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It seems the free-to-play model hasn't worked out for NCSoft and Paragon studios. Paragon is being shuttered and COH is going off into the sunset.

A moment of silence for, as the release states, the first and best superhero MMO. It set the bar for character customization by which all others are judged (and with few exceptions, judged unworthy, though DCU online comes close).

I am sad to see it go, but I have to admit, every time I get the urge to play and wonder why I stopped playing, I just go to youtube and watch some gameplay footage, and I realize "Yeah, THAT'S why I stopped playing."

Guessing DC Universe stole the last of it's clientel.

Gilgamesh said:

Guessing DC Universe stole the last of it's clientel.

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Most likely. They lifted the majority of their costume customization directly from CoH/V, then again, it can be argued that CoH/V copied all their styles from the original DC/Marvel comics, so, who knows.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, my major issue with CoH/V was that they had a total of maybe 7 different mission tilesets and mission types. It just got real repetitive real fast.

Gilgamesh said:

Guessing DC Universe stole the last of it's clientel.

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From what I understand, it was actually doing well.

I am saddened by news, I still play a bit with friends from time to time. So many powers I have yet to use, old characters still below level 50, story arcs to do...

No, this is actually very weird. City of Heroes was basically their most successful game right now. They have really, truly been pulling in a a ton more money since going free to play. That this happened is really surprising.

Ironically, this happened the day I sent in an email to get my account sorted out. If it's not done soon, I'm going to need to make a throwaway account to do stuff during their inevitable, epic destruction of Paragon City.

DC UO's character customization isn't quite as robust as CoH's was, but it's close enough, and the gameplay is SO much better, and PvP is so much better as well.

Aw, man. I never even created an account!

--Patrick

GasBandit said:

DC UO's character customization isn't quite as robust as CoH's was, but it's close enough, and the gameplay is SO much better, and PvP is so much better as well.

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I haven't played it, so if you don't mind explaining, how so?

It's basically more action packed. It's sort of like Champions Online, but more combo focused.

Reverent-one said:

I haven't played it, so if you don't mind explaining, how so?

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Your attacks feel like they scale better with level, and your attacks are more action oriented rather than just waiting for cooldowns to recycle. I go into a lot more detail here.

I tried playing the game again for the first time earlier in the year. That was after not playing it for about 4 years. CoH was always a fun game for me, but I grew tired of the typical grind that MMOs have. When they went free-to-play, I had a feeling this would be inevitable. It's a damn shame, but they lasted a heck of a lot longer than many other MMOs.

The little woman and I gave it another try when it went F2P too. Didn't stick with it though.

Part of me sheds a tear to think that Tabula Rasa (still one of my all time favorite MMOs) would be around if F2P was an option back then.

Gilgamesh said:

Part of me sheds a tear to think that Tabula Rasa (still one of my all time favorite MMOs) would be around if F2P was an option back then.

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I don't know... they really screwed up with the first major patch; I'm not sure that F2P would have saved it. I loved Tabula Rasa when it first came out, but when that first patch hit I found that, as a level 34 whatever class I was playing, I couldn't take any new quests because they were too high of a level for me, and completing any quests I had at the time got me no XP because I was too high a level for them.

Noooo!
I've had so many awesomely good times in this game. I'm gonna miss the costumes, the huge selection of flashy powers, the fighting 10 enemies at once by yourself and winning. The running, the jumping, the FLYING!!! The city looked so awesome flying over it. I'm even gonna miss the eager gimps on your team, face-planting every other battle.

This is awful.

The only thing that kept me in CoH/V as long as I was, was the community. I still haven't had a better experience with an MMO community.

Perfect world owns the engine CoH uses. The refused to renew it.

(perfect world also owns CO)

OHHHH... interesting. So it's to remove competition then and NCSoft doesn't want the team to make a sequel.

