New efforts!

[Peerless Girl]

1)  Is it legal to reverse-engineer a legally purchased copy of an executable if your company owns the intellectual property rights contained within said executable?
2)  Is it worth the time and effort if the long-term strategy is to build CoX2?

Edit:  I know that the custom tools for working on the engine have asploded *poof!*  hence question #2.

1) Probably not. That would be a lawyer thing, but most things like that have statements to the effect that you cannot reverse-engineer it. That would be a question for the new team's legal guy to ask or make sure gets clarified, but I can almost bet the answer is no.

2) Probably not. It would be better to put that effort toward CoH 2, IMO.

[FloatingFatMan]

I can see why they would not want to give a 3rd party the emails and credit card information to those who may be active players on another of their games. I can understand that.

More to the point, there are probably -legal- restrictions on them doing so, too...

[Golden Girl]

I am just curious why everybody is talking about a COH 2 game? We don't know the details of what the negotiators want future wise. Everyone it's spewing out COH 2 when we haven't even gotten the game back yet. What makes you so sure we have coh 2 down the line? Perhaps the team's purpose was to simply get the game back and just be happy at that. Unless there are other developers here building such an entity. We don't even know what the team plan to do with the game.

The current version of CoH has quite a few limitations for future development, mostly to do with how it was coded and the engine it uses - so the new owners might decide that there was more room to grow the franchise in the long term if they created a sequel based on newer tech and cleaner coding.
And that would be a major step up from Plan Z - unlike the "Heroes and Villains" project, which is a fan-driven effort to create a game in the style of CoH, but without getting too close for legal reasons, an actual CoH II would be the real deal - they'd have the IP, the characters, the setting the stories, the powers, the systems - everything from the original CoH, which could be built on for a full sequel. in "Heroes and Villains", you'll be adventuring in Titan City, which is based on Paragon City - but in CoH II, you'd actually be adventuring in a revamped Paragon City - and that's a pretty big deal.

[Peerless Girl]

I very well could be wrong, but my understanding is transferring CC data would be flat out illegal.

Now, emails? I believe at least permitted by law, and speaking for myself I'd be completely unhesitating in saying "YES!" if asked for permission to do so, in the interests of getting my accounts back. Others might see it far differently, of course.

It's a moot point, my email has changed since CoH closed (*mutters something about stupid ISP mergers*), I'm actually sort of glad NCSoft doesn't have my current email...

[Scendera]

Yeah, I admit that when I got an email for Wildstar, my blood pressure went up 20 points and I think the neighbors three streets back heard me bellow "How DARE they?!"....

[Perplexite]

Yeah, I admit that when I got an email for Wildstar, my blood pressure went up 20 points and I think the neighbors three streets back heard me bellow "How DARE they?!"....

I have a friend at uni who wears a NCSoft/Wildstar keyband, and I get offended every time I see it XD

[mrultimate]

The current version of CoH has quite a few limitations for future development, mostly to do with how it was coded and the engine it uses - so the new owners might decide that there was more room to grow the franchise in the long term if they created a sequel based on newer tech and cleaner coding.
And that would be a major step up from Plan Z - unlike the "Heroes and Villains" project, which is a fan-driven effort to create a game in the style of CoH, but without getting too close for legal reasons, an actual CoH II would be the real deal - they'd have the IP, the characters, the setting the stories, the powers, the systems - everything from the original CoH, which could be built on for a full sequel. in "Heroes and Villains", you'll be adventuring in Titan City, which is based on Paragon City - but in CoH II, you'd actually be adventuring in a revamped Paragon City - and that's a pretty big deal.

Well said GG.

[Codewalker]

Yeah, see, not so easy for some of us. I wouldn't be physically able to delete my main, someone else would have to do it for me. If She was restored to me, I'd be stuck with it, because I wouldn't be able to actually delete her.

It sounds like you don't really want to start over as much as you think you do, then. If so, it would be no problem to delete some old dead characters.

[PSI-on]

Personally I'd love to have both. Play my old game and enjoy it, even better if down the line I could play it alone or only with close local friend (PS) in the future while playing a brand new, sparkling, official sequel to my beloved game. That is, of course, that it tries to keep the same background story stuff (enemy groups, heroes, story elements) while adding new, we play in Paragon and RI while adding some new places maybe (might also be neat to see some fixed stuff like Faultline being finished and boomtown starting repairs or something), and some core system stuff remains the same (art style about the same but way improved read: not suddenly cellshaded, keeps the same story tones, side kicking system, lvl 50 cap at least, mission creating, ect.) Read as sort of starting with the original CoH as a base, then building on top of those ideas, tweeking stuff that never really worked right, adding new stuff, and improving over all. Just for me, I'd like it to be new but remain the same feel. I guess the best way for me to describe it at the risk of being made fun of would be red/blue to gold/silver. I always felt Gold has been my favorite game in the series. It took place years later creating a sense of connection, in a new place while letting you visit the old almost completely (save for some spots), and was itself a brand new game and experience with everything it added while retaining enough of the system stuff that made it Pokemon and not different. Some might say that makes it feel old or stale, and in some cases they might be right, but we sort of have a great thing where for 2 years it's been out of our hands and nothing has come along quite like it yet that I don't think we'd be tired of it yet...

