I am an ex-champions subscriber. I bought a retail copy of the game, actually 3 retail copies of the game. I'd given away buddy keys and people subscribed off of them, and continued to play. A few months ago i cancelled my account due to lack of endgame content/getting bored.

So i get an email telling me I can play for free. I look things up it sounds interesting and nice. Boy did i have no idea how terrible the Archtype system is. Nor did I know i'd lose things that I consider I purchased with THE GAME. Travel powers, costume pieces, ect. I paid for this game and I'm being treated like a free loader. I paid for content including the past few content updates that I apparently do not have access to now as well. I only have 2 usable character slots, so what was the point in me buying the game, or even having the retail key on my Account.

On top of that i converted one of my characters no knowing that he'd lose movement powers ect. I'm limited to movement powers on SHIT I PAID FOR. This is absolutely ridiculous. I shouldn't have to rebuy this shit in the cash shop if i want to play for free, like i said I already paid for it once. I bought the game on Steam twice, bought a third copy for Retail, and i get nothing out of having bought those before, absurd. I'm sure this is Atari's choice and no Cryptic's but it's ridiculous. I wouldn't be nearly as angry with teh Achtype system if there were more archtypes to chose from. on top of that it made my darkness character completely worthless to convert, as well as most of my characters.  The sad part about that is most of these characters I didn't mix powersets on. So they shouldn't need to be converted i should just be restricted to stay in that power set.. This is a very unrewarding system to those of us that paid for the game but cancelled our subscriptions.

OH and i can't post in their forums to bring up these points with them, because i'm not a gold member. How the hell am i supposed to get support for technical issues if i can't bring them up to the support staff. I am incredibly angry. If there as anyone that can re-post this in their forums it would be greatly appreciated. That's all i really have to say for now that isn't a complete flame. I gave this company money for 2 copies of this game through steam, I gave a retailer 10 dollars for the third copy, and I am incredibly angry to see that it isn't being acknowledged. I will not continue to play champions until this is remedied or even entertain renewing a subscription. I've supported cryptic in every project they've done, except Star Trek Online, but let's face it STO was horrible.

I guess I'll give DC Universe a try, though I've been screwed by Sony way more than Cryptic in the past. 

you know if you just pay the sub as normal you get all that stuff back right...

Let it all out man... thats what we're here for.

Originally posted by DeserttFoxx

you know if you just pay the sub as normal you get all that stuff back right...

That wasn't very nice.

Calm down.

Look I also own the game and I'm a former subber.  Listen, if we resub we still have access to everything.  Only in playing for free are we limited and that's the way it should be.  At no time when we purchased this game was it sold to us as a buy to play game, which is what it would be if they allowed us to keep all the features that comes with an initial purchase. 

This is similar to what turbine did with both DDO and Lotro both of which I also own and play free while having been a former subscriber.

These games are business whether we like it or not. These aren't one purchase disposable games we buy for consoles.  These games are expected to grow and that can not be done if everyone that used to subscribe played free and never had to purchase anything again.

As someone said, of COURSE your not going to get all the content you had when you PAID A SUBSCRIPTION while NOT PAYING A SUBSCRIPTION.

The game isn't free to play, it still has a subscription, and if you still pay that subscription, you still get the game you used to (plus 400 atari points a month).

If you don't pay the subscription, you get the dumbed down version of the game.  If you could keep all your fancy stuff after only paying the subscription for one month, where would the company be?

Forgive me if I get some of this wrong; I don't play Champions at all. After reading your post, I typed "champions online archtype system" into Google and the first result was the description of the archtype system on the official CO site. Having no prior knowledge of the game whatsoever, it was immediately apparent to me—in less than one minute of reading—that taking a hero that used to be free-form and converting it to an Archtype hero to be played for free on a Silver account would cause that hero to lose their previous powers and gain the powers of that Archtype. One minute of reading. One. I don't see any possible explanation for how you could fail to realize the consequences of converting a character.

