I expected over the years the game would slowly fade away with a dwindling playerbase and a death spiral of development slowdowns and server merges but it's not there yet. By all reports it was more profitable than before after the free-to-play changeover but apparently it just wasn't big enough for the company.
Also there had been some talk of a CoH 2 and this announcement pretty much kills that hope, so not only do we lose this game we lose that hope for the long term future too.
The online-only thing is definitely a risk and this is a warning against getting too invested in any one game but I think a heavy player attachment is exactly the thing MMO companies count on to convince users to spend money on virtual goods. On some level it's self-defeating to shut down a game when theoretically you could just stop development and keep the servers up for years at a minimal cost. It's an evolving model, I suppose we will all see where it goes.
I'm actually rather bummed about this even though I haven't logged on in years.
Like Erin Palette of Lurking Rhythmically, CoH was my first MMO and honestly, problems and weaknesses with the game aside, no other Supers MMO has even come close.
Sorry to fans of DC Online and/or Champions Online but IMHO both of those games, for slightly different reasons, are just not what I want in a Supers game. They have an equal amount of suck for me. City of Heroes wasn't perfect but it enabled me to design a cool looking hero easily, beat up bad guys and feel super.
3 comments:
Ugh! Though I never played CoH, fear of this sort of thing is exhibit A for my aversion to a service-based game model.
Can you imagine the suicides that will take place when WoW is eventually sunsetted?
I expected over the years the game would slowly fade away with a dwindling playerbase and a death spiral of development slowdowns and server merges but it's not there yet. By all reports it was more profitable than before after the free-to-play changeover but apparently it just wasn't big enough for the company.
Also there had been some talk of a CoH 2 and this announcement pretty much kills that hope, so not only do we lose this game we lose that hope for the long term future too.
The online-only thing is definitely a risk and this is a warning against getting too invested in any one game but I think a heavy player attachment is exactly the thing MMO companies count on to convince users to spend money on virtual goods. On some level it's self-defeating to shut down a game when theoretically you could just stop development and keep the servers up for years at a minimal cost. It's an evolving model, I suppose we will all see where it goes.
I'm actually rather bummed about this even though I haven't logged on in years.
Like Erin Palette of Lurking Rhythmically, CoH was my first MMO and honestly, problems and weaknesses with the game aside, no other Supers MMO has even come close.
Sorry to fans of DC Online and/or Champions Online but IMHO both of those games, for slightly different reasons, are just not what I want in a Supers game. They have an equal amount of suck for me. City of Heroes wasn't perfect but it enabled me to design a cool looking hero easily, beat up bad guys and feel super.
Rest In Peace City of Heroes. You will be missed.
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