I really would have thought so, but that's not the message that a limited lifetime subscription offer sends, especially one announced so close to release. It says "pre-orders are low". It says "we were expecting to make a certain amount of money from box sales, but don't think we will, so please gamble $200 on a buy-before-you-try deal". I don't have anything against lifetime subscriptions - there are a few mmos I've played where I absolutely would have shelled out the money for them and I would have done that after just a few weeks of playing. But those mmos never offered lifetime subscriptions because it wasn't in their best financial interests - because the games were good and knew they'd make more money just with monthly subscriptions. And if CO was the game I was expecting it to be (eg. minus MTs) I'd be tempted by this offer, but still cautious. The game I was expecting it to be wouldn't have needed to do this. So I wouldn't shell out that much money until I'd had some chance to play it. And with MTs - in my mind it completely devalues the offer. They can sting you for $200 now and then still add a whole bunch of stuff to the mall.
A good amount of testers have been asking for a Lifetime option and on the regular forums it was brought up also. I think if they really were trying to ring people for money they would have had the cut off date for the option before the open beta started.
I got the Lifetime Sub for Lord of the Rings when it released and I enjoy being able to log back in when ever they do an update without having to mess around with renewing my subscription every time.
i just want to get in the beta so i can make the decision to even buy the game
I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
I love how your opinion is based on absolutely nothing other than the fact 1 person out of what maybe 100 people working on the title including management & finacial people that have been with Cryptic since before this 1 person even came onto the team means the game is going to fail. And to top it off you now add that because they're offering a life time sub it makes even worse.
No offense but considering you've never even downloaded the client and have yet to play it ..pretty much makes your opinion worthless and a serious waste of space if not just complete downright trolling. I'm surprised the Mods haven't squelched you for harrassing people with your drivel yet.
i just want to get in the beta so i can make the decision to even buy the game
I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
If you have an extra key and you don't have anyone else in mind I would like to try CO and see what's what.
thanks,
C
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized" "The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
i just want to get in the beta so i can make the decision to even buy the game
I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
I love how your opinion is based on absolutely nothing other than the fact 1 person out of what maybe 100 people working on the title including management & finacial people that have been with Cryptic since before this 1 person even came onto the team means the game is going to fail. And to top it off you now add that because they're offering a life time sub it makes even worse.
No offense but considering you've never even downloaded the client and have yet to play it ..pretty much makes your opinion worthless and a serious waste of space if not just complete downright trolling. I'm surprised the Mods haven't squelched you for harrassing people with your drivel yet.
The only two mmos that I know of to have offered lifetime subscriptions have been either a failure (Hellgate London) or a serious underperformer (LOTRO).
....I probable would go as high as $199.99. For a good game of course.
Ah, but you cannot know if its a good game until you pay the 199.99.
Now, if someone could produce a reliable crystal ball, Man, what WOULDN"T I pay....
I don't have a crystal ball but....
Bill Roper + Hellgate London + Special pre-order offer for lifetime subscription = FAIL
Bill Roper + Champions Online + Special pre-order offer for lifetime subscription = ????
CO is far better of an mmo than hellgate O_O
I really would have thought so, but that's not the message that a limited lifetime subscription offer sends, especially one announced so close to release.
It says "pre-orders are low".
It says "we were expecting to make a certain amount of money from box sales, but don't think we will, so please gamble $200 on a buy-before-you-try deal".
I don't have anything against lifetime subscriptions - there are a few mmos I've played where I absolutely would have shelled out the money for them and I would have done that after just a few weeks of playing. But those mmos never offered lifetime subscriptions because it wasn't in their best financial interests - because the games were good and knew they'd make more money just with monthly subscriptions.
And if CO was the game I was expecting it to be (eg. minus MTs) I'd be tempted by this offer, but still cautious. The game I was expecting it to be wouldn't have needed to do this. So I wouldn't shell out that much money until I'd had some chance to play it.
And with MTs - in my mind it completely devalues the offer. They can sting you for $200 now and then still add a whole bunch of stuff to the mall.
Buying servers, paying for a co-locatiion facility to house those servers and provide bandwidth, setting up a customer service department to handle billing and customer issues... these things cost a lot of money. They cost the most money in those first few initial months of launch. Getting over that initial hump by offering lifetimes and package bundles is worth the potential lost revenues in the long run, and the STO beta offer will generate interest with a lot of people who maybe weren't even looking at this game. I'll be honest, I was one of those people... I was checking out STO when this game flashed up, I checked it out... did some research, and it started to look like a good game. Now I'm in an awesome situation where i get a great deal on six months playtime and I get a guaranteed spot in the STO beta...
