Oh wait a second you can only play in the Alien Invasion area? to level 15? and cant level up or use travel powers? So, inreality, you can play a lvl TWO character for free.
BWHAHAHAHAHHA . GG Cryptic. More of the same half-assed shit from you all. Its the equivalent of McDonalds offering free cheeseburgers, and when you show up, all that free is the paper wrapper. What a stupid and pathetic attempt to draw people in.
Well, people can use the hero builder for free now, im not sure why anyone would pay for the game as it is. It was my biggest regret as a game purchase in years (I paid full retail, since I was looking forward to this game, for years).
Agreed whole heartedly, and seconded ( if that's a word )
I bet within a year or so of the STO launch Crappions will sunset. It's only purpose is to fund the development of STO. IMHO
Oi now I have to try the trials for those games. It is an excellent idea, because if I actually like the games it's how they will see any money from me (that they otherwise would have not). I learned my lesson from more than one MMO about buying before trying. More companies releasing MMORPG's need to start releasing trials with the games, or in my opinion have a free option and have it so you can spend money for extra perks (like DDO's model).
-------------------------- Playing: FFXIV, TERA, LoL, and HoTS My Rig: GPU: GeForce GTX 770, CPU: i7-4790K, Memory: 16 GB RAM
It's good to have a demo that gives you a feel for the game, but this is a joke. You learn next to nothing about the game from being stuck in the very first zone. I could see their concerns by letting people out into the rest of the world because of gold farming, griefing or some other bug up Cryptic's ass. But honestly, how much damage could you do at level 15 anyways? They need all the help they can get and this just makes them more of a laughing stock.
At least games like AoC have a fully fleshed out tutorial zone that really gives you a feel of how the game is going to play out. It may not be 100% of the experience, but you know pretty much what you are going to get. Also WA R would fit into that category. Vanguard should go ahead and make their tutorial area free forever type of trial, it may be too late, but anything helps.
This just sounds like a gimmick to get people talking about Champions again. It's 95% fluff with no substance unless they think that somone will actually spend days killing thousands of aliens for a couple xp or doing Ironcald open missions ad nauseum. If anything, I see this move backfiring because people will find out how little the demo experience was and how it took longer to intsall the game that the actual amount of content they have access to.
Originally posted by MikeB What do you think about this new trend of unlimited free trials? I think it's an excellent idea, and it's a wonder it took this long to start taking off! Here's hoping the trend continues! Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Time-limited trials always bothered me, because too often I'd sign up, the clock would start ticking, but then I wouldn't get the chance to really get started right away. So by the time I'd be ready to give it a real try, there'd be no time left.
I understand that with some games, or some other types of software, there's really no viable alternative, but for MMOs, putting a level limit on trials instead of a time limit makes so much more sense.
Just don't prohibit trial accounts from grouping, the way WoW does. I know it's WoW and all, and they seem like the shining example to follow, but that made the game impossible to give a serious try, when my gf and I downloaded it. So, not that they'll miss me, but that was that. Never played again. Although, that was also because we were busy playing another MMO, when our trials expired.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
At least games like AoC have a fully fleshed out tutorial zone that really gives you a feel of how the game is going to play out. It may not be 100% of the experience, but you know pretty much what you are going to get. Also WA R would fit into that category. Vanguard should go ahead and make their tutorial area free forever type of trial, it may be too late, but anything helps.
Thank you for bringing that up, bigdaddy. Love it or hate it, at least the Tortage zone in Age of Conan gives you 20 levels to give you a pretty good idea of your alt's capabilities and has trainers where you can pick up new abilities, as opposed to CO where you have to leave the tutorial zone in order to get them.
I played the CO demo today and honestly thought I was doing something wrong when I couldn't leave the tutorial zone. Having the ability to level to 15 sounds like a great idea but not when you're stuck in a zone where you're done with all missions at level 6. The idea of grinding out 9 levels in a learning zone is an ordeal I won't be enduring anytime soon, thank you very much. I guess it sounded like a good idea at the time. But then again so was trying to turn Stephen King's "Carrie" into a stage musical.
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. - Marie Curie
Sounds good to me. Character creation is the best part of the game. My fun factor with CO declined generally after logging in with my hero.
Yeah same here, I kept deleting my character and starting over just to see what I could come up with, and I also was re-creating some Marvel universe characters. I saw a guy who was Santa Claws from Futurama. It was flawless.
Things I didn't like about the game:
People can easily take your kills or loot or quest objectives.
