This is a shame, I played this game at the beginning and it was so much fun to group. I have always hated grouping in games but this game just drew me in and made it great. The Powers were really cool and the perfomance was super smooth, I loved the Jump power where I could just about jump over anything. mmmmmm yea a great combat game, it is going to be missed
I had so much fun with this game. It's the only MMO I've ever played that turned me from a soloer into a grouper. If I logged on and couldn't find a PUG, I logged off again. Fortunately, that almost never happened; PUGs in CoH were everywhere, and they were almost universally enjoyable. I cannot honestly say that about any other MMO I've played since 1999.
I worry that we'll never see anything like CoH again: incredible avatar customization, incredible character skill customization, incredible market system (placing buy and sell orders), incredible grouping, unbelievable number of badges/titles, outrageous amount of emotes and other roleplaying support...the list just goes on and on.
I think it's called lipservice, or something like that. Don't think I saw a single post in this thread or one of the others about this from someone that was STILL PLAYING.
Everyone thinks it's sad it's shutting down, yet none of you are actually playing it.
One server, I think it was freedom, only ever managed to keep a relatively high population, one other seemed to stay around medium, the rest always seemd to be low; even after they switched to free to play. Doesn't really matter how many people play a f2p game, if no one spends money on stuff then it doesn't ever make money. As a several year subscriber I never had any reason myself to actually spend any money in the shop, pretty much everything was already unlocked for me.
PvP was pretty bad. End game was pretty bad. The grind to level was pretty bad, that is if you were one of the very few people that didn't actually use one of the half dozen methods to power level. The balance was pretty bad. The game was beyond repetetive. Mind you, I really liked this game; was my first MMO and I played it steadily for 3+ years, and then a few month out of a year for the next few.
I"m not sad at all. CoH had an excellent run. Over 8 years for an MMO that didn't have a crafting system when it released, no loot collection, no PvP, no endgame. It was quests over and over, fighitng the same mobs over and over, in the same instanced maps over and over.
Holy crap, CoH managed over 8 years, and it's best quality was it's character creator; yet it was still a pretty good game for people that liked comic book stuff.
I'm not sad at all! I give NCsoft, cryptic, and paragon studios huge kudos. They developed, produced, and ran an MMO for over 8 years, that if released today, even with the content it has right now, would have lasted about as long as Tabula Rasa. It kept a subscription model longer than LoTRO, I think longer even than EQ2, longer than Champions online and DC universe as well. It lived while Tabula Rasa, The Matrix Online, and Auto Assault died. It survived the launch of WoW, the leaving of its original creators, a world wide recession; it survived a genre that, when it released, wouldn't really be considered mainstream, and even today really only appeals to people that actually enjoy comic books.
There is no reason to pitty or feel bad for Paragon studios or NCsoft, they should be congratualated. In an industry that is dominated by the fantasy genre, and is pretty much split between people wanting either fantasy or sci-fi, they managed to keep an MMO with not much to do in it and based on comic book heroes going for almost a decade; in my book that's one hell of a success.
(I do feel bad for the real fans of the game. The ones that paid subscriptions and then contiued to support their game with purchases after the F2P switch.)
I'm surprised that they didn't try it on the "truely free" model like they did Aion and L2. I agree that the "F2P" system was not very inviting. I didn't get any farther with the system when I went back and discovered that my main character ( a Mind/Empathy Controller) was locked because Controller was a "premium" class. The more restrictive you make a "Free" system the less liekly people are to stick around and get "(re)hooked"
Still a real shame. I thought CoX was doing well enough for a game that is 8 years old.
NCSoft makes SOE look like a great studio. They bail on anything.
This pretty much nails it for me to avoid playing any of their games ever. You never know when they will pull the plug.
This game had a great run, over 8 years and a F2P change in an attempt to keep profitability.
Now, I know about Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, but this time it clearly wasn't the case of "bail on anything", even though Tabula Rasa was more of a problem with Richard Garriott, which makes Auto Assault the one true title which I will never understand the quick closure.
You forgot "Matrix Online"!
He didn't forget. MXO was made by SOE, not NCsoft.
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I and most of those I know in game are still in shock; this was so completely out of the blue. Paragon Studios Dev's were participating normally on the forums and working on getting the new issue ready to go from Test to Live yesterday... then today all of the dev's were fired and we learn that NCSoft has pulled the plug.
I've been playing CoH ever since early 2005; it was my first MMO and the only one I stayed with. In March I would have gotten my 8 year badge... it's been 7 good years. The big thing that's kept me and tens of thousands of others playing, many of us since near launch, has been the community. No game I've tried has had the quality of community that we took for granted with CoH, many of them like WoW have been toxic in the extreme.
I saw the gradual decline over the years, then with the F2P release I saw a marked improvement with many more players online, lots of things the Dev's had said were too much work to implement finally happening and new releases coming faster and faster. As far as we could tell things had reversed and we were growing again.
NCSoft makes SOE look like a great studio. They bail on anything.
This pretty much nails it for me to avoid playing any of their games ever. You never know when they will pull the plug.
This game had a great run, over 8 years and a F2P change in an attempt to keep profitability.
Now, I know about Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, but this time it clearly wasn't the case of "bail on anything", even though Tabula Rasa was more of a problem with Richard Garriott, which makes Auto Assault the one true title which I will never understand the quick closure.
You forgot "Matrix Online"!
He didn't forget. MXO was made by SOE, not NCsoft.
Wasn't MXO a Warner Bros. Game, then SoE bought it and tried to breath some more life into it?
PS: I enjoyed my time in City of Heroes for the first year, then other things popped up, was fun while it lasted.
Again, the worst thing is that City of Heroes was still a profitable concern, just not profitable enough for NCSoft's 'new vision.' Rather than spin it off, or sell it off, it was just easier to kill it. I am sure some bookkeeping trick that will be used to make the ledgers look nice. I will certainly consider that when contemplating any NCSoft game. They tend to eat their young.
Hopefully the Paragon Studios devs are getting some sort of good severance package.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
My sympathies to all affected. I didn't end up settling in this game, but I did enjoy my time playing it. It saddens me that MMOs like this are going to simply vanish without a trace from the cultural record. It feels wrong.
NCSoft makes SOE look like a great studio. They bail on anything.
This pretty much nails it for me to avoid playing any of their games ever. You never know when they will pull the plug.
This game had a great run, over 8 years and a F2P change in an attempt to keep profitability.
Now, I know about Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, but this time it clearly wasn't the case of "bail on anything", even though Tabula Rasa was more of a problem with Richard Garriott, which makes Auto Assault the one true title which I will never understand the quick closure.
You forgot "Matrix Online"!
Ehh Matrix Online had nothing to do with NCSoft. It was developed by Monolith under the umbrella of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros pulled the plug out of Monolith within 5 months after release and it was SOE actually that took Matrix Online out of the hands of Warner Bros in exchange for the DC Universe license, so they could develop DCUO.
SOE closed Matrix Online about 2-3 years later, because it was plagued by horrible design decisions, engine flaws, etc. The game was impossible to run on newer hardware and newer OS's. Everyone remember the texture issues and screen flickering when trying to run the game on anything other than Windows XP ? lol.
NCSoft makes SOE look like a great studio. They bail on anything.
This pretty much nails it for me to avoid playing any of their games ever. You never know when they will pull the plug.
This game had a great run, over 8 years and a F2P change in an attempt to keep profitability.
Now, I know about Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, but this time it clearly wasn't the case of "bail on anything", even though Tabula Rasa was more of a problem with Richard Garriott, which makes Auto Assault the one true title which I will never understand the quick closure.
You forgot "Matrix Online"!
He didn't forget. MXO was made by SOE, not NCsoft.
SOE didn't make MXO either Monolith Productions did. Backed by Ubisoft and Warner Brothers. SOE just did what SOE does and when Ubisoft and Warner Brothers decided to back out they stepped in and picked it up.
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.
Actually I am still playing... And have been since 2004.. and I find myself in a strange and uncomfortable place, I am looking for a new game with no option to come back.
wI LOVE COX. and I will forever be using it as a benchmark when I shop for a new MMO from here on out. The Social system is unmatched, the character customization is incredible, and the ability to find a good PUG is just uncanny. No other game has these that I can find. I am really gonna miss this game. It has been a part of my every day since 2004.
What do I do now... I hated the lack of social in SWTOR, WOW didn't do it for me and Rift... just not for me. GW and GW2.. not happening...
I do dabble in DCUO its a decent game. But in all honesty, We should have seen a sequal about 2-3 years ago or at least been teased by one.
Now I just have to decide what game could possibly replace COX as "MY GAME" it's a sad day indeed...
Thanks for the 8 years of great times COX and I will never play an NCSOFT title again.
Hats off and salutations to a fun game with the best Character Customisation I have ever seen.
I hope all your artists are hired by Arenanet. Cannot help my bias about where I would like to see that talent go or where I feel it may be well utilised and appreciated.
For me...i am upset its going to go...i spent 8+ years playing....thousands of players i have played with and met on this game....
What the really sad part is....after this game...I am not sure what i will play....i play alot of games sure....but I spent most of time with city of heroes....and now i will never find out what the big omega slot power is....never know the end of the big storyline..and so now not sure what i will do...probably just not play online games much anymore.
