I wish we had free opening of Lockboxes for Gold/LTS players like in other games. That would be a great reason to Sub.
This games has MANY things not available to players that they could set up as packs to buy in the Z-store. Emotes and Weapon skins, as well as powers/power skins that appear on other NPC/becomes. Especially muliple arms and no legs-they dont have to have emotes on all powers but just be there, and no legs-just have them black out leg powers. Simple or make it a travel power of something.
New zones-as i posted in a thread about CO leadership:
USE THE SMALLER ZONES YOU MADE FOR MISSIONS!
Turn Hai-Pans floating area into a small Zone. You should be able to take that and paste it into a new and larger ares and build upon it and reuse pieces already there.
Demonflame: Use that Q-Realm and tack on pieces from Aftershock and bam you have the majority of what you need right there.
Yes both of those ideas would still need development to make mission and add to the landscape, but allot of the work is done already.
*slaps himself upside the head*
OMG
Why the hell didn't I already think of this? It would certainly add a lot more variety both in gameplay and even roleplaying capabilities. Still something like this should also be added in with some kind of big patch update to further sweeten the deal.
*slaps himself upside the head*
OMG
Why the hell didn't I already think of this? It would certainly add a lot more variety both in gameplay and even roleplaying capabilities. Still something like this should also be added in with some kind of big patch update to further sweeten the deal.
TY, and speaking of Roleplaying-a group of players who are probably the easiest to please. Reopen the mutations and Dojo buildings, open up...whats is called Indigo? the big hotel/adult place in MC. Open that as a new caprice with multple rooms for those ERPers to go.
Also places like Harmon labs-you have a map, just take the bad guys out and let us RP there. Great for Scientist peeps.
Also give us back our bookstores! those were great RP locations as well.
I wish we had free opening of Lockboxes for Gold/LTS players like in other games. That would be a great reason to Sub.
I don't agree at all.
Better would be new & improved veteran's benefits (veteran's core of might getting an upgrade, R5 avoidance core, an exclusive emote, etc.) and RetCons that you can sell maybe (as Cellarrat33 points out). The source code supports tradeable RetCon tokens, if y'all recall the Service Grabbags...
*/me feels old now as the CoH refugees probably won't know what the heck I'm talking about with Service Grabbags*
PS: I suggested a new type of lockbox you all might actually like in the suggestions forum. Check it out! It's superior to Takofanes lockboxes and those are up to 10g a piece or more, so if you don't want to pay to open your Legendary Lockbox you could always post it on the AH for somebody who will. Win-win for everyone!
Demonflame: Use that Q-Realm and tack on pieces from Aftershock and bam you have the majority of what you need right there.
This idea was mentioned YEARS ago. Cryptic never responded. (then again I'm not sure they ever read the suggestions forum... ) I tried to search for it but it's lost forever thanks to the "Archived Post" crap...
Yes both of those ideas would still need development to make mission and add to the landscape, but allot of the work is done already.[/QUOTE]
This idea was mentioned YEARS ago. Cryptic never responded. (then again I'm not sure they ever read the suggestions forum... ) I tried to search for it but it's lost forever thanks to the "Archived Post" crap...
Yes both of those ideas would still need development to make mission and add to the landscape, but allot of the work is done already.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I was one asking for it to become a new Zone when it first came out.
Using the existing maps would be quicker than making one from scratch, and while we enoy things there, then maybe they could make that Destroyer Island zone that Stoken said he would love to have.
That, while qualifying as an answer, is not the answer to the question I asked. Perhaps you misunderstood my question. I shall endeavor to be clearer.
Can you provide a link to an article/interview/whatnot where said divot of information was actually quoted/said? Not just who said it, but the article or contractual snippet?
Said divot of information being, paraphrased, that "if Champions Online ever goes under, the IP reverts to Hero System Games".
Edit: Also, as an afterthought...here. Chew on some of these emotes. Just click on an emote name to see it demonstrated.
Or possibly into the first of many alternate world mission maps accessible from the Harmon Labs Portal. (I loved my Portal Corp, sorry.)
Or, which was mentioned many many many moons ago, the Juryrig Time Machine Destinations...one of which was...
The Battle of Detroit Crisis/OM :cool:
This or the Harmon Portal could also grant access to all these "Temp Events" in a kind of "Welcome to The Hall of Presidents" manner...and therefore make them not as pointless in our current content-starved situation.
P.S.S. clcmercy, those emotes are sick. AO also had a metric ton of emotes. CO needs emote love.
Crowdsourcing is on the agenda when I meet with the devs, planned for Monday.
I flipped through the thread. Going through rapid-fire about my thoughts:
-Emotes: I talked with Branflakes about this at one point, and his experience was that they didn't do too well. The price point for these would probably be fairly low, and it's not a repeatable transaction. I have my personal inclinations on how to use these, and I certainly don't want to see content go to waste, but I'm not sure where it'll end up. This'll need some more data.
That being said... I dug around the Battlefield Heroes site, and it looks like they charge ~$2 per emote. My gut says that the Champs community wouldn't charge for that, but what price point would people go for?
-AT Rotation: The impression I get is that this program was, ultimately, not successful. I wasn't on Champs at the time, so I didn't see any numbers, but that's the vibe I've gotten. I can ask about it, maybe I'm incorrect on this.
Ideas I've seen from the threads that I either like or can comment on:
-Permanent foam finger device.
-Increased Resource limits for Silvers via C-Store. Not sure of feasibility, I've brought it up with the devs in the past, and they'd need to dig around to check both feasibility and whether it'd be good for the game. We do want to keep Gold valuable.
-Hue-shift packs for Silvers -- not full hue-shifting, that would probably devalue Gold too much, but something that could be used/slotted to change the color of all powers. Like you might buy the Shadow Hue pack, or the Vibrant Green pack.
(Don't have time to read through the second thread right now, I end work soon.)
This is what I'm talking about. I understand that it's not all going to be good news, but that's ok, at least we're being informed why certain steps are unfeasible. I do think the rest of my points still stand tho.
I mean this with the utmost respect to TT and the CO developers as I type it, but I have to say that the "no time to communicate" line is unacceptable. Communication is essential in any relationship. Your communication with us is greatly appreciated, but there's a lot that only the developers can (and should) tell us.
You've seen yourself in this thread how inspired some members become just from hearing an encouraging word from you, the CM. Imagine the response the developers would receive from a simple statement regarding what's coming for CO.
