Play DC Universe Online For Free Starting in October

[Marshall Honorof]

Play DC Universe Online For Free Starting in October

Run, leap, and fly through the DC Universe at no charge.

Making an MMO that can compete with World of Warcraft is tough, but Sony Online Entertainment is giving it its best shot. DC Universe Online [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8612-Review-DC-Universe-Online] which launched to stellar sales in January, will be losing its monthly fee next month. Instead, the game will switch to a "freemium" model, where players can pay a variety of fees - or nothing at all - depending on what services and content they want.

While players will have access to the game's basic content - character creation, quests, inventory, etc. - for free, more invested players might find it wise to invest a little money. $5 will give a player "Premium" status, which allows them more character slots, more inventory space, and more room for new characters. "Legendary" status costs $15 a month, and gives players the maximum amount of character and inventory slots, plus access to all of the game's DLC. Free and Premium players will also be able to purchase à la carte DLC, while SOE will automatically transition current subscribers to "Legendary" accounts.

SOE insists that this change is not due to a lack of subscribers. "This is the right business model," said Lorin Jameson, an executive producer for SOE. "If I can be honest, the game ended up costing a lot more than we thought it would, and this was our preferred business model from day one." With the right kind of player base, a free-to-play model can be more profitable than a game with a monthly fee, as in the case of games like Lord of the Rings Online.

For players who liked DCUO's concept but didn't want to take the monetary plunge, next month seems like the perfect time to give it a try.

Source: Gamespot [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6335392/dc-universe-online-goes-free-to-play-in-october?tag=topstory%3Btitle]


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[Vanguard_Ex]

In the words of my flatmate: 'I'm not surprised because no one's on it. Like, at all'

 

[Vault Citizen]

This makes me feel good about not getting it yet.

 

[Raika]

I actually liked DC Universe Online quite a bit when I played it, and this is a good opportunity to get further into it, I suppose. Good on 'em. I just hope my old character's name isn't taken with the server merge. Is there a database of characters available?

 

[4173]

A bit sooner than I expected, but welcome news, I've been wanting to try it out.

 

[Sixcess]

SOE insists that this change is not due to a lack of subscribers.

Best laugh I've had all day.

I played City of Heroes for 2 years, but DCUO never appealed to me at all. From the very start just about every piece of coverage the game got was the developers masturbating over the 'iconic characters' of DC, with barely an afterthought given to the actual player characters.

Meanwhile City of Heroes, the first superhero MMO and a game older than WoW, is only now making the transition to a F2P model after more than 7 years.

Incidentally, I seem to recall claims that DCUO would reflect the actual comic book world. What are the odds that they'll redo half the game to bring it into line with the reboot continuity? No chance? Thought so.

 

[The Great JT]

Well this will be interesting, I think.

My only question, however, is this; can I make a good guy member of the Sinestro Corps? Just becaue the Sinestro Corps is evil and their rings channel fear doesn't mean I can't use fear to combat bad guys. I mean, Batman does it.

 

[Aprilgold]

In the words of my flatmate: 'I'm not surprised because no one's on it. Like, at all'

I saw this coming too, because NO GAME, NO MATTER HOW GREAT, CAN COMPETE WITH WOW! EVEN WOW CAN'T COMPETE WITH ITSELF NOW!

Well, I can't wait to play alongside the Joker, why? BECAUSE HES THE FUCKING JOKER, also, captcha wants me dead.

I hope it knows I love it too.

This one just LOOKS cool.

YAAY FOR AWESOME TEXT!

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

In the words of my flatmate: 'I'm not surprised because no one's on it. Like, at all'

I saw this coming too, because NO GAME, NO MATTER HOW GREAT, CAN COMPETE WITH WOW! EVEN WOW CAN'T COMPETE WITH ITSELF NOW!

Well, I can't wait to play alongside the Joker, why? BECAUSE HES THE FUCKING JOKER, also, captcha wants me dead.

I hope it knows I love it too.

This one just LOOKS cool.

And just WHAT are you on, sir?
YAAY FOR AWESOME TEXT!

 

[Raddra]

DCUO killed itself to me for a few reasons:

1, the targetting. The targetting system in DCUO was terrible for those of us playing on a console. Your character would continually target junk like barrels across the room while you were getting beat down in melee range from a bunch of thugs.

