Champions Online: The No-NDA Merged Edition

[SnakeCharmer]

So if it's all flowers and chocolates, you're not breaking the NDA.
If it's THISGAMESUCKSDON'TBUYFUCKERFUCKINGFUCKITYFUCK, you ARE breaking the NDA?

Nice.

[Trippy]

NDA was dropped.

Have at it.

I think it's the press NDA/embargo only.

Edit:  I'm sure of it, actually... 

Man, I've screwed this up for like every game ever.

I always forget that I "count as press."

I'll let Trippy handle this one then, he's "press" too.

There's of course no official word on the Web site or forums but I think this only applies to the "press" people that got invited to a preview event recently.

[raydeen]

What if we only use emoticons to describe our feelings about the game? Would that still break the NDA?

[Ghambit]

I know I have a blog (somewhere).   I ARE PRESS!
Gimme beta key!

p.s.
for those not in the press... just give your feelings to said press (ala Schild, Trippy, etc.), let em edit it for personal flavor, and voila, no NDA breakage.

[Trippy]

What if we only use emoticons to describe our feelings about the game? Would that still break the NDA?

Don't.

[Goreschach]

If they're this finicky about the NDA, then that can't be a good sign.

[Ghambit]

A few reviews are already out:
http://www.mmocrunch.com/2009/05/04/champions-online-preview-weekend/

http://www.massively.com/2009/05/04/massively-hands-on-the-first-five-levels-of-champions-online/

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67551

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67553

[Nebu]

I really would liked to have tried it as I’ve never played a MMO where I could fly around, so I’m not sure how that would translate in PvP.

Apparently the mmocrunch guy never played CoH either.  I think that will make a difference.

I want to hear from CoH/CoV vets to hear how the game is different/better.  It would suck to buy this to find that it's little more than CoH v2.0 with few changes beyond graphic glitz.

[Kageru]

I'm really surprised they dropped the press NDA this early, unless there are significant conditions and vetting rights on what they produce. It pretty much does confirm they're in the last stages of their release process though.

very much looking forward to the general NDA dropping.

[Ghambit]

Combat review:
http://www.massively.com/2009/05/04/massively-hands-on-combat-in-champions-online/

[Ghambit]

Is there any talk with this title eventually offering player made "Secret Lairs?"  Or at the very least guild housing?
One thing I hated with CoH was that cramped feeling of nowhere to go.  The world wasnt very big, so at least a personalized place to go would make things a bit more homey-feeling.

[UnSub]

No guild housing on launch, I believe.

I'm amazed they let the press in at this stage, even for lvl 1 - 5. Amazed.

I've got a write-up half done for when the actual NDA drops.

[Montague]

I'm really surprised they dropped the press NDA this early, unless there are significant conditions and vetting rights on what they produce. It pretty much does confirm they're in the last stages of their release process though.

very much looking forward to the general NDA dropping.

They didn't drop the press NDA. They dropped what they felt comfortable with.

Tortage here we come! 

[Ghambit]

I'm really surprised they dropped the press NDA this early, unless there are significant conditions and vetting rights on what they produce. It pretty much does confirm they're in the last stages of their release process though.

very much looking forward to the general NDA dropping.

They didn't drop the press NDA. They dropped what they felt comfortable with.

Tortage here we come! 

Eh, not with this game methinks.  It's not like the thing is truly written from scratch.  They're using a lot of proprietary tech. (and lore) from earlier titles and the game has been in the works for quite a while.  My cynical side agrees with you, but the logical side says the probability of another Tortage is not high.

Regardless, 95% of this thing is gonna be the chargen aspect; and judging from the reviews so far it looks to be ridiculously robust and equally entertaining.  The "custom framework" aspect is a big plus (my fears have been laid aside with that one).  My last fear is whether or not you can lock in a character name if your char. isnt completely built.   

[AutomaticZen]

A few reviews are already out:
http://www.mmocrunch.com/2009/05/04/champions-online-preview-weekend/

http://www.massively.com/2009/05/04/massively-hands-on-the-first-five-levels-of-champions-online/

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67551

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67553

Huh. Sounds like they only got the tutorial to play.  Interesting.

[HaemishM]

I've got a write-up half done for when the actual NDA drops.

Mine is done. It doesn't take long to write one sentence.

[Trippy]

No more foreshadowing please.

