TonyV

I don't know how I've missed this one all along, but I just played an awesome mission, the one given by Luke Larson to stop a bomb plot in Underground Praetoria.

I was going along, disarming 30 bombs, ho hum. Then I run across this shiny object labeled "Lots of High Explosives." I clicked on it, and the first thing I noticed as that I had a choice based on my origin (Technology), which was new. Okay, that's cool, but I decided to see what the other option did. I won't give it away, but next thing I knew, I was scrambling to finish up the mission in time to presumably avoid getting killed, while fending off attacking Praetorian Clockwork.

I actually felt a palpable sense of excitment--"[censored], stop attacking me, I've got to start over!"--as well as an honest moment of truth; let the things go or try to do the "right" thing and face an honest risk getting defeated? Plus, it was nice to have something quite different from all the other missions.

Whoever designed it, great job! To everyone else, give us more variance in missions like this!

Edit: One small quibble: Once I made the non-tech choice, I didn't get the choice to make it later. I had no idea that the "Examine wires" option meant I couldn't do the other thing later. It might be worth adding that option to all of the dialogs, not just the first one.

Another Edit: Plus watching Tunnel Rat beat the @*#! out of some PPD in the following mission was... Oddly cute.

I know it kind of sucks that you all are staying late after work to do this, but count me in, this will be awesome to be able to watch it live instead of having to catch the recording because it's normally done while I'm at work!

Can't wait to see Tunnel Rat again, she was awesome in the last Ustream. Will you be hosting it this time instead of Zwillinger?

It strikes me that there are three contingents of people who are not represented in this conversation.

First, there are people who don't really know about City of Heroes, but if they saw, "Free game!", they'd be willing to give it a shot. For example, my teen-aged nephew right now is dying to get a particular superhero-themed MMORPG that isn't this one, but my sister won't let him because she doesn't want to be on the hook for shelling out the $15 per month subscription fee for that game. So instead, he's playing a different particular superhero-themed MMORPG because there's no monthly subscription fee. I'd love to make him a CoH convert, but it's not going to happen right now because if there is going to be $15 per month shelled out, it's going to be on the game with the licensed characters that he adores from the cartoons he grew up with. The beauty of a F2P model is that probably a considerable number of these players would eventually become long-time players, just like me and several other posters in this thread.

Second, there are people who have played City of Heroes in the past, but gave it up because, for whatever reason, $15 was just too much to shell out every single month for a game. The fact is, this is a hard economy we've been in the past few years, and a lot of my friends and fellow players have had to quit the game because they simply couldn't afford it. I would love to see some of these people again, but it's not going to happen as long as the game is $15 a month.

Neither of these groups have access rights to the forums, though, so you're not going to see a lot of posts here saying, "I'd love for CoH to go F2P so that I could play/come back!" Instead, you're going to see a disproportionate number of people who like the status quo posting DOOOOM!!! messages.

Another thing that strikes me is that people keep posting completely unproductive messages like, "I don't like it," or "If it goes F2P, I'm quitting!" You know what? If Paragon Studios/NCsoft thinks that they'll make more money and have a larger loyal player base without you, they're not going to shed too many tears about it.

Instead, how about trying to be constructive? If you don't like it, why do you not like it? Even better yet, how could Paragon Studios/NCsoft address your concerns to make you more comfortable and happy? Here, I'll give you some concrete examples.

One thing that worries me about the prospect of CoH going F2P is that it would open the doors to griefers and gold farmers. Will there be barriers to people setting up free accounts merely to harass other people?

That is something that Paragon Studios can read and react to, something that, if they do consider making the game F2P, they can have meetings about and solve. Something that, hopefully by the launch or conversion, I could be comfortable in not being an issue.

Another example:

If the game goes F2P, I'm worried that there would be a lot of nickel-and-diming going on and that I'd end up spending more than $15 per month plus some booster packs here and there to get all the stuff that I want. Will there be plans to help people like me, the players who don't mind shelling out $15 per month to not have to worry about having to continually get new stuff to keep up or having a perpetually empty wallet?

These kinds of thoughts and questions are SO much more constructive than just posting meaningless, "I hate it!" jabs or "That will be the day the game dies" unwarranted and unsubstantiated claims.

