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City of Heroes team rebranded as Paragon Studios
Ever since Cryptic Studios sold the City of Heroes IP to NCsoft, the guys and gals left working on the game have been known as NCsoft NorCal. No longer! Nowadays, we'll be calling those fine folks Paragon Studios, according to a recent press release. Of course, the most obvious reason for the name and logo are that it sounds a lot better than the previous, and much more corporate, naming.Still, a part of us wonders what exactly this means for the future of the newly named Paragon Studios. A name change like this with a shiny new logo doesn't usually happen unless said studio needs to be recognizable by everyone. So NCsoft can say things like, "From Paragon Studios, the team from City of Heroes" and such. So... new expansion? City of Heroes 2 to one effect or another? We'll have to wait and see, it seems.
April Fools' 09: City of Heroes goes old school
Have you ever felt that the character customization options in City of Heroes are just too much? Sometimes they can just be too overwhelming, right? I mean, who wants to sit there and make a character that looks different from everyone else? Seriously, that's such a burden. So NCsoft has solved this problem with their newly announced City of Heroes: Golden Age. We think the premise behind CoH:GA is summed-up best by Lead Artist Ken Morse, "I think City of Heroes: Golden Age brings with it a level of detail that simply can not be accomplished with even the latest advancements in graphics technology."Of course this is just an April Fools' prank, but it's one of the best! The tricksters at NCsoft NorCal have done a fine job tickling our nostalgia bone while bringing a smile to our faces. Check out the complete "news announcement" on their main site, and be sure to read through the text-based interface screenshots to bring back some memories. Give yourself ten points if you laughed at the Hayes-compatible modem reference, too.
Captain Dynamic wants you to touch his 'awesome button'
We'd like to take this moment and declare our love for Rooster Teeth, because they have once again created something wonderful (probably by touching their awesome button) for City of Heroes' upcoming Mission Architect system.This is the first episode in a three part mini-series entitled Captain Dynamic, and it's basically about the very cool create-your-own-mission tools coming in the free Issue 14 update. So we hope you enjoy it as much as we did, because we really enjoyed it. Actually, yeah, we may need to see a doctor about the searing pain in our sides.Check out the entire first episode just below the cut!
NCsoft NorCal and ArenaNet weigh in on storytelling's future in MMOs
Our sister site Joystiq recently had the chance to speak with several developers about the future hurdles facing storytelling in games. Two members of the MMO industry were in the mix, and their views on how to tell a story in future MMOs are each a very focused snapshot at how City of Heroes and Guild Wars each approach story. With City of Heroes, it's not about the level of tech, but about how much the audience cares about the story. As for Guild Wars, the opposite seems to be the case: it's about learning how to tell interesting stories with new tools.We don't think either method is wrong, as both views are a product of their origin. Namely, of what the developer has learned and their audience has demanded. We're certain that both developers will continue produce story within games that evoke unexpected responses from us, for better or worse.
Telling stories: The next hurdle for story telling
As games have evolved, so too has the role of storytelling in the titles we play. As we turn the corner on 2008, we asked multiple industry personalities across all walks of game development on titles such as Dragon Age: Origins, Bionic Commando and Guild Wars for their thoughts.What's next for in-game story telling? In this, our final segment looking at video game narratives, our collective of industry professionals offer insight into what they believe is the next big challenge facing the evolution of story telling in the games we play.
Telling stories: The games that got it right
As games have evolved, so too has the role of storytelling in the titles we play. As we turn the corner on 2008, we asked multiple industry personalities across all walks of game development on titles such as Dragon Age: Origins, Bionic Commando and Guild Wars for their thoughts.It's rare that story tellers get all of the pieces of their narrative to fit together exactly right in any medium. But in this industry, where story shares a balance with gameplay and endings often get the short end of the development stick, weaving a complete and compelling tale must be a daunting task. Now, gifts unwrapped and bellies full, our panel of industry personalities sound off on those games that they feel were up to the challenge, delivering storytelling experiences above and beyond their peers.
