Cryptic Admits Seeking Out CoH Players For Champions Beta

After days of speculation, Cryptic has admited that it contacted players of NCSoft's MMO 'City of Heroes' on the CoH forums to offer them beta keys for the upcoming Champions Online.

Cryptic's activity first emerged as City of Heroes players began discussing PMs they had received on the CoH forums. Players were being invited to try out the Champions Online beta, but encouraged to keep the invitation private, and not to discuss the contact with anyone else. In a statement last week, NCSoft admitted that outside solicitations were bound to happen, but they may be able to take steps depending on the content of the PMs:

"Although we cannot stop someone from initially communicating with you - whether it be RMT (real money transaction) related, another game company trying to lure you to their competing product, or general spamming...we are in a position to investigate the situation (and potentially take action) once a solicitation has occurred, for it is a direct violation of our Rules of Conduct  and EULA (End User License Agreement)."

As reported on Massively, Cryptic's Associate Community Relations Representative 'IronAngel' earlier posted a statement from Ivan Sulic, a Marcom Manager, where he admits that Marcom employees "thought it might be a good idea" to contact notable players of other MMOs and offer them beta spots for Champions Online. He argues that the move was not meant as malicious, or an attempt to steal players from a competing game, merely an innocent offer to try a game for someone who would probably enjoy it.

However, he goes on to say that the marketing team has recently been restructured, and that they will "stay straight as an arrow" from now on:

"Shills, poaching, bullshotting... No chance, man. We make good games and we hope people will play them. Best anyone can do, right?"

Ivan Sulic was previously a community manager from Hellgate London, who famously told players "Who the f*ck cares" in regards to the lack of LAN gameplay.

In related news, we caught up with Champions Online's Bill Roper to ask him questions on the upcoming superhero MMO.