Well they just took the forums down. Typical.

I'm going to live in my little purple-colored-sky world and hope that they brought the site down to offer the 6 month sub again. :P  Okay, it's not likely but it's fun to be dillusional.

I'll be playing regardless as I've paid for the game with really no chance of cancelling my pre-order so now it's just a matter of how long I play for.  One of the good things about month-to-month is they have to win my money every month.  How cool could STO closed beta really be anyhow? :)

I bought the Lifetime with HG:L and was very ticked that it died so quickly.  However, this is not Flagship but Cryptic and I really loved the CoX games so I took the chance and purchased the Lifetime sub anyway.  While I'm a bit disappointed in the Champions OnLine right now I think in time it should improve drastically.

As fars as the sell out is concerned, Cryptic really should have posted something on their site telling everyone that they were about to close it early... perhaps a 24 hour notice or something and list the reasons why.  I feel for those that wanted to get the Lifetime but did not purchase it in time.

Well i played the beta and i agree with allot of players on different things..I will tell you what i think..City of Hero's has nothing to worry about from CO..

Just to add..If Co was worry about the Life time sub, why did they add Micro into there game? Sounds like to me its a back up, if the game fails for p2p..And the life time subs would be vips..Just my thoughts..

Mod edit

Maybe not the best customer service, but I think it's high time us gamers got down off our high horses, dropped the uppity attitudes and stopped treating developers like they continuously owe us something.

Shit happens, they were overwhelmed by demand. That's a good thing, just unfortunate for those that couldn't get one. But all this 'uproar on the forums'.. I dunno.. it's not like anyone lost a testicle.. *shrugs*

Originally posted by harvest151

Anything with Bill & jack is bound to be a fiasco. All they need to do is get together with Smedly from Sony and we have an MMO Axis of evil. 
 
Played Beta - Neat for about 2 hours.

PVP is dueling in a box. And there are only 2 boxes.

PVE  - not enough content in game to even hit lvl 30 without pulling an Asian Grindfest (that we've seen - we didnt even get to test 2 zones)

Bug ridden and nowhere near ready for lauch

Public quest objectives - yes, 47 people standing around waiting to click a datapad on a 10 min respawn timer.

They have ALREADY completed their first game update and are 1/2 way through the second, yet the basic game is nowhere close to done.

Added Micro Transactions after Jack stated he hated them.

Lied and misinformed the community multiple times. Then they come in, call everything a misunderstanding. apologize, but do NOTHING to rectify it. (Words without action are nothing).

The whole sub thing.

Nerfed xp by 80% less than 48 hours before the end of beta, apologized, and it's still nerfed....2 days and 2 patches later.

The tooltips and stats ingame read like a drunken sailor on a peyote binge wrote them during a forced prison rape.

God forbid you get more than 20 ppl onscreen

No servers. - everything is on one big shard with limits of 100 ppl per zone. And with a main city hub about the size of....oooo...say...ALL OF THE EASTERN KINGDOMS in wow, it just feels totally empty.

Powersets need a ton of work and balance. Head over and do a search for "thunderbolt lunge" That will put you in the ballpark.

Costume combinations are restricted to what "they" think looks good. (try to build a samurai. Go ahead. all the parts are there, you just cant put them all on at the same time for some retarded reason)

some pre-orders get head starts, others dont.

They had D2D send an email out UNSOLICITED by their customers stating no refunds would be given (this one right here is a HUGE source of feelings of being dealt with in a shady manner)

They have yet to follow through on one single thing they have promsied in the last month.
 
If you really want to throw your money away, go for it. I wouldn't piss on jack or bill if they were on fire and I was catching.
 

 

 I wonder if your life time sub will be worth much in 6 months.  Personally I have only played one mmo more then 6 months.  Sounds almost like COX is better then this game. 

Originally posted by banthis

First everyone cries fowl they're even offering it..then they stop offering it because they reached the peak projection that finicially makes sense (something they probably never expected to reach so early) and everyone cries fowl again.  They can't win if they don't and can't win if they do...the gamer community in today's world is nothing but an entitlement wanting bunch of whiner babies.  Its really sad to see how much people cry these days. 