Telling stories: How much is that ending in the window?
As games have evolved, so too has the role of storytelling in the titles we play. As we turn the corner on 2008, we asked multiple industry personalities across all walks of game development on titles such as Dragon Age: Origins, Bionic Commando and Guild Wars for their thoughts.Epic Games' Michael Capps recently caused quite an uproar among gamers with his suggestion to offer the conclusion to games as premium DLC rather than as part of the core experience. As the latest in our continuing week-long feature, we asked our panel of industry personalities what they thought of the proposal. Interestingly, much of the group was noticibly more tight-lipped in their responses than when answering other questions.
Telling stories: What's up with lame endings?
As games have evolved, so too has the role of storytelling in the titles we play. As we turn the corner on 2008, we asked multiple industry personalities across all walks of game development on titles such as Dragon Age: Origins, Bionic Commando and Guild Wars for their thoughts.While narrative has taken on a larger role, time and again we end up being left unsatisfied in the final moments with endings that fail to wrap up stories in interesting or compelling ways. In our continuing week-long feature, we asked our diverse collection of industry personalities why so many endings in the games we play leave us cold.
Telling stories: Balancing gameplay v. narrative
As games have evolved, so too has the role of storytelling in the titles we play. As we turn the corner on 2008, we asked multiple industry personalities across all walks of game development on titles such as Dragon Age: Origins, Bionic Commando and Guild Wars for their thoughts.How important are stories? How about endings? Over the next week this diverse group of personalities sounds off on these and other story-driven topics, starting today as we open up by asking whether or not narrative shares an equal burden as gameplay in carrying the video game experience.
Joystiq interview: NCsoft talks about updating City of Heroes, keeping it relevant
It's been more than four years since MMO faithful were asked to put on skin-tight suits and defend the bustling metropolis of Paragon City in City of Heroes. Since that time, however, numerous other titles have emerged with their bid for players' massively multiplayer affections, from recent efforts like Warhammer Online to the juggernaut that is Blizzard's World of Warcraft. Of course, the now wholly NCsoft-owned super powered MMO has released updates of its own to keep from becoming stale, including everything from the libertine City of Villains to this week's latest addition, dubbed Issue 13. We recently caged Matt "Positron" Miller, and spoke to the senior designer for NCsoft NorCal at length about the unluckily numbered update, as well as a number of other topics, including the availability of City of Heroes on the Mac and the superhero MMO's relevancy in today's overcrowded market.
NCsoft: Customization, tights separate City of Heroes from competition
As more publishers continue to enter the ever-crowded MMO market, it's become increasingly difficult for some titles (even those with heat vision and a magnetic colon) to remain relevant. Joystiq recently unmasked Matt "Positron" Miller, and spoke to the senior designer for NCsoft NorCal at length about the company's plans for both City of Heroes and Villains. Specifically, we touched on what NCsoft is doing to separate its super-powered MMO duo from the competition, something he said the company is currently "stressing." "City of Heroes still has one of the best character customization systems ever made," boasted Miller. "It seems that a lot of new MMOs are stuck in the 'gear = looks' paradigm that games like Everquest and Ultima established. City of Heroes offers billions (no exaggeration) of possible costume combinations right from level 1." Take that, gear. Look for our complete interview with Miller on Monday, where he opens up on a number of other topics, from next week's Issue 13 update to microtransactions and what took so long to find capes to fit users on the Mac.
The Digital Continuum: Why must MMOs die?
Sitting on my desk are copies of Earth and Beyond and Auto Assault. In fact, I've even got a CE box for Auto Assault (that thing cost me 80 bucks). Unfortunately, these games are just dust collectors now. I keep them to remind me of the possibility of sunset and how much it can suck. Even if you didn't play Tabula Rasa, there were thousands of people who did, and that's all that really matters
Community manager for City of Heroes resigns
After making a statement about PvP changes in City of Heroes that didn't sit very well in the development team, community manager Lighthouse has decided to step down from his job and pursue other opportunities outside of NCsoft. Lighthouse had apologized for and retracted the statement made a week prior to his resignation, but the popular rumor seems to be that his departure wasn't a matter of choice.No matter the reason, it's always difficult for a community to lose its liason with a game's development team. With the Issue 13 update just around the corner, we hope that something can be done in order to make sure the players have a voice when it launches.