On top of this... most MMO players are game hoppers, and they'll only pay for one at a time. They play this for a few months, hop to something else, play that for a few months, hop to the shiny new mmo.... realize it all sucks, and come back to your original game... this is especially true with all the new MMOs on the horizon. By offering a lifetime membership, they make it that much easier for those players to come back to this game. Those players come back and server activity goes up, which is important for new customer infusion and old customer retention. In the meantime, that lifetime player maybe spends a few bucks in the cash shop here and there.
It's also a protection for those few first weeks/month where every MMO has a few problems that can oftentimes drive customers off permanently. How well would games like Vanguard and AOC be doing if people with expended memberships came back to them after they sorted out their problems? Granted, that's not a happy scenario for the gamer... but its something a publisher considers.
It's pretty much win/win. You're looking at it from a Warcraft perspective where you have millions of customers who have been playing for multiple years. CO isn't a game of that scale.
Buying servers, paying for a co-locatiion facility to house those servers and provide bandwidth, setting up a customer service department to handle billing and customer issues... these things cost a lot of money. They cost the most money in those first few initial months of launch. Getting over that initial hump by offering lifetimes and package bundles is worth the potential lost revenues in the long run. On top of this... most MMO players are game hoppers, and they'll only pay for one at a time. They play this for a few months, hop to something else, play that for a few months, hop to the shiny new mmo.... realize it all sucks, and come back to your original game... this is especially true with all the new MMOs on the horizon. By offering a lifetime membership, they make it that much easier for those players to come back to this game. Those players come back and server activity goes up, which is important for new customer infusion and old customer retention. In the meantime, that lifetime player maybe spends a few bucks in the cash shop here and there. It's pretty much win/win. You're looking at it from a Warcraft perspective where you have millions of customers who have been playing for multiple years. CO isn't a game of that scale.
I can see your point about the lifetime subs meaning there's always going to be that core of players, which does have real value in terms of making the game more enjoyable which in turn makes it more likely that other players keep their subscriptions going. When Anarchy Online made playing for the first 100? levels free, the increase in player numbers really made a huge difference to the game. It went from being a ghost-town to an alive-feeling world again.
... but I'd think that most of those people who put down that much money up-front would probably also have subscribed to the game for a long-time anyway. The only two mmos I'd ever have considered putting down a lifetime sub for, I've subscribed to for more than 2 years. One of those was CoH.
I played both LOTRO and Hellgate London. I had the option to buy the cheaper lifetime sub to LOTRO and wasn't even remotely tempted. I'm a HUGE LOTR fan, but the game was disappointing at launch and actually worse lag-wise when I went back and tried it again recently.
The lifetime sub offer by itself says "we think you wouldn't subscribe long enough to get this much money out of you" for a regular subscription mmo. For one that has MTs as well....
The lifetime sub offer by itself says "we think you wouldn't subscribe long enough to get this much money out of you" for a regular subscription mmo. For one that has MTs as well....
Actually the inclusion of MTs make a lifetime subscription more rewarding for Cryptic. As long as you have an active account, you'll still log in every now and then... even its its not your "main" MMO. And as an active subscriber they'll no doubt send you an email of the cool new outfit parts in the cash shop.
Now maybe you don't care because you hate MT(s) and aren't even playing the game a lot anymore. But I bet you there are a fair amount of people that will be like "oh that's so cool, I gotta have it". They'll drop a few dollars to pick up the fluff item; and maybe it will even re=spark there interest in playing the game more.
i just want to get in the beta so i can make the decision to even buy the game
I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
I love how your opinion is based on absolutely nothing other than the fact 1 person out of what maybe 100 people working on the title including management & finacial people that have been with Cryptic since before this 1 person even came onto the team means the game is going to fail. And to top it off you now add that because they're offering a life time sub it makes even worse.
No offense but considering you've never even downloaded the client and have yet to play it ..pretty much makes your opinion worthless and a serious waste of space if not just complete downright trolling. I'm surprised the Mods haven't squelched you for harrassing people with your drivel yet.
The only two mmos that I know of to have offered lifetime subscriptions have been either a failure (Hellgate London) or a serious underperformer (LOTRO).
i just want to get in the beta so i can make the decision to even buy the game
I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
I love how your opinion is based on absolutely nothing other than the fact 1 person out of what maybe 100 people working on the title including management & finacial people that have been with Cryptic since before this 1 person even came onto the team means the game is going to fail. And to top it off you now add that because they're offering a life time sub it makes even worse.
No offense but considering you've never even downloaded the client and have yet to play it ..pretty much makes your opinion worthless and a serious waste of space if not just complete downright trolling. I'm surprised the Mods haven't squelched you for harrassing people with your drivel yet.
The only two mmos that I know of to have offered lifetime subscriptions have been either a failure (Hellgate London) or a serious underperformer (LOTRO).
Those are facts.
Lotro is doing just fine. If you consider LOTRO a "serious underperformer" then you pretty much consider every MMO outside of WoW a "serious underperformer". People who bought a lifetime sub have more then recooped. Lotro making or not making a zillion bucks is irrelevant to that fact.