If the CO team is on a 5-day work schedule as we've insinuated from other information, then that leaves a 48-hour weekend for the developers to take 5 minutes out of to drop a forum post on us every now and then. Surely they all have computers at home.
I'm glad to hear that they're hard at work designing and testing new content for CO, but that content won't keep additional frustrated players from quitting in the meantime if they know nothing about it.
Please impress upon the staff how desperately we need to hear something from them.
Thanks!
While I agree with you in spirit, the Devs work 5 days a week. Asking them to take time out of their personal lives is unfair IMO. I know it's a catch-22, not enough time to post during work, not paid to post out of work, but if TT is taking the initiative he's already shown, I can handle not being in direct communication with the Devs, as long as something substantial continues to come down the pipe.
Do we really want more stuff added to the Z-store, or do we want new zones and other explorable / playable content at this point?
I'm using a "either / or" question because I really doubt Cryptic has the resources to deliver both concurrently, but it'd be ideal if they can manage to do both.
It's a no brainer that putting new stuff in the store is an effective way of catching an interested buyer's eye, but expanding on explorable content is a way to keep players' interests fresh and spend their time playing such content while using whatever it is they've bought from the Z-store to enrich that gameplay experience. When players spend more time sticking around, obviously there will be more opportunities for players buying ZEN to spend at the Z-store, or even continue investing in a gold sub.
Again, here I agree with you in spirit, but practically, CO needs cash and if we want this game to flourish the players and the Devs/management need to work out a strategy that will please both.
Turtle -
I agree with the general consensus about what I would pay for and would not, particularly Kenpo (I'm torn on the cosmic keys/lockboxes for golds thing, I want it, but I think it would hurt CO too much in the long run; maybe a cosmic key stipend?).
I do think there are already plenty of elements already in game that could yield real results, particularly stances and playable maps. Just unlocking the Q zone for... something (open PvP map? PvE Survival map with no queue? Kills get you Questionite which you could also sell a daily cap raise for?) would add a ton of... stuff, depending on how it's used.
I'd like to point out again that CO is not like most MMOs - we're here for the super and the cosmetics - in that regard, I think Thundrax's recent post about monetizing has quite a few excellent ideas that follow that mentality. There's also the spare rooms in the hideouts that could be sold individually with rental or buying options for some of the utilities (although most are redundant now). Heck, sell the power replacers in the store and I'm sure you'll get people to spend money. PR's, auras, and a bunch of other stuff could be a market all in themselves, and I imagine it would be much less work than travel powers or costume packs. Sony is currently selling (extremely overpriced) individual costume pieces like capes and bracers in their store, so you could actually sell individual pieces for cheap.
Another idea that's just occurred to me is selling costume items/gear in the store that rather than being equipped, unlocks a special bonus like the pre-order devices for characters - all those blue drifter pieces? Zen. And they could be made one time use and mutually exclusive, meaning a character that wants an orbital howitzer can buy one, but if he wants the symbiote thingy he would not only have to buy it, he'd lose the orbital howitzer he'd already equipped (although this would prolly piss people off, so I'd suggest making them relatively cheap) and although it's selling power, it's not a game breaking boost.
There's also the option of selling subs in the store for zen. People would be able to grind for Q which they could then exchange for zen or month token (which would obviously be purchased by someone in order to be sold)
There's also, as has been mentioned, the Foundry, which if ported right could be a huge boon for people, from selling individual pieces like lamps and chairs, enemy mobs, special bosses, mission slots, even specific goals (escorts are free, but survival requires zen to implement).
Re: the global cap - it's stupid and is hurting your economy, and I mean the real one. When people can't freely trade the different currencies there will be a major bottleneck to getting Cryptic real money. If an increased cap can't be sold, it should be removed entirely. Currently there are long time players sitting on large amounts of global, Q, and zen that would gladly trade them around were it not for the major hindrance of the majority of the player base being unable to participate in the globals market (especially if you start adding some of the stuff that's been mentioned).
Now, maybe I'm biased and talking out of my bum, but if that's the case can we get some feedback on what's working and what's not (it can even be something as subtle or roundabout as a "Top Sellers" section in the store) so we have something to work with to come up with new ideas? You have real industry people who love this game willing to donate time, labor and money in order to help it succeed. Crowdsourcing shouldn't even need to be discussed.
We could even do free publicity stuff, like have a Facebook Champions trailer contest. People are already throwing this stuff at YouTube for fun, use it for profit!
If this is the thinking required by your bosses to get things added to the game, i.e. repeatable transactions and price point as the meeter for if you want to add even 'quality of life' items like this it's no wonder we're banging out heads against the wall asking for stuff.
If the boss can't repeatedly milk us for cash on it, it's not happening.
This explain why the game is choking to death.
Well said. A free-to-play online game can hardly consist only of content players have to buy over and over again. It is possible, sure, but name me just one of those games that is really worth playing.
And no matter how you twist it, an economy based soley on silver players buying per-character devices and keys to open lockboxes is pretty much built on sand.
If PW wants "repatable transactions", the most reasonable way would be limiting more things to gold status, causing more players to subscribe.
If PW wants "repatable transactions", the most reasonable way would be limiting more things to gold status, causing more players to subscribe.
How can anyone say anything remotely resembling "shift the game towards a subscription being more required/attractive by limiting more things to subscription" when this game already crashed HARD when it was more subscription based?
"Subscriptions didn't work so well."
"I know, let's go F2P!"
"F2P isn't working so well."
"I know, let's shift it back more towards subscription based!"
I'm not sold on that idea.
I can't imagine the gaming industry is any different from any of the ones I've been in from the low level sales to running my own things with regards to customer interaction/retention and sales so I'm going to go with the basics.
1) Give people a reason to show up and make it as painless as possible.
Being a free game largely does this for CO. Some hangups like how things are/aren't explained in the game and the crippled character creator for new accounts are a barrier to entry. Particularly the latter since it's one of the game's best features. It should be available as an option immediately. The expression, after all, is put your best foot forward.
2) Give people a reason to keep showing up after you've seen them the first time.
Need to have something that draws in repeat customers. For this game it would be playable content, things to do. For new players, there's a lot to do. For old players, there needs to be things added either a lot in one burst every so often or a little at a time in a steady stream/trickle. CO does neither and it shows. People can leave for months (or currently for over a year) and return to nearly the same amount of playable content.
3) Give people something interesting, attractive and within their price range to to buy when they do show up.
