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The Daily Grind: Has a free trial ever blown you away?
We all form opinions about games we don't play. That's just good sense -- it lets us figure out what games we're probably going to like or dislike based on what we've heard. But sometimes a game gives us either a free trial or the option to play without a subscription fee. And sometimes just that little bit of play is enough to bring us around from being ambivalent about a game to needing a subscription right now. Sure, most of the time, the trial just confirms what you already know -- or worse yet, it turns out to be far worse than you had expected. But there's always the chance, however small, that you'll be floored by the game; the designers certainly hope that's what happens. Have you ever experienced that moment? Or have all of the games you've tried for free wound up being the same as you expected from reviews and previews? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
City of Heroes Freedom goes live
City of Heroes is not what it used to be as of today. It's something more, in fact, with the launch of City of Heroes Freedom. While the launch of the game's hybrid subscription model was announced some three months back, today is the day that the gates are open and players can begin enjoying the game's content as a paid subscriber or a free player. This comes on the heels of the head start program, bringing in new content, zones, and story arcs for players to enjoy. If you're a returning veteran, you can enjoy all of the content for the game that you had previously purchased, as well as existing veteran rewards. Meanwhile, new players can just log in and start enjoying all of the game's seven years of content and updates. Whether you're an old or new player, however, you can take a look at the launch trailer just after the jump for a glimpse at what awaits everyone within City of Heroes Freedom at launch.
SDCC 2011: City of Heroes has new powers to show off
Time Manipulation has been known about for some time as a new set en route to City of Heroes once the Freedom patch launches toward the end of the summer, but the development team does love throwing in new elements to play with. The game's official boards are alight with new information about two new powersets, Street Justice and Beam Gun, straight from the demo stations at San Diego Comic-Con. Beam Gun, as the name would imply, is a set for Corruptors, Defenders, and Blasters, giving players access to the eponymous gun which deals mostly Energy damage. The individual attacks are fairly weak, but each attack lands a debuff to increase subsequent damage, making the powerset play something like a ranged Brute. Meanwhile, Street Justice is a melee set that builds up combo points to improve a finishing attack, taking the form of smashing and lethal martial arts attacks. No word yet on any other powers that might be coming with the update, but three sets alone should have players hammering out new alts as soon as the update goes live.
A new experience is launching for City of Heroes -- Freedom
The world of City of Heroes is changing. Players in the game now face an invasion from another dimension and a staggering host of new threats. But there's an even bigger change on the horizon, one that will shake the game to its very fundamentals. That change is City of Heroes Freedom, a combination of a new hybrid business model for the game that will add a plethora of new rewards, subscription option, and content for all players of the game. The fact that it will open the game up to a free-to-play model is almost incidental considering the other sweeping changes coming to the game as a whole. The longstanding Veteran Rewards system will be getting overhauled into a new Paragon Rewards system, which will offer all of the extant rewards along with a huge number of additional bonuses on a monthly basis. Subscribers will be upgraded to VIP Players, gaining access not only to priority queues and a special VIP-only server but to an exclusive signature story arc every month, allowing characters to experience ongoing stories alongside the important lore characters of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. VIP players will also be gaining a free monthly stipend of Paragon Points for the game's new cash store, which will allow players access to new costumes, new power sets, and even new weapon and usage styles for existing sets. City of Heroes players should take a look at the official site and get ready for the newest upgrade to the game -- a solid dose of old-school freedom.
Ask Massively: A public service announcement regarding acronyms edition
Ladies and gentlemen, I come to you with an earnest and heartfelt plea: Know what acronyms stand for if you insist upon using them. ATM is an acronym that includes the word "machine," ditto for PIN and the word "number." If you ask someone to enter his PIN number, you sound like an idiot. The whole reason that people started using these acronyms was to save time, and now you're ruining it. Get a clue. Love, everyone in the world who knows what these acronyms actually mean. (P.S., we don't really love you.) Now that we've gotten the public service announcement out of the way, it's time for this week's Ask Massively, which we'll try to keep as free of acronyms as humanly possible. This week's questions are all about the Benjamins -- why we're getting charged full price for boxed games and how subscription-optional prices shake down over the long term, specifically. As always, you can send questions for next week in to ask@massively.com or leave them in the comments below.
