LittleDavid

I remember in the final days before TR closed down, a lot of people trying the game out and saying "Why is this shutting down? They should make it free to play! It's awesome!"

The character creation system didn't bother me, incidentially. The game's more military in style, so I didn't mind that you couldn't design a custom costume or anything. I would have wanted more precise body morphing options, though. Especially some kind of indicator on how tall I was making my characters, like City of Heroes does. Few games do that.

I don't even think TR was the failure that gaming journalism made it out to be. I think it was said that NCSoft killed the game off right after it was becoming profitable (generating enough revenues to cover its own expenses and its development I gather).

"I miss Tabula Rasa" was a search trend on Google a year or two after it died, after all.

But yes, here's a blogger writing about the C&D NCSoft gave to the TR fandom trying to keep the game alive.

I still play as my very first character; Little David is my flagship hero for this game. His costume's mostly stayed the same:



Overall I'm pretty happy with his design. Even with the first version of his costume, Little David was winning prizes at costume contests. ;_;

Jetpack costume pieces.

This is something I can't agree on, Tony. In my case, I've already had to experience this entire situation when NCSoft killed off other games, and I've seen the lengths NCSoft will go to take down a game they own.

Maybe the reason City of Heroes is getting killed off is because the managers and executives who would have stood by this game are no longer in the company or in positions of influence. Or maybe it's because Nexon's been putting pressure on NCSoft now that they have a majority stake in the company. The exact rationale for NCSoft deciding that City of Heroes no longer fits in their picture may never be known to us, but this is still a game that's been going for eight years and, all things being equal, could have kept going on its own revenue.

There's a big chance we'll never be able to play this game again, especially if NCSoft treats the City of Heroes IP like it does other games it's taken down, like Tabula Rasa.

I am not going to be spending any more money on NCSoft games, that's for darn sure. I said before I don't plan on sending NCSoft reps any nastygrams ... but I've seen how ugly the company can get, and now that they're taking this game down I don't want to be their customer any more.

Say a prayer for all the children still sleeping.

Say a prayer for all the fathers who still remember.

Say a prayer for all the girls who’ve learned to stand up.

Say a prayer for all the boys who won’t surrender.

(Did I mention how much I love Protomen? I used to listen to Light Up The Night a lot whenever I was running with my flagship Praetorian, Wildfire Pete. It fit him. Really well.)

Well ... As far as upcoming MMOs go, Phantasy Star Online 2 is the only one I'm really looking at right now. I found out last night that one of the other MMOs I've been itching to play, Black Prophecy, is also going belly-up. Gamigo, their publishers, announced they'd be shutting down the game later this September just a few days before City of Heroes did. I was really looking forward to playing this game ever since Reakktor announced it back in 2008, since it's only one of two Freelancer-like MMOs out there I know of.

However, I think I'll be getting into other older MMOs--ones as old as City of Heroes or older. There's a lot of them that are still around, and hey ... they must be doing something right if they're still kicking. I already play Ragnarok Online legitimately off and on (in fact RO is the only 3D game that doesn't cause my computer to throw a fit); it was the first "true" MMO I played back when it was in beta.

I used to play Funcom's Anarchy Online around 2004-2005, when they were among the first MMOs to start a free to play model. For years they've been working on a graphics engine overhaul like what City of Heroes did with Ultra Mode. They've shown their progress every now and then, and I hope they finish it before the decade's out.

Reakktor's gone bankrupt, but irony of ironies, their first pair of MMOs Neocron and Neocron 2, are still going. I was always curious about them, and i've had friends who play them. I might give a free trial a spin and see how they've aged over the years.

Heck, who knows ... I might even give Ultima Online and Everquest a try.

Techbot, I'm tempted to find a way to take that picture of Scarface you posted last year and putting the character in your avatar in place of him.

It's been doing that at random with me too, and I've noticed it happening with a lot of others.

I wish they just gave everyone full VIP access for the duration ...

Well, if I wanted a swan song for my guys, I could just go play The Beating Heart of Astoria: A Play in Five Acts by The Cheshire Cat over at Mission Arcitect.

I mean, it could serve as a creepy metaphor for a server shutdown, especially the ending.

But I don't plan on having my guys go down with the ship. I'll be playing with Little David, Corrupted Haruspex, Wildfire Pete, and all my other City of Heroes-born characters in other places. I may take them to roleplaying communities, for instance.

This seems to be the oldest THREAD on the forums going by thread ID.

Dates back to April 2004.

If I can make it, I'll be there as Little David on Guardian.

I really want to record this if a lot of people turn out for it, but I think my video card is going to cause my system to lock up or freeze within the first 10 minutes of being there. (I've not been able to reliably play any 3D games since June 5th, my video card has been giving me system lockups and BSoDs when I try ... but that's another matter).

Are /demorecords still viable even if the system crashes or locks up in the middle of a recording?

There's a difference between expressing one's vehemence for NCSoft here in the forums while intending to spend no more money on their titles, and sending NCSoft a nastygram through the proper channels.

I'll let more diplomatic people do the negotiating with NCSoft, like TonyV. If I participate in the write-in campaigns I'll be cordial--but we aren't directly communicating with NCSoft here. We're talking amongst ourselves and the former Paragon Studios employees.

Yeah. Remember, NCSoft owes the guy like $32 million in damages from that lawsuit he won. And given what NCSoft did to make ol' General British sue, I doubt NCSoft would ever want to negotiate the transfer, sale, or licensing of an IP they own to him.