Free to play is not in the best interest of the consumer. It is a model the better serves the company providing the product.
To explain:
Free to play is an attempt to draw more money from the consumers that are willing to spend more and some money from the consumers that weren't willing to pay a subscription.
The idea is that the company figures that people that were paying a subscription will keep doing so and they can get some money from the people that wouldn't have paid the subscription in the first place.
What it comes out to is that they end up making more money off implusive people and do not have to worry about any obligation of providing anything more to the consumer, because it's "Free".
There are exceptions out there, but if your a free to play person think about how much money you'd spent on that free to play game in the last year. Some of you will realize your paying as much as you would for a subscription, some will realize they're paying way more than a $15 a month average, and some will realize they're paying less than that $15 a month, but are still shelling out a pseudo-monthly fee. Very few will honestly say "I haven't spent anything at all."
I don't think this is an all or nothing situation and as such it's a wrong statement to make to just say blanketly that this does something for the devs while it does nothing for the community. As it stands now many games are stuck in crawl mode as far as updates go within a two year span after release which means that the community that is around isn't getting much if anything new at all. Then when we consider those who spend what amounts to more than fifteen dollars a month the question becomes does the person want to spend that money or do they feel the need to spend the money, video games are fun but it's not (imo) something that lends easily to compulsion most people are simply not going to spend more than they can comfortably afford to spend on a video game period.
I play LOTRO which recently went free to play and think most of what I've seen since it has went free to play to be very positive, I have many more people to play and interact with and have seen many new additions made to the game which will most likely increase if they are making the money they say. And even better I haven't spent a penny more than I usually spend on the game and am glad that if there are people willing to invest more into the game they can do so because it will also benefit me ultimately.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I don't think this is an all or nothing situation and as such it's a wrong statement to make to just say blanketly that this does something for the devs while it does nothing for the community. As it stands now many games are stuck in crawl mode as far as updates go within a two year span after release which means that the community that is around isn't getting much if anything new at all. Then when we consider those who spend what amounts to more than fifteen dollars a month the question becomes does the person want to spend that money or do they feel the need to spend the money, video games are fun but it's not (imo) something that lends easily to compulsion most people are simply not going to spend more than they can comfortably afford to spend on a video game period.
I play LOTRO which recently went free to play and think most of what I've seen since it has went free to play to be very positive, I have many more people to play and interact with and have seen many new additions made to the game which will most likely increase if they are making the money they say. And even better I haven't spent a penny more than I usually spend on the game and am glad that if there are people willing to invest more into the game they can do so because it will also benefit me ultimately.
I see you're a fan of LOTRO. You can like the game all you want. That's fine. Matter of fact you won't see anywhere in my statement that I said it's a bad game or that there's nothing of merit in it. I am, infact, a person that doesn't care for CO, overall.
But the fact of the matter is, what I have said is happening whether or not you like that particular game or feel that your community is better for it. Though, having been a player of LOTRO, I can say it's not a bad game, but don't expect the influx of curiosity to bring a long lasting revival to that community.
Like I said before there are exceptions, such as you, supposedly, but to add emphasis "IN MOST CASES" free to play is not going to be beneficial to the player. It is a move that benefits the company in terms of how much money they can get from the consumer for the same amount or in some cases less product.
I hope eventually all games lose their subscription based models. This is one reason why First Person Shooters remain the most played and most popular overall genre out there..The only place in the world where ROLEPLAYING GAMES are the most popular is in Japan, a nation that couldn't code a decent FPS or RTS if they tried....^_^.
2] A great style and look, with an awesome char creator is great for F2P, but no real gameplay means this will make little difference, esp with DCUO coming around the same time.
3] Sadly, after going back to the almost ancient CoH, there seemed to be far more players there than on CO, and although the gameplay is kinda basic, and the graphics creaking into old age, it has a charm of its own, and more importantly no freaking cash store, yet.....
4] This can't be a surprise to anyone after STO, which not only do you buy, then subscribe, but they STILL have the cheek to put a cash store in the game! Coupled with the fact that the gameplay was non-existent, and the game was simply not ready for launch,I played this for 2 days, then simply quit in disgust. So, how long till this goes F2P should have been part of the article.
