A Question On My Mind

[Rigo42]

I commonly only come here to browse the Save Paragon City , and the Task Force Hail Mary section,


Anyways, a question on my mind is, even if a company wants to buy City Of Heroes, do we even know if NCSoft is willing to sell?



Thank you for the replies, I shall sit back and hope.



Hopefully NCsoft gets a clue, I wonder how low their stocks will go.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

The short answer is "we don't know."

Historically speaking, NCsoft has been extremely loathe to sell or even license the IPs for its previous cancelled games.  It even prevented the Garriots from obtaining Tabula Rasa in the wake of its closure, and we know for a fact they turned down offers to purchase Auto Assault right after it was closed.

This is the reason why Task Force Hail Mary has its name.  It's a shot in the dark; even if we can convince Disney or some other company to approach NCsoft with an overture to purchase CoH, we have no idea whether or not they'd be willing to sell.  We're hoping that whatever company we can get will have sufficient clout that NCsoft will find itself between a rock and a hard place - either sell the IP and rights, or risk pissing off their investors when the investors learn that NCsoft refused a solid offer from such a prestigious company.

NCsoft is on shaky ground financially as it stands.  Their stock price has lost all of the gains it has accrued in the past two years, and is in danger of slipping even further, despite the launch of Guild Wars 2 and Blade & Soul in China.  If we can get a major company with a lot of clout to approach NCsoft, and NCsoft refuses, they'll be in some hot water - after all, they just refused to unload a 'dead-weight' unused IP for what amounts to pure profit.

[Mister Bison]

I concur with Kaiser Tarentula here.

Also, if there is no buyer, there is no question, it certainly won't be sold.

[Perfidus]

Also, keep in mind the Korean Times article, in which the NCSoft spokesperson said no decision had yet been made on the fate of the CoH IP.

[Victoria Victrix]

Whether or not NCSoft will sell will depend on a lot of things, most of which are totally out of our control.   :'(

If a large enough buyer (which is why we asked Disney first) came along, the mere prestige of the buyer might force a sale.

If the stockholders begin to question why NCSoft is refusing to sell when there is a buyer in hand, that might force a sale.

If something would happen to cause NCSoft to lose a lot of money, or otherwise get into trouble, that might force a sale.

If NCSoft gets tired of dealing with the thorn-in-their-side that we are becoming, that might force a sale.

When I get discouraged, I think of Kipling.

A Pict Song

Rome never looks where she treads,
Always her heavy hooves fall
On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads;
And Rome never heeds when we bawl.
Her sentries pass on – that is all,
And we gather behind them in hordes,
And plot to reconquer the Wall,
With only our tongues for our swords.

We are the Little Folk – we!
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you'll see
How we can drag down the Great!
We are the worm in the wood!
We are the rot in the root!
We are the germ in the blood!
We are the thorn in the foot!

Mistletoe killing an oak –
Rats gnawing cables in two –
Moths making holes in a cloak –
How they must love what they do!
Yes – and we Little Folk too,
We are as busy as they –
Working our works out of view –
Watch, and you'll see it some day!

No indeed! We are not strong,
But we know Peoples that are.
Yes, and we'll guide them along,
To smash and destroy you in War!
We shall be slaves just the same?
Yes, we have always been slaves,
But you – you will die of the shame,
And then we shall dance on your graves!

We are the Little Folk – we!
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you'll see
How we can drag down the Great!
We are the worm in the wood!
We are the rot in the root!
We are the germ in the blood!
We are the thorn in the foot!

– Rudyard Kipling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gADbyXJy1M

[Tubbius]

Wonderfully eloquent and poignant, Ms. Lackey.  :)

[Terwyn]

Whether or not NCSoft will sell will depend on a lot of things, most of which are totally out of our control.   :'(

If a large enough buyer (which is why we asked Disney first) came along, the mere prestige of the buyer might force a sale.

If the stockholders begin to question why NCSoft is refusing to sell when there is a buyer in hand, that might force a sale.

If something would happen to cause NCSoft to lose a lot of money, or otherwise get into trouble, that might force a sale.

If NCSoft gets tired of dealing with the thorn-in-their-side that we are becoming, that might force a sale.

When I get discouraged, I think of Kipling.

