Well, I don't want to be the one who is discouraging, or negative, despite the fact that I am angry about NC's continual bad behavior in this sector (see the fool me six times thread).
I am, however, going to make some observations.
1. I'm a realist, and, yes, a pessimist, and I'm not going to be closed about the fact that our chances of saving CoH are slim, and always were. Not zero, not that we shouldn't try, but that we should think of alternatives.
2. The people in the Champions Online forums have been speculating that the death of CoH represents a change in the market, and that they're next. In other words, we have allies over there. Personally, I like CO, not as much as CoH, and I know that many CoHers are now playing CO (and many were playing both before as well). Not all CoHers do like CO, of course, and the reasons for this are obvious. For this reason, it's not a "substitute" for CoH, but for some of us, it's a life boat. A lifeboat to where, though?
3. A lifeboat to what we're calling Plan Z is the answer. The amount of stuff that is getting put together for Plan Z is awe-inspiring, given the fact that this is an entirely volunteer operation without any funding, official leadership, or direction other than that we want to save CoH. We're going to need these things if Plan Z is ever to succeed, but we have ideas floating around concerning that; they're just dedicated to saving CoH at the moment, as well they should be.
And, come November 30, I'm going to be running some forum games (moderators, please give me a section of Titan forums in which to do this) that will also help act as a lifeboat for some of those for whom CO is not.
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By the way, I'm actually happy to hear that some of the devs have found their way back to Cryptic. They're real people, real heroes, with real lives. Cryptic made CoH. Now that they're home again, it's only a matter of time before they either remake CO to the point where it is a substitute for CoH, or else they make something else that is equally cool.