City of Heroes Mission Architect moving to next year!
They didn't know it when they woke up this morning, but City of Heroes fans are about to have a really great day. That headline might make you think that there are going to be some disappointed folks today. Not so. Not at all. You see, while the Mission Architect is moving out to Issue 14 in early winter of 2009, that's just leaving a ton of room in this year's Issue 13 (now called "Power and Responsibility") for an epic amount of awesome stuff. Even the reason for the delay is great: the City of Heroes developers have listened to the players. They realized their system just didn't have everything it needed to be truly special, and they're giving it the extra time to get it right.So what is replacing Architect? How about an all new level syncing system that will ensure you can always keep up with your buddies? The "Day Jobs" system, with brand-new civilian costumes and a brand-new game mechanic? Rebalancing of powers for PvP? A new merit reward system? How about a new element where you can have multiple power specs kitting out for one character, and can be switched between almost at will? All this and more are in Issue 13, and you can read all the sordid details below the cut in the official release.But wait! There's more! Stick around to read our in-depth interview with City of Heroes executive producer Brian Clayton and lead designer Matt Miller! They describe all the new game tweaks, and the future of NCsoft Norcal in our discussion. Plus! Check out specific details on the deep changes to CoX PvP, and the bright future for microtransaction content in the game! All right here at Massively.com
NCsoft answers your questions about in-game advertising
As promised, we have a full transcript from The Cape's podcast covering in-game advertising. Be warned: at 44 minutes of speech, the transcript is huge. To make it easier to digest, we've split the transcript into 7 discrete sections. So that it's easier to follow, the DJs have their speech in black text, while Matt "Positron" Miller shines with the heroic green glow of his alt's Radiation powers. Brian Clayton -- NCsoft NorCal's Studio Manager -- is a cool blue presence, and Lighthouse isn't only a Red Name, he's got red speech. So, without further ado, here you go: the full transcript of Friday's interview.
CoX In-game Ads: Opting in for reinvestment
DJ Templar: Gotcha. One of the pastimes with some of the people on the forums has been taking the monthly fee that each person pays, the current total subscriber count that's been reported, multiply that, and say "okay, NCsoft has got (x) amount of money. Why on Earth do they need more?"Brian: So more money equals more reinvestment, right? For anybody that's taken any Business 101, you take a set percentage of what your revenue is and you reinvest it into the product. The great thing about in-game advertising is we're not just taking that percentage and putting it back into the product, we're taking the entirety of what in-game advertising generates and putting it directly back into the dev team. And that's why it's such a huge win. So of all the math that you work out, I would say that most companies probably only put 15 or so percent, but NCsoft invests well above that into all their products, and to have 100% of the in-game advertising come back into the development team is really a huge win.DJ Shecky: We'll go along that same line. First off, if we opt out, do you guys lose that ad revenue entirely?Brian: We absolutely do. But at the end of the day, it's more important for us to have our players have an experience that they enjoy and they're comfortable with. And if that means that they don't like the way that we've implemented in-game advertising, more power to them. They should feel comfortable to turn that off. And for those that are comfortable with it, like I said, it'll be a win for all of us, and we'll be able to grow the game more quickly and reinvest in the game more quickly. And I'm really not trying to make anyone feel guilty. This is their decision: we're 100% comfortable. We're not going to encourage customers to do this in-game advertising. This is just a decision that they need to make on their own. And like I said, if we do this right, I feel that we're going to bring a little more life to the city, and make the world feel a little more dynamic than it currently does.Positron: And I think that reiterates our statement on why we want to do it. Obviously, if we do this really well, and the ads are immersive and add to the gameplay experience, then people don't have that reason to turn it off, so that onus is back on us to make it work out really well for everybody involved.DJ Shecky: Excellent. And also, somewhat along the same lines, when you see the ads -- and if you put your mouse over them -- are they going to be clickable, or is it just an ad that's just going to be there and static, or is it going to pop up a web address for you to go and visit that company's product?Positron: No, the ads are not clickable. We're only measuring impressions, which