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Champions Online: The Story of the Week
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest column for MMORPG.com, Managing Editor Jon Wood picks what he believes is The Story of the Week. It was a tough choice to pick only one out of all of the interesting news this week. Both Vindictus and LEGO Universe opened for business and Tribes Universe was announced. But what trumps them all is the revelation that Cryptic Studios and Atari will be taking Champions Online into the free to play realm. Check out Jon's thoughts and then add some of your own on the forum.
Still though, in taking it all into consideration, I think it has to be said that the week’s biggest story was the one coming out of Cryptic Studios. Specifically that the company’s second super hero title, Champions Online, will be joining the ranks of games that launched with a subscription fee and later transferred to a F2P item-shop based revenue model.
Read more of Jon Wood: The Story of the Week.
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Comments
Unsurprising and uninspiring. When will these companies learn that payment models only run a distant second to actual content, and the best way to garner new customers would be to create a gaming experience that people could actually enjoy, rather than muck through to try and find the small doses of enjoyment that these lackluster titles provide.
Doc
I can't speak for this game, as I always turn to CoX when I want a little superhero action, but DDO and LotRO had plenty of content and certainly were enjoyable gaming experiences for me, minus the lack of a player base.
Sometimes, F2P brings attention to games that have changed since launch that they otherwise would never receive. It certainly has invigorated the two most well known that switched.
So sometimes the best way to garner new customers is to give them a reason to dive into the game without having to invest in it -- I'm not sure how you can be so certain in your comment that any game going F2P can only be because it is terrible.
Playing: Eve, LoL
Played: EQ, SWG, EQII, MxO,DDO CoX, WoW, & LoTRO
Awaiting: GW2, Rift, Earthrise, TOR
In the end, it is all going to come down to the pace and quality of the content being added to the game. If this new model reenergizes the commitment of Cryptic to produce content and support the game, this will do well i think. If they continue along the way they have been I just don't see this model saving the day.
"We're gonna make an amaizing game!"
Later...
"Ok, it's not very good, let's delay it till 2011 and see if we can make it better"
Later...
"Ok, this game is pretty shit, we'll just make it F2P and sell costumes and crappy DLCs later on...I mean, come on, look at our other games we can't do any better."
I was not surprised the game would go F2P. In fact, I was hoping it would hurry up and do so. I have a lifetime sub, so I never paid subs and never will, but I saw the ghost town the game became and it was lonley. I myself rarely played...it's just somehow not that fun...but much like how I felt about APB, I could still see a lot of work went into the game and I didn't want to see it disappear (even though I never actually played APB, not my kind of genre).
Hopefully when it's F2P, more people will play and there will be an actual community to interact with. In the end, that really is what makes an MMO a lasting experience. The powers are pretty and fun, the customization is top-notch, and there's a fair amount to do in the game already considering it's only been out about 14 months.
To address what someone else said, yes it is MUCH better than it was at launch. A lot of skill rebalancing and bug fixes later and things are where they should have been from the very beginning. Players are still finding loopholes and overpowered combinations of course, but that's to be expected with an open-ended skill system (just look at Guild Wars). However, it's still not a game I play regularly. It just doesn't have that spark. Such a shame.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Hands up if you read this and thought "Doesn't matter i'll be playing DCUO."
I have this game and while some bits of it are fun it becomes less so the closer you get to lv.40.
I had the most fun with the trial before i Sub'd, messing with the char creator.
While changing payment method were a big success with DDO I am not so sure it will work out so well for this game, or in the long run for LOTRO and EQ2X either for that matter.
Good games get enough players anyways, and since so may games that had problems with enough subs go F2P I don't think they will get that much more players anyways.
In DDOs case it got popular as a alt game for people already playing another MMO also. DDO is perfect for that, it is not as time consuming as many other games.
For COs case I don't think this will increase the money the get in by much unless they improve the game more.
It does look good for Neverwinter nights if they use F2P or B2P however, a CORPG with no monthly fees in the forgotten realms should be able to sell a few million copies.
I always thought they would make STO free first.
*Hand is up*
At this point I'm of the mind that say "Screw Cryptic". I'm personally done with anything Cryptic or Atari does.
I still enjoy this game, and will continue to sub for the forseeable future. (or until GW2, SWTOR come out)
I'm waiting for the same two games, and I'm thinking that with it going f2p, i may just give CO another try until then.
It depends actually oO.... If DCUO is decent I'm going to play, but if it doesn't have the customization of CO I'm going to enjoy my free CO account on the side lol.
I mean, seriously the char creator is hard to beat and getting it for free is like Christmas in July. I can make my Marvin the Martians, Teen Titans, Marvel and DC toons, my Goku's retarded brother Super Say'n Bob, and w/e I can think of.
I mean... this vid I made in CO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsoMy_vnC6U
Some things CO did were great, it just sucks that game play wasn't one of those things
I was going to pre-order DCUO, but decided against it. Time will tell if I ever get it, but I'm not pre-ordering it.
In my opinion, this was the ORIGINAL endgame for this game. F2P comes as ZERO (no, none, absolutely nada) surprise to ANYONE. We brought up the issues during Beta, no response. We brought it up at launch, no response. 6 months later, what has changed?
DDO launched horribly. It was ill-conceived and lacking. The difference between then and now, they added a TON more content.
LOTRO was a good game to begin with. Not sure about F2P. I played it, got bored, moved on. F2P not bringing it back.
