New efforts!

[MWRuger]

There are many reasons that when companies are discussing the sale of assets they keep it as quiet as possible.

1. You don't want to get into a bidding war. Why alert your competition?

2. It can raise the price

3. Too much furor can make the buyer or seller skittish.

4. There is a pretty formal process involved and there is a place for announcements, but not at this point (unless it is a strategic move to bring pressure. Not saying anything like that is happening, just that it does sometimes as a tactic.

5. When you are negotiating for a third party.

6. Other stuff I haven't thought of or forgot.

The point is this is a very unusual situation where information is being given out to the fans of the game as a courtesy. They know what we are going through and what to offer what they can.

Our part is sit and wait. To be there if they have need of us. Cheer them on. Let them know we are behind them. So unless they ask for a big show I think we should just chill and talk about the characters we hope to play, what events we could hold in-game, what it might be like, speculate about whether we get I24 or I23, ask if there are any Devs who might still be interested helping decipher the ancient Sumerian code base that COH is written in and be the most patient and compliant audience any shuttered but beloved game has ever had.

That is a very hard job but one that we can do.

[Tribunus]

What do Life Time Subscriptions generally go for?  Are you talking $100.00 - $150.00, or more like $400.00 - $500.00?

The first, I could see doing...the second...not so much.

It's been a while. I think my lifetime sub to LOTRO was $350. and I bought two; one for me, one for my wife.

[Tribunus]

This.

It's the main reason that I won't even consider it for any other game. In CoH, I would probably be happy, but as I said before I'd rather support them with a monthly.

Dito fo rme. Never again will I lapse if CoX is back up!

[Reaper]

Our part is sit and wait. To be there if they have need of us. Cheer them on. Let them know we are behind them. So unless they ask for a big show I think we should just chill and talk about the characters we hope to play, what events we could hold in-game, what it might be like, speculate about whether we get I24 or I23, ask if there are any Devs who might still be interested helping decipher the ancient Sumerian code base that COH is written in and be the most patient and compliant audience any shuttered but beloved game has ever had.

That is a very hard job but one that we can do.

This.  I think we should just stick to the speculation of things we would like to see or remember, but we ultimately just need to be patient.  Ironwolf will let us know what we need to do when they are ready for us.

[mrultimate]

Stay Calm and Trust in Ironwolf.

[Nyghtshade]

I think the continuing resolve of the CoX community is beyond remarkable, and yet somehow not surprising.  I am encouraged to see things seem to be in motion again with possible negotiations, and will send quiet prayers and well-wishes to those working on this latest effort. 

Thank you, Ironwulf, for giving us renewed hope as CoH's 10th anniversary approaches.

[Felderburg]

What do Life Time Subscriptions generally go for?  Are you talking $100.00 - $150.00, or more like $400.00 - $500.00?

The first, I could see doing...the second...not so much.

It's been a while. I think my lifetime sub to LOTRO was $350. and I bought two; one for me, one for my wife.

Mine for STO was I think $300 - it may have been on sale. It... may have been a poor choice, but I LOVE Star Trek. I know that for me, personally, my mentality was more of the "how many months until I get the game for free?" So $300 / 15 is 20 months, then I'm home free... Now, I did buy some of the cash shop stuff / currencies, and kept a running total going, but even so, my thinking is still "$total money spent divided by $15 = how many months I need to play to get my "money's worth"".

Some people are more of the "I know I want to play this game forever" mentality - which I was (I LOVE Star Trek). But eventually it became more about "when can I play for free"?

Plus, at this point, with the monthly stipend, I probably have enough cash shop currency to buy a bunch of stuff, if I do go back.

[LaughingAlex]

It's been a while. I think my lifetime sub to LOTRO was $350. and I bought two; one for me, one for my wife.


Mine for STO was I think $300 - it may have been on sale. It... may have been a poor choice, but I LOVE Star Trek. I know that for me, personally, my mentality was more of the "how many months until I get the game for free?" So $300 / 15 is 20 months, then I'm home free... Now, I did buy some of the cash shop stuff / currencies, and kept a running total going, but even so, my thinking is still "$total money spent divided by $15 = how many months I need to play to get my "money's worth"".

Some people are more of the "I know I want to play this game forever" mentality - which I was (I LOVE Star Trek). But eventually it became more about "when can I play for free"?

Plus, at this point, with the monthly stipend, I probably have enough cash shop currency to buy a bunch of stuff, if I do go back.

I don't have a lifetime myself of CO, but most of the people I know who play it do, but also regret it due to the game never getting content.  At the same time, there is another variant of the lifetime sub in CO thats very cheap for most in that you could buy a freeform slot at one sixth the cost.  Thing is, it means you have most people only having dropped a one time fee and then improvising for everything else, not really caring about spending any actual money on the game.  A few fools said that the fact you could buy zen for questionite keeps the game alive, I also say that, it actually hurts the game far more then helps it, as there just isn't enough income for the game to get anything new.

CO seems to have pretty much dried up of money pretty much.  While i've little regret about the vehicle 2.0 changes that followed most of my ideas(not all of them, some changes were changes I disagreed with), I feel they're messing up with fire and ice is likely the lethal mistake for them.

[DJDee]

In my opinion, this is exactly right.

During the time around the rally, our goal was to make noise. For the past year and a half, our goal has been to stay connected. But right now, our goal is to remain patient.

I know that's harder than ever lately with the thought of this potential deal kicking up anxiety and excitement in us. But that's exactly *why* it's important to be patient and calm - now more than ever - because so far it's only a *potential* deal. If we rock the boat right now, who knows what effect we'll have on it. We could cause it to go away, and that's not a chance I'm willing to take.

We don't need to act just yet - things are already happening. Let's give those things a chance to happen. Once that sorts out, *then* we can figure out what our next goal is.

