City of Heroes on Steam with Achievements & Purchasable Starter/Vanity Item Packs
By
8_Ball,
Posted on: 2012-07-09 12:52 in Suggestions and Ideas
Contrary to the massive over exaggerations some people are making about Steam being as bad as Hitler, I actually like it. Great place to get great games for incredibly cheap. Nice and organized. And, honestly, I could see CoH getting quite a few new players and some pretty good exposure if it were on the front page of Steam whenever a new Issue comes out. This game could always use some more advertisement.
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I never did understand Paragon Marketing's MO of "only send ads to current customers."
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Originally Posted by Xzero45
Contrary to the massive over exaggerations some people are making about Steam being as bad as Hitler, I actually like it. Great place to get great games for incredibly cheap. Nice and organized. And, honestly, I could see CoH getting quite a few new players and some pretty good exposure if it were on the front page of Steam whenever a new Issue comes out. This game could always use some more advertisement.
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My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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Didn't one of the devs back when Freedom launched tell us that CoH is terrible at getting new players, but really good at keeping and maintaining old ones? That might have to do with that.
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Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
I never did understand Paragon Marketing's MO of "only send ads to current customers."
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Still doesn't make it any less odd.
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Originally Posted by Xzero45
Didn't one of the devs back when Freedom launched tell us that CoH is terrible at getting new players, but really good at keeping and maintaining old ones? That might have to do with that.
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My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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I don't see how it would make it any less odd. He was saying that sending ads mainly to current customers had something to do with why CoH was bad at attracting new customers. |
Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
Still doesn't make it any less odd.
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Virtue Server
Avatar art by Daggerpoint
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Ah.|
Originally Posted by Tyger42
I don't see how it would make it any less odd. He was saying that sending ads mainly to current customers had something to do with why CoH was bad at attracting new customers.
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Excuse me while I go have another cup of coffee, my reading comprehension levels are dangerously low.
My guides:Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery, Illusion Control/Kinetics/Primal Forces Mastery, Electric Armor
"Dark Armor is a complete waste as a tanking set."
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I honestly wouldn't be surprised. The only reason I even decided to try out COH is I googled "games with good character customization," found an old thread from years ago saying CoH's character system was good, did some more googling and found out it was free to play and I had nothing to lose. Which is kind of odd because, despite (until now, I guess?) never really being an MMO player, I know that both WoW and ToR are FTP up to a certain level right now, and I could also probably list off at least half a dozen freemium Korean MMOs off the top of my head, mostly due to ads I've seen on a bunch of websites.
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Originally Posted by Xzero45
Didn't one of the devs back when Freedom launched tell us that CoH is terrible at getting new players, but really good at keeping and maintaining old ones? That might have to do with that.
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CALM DOWN, ROBOT NINJA. (Just kidding. |
Originally Posted by Xzero45
Contrary to the massive over exaggerations some people are making about Steam being as bad as Hitler, I actually like it. Great place to get great games for incredibly cheap. Nice and organized. And, honestly, I could see CoH getting quite a few new players and some pretty good exposure if it were on the front page of Steam whenever a new Issue comes out. This game could always use some more advertisement.
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But I liked how you slid that Godwin in there without anyone seeming to notice. )Seriously though, I have got to admit, this thread is slightly embarrassing. For me, I mean. I don't often create threads, or even post in them, for that matter; I'm a huge lurker, and honestly I thought I had posted something that would generate some positive comments. Instead I think I must have come off looking like a troll to many of you. But I assure you, I had NO IDEA that Steam had such a large anti-fan base. And I still don't get it. Steam has introduced me to SO many wonderful distractions over the past couple of years--games I never would have imagined existed, as well as some games I never would have imagined myself playing (and loving). It has proven to me that the indie scene has many jewels in the rough. It has never given me or anyone on my Steam friends list any problems, and that includes a couple of my bestest super friends from Virtue. And Steam sales have made Christmas shopping for my fellow nerds a breeze. (I actually added my City of Heroes friends to my Christmas shopping list last year--WHO DOES THAT???
)And I've noticed, too, that my fellow nerds tend to inquire quite a lot about what I'm playing when they see me racking up the hours on something unfamiliar on my online status indicator. So the biggest shame is that no one ever sees the game I play the most displayed on my online status. I tried adding City of Heroes to my library as a non-steam game, which does grant me the Steam overlay in City of Heroes, but does not display it on my status. I believe it is because we have to launch City of Heroes via its launcher (not the executable), so Steam never actually groks what the launcher is being used to launch. I spent about an hour researching this problem recently, to no avail.
