They might save their semi-MMO though, at least until this market becomes like the Asian one, overloaded with shallow MMOs with no entry cost but too many barriers to be considered a F2P (not "pay to win" as many titles are).
I love this idea. I would play the game recreationally and likely even drop a few dollars here and there, but I would never subscribe.
My wife will love it as she will likely pester me to buy her "gold" custom elements to make her "dress-me-up" superhero. Kudos to Cryptic for the tough decision, but I think it was this route or nothing for CO.
Oh this is nice. You know you can say about Turbine what you want, but i think they have shown the buisness how to successfully convert a running sub game into a F2P. This has huge potential imho, many games are not crap by design, they are just unfinished on release and then never get the necessary funds to recover from it.
I already see me playing AoC one day, LotRO the next then fly some battles with my galaxy and hopefully even see a recovering Warhammer. But ... ehrm ... well i do not think i would play CO, even for free. Its just bad really. But maybe CoH follows suit, i would definitly play that again.
I really think there is a change in the genre, and its a good one. Many of those MMOs are way to casual to play them exclusively, besides its a good way to cure oneself of any "hmm maybe i should try THAT game again" notions, usually pay 15$ to remind oneself why one hated the game so much .
Current subscription will merely be called the new "gold" membership. They're basically adding a much longer free trial than the current one that caps you at level 15, among other restrictions. It will probably still be mostly a subscription game, but merely with a larger free trial.
Originally posted by Rocketeer Oh this is nice. You know you can say about Turbine what you want, but i think they have shown the buisness how to successfully convert a running sub game into a F2P. This has huge potential imho, many games are not crap by design, they are just unfinished on release and then never get the necessary funds to recover from it.
I have yet to see an MMO-turned-F2P to following Turbine's example when it comes to F2P philosophy, though. All they do is basically offer you a gimped game who's chunks you can buy individually if you want to. It was actually a stroke of a genius on Turbine's part to offer the possibility of unlocking stuff with currency you can get ingame for free, essentially giving you a viable option of unlocking the entire game for free if you have the time and will.
In any case, let's see how this turns out. If nothing else, it'll be another MMO to keep busy till big AAA titles are released.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
For a game that was supposed to tople the first super hero MMO City of Heroes, they are falling short. CoH has been around for 6+ years and has yet to go F2P despite the dip in numbers (which has actually picked up since their new expansion). CO was supposed to compete on equal footing if not surpass CoH but it hasn't. I am not saying the game is doomed just saying it has work to do to compete in a genre that is about to become more crowded next year.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
Oh this is nice. You know you can say about Turbine what you want, but i think they have shown the buisness how to successfully convert a running sub game into a F2P. This has huge potential imho, many games are not crap by design, they are just unfinished on release and then never get the necessary funds to recover from it.
I have yet to see an MMO-turned-F2P to following Turbine's example when it comes to F2P philosophy, though. All they do is basically offer you a gimped game who's chunks you can buy individually if you want to. It was actually a stroke of a genius on Turbine's part to offer the possibility of unlocking stuff with currency you can get ingame for free, essentially giving you a viable option of unlocking the entire game for free if you have the time and will.
In any case, let's see how this turns out. If nothing else, it'll be another MMO to keep busy till big AAA titles are released.
Whoa, hold your horses . Turbine only made LotRO F2P 2 months ago, DDO was a questionable example as it was dieing anyway, had no LTAs and its dungeon crawl gameplay without an open world helped alot making it F2P. LotRO was really the big change imho, because it generally is more similar to classical MMOs with its open spaces, some instances and lots of quests in said open space.
Also its obvious, if there are a many F2P around with a premium/sub model they will have to lower their prices/increase content to stay competitive. The old school F2Ps with the P2W store really only got away with what they did because there was no quality low price competition.
This is because Cryptic saw the writing on the wall. With DCUO releasing in the first quarter (at least that's the latest estimate) CO was going to die. This should keep it around for a bit.
This is because Cryptic saw the writing on the wall. With DCUO releasing in the first quarter (at least that's the latest estimate) CO was going to die. This should keep it around for a bit.
It does have the potential to stay around longer if they add more to the game as far as content. They have started doing a better job but needs to get better. I just couldn't get into CO but I hear it is better now.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
It's Cryptic so i have every confidnece they'll somehow screw this up too.They can barely run the game adequately for the low player base they have now...if they suddnely have f2p initial numbers their servers will explode and their staff will curl up in a ball and cry themselves to sleep.
