I've been pondering for a couple of days what the City of
Heroes closure is like for the players.
It can't be too important, because however many eloquent
articles, blog posts or essays get written, it is still just a game. Or better stated, a form of entertainment. It is what people do with their free
time. And while I am deeply saddened by
its closure, I know that I can easily find something else to fill the hours. I guess what I am saying is that the
description of "Nerd Rage" is pretty spot on.
It happens to be righteous and justified Nerd Rage. As hundreds of forum posts and blogs have
already said, while CoH wasn't making huge profits, it was still running in the
black. This wasn't Star Wars Galaxies
or Matrix Online, who's closures begged the question "What took so
long?". This was a small, but
healthy game.
The parallel I finally came up with was sports, and
specifically franchises moving. Every
story of a franchise moving is different.
I think few people mourned the passing of the Montreal Expos or the
Vancouver Grizzlies. My town, St. Louis,
had an NFL team leave and one arrive.
The Cardinals threatened the move for about 5 years, so while I was sad
to see them go, it was also kind of a relief.
The Rams in LA also seemed on life support for about the same amount of
time.
Sports are also entertainment, but entertainment with a
sense of community and investment. St.
Louis is a fun, fun town when the Cardinals are in the World Series; the town
was electric last year. Conversely we
feel the setbacks that much harder. 27
years later, and Denkinger is still a
dirty word around these parts.
City of Heroes ceasing operations is like Walter O'Malley
moving the Dodgers to LA.
·
the Dodgers were always the afterthought in
NYC. Go Yankees.
·
they were still beloved by their fans and drew
well.
·
the move was made because the Brooklyn Dodgers weren't making enough
money
Maybe
I'll blog some more about why people get way too invested in sports and MMORPG's. Right now, the important part is that they
do. And if you stopped rooting for the
Browns when they moved to Baltimore, or hated the Colts move to Indy, you should know where
this Nerd Rage is coming from.
