One less bastion to retreat to before we're overwhelmed by utter shit. Might as well let it collapse and see if the genre is inventive enough to dig itself out of a hole.
NC soft is offically dead.it was on life support for awhile. First motorstorm then tabula rasa now this. What a crock. Far too many good games obliterated by this company.
Out of all that has happened with MMOs lately, I have got to say this has to be one of the worst years in MMO history in my opinion.
I havent played CoX for long, but when I did I had to admit it was a fun time yet Ive not the money to invest. I was looking forward to playing it again some other time if I got bored of current MMOs but this hits..along with all of the other bad stuff going on everywhere else.
I feel like I have to blame the players. We want too much, we've been asking for too much. Before an MMO gets released we want both beta access to try it out, yet not too much that it burns us out. When the games are released we want stable servers even though we're all just appearing in one single place and putting strain on the servers. We want things to be brand new instead of rehashed, yet used certain features from other MMOs. Even MMOs that were around for a long time are subject to harsh critisism if not updated constantly with both graphics and gameplay (something which has killed most old-style MMOs for some people, a good example of a game doing this and somewhat survivng would be Runescape.)
This has been one tough year, one very tough year. And even now some of us are still just complaining we want more from MMOs when we refuse to help support what we currently got.
It's sad indeed, specially not only for the development team, but also players who have devoted so much time creating and building characters both heroes and villains... even now that's something neither DCUO nor CO allow, create your own villain... some people doesn't seem to remember, but CoH is a few months older than WoW itself, and even so it's been able to survive the WoW legions of subscribers, players and worshipers.
Let me tell you that there are some initiatives in progress, thanks to TonyV from Titan Network, who is coordinating them, as you can see here:
To sum up, there's a petition asking NCSoft to keep CoH alive, there are more petitions asking them to let the code open, and also a few Facebook pages. Our Community has been trying to get in touch even with The Guild people and The Big Bang Theory scripwriters, all hands and ideas are more than helpful.
If it works as an example, there are games that were saved after gathering 5.000 signers in 2 months... CoH has achieved more than 10.700 in only 48 hours... nuff said.
I have sworn off buying into any new MMOs at launch (AoC was the last I did this for and was the final straw for me), but I would have definitely made an exception if CoX had launch a revised and updated CoX2!
I'm not sure why this is rarely the case. Anyone remember in the "golden age" UO2 being canned and then AC2?
Add yet another notch to NCsofts headsmans axe. What is this, the 5th or 6th western game they have axed? If I was running a western dev studio, I'd not even consider NCsoft as a publisher. Their past history demonstrates that they can't be trusted.
This is sad news. CoX was the MMO I subbed to for the longest time (4+ years) and I still fire it up occasionally (it and EQ1 are the only "old" MMOs I have installed and I play CoX more).
My take from what I've heard is:
NCSoft is a primarily Korean/Asian-focused company
CoX is viewed as a US title (it has some European servers and was supposed to open in Asia but never did)
Aeon has been doing very poorly
As such, they need to recoup money from somewhere so they are killing off the still-profitable CoX in order to try saving the unprofitable Aeon.
Active: D&D Online (alpha,beta,&unlimited)
Retired: Anarchy Online, Archlord (beta), Auto Assault (beta), CoH/CoV, Dark Age of Camelot, Dungeon Runners, Elder Scrolls Online, Everquest, EVE, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online (beta,live), Pathfinder Online (beta), Rift (beta,live), Secret World (beta,live), Star Wars Old Republic, Vanguard (beta), Warhammer (beta,live), World of Warcraft
Every single sub-based MMO that has gone off-line has done so because the game failed to maintain enough subscribers to keep it going.
Most MMOs that have been shut down have been killed because they weren't profitable. Some have been killed for other reasons (sometimes just they weren't "profitable enough").
Most sub-based MMOs that have gone free-to-play have done so in order to try increasing profits (after Turbine turned DDO around by going free-to-play). It has worked in many cases (including CoX I believe).
EQ1, CoX, DDO, LotR, etc are all making enough money as free-to-play to keep multiple servers up and running. This is just a case of NCSoft killing off CoX (a western title) in order to try shoving a short-term cash infusion into Aeon (and/or other Asian or "world" titles).
NCSoft was charging for yearly renewals as recently as 2 days before the announcement. Hopefully, those people will be able to get their money back.
Active: D&D Online (alpha,beta,&unlimited)
Retired: Anarchy Online, Archlord (beta), Auto Assault (beta), CoH/CoV, Dark Age of Camelot, Dungeon Runners, Elder Scrolls Online, Everquest, EVE, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online (beta,live), Pathfinder Online (beta), Rift (beta,live), Secret World (beta,live), Star Wars Old Republic, Vanguard (beta), Warhammer (beta,live), World of Warcraft
Sad sad day. I love this game. Just graduated and have time to play some games. I was going to download it and get going again this weekend. I've never played a MMO where I felt I made as much of an impact as in CoX. I've played a LOT of MMOs and this is one of the best.
