New efforts!

[Shibboleth]

At a few thousand for the entire galaxy, the writers proved they have no idea how large space is.  At 3600 sectors for the entire universe and two per sector, the writers proved they were insane.  Each pair of Green Lanterns are patrolling a cubic gigalightyear per?  That's even more ridiculous than hiring one lifeguard for all the beaches on Earth.

Think of all of the beings on the millions of inhabited worlds in billions of galaxies in each sector of space.  Of all of the trillions of problems that happen every second in that space, the Green Lanterns get to work on one, maybe two.  The idea that only one is important enough for the Green Lanterns to work on at any one time is statistically impossible.  Random chance says that there have to be thousands of years when nothing important enough happens, and then a million separate cosmic problems happen on the same day.  You can't have one a week happening unless Evil schedules ahead.

It is silly now. Arguably it was silly then too, but back in 1960 the writers were probably a lot less scientifically grounded in astrophysics and their target audience were kids who assuredly were not so grounded.

Still, they have had a couple of reboots and could have fixed the matter by restricting the Corp to galaxy. Of course there probably would have been problems naming them The Guardians of the Galaxy. Not thinking that would have gone over well at all. 

[FloatingFatMan]

Still, they have had a couple of reboots and could have fixed the matter by restricting the Corp to galaxy. Of course there probably would have been problems naming them The Guardians of the Galaxy. Not thinking that would have gone over well at all. 

The Galactic Guardians!

or

The Guardians with Big Heads and Little Bods!

[Goddangit]

Well...there's always SCoRE, which seems to be careening down the tracks of the crazy train at a good clip these days...     I'm just grateful they never gave up. 

I'm also still appreciative of everything both the TFHM groups attempted to do, though, and I wouldn't even mind contributing to a "payback fund" for any or all of them for their phone calls/attempts, even though none of it worked out.  However, I'm still most grateful to SCoRE for seeing the forest for the trees right along.  NCSoft *is* NCSoft after all.  I'm assuming we can't pay SCoRE, though, because a C&D can of worms could be opened and all that.

I think the chat server SCoRE is about to go live with is nothing short of magnificent.  Give them time and I would not be surprised to be able to street sweep and even to do missions.  I also think that when NCSoft gets wind of this, and they will, it just may help the purchase efforts.  Because the value of that old disc image is going to plummet.  Why would anyone want to buy that old spaghetti code if there is software available that serves the same purpose?  They may want to sell while what they have still has value.

[ivanhedgehog]

I think the chat server SCoRE is about to go live with is nothing short of magnificent.  Give them time and I would not be surprised to be able to street sweep and even to do missions.  I also think that when NCSoft gets wind of this, and they will, it just may help the purchase efforts.  Because the value of that old disc image is going to plummet.  Why would anyone want to buy that old spaghetti code if there is software available that serves the same purpose?  They may want to sell while what they have still has value.

I am not sure that ncsoft is coherent enough to realize that and I dont think they had any intention of actually selling. we are 1 year in and an email every month or so doesnt actually justify the name negotiations. I also doubt that there will be another attempt at it.

[Shibboleth]

The Galactic Guardians!

or

The Guardians with Big Heads and Little Bods!

A little less tongue in cheek, since the Guardians are among the first races to evolve in the universe and can have been active for billions of years they could have taken the name Guardians of the Universe in a grandiose way and been on a mission to spread the Corp to as many galaxies as possible. Obviously the entire universe would be impossible but a still impressive though plausible (from our perspective) chunk of galaxies can have been brought under patrol, with each galaxy of them divided up into 3600 sectors. While each sector would be humongous, life isn't likely anywhere near the core of a galaxy anyway. Just say that life is so rare that for the most part each sector generally has fairly fewplanets bearing life and that intelligences is even more rare.

In fact there could be sectors in a galaxy which are unmanned because nothing much is going on in them. This provides ample space for bad guys to hang out in (for that matter, so to do sectors with Green Lanterns).  The Guardians themselves oversee the organization but each galaxy is run separately with only the most elite of all the galaxies Green Lanterns ever being called to work on OA (in a galaxy a long distance away from our own).

Say that each galaxy is overseen by a council of 12 Oans...if there is a population of 3 billions Oans you're looking at 250 million galaxies (though you would want to save a few Oans for other purposes like running their society, doing research, etc.). With the presumption of the rarity of intelligent life that frees each Green Lantern up to mostly be focused on his own planet though for various reasons they do get called away for sector duties (watching out for disasters threatening life evolving on other planets, occasionally having some other planet with intelligence on it to also look out for and exploration as dictated from above). As each galaxy has its own council, interesting conflicts can occur on the rare occasions (not so rare for the GL from Earth) when a Green Lantern from one galaxy finds himself for some reason needing to go to another.

