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Why STO will never be a top Tier MMO.

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    orangeitisorangeitis Member Posts: 5,222 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    dark4blood wrote: »
    1.) Server crashing
    2,) Main line story mission bugs
    3.) STF bugs
    4.) More Bugs
    5.) Poor customer service


    The funny part is all the *debatable choices that Cryptic has made don't even make the top 10 let alone the top 5 for the reasons why this game has less than 150,000 players. The main reason is because it seems more and more Cryptic does not care about even keep the game running correctly.
    http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9065123-star-trek-online-5-year-anniversary-infographic

    Bro. The game has 3.8 million players.

    The game is running far better than many others out there.
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    alexsanderitaalexsanderita Member Posts: 214 Arc User
    It will never be the top but this is not important for us the players as it is for the company.
    As long as we have a good game we're okay.


    The only thing I really object to them is the bugs and server instability (beyond the occasional DDOS attack) problem.

    But we have a unique gameplay which unites starship commanding and space travel/combat with planetary adventures with our crew.
    The formula got me. I would like to see more games like this (better if singleplayer)

    All in a loose Star Trek setting in a moment when there are not other trek gaming experiences out there.

    And a fantastic free to play model.


    So it will never be the king of free to play MMOs maybe but I think it has a long life in front of itself and a possible sequel with a better engine one day considering how much it's important for its company.
    I still dream from time to time about using the Gateway to doff off-game in spare minutes as we were told
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    apulseapulse Member Posts: 456 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    Those are "asian-market" games. I know Lineage II is very VERY popular over there.

    I wonder though which game under the Perfect World banner that brings most Revenue.
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    littlesarbonnlittlesarbonn Member Posts: 486 Arc User
    Unfortunately, these types of threads pop up a lot around here. Personally, I don't think there are first tier MMOs any more. WOW is still the big dog on the block, but it's losing players constantly because there's only far you can take that franchise on the engine they're still using.

    Which leaves us with STO, a game that a lot of people love to hate and hate to love. I got all pissy about the game when DR came out because the greed of the owners became very apparent. I came back after a great deal of time because I was curious to see if things had settled down a bit. Still undecided.

    But I love some of the things they have done, like Midnight was a lot of fun to me, kind of a perfect mission for an action MMO. There's only so much you can do with a story, and I feel they hit a home run on that one. If I saw more like that, I might end up staying this time around. If I feel they're trying to raid my wallet on a daily basis rather than treat me as a loyal customer, I'll probably slip away.

    What makes this game great to me is that it's actually a space game. That's where SWTOR fails for me. It's a space game in name only (or if you like to do pvp). Otherwise, it's WOW on different planets. And that's a game I can honestly say I actually enjoyed. Had there been a real space part to it (and not the arcade on rails they did implement), I'd probably stop playing STO forever. But I love the universe of Star Trek, and I'm pretty sure that is what keeps a lot of people slugging through the bad stuff in the game. They love the idea of living in that universe. I know I do. But because it's one of those genre niches, I understand that it's never going to be as big as some people wish it could be. And as long as that's enough to keep the game going, great. If it requires ridiculous amounts of cash from the few people who play, I'll probably start reading books more or find something else to occupy my time.
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    apulseapulse Member Posts: 456 Arc User
    I countinued to play Star Trek Online in the beginning cause I love Star Trek.
    And the shift between Ground and Space is very charming in it's own way. The game feel more relaxed since all missions is not about kill that and that but more puzzle and sometimes just dialog talks.

    I had no problem with Delta Rising, I might have missed the point people are talking about, but I loved that "expansion". Only thing I was tired of was the slow grind of leveling.
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    xyquarzexyquarze Member Posts: 2,114 Arc User
    (To be fair, I understand the OP not as "STO is not a Top 5 MMO" but as "Things like level grind on DR don't even make the top 5 list of bad things in my opinion)

    So what constitutes a "top tier MMO"?

    Is it the critics' consensus? Well, I like the music I like and if critics think it's not as good as other I do not like, good on them, but I will continue to listen to what I like.

    Is it the number of players? Well, too few players could be discontinuation of course, and less involvement because of not meeting other players often enough. Even if we take the 150k from the OP as a given (the 3.8 million probably means captains, i.e. characters, not players, and also probably includes discontinued accounts and spam robots), that would be enough to solve the latter issue. I had to switch instances in the alpha quadrant the other day (got stuck in Bajor's sun, as I am prone to do unfortunately), there were hundreds of players in a dozen or more instances.

