This has to be an insane idea, but is it worth a shot?

[Segev]

I don't think Disney or any other company with enough assets to be the big player that they have to be to buy this will have such a lapse in sense that they offer a stupid amount of money in an investment they are never getting their ROI on.

Well, to play Devil's Advocate here...

Disney is such a mammoth enterprise that they could cross-market the IP and use relatively-trivial advertising budget to draw players from bases that no other MMO company had ever HOPED to reach that they could likely turn a profit off of both an upswing in player-base and use of the IP in numerous other areas. There are advantages to being such a MAJOR player.

Heck, just enabling Marvel and CoH to co-exist could enable them to comfortably assume a dominance in the superhero MMO market by ensuring that anybody who prefers either play-style is ultimately paying Disney. That kind of market-share increase is not to be underestimated in value. Admittedly, it looks like the competition is being killed by its current owner, but the risk that they're "up to something" and the fact that buying it for themselves would win them players they might otherwise not get from the base that has been abandoned by NCSoft is also advantageous.

[Rotten Luck]

I agree Wolf.  At this point It seems NCsoft got cotton in the ears and not listening to anything.  Either they are working with someone that Has a MMO they think would be in conflict with CoX, so they closed CoX to free up the players for the new game (.. shivers thinking of B&S..) Or they think that in a few years they can produce a CoX2 and win us back with a shiny new Statesman and Ms. Liberty (who be in a thong at that point).

But to everyone who has half a brain neither of those make sense!  Seems Plan Z is quickly becoming Plan A.

I agree Segev thought having a backer would be nice it also risky.  Our biggest issue from my view is paying for everything.  One reason most of my ideas I add in someway it could be used to generate funds somehow.  Not always good Ideas but Ideas at least lol.

[KnightHawk Prime]

"Ranger-two, tracking the target, hold, hold, firing!" A white sticky ball shoots out of the soldier's rifle, expanding out as it travels, wrapping the target in a white, sticky cocoon, making the target tumble to the floor and slide into a wall, where he sticks. The soldier walks up to the sticky mass, looming over it ominously.

A few minutes later, The Maul security guard walks up to Mr. and Mrs Incredible, and asks politely "Does this belong to you?" You can just barely make out Dash's face in the middle of the webbing.

The Parrs look at each other, then back at the guard holding the dangling Dash. "What did he do?" Mrs. Incredible asks, looking concerned.

"He was running in the halls. ma'am. Could hurt himself or someone else. Can't have that." The guard replies, dropping the webbing containing Dash to the floor with a wet squish/thump, pulling an ominous looking can out of his belt and aiming it at Dash.

"Wait, what are you-" Mr. Incredible starts to ask as the guard triggers the can, spraying a mist at Dash. The mist hits the webbing, and the webbing evaporates into a cloud, quickly cleared by the ventilation system, leaving a sheepish-looking Dash sitting on the floor, embarrassed but unharmed.

The guard turns and looks at the Incredible family, stern expression on his face, then cracks a huge grin.

"Folks, we here at The Maul are *very* aware of your backgrounds and your reputation, at least the public one, and we're honored and pleased that you've come here to shop and visit. Y'all have a good stay, and enjoy yourselves, alright?"

The Parr's look at each other, slightly taken aback at the turn of events. "Uh, sure!" Mr. Incredible says.

The guard nods at them, flashes one last smile, turns away, takes a step, turns back, and looks directly at Dash. "And obey the speed limit signs, son. They're there for *your* protection, and others. Understood?"

Dash looks up at the guard, looks down at the bits of sticky on his clothes, looks back up and says "Understood, Sir!"

The guard nods at Dash, looks back at the family, and says "You all have a good time, now. And you folks might want to take a look at the mall's local PUB, they've got a few things on the walls that might interest you. Have a good day now." He touches a finger to his hat brim, nods at them, then turns and walks away.

The Incredibles look at each other, then look at the guard's retreating back.

"Nice guy." Mr. Incredible says.

"Polite, too." Mrs Incredible replies.

Violet looks over at Dash. "You got tagged. By a mall rent-a-cop. *snerk*"

Dash looks at her, tilting his head slightly. "And you're supposed to be the smart one? You see his rifle?" Violet shakes her head. "It was an energy weapon. I know a blaster when I see one, and I've played enough Powers Unlimited on the HoloVision to know a Blaster Rifle / Power Armor - Enforcer when I see one. He was being *polite*."

He looks around till he sees a speed limit sign, sighs, and sticks his hands in his pockets. "Not messing with these guys again, might not be polite next time." He looks around again, sees the PUB the guard was talking about. "I'll meet you there." And starts walking away, human slowly.

Violet watches him walk away, goggle-eyed, then her eyes narrow, as she starts thinking, hard.

"Now that amuses me." Helen says.

"Whats that?" Bob replies.

"All the things we've been through, and it takes a mall security guard and a video game to make the point he's not *Invincible*, just Incredible." She says, with a laugh. She looks back towards the security Kiosk the guard walked into. "So lets go see what he was talking about, with that hint applied with a brick."

The family wanders off towards the PUB, chatting.

2cp. ;]

[KnightHawk Prime]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

2cp. ;]

[Cerulean Shadow]

Disney owns not only Toontown but also Pirates of the Caribbean. The former is an MMO for children, but the latter has plenty of adult players. I used to be one before I found CoH!

