possible good news?

[Victoria Victrix]

Isn't that... a bit... novel-esque to expect anyone at a business to actually peruse (let alone read) before any kind of formal discussions have even begun?  Really?

It's business standard.

You begin with an Introduction, which is a 1-page sum-up.  Generally the Big Dog reads that, then hands the rest of the package on to one or more of his underlings to do a full read and a fiscal analysis, and get back to him.

[Joshex]

thanks for the replies, indeed I'm glad to have the input on the changes needed before puting it on thier forums.

I also would like a few demo record videos of gameplay if anyone has them?

I know someone demo recorded an ITF and an STF those would be great.

I know it's not upto the players, buy if I can get the playerbase talking about it that could be a very beneficial thing.

I already have an account over there, I play 2 games from aeria; Grand Fantasia and Shaiya, so I already have a good foot in the door so to speak. but indeed it wold be helpful to have more than one of us heh.

it's sad to hear NCSoft says they aren't selling. if we get a company willing to buy I would be interested in some of our legal members opinions on a lawsuit of NCSoft on the grounds of shutting down a game and having no visible future plans for it and refusing to let others have it.

sitting on a dead IP has to be illegal in some regard.

[Knightslayer]

Sadly, I don't think it is...
By law if you own an IP it is yours to do with as you please AFAIK.
Hopefully someone will tell me I'm horribly wrong there! x.x

[McCreed]

You're not wrong.  The P in IP is, of course, property.  Nuff said.

[Cobra Man]

Sadly, I don't think it is...
By law if you own an IP it is yours to do with as you please AFAIK.
Hopefully someone will tell me I'm horribly wrong there! x.x

Unfortunately you're not wrong.

There are a few famous examples of character IP's being lost and regained later - Oswald the Lucky Rabbit springs to mind.

It took Disney nearly 80 years to get that IP back though .....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_the_Lucky_Rabbit

[Joshex]

we do have and advantage point that they didn't originally create the IP they bought it and killed it, we could try to prove they bought it for the purpose of killing a rival MMO. thats bad business.

[JaguarX]

we do have and advantage point that they didn't originally create the IP they bought it and killed it, we could try to prove they bought it for the purpose of killing a rival MMO. thats bad business.

uhmmm...corporations do it all the time. Usually as part of a hostile takeover. Buy the competitor, destroy product that isnt going to be used, one less competitor, rinse repeat until someone hits ya with a monolopy lawsuit when there is few or no one left to destroy. Some do buy the competitor and use it to their own financial gain. 

Plus that is kind of hard to prove they bought it just to kill it off given that the game grew over those years (iirc) and has been kept running for around 5 years, longer than most other MMO games' entire life span. Not to mention I think since the beginning they owned 50% anyways as publisher and just bought out Cryptic holdings in the game giving them 100% and thus Paragon Studios was born.

[Aggelakis]

we do have and advantage point that they didn't originally create the IP they bought it and killed it, we could try to prove they bought it for the purpose of killing a rival MMO. thats bad business.

We wouldn't be able to prove that, anyway. They bought it years ago and poured money into it and got money out of it. That's not bad business. That's just 'business'.

[Joshex]

hmm... troubling maybe it's time for plan ZIB that is to say Alphabetical Plan ZI Beta, I have contacts in south korea... Crazy insane Contacts with high level contacts, I could make NCSoft shamed over this issue..

but as I said thats plan ZI Beta that comes after ZA ZB ZC ZD ZE ZF ZG ZH and ZI Alpha.











JOKEING










OR AM I? MWAHAHAHAHAHAH

[Ironwolf]

I am currently going through a few of the local gaming developers in Michigan - contacting them and checking on the viability of using the Michigan technology grant to buy the IP and develop the game.

I have a list and I am going one-by-one.

Stardock was number one.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


Dylan Thomas wrote this as his father was going blind - but it applies to us beautifully.

[Joshex]

on a serious note no reply yet, I wonder if they will reply or just consider the topic with no answer.

or I wonder if they ignored my comments due to the requests for thier own games I made before the CoH comments.

I will repost the business topic with only CoH oriented talk on monday.

[Joshex]

lets try to keep my mind on good things shall we? right, let me write another proposal for Aeria Games completely focused on CoH while letting them know of our current moves with google.

I want to get some sort of reply from them about if they'll consider buying it if google says no.

[Joshex]

To Whom it may concern,

Please direct this towards the officials who need to make the decisions regarding this information of a business opportunity. and respond accordingly as per the question at the end of this document.

Recently the MMORPG City of Heroes and it's counterpart City of Villains was shut down by it's host company NCSoft, the players of the game find themselves without an MMO that fulfills their tastes for Superhero and Super villain fantasy, they have tried DCUO, Champions and others and have found them all to be nothing in comparison to City of Heroes.

