Likely changes in RP landscape with Free to Play

http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/fre..._overview.html

I'd like to start a discussion thread dedicated to what will likely happen to how and specifically where we RP.

They will be creating a new server just for VIP players (those paying a subscription)

Will we be moving most of our characters to the VIP server to avoid the free to play crowd that usually comes to a game?

Will we remain on Virtue/Union or wherever we are?

How many of us will stop paying subscription?

Do the subscription benefits have significant value to primarily RP players?

Forums will be read only for anyone not a VIP. This will likely affect anyone who does planning here on the forums.


As for myself, I intend to stay on Virtue and I intend to continue to pay my subscription. I have supergroups and bases on Virtue that are important to my characters. I do not want to rebuild what I have done on a new server. If my supergroup and its base can move, then we'll talk about moving.

If you want to continue posting to the forum... then you need to be VIP.

Since a lot happens on the forum, I expect a lot of current RPers will remain VIPs.

I've not thought about the announcement enough to say anything more at this stage, and I'd hate to say something... overly emotional.

Having observed another game through a F2P conversion, this is a valid concern for people that really want to RP. In that other game, it used to be possible to pick up pretty much everything and toss it around The devs there eventually had to basically remove that functionality in the social zones, because there were griefers running around playing Tasmanian Devil with the furniture just to be jerks. *Edit This was a problem even before F2P, but it became much, much worse when free account characters started showing up, since there tend to be lots of them and they don't really care if they get punished. I mean, if a level five freebie gets banned, they've lost... what, exactly?

As far as I know, the roleplaying groups there have mostly abandoned the completely public areas due to various forms of griefing - most people have apparently picked other "always on" instances that are away from the main traffic areas, and a few people have started keeping some of the more atmospheric missions in their journal as a completely private meeting place. (In a few cases, it even adds to the atmosphere. Swing by the riverboat, spend a few minutes chasing out the vampires, and then have a few drinks.)

Edgey here too but, thinking about it;

1) Staying on Union for me
2) We're all subbed as we are, right now. Thats the same as VIP will be. Ergo, nothing will really be changing if we stay subbed. We may even get more benefits.

I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

The downside will be on the shared servers: in that other game, it's not uncommon for a "l33tSp34k troll" to show up and start being simply insulting in local chat, or casting buffs or otherwise being a general jerk. "Hey, those people look like they're having a quiet conversation. I think I'll open a dimensional rift right over their table." Not to mention something I saw a few days ago, where someone went afk for a moment and came back to find a serious cretin crouched with his face in the character's chest, making comments about "blueberry bewbies." Yes, you'll get morons who do that kind of thing anyway, but it happens less often when they actually have to worry about getting suspended or banned.

Someone I know had to deal with what was almost certainly a single player, who would show up and annoy until the GMs killed the account, and then he'd use a disposable email address to make another. They were pretty sure the GMs must have killed about six accounts before the idiot finally got bored, or the GMs finally did something more terminal to keep them out.

Galaxy City is being destroyed for the new tutorial zone, with people then moving on to Atlas or Mercy depending on their alignment.

Goodbye, Galaxy Girl Statue + RP Meet.

eeeep ! for GG

otherwise, its going to be a wait and see, the issue i can see its the problem of trying to RP with a mix of account type people, the case of those who can, and or haveaccess to various parts of the game.

It also raised a huge question for the incarnate part of the game, are they really going to ask VIP players to grind threads and drops ?

Also will the Time Manipulation set come with a " oh no you didnt " emote ?

I'm going to stay on Virtue, I think.

As for the rest... well, we treat the newcomers like decent human beings and not look down our noses at the grubby free accounts in their unwashed hands, RP with them, be polite... some might decide to upgrade. Act like elitist snobs, they'll ignore and troll you.

Regarding being trolled by free players: Be someone worth trolling, and they'll continue to do it. If you don't amuse them by getting all upset over it, they'll get bored and go find something else to do. Just saying.

And I personally will be staying on virtue, unless I find everyone I RP with isn't.

Im staying firmly put on Virtue, I see no reason to lock off the community to potential RPers by moving the comunity to a VIP server, as someone suggested in a global channel today.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rock_Powerfist It also raised a huge question for the incarnate part of the game, are they really going to ask VIP players to grind threads and drops ?

I dont see why not. it took a week of moderate non-grindy work for me to get 3 of them fully slotted up, and i've seen people do that in a day of extreme grinding.



Also, my condolences to Union on the loss of the GG statue. Hopefully there are other statues around that can substitute for it. Maybe if you guys had a community-wide plot or something to give a reason for a new meeting place, much like how GG origionaly started.

My characters on Liberty, Virtue and Union are staying where they are... I'll probably build a new one on the VIP server just to have someone to play with there, like my "token" character on Freedom, but I'm not about to relocate completely.

'Sucks about losing Galaxy, though.