This is where your money comes from obviously. Candascott/Thundrax has a great thread on this and the C-store does this...sort of. It hasn't been updated in a while beyond a certain small section of items so the effectiveness is directly related to the length of the time a person has been a customer. New customers here have far more available to them than older customers. If your store is like this where older customers get to the point where they have everything or nearly everything you need other incentives to keep them involved. Here that goes back to point 2 along with meaningful rewards (I know people some people hate this idea but it's true, there needs to be a hook of new things to acquire either through direct purchase or through earning it in game to keep you around longer to try to sell you something). Easiest way we've found in our businesses is to ask what customers want and then follow up on what they said. Not follow up with things similar to what they said but with our twist to it because we want to express our own ideas (remember the initial pet pass? and some of the power aura changes?). Simply follow up with what they said.
Now comes the tricky part.
4) Balance your offerings between things that are one time buys that are permanent investments and things that need to be repeatedly invested in.
In martial arts the one time buys are selling things like equipment, books, videos, shirts, etc and the repeated investment would be monthly dues, seminars, bottles of water, testing fees etc. In computers the one time buys are the hardware and software while the repeat sales are services, media, etc.
CO is struggling with this part lately. The store has been fairly devoid of new one time buy investment stuff that's at a reasonable price for a while now...unless you're a new customer, then there's plenty on offer. This is the stuff that help retains long term customers so you can also keep selling them the repeatable stuff. The repeatable stuff could also be more attractive but so far it's stuff that the game doesn't do a great job of making you feel like you need/want it or making you feel like it's super cool.
None of these things have much to do with how you charge the customer. It's how you get them to stick around long enough to get to charge them in the first place...and find new ways to charge them that are financially beneficial to you and interesting enough to them for them to want to keep doing it.
As much as Cryptic has come to deny this several times, we KNOW money was outsourced for their next game (this is their cycle).
CO had the most successful MMO launch in history....too bad we were backstabbed by a company i have learned to NOT trust anymore.
Im still waiting for the Survival mode which devs confirmed they were working on a Viper Survival gamemode.
Did it get finished? was any work actually finished at all?
Their response:
No response, just like they have always done, is run away and betray us all again, and again, and again. You think Neverwinter is going to be different? Iv already seen how much Copy>Paste they have done. Their ignorance to the community had been endless. Why do you think things are going to change after 3 years? they never have.
Mmhmm. I've wanted that one for a long time. The "normal" stance we have for females is completely abnormal, disturbing and unnatural. No one stands like that. Ever!
I'd prefer that one, but perhaps they could make one where she stands LIKE A HUMAN BEING! All that twisted distorted angle stuff makes me think they never saw any comics except Image in the '90s.
While I agree with you in spirit, the Devs work 5 days a week. Asking them to take time out of their personal lives is unfair IMO. I know it's a catch-22, not enough time to post during work, not paid to post out of work, but if TT is taking the initiative he's already shown, I can handle not being in direct communication with the Devs, as long as something substantial continues to come down the pipe.
If they're of a similar mind as you, then there's another problem. Those who truly desire success don't know what a 40-hour work week is. Whether on the clock or off, you do what needs to be done for the success of yourself, your company, or your project.
A lot of Generation Y & Z-types don't get that. And this is what you get when they don't.
If they're of a similar mind as you, then there's another problem. Those who truly desire success don't know what a 40-hour work week is. Whether on the clock or off, you do what needs to be done for the success of yourself, your company, or your project.
A lot of Generation Y & Z-types don't get that. And this is what you get when they don't.
Then maybe, just maybe, the devs are disheartened because they'd like to do great things for CO and management won't let them. I realize this is fishing, but I'd like to think that the creative people take pride in their endeavors, and the best way to demotivate me would be to tell me I cannot do anything creative because I need to focus on crap like lockboxes.
_________________________________________________
I been a long time leaving but I'm going to be a long time gone.
Willie Nelson
T.U.F.K.A.S. (the user formerly known as Scarlyng)
Wrong on the CO forums since November, 2008
A lot of Generation Y & Z-types don't get that. And this is what you get when they don't.
A big chunk of why, "they don't get that," is that the employees have less investment in the corporation/business for which they work than might have been the case in the past. Companies, all too often, don't reward the kind of dedication that you speak of as they might have in the past. The encouragement to work extra hours off the clock in order to increase the company's profitability just isn't there when little of those increased profits make their way back to those who did so.
If they're of a similar mind as you, then there's another problem. Those who truly desire success don't know what a 40-hour work week is. Whether on the clock or off, you do what needs to be done for the success of yourself, your company, or your project.
A lot of Generation Y & Z-types don't get that. And this is what you get when they don't.
When you have a personal vestment in a company, and when your efforts directly result in visible results, sure this makes sense. When you are living hand to mouth, or if you face getting written up by your employer, since even if you're off the clock, they could still be sued for not compensating you, working your exact scheduled shift makes sense.
Some people don't seem to know what working for a large corporation is like, where you're a number instead of a name, and where the company avoiding litigation of liability if you should get hurt while "off the clock" is more important than anything extra someone lower in the hierarchy can contribute.
If, OTOH, you were a small business owner, or a partner in a smaller firm, then yes, it absolutely makes sense to pour yourself into your workplace.
Regardless, it is easy for us to condemn the devs for not putting in OT when there is so much left to be done - but since we aren't intimately familiar with their circumstances, it isn't fair to do so...
<::::::::::::::)xxxo <::::::::::::::)xxxo <::::::::::::)xxxxxxxx(:::::::::::> oxxx(::::::::::::::> oxxx(::::::::::::::> "Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both?" -Tony Stark Official NW_Legit_Community Forums
I'd prefer that one, but perhaps they could make one where she stands LIKE A HUMAN BEING! All that twisted distorted angle stuff makes me think they never saw any comics except Image in the '90s.
The problem with this game (And the new DC) is that it's kind of obvious most of the original designers came up in that 90s era. Heck, a lot of the players did too if you go by the number of Demondethkillgodtrenchcoat-Man characters out there.
(STO has a similar problem since the whole storyline a DS9's greatest hits package)
I've been wanting more poses since day one. After STO went F2P I remember a lot of requests for their stances here.
A big chunk of why, "they don't get that," is that the employees have less investment in the corporation/business for which they work than might have been the case in the past. Companies, all too often, don't reward the kind of dedication that you speak of as they might have in the past. The encouragement to work extra hours off the clock in order to increase the company's profitability just isn't there when little of those increased profits make their way back to those who did so.
