And, is there an outline for the proposal with the important key-points? Something we can show to the general gaming populous as a FAQ, so we can denounce a lot of the things they're worried about? They're going to eat each other alive on the official forums soon.
There's no outline.
FIRST: one thing we did NOT address was Disney doing CoH themed movies or cartoons. This was deliberate. As the old saying goes "You don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs." If the Mouse decides to pick up CoH, the Mouse has a million times more experience in picking out what properties have commercial film/video potential than we do. Attempting to tell the Mouse what the Mouse already knows how to do would not win points.
SECOND: We covered the possible conflict with Marvel Games by pointing out that there is no conflict. Both games are based on the Diablo engine which is optimized for PvP and solo. Neither game allows players to construct their own characters. Neither has the library of established content. Neither allows players to create their own missions.
THIRD: There is nothing we can say when people are paranoid about the Mouse taking over except to point out that the Mouse tends to leave people who know what they are doing alone.
FOURTH: Can't post the pitch online. There's some stuff in there that we are not allowed to reveal and were given access to only on the stipulation that we and Disney and no one else sees it. There will be people who will still whine about that and insist it is their right to see it. No, it's not, get over it.
FIFTH: We can pitch even though we do not own the game because we are pitching the IDEA of Disney acquiring the property, and not pitching the property itself. We make it very clear at the start and end of the package that the person to contact is Brian Clayton. The fact that we have no monetary interest in this might actually strengthen our pitch; we have nothing to gain, why are we doing this? Because the property is just that good.
SIXTH: What we pitched was getting the whole deal: IP, game code, server code, customer account information (yes, including all your characters), and setting Paragon Studios back up.
We spent a LOT of time describing how and why City is unique, not only among superhero games but among MMORPGs in general.
The four of us, from four vastly different age/sex/demographic/experience sets, with the help of the two senior Paragon people, pummeled our brains to come up with every possibly objection Disney could have--and counter it--and every possible way Disney could make money and/or advertise from/within the game. We pointed out how City could be a mini-Disney-vacation every night for families separated by great distance and constrained by budget. We pointed out City players' loyalty. We reiterated the PC versus mobile discussion I made with the Korean journalist. We mentioned the Big Bang Theory connection. We even pointed out the potential for game therapy for the autistic and disabled (the Mouse likes to look altruistic).
Seriously; there is nothing that anyone has asked about here or said "did you...?" that we didn't cover plus a metric ton of stuff you haven't even thought about. We spent a solid week on this, remember, doing almost nothing BUT think about it.
You need to not just write the initial letters, you need to keep writing letters. Every time you think of one more way City could benefit Disney, write another letter or postcard.
Not emails though. Ammon made all the points about how emails are easily spam-filtered, where real letters show a commitment. Unlike NCSoft, Disney isn't going to assign a clerk to toss every letter marked SaveCoH straight into a dumpster. Disney is in the business of making money, and every letter we send raises the probability of making money from this a little more in their eyes. They don't have a vendetta with Garriot, CoH serves their core market, and there is nothing standing in the way of persuading them this is something they need to look at seriously.