Had a lot of fun with this one. The in-game community was awesome, there was a ton of depth to it and just when I became bored with it....... City of Villians was released and I got sucked back in. I quit playing it a couple years ago though. Had lots of laughs and a ton of fun though. I'll miss wreaking havoc with "Miss Morgue" and her crew.... But that's why I finally quit: They all quit.
While I think the move to F2P may have not been the right one for CoH, or maybe a better way to put it is it perhaps should have been more carefully balanced between VIPs and free players, the game itself had, and still has, massive amounts of potential as a game world. I hope, if there's any possibility of the game being preserved, preferably by NCSoft with an "oops we made a mistake" letter, it happens. There are a lot of really wonderful people who play CoH, and I think the F2P model has given some gamers a chance to see that.
First off, as someone who played from as far back as the early closed beta waves...RIP CoX.
Second...the game had an amazing run. Few MMOs are that old and still running. The game set the bar for superhero MMOs and has consistently RAISED the bar, even years after launch, for its amazingly diverse character creation.
If anythimg, the F2P would have been a good move if they really adopted it wholly. Too much (many chat channels, endgame enhancements, etc) required spending money. The enhancements more or less required a sub. The AA system required a sub. New powersets were expensive. Costume pricing...could have been better. I think lower pricing would have made them more money. I know I'd have spent more.
As for NCSoft dumping properties....look, I loved the idea behind Auto Assault. But it was buggy, everything not in a car was sloppily tacked on, the premise was WAY too different to sell to the early MMO market. I could go on. TR was innovative and interesting in many ways. It also sufferd from Richard Garriot syndrome.
I hate to see CoX go, I really do. But I think its time came and went.
I won't buy another ncsoft product for this. I was planning to buy guildwars 2 but as far as I'm concerned they won't get another penny out of me. The most popular super hero mmo and it was making 1000's of $ a week from microtransactions alone. The game updates were getting better and the game population was beginning to rise very rapidly.
It certainly wasn't doing bad enough to be shut down.
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
Oh, give me a break. What trouble. Gw (and I guess GW2) is game that could exist ONLY without sub. And client is way to expensive for what have offered (and possibly gw2 offer, as more and more one can read about not only from fanboys). Still will buy and try Gw2 as I like to try and will give final verdict only then ... but I do not have any high hopes.
CoX was free to play for the past year. It seemed to be doing well with a cash shop and premium subscription if you wanted it, though I think they should've lowered the price from $15.
Comments
Champions was lame, but DC was not too shabby
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.
Out of all that has happened with MMOs lately, I have got to say this has to be one of the worst years in MMO history in my opinion.
I havent played CoX for long, but when I did I had to admit it was a fun time yet Ive not the money to invest. I was looking forward to playing it again some other time if I got bored of current MMOs but this hits..along with all of the other bad stuff going on everywhere else.
I feel like I have to blame the players. We want too much, we've been asking for too much. Before an MMO gets released we want both beta access to try it out, yet not too much that it burns us out. When the games are released we want stable servers even though we're all just appearing in one single place and putting strain on the servers. We want things to be brand new instead of rehashed, yet used certain features from other MMOs. Even MMOs that were around for a long time are subject to harsh critisism if not updated constantly with both graphics and gameplay (something which has killed most old-style MMOs for some people, a good example of a game doing this and somewhat survivng would be Runescape.)
This has been one tough year, one very tough year. And even now some of us are still just complaining we want more from MMOs when we refuse to help support what we currently got.
It's sad indeed, specially not only for the development team, but also players who have devoted so much time creating and building characters both heroes and villains... even now that's something neither DCUO nor CO allow, create your own villain... some people doesn't seem to remember, but CoH is a few months older than WoW itself, and even so it's been able to survive the WoW legions of subscribers, players and worshipers.
Let me tell you that there are some initiatives in progress, thanks to TonyV from Titan Network, who is coordinating them, as you can see here:
http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,4880.0.html
To sum up, there's a petition asking NCSoft to keep CoH alive, there are more petitions asking them to let the code open, and also a few Facebook pages. Our Community has been trying to get in touch even with The Guild people and The Big Bang Theory scripwriters, all hands and ideas are more than helpful.
If it works as an example, there are games that were saved after gathering 5.000 signers in 2 months... CoH has achieved more than 10.700 in only 48 hours... nuff said.
I hate to see this game go. Has been my favorite MMO to date.