Out of all the P2P games that went F2P I think LoTR is still the best. Cryptic might make more money this way since CO was pretty much dying. I know they will do this with STO, too. It makes sense. Cryptic doesn't know how to make a true MMO so going this way buying upgrades and content seems decent for gamers.
Seems like the trend is "If you can't make it good make it free to play."
I know some people won't like the generalization, but it Champion Online wasn't exactly a block buster and neither were many of the other games going the free to play route, like D&D and Lord of the Rings, even though I consider the latter the most successful of the three.
I guess it'll be only a matter of time until Star Trek Online goes free to play as well.
STO may not go F2P just yet. There are three parties involved to get there. I just don't see CBS/Paramount agreeing to it that quick. The easy sell, however, would be to pitch the higher returns like LOTRO. I will watch with great interest.
The main problem with CO isn't just the lack of content, it's also the poor technical support for the game. Friday's patch rendered the game completely unplayable due to criminal amounts of lag and rubberbanding, and after four days in this state Cryptic have yet to make an official statement regarding the problem. The fact is that you can get a better player experience with any current free-to-play MMO than you can with a CO subscription. Going free-to-play now isn't going to save CO when every other free-to-play has more content, fewer clipping/pathing issues, more stable and robust servers, more communicative devs/publishers, better established communities and better customer service. If they aren't going to make this game look like it was created and maintained by professionals instead of the amateur-quality product is actually is, they might as well shutter it now.
The main problem with CO isn't just the lack of content, it's also the poor technical support for the game. Friday's patch rendered the game completely unplayable due to criminal amounts of lag and rubberbanding, and after four days in this state Cryptic have yet to make an official statement regarding the problem. The fact is that you can get a better player experience with any current free-to-play MMO than you can with a CO subscription. Going free-to-play now isn't going to save CO when every other free-to-play has more content, fewer clipping/pathing issues, more stable and robust servers, more communicative devs/publishers, better established communities and better customer service. If they aren't going to make this game look like it was created and maintained by professionals instead of the amateur-quality product is actually is, they might as well shutter it now.
Unfortunantely that is a problem with Cryptic. They did the same thing while working on CoH when it came to patches and updates. Since the creative team has changed on CoH I will say that the quality of life in the game is far better.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
I would give the game another go as f2p, but would love to know what happens with all the character slots I bought when I played it, and if I can still use them as it says only 2 slots, and it sounds like you have to follow their templates anyway.
Seems like the trend is "If you can't make it good make it free to play."
I know some people won't like the generalization, but it Champion Online wasn't exactly a block buster and neither were many of the other games going the free to play route, like D&D and Lord of the Rings, even though I consider the latter the most successful of the three.
I guess it'll be only a matter of time until Star Trek Online goes free to play as well.
thats kind of an unfair statement. DDO, while it may not have been what people wanted or expected, was still a fairly decent game. Just not really worth $15/month. Lotro on the other hand could (and still can) hold a candle to any mmo out there. So i'm confused on
Comments
No, thank you.
They might save their semi-MMO though, at least until this market becomes like the Asian one, overloaded with shallow MMOs with no entry cost but too many barriers to be considered a F2P (not "pay to win" as many titles are).
Not surprising at all. I fully expect STO will become free to play next.
They can make a shit ton with cosmetics in this game.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
I love this idea. I would play the game recreationally and likely even drop a few dollars here and there, but I would never subscribe.
My wife will love it as she will likely pester me to buy her "gold" custom elements to make her "dress-me-up" superhero. Kudos to Cryptic for the tough decision, but I think it was this route or nothing for CO.
Oh this is nice. You know you can say about Turbine what you want, but i think they have shown the buisness how to successfully convert a running sub game into a F2P. This has huge potential imho, many games are not crap by design, they are just unfinished on release and then never get the necessary funds to recover from it.
I already see me playing AoC one day, LotRO the next then fly some battles with my galaxy and hopefully even see a recovering Warhammer. But ... ehrm ... well i do not think i would play CO, even for free. Its just bad really. But maybe CoH follows suit, i would definitly play that again.
