And the mask comes off.

[Victoria Victrix]

It's Schrodinger's Cat.

The box is closed.  Until the box is open, there is no way to tell if the cat is still alive or dead.  As long as the box remains closed you are free to imagine the live kitty all you like.

[Tubbius]

It's Schrodinger's Cat.

The box is closed.  Until the box is open, there is no way to tell if the cat is still alive or dead.  As long as the box remains closed you are free to imagine the live kitty all you like.

That sort of reminds me of a Thor comic from the early 90s, where Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man, is shown standing in front of a computer terminal with a fractured map of timelines behind him that strongly resembles the world's biggest sentence diagram.

[chuckv3]

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

No bad = good!

In other words: It's better than bad, it's GOOD!

Oh, great. Now I have the stupid "Log" theme song from Ren & Stimpy running through my brain.

But... But... It's great for a snack and it fits on your back!


Currently no news is both no news and slightly good news. No news means negotiations to buy the IP continue even if they haven't been concluded. At least according to all publicly available information. There are a few who claim to know otherwise, but since they refuse to say where their information comes from it could just as easily be extrapolation from them listening to a hive of bees droning in their heads and divining meaning from it. (It's still better than pigeon entrails in their heads. Well, for them.)

[DocHornet]

...it could just as easily be extrapolation from them listening to a hive of bees droning in their heads...

Wrong game. Listening to bees, that's THE SECRET WORLD.

[blacksly]

It's Schrodinger's Cat.

The box is closed.  Until the box is open, there is no way to tell if the cat is still alive or dead.  As long as the box remains closed you are free to imagine the live kitty all you like.

At least until a Quarry uses Footstomp on the box. After that, I'm not opening the box to clean up the mess, so the kitty will then theoretically possibly live forever.

[Vee]

It doesn't matter if it's alive or dead - if you open the box you're going to have a stinky mess to clean up.

[Twisted Toon]

It doesn't matter if it's alive or dead - if you open the box you're going to have a stinky mess to clean up.

Irish_Girl has already started the Preemptive kitty cleaning though. So, it's good. Maybe. Possibly.

[Vee]

Oh I was talking about Schrodinger's. I'll clean up as much poop/spray/pee/corpse as you like if we get to open the CoX box, and I'm allergic to cats.

[Zombie Hustler]

It's Schrodinger's Cat.

The box is closed.  Until the box is open, there is no way to tell if the cat is still alive or dead.  As long as the box remains closed you are free to imagine the live kitty all you like.

What if I want to unleash the radioactive killer feline on the world, though? 

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

Wrong game. Listening to bees, that's THE SECRET WORLD.

That as well. Those Templars and Illuminati will regret choosing the wrong path. 

[Cailyn Alaynn]

Currently no news is both no news and slightly good news. No news means negotiations to buy the IP continue even if they haven't been concluded. At least according to all publicly available information. There are a few who claim to know otherwise, but since they refuse to say where their information comes from it could just as easily be extrapolation from them listening to a hive of bees droning in their heads and divining meaning from it. (It's still better than pigeon entrails in their heads. Well, for them.)

There's really only 3 people here that anyone should listen to for news on the deal. Nate, Myself, and Ironwolf. Anything anyone else says is conjecture at best, misinformation at worst.

No, the deal isn't dead. No, NCSoft hasn't asked for some ridiculous Olympian amount of cash. (As nate said: "Doable") Yes, things are going slower than people would necessarily like.
and I hate to say it, most of the 'experience' that some of you guys have doesn't necessarily translate to this kind of deal. 

As for NCSoft 'stringing us along'. It's entirely possible, but I don't believe it to be likely. It costs time and money for every minute they're dealing with Nate, or sending someone to find out exactly what they do/don't have from Paragon. A lot more resources than just saying "no" and hanging up a phone.

[Pyromantic]

Always good to get reassurance that the process continues onward.  It's hard to know what to do with the hope of the game's return when you're completely in the dark on the details.  Will it be next week?  Month?  Year?  Never?  Will some aspects of the game be unable to make a return (such as seasonal events)?  I know there's no way to answer these, but it sure would be nice to know.  Sometimes I'm content to just carry on as if there's nothing happening.  Other times (and this has been happening to me a lot recently) I find myself reminiscing about the game's past life, hoping for news each day, planning for its return, and lamenting the lack of any other game that measures up.

As always, however, the effort is greatly appreciated!

[MWRuger]

There's really only 3 people here that anyone should listen to for news on the deal. Nate, Myself, and Ironwolf. Anything anyone else says is conjecture at best, misinformation at worst.

No, the deal isn't dead. No, NCSoft hasn't asked for some ridiculous Olympian amount of cash. (As nate said: "Doable") Yes, things are going slower than people would necessarily like.
and I hate to say it, most of the 'experience' that some of you guys have doesn't necessarily translate to this kind of deal. 