Personally, I think you're grasping at straws to prove your rather ridiculous point. More choices for customers is a good thing. Anyone that thinks otherwise is an imbecile. Plain. Simple. Fact.
Lotro is doing just fine. If you consider LOTRO a "serious underperformer" then you pretty much consider every MMO outside of WoW a "serious underperformer". People who bought a lifetime sub have more then recooped. Lotro making or not making a zillion bucks is irrelevant to that fact.
Personally, I think you're grasping at straws to prove your rather ridiculous point. More choices for customers is a good thing. Anyone that thinks otherwise is an imbecile. Plain. Simple. Fact.
More weak personal attacks - so sad, so sad...
But now for some real facts!
LOTRO is a serious underperformer by the developer's own standards.
I didn't predict before its release that it would pick up at least a million subscribers.
They did.
Estimates of their actual number of subscribers post release ranged from 180k (based on an anonymous insider's report) to about 250k - neither anywhere near what they were expecting.
Turbine repeatedly refused to comment on their subscription numbers for at least a year post launch. I don't know if they've since changed that stance.
But it was only after underperforming post launch - by their own standards - that they offered the lifetime subscription. That is, they were expecting a certain number of box sales and subscriptions, didn't get those, and so had to offer the lifetime sub for a quick infusion of cash.
And Hellgate London - why is no-one rushing to defend Hellgate London? :P
So the only two mmos I know of that have offered lifetime subscriptions are a failure (Hellgate London) and LOTRO (a serious underperformer, by the developer's own standards).
A lifetime subscription is an attractive thing to many gamers. I've seen players try for it on just about every mmo forum I've visited. But you don't often see developers offering it (because if the game is good, they'll make more money via subscriptions) and in the cases where it has been offered, it has been associated with problems.
Lotro is doing just fine. If you consider LOTRO a "serious underperformer" then you pretty much consider every MMO outside of WoW a "serious underperformer". People who bought a lifetime sub have more then recooped. Lotro making or not making a zillion bucks is irrelevant to that fact.
Personally, I think you're grasping at straws to prove your rather ridiculous point. More choices for customers is a good thing. Anyone that thinks otherwise is an imbecile. Plain. Simple. Fact.
More weak personal attacks - so sad, so sad...
But now for some real facts!
LOTRO is a serious underperformer by the developer's own standards.
I didn't predict before its release that it would pick up at least a million subscribers.
They did.
Estimates of their actual number of subscribers post release ranged from 180k (based on an anonymous insider's report) to about 250k - neither anywhere near what they were expecting.
Turbine repeatedly refused to comment on their subscription numbers for at least a year post launch. I don't know if they've since changed that stance.
But it was only after underperforming post launch - by their own standards - that they offered the lifetime subscription. That is, they were expecting a certain number of box sales and subscriptions, didn't get those, and so had to offer the lifetime sub for a quick infusion of cash.
And Hellgate London - why is no-one rushing to defend Hellgate London? :P
So the only two mmos I know of that have offered lifetime subscriptions are a failure (Hellgate London) and LOTRO (a serious underperformer, by the developer's own standards).
A lifetime subscription is an attractive thing to many gamers. I've seen players try for it on just about every mmo forum I've visited. But you don't often see developers offering it (because if the game is good, they'll make more money via subscriptions) and in the cases where it has been offered, it has been associated with problems.
The problem with what you re saying is CO has said 100k, will be around break even. They re not expecting 1 mill subs. They will get probably 200k, outside life subs. The game will be fine and will have a decent following, MT or not. Sorry but your doom and gloom towards this game won t make it go away.
Lotro is doing just fine. If you consider LOTRO a "serious underperformer" then you pretty much consider every MMO outside of WoW a "serious underperformer". People who bought a lifetime sub have more then recooped. Lotro making or not making a zillion bucks is irrelevant to that fact.
Personally, I think you're grasping at straws to prove your rather ridiculous point. More choices for customers is a good thing. Anyone that thinks otherwise is an imbecile. Plain. Simple. Fact.
More weak personal attacks - so sad, so sad...
But now for some real facts!
LOTRO is a serious underperformer by the developer's own standards.
I didn't predict before its release that it would pick up at least a million subscribers.
They did.
Estimates of their actual number of subscribers post release ranged from 180k (based on an anonymous insider's report) to about 250k - neither anywhere near what they were expecting.
Turbine repeatedly refused to comment on their subscription numbers for at least a year post launch. I don't know if they've since changed that stance.
But it was only after underperforming post launch - by their own standards - that they offered the lifetime subscription. That is, they were expecting a certain number of box sales and subscriptions, didn't get those, and so had to offer the lifetime sub for a quick infusion of cash.
And Hellgate London - why is no-one rushing to defend Hellgate London? :P
So the only two mmos I know of that have offered lifetime subscriptions are a failure (Hellgate London) and LOTRO (a serious underperformer, by the developer's own standards).