I mean SWG made sense to cry over atleast because it was a complete ripping scam..it made sense when people cried fowl about Age of Conan because it couldn't and never even tried to truely deliver on everything they yammered about.  But crying over a limited offer deal to spend 200 bucks and play the game for life? Yea..you know alot of nuts are going to come out of the wood work and claim fowl despite having no previous interest ... they're the same people that would sue McDonalds because they spilled their own hot coffee on themselves.

Obsessed MMO entitlement wishing players = Epic Fail.  

Atleast cry over something worth while like how the pvp never truely worked during the beta or how bad the first day of OB was but geezus over a limited subscription plan? Boo friggin woo really....

Bad Games aren't ruining the community anymore..its bad Community members.

   Ironically enough I did have an accident at McDonalds once, where after sitting down in one of their chairs and leaning back, the back of the chair (that was holding on by a thread, but looked perfectly fine) gave way. I went over backwards landing on my back and smacking my head on the tiled concrete floor, giving me a concussion. Several customers that saw it happen were looking at me with $ signs in their eyes while a couple were agreeing with a man that stated, "if that were me, I'd be a million dollars richer"! And to add to it the manager even stated in front of me and others while apologizing, that they had meant to put an out of order sign on the chair bur failed to do so. I did not sue, nor did I even accept the coupon booklets that they wanted to give me. True story.

 My beef with Cryptic is not this specific incident, rather a pattern of behavior. I always uphold the belief in second chances and sometimes even third. I still may even take a chance on STO, if their business practices improve, but they've already met their quota of wrongdoings with this game. Spend your money, if you choose. However, Jack Emmert isn't getting a dime of my money for this one!

I've been waiting, closely watching, and taking part in any and all activity surrounding STO since it was first started being talked about in another failed mmo beta i was in run by Perpetual(back when Perpetual was the dev of STO).I was pshyced when Cryptic obtained the project, and have been a daily member on the official forums since they were opened, BUT when Cryptic announced this "pay to play STO beta" offer by buying a lifetime or 6 month subscription to Champions Online(which i have no intention of playing, nor have i ever), i knew that things may have indeed started going the wrog way with STO.Many of us stopped playing SOE games because of practices like that and no matter how much we may be into or care about the property being developed(Star Trek in this case)simply won't hang around when stuff like this starts being offered long before the game even ships.I've been in MANY beta tests(original EQ client and many adons,Diablo 1,2,DAOC,Ultima Online,etc.,etc., blah, blah)and loved taking part in them because that's exactly what they were..BETA TESTING....not "pay to play release candidate clients" as most so called beta tests are.Even those that are actual real beta tests, are being given to those willing and/or able to pay/preorder/buying lifetime-6 month subscriptions to...etc. , and not randomly selected from the beta forum community or other way of fair selection where everyone (regardless of who they are or what they can or cannot pay for)has a chance to get in.

The crap has started happening long before STO even is due to ship(at least SOE took a few years to start doing things like this) and there's likely to be more stunts like this in the time in between if people put up with it and/or keep forking over the cash to buy their way into the beta.My guild took a vote this past weekend and as it stands, most of us won't be playing Champions or STO and even though a handful might still we definitely won't be taking part as a guild (with 70+ potential monthly paying accounts,as we currently have in another Space based mmo).MANY of us are VERY disappointed Cryptic has chosen to go this route with STO and never thought things would ever go THIS way, especially so soon, which even gives us more trepidation(this offer didn't even off the lifetime sub/6 month sub for STO to make matters even worse).We are sure Cryptic won't miss us, we are sure, but we feel we are making the right decision.There are alot of other new mmo's coming ot over the next year or so(including Aion, whose beta show great promise for the game soon to go live imo)and hopefully the many house running those new upstarts won't feel the neeed to pull stunts/bad buisness choices, like Cryptic did with Champions/STO.As it stands now, this stunt has cost STO 70+ paying accounts/boxes sold.They probably won't miss us, but we are sure that there's another new mmo in time that will definitely deserve and get our buisness and loyalty.

Originally posted by MrcdesOwnr

Originally posted by Korgana

Originally posted by MrcdesOwnr

Originally posted by gatheris

could someone please explain how you "run out" of what seems to be a virtual item?

maybe it is too many people to let into closed beta for STO?

if this is the case would it kill someone to just tell it like it is?

