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The Chronicles of Spellborn News - Free To Play Level Cap Increased
Posted by Keith Cross on May 21, 2009 | 3 comments in our forums
The folks at The Chronicles of Spellborn have announced that they have increased the level cap for the free to play portion of the game.
Los Angeles, CA (May 20, 2009) – Acclaim Games releases Patch 1.0.4.2 called “Paragraph of Timed Strike” for The Chronicles of Spellborn MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). The latest hotfix patch increases the Free To Play Fame Level cap from level 7.9 to 9.9 giving new players more content to enjoy in the starter areas!
In all regions, Spellborn will be a “Freemium” game, with a Free to Play zone and a required premium subscription service in order to access the full game past the Free to Play zone. The Free To Play Fame Level cap was previously set at 7.9 but has now been raised to 9.9, so any new players will be able to complete more quests in the starter zones of Hawksmouth and Aldenvault.
The tutorial for Spellborn’s revolving Skill Deck has also been improved to help explain how to place newly acquired skills for a truly customized combat experience using Spellborn’s unique real-time combat system. The patch also includes a variety of other important bug fixes and game enhancements to Spellborn’s World, Quests & Lore, Combat, Sound & Music, Economy, and all new PvP Arena.
Read more here.
I still can't get over how stupid this decision is to set a free to play level cap, at any level. The fact that they think increasing it by 2 levels will bring in more players is laughable. No other mmo does this, every mmo on launch gives players a free month so they immerse themselves in the game and are more likely to stay. Acclaim need to change this brainless level cap policy asap and give new players a free month.
Not that I disagree with a 2 level bumb being kind of pointless. But most games that give you a free month charge you for the software. So it's not really a "free" month. And quite a few of those games offer trials that cap your level until you become a paying subscriber.
That's not really the point i'm afraid. People are getting it for free and still leaving because they don't have chance to immerse themselves in the game, whether it's free or not is irrelevant i reckon. In fact i'd argue that if you buy the game in the first place you might be more inclined to stick with it. Pay for game and free month is the successful formula, not free game and first ten levels free.
The only reason i mention this is because i quite like CoS, but i think this single issue more than anything else is why they have very few players beyond the starting area. It seems such an obvious mistake. Shame really.