2, The power trees sucked. Their design was terrible. Half the powers weren't worth using. The biggest offender was the shapeshifting tree. I tried to make a beastboy. Instead my character ended up with a pterodactyl (great, beastboyish, powerful) a gorilla (would be fine, only they ignored the fully animated nice looking gorilla model in the game and make the player turn into a hideous badly animated yeti) that had a -timer- on it (what do i get bored of being more powerful?) a werewolf (not beastboyish, and also terribly weak), a bugman that could only be used in healer mode (whu? I don't remember Gar becoming a bugman) a dog form (could have been cool, instead they made you become some dumb looking dog? why not use a wolf model? something cool?)

Where was my T-Rex Capstone hybrid tank/dps? Where was my actual wolf dps? Where was my Bull to charge bad guys and knock them down? Where was the Lion DPS form? The Rhino Tank Form? The Ranged form? the Crowd Control form? Who designed this mess? None of these things are really useful or thematic except the pterodactyl. I heard the bugman was ok as a team healer.. but it could have been something thematic.

So.. my shapeshifter hardly ever shapeshifted.. ran around punching things in human form. Stupid design.

3, Player character power was terrible. What power level do you think of when you think DC comics? High powered heroes? dang yes. You expect to come in being Superman or Batman. Whats this DCUO? You don't want your playerbase feeling super?

That's the feel I got. Your Kryptonian is going to face plant. a lot. To common thugs. Thrown knives. Punches. Fat thugs. Whose attack is that they run into you and bounce you with their belly. This was one of the deadliest attacks I encountered.

I'm, not making that up.

4, Costume creator: compared to the competition, its terrible. And they withhold most options at character creation which are only unlocked during play on a per character basis.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Well this will be interesting, I think.

My only question, however, is this; can I make a good guy member of the Sinestro Corps? Just becaue the Sinestro Corps is evil and their rings channel fear doesn't mean I can't use fear to combat bad guys. I mean, Batman does it.

There is a lantern war quest line I think once you hit level 20. Villains pair up with the Sinestro corps and heroes team up with the Green Lanterns. Though I think they've introduced the hard light move set into the game so there's no reason you couldn't pick that and just change the power colors to yellow and pretend you're a yellow lantern.

OT: I enjoyed DCUO when I played the beta, it was a bit rough around the edges on the last build before launch but I think enough time has past to warrant me giving them another look.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

I'm so surprised.



That I can't come up with anything witty to say.

When a friend told me that DC Universe would be pay-to-play, the first thing I said replied with was, "not for long". He said that too, but he actually played it before he said it.

But now that City of Heroes has gone free to play, it is a scientifically decided fact that no superhero based MMORPG to come out in the next five years will be pay-to-play...if indeed there are any more superhero based MMORPGs even made during that time.

 

[luvd1]

Yay. I might get back into this game now.... Oh wait. I forgot it's a dull grind for no real reason. What's the point of putting all the hours into building character only to have the exactly same grind. Dress the raids/alerts in what ever colours you like doesn't stop it from being "hit things till they stop coming. Move to next room and repeat".
I like DC. But stuff you Sony.

 

[DarksideFlame]

I have a faint hope that Bioware will do this to with SW: TOR because I loved KOTOR 1 so very much and TOR is very appealing to me. Plus, it's the closest thing I'll probably ever come to a KOTOR 3 but then I remember it's an MMO I have to pay more than once to play it

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

If I say that I "might" go back for free, but I'd hold out for CoH; does that tell you my feelings on it?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Fat thugs. Whose attack is that they run into you and bounce you with their belly. This was one of the deadliest attacks I encountered.

I'm, not making that up.

He's not. That could one-shot a hurt character, and would be impossible to avoid in certain set circumstances.

Honestly, the sheer level of point missing astonished me. It really looks so good to start with and then fails faster than Duke Nukem.

Even if you love Bats, try CoH.
Only if you love Bats, try DCUO. And Bats/Joker are the best mentors by a long way.

 

[Catalyst6]

Apparently MMOs are going for the "paid beta" approach, except that instead of paying an extra ten bucks for a "special edition" you're paying sixty plus 15 x number of months.

Let this be a lesson to you all. Supporting games you care about just ends up with you getting screwed in the end.

A terrible, terrible lesson.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

My only question, however, is this; can I make a good guy member of the Sinestro Corps? Just becaue the Sinestro Corps is evil and their rings channel fear doesn't mean I can't use fear to combat bad guys. I mean, Batman does it.

Nope. The "Light" power was never invented I don't think. You can get the "Light Shield" and they were talking about putting the Light powers in, but it just got sidelined into grindtastic events where you'd have to complete six hour long puzzles to get a hat. Not even TF2 does that.

 

[Fursnake]

I can't bring myself to go back and tryit even if it is going to be f2p. It just felt cheaply designed and put together.