Feel like playing Champions Online for years and years but don’t want to pay a monthly fee? You can preorder a lifetime subscription for a cool $200 – and get beta access to Star Trek Online, too.
One of the oft-repeated complaints about playing an MMOG is the subscription fee. “Why should I play monthly for a game that I already own, rabble rabble?!” Now, while I could argue the validity (or lack thereof) of this argument all day – or discuss alternative payment schemes – it seems that more developers are starting to toy with the idea of “Lifetime Subscriptions.” The deal, of course, being that you pay a big chunk of money beforehand, but you never have to pay a subscription fee again.
Turbine did it for devotees of Middle-Earth with The Lord of the Rings Online, and now Cryptic is following suit with their pre-order options for upcoming superhero MMOG Champions Online. Forking over a lump sum of $200 will get you a lifetime subscription to the game as well as a special costume set and some exclusive in-game items, while purchasing a six-month subscription for $60 gets you the special costume set and, uh, six months of the game at a discounted price. Both the Lifetime and Six-Month plans ensure early access to the Star Trek Online beta test … whenever that’ll be.
It’s an interesting gamble, really. At $15 a month, $200 is just over thirteen months of gameplay at regular subscription charges. So if you plan on playing Champions for more than a year, you’ll be essentially playing for free from then on. On the other hand, it’s still paying $200 up front, so… yeah.
That “Art Deco” costume set sounds interesting, though. I’m imagining an Age of Air sensibility like Crimson Skies or Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. And who doesn’t like zeppelins?