 

   Surely can! Cryptic fears that Champions Online isn't headed in the direction in regards to sales that the company first anticipated.  Marketing people over at Cryptic say, "hey, we've got an idea! Let's offer up a lifetime subscription to boost sales. It seemed to have worked for LOTRO." However, the bean counters over at Cryptic start to notice that the lifetime sub offer has had a much greater interest/turnout than expected and suddenly realize that they are losing money on said offer. Cryptic then proceeds to figuratively slam on the brakes (rather in this case, slam the car into a brick wall) on their promo!

Morale of the story:

MMO companies grow shadier and shadier as time moves on, i.e. Funcom!

 

Sorry you could not read but it always said "Limited Supply".

If your reply is directed at me, I will respond by saying the following:

I was in the Beta and did receive the offer via e-mail, however, neither did I read the offer, nor care as I have no intention of financing Captain Hypocrite and his band of merry men. Besides, if it is indeed a superhero genre game that I intend to play, I would much rather hold out for DCUO.

Thank you very much and have a nice day.  

sarcasm

Yeah, because SOE is that much better of a company when it comes to integrity.

/sarcasm

Seriously though, not defending Cryptic at all. This just goes to show that you can't really expect game companies to look out for their customers these days. Having "faith" or "trust" in a for-profit company that they will do right by you is almost totally foolish it seems.

Originally posted by GetViolated

good for this game

i can't wait it to stomp wow
 

----------------------

im no wow fanboy.... but seriously i played this game. i got a GIGANORMOUS computer... and the games run crappy and choppy on my pc... i cant have better than what i got since theres nothing on the market that is better right now... and the game isnt even fun... so how can it stomp wow ? o.O

seriously... il have to think about that all this week... while taking pre-order of aion at my job that is.....

I call bullshit on this. I think it's just a ploy to generate more demand. It will be interesting to see if they have a "change of heart" in a few days and let the lifetime subs continue to sell. All of the beta reports are pretty much negative, shills and fanboyz aside.

Regardless, anyone buying into another lifetime sub with Roper at the wheel needs to be kicked in the head, repeatedly. How fricken stupid can people be?

Well was considering it and had budgedt for it with this weeks paycheck but well looks like that wont happen. Tried to go to the form linked in original message and low and behold it is down for 'maintance' Looks like will just save my money for another game but to be honest this turned me away from it fully as when you try and say we said suplies were limited or a limited time only often know it is marketing speek to get people to buy it fast then and there. I hope that their limited amount was enough to keep them flush as well to be honest why not offer it to as many who want to as that is a locked in base of players. To end something that really costs them nothing right now seems silly. They rather have peopel paying a recuring rate but to be honest the lifetime that Turbine did for LotRO has kept me there and with expansions more than any other incentive.

Originally posted by harvest151

Anything with Bill & jack is bound to be a fiasco. All they need to do is get together with Smedly from Sony and we have an MMO Axis of evil. 
 
Played Beta - Neat for about 2 hours.

PVP is dueling in a box. And there are only 2 boxes.

PVE  - not enough content in game to even hit lvl 30 without pulling an Asian Grindfest (that we've seen - we didnt even get to test 2 zones)

Bug ridden and nowhere near ready for lauch

Public quest objectives - yes, 47 people standing around waiting to click a datapad on a 10 min respawn timer.

They have ALREADY completed their first game update and are 1/2 way through the second, yet the basic game is nowhere close to done.

Added Micro Transactions after Jack stated he hated them.

Lied and misinformed the community multiple times. Then they come in, call everything a misunderstanding. apologize, but do NOTHING to rectify it. (Words without action are nothing).

The whole sub thing.

Nerfed xp by 80% less than 48 hours before the end of beta, apologized, and it's still nerfed....2 days and 2 patches later.

The tooltips and stats ingame read like a drunken sailor on a peyote binge wrote them during a forced prison rape.

God forbid you get more than 20 ppl onscreen

No servers. - everything is on one big shard with limits of 100 ppl per zone. And with a main city hub about the size of....oooo...say...ALL OF THE EASTERN KINGDOMS in wow, it just feels totally empty.

Powersets need a ton of work and balance. Head over and do a search for "thunderbolt lunge" That will put you in the ballpark.