is the view time, and how much of the ad you're seeing.Lighthouse: So that ads should work just like they do now, it's a texture: you'll see it as you go flying on by, and it won't have any ... if you're teleporting, or something, and you click on an ad, it's going to act just like it would now, and not change any of your mouse functionality or anything like that.DJ Shecky: Alright. One more followup on that same sort of thought. Knowing that it's going to be a viewable item. I know myself that I've got a number of friends that have to lower the actual graphics settings, and a lot of the ads turn out rather blurry, and we can't tell what they are, etcetera. Until I got a new card, I didn't know what half the billboards said in there. Nowadays I get a good chuckle out of them. How is that going to affect everything if somebody opts in?Positron: I'm not exactly sure. Again, I can grab a programmer on that one. But I believe we do the same sort of draw distance thing, so if it's beyond a certain distance, and it's an illegible ad, then it basically doesn't count.DJ Shecky: Okay. That makes sense to me. Templar?DJ Templar: Speaking of the opting in and opting out, right now it's basically up to the player to decide whether they want to see them or not. And this actually did come up in the forum discussions today. Is there going to come a point where -- if the program is so successful -- that you're going to say, "you know what, the vast majority of players are opted in, there's really no need to have this toggle anymore, so we're just going to make this the default, and there won't be any more option."Positron: I've always been a proponent of the opt-out feature. I really strongly feel the opt-out feature needs to be there for our players to have the experience that they want. And this feature is not just for us, it's for our players, as well. They want an immersive game, we can give them ads. If they don't want advertising -- and there's a lot of players out there who just refuse to cater to advertisers -- that is what this feature is for. We don't want to lose them as a player.DJ Templar: Okay, so the opt-in feature is going to remain, regardless of how successful the program is?Brian: Yeah, that's correct. And I think Matt and I on that question were both looking at each other because we both 100% agree that this always should be an opt-in opportunity. And we're very comfortable with that from a business perspective.Lighthouse: I was going to jump on there to reiterate what Brian and Positron are saying there, that in the original statements -- if you go back and read through what we were talking about in the text stuff -- that's part of the reason why this took the time that it did, was to find the partner that would allow us to do the opt-in/opt-out solution, so that's a pretty central piece in the whole thing in making it optional. And when you hear it from them that it's not going away, you can feel good that it's not going away. Who changes the marquees in Dark Astoria? ==>>
CoX In-game Ads: The bandwidth/revenue equation
DJ Shecky: Do you guys have an idea yet of what sort of bandwidth consumption this is all going to wind up taking?Brian: So we're still running tests, but everything we've seen so far is that it's negligible. You really cannot see the difference. We've run tests on dial-up connections, we've run them on DSL connections, cable modems, and so right now, everything looks really positive, but again, that's where the opt-out comes in handy, that if -- in some rare circumstance -- there is some sort of bandwidth hit, they can opt-out, but I really do not forsee that being a problem whatsoever.DJ Shecky: Templar, I'm sure you have another question for them.DJ Templar: Yeah. If we could get back to the community-generated content for a sec, Tony V. from Infinity posted on our forums to ask about if it would be possible for you to go into some more detail about how it will be used compared to the revenue-generating content, if there is going to be like a set amount of space set aside for community content, or if it's going to vary depending upon demand from actual paid content, and whether you guys have worked on any ratios, or how that's going to work.Positron: Well, as far as I know, we haven't actually set any sort of ratios for that ... all of the community-generated stuff. We definitely want to put it in the rotation of the ads that are presented to the players, but I don't know what the ratio of what it's going to be is.Brian: And I expect actually that ratio will be changing. Depending on where our official ad pipeline is at, at times you'll see a lot more community stuff being run, and other times you'll probably see more paid for being run, but you'll always see community ads being run in some capacity.DJ Templar: Okay. Are the existing in-game ads -- the Chris Jenkins, the City of Gyros, and that sort of thing -- are those going to be going away if you're opted into the new initiative?Positron: No, they'll be put in the rotation with everything else.DJ Templar: Oh, okay. One of the questions