An Update from The Homecoming Team

[Murcielago]

[MunkiLord]

On 8/30/2019 at 4:24 PM, doc_miller said:

Just wanted to point out that this, in no way, would invalidate HC's putative non-profit status.  The Girl Scouts don't give away cookies and ask for donations; they sell cookies.  I know of a number of SciFi/Fantasy conventions that are are 501(c)(3) educational organizations; they still require a paid admission/membership to attend.  Non-profits are absolutely allowed to use "conventional" business activities to generate income, it's what they do with the money that's the real stickler.

I believe the NCAA is a non profit and until recently the NFL was a not for profit or something like that, I forget the specific designation. So all kinds of things apparently qualify.

 

Edit: This is pure speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if FIFA and the IOC fell into one of those categories as well. 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2019 by MunkiLord

[justicebeliever]

4 hours ago, MunkiLord said:

I believe the NCAA is a non profit and until recently the NFL was a not for profit or something like that, I forget the specific designation. So all kinds of things apparently qualify.

 

Edit: This is pure speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if FIFA and the IOC fell into one of those categories as well. 

 

 

Amateur sports are qualified non-profits (little league through college and the olympics), so definitely the NCAA and the IOC...

 

FIFA and the NFL both have foundations that are tied to the business venture...the foundations are charities, I know the NFL is not, and I would assume FIFA is not either (at least not in the US)

[MunkiLord]

29 minutes ago, justicebeliever said:

Amateur sports are qualified non-profits (little league through college and the olympics), so definitely the NCAA and the IOC...

 

FIFA and the NFL both have foundations that are tied to the business venture...the foundations are charities, I know the NFL is not, and I would assume FIFA is not either (at least not in the US)

Yeah I get why they all qualify, I was just using them as examples to back up what doc_miller was saying. I looked up NFL and FIFA briefly and the NFL was a trade organization so they qualified(though each time, with the exception of the Packers, is considered a for profit business) and FIFA is an association of associations.

 

In reality all four are very much for profit organizations(and SUPER corrupt) and still qualify, so if the world was fair that would mean the HC team shouldn't have any problems(world being fair, HA). Plus they have a habit of abusing trademark and copyright laws, especially during the Olympics and World Cup, so I don't like them. The NFL is bad about it as well, but most of their stupid seems to be focused on trademarking various terms related to the Super Bowl. But this is a tangent I could go on about for hours.

[Scientist]

I actually wonder if a sports category might make sense as a non-profit type for Homecoming, given the rise of e-gaming as a spectator sport and the increasing number of professionals in it.  I saw a projection by Activate that by 2021 e-sports will have higher viewership in the U.S. than every sports league but the NFL.  I think the time frame is way early, but it could be just as legit as making CoX "educational", for example.  

 

On the broader topic, I have been quite impressed  by the Homecoming team's ability to stabilize servers that swelled in population by 100x in a mere week or two that were running 15 year old code they didn't write, move them almost seamlessly to another provider later, get forums running, find GMs to answer petitions in game, and get into substantive negotiations with a company that wouldn't talk to the developers originally running the game back in the day.  They also know when they need to hire specialized expertise, lawyers specialized in the gaming industry, rather than thinking they can do everything themselves.  They were also VERY transparent about their finances, money taken in and what it was spent on, so I believe them when they reveal that negotiations are going well, but they have reasons not to release details yet.  Frankly, to come back here every day and write up notes on what got discussed that day, deal with people's posts about what they should do the next day, and try to go back to the table with it would be a huge waste of their time, IMHO.  We are lucky they are taking time to write as many posts as they are to clarify what they aren't willing to trade off, e.g. free to play.  

 

That demonstrated level of competence in both computer operation and people management skills makes me comfortable with their decisions on what to release and when.  I also agree with several other posters that the fact that NCSoft is negotiating with them over an extended period is a good sign, not a bad one, at least for Homecoming.  

[Duuk]

Technically speaking, the NFL is a non-profit...

[MunkiLord]

13 minutes ago, MadCow99 said:

Technically speaking, the NFL is a non-profit...

Not anymore, they gave that up in 2015. But the Green Bay Packers are a publicly held non-profit.

Edited September 4, 2019 by MunkiLord

[justicebeliever]

41 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

Not anymore, they gave that up in 2015. The Packers are owned by the city of Green Bay, so they are considered a non profit.

Packers are a non-profit corporation, they are owned by fans, not the city of Green Bay...I think the largest owner (at 4%?) is Miller Beer...

 

Oddly enough, they are completely irrelevant to this conversation, because they are not tax exempt (Non Profit is a STATE designation, Tax Exempt is a Federal Designation...usually they overlap, but in the Packers case, they do not).  Packers pay all state and federal taxes, and purchasing Stock from them is NOT tax deductible...