Those who truly desire success don't know what a 40-hour work week is. Whether on the clock or off, you do what needs to be done for the success of yourself, your company, or your project.
Frankly I think the claims that modern generations are obsessed with the "40 hour work week" is a myth. A quick search will show tons of articles / studies / surveys showing people working more overtime, on weekends, on duties outside their job, during vacations, not taking vacations days, etc. Everybody I know who has a job regularly works past their listed hours (often unpaid and untracked), is hit with work email and calls at home thanks to cellphones, and the only people that I've ever dealt with that took the week-long family vacations you see on television were my grandparents. Very few of them get any appreciable benefit from all this (I've personally been relatively lucky in that respect, but I have a great boss). One of my friends just got fired after 19 years of long days, weekends, and missed vacations because the new CFO at his company felt he wasn't enough of a people person (note: he was in the accounting department so he didn't interact with customers)...
A big chunk of why, "they don't get that," is that the employees have less investment in the corporation/business for which they work than might have been the case in the past. Companies, all too often, don't reward the kind of dedication that you speak of as they might have in the past. The encouragement to work extra hours off the clock in order to increase the company's profitability just isn't there when little of those increased profits make their way back to those who did so.
When you have a personal vestment in a company, and when your efforts directly result in visible results, sure this makes sense. When you are living hand to mouth, or if you face getting written up by your employer, since even if you're off the clock, they could still be sued for not compensating you, working your exact scheduled shift makes sense.
Some people don't seem to know what working for a large corporation is like, where you're a number instead of a name, and where the company avoiding litigation of liability if you should get hurt while "off the clock" is more important than anything extra someone lower in the hierarchy can contribute.
If, OTOH, you were a small business owner, or a partner in a smaller firm, then yes, it absolutely makes sense to pour yourself into your workplace.
Regardless, it is easy for us to condemn the devs for not putting in OT when there is so much left to be done - but since we aren't intimately familiar with their circumstances, it isn't fair to do so...
Frankly I think the claims that modern generations are obsessed with the "40 hour work week" is a myth. A quick search will show tons of articles / studies / surveys showing people working more overtime, on weekends, on duties outside their job, during vacations, not taking vacations days, etc. Everybody I know who has a job regularly works past their listed hours (often unpaid and untracked), is hit with work email and calls at home thanks to cellphones, and the only people that I've ever dealt with that took the week-long family vacations you see on television were my grandparents. Very few of them get any appreciable benefit from all this (I've personally been relatively lucky in that respect, but I have a great boss). One of my friends just got fired after 19 years of long days, weekends, and missed vacations because the new CFO at his company felt he wasn't enough of a people person (note: he was in the accounting department so he didn't interact with customers)...
Indeed. These days, companies treat you like soulless cogs in a big, cold, unfeeling factory machine. They don't treat you like a human anymore. To megalithic corporations, you're just another expense that they have to pay.
Indeed. These days, companies treat you like soulless cogs in a big, cold, unfeeling factory machine. They don't treat you like a human anymore. To megalithic corporations, you're just another expense that they have to pay.
and the first rule of Fight Club is...
Back on topic to a degree. This game needs a reboot from scratch.
Put the foundry out and shift resources to R&D on the means to make
the game features accessible to people in a way that is actually profitable.
Put the character editor online in web browsers and mobile devices.
Addict the audience before they have a chance to cancel/forget/fail to launch a multi gig installation process.
Probably just put me in charge for a bit...I'll sort it out.
Whole lotta characterizations of people none of us actually personally know.
True, smoochan...but we DO have their actions of late to base our judgements on. After all, when you don't know someone and want to formulate an opinion of them, what do you do?
Why, you look at their accomplishments and actions! What have they done? What are they doing? How do they treat others?
Originally Posted by helbjorn
Those who truly desire success don't know what a 40-hour work week is. Whether on the clock or off, you do what needs to be done for the success of yourself, your company, or your project.
those that really desire success work 10 hours a week..but they know what they are doing.
Your post remember an old story. In a big firm a important engine stopped working and none was able to repair it. They tried anything , nothing worked and the firm was losing ten thousand dollars a day for that.
Finally someone called an engineer that was known for his skill to solve these issues.
He came, he looked at the engine he did take an hammer and he did strike a precise point of the engine. The engine restarted and the problem was fixed.
When the firm manager did read his bill he almost had a stroke "what!!!'''$ 10.000 for an hammer strike and two minutes of work?": The engineer answered " You are not paying for an hammer strike, you are paying for my experise and I was cheap . Just think how many money you were losing every day while that engine was still.
True, smoochan...but we DO have their actions of late to base our judgements on. After all, when you don't know someone and want to formulate an opinion of them, what do you do?
Why, you look at their accomplishments and actions! What have they done? What are they doing? How do they treat others?
So far I can only equate them with a deadbeat dad.
If they're of a similar mind as you, then there's another problem. Those who truly desire success don't know what a 40-hour work week is. Whether on the clock or off, you do what needs to be done for the success of yourself, your company, or your project.
A lot of Generation Y & Z-types don't get that. And this is what you get when they don't.
Oh I agree with you man, but we the players don't have the right to ask them to do such a thing. That's not what they signed on for, and that's not what we agreed to expect, and while it would be nice, it's simply not fair.
If they're of a similar mind as you, then there's another problem. Those who truly desire success don't know what a 40-hour work week is. Whether on the clock or off, you do what needs to be done for the success of yourself, your company, or your project.
A lot of Generation Y & Z-types don't get that. And this is what you get when they don't.
In the current economy, this post is hilarious!
You do know the current trend in general in our economy for the past few years has been increases in employee productivity and a staunch aversion / refusal to hire more staff.
Meaning, more is being asked of and wrung out of remaining employees, and layoffs not being replaced during recovery. That's been the big story of the labor scene for recent years.
Never mind the change in employment expectations and loyalty since past decades, as other replies mentioned. The model nowadays is that neither employer nor employee will be overly devoted to the other, and will ruthlessly lay off or job hunt as convenient.
But facts like that are ignorable if what you really want is to meet an emotional goal. Like making a kids-these-days "my generation was better than yours" post. Which was the real point of the post.
I've been dealing with the launcher outage earlier, so I haven't been able to respond to this until now. But let me make a couple things very clear...
