Even though I tend to only really socialize via RP instead of Pick up Teaming, I make friends on MMO’s (Hell, I made one friend in Guild Wars just by typing properly and not acting like an idiot), and they tend to be the socialization hubs I meet them in and chat to, and via an extension of that, the real world at cons or even just to visit.

When friends have left MMO’s (Such as CoH) I’ve found it’s been difficult or not as easy to keep in touch with them. If an entire MMO with friends, characters and memories made were to disappear, well, the blow can sting pretty hard. All that time invested and spent, only to have it gone, with only the box, an old client and bookmarks to dead forums to remind you of the time gone. (And a load of friends on Trillian.)

For the developers and staff though, they lose not only the work and time and devotion they’ve put into the game, and working with a team of people they -hopefully- really enjoy working with, but their livelyhood too. And in some cases, that -and- the game itself if they’re also players as well as workers.

If the unthinkable was to happen (and we won’t mention it, cause it won’t happen, but we’re just speaking hypothetically anyway, and touching an extreme amount of wood to prevent that hypothetical situation from occuring) well… it would certainly be a huge blow for me. My reason for going to cons? Pretty much gone. My opportunties and chances to craft stories, characters and friendships with others? Diminshed… even just something to touch base on and talk about as a last resort.

(Amusingly, this also corresponds to my internet relationships and dating post, and the idea behind the small story/comic called ‘The Game’s The Safe Word’ where two players meeting in Meatspace for the first time will try not to venture from talking about anything but the game.)

Love conquers all though, and while I break the hypothetical barrier a little here and also don’t wish to speak for others, I think it’s fairly safe to say that the CoH EU player base -does- love NC Soft Europe, in a certain way. And from the interactions with the people involved in the whirring cogs of the organization via the boards, the cons, the player meets, blogs and other social networking sites, that… bond as it were builds, and can probably be translated into strong customer retention.

Aaaanyway, this is a long post, so I’ll probably wrap it up there for the subject of MMO death, finishing on the note of saying that while a strong customer base who love the game might not ward off apocalypse (and scary, big lipped blue mutants), it probably damn well helps.

Sounds like things are all go for the weekend and other places and ventures, so thumbs up, and go get ‘em, tigers.