that I've been asked a lot -- especially with regard to the community content -- is "oh my God, how much is this going to cost?" Is there going to be a different price structure for player content as opposed to corporate content, or is that a yet-to-be-determined sort of thing?Brian: So we're still working all these things out. My intention is not to charge from a community perspective for those sorts of things. But I can certainly see where people want to post anniversaries or things like that, and certainly you need a barrier to entry to do some things like that. We'll look at it, but certainly the intention here with in-game advertising is we'll make some revenue here from the advertisers, we'll put it directly into the development team to further improve the product, and all the community fun things that we have planned will just sort of be additive fun things at the end of the day.Lighthouse: And I think one other thing to mention with anything that's coming in through the community is going to go through the same review process that the regular ads are going to be going through the team here and making sure that everybody has buyoff that this is an immersive thing that looks good in the game, it's appropriate for what we want to have out there on these billboards, so it'll always fit.DJ Shecky: How often will the ads be rotating? If you zone out, and then zone back in two minutes later, are they going to be different? Or if you turn around, are you going to see a different ad? Or are two people going to look at the same billboard and see two different ads?Positron: I'm actually not exactly sure on how that works. I can grab a programmer here in a minute -- probably in the next break -- and get you a better answer on that one. But I believe it's served per-client, so different clients will possibly see different ads, and we also ... Double Fusion makes sure that you don't see the same ad over and over and over and over again, so there will be a variety so you won't just see the same single ad on every billboard in the zone.DJ Templar: Speaking about revenue, the initial announcement states that all the all the revenue generated by ad sales in this program go towards City of Heroes development, City of Villains development, and there's been some people that say "well sure it is, it's being used for all sorts of that we have no way of knowing." So if you could, just reiterate for us where this money is going and how it's being used.Brian: I'd be happy to. So, we certainly don't want ads in our game for the sake of just having ads, right? And so it was very important that we were able to sort of work with the executive management within NCsoft to ensure that every dollar that is coming from in-game advertising be contributed directly back to the development team. And what I like about this is that this is really one of the few -- maybe the only -- opportunity for players to directly contribute to the development team's budget without actually having to open their wallet. And so, if we do everything right, and we implement things in a way that is seamless and immersive and additive to the overall feel of our current zones, then I think this is going to be a big win for the community and for the dev team, and we're going to have a lot more resources to work with, hopefully, and bring you guys cooler and more content.Positron: Yeah, I would love to do like I did with the wedding pack and be able to point out features that the advertising revenue has bought you guys. And we'll see exactly how that is going to work out in the future.DJ Templar: I think there was something on the forums about how revenue from the wedding pack helped make the VEATs a reality. Is that accurate?Positron: Accurately, what happened was we had originally scheduled them for Issue 13, but because of the wedding pack sales, we were able to fast-track them, and put some more resources into them, and get them into Issue 12. Breaking down the revenue equation ==>>
CoX In-game Ads: Selective placement, self-promotion
DJ Shecky: Somebody posted this one up on the Cape forums. Obviously there's a limited amount of places that ads can be placed in the Rogue Isles, etcetera. Are you going to be adding in more billboards? For instance, one of our DJs actually mentioned in our private chat, and I saw mentioned it out on the board, Steel Canyon you can see with a lot more billboards put in it, whereas some place like Croatoa doesn't really have space for billboards, etcetera. Is there an idea to go ahead and make more ad space?Positron: As we see how the revenues coming in from this, if we need to add more ad space, we will add billboard space, but we will only add it in logical places. It's not like you're going to be right in front of City Hall, on either side of the entrance door will be 90 foot high billboards. That's not going to happen. We may add billboards to the tram stations, because there currently is no real advertising space in the tram area, so if we're going to add stuff, it's going to be in a logical place, and it's not going to be