A Transparent, Public Attempt for CoH

[Lightslinger]

This is what I think could potentially move NCsoft to do something. Most companies have a decorum about them in that these deals are done entirely behind closed doors. Company A sends an offer to NCsoft to buy/license CoH, that offer is either ignored or turned down and that's all that is said about it. Any information that may come from it exists only as "internet rumors".

NCsoft took notice of the Save CoH efforts and it did surprise them, but they know time is on their side. All they have to do is sit quietly and all this will fade. The Save CoH movement has been working diligently and I don't want to take away from it or demean it at all, but it will diminish. Real life happens, over the course of weeks, months and years more and more people will drift away while others stay and toil.

Labeling NCsoft as a "gamekiller" is a great way to really tarnish their brand, mostly because it would instill mistrust in potential customers and the fact that its true.

What we need is a company willing to make NCsoft an offer for CoH, or at least contact them and ask to discuss the potential of buying / licensing CoH. Then they need to go public with what happens.

Best case: NCsoft works with them and CoH gets new owners/operators.

What will most likely happen: the offer will be denied or ignored. Now this company needs to go public with the fact that NCsoft definitely is not interested in selling and what happened. Now the gamekiller tag can get some traction.

"gamekiller" makes NCsoft look petty and mean, it makes future NCsoft customers think twice before spending $2 on that frog hat in their new MMO. Contact a studio that works with older or previously cancelled MMOs and convince them CoH is worth fighting for.

Keep the Hail Marys looking for the big guns to help, but reaching out on a smaller scale to studios like Turbine, Perfect World Entertainment, heck Cryptic or anyone else that might be interested.

[houtex]

I like it.  Go do it. I would LOVE to hear what happens on a rejection... or that you bought it.

/I can't, I don't have company/money to do it.... yet.  I'm workin' on that... Takin' too long...

[Lightslinger]

I like it.  Go do it. I would LOVE to hear what happens on a rejection... or that you bought it.

/I can't, I don't have company/money to do it.... yet.  I'm workin' on that... Takin' too long...

I don't follow...? I'm not implying that myself or anyone here should attempt to buy CoH, that would be a waste of time that NCsoft would certainly ignore. The point is, the people handling TF Hail Mary could target some of these smaller studios with this idea.

[Jordan_Lee]

I see where you are going with this, but I don't think it would happen. I think most companies wouldn't risk their own reputation with it's peers by doing this, and also wouldn't serious offers have a non-disclosure attached to them?

[Lightslinger]

I see where you are going with this, but I don't think it would happen. I think most companies wouldn't risk their own reputation with it's peers by doing this, and also wouldn't serious offers have a non-disclosure attached to them?

These are definitely things that would keep something like this from happening, and I admit to not knowing about these types of deals. I'm just feeling nostalgic for CoH and started brainstorming.

[Victoria Victrix]

Team Wildcard has a list.

We are working our way down the list.

I have information I cannot divulge on which companies I suspect are on your list have already quietly made offers and been either rebuffed or ignored.  Divulging those in public would potentially make life very difficult for my sources so any badgering to know who they are will be ignored, sorry.

We don't want to approach several potential buyers at once because a bidding war would be bad for CoH, not good.  A bidding war could lead an actual buyer to spend everything on the IP and code, leaving nothing to acquire some of the Paragon Studios team or advertise the reboot.  This would leave us with I24, forever, and eventual cancellation.

I do not know why the aforementioned companies that tried did not come out and say publicly, "we are making a bid for CoH," but that was they way they wanted to handle it.  Perhaps having made an offer and been refused, that might engender less confidence in their company.  Perhaps the feeling is that NCSoft, given their previous history, does not particularly give a rat's derriere about public opinion, so coming out publicly would not matter.

[houtex]

I don't follow...? I'm not implying that myself or anyone here should attempt to buy CoH, that would be a waste of time that NCsoft would certainly ignore. The point is, the people handling TF Hail Mary could target some of these smaller studios with this idea.

It doesn't have to be a company to buy it.  If, oh, Bill Gates walked in (and he could do that) to NCSoft and Mr. Kim's office and said, "I want to *personally* buy this product... what do you want?"  If he agreed, he would solely, as a person, own it.  Although, I'm sure it's way more complicated than that, but that's the deal.  Company, person... doesn't matter.

I mean, a legitimate, filthy rich person who wanted to... Bill Gates... Richard Branson... Warren Buffett...  all those and more could in fact waltz right in and buy it if they wanted and it would be nothing more than *kindling* to their money fire.  All they have to do is say "15 Million?  That's ALL?  Well, hell, how 'bout a nice 20M and we'll call it good."

