A response to NCsoft

[lfrohman]

Whoa!!!... Waitasec!!!... Hellllloooo!!!!  <roadrunner coming to a screeching halt>  Hold the fort!!!  I don't know about you guys, and I have not read EVERY reply, but this could NOT POSSIBLY make sense!  Let me do my best Jack McCoy here.   If the announcement to close Paragon came on August 31, and the response was was on Oct 2, thats roughly 35 days, give or take a holiday, sick day, or staying home day to play COH.  I am going to ASSUME that they want more than half a million dollars for the game, and I am really lowballing here.  My next question is how long does it take to sell a house?  It takes a couple of weeks for escrow and the monies have to be transferred form one account to another, most are not cash sales, and we know how long banks will take to transfer that money and other federal considerations.  This whole process take about a month if you are the luckiest person on the planet.  For most of the rest of us, this would take a long time.  More than 35 days.  Now NC is saying that in 35 days they have exhausted EVERY possibility?  Anytime a corporation buys out another corp or part of a corp, the transfer takes months.  Think lawyers, paperwork that needs to be filed, investors that need to be informed.....  its not just signing a piece of paper and shaking a hand, we are not selling a car here.  And they exhasuted every option in 35 days ??  How many options did they consider? 1?  They would need to transfer their login servers, their payment and account servers, the actual server hardware and a multitude of other considerations like HR(insurance, payroll, etc)  And they tried all this in 35 days ?!?!  I never thought once that we would not stop the servers from shutting down temporarily, I dont even think 90 days is enough time, but I thought we woould have a chance to revive or restart the studio and maybe the game goes dark for a month or two.  Just a real complicated process invovled here.  And they exhausted every option in 35 days....  I have a concern we are not being told the truth here .  NCsoft should be a politician . 

Look, fight until we die, its worse to die with regret that you didn't try than if you died trying.  We might not get it done by the 30th, but I'm fighting until NCsoft shuts off THEIR lights and locks THEIR doors. I'll bring the Bourbon...

[eabrace]

To extend that analogy:  After I spent two years trying to find a buyer for my house in TX after I left the state, I decided to rent it out.

Come on, NCsoft, let us rent your vacant house that you can't seem to sell!

[Moonfyire101]

Look, fight until we die, its worse to die with regret that you didn't try than if you died trying.  We might not get it done by the 30th, but I'm fighting until NCsoft shuts off THEIR lights and locks THEIR doors. I'll bring the Bourbon...

I agree, fight till they lock their doors and all options really have been exhausted.....35 days exhausted all options yeah right.

[HEATSTROKE]

 Let me know when its time to get nasty and possibly even a little violent.. I have a Nova ready to go...

[Victoria Victrix]

Well said Tony.  Once again, you have brought me out of the slough of Despond.

[Luna Eclypse]

It's a nice response but all it did was agitate me... because it had to be written... because NCsoft can't stop being assholes.

[Prexx]

Thanks, TonyV!  I think that the release from NCSoft lit a fire under our collective ass.  I also think that I can safely say that your response just stoked that fire into a blazing inferno!

Keep it up!  We are here with you.

We are heroes.  This is what we do.

[Juncyard]

Tony, that was an excellent response.

Everyone stay positive and continue to fight!

[Segev]

Well said Tony.  Once again, you have brought me out of the slough of Despond.

Stay strong, VV! If ever you need forumite pick-me-ups, let us know! (I know your husband is excellent at it, though, from what you've posted of his words, so rely on him where possible! But we're all your friends! Even if we did just meet.)

[Horror-Frost]

Just when I'd fallen into black apathy, Tony brings me back over the brink. Keep on the fight.

[storm1777]

that was an amazing post Tony! I love it!

[Colette]

Agreed, and well done, Tony.

Okay, everyone seems to be fighting mad. So let's hit 'em where it hurts.

We need a Korean. There must be somebody here who's Korean, or has a friend who's Korean.

We need to take our story to Korean MMO message boards. I understand MMOs are even bigger in Korea than in the west. If the truth about NC-Soft starts popping up on Korean boards, boards NC-Soft can't shut down, then we can start convincing Korean gamers that NC-Soft isn't safe to deal with.