I think that would clean things up nicely.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

I am not sure that ncsoft is coherent enough to realize that and I dont think they had any intention of actually selling. we are 1 year in and an email every month or so doesnt actually justify the name negotiations. I also doubt that there will be another attempt at it.

An email every month? i take it you're on the negotiating team then, because the rest of us have no way of knowing how often they are in communication with NCsoft or what's been going on. If you're talking about it here i'm guessing that either the NDA has been lifted or negotiations have fallen through.


Edit: Hmm, up to 370 pages, not bad.

[Azrael]

I think the chat server SCoRE is about to go live with is nothing short of magnificent.  Give them time and I would not be surprised to be able to street sweep and even to do missions.  I also think that when NCSoft gets wind of this, and they will, it just may help the purchase efforts.  Because the value of that old disc image is going to plummet.  Why would anyone want to buy that old spaghetti code if there is software available that serves the same purpose?  They may want to sell while what they have still has value.

One of the best things about Coh was the chat window.  Strange.  But true.  It was fantastic.  Right down to the 'beep' back space sound!  (I loved that sound...)  So having Icon 'chat server' would be monumental.  It would be one of the 'we're back' milestones. 

Next, it would be nice to share the same 'Icon' space peer to peer/micro server style with a small team of 2-8.  Local LAN or P2Peer.  And to have street sweeping to go along with that.

At the moment we can enter 'binds' and summon an NPC.  We can animate our alts with emotes.  We can fly.  We can run around a vibrant city.

But get the chat window going, enable small team functionality (small scale server), AI/Powers/Combat/street sweeping. 

One achievement builds upon another.

As for the disk image.  I hope the talks are going well and bring resolution by the end of the year.  The IP is likely to be worth less as time goes by.  Add to that, as time goes by, the emu efforts will make more progress.  Released into the wild it then becomes whack a mole.

It seems such a waste to be sitting on the IP and a depreciating game image.

There's 80-100k worth of players who just loved that game!  Do their PR and their image some good if they want to really re-enter the American market.

I appreciate they can't sell it to just any fly by night company...and the talks have got this far.

More patience.

Azrael.

[FloatingFatMan]

But get the chat window going, enable small team functionality (small scale server), AI/Powers/Combat/street sweeping. 

Umm, have you not been paying attention?  If not, clicky the linky, dude...

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,10977.0.html

[ivanhedgehog]

An email every month? i take it you're on the negotiating team then, because the rest of us have no way of knowing how often they are in communication with NCsoft or what's been going on. If you're talking about it here i'm guessing that either the NDA has been lifted or negotiations have fallen through.


Edit: Hmm, up to 370 pages, not bad.

even if they were communicating with clay tablets and  hieroglyphics carried by the pony express they could have done a deal by now. even with a buyout attempt, a company doesnt just shut down and wait. VO came out with a nice patch yesterday and COT has had some excellent progress. They have both got to be looking at prospective alpha and beta timelines.  If ncsoft is trying to kill the deal through ignoring it, they are doing an excellent job.

[Azrael]

Umm, have you not been paying attention?  If not, clicky the linky, dude...

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index.php/topic,10977.0.html

I have.  Mainly to this thread. 

Thanks for the link.

Azrael.

[Ohioknight]

I remember Mr Terrific!

"A scientist both wise and bold, set out to cure the common cold.
Instead he found the power pill, which he said most certainly will
Turn a lamb into a lion
Like an eagle, he'll be flyin'
Solid steel will be like putty, it will work on anybody
But then 'twas found this potent pill, made the strongest men quite ill
So the secret search began, to find the one and only man
What they found made them squeamish, for only Stanley Beamish,
A weak and droopy daffodil, could take the special power pill
When he took the pill specific, it made him the most prolific, terrific, Mister Terrific!"

Oh... Not the TV show.  Nevermind.  (Ducks back behind the monitor.)

Well it's well timed, I will be watching William Daniels this weekend ...

"I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is a disgrace,
Two useless men a law firm,
And THREE or more become a CON-GRESS!"

