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CoX free to play?
Hoplites
Member CommonPosts: 463
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/06/21/a-new-experience-is-launching-for-city-of-heroes-freedom/
Shocked, but given how the game was progressing I should have seen it coming.
My initial thoughts is that the free 2 play movement is picking up steam, and P2P seems to be in decline. CoX as a f2p sounds very intriguing!
Comments
CoX is a game I've returned to a number of time (actually considering it at the moment)
No other superhero MMO has captured the feeling quite like CoX.
I'm hoping the free to play model will work, I'll still probably subscribe when I return but the option to quickly pick up for a quick "blast" is nice too.
Wow you guys seriously need to read and research...
Here, I will DO IT FOR YOU:
http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/freedom/freedom_overview.html
Current City of Heroes subscribers will continue as a VIP player in City of Heroes Freedom, gaining more features, services, and rewards in addition to what they have already received. Some rewards begin today, as all current City of Heroes subscribers will accrue 400 Paragon Points per month starting on their first billing cycle after July 1, 2011. At the launch of City of Heroes Freedom, you will be able to use Paragon Points to purchase new costumes, Powers Sets, and hundreds of new items from the in-game Paragon Market. The new Paragon Rewards program also rewards all levels of loyal players with new bonus content that you select, including exclusive rewards for VIP players.
The game has become PAY-TO-WIN with an INGAME STORE, happy about the game now?
Although it has pvp (it was an after addon) pay to win really doesn't matter in this game.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Tell that to the forum playing Star Trek Online.
It bothers me, P2WIN
I can spend money and get really buffed, but then the others not putting the time or skill can get the same buffs.
It end usually ends up with a large number of people with same bonuses, a lot of trolls with no skills, with a sad depressing free lower class.
A 400 point /month stipend to spend on the cash shop, freemium accounts...why does this sound so familiar?
I'm surprised as I never thought the Korean head honchos would go for it. With all of the good IPs that NCsoft has let go to the wall, fail and closed down CoH gets the F2P treatment? If they bring back TR as a F2P I may actually pay them money again but I doubt it. Having played it for 5 years it does hold some fond memories. I'll have to see how annoying they will make free accounts though.
Looks like F2P has stopped being a trend and become a movement.
What possible reason is there to pay SOE £10/month for their offering?
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
______________________________
"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
we are not talking about STO.
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
Given the revenue bottoming out, they had to do something, and this was the something, as it turns out. Now to disabuse the naysaying vets of the notion that there is any difference between a F2P population and one that pays $15 a month. That F2P game populations are populated by nothing but raging lunatic trolls is one of the least true and most unfair stereotypes of F2P games.
I agree! with F2P becoming more normal the expectations on the games we actually pay for per month are going to be raised, or companyies will loose customers to other F2P titles. This whole ordeal sounds like a way to get people off the F2p champions online, I like the game but i am going to play both and see wich i like more and stay on that game. In my opinion i think the cash shop is going to do well because micrtransactions are becoming the new way to make money.
Would you rather make 50 buck one time then 20 bucks per month for maybe a year or two off a couple thousand players, or make your game free and make at least on average 5 bucks from a couple hundred thousand players because its more accesible? they have made the money from the release and now making it F2p would be the next step to keep revenue esspecially with Q3 and Q4 coming..
Demoku: Anarchy Online (Rimor)
what i wish tese compqnies would do is post population trends prior to their f2p re-launches...i'm pretty sure it would show a parallel to dimising populations that trend blow their subscriber to profit ratio. COX is aged....personally a new cox would have been better.
so say we all
The best "anal"ogy I can do is taking it up the ass. Champions kind of just jammed it right in there with the monthly fee or the 199 lifetime sub and then putting a ton of stuff in the cash shop that should have been included with the game. Obviously that was too painful for many players and the sub-par game didn't help matters at all so many people left almost immediately.
CoX was muuch more subtle giving you an inch at a time starting with the VIP pack so long ago. Then things that should have been in the game were slowly and then more often being made into seperate 10 dollar packs in addition to what you payed for a monthly fee. All this they could have included it in the game for free but they didn't. There wasn't nearly as many protests as with Champions because it was much more gradula and people got used to it.
This end result was expected but my only surprise was that NCSoft signed off on this, Thier track record has been keep a game one way or kill it. Not too much middle ground. Who knows if NCSoft is all about F2P now, maybe they can dig in their graveyard and pull some of those games that failed in P2P and give them a second go.
Yeah I soon see an Inf-to-time code secondary market that should be most appealing to those with time and no money or methods to pay for time on their own.
Someone mentioned it earlier and it is a very good idea. they pretty much have the 3 tier system from LoTRO as their base, make badges reward Paragon points and that will increase activity substantially. You would see 8 man badge hunting teams that would lead to 8 man mission teams that would lead to 8 man TFs and so on. Point is you have 8 people playing for a significant amount of time with the potential of them paying.
