DC Universe Online

**Donald M.** · 04-17-2011, 06:27 PM

Originally Posted by Darrell D.

If they go to a free to play model and option to pay for new content, it would probably help.

That's very likely what'll happen eventually. It's been shown that if people like the game they'll pay for additional content. Making people pay to play the game and then pay some more to keep playing it seems like a business model whose days are numbered.

**Alex** · 04-17-2011, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by Donald M.

That's very likely what'll happen eventually. It's been shown that if people like the game they'll pay for additional content. Making people pay to play the game and then pay some more to keep playing it seems like a business model whose days are numbered.

Old Republic is going to do it, and it's probably going to do well with it.
You need a lot of subs and a lot of money to make it work, so far Blizzard were the only ones who could do it in the long term.
EA's entire plan is based around a sub model right now, because it's better money maker if it works.

**Castel** · 04-17-2011, 10:54 PM

Old Republic can do it cause it's a Star Wars game (and a Bioware game which is a nice addition) and that at least for the first few months the horde of Luca$ worshipers are going to give it a try and pay some nice money.

It's not that it makes more money than a free to play system (EA's Lord of the Rings Online certainly proves that) but it makes the income more predictable which i guess must be great help when it comes to planing future extensions, patches and other developments.

**Cthulhudrew** · 04-17-2011, 11:23 PM

Haven't played DCUO myself, but I am a big fan of City of Heroes. To me, while DCUO looks pretty, and some things about it I really wish were implemented in CoH (such as fully destructible environments), there just wasn't anything else there that was enough of a draw to get me to switch.

Frankly, it has always seemed to me that the draw of a DC or Marvel MMO would be to play as the DC or Marvel characters, pure and simple. Who wouldn't want to play as Wolverine or Spider-Man, or even El Aquila? However, therein lay the inherent problems of making those games as MMOs- you either have 50,000 Spider-Men running around, or else you have to have players play as anonymous homemade heroes and villains, playing alongside the famous names (which is the route DCUO went with things). Even if it were somehow possible to create an MMO in which you could play as your favorite hero, I'm sure there are issues of legality, etc. involved (I doubt DC would look kindly on trolls running around with their Superman character ranting vulgarity on the unsuspecting populace).

So, to me, when you take away the one really big draw of playing in a Marvel or DC Universe- ie, the ability to play as the characters I know and love from reading comics- then they really don't have anything new under the sun to offer me that I'm not already getting from the MMO that I've already invested time and energy in, through the creation of my own unique superheroic identities. Not to mention that CoH has been around long enough to have much more added content than DCUO has thus far been able to provide.

**Young Avenger** · 04-17-2011, 11:45 PM

You can play as your favorite DC characters in the PvP arenas. It's the only way you can really

**Alex** · 04-18-2011, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by Castel

Old Republic can do it cause it's a Star Wars game (and a Bioware game which is a nice addition) and that at least for the first few months the horde of Luca$ worshipers are going to give it a try and pay some nice money.

It's not that it makes more money than a free to play system (EA's Lord of the Rings Online certainly proves that) but it makes the income more predictable which i guess must be great help when it comes to planing future extensions, patches and other developments.

LOTRO is a different sort of mmo as well.(Turbine, not EA)
It was never a game that lent itself to subscription because it was never good about adding in free content. That's something WoW does very well that is often overlooked.
You get a lot of content with each expansion, but every few months you get a new zone, a new raid, a few new dungeons, a new tier of pvp and pve gear. It justifies the monthly fee because you get something new every month.
SOE, i think, has never got that. They didn't do it with Everquest, didn't do it with Everquest 2, didn't do it with Vanguard, and they aren't doing it with DCUO, it's just more pronounced with DCUO because theres less content overall. DCUO is getting every 2 months one, tiny bit of content, and that's it, while ignoring all the problems people complaign about with the game.
The entire company is still locked into the Expansion model, which is oldfashioned and will mean you might get a subscriber for 3 months out of a year, not 12.

LOTROs free to play model was genius. The way it's structred, they don't need to keep you subscribed, because they can make more money off you in 1 month then they would in in 2 or 3 with a subscriber.
They aren't making anywhere near the money Blizzard is, but neither is anyone else in the mmo scene.

**Kid Kamikaze10** · 04-18-2011, 05:09 AM

Originally Posted by Young Avenger

You can play as your favorite DC characters in the PvP arenas. It's the only way you can really

If they advertised that, I'm pretty sure a lot more people would still be playing.

Ok, maybe not a lot, but more than now.

**StoneGold** · 04-18-2011, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by Alex

LOTRO is a different sort of mmo as well.(Turbine, not EA)
It was never a game that lent itself to subscription because it was never good about adding in free content. That's something WoW does very well that is often overlooked.
You get a lot of content with each expansion, but every few months you get a new zone, a new raid, a few new dungeons, a new tier of pvp and pve gear. It justifies the monthly fee because you get something new every month.
SOE, i think, has never got that. They didn't do it with Everquest, didn't do it with Everquest 2, didn't do it with Vanguard, and they aren't doing it with DCUO, it's just more pronounced with DCUO because theres less content overall. DCUO is getting every 2 months one, tiny bit of content, and that's it, while ignoring all the problems people complaign about with the game.
The entire company is still locked into the Expansion model, which is oldfashioned and will mean you might get a subscriber for 3 months out of a year, not 12.

LOTROs free to play model was genius. The way it's structred, they don't need to keep you subscribed, because they can make more money off you in 1 month then they would in in 2 or 3 with a subscriber.
They aren't making anywhere near the money Blizzard is, but neither is anyone else in the mmo scene.

It's the usual problem with the company -- they were once the big dogs on the block, so they assume they still are.

**Vaiyt** · 04-19-2011, 02:38 AM

Originally Posted by Alex

They aren't making anywhere near the money Blizzard is, but neither is anyone else in the mmo scene.

Essentially, the MMORPG market is divided between "WoW" and "Everyone trying to be the next WoW".

**Jeff-E** · 04-19-2011, 09:55 AM

How was this game on PS3? If they had released it on XBox, I would have invested in it. But they didn't, so I didn't. I'm just not big on playing games on my computer, plus its old so I doubt it would have run it anyway.

**Castel** · 04-19-2011, 10:35 AM

Hmm, true that playing on a PC can be way too bothersome. I mean, configuration, drivers, shader version, bugs...you name it.

Don't know much about the PS3 version but as this game has been thought mainly as a console game i guess this version is at least more ergonomic thanks to the game pad.

Speaking of DCUO, do you think guys that a Green Lantern expansion could refill the servers ?