Status Update (October 2)

[Sapphire Jane]

Good job Tony.  You are always able to take things that I'm thinking and putting them into more organized thoughts and put them on paper.

Now, the reason for my post, and forgive me if this has been mentioned as I have not seen it.  Just to get a better perspective of the relationship between Nexon & NCSoft I did a search.  And lo & behold I found a bunch of reports regarding Nexon & NCSoft "rumored" attempt to purchase Valve.  Now, according to the reports, Nexon isn't saying anything and NCSoft, in their usual noncommittal way, said there was no truth to it.  These reports are dated September 26, 2012 or thereabout.   Sooooo, if they were entertaining the idea that they would offer to purchase Valve, which is an impossibility given statements made by Gabe, why would they not be willing to sell CoH to raise more capital?

And on that note, I wonder... has anyone approached Valve to possibly offer to purchase CoH?  Just a thought.

Rock on Heroes!!

[Knightslayer]

I think several people have contacted Valve, or maybe they were just in favor of doing so... >.>

[Moonfyire101]

I think several people have contacted Valve, or maybe they were just in favor of doing so... >.>

I have, nothing back...i was disapointed. Aeria contacted right back and blizzard said post in their forums, they read their forums like paragon did.

[Knightslayer]

I have, nothing back...i was disapointed. Aeria contacted right back and blizzard said post in their forums, they read their forums like paragon did.

Ah, thanks Moon!
I guess they either weren't interested or they didn't have a reply ready (or didn't want to share their plans with the general public) =/

[Sapphire Jane]

It does make me wonder though about the meeting between Nexon & NCSoft with Valve, if indeed it did happen.  Could there have been talks of Valve purchasing CoH and they could not reach an agreement on the price?  Seeing how NCSoft published their PR BS statement shortly thereafter, could that have been one of the negotiations that wasn't successful? 

Way too many questions about everything, which just fuels speculation and rumors, and no real answers.

[Arcana]

I have never heard of an employment agreement or non-compete agreement between an employer and an employee with an unlimited term. 1, 2, or 3 years is the usual arrangment.

The agreements expire, but specific obligations within them can last forever.  Confidentiality clauses, for example, can be permanent and binding.

[Hyperstrike]

From Posi's comments in during the chat yesterday (after Hit Streak signed off of 45 minutes of "I can't answer that"), it sounds as if the non-compete is only for the duration of his severance period.  I believe he said that it was November 1st, he'd be free to do his own thing without being encumbered by NCSoft.

[dwturducken]

Think I'll go set Posi and WW to send text alerts on Twitter...   

[Arcana]

From Posi's comments in during the chat yesterday (after Hit Streak signed off of 45 minutes of "I can't answer that"), it sounds as if the non-compete is only for the duration of his severance period.  I believe he said that it was November 1st, he'd be free to do his own thing without being encumbered by NCSoft.

I don't recall anything about a non-compete clause being mentioned.  As an NCSoft employee, its probably the case Matt has a clause in his employment contract that any intellectual property he creates while an employee of NCSoft is defacto work for hire product and the property of NCSoft.

[wufenstein]

Non-competes aren't even legal in California. Not that I wouldn't put it past certain companies to try anyway.

[HEATSTROKE]

I don't recall anything about a non-compete clause being mentioned.  As an NCSoft employee, its probably the case Matt has a clause in his employment contract that any intellectual property he creates while an employee of NCSoft is defacto work for hire product and the property of NCSoft.

That I believe would definitely be the case. I would be utterly shocked if I dont see Posi, WW and Clayton hit the ground running with something..

[MacGuyver]

NDAs can be a wicked double-edged sword... as in, they can cut you from both sides.

VV, TheManga, et al are NOT kidding about the possible repercussions for any Paragon employees (present or recent past) if they violated their NDA or contract terms. Perhaps details will trickle out sometime down the road, but I would not expect anything from them at this time.

Details also can come to light via those in the media (including web formats) through deductive reasoning after analyzing the available pieces of the puzzle. They are not always correct, but they *can* stumble into nuggets of truth by hard work (or luck). Sometimes these things get employees into trouble because it has the appearance of being from a leak, when in fact, it was not.