    But the time where I really cared what other people deem cool or good was when I was hitting puberty. I've since evolved to build my own opinion. And if my favorite band, movie, game makes a top list, I might feel a tingle of happiness, but not much more. And if it doesn't, it doesn't really matter.

    Plus: tastes are different. Even if there was to be one thing everybody agrees to be "superior", there will still be a place for niche products.
    My mother was an epohh and my father smelled of tulaberries
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    sennahcheribsennahcherib Member Posts: 2,823 Arc User
    for me (my tastes, my way of thinking, my age), sto is the best game.
    - first of all, it is F2P, i don't have to pay each month something to enjoy this game
    - i can play in space and on ground
    - i can play with my own team (my beloved boffs :p)
    - the game is easy; i tried Eve online, but it is too complicated and personally I just want "launch and play" a game without spend hours trying to understand how it works.
    - Star Trek

    but i hate also some stuff in this game; all the gambling (R&D, Upgrade system), all the cooldowns, no exploration.
    this game is not perfect, in fact nothing is perfect; and for now, i haven't find a more interesting game (contents and price)

    ok, bugs are boring, disconnections are annoying, etc . Devs have obligations and I think they do what they can and as best they can.


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    mrspidey2mrspidey2 Member Posts: 959 Arc User
    You should check the number of players / subscribers of games like Lineage II or Ragnarok Online...
    That's an entirely different mindset and market. We all know how "well" asia grinders perform on the western market.

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    leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,344 Arc User
    edalgo wrote: »
    I believe there are no DDOS attacks.

    Disconnects and lag have been part of the game for years.

    This is all just the server breaking down from years of neglect and bad coding.

    Server hamsters are throwing up!

    These WERE DDoS attacks. They happened bang on cue! The guy even posted when he was going to do them on Twitter. And what kind of company would openly break the law by DDoS'ing itself and bragging about it so openly!?
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
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    ladytiamat666ladytiamat666 Member Posts: 276 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    mrspidey2 wrote: »
    That's an entirely different mindset and market. We all know how "well" asia grinders perform on the western market.

    Depends on what you call western market, if it's only america or the western world at large. Games like Aion or Tera were sucessful here in Europe (especially Aion), and they were originally Korean games more or less adapted for the western audience. Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn, a japanese game, is a success everywhere. And i have no doubt that NC Soft's (South Korean company) Blade & Soul will be a huge success after its 2016 release for the western audience.

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    kavasekavase Member Posts: 771 Arc User
    dark4blood wrote: »
    orangeitis wrote: »
    dark4blood wrote: »
    1.) Server crashing
    2,) Main line story mission bugs
    3.) STF bugs
    4.) More Bugs
    5.) Poor customer service


    The funny part is all the *debatable choices that Cryptic has made don't even make the top 10 let alone the top 5 for the reasons why this game has less than 150,000 players. The main reason is because it seems more and more Cryptic does not care about even keep the game running correctly.
    http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9065123-star-trek-online-5-year-anniversary-infographic

    Bro. The game has 3.8 million players.

    The game is running far better than many others out there.

    ^And this folks is called I can't read. This is 2.5 million Accounts for one, and that is over the LIFETIME of the game. That is not active IP address. This means people who double accounts, like myself, and some who have as many as 20 accounts are considered separate players. MOST MMO's track IP address so they know the AMOUNT of PLAYERS. Don't let the, "I wasn't thinking", door hit you on the way out.

    You sir are correct. And while the numbers are dismal at best, the idea that the game is, or will not be a top tier game is a bit subjective.

    There are people out there that believe this is a game for a cell phone or tablet, while others believe it to be much more than that, and in terms of F2P, think it's one of the best and others that think in-between.

    I personally would never qualify STO as a top tier MMO, but to me, it never was meant to be that, and to be honest, we're lucky we got anything at all....
    Retired. I'm now in search for that perfect space anomaly.
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    shpoksshpoks Member Posts: 6,967 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    orangeitis wrote: »
    Bro. The game has 3.8 million players.

    LOL :D Elementary false.
    What you linked there is number of Captains, a.k.a. player characters, ever created in game since it's conception probably spiced up with some positive PR spin. Just as an example - I, a single person, have 16 Captains at the moment.

