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"City Of Heroes Freedom." A Bad Thing!!
Kalay
Member Posts: 154
--I have just discovered with the new NCSoft brainchild of "City Of Heroes Freedom" that people who have what they call "Premium" accounts, that is accounts that have been paid for over the years but under their new "Freedom" system will only be allowed to have 2 characters that you pick when the new "Freedom" goes through per server.
--If you want to access any more than that you will have to pay as you did before. And you can only have 12 characters per account. (The most I have ever had on one server is 12. I have 3 servers filled up with 12 each). There may be more available for those with the "Premium" account if you have had some unlocking veteran rewards.
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This is what was written to me:
"Free to Play" accounts will allow 2 of the characters on the account to be used/played. You will get to choose those two the first time you access the game after this service change has been made live/implemented. Once you choose them, all other character slots on the account will become locked/grayed out/unavailable until you do one of the following:
1. Claim Veteran Reward based character slots. (Applies immediately, unlocks more character slots on the account for use.)
2. Purchase extra character slots through the City of Heroes Store. (Applies immediately, unlocks more character slots on the account for use.)
3. Upgrade your account to "VIP" status. (This will unlock a total of 12 slots per server, plus slots claimed through Veteran Rewards or purchased through the City of Heroes Store.)
The relation that Veteran Rewards has in connection with the "City of Heroes: Freedom" service model is that any character slots claimed through Veteran Rewards will add to the base total of 2 available for "Free to Play" accounts.
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--This is not so much a "Freedom" but a taking away of "Freedom" to those who have invested their $143.00 per year for 7 years.
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--After not surviving NCSoft's Lineage 2 game in which I lost over 25 characters in two (2) server merges I am expecting the same sort of thing to happen here. What NCSoft says and what they do are 2 completely different things.
--I have met many a player in-game who has many more than my 7 servers with 12 characters on it, and I am wondering how they feel about the situation.
--When will be the first server merge for "City Of Heroes" after the "City Of Heroes Freedom" implemenation?
--How many characters will the long time players lose while NCSoft throws their EULA in their faces?
--What they are basically doing is making more business for Blizzard Entertainment and "World Of Warcraft". Why? Because there is security there. If you compare NCSoft's record with what has happened to their players to that of Blizzards you may find something interesting. If you compare how many players lost time and their characters, banning aside, to World Of Warcraft, WOW has security and a 100% improvement on character and time lose compared to NCSoft.
--I am not supporting World of Warcraft saying it is a better game. I have not over time enjoyed WOW as much as I had with my paid for City Of Heroes. I prefer City Of Heroes more.
--Guild Wars is free. You pay for the packs and that is it. I give them some credit for that. But GW is hindered or lacking because of that compared to other MMOs out on the market with what you can do. There is no total "Freedom" there either. I am betting more packs will be released for GW that you have to purchase.
--I also have to mention here that the game Tabula Rasa which barely lasted 6 months was closed almost immediately after it was launched. Why? Server time vs. cost? Artists, probably unionized, wanting more money? Someone who owns the company suddenly not liking the game anymore? That incident also does not go well with my trust for my characters and time and money spent with a company who seems to have more respect for their EULA then for their customers. Where is the guarantee?
--A broken toy is never the same after it has been broken. Is NCSoft becoming the bully of the play yard? "Hand over your lunch money my friend and I may let your character live".
--I believe that COH Freedom should have another name besides "Freedom". I see little "Freedom" in their new system or what they are trying to implement. I feel it is/and will slowly ruin the game. NCSoft has no feelings for their customers or how they feel about their playing time or usage of characters. Along with the new implementation they have succeded in driving away who could have been their best customers and they are becoming what I feel is one of the worst companies in the gaming business. After this new COH implementation I do not think I will be purchasing any of their GW2 too soon.
--Because of NCSoft's track record, I may be staying with WOW where my characters are at least safe.
--I will be writing more on this later. I will be more than happy to type a few good things concerning this change over. As for now, my trust is nil.
GlassEye
Comments
If you continue to subscribe, nothing will change for you. If anything, you will get more.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?p=3706712#post3706712
I'm not going to speculate about what may or may not happen with a server merge, but you do hit on one very important element, which is names. Even moreso than fantasy games, these superhero game players tend to be VERY fixated on names and established identities, so hopefully Paragon has communicated this to NCsoft.