A lifetime subscription is an attractive thing to many gamers. I've seen players try for it on just about every mmo forum I've visited. But you don't often see developers offering it (because if the game is good, they'll make more money via subscriptions) and in the cases where it has been offered, it has been associated with problems.
Eh I know this isnt a LotrO thread but how is it a FACT that LotrO is underperforming? I think someone at Codemastesr (not turbine) said something about 1 million players. And Turbine is an independent company who have a policy not to talk about sub numbers. (which is a smart policy imo).
So calling it a "seriouse underperformer" is a huge exageration when its one of the most sucesful western MMOs out there. LotrO is one of the only post-WoW MMOs that havent had server-merge whihc to says they didnt expect alot more than they got, infact they opened more servers i new regions.
And the liftesub was not offered after launch since it was an offer for Founders, I know since I got one at release.
Som maybe you should get your FACTS straight before posting about FACTS.
If WoW = The Beatles and WAR = Led Zeppelin Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
The problem with what you re saying is CO has said 100k, will be around break even. They re not expecting 1 mill subs. They will get probably 200k, outside life subs. The game will be fine and will have a decent following, MT or not. Sorry but your doom and gloom towards this game won t make it go away.
That's irrelevant.
LOTRO publicised their expectation of over a million subscribers. They probably budgeted accordingly.
CO's Jack Emmert has publicly said that 100k is their "break even" point - beyond that and they're in a profit zone. They have probably budgeted accordingly.
It's not a matter of either hitting a certain number, but of meeting their own respective targets.
LOTRO offered a lifetime sub after failing to meet theirs.
CO's offering it now suggests that maybe pre-order numbers aren't what they'd hoped.
Yes LoTR is such an under performer..its servers have closed and no expansions have ever been made. Load of tosh Green and you know it. Lord of the Rings was never meant to be the next coming with millions of subscribers. Any dev worth their salt shoots for a game to need 100 to 300k to break even and start making profit. Lord of the Rings did this. Its also met more than enough expectations for large amounts of development time to constantly be put into the game. Games that 'fail' or seriously under perform end up getting closed or sweeped up by SOE in an attempt to save it.
A life time sub for someone who is enjoying the game even its beta state is actually a rather large boon for the customer only. Just think if WoW had a life time sub with in its first year of launch there'd be tons of people tons and TONS of people who'd sweep it up because they love WoW. But Bliz is a bunch of money grubbing jackels (come on we all know its true why else does the price on their game never drop despite being way into the profit zone).
Straw grasping is really sad seriously. We get it your not interested for X reasons and thats not going to change..but your being delusional in inserting that your the only opinino that matters and that your opinion is fact. Its not fact its your perception of the situation and thats pretty much it.
BTW anyone who bought into Hell Gate London deserved what they got. Seriously an instanced Single player game with multiplayer features you have to pay for? Come on....that was just asking for a kick in the pants. Hellgate London was never an MMO it was a twisted cruel experiment at making you pay for Diablo with a sci fish skin.
Ok so i preorederd it on gamestop web site, now what? i will do the Lifetime, i know i will love this game, i love the beta, but what do i do? how do i confirm i pre ordered it? it asks for a key, i dont have one.
Ok so i preorederd it on gamestop web site, now what? i will do the Lifetime, i know i will love this game, i love the beta, but what do i do? how do i confirm i pre ordered it? it asks for a key, i dont have one.
Gamestop hasn't sent out the keys yet... I'm hearing the 14th is when they are going to send them out... tho Someone said something about the 5th (tomorrow)... Guess we will see come tomorrow.
And play beta 1st before you buy the lifetime sub, at least, just in case you end up not liking the game.
Ok so i preorederd it on gamestop web site, now what? i will do the Lifetime, i know i will love this game, i love the beta, but what do i do? how do i confirm i pre ordered it? it asks for a key, i dont have one.
Gamestop hasn't sent out the keys yet... I'm hearing the 14th is when they are going to send them out... tho Someone said something about the 5th (tomorrow)... Guess we will see come tomorrow.
And play beta 1st before you buy the lifetime sub, at least, just in case you end up not liking the game.
I just got off the phone with someone at Gamestop and he said the computer indicated the emails will go out on the 10th. I guess as long as we get em before the 17th its all good!
There are some good vids of game play on utube that will give you a good feel for the game before open beta. I think this is going to be a pretty solid title but not sure if it will be worth a lifetime sub or not yet. I will wait to see how OB goes.
The problem with what you re saying is CO has said 100k, will be around break even. They re not expecting 1 mill subs. They will get probably 200k, outside life subs. The game will be fine and will have a decent following, MT or not. Sorry but your doom and gloom towards this game won t make it go away.
That's irrelevant.
LOTRO publicised their expectation of over a million subscribers. They probably budgeted accordingly.