And what exactly has been taken away from you? You used to pay a monthly subscription to have free-form characters. You can still pay a monthly subscription to have free-form characters. "This is absolutely ridiculous. I shouldn't have to rebuy this shit in the cash shop if i want to play for free, like i said I already paid for it once." In any other game, you wouldn't even have the option of returning to the game for free. You're mad that they're giving you an option? No matter how much you might dislike the option, I don't see how it's worse than not having the option at all.

Boy i see alot of whine and cry posts about something thats free. Sure you dont get all the cool stuff that are open to gold members, but hell you can basically play the game from 1-40 and all of the content for free. Excluding the adventure packs, you dont have to spend a dime in the C-store to enjoy the game which is a plus. If look at LoTRO, you really cant enjoy that game unless you spend some dough in their CS. After Lone Lands the rest of the content is locked to free players, sure you can unlock it if your willing to buy the quests packs or grind your ass off completing deeds and whatnot.

I play CO as a free player and im really enjoying it, hell i dont even have a problem with the archtypes since i never played the game before anyways. So i dont miss what i never had, but if you had a sub before and miss all the perks than resub. I think thats the whole point of the f2p model, i myself am going to sub to see what all the hub bub is all about with the free forms. I just hope it can hold me over until SWTOR releases, but listening to all this crying about a free game without all the perks, is like listening to homeless person crying about a free hamburger without all the condiments.

sadly, champions is actually better than DC, and that's not saying a lot. Do yourself a favor and don't play any of these games. The internet is just one huge scamming machine now.

Same as LOTRO. . when you get what you had before when you pay $15 a month like you did before.  If you want to play free you get less.  

Lets assume they didn't go free to play. . what would you get for your $0 a month?  Less then you are now.

Originally posted by pixeldogmeat

sadly, champions is actually better than DC, and that's not saying a lot. Do yourself a favor and don't play any of these games. The internet is just one huge scamming machine now.

Is it a scam if you have fun? 

Is it a scam if it doesn't match up to your idea of what a superhero MMO should be like?

Originally posted by Gormok

Boy i see alot of whine and cry posts about something thats free. Sure you dont get all the cool stuff that are open to gold members, but hell you can basically play the game from 1-40 and all of the content for free. Excluding the adventure packs, you dont have to spend a dime in the C-store to enjoy the game which is a plus. If look at LoTRO, you really cant enjoy that game unless you spend some dough in their CS. After Lone Lands the rest of the content is locked to free players, sure you can unlock it if your willing to buy the quests packs or grind your ass off completing deeds and whatnot.

 

I play CO as a free player and im really enjoying it, hell i dont even have a problem with the archtypes since i never played the game before anyways. So i dont miss what i never had, but if you had a sub before and miss all the perks than resub. I think thats the whole point of the f2p model, i myself am going to sub to see what all the hub bub is all about with the free forms. I just hope it can hold me over until SWTOR releases, but listening to all this crying about a free game without all the perks, is like listening to homeless person crying about a free hamburger without all the condiments.

You're missing the point that I paid for content and actively paid for content for 6 months for this game. I am raging but rightfully so. I'm being treated the same way as people that did not purchase copies of game. I bought three, and i was and probably still is a great game. I have no problem with switching to the Archtype system on some of my characters, and I do have a support ticket out with Atari/Cryptic involving this right now. It was less raged than my post here.

Let my explain more rationally why i was angry. I purchased this game, certain features were included in that purchase including access to the content, i continued to pay for the game for 6 Months on three different accounts. I cancelled my subscriptions because we got bored as there is no endgame in CO unfortunately. So yes I'm no longer a paying subscriber, However i do believe that i deserve some compensation for purchasing the game. I don't believe that it's right for me to have to re-purchase features because I'm chosing to use a free account, I don't feel I should have to repurchase character slots to use my other characters, not only that I doesn't appear my C-Store purchased extra character slots from before are usable. Like I said I believe we as former subscribers who purchased the game deserve something for that., maybe not all the features as a gold membership, but still something. Silver Plus or something for having a CD Key registered on your account. I'd be more than willing to Resub if it wasn't for the fact instead of adding better endgame content to the game they did a f2p system. Which I think is a great idea as it opens the game to a wider audience. I just feel cheated for buying the game. 

