I didn't say don't try anything, but what you "know" is based off of hearsay. How do you know that the amount offered was sufficient? Because people on here said they heard it was from a friend? The best attempt would have been to make sure there was enough money, by participating. The only people that know for sure are the involved parties, which NONE of us are. If we would have started with the group funding thing, we would have known better, but we don't and we're using other people's hearsay as evidence that our hearsay is real.
It's not "heard it from a friend." And what we know is that there were very sticky issues being hammered out, according to Tony who, IIRC, cited Brian as his source. There has been speculation about those sticky issues, but it's fairly clear that it's more than "just money." "Just money" doesn't take any hammering out.
Nor is "exhausting all options" generally code for "they just didn't offer enough money." It's pretty easy to
state "nobody was both willing and able to make a sufficiently large offer." That would indicate a willingness to sell and be a GOOD way to start a bidding war if they were at all interested just because of money.
You admit yourself that you operate from a point of ignorance. Therefore, your assumption that the only possible reason is "nobody offered enough money" is just that: an assumption. It is one you base on solid reasoning and guesswork, but it is not more inherently correct than reasoned theories that involve other, non-sale-price-related considerations, especially given what we
do know from NCSoft's own official statements and actions.
As for crowd-funding, more than one of us looked into it and were cautioned to back off. So we did. We have offered to get back to it should Paragon have needed it. They did not ask. If it had purely been a matter of money, then they probably would have asked, or done crowd-sourcing of their own.
They're not emotionally charged like us. They make decisions based on things like money and liability. If their terms were unreasonable, then I guess the purchaser didn't want the game bad enough as well.
That's an odd way of putting it. If they asked for exclusive ownership of the moon and sovereignty over all of Asia to be delivered by military force funded at any cost by the purchaser, would that mean the purchaser "didn't want the game bad enough?"
Or would it mean there were terms over which agreement literally could not be reached? (I'm not suggesting NCSoft was as unreasonable in their requirements as the above; it was deliberate hyperbole to make the point that "unreasonable demands" do not mean the other party "doesn't want it badly enough.")
The point is we don't know either way. People shouldn't be so desperate that they take any rumor as truth. If you can't lend anything of substance to the acquisition, then you really can't do anything. At best, you're a distraction. At worst, you're a reason why the seller would back away from the table.
This is nonsense. If these people are as reasoned and unemotional about it as you said earlier, impassioned fans who are desperately searching for anything to save their game are only
more reason to get it sold, if the only concerns are "NCSoft doesn't want it anymore" and "Can I make back my investment?" NCSoft gains nothing by deliberately reacting to fans saying "Please sell the game to somebody who will keep it running; here, look at us demonstrate that how badly we want this!" by backing away from the table. Something - either lack of sufficient funds or Something Else - got in the way.
There is still a way, try to back Paragon, but let them dictate what needs to be done. We don't even know what they offered, and whether or not they closed the negotiations.
You clearly have not been paying attention. We do very much back Paragon, and want to help them however we can. The only messages we've gotten from them were "we're working on it" and "keep showing that you care."
Since "showing that [we] care" is something they've expressly asked us to do, I think doing so counts as following your advice to "back Paragon," don't you?
