Tag: Champions Online

Steam Deals: Good Stuff Cheap


 

Pictured Above: WalMart on Black Friday

With all the hubbub going around on Thanksgiving in the United States, and more importantly World of Warcraft hitting five years old alongside a slew of giveaways from Wow.com, it is understandable if you missed Stardock’s nod last week to Steam holding 70% of the PC sales market. Unsurprising, as many PC gamers you ask today will tell you that they make much of their purchases through the digital distribution system.

That share is set to go even higher, as Steam announced a sales extravaganza with Thanksgiving on its way. Each day brings new sales to the table, and what better to focus on for MMO Fallout than, say, MMOs on sale?

Day 1 of sales brings in 50% off of Champions Online and Fallen Earth. Champions Online is now $19.99, while Fallen Earth has been reduced to $24.99. Other non-MMO titles such as Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age, and Grid are also on sale today. Remember: Each sale lasts only 24 hours, and then it is gone. Think of it as a Black Friday sale, but it’s Wednesday and there’s no risk of being trampled by a mob of angry shoppers.

If you have not picked up either Fallen Earth or Champions Online, both are certainly worth a look.

 

You Have Public Tests? USE THEM!


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This article doesn't have much to do with Darkfall.

You find yourself in a room with one thousand small tables, each table adorned with two objects; a button and a number from one to one thousand. A voice comes over the system and says “only one of these buttons will not electrocute you. Good luck.” You gaze upon the legion of buttons as the voice softly cackles.

You are now a Quality Assurance agent for a massively multiplayer online game. Now imagine this scenario: You are in the same room, same tables, same buttons, same numbers. This time, however, you have one hundred helpers at your side. Common sense says that you send each one down the line, starting with number one and moving up (or however you want to do it) shocking each one until you get to the right button.

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Keep Fighting the Good Fight


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With Champions Online and DC Universe taking up most of the superhero limelight, we tend to forget that City of Heroes is still in the room. City of Heroes is getting along in its life, and despite having just celebrated its fifth birthday this year, the train keeps rolling. City of Heroes remains one of NCSoft’s more popular titles.

The developers over at Paragon have been working tirelessly this year to keep City of Heroes up to date and relevant. Aside from improvements to the customization of your superhero, Paragon announced Going Rogue, an upcoming expansion pack for the title. Set in a Utopian alternate universe to Praetoria, Going Rogue will introduce a new system that dives into the shades of gray in between the Hero and Villain. This expansion will allow heroes to become villains, villains to heroes, allowing each side to experience the opposing side’s cities without having to reroll a character.

More on Going Rogue as it appears. If you attend this year’s Hero Con, you can receive beta keys to the expansion.

One Month Later: Champions Online


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It was one month ago that Champions Online launched to the waiting crowd, the first in our Mega September that saw a number of new titles launch, old titles receive expansion packs, and an oldie hit its twelfth birthday. It is one month after an MMO launches that the honeymoon is over, as is the free month of membership included in the game, and the true players are separated from those who just stuck around because they had the free month.

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Aion: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly


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Aion launches in four days, and the title, much like Champions Online did earlier this month and in August, is stealing much of the spotlight here at MMO Fallout. So much so that I’m putting together a new section for MMO Fallout: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (Not that that particular mechanic has ever been done before). Since preselection began today, it’s one of the better times as any to get a good preview in.

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Champions Online Q&A Feed


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Champions Online Live Q&A Transcript. More after the break.

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Free Retcons for Everybody!


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I’ve talked a lot about the launch day patch for Champions Online, how it changed the game in a very dramatic fashion, making previously viable combat sets now obsolete and unusable. Originally, Cryptic allowed users who created their account during the head start to have a free respec, resetting their powers and allowing them to start fresh.

A patch today launched that will give all Champions Online users a free respec who created their characters before the 10th. Right now, the free respec was bugged, and therefore left out of the patch. Players can still obtain this free respec, until the UI bug is fixed, by typing /character_usefreerespec

http://www.champions-online.com/node/526341 The full list of patch notes.

Did Champions Online Pull A Trammel?


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There’s a very specific reason I don’t do previews of MMOs while they are in open beta: Because the final product may be very different than what players are testing out for the developers. As a rule, I remind people to never preorder on the assumption that, when the game launches, it will be the same as it is now. The open beta is a perfect opportunity for testers to show exactly what needs to be changed, and changed it will be. Abilities get tweaked, some features get buffed, and yes some features get nerfed. MMOs are never a final product, and big changes should always be expected.

Continue reading “Did Champions Online Pull A Trammel?”

Champions In Court #2: Batman Returns


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In a game where players can create whatever they want, be whoever, they want, and personalize their experience to the enth degree, it is only natural that there will be hundreds of hulks, batmen, and supermen. Creative? Not so much. Inviting a lawsuit? Cryptic should already know that, which is why both City of Heroes and Champions Online have a policy of changing costumes for characters who are reported as having trademark/copyright infringing costumes.

Champions In Court is something of a whimsical article, where I take shots at some of the players in Champions Online, but the copying of superheroes in Champions Online, to the players, is a big issue that needs to be resolved. I report maybe one person a day when I’m playing, as I rarely see these player types, and I know that some members of the community look upon it as playing Internet Police, but the implications are real. DC Comics and other companies regularly send investigative teams into games like City of Heroes and Champions Online. If you don’t report them, they will, except they will be reporting to their lawyers. Cryptic being tied up in legal matters, whether or not they win, is not good for the game, and will eventually lead to a heavily restricted creation system.

Champions In Court #1: Batman


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I found Batman in Champions Online! Cue lawsuit from DC Comics!