CO's Jack Emmert has publicly said that 100k is their "break even" point - beyond that and they're in a profit zone. They have probably budgeted accordingly.
It's not a matter of either hitting a certain number, but of meeting their own respective targets.
LOTRO offered a lifetime sub after failing to meet theirs.
CO's offering it now suggests that maybe pre-order numbers aren't what they'd hoped.
I like how these facts were pulled straight from your bum. Start linking or start shutting your trap. LOTRO is fine, don't project your own shortcomings on the game. Mouthbreathers nowadays, if it doens't pull down a million subs it's a failure.
Also, LOTRO was offering Lifetime subs since beta, before it was released. But keep yapping, it's not really like anyone takes an Aion fan seriously anyways.
Yes LoTR is such an under performer..its servers have closed and no expansions have ever been made. Load of tosh Green and you know it. Lord of the Rings was never meant to be the next coming with millions of subscribers. Any dev worth their salt shoots for a game to need 100 to 300k to break even and start making profit. Lord of the Rings did this. Its also met more than enough expectations for large amounts of development time to constantly be put into the game. Games that 'fail' or seriously under perform end up getting closed or sweeped up by SOE in an attempt to save it. A life time sub for someone who is enjoying the game even its beta state is actually a rather large boon for the customer only. Just think if WoW had a life time sub with in its first year of launch there'd be tons of people tons and TONS of people who'd sweep it up because they love WoW. But Bliz is a bunch of money grubbing jackels (come on we all know its true why else does the price on their game never drop despite being way into the profit zone). Straw grasping is really sad seriously. We get it your not interested for X reasons and thats not going to change..but your being delusional in inserting that your the only opinino that matters and that your opinion is fact. Its not fact its your perception of the situation and thats pretty much it. BTW anyone who bought into Hell Gate London deserved what they got. Seriously an instanced Single player game with multiplayer features you have to pay for? Come on....that was just asking for a kick in the pants. Hellgate London was never an MMO it was a twisted cruel experiment at making you pay for Diablo with a sci fish skin.
And the straw man arguments continue.... Super weak.
Turbine publicly predicted that they would net themselves over a million subscribers. That's a well-known fact.
Turbine didn't get anywhere near that number of subscribers. That's another well-known fact.
Turbine offered a lifetime subscription only after failing to meet their own expectations. That's a third well-known fact.
Comments
A good amount of testers have been asking for a Lifetime option and on the regular forums it was brought up also. I think if they really were trying to ring people for money they would have had the cut off date for the option before the open beta started.
I got the Lifetime Sub for Lord of the Rings when it released and I enjoy being able to log back in when ever they do an update without having to mess around with renewing my subscription every time.
I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
I love how your opinion is based on absolutely nothing other than the fact 1 person out of what maybe 100 people working on the title including management & finacial people that have been with Cryptic since before this 1 person even came onto the team means the game is going to fail. And to top it off you now add that because they're offering a life time sub it makes even worse.
No offense but considering you've never even downloaded the client and have yet to play it ..pretty much makes your opinion worthless and a serious waste of space if not just complete downright trolling. I'm surprised the Mods haven't squelched you for harrassing people with your drivel yet.
I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
If you have an extra key and you don't have anyone else in mind I would like to try CO and see what's what.
thanks,
C
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
I love how your opinion is based on absolutely nothing other than the fact 1 person out of what maybe 100 people working on the title including management & finacial people that have been with Cryptic since before this 1 person even came onto the team means the game is going to fail. And to top it off you now add that because they're offering a life time sub it makes even worse.
No offense but considering you've never even downloaded the client and have yet to play it ..pretty much makes your opinion worthless and a serious waste of space if not just complete downright trolling. I'm surprised the Mods haven't squelched you for harrassing people with your drivel yet.
The only two mmos that I know of to have offered lifetime subscriptions have been either a failure (Hellgate London) or a serious underperformer (LOTRO).
Those are facts.
If rr2real doesn't get back to me by tomorrow saying he wants it, it's yours.
Ah, but you cannot know if its a good game until you pay the 199.99.
Now, if someone could produce a reliable crystal ball, Man, what WOULDN"T I pay....
I don't have a crystal ball but....
Bill Roper + Hellgate London + Special pre-order offer for lifetime subscription = FAIL
Bill Roper + Champions Online + Special pre-order offer for lifetime subscription = ????
CO is far better of an mmo than hellgate O_O
I really would have thought so, but that's not the message that a limited lifetime subscription offer sends, especially one announced so close to release.
It says "pre-orders are low".
It says "we were expecting to make a certain amount of money from box sales, but don't think we will, so please gamble $200 on a buy-before-you-try deal".
I don't have anything against lifetime subscriptions - there are a few mmos I've played where I absolutely would have shelled out the money for them and I would have done that after just a few weeks of playing. But those mmos never offered lifetime subscriptions because it wasn't in their best financial interests - because the games were good and knew they'd make more money just with monthly subscriptions.
