I hate monopolies. While Di$ney is not a a monopoly in the traditional sense, owning and controlling 100% of the means of production and distribution of a single, vital industry, they have their fingers in a LOT of different aspects of the entertainment and information industries. They hold entirely too much influence over individuals, businesses, and government, in a way that no corporation should have no right to do, because of it.
I know that City of Heroes is small enough potatoes compared to any one of the multiple television networks that they own, and my $15/month would not amount to much in comparison. But I have no desire to give them *any* of my money.
The idea of CoH becoming yet another Di$ney property is repulsive to me.
Everyone has a right to an opinion - and I totally respect yours. I'm not a fan of monopolies myself. But I would hardly consider Disney a monopoly.
Disney has, and this is not all that long ago, sat and looked at bankruptcy. And not once but twice in my life time this has happend, so seeing them do well now ... well I consider them to be savvy in business, but hardly a monopoly.
Do they seem to these days have their hands in a lot of pies? Sure. The reason they have their hands in a lot of pies is because they were facing bankruptcy because all they focused on was their theme parks and films. When they managed to drag themselves out of that they learned to diversify as a company. When they did, they did it in companies they at least understood enough about to do well, or ones they actually had some background in.
Disney is a lot of things. They fought to keep animation old school longer than any other movie industry company, there's several excellent documentaries out there by former employees that tell that story better than I ever could.
Yeah, they're everywhere now. But they as a company know how to take something and bring it back from the brink better than anyone. They embrace new technology and they tend to leave those who know best in charge of their properties, and they give them the funds to not just be successful but ... yeah, like "Condorman" make some whopping mistakes.
That's how they got out of their near death the first time, by taking risks and having a little faith in crazy ideas from film makers no one would listen to back then. Back when they released TRON, everyone thought they'd lost it. We all talk about Tron but they actually had 6 films in a row, not all of them hits - which were completely outside the "Disney" mold. They weren't just outside it - they took risks on film makers outside the Disney loop and they trusted them with cash to make something new. The fact is, they allowed the people they invested in back then to do things their way. Seems to be the philosophy there now as well.
My thoughts are this, if I won the big PowerBall - I'd have bought CoH and given it to Paragon Studios with enough cash to make CoH2 and said, "Boys ... go make as much money as you can!".
But I didn't.
So I'll go with who ever can help save this game, this community, this group of people I've come to love.
When your child needs a kidney to live, you don't tell donors, "Man, I'd take the kidney but... I saw you pull up in a limo, and I just don't like rich people.".