In the spirit of the OP, if the game were to go F2P, here are my thoughts on how it should be done:

• It needs to be posted well ahead of time so that people have time to decide whether they want that booster pack now or to just wait until the game goes F2P to see if they can get a better deal.
• Paragon Studios should make some solid notes about concerns players post, such as the ones above, and determine clever ways to work around them. Obviously, you're not going to make everyone happy, but still, there are a lot of smart people here who can literately express things that others are feeling but that come out as, "I hate this."
• They need to make sure that people aren't spending more than they're already spending to get the same level of stuff and/or service. It should be geared towards bringing in new players and earning marginal income from people who are paying nothing right now, not getting greedy and milking existing ones for more than they're currently spending.
• They need to grow a thick skin. Not that they don't have one already; ragequit posts are part and parcel for being a game developer. This studio has never struck me as one that is afraid to make major changes because the players were all in a tizzy, and hopefully they'd realize that if this is the course they want to follow, the forums will positively explode. Don't take it personally; it's just a natural consequence of stirring up the pudding, and these forums disproportionately represent the contingent of players who are happy with the status quo and don't like big changes.

Of course, while this is all an interesting hypothetical thought experiment, we don't know what's going on behind closed doors. It would be kind of dumb, given the movement in the industry by some companies, for them not to have at least had casual conversations about it. But while idle speculation is fun, I don't see too much reason for concern or outrage until we get some kind of announcement or sign from the devs or reps that this is actually being seriously considered.

Last bit of advice: No matter what happens, please stop with the "This would destroy the game!" posts. No, it wouldn't. I've heard that so many times over the years that the game should have been dead pre-arrival in 2004. The only thing that would be destroyed is your own credibility if you keep saying such things and this becomes a reality. I find it really hard to fathom that the developers would make a big change like that without looking out for the loyal subscribers. Yes, there will probably be some people leave. Just like they did over Enhancement Diversification. Just like they did over PvP changes. Just like they did over AE farm nerfs. Whether or not something like this comes down the pipeline, the game will go on and I'll still be playing and having fun; the only difference is that you won't be having as much fun because instead of playing City of Heroes (for free!), you'll probably be, I dunno, watching the dreadful new fall pablum of television shows or something. I'm not trying to shut you naysayers up; by all means, post your worries to your heart's content. But please, try to chill and keep it productive.

Oh, and that third contingent of players? They're people in comas. My thoughts and prayers are with them and I do hope they get better, but for purposes of this discussion, I'm not too worried about their thoughts on CoH right now.

One thing that was pointed out to me a while back when I made a chart is that most subscriptions are in USD (dollars), while most of the financial reporting is in KRW. You need to also take into account the fact that the dollar has been dropping the past six months against the won somewhere around 5% - 6%. As a result, even if City of Heroes had the exact same income today as it did six months ago, the numbers would be down 5% - 6%.

In reality, I doubt this currency exchange actually takes place. The dollars it takes in probably goes to paying maintenance and development costs--in dollars. So while income may be down, so are expenses as well. It all works out in the wash.

Not saying that's the entire story, of course. As others have pointed out, it's also worth noting that the economy is still in a state of thorough tankedness, and people are reducing their spending. The more interesting numbers to me is how City of Heroes is faring compared to its competition in the marketplace, especially in terms of market share. And to a larger extent, how much NCsoft is investing in Paragon Studios and the game, since they know a lot better than we do the exact variables at play.

Based on those metrics, I'm really not that worried that the game will be going away or suffering any significant losses anytime soon.

You rock, man. Thanks for jumping on this quickly.

I rolled a character on Defiant also. If you see me around, holler!

On a related note, should this forum and the Union (EU) forum names be changed to drop the (EU) qualifier now?

EPIC

Yes, in all capital letters. If you write it as "Epic," or in a font that isn't considerably bigger than the surrounding text, you must be talking about something else. I'll leave it to everyone's imagination to try to come up with some kind of ret-conned acronym (retronym?) for which it stands.

Yes, that means that if you're e-mailing someone, you have to say things like, "I think I'm going to go home and play some EPIC tonight." If your e-mail or IM client doesn't support font manipulation, I'm sorry, but you simply cannot talk about the game. When you say the name of the game, you have to lower your voice to the lowest pitch possible. If you can sound like Don LaFontaine, score!

Oh, and if you're deaf and communicate by sign language, you can only sign the name of the game at eye level or above, and you must "throw" the letters out individually, not sign them continuously. Honestly, throwing out each letter in a "fist pump" movement would be best. If the name is written in Braille, each dot should be at least 3/4 inch in diameter.

I wish that I had stronger C++ skills. I did some C++ development officially a long time ago on a space planning application in AutoCAD, but my gosh, that was ages ago. Unfortunately, my skills would probably be more useful where the servers physically are, not in Mountain View, where Paragon Studios is located.

Nevertheless, both of these things have been speculated to death. What is "GR2," by the way?