And if CO was the game I was expecting it to be (eg. minus MTs) I'd be tempted by this offer, but still cautious. The game I was expecting it to be wouldn't have needed to do this. So I wouldn't shell out that much money until I'd had some chance to play it.
And with MTs - in my mind it completely devalues the offer. They can sting you for $200 now and then still add a whole bunch of stuff to the mall.
Buying servers, paying for a co-locatiion facility to house those servers and provide bandwidth, setting up a customer service department to handle billing and customer issues... these things cost a lot of money. They cost the most money in those first few initial months of launch. Getting over that initial hump by offering lifetimes and package bundles is worth the potential lost revenues in the long run, and the STO beta offer will generate interest with a lot of people who maybe weren't even looking at this game. I'll be honest, I was one of those people... I was checking out STO when this game flashed up, I checked it out... did some research, and it started to look like a good game. Now I'm in an awesome situation where i get a great deal on six months playtime and I get a guaranteed spot in the STO beta...
On top of this... most MMO players are game hoppers, and they'll only pay for one at a time. They play this for a few months, hop to something else, play that for a few months, hop to the shiny new mmo.... realize it all sucks, and come back to your original game... this is especially true with all the new MMOs on the horizon. By offering a lifetime membership, they make it that much easier for those players to come back to this game. Those players come back and server activity goes up, which is important for new customer infusion and old customer retention. In the meantime, that lifetime player maybe spends a few bucks in the cash shop here and there.
It's also a protection for those few first weeks/month where every MMO has a few problems that can oftentimes drive customers off permanently. How well would games like Vanguard and AOC be doing if people with expended memberships came back to them after they sorted out their problems? Granted, that's not a happy scenario for the gamer... but its something a publisher considers.
It's pretty much win/win. You're looking at it from a Warcraft perspective where you have millions of customers who have been playing for multiple years. CO isn't a game of that scale.
If rr2real doesn't get back to me by tomorrow saying he wants it, it's yours.
pmed :P
I can see your point about the lifetime subs meaning there's always going to be that core of players, which does have real value in terms of making the game more enjoyable which in turn makes it more likely that other players keep their subscriptions going. When Anarchy Online made playing for the first 100? levels free, the increase in player numbers really made a huge difference to the game. It went from being a ghost-town to an alive-feeling world again.
... but I'd think that most of those people who put down that much money up-front would probably also have subscribed to the game for a long-time anyway. The only two mmos I'd ever have considered putting down a lifetime sub for, I've subscribed to for more than 2 years. One of those was CoH.
I played both LOTRO and Hellgate London. I had the option to buy the cheaper lifetime sub to LOTRO and wasn't even remotely tempted. I'm a HUGE LOTR fan, but the game was disappointing at launch and actually worse lag-wise when I went back and tried it again recently.
The lifetime sub offer by itself says "we think you wouldn't subscribe long enough to get this much money out of you" for a regular subscription mmo. For one that has MTs as well....
Actually the inclusion of MTs make a lifetime subscription more rewarding for Cryptic. As long as you have an active account, you'll still log in every now and then... even its its not your "main" MMO. And as an active subscriber they'll no doubt send you an email of the cool new outfit parts in the cash shop.
Now maybe you don't care because you hate MT(s) and aren't even playing the game a lot anymore. But I bet you there are a fair amount of people that will be like "oh that's so cool, I gotta have it". They'll drop a few dollars to pick up the fluff item; and maybe it will even re=spark there interest in playing the game more.
If rr2real doesn't get back to me by tomorrow saying he wants it, it's yours.
was it for open or closed beta?
If rr2real doesn't get back to me by tomorrow saying he wants it, it's yours.
was it for open or closed beta?
probly a closed one but im 100% sure it open beta 2
If u will play for over a year then lifetime sub is well worth it ( one year at $ 15 come sup to $180 ).
MTs make no difference, who cares about some pretty hat or shiney armor.
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I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
I love how your opinion is based on absolutely nothing other than the fact 1 person out of what maybe 100 people working on the title including management & finacial people that have been with Cryptic since before this 1 person even came onto the team means the game is going to fail. And to top it off you now add that because they're offering a life time sub it makes even worse.
No offense but considering you've never even downloaded the client and have yet to play it ..pretty much makes your opinion worthless and a serious waste of space if not just complete downright trolling. I'm surprised the Mods haven't squelched you for harrassing people with your drivel yet.
The only two mmos that I know of to have offered lifetime subscriptions have been either a failure (Hellgate London) or a serious underperformer (LOTRO).
Those are facts.
actulyl lotro is doing decent
I entered that gamerzine comp and they screwed up and sent me two.