*looks back over the 170 plus pages*

And I'd say we aren't :3

[Ironwolf]

I was also moving to a new house on December 30th prior to this starting! This has been an incredible honor to make this effort and to have the universe decide I was the right guy at the right time. Successful or not it has changed me and my entire outlook about the power of a single person against the tides of the impossible.

As we go through this keep this in mind - trust me it kept me sane with the rollercoaster ride of the last few months.

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

During this effort - EVERY - line of this poem has happened to me.

[Serpine]

Since the inevitability of this happening has had to have begun to sink in for the group purchasing CoH, I imagine they'd have to start thinking about, "How are we going to test all of this?"

No idea for sure, but if I was them I'd possibly be avoiding to much thought in that vein so if it falls through I wouldn't be to disappointed and so I can focus totally on the contract negotiation at hand. Step #1: Get the product bought. Step #2: Figure out what to do with said product. :)

[MWRuger]

No idea for sure, but if I was them I'd possibly be avoiding to much thought in that vein so if it falls through I wouldn't be to disappointed and so I can focus totally on the contract negotiation at hand. Step #1: Get the product bought. Step #2: Figure out what to do with said product. :)

I promise you that the investors, unless it is a quirky millionaire, required a pretty specific plan on what they would do and what they anticipate will happen before they agreed to fund this effort. People with money tend to be pretty careful with it. It is one of the reasons that they have money.

[r00tb0ySlim]

No idea for sure, but if I was them I'd possibly be avoiding to much thought in that vein so if it falls through I wouldn't be to disappointed and so I can focus totally on the contract negotiation at hand. Step #1: Get the product bought. Step #2: Figure out what to do with said product. :)

I would hope that their business plan going into this endeavor pretty much covered all possible scenarios resulting from possible game procurement.  Of course there could be some things that NCSoft throws at them during the negotiations that might fall into the Step #2 category of your above post  ;D

[Peerless Girl]

It sounds like you don't really want to start over as much as you think you do, then. If so, it would be no problem to delete some old dead characters.

I have no problem starting over, thank you. I simply can't bring myself to "end a life" myself, because she meant too much to me to do that myself. Hell, I had trouble doing it on test servers, even though I knew it didn't mean anything. You're about >< this close to stepping over a line that'll seriously upset me. As I said, I could care less about being 50, or the multi-millions of Inf I had, or the massively expensive IOs, they didn't mean anything compared to the experiences and the "life" of my character. You're NOT going to win this argument, try as you might. I've made my position clear. Discussion is over.

[Fridgy Daiere]

*cough*

Changing the subject:
What do you think the reactions of the former developers will be if this thing goes through?  I mean, CoX was their baby for a very long time...

[Peerless Girl]

*cough*

Changing the subject:
What do you think the reactions of the former developers will be if this thing goes through?  I mean, CoX was their baby for a very long time...

Assuming some of them are not involved (or don't get involved) I assume they'll be happy to see it brought back, that's just my take on it.

[Serpine]

I promise you that the investors, unless it is a quirky millionaire, required a pretty specific plan on what they would do and what they anticipate will happen before they agreed to fund this effort.

I was meaning that something like sorting out available playtester resources seems deeper then I'd imagine going when issues like unavailable account information and missing maintenance tools are floating around the table. The whole offer process seems to have gone remarkably fast from when Ironwolf was first information gathering so I wouldn't be surprised if *some* things are a little glossed over. Programming / hardware / administrative resources I'm sure are on the contract detail list. Testers, what forum software to use, or wether there will be casual Fridays are probably details that might be saved till a little bit later. :)

But I'm not an investor guy so really I'm just guessing here for personal amusement. No idea really.

[Sermon]

What do you think the reactions of the former developers will be if this thing goes through?  I mean, CoX was their baby for a very long time...

Honestly, I would guess a lot of them have moved on; probably much more so than we have! I suspect that they will be happy for it to exist again, for their work not to be relegated to storage shelves.

[AlienOne]

I have no problem starting over, thank you. I simply can't bring myself to "end a life" myself, because she meant too much to me to do that myself. Hell, I had trouble doing it on test servers, even though I knew it didn't mean anything. You're about >< this close to stepping over a line that'll seriously upset me. As I said, I could care less about being 50, or the multi-millions of Inf I had, or the massively expensive IOs, they didn't mean anything compared to the experiences and the "life" of my character. You're NOT going to win this argument, try as you might. I've made my position clear. Discussion is over.

Soooo... you're not ok with "ending a life"...but, you're ok with someone else doing it? That's essentially like "sure, you can take my mother off life support, but I'm not going to be the one flipping the switch." That's certainly your prerogative, but understand that either way, you're responsible--if it's your vote that it happens.

[Fridgy Daiere]

Changing the subject, remember?   ;)