I would... then again, I really really liked the game, but I ain't a Gates, Branson, Buffet, Zuckerberg, Brin, etc, et al.
 
/And I was simply offering my encouragement to go for it... but I didn't know you weren't in the position, personally or company wise, to do that.   And I was sorta pullin' your leg, but not really...

[Sleepy Wonder]

Divulging those in public would potentially make life very difficult for my sources so any badgering to know who they are will be ignored, sorry.

I checked this entire thread a couple times just to be sure; and I'm having trouble figuring out who you're responding to? As far as I can tell, nobody asked you?

I'm not going to apologize if that sounded thorny, and I do appreciate the efforts you're putting into the general SaveCoH campaign, but this is besides the point. You responded to the OP with a bit of a pretentious attitude there without any real justification for it (since he never asked for your sources), and when I see those kind of responses, I'm going to call the person on it. I don't know you personally (have never heard of you professionally) and I'm sure the same could be said for myself. I don't care if you're a best selling author, actor, millionaire, CEO or whoever. If you treat people lesser than you (which can be accomplished in a number of ways, and sometimes without even knowing it (e.g. perspective taking)), respect is diminished. Just wanted to toss that out there.

As to the OP:

I've had the same concern, but the best form of advertisement is word of mouth. The best thing you can do yourself at this point is to point out to the people you know that investing in NCSoft titles is not a great idea at this point in time. Spreading the word (the whys) in various places like NCSoft's Facebook page, NCSoft game review articles and so forth is a close second. Undoubtedly there will be hardcore, oblivious fans who will try to put you down for it, but should NCSoft screw up again, that's another chunk of gamers (often younger) who will eventually wise up. I'm not a big follower of NCSoft's titles, and I was never aware of their past history during my time with CoH - I simply loaded their launcher and paid no attention to any of their other games, which all looked like asian grind fests.

[Electric-Knight]

I checked this entire thread a couple times just to be sure; and I'm having trouble figuring out who you're responding to? As far as I can tell, nobody asked you?

I'm not going to apologize if that sounded thorny, and I do appreciate the efforts you're putting into the general SaveCoH campaign, but this is besides the point. You responded to the OP with a bit of a pretentious attitude there without any real justification for it (since he never asked for your sources), and when I see those kind of responses, I'm going to call the person on it. I don't know you personally (have never heard of you professionally) and I'm sure the same could be said for myself. I don't care if you're a best selling author, actor, millionaire, CEO or whoever. If you treat people lesser than you (which can be accomplished in a number of ways, and sometimes without even knowing it (e.g. perspective taking)), respect is diminished. Just wanted to toss that out there.
...

I always find it interesting how text can be read so drastically differently by various individuals.
I read no such context within that text which would have suggested the tone that you perceived.
Maybe I was wrong... maybe you are wrong... But, the way you've leaped to your negative conclusion about what the other person behind the text meant is somewhat disheartening.
As far as I saw it... VV simply offered her thoughts and understanding of the plan she is involved in (sharing some of the thought processes behind the plans and some of the experiences, without details). And she made a small preemptive explanation as to why she'd not be revealing the companies that she was mentioning.
I don't see that as a slight at all.
And, I'm in no way attempting to attack you about this. I just honestly implore you, and everyone else, to not jump to negative conclusions and give people some benefit of the doubt. At the very least, recognize when you, yourself, might be flavoring the text that another person has written.

Peace to everyone!

[Ad_Astra]

I read VV's post the same way you did, E-K!

Very rarely will any company divulge details publicly about pending deals or failed deals; that's just not how business works. Especially for a publicly-held (stock) company, because those details generally will affect their stock price and more importantly, their ability to get funding from their banks to pay for the next deal.

I appreciate the enthusiasm that some folks have shown in brainstorming, but at the end of the day, many ideas will not work because they don't fit with how modern companies do things. Perhaps the companies might be handling these things differently in an ideal world, where no one ever acts selfishly ot solely in their own self-interest without considering others - but that's not the planet I live on.

[LadyImmolatasia]

By Victoria Victrix: We don't want to approach several potential buyers at once because a bidding war would be bad for CoH, not good.  A bidding war could lead an actual buyer to spend everything on the IP and code, leaving nothing to acquire some of the Paragon Studios team or advertise the reboot.  This would leave us with I24, forever, and eventual cancellation.

I do not know why the aforementioned companies that tried did not come out and say publicly, "we are making a bid for CoH," but that was they way they wanted to handle it.  Perhaps having made an offer and been refused, that might engender less confidence in their company.  Perhaps the feeling is that NCSoft, given their previous history, does not particularly give a rat's derriere about public opinion, so coming out publicly would not matter.

