The more I am okay with them.  Here's why:

I plan on getting the lifetime subscription for $200.  The subscription will pay for itself in about a year.  After that, I can spend up to $15 bucks a month in the store and the stuff is more or less free to me.  If updates only come out once every 3-4 months like in COH, I can still get a little fluff to play around with between issues.  Seems like a good deal to me.

I have no crusade against MTs in games anyway, especially when the items are all fluff or services like server transfers.   Besides, I knew MMOs were an expensive hobby when I started.  No since turning into a cheap bastard now... 

I was mad at first, in fact real mad, but now I'm ok with it.

If it's only fluff stuff great, if it's important stuff then I'll buy it and kick some pvp butt :)

It s nothing that isn t obtainable by anyone in game so I ll never care to use it. Hell I played EQ2 and never once bought anything from their store.

Originally posted by Deathstrike2

 After that, I can spend up to $15 bucks a month in the store and the stuff is more or less free to me.

The logic is flawless.

I don't know about you, but If I were to buy a lifetime sub to a game, I would expect to drop $200 at the beginning and not have to pay another dime with the exceptions of expansion packs. Paying a lifetime sub SO THAT you can pay $15 a month for virtual items is absolutely retarded. Enjoy getting milked.

Ok, I don't like the idea of a game with the normal sub fee of $15 and MTs.

After thinking about it... I've come to relizes the do spend alot of money making theses game, and takes awhile recoup the costs.
MTs do help them do this.

I'm still against it, but oh well.

Now that being said.... they better keep mostly of the stuff Cosmetic, with maybe a few things that don't effect combat, that people can get in the game too (like faster out of combat health regen or something like that.) and I'm going to ok with it.

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by Deathstrike2

 After that, I can spend up to $15 bucks a month in the store and the stuff is more or less free to me.

 

The logic is flawless.

I don't know about you, but If I were to buy a lifetime sub to a game, I would expect to drop $200 at the beginning and not have to pay another dime with the exceptions of expansion packs. Paying a lifetime sub SO THAT you can pay $15 a month for virtual items is absolutely retarded. Enjoy getting milked.

No one is forcing you to purchase stuff in that store. 

I'd rather have a larger subscribtion fee personally, instead of 15$ sub+store but the minors would likely cry if it was higher than 15$

The fact that they have cryptic bucks that can be used in multiple games opens up an amazing possilbity that friends and I have talked about for a long time... one subscription for multiple games.  Wouldn't it be great to pay 15 buck a month, and then play either Champions Online or Star Trek Online, assuming you've purchased both games?

Originally posted by madeux

The fact that they have cryptic bucks that can be used in multiple games opens up an amazing possilbity that friends and I have talked about for a long time... one subscription for multiple games.  Wouldn't it be great to pay 15 buck a month, and then play either Champions Online or Star Trek Online, assuming you've purchased both games?

Similar to Sony's Station Pass.  One fee (like $30/mo) gets you access to EQ, EQ2, PotBS, VG, SWG, and FR for the kids.

I'm in total agreement, I wish more companies would do the same.

 Compared to playing WoW:

1) The game purchase is still required, it costs probably around same as the purchase of WoW was when it was launched

2) WoW subcribtion fee is 12.99$ per month (in 6 month subcription), with 199.99$ you'd get 15 months and 12 days of game time.

If you'd use even 2$ per month to micro trancactions, you'd have to play Champions Online actively for more than 1 1/2 years for it to be as cheap as playing WoW continously. That is assuming that there won't be any expansions you'd have to pay for.

I think it's really expensive. But on the other hand Cryptic has already made CoH/CoV, so they should know what they are doing with Champions Online, and if someone has paid CoH/CoV for years, buying the lifetime subcription seems reasonable.

Just one thing I wonder: If the game won't do as well as Cryptic has planned, a game that launches as P2P with item shop would incline that Cryptic might at some point make it F2P with item shop. Lifetime subcription buyers might get a really bad deal.

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by Deathstrike2

 After that, I can spend up to $15 bucks a month in the store and the stuff is more or less free to me.