obtrusive. The whole thing with the ads is immersive and unobtrusive.DJ Templar: As far as the ad placement goes, are we going to see ads displayed during the loading and splash screen?Brian: We have no plans to do that right now.DJ Templar: Okay. And also, kind of along the lines of placement -- and this kind of dovetails into the immersion aspect, as well -- City of Villains, the Rogue Isles, is in some places, a very dilapidated, rather dingy, darker feel, and it was designed deliberately so, so it has more of a decay going on in the environment, and some people are wondering, "well, this is also supposed to be like a dictatorial zone, this isn't really a place of freedom and expression and that sort of thing." What kind of adjustments are going to be made as far as the placement of certain ads to retain that overall feel of the Rogue Isles?Positron: So I know that Ken Morse, our Art Director, really has strong feelings on this, in that he wants the ads to match the zone that they're in. And if we need to dirty up an ad texture in order for it to match an area, that's something that we will bring to the advertiser and say, "you want to advertise, but we need to do this to your ad. Are you okay with that?" We don't want a nice big bright ad in run-down parts of Mercy. That breaks immersion, it becomes obtrusive, it goes outside the realm of what we're trying to do.DJ Templar: This is kind of an aside, but are you going to allow currency sales and gold farming companies to advertise?Positron: I have sign-off on the ads, as does Ken, as does Brian, and Ross, and I say no to any sort of real-money transaction companies right off the bat.Brian: I agree.DJ Templar: We'd asked some technical issues, and I believed it was Matt -- if I'm not mistaken -- who went to hunt down a programmer there to get some answers. And I think it was about some texture-related things, as well as how frequently or how often the ads would refresh. Were you able to get some answers on that?Positron: Yeah. Basically, the answer to the texture question was correct that I gave. It does affect the ads, so if you lower your texture quality, you will see lower quality texture on the ads, so you don't need to worry about performance hit because of that. The other question was who sees what and when, and whether players will see different ads, different players. Since it's all client-side, yes ... depending on how we're serving the ads, it is possible that players will see different ads in the same ad space on different computers. It's all being served by the Double Fusion servers, and so they just basically make sure you're seeing a fresh ad, and getting you that. And we do load the ads on zone loads, so once an ad is an ad, it's an ad for the entire time that you're in the zone. But upon rezoning -- you know, going into the mission, exiting out, reloading the zone -- it may change.Lighthouse: One thing to kind of add on that in talking with the tech guys earlier, we were talking about bandwidth issues and performance issues, anybody who's listening to what Matt was just saying might think "oh, I'm going to have to do more stuff when I'm loading in a zone." One thing to reiterate is that the textures of the ad are cached on your machine, so you're not going to have to reload them, per se, or use more bandwidth, or download them.DJ Templar: I think you said that if people are opted out, then that download does not occur, period. Is that correct?Positron: Correct.Lighthouse: Yeah.DJ Shecky: Okay. We actually got a question in here, and I'm going to paraphrase it so it makes a little bit more sense for the general public. We know that we've got a large user base, especially age-wise. Some of the older people might own their own business, etcetera. Would they be contacting you guys, or Double Fusion, if they wanted to actually opt-in their companies, their actual, physical companies, for marketing in-game.Brian: Double Fusion handles all of that, and I believe that, in the press release, their contact info is right on that press release, so they can talk to them directly and see if they can work something out with them. Quis custodiat ipsos custodes Who's keeping an eye on the content? ==>>
CoX In-game Ads: How to make 'em, where to see 'em
DJ Shecky: Alright. And as a followup to that, I had a couple of people -- namely one of our other DJs -- had come up with the thought of "is there going to be a separate little piece of software that's going to be installed for targeting the advertisements?"Brian: There is an SDK installed, but it's not gathering any personal info. It's really just there to serve the ads, to cache the ads, so that it has little to no impact on the bandwidth that's being used, and that's really all that package does.DJ Shecky: Excellent. Templar, why don't you go ahead and ask your questions.DJ Templar: Kind of in line with the data collection question, how is this being tracked in terms of ... is it literally like a billboard in real life, where someone who pays for space really doesn't have a clear idea of how many people who're