New efforts!

[Cinnder]

Like Codewalker, I'm quite sceptical about whether NCSoft is prepared to listen, but I would very much like to be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for taking up the banner, Ironwolf.  You seem straightforward and level-headed, so if anyone can re-light the flames I'd say you stand a very good chance.

Standing by till the next letter-writing campaign...

[Harpospoke]

Just speaking objectively, the ability of this community to commit nearly a quarter of a million dollar for a promise, not even a finished product, shows resolve, if nothing else. We keep showing, time and again, that we're serious and we're not going anywhere. This new effort by Ironwolf demonstrates that we're willing to keep trying new things.

Sure, it's not necessarily tangible, but history, even just the last five years, is full of small but persistent efforts effecting massive changes.

Just so the CoH community does not get sold short here, it was quite a bit more money than that.   

$678,189

[Fleur_uk]

At this point just sit tight - as more information has come out some folks are taking action and making contact. I don't know if they will post here or somewhere else. If those talks fail we will at least know more about where we stand and what might be possible.

Thanks for responding Ironwolf   Look forward to seeing hopefully positive steps forward.  xx

[dwturducken]

Just so the CoH community does not get sold short here, it was quite a bit more money than that.   

$678,189

My bad. Fixed my post.

[Azrael]

Just so the CoH community does not get sold short here, it was quite a bit more money than that.   

$678,189

I dare say...that the CoH community could raise even more than that...if sufficiently motivated to do so...

Azrael.

[MaxEternal]

I dare say...that the CoH community could raise even more than that...if sufficiently motivated to do so...

Azrael.

It sure could!  I hope we get the chance to find out...

[Zombie Hustler]

Really interesting information, and kudos to you, Ironwolf. Wish I knew of a way to be more helpful. If I think of something, I'll definitely try and do so.

Kind of crazy that NCSoft would be willing to let go of the IP, to me. I'd think that would be at least as valuable- if not moreso- than the game engine. Then again, they are a game company, so perhaps they don't see any threat/worry in anything other than a possible competitor on the market.

Still, I'm kind of surprised there aren't (or don't appear to be) people who want to jump up and buy the IP rights, such as one of the (now three? I'm a bit out of the loop) Superhero MMOs that have sprung out of this community. Of course, they may be so far into their own projects and committed to their creations enough now that they don't want the baggage of redoing their work to fit the City of Heroes IP.

[Peacemaker]

Really interesting information, and kudos to you, Ironwolf. Wish I knew of a way to be more helpful. If I think of something, I'll definitely try and do so.

Kind of crazy that NCSoft would be willing to let go of the IP, to me. I'd think that would be at least as valuable- if not moreso- than the game engine. Then again, they are a game company, so perhaps they don't see any threat/worry in anything other than a possible competitor on the market.

Still, I'm kind of surprised there aren't (or don't appear to be) people who want to jump up and buy the IP rights, such as one of the (now three? I'm a bit out of the loop) Superhero MMOs that have sprung out of this community. Of course, they may be so far into their own projects and committed to their creations enough now that they don't want the baggage of redoing their work to fit the City of Heroes IP.

While I agree that most of the community projects are already committed to their own creations  How awesome would it be to see City of Titans obtain the IP and create City of Heroes on the Unreal Engine 4.

[MWRuger]

I think they are pretty far along with IP creation.

Besides they are relying on volunteer employees for almost everything. The kickstarter was to help with software licenses to allow the creation of assets and so forth. I don't think any of them have the money to buy the COX IP. Besides, they would still need all to develop the game engine.

I still think our best chance to get back to Paragon City is either private servers or someone else getting the whole package.

[Triage IV]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Ironwolf. 

This has been a very difficult year for me and my family.  This news is a brightness in the (seemingly) impenetrable darkness that has only gotten darker since the game shut down.  You can not believe how very much needed this news is to these old ears.

