I don't usually play the lottery.
By
Bin Man,
Posted on: 2012-10-11 04:39 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Good luck!
Thanks :P I'm not an idiot though, I know the odds are super astronomically minuscule (1 in 116,531,800 apparently) but figured i'd give it a shot anyway as I never ever play.
I've been doing this since the End of Days announcement in august, I get a ticket when the jackpot is good enough...
Last chance this Friday I suppose...
"Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself." ~Midnight Flux's former boss.
There are usually two sides to every argument but no end.
Everything placed above this line is always IMHO, YMMV and quite certainly not to be taken too seriously....
Speaking of the lottery...
Here in the U.S., we have one that's currently the second largest one in U.S. history. This Wednesday's (Nov. 28) Powerball drawing will be for an estimated $500 million ($327 cash option, probably around $171 million after taxes, depending on your local and state income tax rates). That would easily be enough to buy the IP and invest in a staff of developers, several of which would probably even still be available from the old team.
Personally, I hardly ever play the lottery, the odds are just so bad. And if you're morally opposed to lotteries, have a gambling problem, or something else like that, then I'm certainly not encouraging you to go out and gamble on this one. But still, for those who are game (no pun intended), if you're willing to go out and invest $5 or $10 for some mindless fun and daydreaming, collectively we might actually be able have the odds in the hundreds-of-thousands range instead of the hundreds-of-millions range that it normally is for individuals. I myself will probably swing by the local convenience store and buy $20 or $30 in tickets today. I will commit to you all that if by some really bizarre chance my numbers hit, this whole shutdown thing will be a non-issue.
I have to post the caveat of, please don't take this idea and go overboard. If I find out that someone went and cashed out their retirement, or threw hundreds or thousands of dollars at it, I will personally come smack you in the head. No arbitrarily huge amount that any one person throws at it will make a hill of beans of difference statistically, it would require a lot of people collectively making a commitment to, if their numbers happen to be the ones that come up, set aside a bit for the community. Besides, it's not like you won't still have millions to burn on whatever over-the-top decadent activities you have in mind.
You can buy Powerball tickets in any state EXCEPT: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and ironically (if one of our community wins), California. You CAN also buy them in Washington DC and the US Virgin Islands.
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
"I don't always play the lottery, but when I do, it's so I can buy CoH."
Threads like these pretty clearly illustrate why lottery winners so often end up in financial trouble down the road...
Quote:
Actually, most just splurge on crap and don't even try to invest in anything. But then again that's probably not even accurate? How often do you see news reports about the lotto winners who are actually careful with their money? It's not that they're not there. It's just that reporting on them is no different then reporting on the guy who DIDN'T murder someone. No intrigue = no ratings.|
Originally Posted by Brillig
Threads like these pretty clearly illustrate why lottery winners so often end up in financial trouble down the road...
|
Nice troll attempt though.
Quote:
There you go again.|
Originally Posted by TimTheEnchanter
Nice troll attempt though.
|
/reagan
Quote:
Well you DID start trolling, so perhaps you should have said "There I go again."
|
Originally Posted by Brillig
There you go again.
/reagan |
Quote:
Actually, believe it or not.|
Originally Posted by Brillig
Threads like these pretty clearly illustrate why lottery winners so often end up in financial trouble down the road...
|
Most of the lottery winners who get in trouble are those who win in the 5-6 digit range.
There's a couple EXTREME cases of multi-million dollar winners getting a case of the super-stupids. But, statistically, that's actually pretty low.
What to do when you've won Stupid Amounts Of Money in a lottery.
- Double-check that you've actually got a proper, winning ticket for the drawing in question.
- TRIPLE-check that you've actually got a proper, winning ticket for the drawing in question.
- DO NOT CASH THE TICKET IN IMMEDIATELY.
- Talk to a lawyer (LISTEN TO THEM!)
- Talk to a financial planner (LISTEN TO THEM EVEN MORE!) Ask about the benefits of incorporating, and having the corp claim the winning rather than claiming as an individual.
