CoH Freedom VIP Starter Kit

Hey guys,

I decided to pick up CoH again but have run into a problem. I saw the ad for "City of Heroes Freedom™ VIP Starter Kit" and I was like; "Oh I haven't bought "Going Rogue" yet so maybe I should buy this. Now let me clarify one thing. I have a CoH account that I started in '06, in-fact that's the only account that I have and therefor is the one I'm am currently using to type this forum post. I went to my account page on NCsoft and checked out my CoH account type and right next to the words "Account Type:" it said free. Therefor I assumed that I would be able to apply the "City of Heroes Freedom™ VIP Starter Kit" to my account to be able to play again because on the purchase screen for this package in the NCsoft Store it states the following "The City of Heroes Freedom™ VIP Starter Kit can only be applied to new or free(non-premium) accounts.". So since mine was stated as a free account I though that I would be able to apply the code from the package to my account and voila! But no...

The only thing it allows me to do it click on "-You have 1 unused serial code(s)." and then it brings me to an account creator screen and I did try to re-enter my existing account details but it wont apply it to my account. It says I need to make a new account. I sent a message to NCsoft and got a reply back I don't really understand it. Here it is:

Hi,

I just purchased the VIP Starter Kit for City of heroes Freedom for 14.99$ thinking I could use i on my existing account but it won't let me. I chose this package because it came with "Going Rogue" and I didn't have that yet. On the following webpage; https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/St...em&item_id=593 it states this: "The City of Heroes Freedom™ VIP Starter Kit can only be applied to new or free(non-premium) accounts.". My account falls under the category of free(non-premium) so I assumed that I would be able to use this code towards my existing account. Is there any way to achieve this?

Thanks

This was the reply that I got:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting NCsoft Account Support.

Freedom Head Start is currently only available for VIP players (accounts that have an active subscription). If you had an active subscription on September 13th, you will automatically become a VIP player and you will be able to log into our live servers and enjoy City of Heroes Freedom Head Start! This includes Issue 21: Convergence, the Paragon Rewards™ program and all of the services and items available through the Paragon Market™!

If you are not an active subscriber, you will not yet be able to play during Head Start. Please keep an eye on the City of Heroes Announcements page at http://boards.cityofheroes.com/forumdisplay.php?f=565 for updates on our plans for making City of Heroes Freedom available to all players.

Regards
Norris
NCsoft Account Support

I don't really understand the answer. Does anyone else understand it? I feel like he didn't answer my concern but maybe I just don't understand it. Anyways, I ended up buying a month of game time the old fashioned way (with a credit-card) so that I could post this post and hopefully get some answers and also so that I could play CoH once again.

So I guess here are a couple of my questions:

• Will I be able to use the VIP Starter Kit code on my existing account?
• Now that I am VIP (because I purchased one month of playtime), will I get access to Going Rogue and then say I revert back to free/premium will I still have access to it?
• Does anyone really understand the answer that I got from Norris?

Based on the info in your post, you would be a premium (VIP now) account, and not a free account. I'm not sure why the NCSoft website claimed you were a 'free' account (unless it can't distinguish between Freem and Preem accounts and just calls both 'free'... which would be a bad design issue!), because you definitely aren't (you had previously bought the game & played... if you've ever spent money on/for an account, it's preem!).

It sounds like the message you got from the GM misunderstood what you were asking, since the issue you're having is that you want to apply a code to an account that shouldn't be able to actually have it applied to it, but the NCSoft website's account management interface claimed you were freem instead.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

The VIP Starter Kit gives you nothing but a free month of VIP for a new account. Going Rogue is now included in the VIP subscription, but you won't have it if you drop back to Premium. The only way to Going Rogue for Premium it is to track down a copy of Going Rogue (it's no longer being sold, but some places might still have it) or buy its components in game on the Paragon Market.

So basically, yes, it's mostly a waste of money. If you can't get it refunded you could still use it as an alternate Premium account where you could create another 2 characters and 400 Paragon Points to spend thanks to the VIP month.