5] And now they will ruin the good name of NWN too.....shabby
I was a huge fan of this game during CB. When OB Hit I had many of my fellow gamers Try it out and they loved it too.. Even the lack of content was not a huge deal as we kinda built our only little stories and ran together.. I was almost in love with the game and its style. I Bought up my LT the day they became available.. I figured also the bonus of early access to STO would be nice to but I was all in for the game.. i even paid for my friend's LT sub. And then release day came.. They completely revamped the system and Destroyed Gameplay and progression.. Characters across the board went from super heroes to Deputy dogs.. I was incredibly dissapointed.. I kinda stuck it out but Cryptic/Atari Slowly got more deviouse. They atarted advertising things then when it didnt work they changed their website and said "we never offered that" STO started testing and those of us with LTs got no codes btu they were giving them out like wildfire to other adn on site to "spread the word" I guess.. i slowly got more and more disgusted. Now that I heard about them doing NWN I am horrified... NWN has been one of my fav games for over a decade and to knwo that this will get the same treatment saddens me. Its nice to know they made improvments but its way too little way to late.. to Atari/Cryptic its just a cash cow they can milk forever.. they have taken 2 great IP's and destroyed them and most likely will kill another. I can say this much.. Sooo Glad they didnt actualyl get this as marvel Online (this was the original Idea) I now see why Marvel pulled out. I have had to apologize to many of my friends and prob will never preorder or get and extended sub for any game ever again.
Cryptic can't do anything right, not even the switch to FtP. You notice with DDO, LotRO, and EQII they all gave subscribers/lifers something extra when they went free. Cryptic gives... nothing. Subs are still stuck with buying junk from their store. No discounts, no free points, no incentive to continue subbing.
In other words I think their version of free play will lose them subs and gain them nothing as the junk in the C store is unwanted anyway.
Once again the name Cryptic is prophetic for any game property they (under)develop. If I were thinking of superhero MMOs to play right now I'd pick one with a future, CoX or DCUO.
Cryptic can't do anything right, not even the switch to FtP. You notice with DDO, LotRO, and EQII they all gave subscribers/lifers something extra when they went free. Cryptic gives... nothing. Subs are still stuck with buying junk from their store. No discounts, no free points, no incentive to continue subbing.
In other words I think their version of free play will lose them subs and gain them nothing as the junk in the C store is unwanted anyway.
Once again the name Cryptic is prophetic for any game property they (under)develop. If I were thinking of superhero MMOs to play right now I'd pick one with a future, CoX or DCUO.
Actually, they are planning on giving a stipend of cryptic points for subscribers. Just for anybody outside CO, many things are discussed in the forums so the final model is not set yet.
Unsurprising and uninspiring. When will these companies learn that payment models only run a distant second to actual content, and the best way to garner new customers would be to create a gaming experience that people could actually enjoy, rather than muck through to try and find the small doses of enjoyment that these lackluster titles provide.
I agree, to the extent that making junk free to play isn't likely to save it. But it's really their only shot at this point. Cryptics engine just isn't adequate for creating an MMO experience that keeps you playing.
DDO, while less MMO and more action, is actually enjoyable to play from time to time. CO just gives me a headache... almost instantly.
CO isn't a game that needs tweaking. It needs a complete restart from 0, and a relook at what made the PnP source material so great.
I could care less if it is going free to play, I still would not play it, and a lot of other folks will not either.
I'll try to play it again, and probably log out in frustration a short while later.
Like the new SWG, it's a game where I manage to forget what I truly disliked about it, and manage to talk myself into logging in, again with the idea, "sure, it's shallow, but what's wrong with a little 'beat 'em up" action once in a while?". Problem is, it's not very good at that, either.
I could care less if it is going free to play, I still would not play it, and a lot of other folks will not either.
I'll try to play it again, and probably log out in frustration a short while later.
Like the new SWG, it's a game where I manage to forget what I truly disliked about it, and manage to talk myself into logging in, again with the idea, "sure, it's shallow, but what's wrong with a little 'beat 'em up" action once in a while?". Problem is, it's not very good at that, either.