I really think there is a change in the genre, and its a good one. Many of those MMOs are way to casual to play them exclusively, besides its a good way to cure oneself of any "hmm maybe i should try THAT game again" notions, usually pay 15$ to remind oneself why one hated the game so much
.
Current subscription will merely be called the new "gold" membership. They're basically adding a much longer free trial than the current one that caps you at level 15, among other restrictions. It will probably still be mostly a subscription game, but merely with a larger free trial.
In any case, let's see how this turns out. If nothing else, it'll be another MMO to keep busy till big AAA titles are released.
For a game that was supposed to tople the first super hero MMO City of Heroes, they are falling short. CoH has been around for 6+ years and has yet to go F2P despite the dip in numbers (which has actually picked up since their new expansion). CO was supposed to compete on equal footing if not surpass CoH but it hasn't. I am not saying the game is doomed just saying it has work to do to compete in a genre that is about to become more crowded next year.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
Whoa, hold your horses
. Turbine only made LotRO F2P 2 months ago, DDO was a questionable example as it was dieing anyway, had no LTAs and its dungeon crawl gameplay without an open world helped alot making it F2P. LotRO was really the big change imho, because it generally is more similar to classical MMOs with its open spaces, some instances and lots of quests in said open space.
Also its obvious, if there are a many F2P around with a premium/sub model they will have to lower their prices/increase content to stay competitive. The old school F2Ps with the P2W store really only got away with what they did because there was no quality low price competition.
This is because Cryptic saw the writing on the wall. With DCUO releasing in the first quarter (at least that's the latest estimate) CO was going to die. This should keep it around for a bit.
It does have the potential to stay around longer if they add more to the game as far as content. They have started doing a better job but needs to get better. I just couldn't get into CO but I hear it is better now.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
It's Cryptic so i have every confidnece they'll somehow screw this up too.They can barely run the game adequately for the low player base they have now...if they suddnely have f2p initial numbers their servers will explode and their staff will curl up in a ball and cry themselves to sleep.
Out of all the P2P games that went F2P I think LoTR is still the best. Cryptic might make more money this way since CO was pretty much dying. I know they will do this with STO, too. It makes sense. Cryptic doesn't know how to make a true MMO so going this way buying upgrades and content seems decent for gamers.
And there goes my lifetime sub!
Smart move because they need better revenue in the worst way plus they will inherit more people to come play.
If Cryptic paid me to play this game, I still wouldn't.
Seems like the trend is "If you can't make it good make it free to play."
I know some people won't like the generalization, but it Champion Online wasn't exactly a block buster and neither were many of the other games going the free to play route, like D&D and Lord of the Rings, even though I consider the latter the most successful of the three.
I guess it'll be only a matter of time until Star Trek Online goes free to play as well.
AWESOME a game like wow or lotro FREE the only one thing i LOVE free
STO may not go F2P just yet. There are three parties involved to get there. I just don't see CBS/Paramount agreeing to it that quick. The easy sell, however, would be to pitch the higher returns like LOTRO. I will watch with great interest.
The main problem with CO isn't just the lack of content, it's also the poor technical support for the game. Friday's patch rendered the game completely unplayable due to criminal amounts of lag and rubberbanding, and after four days in this state Cryptic have yet to make an official statement regarding the problem. The fact is that you can get a better player experience with any current free-to-play MMO than you can with a CO subscription. Going free-to-play now isn't going to save CO when every other free-to-play has more content, fewer clipping/pathing issues, more stable and robust servers, more communicative devs/publishers, better established communities and better customer service. If they aren't going to make this game look like it was created and maintained by professionals instead of the amateur-quality product is actually is, they might as well shutter it now.
Unfortunantely that is a problem with Cryptic. They did the same thing while working on CoH when it came to patches and updates. Since the creative team has changed on CoH I will say that the quality of life in the game is far better.
"You think this "A" stands for France?" Captain America
I would give the game another go as f2p, but would love to know what happens with all the character slots I bought when I played it, and if I can still use them as it says only 2 slots, and it sounds like you have to follow their templates anyway.
thats kind of an unfair statement. DDO, while it may not have been what people wanted or expected, was still a fairly decent game. Just not really worth $15/month. Lotro on the other hand could (and still can) hold a candle to any mmo out there. So i'm confused on
Oh great! More ammo for Richard!
Ribbit RRRibbit F2P RRibbit Ribbit Ribit
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon