Pros and Cons of a New Owner

Two entries in one day?! Well, most certainly. xP I have something I've been itching to talk about, and since this is the first day of my blog revival, I might as well give you a bonus entry.  I'd like to start it off with an apology to Thom (at least, I think that's who it was) whom I told that I wouldn't share this link.  But then again, it's not like I'm telling all of Wolf-Haven, just my blog-goers.  Besides, people deserve to know... not like it's the end of the world.  And they might have found out eventually without any sort of warning.

http://sitepointmarket.com/listings/79226/web-game-domain-for-sale

Didn't expect to see that, did ya? It has been up for quite a while, so it may never sell, or Karl may decide otherwise.  But solely for the purpose of this blog entry, let's assume that someday in the near future, Wolf-Haven is sold to a new owner.  omg wat do we do naow?!?!?! Time to examine some pros and cons!

Pro: Seeing as how Wolf-Haven has an estimated $500-$1000 income monthly (according to the sale website), the new owner would probably have to spend quite a bit of money to purchase it.  What does this mean? I would assume that they would really care about making money.  If they turn towards the users to try to please us, they'll receive an immediate answer that we want updates on the site's content.  Entrepreneur + needy customers = Wealthy entrepreneur if they give the customer what they want.  But hey! Aside from the money-hungry new owner, we get more stuff to do, yes?

Con: I like to see Wolf-Haven as a nice community-built website.  You know, tight-knit and all that jazz.  Without the original owner, things change.  Now it's all about business for the most part.  Our little family will never be the same.

Pro: Maybe our donations will actually go somewhere useful...? When Wolf-Haven started, I do believe the profits from donations were meant to keep the site up and running and extras were donated to animal-based charities.  Last I heard, however, Karl used the site money to fly over and see Windy.  I honestly don't have a problem with this at all.  He worked hard to make this site, and he can use the profits as he wishes.  Especially now that the TOS was changed to say this: "The creators of Wolf-Haven will spend the donation money as they see fit."  But if we were to have a new owner, there's always the chance that our donations will go to a good cause, or at least pay a team of programmers or something to bring us the new content we so desperately long for.

Con: What if things take a change for the worse? Just using this as a random example that popped into my mind... but what if a company like Neopets bought Wolf-Haven out? Would rule changes ensue? I know I'd be pretty upset if we weren't allowed to curse anymore.  Or any random changes like limits to how many stat points you could buy, or how many side accounts you could have.

Pro: Assuming a big company isn't the buyer, well, the new owner could be really nice, quite frankly.  It could be someone who comes online more often and fits into the community.  You know, someone that devotes a great deal of time to the website and actually takes input from users and makes it reality.  Maybe they'd not have a problem with allowing for more qualified staff members.  Heck, maybe they'd give out prizes to users in monthly competitions or something! I know that's a long shot, but it's not impossible.

Con: If someone new took ownership of Wolf-Haven, they might have an entirely different idea than what Karl had planned.  Perhaps they would demote the current staff members (those that certainly deserve to be staff) and choose their own friends.  They could change little things that don't matter to them, but that might upset the community.  For example, what if they said packs could only have 20 members? Shimmer would be up a creek without a paddle.  What if they made PvA and PvP give less XP? There's infinitely many things that could go wrong.

Now, now, I could probably go on forever about this, but those are some of the major things I wanted to point out.  Whether or not a new owner would be a good or a bad thing, there's a chance it could happen.  But still, a new owner doesn't mean Karl wouldn't come around anymore.  In fact, he may still have some say in things if the new owner(s) wanted to listen to his opinions.  One thing is certain, however... things would change.  Even if the new owner was exactly like Karl and rarely updated things or showed up online, there would still probably be a schism in the community from people quitting or some shiz.

My honest opinion on the subject is a neutral one.  I'd like to image some perfect new Wolf-Haven world from a new owner, but on the other hand, I love Karl to death with everything he's already accomplished here.  I would also be worried about some of those possible negative changes. :/ All I ask is that you keep an open mind if something ever was to happy.  Rage quitting before you even try out the new owner would be a little ignorant of you.  Wolf-Haven would never be exactly what it once was, but that doesn't mean it would turn into something rotten.  You really can't say that the only reason you visit Wolf-Haven is because Karl runs it.  It may exist for that very reason, but he hardly runs it anymore anyhow.  Seriously, I'm not trying to say he doesn't secretly code and such, but the website is mostly keeping alive because of Jekyll uploading customs and the other staff just keeping people in line.  It's sad that the most fun people have on here anymore is buying new accounts and customs.  Alas, what else is there to do?

On a side note, please don't try to start any drama with this by telling everyone that Wolf-Haven is being sold.  Like I said, that page has been up forever, and there's no way of knowing if that's ever even going to happen.