It will be interesting to see who populates the VIP server, i do have a bit of a DOOM vision of it being full of farmers and their clients, after all who else but VIPs will be that active in the WW/BM markets. At least they seem to be giving VIPs the ability to move servers a bit.
However, unless RP populations drop i have no plans to move.

Unless everybody else moves, I have no plans to leave Union. It's where all my stuff is. Including a rather nice house that somebody put a lot of work into.


Not me, I'm lazy

I, too, will be staying on Union. It's where Europe's roleplayers are and for the most part always have been. Also, moving out of reach of potential new RPers; people who would like to try the game and shared 'verse we've created and maintained, is a bad move. I have a friend who would love to come try the game and our RP, but would be locked out if every RPer upped-sticks and went into the exclusive server/s.

That and I have no reason to move. It's the self same reason I haven't moved to Virtue. All my chars are on Union and moving them anywhere one char at a time every month isn't a viable or appealing option. I also have little desire to level up alts of the originals. I don't like doing that on the one server, let alone another.

So no, I shan't be moved.

With all 36 slots on Virtue filled (as well as a few SGs/VGs fully or mostly built out), my instinct is to stay on Virtue unless the majority of the RP community disappears. I started out in an RP community on Champ, and when it died, I came to Virtue to stay because of the seemingly vast amount of RP'ers. I'm hoping it stays that way.

Addendum: I also intend to make use of the Ignore button as per usual as far as trolls go. I'd just like to see the devs give us VIP'ers a bigger ignore list.

I'll be staying on Union, as the majority of my friends are there as are my SG's - which I've been working on for way too long to feel like starting them all over again somewhere else.

I tried a few of the other servers but none of them really felt like 'home'.

Can't quite believe that it's been 4 years already

First off, these ARE valid concerns, so please do not let my poor ability at getting emotions across in writing make anyone think I do not believe they are valid.
Second, we already play with free trial people all the time. My ignore list has been topped with the "get free infamy for 10 bucks" spam..which seemed to spike really high for a while. Griefers will come and go, no matter what. They seemed much worse a few years back when CoH was newer, and there weren't as many checks in place as there are now. I remember the TP spawn drops "just for fun...hah hah hah".
Recently had someone of higher levels hitting spawns with AoEs that my wife and I were trying to street sweep on new toons. They simply followed, and every mob we went at, they attacked. (it was the difference of us being at level 5ish and them at lvl 40). He tells my wife he was just trying to help lower level toons, however, to have a lvl 40 toon, you have to know better.
My point is that griefers are there no matter what. I do not believe this will add the influx that some may. While I could be wrong, I would rather not worry on that at the moment.

Will I be moving most of our characters to the VIP server to avoid the free to play crowd that usually comes to a game?- No, I like Virtue and Union, and will not be moving. Instead, I am willing to weed through the griefers and welcome those who want to play/rp legitimately. If good players are not there, then all they see is a world of idiots wanting to cause problems.

How many of us will stop paying subscription? - I have paid it for this long, too much to lose/not gain not to....V I P all the way.

Do the subscription benefits have significant value to primarily RP players? - While I am not a primarily rp player, I still would have to say yes, as much or more than non-rp'ers. The feel of the costumes etc alone would be worth it. I do rp (most of my ole time rp buds are gone though), but cannot call myself primarily one since I have not found a good rp group to replace the old yet, and the little I do on PUGS REALLY does not count. LOL

End Note....I do not play Galaxy much, but hate to see it go. What a beautiful part of the city..it just was not developed by devs enough. Contact in Galaxy: "Go to Atlas and....."

Well, I'm staying a subscriber and staying on Virchoo.

I take it has been confirmed that Galaxy will be out of bounds from i21 then?

If it is then that's very sad news. I started out RPing there 5 years ago.

But like the original reason for meeting there, and indeed the spirit of GG herself, we move on and find a new place to call home.

As for 'moving' I think the VIP server might be a handy place to put my non-RP characters, especially the 50s that I hardly play now. But my RP characters will stay on Union. And let's face it, VIPs will have even more server slots. WHich is good news for those of us with altitis. Silver linings and all that.

EDIT: Even though it's sad, think of the potential for even more RP...

I will keep several of my lowbies on Virtue, Liberty, and Freedom. But my favorite characters, Anbaric Amber and Praetorian Ako will be going to the VIP server.

I'm looking forwards to the move to Freedom. I have a friend who's been interested in the game and the RP crowd (I've told them plenty about the verse we've created for Union) and they're very excited to try it out and bring her own original heroic and villainous characters into our world.

Additionally, the move to Freedom will allow people like myself to introduce new roleplayers to the game who might otherwise be put off by the trial limits and current level cap on trials. I can tempt them in with "Come give it a try; it's free."

Of course there will be a great many tools to add to the great List of Ignore, held within the bowels of Toolshedia, but hey, them's the breaks. Get trolls in every game, this one isn't so special. Ignore, report, move on. I'm willing to hope a tiny bit that the benefits of Freedom will outweigh the downfalls in that small minority population of the internet. But, we'll see.