Originally posted by jimbo833

great thread, but i have a few questions.

 

is it worth the £8 a month, as trail version is on NA i ant test, so wondering if you think it's realy worth it.( i dont have a job, im 16 and might e getting a job soon so please take this into consideration)

and are there a lot of missions and do they vary (if not do they vary in style like, seem worth it instead of 2 lines of text saying that "kill these monsters coz i dont like them" or" kill these monsters because they drop something shiny and i like shiny things")

thanks

I am sorry, I am not understanding your first query. The trial version is "on NA i ant test'?  I  have to assume that was a typo, but I can't quite make out what you are asking. Sorry. 

I think the cost of the game is well worth the game play. You don't have to missions at all if you don't want to.  But the mission stories and story arcs and VERY detailed. They start out a bit dry, but the deeper  you get into the stories, the more you will understand about the underlying story behind the game. Hint: Most of  the details, even in the early story arcs, eventually make sense later in your hero's 'career'.

The missions vary from villain side missions to kidnap, and steal, to heroes that rescue, find things, and battle with certain foes. Some are in detailed arcs, that involve long stories that span several missions.

Hope this helps and answers your questions.

Sent. The game is a lot of fun. The best part is you can highly customize your characters. From their looks, outfits to power sets, it is easy to make one that is just right for your play style.

I play on Liberty Server, if you get in game. My global is @VuDu DawL however I am normally on perma-/hide perma-/ghide... feel free to shoot me a tell - I will get it even if I am offlline. I won't be on much this week but next week is SPRING BREAK! YAY!

As for casual, CoH has SO many ways you can play. There are hardcore players, badge hunters, and folks who just like to log on to socialize. Any way you wish to play, whether it be grinding for XP, RP'ing with friends, or just simply logging on when you get a bit of spare time and soloing a mission here and there, you can enjoy the game at your own pace.

I was just playing tonight with someone who returned to CoH from WoW.

Oh, and welcome to Paragon City.

Originally posted by Wikkedbowtie

Last piece of advice for ya. Save your inf until you hit the level for Dual Origin enhancements. The training enhancements are ok, but the additions they give are just not really worth the cost. Since once you slot it you can't sell it back, you should only slot with the drops you get until you can buy better enhancements. Once you hit DO and SO levels it will be kind of tough to afford all that you need, unless you get some lucky recipe drops.

Great advice. Spending the money for the training enhancements truly is a waste, especially considering how quickly you pass those levels.

Dual origins start at lvl 15s, and can be slotted starting at 12. Single origins start at lvl 25s, and can be slotted starting at lvl 22. (You can slot an enhancement that is three levels higher than your current level).

Naseem, you are on Freedom, so I can't help you much.  I am a dedicated Liberty Server player, but best of luck. There are some fine people on Freedom and I am sure you will have a lot of friends and lots of fun in no time.

Good points. I can understand someone not wanting to have to subscribe everyone in their family just to play together. (Of course, I had, at one time, four CoH accounts... often playing two, and sometimes playing three simultaneously. Two monitor screens and a laptop and VERY fast fingers... The really funny part is having conversations with yourself between two characters, and having others think there are actually two people there.  )

Rather than use the analogy of a grocery store, I think a more apt one is the one presented by Three Rings Design, the creators of Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates. They compare their choices of microsystem of payment (doubloons)  to "ala carte" and their subscription model to "all you can eat".

I think perhaps having both types of models available is the optimal way to attract the maximum amount of customers. You have customers like myself who remain dedicated to a game and the friends they have made there (which is truly what keeps people in MMOs) and customers like yourself who want the casual gaming experience without making the financial commitment to a recurring monthly fee.
 
I think the company that outlasts them all will be one that recognizes all facets of this equation, and finds a way to please the most types of customers simultaneously.

One thought that I am surprised did not come out during the free vs. subscription debate was one that I found during a tenure as a 'sysop' on Microsoft's MSN Gaming Zone. Subscriptions (and thus fully registered game accounts with real-world details) appear to take a bit of the 'anonymity' out of the Internet gaming experience. I believe this enables game hosting management to more effectively police their player base. It appears to also encourage better behaviour in the players. When there is something at stake (that is: an account that the person has years of subscription fees invested in), I feel this provides a bigger incentive to "play by the rules" and observe the community standards.

I know there was a huge difference in the conduct of players in our subscription-based game, the WWII Combat Flight Sim, Fighter Ace, for which players paid a $9.95 subscription fee, as opposed to the dreaded "free rooms", as the some of us referred to the 'non-subscription' free to play games. A free account + bad behaviour (spamming, profanity, trolling for arguments) = disciplinary action usually starting with a small 'time out' boot or gag, and escalating to a full account ban results in mostly zero consequence to the user. A new account can be easily created, and a new IP address, or even a new ISP can be easily obtained.  But a subscription account + bad behaviour results in the ability to immediately personally contact the offending user, and much more easily enforce a ban by simply banning the account details themselves, which are a fixed asset - unlike the basic identifying properties of any 'free' account: a 'throwaway' nickname and an IP address, which can easily be forged or changed.

I played Fighter Ace for many years, including time spent as a volunteer sysop. I now play City of Heroes (in between semesters of nursing school). My main account has been active over 33 months. I personally think subscriptions are much easier models of game purchase.

I also dabble occasionally in Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, which has both models available. They have a subscription model, on servers where you pay a monthly fee, and a microsystem model, on servers where you buy 'doubloons' for a real-world fee, which are then used within the game's 'economy' to buy certain aspects of the game. Guess which server I play on? Yep. The subscription one. It is much simpler to pay one fee than it is to have to deal with the hassles of running off to buy in-game currency every time I need something new. This is, of course, my own personal preference, and is based solely on the fact that I prefer the simplicity of having a subscription to a game where I can simply log in, play, have fun, and not have to worry about having to stop my gameplay to log into a website and make a purchase.

Just my .01 female opinion...