General Game News

[Compound]

And more game news:

City of Heroes is going Free to Play. When? Sometime soon.

[mrbasehart]

And more game news:

City of Heroes is going Free to Play. When? Sometime soon.

I wonder if my character is still in their server somewhere from the free trial I had years back.

[Pak-Man]

Cool. I always wanted to try out City of Heroes. I just started playing the free to play version of Champions Online. Is it fair to assume City of Heroes, being the gold standard that it is, is better?

[mrbasehart]

I liked it, though it's the first and only MMO I've played to date. 

[Compound]

CoH is a lot grindier. I've gotten CO characters to max level. With CoH, I still have never gotten a character to the maximum level, and I was in the beta. There's an area in the 30s where you either have to run a gazillion solo missions, fewer group missions (which are difficult to get running these days) or do special "farming" missions to get you enough XP to get past those levels.

In CO terms, imagine if for five levels, all you had for leveling were the "defeat 150 Canadian Patriot" type missions. (And early CO did have that type of gap for a level of two where there just weren't any quests to do. You'd done almost everything below your current level and weren't high enough level yet to get the next set of quests.)

With free play, that'll get a lot better because there will be other players in those levels, making grouping easier. But it's been a hurdle for several years.

Otherwise, yeah, CoH does have 5 more years of history behind it so there's more content. More zones too. But it also lacks the blessed early travel powers that CO and DCUO have, making getting around Galaxy City a pain. And the naming issues make character creation a pain. Unlike CO, only one character per server can have a certain name, making creating a character name a bit tricky.

When  it goes F2P, I'd definitely give it a shot. Some people just absolutely love the setting and gameplay. And I do enjoy the early levels where I'm hunting and killing Skuls, even with my complaints.

[Compound]

And Blizz hops aboard the F2P train:

The most popular MMORPG of all time, World of Warcraft, will be free to play — at least until your in-game character reaches level 20 — Blizzard Entertainment has announced.

Blizzard, a video game developer and publisher, has considered the option for years, and it dabbled with a number of free trial programs, all of which were time-limited.

Now, under the new program called World of Warcraft Starter Edition, new players can play at their own pace without having to worry that the free trial will expire. When they reach level 20, they can continue playing but will stop earning experience, making it impossible to level up. To play past level 20, new players will need to upgrade to the full version of the game, which can be done online here.

Although there’s no time limit for trial players, there’s a great deal of other restrictions besides the 20-level limit: Trial players can have a maximum of 100 gold; their trade skills are capped at 100 ranks; they are unable to trade in the Auction House or join guilds; their chat options are limited; and they cannot invite other players into a party and so on.

In short, the game itself may be free, but it’s a far cry from the full World of Warcraft experience.

Whoa. Blizz must be a bit panicky about the current subscription numbers.

[Sideswipe]

I haven't  played WoW in almost 3 years.  I'm guessing Cataclysm didn't do for the game what they were hoping?

[Compound]

Subscription numbers went up for the launch but they're allegedly below where they were last year at the time. Cat got a lot of criticism for being rather short.

[Scribblesense]

I haven't  played WoW in almost 3 years.  I'm guessing Cataclysm didn't do for the game what they were hoping?

From what I can gather, their subscription numbers have pretty much levelled out at about 12 million.

They accomplished a lot of cool things with Cataclysm, but most of it was just improving on what they already had - putting on a fresh coat of paint, knocking out a wall to build one big sitting room, cleaning the dead ferrets out of the insulation - and there wasn't any big "draw" for new and old players alike.

Telling new players "Our game now sucks less!" isn't a very effective business strategy. And providing new content with little interconnecting story to veteran players just feels eclectic, especially when that content (while impressive from a technical POV) is kinda half-assed.

The game has never been better, honestly, but players such as I usually expect "new and improved" rather than just "improved" when we drop cash on an expansion.

Though they did just release their first major old-school content patch, and Blizzcon is coming in October which should get the hype rolling again.

Subscription numbers went up for the launch but they're allegedly below where they were last year at the time. Cat got a lot of criticism for being rather short.

I wish I could express my thoughts succinctly. Heh. This was exactly what I was trying to say.

Only five new high-level zones and five new levels didn't cut it, I'm sad to say. I blew through them way too quickly, and there was nothing to cap it off like Storm Peaks and Icecrown in WotLK. Twilight Highlands was lame (Alliance-side, I heard Horde got some pretty epic quests though), and Uldum was just pathetic. I didn't think it was possible to drag out a pop-culture reference for half a zone - it felt like one of the "Movie" Movies. And the Worgen storyline just fucking stops after level 20.