A Pict Song

Rome never looks where she treads,
Always her heavy hooves fall
On our stomachs, our hearts or our heads;
And Rome never heeds when we bawl.
Her sentries pass on – that is all,
And we gather behind them in hordes,
And plot to reconquer the Wall,
With only our tongues for our swords.

We are the Little Folk – we!
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you'll see
How we can drag down the Great!
We are the worm in the wood!
We are the rot in the root!
We are the germ in the blood!
We are the thorn in the foot!

Mistletoe killing an oak –
Rats gnawing cables in two –
Moths making holes in a cloak –
How they must love what they do!
Yes – and we Little Folk too,
We are as busy as they –
Working our works out of view –
Watch, and you'll see it some day!

No indeed! We are not strong,
But we know Peoples that are.
Yes, and we'll guide them along,
To smash and destroy you in War!
We shall be slaves just the same?
Yes, we have always been slaves,
But you – you will die of the shame,
And then we shall dance on your graves!

We are the Little Folk – we!
Too little to love or to hate.
Leave us alone and you'll see
How we can drag down the Great!
We are the worm in the wood!
We are the rot in the root!
We are the germ in the blood!
We are the thorn in the foot!

– Rudyard Kipling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gADbyXJy1M

Ah, me family. Such a bonnie sort. :)

[Valjean]

I don't believe NCsoft would be willing to sell. They've never done so in their history.

[Perfidus]

They've also never been in such dire straits as they are now, either. We can't discount the possibility.

[Terwyn]

It seems to me that we are moving from hidden skirmishes and ambush tactics into full-scale open warfare.

Metaphorically speaking, of course.

I am quite sure that a sale is the only saving grace they have left to them.

[Victoria Victrix]

I don't believe NCsoft would be willing to sell. They've never done so in their history.

If you don't try, you automatically fail.

Now if that is fine with you, then find another game and enjoy yourself.  I have no interest in raining on your parade.  But please do not come here and issue defeatist statements.  It's like trying to teach a pig to sing.  You waste your time, and piss off the pig.

There are others of us who are not willing to let this go without the fight of NCSoft's life.  And if nothing else, we are changing the way game companies look at their customers.

[Terwyn]

If you don't try, you automatically fail.

Now if that is fine with you, then find another game and enjoy yourself.  I have no interest in raining on your parade.  But please do not come here and issue defeatist statements.  It's like trying to teach a pig to sing.  You waste your time, and piss off the pig.

There are others of us who are not willing to let this go without the fight of NCSoft's life.  And if nothing else, we are changing the way game companies look at their customers.

Also, the way game companies operate. There'll be more on that later. :)

[Kistulot]

I know they wont see a reason to sell if we don't give anyone a reason to pay for it.

Three cheers to our new overlords!

[Mister Bison]

I know they wont see a reason to sell if we don't give anyone a reason to pay for it.

Three cheers to our new overlords!

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=vsrteam.power-heberg.com%2Fspawn%2520more%2520overlords.jpg
woops, wrong game

[SARobb]

It's like trying to teach a pig to sing.  You waste your time, and piss off the pig.

*wipes coffee off monitor while muttering something to the effect of needing to clean it anyway*

;D

[dwturducken]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKbFb6TPVEA

[srmalloy]

I don't believe NCsoft would be willing to sell. They've never done so in their history.

Certainly the game is rigged. But if you don't play, you can't win.

[Kistulot]

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=vsrteam.power-heberg.com%2Fspawn%2520more%2520overlords.jpg
woops, wrong game

Clearly CoH would need more supply depots anyway.

[JaguarX]

I don't believe NCsoft would be willing to sell. They've never done so in their history.

This is true, but there is always a first time for everything. Maybe not for this IP, this year, this decade, but eventually.  One thing is for certain, it wont change if no one demand a change. Sometimes even demanding a change is no guarantee that those demands will be met but it's not certain they will be ignored or wotn have an effect.

While some will view your statement as defeatist and probably will jump on your case about it and tell you to go enjoy some other game and etc other mean attacking statements, I think it's just a mere fact. They have never sold an IP of a game they killed. We are trying to change that.

[johnrobey]

And if nothing else, we are changing the way game companies look at their customers.

I think this alone has great value to the future of MMO's, even if efforts get CoH back should ultimately prove fruitless.  I know I don't want to go thru another MMO closure and that this is part of why I'm not enjoying my recent attempts at MMOgaming; well that and I don't find anything even remotely close to what we had in City of Heroes.