New efforts!

[MWRuger]

When all those games are finished, we'll see what develops.

COH is finished. It just needs to be configured and relaunched.

I'm pinning my hopes on getting COH back and then when these games launch seeing if they are as good or not.

[Harpospoke]

If we get the game back, and we get our accounts back, I will make sure that every existing character I get back that isn't 50 gets there even if I never play them again after that.  'Cause if they get a second chance I owe it to them.  ;D

I'm so sentimental that this touched my heart.    :)

[Fanta]

When all those games are finished, we'll see what develops.

COH is finished. It just needs to be configured and relaunched.

I'm pinning my hopes on getting COH back and then when these games launch seeing if they are as good or not.

After having tried all to date offerings as far as super hero games go, I'm gonna have to go with this. I'd rather have an outdated game engine, cobbled together coding, and sub par graphics until we have something that does it justice! I've always thought the biggest problem with CoX was it's lack of advertising. Was WoW really any better when it came out?

[Goddangit]

The talk of "owing" our old characters something, assuming we get them back, got me thinking.

I like inventing histories for my characters.  One was a con man who, on a whim, convinced three mysterious figures he was a superhero but just relaxing in his secret identity.  They bestowed magic items on him that gave him powers he only claimed to have.  Eventually, he was shamed and did the superhero thing for real.  But as a consequence of his shady past he could never publicly enjoy the fame, praise, accolades, etc that he had wanted.  I figured maybe he'd stop wanting that and Just Be A Hero... maybe about the time he hit 50.  :)

I had a bunch of 50s that were pretty much retired "stored" on the VIP server.  When word came down of the closure and that NCSoft would no longer accept my money, I was worried I'd lose access to the VIP server long before the shutdown.  I had enough resources to transfer off every character but one.  Someone was going to have to stay behind.  Guess who made the sacrifice?  That's right.  The con man / hero stayed behind.  Since these are inventions out of my own imagination, I like to think he "volunteered".

Of course, as it turns out I had access to the VIP server all the way to the end, but I didn't know that when he "volunteered".  So I guess if we do get all our characters back I do owe him something.

[Harpospoke]

The talk of "owing" our old characters something, assuming we get them back, got me thinking.

I like inventing histories for my characters.  One was a con man who, on a whim, convinced three mysterious figures he was a superhero but just relaxing in his secret identity.  They bestowed magic items on him that gave him powers he only claimed to have.  Eventually, he was shamed and did the superhero thing for real.  But as a consequence of his shady past he could never publicly enjoy the fame, praise, accolades, etc that he had wanted.  I figured maybe he'd stop wanting that and Just Be A Hero... maybe about the time he hit 50.  :)

I had a bunch of 50s that were pretty much retired "stored" on the VIP server.  When word came down of the closure and that NCSoft would no longer accept my money, I was worried I'd lose access to the VIP server long before the shutdown.  I had enough resources to transfer off every character but one.  Someone was going to have to stay behind.  Guess who made the sacrifice?  That's right.  The con man / hero stayed behind.  Since these are inventions out of my own imagination, I like to think he "volunteered".

Of course, as it turns out I had access to the VIP server all the way to the end, but I didn't know that when he "volunteered".  So I guess if we do get all our characters back I do owe him something.

I love that.

[EsTrella]

You're thinking of Icon, I think, which is not connected to CoT at all.

No, I know for a fact it's CoT; and I saw a video that showed the map, which looked a lot like CoH, but none the less, my mistake.

[EsTrella]

When all those games are finished, we'll see what develops.

COH is finished. It just needs to be configured and relaunched.

I'm pinning my hopes on getting COH back and then when these games launch seeing if they are as good or not.

Yeah, I know earlier in this forum there was talk of negotiations with NCSoft, but I don't know how that panned out.

[EsTrella]

The talk of "owing" our old characters something, assuming we get them back, got me thinking.

I like inventing histories for my characters.  One was a con man who, on a whim, convinced three mysterious figures he was a superhero but just relaxing in his secret identity.  They bestowed magic items on him that gave him powers he only claimed to have.  Eventually, he was shamed and did the superhero thing for real.  But as a consequence of his shady past he could never publicly enjoy the fame, praise, accolades, etc that he had wanted.  I figured maybe he'd stop wanting that and Just Be A Hero... maybe about the time he hit 50.  :)

I had a bunch of 50s that were pretty much retired "stored" on the VIP server.  When word came down of the closure and that NCSoft would no longer accept my money, I was worried I'd lose access to the VIP server long before the shutdown.  I had enough resources to transfer off every character but one.  Someone was going to have to stay behind.  Guess who made the sacrifice?  That's right.  The con man / hero stayed behind.  Since these are inventions out of my own imagination, I like to think he "volunteered".

Of course, as it turns out I had access to the VIP server all the way to the end, but I didn't know that when he "volunteered".  So I guess if we do get all our characters back I do owe him something.

Well, I write homemade comics called, "S-Men Comics", so I basically made them on CoH, and they all already had backstories. (F.Y.I. you can find out more if you search "S-Men Comics" in google, including facebook and websites) However, the character that is my profile was one I made when I was 5 and first played CoH (He was a 50 a half a year before CoH closed) and his backstory was just a private detective who's power was basically to teach himself new powers. Kind of a paradox.

[MWRuger]

Yeah, I know earlier in this forum there was talk of negotiations with NCSoft, but I don't know how that panned out.

Still ongoing. This kind of thing takes time.

[Mistress Urd]

These things operate at the speed of business which means weeks to months.

[AlienOne]

These things operate at the speed of business which means weeks to months.