[Margalis]

CoX only _____.

When the NDA drops you can fill in the missing word.

[Ghambit]

First impressions from escapistmagazine.  Kind of a bland review, you can tell the press is a bit restrained in these mundane writeups.  I'm not even gonna waste my time lookin for this crap anymore.  Wake me up when there's some real press... or I get a damned beta key 

[Sky]

If they can fix the grind problem (more interesting content), then it's win.

If not, it's CoX2.

Pretty easy call imo.

[HaemishM]

Restraining the press to just the tutorial area is both genius and high cocksuckery.

[UnSub]

ChampO to have no server shards, just multiple instances of the same zone.

Theoretically it will be easy to flip between them so you can play with friends and guilds.

[Ingmar]

The Guild Wars model then. That should work decently well. It also avoids sever merge/close doom drama in forums. 

[Kageru]

Once upon a time I might have argued "server communities" but that seems like such a quaint relic from a bygone age. Now this sort of scheme makes good sense, scales better and avoids the problem of levelling your characters on a sickly / poor server.

[Numtini]

I think "server communities" depend on the type of game. In WoW and EQ2, I have been on servers with a solid community and with raiding, having a reputation still helps. In COX? It's 100% instanced anyway, so who really cares much?

[Koyasha]

Communities will form one way or another, whether by server or some other division.  I'd disagree that CoX communities are irrelevant, especially since my experiences in that game have been heavily social, with a lot of people who play primarily to hang out in the D and/or their guild/allied bases.  Since they're not planning on having names be unique, that's fine by me, since the main reason I'd want different servers is so I can get whatever name I want even if someone else has taken it already.

[Yegolev]

Once upon a time I might have argued "server communities" but that seems like such a quaint relic from a bygone age. Now this sort of scheme makes good sense, scales better and avoids the problem of levelling your characters on a sickly / poor server.

Also you don't have to announce that you are shutting down ten servers at some point after release.

[Goreschach]

Once upon a time I might have argued "server communities" but that seems like such a quaint relic from a bygone age. Now this sort of scheme makes good sense, scales better and avoids the problem of levelling your characters on a sickly / poor server.

Also you don't have to announce that you are shutting down ten servers at some point after release.

I still don't understand why AOC didn't go for something like this. They already had the instancing thing built in, and it would have saved them a lot of drama.

[Ghambit]

Once upon a time I might have argued "server communities" but that seems like such a quaint relic from a bygone age. Now this sort of scheme makes good sense, scales better and avoids the problem of levelling your characters on a sickly / poor server.

Also you don't have to announce that you are shutting down ten servers at some point after release.

I still don't understand why AOC didn't go for something like this. They already had the instancing thing built in, and it would have saved them a lot of drama.

pvp issues

[Threash]

Speaking of pvp, is there any in this game? cause that char creation review almost has me hooked.

[Ragnoros]

Yes*

*In CoX the pvp experience ranged from passably fun to horribly broken. Also there were never any rewards associated with it besides some temp powers (read:consumables).

So as usual it will come down to execution.

[UnSub]

PvP will be arena / scenario-based. No open world PvP given that all characters are meant to be heroes (at this time, anyway).

[jayfyve]

Champions Online - Due out Fall 2009

“It is critically important for an MMO to be as good as it possibly can be at launch. Through our constant dialogue with our vocal and supportive community of beta testers, we quickly realized that in order to implement certain features that we all considered important the development of Champions Online would require more time. So that's what we're going to give it. Cryptic has a proven track record of releasing solid games and we want to maintain that with Champions Online.”
-Bill Roper, Design Director and Executive Producer

I was looking forward to trying a new MMO out sooner than that. It seems like any MMO that announces a release date changes it at least once. Oh wells, better later than never and better finished than failed.

[Nebu]

I'm willing to bet that more time isn't going to help with the success of this game.  Any takers?

[Koyasha]

Fall means more competition with other upcoming MMO's (Aion comes to mind, for me at least), and it'll probably coincide or be not-long-after WoW's next big patch.  Summer would be better in my opinion, but it really depends on what these important features they're working on are, and what their actual state of readiness is.

Also, the fact that all characters are meant to be heroes at this point drops my interest dramatically.  Not that I had that much interest in Champions Online to begin with, but if all characters have to be heroes, unless I'm particularly bored when it comes out I may not muster enough interest to try it.