Since I started worked on Champions Online, never once has anyone mentioned shutting it down. While we are not a blockbuster like STO, we are profitable and making content within our means.
Would I like for Champions to make more money? Of course. I will do what I can to help it reach that goal, because this is a business at the end of the day. I will be trying to both increase value for existing players, bring in new players, and get players to buy new things. It's my job, and I like being good at my job.
That being said, though, Champions is performing well with regard to expectations. I can't divulge any numbers, and I don't know every number, but no one's told me to start panicking. Right now, the chief concern is putting together a communication plan -- and yes, we're working on that. I've been talking with forumites and reading the posts, and we're going to find ways to communicate without tearing the devs away from making content.
As for Dan Stahl's comments, as other people have noted, he isn't saying anything about Champions. It seems a pretty big leap to take much from the interview.
Honestly, do you really think you would hear anything if PWE was considering shutting down the game? Look at the recent shutdown of CoX. No warning for that community, let alone the devs.
I'm not saying CO is going to shut down, just making the point that at your level, you hear what PWE wants you to hear. Just sayin'.
If they're of a similar mind as you, then there's another problem. Those who truly desire success don't know what a 40-hour work week is. Whether on the clock or off, you do what needs to be done for the success of yourself, your company, or your project.
A lot of Generation Y & Z-types don't get that. And this is what you get when they don't.
No, this is what you get when you have a Baby Boomer or Generation X manager who doesn't know the first thing about making computer games and decides to axe the entire team short of one dev. And one remaining dev happens to be the lead artist who's supposed to magically do the programming as well. Because 3DSMax and Visual Studio totally look like the same mess of windows!
One staff working a 60-hour work week is not going to equate to a team working 40 hours each.
See? I can make sweeping statements that ostracize an entire generation too!
A big chunk of why, "they don't get that," is that the employees have less investment in the corporation/business for which they work than might have been the case in the past. Companies, all too often, don't reward the kind of dedication that you speak of as they might have in the past. The encouragement to work extra hours off the clock in order to increase the company's profitability just isn't there when little of those increased profits make their way back to those who did so.
When you have a personal vestment in a company, and when your efforts directly result in visible results, sure this makes sense. When you are living hand to mouth, or if you face getting written up by your employer, since even if you're off the clock, they could still be sued for not compensating you, working your exact scheduled shift makes sense.
Some people don't seem to know what working for a large corporation is like, where you're a number instead of a name, and where the company avoiding litigation of liability if you should get hurt while "off the clock" is more important than anything extra someone lower in the hierarchy can contribute.
If, OTOH, you were a small business owner, or a partner in a smaller firm, then yes, it absolutely makes sense to pour yourself into your workplace.
Regardless, it is easy for us to condemn the devs for not putting in OT when there is so much left to be done - but since we aren't intimately familiar with their circumstances, it isn't fair to do so...
Frankly I think the claims that modern generations are obsessed with the "40 hour work week" is a myth. A quick search will show tons of articles / studies / surveys showing people working more overtime, on weekends, on duties outside their job, during vacations, not taking vacations days, etc. Everybody I know who has a job regularly works past their listed hours (often unpaid and untracked), is hit with work email and calls at home thanks to cellphones, and the only people that I've ever dealt with that took the week-long family vacations you see on television were my grandparents. Very few of them get any appreciable benefit from all this (I've personally been relatively lucky in that respect, but I have a great boss). One of my friends just got fired after 19 years of long days, weekends, and missed vacations because the new CFO at his company felt he wasn't enough of a people person (note: he was in the accounting department so he didn't interact with customers)...
You do know the current trend in general in our economy for the past few years has been increases in employee productivity and a staunch aversion / refusal to hire more staff.
Meaning, more is being asked of and wrung out of remaining employees, and layoffs not being replaced during recovery. That's been the big story of the labor scene for recent years.
Never mind the change in employment expectations and loyalty since past decades, as other replies mentioned. The model nowadays is that neither employer nor employee will be overly devoted to the other, and will ruthlessly lay off or job hunt as convenient.
But facts like that are ignorable if what you really want is to meet an emotional goal. Like making a kids-these-days "my generation was better than yours" post. Which was the real point of the post.
This is very much the reality on the ground. Its funny to see the nostalgia for a past that didnt even exist back then, but outside of in a past that clueless site leads think happened when they lay off 15 people and put their jobs on one guy, this is just fantasy. the funny part is that there is mounds of scientific evidence that 40 hours really is the optimal work week, beyond that mistakes crop up at an increased rate( you like some bugs?) and productivity gets worse. its one of the reason the 40 hour work week became law in england...against strenuous union objections.
Cryptic-Studios already haveall the staff they would ever need to make Champions-Online more of a success. So this proactive talk of reaching out to management with the idea of crowdsourcing to fund more development, this evidently-apparent attitude that Champions should be able to perform better before it's worth investing in is (imho) misguided and a pretty lame excuse to-boot.
"If you build it - they will come" (to quote the movie; 'field of dreams'), or perhaps more accurately re: Champions-Online; "If you invest in it - they will spend".
Champions-Online is never ever going to reach its potential and grow if its not invested in.
Trailturtle, you can publically state that there are no plans to scrap Champions-Online, but without a solid development plan, without investing in the title at STO's level of commitment, without harnessing your community fanbase's enthusiasm for the title and keeping them appraised and jazzed about it's future - Cryptic-Studios may as well. Just get it over with and scrap-it, because if management are not serious about supporting the title's development the superhero MMO genre deserves better than the support Cryptic have been affording Champions-Online.
Kindly give us one....just one, decent and plausible explanation why there has not been a State of the Game address in so long.
Seriously, aren't you guys ashamed at your half-hearted lacklustre investment in the Champions IP you bought from Hero Games?.
Can you honestly look at all the creative effort from the writers there and honestly say with your hand on your hearts that Cryptic-Studios has done it proud re; recreating the universe there as an online incarnation?.
When was the last time they were even consulted creatively?..... yeah, thought so.
The problem is and always has been, the allocation of staff across Cryptic's spread of titles.
Cryptic are not investing in Champions-Online because at the board level they don't have a company like Paramount to answer to, so the title is easier to shove to the backburner.
PWE / Cryptic-Studios executive management have been lazy and shortsighted, having not stuck to a single development plan as initiative after initiative after sweet-lovin' creative initiative and development plan (expansions, adventure-packs and comic series) have suffered and creaked under the strain of Cryptic's unfocused attitude, and been abandoned and swept under the carpet with little-to-no explanation when it has become apparent that they are no longer feasible with what Champions is allocated resource-wise.
