New efforts!

[bugzee]

I work for a SaaS company. A few years ago we were approached by a company in India to develop an application for them. Yes, that in itself seems a bit out of the ordinary, an Indian company asking a US company to write code for them! But we had connections that were very important to them, so getting in with us was important for their business. Anyway, to the point: It took nearly 3 years to settle the contract. Meetings were at times 6 months apart. This was extremely unusual for it to take this long, and it became a running joke about when things would actually start moving. We were very impatient with them, and I remember hearing the frustrated managers talking about how ridiculously long the deal was taking. We dealt with international companies before, mainly European, and nobody ever took more than a couple months. Three years was unheard of for us. The deal was eventually agreed upon, and that opened the door to more contracts. Another deal was with a Japanese company. Guess what, 2 years into negotiations, finally got to start coding... There were times when there was absolute silence, not even a returned email for months.

Now, I have no idea if this is typical of Asian companies, but management here knows that things take differing amounts of time depending on where the company is. When we deal with US based companies, things move very quickly. So to be honest, I am not at all surprised to see that this is taking a long time. We were always left wondering if the deals were dead, since there was silence for months at a time. Nate already said things would take a long time, and I believe it. The fact that he hasn't plainly said that its over is all that I need to know that the talks aren't dead.

[ukaserex]

It's quite conceivable. I deal with European companies on a daily basis (from the States). I suspect that not many know that business pretty much grinds to a halt during the month of August. Some of the countries have a formal "siesta" time. I know they did in Greece; everything shuts down.

There are definitely going to be cultural reasons for things not moving at a pace we would like - but there are also other reasons that may or may not impact the speed of progress. Personnel, for starters. Businesses now are ramped to maximize profit and minimize cost. If they've only one or two people whose job it is to do a certain task, those people will be giving the higher revenue producing task top priority.

Even my mechanic will drop the price for his service if I tell him to squeeze it in when there's nothing else going in, as opposed to fixing the car in the order in which it arrived at his garage. The length of this process may indeed allow for more favorable terms because of its length. (but then again - we won't know a thing until they tell us) I can wait.

[Mageman]

Businesses now are ramped to maximize profit and minimize cost.

I think that selling CoX would give NCSoft a nice profit with very little cost. That's why this should be on the fast-track instead of hiding in the shadows. NCSoft must have a reason for putting this on the back burner.

[Sinistar]

. NCSoft must have a reason for putting this on the back burner.

Spite and pride spring to mind but then my view of NCSoft hasn't been that friendly since the shutdown.

[MM3squints]

I think that selling CoX would give NCSoft a nice profit with very little cost. That's why this should be on the fast-track instead of hiding in the shadows. NCSoft must have a reason for putting this on the back burner.

You have to see it from NCSoft (or any multinational corporation point of view.) CoX at this point is not a game to them, heck the CoX community is not even on their minds. All CoX is liquidity assist, that's it and time/resource is weight on the return on investment. So say the "nice profit for little cost" argument is valid, what would be the price of CoX IP? I assume CoX can't be more than anymore than the low single digits of the millions if even that. Let's be generous and say the price for CoX is 5 million dollars. This sounds like a good profit of the average person, but for a company as of 2012 who annual revenue was $686.6 million, total assists in $1.2 billion, and with 3,000 or so employees around the world, 5 million dollars is nothing. That is probably just covering operation cost for couple of months. So how much effort would they need to process this? The time calculated in the individuals involved on NC Soft payroll to divert their attention to CoX instead the other active projects + the cost of communication + the legal fees + the verification of a new company to be capabilities of sustaining the IP (they are turning over the IP to a newly form company MWM, who never created a game, so that is a big leap.)

As stated alot in this thread, for Koreans (can speak to this because I am Korean-American) it is ingrained into us just because you give away something you built or owned doesn't mean your not tied to it. Your history is still tied to the product, therefore a failure of the future of product that is no longer in your control is a failure on you because you allow that level of control to be taken away. This builds up to "Han" which is really funny because I never experienced it personally, but according to my parents, acts like collect of negative karma. It is not just a simple process of cut a check and see ya. You can say being stubborn in the Korean Culture is due to the fear of Han. Although, my parents did tell me people use Han as some sort of super power in which they channel all of their anger, hate, regret, etc and focuses it to wish ill on those who wrong them.

Edit: Not to make Koreans sound like the Korean Culture is all vengeful people, there is always an opposite force to Han, this is called "Jeong." Like Han, there is no Western equivalent meaning to define this, but the best way to explain this is that it exhibits all the characteristics of Han, but in the "Positive Karma" form. I came to know it as unconditional love, but really that in itself is an over simplification of what "Jeong" is. Korean is really a unique culture and everything is about balance, as shown in the RoK Flag with the prominent display of the taegeukgi (the thing that looks like a Ying Yang that symbolized balance and absolute.)