CoH/V was the first MMO I ever played. Won some collectors edition of CoV as some door prize or something. My internet connection at the time was terrible so it was difficult to enjoy the game cause of the lag. A few months later, with upgraded internet, made it better, and then shortly after came the announcement that you could now play the "other side" for free! Lots of good memories of the game, but haven't played it in years. Still sad to see it go though.

Those were the days. I created this character in CoH and every superhero MMO I played since.

Info was wrong. Wasn't profitable.

It also looks like they are going to use the CoX server farms to run Guild Wars 2 servers.

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php

This news saddens me. I like it not. I haven't played CoH in years, but it was great fun. The character I played the most was a tech blaster, modeled after an Old West sheriff. His name was Ricochet Rick.

https://www.halforums.com/threads/city-of-heroes-and-villains-to-end.28251/#post-982564

We're kinda way ahead of you, bud.

Gusto said:

Those were the days. I created this character in CoH and every superhero MMO I played since.

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Oh shit, it's cyborg April O'Neil!

FINALLY got my account back.

From woody, over at /GU Comics:



The City of Heroes community is a dedicated lot. Even in the face of the game's development studio being shut down, and termination of services before the year out, they're working to have their voices heard. Now I can't offer much more than a piece of artwork, a few lousy words, and a couple of links.

So, here's a forum discussing ideas and initiatives:
http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/board,134.0.html

And here's the petition Captain Faboo mentioned in the comic:
http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes#share

I don't know that there will be, or even can be, a different outcome to closure of the game at this point. But it doesn't hurt to try, right?

Now, with that and a "Best of Luck CoH Community", I've done the best I can to help. I encourage each of you to do the same.

The "best case scenario" for City of Heroes players at this point is that we get one or two servers and everyone is forced to move to it. Or we do Kickstarter to buy the City of Heroes IP for Positron so he can do something with it later. Those are basically the only options at this point.

Image dump of a couple of things I did specifically for CoH back in the day.

Poop! I am so bummed out by this. I may never play another NCSoft game.

Some very old screen shots. Don't have any from the last couple of years.

A scrapper I made when shields first came out. Her name may have been Techno Blade.


Morrain-A Corrupter. Fire/kinetic I believe.


Miss Magic-Mind/bubble controller with a hastily written bio I did for a competition.


Galaxia-Engergy/energy blaster


Cave Woman-Ice/energy tanker that I deleted and rerolled as an ice/mace after they let us do custom weapons!


Lady Spectrum-Invunerable/claws scrapper


Lady Spectrum's second costume


Lady Spectrum during the very first winter event!

Well, that's it. As I type, the servers are shutting down. Only a handful still up. Spent the evening grabbing screenshots, using up saved temp powers, and running task forces and events I hadn't had a chance to before. It's been fun, CoH/V.

What was the finale like? Only finale's I've participated in were the Ultima Online Beta and Everquest Beta finales.

Officially, the main thing they've been running is an invasion by one of the big bads of the setting, the Rikti, for the past week. There would be attacks across the city zones. Unofficially, players organized a lot of raids and task forces right up to the end, resulting in them needing at least two instances of one of the raid zones on my server. Plenty of people gathered in the main starting area to simply wait and say goodbye as well. Apparently the server load was large enough that the most populated server crashed several times.

Farewell and Godspeed to Kaptain Kelvin, Mister Manners, and Doctor Teamwipe.

Reverent-one said:

Officially, the main thing they've been running is an invasion by one of the big bads of the setting, the Rikti, for the past week. There would be attacks across the city zones. Unofficially, players organized a lot of raids and task forces right up to the end, resulting in them needing at least two instances of one of the raid zones on my server. Plenty of people gathered in the main starting area to simply wait and say goodbye as well. Apparently the server load was large enough that the most populated server crashed several times.

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I'm going to bet for the hardcore long time subbers it was pretty emotional. At least they didn't blow up the servers with the big bad ala UO/EQ.