Originally posted by Strafingmir

Originally posted by Gormok

Boy i see alot of whine and cry posts about something thats free. Sure you dont get all the cool stuff that are open to gold members, but hell you can basically play the game from 1-40 and all of the content for free. Excluding the adventure packs, you dont have to spend a dime in the C-store to enjoy the game which is a plus. If look at LoTRO, you really cant enjoy that game unless you spend some dough in their CS. After Lone Lands the rest of the content is locked to free players, sure you can unlock it if your willing to buy the quests packs or grind your ass off completing deeds and whatnot.

 

I play CO as a free player and im really enjoying it, hell i dont even have a problem with the archtypes since i never played the game before anyways. So i dont miss what i never had, but if you had a sub before and miss all the perks than resub. I think thats the whole point of the f2p model, i myself am going to sub to see what all the hub bub is all about with the free forms. I just hope it can hold me over until SWTOR releases, but listening to all this crying about a free game without all the perks, is like listening to homeless person crying about a free hamburger without all the condiments.

You're missing the point that I paid for content and actively paid for content for 6 months for this game. I am raging but rightfully so. I'm being treated the same way as people that did not purchase copies of game. I bought three, and i was and probably still is a great game. I have no problem with switching to the Archtype system on some of my characters, and I do have a support ticket out with Atari/Cryptic involving this right now. It was less raged than my post here.

Let my explain more rationally why i was angry. I purchased this game, certain features were included in that purchase including access to the content, i continued to pay for the game for 6 Months on three different accounts. I cancelled my subscriptions because we got bored as there is no endgame in CO unfortunately. So yes I'm no longer a paying subscriber, However i do believe that i deserve some compensation for purchasing the game. I don't believe that it's right for me to have to re-purchase features because I'm chosing to use a free account, I don't feel I should have to repurchase character slots to use my other characters, not only that I doesn't appear my C-Store purchased extra character slots from before are usable. Like I said I believe we as former subscribers who purchased the game deserve something for that., maybe not all the features as a gold membership, but still something. Silver Plus or something for having a CD Key registered on your account. I'd be more than willing to Resub if it wasn't for the fact instead of adding better endgame content to the game they did a f2p system. Which I think is a great idea as it opens the game to a wider audience. I just feel cheated for buying the game. 

I get your point but look at WoW. . you could buy the game and all the expansions a few weeks ago for $20 total.  I paid full price for each one.  The client in any game gets devalued and they lower the price to get the buy-in down hoping people will try it who haven't - and that they might pay a sub or something.

Think of the options.  The game could have closed.  Or it is still sub only and you wouldn't be playing. . and you still have the option of subbing and getting what you paid for.  You paid for a game that required a sub.

I know it sucks but it is relative to your perspective.  You bought the client for the 30 days included and the option to continue to play the game for $15 a month.  That is still the same except now you actually have an added choice of paying a reduced version of the game for free.  You are only gaining truly.

Originally posted by Strafingmir

I am an ex-champions subscriber. I bought a retail copy of the game, actually 3 retail copies of the game. I'd given away buddy keys and people subscribed off of them, and continued to play. A few months ago i cancelled my account due to lack of endgame content/getting bored.

So i get an email telling me I can play for free. I look things up it sounds interesting and nice. Boy did i have no idea how terrible the Archtype system is. Nor did I know i'd lose things that I consider I purchased with THE GAME. Travel powers, costume pieces, ect. I paid for this game and I'm being treated like a free loader. I paid for content including the past few content updates that I apparently do not have access to now as well. I only have 2 usable character slots, so what was the point in me buying the game, or even having the retail key on my Account.

On top of that i converted one of my characters no knowing that he'd lose movement powers ect. I'm limited to movement powers on SHIT I PAID FOR. This is absolutely ridiculous. I shouldn't have to rebuy this shit in the cash shop if i want to play for free, like i said I already paid for it once. I bought the game on Steam twice, bought a third copy for Retail, and i get nothing out of having bought those before, absurd. I'm sure this is Atari's choice and no Cryptic's but it's ridiculous. I wouldn't be nearly as angry with teh Achtype system if there were more archtypes to chose from. on top of that it made my darkness character completely worthless to convert, as well as most of my characters.  The sad part about that is most of these characters I didn't mix powersets on. So they shouldn't need to be converted i should just be restricted to stay in that power set.. This is a very unrewarding system to those of us that paid for the game but cancelled our subscriptions.