Back on topic...

I eagerly await news of a current battle plan, as it were. What can all of us out here do in a cohesive fashion? I want to take some form of action, but it needs to be pretty much unilateral and it should not come from a place of anger, but strategy.

[healix]

The words of a very wise ancient Greek came to my mind....

It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly.
Do not mistake activity for achievement.
Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs, therefore avoid
undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.

[Turjan]

It does make me wonder though about the meeting between Nexon & NCSoft with Valve, if indeed it did happen.  Could there have been talks of Valve purchasing CoH and they could not reach an agreement on the price?  Seeing how NCSoft published their PR BS statement shortly thereafter, could that have been one of the negotiations that wasn't successful? 

Way too many questions about everything, which just fuels speculation and rumors, and no real answers.

It's certainly a thought that's crossed my mind, but as I understand it, this alleged meeting of corporate gaming giants took place at Nexon's Developer Conference in Hawaii. Not at a private meeting, or at an undisclosed hush-hush location...a Developer Conference. Which leads me to conclude that IF this meeting took place (and there's still no hard evidence it even did really), it was more likely to be about Development overlaps than mega corporate buyouts.

If I had to guess, I'd say Valve were possibly talking to Nexon about divergent technologies in gaming, i.e. how Valve recently launched their "bring Steam into the living room" interface, and how Nexon is heading more towards casual and mobile games than PC.

The media hysteria over "OMG! NCS-Nexon want to buy Valve!!" no doubt arose from the fact NCSoft acquired Ntreev (a Korean casual gaming company) earlier this year, and Nexon in turn acquired 15% of NCSoft stock, so if NCS-Nexon meet with anyone in the game biz, someone somewhere is going to think "OMG! Scoop! I sense a buyout!"

But think about it - software developers meeting at a conference hosted by one of those developers? Well, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar", as the saying goes

[frostcoh]

Been busy with mid-terms the last week or so, not the ideal news to come back to. Last I checked, the forum for Sunset is a mess. Plenty of great ideas, but with no structure, I fear that all the imagination is going to go to waste. It only takes so long before an artist becomes jaded.

QFT

[SithRose]

The structure's being worked on. Brainstorming tends to get messy. I mean, you get exploding heads everywhere and bang! There you go, zombie invasion.

More seriously, we're considering ourselves the very last ditch effort that doesn't want to have to be implemented, so we're taking things at a slowish pace. MMO building is a long-term thing. Chaotic brainstorming has a place, but we're definitely going to need more structure than we currently have.

But let's not focus on Plan Z over here. Let's focus on improved efforts to get NCSoft back to the negotiation table and how we can leverage our resources into saving COH.

[Segev]

What's wrong with zombie invasions? *directs his minions to set up a buffet table* ...no! For the last time, no brains. Meatloaf!

[Dasher]

I gotta tell ya, folks, this statement by NCsoft has made me go from mailing three sets of two letters a week to Korea and Seattle to mailing two sets of five letters and a mask-and-cape on Friday.

If their attitude is "tough", mine is becoming "get tougher", and I wonder if it isn't time to try and organize a hobby-wide boycott of NCsoft.

I know lots of people love Guild Wars, and as I remember from Guild wars I (which I tried) it was a pay for it once, buy expansions market model, so I guess if they have your money it's too late to boycott.

But three or four print magazines and that many major online reviewers refusing to cover NCsoft products at all would have to make an impression, wouldn't it?

I have never been the type to give up hope, but the downside of that is that as my hope and reason fade, I tend to get angry and belligerent.

I guess what I am looking for here is someone to join me on the barricades or talk me down off them...

DASHER

[Segev]

Greetings, Dasher. Stick around, take a look at the various threads. There's one with "NUTS!" in the title that is doing a very loud attention-getting move, and there's a Media Day thread as well, wherein we're organizing an online day for having guest players from various media outlets - any who will come - come in and get a guided tour of CoH and an online meet-and-greet with the community.

[Victoria Victrix]

Wellcome to the barricades, Dasher.  I managed to wedge a couple nice comfy chairs up here with two ballistic ex-police shields hand.