The Phoenix Project Kickstarter (Attention City of Heroes Fans)

The Game Room
1

There is a thread concerning the MMORPG City of Heroes, which closed its doors almost a year ago. I wanted to create a specifically separate thread for The Phoenix Project’s Kickstarter so that more eyes would see the message that I’m trying to spread. Since Kickstarters are by definition an organized request for money, I took the prerequisite step of asking the mods if such a thread as this would be allowed, and I was told I could proceed. Onward!

I won’t belabor the boondoggle that surrounded the sunsetting of the City of Heroes game; anyone who cares to know the details already knows. One of the strongest parts, perhaps THE strongest part, of the game was the player community. I say was, but that community, while no longer having an active City of Heroes game as their nucleus, nonetheless kept a dedicated core of players and fans (shout out to the Titan Network!) together, determined that their favorite game would not go gentle into that good night. Or at least the essence of that game.

A huge group of volunteers has come together over this past year to craft a game which is being called by some a spiritual successor to, not a copy of, City of Heroes. They are known as Missing Worlds Media, and their efforts to build a game containing all the things players loved about City of Heroes (and more!) have taken great strides thus far. This effort is titled The Phoenix Project, and the game-in-progress has now been named City of Titans. Enough work has been done that Missing Worlds Media is now in a position to open a Kickstarter fundraiser, which actually did begin today, October the 2nd. As I type this, their goal of $320,000.00 has passed the 40% point in just over 18 hours. Here is the direct link to The Phoenix Project Kickstarter:

The Phoenix Project - City of Titans

If for some reason the above link doesn’t work for you, please visit www.kickstarter.com and search for "Missing Worlds Media’, “The Phoenix Project”, or “City of Titans”.

The main page of The Phoenix Project Kickstarter should tell you a lot about what the progress, goals, and intentions are. Obviously, no one reading this need pledge one thin dime. I’m posting here so that former City of Heroes players, if they haven’t seen the news elsewhere, and others may learn of this project. Whether you played City of Heroes and were a huge fan of the game, or only played a while and moved on, or never heard of City of Heroes while playing one of the other superhero-themed MMORPGs, or you never knew there were superhero-themed MMOs at all but it sounds interesting, please come take a look. If superheroes aren’t your cup of tea, but you know gamers who might be interested, please point them towards The Phoenix Project Kickstarter. Any level of participation you indulge in is and will be most appreciated, even if all you’re doing is reading this post.

Thanks for your attention!

Disclaimer: any errors or misrepresentations contained in the above message are my fault, and should not reflect on Missing Worlds Media, of which organization I myself am not a part of.

2

I was about to ask the mods for permission to start this thread when I saw your post in the standing CoH thread. When I pledged, they were already past the halfway point.

3

I’m in for $10. I’ll probably never play this, since I have a life (and baby) and all, but… Man.
If I could have my name up there, why not? I can afford $10 for that. The only thing is if I should use my old main’s name (Governess Peake), or my forum handle, Tabby_Cat…

4

Thank you for starting this thread. I hope everything works out. So… any questions?

5

Questions? Are you part of MWM?

6

Answer is in the last line of the OP.

7

I think Tabby_Cat was replying to E-Sabbath, as his/her comments (“So…any questions?”) seemed to be inviting queries about the project, hinting that he/she is in a position to answer those queries.

8

As I recall, E-Sabbath is Warcabbit, the project lead.

E-Sabbath, Kickstarter aside, do you still need volunteer help with the project itself?

9

City of Heroes was my first MMO. I’ve many fond memories of fumbling about in the first weeks of the game. I made many many alts, but never got a character above the mid-30s. I just didn’t have the perseverance, and I wandered away to other games. Still, one’s first love always holds a place in the heart.

I backed this kickstarter, partly for nostalgia and partly for the hope of a great new game.

My main concern is that they’re building a backward-looking MMO. This is both good and bad. Obviously, this project is trying to recreate something that was lost. But it may make it hard to add in improvements. An MMO does not have to be innovative to be successful, but it helps a lot. I hope the architecture they’re building can accommodate changes in the market’s expectations for MMOs. That is, build for future progress and not just a reflection of the past.

