Filed under: Champions Online

Cryptic celebrates the holiday with a C-Store sale

by Eliot Lefebvre Sep 3rd 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Super-hero, News items, Star Trek Online, Champions Online, Promotions

If there's one feature of games from Cryptic Studios that's generated the most controversy, it's the C-Store. That having been said, it's hard to deny that the development team behind Star Trek Online and Champions Online takes any excuse to cut down the prices for a while. A holiday weekend combined with the one-year anniversary of Champions Online is the perfect opportunity to have a general sale for both game stores, lasting until 10 a.m. PDT on September 7th.

For the remainder of the weekend and well into Tuesday, all items in both stores will be 20% off the listed price on the website. The only exceptions are the newest additions to the store -- the Millennium Costume Set for Champions Online and the Excelsior-class ship for Star Trek Online. If you've been putting off picking up one of the many vanity items for sale, now would be a perfect time to add them to your collection.

One full year of being a Champion

by Patrick Mackey Sep 3rd 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Opinion, Hands-on, Champions Online

If you read about Champions Online in its first days, you would not have thought of it as a triple-A title. The game was full of bugs, the community management was not the best, and it just seemed like the devs were intent on shoveling out more broken stuff that barely worked. I think that, in particular, the first three or four months were the worst.

If you were to go back in time and ask me about whether or not I thought CO would make it to its first anniversary, my response would have been: "Maybe, but it'll be bleeding subs if it even makes it that far." Since then, a lot of things have changed. I talked about the first six months of CO, but it's been a full year since that painful launch day patch.

I'm not sure I'm even playing the same game anymore.

Behind the Mask: Two layers of toppings

by Patrick Mackey Sep 2nd 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Business models, Opinion, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

"Microtransactions" is almost a taboo word in the MMO community. Everyone has a different opinion on it. Even here at Massively, our ideas on microtransactions vary widely. But perhaps even more frightening than the label of "F2P" is "double-dipping." Some games continue to charge a normal subscription, while still having some content featured as microtransactions.

All of Cryptic Studios' current games support a double-dipping model, and Champions Online is no exception. A lot of players think this is a terrible, terrible thing. As a gamer, I understand that players want things to be free. I also understand that developers have to strike a real balance between content that's given for free and content that is sold as paid expansions or unlocked via microtransactions.

Play Champions Online for a week without paying a dime

by Eliot Lefebvre Aug 31st 2010 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, News items, Champions Online, Promotions

How much of a game can you experience in a week? Do you think you could hit the level cap? Could you make a full army of alts? Could you make friends and have a reason to keep playing? As part of its anniversary celebration, Champions Online is inviting players to see what they can do with a week of unfettered access to the game. From September 1st to the 7th, anyone can register and play the game completely free, whether or not the player has purchased the game in the past.

All that players have to do to take part is sign up on the official page, which means registering an account if you haven't done so previously. Then, for the whole of that week, you'll be able to access everything in the game as if you were a normal subscriber. To sweeten the deal for existing players, there will also be a promotion running in the C-Store, with nearly everything at a 20% discount. It's hard to say no to a free week of a game, so if your interest is piqued, sign up for a free week's worth of Champions Online now.

Behind the Mask: The keyboard is mightier than the text bubble

by Patrick Mackey Aug 26th 2010 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Culture, PvP, Roleplaying, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

In roleplaying, everyone has his own preferences. Some people like simple, character-to-character interactions without a lot of heavy plot. Others love in-depth storylines and lots of character drama. One of the most heated preferences in roleplaying, however, is the way that characters should resolve conflict.

Roleplaying is strange in that player characters get into fights about 3000 times more often than people do in real life. I'm a former US Marine, and I've been in less than a half dozen fights (including the kind involving guns) since I turned 18. On the other hand, my roleplaying characters tend to get into serious, earth-shattering battles involving guns, high-voltage electricity and psychic strangulation powers on an almost-weekly basis.

Because I play Champions Online, this should be sort of an oddity. There are no playable villain characters in CO, so most characters should be do-gooding champions of love and justice. Even in comics, we rarely see heroes go up against other heroes except in strange circumstances. Isn't it a little odd that heroes would beat the heck out of each other all the time for no real reason?

Champions Online unveils plans to celebrate one year since launch

by Eliot Lefebvre Aug 25th 2010 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, News items, Champions Online, Promotions

While it was discussed in passing with the last State of the Game address, it's well worth reiterating that Champions Online is going to be a year old in September. With the uncomfortable number of games who've fallen on hard times over the past year, it's well worth celebrating an anniversary in style. And Cryptic Studios plans to do precisely that, with their recently-unveiled anniversary plans running from August 27th to September 6th for all of the game's players.