Will miss it.
@Screaming Patriot
MMORPG played in order played: Sims Online, WoW, CoX, EQ2, LinksRealm, LOTRO,TOR...and counting
Farewell CoH. I will always remember you fondly.
I have sworn off buying into any new MMOs at launch (AoC was the last I did this for and was the final straw for me), but I would have definitely made an exception if CoX had launch a revised and updated CoX2!
I'm not sure why this is rarely the case. Anyone remember in the "golden age" UO2 being canned and then AC2?
Every single sub-based MMO that has gone off-line has done so because the game failed to maintain enough subscribers to keep it going.
Mostly true except for SWG which was closed because LA wanted to try to force people to ToR. I think we can all see how well that worked.
This is a sad, sad circumstance.
This is a game, like SWG, that maintained a devoted player base and a helpful and positive community.
I'm not experienced in the monetization aspects, but I can't see this game being anything but pure profit for the right company employing fresh ideas.
This is sad news. CoX was the MMO I subbed to for the longest time (4+ years) and I still fire it up occasionally (it and EQ1 are the only "old" MMOs I have installed and I play CoX more).
My take from what I've heard is:
Active: D&D Online (alpha,beta,&unlimited)
Retired: Anarchy Online, Archlord (beta), Auto Assault (beta), CoH/CoV, Dark Age of Camelot, Dungeon Runners, Elder Scrolls Online, Everquest, EVE, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online (beta,live), Pathfinder Online (beta), Rift (beta,live), Secret World (beta,live), Star Wars Old Republic, Vanguard (beta), Warhammer (beta,live), World of Warcraft
Most MMOs that have been shut down have been killed because they weren't profitable. Some have been killed for other reasons (sometimes just they weren't "profitable enough").
Most sub-based MMOs that have gone free-to-play have done so in order to try increasing profits (after Turbine turned DDO around by going free-to-play). It has worked in many cases (including CoX I believe).
EQ1, CoX, DDO, LotR, etc are all making enough money as free-to-play to keep multiple servers up and running. This is just a case of NCSoft killing off CoX (a western title) in order to try shoving a short-term cash infusion into Aeon (and/or other Asian or "world" titles).
NCSoft was charging for yearly renewals as recently as 2 days before the announcement. Hopefully, those people will be able to get their money back.
Active: D&D Online (alpha,beta,&unlimited)
Retired: Anarchy Online, Archlord (beta), Auto Assault (beta), CoH/CoV, Dark Age of Camelot, Dungeon Runners, Elder Scrolls Online, Everquest, EVE, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online (beta,live), Pathfinder Online (beta), Rift (beta,live), Secret World (beta,live), Star Wars Old Republic, Vanguard (beta), Warhammer (beta,live), World of Warcraft
Too much chlorine and it kills everything.
And turns your skin green.....
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Had a lot of fun with this one. The in-game community was awesome, there was a ton of depth to it and just when I became bored with it....... City of Villians was released and I got sucked back in. I quit playing it a couple years ago though. Had lots of laughs and a ton of fun though. I'll miss wreaking havoc with "Miss Morgue" and her crew.... But that's why I finally quit: They all quit.
First off, as someone who played from as far back as the early closed beta waves...RIP CoX.
Second...the game had an amazing run. Few MMOs are that old and still running. The game set the bar for superhero MMOs and has consistently RAISED the bar, even years after launch, for its amazingly diverse character creation.
If anythimg, the F2P would have been a good move if they really adopted it wholly. Too much (many chat channels, endgame enhancements, etc) required spending money. The enhancements more or less required a sub. The AA system required a sub. New powersets were expensive. Costume pricing...could have been better. I think lower pricing would have made them more money. I know I'd have spent more.
As for NCSoft dumping properties....look, I loved the idea behind Auto Assault. But it was buggy, everything not in a car was sloppily tacked on, the premise was WAY too different to sell to the early MMO market. I could go on. TR was innovative and interesting in many ways. It also sufferd from Richard Garriot syndrome.
I hate to see CoX go, I really do. But I think its time came and went.
I won't buy another ncsoft product for this. I was planning to buy guildwars 2 but as far as I'm concerned they won't get another penny out of me. The most popular super hero mmo and it was making 1000's of $ a week from microtransactions alone. The game updates were getting better and the game population was beginning to rise very rapidly.
It certainly wasn't doing bad enough to be shut down.
Oh, give me a break. What trouble. Gw (and I guess GW2) is game that could exist ONLY without sub. And client is way to expensive for what have offered (and possibly gw2 offer, as more and more one can read about not only from fanboys). Still will buy and try Gw2 as I like to try and will give final verdict only then ... but I do not have any high hopes.