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maskedweasel
Member LegendaryPosts: 12,178
For those that haven't read it yet, there is a new interview at TenTonHammer featuring Jim Lee and Chris Cao.
http://www.tentonhammer.com/dcuo/interviews/2010/jim-lee-and-chris-cao
Heres a list of quotes from the article. My "highlights" if you will.
"... Mentors ultimately determine some of the higher-end loot you'll receive. "If you want the batsuit, you need to have Batman as your mentor, because he's not going to hand it out to anyone. If you want the Strength of Hera, Wonder Woman's suit, you need to be working for her," Chris explained, taking care to explain that a less revealing male version of the costume is available."
" "We had more [inspired-bys], like the Flash, but since we don't have electricity or something that really sets him apart, we decided to pull him out. We still have super speed in the game, you can still do that, but we couldn't fully realize an inspired-by Flash, so we decided to reserve that for when we add more of that kind of stuff in.”"
""Ultimately you have a Batman experience, where the day is saved by you, where you actually get to save or betray your mentor. This about an arc; it isn't about keeping players first and foremost all of the time, but it's about making sure you feel like you had almost no powers, now you've learned some, and now you're earning that fame legitimately. The end of that journey is really the starting point of the game... now you're at the endgame where you're going to be doing cooler stuff, and every month we're going to be adding more to it.""
"Will DCUO players eventually be able to switch sides? "DC is a very black hat / white hat universe. In the future, who knows? We might let you switch sides, but I don't want to promise anything except to say you're going to know who's in the universe and where you stand with them, so that we can tell you even more stories.""
"The way we look at it is, the subscription fee is a lot like DLC. We're charging you a subscription fee because we're going to dedicate developers to bringing you new content every month. We're going to have a team that's going to give you something new every month, even with the expansion coming."
"Adding to the mix, cosmetic and costume goods will be available as microtransaction items on top of that subscription price. But Chris took pains to note that RMT is by no means a primary focus for the team. "Without the game being good, the microtransactions don't matter. The rest of the stuff doesn't matter. We have to keep the game entertaining for players.”"
""A lot of times people take an MMO and they speed it up or they dress it up to make it feel action-y. We didn't do that, and the reason the game has been in development five years is because we had to build technology that would allow us to play MMO-scale of action at action game pace. Our servers are way faster; they're way more robust. They have integrated physics throughout, so you can pick up a car here in New York and if someone's playing in Los Angeles, regardless of latency, it can hit them. That's really important because that's what you expect from a superhero game.""
"...We have this license, we're doing this game, because we want you to feel like a superhero. We don't want your superhero game to feel like an MMO."
"Consoles are where superhero games have shined, because consoles deliver that action experience... People ask about tradeskills. Is there some MMO checklist somewhere where you've got to make these things to thrive? There is, in a lot of people's heads, and that's fine. I get it. But if it doesn't make sense for the license, we didn't put it in. That's really key, because every choice you're making that's not DC diminishes your game."
Comments
i understand what he's talking about with the GL, and i guess a Light power set, but i'm still irritated i can't do it. who knows what horseshit mechainic (looks at SWG Jedi pre NGE, /scowl ..) they may put in to make it happen. i really have no other interest to play other then seeing the constructs realized and a ring slinger of the yellow persuasion.
RMT+Sub Fee is a huge mistake IMO.
If it turns out to be a quality game, it won't matter.
Look at WoW. It's a solid game with a sub and you can purchase silly in-game pets for $10 each and a mount for $25. You can also bet they'll add more to it over time.
It doesn't seem to be having an adverse effect on their subscriptions.
Like I said, if they do things right and it turns out to be a great game the cash store isn't going to matter.
Personally I think of it as sort of a parachute for the devs. If the game is successful you might not see a whole lot of time spent developing things for RMT and instead see new costume pieces added in the updates. If the game is not so successful then they will have to go the way of Champions and release a lot of different costume 'packs' in order to make more money off of the 'faithful'.
I see this game making a lot of money selling in-game cosmetic items as well as their comic series based on the game. I don't like the idea of Microtransactions and Subscription fees, but unfortunately it is becoming the norm.
What I did like is the idea that they'll have monthly updates to the content. How much of that is true, I'm not sure, but if they really do update the content monthly I could see myself staying subbed to this game for a good while.
That's a good enough reason for you? Because others are doing it?! Not me. I've seen what it does to games and no matter what you think, the focus always turns back to cash shop items.
Easy cash>Quality updates
DLC's and cash shops are ruining gaming. SoE has already proven they'll even stoop to taking player suggested items and turn them into saleable items.
I played the game first hand. It was fun, it looks fun, and I pre-ordered. Will I buy the DLCs/cosmetic items? Oh hell no. That should be free, but it's not affecting my leveling or fun, I don't care if other players buy them. When it becomes the point of selling actual items, gear and weapons, that's when I get mad. Yes DLCs are becoming the wave of the future (look at the ridiculous MW2 DLC at $15) and it's a horrible trend, but just boycott DLC. Simple as that (unless if it's a full expansion pack, i.e. Cataclysm).
does anyone at all consider an expansion pack DLC? i agree, though. vanity items who the hell cares. if someone wants to spend 15-20 bucks on a vanity item for a game, thats up to them. once they start selling anything game-changing however thats when i quit a game.
