Fansy Returns!

If it were still a user option I would change my forum name to Emanuel Goldstein. Shame to spoil the staging.

Let me ask you something... what do you get from acting the way you have? You aren't convincing anyone, you know. You're actively cutting your ties to this community, one person at a time.

That could easily be the intent.

Like feeling a breakup is imminent so you start picking fights with your mate. Then in the end you don't feel so bad about it because, "You weren't getting along anyway."

But more commonly, things like this happen simply because the individual enjoys being an ***hole.

Can you comprehend how hard I am laughing at the assumptions contained in your post ?

I started a little less than 5 years ago then.

Supporting my edit.

Is everyone that disagrees with you an ******* ?

What do you think that says about you ?

No, only those who act like they're holding the crystal ball.

^This hahaha oh I'm sorry that was a fun read. Lots of he said, she said going around here came into the forums to check out what's been going on and this has been what I've been reading lately. I'll still play COV for the last week just to hang out with global friends for the last days, hope it's a blast. Peace.

I'm glad you got a laugh, and my point.

No one is blameless here.

Enjoy the Isles! Be evil, and have fun!

Unfortunately, that's not why there's been all this bickering. The problem is, there are people who use these forums and don't use Titan-network who might be interested in hearing the latest news. Someone posts the news here. The harpies descend on it and try to inject their infinite pessimism into anyone who dares to give CoH even a 1% chance at a rebirth.

So unless EVERYONE ignores them, Titan is pretty much posting news here only to have the threads 'deleted' by the inverse morale police.

You must hate the Titan crew then. They all knew this game was healthy and would go on.

So not only did they act like they were holding the crystal ball. They were wrong.

I offer you my sincere apologies, sir. You did of course know exactly what you wanted to convey and how to phrase it. Anyone who's taken the time to see what's on Titan re: Plan Z knows those involved have no intention of breaking laws or stealing anything -- it's even addressed specifically on Titan Network.

I'm also weary of those pessimistic of the chances of Plan Z or sale of the IP/future revival of CoH. I admit fault in only skimming some posts and ignoring some altogether. Just wishing the tone on these boards were other than what they are.

That's what an explanation looks like. It's specific, says why. Compare that to the releases made by NCSoft and tell me seriously again "Oh yes NCSoft has told us why the game is closing".

In other words god forbid anyone hear dissent from the Titan insanity.

Fascinating. But since members of Titan have been had direct contact with PS employees for a long time, the only thing that is contestable now is the second half of that statement. The first half is not even a prediction, and also has nothing to do with your "war on hope."

In response to the second half, nobody said they KNEW it would go on. The closest you can come to that allegation is the, "We WILL persevere" pep talk that Tony gave after Aug 30. Every sports team/army who has ever lost an important game/battle has heard similar words of motivation from their coach/commander, so there's no point in even arguing about it being a lie.

Another of those "facts" you guys love to throw around.

More elevating discourse. Your high-ground is sinking.

So that's what this is about? You accuse us of lying, stealing from NCsoft, stealing from the community, and it all boils down to you perceiving that we've violated the Terms of Service for the game?

Brilliant.

I'm glad to see that you're now the EULA police. But just to make my point yet again, even if you're right, breaking a contract is not illegal. If you break contract terms, at worst, you get sued by the entity that has suffered damages. If you do something illegal, you get prosecuted by a representative of the state, and at worst, you get put to death.

But because I don't want anyone coming away thinking that I encourage people to break EULAs all willy-nilly, here's the thing. There are a lot of parts of almost every EULA that are invalid; specifically, parts that violate various laws or that specify terms that are unenforceable. That's why EULAs contain a section that boil down to, "If any part of this agreement violates any laws or is unenforceable, we'll claim as much of it as we can, and all the other parts remain valid." That's how they work--because laws in different countries or even states or cities are different, they claim the sun, moon, stars, and sky, hoping that everyone just blindly believes that they have the right to stake such claims.

That's why I've repeatedly pointed out that reverse engineering is legal--it is specifically exempted from copyright and patent law as fair use. You know what other EULA has anti-reverse engineering clauses in it? The EULA for almost every other software package in existence (with the notable exception of open source software). Don't believe me? Here's a trivial example. Go look up the EULA for Microsoft Office. It's right there in Section 1, Subsection 7:

Yet for some weird reason, almost every word processor written in the past couple of decades has been able to open and save Word documents. How strange! How were they able to do that without violating Microsoft's EULA? I'll give you a hint: because they know what I know, that reverse engineering is legal in spite of what the contract says. NCsoft includes similar "but if I can't..." language in their Terms of Service; specifically, section 16e:

Have you ever even read the Terms of Service? I have, several times. There are lots of goodies in there that are in no way enforceable. For example, did you know that NCsoft claims copyright ownership of all characters you've created in the game, even though U.S. law specifically says that copyright ownership can only be transferred through a signed document? The thing is that NCsoft legal knows that a lot of this stuff is unenforceable. If they were so sure that it wasn't unenforceable, why would they need that section at all? This is their way of saying, "Look, we know that a lot of this stuff doesn't apply to you, but the stuff that does, does." So why would they put it in there if it's unenforceable in the first place? Two reasons. First, because laws vary from place to place and there's a good chance that it is enforceable somewhere. Second, because they want people like you to think it's enforceable. I mean, if it's right there in the contract, then it has to be legal, right?

Anyway, I'm not going to sit here lecturing you any longer about EULAs because 1) I don't believe you'd listen, and 2) you don't know what you're talking about. But like I said, reverse engineering is a specific fair use exemption to U.S. copyright/trademark law, and I do not believe that I am breaking the contract by doing so. Even if I were, the worst think that could happen is that NCsoft could seek damages, which they would have to prove that they've suffered as a result of the reverse engineering that has taken place. Even if they were so desperate to try such a thing (they're not), I believe I have enough evidence to show that that section of the contract is unenforceable and thus does not apply in the U.S. and that they have in fact benefited from community reverse engineering efforts (which would shoot a massive hole in any financial damages claims). I'm about 98% certain that any judge would laugh and toss out the lawsuit. (The other 2% involves the judge not laughing.)

But even with all that having been said, I have to reiterate: Really? All the sound and fury is about you being upset that we might be violating Terms of Service? Oh well, at least I'm glad you're dropping the "stealing IP!!! stealing money!!!" BS line you were feeding us.

I am curious though, have you ever talked about a football game with your buddies the day after watching it on television? Katy bar the door, AF is BREEEEAKING THE LAWWWWWW!!!


So...

What else have you got?

Actually, the closure is a pretty damning indictment of the first part. While not unheard of, it's rare for a company to kill a truly healthy product.

With the number of times I've seen the word "insane" and other similar psychological terms about mental illness thrown around by your side, your high ground sunk into the depths of the Earth long ago.

That's where the "realignment of company focus" excuse comes from.

If it was failing, they could've said it. They chose not to. Maybe that's out of fear of getting kicked in the shin by their investors, maybe not. But if CoH was closed because it was failing, then the closure being due to a "realignment of company focus" is a lie. Focus implies a shift in priorities, not the more understandable "disposal of dead weight."

Or perhaps "realignment of company focus (into markets and products that are succeeding)."

Parsing PR-speak is a rathole. That way lies madness.