Champions Online (Formerly Marvel Universe)

[DrRetarded]

Alright, beta key has been distributed. My apologies to those that asked, but didn't receive. If they give out more, though, I'll toss it this way, and hopefully the account I gave out will get a buddy key to provide, too.

[Draz]

Originally Posted by DrRetarded

Alright, beta key has been distributed. My apologies to those that asked, but didn't receive. If they give out more, though, I'll toss it this way, and hopefully the account I gave out will get a buddy key to provide, too.

Love how it went to some scrub lurker with only 40 posts. lol

[DrRetarded]

Originally Posted by Draz

Love how it went to some scrub lurker with only 40 posts. lol

Actually it went to someone with over 1k from '02...

[UnchainedAcolyte]

Technically it's the good doctor's choice of who to give the beta key to.

And just because said person posted in the thread doesn't mean he was the first to PM.

[Cantatus]

So, apparently Cryptic copped to using CoH's boards to recruit people to the beta:

"So, we're currently running the closed beta test for Champions Online and a few of our employees thought it might be a good idea to contact avid MMO notables and various guild leaders floating about to see if they wanted to test. I'm certain this wasn't meant to be a malicious attack on a competing product, nor did anyone intend to steal players, violate user agreements, kill babies, or knife hardworking farmers in the back. We had invites to send and the folks who send them figured people who play MMOs most might want them most. If a line was crossed, it was totally inadvertent and no harm was intended.

That being said, we have just recently restructured the Community, PR, and Marketing departments (part of the reason I'm here), so we'll make sure to stay straight as an arrow from here on. Shills, poaching, bullshotting... No chance, man. We make good games and we hope people will play them. Best anyone can do, right?"

Story on Massively.com

The thing that makes me laugh a little is how up in arms the CoH boards are about this. They don't really realize that this is pretty much business as usual in the MMO world. I remember guild leaders getting invites as far back as Asheron's Call. Of course, I'm not sure they did it on the official EverQuest boards, but it's not entirely shocking that an upcoming MMO would try to grab some people from a competitor. It builds word-of-mouth.

Of course, if Cryptic were smart, they'd try to grab people from sites like Newsarama instead.

[Tarrant220]

Any extra keys floating around by chance?

[NativityInBlack]

I know NDA NDA DNA etc but damn so much secrecy/silence on this game that I think is supposed to be out in a couple months, it's driving it underground.

Did anyone heard from a friend of a friend or something that this game is any good? Usually the foh board crew is spot on.

Heck on WAR/AoC betas we had nice discussions about the games with dozens of pages, with this one is pure crickets, starting to worry..

Any news would be awesome.

[devoir]

From various boards, there's no way this is ready to release in June. As someone who was keen on HGL, their testing sounds like it's at exactly the same stage as HGL's was three months before release.

[8ounce]

Originally Posted by devoir

From various boards, there's no way this is ready to release in June. As someone who was keen on HGL, their testing sounds like it's at exactly the same stage as HGL's was three months before release.

maybe you're right, but cryptic has a pretty good track record on releases, coh and cov were both extremely smooth.

[Genjiro]

Launch was smooth in coh, but it had a shitload of exploits and buggy things they ignored in beta or just got around to never fixing (pets zoning with master for instance which they could never code etc). The game stability was fine however.

[Big W Powah!]

I will suck a dick for a beta key.

[Clericnon2boxed]

After watching some vids of the upcoming 'Prototype' game, I wish they could polish Champions some more to look as cool and fluid.

[Draegan]

Interview with Bill Roper on Champions Online | Rerollz

[Fury]

If I’m an equal fan of DC Comics and the Champions Universe, make your case why should I play Champions Online over the other upcoming title DC Universe Online?

The core essence of the Champions game mechanic and universe is customization. Being able to create the hero that you envision is more than using our amazing costume creator. Players can take customization to the next level by being able to build their heroes by using and combining all of the powers in the game as opposed to being locked down to a class or theme. They can even choose the emanation point of the power! Force bolts don’t just have to come from their hero’s hands. They could come from the eyes, or chest, for example. All of this is designed to allow players to truly create the hero they envision.

Er... so the big "this is cool!" moment, is having a large amount of customization? Man I sure hope they have something else to give us that "this is cool" feeling and get away from the the "been there, done that" issue. Yeah, making "your" character is cool, but fun, playability, and graphics are usually a bit more important. And you gotta throw out something other then customization to make yourself different from City of Heroes.

[Dfresh429]

Originally Posted by Draz

Love how it went to some scrub lurker with only 40 posts. lol

uhh, i didn't see a post # requirement when he offered up the beta key..I must have missed it...I didn't get it anyway so shove it up your ass.