I felt like such a moron badge hunting on CoX and vowed to myself I would never do such an empty and time consuming activity again until I got to LoTRO. When I found out you could get in game money for deeds, I was all over that all the while thinking about if CoX had ever offered that feature how cool it would be. Well now here is the chance.
I'll definitely be back to play and see how restrictive it is for reutning players. Little leery about the AH limits but other than that, looks ok.
We'll see how it turns out.
lol free to play really isn't a movement or a trend. What the whole F2P setup is doing is allowing games that should or would be closing up shop a means of surviving and sustaining some profitability. Lets face it, populations on many MMO's are shrinking and there is some huge hype revolving around some MMO's on the horizon. Companies are worried and should be.
It's not a trend, it's not a movement, it's survival instincts. I'm kind of glad as some games I've played I enjoyed to an extent but just not enough to pay for it. This kind of move keeps them around and lets people like me enjoy them once in awhile as well.
Well, I don't know about other MMOs, but you can find NCSoft's quarterly earning reports on the 'net and those show how much CoH makes over time. You can use those fairly decently to show game population to an extend and they do show a declining player-base.
So there's that.
With nothing currently worth playing out there i'll happily resubscribe to CoX the day it goes F2P. The $15 will be worth it simply to play a great game once again heavily populated throughout all levels. I loved the game in its first few years and it'll be an awesome trip down memory lane to go back and see the game bustling again.
When it happens Champions Online and the PC version of DCUO might as well just shut down their servers.
I will leave this here...
http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/freedom/player_choices.html#tabs-4
Since some of you, don't like to read about what's coming... that includes the Correspondents
Q: If I am a subscriber now, what will happen to my account if I choose to become a Free player when City of Heroes Freedom launches?
A: Current City of Heroes subscribers who choose to become Free players will retain access to tons of content, however some Issue content will be reserved for VIP players, including Power Sets, Costume Sets, etc. One notable difference is that Free players will be limited to two character slots total, plus any character slots directly purchased or earned through Veteran Rewards. All existing characters will be saved and reenabled if a player subscribes as a VIP player. (including costumes and powers) and character slots (directly purchased character slots or those unlocked from Veteran Rewards). Access to some content, such as Mission Architect and epic character Archetypes, may be restricted, but will be reenabled if a player subscribes as a VIP player.
View the Free and Premium player benefits in the Freedom player choice side-by-side comparison.
This was some really cool news for me. I purchased the game wayyyyy back when, as a pre order and was a beta tester. I thought it was a terrific game until I discovered there was like, nothing to really do at End Game. Like many players, I moved on. I resubbed every now and then, for like, a month at a time. Just to check out changes here and there, and to have CoV added to my account for free when they made that move.
Long ago, I couldn't justify paying the monthly fee for what I was getting. Other MMO's at the time (warcraft in particular) called me away and scored my cash.
But now? This is great. It's like, I can fire up my old account, have it tagged as a Premium status (middle account type), and play as much as I want for free. It's like it's entered a Guild Wars style of play. I bought the box, so I get to use all the features that came with the box unlimited.
Having only 2 character slots will suck unless I wanna upgrade that part but... big whoop. This move will have me put it back on the hard drive and kill some hours playing whereas before I was doing something else. Awesome.
If you are a premium player it is highly likely you will have more than two slots depending on what you have purchased, and how many months subbed to CoX before they move over City of Heroes Freedom. What isn't clear is if premium players will still have access to controllers and masterminds. I read the mega thread, and I don't think that has been clarified.
If you are going to resub anyways, why not do it on July 1st when you can start racking up points and rewards? You can do up to issue 20 and get caught up with the alpha slot and all that stuff in the 2 months or so before they go F2P. I guess for the elitists or people afraid that the "rabble" will ruin their great game, they have made those VIP only servers.
Like I said bfore if they were smart, the best thing they could do would be to make badges worth Paragon Points. I mean for the explore ones maybe get 1-5 and then maybe 10-20 for some of the harder ones. I just know that LoTRO is the best F2P game imo becausethey do this and you can truly play for free or next to nothing.
Oh well at least I haven't seen an influence cap come up so that is good. Maybe just grind the piss out of missions and trade it for time card codes. We'll see how it works out.
Also don't remember if this was mentioned or not but we know COH2 has been reserved as a working title. We know the current revenue flow from COH just wasn't cutting it. With this model they are able to nickle and dime everyone into paying more than the 15 dollar a month cap and I'm could envision the extra revenue will be split between COH and COH2. Maybe NCSoft just didn't want to foot the entire bill for a game that has hovered around 100-150k subs much of it's life.
Hopefully this move gets the influx of players and money it needs and sets the stage for a COH2 that improves on everything while keeping the COH core fun intact.
I thought I'd chime in with a Customer Service upate with NC Soft.