So much wasted potential with Cataclysm.

[Compound]

And the Worgen storyline just fucking stops after level 20.

Actually, there is a wrapup for the Worgen story... on the Horde side.

[Scribblesense]

And the Worgen storyline just fucking stops after level 20.

Actually, there is a wrapup for the Worgen story... on the Horde side.

Oh yeah, forgot about Silverpine, and Crowley being a total badass, which the Alliance doesn't get to see (and then Crowley just disappears again). Then there's Surwich in Blasted Lands, which goes into some more Worgen Druid lore, but it's all of four quests, and those quests are annoying to boot. I enjoyed the Blasted Lands filler quest where you had to drag the chest full of baby murlocs to the ocean much, much more.

Of course, my complaint is only about inter-game politics, which a player would only be invested in if they had been playing the game since before Cataclysm - it shouldn't deter a new player from enjoying what the new expansion has to offer.

Oh! And every player who had previously bought the original game gets upgraded to Burning Crusade for free now.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2743724623

So yeah, looks like they're in full recruitment mode, trying to shrug off the slump.

[Compound]

In different news.... It's summer camp time at Steam. Play games. Get achieves. Get stuff. Stuff being DLC for your games.

[Raefire]

Limbo coming to PC: http://kotaku.com/5817850/limbo-is-coming-to-the-pc

[Scribblesense]

EA just bought PopCap for a cool three-quarters of a billion:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388421,00.asp

Electronic Arts said Tuesday that it will acquire PopCap Games, the maker of such hits as "Peggle" and "Plants vs. Zombies," for a total of $750 million in cash and stock.

EA's purchase confirms an an earlier report by TechCrunch, although the paper's purchase price - over $1 billion - turned out not to be true. EA will pay $650 million in cash, plus $100 million in stock and earnouts.

EA said that PopCap had recorded over $100 million in revenue in 2010, growing at a 30 percent compound annual growth rate. About 80 percent of the company's revenue comes from smartphone, social, and casual PC platforms, in line with where EA wants to be, executives said.

"PopCap has proven they have the right people and creative culture to sustain this success," John Riccitiello, EA's chief executive, said in prepared remarks announcing the deal on Tuesday. "While other companies have built a business on just one hit, PopCap has made lightning strike five times with bankable, evergreen franchises: Bejeweled, Zuma, Peggle, Bookworm and Plants vs. Zombies. These franchises have demonstrated predictable revenues and strong growth on emerging platforms.

"And unlike other companies trapped on a single platform, PopCap IP has achieved success in crossing platforms to smartphones, tablets, PC and social networks," Riccitiello added.

PopCap said that it had 150 million games installed and played worldwide on game platforms like the iPad, Android phones and tablet, and oter platforms. ""We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games," said David Roberts, chief executive of PopCap, in a statement. "By working with EA, we'll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience."

In May, EA announced a shift toward a digital model, away from a multitude of packaged games for retail to a smaller number of franchise that the company could develop across the Web, mobile, and social properties. Those strategies will include intellectual properties, such as the "EA Sports" and "Battlefield" franchises; platforms, including its own Nucleus registration system, which slightly less than doubled its membership from a year ago to 112 million consumers; and talent, with teams working across social, mobile, and console development, Riccitiello said at the time.

With PopCap, EA is acquiring the "proven leader" in casual games, Riccitiello said Tuesday. Today, about a quarter of the industry's revenue comes from mobile, social, and tablet and casual PCs; he said that EA expects that percentage to rise to above 50 percent in the next five years.

Both EA and PopCap were scheduled to appear at the GamesBeat conference in San Francisco, but pulled out unexpectedly - the reason, of course, was that they had signed their acquisition deal, said Dean Takahashi, an editor for VentureBeat, which hosted the show.

I know we all love to hate EA, but all of this could prove beneficial to PopCap, as access to EA's vast resources are the only thing that could possibly make PopCap a household name and monumental success. We can only expect their creative quality to skyrocket as their benign corporate overlords milk them for every cent they're worth. [/sarcasm]

[Raefire]

Apparently part of the upcoming DLC for Duke Nukem Forever on the PC will include a patch that allows Duke to carry four weapons. Good move, Gearbox.