[The account is not new. Girlfriend has played on-again, off-again for a long time. I am the new one - and I RP, whereas she doesn't. Well, *says* she doesn't.]
[Uh, anyway.]
Okay, so, I'm coming up-to-speed on what's what in the CoX universe, and I've noticed - you know, being the observant type, and aware of the subtle and scarely-noticed details - that the Crey Corp. are not, in fact, Good People.
If you were the sort of person to make broad, sweeping generalizations, you might even call them an Evil Corporation.
And I'm down with that. Fits a super-game, about super-folk.
Er, 'cept... ...it doesn't. Here's my problem.
Hero-1, Statesman, Back Street Brawler, Manticore, and probably a lot of other hero(es) I haven't met yet aren't big fans of Crey. Some of them outright don't like them, for assorted reasons. Even occasionally engage in violence against Crey soldiers... er, workers.
So, in my head, I see Back Alley Brawler (I strongly suspect there are far more anti-Crey heroes - I choose him because I remember him, 'cuz I'm new, remember) rescuing, say, an orphanage, from the path of a burning something-or-other. And the media runs over to him, to generally bask in his Awesome and broadcast it on the 6:00 news for everyone else to bask a little. And they say, "So, Back Street Brawler, now that you've saved all these innocent people, anything to say for the kids at home?"
...why *doesn't* he say, "Yeah, never, ever, EVER, buy anything from Crey. They're an evil megacorporation trying to rule and / or destroy our planet."
...because, like, that's a media *FRENZY*, right there.
Some possibilities suggested to me -
1) Crey is like Wal-Mart. Everyone knows they're evil, but their prices are just *THAT GOOD*. I don't buy this, because Wal-Mart isn't "attacking you on the street" type evil, or "creating supervillians" type evil. More "subtly ruining your economy" type evil, which doesn't seem comparable. And I know that if [Superhero] told me Wal-Mart was Evil, it would affect my opinion.
2) Crey has a monopoly on high-tech devices. Similar to the above, but it's not that Crey has great prices, per se, but the *only* prices. I can sorta get that, but it doesn't get around everyone knowing Crey is a super-evil company. And given the kind of Evil Crey is (that being, the kind of evil there are laws against), one thinks they'd be shut down and all that high-techness redistributed.
(Yes, this is the "Crey is Microsoft" arguement. First Wal-Mart, then Microsoft - wow, Crey really IS evil.)
3) Crey has sufficient media control that this isn't a problem. And that may be true, but that seems like the sort of thing super-heroes would take action against, somehow. Big superhero banners in the sky, or sucking up the civil suits for slander / libel, or such. And if Crey has THAT MUCH media control, it raises the question of why *every* hero knows Crey is evil. (...there's no good real life equal to this. Of course, if there was, I wouldn't know, anyway, would I?)
...
So, I was wondering which one of these (or combination, or other possibilities) was the "official" reason there's still a Crey Corporation, and / or which was the Virtue-Verse [O]fficial answer. Because this is actually kind-of-a-big-deal to me and my suspension of disbelief.
[Addendum - Yes, I have characters that have sworn off going to AE because it's owned / operated by Crey. In fact, if your heroes haven't, but still fight Crey on missions.. ... ... ...what's that say about them, hmm?]
Short answer is yes.
)