seeing it, or is there going to be something in place that indicates how much traffic, like nearby traffic, a particular advertisement gets?Brian: Well certainly it's handled differently by different advertisers, and with different products. Certainly, in the MMO space, we have a few more advantages to sort-of real-time track who's viewing billboards than we do in offline packages, so we will look at how much of the ad is shown on a screen, how long it's looked at, those sorts of things. But again, that's sort of looked at as an aggregate number, not necessarily on a per-customer number.DJ Templar: Okay. Shecky, what do you have?DJ Shecky: Alright. I've seen this mentioned on just about every forum on the City of Heroes site, and on our own forums, and that's with the idea of player advertisements for player supergroups and etcetera. What's the cost going to be, and how would people go about sending you guys doing it ... how would they get their ads placed onto these billboards?Positron: So the players will be able to make their own ads and send them to us, and in the beta test we're going to be using a lot of player-generated ads that we get. And then, as we move out of beta and move into the live stuff, we'll most likely have contests where players can submit ads, so we'll definitely pick winners from that and get their stuff. And I believe on our forums is a link to the size and color limitations that we have for the advertisements.DJ Templar: Yeah, I saw that.Lighthouse: On the player submissions form, there's the details, the specifications and the ratios for the pieces that can be submitted, as well as the submission address to send them in.DJ Templar: I've been trying my best to follow the main thread on the official boards discussing this announcement, and one of the issues that's been brought up is ... if it starts with the in-game billboards, where might it go from there? And some people have mentioned the slippery slope concept that this is simply the beginning of a much greater ad presence in the game. What sort of plans are there to expand beyond using current billboards?Brian: I wish I knew the answer to that question. The truth is that we're just looking at swapping out the current ad placements -- our fictitious ad placements with real-world ads -- certainly we could look at other opportunities and find other interesting ways to make the game a little more fun through advertising, but really that's not where our heads are right now. We want to take step 1, we want to look at how this is received by the community. We want to make sure that we can make good, and that we can ensure this is immersive, and not intrusive, and I think once we have a stable platform for that, we'll open up some ideas to the community to what else they might be interested in. But right now, the model that's proven is just flat-texture billboards working in online immersive worlds, and that's where we'll start. I certainly am very open to the fact that that concern would be out there within the community, but I hope that we're continuning to build trust with the community in the fact that we're really up front with our business initiatives. When we comment about features that are going into the game they actually do make it into the game. A lot of times that may be received as not giving out enough information, but we really want to be up-front with our community, be as honest and transparent as we possibly can, and hopefully continue to win their trust and confidence in the way that we want to grow the game.Positron: I think that our players have a valid concern with where we're going to go with this, but they also should look to us to ... trust us, because we want to make the game immersive, and not exploitive. We don't want the players to be bombarded by ads every which way they turn. We want it to be a nice experience for them, not a turn-off.Brian: And I should also say that going forward, we expect that anything that we implement with advertising revenue attached to it we fully expect to be an opt-in or an opt-out situation. So players will have the ability to pick and choose what level they want to participate in with these initatives.DJ Templar: Would any game content be linked to any of the advertisements, in the sense that -- if they did opt out of seeing the ads -- they would miss out on any part of the game experience?Positron: No. We don't have any plans for that.DJ Templar: Okay. What about the zones that lack billboards? I think ... I'm pretty sure that Croatoa, for instance, doesn't have any billboards, but I could be wrong. Is that simply going to be an ad-free zone, or are there going to be some modifications made to accomodate, or how is that going to work?Positron: Initially it's going to be an ad-free zone, but we'll see how things are going, and if the players seem to like the way the ads are working, and it's not really immersion-breaking, and they're working for players, then we can start adding some billboards in logical places in the zones that don't have them.DJ Shecky: Something I saw a lot of people