Would anyone want a NCsoft pass?
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8_Ball,
Posted on: 2009-08-04 13:19 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Originally Posted by Clouded
My apologies, I truly meant no disrespect.
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I thought it was a Rat as well. So sorry.
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I'd almost go for an NCsoft pass. Almost. I play City of Heroes as my main, and my current alt is Guild Wars (totally gonna get GW2 though. Finish it already!), which has no monthly fee. I enjoy Dungeon Runners once in a while and I'm on the fence about whether or not I'd go for a long subscription to Aion.
But that's not quite enough interest in everything for me to get a 30/mo pass.
Now, if Warhammer Online was included in the NCSoft pass I'd probably be sold, cause I was paying for both that and CoH for a while.
I wouldn't buy it. COH is the only NCsoft game I have any interest in.
I don't know.
Back with AA & TR, it would be a no-brainer.
With Aion?
We have two accounts in the house and have to maintain two gaming computers. Only one of them meets Aion's min requirements, and I can't really justify the upgrade just for that one game. I don't see us even considering a package deal until our machines can actually play the full array of games offered.
I'd buy an NCSoft Game Pass (or whatever they called it) if it offered these things:
City of Heroes/Villains
Aion
Tabula Rasa
Dungeon Runners (the member version).
Bonuses for other NCSoft games could be included (Bonus NC Coins for Exteel? A reward scheme for Guild Wars, or even a free access to the make over tools every couple of months for a character.)
I miss TR, and the chance to have explored it more.
If Auto Assault was running I would in a heart beat I was in the beta for Auto Assault It was SO FREAKING COOL I rely wish it was still running the MM class in that game was crazy fun and it looked good and it had full body avatars and player housing and lots of cool stuff for your vehicle ... No I'm not listening to the sound track right now... Ok I am but its not on repeat...
In short No. Guild Wars is free and COH/V is the only other game they have that's interesting to me. If I want PVP I go to EVE Online. Fantasy Guild Wars. Any thing else COH/V.
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As others already said, for CoH, Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, yes right away. I would pay it by the year too.
Otherwise nope I'm not really interested by the other pay to play games.
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Originally Posted by Hobbes_NA
As others already said, for CoH, Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, yes right away. I would pay it by the year too.
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AA had announced it's demise just when I was considering trying it, and TR became an excellent game and was still improving. Unless it was priced really stupidly then a CoX/AA/TR mix would be a total no-brainer.
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if tabula rasa was till around, yes, as at stands, aion , while so pretty, just seems like a new lineage with wings, and guild wars has no monthly feel, and gw2 is supposed to continue that. so really it wouldnt pack the value added for me.
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Agreed, I would have bought a pass if either one of them were on with CoH, you have to wonder if the pass would have maintained enough subs to keep them running. I would buy a pass now if Aion was included.
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Originally Posted by SlickRiptide
As a one-time Station Pass subscriber, I've said all along that NCSoft missed a trick when they canned Auto Assault and then Tabula Rasa instead of using them as a value-add for their own umbrella account along with CoH, Lineage and Lineage 2. Station Pass includes premium membership in Free Realms and I'm already a member there at $5 a month, so it'd be a win for me even without also being able to revisit the various EQ games and Star Wars Galaxies when I took a hankering to do so. Not to mention free cards and stuff in their online TCG's also.
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If Auto Assault and possibly Tabula Rasa were still running then yes I'd consider it (I beta-tested both for over a year, though I liked AA a lot more than TR).
Now? Not at all. There's not a single NCSoft game out now or announced that interests me at all apart from CoH/CoV.
That would be cool if you could get access to the currently deceased Auto Assault or Tabula Rasa. might be a way to get a little extra cash? those who want them would pay like $20 a month instead of $15
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But then that would be acknowledging SOE had actually come up with a good idea!
That can't be right.
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When the station pass first came out, it was $22 or $23, which to me justified playing both everquest and planetside. The price later went up to $29.xx, which was the same as two games, so I just cancelled it. Yes, the appeal was that it was cheaper than two seperate games, but it hasn't been like that for a long time, unless went back down, which doesn't sound like Sony. That, and Sony can't leave a decent game alone.
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Originally Posted by OzzieArcane
The appeal of the Station Pass is that you get access to a large selection of games for less then the price of 2. Those games include Everquest, Everquest 2, Everquest Online Adventures, Planetside, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, and until recently Matrix Online. At the moment wouldn't NCsoft only be City of Heroes, Lineage, and Lineage II?