"NC-Soft is a game-killer, don't waste your time or money on their games. They will sell you stuff and then cancel the game without notice. Konsamahida."

THAT would make NC-Soft sit up and take notice. That affects their bottom line, immediately and for the foreseeable future. That would hurt their reputation at home. Let them know that we aren't going away, that we will not stop hurting their reputation, ever, until they change the way they treat their customers.

We've been nice. Time to stop playing nice.

[Segev]

VV has an excellent letter she's put up for vetting before sending it to the CEO of NCSoft. It's in the "Korean Kibun" thread. I think a solid warning-threat is still warranted before we go fully nasty at all, if only because we want to maintain a Lex Luthor like image should we go red side. That is, even if we're being mean in the way our pressure is applied, it should come off as genteel, polite, and something that can still be spun to be a positive for ALL involved.

If THAT fails, the "red side" might want to pull something like this public Korean awareness campaign. But the thing is, the moment we actually directly impact their reputation in a nigh-irreparable way, it's over for CoH. They likely will can it out of spite unless we can make them hurt SO BADLY that they MUST give in to survive. And if we can do THAT, we might drive them to company-death before they have a chance to cry "Uncle!" That's a big "if," too; who knows how strongly we really can affect them?

Not to say don't try to. Just to say, before you go to a step that far, be very sure you mean it and know what it will cost all sides.

[sabbatha251]

I think it would be great if we went old school. Get a full page add in a major korean paper "Dear NCsoft, You forgot an option! The City of Heroes community would like to buy their game back." 

[TinFoil]

Tony, time and time again you've shown us you are the right man to follow into this war. I'm completely on board for a media blitz as well as any other actions that might prove useful. If/when all that fails though, I hope those fighting on the reverse engineering front are making progress. Sometimes it takes a Vigilante to be a Hero...

[Victoria Victrix]

I think putting pressure on Nexon to curb their dog might be as useful if not more useful, combining with the shaming technique.

[Segev]

I think putting pressure on Nexon to curb their dog might be as useful if not more useful, combining with the shaming technique.

My memory for names is bad to begin with, so forgive me for not recalling...

Does anybody remember who was doing the "1000 cranes" project? THAT might be best sent to Nexon, in Japan, rather than to NCSoft, if we're going to double-prong this next effort.

[frostcoh]

Tony. What do you need us to do to help.

[P51mus]

If THAT fails, the "red side" might want to pull something like this public Korean awareness campaign. But the thing is, the moment we actually directly impact their reputation in a nigh-irreparable way, it's over for CoH. They likely will can it out of spite unless we can make them hurt SO BADLY that they MUST give in to survive. And if we can do THAT, we might drive them to company-death before they have a chance to cry "Uncle!" That's a big "if," too; who knows how strongly we really can affect them?

If we hurt them severely enough, perhaps they would be forced into jettisoning their current leadership, and new leadership would allow CoH to be sold off or something. Or jthey could just jettison a scapegoat and blame them.  Corporations have options like that to regain some reputation.  I don't think we have to worry too much about hurting them too badly.

And beyond that, even if we can't save CoH, I think we can at least save other games from the same fate by making NCSoft into a cautionary tale.  This precedent of canning a profitable game they're setting is a terrible one.

And if we can manage to ruin NCSoft somehow by sheer bad PR, we can recover the IP from the wreckage.

[Victoria Victrix]

If we hurt them severely enough, perhaps they would be forced into jettisoning their current leadership, and new leadership would allow CoH to be sold off or something. Or jthey could just jettison a scapegoat and blame them.  Corporations have options like that to regain some reputation.  I don't think we have to worry too much about hurting them too badly.

And beyond that, even if we can't save CoH, I think we can at least save other games from the same fate by making NCSoft into a cautionary tale.  This precedent of canning a profitable game they're setting is a terrible one.

And if we can manage to ruin NCSoft somehow by sheer bad PR, we can recover the IP from the wreckage.

Or Nexon will sell it to us.