City of Heroes now F2P

[Ludicrouse]

As Above. You should be able to download the client and create and account.

Lots of games seem to be going F2P. Could SWTOR be the last big subscription based MMORPG?

[Hovis]

I think the subscription model could be on the way out certainly. The thing with the subscription model is you are limited on how much money you can get out of people, with the micro transactions if you've got even a comparatively small minority of completely hopeless addicts, they'll kick in a huge amount of cash. When get ten bucks each from a hundred people, when you can have a thousand playing the game and get a little bit from some and a fatload from a few?

[Lyoth]

I saw a very insightful commentary on the validity of free to play/micro transactions recently (extra creditz, on PATV, over at penny arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/))
The point being, even the people that pay *nothing* to play will increase your revenue in the long run.
More players means a bigger community, which leads to a better playing experience, which in turn leads to more and active players.
Essentially, the losses accrued by allowing people to play for free serve as a stimulus. Pretty clever, and it makes a lot of sense, from an economic standpoint.
I don't believe subscription games are going to disappear, as Blizzard has proven it can be a *very* successful model, but certainly in MMO terms, subscription based games are taking a bigger risk, as WoW dominates the market.

[Rebel]

dont think you can create an account for free if you have never played it before / had an existing account... unless im being a complete mong for a change?

[Tapja]

I dont think the free play works atm. My account says its Free and Playable, however, can't log in.

[Ludicrouse]

It is currently the VIP Headstart which is for the benefit of Subscribers who have been around for a while. It is also there to nuke some of the bugs left over from the Beta.

No date for the "opening up" of the F2P but it is rumoured to be Tuesday/Wednesday as that would mark a week of the VIP Headstart.

For those that play eventually there are Renegade Legion Supergroups on Defiant (Villain & Hero) and Union (Hero).


dont think you can create an account for free if you have never played it before / had an existing account... unless im being a complete mong for a change?

As far as i am aware, you are a complete mong.

[Ludicrouse]

Later tonite it should be "Open" to F2P players. Trouble is a 12 hour Downtime to get the Servers up to scratch for the hordes.


To those that get in, i have words of advice. Got an ATi Graphics Card? You may have to roll back to 11.3 as there is crashing issues with later drivers and CoH: Freedom.

I am currently playing on Defiant as "Obsidian Sentry", RL Supergroup is on the Hero side. If you have played before and are making a new character then do not skip the new Tutorial, it is quite different and an easy way to make a level.

[Hovis]

Thing is though, I mean, isn't this game by design the shitty caveman brother of Champions Online? I thought CO came out as the sequel to CoH/CoV and their intent was to kind of eat the playerbase of the older games into the new one.

Is Champions Online that dead that they aren't even looking to F2P it? Cos I remember it being really pish, along with Star Trek Online. Dear God. Whoever made that engine must have been on all the drugs.

[Ludicrouse]

Champions Online has been F2P for about a year. STO will be F2P before the year is out.

Cryptic sold CoH to NCSoft before they started work on STO. Champions Online was originally designed to be the, canned, Marvel Comics Online MMO.