Ending the game with a Rikti invasion is kind of a book-end, as the first invasion is what sparked the need for the new heroes when most of the old ones died during the war. It's still really stupid because the current story ended with Statesmen dead, a villain with god-like powers, and no one to stand up to him except maybe Lord Recluse (the big bad of the setting).

Honestly, I'm really fucking pissed. There really aren't any legitimate reasons for the closing of the game, but the likely ones are...

- They closed it to funnel the production money into Blade + Soul or one of the other NCsoft games which was bombing. In a choice between keeping a popular but outside developed game or trying to save one of the Korean one, NCsoft is notorious for trying to save the home built ones.

- They wanted to declare the game a loss for the tax credit, similar to what they did with Tabula Rasa (and THAT was a cluster fuck involving lots of illegal shit). Basically, NCsoft hasn't been doing well the past few years because Guild Wars 2 was still in production so they needed a way to pad the numbers to keep the investors happy and to ensure their own bonuses.

Whatever the reason, NCsoft wasn't interested in selling the franchise because they didn't want to look like idiots if someone else was able to make it more successful than they ever did. It'll likely be a year or two before they even consider it, but who knows... if NCsoft doesn't pick up soon, they might have to sell it just to make some quick cash.

I wasn't there at the end, but I did log in last night to get screenshots of my fav characters. So here's Dr. Ashburner, looking to get the fuck out of town before the last invasion hits.

Yeah I hope NCsoft swallows their pride and sell it. It's probably the best MMO I've played. The only problem I had with it is that over the years it accumulated too much content in the form on new travel zones. By the time you were level 25 there was like 10 different areas you could go fight and do missions in. Even though all these areas were pretty awesome it still meant players were too spread out.

Where can I go now to make a character looking any damn way I please, using powers any damn way I want! "Heal this!" <(bubble)>.

AshburnerX - Don't bring up Tabula Rasa.... still a sore spot for me.... to me one of the greatest MMOs that ever died before it lived....

Siska said:

Where can I go now to make a character looking any damn way I please, using powers any damn way I want! "Heal this!" <(bubble)>.

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Champions Online is pretty good about this, but it still uses narrowly defined roles. Your still going to be ether a tank, a DPS, or a support. It's not as solo friendly ether unless you buy a free-form slot. The Secret World is pretty good as well, as you have a lot of freedom in what powers you want to take, even if you can't change them much.

It's not surprising that most of the CoH population is going to those two games.

Gilgamesh said:

I'm going to bet for the hardcore long time subbers it was pretty emotional. At least they didn't blow up the servers with the big bad ala UO/EQ.

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Yep, lots of teary goodbyes and thank you's to everyone, as well as a few "Who wants to burn NCSoft to the ground?".

That's the least of what the CoH crowd has been doing. They also been sabotaging the reviews for Guild Wars 2 on sites like Amazon, as well doing everything they can to wreck Blade + Soul. There is no gaming community motivated more than the one for City of Heroes... they aren't going to take it lying down.

I fucking loved playing as Doug the Troll, but I'll be honest. I hadn't played the game actively or consistently in years. I wanted to hang out in-game one last time but I forgot all about it until late yesterday. By the time I would've had everything downloaded, installed, and updated, it would've been too late.

In remembrance of my Level 50's from CoH:

Googie the Jester
Illusion/Force Field Controller


Mosh Pitt
Dual Blades/Willpower Brute


Liberty Dawn
Martial Arts/Fire Scrapper


Rest in peace.

I didn't have fun playing this game, but I'm sorry you guys are losing something that looks like it was a lot of fun for you and rewarded creativity.

Sad. I haven't played in many years, but it is where the my user name came from. First toon I rolled on the game, when I won it as a door prize or something.

For what it's worth, NCsoft's stock took a plummet when they announced the closure of the game and hasn't recovered at all since. It's becoming very apparent that they won't be able to survive much longer.

AshburnerX said:

For what it's worth, NCsoft's stock took a plummet when they announced the closure of the game and hasn't recovered at all since. It's becoming very apparent that they won't be able to survive much longer.

