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F2P on 1/25/11
TribeofOne
Member UncommonPosts: 1,006
from email i got today....
Greetings, Champion!
Great news! The Free-to-Play Beta has been going very well. So well, in fact, that we have a release date in mind...
Champions Online: Free for All will launch Tuesday, January 25, 2011!
If you'd like to learn more about what's in store for Free for All, just head over to our Champions Online Free-to-Play Hub.
Comments
Ecellent!
Its making it harder and harder to pay sub for any MMO now
ya..not that this game was great ..but 50-60 bucks on release and a monthly sub for this one was a reach for this game imo...hurrrr..raaay! for f2p mmo's! lol but is it an end to a game that goes f2p or off to better things? time will only tell i guess
It will be interesting to see how the archetype system works. They are generally inferior builds in terms of relative power, efficiency, and adaptability it seems.
I like Champions and it has come a long way but I'm not sure if it would be nearly the same experience with an archetype. It would likely put this game into the 'subscription pay' or 'not play at all' category for me.
no matter how gimped the f2p model is Im sure itll be Waaaaay better than DCUO
i have DC and its great **ps3** they are basicly played diff as well so i wouldnt compare the 2
I didn't think the game worth a subscription when i got it but as free to play i'd say it's definately one worth having on your PC. I was more into the PvP side and it all got a bit too quiet when i used to play so hopefully F2P will populate the game out enough to have constant full matches.
Hey MuffinStump,
I'd encourage you to at least give the new Archetypes a shot. We've based them all on pre-existing super hero tropes, and then tweaked them based on our beta testers feedback. The end result is a new class based option for Champions fans, which provides exciting, engaging, and well balanced options for players new to the game. Players which may not want to worry too much about what powers they're picking from the start, and just want to get in and start having fun.
If you've played Champions before, you know that there's a ton of different possibilities available during character creation using our custom frameworks.
You can still make your Champion look however you like. In fact, there are over 3,000 costume pieces available for free and a wealth of color choices to choose from, as well as nearly limitless sizing and body type options to select, which means there are literally millions of ways to make your hero unique.
The result is even if you don’t subscribe, you can enjoy nearly all of the content available in Champions Online at absolutely no cost; the difference is you’re playing a class-based game. What’s more, you have the option to pick between a number of powers as you advance, and you can still choose advantages and super stats that further empower your character. With that in mind, even if you choose to enjoy Archetype-based play, you’re coming out ahead on most pay-to-play MMOs, in our opinion.
Thanks,
Stormshade
Sub game turning into f2p is a huge joke in my book. F2P is a joke. There is no F2P game. It should be Free to Log. Cause if you expect to play a game and no pay a dime for it, be ready to be gimp, severly gimped. Who wants to play a gimp even for free ? Not me.
Yeah CO as F2P sounds interesting.
the free to play model in this game sucks compared to others out there (DDO, PoTBS). See for yourself....game seems pretty much non enjoyable with how many things are locked down in this game without a sub.......restricting forum access and how much currency a character can acquire is assnine.
http://www.champions-online.com/f2p_matrix
Same problem I have with F2P, you are limited on what you can do, why the hell do I want to play a game and only get to experience part of the game ?? Nothing is free in this world, never forget that.
There's nothing gimp about the f2p model for CO. They're just themed builds, otherwise they're the same as every other PC. You still get to choose where to put your power points, meaning even themed builds will vary from one another as Advantages (one of the things you can spend those points on) can drastically change the way certain powers work. You also get to choose between powers at select intervals; for instance, the Fire archtype gets to choose between Fire Breath and erm....I forget the name...the PBAoE fire attack...at around level 12. There's another choice to make down the line as well.
I actually had a lot of fun in the beta. I've been lifetime for a while and I regretted buying lifetime up until the F2P beta, but it's completely rejuvinated my interest in the game. A lot has changed and improved and now the majority of defensive passives rely on your Super Stats, making all of the archtypes not only viable, but very powerful and fun to play.
Other than adventure packs - which are perfectly viable sources of additional income IMO - there's really nothing in the CO item shop you need to buy. All of those costume pieces are unlocked ingame with the exception of one set, and even then it's purely aesthetic. You still have thousands upon thousands of options.
On top of that, ALL of the content (except adventure packs) is playable to freebies. It's not like LOTRO where sections and zones are blocked off unless you pay. Honestly, I have no clue how CO intends to make money off of this. There's so little to spend money on, unless they start spitting out tons more adventure packs, there's nothing in that shop that's necessary. Like...at all.