[Arcana]

So say the "nice profit for little cost" argument is valid, what would be the price of CoX IP? I assume CoX can't be more than anymore than the low single digits of the millions if even that. Let's be generous and say the price for CoX is 5 million dollars. This sounds like a good profit of the average person, but for a company as of 2012 who annual revenue was $686.6 million, total assists in $1.2 billion, and with 3,000 or so employees around the world, 5 million dollars is nothing.

Also, once again, people do things, not companies.  $5 million sounds like a lot of money, but the person working the deal internally at NCSoft isn't going to get that money in their pocket at the end of the deal.  At the end of the deal this person probably gets satisfaction, and that's it.  If you think about it as NCSoft is a single giant Voltron-like entity, then that entity might choose to sell City of Heroes for $5 million, and then throw the cash up in the air and dance under it.  But the real question is would you, a middle management cog in your company, spend your own time corralling internal resources at your company, work to convince other people in your company to spend their time and resources on a project of yours, the net result of which would be that something you personally don't own gets sold to a bunch of other people you don't know in exchange for money you won't get, absolutely none of which is part of your job and for which you will not likely receive any significant credit, but if it goes south at any point or if these people you don't know turn out to be flakes the blow back will hurt your own standing within your company.

If NCSoft is the borg, then the sale of CoH might be nice profit for little cost.  But in terms of the person within NCSoft working on the deal, the sale is almost all downside and no upside.  They didn't need to help, won't get promoted for closing the sale, are extremely unlikely to get any financial reward for executing the deal, but as the internal advocate for the deal will take all the responsibility for any blowback.

[MegaWatt]

I think most of us understand the above from Arcana intellectually but emotionally its like waiting for christmas or your birthday when you are younger....you know its gonna happen but you want it noooooooooow!

[scope.creep]

Here's an unexpected hit that I took this morning.  I recently picked up a refurbished router, and I was configuring it for my home network when I stumbled across this under prioritization.

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.scope-creep.com%2Fetc%2Frouter-priority-games-list.png

That stung a bit more than it should have at this point in time.

[Abraxus]

Ouch!  I could see that.  However, I think what would hurt more, for me, would be installing a router that was old enough to remember CoH/CoV.  ;D :P

[scope.creep]

Yeah yeah, whatever. It was super cheap and, sadly, better than what I had. :-(

[Felderburg]

Generic, I know this is completely off topic but what does your motto/personal text mean?

A Google search reveals it to be a movie quote (since that hasn't been mentioned yet). Barring sarcasm, the words themselves indicate that humanity is now a dump, with a few places of remaining nicety.

[Aggelakis]

A Google search reveals it to be a movie quote (since that hasn't been mentioned yet). Barring sarcasm, the words themselves indicate that humanity is now a dump, with a few places of remaining nicety.

That's his signature. Stitch was talking about the personal text that is under his icon. Which has already been translated, twice.

[Brigadine]

Here's an unexpected hit that I took this morning.  I recently picked up a refurbished router, and I was configuring it for my home network when I stumbled across this under prioritization.

https://images.weserv.nl/?url=www.scope-creep.com%2Fetc%2Frouter-priority-games-list.png

That stung a bit more than it should have at this point in time.

it cant be that new... also I saw water affects for CoH in a catalyst driver last year lol

[Noyjitat]

It's go swtor and all the super hero mmos so that doesn't appear to be very old. Although I personally like to replace my routers ever 3 - 5 years depending on when I notice internet problems cropping up.

[Vee]

Not sure if the reminder of CoX in your priority list depresses me more or the reminder that i spent several months on swtor and several hours on DCUO and CO. I'm actually thinking the latter at this point as I'm already on here all the time to remind me of CoX loss.

[Fanta]

Hmm. I was going to do a bit of CoH Coffee Talk nostalgic viewing on YouTube tonight only to find content unavailable. WTF? I hope it's just temporary. Somehow I doubt it.

[Aggelakis]

Hmm. I was going to do a bit of CoH Coffee Talk nostalgic viewing on YouTube tonight only to find content unavailable. WTF? I hope it's just temporary. Somehow I doubt it.

During the shutdown, either Zwillinger or Hit Streak said all the social media stuff would be closed/deleted along with the game. There were a couple folks that saved the content but I don't remember who they were/where it is after three years.

[Fanta]

During the shutdown, either Zwillinger or Hit Streak said all the social media stuff would be closed/deleted along with the game. There were a couple folks that saved the content but I don't remember who they were/where it is after three years.

Wish I'd been more attentive. Wish in one hand................

[Pearl Dragon]

There appear to be some COH Coffee Talk Videos, here - http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/15528482

[Fanta]

TYVM :)