To be honest I gave STO 2 weeks in beta and 30 days of real game play, that was more time than I gave this game. I would play sto if it were free to play as something to fill in times when I get board. Hover not this, it just really got on my nerves I had canceled my sub 3 days into the game, and will never look back.
I will have to disagree about the swg reference having played that game since the start of time, I know what the nge did to it and I would never go back unless they go free to play, and not be gimped. The space combat in swg I always loved, it was the ground combat that made me sick, and going to the cookie cutter system.
The reason F2P worked for turbine is because they were GOOD games in the first place. And by that I DONT mean that they were good games _upon release_
both DDO and LOTRO were, in my opinion at least, terrible games on release. They have matured and filled out over the years, as all MMO's (generally) do.
So when these games went f2p they are excelent games. CO however, has had barly enough time to detach itself from its mothers breast.
no doubt f2p will indeed fatten it up a bit, simply because as humans, anything 'free' will force our attention, but a 'turbine success' it wont be for several more years to come.
When Cryptic and Paragon split I think all the comicbook fans stayed with Paragon.... Champions feels very much like a game made by people who dont really get it and are just going through the motions...it translates into a very, very, dull game exprience, great avatar customisations with nowhere to go. Free or not the real problems dont change, it just isnt fun enough to spend time on imo.
Hands up if you read this and thought "Doesn't matter i'll be playing DCUO."
I have this game and while some bits of it are fun it becomes less so the closer you get to lv.40.
I had the most fun with the trial before i Sub'd, messing with the char creator.
It depends actually oO.... If DCUO is decent I'm going to play, but if it doesn't have the customization of CO I'm going to enjoy my free CO account on the side lol.
That's what i thought.....DCUO is very limited in its powerset and its char creator.
“Unsurprising and uninspiring. When will these companies learn that payment models only run a distant second to actual content, and the best way to garner new customers would be to create a gaming experience that people could actually enjoy, rather than muck through to try and find the small doses of enjoyment that these lacklustre titles provide.”
My sentiments exactly, I have said the like many times on here before. The MMO industry mistakenly believes that changing the finance will save their MMO’s. In the short term that can give them a new lease of life but only for a couple of years and then they are back where they started. A tired gaming format and an oversaturated market are why profits are falling, it is not the revenue model that is causing this issue.
What the industry calls the ‘Turbine model’ is a hybrid model; even WoW has a touch of the hybrid if you can buy a special mount. It is good to see that the industry can see that DDO and Lotro are not pure F2P even if players have a hard time understanding this.
It's pretty clear from the comments that many people only played for a very limited time and/or don't have a clue what is being offered to subs in the F2P conversion. Monthly stipend to the in-game store and 400 costume pieces are just a couple items (new costume items too - all existing ones are F2P and subs) so far and there are others.
I also know of many ex CoX people that moved to Champions and went back. They all returned to Champions because "the combat was slow, tedious, and the missions are all completely repetative" so that has to say something for the comparision. The CoX people I saw who commented really only spent very little time in Champions from what I read. I know there are negative comments, but I believe the F2P model will allow those people to try for themselves (again) and see what this game is now a year after launch.
I don't get all the hating against CO's cash shop. Unlike others, there's nothing in there that will make it faster or easier to play the game. It has costume sets, vanity pets, and some service items, like character rename and extra slots for costumes. Not exactly items that makes me think of Cryptic as greedy bastards, trying to double dip.
The F2P model also seems very attractive. You get the awesome costume creator, full access to all levels, zones and lairs. 8 playable archtypes. What you don't get for free is the open-ended skill system and the action packs.
I don't get all the hating against CO's cash shop. Unlike others, there's nothing in there that will make it faster or easier to play the game. It has costume sets, vanity pets, and some service items, like character rename and extra slots for costumes. Not exactly items that makes me think of Cryptic as greedy bastards, trying to double dip.
The F2P model also seems very attractive. You get the awesome costume creator, full access to all levels, zones and lairs. 8 playable archtypes. What you don't get for free is the open-ended skill system and the action packs.