EDIT -- Oh wait, he was Captain Nice -- I always confuse those two for some strange reason

[Ryo Kinsaru]

even if they were communicating with clay tablets and  hieroglyphics carried by the pony express they could have done a deal by now. even with a buyout attempt, a company doesnt just shut down and wait. VO came out with a nice patch yesterday and COT has had some excellent progress. They have both got to be looking at prospective alpha and beta timelines.  If ncsoft is trying to kill the deal through ignoring it, they are doing an excellent job.

We all get impatient and discouraged at the delays from time to time, but the nay-saying does nothing but possibly bring spirits down. We have no evidence and no idea what is actually going on, add that to the fact that none of us has ever tried to buy a Korean IP before. Best case scenario is you're wrong and we get to point at you and snicker, worst case scenario you're right and we point at you and make frownie faces because you jinxed it. Hit that little black cloud with a hammer and crank up some Weird Al to cheer you up!

[Ohioknight]

Secret Wars. . . like how the Battleworld should have been one really bad ecological mess from being slapped together from so many variant sources, instead of providing a perfect atmosphere for a mohawked Storm to use her powers?

Secret Wars... that was the story that opened with them all watching a galaxy being destroyed.  WATCHING.  With their eyes. Eyes that were seeing the light of the Galaxy being destroyed.  Light.  From an "object" that was conservatively 100,000 LIGHT-years from one end to the other.

No matter WHAT the perspective or the technology or the magic or whatever...
They must have been standing there watching for an awfully long time.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

even if they were communicating with clay tablets and  hieroglyphics carried by the pony express they could have done a deal by now. even with a buyout attempt, a company doesnt just shut down and wait. VO came out with a nice patch yesterday and COT has had some excellent progress. They have both got to be looking at prospective alpha and beta timelines.  If ncsoft is trying to kill the deal through ignoring it, they are doing an excellent job.

Could have done a deal by now? Well, yes.
Is the pace all that unusual for a large corporation negotiating to sell off a minor asset to a small company? No, not at all. Even larger deals with major clients frequently take two years or more.


NCsoft historically just bins games once it shuts them down, so negotiating to sell off an old game IP is pretty novel for them and whoever's in charge of it should be proceeding very cautiously to make sure every CYA possibility is addressed. Even if we're talking a couple million dollars it's going to be a minor side deal without a lot of resources devoted to it. The odds are it's mostly a single mid level manager with input from the legal department as needed.


In the meantime the successor games are progressing pretty well and work using the CoH client is progressing as well. My hope is that some of that may encourage the deal to move forward as that and the simple passing of time means the original game is becoming less relevant and valuable.

[Valtyr]

Think of all of the beings on the millions of inhabited worlds in billions of galaxies in each sector of space.

Of all the fingers of all the hands in all the worlds in all the galaxies in all the universe, that one had to land on mine.

[Arcana]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kbcoOqGKFi8

No stupider than that?

I actually like that movie.

[Arcana]

It is silly now. Arguably it was silly then too, but back in 1960 the writers were probably a lot less scientifically grounded in astrophysics and their target audience were kids who assuredly were not so grounded.

Difficult to cut them that slack because even back then they acknowledged that the Milky Way had "millions" of worlds.  Off by four or five orders of magnitude, but still a lot of workload for a pair of Lanterns: with thousands of worlds each to keep an eye on, that's being stretched a little thin.  By the seventys, even writers with a high school education would know each Lantern would be up to millions of worlds.

If you were writing a Green Lantern comic and hadn't watched at least one episode of Cosmos in the 1980s and realized your scale was off, that's just lazy.  If I wrote a story set in Chicago and said there were only two 7-11s in the entire city, I'd be rightly vilified.  But so what, its just make-believe fiction, right?  Who cares if I put Detroit on the Pacific Ocean and have my characters jog from Dallas to Cincinnati in an afternoon.  How many people can actually say, off the top of their head, what the precise distance is between Dallas, Texas and Cincinnati, Ohio?  Like, basically none.  Suspension of disbelief, man.  You want accurate geography, play with a Google Earth globe.

Again: I enjoyed reading those stories and these errors didn't impair my ability to enjoy them.  But they are so blatant, and so indicative of laziness, that it speaks to the attention to detail of the writers.  As in they have none.  And they should, because why do it wrong when you can do it right for little or no extra work?

[AmberOfDzu]

I actually like that movie.

The "Hall of Justice" in that intro there reminds me of the King's Row PPD station.

