I replied to someone expressing the fight being over and explaining that we're only setting ourselves up for disappointment.
Here's my reply:
Disappointment happened the moment they made the first announcement.
What we do from then on simply defines what we want and how much we're willing to do to attempt to influence things to make it happen.
Honestly, I'm not convinced that things are very different now than they were before their most recent announcement.
So, on August 31st, they told us they were shutting it down.
We rallied, we made noise, we spread the word, they gave us an email address and we continued and they publicly addressed our efforts and mentioned the selling of the game, the IP and the studio. While their mention included that they'd exhausted such efforts, I just think it is great that they made mention of what we were seeking in their public address.
The things that they said don't really come off as fully believable (having a special place in their hearts for the company they sent packing with zero notice in the middle of all of this great work they'd done and had in store for us, shutting things down and preventing further account adjustments, preventing the developers from being able to do a proper sendout... and they say they want it to end on a "high note"? Hah! And then, after all of this, we're supposed to believe that efforts of good faith were made to sell and keep the team, the game and the community alive? After only a few weeks? What sort of efforts were made? Were any even at all? Or did they exhaust those possibilities before even making any attempts?).
Now we have the doom criers out and the news outlets saying the same thing they said August 31st. It's done. It's over.
We made them take notice and they responded.
We'll continue to do what we're doing. We'll step it up in some ways and we will see if they take notice some more. And some more. And some more. Until we exhaust our efforts. There is still some time before all hope is lost for further Paragon members' involvement. That certainly is the huge loss here, zero question.
However, we're not done yet. And there is still more we can get, below the best case scenario (regardless of who is or isn't interested in it).
No. I see things as being rather the same as before, but one big difference.
We're stronger now.
We managed to change the press coverage around to display what this community is about. And we managed to reach NCSoft and have them respond to us.
We're going to do our best to reach them all again and we hope to change their minds. It may not work. We all knew this from day one.
Never trying would result in failure anyway. We have nothing to lose, but our own integrity if we don't do what we feel we must.
You don't fail until you stop trying.
Even beyond just this game, this dev team and this community, we have something to fight for.
The fact that we don't think this was the right way to handle this situation.
It's their prerogative to handle it the way they want and it is our prerogative to respond how we want. And, I can only speak for myself when I say that, I want to continue to show our commitment to the same exact stance we took on August 31, because, that is what I believe is right.
I want to get an Atlas Park 34 up on Saturday.
Help us make it so.