Costume combinations are restricted to what "they" think looks good. (try to build a samurai. Go ahead. all the parts are there, you just cant put them all on at the same time for some retarded reason)

some pre-orders get head starts, others dont.

They had D2D send an email out UNSOLICITED by their customers stating no refunds would be given (this one right here is a HUGE source of feelings of being dealt with in a shady manner)

They have yet to follow through on one single thing they have promsied in the last month.
 
If you really want to throw your money away, go for it. I wouldn't piss on jack or bill if they were on fire and I was catching.
 

I hate to say it, but as a long time beta tester of CO...QFT.

IF the number of subs was high, this is good news for players.  It means this game might outlive AOC.  If the number of subs was small then this is just a spin for the online magazines to generate some pub then shame on cryptic.  I don't like the game being released but I'm hoping they succeed cause I'd really like to buy this game.  Just don't want another financial loss like AOC/WAR.  Unlike the US gov't, I can control my spending.

Originally posted by donjuanamigo

why do any of you care if they have run out or not? if you had no plans of buying one, then you have no need to even comment and if you havent bought one by now, you certainly were not within the next 7 days.

actually i was, i ws just giving paying my cable internet bill prority

Lol... i wonder if anyone else noticed that one of the ads in rotation on this very thread page is an ad for the very preorder deal that we're discussing.  Which is not available any more (which is why we're discussing it).

I played the open beta of CO.  The impending feeling of Meh was not enough to overpower the lingering feelings of Feh towards Roper.

Pattern recognition is supposed to be an evolutionary advantage....

I've never preordered a game and never will.  I can't imagine the conditions under which I could know enough about a game up front to justify paying a lifetime sub.  I might play CO some time after launch, once it's clear that it's not "ropered" any worse than it already is.   But I predict that in six months I'll still be logging into the cheesy-assed korean f2p Rappelz, paying zero dollars and having lots of fun.

Well I, for one, wanted that STO beta invite. I just couldn't decide if lifetime was worth it, and had just settled on getting the 6 months after trying beta. I had NO clue there was a limited amount. The only restriction I knew of was Sept. 1. I am feeling quite peeved about it at the moment. There was NO reason Cryptic couldn't have added "while supplies last" to the offer page. Just sounds deliberately misleading or just stupid. Not sure which is less encouraging.

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

Originally posted by MrcdesOwnr

Originally posted by Korgana

Originally posted by MrcdesOwnr

Originally posted by gatheris

could someone please explain how you "run out" of what seems to be a virtual item?

maybe it is too many people to let into closed beta for STO?

if this is the case would it kill someone to just tell it like it is?

 

   Surely can! Cryptic fears that Champions Online isn't headed in the direction in regards to sales that the company first anticipated.  Marketing people over at Cryptic say, "hey, we've got an idea! Let's offer up a lifetime subscription to boost sales. It seemed to have worked for LOTRO." However, the bean counters over at Cryptic start to notice that the lifetime sub offer has had a much greater interest/turnout than expected and suddenly realize that they are losing money on said offer. Cryptic then proceeds to figuratively slam on the brakes (rather in this case, slam the car into a brick wall) on their promo!

Morale of the story:

MMO companies grow shadier and shadier as time moves on, i.e. Funcom!

 

Sorry you could not read but it always said "Limited Supply".

If your reply is directed at me, I will respond by saying the following:

I was in the Beta and did receive the offer via e-mail, however, neither did I read the offer, nor care as I have no intention of financing Captain Hypocrite and his band of merry men. Besides, if it is indeed a superhero genre game that I intend to play, I would much rather hold out for DCUO.

Thank you very much and have a nice day.  

sarcasm

Yeah, because SOE is that much better of a company when it comes to integrity.

/sarcasm

Seriously though, not defending Cryptic at all. This just goes to show that you can't really expect game companies to look out for their customers these days. Having "faith" or "trust" in a for-profit company that they will do right by you is almost totally foolish it seems.

A. I wasn't a customer of SOE's and therefore never experienced the fiasco of SWG. The whole fool ME once shame on... doesn't apply here for me on this one, sorry.

B. SOE may very well be the funding behind DCUO, but the development team is DC's own in house, which I will not fault for SWG.