Damn, that almost sounded like a sales pitch.
Considering you just created that account to post with this morning, one has to ask do you work for CO?
Honestly you talking about all the hate about cash shops, why not post with your real account instead of making one up just to post here.
Originally posted by erictlewis Considering you just created that account to post with this morning, one has to ask do you work for CO? Honestly you talking about all the hate about cash shops, why not post with your real account instead of making one up just to post here. Just saying it looks very suspicious.
There was a post on the CO forums to the article. I just followed it here and was suprised at the negativity. I didn't have an account here until now. On the CO forums I'm known as Valania.
Considering you just created that account to post with this morning, one has to ask do you work for CO?
Honestly you talking about all the hate about cash shops, why not post with your real account instead of making one up just to post here.
Just saying it looks very suspicious.
There was a post on the CO forums to the article. I just followed it here and was suprised at the negativity. I didn't have an account here until now. On the CO forums I'm known as Valania.
Well then in that case welcome to mmorpg, oh hope you have your flame suite read, this place can be brutal some days. Honestly I never logged into those forums. I think I might have posted 2 or 3 times over at sto.
My problems with all cash shops, not just co, not just lotro but all of them. Is that eventually they start adding stuff in that affects game play. Once such example was this week lotro adding a tier 5 tome to the list.
My thoughts about the cash shops are always going to be negative, as I think it turns the devs away from making playable content, itnto making lots of fluff content to suck cash out from its players. All one has to do is look at sto to realize what I am talking about.
Considering you just created that account to post with this morning, one has to ask do you work for CO?
Honestly you talking about all the hate about cash shops, why not post with your real account instead of making one up just to post here.
Just saying it looks very suspicious.
There was a post on the CO forums to the article. I just followed it here and was suprised at the negativity. I didn't have an account here until now. On the CO forums I'm known as Valania.
Well then in that case welcome to mmorpg, oh hope you have your flame suite read, this place can be brutal some days. Honestly I never logged into those forums. I think I might have posted 2 or 3 times over at sto.
My problems with all cash shops, not just co, not just lotro but all of them. Is that eventually they start adding stuff in that affects game play. Once such example was this week lotro adding a tier 5 tome to the list.
My thoughts about the cash shops are always going to be negative, as I think it turns the devs away from making playable content, itnto making lots of fluff content to suck cash out from its players. All one has to do is look at sto to realize what I am talking about.
Oh well have a good one.
It's not totally the developers' fault if games repeatedly add those items and players repeatedly buy them. If they add it, they'll get more money. From a business stand point, they would be stupid to not add those items.
CO had a good start, but it was waaaay over hyped and the monthly sub is too much for what you get. The graphics were cool, the character creator was cool, but the game story, storylines and NPC characters were all bland. I'm not sure how they managed to create such a generic super hero world, but they almost literally created every after school super hero/sci fi cartoon that was cranked out in the 80's and early 90's. I would expect CO screens to show up in the backgrounds of movies where people are playing online virtual games. It wouldn't be the main game focused on in the movie, just one of the games.
This is a big deal because of how CO was hyped and advertised, not because of what the game contains.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
IMO if there is one game company that should be considered untrustworthy and unreliable, it would be Cryptic. The overhyping of Champions Online followed by somewhat jading lifetime subs on their "deals" ala Closed Beta Access to Star Trek providing access on different levels (and even allowing people to buy their way into a closed beta). Then follow it by a quick and shoddy development of an extremely popular IP makes this company appear to scream corporate greed on various levels. Really, how do you screw up Star Trek and spend less than a year's worth development on it? What could of been an easy staple to their company quickly became a one-night stand of sorts in the video game industry level. Just terrible.
Here's the deal with Champions from a former player:
You can honestly reach level cap and complete all of the content in less than one month. I am not even exageratting. I really wish I was, but I am not. In less than one month, you will have completed the entire game.
All that is left after that is a Korean-MMO inspired grind for useless fluff.
If you choose to actually pay for this game, the customization is fun, but in the end you are really stuck with a few select powers to survive. There are so many powers in this game that are just utterly useless or haven't worked since launch.