 

The logic is flawless.

I don't know about you, but If I were to buy a lifetime sub to a game, I would expect to drop $200 at the beginning and not have to pay another dime with the exceptions of expansion packs. Paying a lifetime sub SO THAT you can pay $15 a month for virtual items is absolutely retarded. Enjoy getting milked.

What are you?  Vulcan?  Logic... lol

First, I don't HAVE to buy anything.  What I said was that after a year or so, I get my money's worth on the lifetime sub.  Any play time after that is more or less gravy.  If I choose to spend money on MT after that, I'm not out anything at all.  It's not rocket science.

How that equates to getting milked is beyond me.  Rather, playing $15 a month for a game for 4+ years with no end to the payments in sight seems more like a milking than anything.  Regardless of who's doing the milking though, $15 a month comes out to about .50 cents a day.  Big money, I know... But I think I'll be okay either way. 

I was pretty pissed about MTs in CO when I first found out about them.  I'm still wary of the wording of the explaination too, considering they have left room to sell items with non-cosmetic effects if they want to.  Having said that, I think the game looks great, and I am so burned out on elves and magic that I am inclined to have a little faith in Cryptic keeping the MTs under control.

I don't imagine I'll go lifetime sub, since the nagging voices in my head keep saying the more people who do that, the more likely Cryptic will need to rely on MTs for continuous cash flow.

I just don't understand what makes CO items and development that much greater than any other game that charges 50-60 dollars for a game box and 15 dollars a month for subscription. What exactly makes it so special to charge money for items that the initial game box should've been covering(pre-launch development), and the subscription should be continuing to cover (dev costs)?

Originally posted by TheStarheart

I just don't understand what makes CO items and development that much greater than any other game that charges 50-60 dollars for a game box and 15 dollars a month for subscription. What exactly makes it so special to charge money for items that the initial game box should've been covering(pre-launch development), and the subscription should be continuing to cover (dev costs)?

Some favour the rampant greed theory. Backing that up is a $48 million bonus attached to the sale of Cryptic to Infogrames (who gave it to Atari as a rescue package) based on performance of CO and STO by 2011.

It's also possibly a niche thing. Any product that's going to be very popular can be mass produced and that lowers the cost. "Specialty" products may still have a place in the market but they'll be a bit more expensive even though that higher expense lowers the probability of it being bought.

Though Jack Emert says 100k subscribers is their break-even point - beyond that they're in a profit zone. So you have to wonder what's going on with the MTs....

Personally I'd pay more than $15 a month for an mmo I really liked, but MTs put the game in a whole different category.

Originally posted by green13

Personally I'd pay more than $15 a month for an mmo I really liked, but MTs put the game in a whole different category.

I agree with you on this point, and I would have to believe that the game was sufficiently worth the content. But Cryptic is putting a price tag on the thing that got them subs in the first place, character customization. Not to mention when Atari acquired Cryptic they said that their tools allowed them to make a game with half of the average MMO production costs. You think we'd see a more solid game because of it, not one with fragmented content between "acquireable" and "for purchase".

Originally posted by madeux

The fact that they have cryptic bucks that can be used in multiple games opens up an amazing possilbity that friends and I have talked about for a long time... one subscription for multiple games.  Wouldn't it be great to pay 15 buck a month, and then play either Champions Online or Star Trek Online, assuming you've purchased both games?

This is what people forget or don't even realise Cryptic Points (ala the MT system) isn't just for CO but for STO and possibly a third rumoured game, so like someone stated before it could extend into a Station Pass type thing...

I think the main problem is misinformation people are comaring Cryptic's system to the F2P market too much, where those games need your money to actally continue, where as if you look at SOE's system it's not that bad, Station Players, the Items fr real cash system in EQ/EQ2 and the Station Pass have still been profitable for them (it must have been because it's been going on for so long) even though many players flame SOE a lot..

With DLC/MTs being to practally every game these days, it was only a matter of time for a dev to again gamble with this type of system, it's paid off once with SOE, perhaps it will for Cryptic - again it's all down to how it's handled.