[boggo2300]

On 8/23/2019 at 7:25 AM, cohoriginal said:

I don't know what this is, but it scares me!

[boggo2300]

On 8/25/2019 at 7:22 AM, Healix said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that is just soooooo creepy

 

 

well done 😄

[merrypessimist]

3 hours ago, boggo2300 said:

I don't know what this is, but it scares me!

I cut the picture because it's kind of big, but what that is is one of the female characters from the show Bob's Burgers (starring H. Jon Benjamin, the guy who voices Archer) having an epileptic seizure while somehow remaining upright.

[Korbian]

3 minutes ago, merrypessimist said:

I cut the picture because it's kind of big, but what that is is one of the female characters from the show Bob's Burgers (starring H. Jon Benjamin, the guy who voices Archer) having an epileptic seizure while somehow remaining upright.

Gasp!  Tina is dancing! 😜

[merrypessimist]

8 hours ago, Korbian said:

Gasp!  Tina is dancing! 😜

No, I think my version is a more accurate description. 🙂

[FeroshaCouture]

A month later. Ya'll still negotiation??

[_NOPE_]

33 minutes ago, FeroshaCouture said:

A month later. Ya'll still negotiation??

My guess would be "yes", until we hear otherwise.

[Remidi]

1 hour ago, The Philotic Knight said:

My guess would be "yes", until we hear otherwise.

To be fair, I doubt this issue is a priority for NCSoft.  Somewhere, someone has been assigned to deal with those weirdos in America who want to play a dead game (their attitude, not mine).  We'll just have to be patient.

Edited September 5, 2019 by Remidi

[Abraxus]

2 hours ago, Remidi said:

To be fair, I doubt this issue is a priority for NCSoft.  Somewhere, someone has been assigned to deal with those weirdos in America who want to play a dead game (their attitude, not mine).  We'll just have to be patient.

Yup.  That's pretty much the long, and the short of it.  When the legal haggling is done, and the "I's" are dotted, and the "T's" are crossed, then it will be done.  Not a second before that. 😁

 

[Jimmy]

Keep in mind that even under normal circumstances contract negotiations can take months. These are far from normal circumstances.

[Obsidius]

 

[Abraxus]

50 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Keep in mind that even under normal circumstances contract negotiations can take months. These are far from normal circumstances.

Part of the perception issue might revolve around the information already provided, which alluded to the majority of the big issues already being agreed to, with only the minutia left to deal with.  That tacitly implies that it could wrap up quickly.  Whether true, or not, it's not hard to imagine folks drawing those conclusions, and setting some mental timelines.

 

Just to be clear, not judging here.  I don't possess enough information on which to base an intelligent opinion, or judgement, and outside of the actual negotiating team(s), neither does anyone else.  But, in the absence of fact, the vacuum fills with supposition, assumption, and fearful imaginings of all kinds; including the creeping feeling that the longer it goes on, the less chance of success it has.  In all likelihood, not true.  Just summing things up as I have observed them.  Obviously, most of this has already been discussed at length in this thread, and I don't want to spark another wave that becomes a circular exercise. 🙂

[Chuckers]

Hey, I don't care if negotiations take 10 years, as long as the they keep going, I can keep playing.. it's when they stop, that I'll get concerned 😉 

 

[MunkiLord]

NCSoft is going to require the first born of every tenth player. You heard it here first!

Edited September 5, 2019 by MunkiLord

[Abraxus]

2 minutes ago, MunkiLord said:

NCSoft is going to require the first born of every tenth player. You heard it here first!

If that's the price, then I'll pay it.  Just give me a little advanced warning, so I can let him know that his circumstances are about to change drastically, and he might have to relocate to South Korea. 🤣

[_NOPE_]

46 minutes ago, Obsidius said:

 

 

I started this, just to get by with a placeholder, though nobody picked it up and ran with it:

https://coh-homecoming-unofficial.fandom.com/wiki/City_Of_Heroes:_Homecoming_Unofficial_Wiki

 

I tried to do this, and have heard nothing but crickets since then:

 

But then, I'm starting to get sadly used to being ghosted, it seems to be getting to be par for the course for this whole community lately. 😢

[Abraxus]

1 minute ago, The Philotic Knight said:

 

I started this, just to get by with a placeholder, though nobody picked it up and ran with it:

https://coh-homecoming-unofficial.fandom.com/wiki/City_Of_Heroes:_Homecoming_Unofficial_Wiki

 

I tried to do this, and have heard nothing but crickets since then:

 

But then, I'm starting to get sadly used to being ghosted, it seems to be getting to be par for the course for this whole community lately. 😢

Hey!  I'm excited for the possibilities!  I love the idea of having an additional, and more up to date reference library.  But, I'm more of a content consumer, than a creator.