I appreciate the wisdom here, and I can understand why it would seem like a good idea, but... I somehow feel that 'going for broke' and trying to nail as many companies at once might be a good thing.

Time is of the essence. We have momentum coming off of the closure and support but like all good things, they'll diminish over time. 'Strike while the anvil is hot' is my philosophy. Press the advantage while we've got NC somewhat on the back foot.

Keep in mind, I'm just sharing my opinion. I don't have access to half the info you guys do, and am just giving my two cents. But we don't know what the IP will be worth a year from now, more or less, or if anyone would be interested in buying or resurrecting an 8 1/2 year old game. Asheron's Call 2 was a miracle. I say if we want another, scattershot that sum'bitch and get the attention of bidders.

Of course, this could backfire and NCSoft might just hang onto the IP given its shear value. I dunno...

Keep in mind, however, that an i24 forever and shutdown is still CoX out of NCSoft's hands. That might be worth something in itself. Better chances for a sequel, or future acquisition by somebody who will care for the IP.

[Victoria Victrix]

I appreciate the wisdom here, and I can understand why it would seem like a good idea, but... I somehow feel that 'going for broke' and trying to nail as many companies at once might be a good thing.

Time is of the essence. We have momentum coming off of the closure and support but like all good things, they'll diminish over time. 'Strike while the anvil is hot' is my philosophy. Press the advantage while we've got NC somewhat on the back foot.

I do understand the impatience.  But impatience is not helping here.

Scattering our effort over several companies has several negative effects.

Some folks are literally operating on a shoestring.  They can afford 5 letters in a month (yes, I know people here for whom money is that tight) and if they send all of them to the same target, we get the impact of five letters (FYI, generally except in petitions, no one ever bothers to verify if they got 5 letters from the same person or 5 from 5 different persons.  It is all noted as "5 letters in favor of...")  But if we are scattering our effort over 5 companies, that amounts to 1/5 the impact.

People forget who they are mailing, who they have mailed, or who they need to mail.  Scattering effort makes for confusion.

Again, a bidding war would be bad for CoH.  We don't want someone spending all their available money and then leaving the game on servers that might not be rebooted for days after a crash, having no support staff, leaving the game open to hackers and unicorns, and doing no new issues.  Ideally, we do want someone who will put at least part of the band back together and support it so that it grows, not shrinks.  This was never "just" about us.  It has always been for us, and for our devs.

[Tannim222]

Think of it this way: this is a Hail Mary - a long shot. The goal (target) is to save the game, get it up and running, with some of the core devs back in place. Trying to hit that a bullseye from a long, long way off you could set your rifle to full-auto, squeeze down on the trigger, and hope you hit the bullseye. Chances are, we'd exhaust our magazine (everyone's time, finances, and effort) and hot hit the mark. Or we could take our time, and squeeze off a single round at a time, increasing the chance we'll eventually hit our target.

[Victoria Victrix]

Think of it this way: this is a Hail Mary - a long shot. The goal (target) is to save the game, get it up and running, with some of the core devs back in place. Trying to hit that a bullseye from a long, long way off you could set your rifle to full-auto, squeeze down on the trigger, and hope you hit the bullseye. Chances are, we'd exhaust our magazine (everyone's time, finances, and effort) and not hit the mark. Or we could take our time, and squeeze off a single round at a time, increasing the chance we'll eventually hit our target.

PERFECT analogy.

[LoganStarr3]

Hi Guys, I'm very new to gaming, infact CoH is the first mmo I played and the only one I've played (4 yr vet). I wanted to thank you all for all the wonderful way you've kept us informed about the developments in getting this game back. Even the lessons on big buisness and how things work. I hope we win and everyone is back to playing very soon. Just wanted to chime in. Thanks

[Blue Pulsar]

I checked this entire thread a couple times just to be sure; and I'm having trouble figuring out who you're responding to? As far as I can tell, nobody asked you?

In fact, they did. V.V. is the leader of team Wildcard. She is at the forefront of TF:HM. She is the go-to person. It's voice. She and her team have done the research and know what they are doing. You have a question about CoH being bought and ran by another company? She has the answer on how it is progressing. That is, if she can safely answer the question. Trust me, I'm sure she get's plenty of forum questions, messages, and PMs asking how it's going. She and her team are working their collective butts off. So don't be surprised if whatever emotion you can try to glean from the pixels on your screen seems to you like it may be a little "off." You could be totally wrong, but if you are right, it's not without good reason.

Oh yeah, this all not to mention that she is mostly probably correct. In life, you don't have to always be nice, but being right... that's a different story.