Don't get me wrong; the game is fun. It's just that it is only fun for a very short period of time.
Cryptic had to go FTP because they were losing cutomers because they have ye to really improve the game after more than a year. Day One bugs still exist.
Oh, if you are looking to PVP, you have absolutely no choice but to subscribe. The only way to be viable in PVP is to jump on the FoTM bandwagon.
Comments
I don't think this is an all or nothing situation and as such it's a wrong statement to make to just say blanketly that this does something for the devs while it does nothing for the community. As it stands now many games are stuck in crawl mode as far as updates go within a two year span after release which means that the community that is around isn't getting much if anything new at all. Then when we consider those who spend what amounts to more than fifteen dollars a month the question becomes does the person want to spend that money or do they feel the need to spend the money, video games are fun but it's not (imo) something that lends easily to compulsion most people are simply not going to spend more than they can comfortably afford to spend on a video game period.
I play LOTRO which recently went free to play and think most of what I've seen since it has went free to play to be very positive, I have many more people to play and interact with and have seen many new additions made to the game which will most likely increase if they are making the money they say. And even better I haven't spent a penny more than I usually spend on the game and am glad that if there are people willing to invest more into the game they can do so because it will also benefit me ultimately.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I see you're a fan of LOTRO. You can like the game all you want. That's fine. Matter of fact you won't see anywhere in my statement that I said it's a bad game or that there's nothing of merit in it. I am, infact, a person that doesn't care for CO, overall.
But the fact of the matter is, what I have said is happening whether or not you like that particular game or feel that your community is better for it. Though, having been a player of LOTRO, I can say it's not a bad game, but don't expect the influx of curiosity to bring a long lasting revival to that community.
Like I said before there are exceptions, such as you, supposedly, but to add emphasis "IN MOST CASES" free to play is not going to be beneficial to the player. It is a move that benefits the company in terms of how much money they can get from the consumer for the same amount or in some cases less product.
...and another one bites the dust.
I hope eventually all games lose their subscription based models. This is one reason why First Person Shooters remain the most played and most popular overall genre out there..The only place in the world where ROLEPLAYING GAMES are the most popular is in Japan, a nation that couldn't code a decent FPS or RTS if they tried....^_^.
1] "You can't polish a turd"
2] A great style and look, with an awesome char creator is great for F2P, but no real gameplay means this will make little difference, esp with DCUO coming around the same time.
3] Sadly, after going back to the almost ancient CoH, there seemed to be far more players there than on CO, and although the gameplay is kinda basic, and the graphics creaking into old age, it has a charm of its own, and more importantly no freaking cash store, yet.....
4] This can't be a surprise to anyone after STO, which not only do you buy, then subscribe, but they STILL have the cheek to put a cash store in the game! Coupled with the fact that the gameplay was non-existent, and the game was simply not ready for launch,I played this for 2 days, then simply quit in disgust. So, how long till this goes F2P should have been part of the article.
5] And now they will ruin the good name of NWN too.....shabby
Too many alts!!
I was a huge fan of this game during CB. When OB Hit I had many of my fellow gamers Try it out and they loved it too.. Even the lack of content was not a huge deal as we kinda built our only little stories and ran together.. I was almost in love with the game and its style. I Bought up my LT the day they became available.. I figured also the bonus of early access to STO would be nice to but I was all in for the game.. i even paid for my friend's LT sub. And then release day came.. They completely revamped the system and Destroyed Gameplay and progression.. Characters across the board went from super heroes to Deputy dogs.. I was incredibly dissapointed.. I kinda stuck it out but Cryptic/Atari Slowly got more deviouse. They atarted advertising things then when it didnt work they changed their website and said "we never offered that" STO started testing and those of us with LTs got no codes btu they were giving them out like wildfire to other adn on site to "spread the word" I guess.. i slowly got more and more disgusted. Now that I heard about them doing NWN I am horrified... NWN has been one of my fav games for over a decade and to knwo that this will get the same treatment saddens me. Its nice to know they made improvments but its way too little way to late.. to Atari/Cryptic its just a cash cow they can milk forever.. they have taken 2 great IP's and destroyed them and most likely will kill another. I can say this much.. Sooo Glad they didnt actualyl get this as marvel Online (this was the original Idea) I now see why Marvel pulled out. I have had to apologize to many of my friends and prob will never preorder or get and extended sub for any game ever again.