While initially I did think (and we were later told and confirmed) the problem with abandoned intiatives lay with little-to-no support from Atari and then the slow transition through to PWE having a knock-on effect, the fact that nothing has changed and come through to fruition much for CO's fortunes even since the PWE aquisition - makes me convinced that both PWE and Cryptic-Studios executive board are either a): entirely clueless about how to develop Champions-Online or b): have totally lost enthusiasm for the very genre that made the studio's fortunes in the first place.
For those of you wondering, yes - it really pains me to think this negatively about Champions-Online's future considering the sheer-amount of creative forum effort a lot of us put forward on the old-boards before they were archived/binned.
And yes, as a lifetime subscriber if I could time-travel back three and a half-years and warn my enthusiastic-self about this new Superhero MMO Cryptic-Studios are so excited about, that I was excited about - I would do.
I would warn myself that the Cryptic-Studios of 2011/12 have (it appears) zero-focus what-so-ever, eyes far bigger than their belly development capability-wise and no apparent consideration for what subscribers pay-for and expect to see developed as-per their specific MMO of choice.
I DO NOT support Champions-Online to have my money invested in Star-Trek Onlline and NeverWinter's development (although apparently we all have been).
I do not expect to find a contradiction in re: what we have been assured here on the forums and what I read in interviews from Cryptic-employees that state the development teams are set in-stone for the year, that STO has a dev-team size of fifty.... FIFTY !!!. And you wonder why you are getting better returns from STO?. Well duh!.
It is pretty self-evident despite Cryptic-Studio's denials that it's different titles are disproportionately, grossly and hilariously outbalanced in both team-size and the dev-time invested in them. You wonder why you are getting better returns from STO? - Just.stop.lying.
I would warn myself that all of this above this would have a serious impact on the title I was about to spend 199.99 GBP on initially and nearly four-years of subsequent c-store purchases.
For those saying that Cryptic are about to overwhelm us with a master-plan of a development stroke and provide evidence that they have been working hard on Champions-Online all-along, and are not distracted by their other more profitable titles or project in development, I would remind you that the onus probandi (burden of proof) is on Cryptic-Studios to keep us engaged and entertained for our custom and to invest back in the title for our future custom - NOT for their ears to suddently perk up after eons of silence as soon as the topic of crowdfunding is mentioned.
I would remind Cryptic-Studios of how excited they were back at Champions-Online's launch (both of them) - and that that the title is still there waiting to be invested in properly - not just to sit on their hands thinking up monetization-schemes whilst affording the title nothing more than meagre-survival rations and an official line of excuses.
..........................................
Dropping my knitting to buff you whilst hitting - Proudly protecting Millennium City's little ones since 2009.
I will admit a part of me does regret purchasing my LTS back when they were first available...
Though I have made some of the closest friends I have ever had here, it just hurts looking back at what Cryptic has for Champions lore that they have never touched on...
After NW is released, the devs are going to be shipped off to the next great new shiny project.
I think this really represents the question that is on the mind of the those who wonder about the future of Champions Online. After NW, will CO get some love or will they let it continue to languish. What happens this year, what Cryptic does with CO this year will likely make or break the title.
I think this really represents the question that is on the mind of the those who wonder about the future of Champions Online. After NW, will CO get some love or will they let it continue to languish. What happens this year, what Cryptic does with CO this year will likely make or break the title.
^ This!
I have been telling friends this for awhile. wait til Never winter comes out...maybe a month past it's release date.
Things start to pop? Great! Things stay the same? I give this game a year or two tops before it shuts down. How much love this game gets after the release of NW, will tell me all i need to know about what Cryptic/PW think of the future here and if i keep my sub or not.
April, I think, we might have some idea of how much of the 'oh, devs are just redirected to NW for now, I'm sure PW will reallocate after release' is smoke up our tailpipes.
Campaign: The Fenwick Cycle NWS-DKR9GB7KH
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Unfortunately, the dev team is backed up, so the meeting won't be happening today. That said, today I'm going to be posting a preview of what's coming out this week, including the rewards table for the next phase of the Lemurian Invasion.
Unfortunately, the dev team is backed up, so the meeting won't be happening today. That said, today I'm going to be posting a preview of what's coming out this week, including the rewards table for the next phase of the Lemurian Invasion.
The Dev team wouldn't be backed up if Cryptic-Studios allocated more Devs to Champions-Online. Simple-as.
The abysmal situation is entirely of Cryptic's own making.
..........................................
Dropping my knitting to buff you whilst hitting - Proudly protecting Millennium City's little ones since 2009.
Comments
*slaps himself upside the head*
OMG
Why the hell didn't I already think of this? It would certainly add a lot more variety both in gameplay and even roleplaying capabilities. Still something like this should also be added in with some kind of big patch update to further sweeten the deal.
On Call FAQ found here:On Call FAQ
turn vibora bay apocalypse into an adventure pack
TY, and speaking of Roleplaying-a group of players who are probably the easiest to please. Reopen the mutations and Dojo buildings, open up...whats is called Indigo? the big hotel/adult place in MC. Open that as a new caprice with multple rooms for those ERPers to go.
Also places like Harmon labs-you have a map, just take the bad guys out and let us RP there. Great for Scientist peeps.
Also give us back our bookstores! those were great RP locations as well.
I don't agree at all.
Better would be new & improved veteran's benefits (veteran's core of might getting an upgrade, R5 avoidance core, an exclusive emote, etc.) and RetCons that you can sell maybe (as Cellarrat33 points out). The source code supports tradeable RetCon tokens, if y'all recall the Service Grabbags...
*/me feels old now as the CoH refugees probably won't know what the heck I'm talking about with Service Grabbags*
PS: I suggested a new type of lockbox you all might actually like in the suggestions forum. Check it out! It's superior to Takofanes lockboxes and those are up to 10g a piece or more, so if you don't want to pay to open your Legendary Lockbox you could always post it on the AH for somebody who will. Win-win for everyone!
This idea was mentioned YEARS ago. Cryptic never responded. (then again I'm not sure they ever read the suggestions forum...
Yes both of those ideas would still need development to make mission and add to the landscape, but allot of the work is done already.[/QUOTE]
Consolidate the currencies! (Please!)