    At the end of last year and the beginning of this one, multiple neutral gaming sites have posted available data as to the number of players of the 'top' MMOs - No.1 was WoW with about 11.5 million subscriptions after WoD was released and the second one, very very far behind, was SW:ToR with around 1.1 million players (500k subs/the rest some mix of their F2P).
    Therefore if STO really had almost 4 million players as you claim, it would have been kind of a big deal since it would have been the second most successful MMO after WoW (in terms of active players), one of the most successful MMOs in gaming history and STO itself as a game would have been much more known to the general public, nominated for "best something" every single year in awards like 'Golden Joystick' or similar, etc. This, unfortunately, just isn't the case regardless how much some of us like STO or feel like that.

    I don't have a horse in this race and by now I don't really care if STO is a 'top tier' MMO (which in my personal opinion isn't) or what the OP thinks about the game, I just dislike when people post misinformation on the fora as if they're stating facts.
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    lianthelialianthelia Member Posts: 7,825 Arc User
    deleroux wrote: »
    I'm not even sure what really qualifies as a top tier MMO these days, tbh. The genre and industry is very different today than what it resembled in its glory days, as I recall.

    It's definitely subjective what makes an MMO 'top tier.'

    I'll say this though, as far as Free To Play models go in MMO's, Star Trek Online is still by far the best I have ever seen and it's not even close. The amount of content you can experience in STO for free is amazing. You won't top the DPS charts without spending some money, but you can certainly get many hours of entertainment value without spending a dime.

    STO is far from perfect, but it's the only MMO I have ever played that I didn't hate after 6-8 months.

    I agree with this...STO is the only MMO I've played where you can actually obtain almost anything the game has to offer without spending a dime. I have never played another MMO that lets you earn store credit just for playing in game...
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    coupaholiccoupaholic Member Posts: 2,188 Arc User
    From the infographic:

    - 3.8 Million captains, as in toons.
    - 2.5 Million accounts, closer to a real number but of course one player can have more than a single account.

    I think it's a reasonable assumption that actual player numbers are in the millions, and from my perspective at least they are still quite active. In either case I'm pretty sure it's above the 150k quoted in the OP.

    Why do people continue to worry about the state of STO? When the time comes for it to die it will die. Why just sit around waiting for the end while you can either end your misery now and quit, or just carry on enjoying yourself.​​
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    ladytiamat666ladytiamat666 Member Posts: 276 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    lianthelia wrote: »
    I agree with this...STO is the only MMO I've played where you can actually obtain almost anything the game has to offer without spending a dime. I have never played another MMO that lets you earn store credit just for playing in game...

    If memory serves, there is a similar system in Guild Wars 2, and in EVE and WildStar there is a system allowing players to pay their susbscription with an in-game currency.

    signature%201.jpg_zpsklpuyd7v.png
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    lianthelialianthelia Member Posts: 7,825 Arc User
    Someone enlighten me, What is considered a Top Tier MMO ?
    World of Shitcraft ?
    Star TRIBBLE The Crappy Republic ?

    I don't see those as better then STO. Or Top Tier in any way.

    I believe STO punches above it's weight in every way. And by far has the best F2P model in the industry.
    Not sure what the budgets are for said games, but I'd make a wager that STO gets more done for less budget then any game you could mention.



    I totally agree. Even though I enjoyed SWTOR, the free model is beyond terrible. Same with WoW, not only did I not enjoy the game but it's also very very limited as far as what you can actually do for free. Neither of those games are free to play, they have 'free modes,' but they're extremely limited. STO has them both beat with ease.
    farshore wrote: »
    I hear good things about Final Fantasy XIV.

    I have also heard good things, but like the above mentioned games.. this one isn't free either.

    The only other MMO I can think of that has a F2P model on par with Star Trek Online is Rift.

    While I agree with you on the having to sub on WoW or ToR to actually get a full experience out of the game...I personally don't agree they suck. I used to play WoW and I'm currently subbed and play ToR.

    STO beats them in F2P 110%...but honestly I think that is as far as it goes...WoW and ToR have much more to offer in end game, balance, and bug squashing...not to mention PvP is still alive in both. While balance isn't perfect in either it isn't completely spiraling out of control like STO is...

