amigoid

Anyone else considering this program? I am, but miracle of miracles,
my sons have my wife playing CoH now. Her first character was a
Empathy/Rad defender called ChiroGyro (FREEDOM) which described her as
a Chiropractor/Superheroine, whose family were Tech heroes who built
her some gadgets to let her join in.
This time around she is Dr. Skully, a silver/platinum blond in a
Silver/Blue combat armor suit and she is a Psi/EnergyControl Blaster.
(She wanted something with more offensive firepower, and didn't want
to be a scrapper.) Already at Level 4 and I'm jazzed.

coinspin

From what I've seen, it's a bit more twitchy than CoH/V, but the
destructible environment situation benefits from that - plan your attack
right and you can blow things into a crowd doing big damage, etc. Looks
to be a bit more FPSy, and certainly more button-mash centered (chains
of attacks have been given preference over individual skill
triggering). But, what can you expect with a game that had to be
designed to work on a console too?

Speaking of which, does anyone know if they ever got the nod from
MicroSoft? Last I heard, MS was being bitchy about licensing, and the
console port is sort of in a gray area. I know you could pre-order it
for the Xbox on a few sites, but it's interesting that most places
selling it had the box art for the PC version, but not the console version.

--
~ CoinSpin

amigoid

Is it going to be a DirectX 10 game, rather than a dx9 like CoH? If
thats the case, I may have to just bag it until my next wave of PC
upgrades. Most of the computers at my house are great for CoH as long
as I keep the details and resolutions reasonably set, and Valve games
like TF2 play fine. But nothing of the current wave of games.

kerheb

one thing i did see that was pretty cool was that they have a
"lifetime" subscription option so you pay just the one LARGE fee
($199) and you are done. Of course it's a gamble as well, what if you
tire of it or what if the game just doesn't last that long. I think
Hellsgate had a lifetime plan as well and they are no more.

If CoX ever went that way....I'd consider it, considering how much $
I'm in for the game by now.

steve kaye

The lifetime subscription is a limited time offer. Assuming that they
don't extend it, it won't be available after launch (it expires on 31st
August).

steve.kaye
--
Jengu - 80 Undead Death Knight Clokk - 73 Tauren Druid
Jelan - 80 Troll Priest Miho - 72 Blood Elf Rogue
Kibbs - 80 Blood Elf Paladin Jaille - 70 Blood Elf Warlock

shenanigunner

See: "pig in a poke."

No thanks.

amigoid

Well, this is an interesting concept.
Do they get all their money up front, and then what? New players pay
for new content?
Arguably, the monthly subscription is what bankrolls all the issues we
have had (read: upgrades) to the game. Issue 16? wow. thats a lot of
upgrades.
Now, admittedly some of the issues have been small potatoes, but
compare CoH start with CoX now.
With Lifetime membership the motivation to keep things fresh fades a
bit, so they had to shut it off.
Now, since they are shutting it off at the 31st, its more of a dice
roll to try and pull CoH players over, and keep them on Champs.
(Why keep paying for CoH when you have prepaid for Champions?) And
then if you are a lifetime member you may be more motivated to get
your friends to play.
I'd like to play both for a while before making the move.
But I have been on for, what, 5 years, at 12/mo per account for 2
accounts? Thats $1440.00 A buttload to pay for a game.
So I take a chance and make a $199 bet that the game will last more
than a year. Every year after that I'm money ahead...
And then Champs has a lock in on a veteran set of players, while they
make more money off the new signers.

Am I missing anything?

steve kaye

Personally, I think that they've priced it just right. Expensive enough
to not make it a sure thing but cheap enough to make it a good
consideration.

I was seriously considering it before I played the game (assuming that
the game was as great as it looked). As it is now, I'm not likely to
buy it unless my two long time MMO buddies at least take the 6 month
offer. It seems to be a great game but it would have to be better than
it is for me to consider going for a lifetime sub if they don't like it.

The shortness of the trial period (they call it "Open Beta" but I call
it "try before you buy") is a huge factor for me. Age of Conan seemed to
be a fantastic game for the first couple of weeks. After that you get
bored of taking alts through the tutorial and play the real game where
it got dull. It probably did seem good enough to pay $199 for a
lifetime sub and I'd have been burned there wouldn't I? :P
steve.kaye --
<snip WoW sig :P>

coinspin

Didn't Lord of the Rings Online do something like this as well? See,
they make it a pretty good bargain, then make it a limited time thing,
so you have to make a snap decision on whether to get it or not.
Impulse buying psychology, it's a huge part of marketing, but largely
secretive - they don't want us consumers to know that we are often being
manipulated into purchases we might not make otherwise. Love the fact
that the actual lifetime subs are only available BEFORE the game goes
fully live, so they can possibly sucker people in even if the game
blows, before the word of mouth can get out about any dismal or negative
experiences with the game world.

Then, once they have the "lifers" in there, they count on those people
wanting to get their money's worth, so they may play more than they
normally would, even if the gameplay smells a bit rank and/or
sterile... And those lifers will probably bring others in, or even run
second accounts, which brings more revenue. The up-front lifetime fee
will help defray some of the initial development investments, but the
sub fees will still be what keeps the wheels greased and the content
flowing... New players won't come to a game that is reported to be bad
or boring.

In the long run, though, if you think you are interested in Champions,
it's not a bad investment... If they are gonna charge $15 a month, in a
year of play you would have sunk $180 into sub fees anyhow. I'm fairly
certain Champions will last at least a year, not many big MMOs with a
huge marketing push and lots of hype fail in less than that. Probably
pretty safe putting the money there, if you plan on playing. If it goes
years (as CoH/V has) then your investment pays off in bigger dividends,
and you can play (or take breaks) at will, without feeling like you
wasted the money... As long as the content and play don't suck ass.

--
~ CoinSpin

amigoid

Well, I noticed that they offer an extra month free with a 6 month
purchase.
My brother bought my son a new account (one month) and tacked on a 6
month purchase, so it was 1+6+1= 8 months total.
I bought myself a 6 month block this time, and got the free month, and
next payday I'll do the same for the other account.
3 accounts. Guess I'm sticking around for Issue 20.