10

It’s been a while since COH shut down - what’s the attrition rate like on the volunteers? $300k sounds crazy low for an MMO (even Mighty No.9 asked for more) and while I get that you’re relying on volunteers, do you have enough?

Is the end product going to be open sourced? If not, who is going to own this? Has every one of the volunteers signed over their work to MWM?

I’m… really worried about this one. I’m willing to lose my $10 (wasn’t going to gain much anyway), but I really want to see this succeed…

11

But part of what made City of Heroes great is that it was innovative.

And honestly, we’re doing okay. We’ve been together for a year, and everyone remaining is in for the long run, now we solved the personality problems. Right now… we could use a very good writer, and a very good 3D artist, but we’re pretty good on staff as it is.

320k is what we needed to make as an absolute minimum. We were dubious we were going to make that much, because on KS, 319k is the same as $0. More is better.

12

Never used Kickstarter. Questions:

[ul]
[li]Is it possible to buy Kickstarter tiers as gifts for other people?[/li]
[li]Can an organization…like, say, a gaming group…buy a Kickstarter tier? For the purpose of getting an in-game mention of the organization (as opposed to an individual) at some tier or other?[/li]
[li]After decades of vaporware – the Curse of the Superhero Game – why am I filled with wild, soaring hope?[/li][/ul]

13

Sailboat, this being my first foray into the world of Kickstarters, I’m sorry to say I can’t at present answer your questions. But I’ll do a little digging and see what I can come up with. After all, you can’t be the first person to ask them.

As for your third point, I’m right there with you.

14

Congratulations on passing the minimum funding level! The rest is all icing?

15

Missing Worlds Media does have a few stretch goals:

$350,000.00 - Android port of the Avatar Builder (which I believe will be a stand-alone character creator; such characters can be put into the game later)

$400,000.00 - iOS port of the Avatar Builder

$450,000.00 - MacOS version of the game, ready at launch

I’m not familiar with Kickstarters, but I’m fairly impressed with pledgers hitting the initial goal in the first 6 days (of 34 days), and it’s looking like the first stretch goal will be reached in the 6th day also.

E-Sabbath, please be so kind as to correct my errors.

16

Gratz on getting funded!

17

I have a Kick-Starter newbie question.

I’m interested in getting one of the Add Ons (the phoenix pet). But there doesn’t seem to be anyway to actually request it on the project page. How does this work?

18

Don’t feel bad; this question has been asked many times. Here’s what you do:

Let’s say you choose the $50.00 tier as your pledge. After making that pledge, you should now see a blue “Manage Your Pledge” button on the right, under the running pledge total.

Click that button, and it will take you to a screen where you could cancel your pledge altogether, or choose a higher or lower reward tier. There will also be a box with a dollar amount equal to the reward tier you’ve chosen.

Don’t select a different reward tier; instead, increase the dollar amount in that box by the cost of the Add-On(s) you wish to select. In this example, you chose the $50.00 tier, and wish to add on the Phoenix mini-pet. You would then erase the $50.00 and enter $80.00. After the Kickstarter ends on November 4th, surveys will be sent out to everyone, asking exactly which Add-On was desired.

Hope this helps you. If it still seems confusing, let me know. The whole process does seem a little counter-intuitive.

19

It’ll be in the survey after the kickstarter closes.

The part you do now is add the price of the add-ons you want to your pledge. So, if you want to pledge at the "Fly Free’ ($75) tier and get the phoenix pet add-on ($30), select the Fly Free tier, but change the default pledge to at least $105. Then, when the survey comes in, there will be an option to select the add-ons you want.

If you’ve already pledged, you can still change the amount until the kickstarter ends.

20

Two questions:

One- I’ve got a lower-end computer. Any chance we could get a sneak look at what sort-of hardware requirements you’re planning for the game?

Two- What -sort- of writer are you looking for?