You only start with 2 powers, and they don't seem that diverse.
You can't fly at all in the starter area. People want to be able to see how fun the game can get, and flying is a big part.
I tried the melee class martial artist, he only has like 3 animations. Too bland!
Originally posted by TarotMage I played the CO demo today and honestly thought I was doing something wrong when I couldn't leave the tutorial zone. Having the ability to level to 15 sounds like a great idea but not when you're stuck in a zone where you're done with all missions at level 6. The idea of grinding out 9 levels in a learning zone is an ordeal I won't be enduring anytime soon, thank you very much. I guess it sounded like a good idea at the time. But then again so was trying to turn Stephen King's "Carrie" into a stage musical.
So, the level 15 cap is misleading - it's really more like a soft cap of level 6, which is barely much of a trial at all. They should decide whether to let people into higher level areas or just make an honest cap of level 7. Either way would feel more honest, and then people could move on to discussing whether or not level 7 is really too low, without the ambiguity of the cap technically being level 15..
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Yeah I guess these endless trials are great! Now everybody can easy see how games are getting along! If they are good, no endless trials for you, if bad - then you are free to try them till the next millenium (not sure those game will survive that long though)...
How would people react to a "time spent ingame" cap for trials? In other words, you would be unrestricted in terms of the number of days the trial remained open, or on levels or where you could go, the skills you could get etc, but after you'd played for a certain number of hours ingame your account would be frozen until you had subbed. Would that kind of trial make sense?
WOW this game's not even 4 months old and they're already so desperate for subs they're doing this? Oh my...
I would say I'm sure the Chinese gold farmers will love this news, but does this game have enough people playing to even rate having gold farmers? Then of course you have all the people who live to make other peoples' lives miserable that will play just to be a-holes to others without having to care if they get banned because they'll make a new free account.
When I first read that Warhammer and Conan were doing the free unlimited trial I figured it was because they weren't making money and this was a last ditch effort to staying P2P. If this doesn't work then they'll either go F2P or dump the game all together. I thought Champions was doing well but I haven't really read any subscription results lately so maybe people are jumping ship. I guess we'll see, in 2010 I think either these games will become F2P like DDO or they'll be gone. I like Conan so hopefully that'll just become F2P, but then again with Star Trek Online, Star Wars Old Republic, Stargate Worlds and APB coming out I think I'll be playing one...if not more...of those instead. I think 2010 will be the year even WoW meets its match.
All the talent left Cryptic and went to Paragon Studios when Cryptic sold off City of Heroes to NCSoft. The "New" Cryptic team has yet to prove their ability to craft a game. City of heroes just keep getting better, while Champions is flopping even though it has the advantage of a fresh new engine.
How odd that customization seems to be the focus, and selling point of the game, but then take away any sort of freedom with the storyline, and character progression. You create you completely custom and creative character, but then you are forced to play out a linear story line that might not even remotely fit with your creation. Players should be free to develop their own stories by just choosing missions that fit with their characters. At least that way people can pretend that the game revolves around their character, and not cryptics idea of a storyline for your character. I think that is the biggest failing point.
All the talent left Cryptic and went to Paragon Studios when Cryptic sold off City of Heroes to NCSoft. The "New" Cryptic team has yet to prove their ability to craft a game. City of heroes just keep getting better, while Champions is flopping even though it has the advantage of a fresh new engine.
Agreed 100%. I can only think that the Paragon Studios people didn't want to work with Jack Emmert anymore.
What do you think about this new trend of unlimited free trials? I think it's an excellent idea, and it's a wonder it took this long to start taking off! Here's hoping the trend continues!
I'm going to echo one of the other posters here in that I think the concept of a unlimited (time) free trial is great.
Be it 7, 10 or even 21 days I always feel I HAVE to play or I'm not going to see what I need to see or get the play time I want out of it. I don't like being forced to play every day.
A good example is the AoC free trial I started prior to the holiday. I enjoyed playing while waiting for Christmas to come, but now I'm going to put it down and take care of some other stuff. I might be back in a week or not until the end of Jan. Either way that free trial is going to be waiting for me.
A bad example would be the last LotRO vet trial. Skirmishes AND the Yulefest. 1 week (with 2 of those days work days) was not long enough.
More power to it. I hope we see this trend continue.
I can only think that this will be some sort of bait and switch, for those who aren't savvy enough to read up on what the higher levels are like and get all excited in the first fifteen, only to discover that it just peters out til the end. Those poor people will feel quite upset that they could have been playing the best part of the game over and over again for nothing rather than carrying on to realize just how boring the game truly is.