As I previously mentioned, I had a purchased account for CoH but hadn't used it in years. I went to the NC Soft home page and attempted to log into my account. My account name and password were still good, but for some reason they also wanted my birthdate and the answer to my secret question. Sadly, there was an error with the secret question so it stopped cold right there.
I Emailed customer service with my situation and included my name, address, phone number, account name, and password. All stuff I knew they had included with my account file to reference. Boom - 4 hours after I emailed, I got a response that for a 48 hour period my account secret question was cleared and I could log in. I was asked for my account name, password, birthdate, and was able to login. So I was able to secure my account pretty hassle free.
I was impressed with their speed, and I'm good to go when this change fires up.
Edit - looking over their released chart of offered features for the 3 different account types, under Archtypes a Premium account has 8+ in its line. This is a small assumption, but it *appears* that a Premium account (person that bought the box and had a purchased monthly account) is going to keep all the base archtypes, the unlockable characters for reaching level 50 (I have two), and the unlocked features from loyalty rewards. While I can't form new super groups, I'm able to join them, and it appears I have full chat channel use (whispers / zone / global included).
So yeah. Looks good to me. I guess I'll miss out on the Incarnate stuff and Going Rogue content, but... It looks like I could unlock that stuff with a future purchase if I really wanted.
That is unfortunately not the case. The + is there basically because you can purchase the locked out arcetypes (Controllers, Masterminds, Warshades, Peacebringers, Arachnos Soldiers, Arachnos Widows). You can (apparently) do that with either real money or somehow through their paragon rewards program since you get points on that for every month you had your account subscribed. Not sure how many points you'd need to have picked up to unlock all of them though.
I think the only reason it doesn't have the + next to the number of archetypes available for the base tier is because you pretty much only qualify for that tier if you haven't spent a single cent on the game.
Also, I believe that global chat is something 'premium' players have to unlock as well (again through the reward points or though real money).
At least that's what I've picked up from reading the announcement thread on the CoH boards and the dev's comments in it.
Ah yeah, you're right. I did some more digging and it looks like all a Premium player gets over a stock Free play account is the whisper channel, Vet awards, the ability to join super groups, and a couple of odds and ends. Inventions look to be Limited so it's anyone's guess what that means. The same with how the Auction House will be limited, as well as your materials storage.
The big thing I noticed is that the prestige classes (warshades, widows, etc.) will flat out require the monthly subscription. At the moment it hasn't been confirmed one way or another how existing prestige classes that a player already created will be handled with free play as a Premium player. It also hasn't been disclosed how players with more than 2 characters already created on a given server will be able to select which of them they will have as available for play.
Keeping my Vet awards will be cool. But was was previously mentioned, the big thing to look for is an anouncement covering Paragon Points and if it's something that can be obtained from within the game itself (via Badges / Super Team Story Arc completes, etc.)
What CoX done here is perfect and my opinion is that all companies including WoW should do this version of F2P and Sub. Bravo CoX for being the innovator here and setting the standards for other MMO's to follow.
Looks to me like they just copied the LoTRO model wholesale. Which isn't a bad thing. Like I said the past couple posts, you have Paragon Points be earned with in game activites(badges) and the cool factor goes up exponentially.
I fully expect this move to be in part facilitated by a need for increased revenue to have a COH2 slush fund somewhere. They can ride the Alpha(and future slot) endgame out for another 1-2 years at least with all the Emperor Cole storylines and by then we are coming up on the 10th anniversary of COH and a perfect time to get the next evolution of the game on the market.
Champions is in a bad spot, DC is not doing so hot, Marvel shot itself in the foot before they even got to Alpha, looks like a clear path for COH.
Pay 2 win....You keep using that term, I do not think it means what you think it means.
With the exception of certain archetypes being locked out, which is the same for almost any p2p-going-f2p model, there is nothing in the cash shop that laters gameplay.
What has become known as a pay 2 win game is one that offers items that pretty much for you to be competative, as in items that boost equipment (Non-applicable in CoX), equipment only available on cash shop (again, non-Applicable), items that boost stats, or items that make certain penalties less harsh (such as a death penalty).
CoX going f2p shows known of this happening. So how exactly do you think this is pay to win?
My understanding is that the vet reward system is changing into the 'paragon rewards' system actually. For current players you keep what you have and then you get back-loaded a 'paragon reward point' for every month you've had your account active. You can use those points to buy things for free from a list separate from the normal store. I imagine you'll have access to purchasing any of the things that are currently vet rewards, they've mentioned being able to purchase things multiple times (in today's chat they said you can buy character slot unlocks and server transfers this way), and they've also mentioned that you can unlock MMs, controllers and I believe the EATs this way as well.
I'm honestly much more interested in exactly how the paragon rewards system will work in detail than I am in the store and paragon points (which I'd be generally surprised if it didn't work in mostly the same was as LotRO and DDO since the rest of the system mostly has already).