OH and i can't post in their forums to bring up these points with them, because i'm not a gold member. How the hell am i supposed to get support for technical issues if i can't bring them up to the support staff. I am incredibly angry. If there as anyone that can re-post this in their forums it would be greatly appreciated. That's all i really have to say for now that isn't a complete flame. I gave this company money for 2 copies of this game through steam, I gave a retailer 10 dollars for the third copy, and I am incredibly angry to see that it isn't being acknowledged. I will not continue to play champions until this is remedied or even entertain renewing a subscription. I've supported cryptic in every project they've done, except Star Trek Online, but let's face it STO was horrible.

I guess I'll give DC Universe a try, though I've been screwed by Sony way more than Cryptic in the past. 

I feel your pain. I was a subscriber and jumped on board shortly after CO launch. I was also very surprised at the limitations of the archetype system. I guess after playing LoTRO where you get a ton of content and very little character/class restriction, it's kind of a shock when jumping into CO's F2P. I understand what you're saying and I think you are justified in being upset.

insanex

Yeah I see where you're coming from. And I know this is the way it works in the MMO industry but you just get this feeling of being cheated through the whole process. I'm still considering re-subscribing it was a fun game, there just isn't a lot to do one you do everything.

Just so the OP knows, Silver players can post on the PC & Technical Issues forum.

So basically, since you paid $50 for the boxes a year and a half ago, you should get some kind of compensation?

Are WoW players getting something for paying $50 + 30$ for each expansion when you can get the packages for cheaper now?  Last I checked, nope.

Look at what you are asking for, and maybe you'd realize why its so rediculous.  There is no bonus for being a 'previous subscriber'.  Crypic never said there was, and as someone else posted, has made is very obvious and easy to understand what a non-paying player will get.

Someone who just started playing today as a free to play player, and you, who used to pay for the game before but now doesn't, are on the same playing field aka non-subscribers.  That's how it is.

Actually one thing did change which sucks if you look at it evenly aside from them adding a new option and that is that the client is free.  That always sucks when you paid but early adopters get hosed every time.  I bought MO just before the beta price reduction. . and before the summer sale.  I bought Darkfall just before they started selling it for a lot less.

There is no worse feeling than logging into a game you bought and are back on for free (like LOTRO) and not being able to access what you used to - IE. . I have to buy quest packs?  but I bought those!!!  I guess my $15 a month bought those.  

You are right though that it will get more people into the game.  I think I am going to try it out.  and that gets you a bit more for your $15 . . more people to play with :)

Originally posted by Aethaeryn

Same as LOTRO. . when you get what you had before when you pay $15 a month like you did before.  If you want to play free you get less.  

 

Lets assume they didn't go free to play. . what would you get for your $0 a month?  Less then you are now.

But it's not the same as LoTRO because in LoTRO you get to keep what you've paid for on quite a few things- if I let my sub run out I don't lose access to my bags, I don't lose access to items I have on my character. I can understand why they have limited what costume pieces you can have and content available for a completely free to play account, but there is no reason at all that they should take away what you acquired while paying for the game. It's a poor way to set up a freemium game.

Originally posted by Aethaeryn

Same as LOTRO. . when you get what you had before when you pay $15 a month like you did before.  If you want to play free you get less.  

 

Lets assume they didn't go free to play. . what would you get for your $0 a month?  Less then you are now.

Just to point out thats NOT TRUE in the least bit. The only thing you lose access to is all the quests you had access to before that are not f2p accessable.

If you create a character / class that isnt f2p you will retain that class and character when your subscription runs out. You can continue to play that character and complete all the quests you have in your quest log.  You also retain access to ALL of your bag slots that you had when you subscribed.

There are HUGE differences between how CO handed going sub to f2p and how LOTRO handles it.