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City of Heroes Moving To Hybrid Payment Model
KingSkippus writes "The superhero-themed MMORPG City of Heroes announced this morning that it is rebranding the game as City of Heroes Freedom ('freedom to pay and play as you choose'), and moving to a hybrid payment model including a free-to-play option. 'VIP' players who still pay a monthly subscription will have most features of the game unlocked and will be given credit towards purchase of others. City of Heroes Freedom is due to land later this year with the next major game update."
The trend toward free-to-play continues. Meanwhile, a recent update that brought microtransactions to EVE Online has (at least temporarily) resulted in digital clothing items becoming more expensive than real-world counterparts.
Knew it was coming. I still play this game, but only a few of the servers are populated. Many of them are near empty.
Glancing at the headline, I read it at "City of herpes", which I'm hoping doesn't say anything in particular about me.
Those pay-to-win games just allow the richest or most committed players to gain an advantage over others. You don't win based on skill but based on your wallet. Or in other words, your skills don't make you win, your wallet does.
This also takes away the purpose of playing since usually good items can only be bought with real money and can't be earned within the game by playing. In some games it's no big deal - mostly games where players don't play against each other - but in most pay-to-win games it is an issue.
I'm not really sure why people even play those games.
Why play when you know other people, who are willing to spend more money than you, will just spend cash to defeat you?
What is the enjoyment in defeating another player thanks to your money instead of your skills?
Where's the fun in doing quests or other achievements to earn items or other content when you know those in-game rewards don't compare to the items you can buy?
Pay-to-win schemes are killing video games.
For those that don't know, City of Heroes is the number 1 superhero MMO on the market. The game has been cruising along for seven years now right along side WoW and EVE and has had a strong, consistent player-base. I see this move as a means to expand the base a bit by giving folks a taste of being "super", without having to invest your social life like some other games. We have been getting free updates on a regular basis for years now under the old pay system and I see this more as a way to get even more.
All the excitement and action of manipulating a large spreadsheet.
At least the Crimson Permanent Assurance got to carry swords.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Sure you can get two characters to level cap, but there are over ten classes and you can't participate in the actual end game, and the majority of players discover that rolling new characters is a huge part of the draw. Unless a player is laser-focused on one aspect of the game, it's probably going to be cheaper and more convenient to keep a sub running.
After 7 years of play in the City of Heroes.. and Villains... its time to call it quits. Frack free to play.
Azurell of Champion server
Because I never use the microtransactions. I'm a cheap bastard, and the idea of a game I can just play when I want without paying for it highly appeals to me.
Obviously for other games this model doesn't work so well, but the MMO market seems to thrive on it (for example, Maple Story was estimated 3rd in profits in 2008 ).
Are they seeing a drop in subscriptions since CO went for a similar system?
comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
I don't think so.
Most of us on COH had tried CO anyway. Heck, everyone was awaiting a second superhero MMO like the second cumming of Christ. It just wasn't all that good.
I suspect that someone could move to a game they like less, for the sake of 15 dollars a month. But it can't be that huge a segment of the population IMHO.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Much as I love leaping to conclusions as much as anyone else, I'd say let's wait and see what they want to do there.
For a start, from what I hear so far, it's less like free to play and selling l33t items for cash, as just having an indefinite trial account if you don't want to pay. If you're on a free account, you can't join a supergroup (think: guild/clan/whatever), you have only 2 character slots you can play, you can't use any endgame stuff, can't use the AE, can't have epic archetype characters, can't have mastermind or controller characters, have restricted access to the auction house, etc. They still expect to make their money from subscriptions, not from selling items or anything, but basically are giving everyone else an extended trial account that never expires and lets them play some basic version of the game. If you want more than that, you need to buy a subscription.
Second, COH already had micro-transactions, except they were more like buying extra costume pieces and character slots. And by "costume pieces" i mean literally just a mesh and texture. You're not getting some armour of invulnerability +10, because the game doesn't work that way, you're getting simply a funky robe or wedding tux or spandex outfit or funky cape that does nothing else than look cool. It has no stats whatsoever, because nothing else does. All superhero powers are inherent in your character, not in your armour or weapon.