I hadn't even planned on using the first key but then I decided last night that it's a free trial and I may as well look at it to satisfy my curiosity. If I'd seen this business with the lifetime sub offer earlier, I wouldn't have bothered downloading the client...
I personally think this game will go down like a lead balloon and don't think the key is worth anything - but that second key shouldn't have been sent to me.
Let me know if you want it.
I love how your opinion is based on absolutely nothing other than the fact 1 person out of what maybe 100 people working on the title including management & finacial people that have been with Cryptic since before this 1 person even came onto the team means the game is going to fail. And to top it off you now add that because they're offering a life time sub it makes even worse.
No offense but considering you've never even downloaded the client and have yet to play it ..pretty much makes your opinion worthless and a serious waste of space if not just complete downright trolling. I'm surprised the Mods haven't squelched you for harrassing people with your drivel yet.
The only two mmos that I know of to have offered lifetime subscriptions have been either a failure (Hellgate London) or a serious underperformer (LOTRO).
Those are facts.
Lotro is doing just fine. If you consider LOTRO a "serious underperformer" then you pretty much consider every MMO outside of WoW a "serious underperformer". People who bought a lifetime sub have more then recooped. Lotro making or not making a zillion bucks is irrelevant to that fact.
Personally, I think you're grasping at straws to prove your rather ridiculous point. More choices for customers is a good thing. Anyone that thinks otherwise is an imbecile. Plain. Simple. Fact.
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More weak personal attacks - so sad, so sad...
But now for some real facts!
LOTRO is a serious underperformer by the developer's own standards.
I didn't predict before its release that it would pick up at least a million subscribers.
They did.
Estimates of their actual number of subscribers post release ranged from 180k (based on an anonymous insider's report) to about 250k - neither anywhere near what they were expecting.
Turbine repeatedly refused to comment on their subscription numbers for at least a year post launch. I don't know if they've since changed that stance.
But it was only after underperforming post launch - by their own standards - that they offered the lifetime subscription. That is, they were expecting a certain number of box sales and subscriptions, didn't get those, and so had to offer the lifetime sub for a quick infusion of cash.
And Hellgate London - why is no-one rushing to defend Hellgate London? :P
So the only two mmos I know of that have offered lifetime subscriptions are a failure (Hellgate London) and LOTRO (a serious underperformer, by the developer's own standards).
A lifetime subscription is an attractive thing to many gamers. I've seen players try for it on just about every mmo forum I've visited. But you don't often see developers offering it (because if the game is good, they'll make more money via subscriptions) and in the cases where it has been offered, it has been associated with problems.
More weak personal attacks - so sad, so sad...
But now for some real facts!
LOTRO is a serious underperformer by the developer's own standards.
I didn't predict before its release that it would pick up at least a million subscribers.
They did.
Estimates of their actual number of subscribers post release ranged from 180k (based on an anonymous insider's report) to about 250k - neither anywhere near what they were expecting.
Turbine repeatedly refused to comment on their subscription numbers for at least a year post launch. I don't know if they've since changed that stance.
But it was only after underperforming post launch - by their own standards - that they offered the lifetime subscription. That is, they were expecting a certain number of box sales and subscriptions, didn't get those, and so had to offer the lifetime sub for a quick infusion of cash.
And Hellgate London - why is no-one rushing to defend Hellgate London? :P
So the only two mmos I know of that have offered lifetime subscriptions are a failure (Hellgate London) and LOTRO (a serious underperformer, by the developer's own standards).
A lifetime subscription is an attractive thing to many gamers. I've seen players try for it on just about every mmo forum I've visited. But you don't often see developers offering it (because if the game is good, they'll make more money via subscriptions) and in the cases where it has been offered, it has been associated with problems.
The problem with what you re saying is CO has said 100k, will be around break even. They re not expecting 1 mill subs. They will get probably 200k, outside life subs. The game will be fine and will have a decent following, MT or not. Sorry but your doom and gloom towards this game won t make it go away.
There another one - WW2 online (BE) . And I don't think they started to offer just to add more payment options...
More weak personal attacks - so sad, so sad...
But now for some real facts!
LOTRO is a serious underperformer by the developer's own standards.
I didn't predict before its release that it would pick up at least a million subscribers.
They did.
Estimates of their actual number of subscribers post release ranged from 180k (based on an anonymous insider's report) to about 250k - neither anywhere near what they were expecting.
Turbine repeatedly refused to comment on their subscription numbers for at least a year post launch. I don't know if they've since changed that stance.
But it was only after underperforming post launch - by their own standards - that they offered the lifetime subscription. That is, they were expecting a certain number of box sales and subscriptions, didn't get those, and so had to offer the lifetime sub for a quick infusion of cash.
And Hellgate London - why is no-one rushing to defend Hellgate London? :P
So the only two mmos I know of that have offered lifetime subscriptions are a failure (Hellgate London) and LOTRO (a serious underperformer, by the developer's own standards).