As for NCSoft 'stringing us along'. It's entirely possible, but I don't believe it to be likely. It costs time and money for every minute they're dealing with Nate, or sending someone to find out exactly what they do/don't have from Paragon. A lot more resources than just saying "no" and hanging up a phone.

Thank you for posting this. I always miss the game more at this time of year. I loved trick or treating and the winter event.

I was feeling wistful about it today and it was good to see that it might still happen.

[Ironwolf]

There's really only 3 people here that anyone should listen to for news on the deal. Nate, Myself, and Ironwolf. Anything anyone else says is conjecture at best, misinformation at worst.

No, the deal isn't dead. No, NCSoft hasn't asked for some ridiculous Olympian amount of cash. (As nate said: "Doable") Yes, things are going slower than people would necessarily like.
and I hate to say it, most of the 'experience' that some of you guys have doesn't necessarily translate to this kind of deal. 

As for NCSoft 'stringing us along'. It's entirely possible, but I don't believe it to be likely. It costs time and money for every minute they're dealing with Nate, or sending someone to find out exactly what they do/don't have from Paragon. A lot more resources than just saying "no" and hanging up a phone.

I don't know anything about the existing deal or plans. I know what got us to this stage but not where it is now.

The other thing that may slow down something like this is how much money will NCSoft expend to sell this? What is the budget for this department and how many man hours do they have to sell it? I could seriously see upper management say if you can fit it in proceed but don't let other obligations slide to make this deal - to their point it isn't a lot of money (for them). They deal in the multi-billions company-wide and this while a return on an old investment - is money they had already ignored.

Think it through - if they could close the game making $10 million a year - what effort would they make to return 1/10th of that? I am not saying the price is $1 million for I don't know - I am saying they already wrote it off and so for a lesser amount than they could make what effort would they expend.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

Then I correct myself, 2 people. In some weird instance where we both have broken hands...then I'd have TonyV pass along information.

I'm pretty sure the majority of the footwork for NCSoft on the deal is that sort of non-priority work. People spending a quarter the time as they do on their other responsibilities, since it isn't a large priority.
At some point, someone hit it on the head. Everything else aside... you can buy a car in a few hours because the dealership REALLY wants to sell you that car. Their entire existence is ALL about selling you that car.
NCSoft on the other hand has no pressing need to sell us the car. It's an older model, not quite a 'classic', maybe something that was a hand-me-down from their uncle. We've got to convince them to part with it, despite not really having a need to. They're not quite really...sentimental about the car, especially since the brake pedal likes to stick. While they may not LOVE the car however, they have spent a lot of time and money on it...and really want to make sure that if they do sell it, it's to someone who's not going to get drunk and crash it.


and then their cousin bursts in and starts pouring gasoline all over their living room furniture while we're talking about the car.

[Risha]

THANKS for letting us know.  I only check the boards now a couple of times a month...

[[EDIT: removed broken quote of immediately-preceding post by Cailyn. ~Agge]]

[Remaugen]

. . . <Snip!> and then their cousin bursts in and starts pouring gasoline all over their living room furniture while we're talking about the car.

And that is one of the most frigging awesome analogies ever written!      

[MM3squints]

and then their cousin bursts in and starts pouring gasoline all over their living room furniture while we're talking about the car.

Sounds like an average Thanksgiving.

[Angel Phoenix77]

Then I correct myself, 2 people. In some weird instance where we both have broken hands...then I'd have TonyV pass along information.

I'm pretty sure the majority of the footwork for NCSoft on the deal is that sort of non-priority work. People spending a quarter the time as they do on their other responsibilities, since it isn't a large priority.
At some point, someone hit it on the head. Everything else aside... you can buy a car in a few hours because the dealership REALLY wants to sell you that car. Their entire existence is ALL about selling you that car.
NCSoft on the other hand has no pressing need to sell us the car. It's an older model, not quite a 'classic', maybe something that was a hand-me-down from their uncle. We've got to convince them to part with it, despite not really having a need to. They're not quite really...sentimental about the car, especially since the brake pedal likes to stick. While they may not LOVE the car however, they have spent a lot of time and money on it...and really want to make sure that if they do sell it, it's to someone who's not going to get drunk and crash it.


and then their cousin bursts in and starts pouring gasoline all over their living room furniture while we're talking about the car.

This is why I believe this deal  will be successful . While I would love to play now, I can wait I have a few mmos that I have a few things left to do. Such as in the Secret World I have the last two missions for the tower and from what I have read issue 13 will be for pvp so I am in no rush. I also play STO and restarted playing Tera, so I have more than enough to keep me busy for a long time.
In essence every day this deal continues and there is not a no we are taking baby steps, one day we will all fly once again I have no doubt about that