Anyway, rest assured that if I had suspected this thread's outcome at all, I would not have posted it. A few of you mentioned exposure, and yeah, when it comes to exposure, you cannot beat Steam, whatsoever. Several big companies out there are spending a great deal of money trying (and failing). But if the community doesn't want it, the community doesn't want it.
@Captain-Electric � Detective Marvel � The Sapien Spider � Moravec Man � The Old Norseman
Dark-Eyes � Doctor Serpentine � Stonecaster � Skymaiden � The Blue Jaguar
Guide to Altitis � A Comic for New Players � The Lore Project � Intro to extraterrestrials in CoH
@Xzero
People also tend to forget that the NClauncher is much worse. Takes up more CPU, not nearly as many features, NC does not have sales of their own, cannot get it's name out nearly as well, few good titles (in my opinion at least) and very few titles to begin with. (Guild Wars, City of, Aion, Lineage I & II, and I think that's it.) Oh, also store feature on the NCLauncher doesn't work, at least for me.
Opening up to steam could be a very nice boon of advertisement and connecting, especially with things like the ability to gift in-game items between eachother. Unfortunately, the decision is actually out of Paragon Studios' hands and in the hands of stone-faced soulless, Korean businessmen.
@BrightBlueInk
I love your Avatar. And I love Lackadaisy Cats.
@Captain Electric
Do you think I was joking about the cross-promotional items? Okay, I kind of was, but seriously, if we could get things like Spy's butterfly knife and Sniper's Kukri for DB (giving us more knife DB options), Scout's bat for Warmace (the present one is not color tintable and only wood), and Spy's Ambassador, Sniper's SMG for DP, and the various, valid guns for Assault and Beam Rifle weapons, I would be AMAZINGLY happy. And the hats.
And I would also be happy to actually have some genuine quality promotional items for my TF2 backpack.
Click here to find all the All Things Art Threads!
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.
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@Captain-Electric: I quite like Steam, but I can understand why some people would have such a strong reaction to it. It's not perfect, but it's currently (as far as I can tell--new to PC gaming in general) one of the biggest forces in the PC market, so if you don't like it you have to put up with people talking a lot about it and a lot of other companies rushing off to make Steam clones.
That being said, I do think it'd be nice if my friends could see me playing and enjoying the game so they'd be motivated to come along with me! But I guess I'll just have to do word of mouth the old fashioned way, haha.
@AzureSkyCiel: Wow, thanks! I didn't think anyone would recognize my avatar at all! Nice to see another Lackadaisy fan.
Other than the fact that occasionally steam won't connect on startup (and when it doesn't default to offline mode which is enabled) I've found steam great. Compared to other DRM platforms its extremely benign and I like the recovery options (aka no discs required to reinstall)
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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Because sending automated e-mails out to people who aren't your current customers is classified as "spam".
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Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
I never did understand Paragon Marketing's MO of "only send ads to current customers."
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Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
My personal experience with Steam has been limited but positive. I had seen the negative press, but one day Valve had a fire sale on several games I was interested in (Mass Effect, for one) and a couple I was curious about (Torchlight primarily). I played them here and there and never experienced any particular problems with them,nor did I particularly engage with the 'out of game' chat and achievements system.
Recently, my main computer went TU and is awaiting a power supply. My spare is a Touchsmart all-in-one kind of thing (which means that it's a fancy laptop inside) but its downfall is a crappy generic Intel GPU. It can handle CoH only on the lowest graphical settings and even then it has a tendency to crash at inopportune moments. Most untoward, considering I just re-upped my subscription.
Anyway, I was looking for some amusement and I remembered Steam and Torchlight and that seemed like a good bet for something the weaksauce computer could handle. Had Torchlight downloaded in an hour, got it installed and voila! The only hitch was resetting my Steam password. Steam even remembered the status of my Torchlight character. It must have kept a save file on its cloud someplace.
I ended up making a new character but if I had wanted to do it, I could have just picked up where I left off, despite being on another computer entirely and installing months/years after the initial installation.
They also have Freedom Force for six bucks and I might have to take advantage of that, since I lost my copy of Freedom Force a long time ago.
All in all, I've got no problem with Steam. I don't really see the synergy with most MMO's, including City of Heroes, but I don't have any particular problems with distributing MMO's via Valve's service.
steam is "good" the way facebook is "good"- it makes a thing that used to require some effort very simple and easy, and all it asks in return is total access to a very valuable resource- your personal information.
