New efforts!

[Goddangit]

Maybe the Mysterious Benefactor is... Mike Myers.  But he's only saving red side...
https://images.weserv.nl/?url=upload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2F1%2F16%2FDrevil_million_dollars.jpg

[Angel Phoenix77]

Maybe the Mysterious Benefactor is... Mike Myers.  But he's only saving red side...
https://images.weserv.nl/?url=upload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2F1%2F16%2FDrevil_million_dollars.jpg

for 1 million dollars :D

[Dispari]

I had a dream that City of Heroes got relaunched and I was playing it last night. Then I wake up to this information. Hopefully the news we hear is good news. Also, if the game gets relaunched, that's just a confirmation that I have dream superpowers. I'll be taking requests for whatever wishes people want granted. I accept PayPal.

[Phaerius]

I wish for a million wishes.

[Harpospoke]

I may be late to this but Valve has addressed this in the past, stating that they will make available physical copies of games that you buy if they ever shut the service down. They even honored customers who bought copies of Prey elsewhere when those servers went away.

To other steam paranoiacs (not you MM3):

Steam also has an offline mode and any game that you buy that THE PUBLISHER does not require an internet connection to play will work just fine.

Good.   The "if you play online games just accept that it's only temporary" attitude is changing.

[mrultimate]

*****************************************RANDOMNESS WARNING*****************************************************

I want to answer every question someone at work asks me with "I am Groot."

Perhaps I should try it out on my wife first......... :roll:

[Harpospoke]

Strictly speaking, most EULAs don't really represent the "legal realities" so much as "what our legal team fervently hopes will be the legal realities, and is crossing our fingers that nobody ever challenges this in a court of law, because we threw in everything but the kitchen sink into this end user agreement, and Bob actually wanted to throw in a claim to your actual freaking kitchen sink just to see if anyone reads these things, but we all shouted him down, and he sulked for about a week or two because he's still sure it would have been funny as hell to send people cease and desist letters from using their own kitchen sinks"...um, where was I?

Oh, right. Until a court actually rules on whether an end-user agreement is legally enforceable, it's just a bunch of text. Not that I'm saying anyone would or should sue NCSoft to get their character information back, but stating, "Oh hey, you clicked 'Accept' on the Terms and Conditions so it's settled now" is not actually correct. There've been a lot of courts pushing back on overly aggressive, unenforceable EULAs (the KlearGear people come to mind) and I, for one, would like to see the "EULA is law" mentality not take hold.

Interesting post.

[Goddangit]

Maybe the Mysterious Benefactor is... Mike Myers.  But he's only saving red side...
https://images.weserv.nl/?url=upload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2F1%2F16%2FDrevil_million_dollars.jpg

for 1 million dollars :D

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=img.poptower.com%2Fpic-49580%2Frobert-wagner.jpg%3Fd%3D600
...ahem...

[DocHornet]

If we're posting silly wild rumors as to the identity of the mystery team, here's my entry for silliest wildest rumor:

https://xjobs.brassring.com/tgwebhost/jobdetails.aspx?partnerid=25348&siteid=5039&areq=206676BR&Codes=MARVTWITTER_TWDC

"if you knew their identity it'd blow you away." Check!
"May not [exactly[ have a MMO game under their [own] belt."  Check!
"Someone NCSOFT would sit up and listen to." Check!
Totally implausible, untrue, only-a-joke-folks. Check!

:)

[Ankhammon]

*****************************************RANDOMNESS WARNING*****************************************************

I want to answer every question someone at work asks me with "I am Groot."

Perhaps I should try it out on my wife first......... :roll:

Reminds me of my old would you quite your job if you won the lottery scenario.

If anyone came to my cubicle or called or emailed and asked for anything, my answer would be a simple calmly worded "No.".

Just to see how long it would take for me to be fired. :)

[Sihada]

Oh, right. Until a court actually rules on whether an end-user agreement is legally enforceable, it's just a bunch of text.

The courts have spoken on this issue.  Several times.  Over a long period of time:

In 1996, a federal Court of Appeal ruled that shrinkwrap licenses are valid as long as a user who disagrees with the terms can return the product for a refund. The court also ruled that a license restricting rights that a purchaser would have otherwise had under the Copyright Act is legal. (ProCD v. Zeidenberg, 86 F.3d 1447 (7th Cir. 1996).)

The same standards apply to clickwrap (software EULA) agreements: "[C]lickwrap license agreements are an appropriate way to form contracts." (i.Lan Systems Inc. v. Netscout Service Level Corp., 183 F.Supp.2d 328 (D. Mass. 2002).)

Another company, as a condition of its EULA, prohibited reverse engineering of its software. To the dismay of software programmers, a federal court upheld this provision. (Bowers v. Baystate Technologies, Inc., 320 F. 3d 1317 (Fed. Cir. 2003).)

As recently as 2010, the courts have continued to hold that EULAs were legally enforceable.  In 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a EULA forbidding resale of software was enforceable.  In 2011, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, effectively settling the issue.

So, it's not "just a bunch of text".

[Dev7on]

I would LOVE to see Tom Cruise star as Statesman in a CoH movie.

Although I don't think that Tom Cruise is really involved in the current effort.

