Champions Online Goes Free (To Play)

vansau

Mortician of Love
May 25, 2010
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Champions Online Goes Free (To Play)


If you're looking for a superhero MMO but don't want to pay for DC Universe Online, then you should know Champions Online is free-to-play.

If you've been curious about Champions Online since it was released back in 2009, but never got around to playing it, then now is the time to check it out. As of today, the game is officially free-to-play, with optional subscriptions (and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.258589-Cryptic-Puts-Lifetime-Subscriptions-For-Its-MMOs-On-Sale>discounted lifetime subscriptions, too).

As you can see in the new launch trailer, Millenium City is under siege from just about every threat imaginable (including demons and giant robots). Since the other Champions are fighting threats across the globe, Defender puts out a call for aid to anyone who can hear him.

If you're tempted to help Defender out with his battle (or if you have an old account that you're tempted to reactivate), then head over to <a href=http://www.champions-online.com/splash?redir=frontpage>the game's official site and start fighting the good fight.

Source: Massively

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archabaddon

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Jan 8, 2007
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Vansau didn't even mention City of Heroes. Yes, it's still out there, and people still have to subscribe to play it :p

That being said, both DCUO and CoH could see some bleed-off, depending on the reception of the FTP version of CO.
 

omicron1

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Mar 26, 2008
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Be aware, I have it on good authority that all the things removed in the transition from paid to free accounts are roadblocks in the path of returning users. If you have eight characters, you need to delete six before you can use the character builder (possibly even before playing, I don't know); if you have an unsanctioned skill set, you'll need to convert it to one of the free ones before you can play the character.

So, basically, the opposite of what LOTRO did.
 

voetballeeuw

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May 3, 2010
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Seems interesting, but can anyone tell me if it's going to be like LOTRO? Do I have to pay for quest packs to continue playing? Or, is it legitimately F2P?
 

MirrorSweep

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Apr 17, 2009
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Downloading it now, we'll see how things turn out o_O
MMO trailers are 99% of the time more enticing than the actual game. =/
 

Antari

Music Slave
Nov 4, 2009
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Well atleast they've brought the price into a range of what the game is worth. Nothing.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
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voetballeeuw said:
Seems interesting, but can anyone tell me if it's going to be like LOTRO? Do I have to pay for quest packs to continue playing? Or, is it legitimately F2P?
They have quest packs (2 of them right now) which are level-scaling side-story areas that have to be purchused seperatly for non subscribers/lifetime subscription holders. This will not stop your progression through the game though as they are recent additions, if you get to the point where you run out of stuff to do, you'll probably know if you want to spend anything on the game.

Generally speaking they plan to make money off of the character gimping, by encouraging people to subscribe. Simply put the Archetypes are VERY limited and have less powers availible even at their top level than the characters created by subscribers. One of the big strengths of CO is the huge amount of latitude you have in making a character and deciding what kind of powers they are going to have. F2P players don't have any of those benefits.
 

voetballeeuw

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May 3, 2010
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Therumancer said:
voetballeeuw said:
Seems interesting, but can anyone tell me if it's going to be like LOTRO? Do I have to pay for quest packs to continue playing? Or, is it legitimately F2P?
They have quest packs (2 of them right now) which are level-scaling side-story areas that have to be purchused seperatly for non subscribers/lifetime subscription holders. This will not stop your progression through the game though as they are recent additions, if you get to the point where you run out of stuff to do, you'll probably know if you want to spend anything on the game.

Generally speaking they plan to make money off of the character gimping, by encouraging people to subscribe. Simply put the Archetypes are VERY limited and have less powers availible even at their top level than the characters created by subscribers. One of the big strengths of CO is the huge amount of latitude you have in making a character and deciding what kind of powers they are going to have. F2P players don't have any of those benefits.
Ah, alright. Thanks for answering. I'll definitely check this game out then.
 

insectoid

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Aug 19, 2008
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Definitely giving this a try now I know it's not a half version of free-to-play like LotRO is.
 

Kinguendo

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Apr 10, 2009
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FINALLY! I was looking at the official CO page yesterday and wondering when it would come out... Luckily for me I have already played it before and know (basically) whats going on AND the 2 characters I actually liked that I created before both pretty much stick to their own archtypes anyway.
 

Kuala BangoDango

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Mar 19, 2009
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voetballeeuw said:
Seems interesting, but can anyone tell me if it's going to be like LOTRO? Do I have to pay for quest packs to continue playing? Or, is it legitimately F2P?
I know your question was answered above but I wanted to give my thoughts on the matter.

**Note: When I say "free-player" below what I mean is "non-subscriber" since a free-player CAN buy things in the game store, thus paying, yet still be playing for free (no forced fee)**

Having played LotRO and now looking at what free-players get in CO I'd have to say that, in my opinion, LotRO is MORE free than CO.

The reason why I say this is that, while CO lets the free-player have access to most of the quests right away (keep in mind CO actually does have some quest packs that can only be bought with real money), while LotRO has the quest packs that must be unlocked (can be unlocked with free points), Champions Online seems to have followed the Everquest 2 model in that you are either a restricted free-player or subscriber. There is no middle ground.

In other words, unless I misunderstand CO's system, a free-player will always have restrictions on their characters/powers/gameplay that subscribers won't have, no matter how much the free-player spends in the store. This is evidenced by the fact that any returning CO players who used to subscribe must convert all their custom-designed characters into the free-play generic archtypes before they can play again, thus losing what they had previously.

LotRO on the other hand starts off with more character/content restrictions at the beginning but the free-player can unlock those restrictions in the store meaning they can eventually end up with the exact same character options and quest access as the subscribers. Not only that but previous subscribers don't need to convert their old characters...they get to keep them like they were during their subscription.

And finally, since the store points in LotRO can be earned for free just by playing, the truly free player can eventually have more as a free-player than the free-player in CO. Heck, there are even some posts in the LotRO forums by some free-players who have already, without spending a dime, unlocked all their character restrictions and nearly all the quest packs.

In other words...
In CO you are either restricted (free) or unrestricted (subscriber)
In LotRO you are either restricted (starting free), semi-restricted to almost totally unrestricted (unlocking stuff as you go via buying or earning points), or unrestricted (subscriber).

Thus I would say that LotRO is more "legitimately f2p".
 

Baralak

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Dec 9, 2009
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How are everyone else's download speeds? I'm getting anything from "pretty decent" to "Dial up is better than this."

Still, I'm really looking forward to trying this game out! It's a shame about the lack of total character freedom, but I'm more than willing to deal if the gameplay's fun enough. Besides, maybe they'll add in a "cross-archetype" system, where you can pick from 1 or 2 other archetpyes later on, but only 1 or 2.
 

RatRace123

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Dec 1, 2009
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Despite the personal grudge I have against the game due to the fact that it never came out on consoles, it was supposed to be revolutionary in that respect, the first good MMO on a console!

I'll still try it since it's F2P, I've got a bit of a boner for super hero games, plus I want to try out all the powers and move sets.
 

rembrandtqeinstein

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Sep 4, 2009
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IMO Dungeons and Dragons online has the best F2P model, even when they had leveling sigils.

You start with all but two class, and 4 races out 8. It is trivial to unlock drow (which arent that good anyway). Plenty of quests to get multiple toons to level 14-16(or higher) which is months of play entirely for free.

You can buy everything in the store, you can unlock many things through play, you can earn a trivial amount of store points by grinding.

If anyone wants to know the best way to get started playing DDO message me and I'll give you the plan I wish I had when I first started.