Leasing might be a viable option, but for now simply getting into talks with NCSoft is the goal. However, I think the playerbase will focus on a total acquisition of the IP for a couple reasons (first, because NCSoft will make more money selling it than leasing it, and they'll likely want to do what is best for their pocketbooks). I also feel that a lot of playerbase would have VERY low confidence of a lease from NCSoft simply because of the way they handled this.
TW/Elec Optimization
There's much pain presently.
Let's face it it's been a crappy weekend in many ways. CoH, Hal David, Michael Clarke Duncan.
None of them world leaders in their own right, but each incredibly significant in their own right.
CoH was the genre breaking superhero MMO and will always be the benchmark by which other comic/superhuman MMOs are measured
Hal David wasn't a household name but he's up there with Goffin & King, Leiber & Stoller and one of the major volumes of the Great American Songbook
Michael Clarke Duncan had such stage presence he managed to turn a major Marvel Supervillain from a pasty white guy to a black powerhouse. He gave Wilson Fisk a whole double-take.
For the latter we can only mourn. Nobody comes back from the dead. Ever. But City of Heroes isn't a living entity in the same way. Thus it can be saved.
Here's a thought - based on some thoughts I've formed over the weekend as new info's come to light and the posts of others who are either generally better informed than I or maybe simply a bit smarter at joining dots.
Much of the talk has been about acquiring the IP to CoH - wresting it away from NCSoft so they can't do any more damage to the world we love so.
I don't see it like that. I don't think NCSoft have done it like that - it's certainly not a premeditated thing to kill a goose that occasionally lays a bronze egg.
Tit-Toc crystalised a thought that I hadn't quite realised in my own mind but was getting there slowly and I won't quote verbatim but was along the lines of "the disaster of selling the IP then finding the new owners make a go of it."
That speaks volumes. The whole IP, in a dead, non-functioning game - has more value than the live MMO. Maybe City of Heroes 2 will be some cheap-arsed 99p download for iPhone that's a cossie creator and a bit of flash coding that allows you to zap a couple of 2 dimensional supervillains. Like Angry Birds vs 50 Shades of Grey, but in Spandex. With more gravy. Or something.
I honestly cannot see NCSoft letting the IP of CoH get out of their control. Let's face it, they don't seem to play well with others terribly well.
And that includes making it Open Source. There have been some please - there's at least one petition out there to make the code-base Open Source. Two issues there: A) Open Source is tricky sometimes, even for the people who make open source stuff and B) the code base is worth as much as a rubber duck in the gobi unless the IP comes with it. Otherwise you end up with a completely different game along the lines of "Village of the slightly better than usual."
So what about this? Don't buy the IP. Licence it. Get a firm commitment from NCSoft for three or maybe five (that's long term) years. The proposition is simple: "Licence us the IP for a finite period with a renewal option - you make money because that's the commitment, and lose nothing because you have no operating costs. If it turns into the revenue stream you'd always imagined and a sudden influx of goose eggs devalue world gold prices, then you know you need to be talking to us about revenue streams."
With that negotiation comes the game as it stands - INCLUDING I24 as a delivered functioning issue. Plus the ability to create new content for the future - but of course NC won't be part of that. They just get to cream off any benefits later.
The WIIFM factor: NCSoft have zero cost. They license the IP, and coin the revenue. It's incredibly low risk and as risk of repeating myself they are legally bound to consider it. And if after the duration it's tanked, they just do "don't bother."
But if after the period it's showing promise... that's good for the licensee - ie us.
What's in it for the community? Leasing is likely to be a lot less in real costs. There's also lower risk because the cost is spread over time, unlike a buyout of the IP
It also means the buyers aren't saddled with a white elephant forever. Te "community" (It means you and me) get to walk away if it's burning us - there's no long term commiment. If we try it, and it doesn't work, then ok.
If it does work and is a resounding success then it's a foolish business says "let's change things up" in the midst of success.
2p
But they also need revenue.
Thelonious Monk