My personal guess for who is spear-heading our mystery buyer team: https://images.weserv.nl/?url=user-cdn.spring.me%2Fphotos%2F20120806%2Fn50203aae30c71.jpg
Mr. Sins himself

Really HIM? ^^^^ Why him?

[MetalheroDamien]

It kinda of like hiding things out in the open.  Reminds me of the old show "The Prisoner".  In the intro, the Prisoner (who is Number 6) asks the new warden (Number 2) Who is Number 1.  Number 2 reply seems to be "You are Number 6".  What he was actually saying "You are, Number 6".  At the end of the series, it was revealed that Number 6 was Number 1, so I guess it meant that Number 6 was his own keeper/tormentor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlFiHhN8aew

Unless you operate under the assumption that the last episode is either a hallucination or some other manner of false hood. I love that show, but damn was it hard to tell what was real, and what was the show fucking with us.

[Angel Phoenix77]

Really HIM? ^^^^ Why him?

is he the one that does CinemaSins on youtube?

[JanessaVR]

I would LOVE to see Tom Cruise star as Statesman in a CoH movie.

Tom might be better suited to the role of Statesman's not-so-plucky sidekeck, Timmy, a short and annoying man who gets killed off in the first episode, to the delight of many.

He doesn't have the height, build, or talent to play Statesman.

[Burnt Toast]

Strictly speaking...you are categorically misinformed and incorrect.
A EULA has been found to be a binding contract that is entered into by simply clicking "I Agree." This issue has been before numerous courts and found to be enforceable. I urge people to do ACTUAL research (not conspiracy sites) so that they are informed on the legality of a EULA. You can research the cases/opinions of the cases already presented by BadWolf or do your own legal research (There is plenty of it out there).


Please do not spread misinformation; especially misinformation of claiming something is not legal/valid/enforceable....

Strictly speaking, most EULAs don't really represent the "legal realities" so much as "what our legal team fervently hopes will be the legal realities, and is crossing our fingers that nobody ever challenges this in a court of law, because we threw in everything but the kitchen sink into this end user agreement, and Bob actually wanted to throw in a claim to your actual freaking kitchen sink just to see if anyone reads these things, but we all shouted him down, and he sulked for about a week or two because he's still sure it would have been funny as hell to send people cease and desist letters from using their own kitchen sinks"...um, where was I?

Oh, right. Until a court actually rules on whether an end-user agreement is legally enforceable, it's just a bunch of text. Not that I'm saying anyone would or should sue NCSoft to get their character information back, but stating, "Oh hey, you clicked 'Accept' on the Terms and Conditions so it's settled now" is not actually correct. There've been a lot of courts pushing back on overly aggressive, unenforceable EULAs (the KlearGear people come to mind) and I, for one, would like to see the "EULA is law" mentality not take hold.

[Golden Girl]

I would blame the new owners since NCSoft HAS the account information

Do they?

[Golden Girl]

From the "Game Changer" "You will understand" etc. comments I take this to likely be a name larger than the gaming industry.

Amazon wants to get into gaming.

[FloatingFatMan]

The courts have spoken on this issue.  Several times.  Over a long period of time:

In 1996, a federal Court of Appeal ruled that shrinkwrap licenses are valid as long as a user who disagrees with the terms can return the product for a refund. The court also ruled that a license restricting rights that a purchaser would have otherwise had under the Copyright Act is legal. (ProCD v. Zeidenberg, 86 F.3d 1447 (7th Cir. 1996).)

The same standards apply to clickwrap (software EULA) agreements: "[C]lickwrap license agreements are an appropriate way to form contracts." (i.Lan Systems Inc. v. Netscout Service Level Corp., 183 F.Supp.2d 328 (D. Mass. 2002).)

Another company, as a condition of its EULA, prohibited reverse engineering of its software. To the dismay of software programmers, a federal court upheld this provision. (Bowers v. Baystate Technologies, Inc., 320 F. 3d 1317 (Fed. Cir. 2003).)

As recently as 2010, the courts have continued to hold that EULAs were legally enforceable.  In 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a EULA forbidding resale of software was enforceable.  In 2011, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, effectively settling the issue.

So, it's not "just a bunch of text".

Just so's you know, not everyone here is in the USA.  USA laws apply to people in the USA, not outside. ;)

[BadWolf]

Strictly speaking...you are categorically misinformed and incorrect.
A EULA has been found to be a binding contract that is entered into by simply clicking "I Agree." This issue has been before numerous courts and found to be enforceable. I urge people to do ACTUAL research (not conspiracy sites) so that they are informed on the legality of a EULA. You can research the cases/opinions of the cases already presented by BadWolf or do your own legal research (There is plenty of it out there).


Please do not spread misinformation; especially misinformation of claiming something is not legal/valid/enforceable....

Again, I am not saying that EULAs are categorically non-enforceable. I am simply saying that EULAs are not categorically enforceable. You can't put a clause into a EULA that's not legally enforceable and expect the courts to uphold it just because someone clicked "I Accept". This is coming up more and more because EULAs are getting more restrictive on things that were previously held as "fair use" under the copyright laws.

Again, I'm not saying that anyone should volunteer to be the test case, but it's true of any contract, from a EULA to a handshake deal, that every clause in it is subject to interpretation by the courts. Only when the courts uphold the contract does it become a "legal reality". Until then, it's just a thing that some lawyers are telling you. :)