At least it doesn't operate at the speed of government.... :P

[Gamerchamp]

At least it doesn't operate at the speed of government.... :P

Or even the speed of a slug.

[Ohioknight]

the character that is my profile was one I made when I was 5 and first played CoH

If you created a character in COH when you were 5, you couldn't be older than... what, 14?

Lord. When I was 14 the Beatles had just broken up...
"The Beatles" were  a rock band, considered possibly the most pivotal and influential...
A "Rock Band" was a kind of musical group that made "Rock n' Roll" records...
A "Record" was a kind of analog file storage medium that encoded musical tracks in vinyl "grooves"

Never mind. (God, I'm old)

[JaguarX]

At least it doesn't operate at the speed of government.... :P

yup.

I think slugs move faster.

[Mistress Urd]

At least it doesn't operate at the speed of government.... :P

Then its years to decades.

[MWRuger]

Re-posting this because that was 10 pages ago and it bears saying again. This or something like this is why these things take time:


I'll see if I can explain this. What probably happened is something like this. They informally asked NCSoft what they wanted for the property, engine or whatever. NCSoft said 7,509, 266 Quatloos. Unknown investor group says "doable". That was the easy part.

You ask that first, because there is no point in going through the hassle of hiring attorneys, checking for right clearances, arranging a meeting, hiring translators if both parties can't even get into the same area on price.

Now both sides will look for deal breakers. What could derail the entire process? If either side finds a potential one, they won't talk about it, but their negotiators will see what kind of wiggle room there is and what both parties will accept to overcome the obstacle.

Take this Cryptic question(If sold does Cryptic's name appear on the game). In NCSoft's mind this might be something they want so that Cryptic can't come back and cry foul. When that deal was done, it is likely that neither party envisioned a future sale of the property, so likely there is no language in the contract. So the negotiators will discuss with the unknown buyers "would you have a problem keeping Cryptic's name on there?" Unknown buyers signal "Yes or No". If they say yes then NCsoft will likely contact Cryptic and ask if they feel like they are entitled to keep the name on the game if it's sold. Their lawyers will look at the sales agreement and see if they can or should force the issue. Eventually someone at Cryptic will say yes or no. Depending on the answer negotiators will try and figure out an agreement that everyone can live with to avoid litigation. But if two parties become intractable, the deal's off.

You also have to consider strategy. Maybe you give on the Cryptic thing because you know of some other hurdle. You can use the give and take to soften the other sides position. Sometimes you argue hard knowing you are giving in so the other side feels like they have rung a concession from you.

There is no way we can know from where we are how many issues like this must be resolved.

BUT, once all the points have been settled and draft agreements have been typed, read by both sides, vetted by the lawyers then and only then will the actual buyers and the actual sellers meet. This can be the most delicate moment of the entire deal. If either side gets jittery the entire thing can collapse.

Assuming that doesn't happen, both sides sign the deal (also assuming no governmental authorities throw up a roadblock). Then a new round of negotiations will start about the timetable and the transfer of assets.

Then once the considerations are met, payments made, assets transferred, implementation debugged, we are ready for a new closed beta.

Keep in mind that secrecy is vital at most stages because you don't want to tip your hand to the other side. AND this assumes a relatively straight forward deal. Numerous complications can arise. Suppose another interested party comes out of the wood works? Suppose the former Paragon Devs feel that their contracts entitle them to some cut? (just an example)

Anything that has to be adjudicated adds final cost to the deal and both parties will assess whether they want to move forward. Since it is an international deal, which court will you file in, the counter motions alone can be expensive as well as jurisdictional disputes.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone, but these are the kind of things that have to be dealt with and it takes time and money. The more money involved, the more careful everyone wants to be. In a case where both sides are motivated and mostly in agreement, it can go pretty fast. If not, then it can take longer. But everyone needs to understand that it's not a simple deal where someone says "Wanna buy a MMO?" and the other guy says "Take my Money!" and they celebrate.

PS. NO, I don't know that any of these things are actual issues since I'm not involved with the project, but they might be, so be patient.

[LaughingAlex]

If you created a character in COH when you were 5, you couldn't be older than... what, 14?

Lord. When I was 14 the Beatles had just broken up...
"The Beatles" were  a rock band, considered possibly the most pivotal and influential...
A "Rock Band" was a kind of musical group that made "Rock n' Roll" records...
A "Record" was a kind of analog file storage medium that encoded musical tracks in vinyl "grooves"

Never mind. (God, I'm old)

When I turned 14, it was the year 2000.

[Cinnder]

A "Rock Band" was a kind of musical group that made "Rock n' Roll" records...

...and they wrote their own music and -- I know this will seem hard to believe -- actually played their own instruments...

Ah, those were the days...

[silvers1]

If you created a character in COH when you were 5, you couldn't be older than... what, 14?

Lord. When I was 14 the Beatles had just broken up...
"The Beatles" were  a rock band, considered possibly the most pivotal and influential...
A "Rock Band" was a kind of musical group that made "Rock n' Roll" records...
A "Record" was a kind of analog file storage medium that encoded musical tracks in vinyl "grooves"

Never mind. (God, I'm old)

I just recently purchased a turntable so I could play the small number of records I kept from my old vinyl collection.  Yep, still has all the pops and crackles, but there's just something about placing a needle on that track and physically seeing the medium rotating. :)  Fun.
Kids these days dont know what they missed.  Some album covers actually had some incredible artwork.  MP3s... bleh.

Yep, I'm old too.  Join the club. :)

[HEATSTROKE]

I own over 1700 pieces of vinyl.... so yeah I hold into old things that are good..

Like City of Heroes...