Playing
Nothing
waiting for
The secret world
Played
WoW, DCU online, star wars: the old republic, city of heroes, city of villains, everquest, plenty more I'm probably forgetting or aren't worth noting.
If you mean, is it a good enough reason for them to have them because others have them, then there can't be too many better reasons. I can't control what a company decides to sell, I can only decide on what I am going to buy. I've never bought any cash shop items before (from games that charge subscription + microtransactions). I won't be buying them in DCUO.
What they say only goes so far, but from what they've said, microtransactions will take a back seat to monthly updated content. I don't necessarily believe it from SOE, but I *want* to believe it. Ultimately if the game plays well and I like it, Microtransactions won't stop me from buying it and enjoying it.
If content is shallow and everything is more geared towards the shops, all that will do is make me play the game less than if they kept the up the content updates and made the game worth the sub fee.
Hell if I can get 2 months out of the game and enjoy my time thoroughly, I'll consider it a win.
When SOE mentioned adding micro transactions to EQ2, there were certain people that got very vocal on forums about how the game was going to be ruined, and everyone was going to quit. In other words, blown out of proportion before even seeing it. In-game, it turned out to be very different. Nobody really cared. It was a non-issue. The stuff was all, more or less, cosmetic, much like you would get by paying extra for a collectors edition. It's not like it was really awesome stuff that you just had to have. It's just fluff stuff that you would never miss, and they didn't really add a lot to the store. Some of it I wouldn't have even wanted for free. They still added plenty of fluff stuff to the game that didn't cost anything extra. They also add lots of fluff stuff for the seasonal events/holidays, and vetrans reward packs. I'm sure they'll do similar stuff in DCUO.
The thing is, there are always people willing to pay extra for fluff stuff, so they give it to them. Look at all the people that buy the collectors editions of games. SOE didn't abuse it before, so I don't see them doing it now. As they said, if the game isn't good, it won't matter anyway.
It would be nice if they had a one time Life time subscription you pay one flat fee and never have to pay again let's say you pay $150-$200 and be done with it. I would like to see something like that happen and they can still put the fluff stuff in the micro-transaction store.
And miss out on the $15 a month from all the die-hards? (And every game has die-hards, don't tell me there aren't - CO and STO have Die-Hards.) In the end, if the game bombs, SOE will need to keep charging the people who play the game, in order to continue making any money back on their investment, and I'm sure there's been one HELL of an investment by SOE. Jim Lee's paycheck, alone, will guarantee at least a couple of years of 'servers up' time.
A lifetime subscription would be awesome, but it's not in the interests of the people making the game. The people who BUY the LIfetime subscriptions are EXACTLY the people who probably would have kept subbing, month after month, earning SOE far more than a few lifetime subs would get them in the long term.
Like renting a house vs buying one. Buying a house is, in the short term, a very large investment. But if you own a house, renting it out is a much better source of income, long term, than selling it.
Though I'm not sure if real estate is really the ideal metaphor when talking to gamers (who sterotypically live with their parent/in the basement).
Almost every game they have done that in, the life time subscribers ended up getting screwed. The LOTOR folk that bought the lifetime sub when it first came out got their money's worth, but those that bought the lifetime sub on the last offering got screwed when they went free to play.
Then you have the folks over there in CO who bought the lifetime subs and are getting screwed. I think they might have just got enough time out of the game to make their sub worth what they paid. In terms of value they didn't get anything more than the people that paid $15 a month before they announced fre to play. If they're lucky they'll get another month or two and save $30.
Then you can be Star Trek online will be turning around and doing the samething.
I'm starting to think that games that are confident that they will do well do not offer lifetime subs. Because all the lifetime sub does is guarantee that they get a year or more worth of subscription time out of the customer up front. Especially since lifetime only refers to the lifetime of the game.
Those poor CO Lifetimers are being forced to $15 a month when they swtich to free to play and all that does is give them free access to the things in the cash shop, supposedly.
Most interesting comment IMO, confirms what I expected, will be basically an MMO action game, and not really a full fledged MMORPG which is fine, but probably not something I'm really interested in.
Makes good sense from an IP stance though, because Superman never did mundane things like go to a job or anything.
Oh, wait........
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I don't play CO or follow it closely, but I believe this is a false statement. As I recall, CO liftimers will see absolutly no change in gameplay, no sub, no need to buy CS stuff. Just play the whole game as they have been.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
You're correct. I was mistaken in that while their lifetime subscription is converted into a gold membership they do not have to pay the monthly $15 for the criteria of the gold membership.
In that case I imagine STO will go the same route. It seems they won't lose anything.
I guess it's a good thing they don't have to pay anything extra for subpar games. (Yeah, that's an opinion)
Every month they're gonna add one mission, and that's their new content. :P
I dunno, that's some promise.
We shall see. It's pretty fun so far