NCSoft makes SOE look like a great studio. They bail on anything.
This pretty much nails it for me to avoid playing any of their games ever. You never know when they will pull the plug.
This game had a great run, over 8 years and a F2P change in an attempt to keep profitability.
Now, I know about Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, but this time it clearly wasn't the case of "bail on anything", even though Tabula Rasa was more of a problem with Richard Garriott, which makes Auto Assault the one true title which I will never understand the quick closure.
You forgot "Matrix Online"!
He didn't forget. MXO was made by SOE, not NCsoft.
SOE didn't make MXO either Monolith Productions did. Backed by Ubisoft and Warner Brothers. SOE just did what SOE does and when Ubisoft and Warner Brothers decided to back out they stepped in and picked it up.
Oh. Well, SOE was involved witht eh game though. NCsoft wasn't, and I was responding to a guy who said someone forgot to list MXO as an NC Soft game. I didn't know all of this stuff about the game changing hands and such, and I appreciate clarifications though.
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We are starting to see the collapse.. it has little to do with payment model.. The genre is flooded.. Many new comers from the WoW era have come, seen and conquered already and most are simply moving on..
To be quite honest, I don't see any new north american mmo sustaining itself for more than a year due to be released in the next few years while the genre cleans itself up..
I don't see why you need to bring up your wow issues in this thread. Obviously City of Heroes was out before WOW.
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
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Comments
damn what a shame. I loved this game, it was truely the first game where character customisation came first. but age catches up to us all.
Thanks for the fantastic memories.
36 month Vet.
You will be remembered among the greats!
Wow! Never would have expected this to happen! This is a title that will be missed!
Cheers!
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
I had so much fun with this game. It's the only MMO I've ever played that turned me from a soloer into a grouper. If I logged on and couldn't find a PUG, I logged off again. Fortunately, that almost never happened; PUGs in CoH were everywhere, and they were almost universally enjoyable. I cannot honestly say that about any other MMO I've played since 1999.
I worry that we'll never see anything like CoH again: incredible avatar customization, incredible character skill customization, incredible market system (placing buy and sell orders), incredible grouping, unbelievable number of badges/titles, outrageous amount of emotes and other roleplaying support...the list just goes on and on.
CoH, you'll be missed.
I think it's called lipservice, or something like that. Don't think I saw a single post in this thread or one of the others about this from someone that was STILL PLAYING.
Everyone thinks it's sad it's shutting down, yet none of you are actually playing it.
One server, I think it was freedom, only ever managed to keep a relatively high population, one other seemed to stay around medium, the rest always seemd to be low; even after they switched to free to play. Doesn't really matter how many people play a f2p game, if no one spends money on stuff then it doesn't ever make money. As a several year subscriber I never had any reason myself to actually spend any money in the shop, pretty much everything was already unlocked for me.
PvP was pretty bad. End game was pretty bad. The grind to level was pretty bad, that is if you were one of the very few people that didn't actually use one of the half dozen methods to power level. The balance was pretty bad. The game was beyond repetetive. Mind you, I really liked this game; was my first MMO and I played it steadily for 3+ years, and then a few month out of a year for the next few.
I"m not sad at all. CoH had an excellent run. Over 8 years for an MMO that didn't have a crafting system when it released, no loot collection, no PvP, no endgame. It was quests over and over, fighitng the same mobs over and over, in the same instanced maps over and over.
Holy crap, CoH managed over 8 years, and it's best quality was it's character creator; yet it was still a pretty good game for people that liked comic book stuff.
I'm not sad at all! I give NCsoft, cryptic, and paragon studios huge kudos. They developed, produced, and ran an MMO for over 8 years, that if released today, even with the content it has right now, would have lasted about as long as Tabula Rasa. It kept a subscription model longer than LoTRO, I think longer even than EQ2, longer than Champions online and DC universe as well. It lived while Tabula Rasa, The Matrix Online, and Auto Assault died. It survived the launch of WoW, the leaving of its original creators, a world wide recession; it survived a genre that, when it released, wouldn't really be considered mainstream, and even today really only appeals to people that actually enjoy comic books.
There is no reason to pitty or feel bad for Paragon studios or NCsoft, they should be congratualated. In an industry that is dominated by the fantasy genre, and is pretty much split between people wanting either fantasy or sci-fi, they managed to keep an MMO with not much to do in it and based on comic book heroes going for almost a decade; in my book that's one hell of a success.
(I do feel bad for the real fans of the game. The ones that paid subscriptions and then contiued to support their game with purchases after the F2P switch.)
