giving us going rogue for free??

I paid $40 for Arcanum when it came out but people can now buy it for about $10. Does that decrease the enjoyment I got from Arcanum in any way? Heck no, in fact I'm contemplating paying $10 for a new copy because trying to get the original version running properly on my current machine is difficult and I know the GoG version will work.

The price of video games always goes down over time, this is an inescapable fact of nature. So even if Going Rogue is never free if you wait a few years you'll probably be able to buy it for $20 (which means $5 after you factor in the free month). So the question is how much is it worth you to be able to play Going Rogue now versus being able to play it in a few years?

Okay, couple of problems with this. First is the different ownership. Back in October 2005 when the game launched, Cryptic studios was the developer and NCSoft was the publisher. Now NCSoft is both the publisher and runs the developer, Paragon Studios, as a financial subsidiary.

Second: City of Villains and City of Heroes were made free to access for players who did not have the counter-game on July 16th 2008: http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/new...ll_access.html That nearly 3 years after City of Villains had launched, and about 2 years after most casual retailers had pulled the game from retail shelfs or put it in the budget aisle.

If you figure a base price of $15 a month for about 2 years 9 months, somebody who bought City of Villains on launch would have spent close to $500 ($495) in subscription fees. Somebody who had bought City of Heroes at launch in April 2004 would have paid for an additional 1 year and 7 months, or around $285 in subscription fees. Now consider that at the time of the Free Access, the game on NCSoft's store was only about $20. It hadn't been at the original retail price point of $50 for a little over 2 years.

The Free Access didn't come after a short time. It came long after initial subscribers for either game had long paid over 20 times the retail cost in subscription fees, and long after the game had fallen to budget status.

Third: City of Villains was an "expandalone". Aside from the cross-over zone Pocket D, there wasn't much to do in the game that had anything to do with the City of Heroes world. Going Rogue is an Expansion. It requires that you already have CoH. So it also carries an expansion price tag: $30 for the base package, $40 for the collectors edition.

I'm going to be perceived as ugly on this... but that's really like 4 good meals from Arby's or Chick'Fil'A. It's not a huge amount of cash.

***

There's a reason that anybody who whined about CoV players getting CoH for free, and CoH players getting CoV for free basically got weird looks back when the merge occurred. It just wasn't that big a deal to people who had been paying subscription fees.

Now, if you want to wait another 4 or 5 years for Going Rogue to be made free? Hey, go ahead. I'm going to go ahead and support the developers a little earlier than that.

Nitpick: Paragon Studios is the developer, and is a subsidiary of NCSoft.
I'm going to hell for this, aren't I?

Only if you are gonna rock in hell!

Not at the time of CoV going free.

... yeah. But I asked for it since I was nitpicking.

He was correcting the part where J_S said Now NCSoft is both the publisher and the developer

So a minor oops but still a minor nitpick.

I don't understand this. I paid for both City of Heroes when it first came out and pre-ordered CoV, which means I bought both. Three years later, a small number of hold out players who didn't have one or the other got both. Big deal. I got three years to fully enjoy the content that they finally got access to years later.

You're certainly entitled to not buy the expansion, but it could be years before they make it free, if at all.

It's okay. In 100 years or so, the game will be long since dead--so you can just quit now. I mean, honestly, why bother paying for it now if it won't be around later?

Not the only one. Although i keep the boxes in the bookcase nearest my desk, not on the wall.

If the OP wants to wait two years* on the assumption that GR will be made free at that time then he is more than welcome to do so.



*While i agree that two years is a short time it is rather unusual to find others who feel the same way. Especially when discussing videogames.

It sounds like you think you were actually "tricked" into paying for CoV two years before it technically became free.
People like you make baby Statesman cry... *sigh*

Yes Going Rogue will almost certainly become free at some point once it's run its course as a RETAIL expansion.
But like someone earlier pointed out your definition of "short time" better be rooted on a geologic scale.

I want to create a DS MM, so I'm happy to pre-order and unleash it

Whatever the wait, it was far too long for me to even consider it an option. I could never wait that long in hopes that something might turn free. This is the first true expansion, with more likely to follow. I would not expect any of them to turn free. Bundled packs yes, but free no.

Gee. Well then, I guess you shouldn't buy Going Rogue. (shrug) Your call.

I can't get excited about buying a Big Mac from McDonalds since they might go on sale in April. A Big Mac sounds really good right now, but I'd hate to pay full price right now when I could wait till April to buy one for $1.00.

It's too bad, because I bet it would taste good.

DAMMIT! Now I want a Big Mac, and all the Mickey D's are closed!