We sat down with Champions Online Producer Rob Overmeyer to get his thoughts on the Free for All update and Cryptic's future plans for the game.

Following our recent adventure in Champions Online: Free for All, we decided to sit down with Producer Rob Overmeyer to get his thoughts on the free-to-play switch. He talks about the response from the player base and future plans for the game, including the upcoming release of the Devastator Archetype and some new PvP maps.

Check out the full interview after the jump and head over to the official Champions Online site if you'd like to try out the Free for All update.

ZAM: Champions Online went free-to-play a few weeks ago. What's the past week been like at the Cryptic offices?

Rob Overmeyer: Any time before a launch, there are a few tense moments where you hold your breath in anticipation, but it only took a few minutes for players to make their way to Millennium City and take in everything we had done for Free for All. That was when we all collectively exhaled, and it’s been a blast since then.

We are really excited to see so many players in game and having a great time. Around the office there has been a ton of support and the team is really excited to get our next update wrapped up and ready to play.

ZAM: How has the response been so far from the player base? Are you seeing more returning players, or newbies or a mix of both?

Overmeyer: The response has been great. Players are excited about the changes the Free-to-Play transition brought, and they really appreciate the improvements we’ve made to the early parts of the game.

As for the types of players we are seeing back in the game, I would say we have a good mix of old and new. One thing that has really helped new players is the veteran player community. A lot of veterans are warming up to newbies, helping them along the way, answering questions, and so on. I think that is really going to help us keep people interested in the game long-term.

ZAM: What's the current balance between Silver players and Gold members?

Overmeyer: We have a good mix of new gold members and new silver players, but what’s pretty cool about our system is they’re not segregated from each other, so there’s this great sense of community right now, regardless of a player’s status.

With so many new players, the game and community has grown and feels alive and fun. Each week it isn’t surprising to see an increase of silver players that are checking out the game for the first time, and a fair number of those players will convert to gold members.

ZAM: Even though it's only been a few weeks, how would you rate the overall success of the free-to-play switch? Is it a model that we may see in other Cryptic games, such as Star Trek Online?

Overmeyer: Free for All has been successful for Champions Online, partially because it’s getting new people into the game, but also because we really set out to improve the game from beginning to end.

Starting with the planning stage, we took a close look at players’ feedback to see what our current players wanted from the game. We needed to make the game feel and play better. Along with our content, we updated numerous powers and improved some of the basic combat mechanics like holds and other controlling abilities. Our success was really supported by our dedication to make Champions Online a better game.

The switch had a lot of moving parts, and they all came together.

As far as Star Trek goes, I can’t really speak to their plans for the future, since I’m so much more focused on what we’re doing with Champions.

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