chains that have always worked against PUGging in every MMO they've been employed in. For character development and ongoing customisation, CO is still my go to game though and it's been improving in leaps and bounds over the last year or so. But it'll never be CoX.
If you were soloing in CoX you had the storylines and could follow them, but you could still do the missions in groups just for the sheer fun of it and didn't need to take any notice of the storylines. You didn't miss out because there were always loads at your own level and it didn't matter if you repeated them so much anyway, which was great for alting too.
And then there were the sheer number of mobs in missions. So many times in CoX I'd feel my ringpiece tighten when our group came into a room and saw it packed with mobs of all strengths. You'd buff your tanks, refresh your clickies, take a deep breath and dive in. And CoX is still the only MMO where you could pull back a fight and win it even when the whole team was redlining.
Also, you really could feel like a hero. I remember load of TFs when the team had planted except for one or two guys who, somehow, managed to stay up and save the day. When you were that guy it was the most satisfying feeling you'll ever have in an MMO. You really felt like a superhero. And even when the whole team planted, there were so many times when everyone respawned saying "man that was an awesome fight!"
When you got that one guy who came on after a team wipe with "U noobs, wtf was that!" and all that stuff, the /tells would go round the rest of the team saying stuff like "Jesus, this guy's a proper knob". It was just a different game, a different experience and it was never about getting it perfect evertime. You could take insane risks and sometimes they'd come off and when they did it made up for all the other times when they didn't. I always said that if you weren't ending every big fight with a red health bar you were playing it wrong.
It's sad to see CoX go just because, but I think it's even sadder that what CoX gave to us has never been given in any other MMO since, and probably never will be. It was a true gem and we'll not see its like again.
There will be one day that this game going to fall, however all I am worried about is not the fall of this aging mmo, but who will going to replace this famous first Superhero mmorpg game and become x4 better then what City of Heroes was by community vote.
I'm also suprised that nobody started a kickstarter to help get Paragon Studios into a different company and resurrect itself. Some Company with a nice reputation to take it under it's wing.
one person does not represent a community, your last comment could easaly be directed at you just for making that sort of statement.
Its to bad CoX is getting shut down, had some real fun times playing. Sucks that the F2P model did not work for them
.
I wish all the peeps at pragon studios the best, thank you for all your hard work in keeping CoX fun.
After been banned from their forum all those years ago, now I can finally bask in my revenge!
Ahhh yes... Satisfaction!
Well World of PandaCraft comes close.
I got this message today after not being on for a few days and I am stunned. This was my first MMO and the only one I have been playing with no break. I'm an 8 year vet and for all intents and purposes, it looked as if the game was going to be around for a while. Matt Miller himself thought so apparently. I was excited also so this announcement has really got me baffled, bummed, and just despondent. I absolutely love this game. I wasn't even interested in any other MMORPG though I tried a few. DCUO and CO...no thank you. LotRO? Eh. DDO? Awww...HECKY naw. Runescape..blech. I wasn't even interested in any other game seriously until GW2. Secret World had an interesting concept but I knew it wasn't going to be done well after much research. Same with SWtOR. Man...seriously sad about this.
This has me reevaluating MMORPGs altogether and seriously returning to the progenitor of them which is table top RPGs. One thing that will not happen with a tabletop RPG is something like this. Yes, a publisher may stop printing material for it but a game can keep going from a good fanbase for years after the game is gone and you can always go back and play the game. I wish that was the same for CoH but it won't be. The only thing I see that could save it is someone picking up the game and letting it continue. That would be fantatstic. Barring that, I must say I thoroughly enjoyed myself beyond measure and I want to thank Paragon Studios for all the fine work they did in making a good game great. God bless.
CoH Supergroup: The Millennium Paladins
I have not play CoX for years, but it was great in it's time. It is sad news, but I guess it makes sense after so many years. It was indeed the best Super Hero MMO, and set a new standard for character creation and really made a different sort of game.
*Salut to the Freedom Phalax, the Satesman and all my former hero fellows* ^^
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert