I was thinking along the same lines (not spending $$ every month).
I'm rather ashamed to admit that I've been on the Champions beta for almost a year, but only played it a little at the start when it was pretty bare-bones. I intend to correct that with their next planned "play day."
I'm not certain about these new Superhero MMOs, but I believe both Champions and DCU are using more arcade-type elements for combat rather than the usual click enemy, click power, click power, click power routine. I think they have "defensive moves," or you can actually dodge and so on.
I've been busy beta testing CO and I must say, the offer of a lifetime subscription is tempting, if for no other reason than I expect to get 14-15 months play out of the game.
Personally, I think this deal is being offered now, because they have a need for some up front cash. Either they've not got enough hardware setup, or they need some more staff. Whilst I can't reveal anything atm about the beta, I can speculate either one of those is the case based on my experiences to date. It's not that it's a bad game per se, it's just... an MMORPG in it's early stages.
That's what I liked about being on the CoH beta through to present; it's amazing to see how it evolved (especially how "Pocket D" grew from a bunch of players gathering, using the boombox emote to make music, and the rest of the nearby heroes toggling powers with visual effects to produce an impromptu rave).
Right now, Cryptic is in burn mode. They're spending cash making games, but they don't have any subscription money coming in; as far as I know, their only income is from licensing the City engine, which can't possibly cover enough staff and equipment to design and launch two MMOs. That means that they're a big blot of red ink from Atari's perspective. They need a quick infusion of cash to reassure the suits, and if they can get a bunch of relatively large lump sum subscriptions at launch, it will make them look better.
The tradeoff, of course, is that if the game is successful, those subscriptions will make them less money in the long run. I suspect they're planning to make up the difference in microtransactions. Emmert has done some significant backpedaling from his previous dislike of them since Cryptic got bought out, I believe.
Hmm. Also on the "Allready been done" front for the lifetime offer, Hellgate London offered the same deal ... and proceeded to tank just over a year out of the gate in MOST markets due to legal issues internally, thus leaving all of the players outside of a small area of the world (South Korea, naturally) unable to play on-line or get any of the new stuff that the guys who took over development have been cooking up.
As a result, I am ... wary of "Lifetime Offer!" deals, as there's no promises of an MMO having a long and prosperous life. Tabula Rasa, anyone? Or how about Auto Assault? The list goes on for dead MMO's, and we've got at least one example of a game that tried the "LIFETIME!" offer and wound up buried.
As for the topic of CO itself ... I'm personally glad it's being created, as it's causing the Devs of CoH to actually start implementing things to get competitive.
I'm presuming that if C:O did go under, they'd transfer the membership (or at least a portion of its "value") to "Star Trek: The MMO" or something else they have available.
And MMO longevity is a weird thing. Isn't the original Everquest still available for play?
Yep. Some of them never die ; Asheron's Call 1 managed to outlive 2 by a long shot (it's still going), and I'm fairly sure that Ultima Online is still going as well.
I don't think that CO will have a 'translation' audience to STO : There's some overlap, but if it fails, most of the value will transfer back to CoH, especially since I16 / Going Rogue are basically eliminating most of the edge CO had. STO will draw it's own audience if it can prove that it's not going to be the next Star Wars Galaxies. (I'm hoping it will be decent, personally.)
I had this crazy idea a couple of days back about the movie. Even I know it's crazy and too much to hope for. However, this movie is said to be an origin movie for the Joes and the suits seem to be used mostly in a couple of similar scenes in the trailer. What if the suits are just a ploy to get people to say "Whoa, look at that." and come to the movie but during the movie, the suits either break or get destroyed by that metal-eating stuff. The Joes must then only rely on their specialties and find that it's much more useful than some super suit.
That whole "specialist" thing was what I was hoping for, if they intended on using the suits. So Scarlett might have a built-in crossbow thing on one wrist and a "stealth mode" while Ripcord would have jump-jets or something.
At the moment, the Joes seem to be "solder" or "ninja," but we'll have to wait and see.
I did just have a horrid thought. We're probably going to get a nudity/underwear gag out of someone's suit being eaten by nanites.
Re: Destro's Helmetps238principalAugust 6 2009, 11:57:00 UTC
I'd heard that as well. I was wondering how much Eccleston wanted that vs. the desire to give us a metal-faced Destro, since a lot of actors don't like their facial features covered up by hardware.
I'll also be curious to see if the mask is "hard" or if it's like a second skin.
Comments 31
(The comment has been removed)
(The comment has been removed)
I'm rather ashamed to admit that I've been on the Champions beta for almost a year, but only played it a little at the start when it was pretty bare-bones. I intend to correct that with their next planned "play day."
I'm not certain about these new Superhero MMOs, but I believe both Champions and DCU are using more arcade-type elements for combat rather than the usual click enemy, click power, click power, click power routine. I think they have "defensive moves," or you can actually dodge and so on.
Reply
Personally, I think this deal is being offered now, because they have a need for some up front cash. Either they've not got enough hardware setup, or they need some more staff. Whilst I can't reveal anything atm about the beta, I can speculate either one of those is the case based on my experiences to date. It's not that it's a bad game per se, it's just... an MMORPG in it's early stages.
Reply
Reply
The tradeoff, of course, is that if the game is successful, those subscriptions will make them less money in the long run. I suspect they're planning to make up the difference in microtransactions. Emmert has done some significant backpedaling from his previous dislike of them since Cryptic got bought out, I believe.
Reply
As a result, I am ... wary of "Lifetime Offer!" deals, as there's no promises of an MMO having a long and prosperous life. Tabula Rasa, anyone? Or how about Auto Assault? The list goes on for dead MMO's, and we've got at least one example of a game that tried the "LIFETIME!" offer and wound up buried.
As for the topic of CO itself ... I'm personally glad it's being created, as it's causing the Devs of CoH to actually start implementing things to get competitive.
Reply
And MMO longevity is a weird thing. Isn't the original Everquest still available for play?
Reply
I don't think that CO will have a 'translation' audience to STO : There's some overlap, but if it fails, most of the value will transfer back to CoH, especially since I16 / Going Rogue are basically eliminating most of the edge CO had. STO will draw it's own audience if it can prove that it's not going to be the next Star Wars Galaxies. (I'm hoping it will be decent, personally.)
See you this weekend at GenCon.
Reply
Like I said, crazy but just maybe...
Reply
At the moment, the Joes seem to be "solder" or "ninja," but we'll have to wait and see.
I did just have a horrid thought. We're probably going to get a nudity/underwear gag out of someone's suit being eaten by nanites.
Reply
Apparently Destro doesn't actually get his helmet until the last scene of the movie.
Reply
I'll also be curious to see if the mask is "hard" or if it's like a second skin.
Reply
Leave a comment