News?

[Segev]

I am a pessimist.  A pessimist obsessively plans for every awful outcome she can think of.

To that end I have put Tony V directly in touch with my Secret Guy-Who-Knows-Everyone Friend.

I don't know what the end of this road will be, but I assure you, there will be no falling off a cliff until every damn plan we can think of has been tried and has failed.

Bear in mind.  Pessimists are more often pleasantly surprised than optimists.

I would be a pessimist if I hadn't learned that the presumption of the worst tends to make me quit before trying. Something about not wanting to throw effort after a doomed goal. Instead, I strive to be pragmatic; plan for the worst, hope for the best.

I wish TonyV all the luck he can get from your secret-guy-who-knows-everyone friend. I hope to be able to help out, myself, in some way. But I lack those sorts of connections. So I shall simply work at building them and make myself and what skills and limited contacts I do have available, should they ever be useful.

[NecrotechMaster]

i consider myself more of an optimist, however i still expect and prepare for every possible outcome

if i had to rate on a scale im prolly 65% optimist and 35% pessimist

[MishaFox]

My instinct still tells me that something will come to save the game. But having Zwill leave was a hard blow. Still NCSoft clearing up and settling all financial loose ends with players DOES give me hope. It means NCSoft is separating themselves from the game itself.

[Twisted Toon]

I guess I would call myself an optimist. How could I not be with a family motto of "While I breathe, I hope".

Having been out of work for 7 weeks in this rotten economy, I still have hope that there is something out there for me.
Even if it is doing contract work in the Middle East.

As long as I am still breathing, I will continue to have hope of a positive outcome.

I may not be able to do much more than cheer on those that are actually doing the work of saving the universe, but I will still hope for the best and lend my moron (and morale) support.

And no, I won't wear a cheerleader outfit.  (Unless the compensation is of a sufficient quantity/quality) :P

[Gothica]

The pessimist's credo is "Always expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed." There's some value in that, as long as it doesn't shade over from pessimism to defeatism. The two are different things.

As for the snippets of intelligence we're getting (e.g., there are negotiations, Zwill is leaving, NCSoft is making arrangements for refund/credit etc.)--keep in mind that NCSoft may not yet know its own mind, and its agents may not be acting with perfect internal coordination. The billing department may be on a different page from the sales and acquisitions department and such, simply because someone higher up hasn't thought to pass all the appropriate memos around to all interested departments as circumstances change. (Keep in mind also that management has no particular reason to ensure that we are getting some sort of coherent picture of what's happening, and that's assuming that there is a coherent picture at this point.)

In short, if NCSoft doesn't yet know its own mind, we can't possibly know its mind, especially in view of the incomplete information that we're receiving. And if there are negotiations, and if things are changing from day to day re credits and how long the boards were supposed to stay open versus how long they have stayed open, those are excellent indications that NCSoft doesn't know its own mind. And that's certainly a better situation for us to be in than if NCSoft were absolutely resolved to kill this game no matter what. (if there are negotiations, that isn't the case.)

Given all this, I don't think it's at all incongruous to expect the worst, as a pessimist does, while hoping for the best, as an optimist does. But whether pessimist or optimist, we should all be careful not to impose a grand explanation of what's happening on the relatively few facts that we have, since there may not be a grand explanation.

Respectfully submitted.

[Vulpy]

"Plan for the worst, hope for the best, and make do with what you get."

[Patribot]

On another thread here on Titan there was a mention of the Shutdown being moved up to September 30th. Can anyone here confirm where this might have come from OR (Preferably) crush this rumor where it stands?

[DrakeGrimm]

On another thread here on Titan there was a mention of the Shutdown being moved up to September 30th. Can anyone here confirm where this might have come from OR (Preferably) crush this rumor where it stands?

Yes, please. I haven't heard anything about a Sept 30 shut down until today, and I can't find any new announcements anywhere.

[padathir]

On another thread here on Titan there was a mention of the Shutdown being moved up to September 30th. Can anyone here confirm where this might have come from OR (Preferably) crush this rumor where it stands?

It was someone theorizing that since the end of the quarter is Sept 30th that their opinion is that they'll shut it down then, rather than overlap into a new fiscal quarter.

IE it was pulled out of their hat and you should pay it no mind.  :D

[chaparralshrub]

It's also contingent on NCSoft having been/being bought out by another company, in which case CoH is more valuable to them dead than alive (hence their reason for closing it).

Eabrace has flatly denied that NCSoft has been bought out in this thread.

[Wammo]

First, let me begin with my usual call for information...anything new? Anything to be leaked? Anything to give the community new hope after so much bad news last week?

Second, well, I will ask that question after we get some kind of answer to the first :-)

[Codewalker]

It was someone theorizing that since the end of the quarter is Sept 30th that their opinion is that they'll shut it down then, rather than overlap into a new fiscal quarter.

IE it was pulled out of their hat and you should pay it no mind.  :D

Even that conjecture was tenuous at best. They already eliminated the majority of expenses related to the game (dev team). A few colo servers for a couple months doesn't cost them much. Certainly not enough to affect the bottom line in buyout talks.

[Shadowe]

Also, do NCsoft maintain their own server farm, or do they rent capacity from a dedicated server provider? If it's the latter, they may be under contractual obligation to continue paying for the servers for a specific length of notice time (3 months sounds about right). If that is the case it literally costs them nothing to keep the game live until Nov 30, but they'd get hit by penalty if they pulled out early.

[Codewalker]

I know the datacenter is in Dallas, but I have no idea if it's an NCSoft facility specifically, or if it's collocated servers.

My money is on colo, since NC's closest office is in Austin, and as far as I know they don't have dedicated staff at the Dallas center.

[Cyclone Jack]

I know the datacenter is in Dallas, but I have no idea if it's an NCSoft facility specifically, or if it's collocated servers.

My money is on colo, since NC's closest office is in Austin, and as far as I know they don't have dedicated staff at the Dallas center.

It is a colo.  I have a cage in the same colo.

[Segev]

Early in my research efforts to find people and contacts involved in this, I discovered that NCSoft also has actual offices in Dallas. Weirdly, the primary article on it was the web site of the company that did the decorating thereof; they were very proud of the CoH monster that they had bursting through one of the walls.

I think the Dallas offices are primarily associated, therefore, with Paragon Studios.

[Wammo]

Are the talks still going on? Do we at least know that much???

[DrakeGrimm]

Are the talks still going on? Do we at least know that much???

If the talks broke down, I'm pretty sure we'd know in short order. We have people who are in touch with them.

[StarRanger4]

If the talks broke down, I'm pretty sure we'd know in short order. We have people who are in touch with them.

Yeah,  except for the bleeding of players who've grown disillusioned, discourgaed, or just disinterested, we're kind of in a Overgrazing wildebeast mode:  No Gnus are actually GOOD gnus, cause at least they haven flat out rejected the proposals. 

Yet.

[Stormax]

Still NCSoft clearing up and settling all financial loose ends with players DOES give me hope. It means NCSoft is separating themselves from the game itself.

A company that posts a loss doesn't turn around and give money back. They don't have to. They know they stand to take a major PR hit from this and they're looking for ways to generate good will and preserve their reputation. We have to let them know we don't want our money back, we want to keep our game.