    You know...I can live with a lot of things...but the two things that really bother me the most about STO is the complete lack of anything even relatively called balance...power creep in this game is insane and balance flat out doesn't exist. Other thing I hate is the fact there is no real endgame...sure we get a STF or two now and then but that's it...even then none of them have any real challenge...nothing to them...they're basically just damage sponges. In the end it's almost all the same besides the few abilities they use and some may have different objectives...but it's the same...you just kill lots of masses with tons of health and not really any tactics at all besides spam your AoE.

    PvP is all but dead in the game...and it's thanks to my first hate...no balance makes PvP the worst...

    STO has the best F2P of any MMO I've ever played...but that is all...it's just been dug so deep in the ground I don't know if it's possible to ever get above ground without just completely starting over with STO 2...
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    deaftravis05deaftravis05 Member Posts: 4,885 Arc User
    they said accounts, not characters.
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    anothervisitoranothervisitor Member Posts: 414 Arc User
    I don't care that STO will never be "a top tier MMO". I enjoy the game and that's good enough for me.
    Like every MMO, it is not without its problems, but it is quite lenient on people who don't spend tons and tons of cash (I'm looking at you SWTOR).

    Also, I have invested too much time (and some money) into this game already. If it goes down I'm not gonna start from scratch elsewhere. No freebies will convince me of that.
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    lizweilizwei Member Posts: 936 Arc User
    Someone enlighten me, What is considered a Top Tier MMO ?
    World of Shitcraft ?
    Star TRIBBLE The Crappy Republic ?

    I don't see those as better then STO. Or Top Tier in any way.

    I believe STO punches above it's weight in every way. And by far has the best F2P model in the industry.
    Not sure what the budgets are for said games, but I'd make a wager that STO gets more done for less budget then any game you could mention.



    Even in jest, SWTOR is as far from top tier as you can go.
    It has a far higher budget than STO, sure. But that budget is squandered on absolute rubbish at every turn, and the game is little more than a badly written, awfully executed WoW clone with lightsabers.
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    puttenhamputtenham Member Posts: 1,052 Arc User
    dude...

    before this gets locked and you get warned... it's a DDOS attack on the server. As for the bugs, it happens because there's two sets of codes... from the developers who built this game and the ones who run it.

    yay, more excuses as to why a product doesnt work properly... all i see are excuses apon excuses apon excuses.. what i dont see is execution.

    while i will say that a "single" problem logging in shouldnt make anyone call doom.. i will say, that excesive log in failures weekly will, which happens here... a ddos attack on the servers.. what, its been like 4 days since that.. they are still riding that excuse? further more, its a failure on cryptic part that they got TRIBBLE.. christ, if my identity gets TRIBBLE, its considered my fault in the eyes of the credit bureau. i look at it the same here.. they should expect attacks and have the proper defences in place.

    and yes, bugs happen, but not on the degree they happen here.. for crying out loud, they cant even shange the color of something in game without it causing bugs.. and it takes way way way too long for bugs to be fixed.. gont get me wrong, if a bug helps us the players, it gets fixed imidiatly, but if there is a bug that hinders us, well, lets say it sits on the back burner for a while..

    your comment hurts cryptic more than it helps them.. unfortunatly in this world of everyone gets a trophy, everyone makes every excuse they can for failing companies and people..

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    bubblegirl2015bubblegirl2015 Member Posts: 830 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    dark4blood wrote: »
    1.) Server crashing
    2,) Main line story mission bugs
    3.) STF bugs
    4.) More Bugs
    5.) Poor customer service


    The funny part is all the *debatable choices that Cryptic has made don't even make the top 10 let alone the top 5 for the reasons why this game has less than 150,000 players. The main reason is because it seems more and more Cryptic does not care about even keep the game running correctly.

    I sympathize with the feeling but you won't find that much on these forums. It used to be said that the forums are the slums of STO a while back when this used to be on a pinnacle of activity. Now it's mostly rage and nitpicking at every posting. Good luck with finding any logic here.

