Will it still be, y'know, fun?

The F2P change has generated a lot of comments already. But I'm not sure a central question has been addressed: will making the game F2P keep the fun?

I've been playing for 7 years. I stay because I love the game and because you guys are fun to team with. Really, if I wanted to solo all the time there are plenty of FPS games on other platforms. Right now, we are all on an even footing, we pay because it's the only way to play. But what happens when that changes?

I worry that if I play on the F2P servers, I will (A) get trashed by rude people, (B) play with people who aren't very experienced or that interested in the game, or (C) only play with people who have a minimal commitment and will log out after the first team wipe: "this game sux kthnxby"

On the other hand, on the VIP server, I worry that (A) teammates will not tolerate any casual attitudes or gameplay errors: after all, they are paying to be there, and/or (B) the only teams will be level 50s grinding out the latest and greatest Trials for the Incarnate powers.

Neither of these options falls into the "fun" category for me.

My wife only plays intermittently now, so I bet she will want to go to F2P status. But I know that if she logs in 4 months from now to find out she can only play 2 of her characters, she will not be happy. If she finds out she can't play with me because all my "good" characters are on the VIP server, that will be bad too.

Are these legitimate concerns?

I think all you can do is wait and see. Honestly, though, I see your A, B, and C concerns happen in the game often enough now (not to mention your VIP A and B).

Some people have had good experiences in F2P games (myself among them), others not so much. So bottom line is no one knows (although whichever group turns out to be right will claim they knew all along and be insufferable).

As a past subscriber, your wife will be a "Premium" player.

That means that she'll almost certainly have access to more than two characters, though equally likely that she won't have access to all of them if she is an altoholic.

As for your other concerns - You will encounter them to some degree, yes. It will almost certainly NOT be to a degree that makes you unhappy, any more than the current game's resident nimrods make you unhappy.

In the end, don't worry. Things will proceed as they proceed. The only answer to your concerns is "wait and see". My personal experience with freemium MMO's is that such fears tend to be much larger than any actual problems.

I think to a large extent it will be up to you, not to the other players. Whatever attitude you take into it will color your perception of the change, for good or ill.

I've gone through the same change in another MMO and am still having a blast. It has not changed for me. Yet I see other posters who play that same MMO comment that F2P "ruined" the game for them.

The only examples of seen of this "ruining" are things I've seen from day one of the game (non-lore character names, players not knowing how to play their ATs, etc.). None of this is new in the least, though there is greater volume -- because there are more players. If any game has an explosion of players -- subbed or F2P -- you'd see exactly the same thing.

My advice would be that until you actually do experience something mindnumbingly negative, just play as you have always played and you'll probably still have fun. If you go into it looking for negatives, you'll find them, whether it's really any different or not.

The very low levels may suck for a while, but if you see any freedom player who has stuck with one of their two characters past level 20 then I think it might be likely that they have a genuine interest in playing the game just like any other of the new players that have been consistently joining this game.

It should be fun. And you can safely ignore the one lonely VIP server if you want. I don't actually expect that many players will rush over there. Some will but most... Meh they will stay happily on their existing server.

As for attitudes, you get some people being self righteous no matter what. Ignore them it is better for your blood pressure.

Personally, I worry more about the game reaching into my pocket and how that will impact my fun. Flat subscription games have no need to advertise their latest greatest to me in-game, because I'm already paying for it. F2P games, even ones I'm already paying for, want me to pay even more, and so constantly remind me of the "incentive" to spend more money. I have a severe dislike of TV commercials, and the commercials-equivalent in games doesn't make me any happier.

If Paragon Studios can make the transition such that I don't feel like the game constantly expects me to pay more than I am, there's a high chance that my fun won't be ruined. And if a game can keep me entertained, then I'm all the more willing to invest more money in it.

We'll see how that goes.

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As far as "other people" ruining the game go, that's a myth. We've had new players, we've had idiot players, we've had snob players and we've had them since the game came out. This isn't going to change, not by very much, anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Yes, as long as you're subscribed--no matter when you subscribe--you're a VIP player. Even if you were to start playing City of Heroes Freedom well after Freedom launches and you decide you'd like to upgrade to VIP status, once you become a VIP you can join the VIP server if you choose.

I dunno, we have had the free trials for some time now for destructive twits who just want to long in and get "lols". how much more are we expecting the restrictive nature of what channels free players can post in to enable determined jerks that they cant already do? yeah there may be a short lived spurt of idiots that follows the new f2p caravan to defecate on as many games as their little brains can handle, but since another game is going f2p and has naked boobs and pvp griefing,n it in a roughly similar time frame, i expect that to hold their attention longer and for the unpleasantness to dry up about as quickly as it did the last few times we got waves of spammers and idiots.

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