During the duration of the celebration, the Renaissance Center area will be decked out in all the celebratory finery, complete with contact NPCs wandering about. These NPCs will offer characters one gift per day, with more gifts available from defeating enemies in certain areas. Each gift works as a useful consumable item, and on top of those gifts there are new perks to collect and special anniversary costume pieces to collect. Champions Online players should take a look at the full rundown of events and take part in the near future.

Massively Exclusive: Jack Emmert speaks (about Neverwinter and a whole bunch of other stuff)

by Jef Reahard Aug 23rd 2010 at 5:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Interviews, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online, Champions Online

It seems everyone's got an opinion about the new Neverwinter online RPG recently announced by Cryptic. Whether you're a fan of the venerable Dungeons and Dragons franchise, a veteran of the classic single- and multi-player Neverwinter Nights titles, or just a fan of online games in general, you'll want to check out Massively's exclusive interview with Cryptic Studios COO Jack Emmert.

Our own Sera Brennan sat down to quiz the Cryptic mastermind about everything from the new title, to Cryptic's evolving business model, to some candid insights into the making of both Champions Online and Star Trek Online.

Roll your d20 and advance past the cut for more.

Champions Online looks to its one-year anniversary and beyond

by Eliot Lefebvre Aug 21st 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, real-world, Previews, News items, Champions Online

It might be hard to believe at times, but it's true: on September 1st, Champions Online will hit the one-year mark. The development team has been fairly quiet of late, but judging by the latest State of the Game address, it's just been focusing on several updates and improvements. The Summer Update, with several new costume pieces, bug fixes, and visual treats, is scheduled to go live on Monday, but there are even better things coming around the bend, including the game's second adventure pack.

Dubbed the Demonflame and aimed at a late September release, the newest adventure is meant to incorporate several pieces of feedback from the Serpent Lantern adventure. The goal is to make the adventure less repetitive and easier to follow from point to point for all players. Beyond that, the team has a long list of issues they're looking into and planning to work on, starting with pet improvements and stretching to scaling instances and better difficulty slider integration. Champions Online fans should take a look at the full update, and while the first year has had ups and downs, the future seems to be on the upswing. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our one one-year retrospective of the game around the anniversary, which should be coming right around the first of the month.

[Thanks Clinton and Faryon for the tip!]

Behind the Mask: Play nice with others

by Patrick Mackey Aug 19th 2010 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Endgame, PvE, Opinion, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

If there's one thing everyone here at Massively enjoys, it's playing MMORPGs with other people. Teaming with people makes almost anything fun. I have friends who play EVE who somehow claim that even mining can be fun, if done with friends.

Unfortunately, Champions Online has a big problem with team play. It's hard for a team to share objectives, and the rewards for teaming are otherwise horrible. It feels a bit like World of Warcraft, yet much worse. WoW has real incentive to get into teams and run instances at the lower levels, and although many of these dungeons are skippable, WoW's focus on loot advancement encourages players to team up and get the best stuff they can use at any given level.

This is just not true for CO. Many players just skip lairs entirely, even though lairs give great rewards. There are no "random missions" like there are in City of Heroes, either. Still, lairs are fun, because you get to play with other people.

Behind the Mask: Focusing on characteristics

by Patrick Mackey Aug 12th 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I wrote an article about Champions Online's gear mechanics. That article kind of assumes a few things about how much you know about stats. Unfortunately, it doesn't go into great detail about what exactly stats do, or what are the best choices for your character.

In other articles, I've made suggestions such as "stick with your passive" and "get END, REC, and CON, because they're good." Admittedly, there will be some of that here too. However, the focus this week will be on the best ways to make use of other stats, particularly STR, DEX, EGO, and PRE.

I'll try to keep things simple. You don't need a lecture on exactly how Enrage works to know it makes STR a good stat. If you're having trouble with the stat system and the previous article on loot, this is your lucky day.

Behind the Mask: First look at pet update

by Patrick Mackey Aug 5th 2010 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Patches, Opinion, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

Two weeks ago, we looked at some basic needed changes for Champions Online's pet masters. The first pet patch has finally hit the test server, and quite a bit of what was suggested happened. My prediction that the devs would do something completely different and strange has held true, and anyone familiar with most of the previous pet powers is likely to be thrown for a loop.

In this issue of Behind the Mask, we take a look at the new face of pets, including their new energy and rank up mechanics. All of the stuff thus far is in a wide state of flux, so while I will make little comments on where the balance is right now, we can expect that to change quite a bit in the coming weeks.