Does your Champion have a theme song? (share it!)
Got a funny in-game screenshot? (share it!)
Please fix the Overdrive energy unlock! (Should help promote thematic build diversity!)
Yeah, I was one asking for it to become a new Zone when it first came out.
Using the existing maps would be quicker than making one from scratch, and while we enoy things there, then maybe they could make that Destroyer Island zone that Stoken said he would love to have.
an improved veteran core would be nice. i agree.
That, while qualifying as an answer, is not the answer to the question I asked. Perhaps you misunderstood my question. I shall endeavor to be clearer.
Can you provide a link to an article/interview/whatnot where said divot of information was actually quoted/said? Not just who said it, but the article or contractual snippet?
Said divot of information being, paraphrased, that "if Champions Online ever goes under, the IP reverts to Hero System Games".
Edit: Also, as an afterthought...here. Chew on some of these emotes. Just click on an emote name to see it demonstrated.
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Emotes
2nd edit: The red emote names do not display and will likely have to be looked up on YouTube. Search CoH emote "emotename" and you'll likely get it.
Occam's Razor makes the cutting clean.
Or possibly into the first of many alternate world mission maps accessible from the Harmon Labs Portal. (I loved my Portal Corp, sorry.)
Or, which was mentioned many many many moons ago, the Juryrig Time Machine Destinations...one of which was...
The Battle of Detroit Crisis/OM :cool:
This or the Harmon Portal could also grant access to all these "Temp Events" in a kind of "Welcome to The Hall of Presidents" manner...and therefore make them not as pointless in our current content-starved situation.
P.S.S. clcmercy, those emotes are sick. AO also had a metric ton of emotes. CO needs emote love.
Join Date: Aug 2009 | Title: Devslayer
This is what I'm talking about. I understand that it's not all going to be good news, but that's ok, at least we're being informed why certain steps are unfeasible. I do think the rest of my points still stand tho.
While I agree with you in spirit, the Devs work 5 days a week. Asking them to take time out of their personal lives is unfair IMO. I know it's a catch-22, not enough time to post during work, not paid to post out of work, but if TT is taking the initiative he's already shown, I can handle not being in direct communication with the Devs, as long as something substantial continues to come down the pipe.
Again, here I agree with you in spirit, but practically, CO needs cash and if we want this game to flourish the players and the Devs/management need to work out a strategy that will please both.
Turtle -
I agree with the general consensus about what I would pay for and would not, particularly Kenpo (I'm torn on the cosmic keys/lockboxes for golds thing, I want it, but I think it would hurt CO too much in the long run; maybe a cosmic key stipend?).
I do think there are already plenty of elements already in game that could yield real results, particularly stances and playable maps. Just unlocking the Q zone for... something (open PvP map? PvE Survival map with no queue? Kills get you Questionite which you could also sell a daily cap raise for?) would add a ton of... stuff, depending on how it's used.
I'd like to point out again that CO is not like most MMOs - we're here for the super and the cosmetics - in that regard, I think Thundrax's recent post about monetizing has quite a few excellent ideas that follow that mentality. There's also the spare rooms in the hideouts that could be sold individually with rental or buying options for some of the utilities (although most are redundant now). Heck, sell the power replacers in the store and I'm sure you'll get people to spend money. PR's, auras, and a bunch of other stuff could be a market all in themselves, and I imagine it would be much less work than travel powers or costume packs. Sony is currently selling (extremely overpriced) individual costume pieces like capes and bracers in their store, so you could actually sell individual pieces for cheap.
Another idea that's just occurred to me is selling costume items/gear in the store that rather than being equipped, unlocks a special bonus like the pre-order devices for characters - all those blue drifter pieces? Zen. And they could be made one time use and mutually exclusive, meaning a character that wants an orbital howitzer can buy one, but if he wants the symbiote thingy he would not only have to buy it, he'd lose the orbital howitzer he'd already equipped (although this would prolly piss people off, so I'd suggest making them relatively cheap) and although it's selling power, it's not a game breaking boost.
There's also the option of selling subs in the store for zen. People would be able to grind for Q which they could then exchange for zen or month token (which would obviously be purchased by someone in order to be sold)
There's also, as has been mentioned, the Foundry, which if ported right could be a huge boon for people, from selling individual pieces like lamps and chairs, enemy mobs, special bosses, mission slots, even specific goals (escorts are free, but survival requires zen to implement).
Re: the global cap - it's stupid and is hurting your economy, and I mean the real one. When people can't freely trade the different currencies there will be a major bottleneck to getting Cryptic real money. If an increased cap can't be sold, it should be removed entirely. Currently there are long time players sitting on large amounts of global, Q, and zen that would gladly trade them around were it not for the major hindrance of the majority of the player base being unable to participate in the globals market (especially if you start adding some of the stuff that's been mentioned).
Now, maybe I'm biased and talking out of my bum, but if that's the case can we get some feedback on what's working and what's not (it can even be something as subtle or roundabout as a "Top Sellers" section in the store) so we have something to work with to come up with new ideas? You have real industry people who love this game willing to donate time, labor and money in order to help it succeed. Crowdsourcing shouldn't even need to be discussed.
We could even do free publicity stuff, like have a Facebook Champions trailer contest. People are already throwing this stuff at YouTube for fun, use it for profit!
Well said. A free-to-play online game can hardly consist only of content players have to buy over and over again. It is possible, sure, but name me just one of those games that is really worth playing.
And no matter how you twist it, an economy based soley on silver players buying per-character devices and keys to open lockboxes is pretty much built on sand.
If PW wants "repatable transactions", the most reasonable way would be limiting more things to gold status, causing more players to subscribe.
How can anyone say anything remotely resembling "shift the game towards a subscription being more required/attractive by limiting more things to subscription" when this game already crashed HARD when it was more subscription based?
"Subscriptions didn't work so well."
"I know, let's go F2P!"
"F2P isn't working so well."
"I know, let's shift it back more towards subscription based!"
I'm not sold on that idea.
I can't imagine the gaming industry is any different from any of the ones I've been in from the low level sales to running my own things with regards to customer interaction/retention and sales so I'm going to go with the basics.
1) Give people a reason to show up and make it as painless as possible.
Being a free game largely does this for CO. Some hangups like how things are/aren't explained in the game and the crippled character creator for new accounts are a barrier to entry. Particularly the latter since it's one of the game's best features. It should be available as an option immediately. The expression, after all, is put your best foot forward.