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Count me in with the people who would do if it Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa were still running.
Late to the conversation here but yes, I would love to have an NCsoft pass.
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Back when TR and Auto Assault were out I'd have jumped at this, now... Well I'd only use it to play CoX and try the others, though I doubt I'd be much into either Lineage game. Aion looks pretty and fun and I want to try it, but, again, it's fantasy.
Dungeon Runners would get played loads more though, so that'd be a good thing.
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Same here, except that I was paying in Sterling and it was EQ2 and Planetside I was playing (though I did log into EQ1 very rarely for nostalgia reasons) - that was the point at which I cancelled my Station Pass too. As it happens I also stopped playing EQ2 and just paid a single sub for Planetside for a few months instead; but with its low player numbers at that time I couldn't justify subscribing to Planetside as my main MMO as there were only a few evenings a week when anything fun was happening, so within a couple of months I had quit PS too. But if I could have continued paying 1.5 times a normal sub for EQ2/EQ1 & PS I probably would have (so I could dabble in EQ2/1 when PS was quiet) - and nowadays I'd be dabbling in Pirates of the Burning Sea too (another MMO that wasn't involved/busy enough to be my main MMO, but that I enjoyed playing in short bursts).|
Originally Posted by Dersk
When the station pass first came out, it was $22 or $23, which to me justified playing both everquest and planetside. The price later went up to $29.xx, which was the same as two games, so I just cancelled it. Yes, the appeal was that it was cheaper than two seperate games, but it hasn't been like that for a long time, unless went back down, which doesn't sound like Sony. That, and Sony can't leave a decent game alone.
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So I think an "all games" pass is a good idea providing it doesn't cost more than 1.5 times a single MMO sub - otherwise it's not really providing much extra value to the subscriber - in my experience people who play more than 1 MMO at a time are in a small minority (unless the other MMO(s) are Guild Wars or F2P titles they use as a "fallback" game between subscription MMOs), and more than 2 subscription MMOs at a time is likely to be very rare (who has the time?).
The Station Pass has worked well for SOE because they have so many MMOs with different gameplay/genres (though they are rather heavy on the fantasy MMO side, like NCSoft are), some of which are skeleton-staffed (in maintenance mode with very little new development) and probably couldn't be sustained if it wasn't for the portion of the Station Pass revenue they receive. Though now one of the Station Pass MMOs has closed (MXO) I do wonder how much longer Planetside has... then Vanguard... then Pirates of the Burning Sea... then SWG... and the Station Pass itself.
I am very curious whether AA and TR could have been saved, or at least given a couple more years of life, if NCSoft had a Station Pass type deal in place at that time. Both offered very different types of gameplay from NCSoft's other titles and would have complemented their other games well. My major criticisms of TR & AA was that they lacked gameplay depth and thus were not worth paying a full sub for as my main MMO, but I would have happily played them in short bursts fairly regularly alongside my main MMO if they had been available as part of a Station Pass kind of package.
Consider how many people have multiple CoX accounts. On the global channels I hang out on, a significant number of members have more than one account. If there was an NCSoft Game Pass and it let you cover all your CoX accounts with the one game pass, NCSoft might even see a loss in revenue as all these multiple accounts get covered by the Game Pass, and with it a rise in server usage as more people create multiple accounts.
If this hypothetical NCSoft Game Pass would not cover the cost of multiple CoX accounts that would piss off all those people with multiple accounts.
Would you create another CoX account (or 2 or 3 or . . . ) if an NCSoft Game Pass covered multiple accounts of the same game?
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Given that I hate the NC Launcher and this is the only game that doesn't use that dire front end I wouldn't use a Pass. Also I don't think NC Soft will produce another game I want to play for a fairly long time as this is the only one I thought was worth any money. I did like Guildwars for a while I must admit, but its not a monthly fee anyway.
Nope I wouldn't use an NC Soft pass, and I wont be playing this any more if they make it use the NC Launcher either
Edit: Oh yeah, 3 accounts, that would cause problems too I imagine
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No it wouldn't. If you'll pardon me saying so, that's a rather silly idea, primarily because it's way too open-ended on the one hand, and it doesn't actually generate extra revenue on the other. In fact, it takes extra revenue away!|
Originally Posted by Eislor
If this hypothetical NCSoft Game Pass would not cover the cost of multiple CoX accounts that would piss off all those people with multiple accounts.