--How many characters will the long time players lose while NCSoft throws their EULA in their faces?
--What they are basically doing is making more business for Blizzard Entertainment and "World Of Warcraft". Why? Because there is security there. If you compare NCSoft's record with what has happened to their players to that of Blizzards you may find something interesting. If you compare how many players lost time and their characters, banning aside, to World Of Warcraft, WOW has security and a 100% improvement on character and time lose compared to NCSoft.
Stats or facts please.
--Guild Wars is free. You pay for the packs and that is it. I give them some credit for that. But GW is hindered or lacking because of that compared to other MMOs out on the market with what you can do. There is no total "Freedom" there either. I am betting more packs will be released for GW that you have to purchase.
Thankfully, GW2 is around the corner. Curiously few games (by which I mean 1 game I can think of which was Global Agenda, but that's now gone F2P) have taken up this model for whatever reason.
--I also have to mention here that the game Tabula Rasa which barely lasted 6 months was closed almost immediately after it was launched. Why? Server time vs. cost? Artists, probably unionized, wanting more money? Someone who owns the company suddenly not liking the game anymore? That incident also does not go well with my trust for my characters and time and money spent with a company who seems to have more respect for their EULA then for their customers. Where is the guarantee?
What guarantee? EVERY MMO very clearly states in the EULA that they are under no obligation or liability to continue providing the service if some unfortunate events arise, whether it be to a thunderstorm knocking out the servers or simple bankrupcy. You don't own jack, they're providing a service that they can terminate arbitrarily. Starcraft 2 isn't even considered a game now, it's a "service" which you don't own and can only access if they let you (DA2 had something similar after that guy got banned from his singleplayer game for posting criticism on the Bioware forums).
The entire industry is moving this way to minimize liability and maximize control over the player, so get used to it or vote with your wallet. MMO's are like investments than games; you have to pay attention to so much more than simply what's saved on your computer, and along with this come a multitude of other factors previously irrelevant to the gaming formula.
--A broken toy is never the same after it has been broken. Is NCSoft becoming the bully of the play yard? "Hand over your lunch money my friend and I may let your character live".
If you have one or two mains, this isn't a problem. More characters = more server database clutter. I wouldn't call it bullying, but this is to me an understandable compromise. If you're like me, you get 5 total slots due to having 3 years of previous subscription time.
--I believe that COH Freedom should have another name besides "Freedom". I see little "Freedom" in their new system or what they are trying to implement. I feel it is/and will slowly ruin the game. NCSoft has no feelings for their customers or how they feel about their playing time or usage of characters. Along with the new implementation they have succeded in driving away who could have been their best customers and they are becoming what I feel is one of the worst companies in the gaming business. After this new COH implementation I do not think I will be purchasing any of their GW2 too soon.
--Because of NCSoft's track record, I may be staying with WOW where my characters are at least safe.
Asides from being sensationalist I'm not sure what your point is here.
Remember, it has to be fun to be a game. Grinding is a bedroom activity, and the point is definitely not to do my wife as fast as possible.
Didn't get enough attention in the Villians forum? I don't think your rant will fare any better a second time than it did the first. To sum things up: keep paying your sub and everything stays the same...plus a few bonus goodies.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Like the guys said. Keep paying your sub and nothing will change. You'll actually get more. I did with champions online. Don't fear the cash shop. Ath the end of the day it's just some costumes with a few services thrown in. With your monthly stipend you'll get loads of stuff. CO and CoH...one big happy Freemium Family.
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
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"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
I read through the entirety of your post, and I was left scratching my head over your rant when it was completely not supported by facts. I'd advise ya to take a look at the upgraded and updated info found here.
http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/freedom/player_choices.html
Edit - As a side note, I checked the original poster's history on the boards. He IS a troll, and not an especially clever one either.
The OP sounds like a troll. They seem to want everything they have now, but without paying for the subscription.
I think Freedom is gonna be awesome for COH,I just love that game and will continue to pay and play.
And i have a question,I know what a troll is......or do i. So what is a Troll?