And so there is a hole in the market, a smart business could develop a game similar to city of heroes in order to pick-up these 10's of thousands of fans as customers.

I am not joking, there are really over 21,000 dedicated fans not to even count the others who found the game enticing enough to pay a subscription fee each month.

Of coarse developing an MMO to fill the shoes of City of heroes is no small feat, it would take alot of time and effort, so there is another option:

The host company NCSoft has officially said "they have no more plans to do anything with the Intellectual Property (IP) of City of Heroes" and are currently being stubborn and merely sitting on the IP claiming "they have tried to sell it but negotiations were not successful."

The second option other than making your own Superhero MMO is to By the IP to City of heroes and launch an already existent game on your own servers for instant guaranteed profits.

They (NCSoft) are currently benefiting in the fact that all their negotiations over the IP are being done in silent.

A suggestion if you are willing to pick-up the IP of City of Heroes/Villains and it's paying fan base; While entering into talks with NCSoft for the IP make a news article about it before during and after, even take a video of the discussion if necessary. This will push NCSoft to sell the IP or look bad trying to ask for too much money or completely unprofessional demands on the buyer which will label them 'shameful in business practices' for trying to sit on the IP with no intention of realistically considering selling.

Finally, one issue of business remains to be discussed, currently the City of Heroes fan base is petitioning various Conglomerates to try and pick-up the IP to City of heroes, so far this has received no response or noted motion from either of the 2 companies they have tried (I.E. Disney and Google) they still remain in talks with Google. So care must be taken not to act too soon and instigate a bidding war between yourselves and another company.

In closing, please respond to this with your decision on the following question;

If Google decides not to Pick-up the IP to City of Heroes/Villains are you willing and interested in trying to Acquire the IP yourselves?

Submitted to thier business inquiries department.

[Knightslayer]

Didn't Mercedes list a number of subscriber and F2P users somewhere?
Probably a bit late to mention now, but I'd refrain from using the number on the petition as a referrence to subscribers, since every smart company will know that it doesn't reflect the truth.

[Joshex]

Didn't Mercedes list a number of subscriber and F2P users somewhere?
Probably a bit late to mention now, but I'd refrain from using the number on the petition as a referrence to subscribers, since every smart company will know that it doesn't reflect the truth.

I'm getting the number from the number of signitures on the save coh petition on change.org, those are obviously the people who really care abotu the game then theres more who may be F2P or subscribers but not avid enough to sign the petition and then of coarse theres the ones that died so they can't sign the petition.

moment of silence, especially for my friend.. if the game is not ressurected.. then the only thing left of him.. his characters and SG base, it's all gone.. I have pictures but still.. only NCSoft could be heartless enough to kill the memories of the dead.

[Knightslayer]

I know that at least a few of those are friends of mine who never even touched CoH, nor had any interest in it - they signed up to help out a friend.
And I'm fairly sure there's quite a few friends and family of other players on there too, not to mention the people I've seen that said "Signed it even though I don't play the game I do support your cause!".

[Ironwolf]

I have been using the actual number given by Positron of 60,000 subscribers active when the game closed.

That didn't cover the F2P people though but it is a measurable number.

[Joshex]

Adjustments made. I included talks about Positron's comment and talked finances, roughly taking the subscribers at face value ; 60000 * 10 (dollars per month) * 12 months = $7,200,000 - taxes, maintenence and payroll = around 2-3 million in capital.

[Ironwolf]

Except many were on monthly subs - like me so it was $14.99 a month.

I personally would round it out to $12.99 a month to balance month-by-month versus yearly subs.

So if you run 60,000 x 12.99 = $779,400 monthly
 
$2,338,200 quarterly

$9,352,800 yearly

Those numbers are pretty close with the last year since F2P where they went UP and the game was closed, yes the profits were going UP when they closed the game.

[Joshex]

Except many were on monthly subs - like me so it was $14.99 a month.

I personally would round it out to $12.99 a month to balance month-by-month versus yearly subs.

So if you run 60,000 x 12.99 = $779,400 monthly
 
$2,338,200 quarterly

$9,352,800 yearly

Those numbers are pretty close with the last year since F2P where they went UP and the game was closed, yes the profits were going UP when they closed the game.

Aeria games makes money off of thier AP (Aeria Points) sales, the average player doesn't buy AP much, but those that do might buy 20+ dollars worth of it a month, averaging the halfway point as around $10 per month.

bassically I was just supplying a rough estimate, even 7,200,000 is alot and somehting to spark interest for Aeria. thats probably what they average from each of thier games, though maybe a bit less for some.

another interesting thing about Aeria games, most of thier games have completely linked servers, aka all the same guilds ETC. are on each server and you can switch servers as simply as logging out changing server and logging in, your characters are automatically transferred cause they technically already exist on that server.