EQ2 sucked at launch. It was fixed. Now it's a ghost town in non-F2P. I'm not going to play the F2P (if I wanna play, I'll pay the 15 bucks to not be told what I can and can't do).
F2P's ultimate endgame is the same as all these DLC games. Companies think they can make a quick buck so they purposely hold back their games so they can nickel and dime you later.
At the end of the day, it's Cryptic. Cryptic touches things and they turn to garbage (look at their history). Why is this the Story of the Week? It's still not a story and for a sub par game, they are scrambling to keep from shutting down completely. Seems like a .com... look at the newly dubbed my______ . LMAO. Just go away and let the innovative, creative, and content-filled big-boy MMO's play.
Why give Cryptic as this fame? They do not deserve this.
I tried this game and pretty much hated it.
I think when the chill of winter and the new year rolls around I'll give it a second chance. It can't hurt if they're willing to give a little. Because they were asking a lot, pay a sub and get content from a cash shop? That was insane, and I'll predict they'll find some way to turn people away from this model.
So true. And I think a very relavent post.
You know it got me wondering if their subscription troubles arnt, at least in part, caused by their whoring of items to the subscribing players. Who then feel cheated and nickled and dimed, who then in turn warn people away, which causes a decrease in paying subscribers, which then forces Crypic to go to a F2P item shop business plan.
Champions Online is, or was, on the verge of being an better-than-okay game. I think the fact that Cryptic business plan is to reduce development time and rush game to market as fast as they can really hurts the end product.
I think had Cryptic spent another year on CO, it would have been on par with Cox if not a good step above it, and been worth a $14.99 month to month subscription.
That and their item mall I think goes too far. Its one thing to add some vanity items. Its another to add so much that it feels like new content is being added thru the micro-transaction model. Which I think is one of the biggest complaints against Cryptics CO and STO games.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
I can see all Cryptic games going f2p because they all do not have enough content to keep subscribers busy. They should just avoid the subscription model as their games just do not meet the criteria players are looking for using that model.
Just more proof that F2P is for failed games and unscrupilous devs that see dollar signs where they should see happy customers.
Yes F2P is the best way to go because the most sucessful MMO has done this right? I mean if F2P was the right way to go then surely the most sucessful company would do this?
Wrong.
Blizzard continues to rule the roost and continues to require a monthly fee.
There is no way of getting round the fact that going F2P = something wrong with the game.
F2P should be reserved for MMOs that have passed their sell by date.
DnD and LoTROL are both past there sell by date and WOW is coming very close to it. After this expansion it is finished and that is why Blizzard are working on something new.
But what they are working on is NOT going to be F2P - mark my words!
So no F2P is not good in general but yes it is good to pump life into a failing MMO.
The truth is obvious and please do not tell me that Lord of the Rings was anywhere near being a great success - it was doing ok and is about as original in gameplay terms as the original EQ - so not very.
F2P = prop up something for a while longer and bask in the short term success. Longterm MMOs will use monthly subs.
Check the sig for more.
Hell, back in early beta I thought that this game should have been released as a F2P game due to it's very shallow gameplay. I wonder how much better the game would have been recieved from the start had they listened.
F2P doesn´t do much for a game , when there is a no strong community .
DDO why its so succesfull F2P is cause they have a strong community .
This is the big difference , MMO are carried or dumped by there community , aside from WoW (that still pisses tons of people off )
All MMO shares that fate , F2P means nothing if the community is nothing .
Take example CoX is still strong cause the community is strong .
So will F2P bring Champions Online a stronger community ?
I hardly doubt it , with cryptic way of doing things , sorry good community people are hard to find lately .
F2P wont change that system .
Actually, the char creator WAS the epitome of fun in this game. Only went downhill from there...
... Well, could be that this was due to the fact that it allowed me to create 'The Coon', make him have claw attacks and Cartmans hairstyle and me finding this absolutely super-best-mega-awesome...
... or the game was just crappy... Either way, I won't resu... well, won't login or whatever, even if its F2P. The Coon would need some less Crypticesque low-profile PvE to return.
M
Well cryptic is trying to pull off what turbine has done.
However when you already have tainted name, and a piece of you know what for a game, going free to play is not going to help your cause.
I could care less if it is going free to play, I still would not play it, and a lot of other folks will not either.
Oh and lets change the name from free to play to free to log in. As obviously you can log in but stuff cost extra there is no free in playing unless you buy stuff.
Quite personally I will not give cryptic any money so they can use that money to go build a new game, while leaving the current games they have unfinished, and lacking.
In simple terms:
Free to play is not in the best interest of the consumer. It is a model the better serves the company providing the product.
To explain:
Free to play is an attempt to draw more money from the consumers that are willing to spend more and some money from the consumers that weren't willing to pay a subscription.
The idea is that the company figures that people that were paying a subscription will keep doing so and they can get some money from the people that wouldn't have paid the subscription in the first place.
What it comes out to is that they end up making more money off implusive people and do not have to worry about any obligation of providing anything more to the consumer, because it's "Free".
There are exceptions out there, but if your a free to play person think about how much money you'd spent on that free to play game in the last year. Some of you will realize your paying as much as you would for a subscription, some will realize they're paying way more than a $15 a month average, and some will realize they're paying less than that $15 a month, but are still shelling out a pseudo-monthly fee. Very few will honestly say "I haven't spent anything at all."