Cryptic can't do anything right, not even the switch to FtP. You notice with DDO, LotRO, and EQII they all gave subscribers/lifers something extra when they went free. Cryptic gives... nothing. Subs are still stuck with buying junk from their store. No discounts, no free points, no incentive to continue subbing.
In other words I think their version of free play will lose them subs and gain them nothing as the junk in the C store is unwanted anyway.
Once again the name Cryptic is prophetic for any game property they (under)develop. If I were thinking of superhero MMOs to play right now I'd pick one with a future, CoX or DCUO.
Actually, they are planning on giving a stipend of cryptic points for subscribers. Just for anybody outside CO, many things are discussed in the forums so the final model is not set yet.
I agree, to the extent that making junk free to play isn't likely to save it. But it's really their only shot at this point. Cryptics engine just isn't adequate for creating an MMO experience that keeps you playing.
DDO, while less MMO and more action, is actually enjoyable to play from time to time. CO just gives me a headache... almost instantly.
CO isn't a game that needs tweaking. It needs a complete restart from 0, and a relook at what made the PnP source material so great.
I'll try to play it again, and probably log out in frustration a short while later.
Like the new SWG, it's a game where I manage to forget what I truly disliked about it, and manage to talk myself into logging in, again with the idea, "sure, it's shallow, but what's wrong with a little 'beat 'em up" action once in a while?". Problem is, it's not very good at that, either.
To be honest I gave STO 2 weeks in beta and 30 days of real game play, that was more time than I gave this game. I would play sto if it were free to play as something to fill in times when I get board. Hover not this, it just really got on my nerves I had canceled my sub 3 days into the game, and will never look back.
I will have to disagree about the swg reference having played that game since the start of time, I know what the nge did to it and I would never go back unless they go free to play, and not be gimped. The space combat in swg I always loved, it was the ground combat that made me sick, and going to the cookie cutter system.
The reason F2P worked for turbine is because they were GOOD games in the first place. And by that I DONT mean that they were good games _upon release_
both DDO and LOTRO were, in my opinion at least, terrible games on release. They have matured and filled out over the years, as all MMO's (generally) do.
So when these games went f2p they are excelent games. CO however, has had barly enough time to detach itself from its mothers breast.
no doubt f2p will indeed fatten it up a bit, simply because as humans, anything 'free' will force our attention, but a 'turbine success' it wont be for several more years to come.
Quote:
"Dungeons and Dragons Online, arguably the pioneer in moving from a subscription model to a F2P model, was in the same situation."
Actually, Anarchy Online was the first P2P MMO that added a F2P model, and it's still chugging along 6 years later.
~\_/~\_O
When Cryptic and Paragon split I think all the comicbook fans stayed with Paragon.... Champions feels very much like a game made by people who dont really get it and are just going through the motions...it translates into a very, very, dull game exprience, great avatar customisations with nowhere to go. Free or not the real problems dont change, it just isnt fun enough to spend time on imo.
That's what i thought.....DCUO is very limited in its powerset and its char creator.
“Unsurprising and uninspiring. When will these companies learn that payment models only run a distant second to actual content, and the best way to garner new customers would be to create a gaming experience that people could actually enjoy, rather than muck through to try and find the small doses of enjoyment that these lacklustre titles provide.”
My sentiments exactly, I have said the like many times on here before. The MMO industry mistakenly believes that changing the finance will save their MMO’s. In the short term that can give them a new lease of life but only for a couple of years and then they are back where they started. A tired gaming format and an oversaturated market are why profits are falling, it is not the revenue model that is causing this issue.
What the industry calls the ‘Turbine model’ is a hybrid model; even WoW has a touch of the hybrid if you can buy a special mount. It is good to see that the industry can see that DDO and Lotro are not pure F2P even if players have a hard time understanding this.