I'm not sure what I can do to help out in this effort, but, if there is anything I can do, I would love to.  I've taught middle and high school English and Creative Writing for 20 years...although, due to budget cuts, am currently unemployed.  I am a writer (currently of Meta Fiction/super hero stuff, but have also written Fantasy Fiction) and I'm self-trained as a cartoonist and voice-over artist.

This is AWESOME news.  I wish you the very best of luck...just thinking of the magic, "What if" is lightning to me at this time.  Thank you.

[Super Firebug]

If this works, I know which toon I'm running first. Look for my Fusionette clone under the Atlas statue - even if I have to rebuild her from scratch, she HAS to be at the "welcome back" party.

[Lucretia MacEvil]

Upon reading your post, Firebug, I just realized that I had also been making secretly-hopeful plans of which character to run first.
In some ways, I think it'd be kind-of nice to redo them all again; some of my older character concepts would fit the newer starting arc(s) much, much better.
On the other hand, I put a lot of hours into my characters, and made some good memories with them (and I don't know if I could find all my friends again if my older characters, and thus their friend lists, were wiped).

At this point, though, I don't really care if our characters come back; as long as our City does, I'm happy!

[Ironwolf]

Again, please be patient now for a bit!

[Harpospoke]

Upon reading your post, Firebug, I just realized that I had also been making secretly-hopeful plans of which character to run first.
In some ways, I think it'd be kind-of nice to redo them all again; some of my older character concepts would fit the newer starting arc(s) much, much better.
On the other hand, I put a lot of hours into my characters, and made some good memories with them (and I don't know if I could find all my friends again if my older characters, and thus their friend lists, were wiped).

At this point, though, I don't really care if our characters come back; as long as our City does, I'm happy!

I'm torn on that.   I would of course rejoice if CoH came back, but I put many years into building all my characters.   And unlike some, I didn't stop playing them upon reaching lvl 50.   That was really when I liked them best.   The best part about firing up the game after a time was hitting the server and deciding which of my long list of lvl 50 characters I wanted to play that day.   I had something for any mood I was in that day.

Starting all that from scratch is a daunting thought.  I'm sure I would dive back into a couple of them from lvl 1, but  I would be sorely tempted to powerlevel the rest of them up again to get back to where I was.

[pogoman]

I don't know why I just saw this thread, but I say HUZZAH!! GOOD LUCK AND GO GET 'EM!! IF YOU DON'T TRY YOU'LL NEVER SUCCEED!

[Triage IV]

I'm not tech savvy, but if the game can come back, would that also mean all the saved characters would as well?  I've read posts in this thread how it could go either way.  Would the chances be fairly good that everything could be just as it was left?

And, yes, I'm trying SOOOOO hard to be patient and be good. 

Thank you, again, Ironwolf, for all your work and dedication to our CoH family.

Personally, I would LOVE to return to things "as is"..or rather, "as WAS," but would happily re-level my toons.   I have over 25 level 50s, spread out over several servers, but would gladly rebuild from the ground up, just to have the game back.

ALSO - A silly question, but would a new engine just mean an unchanged game except for the quality of audio and visuals?  I think the game was wonderful the way it was...even if other games surpass it in terms of graphic quality.

[Thunder Glove]

A "new engine" would basically mean having to remake the game from the ground up.  It'd be the opposite of an "unchanged game", because whoever wrote the new engine would have to be careful not to duplicate the old engine's look and feel, which NCSoft would still own.  It'd have to be an entirely new game, just with familiar characters in a familiar setting.

So having just the IP is not enough to bring our City of Heroes back - which is probably why NCSoft was so willing to sell the name but withhold the game.

[Triage IV]

   Oh poo.

[Azrael]

Again, please be patient now for a bit!

Aye.  'Patience.'

Hopefully by the 2nd anniversary of CoH's unfortunate closure we'll see a renaissance and we'll hear and see work in progress from the Spiritual Successors.

...or even CoH itself rising like a phoenix from the ashes..?

Azrael.

[Triage IV]

Any possibilities or someone reverse engineering the game?  I'm not quite sure what that is, but my kids talk about it a lot...and, it seems like it could be a possibility...