Savior spelled = SOE?

IF this rumor is true, I really hope it's not SOE. If it is, I swear, I'll throw up a little in my mouth. Sony has screwed me so many times over the years that I've permanently sworn them off. IF SOE acquired the game, I think it would be a short-term reprieve at best, as I honestly think they are incapable of managing a game like City of Heroes or a studio like Paragon Studios without screwing it up--and screwing us players over in the process.

IF it is SOE, I honestly can't help but think that they would be buying the IP rights and/or assets for the sole purpose of ensuring that no one else gets it, so that they can be 100% sure that City of Heroes is permanently dead and can NEVER be competition for any of their other MMORPGs.

I'm begging everyone here, please be careful what you wish for. We do not want this game in the hands of Sony. It pains me to say this, but I hope that NCsoft would just shutter the thing before selling to Sony, because if they shutter the thing, it doesn't preclude someone else getting it and opening it back up later.

IF there is meat behind this rumor and there are other interested parties, I really hope that a smaller publisher/studio acquires the rights. I want a company that isn't a behemoth in the industry. Such a company wouldn't look at the income that Paragon Studios generates as small potatoes. Such a company would treat it with the value and worth that it deserves.

To make an analogy, if you make $800 per month in income and someone gives you a $100 bill, that can actually be life-changing. At the very least, you will appreciate the hell out of it and remember that gift forever. If you make $8,000 per month in income and someone gives you a $100 bill, you'd probably say, "Yeah, thanks..." and forget about it in a few days. I want Paragon Studios and City of Heroes in the hands of a company that really appreciates it for what it's worth, someone who doesn't shut it down because it's not making enough money.

This is one of those times I agree with TonyV. It doesn't happen often, mark it down.

I know there is at least one person begging Blizzard to buy it on the forums over there. There's one reason I could get behind it: with Blizzard, we might get a proper Mac client, instead of the jury-rigged Transgaming emulation thingy we have now.

I'd love to see Paragon become a standalone studio.

I'd likely quit if SOE bought the game. They're install rootkits and spyware on your machine within a month.

Here's a question to ponder:

If SOE gets their hands on the game, but decides to ditch every single developer that has worked on the game - do we still consider this a good thing?

Also, if we want to daydream a little, this is from the Wikipedia page about the 3rd EQ1 expansion:

I'd rank SOE quite far above EA, but still not exactly in my 'oh yay!' territory. Especially with the price they charge for server transfers and that sort of stuff.

Valve would still be my preferred purchaser (even if even less likely than the others). They're fairly well liked (the only thing people ever hate them for is not releasing HL3 already, pretty much), they've got a huge platform & storefront (so they could easily advertise CoH to a massive number of people with little to no effort), they're not new to f2p games (TF2 went free to play... HATS!!!!), plus they're also big on cross platform, so would likely invest resources in creating native Mac and Linux versions of the client... they'd likely also be willing to invest in engine overhauls & upgrades (they still push out fairly large upgrades to their older games occasionally). Although, I'm not sure if Valve has ever bought a game before... not counting ones like CS which were mods of their games. Unlikely, but I would like it to happen (and, of course, picking up as much of Paragon as possible ).

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Think SoE is in Texas, so it IS likely some devs simply not see a move viable.

I would be ecstatic about SOE or anybody else buying the game even if they were terrible at running it. Another reprieve creating another year plus of running would be welcome.

****, if Saddam Hussein's rotting corpse kept the game going I'd send him $15 a month with a smile on my face.

I'll keep my hooves crossed.