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It's amazing to me how often the people in charge of a company (online, offline, even the one I work for) have no idea what they're doing, and just grope in the dark, bumping into things and hoping something makes them rich.

GasBandit said:

It's amazing to me how often the people in charge of a company (online, offline, even the one I work for) have no idea what they're doing, and just grope in the dark, bumping into things and hoping something makes them rich.

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It's not even that... this is standard operating procedure at NCsoft. Auto Assault, Exteel, Tabula Rasa, and Dungeon Runners were all western developed games that were dropped in order to support Korean developed titles in need of quick cash flow. It has NEVER worked out for them. It's one of the reasons the company has been in such dire straits the last few years. They are gambling everything on Guild Wars 2 and I barely know anyone who plays that anymore.

Also, am I wrong in thinking that - with some few exceptions like WoW - that there just isn't a market for MMOs anymore?

ThatNickGuy said:

Also, am I wrong in thinking that - with some few exceptions like WoW - that there just isn't a market for MMOs anymore?

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No, there's a market... It's just that the continued existence of WoW is messing with expectations. Rich people see WoW and think, "Yeah, I can do that." Except they can't because WoW's user base has too much time sunk into it to leave willingly. You can only have one "super MMO" on the market at a time. Until those people leave the game, it's unlikely another game will rise to dominance.

Besides, F2P MMOs are doing well. Champions Online, Lord of the Rings Online, DC Universe Online, and others are doing excellent business right now, pulling in millions of dollars in profits. Even City of Heroes was pulling it in!

That was the thing that puzzled so many people in the first place: CoH was actually making profit. Though maybe it just wasn't ENOUGH profit for NC Soft.

Maybe if their financial struggles continues they will be forced to sell off their IPs cheaply. As it is now they seems to be strangely attached to them. Like they think the stink of dead MMOs somehow make them more attractive.

There's definitely a market for MMO's, game developers and publishers just have to have realistic expectations of how well it can do. I've brought up EVE before, but it is still going strong with a very dedicated and loyal player base, and is still turning a tidy profit. In fact, a new expansion comes out in 3 days.

The reason so many MMO's seem to fail is because they look at WoW, which is a statistical outlier, and base their business model around duplicating it.

Siska said:

Maybe if their financial struggles continues they will be forced to sell off their IPs cheaply. As it is now they seems to be strangely attached to them. Like they think the stink of dead MMOs somehow make them more attractive.

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It's about keeping competitors off the market. They don't want anyone taking these IPs and turning them into successful games.

I've said this multiple times. The game itself gets pretty boring because the missions and instances recycle the same stuff over and over again. That being said, I've never experienced a better community on any MMO before or since.

I'd be a happy happy camper if they sold the rights to Tabula Rasa to anyone. I'd take that game being revamped again by anyone at this point.

AshburnerX said:

Besides, F2P MMOs are doing well. Champions Online, Lord of the Rings Online, DC Universe Online, and others are doing excellent business right now, pulling in millions of dollars in profits. Even City of Heroes was pulling it in!

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Maybe they should've renamed it City of Heroes Online and it would've done better.

This sucks. This was one of the only MMOs I actually liked. People got into their characters, and roleplaying wasn't some afterthought to boring stat maximizing. I really liked the mood, too. You felt like somebody important, and the missions felt alive. You didn't just go kill 20 wolves, you went to get a bad guy holed up in a warehouse. Yeah, it was the same warehouse set, but the story was interesting. The music moved with the plot, and zones had distinctive story-relevant feels to them. More than I can say for other MMOs

I think, in most MMOs, actual ROLEplaying is pretty much a thing of the past. A lot of the early MMOs had it - everquest, COH, UO... I just don't see it much any more these days.

But for everything else you list... DCUO is a fairly good ersatz COH substitute.

SWTOR has a decent RP community.

AshburnerX said:

SWTOR has a decent RP community.

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It had a great rp community, at least on the ebon hawk server.