I have been following both of the the pertinent threads for a few months now, but I have not posted anything until now.
First, a little background. I played CoH starting about 10 days after it went live, and stayed until just a few months before it shut down. It was my first MMO, and even though I tried a few others during the time it was online, I always came back because there was just no substitute! My son started playing when he was 8, and by the end, I was asking him questions about all the new features! I think I can honestly say that we both miss the game, and WILL be back as soon as it becomes available again!
If I have a gripe about the efforts to make that happen, it is this. While I realize that NCSoft has the right to do this however they wish, up to, and including not doing it all; I have to wonder about the wisdom of their slow, methodical approach in this particular endeavor. The phrase "Strike while the iron is hot" comes to mind. In this case, the time they are taking to finalize an agreement, and the lack of any encouraging news adds up to a daily diminishing value for the property. Because, let's face it - that value is now directly tied to remaining interest in the game. That interest will continue to wane as the months go by if there is not more than "no news is good news", and "have faith" to offer. It is human nature.
Bottom line: NCSoft has the right to handle this any damned way they please, and they have demonstrated that is exactly what they intend to do. I personally think that this approach is counter intuitive, and counter productive when dealing with a game that has been out of the mainstream for over two years. I can only hope that WHEN this does finally get off the ground, that the community has not diminished to the point where long term viability will be questionable. In the end, it matters little what I, or anyone else thinks about the state of this process, but since this is a discussion forum, and this is the topic at hand.....I am jumping into the discussion! Now that I am all caught up to everyone else, in so much as bitching about the glacial pace of things, I will continue to check back periodically in the hopes of seeing good news.
BTW, I apologize for the lousy avatar. It was all I could find on short notice that was CoH related. I know it is way too small to see, but it is a screen shot of one of my many characters (Mastermind) at the exact moment when he hit level 50. I will be looking around for something more fitting.