New efforts!

[Minotaur]

All I want is Virtue >_>

Buuuuut, If I had to name a server, I'd call it The Shadow Shard.

The shadow shard should be the test server.

[Power Gamer]

The shadow shard should be the test server.

that would be awesome

[LaughingAlex]

Bad news with regards to NCSoft.  It has little to do with us but I will say this; no one here rub any salt in the wound.  Unless I hear the talks had gone south i'm assuming they are still on going to get the game back but I just saw this.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/23/7050545/wildstar-carbine-studios-layoffs

I am not sure how this will affect the efforts but the stakes I feel had risen cause, well, the team is trying to get the game back, while NCSoft was forced into cuts here.  It seems they spared Arena net but just about everyone had to lay off people.

Comon NCSoft accept a deal or something.

Meh, go figure, any news?  Not expecting any but still, some positive news could balance the negative.

[Sinistar]

Bad news with regards to NCSoft.  It has little to do with us but I will say this; no one here rub any salt in the wound.  Unless I hear the talks had gone south i'm assuming they are still on going to get the game back but I just saw this.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/23/7050545/wildstar-carbine-studios-layoffs

I am not sure how this will affect the efforts but the stakes I feel had risen cause, well, the team is trying to get the game back, while NCSoft was forced into cuts here.  It seems they spared Arena net but just about everyone had to lay off people.

Comon NCSoft accept a deal or something.

Meh, go figure, any news?  Not expecting any but still, some positive news could balance the negative.

I really don't think that this will affect negotiations to obtain CoH unless the NCSoft rep that is dealing with the potential buyers is one that got laid off.

This lay off was something I had expected, Wildstar launches, it's big at first then things stabilize, there is some attrition and NCSoft as usual still favors Guild Wars.

Also if NCSoft truly plans to sell off CoH and be done with it and have no say on its future once the deal is done then I really can't see this impacting negotiations.

All Will Be Well

[Jorge Firebomb]

I really don't think that this will affect negotiations to obtain CoH unless the NCSoft rep that is dealing with the potential buyers is one that got laid off.

This lay off was something I had expected, Wildstar launches, it's big at first then things stabilize, there is some attrition and NCSoft as usual still favors Guild Wars.

Also if NCSoft truly plans to sell off CoH and be done with it and have no say on its future once the deal is done then I really can't see this impacting negotiations.

All Will Be Well

Well I'd say that "some attrition" is grossly understating things. Last I heard, there were fewer than 50k subscribers left for Wildstar. They simply went too far in the "hardcore" direction and had little to nothing for more casual players to do. That really doesn't work anymore, especially not for a game with a subscription cost. Honestly it's probably in NCSoft's best interests to just shut the game down, the fact that they have not yet done so is a little surprising to me. This indicates they might do an F2P transition and maybe keep the game going for a while longer yet.

It also hopefully gives NCSoft more motivation to get some black ink on the ledger, which selling the CoH IP would do. In reality it probably doesn't have any effect at all on the negotiations.

[microc]

I see this as good news for use and coh. ncsoft spent a lot of money trying to make wildstar if you look up info on wildstar ncsoft bleed a lot of money making it. as with coh paragon studios there were too many people on the payroll for what coh was bringing in. but ncsoft made a big error on closing down coh. it was still bringing in money month per month. all they needed to do was slow down the release on content so that there would be a smaller size dev group. if ncsoft is looking to help there bottom line they would close the sale or bring back coh. if they bring coh back online they have a infusion of cash with not a lot to do.

[Power Gamer]

I see this as good news for use and coh. ncsoft spent a lot of money trying to make wildstar if you look up info on wildstar ncsoft bleed a lot of money making it. as with coh paragon studios there were too many people on the payroll for what coh was bringing in. but ncsoft made a big error on closing down coh. it was still bringing in money month per month. all they needed to do was slow down the release on content so that there would be a smaller size dev group. if ncsoft is looking to help there bottom line they would close the sale or bring back coh. if they bring coh back online they have a infusion of cash with not a lot to do.

How dare you read my mind, sir!

[BraveStar]

I agree that this doesn't look like something that would affect the negotiations. If I'm not mistaken, though, CoH was in the black, it was the "secret project" that was putting Paragon Studios in the red. Of course, you're not going to make a profit on a product until it's released, so that's hardly surprising.

[Fable]

I see this as good news for use and coh. ncsoft spent a lot of money trying to make wildstar if you look up info on wildstar ncsoft bleed a lot of money making it. as with coh paragon studios there were too many people on the payroll for what coh was bringing in. but ncsoft made a big error on closing down coh. it was still bringing in money month per month. all they needed to do was slow down the release on content so that there would be a smaller size dev group. if ncsoft is looking to help there bottom line they would close the sale or bring back coh. if they bring coh back online they have a infusion of cash with not a lot to do.

Isn't the opposite of what we want? By that I mean NCsoft relaunching cox. Can they really expect people to be like "oh, here's my money". I get it, they closed it for business reason, but can really expect people to trust them again with such a dated game. They can't. They'll sell, it's just taking for frikn ever..

[Jorge Firebomb]

I don't think that NCSoft wants to run City of Heroes again. If they did a relaunch of it themselves people would be expecting development of the game to continue, and no way could you get back the original developers at this point and hiring new people to maintain and update a game that, by all accounts, is a horrid mess of code would be a disaster. They are far more likely to sell the IP to get some value out of it, instead of having it sitting around doing nothing for them.