Just abut the most tangible thing you could buy for real money was a jetpack that lets one fly for a month without learning a travel power. But then the same can be bought in game for 10,000 influence (think about the same purchasing power as 10,000 copper pieces in WoW) at any level and as often as you like, or obtained via some quests, or even crafted, flies exactly as fast (and both are slower than getting the normal flight power) and typically lasts you longer. Just about the only real advantage to the bought one is that it looks better than the in-game one, but that's about it.
So even for PvP, frankly, you get no advantage out of those. If I'm to worry about someone defeating me with real money, I'd worry more about the guy who bought a few billion inf from Chinese gold farmers and bought the purple sets from the auction house. The guy who bought a jetpack or a flashy cape from NCSoft, heh, that one's no threat.
Third, there is almost no PvP in the game anyway, and certainly none you need to take part in. If you're worried that someone will use an unfair advantage against you in PvP, shoot, don't go into the arena or the (largely deserted) PvP areas.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
The thing I've always liked about a monthly/quarterly/yearly subscription model, is that at least the costs are known, and fixed, up front. I always figure "Free To Play" is an attempt to try to nickle-and-dime me for far more money than I'd pay in the subs model. With "micro-transactions", they can try to milk you for more money. Of course you don't *have* to pay it; hopefully most people have good impulse control, and additionally have some sense of whether they're being scammed.
I think Penny Arcade recently ran a pretty good strip exploring this issue:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/6/10/
I think the studio is doing a good job with this payment model of avoiding that. If you choose to maintain your subscription, you become a VIP and have access to most stuff without buying anything additional. You also get 400 Paragon Points (the currency used to purchase the extra stuff that's not baked in) every month, so if you maintain a subscription, you can just acquire the new stuff without spending anything extra. In my opinion, this is better even than how it is now, with periodic "booster packs" of costume items, emotes, and so on. Right now, you must pay an extra $10 to obtain those things in addition to your subscription fee. When CoH Freedom launches, you can get them a la carte with the Paragon Points you get alotted for being a VIP.
In short, one of the principles behind the "Freedom" branding is that you can choose how you want to pay and play, even if that choice is, "I like how it is now" (but with lots of new shinies you weren't getting before). I will concede that if you're a completionist, you will probably end up spending more to buy literally everything; however, there will be a LOT more to obtain. Although the absolute dollar figure will go up, you'll be getting disproportionately more for what you're spending, which will in theory be a better value. If you're not a completionist, though, you will likely actually end up saving money by being able to pick and choose what you value and acquiring it, instead of being forced to get everything in bundles.
I won't lie, the nickel-and-diming aspect of f2p is what concerns me most about this change, but like I said, I think they realize that and are working hard to think of ways to avoid that, to design a hybrid model that can avoid that if you choose. It really sounds like they are looking to make more money off of the microtransactions of new players who can't or don't want to shell out $15 every month, not trying to milk existing ones.
Broad sword and Katana powersets, or if hacking is more your style over slashing, Battle Axe or War Mace. Wait, what's that? You want a longsword? A scimitar? Or one of the 31 other types of swords? Or could we even interest you in two swords?
Don't forget your shield.
Puzzle Pirates uses a free to play and pay service. The puzzle MMO gives a few puzzles that non-subscribers can play, and allows others to be played on certain days of the week. In order to do a pirate mission you need x number of players doing some kinds of puzzles, the free paying ones will have something to do with other players.
There are 3 kinds of servers, the first is a subscription server where if you choose to pay the monthly payment you get access to everything. The other you can buy special currency that is used to buy a license to play certain games for a period of time (the license decays slower when you aren't playing). These licenses and money can be traded or given to other players. This gives the players a choice between selecting a server where all the paying players are on a level playing field, and one that lets you pick and choose what you want. The final server is a hybrid were each paying player gets a monthly allowance of money to spend (the amount paid is fixed). This server is designed for kids and has a strict language/conduct policy.
Disclaimer: Never played this game.
That one thing is NCSoft. NCSoft has a penchant of taking a good idea and turning it into a train wreck. Remember Tablua Rasa? Also, they have not created a F2P model that works well. Exteel and Dungeon Runner anybody?
I really hope that they get their act together with this F2P of CoH because it is a good game. However, I don't think they will have much luck if they pretty much force gamers to pay for the normal operations of the game. I would rather they avoid the F2P model altogether if that is the way they want to play.