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The point of the Station Pass or any similar arrangement is that it encourages the players who would normally have a single subscription to go ahead and agree to send you more money than they otherwise would. The point for players is to get a variety of games that you ordinarily wouldn't experience, not to go wild and get a bunch of new accounts in your primary game for free. I've never met any EQ player who felt cheated that his Station Pass account only covered one of this six EQ accounts.
I agree that an umbrella account psychologically needs a lower price point than two individual subscriptions. It was certainly true for me. I had considered re-opening my Station Pass account when Pirates of the Burning Sea opened because I enjoyed the beta and Matrix Online was just coming under the umbrella around that time. That was also the time the price increased to $29.95 and, psychologically speaking, my thought processes went like "If I'm going to pay the full price of two subscriptions, then I'm going to make the second subscription one that I really want to pay full price for, like CoH or WoW." They lost me because, despite the value-adds of the new games, they rose past my "this is a bargain" barrier.
Since they've never lowered the price again, they must be getting enough people to justify keeping it at that price. Like I mentioned earlier, as a Free Realms player, and having a passing interest in DCUO it might become a bargain again, but probably not, especially since the umbrella shrank just recently.
Re: The Matrix Online - SOE only took it on in the first place as part of a larger deal to get the rights to DCUO and bring it under the Station Pass. I'd speculate that they ran it for as long as Warner Bros. was originally contracted to run it and then shut it down as soon as the contract expired.
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As a person with two CoX accounts (and four EVE accounts, and 31 EQ1 accounts, and...), it wouldn't piss me off at all. I have more than one account for a reason that has nothing to do with a possible Pass option. I don't know who you're talking to but they're probably the same people who want to be able to play two characters on the same account at the same time.|
Originally Posted by Eislor
If this hypothetical NCSoft Game Pass would not cover the cost of multiple CoX accounts that would piss off all those people with multiple accounts.
Would you create another CoX account (or 2 or 3 or . . . ) if an NCSoft Game Pass covered multiple accounts of the same game? |
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Originally Posted by SlickRiptide
No it wouldn't. If you'll pardon me saying so, that's a rather silly idea, primarily because it's way too open-ended on the one hand, and it doesn't actually generate extra revenue on the other. In fact, it takes extra revenue away!
The point of the Station Pass or any similar arrangement is that it encourages the players who would normally have a single subscription to go ahead and agree to send you more money than they otherwise would. The point for players is to get a variety of games that you ordinarily wouldn't experience, not to go wild and get a bunch of new accounts in your primary game for free. I've never met any EQ player who felt cheated that his Station Pass account only covered one of this six EQ accounts. |
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Body sliders like CoH, face and hair selections, skin, hair, and lip color pickers, and a selection of minor facial variations (freckles, blush, etc.) and tattoo choices don't do much to change it from a "You are what you wear" game.
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Originally Posted by AmazingMOO
The problem with playing other NCSoft games is that Asian MMOs tend to be very, very grindy. Also, while they often have beautiful characters, the characters and costume options are so very similar that it's like swimming in an ocean of clones.
You'd have to convince me that Aion was at least 3/4 as customizable as CoH before I'd consider trying it and would then give it up pretty quickly if it required grinding or spawn camping. |
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As a one-time Station Pass subscriber, I've said all along that NCSoft missed a trick when they canned Auto Assault and then Tabula Rasa instead of using them as a value-add for their own umbrella account along with CoH, Lineage and Lineage 2.
Toss in a premium membership for Dungeon Runners and something like an allowance of 100 NCCoin or some such for Exteel and you'd have a package worth paying $25 a month. If Aion went under the umbrella and it was "all that", then it might be worth $30 a month. It's too early to tell that right now. If Guild Wars 2 ever becomes something more than vaporware and IT went under the umbrella, then I'd be signing up for the umbrella on launch day, probably.
If DCUO was looking at all attractive, I might still consider re-upping a Station Access pass to play DCUO and Pirates of the Burning Sea. The Station Pass includes premium membership in Free Realms and I'm already a member there at $5 a month, so it'd be a win for me even without also being able to revisit the various EQ games and Star Wars Galaxies when I took a hankering to do so. Not to mention free cards and stuff in their online TCG's also.
Yes, I'd even consider an Atari umbrella account if they bought a couple of smaller games and added them as a bundle to Star Trek and Champions.
It all boils down to value for the dollar.