I played Beta for Champions and aside from the numerous broken promises from Cryptic, not to mention the glaring hypocrisy by Jack Emmert (don't preach one thing to me, then do the exact opposite), Champions is nowhere near the release phase IMHO. . It just feels like AoC all over again to me. I'm also not partaking in Champions for the same reason I wouldn't buy a new car without the tires, doors and seatbelts.

SOE is EVIL.

'Nuff said.

 Dax

Originally posted by Daxamar

SOE is EVIL.

'Nuff said.

 

 Dax

 

Except CO is Cryptic/Atari

Originally posted by Senadina

Originally posted by Daxamar

SOE is EVIL.

'Nuff said.

 

 Dax

 

 

Except CO is Cryptic/Atari

Hah! So it is. I was refering to another post, but i didnt quote it. My bad.

You know what tho, Cryptic is getting there. There greed will over take them. Lifetime subs, RMT, and who knows whats next.

Im subbing to CO, but one month at a time. Im not taking NO chances with them.

 Dax

Yeah, if only the email offering the deals was titled something like ""Limited Champions Subscription Deals!"

...Oh, wait.

Well, if only Cryptic had announced that they were running low beforehand in an announcement on the main site:

http://www.champions-online.com/node/286510

...Damn it.

Conspiracy theories are fun, they're a great way to invest an otherwise uncaring universe with villains and grand, overarching plots. 

Not that I don't think the game has problems, but it's impossible to have a discussion about the game's actual problems when people continue to live in la-la land.

i'm not a big fan of this super hero genre. I did participate in beta or COH and hated it(got in CO beta but never played) =p the game however has been around for a long time and has improved alot according to some of my friends that still play. I guess my point is that the gametself might turn out to be pretty decent and surpass alot of players expectations given time. Its not often you see any game get released that could've been polished alot more before it got shipped to unsuspecting buyers.

---

Originally posted by Rhaeldric
Yeah, if only the email offering the deals was titled something like ""Limited Champions Subscription Deals!"
 
...Oh, wait.
 
Well, if only Cryptic had announced that they were running low beforehand in an announcement on the main site:
 
http://www.champions-online.com/node/286510
 
...Damn it.
 
Conspiracy theories are fun, they're a great way to invest an otherwise uncaring universe with villains and grand, overarching plots. 
 
Not that I don't think the game has problems, but it's impossible to have a discussion about the game's actual problems when people continue to live in la-la land.

---

even funnier that it was posted in the middle of the night, only on the mainpage and the whole payment system went into maintenance shortly after. not like they were able to send out newsletter or something...

Since i've been continuously receiving their emails, i decided to go back and take a look at a couple. I'd have to agree, they certainly didn't go out of their way to advertise either the Sept 1 deadline or the limited number of slots... Maybe they were somewhere else, but they definitely weren't in their mass emailing campaign

---------------------

We at Cryptic Studios and Atari are excited to announce our Champions Online six-month and lifetime subscription plans. Players who sign up for our long-term subscriptions will receive special perks, including eight additional character slots, special costume sets and guaranteed access to the Star Trek Online closed beta!

"Beyond the deep discount on the subscription rates, we wanted to come up with added incentives and exclusives that, as gamers, we could get excited about," said Jack Emmert, Cryptic Studios' Chief Operating Officer. "With an early commitment to Champions Online, granting guaranteed early access to our next big game, Star Trek Online, seemed like a great way to engage Cryptic’s biggest fans in other projects at the studio.”

Here are the great features our loyal customers will receive.

Discounted Lifetime Subscription

* Guaranteed Star Trek Online Closed Beta Access
* Eight Additional Character Slots
* Foxbat Vanity Pet
* Art Deco Costume Set
* Retro Future Costume Set
* STO Mirror Universe Costume Set

Discounted Six-month Subscription

* Guaranteed Star Trek Online closed beta access
* Retro Future Costume Set

Don’t miss out on these great deals! You can purchase your subscriptions now!

Discounted Lifetime Subscription
$199.99 USD
$219.99 CAN
£119.99 GBP W/OUT VAT
€147.99 EUR W/OUT VAT

Discounted Six-month Subscription
$59.99 USD
$65.99 CAN
£35.99 GBP W/OUT VAT
€44.99 EUR W/OUT VAT

------------------------------

That said, I'll give them something for a formal apology. Not much, but it's better than you'll get from some MMOs.