[Sinistar]

I agree that this doesn't look like something that would affect the negotiations. If I'm not mistaken, though, CoH was in the black, it was the "secret project" that was putting Paragon Studios in the red. Of course, you're not going to make a profit on a product until it's released, so that's hardly surprising.

CoH was still in the black/making profit. Maybe not quite as high a profit as it once did but in business PROFIT IS PROFIT.  What NCSoft did by shutting down CoH and angering many of the players was the same as killing the golden goose, you just don't do that.

[Sinistar]

Isn't the opposite of what we want? By that I mean NCsoft relaunching cox. Can they really expect people to be like "oh, here's my money". I get it, they closed it for business reason, but can really expect people to trust them again with such a dated game. They can't. They'll sell, it's just taking for frikn ever..

Trust is indeed a factor, and NCSoft burned up trust with some of the CoH fanbase with the shutdown.
Once the game is sold to new owners the new owners really must make it clear just WHO owns CoH and WHO controls CoH's fate, preferably not NCSoft. If they want their logo on the launch screen that's fine, if they want to control the fate of the game again, that won't be so fine with some players.

[Joshex]

I see this as good news for use and coh. ncsoft spent a lot of money trying to make wildstar if you look up info on wildstar ncsoft bleed a lot of money making it. as with coh paragon studios there were too many people on the payroll for what coh was bringing in. but ncsoft made a big error on closing down coh. it was still bringing in money month per month. all they needed to do was slow down the release on content so that there would be a smaller size dev group. if ncsoft is looking to help there bottom line they would close the sale or bring back coh. if they bring coh back online they have a infusion of cash with not a lot to do.

exactly what I was going to reply though a lot more shortened and less explained like this: "layoffs means NCSoft has taken losses and will be desperate for money, getting CoH back and running could prove to be a main focus for them now."

[Mistress Urd]

I recall a speed ITF - we wanted to see how fast we could do it.

First mission we blow through ignoring anything but the required stuff and a few people die - saying why are you all hopping forward? Then the Seer rescue we do it and as soon as she finishes we all exit - except for the same ones complaining about hopping forward and they die.
 
Next mission and we specifically said in tells if you can't solo a Nictus Crystal stay at the door. Then off we all went breaking into solo crystal attackers and the screaming ensued when the same few people with no clue died to the ambushes because they tried to follow along. They were not happy when we explained again - this is a speed run - that means we are going FAST.

Next we jump to the back pull both AV's and the Computer at once, jump forward and herd all the valley of lag top down. More deaths from the same folks who are lost and wandering out of the huge cloud of buffs and debuffs.

Finally the end when we pull the entire platform and the AV with fluffies and see the same folks dying. Once more we complete it in some silly time like 11 minutes and as we exit - the same people die, because they stayed in fighting.

Then the tantrums started and the other 6 players said - do you know what a SPEED ITF is? It means we go FAST. Stay with the group or at the door and have fun - it is no place for a nervous person.

It always amazes me how some people don't read chat. If a Speed ITF wasn't what you were looking for drop out. Worst case, just go with it because it will be over in less than 15 minutes.

I feel for ya, I've seen it too many times.

[brothermutant]

Cracks me up how they don't read their text invite for a SPEED run on something but type in that box practically nonstop about how you are going to fast. So what, they can type but not read the box? Makes perfect sense to me after teaching the past two years.

"THIS WILL BE ON THE TEST". Students miss the question and desperately try to get points back for the question they missed.

[kierthos]

that would be awesome

Seconded, thirded, umpteenth, whatever.

MAKE IT SO

[Relitner]

This post wins, we can close the thread now.

Nah... I'd like to think that some thousands of years from now, archeologists will uncover this thread and base their understanding of the early 21st century on its contents.

[umber]

CoH was still in the black/making profit. Maybe not quite as high a profit as it once did but in business PROFIT IS PROFIT.

Its not quite that simple for the same reason most of us don't spend our days picking up empty bottles by the road to redeem their deposit value - profit is profit, but odds are you have *more* profitable options elsewhere that you can dedicate your time and skill towards.  As much as I personally dislike the decision its hard to completely fault NCSoft for electing to stop bottle-picking and aim for bigger payoffs. 

And, of course, whatever political issues were going on with their merger talks at the time.

Getting CoH into the hands of an entity whose primary business model isn't "make money selling whatever" but instead is "make money providing the CoH property" might be a bumpy road, it might not even happen, but if it does stick I think it'll have been the best thing that could have possibly happened to our beloved franchise.

[SammiK31]

I'm not educated as to the business side of things, or the computer/tech side. I know you must have been asked this a lot, and due to laziness I can't be bothered to read through everything. I'm just wondering, the first message, is it still at that point? Or is there any progression?
Thank you guys for all the hard work, you guys are putting towards reviving City Of Heroes. You guys truly rock!! 

[umber]

The very first post in the thread should stay updated with the latest info.  There just isn't any recent info to share, the negotiations are presumably ongoing. 

At the minimum keep an eye on that first post but if you're a CoHer reading through the last 3-5 pages of the thread isn't too much hassle now and then, it might even be entertaining for you!