The Business of Being MPQ

I started this thread hoping I could learn more about what things are like over at Demiurge and to understand some of the business behind MPQ. I suspect Demiurge is a smaller organization than most would think, but I honestly have no real idea. So anyhow, I guess this line of questions is directed to IceIX, or any other employee that may be lurking behind the scenes. I know answering posts like this isn't really a priority, but I hope you are able to take some time to open the window a crack for us. I'd also like to hear anyone else's impressions (or answers, if they know them). So anyhow, here are some things I was wondering about...

How many people work at Demiurge?

How many people actually work in your office?

How many developers work on MPQ?

Do you spread your time between different projects or work exclusively with MPQ?

What kind of creative control does development have over the product/vision? Do separate business units handle project management and code, or do you share these responsiblities?

@IceIX -- What exactly is your role at Demiurge? Aside from putting out flames here, what other things are you responsible for?

@IceIX -- Is it "Ice-icks", "Ice-Eye-X", or "Ice-9"?

How ridiculous are the royalties for Marvel? (I know you can't give figures, but I was curious to know if it was a lion's share of the profit)

Do you have to pay Disney per character, or do you get some kind of blanket license? Are there pricing tiers for more popular IP's?

Is there any kind of approval process when bringing in a new character? i.e. Is there someone at Marvel that has to review new character art/abilities/animation,etc to ensure it's inline with their IP?

What goes into a creating a new character? Do you choose based on theme, cost, roster balance, etc?

Have you guys been impacted by the recent developments over at Irrational, Turbine, and Harmonix?

What is your favorite part about this job?

I know that's a lot of stuff (some questions could be threads themselves), and some of the questions are teetering on confidential business information / OMGstalker. I assure you though, its 100% curiosity! Even if you could provide some vague info where security is a concern, I'm sure people would still be interested to hear it.

Even if this thread doesn't go anywhere, thanks for taking the time to read it.