Hellgate London Beta Signups Begin

Via Eurogamer comes the news that Beta signups for Hellgate: London have begun. Folks looking forward to the unique blend of FPS/RPG/MMOG can sign up at the official site. From Eurogamer's blurb: "If you're one of the lucky ones pulled out of the gruesome sorting hat, you'll have a chance to get to grips with the ambitious multiplayer part of the game. You might remember that there are two tiers for this; one is a limited and free version, the other asks for a monthly subscription of [about $14] in return for bundles of exciting bits and pieces - player housing, extensive guild options, enormous raid encounters, loads of items to collect, and more. It forms an integral part of the package developer Flagship Studios will be offering when the full game launches on 2nd November."

Comments

Re:mac

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a game, not a graphics suite.

Smart move

[Eudial]

Smooth move posting the beta signup link on slashdot. Now, the hordes upon hordes upon hordes upon hordes of slashdot users that will sign up for the beta will ensure that the likelihood of actually getting accepted are rapidly approaching zero ;-)

Re:$14 beta tier?

[mconeone]

A majority of people who sign up for betas just want to try the game out before buying it.

Re:"Optional" subscription

[fireduck]

personally I think its gonna end up being a situation like "Sure you can play without subscribing - but you'll never get any of the good items you'll need to kick ass or even beat the game."

Based on the last Hellgate story we had (the interview with Roper), this doesn't sound to be the case. The free online play is the exact same game you get if you play single player. The only difference between free and pay, is that the monthly subscribers get a "bonus", which at launch is a slightly larger stash, an extra character slot, and what sounds like the ability to acquire vanity items (slightly better or differently colored items).

Also based on that interview, it sounds like some of the things the submitter suggested were pay-only aren't. To quote Roper: "It's for free having that same experience online with your friends. And then we also give you access to a bunch of stuff. Like community things like being able to join guilds, trading items, auction houses; all those kinds of things that we never even had with Diablo 2." Stuff above and beyond that is for the monthly subscribers.

Re:"Optional" subscription

[The Living Fractal]

Personally, I wish there was an even higher tier, Tier 3, for which you had to pay $30 per month. And I would only want it to have one extra thing: You whiners who can't pony up $15/month can't play on my server.

This would filter out the 8-12 year old group pretty effectively.

It would also filter out the 12-17 year old group very well. You know the type. The ones who think they know everything. The ones who love to grief other players. The ones who act immature. From Diablo they were known as "B.net Kiddiez" and I never, ever, want to talk to one of them again. "LEIK DO U NO WAT I MEAN?" Argh.

Re:$14 beta tier?

[Avatar8]

I for one am very grateful for betas.

They sate my curiosity about a game and typically prevent me from wasting money on it.

Re:mac

[The Living Fractal]

Wrong.

I guess you've never heard of Guild Wars, which is a game created by some people who left Blizzard. It has sold more than 2 million copies...

Face it bud, the Mac gaming market is an afterthought for most developers. This is for a reason, not because they hate you, but because it's just not worth their time to port the game over.

I'd be really interested to see you backup your numbers to show that Mac WoW has been a 'huge contributor' to the success of WoW. Especially so, because I play WoW, and NOBODY I KNOW PLAYS ON A MAC.