A lifetime subscription is an attractive thing to many gamers. I've seen players try for it on just about every mmo forum I've visited. But you don't often see developers offering it (because if the game is good, they'll make more money via subscriptions) and in the cases where it has been offered, it has been associated with problems.
Eh I know this isnt a LotrO thread but how is it a FACT that LotrO is underperforming? I think someone at Codemastesr (not turbine) said something about 1 million players. And Turbine is an independent company who have a policy not to talk about sub numbers. (which is a smart policy imo).
So calling it a "seriouse underperformer" is a huge exageration when its one of the most sucesful western MMOs out there. LotrO is one of the only post-WoW MMOs that havent had server-merge whihc to says they didnt expect alot more than they got, infact they opened more servers i new regions.
And the liftesub was not offered after launch since it was an offer for Founders, I know since I got one at release.
Som maybe you should get your FACTS straight before posting about FACTS.
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
That's irrelevant.
LOTRO publicised their expectation of over a million subscribers. They probably budgeted accordingly.
CO's Jack Emmert has publicly said that 100k is their "break even" point - beyond that and they're in a profit zone. They have probably budgeted accordingly.
It's not a matter of either hitting a certain number, but of meeting their own respective targets.
LOTRO offered a lifetime sub after failing to meet theirs.
CO's offering it now suggests that maybe pre-order numbers aren't what they'd hoped.
Yes LoTR is such an under performer..its servers have closed and no expansions have ever been made. Load of tosh Green and you know it. Lord of the Rings was never meant to be the next coming with millions of subscribers. Any dev worth their salt shoots for a game to need 100 to 300k to break even and start making profit. Lord of the Rings did this. Its also met more than enough expectations for large amounts of development time to constantly be put into the game. Games that 'fail' or seriously under perform end up getting closed or sweeped up by SOE in an attempt to save it.
A life time sub for someone who is enjoying the game even its beta state is actually a rather large boon for the customer only. Just think if WoW had a life time sub with in its first year of launch there'd be tons of people tons and TONS of people who'd sweep it up because they love WoW. But Bliz is a bunch of money grubbing jackels (come on we all know its true why else does the price on their game never drop despite being way into the profit zone).
Straw grasping is really sad seriously. We get it your not interested for X reasons and thats not going to change..but your being delusional in inserting that your the only opinino that matters and that your opinion is fact. Its not fact its your perception of the situation and thats pretty much it.
BTW anyone who bought into Hell Gate London deserved what they got. Seriously an instanced Single player game with multiplayer features you have to pay for? Come on....that was just asking for a kick in the pants. Hellgate London was never an MMO it was a twisted cruel experiment at making you pay for Diablo with a sci fish skin.
Ok so i preorederd it on gamestop web site, now what? i will do the Lifetime, i know i will love this game, i love the beta, but what do i do? how do i confirm i pre ordered it? it asks for a key, i dont have one.
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Gamestop hasn't sent out the keys yet... I'm hearing the 14th is when they are going to send them out... tho Someone said something about the 5th (tomorrow)... Guess we will see come tomorrow.
And play beta 1st before you buy the lifetime sub, at least, just in case you end up not liking the game.
Gamestop hasn't sent out the keys yet... I'm hearing the 14th is when they are going to send them out... tho Someone said something about the 5th (tomorrow)... Guess we will see come tomorrow.
And play beta 1st before you buy the lifetime sub, at least, just in case you end up not liking the game.
I just got off the phone with someone at Gamestop and he said the computer indicated the emails will go out on the 10th. I guess as long as we get em before the 17th its all good!
There are some good vids of game play on utube that will give you a good feel for the game before open beta. I think this is going to be a pretty solid title but not sure if it will be worth a lifetime sub or not yet. I will wait to see how OB goes.
That's irrelevant.
LOTRO publicised their expectation of over a million subscribers. They probably budgeted accordingly.
CO's Jack Emmert has publicly said that 100k is their "break even" point - beyond that and they're in a profit zone. They have probably budgeted accordingly.
It's not a matter of either hitting a certain number, but of meeting their own respective targets.
LOTRO offered a lifetime sub after failing to meet theirs.
CO's offering it now suggests that maybe pre-order numbers aren't what they'd hoped.
I like how these facts were pulled straight from your bum. Start linking or start shutting your trap. LOTRO is fine, don't project your own shortcomings on the game. Mouthbreathers nowadays, if it doens't pull down a million subs it's a failure.
Also, LOTRO was offering Lifetime subs since beta, before it was released. But keep yapping, it's not really like anyone takes an Aion fan seriously anyways.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
And the straw man arguments continue.... Super weak.
Turbine publicly predicted that they would net themselves over a million subscribers. That's a well-known fact.
Turbine didn't get anywhere near that number of subscribers. That's another well-known fact.
Turbine offered a lifetime subscription only after failing to meet their own expectations. That's a third well-known fact.