Assuming no white knight steps forward and buys CoH and Paragon Studios, could we be our own white knight and form a co-operative? Stakeholders would be
* developers (who would also be co-op employees)
* VIP players
* (possible) Valve or some other company to provide network services for a fee. One of the benefits to Valve would be "free" access to the barely-used in-game billboard ads to creatively show off their other games.
* Deep Pockets -- some one or some company which would provide funds to revive Paragon Studios and acquire the CoH IP until the new co-op structure would be self-sufficient. Deep Pockets would get their investment back, with interest.
Missing from the traditional corporate structure are shareholders, who would expect a continuing return on their investment. Once Deep Pockets were paid back, all after-tax revenue would stay with the co-op.
I'm not sure how realistic this concept is, but it has worked for multiple sorts of organizations, pre-dating "crowd-funding" by decades if not centuries.
Assuming no white knight steps forward and buys CoH and Paragon Studios, could we be our own white knight and form a co-operative? Stakeholders would be
* developers (who would also be co-op employees)
* VIP players
* (possible) Valve or some other company to provide network services for a fee. One of the benefits to Valve would be "free" access to the barely-used in-game billboard ads to creatively show off their other games.
* Deep Pockets -- some one or some company which would provide funds to revive Paragon Studios and acquire the CoH IP until the new co-op structure would be self-sufficient. Deep Pockets would get their investment back, with interest.
Missing from the traditional corporate structure are shareholders, who would expect a continuing return on their investment. Once Deep Pockets were paid back, all after-tax revenue would stay with the co-op.
I'm not sure how realistic this concept is, but it has worked for multiple sorts of organizations, pre-dating "crowd-funding" by decades if not centuries.
-- Rich
* Thresholds CoH: What to do When
* My Comics Collection