mentioning throughout the day today is on the opting out. There were a lot of questions about opting out, from whether you can opt out and opt in at will -- say you want to try them, then you decide you don't want them, then you decide you do want them -- are you going to be able to switch in and out with that, and when you do opt out, does it just prevent the ads from being seen, or does it stop everything from downloading to the actual game client?Brian: So the current plan right now is to let people opt-in and opt-out at will. And if you're not opted in for the in-game advertising, you'll currently see the same fictitious billboards that you currently experience in the game.Lighthouse: And I can comment further on that. I was talking with our tech lead about that and actually answered this question on our forums earlier today, in that when you opt out, it actually is bypassing all of the ... the game client is not using the Double Fusion code and technology, so ... really, and they're very conscious about bandwidth and performance usages, so from that standpoint, there wouldn't be any extra bandwidth going on, because it's not even going through that code path. Balancing CoS increases with QoS needs ==>>
CoX In-game Ads: The wrapup
DJ Shecky: I think this is a good spot for us to collect our thoughts, and go over and make sure that we've covered all these questions before we start to wrap things up. What about you guys?Brian: Sure.Lighthouse: Sounds good.DJ Shecky: Gentlemen, I think we were going to give everyone a thirty-second wrapup time. Is that right, Templar?DJ Templar: Yeah, that sounds about right.Brian: I'll do my best to only take thirty seconds. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to put us on the air and talk direct with the community and be able to answer their questions. One thing we did want to confirm with everybody is that this is definitely a post-Issue 12 launch. We'll do some testing in the closed and open beta of Issue 12, but our intentions are to go live sometime this summer with the in-game ads. And I just really want to thank our community for continuing to support us, and trust us. And we're doing our best to continue to grow the development and resources to better support their game and improve the game, and we're just real excited about the future of City of Heroes, and all the things we have planned. And we look forward to the next few months where we'll be able to disclose a whole lot more about those plans.Positron: I'm happy with everything we've done today. I'm glad we had an opportunity to talk with you guys, and answer these questions directly that the players have had. I'm also happy with the way this has been received on the forums. I was kind of steeling myself for today, because I was really unsure of how the majority of the community was going to react. Because we have tried to make this such a friendly addition to the game -- allowing players to opt-out if they just do not want to see any ads -- we wanted to make sure that message was clear. And it was apparent from what we saw on the boards that yes, we did make that message clear, and that yes, we are going to reinvest all of this money straight back into the game, and that a lot of players are actually in favor of this addition.Lighthouse: And I think also looking at the piece that was really well-recieved was making sure that this really is immersive and adds something to the game. At the end of the day, City of Heroes and Paragon City, and sections of the Rogue Isles, they're cities. And I think we're working hard to make this come off right, and make it a fun addition to the game that people will look back and enjoy and kind of go, "why were we so worried about that? This is kind of fun!" At least that's our hope, and we're working hard to pull that off. And as Brian said, to maintain your trust and your support in the game that you all enjoy and that we love to make.DJ Templar: Well again, I want to thank all of you guys for coming out, and I hope this went a long way to clear up some of the lingering questions there have been about today's announcement. And I expect the discussions will continue on the forums for quite a while longer.DJ Shecky: Positron, Brian, Lighthouse, thank you all very much for doing this, and doing it with us. We'd love to have you back any time that you guys want to make any sort of announcements, or if you just even want to say hi.Brian: We absolutely enjoyed it. Thank you for having us.Positron: Yes, this was awesome. Thanks.Lighthouse: And we know that people are really looking forward to Issue 12 information, but there's still a lot more things to talk about with Issue 12. And thanks again to The Cape, and DJ Shecky and DJ Templar for having us on today. - - - So there you go: a full transcript of The Cape's interview with NCsoft. As we get more information about in-game advertising -- whether directly from NCsoft, through a third party, or via Issue 12 -- we'll let you know. Until then, thanks for reading Massively. Now go out there and kick some spandex-clad butt!
