Did you make sure to get your Pre-order box? If not, that would be the reason why you can't do the two-day head start.
Official launch day is the 31st. If your store broke the date, well...
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. --- Thomas Jefferson
Formerly known as YFNDBA
Just curious.... how did you pre-order it "over a year ago" when the official pre-order wasn't available until August of this year?
He means he just put money down on it, I did that about a year ago too, but didn't know there was going to be a pre-order box, but then I pre-ordered it again online, and then I remembered I had already done that, but it was too late since my pre-order disc had arrived.
Much ado about nothing.You sure you pre ordered ?
Pre-orders are pre-orders.
If you didn't pre-order you don't get the bonus pre-order goodies (including the 2-day headstart that is going on now).
Sorry things didn't go your way, but it has nothing to do with 'casual gamers', other than the fact that 'avid gamers' typically pre-order on a regular basis and already have experience in such matters. Some stores put their pre-order bonus boxes on the shelves, some didn't. Some stores were up front about the bonus goodies if you pre-order, some were not. The publisher makes pre-orders available, it's up to the stores to market and promote pre-orders.
I don't think it has anything to do with Cryptic or NCSoft. It has everything to do with the retail outlets.
Keep in mind that this is not the 'launch weekend'. The official launch is Monday. If you pre-ordered you could be part of the 2-day head-start as a bonus, otherwise you are only missing out on 2 days of play.
Because there's this industry called the "retail" industry, that allowed me to reserve the game even when it was first announced. I find it convenient to use, because unlike purchasing things online, I get to go out of my apartment and interact with actual human beings, who can answer questions and deal immediatly with any problems or issues that may arise.
So you're saying that its the retail industry's fault that they launched the game early, and not at all playNC's fault for locking the game out for anyone other than pre-order customers. Just sit back and imagine right now how many kids got this game on Friday from their local EB or GameStop or (fill in here) and got it home, only to find themselves locked out because they weren't a Super Special member? Think of the customers PlayNC is losing!
I agree with ya 100% the launch should be now not Monday on Halloween that makes no sense... makes even less sense that you can go to a store right now and buy a copy of the game but not be able to play it till Monday...
So, you're pissed off because you don't get to play a game for...two days?
Come on, Blizzard denies us games for months on end. Anyone still wondering if Starcraft:Ghost is even going to come out at all?
2 Days, sure, they realize you work for a living, I'm sure they also realize that 2 days is really not that long...
And really, do you work 24/5?
Ah. Then my follow up would be, was the money put down on the game itself (which sounds like what he got) or the pre-order? I'm suspecting the former. And I'd probably say just a mistake that's a learning experience.
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Just curious.... how did you pre-order it "over a year ago" when the official pre-order wasn't available until August of this year?
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The copy was 'reserved' before the pre-orders were ever announced. My guess is that the retail box was reservered, but not 'pre-ordered'.
Either way, I don't think Cryptic or NCSoft are at fault.
Good lord it is two days hardly anything to get your knickers in a twist.The pre order get in on 29th everyone else on the 31st.I doubt everyone is as high strung as you are over this .
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Because there's this industry called the "retail" industry, that allowed me to reserve the game even when it was first announced. I find it convenient to use, because unlike purchasing things online, I get to go out of my apartment and interact with actual human beings, who can answer questions and deal immediatly with any problems or issues that may arise.
So you're saying that its the retail industry's fault that they launched the game early, and not at all playNC's fault for locking the game out for anyone other than pre-order customers. Just sit back and imagine right now how many kids got this game on Friday from their local EB or GameStop or (fill in here) and got it home, only to find themselves locked out because they weren't a Super Special member? Think of the customers PlayNC is losing!
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And again, the official release date is the 31st. Those kids should be complaining to their stores.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. --- Thomas Jefferson
Formerly known as YFNDBA
I am a fairly casual player, but I have been burned enough in the past, that I now read what I am buying. Of the 4 places for preorders, it seems 2 seperated out the "preorder" from the actual preorder package. Thus you prob. got the game cheaper than those of us that got into the "head" start.
Is it fair? NO, but I would blame Circuit City and the other store (Best Buy I think) for being sneaky, and not cryptic. But hey that is just my 2 cents 
And to add:
I worked at Gamestop for two years, so I saw my fair share of game launches. Never, not ONCE, was a big game released on a Monday. Why? Because thats marketing SUICIDE.
Nobody wants to buy games on a Monday. Not a soul. Mondays are deadsville. Mondays are school nights and work nights. Go company in its right mind would release an entertainment product on a Monday. But thats niether here nor there.
The game is available for people who reserved it. Last I checked, reserve can also be interpreted as a "pre-order" because I'm ordering the game before it comes out and putting money down on it.
PlayNC was aware that the (hilariously ill-chosen) launch date was being broken. They have done what to save themselves the possible unhappy customers?
Monday = Halloween = Good marketing.
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. --- Thomas Jefferson
Formerly known as YFNDBA
Actually I'm saying you probably misunderstood what you were buying and that it's not really anyone's fault. If you reserved the "game" (as no pre-order was announced then) then that's exactly what you got, the game. The pre-order and two-day head start has been made pretty well known on the City of Heroes sites.
Like I said, a mistake that's a lesson.
