One of my colleagues sent me a trial key for City of Heroes.

I got the client updater/installer and let it run overnight. Fine: it polluted my downloads folder (then later my desktop when I moved it) with random junk (including a .dll!) but nothing particularly annoying. So far.

I ran the game. It let me log in and make a character. I wanted it in window mode, and the graphics options say they'll be applied after a restart. Fair enough, I suppose.

Restarting didn't change the graphics options. I wonder whether I'm invoking the client from the right place, still using the updater on my desktop as I am, so I try the link it's provided me (no Start menu folder, just a desktop shortcut). That shortcut (which leads to a copy of the updater that lives in the install folder) wants to start installing again, so I tell it to do so in the same install folder, hoping it will just verify the existing files and start up. Instead the updater wants to write a copy of itself there, which would be fine if that wasn't already the path on which it was executing. Predictable permission conflict ensues.

I copy the junk that the updater leaves behind into the install folder so that it thinks I always ran it from there. It is able to launch the client again.

Now I find that my username and password are no longer accepted. I can confirm the username and reset the password on the account management website, but not use them to get into the game.

The support website is a mess. I look for an answer in the knowledge base; it doesn't say much I already tried (just some stuff about pressing backspace a lot in case there is whitespace at the prompt). Fair enough. I try some more, then go to the page for 'if you're still having trouble'.

'If you're still having trouble' provides a template to submit as a support ticket. It says to fill in all the details, or to explain why you've omitted them. I omit an ambiguous detail (which of the two or three 'unique' IDs does it want, and why can't it just use the places where I've put them all into other parts of the form?) and a host of requests for personal information, dutifully explaining that I'm not providing personal information that isn't relevant.

The form has a space for e-mail address, noting that it's only necessary if you don't have an NCSoft master account, but marking it required. I do have a master account, but I can't submit the form without an e-mail address so on the next page is another form asking me to set a password with which to use my e-mail address as a site login.

I put the bulk of the form text on the clipboard and try logging into the site again. The language option is 'English (US)' and some of the options on the form seem to be specific to US servers, so I switch locale, which sends me back to the homepage and appears to log me out. Logging back in changes me back to English (US). None of this appears to let me use my account as a reference rather than my e-mail address.

The support ticket is most likely now associated with my e-mail address rather than my site account and my game account, which isn't going to help me track it.

They time their responses in business days, so I probably won't hear anything until Tuesday, by which time I will have used about 4 of the 10 days of free trial without actually playing the game. I've wasted the last hour and a half doing this and am in a foul mood because of it.
Chances of NCSoft getting a subscription out of me for City of Heroes? Small to nil.

Edit: To their credit, NCSoft's support people got back to me very quickly and asked me to check which locale of the updater I'm using. Sure enough, the one that the EU updater copied into the install folder first time around was a US updater, which is where the shortcut leads. With an EU updater in the install folder and the link changed, it now works, and after a little more fiddling even plays in window mode.
It's not a pretty game, but I might stay a while if the only guy I know playing it is around.