[eabrace]

And they're involved with SWtOR now by virtue of Lucasarts, too.  ;)

[Colette]

Not meaning to be a killjoy...

If NCSoftcore deliberately puts an absurd price on the CoH IP, then any company, Disney included, would be better advised to simply build their own, mainly because the CoH engine is out of date.

Had I been in Mr. Kim's shoes, I would have saved costs by folding CoH into one or two servers, given the Devs a fond farewell after I-24, and left the game to run for a decade or so. Then there would have been no hard feelings from anybody. That's cost-cutting. Everyone understands expenses.

But this business of terminating the game while hanging onto the IP, destroying any chance of anybody creating a CoH 2 just pisses everybody off, even folks with no stake in the game. It's so obviously selfish and cold-hearted. Now NCSoft's known as the douchebag of the MMO world.

CoH 2... oh, what could have been...!

[eabrace]

Had I been in Mr. Kim's shoes, I would have saved costs by folding CoH into one or two servers, given the Devs a fond farewell after I-24, and left the game to run for a decade or so.

Given the virtual nature of the "servers" (which are internally referred to as "shards" to cut down on the confusion), there wouldn't be any cost savings in consolidation.  If anything the consolidation would cost extra money.

[Jordan_Lee]

Was there ever an attempt to contact Disney for this? I think with Disney owning Marvel it'd be too easy for them to sweep CoH under the rug. There are lots of other publishers, Richard Garriott owns Portalarium which is sort of a new company. But now writing that out I see how that wouldn't work. NCSoft isn't likely to arrange anything with him after the lawsuit.

[Segev]

Was there ever an attempt to contact Disney for this? I think with Disney owning Marvel it'd be too easy for them to sweep CoH under the rug. There are lots of other publishers, Richard Garriott owns Portalarium which is sort of a new company. But now writing that out I see how that wouldn't work. NCSoft isn't likely to arrange anything with him after the lawsuit.

"Easy," yes, but they didn't "sweep the Incredibles under the rug? just because they bought Marvel.

What'd be awesome would be if CoH's world got made into a Marvel-published comic.

[Sleepy Wonder]

Just read this today, and thought it was relevant to the thread:

http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2012/11/01/14861162-george-lucas-donating-disney-sale-billions-to-charity

While a slim-to-nothing shot exists, there could be some long-term charity involved with saving CoH, if it could somehow be monetized with portions of player subscription fees going to charities all the time in a post-coh-is-saved world. But I have a feeling trying to contact him about the ordeal won't be easy. It'd be a nice little pet project for him though if he's interested in philanthropy and it worked out. Gaming for charity?

It would just require some convincing that his investment will make a turn-around, and that the proceeds are likely to pay itself off one day.

The spokesperson noted that this "announcement continues a commitment that Lucas made in 2010 to The Giving Pledge where he stated,  "I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education.  It is the key to the survival of the human race.  We have to plan for our collective future—and the first step begins with social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children.  As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt—as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.'"

[Colette]

"...CoX will inevitably reach the end of its life some day."

Y'know, honestly I'm not so sure.  End of it's economic vitality, certainly. But as technology grows less expensive, "server farms" may one day be just another chip we have installed in our tablets. Provided the CoH code is not locked in a vault, CoH could go on as a retro-game indefinitely.

Sadly, it appears NCSoftcore wants the game locked up in a vault forever.

[Mentalshock]

Suddenly, this idea doesn't seem so insane, does it?

    ^.^

[Terwyn]

Damn you and your ability to pick things out of my mind before I actually think of them. :P

[Victoria Victrix]

Oh it's bloody insane.  We'd never have tried it if we hadn't had Rae with her ability to find contact information, Ammon, who has done business with some huge corporations, and Brian Clayton to oversee.  And even so, it's still bloody insane.  I can pitch a novel, but something like this?  No clue where to start.

We all needed a day when we declared it done to recover.

On to you.

/em passes the torch to the next ones in the relay

[BryanSnowden]

Wouldn't this put ALL of our characters and their back-stories and everything about them into Notorious "hands" of Disney who aren't copyright-friendly at all, aren't they the arch-nemesis of all things "Public Domain" & all?
Or, rather all things that would become "Public Domain" = if not for their (effectively) paying to change the laws regarding such things??

[Mentalshock]

   Insanity is my specialty.

[Mentalshock]

Wouldn't this put ALL of our characters and their back-stories and everything about them into Notorious "hands" of Disney who aren't copyright-friendly at all, aren't they the arch-nemesis of all things "Public Domain" & all?
Or, rather all things that would become "Public Domain" = if not for their (effectively) paying to change the laws regarding such things??

No, because if that were the case, Disney would own every idea made by their employees, regardless of the contract.  We own the ideas behind our characters, we always have.   What is owned by the IP holder is that particular incarnation of that idea, not the idea itself.    Let me ask you this, Who owns Thor, the Norse God of thunder?   Marvel (as owned by Disney) doesn't own the concept itself, just that particular form of it.

[Dollhouse]

Suddenly, this idea doesn't seem so insane, does it?

    ^.^

Are you from the future?!?   ;)

[Rienuaa]

Not sure what my input is worth, but having played Disney's Pirates of the Carribean Online, I can say that:

1) It is an MMO.

2) There are no updates for it.

3) Events still run.

4) There are still dedicated players.

5) The game is not going to be shut down.