Totally Trippy. We hold our breath and hope we can Tank this out.

[LaughingAlex]

In my opinion, this is exactly right.

During the time around the rally, our goal was to make noise. For the past year and a half, our goal has been to stay connected. But right now, our goal is to remain patient.

I know that's harder than ever lately with the thought of this potential deal kicking up anxiety and excitement in us. But that's exactly *why* it's important to be patient and calm - now more than ever - because so far it's only a *potential* deal. If we rock the boat right now, who knows what effect we'll have on it. We could cause it to go away, and that's not a chance I'm willing to take.

We don't need to act just yet - things are already happening. Let's give those things a chance to happen. Once that sorts out, *then* we can figure out what our next goal is.

I certainly agree and am glad to see efforts being made and that things are happening.  I've already informed my sg mates of my plans if this goes through, and they are somewhat sad to know that i may be going soon, at the same time, go figure.  I still know others who'd happily move on to.  Heck I think the real exit event for most of my friends in CO is in fact going to be CoX coming back, along the other things in that game, there are those of us who are very excited by this, big time and we are behind ya on this.

[dwturducken]

Right now is the 10th anniversary. Make some noise. Hold a torch at your local comic store this weekend. None of that has anything that directly ties to this thread, unless we make it. We can celebrate and mourn and all the things that we need to do right now without drawing unwanted attention to any negotiations that may or may not be going on. (wink wink, nudge nudge)

[Triage IV]

So, was yesterday the 10th year anniversary or is it today? 

US launch was on April 27th, 2004...but did the game really come out on the 28th?

[Graphite]

Actually, it prelanched 3 days before hand.  I was there for it swiping up names on Virtue (Though some one beat me to Gaiden :p).  Then Finals happened and I wasn't back on till the first week of May.  Everyone seems pretty sure it was April 27 and that's what Google says.

[Graphite]

It looks like based on what I'm seeing Free Comic Book Day and Project Got A Light will be archived and coming down tomorrow.

I still think we should have a meet up at Dragon Con.  Is anyone apposed to me organizing this?

[Biz]

Right now is the 10th anniversary. Make some noise. Hold a torch at your local comic store this weekend. None of that has anything that directly ties to this thread, unless we make it. We can celebrate and mourn and all the things that we need to do right now without drawing unwanted attention to any negotiations that may or may not be going on. (wink wink, nudge nudge)

Maybe this is just my uneducated interpretation...but I was under the impression that if NCsoft knew of the existence of a still surviving/dedicated/etc CoH community it could potentially drive up the price of negotiations. Maybe it doesn't matter at all or maybe it would actually help the cause. But from what I've read it sounded like it would more likely hurt our overall goal.

[LaughingAlex]

Well there will always be some who try to be to noisy and even in the wrong ways, we try not to relate to them but what we want to do more is let the negotiations proceed without any more pressure then they already have.  We'd potentially jeapardise them if we did make to much noise, add to much pressure, and ruin the deal.  Odds are does NCSoft know we exist by now?  Probably, but that isn't flag for spamming and everything else know?  Once the initial talks are done and we have a direction, heck the talks may even succeed on the first try, and I'm very hopeful they will, wouldn't even be surprised either if they did.

And we want them to have the best chances.

[Biz]

Alright, so you are agreeing that it is a bad idea to cause a stir and add more pressure to the talks. Got it, I'll refrain from spamming (for now).

[TonyV]

The Brown Coats really didn't get reved up to make the movie until after Fox released the DvDs.  That was the Spark that set off the Gorilla Campaign.  I want "Project Got A Light?" to be the core of our Gorilla Campaign.

I think you mean guerrilla campaign.  ;) As much as I'd love to see a troop of gorillas marching on NCsoft, that probably wouldn't be very conducive to getting a deal worked out...

[TonyV]

As for publicity, I think that the way to go is to leave it up to the people who are working on making the deal.  If they want our help in generating publicity, we're here for them.  If they'd rather we hold back and wait to see what happens, we can do that, too.  If they're convinced that we're a big enough group to make acquiring the game a profitable enterprise, then we don't really need to convince them of the "worthwhileness" of acquiring it.  If they need some kind of show for their investors, we can do that, too.  (Although I think that really, pointing to this thread and showing them the results of the City of Titans Kickstarter campaign would probably work wonders in that arena.)

Point is, I wouldn't worry too much whether or not we're doing the right or wrong thing to maximize our chances of getting the game back.  If we're not, or we need to do something else, I'm pretty certain that I'll find out and and steer the community here appropriately.

[Nyx Nought Nothing]

Alright, so you are agreeing that it is a bad idea to cause a stir and add more pressure to the talks. Got it, I'll refrain from spamming (for now).

By all accounts the current buyers that are looking to make an offer are already intensely interested and the price NCsoft has put out there is considered to be perfectly doable. So there's no need to make a noise to attract buyers since they're already there and looking to buy, and NCsoft isn't going to become more interested in selling just because there are still vocal fans out there. For NCsoft the two main criteria are whether the buyers are willing to pay NCsoft's asking price and whether they'll handle the IP going forward in a way that reflects well on NCsoft. Neither of which is likely to be helped by raising a ruckus.

When (if) the deal happens is the time to mobilize and start doing everything you can publicize the game. On the plus side making some noise right now probably won't hurt things, it just won't help either. Save up your energy and start working on your slogans and tactics now so that if this works out we'll be ready to go.


As a side thought while i'd love it if the servers would be spun up ASAP after a deal is made it seems to me that setting up a new account system and getting everything working will take months even using the version of the game that was live at shutdown. So even if the deal happened in May i wouldn't expect the game to be playable until some time in the fall at the earliest. (And i dare them to prove me wrong.  ;D )