EDIT - to the people concerned about the restriction on money, don't be. There's literally nothing to spend money on in CO. CO's Economy is something that's always needed work that never really got any. People run around with tons and tons of money and literally give it away in costume contests because it's so unnecessary. The only thing I've EVER spent money on was upping the cap on my craft skills, which cost a whopping 100g at final level (you'll have that much and more long before you get there because once again, you're not spending it on anything). The only thing you can really spend money on is costume pieces, but you can get them all yourself so *shrug* that's really only for those that want to be lazy.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
It makes no difference if a game is 'free' or pay to me. I won't invest my time into something sub par just because it's 'free'.
If this had been a good game I would have been playing it already.
Payment model switches are good for opening your game up to people that wouldnt normally have tried or paid for it.
Problem is you still need a good game to keep people interested and willing to sink money into a shop.
So is CO good enough to keep em interested to the point of paying? I have no idea.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
If you compare how we offer our content to Silver Players, you’ll notice nearly the entire game is available to them, for free. (The only thing missing at launch will be access to our Adventure Packs.) You’ll be able to level from 1 to 40 without any gaps in content. Put simply: If you can walk into a zone, you can enjoy everything inside it. No mission gating, no pop-ups, no nonsense.
Ultimately, we want to give people the chance to experience as much of Champions Online as possible, especially if they’re Silver Players. Obviously, we value our Gold Members, and a number of great enhancements to gameplay are exclusive to them. But we’re not limiting the Champions Online experience to them. Champions Online: Free For All is for everyone, and we’re confident once you jump in and begin playing, regardless of your status as a Gold Member or Silver Player, you’ll really love what you find.
Thanks,
Stormshade
I think this will be the biggest problem with this game overall, I for one have no plans on playing this game for free or any Cryptic game for quite some time and I just don't think I'm the only one in this boat.I think this game sucks and free to play is going to have a marginal effect better luck trying this with STO though.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I could try to convince people about the good things in CO, but the nice thing about f2p is that people can experience it by themselves.
I played CO during beta and a few days after the launch patch disaster. I was luck enough to have not opened my box and got a refund. I really loved the CC for the game and after beta testing DCUO I miss it even more. Amazon has the game for sale for $5...at F2P, it is worth 5 dollars to play with the CC and run them up a few lvls and then start again.
While I certainly don't want to discourage you from purchaing the box, I also want you to be aware that a box purchase will no longer be required one Free for All Launches on the 25th of January. You'll be able to download the game directly from our website, and experience everything our Silver accounts have access to at no cost.
This includes all of the game (Minus the two Adventure Packs) and our new Archetype's (Character Classes). However, the box does still come with a 30 day subscription.
This means that if you pick the box up, you'll get the 30 day subscription, access to Custom Frameworks (Which allow you to pick and choose powers as you wish from all of the avilable powers in the game) and access to the two Adventure Packs, as well as some more costume options, and other perks. Plus, you won't have to wait two weeks for us to launch Free for All!
Thanks,
Stormshade
Characters of non-paying players will be markedly weaker than characters of those who subscribe--apart from subscribers who don't know how to put together a build properly, of which there are many. But archetype characters aren't crippled to the point of being useless, so this isn't the usual "free to lose" item mall model. Trying to bump up the skill level for certain instanced content might be undoable for archetype characters, but they should be strong enough for pretty much everything else.
I think the CO community will see some interesting changes once they go F2P. I myself did not enjoy the game enough to sub past my 30 days but my 5 year old liked it, when it goes F2P I will be installing it back for him.
I would imagine one of the ways Cryptic hopes to make money is just by getting more people on the servers. When I tried the game last year, it was a ghost town. Who wants to sub to an MMO when you cant find anyone to play with? With F2P players coming on, the servers look busy and more people may find the game enjoyable enough to sub again.
I sure hope Cryptic has learned that releasing low-content games and hoping to finish them later is not working and that they spend some time developing the NWN game.
what will happen to the characters that i build in the first 30 days after I chose to go F2P? can I still play them as is or will I loose access to them?
Thank you for the feedback. I was wondering though, how big is Champions Online to install with all the updates? In other words, how much space does it take up in terms of gigabytes? Thanks in advance for any help.
*sigh* the game is free to play. just because every ounce of content isn't free doesn't mean it's not free to play.