Yogi_Bare

Originally Posted by Z_e_r_o_NA

After the initial shock I told myself "calm down it's just a game, there is probably something to replace it..."

No, there isn't, CoH is unique in every way, even being outdated, deprecated combat system, blurry textures that looks horrible in 1080p and a lot of 7-8 years old content in need of an serious overhaul.

Tried Champions Online, didn't like it, it failed to make me feel a super hero, I don't like the overall character building and it's "Free to Play" model kinda sucks and makes you feel left out. Maybe the game IS better if I sub but I'm afraid this one might disappoint me especially in the long run.

I did like DCUO but it's a game I'm probably going to play like a console title for a couple of months and forget about it after a while. Don't get me wrong, feels like a great game but still feels more like a console title than a true MMORPG.

NCSoft has to blame itself if CoH was not performing as great as it was supposed to, lack of marketing, investments or even a sequel. It had potential... And still has. I am so sad to see it go. They're venturing in a over-saturated Asian market without any differential in their hands, no secret weapons, no reserves...

Most of these Asian games feels like the same to me, I have a couple of 60s in Aion but really, it has never been so fun, just kept me busy.

I guess I'll have to play CoH while it lasts and a bit of Tera which has been holding my interest.

Not sure where to go... Maybe Marvel Heroes will be fun but I'm kinda hopeless at the moment.

Originally Posted by Positron

The closest thing was the Tier 9 Mecha Armor.

As for Numina's corporealness... It was never said one way or another if she could become solid if needed, and interact with the world. It's only inferred that she's permanently stuck incorporeal... so I emailed Sean Fish to get his take (since it was a key element of the story) and he said "sure, she can do it with enough concentration."

Originally Posted by GuyPerfect

* Does it happen every time?
* Does it happen when you zone?
* Does it happen on every character?
* Are you certain it's your character's info window?
* Does your character by chance have zero badges?

Originally Posted by SilverAgeFan

This remark makes me want to try and articulate a few things I've been thinking over this weekend in order to broaden people's minds to fit more accurately the range of solutions that may be possible in terms of ownership and management of this (or in worst case, the spirtual successor to this) MMO moving forward.

This is not meant to single out you, Alexis_NA nor any other poster. I do not seek to offend nor grab attention in this hour of relative crisis for this MMO and the community that comprises it. Just to inform.

There seems to be a decent amount of bias, understandably given our current cultural climate, that there are basically two options: corporate owned for profit capitalism and all else filed under unprofitable not-for-profit charity thingies.

The landscape of possible business and ownership models is more diverse than that with a range of precedents.

Yes, there is our current situation which our solution may ultimately mirror: IP ownership and distribution via a multinational media corporation who will extract a percentage of profit each year in return for their initial investment of a lump sum of capital to save the IP and the game. This could be a number of the other existing corporate entities people have already brainstormed in this thread or others, from SOE to VALVe.

Not too far from this, and not to be confused with a cooperative, there is shared ownership of a newly formed public company where capital for the initial rescue purchase is made by sale of shares to a VERY wide, diverse swath of people with the thought that if you sell to enough supportive persons within a community that has vested interest in the continued existence of whatever the capital was raised to form, build or purchase, that a majority will never sell their piecemeal shares allowing a hostile takeover. This sort of effort takes advantage of existing laws and regulations both permitting and governing the creation and sales of shares in a corporation. The most famous case of this happening is the local and distributed ownership of the Green Bay Packers. I'm honestly not informed though about how profit and loss margins (P&L) are handled with respect to shareholders for the Packers.

Then there are cooperatives. Coops for short. (Pronounced co-op, two syllables not to be confused with coops for chickens.) These come in many diverse forms and can demand a range of responsibilities, both physical and financial. A few examples:

• Here in NYC, there are cooperatives that own buildings, where similar to a condo fee, you pay into a general fund monthly in addition to your mortgage. A coop board is formed and required to manage and deliberate important building related decisions including new roofs, boiler maintenance, meeting building regulations, deciding on and paying for amenities like doormen. One important factor that many people outside of NYC might not realize: a cooperative has the legal authority to block any pending sale of a unit. This might scare the bejeezus out of some reading right now. But it is there as a protective measure. It is an authority that can and has been abused most certainly in the past. But there are good reasons that a quiet building may not want a professional drummer or a person with 41 cats or a person who's credit history looks like they may be foreclosed upon within a year to move into the building. A fine distinction: with a condo, you own your space wall to wall while a private corporation owns the infrastructure of the building (plumbing, boiler, elevators, etc.) while with a coop, you own the space within your unit, but the building infrastructure including the shared walls between units, are owned cooperatively amongst ALL the other building residents.
  