City of Heroes = Good
City of Villains = Evil
Halloween = Evil
You posting this
Priceless.
Look, I realize that PlayNC may not have wanted the game on the shelves before the 31st (which I still think is the worst possible launch date they could have picked). But they ARE. People are buying it RIGHT NOW, totally unaware that they cannot play it.
Are you guys following me? Even people who didn't reserve it! Guys just looking for a new distraction, who check out the neato box art, read the back and then buy it, are getting burned when they get home. Every person I've spoken to has said that if that happened to them, they would return the game and spend the money elsewhere, with no exceptions.
I'm still curious how you figured out the 2-day pre-order headstart date (launch date minus 2) and still claim ignorance of the actual launch date. Boggles my mind.
You should be upset with yourself and no one else.
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Actually I'm saying you probably misunderstood what you were buying and that it's not really anyone's fault. If you reserved the "game" (as no pre-order was announced then) then that's exactly what you got, the game. The pre-order and two-day head start has been made pretty well known on the City of Heroes sites.
Like I said, a mistake that's a lesson.
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Were I anyone but a lover of this game, that 'lesson' would be "Caveat emptor", and I'd buy some other game. It bums me out to think PlayNC is losing customers it DESPERATELY needs to compete with Blizzard.
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So you're saying that its the retail industry's fault that they launched the game early, and not at all playNC's fault for locking the game out for anyone other than pre-order customers.
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They haven't launched early. We are in the midst of a headstart period which is not novel to Cryptic/NCSoft. The launch day is October 31st. I imagine that some stores may still have pre-order boxes with a serial that will allow you to play CoV this weekend.
Allowing the sale of the game early gives retailers the ability to mail out copies to customers in a timely fashion, something that was not possible for CoH's launch and was a big buzz-kill for people who pre-ordered well in advance, were able to participate in the headstart period, and then were locked out of the game on launch day.
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Just sit back and imagine right now how many kids got this game on Friday from their local EB or GameStop or (fill in here) and got it home, only to find themselves locked out because they weren't a Super Special member? Think of the customers PlayNC is losing!
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Here's a tissue. Nobody here is "Super Special". Many of us actually bothered to get our pre-order boxes after doing some brief reading on the game months ago. Virtually all the printed and online promotion of the game specified October 31st as launch day.
Well, I bought my pre-ordered copy, and tried to put in the serial code for the retail version. It wouldn't accept it until Monday, according to the error message, so I'm not sure what the problem is.
I suppose if a store just put it on the shelves for anybody to buy, it's the store's fault, not NCSoft, not Cryptic. This game doesn't go Live until Monday, unless you successfully entered a pre-order code into your Upgraded account. Simple as that.
Dungeoncleaners! (ID#125715): Slay the Adventurers! Rescue the Monsters! Return the Treasure!
Peppermint Cat-- Lv50 Mewtant Ice/Eng Bls
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I'm still curious how you figured out the 2-day pre-order headstart date (launch date minus 2) and still claim ignorance of the actual launch date. Boggles my mind.
You should be upset with yourself and no one else.
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Are you not getting the point of this post? The game is available now. retail. The "intended" launch date is no longer viable, because now the launch date is Yesterday. It doesn't matter when you ordered it online, because Little Timmy can waltz into GameStop and buy it as I speak.
But the game is locked out to EVERYONE who didn't pre-order it. Just sit back and think of how many customers PlayNC is losing.
I consider myself a casual CoH gamer. I visit the boards maybe once a month to see what the devs are saying, but I mostly just trust in them to keep the game going and keep things happy. That, and these boards are miserable to navigate.
So anyway, I'm all excited Friday that I got CoV coming into GameStop. I reserved it over a year ago.(<---- important to this post). I buy it, get it home, call up all my friends and tell them not to bug me for the rest of the night and perhaps tomorrow, unless they wanna come over and play the game with me, and I crack open the box and start installing. I reserved the special edition, so I'm totally indulging in all the goodies.
Can you possibly imagine the enormity of my disappointment to learn that because I didn't pre-order the game USING THE CORRECT CHANNELS, that I couldn't play until MONDAY? (That, by the way, is AFTER the weekend). What madness is this? What stark, raving madness?
There's a couple things totally wrong with this. First of all, all the forum-frequenters (who represent perhaps 30% or less of the total playerbase, I'd imagine) knew about this, but I'm guessing few others. So we have a lot of people who, like me, went and picked up their copy retail here on launch day and found themselves totally boned.
Second, imagine all the casual gamers who are just picking it up because they saw it in the store, or heard from a friend of a friend that its gonna be kinda cool. I can tell you for certain that if I were a casual customer, and I picked this up and was told I couldn't play until Monday, this crap was getting returned POST-HASTE, and I'd never pick it back up.
I cannot fathom how many casual customers CoV is losing because of this monumentally stupid marketing desicion. WHAT GAMING COMPANY ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH HAS FORBIDDEN THEIR GAME TO BE USED ON LAUNCH DAY UNTIL THE MONDAY FOLLOWING THE LAUNCH WEEKEND?
Some of us DO work for a living!
I'm not sure if I'm mad at myself for not checking first, or more mad at the rediculously poor decision-making on behalf of the devs and their marketing guys. Fantastic way to go fellas. I could not think of a better way to alienate your casual playerbase.