I was here when Noblecoin launched [username GBattaglia, account currently in escrow], and have actually used it for services like gift cards. I'm saddened to see how things have panned out for the coin.
I understand Rofo has become disenchanted with how things have gone and how the crypto scene has evolved/devolved over the past year.

What puzzles me is the "original vision" and how it was supposed to pan out with recent events. In your "State of Crypto" you touched on the point of ASICs,
but Scrypt ASICs was one thing that threw a wrench in the gears of NobleCoin [and all other Scrypt coins]. I'm not sure if I'm recalling correctly, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

1. Noblecoin was doing well, although often had people who were suspicious of its premine and other attributes.
2. A massive pump occurs [as with most crypto currencies during this time].
3. A massive decline in price now occurs.
4. Network begins to decline in hashrate.
5. Threats of a 51% attack arise, price falls even further.
6. ASICs offering the ability to easily obtain the hashrate of what once required massive GPU farms [300Mh/s per miner now] begin surfacing.
7. Issues with difficulty arise, hashrate is even lower, transactions become unreliable in regards to time needed for confirmations.
8. Rofo is in talks with devs for PoS, and for many, many, months [in regards to the crypto-scene], NobleCoin is in limbo.

I don't see how NobleCoin could have stayed alive with Scrypt. Even Litecoin and DogeCoin had to take measures with the changing environment.
PeerCoin is probably a good example of a functional PoS coin that has remained around for a while without becoming a shell of its former self.