Shannon Posniewski on the development of Champions Online's first adventure pack

by Eliot Lefebvre Aug 5th 2010 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, Interviews, News items, Champions Online

It's been a quiet couple of weeks for Champions Online -- at least, from the news side of things. Players have had plenty to do in the form of the recent Serpent Lantern adventure, offering an experience for players of nearly any level and any group size. Shannon Posniewski sat down for a recent interview in which he detailed some of the work that went into the adventure pack, from the challenges in design to the lessons learned.

The overhaul of the perks system and the changes made to VIPER are both cited as elements that the development team was working on without the adventure pack, both of which dovetailed nicely with the new content. Posniewski describes the biggest hurdle as the scaling issues, however, which doesn't simply translate to adding more hit points to higher-level enemies. It's part of what contributes to the four-month design turnaround he describes in the interview. If you've been enjoying the new adventure, it's well worth a look at the interview for a peek at what makes Champions Online's development tick.

Behind the Mask: I'd like to catch some of them

by Patrick Mackey Jul 22nd 2010 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Patches, Opinion, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

It's a little irony that pets have already been the focus of another column this week on Massively. Still, the "pet patch" is coming very soon for Champions and I'd like to go over what I think should happen to pets and what probably will happen to them.

Pets have not been a big focus of the developers. Balseraph has publicly stated that "Pets are a big problem for a small number of players" and more dev attention has been pushed at fixing Force than making pets usable. In their current state, pet builds are unplayable. Pets deal poor damage, but that isn't the worst problem. Pets are extremely annoying to use and maintain.

Fortunately, the devs are looking at some ways to fix things.

Champions' State of the Game: Demons, high heels and super supergroups for all!

by Justin Olivetti Jul 21st 2010 at 2:30PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Patches, Previews, Champions Online

While the summer days are hot and those hammocks in the shade are inviting, Cryptic Studios is choosing to spend the season gearing up for hefty content releases. In the latest State of the Game report, Champions Online's Executive Producer Shannon "Poz" Posniewski outlines a number of features, fixes and fluff that's going into the next patch and beyond.

For August, Champions Online plans to implement a number of quality-of-life improvements to the game. These include more supergroup features (such as a better UI and supergroup advertisements), overhauling pet powers, an improved C-Store, and giving Millennium City's Ren Center a much-needed visual update. They're also slipping in a few new costume options, so if you've been waiting for the latest in Champions high heel shoe fashion, then wait no longer!

Moving on to the fall, Posniewski is excited to announce a new adventure pack entitled "The Demonflame." The pack is based on a Champions pen-and-paper module, and involves bad people opening portals to places better left alone. Check out the full point-by-point Poz poetry at Champions Online's site!

Behind the Mask: Pushing buttons is fun

by Patrick Mackey Jul 15th 2010 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, Opinion, Champions Online, Behind the Mask

Last week, I teased that this week's column would discuss Champions Online's energy mechanics. That, however, is only half of it. This week, we're going to discuss energy mechanics in general, player perception of resources, and the core central idea key to all video games: pushing buttons is fun.

The actual concept isn't hard to explain. Doing things in a video game is entertaining and not doing things is boring. This is a simple, fundamental concept that anyone can understand. Resource mechanics like mana, energy, or Vespene gas limit the things we can do before those resources have to be replenished. Running out isn't fun, so we reduce our resource use or maximize our resource returns.

The issue of CO's dreaded energy mechanics is only partially the developers' fault. The rest lies with us.

Massively Features

Events Calendar

Name	Date
Clone Wars Adventures Launch	Sep 15, 2010
Final Fantasy XIV Launch	Sep 30, 2010
GDC Online	Oct 5-8, 2010
NY ComicCon	Oct 8-10, 2010
LEGO Universe Launch	Oct 26, 2010
DCUO Launch	Nov 2, 2010

Massively Staff

Name	Title
Shawn Schuster	Editor-in-Chief
Seraphina Brennan	Senior Editor
Brianna Royce	West Coast Editor
Brendan Drain	Contributing Editor
Eliot Lefebvre	Contributing Editor
Jef Reahard	Contributing Editor
Justin Olivetti	Contributing Editor
Krystalle Voecks	Contributing Editor
Rubi Bayer	Contributing Editor
Tateru Nino	Contributing Editor
Beau Hindman	Columnist
Edward Marshall	Columnist
Greg Waller	Columnist
Jeremy Stratton	Columnist
Larry Everett	Columnist
MJ Guthrie	Columnist
Patrick Mackey	Columnist
Ryan Greene	Columnist
Lisa Poisso	Columnist