Hi Chris,
I understand a lot of your fears. Most of us have had the same, or expressed them here as well as on the old forums.
I think that you should probably read up on the efforts being done by everyone here. I don't think anyone wants to see a studio with no love for the game reopen the game.
But then, anyone who is going to be interested in the game is most likely not going to think they can open up CoH and not keep the elements which made it successful. If anything, the efforts to save the game have proven that the fanbase is extremely loyal - and a potential gold mine if appealed to properly.
Over and over, the expectations for what the fanbase has set the bar at have been the same, and address pretty much all of your concerns. That the game be, at the very least a solid successor in spirit which will embrace and extend the community that is already here. Basically, anyone putting up the money - already knows they have to make CoH fans happy or they're looking at just throwing money away ... so anyone who does reopen CoH, isn't going to knowingly break our hearts.
Secondly, as for NCSoft never releasing the IP. That may not be up to them. If you swing by the NCSoft Stock watch - you'll see that from September on... even though they've had two 'Major Successes' their stock is at a 54 week low. Which coincides with the efforts of everyone campaigning against the shut down. Korean financial news outlets have even taken notice of this, going so far as to call their moves 'baffling' from a business perspective.
So I suspect that NCSoft will need to do something. At this point, from a business cultural stand point - they've lost face by being essentially defeated by the CoH user base, and they've been repeatedly knocked out of the NA and EU markets by failing to achieve market share here with their games. Their stock at this point will most likely continue to drop until they resolve their loss of face.
They need to be rid of CoH, either by having happy shiny users praising them ... which probably isn't going to be happening any time soon. Or by releasing the 'offending limb' as it were. They're running out of options and just waiting for it to all blow over isn't working. The CoH community has continued to keep the heat on them, and no one sees that letting up any time soon either. Like I said, they have very few options.
They need to do something to show that are in control of their business. Even if it means sucking it up, swallowing their pride, and letting the IP go to someone else. Hanging on to it is a poison pill for them at this point and they know it.
So most likely, they will, if the correct offer comes across the table, sell just to be rid of it. They'll probably do it quietly since that would be traditional in their culture - and the announcement will come from the buyer. That's going to be their only way out at this point.
But even if none of that happens - there are efforts going on by multiple teams here to actually create a successor. A new city for heroes and those efforts are driven by players.
Those who find that silly or extremely long shot consider this... almost all of our fan base are geeks. A very large percentage of them work in the computer industry. Of those, many are veterans. I know both teams that are working on things have highly skilled veterans - and I would invite you to check their efforts out.
Everyone is welcome in these efforts. We're building all an all new city, keeping what we loved about the old one where ever we can (legally) and embracing the ideas which were known by the devs to be the future pursuits of the game, and even updating the tech - which was 8 years old.
Don't give up. Heroes don't have that luxury. Hanging in there, and giving it all we have is in our DNA. So, welcome, and stand with us.
It's the biggest TF you've ever seen here, and we plan on winning.