I'm surprised that they didn't try it on the "truely free" model like they did Aion and L2. I agree that the "F2P" system was not very inviting. I didn't get any farther with the system when I went back and discovered that my main character ( a Mind/Empathy Controller) was locked because Controller was a "premium" class. The more restrictive you make a "Free" system the less liekly people are to stick around and get "(re)hooked"
Still a real shame. I thought CoX was doing well enough for a game that is 8 years old.
He didn't forget. MXO was made by SOE, not NCsoft.
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I and most of those I know in game are still in shock; this was so completely out of the blue. Paragon Studios Dev's were participating normally on the forums and working on getting the new issue ready to go from Test to Live yesterday... then today all of the dev's were fired and we learn that NCSoft has pulled the plug.
I've been playing CoH ever since early 2005; it was my first MMO and the only one I stayed with. In March I would have gotten my 8 year badge... it's been 7 good years. The big thing that's kept me and tens of thousands of others playing, many of us since near launch, has been the community. No game I've tried has had the quality of community that we took for granted with CoH, many of them like WoW have been toxic in the extreme.
I saw the gradual decline over the years, then with the F2P release I saw a marked improvement with many more players online, lots of things the Dev's had said were too much work to implement finally happening and new releases coming faster and faster. As far as we could tell things had reversed and we were growing again.
rest in peace you inglorious bastard of a repetitios comic game!
i had some fun trying it out when villains debuted, wasnt my cup of tea but i know alot of people wasted alot of time on it.
Wasn't MXO a Warner Bros. Game, then SoE bought it and tried to breath some more life into it?
PS: I enjoyed my time in City of Heroes for the first year, then other things popped up, was fun while it lasted.
Again, the worst thing is that City of Heroes was still a profitable concern, just not profitable enough for NCSoft's 'new vision.' Rather than spin it off, or sell it off, it was just easier to kill it. I am sure some bookkeeping trick that will be used to make the ledgers look nice. I will certainly consider that when contemplating any NCSoft game. They tend to eat their young.
Hopefully the Paragon Studios devs are getting some sort of good severance package.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Ehh Matrix Online had nothing to do with NCSoft. It was developed by Monolith under the umbrella of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros pulled the plug out of Monolith within 5 months after release and it was SOE actually that took Matrix Online out of the hands of Warner Bros in exchange for the DC Universe license, so they could develop DCUO.
SOE closed Matrix Online about 2-3 years later, because it was plagued by horrible design decisions, engine flaws, etc. The game was impossible to run on newer hardware and newer OS's. Everyone remember the texture issues and screen flickering when trying to run the game on anything other than Windows XP ? lol.
SOE didn't make MXO either Monolith Productions did. Backed by Ubisoft and Warner Brothers. SOE just did what SOE does and when Ubisoft and Warner Brothers decided to back out they stepped in and picked it up.
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.
Actually I am still playing... And have been since 2004.. and I find myself in a strange and uncomfortable place, I am looking for a new game with no option to come back.
wI LOVE COX. and I will forever be using it as a benchmark when I shop for a new MMO from here on out. The Social system is unmatched, the character customization is incredible, and the ability to find a good PUG is just uncanny. No other game has these that I can find. I am really gonna miss this game. It has been a part of my every day since 2004.
What do I do now... I hated the lack of social in SWTOR, WOW didn't do it for me and Rift... just not for me. GW and GW2.. not happening...
I do dabble in DCUO its a decent game. But in all honesty, We should have seen a sequal about 2-3 years ago or at least been teased by one.
Now I just have to decide what game could possibly replace COX as "MY GAME" it's a sad day indeed...
Thanks for the 8 years of great times COX and I will never play an NCSOFT title again.
It's very sad.
It's the MMO i played most with a 4+ years of subscription.
In 2006 i said to a friend if they close the game i am going to buy it for myself.
Well lets see how much it will cost now.
Hats off and salutations to a fun game with the best Character Customisation I have ever seen.
I hope all your artists are hired by Arenanet. Cannot help my bias about where I would like to see that talent go or where I feel it may be well utilised and appreciated.
For me...i am upset its going to go...i spent 8+ years playing....thousands of players i have played with and met on this game....
What the really sad part is....after this game...I am not sure what i will play....i play alot of games sure....but I spent most of time with city of heroes....and now i will never find out what the big omega slot power is....never know the end of the big storyline..and so now not sure what i will do...probably just not play online games much anymore.
Oh. Well, SOE was involved witht eh game though. NCsoft wasn't, and I was responding to a guy who said someone forgot to list MXO as an NC Soft game. I didn't know all of this stuff about the game changing hands and such, and I appreciate clarifications though.
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I don't see why you need to bring up your wow issues in this thread. Obviously City of Heroes was out before WOW.
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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?"