I am a gamer.
It isn’t all that I do.
The fact that I am even writing about this at all is a step out of the
norm for me.
I cant say I have been a hard core, min/max type, but I have
usually had a hand in some long term MMORG or another for the last 15
years. Like many people, I gravitate to
the community of it, the long standing network of casual to significant
friendships that form from repeat players and interactions. When I sign up, I am probably going to
maintain my presence for years.
I have met lovers, been welcomed with open arms by strangers
when traveling to new cities, even found work through these interactions. Its not at all hard to say, these were social
networks long before Zuckerberg was feeling rejected and typing the first lines
of code for Facebook in his dormroom. I
think that these characters, almost become ‘pets’, or even sub fragments of our
own personalities. We identify with
them; we assign them their own traits and want the best for them. But again, the most important aspect for many
of these games, is the social network, the internal community.
Recently, NCSoft decided to pull the plug on City of
Heroes. Abruptly. Literally, a wake up in the morning to the
news, with all the tact of a adolescent PVP griefer:, ‘ All COH staff R fired
and COH is DOA in 3 mos. LOLZ!’ Now many
long term gamers have gone through a games twilight phase before, but COH
wasn’t in it, by any evidence. The
populations were relatively stable, new content was being churned out
regularly, the game was continuing to improve.
In fact, another major expansion and content release was being promoted
regularly well into final testing on the beta server. (One has to question the legal position they
have put themselves in, soliciting paid subscriptions for VIP content, only to
cancel it as they did.. I personally feel like I have been deceived, but that
is another matter.)
But I think even more telling, is the shock and outrage
across the player community. Tracking
the comments show how widespread and deep this community goes. Not just the immediate group of friends, a
particular server, or even the greater player base.. sincere sympathy is
expressed to the development team who seems just as surprised at this as the
player are, the greater gaming community recognizes this is sad turn of events.
People who haven’t even played see this
as bad. The feeling of betrayal is apparent.
NCSoft is not getting a good reception from this.
For good reason. Most
games, do something for their loyal players.
Everquest still has a server running for Cazic’s sake. One has to wonder, why NCSoft would turn such
a callous hand to its staff and a loyal fan base. Rumors abound, from their no longer wanting a
US market, to corporate deception on the level of a Tom Clancy conspiracy. Perhaps, it is a issue literally beyond their
control, but if not.. it becomes a matter of consumer commoditization. Profit is maximized regardless of the human
cost, and the social network effect is neglected.
I don’t know many corporations that done take the social
network effect into consideration. COH
has a strong internal social network that expands beyond the confines of the
field enforces walls of Paragon City, and I cannot see disregarding that
network to be a successful model for any cooperate venture these days. I am not sure what NCSoft is planning to do,
to help mitigate the image that they have created: that the social network they created, the
playerbase and staff are nothing more than communities to be used and
discarded. I cant imagine that being a
viable long term strategy for any company that uses an internal social network. As it stands, I will avoid any NCSoft game,
simply because of their disregard for the community and staff that support
them. I am looking to the news and
events that follow in the next few days.
There are already in community groups looking to buy the franchise
rights as well as other approaches, such as petitions (http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes)
and write in campaigns.
One lesson being learned, however, is I don’t think a
corporate entity can foster a social network, and then just expect it to go
away without repercussions. Perhaps,
this is a relatively new factor in corporate strategies that many companies are
going to have to address, especially in the MORG realm. Can you imagine the outrage is Facebook
suddenly said ‘all done’ or even pictogram?
It would be a scandal, and the company wouldn’t survive.
So, said my piece.
I’m off to put on my cape and try to save the world form an overwhelming,
impossible adversary. After all, its
what we do on City of Heroes. @Vengeance
MK2 on Guardian if you want to say hello, at least, while the world lasts.
No comments:
Post a Comment