I dont buy mmogs without trial first, since most are very bad, so this is something I been waiting since its launch, I was a big fan of coh, and champions promised to be more fo the same with several tweaks wich would be enough to me.
I did try the free weekend altho it was plagued with update and connection problems, and now a trial sounded so sweet to actually see something, but then i find out its limited to that small start area i finished in a couple minutes allready during the free weekend -.-
So this sucks, you dont get to see much of the game except the creation, basic interface and 2/3 basic attacks.. It still has some connection problems since im from europe it seems and the game is really heavy on high settings, looks crap in low settings.. damn, it was a huge let down.. All this done for me was thinking about reactivating my coh account.
Comments
Oh wait a second you can only play in the Alien Invasion area? to level 15? and cant level up or use travel powers? So, inreality, you can play a lvl TWO character for free.
BWHAHAHAHAHHA . GG Cryptic. More of the same half-assed shit from you all. Its the equivalent of McDonalds offering free cheeseburgers, and when you show up, all that free is the paper wrapper. What a stupid and pathetic attempt to draw people in.
They'll file for bankruptcy within a year or two. Mark my words.
Agreed whole heartedly, and seconded ( if that's a word )
I bet within a year or so of the STO launch Crappions will sunset. It's only purpose is to fund the development of STO. IMHO
Oi now I have to try the trials for those games. It is an excellent idea, because if I actually like the games it's how they will see any money from me (that they otherwise would have not). I learned my lesson from more than one MMO about buying before trying. More companies releasing MMORPG's need to start releasing trials with the games, or in my opinion have a free option and have it so you can spend money for extra perks (like DDO's model).
--------------------------
Playing:
FFXIV, TERA, LoL, and HoTS
My Rig:
GPU: GeForce GTX 770, CPU: i7-4790K, Memory: 16 GB RAM
It's good to have a demo that gives you a feel for the game, but this is a joke. You learn next to nothing about the game from being stuck in the very first zone. I could see their concerns by letting people out into the rest of the world because of gold farming, griefing or some other bug up Cryptic's ass. But honestly, how much damage could you do at level 15 anyways? They need all the help they can get and this just makes them more of a laughing stock.
At least games like AoC have a fully fleshed out tutorial zone that really gives you a feel of how the game is going to play out. It may not be 100% of the experience, but you know pretty much what you are going to get. Also WA R would fit into that category. Vanguard should go ahead and make their tutorial area free forever type of trial, it may be too late, but anything helps.
This just sounds like a gimmick to get people talking about Champions again. It's 95% fluff with no substance unless they think that somone will actually spend days killing thousands of aliens for a couple xp or doing Ironcald open missions ad nauseum. If anything, I see this move backfiring because people will find out how little the demo experience was and how it took longer to intsall the game that the actual amount of content they have access to.
Time-limited trials always bothered me, because too often I'd sign up, the clock would start ticking, but then I wouldn't get the chance to really get started right away. So by the time I'd be ready to give it a real try, there'd be no time left.
I understand that with some games, or some other types of software, there's really no viable alternative, but for MMOs, putting a level limit on trials instead of a time limit makes so much more sense.
Just don't prohibit trial accounts from grouping, the way WoW does. I know it's WoW and all, and they seem like the shining example to follow, but that made the game impossible to give a serious try, when my gf and I downloaded it. So, not that they'll miss me, but that was that. Never played again. Although, that was also because we were busy playing another MMO, when our trials expired.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Thank you for bringing that up, bigdaddy. Love it or hate it, at least the Tortage zone in Age of Conan gives you 20 levels to give you a pretty good idea of your alt's capabilities and has trainers where you can pick up new abilities, as opposed to CO where you have to leave the tutorial zone in order to get them.
I played the CO demo today and honestly thought I was doing something wrong when I couldn't leave the tutorial zone. Having the ability to level to 15 sounds like a great idea but not when you're stuck in a zone where you're done with all missions at level 6. The idea of grinding out 9 levels in a learning zone is an ordeal I won't be enduring anytime soon, thank you very much. I guess it sounded like a good idea at the time. But then again so was trying to turn Stephen King's "Carrie" into a stage musical.
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. - Marie Curie
Yeah same here, I kept deleting my character and starting over just to see what I could come up with, and I also was re-creating some Marvel universe characters. I saw a guy who was Santa Claws from Futurama. It was flawless.
