Remember that, as things stand right now, there is nothing more that NCSoft can do to us.
Wrong. They can sue every site that harbors detailed content about the game, including this one, for exceeding the provisions of fair use. Similarly, they could force Youtube to remove many of the videos derived from the game's content.
Of course, no sane company would
dare sue their fans for making promotional use of their intellectual property...but I think we can pretty safely conclude that they don't give a flying fart about the CoX property itself at this point. If you step on the tiger's tail hard enough, you might be quite surprised just how hard he can bite.
And if anyone steps outside the facts and wanders into speculation in their attacks, NCsoft might sue them for libel. Whether they win or not is almost irrelevant; they can drive you to bankruptcy before you even set foot in a courtroom. Being the subject of a lawsuit is not the kind of excitement any sane person should be looking for.
Think that other gaming communities will rally to your side if NCsoft starts playing hardball? Perhaps not, especially if NCsoft can make a cogent argument that you were attacking it mercilessly and they responded just to make it stop. If they put up with PR attacks for months, then finally clamp down, the group here might find itself in a very awkward position of being portrayed in the public eye as a collection of bitter extremists. The general public knows next to nothing of our plight. They don't know and they don't care. You shouldn't expect them to automatically take our side just because you feel we have been wronged, and make no mistake,
I feel we have been wronged.
NCsoft did not close the game by credibly saying, "we're sorry, but we just can't afford to keep the game running...we really want this game to prosper, and we know how much you all love your home here, but there's not enough demand for it and we're losing money on it, so we can't continue." They couldn't say it. It wasn't true. What we received instead was an imperial dismissal: "We're done with you now, peasants. You don't factor into our plans any longer. Now go away before we set the guards upon you." Their intransigent refusal to negotiate a continuation of the game on other terms deprives them of the privilege to repudiate their initial dismissive impression.
I, too, think we're owed an apology as customers.
But if, once we receive any apology, we continue to drive the screws in, we would look mean and petty. Moreover, there's another thing to consider here: if NCsoft's PR firm---which is unquestionably monitoring the activities of this group, if for no other reason than to spot potential libel or outright copyright infringement---if they were to get the reasonable impression that there would be
no benefit to having NCsoft relent, what do you suppose their recommendation would be? We are playing a political game here, folks, and we need to think like political animals.
In game theory, there is a rather interesting result from experimental automata on the prisoner's dilemma. It turns out that no program, regardless of sophistication, has been able to outdo the overall performance of an extremely simple agent---one that retaliates
exactly once for every attack made upon it, but otherwise defaults to a position of unbroken trust. More aggressive retaliators tend to get into "scorched earth" exchanges with their opponents, while more forgiving agents get walked upon.
Making NCsoft uncomfortable is only half the battle. In order to induce them to sell, we have to
convincingly demonstrate that the discomfort will stop when they acquiesce. If we cannot make that argument stick, this is all a waste of time. They, too, can take a hardline "screw them to death" position and curl up like a little turtle, refusing to sell the CoX IP until the copyright expires, at which point many of us will undoubtedly be dead...and finding a computer old enough to play this game might be difficult or impossible.
So you think everything will be peachy if we can just drive them into bankruptcy? If they reorganize, they can restructure their debts without liquidating most of their assets. I can
assure you that no one here will be considered a creditor in any reorganization proceeding. Even if the IP is sold at that point, the purchaser may well be Asian and harbor their own resentments about the behavior of this group.
I'm not saying that
I will ever personally buy another NCsoft product again, but I will make an effort to keep my mouth shut if they take their foot out of my ass. If we turn this into a racial and moral crusade of indignity, you can expect disaster to follow.
I prefer to play this game to win. If that means I have to cheer when they sell the IP, I will cheer. If it means I must smile and say "thank you," I will smile and say "thank you." What I think about their behavior personally doesn't matter to anyone but me. The game is worth more than my pride. I will do whatever I need to do to execute my aim, and my aim is to have them sell the rights to someone who cares.