- Get a new, unlisted number and a new e-mail address that you don't give out to anyone you don't want to talk to.
- Once you have a financial plan in place, and your lawyer and FP agree, THEN go claim the prize.
$500M spread out over a 30 year payout comes to around $10M/year after 40% taxes.
Even if you take 10% of that, that's $1M/year (which can finance a STUPIDLY lavish lifestyle) with $9M/year saved and earning interest. However, I'd figure another 10% should be accounted for in various things like retainer for your lawyer, financial planner and an accountant. Perhaps that's overkill. But I'd have to be in that position to know.
Seriously though. Were I to win, I would look into picking up the CoH property though. Not for $80M though! I'd look at it as an investment.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
If you were to be so lucky as to win the lottery, and are able to purchase the IP, then what? What would you do? What would you want someone to do?
- A. Relaunch CoH as it stands, asap?
- B. Relaunch CoH as it stands, but mention you're going to be working on CoH2? (and then what do you do with CoH1 once it does?)
- C. Have the devs fix a bunch of issues to the game before relaunching it?
- D. Let everyone know you're working on CoH2 and will launch it when it's ready?
- E. Do something else?
Throwing darts at the board to see if something sticks.....
Come show your resolve and fight my brute!
Tanks: Gauntlet, the streak breaker and you!
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by PapaSlade
Rangle's right....this is fun.
|
Quote:
I'd contact Brian Clayton and let him know that I want to create a new studio with him as General Manager and, if he wants to invest as well, part owner. We'd bring back as many former Paragon Studios staffers as are still available and/or want to come back. We'd fill out the ranks of those who left and/or aren't interested in returning with new talent. After that, I'd hire a legal negotiator to make NCsoft a very good offer.|
Originally Posted by Rangle M. Down
If you were to be so lucky as to win the lottery, and are able to purchase the IP, then what? What would you do? What would you want someone to do?
|
If they accepted, then great! Problem solved. I'd hit the press, make a bunch of announcements, and hopefully within a month or two, we'd have City of Heroes back up and running. We'd set it up kind of like the old Paragon Studios, with around half the team working on updating City of Heroes and half the team working on City of Heroes 2. I'd also bring in some mobile developers and web developers to expand CoH 2 into new areas, allowing people to, for example, do stuff on their phones or tablets that help them advance in the game.
If they didn't, then we'd immediately start to work on a new game with new IP. I'd also probably try to bring in some mobile and/or social game developers to churn out some quickly delivered games to keep everyone interested and playing until the new monster hits. If we did this, I'd probably donate as much of the source to the open source community as I could--keeping what needs to be closed source closed source (e.g. user database management functions, stuff that could be used for exploits), but opening what could be opened (e.g. the game engine).
I'd be very hands-off in the day-to-day affairs of the company, letting Brian pretty much run the show. I might make suggestions now and then, but it would always be with the implicit understanding that I'm letting him do his job. To be honest, with the amount of money we're talking, I'd also probably extend offers to the core Titan Network folks to help with community management and first-party (formerly third-party) tool development. I'd move to Mountain View, and life would be good.
Will all of that happen? Heh, I wish. But I did go by the store and pick up some tickets, so my chances aren't mathematically zero, just statistically extremely unlikely. I'll let you all know how it goes.
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
But I will have a ticket ready for this Friday as my last ditch attempt to gather enough money to buy the IP myself :P
If I win the Euro millions on Friday I will promise that the majority of money will go towards saving this game! (Got to take care of family first! ^^)
I'm not asking for anyone to join in but if you feel lucky and want the same as me, then let's go for it!
(no I'm not being paid by the national lottery to deliver this message! haha)
I think it's around 2 pounds per ticket (for the euro millions) so it isn't much if you only play once! A pint of beer :P And you can do it online without any hassle. They even email you to let you know if you win!
My fingers will be crossed, though I have never won anything in my life so don't get your hopes up.
This is Bin Man and this is my final attempt prior to the game closing!
Edit: I'd also introduce a new villain corporation called NCorporation who's mission is to destroy all entertainment from the world!