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Reply to Mr. Strain's Letter
Well here is what I replied to Mr. Strain's rejection of our proposal, I post it in hopes of your enjoyment. Right now I am going to try those other options I had mentioned, likely to also add in some new elements and polish the proposal for introduction to a new potential buyer. As before there are no promises but giving up is not an option when proposing something that is "doing the right thing," while providing something you thoroughly enjoy:


"Mr. Strain,

Thank you for getting back to me.

First, I want you to know that your work on GuildWars and the products you created in your "previous life at Blizzard" with your cohorts at Arena.net have been cherished and enjoyed for over a decade by me. I purchased GWEN merely to support Arena.net and their philosophy regarding the cost of gaming. When Tabula Rasa first came out I even sent a letter to NCSoft, addressed to Taek Jin Kim, where I offered to purchase Tabula Rasa for $250 as a one time fee, with a variety of reasons this would be a good idea. Unfortunately customer service felt it was their duty to open the letter and it never reached the intended addressed recipient, Mr. Kim himself.

In regard to Tabula Rasa, I am sorry to hear you cannot take us up on this proposal that was made on behalf of we the players who wish to save Tabula Rasa, with their input and ideas which only inspired and helped make it better. I do apologize it was not "clean" and perfect but time as it is to do something it only seemed appropriate to get at least the ideas sent to you. I had no idea I'd be waiting almost 2 weeks to hear word about it at that time, that Tabula Rasa was of such a low priority to anyone in NCSoft that it was the "snow ball in hell."

It is sad when a gaming company must do these things, I mean closing games, especially when the company has shown not to have advertised Tabula Rasa very much, or to have accorded the game's players the recognition of their actual consumer relation which is helping afford people like yourself your paychecks.

Understand that Tabula Rasa did something remarkable for many of us: Tabula Rasa was the first game that we, often older people who have been gaming for decades, had been willing to pay to play. In marketing they say that's an expansion of the market, however, apparently this is insignificant to NCSoft, and, it appears, why NCSoft cannot see their errors, errors that do cause this rare and refreshing sci-fi genre game, Tabula Rasa, to deserve a second chance.

Now when the above is taken in light of the current economy, what has been proposed by us was to give NCSoft a unique first opportunity to do something that would put NCSoft above WOW in the minds of many gamers, and especially their parents, with a moral and useful purpose beyond mere entertainment. This could have been accomplished with the assistance of the entertainment community as well, through celebrities, to which I have the legal and both agent contacts to Angeline Jolie through an actor who sees gaming as the future of entertainment and would be at our disposal if NCSoft were to have seized this opportunity that they rejected without a dialog -- perusing from on high with an eye toward rejection merely because a solution is being proposed from the outside, from the other side, players, or, at least that is how it certainly does appear.

Unfortunately, as has been apparent to many of us for most of this year or more playing Tabula Rasa, that NCSoft appears bound and determined to make sure Tabula Rasa fails at every turn, every opportunity. The idea of announcing closure some 3 days before black Friday, in your position as President of West Coast Operations I am sure you can see how such timing of the closure announcement is irresponsible to even giving the game a chance at Christmas. It would be different if NCSoft had made any attempt whatsoever to mobilize the current, at that time, 27,000 players, back in June or even back in February when budgets were cut in half and that this resulted in no significant increase in subscription. But no such effort was made, just announce and close as though hell bent on ending Tabula Rasa, and nothing else.

Further there has been no attempt to make the referral program more encouraging and convenient for players to refer others to Tabula Rasa, something many of us have complained about during the course of the year or so the game has been open.

Instead the only thing we the players see is a consistent refusal, rebuttal, and enforcement of "distance" between NCSoft and the player base, one that leads to favoritism and misuse of our payments for game play many of us are not wanting to pay for (i.e. spending on PVP balance when players are screaming for PAU or bug fixes.). Another good example is recent spending on putting up "invisible walls;" or the "new look," pets, and other recent add ons -- Why do this with a game that's closing in 3 weeks where people are waiting for PAU thinking it'll be for all of us and not just a select group?

Certainly one obvious answer is that these unnecessary activities may mitigate negatives toward NCSoft in the minds of some customers, on one hand, but on the other this only re-enforces our commitment to never buy another NCSoft game unless it is a one time payment scheme or free. We want our moneys worth out of NCSoft now for what we invested hours into on the notion it would be here for years but that NCSoft feels perfectly sleep-at-night comfortable with closing after taking our money -- taking our money is the clearest message that is resonating amongst the players in general chat and forums as far as NCSoft's "commitment" as a gaming company.

This treatment of us is especially insulting, and mistreating us as customers. Many of us initially bought this game after trials that excited us due to the PVE aspect of the game, which accounts for the peak subs of around 75,000 players in June of 2008. What appears to be eluding NCSoft is that many who are still playing are the people who stayed, who are wanting to save the game, and have supported the paychecks of the NCSoft employees involved with Tabula Rasa until NCSoft decided that giving away 2 months of play is more profitable than receiving our payment.

I can promise you that, for me, I will never subscribe to another online game. NCSoft has assured, in my case, that the expansion that Tabula Rasa brought to MMOs is over. And that's a real shame, that we consumers, people who are already scared to spend due to the current economy, NCSoft want's to encourage us to be even further disinterested in spending our money on gaming, especially those who only newly began spending with this game, Tabula Rasa.

Mr. Strain Tabula Rasa clearly is not the big seller GuildWars is, but I can assure you that Tabula Rasa has inspired more passion in more players than any other game since Ultima Online, or Ever Quest, and that NCSoft has made a brutally costly miscalculation in closing Tabula Rasa in regard to the player community they, and every other gaming company has a policy of, keeping a distance from.

Again I thank you for replying to me, and please do appreciate my reply, made in hopes of informing you what all those wonderful people in the marketing department are absolutely inept to notice, acknowledge or convey, especially with all the inflection possible the written word will provide.


My apologies for thinking NCSoft could do the right thing,


McGillicutti"

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by McGillicutti  Posted on Wednesday 11 February 2009 - 11:32:35

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