It's pretty clear from the comments that many people only played for a very limited time and/or don't have a clue what is being offered to subs in the F2P conversion. Monthly stipend to the in-game store and 400 costume pieces are just a couple items (new costume items too - all existing ones are F2P and subs) so far and there are others.
I also know of many ex CoX people that moved to Champions and went back. They all returned to Champions because "the combat was slow, tedious, and the missions are all completely repetative" so that has to say something for the comparision. The CoX people I saw who commented really only spent very little time in Champions from what I read. I know there are negative comments, but I believe the F2P model will allow those people to try for themselves (again) and see what this game is now a year after launch.
I don't get all the hating against CO's cash shop. Unlike others, there's nothing in there that will make it faster or easier to play the game. It has costume sets, vanity pets, and some service items, like character rename and extra slots for costumes. Not exactly items that makes me think of Cryptic as greedy bastards, trying to double dip.
The F2P model also seems very attractive. You get the awesome costume creator, full access to all levels, zones and lairs. 8 playable archtypes. What you don't get for free is the open-ended skill system and the action packs.
Damn, that almost sounded like a sales pitch.
That does not sound bad for a cash shop, but you have only made one post so it does sound very much like a sales pitch.
Considering you just created that account to post with this morning, one has to ask do you work for CO?
Honestly you talking about all the hate about cash shops, why not post with your real account instead of making one up just to post here.
Just saying it looks very suspicious.
Well then in that case welcome to mmorpg, oh hope you have your flame suite read, this place can be brutal some days. Honestly I never logged into those forums. I think I might have posted 2 or 3 times over at sto.
My problems with all cash shops, not just co, not just lotro but all of them. Is that eventually they start adding stuff in that affects game play. Once such example was this week lotro adding a tier 5 tome to the list.
My thoughts about the cash shops are always going to be negative, as I think it turns the devs away from making playable content, itnto making lots of fluff content to suck cash out from its players. All one has to do is look at sto to realize what I am talking about.
Oh well have a good one.
Thank you for the welcome
It's not totally the developers' fault if games repeatedly add those items and players repeatedly buy them. If they add it, they'll get more money. From a business stand point, they would be stupid to not add those items.
CO had a good start, but it was waaaay over hyped and the monthly sub is too much for what you get. The graphics were cool, the character creator was cool, but the game story, storylines and NPC characters were all bland. I'm not sure how they managed to create such a generic super hero world, but they almost literally created every after school super hero/sci fi cartoon that was cranked out in the 80's and early 90's. I would expect CO screens to show up in the backgrounds of movies where people are playing online virtual games. It wouldn't be the main game focused on in the movie, just one of the games.
This is a big deal because of how CO was hyped and advertised, not because of what the game contains.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
IMO if there is one game company that should be considered untrustworthy and unreliable, it would be Cryptic. The overhyping of Champions Online followed by somewhat jading lifetime subs on their "deals" ala Closed Beta Access to Star Trek providing access on different levels (and even allowing people to buy their way into a closed beta). Then follow it by a quick and shoddy development of an extremely popular IP makes this company appear to scream corporate greed on various levels. Really, how do you screw up Star Trek and spend less than a year's worth development on it? What could of been an easy staple to their company quickly became a one-night stand of sorts in the video game industry level. Just terrible.
Here's the deal with Champions from a former player:
You can honestly reach level cap and complete all of the content in less than one month. I am not even exageratting. I really wish I was, but I am not. In less than one month, you will have completed the entire game.
All that is left after that is a Korean-MMO inspired grind for useless fluff.
If you choose to actually pay for this game, the customization is fun, but in the end you are really stuck with a few select powers to survive. There are so many powers in this game that are just utterly useless or haven't worked since launch.
Don't get me wrong; the game is fun. It's just that it is only fun for a very short period of time.
Cryptic had to go FTP because they were losing cutomers because they have ye to really improve the game after more than a year. Day One bugs still exist.
Oh, if you are looking to PVP, you have absolutely no choice but to subscribe. The only way to be viable in PVP is to jump on the FoTM bandwagon.