Things I didn't like about the game:
People can easily take your kills or loot or quest objectives.
You only start with 2 powers, and they don't seem that diverse.
You can't fly at all in the starter area. People want to be able to see how fun the game can get, and flying is a big part.
I tried the melee class martial artist, he only has like 3 animations. Too bland!
So, the level 15 cap is misleading - it's really more like a soft cap of level 6, which is barely much of a trial at all. They should decide whether to let people into higher level areas or just make an honest cap of level 7. Either way would feel more honest, and then people could move on to discussing whether or not level 7 is really too low, without the ambiguity of the cap technically being level 15..
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Yeah I guess these endless trials are great! Now everybody can easy see how games are getting along! If they are good, no endless trials for you, if bad - then you are free to try them till the next millenium (not sure those game will survive that long though)...
How would people react to a "time spent ingame" cap for trials? In other words, you would be unrestricted in terms of the number of days the trial remained open, or on levels or where you could go, the skills you could get etc, but after you'd played for a certain number of hours ingame your account would be frozen until you had subbed. Would that kind of trial make sense?
WOW this game's not even 4 months old and they're already so desperate for subs they're doing this? Oh my...
I would say I'm sure the Chinese gold farmers will love this news, but does this game have enough people playing to even rate having gold farmers? Then of course you have all the people who live to make other peoples' lives miserable that will play just to be a-holes to others without having to care if they get banned because they'll make a new free account.
When I first read that Warhammer and Conan were doing the free unlimited trial I figured it was because they weren't making money and this was a last ditch effort to staying P2P. If this doesn't work then they'll either go F2P or dump the game all together. I thought Champions was doing well but I haven't really read any subscription results lately so maybe people are jumping ship. I guess we'll see, in 2010 I think either these games will become F2P like DDO or they'll be gone. I like Conan so hopefully that'll just become F2P, but then again with Star Trek Online, Star Wars Old Republic, Stargate Worlds and APB coming out I think I'll be playing one...if not more...of those instead. I think 2010 will be the year even WoW meets its match.
All the talent left Cryptic and went to Paragon Studios when Cryptic sold off City of Heroes to NCSoft. The "New" Cryptic team has yet to prove their ability to craft a game. City of heroes just keep getting better, while Champions is flopping even though it has the advantage of a fresh new engine.
How odd that customization seems to be the focus, and selling point of the game, but then take away any sort of freedom with the storyline, and character progression. You create you completely custom and creative character, but then you are forced to play out a linear story line that might not even remotely fit with your creation. Players should be free to develop their own stories by just choosing missions that fit with their characters. At least that way people can pretend that the game revolves around their character, and not cryptics idea of a storyline for your character. I think that is the biggest failing point.
Agreed 100%. I can only think that the Paragon Studios people didn't want to work with Jack Emmert anymore.
I'm going to echo one of the other posters here in that I think the concept of a unlimited (time) free trial is great.
Be it 7, 10 or even 21 days I always feel I HAVE to play or I'm not going to see what I need to see or get the play time I want out of it. I don't like being forced to play every day.
A good example is the AoC free trial I started prior to the holiday. I enjoyed playing while waiting for Christmas to come, but now I'm going to put it down and take care of some other stuff. I might be back in a week or not until the end of Jan. Either way that free trial is going to be waiting for me.
A bad example would be the last LotRO vet trial. Skirmishes AND the Yulefest. 1 week (with 2 of those days work days) was not long enough.
More power to it. I hope we see this trend continue.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
I can only think that this will be some sort of bait and switch, for those who aren't savvy enough to read up on what the higher levels are like and get all excited in the first fifteen, only to discover that it just peters out til the end. Those poor people will feel quite upset that they could have been playing the best part of the game over and over again for nothing rather than carrying on to realize just how boring the game truly is.
I dont buy mmogs without trial first, since most are very bad, so this is something I been waiting since its launch, I was a big fan of coh, and champions promised to be more fo the same with several tweaks wich would be enough to me.
I did try the free weekend altho it was plagued with update and connection problems, and now a trial sounded so sweet to actually see something, but then i find out its limited to that small start area i finished in a couple minutes allready during the free weekend -.-
So this sucks, you dont get to see much of the game except the creation, basic interface and 2/3 basic attacks.. It still has some connection problems since im from europe it seems and the game is really heavy on high settings, looks crap in low settings.. damn, it was a huge let down.. All this done for me was thinking about reactivating my coh account.