    For sure the lag server/issue was here long before this weekend's fiasco with the DDoS attacks. Some will just excuse it as..."well beyond our control" and "there is nothing we could do". To some degree might be right but the true lag issues have been bugging STO at least since DR launched last year. It was the same thing PWE said about the cogent issue..."beyond our control". However, they did make some progress to create some fixes.
    Poor customer service and perceived animosity had created an atmosphere conducive to rage quitting and DDoS attacks perpetrated by those who got fed up with the system. Not a good way to vent out but the environment has been there for a while. PWE does need to make some amends instead of being in denial that this is part of doing business.​​
    Wiki editor http://sto.gamepedia.com
    Original STO beta tester.
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    johnwatson71johnwatson71 Member Posts: 187 Arc User
    dark4blood wrote: »
    1.) Server crashing
    2,) Main line story mission bugs
    3.) STF bugs
    4.) More Bugs
    5.) Poor customer service


    The funny part is all the *debatable choices that Cryptic has made don't even make the top 10 let alone the top 5 for the reasons why this game has less than 150,000 players. The main reason is because it seems more and more Cryptic does not care about even keep the game running correctly.

    LOL less than 150,000 players? Dude I wish this game pulled in that many!

    As of August of this year, this game pulls in less than 5000 monthly players. How it manages to stay afloat is beyond me. Its probably why zen prices are so high. They have to milk the same players or close down.
    7aamriW.png
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    ladytiamat666ladytiamat666 Member Posts: 276 Arc User
    As of August of this year, this game pulls in less than 5000 monthly players.

    Source ? Link ? If it's Steam, you know that the vast majority of STO's players are not launching the game through Steam, do you ? Most of us use the Arc launcher or launch the game directly.

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    mayito2009mayito2009 Member Posts: 643 Arc User
    @OP nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e'? 'e' yIghItlh. Qapla'!
    Seek and ye shall find. Ask and ye shall receive. Rabboni
    Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" (Benjamin Franklin).

    Most unexpectedly, this turned into a flame-fest! Closed it goes!. /sigh What flamefestery is this? pwlaughingtrendy
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    tamujiintamujiin Member Posts: 321 Arc User
    shazia9191 wrote: »

    We could say the same for your opinion. This thread didn't need your response, but you chimed in anyway with a fairly hostile post. I'm glad you think we need to hear your inane insults.

    Moving on!

    Haha.. a dental troll tries to play forum cop..

    Pot.. Kettle.. Black.

    He made a statement, that was spot on so you insult him because he actually ISNT trolling, and made a legitimate statement, YET yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh......... okay den dar..... excellento thought processes.
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    tamujiintamujiin Member Posts: 321 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    apulse wrote: »
    dark4blood wrote: »
    1.) Server crashing
    2,) Main line story mission bugs
    3.) STF bugs
    4.) More Bugs
    5.) Poor customer service


    The funny part is all the *debatable choices that Cryptic has made don't even make the top 10 let alone the top 5 for the reasons why this game has less than 150,000 players. The main reason is because it seems more and more Cryptic does not care about even keep the game running correctly.

    Hehe, that is lot of tears.
    I love the explanation that the studio don't love their game anymore and have abandoned it.

    We are getting atleast one "big" update a month, from an episode to a season etc.
    WoW froze their updates for months, and it is still the largest MMO on the market, think Blizzard cares less about their MMO then Cryptic does of STO.

    Star Trek Online is the 2nd biggest MMO on Cryptic
    Neverwinter is the number one. The one that they don't care about is Champions Online. That is a wounded animal. It bleeds money right now from what I have heard.

    Star Trek Online path since launch has been very VERY hard
    We who have played from the beginning can remember how broken this game was at launch. We got that explained to us that when Cryptic got the licence, they had to release it within 1½ -2 years, if they didn't keep that deadline the licence would be lost. They acquired it from a studio that went bankrupt after been working on it for 2 years so 2 years developing time was lost right from the start. (Source; Video interview with Cryptic personal, do't remember the showcast crew, one of them went to work with Cryptic and plays the voice of Kurtland)

    After that it was Klingon who was more broken then ever, a PVP faction instead of a PVE faction. I mean the first 2 years of the game was allabout polish the game itself. I would go on a limp and say that the game was "finished" in 2013, it was then the game started to run more smoothly. Since then it has been more joy of playing STO.
    Their F2P system is the best on the market, you can do much without spending a single nickle. Just look at Old Republic, worst F2P system EVER!

    Main line story mission bugs
    Bugs will always be around, but I suppose they could do more QA before releasing their content.

    Poor customer service
    Since when has anyone been happy over customer service?

    Server crashing
    Not going to comment that over the obvious.

    Pertaining to the Bugs part of your statement.

    They do have a community "bug killing" team now. Just announced it like a month ago. If you read the tribble notes, AND the holodeck patch notes, you'll see alot of the long time annoying bugs are being worked on.

This discussion has been closed.