Guild Wars 2

That’s the thing though. With NCSoft – before City of Heroes, there was the consideration that the games they shut down weren’t profitable. That they weren’t going to make it anyway. Even Tabula Rasa was likely never to make back the amount put into development. (and even if Garriot deserved to be let go, how they did it was as scummy as it comes, and they rightfully got themselves burned doing it to the tune of 32 million.)

That wasn’t the case with City of Heroes. The game was never in the red. They weren’t pulling in a LOT of money but they were steady. Paragon Studios was enthusiastically putting together issue 24 and was about to launch it when they were all unceremoniously kicked out the door. This was an utter shock to both the studio and the players. This while Aion was bleeding them dry in the western market to the tune of about 6 Million.

So if they can and will shut down a profitable (if marginally so) game like City of Heroes, while favoring their Korean market, what’s going to happen the instant the either of the GW games isn’t pulling in “enough” profit?

Is NCSoft looking for steady profit or a WoW killer? They’re not going to get the latter, no matter what. WoW is an anomaly – the far end of the bell curve. The only thing that will “kill” WoW is WoW.

What they should be looking to do is maintain the loyalty of customers. Instead they’re poisoning the well of the MMO industry and calling into question the longevity of all their products. Even GW/GW2.

As for myself. I don’t know if I’ll ever get into any MMO the same way again. Frankly I can’t just shug and say “oh well”. NCSoft is killing my characters and stories.

Maybe that’s the difference. As pretty as GW is, it’s not really a story I’ve come up with myself, but one I’m being asked to identify with. I didn’t really come up with the specific details of my character. They were provided to me by the world.

I’m used to writing up – or at least having a specific “head-canon” for characters. An “Elevator Pitch” if you will. Well the “hook” for the GW2 characters is provided by the game itself. I can get into that to a degree. But not enough to get anywhere near as enthusiastically as I did when I played my OWN characters in COH.

And that, along with the “Damocles” effect is making it difficult to get into things here.

I guess we’ll see over time. I want to give GW2 a fair chance. I’ll certainly be here for my friends. I’d like to explore the world some.

But it’ll probably never be HOME to me like CoH was.

I have a serious question to ask – but first – I have to tell you my story. So bear with me here.

About half-a-dozen good friends of mine got into the GW2 Beta. And were raving about it. I poked my head in to the news sites from time to time and was impressed with Arenanet’s innovation. I was looking forward to the game, but it wasn’t at the forefront of my radar.

Fantasy really isn’t my first love, you know? Oh don’t get me wrong! I love some of the classics like Tolkien. Steven Brust’s Jhereg series really got me going for awhile. And I’ve been a big fan of Mercedes Lackeys stuff since an old dear friend of mine sent me the first trilogy of her Valdemar stuff.

But my first MMO love was City of Heroes.

I bet you’re rolling your eyes even now. Give me a moment more of your time. This is not a GW2 bashing thread. Anything but.

So I was more than willing to be pulled into GW2 if my friends were enthused about it. Hey it looked good, you know?

Then Black Friday happened. The day NCSoft announced CoH closure.

So I wound up playing the game occasionally when I needed to take a break from the frenetic pace I’d set myself these last couple of months trying to get things finished off and squared away with my main characters in COH.

And GW2 is a GREAT game. It’s a great WORLD. It’s at least as finely detailed as COH. It’s obvious the amount of love that Arenanet have put into it.

BUT…

I cannot get emotionally invested in my character or story in GW2. I find the world fascinating. I find the history and lore interesting to read about. I appreciate the artistry.

But only in my head, because it’s not touching me in the heart. Not like COH has. And it’s no fault of Arenanet and Guild Wars or Tyria.

It’s NCSOFT of course.

No matter how much I try, I can’t get past the fact that NCSoft KILLS MMOs. All MMOs will pass away of course. But for most – there is the possibility of existing for many many years in reduced format on fewer servers or even private servers long after the game itself is no longer supported by the company. Maybe to find life again with new companies.

Not with NCSoft. When it’s over, they shut the games down completely and let NO ONE buy them or do anything with them. Then they sit on the intellectual property forever.

So in the back of my mind – always – with Guild Wars 2, there’s this little voice saying, “This world is doomed.”

That’s the Sword of Damocles of being tied to the MMO Killer NCSoft.

Oh not today. Not this year. Maybe not for 5 years or more. But I can’t help but feel that Guild Wars 1 and 2 are doomed to die. And they won’t die after a prolonged retirement either. No, like the other games NCSoft kills, they’ll simply be buried and Arenanet will be destroyed and scattered like Paragon Studios has been. And they’ll sit on the IP forever and not let Tyria live again.

NCSoft with MMO IPs are like King Hagrid keeping all the Unicorns in the Sea penned by the Red Bull.

My friends notice a lack of enthusiasm on my part. I played the Halloween Event once or twice. But I don’t think I achieved anything or bothered to worry about drops of anything special. I was there for THEM, not for the game. I’m not too concerned if I miss the Lost Shores opening either. If I do, I’ll see it on Youtube. I just can’t get emotionally involved. It bugs them. It bugs me. But I just can’t get past the “Damocles” effect.

I know that Arenanet is considered a wholly owned subsidiary of NCSoft. No getting around that. But unlike Paragon Studios, it wasn’t always that way. Arenanet had a life as an independent studio before being acquired by NCSoft.

So here’s the question:

Does Arenanet have any kind of “Escape Clause”? A way to remove themselves from under NCSoft if they need to?

If I felt confident that they could, then I wouldn’t feel the sense of doom hanging over this world like I do now. If Arenanet has a way to escape out from under NCSoft’s management at anytime, then I’d feel a lot more confident about getting involved in Tyria. If they actually DID go independent (or get bought by another studio) I’d support them wholeheartedly monetarily – even buy a new physical copy of the game, just to help them out!

I honestly don’t want this to seem like a “DOOM” thread. That’s ridiculous. The game is selling well. It’s being run well. Arenanet communicates with the players admirably. And I have nothing but praise for the way the game plays and looks.

But that Sword of Damocles is hanging up there, and it’s just killing my fun here in Tyria.

So – does anyone have any words of encouragement? Any Devs willing to say something about my question above? It would help. It really would.

I wholeheartedly approve of this interpretation of science if it means my engineer can build and fly her own steampunk styled airship.

God isn’t interested in technology! He knows nothing of the potential of the microchip or the silicon revolution! Look how he spends his time! Forty-three species of parrot! Nipples for men!

If I were creating a world, I wouldn’t mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o’clock, day one!

makes a gesture and accidentally shoots an energy bolt from fingers; a shriek of pain from off-screen is heard

Sorry.