[Ohioknight]

If you were writing a Green Lantern comic and hadn't watched at least one episode of Cosmos in the 1980s and realized your scale was off, that's just lazy.  If I wrote a story set in Chicago and said there were only two 7-11s in the entire city, I'd be rightly vilified.  But so what, its just make-believe fiction, right?  Who cares if I put Detroit on the Pacific Ocean and have my characters jog from Dallas to Cincinnati in an afternoon.  How many people can actually say, off the top of their head, what the precise distance is between Dallas, Texas and Cincinnati, Ohio?  Like, basically none.  Suspension of disbelief, man.  You want accurate geography, play with a Google Earth globe.

Again: I enjoyed reading those stories and these errors didn't impair my ability to enjoy them.  But they are so blatant, and so indicative of laziness, that it speaks to the attention to detail of the writers.  As in they have none.  And they should, because why do it wrong when you can do it right for little or no extra work?

Okay, first of all I'll confess that I REALLY liked John Byrne's run on Superman -- It gave us Lois and Clark (which I REALLY liked at least 10 episodes of) and Superman: The Animated Series/DCAU (which is my favorite incarnation).

BUT Byrne went to great lengths to assure us that Superman had to breathe and therefore he couldn't survive unaided in space.  And then he wrote a story where Superman was teleported randomly a million (or something... it was outside the galaxy I believe) light-years away from Earth -- OH NO! Superman is lost randomly in space and he cannot BREATHE... HOW WILL HE SURVIVE?!?  Well the way he survives is... HE RUNS INTO SOMEBODY THAT HE KNOWS WHO IS RANDOMLY IN THE AREA -- Katama Tui -- that red-skinned alien Green Lantern chick (presumably "in the area" means within 10 light-hours?  Maybe? What?)

If you resolve a cliff-hanger in which the bad guy is holding a gun on the hero and out of nowhere a random meteor knocks it out of his hand by sheer coincidence, then that is bad writing.  Byrne's solution is something like NINE ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE LESS LIKELY THAN THAT

So why the hell would you go to the trouble of creating that STUPIDLY contrived conflict and then resolve it with such a STUPIDLY random solution!!!!!  It requires that your reader have absolutely no idea of what the world is like.

(Amusing subscript to this -- I used to tell my wife about the meteor thing and she contended that it wasn't THAT bad a solution to the cliff hanger if you established there were meteors that night or something.  I said she was nuts.  Then we were watching Smallville one night and the writers did EXACTLY WHAT I HAD ALWAYS USED AS MY EXAMPLE OF BAD WRITING!  My wife turned to me and said, "See".

[Shibboleth]

Difficult to cut them that slack because even back then they acknowledged that the Milky Way had "millions" of worlds.  Off by four or five orders of magnitude, but still a lot of workload for a pair of Lanterns: with thousands of worlds each to keep an eye on, that's being stretched a little thin.  By the seventys, even writers with a high school education would know each Lantern would be up to millions of worlds.

Again, the writers are writing for kids and themselves probably aren't familiar enough with astrophysics to know better. Scientists knew better, but in 1960 pulp Sci Fi was still pretty much the order of the day and the transmission of scientific knowledge to the public was much slower and incomplete compared to now. Heck, as a kid in the 70s it was still easy to find books wherein Steady State versus Big Bang was considered undecided even though the certainty of the one had been established in the mid-60s.

If you were writing a Green Lantern comic and hadn't watched at least one episode of Cosmos in the 1980s and realized your scale was off, that's just lazy.  If I wrote a story set in Chicago and said there were only two 7-11s in the entire city, I'd be rightly vilified.  But so what, its just make-believe fiction, right?  Who cares if I put Detroit on the Pacific Ocean and have my characters jog from Dallas to Cincinnati in an afternoon.  How many people can actually say, off the top of their head, what the precise distance is between Dallas, Texas and Cincinnati, Ohio?  Like, basically none.  Suspension of disbelief, man.  You want accurate geography, play with a Google Earth globe.

The Guardians were created in 1960, not 1980. I do agree that reboots of the DC universe could have handled the matter better. I am put in mind of a Fantastic Four comic of the late 60s (or early 70s. . .been a long time) where Reed Richard's throws a punch around the curvature of the universe.

Heck, comic book physics is called that for a reason and long has its physics been less than accurate.

Again: I enjoyed reading those stories and these errors didn't impair my ability to enjoy them.  But they are so blatant, and so indicative of laziness, that it speaks to the attention to detail of the writers.  As in they have none.  And they should, because why do it wrong when you can do it right for little or no extra work?

The goal is entertaining stories, not scientific accuracy to the utmost degree. If that were the case, we would not have superhero comics.