Not my scene, but I can see why it's popular.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
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WHAT?!?|
Originally Posted by Chocolate_Bacon
...but this is the forums man. Anything you post will draw out at least a strong handful of opposition.
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That is an OUTRAGEOUS BOLD FACE LIE!! Come on, everyone, grab your pitchforks and rally against this!!!
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
Who needs Steam when we have Atomic Power!?!?!?!
Okay, seriously...
So long as there was never any need or leveraging (exclusive Steam items) to have me install and run Steam, I'd love the game to have that kind of exposure. Packs and bundles could be fine, so long as I can get the stuff they contain normally... honestly, I could probably even live with a great deal that'd require me to install it once and remove it, if I so pleased.
I've never used Steam and don't foresee myself doing so, just because I have no need or cause to (nor any desire to).
I honestly don't know how good or bad it is though. I just don't play other games very much these days (don't play this one as often as I'd like!).
@Zethustra
"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan
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I'm willing to bet that my NCLauncher uses less CPU and memory than Steam does.|
Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel
@Xzero
People also tend to forget that the NClauncher is much worse. Takes up more CPU, not nearly as many features |
Why? Because I use it for its primary purpose. Starting up and patching CoH. Nothing more. Once the game launches, NCLauncher shuts down.
As for features. All I want is something that can start up CoH and patch it when it needs patching. Preferably with minimum hassle. The NCLauncher does this in spades.
What do I need Steam for?
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| NC does not have sales of their own, cannot get it's name out nearly as well |
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| few good titles (in my opinion at least) and very few titles to begin with. (Guild Wars, City of, Aion, Lineage I & II, and I think that's it.) |
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| Oh, also store feature on the NCLauncher doesn't work, at least for me. |
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| Opening up to steam could be a very nice boon of advertisement and connecting, especially with things like the ability to gift in-game items between eachother. Unfortunately, the decision is actually out of Paragon Studios' hands and in the hands of stone-faced soulless, Korean businessmen. |
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
The "Stone-faced, Soulless" remark was purely a joke, no need to look into it.
Edit: also, actually NCLauncher takes up about 10-11% of my CPU's power while steam averages 0-1%
Click here to find all the All Things Art Threads!
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.
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Honestly, it's usually that way among gamers. The more fans a game, dev company, or whatever has, the more anti-fans it has. Same principle seems to apply to movies and music as well.
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Originally Posted by Captain-Electric
CALM DOWN, ROBOT NINJA. (Just kidding.
But I liked how you slid that Godwin in there without anyone seeming to notice. )Seriously though, I have got to admit, this thread is slightly embarrassing. For me, I mean. I don't often create threads, or even post in them, for that matter; I'm a huge lurker, and honestly I thought I had posted something that would generate some positive comments. Instead I think I must have come off looking like a troll to many of you. But I assure you, I had NO IDEA that Steam had such a large anti-fan base. |
Virtue Server
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You realize that there are more ways than email to advertise, right?
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Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
Because sending automated e-mails out to people who aren't your current customers is classified as "spam".
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Virtue Server
Avatar art by Daggerpoint
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I don't recall it asking for anything I haven't given to other online market places or game studios.
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
steam is "good" the way facebook is "good"- it makes a thing that used to require some effort very simple and easy, and all it asks in return is total access to a very valuable resource- your personal information.
Not my scene, but I can see why it's popular. |
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
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So they all track everything you do every second you're connected to Steam too?|
Originally Posted by Rajani Isa
I don't recall it asking for anything I haven't given to other online market places or game studios.
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Wow.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
QR: Wait, you mean that *Right now* steam knows i am typing this response to you?
*grab tinfoil hat*
Or are you referring to the fact that it tracks what games you run through it (which you can actually do using built in functions of Windows API).
*shrugs* if anything, it is less insidious as "The Warden" that Blizzard uses for WoW.
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How much CPU does it use if you have it start up only to start the game and shut down once the game is launched?|
Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel
The "Stone-faced, Soulless" remark was purely a joke, no need to look into it.
Edit: also, actually NCLauncher takes up about 10-11% of my CPU's power while steam averages 0-1% |
10% for a couple seconds vs 1% all day long? Pfft.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Also, Steam's huge, and used by a lot of people. The exposure certainly wouldn't hurt.
Virtue Server
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