  
• There are also owner operated cooperatives. I happen to be a member of the largest and most successful one in the Unites States: the Park Slope Food Coop. Say what you will about hippie eats, when for working just under 3 hours a month you can get all sorts of good, safe mostly local foods and food products at wholesale +21% compared to other prices in NYC, there is no need to argue. To take some air out of the notion that non-corporate business cannot be profitable, the PSFC has long since bought out its mortgage on its expansion space. Our rotating active membership (as some members drop out and new ones join) of 12k-20k people brings in enough proceeds to cover a full time daily staff of about a couple dozen people with both healthcare and a good living wage for Brooklyn. Prices only go up when our suppliers raise their prices. And the coffers are currently so full that the PSFC is exploring via our general meeting and open democratic management structure becoming a lender to provide outlays of initial capital to help other fledgling owner operated cooperatives launch. (This outlay could be in the form of a several $100k loan to purchase a reasonable space for example.) There are disadvantages to something like this in terms of it being sometimes VERY difficult to start due to lack of capital. But once established and culturally rooted, these sorts of organizations can be tremendously flexible and display pragmatic longterm management decisions that prioritize the continued existence of the entity. And again, this is one example that demonstrates that non-corporate does not equal not profitable.
  
  
• Another example is the worker owned cooperative. This is not to be confused with the owner operated described above that expects a level of volunteerism and labor from all those that use the services of the entity. Nor is it to be confused with stock options granted to workers by some corporations. Imagine if everyone that worked at New Paragon Studios (for lack of a better name currently) was given partial ownership over the game and the studio that produces it. Positron, War Witch, Zwill, Dink, Honey Badger, Synapse, all the way down to their janitor if it is a full time non-external contractor, et al.--all of them partial owners. Now imagine that there is no investor bracket. No external board of directors or shareholders tithing the annual profits. Imagine the workers at Paragon voting to keep their salaries roughly where they are with benefits (hopefully respectable living wages). Now, all that extra capital coming in can go directly back into the game, ensuring its longevity, allowing for capital improvements, etc. More management authority is placed in the hands of those that are directly working in the trenches in terms of where the wisest place to invest those funds would be. There are several examples within the United States of work forces pooling monies and buying out beleaguered manufacturers and demonstrating that the business is actually sustainable if you simply trim back the owner-class in terms of profit distribution. An industrial bakery in the Northwest and a window company in the Midwest leap to mind. Additionally, there are a number of new growers cooperatives being set up in Africa and South America providing all of us here with out of season delicacies like great pesticide free coffee and organic blueberries. As with other cooperatives, the initial hurdle is that first bump of cash to buy out the infrastructure (factory, farm, etc.) that is close to being shuttered.
  
  
• Another example is the consumer cooperative. This involves cooperative ownership by those that actually use the service of the entity. I am not as familiar with the history of these, but regional cooperative power supply and distribution is one solid example of this sort of cooperative and there are still several regions of the country whose power grid is served and maintained by such an organization. If anyone has more direct experience with these, please chime in. It's important to remember that shared ownership does not equal free usage of all services offered by that entity as if it were your father's candy store. It simply means that you collectively have some input on governing decisions, perhaps things as important as will this regional gas company frack in our counties or not. Or more trivial but still impactful: the day on which your favorite MMO shuts down.

This is far from an exhaustive list of the myriad types of alternative ownership models with functional precedents out there. There are already numerous business laws set up to help establish and regulate these different sorts of bodies. I'm not trying to insinuate that any one model is THE right model for our collective efforts to find a new home or spiritual successor for CoH. But I hope we can keep an open mind to some of these wide ranging options and realize that once established, some of the alternatives may prove to be even more long-lived and more fruitful for the game itself and those who would continue developing it.