Following Senior Staff Writer Chris Tom's editorial about Champions Online's big change, Executive Producer Shannon "Poz" Posniewski reached out to talk a little bit more about this soon-to-be free-to-play MMO.

About a month ago, Champions Online announced that they would be making the shift to free-to-play. After the dust had settled and the details became clear, I felt that this really wasn't Champions Online going "free-to-play," rather, it felt as though Cryptic just wanted to introduce an endless free trial to their game. In my editorial, the problem I pointed to was the fact that it seemed as though Silver players (as in all non-subscribers, regardless of how much they've spent on microtransactions) would never be able to play with the same freedom as subscribers, and this struck me as a little bit odd.

There are always, however, opinions to be found for every side. We decided to sit down with Champions Online Executive Producer Shannon "Poz" Posniewski to get the real details on the major decisions made with Champions Online and why Cryptic feels that players should have nothing to fear when it comes to Archetypes and more. Read on!

ZAM: Hello there and thank you for taking the time to talk a little bit more about Champions Online going free-to-play!

Posniewski: Hi. It's my pleasure.

ZAM: I recall an interview Jack Emmert (Cryptic's COO) had with Eurogamer almost two weeks ago, where he said that the free-to-play aspect of an MMORPG is really a way of getting players to sample the game without needing to commit to any subscription fee, like an endless free trial. Would you say that this is the view that Cryptic is taking with Champions Online?

Posniewski: I'd say that's one of several reasons why we decided to take Champions Online free-to-play. We certainly like subscriptions, and we want players to keep subscribing. Subscriptions provide a predictable income, which makes running a game studio easier! When setting Champions up for free-to-play, we made sure that there were good reasons to subscribe.

On the other hand, the reality is that some people don't like subscriptions or just want to dabble and would rather not commit to a full subscription. We want those people to be able to come in and have a great time too. We've reserved for subscribers some advanced features that continuing players will like. However, anyone can play Champions Online, level up all the way and adventure in all the zones-for free.

ZAM: A huge decision made was recently to reintroduce lifetime subscriptions to Champions Online for $299. What was the catalyst for this kind of change? Was it player feedback, or were you planning to reintroduce lifetime subs well before you announced the F2P shift?

Posniewski: We knew we wanted to reintroduce lifetime subscriptions for a while, but we also knew that going free-to-play was a strong possibility. We didn't want to put them on sale and a few months later announce free-to-play; we felt that would be unfair. Once we announced free-to-play, players kept asking for it so we brought it back.

ZAM: It's been noted that PvP in Champions Online will be split between the two tiers of Gold players and Silver players, with Gold PvP allowing free-form built champions to compete, while Silver PvP will only allow archetypes to play. Given that Silver level PvP will probably be a lot more active than Gold (since there will be tons of players who want to check out CO's free-to-play option), are there any plans to let Gold players participate in Silver level PvP, outside of creating a brand new archetype character? Can a Gold player, for example, retcon (respec) his or her champion to an archetype to enjoy some PvP, and then retcon back to his free-form power build to do some PvE?

Posniewski: Though the exact details haven't been decided yet, we do plan on letting players switch their free-form heroes to Archetypes and back again.

ZAM: With Champions Online going free-to-play, does this mean that we'll see more smaller adventure pack releases as opposed to large-scale expansion packs? Will we be seeing new powers in the next year or so?

Posniewski: We will definitely be doing more Adventure Packs. Players like them and they are fun to build! There will also definitely be new powers over the next year (beyond the powers that we're adding for the free-to-play release). We also have plans for an expansion larger than an Adventure Pack, but it's too early to talk about at this point. (Its size will likely be driven by how successful the free-to-play update is.)