2) Give people a reason to keep showing up after you've seen them the first time.
Need to have something that draws in repeat customers. For this game it would be playable content, things to do. For new players, there's a lot to do. For old players, there needs to be things added either a lot in one burst every so often or a little at a time in a steady stream/trickle. CO does neither and it shows. People can leave for months (or currently for over a year) and return to nearly the same amount of playable content.
3) Give people something interesting, attractive and within their price range to to buy when they do show up.
This is where your money comes from obviously. Candascott/Thundrax has a great thread on this and the C-store does this...sort of. It hasn't been updated in a while beyond a certain small section of items so the effectiveness is directly related to the length of the time a person has been a customer. New customers here have far more available to them than older customers. If your store is like this where older customers get to the point where they have everything or nearly everything you need other incentives to keep them involved. Here that goes back to point 2 along with meaningful rewards (I know people some people hate this idea but it's true, there needs to be a hook of new things to acquire either through direct purchase or through earning it in game to keep you around longer to try to sell you something). Easiest way we've found in our businesses is to ask what customers want and then follow up on what they said. Not follow up with things similar to what they said but with our twist to it because we want to express our own ideas (remember the initial pet pass? and some of the power aura changes?). Simply follow up with what they said.
Now comes the tricky part.
4) Balance your offerings between things that are one time buys that are permanent investments and things that need to be repeatedly invested in.
In martial arts the one time buys are selling things like equipment, books, videos, shirts, etc and the repeated investment would be monthly dues, seminars, bottles of water, testing fees etc. In computers the one time buys are the hardware and software while the repeat sales are services, media, etc.
CO is struggling with this part lately. The store has been fairly devoid of new one time buy investment stuff that's at a reasonable price for a while now...unless you're a new customer, then there's plenty on offer. This is the stuff that help retains long term customers so you can also keep selling them the repeatable stuff. The repeatable stuff could also be more attractive but so far it's stuff that the game doesn't do a great job of making you feel like you need/want it or making you feel like it's super cool.
None of these things have much to do with how you charge the customer. It's how you get them to stick around long enough to get to charge them in the first place...and find new ways to charge them that are financially beneficial to you and interesting enough to them for them to want to keep doing it.
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
CO had the most successful MMO launch in history....too bad we were backstabbed by a company i have learned to NOT trust anymore.
Im still waiting for the Survival mode which devs confirmed they were working on a Viper Survival gamemode.
Did it get finished? was any work actually finished at all?
Their response:
No response, just like they have always done, is run away and betray us all again, and again, and again. You think Neverwinter is going to be different? Iv already seen how much Copy>Paste they have done. Their ignorance to the community had been endless. Why do you think things are going to change after 3 years? they never have.
id like to see all of item drop missions be added to the game. like salem in vb. that would easily add 25 missions to the game
I'd prefer that one, but perhaps they could make one where she stands LIKE A HUMAN BEING! All that twisted distorted angle stuff makes me think they never saw any comics except Image in the '90s.
If they're of a similar mind as you, then there's another problem. Those who truly desire success don't know what a 40-hour work week is. Whether on the clock or off, you do what needs to be done for the success of yourself, your company, or your project.
A lot of Generation Y & Z-types don't get that. And this is what you get when they don't.
Then maybe, just maybe, the devs are disheartened because they'd like to do great things for CO and management won't let them. I realize this is fishing, but I'd like to think that the creative people take pride in their endeavors, and the best way to demotivate me would be to tell me I cannot do anything creative because I need to focus on crap like lockboxes.
I been a long time leaving but I'm going to be a long time gone.
Willie Nelson
T.U.F.K.A.S. (the user formerly known as Scarlyng)
Wrong on the CO forums since November, 2008
A big chunk of why, "they don't get that," is that the employees have less investment in the corporation/business for which they work than might have been the case in the past. Companies, all too often, don't reward the kind of dedication that you speak of as they might have in the past. The encouragement to work extra hours off the clock in order to increase the company's profitability just isn't there when little of those increased profits make their way back to those who did so.
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
My wife worked for five different companies in one year.
My mom has a lot of trouble grokking the careers of my siblings and I, let me tell you.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
When you have a personal vestment in a company, and when your efforts directly result in visible results, sure this makes sense. When you are living hand to mouth, or if you face getting written up by your employer, since even if you're off the clock, they could still be sued for not compensating you, working your exact scheduled shift makes sense.
Some people don't seem to know what working for a large corporation is like, where you're a number instead of a name, and where the company avoiding litigation of liability if you should get hurt while "off the clock" is more important than anything extra someone lower in the hierarchy can contribute.
If, OTOH, you were a small business owner, or a partner in a smaller firm, then yes, it absolutely makes sense to pour yourself into your workplace.
Regardless, it is easy for us to condemn the devs for not putting in OT when there is so much left to be done - but since we aren't intimately familiar with their circumstances, it isn't fair to do so...
"Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both?" -Tony Stark
Official NW_Legit_Community Forums
The problem with this game (And the new DC) is that it's kind of obvious most of the original designers came up in that 90s era. Heck, a lot of the players did too if you go by the number of Demondethkillgodtrenchcoat-Man characters out there.
(STO has a similar problem since the whole storyline a DS9's greatest hits package)
I've been wanting more poses since day one. After STO went F2P I remember a lot of requests for their stances here.
Wait? Whaaaa..?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2_Yi-1Ryf4
Champions Online: Be the hero you wish you could be in a better game.
Indeed. These days, companies treat you like soulless cogs in a big, cold, unfeeling factory machine. They don't treat you like a human anymore. To megalithic corporations, you're just another expense that they have to pay.
and the first rule of Fight Club is...
Back on topic to a degree. This game needs a reboot from scratch.
Put the foundry out and shift resources to R&D on the means to make
the game features accessible to people in a way that is actually profitable.
Put the character editor online in web browsers and mobile devices.
Addict the audience before they have a chance to cancel/forget/fail to launch a multi gig installation process.
Probably just put me in charge for a bit...I'll sort it out.
True, smoochan...but we DO have their actions of late to base our judgements on. After all, when you don't know someone and want to formulate an opinion of them, what do you do?
Why, you look at their accomplishments and actions! What have they done? What are they doing? How do they treat others?
Occam's Razor makes the cutting clean.
Your post remember an old story. In a big firm a important engine stopped working and none was able to repair it. They tried anything , nothing worked and the firm was losing ten thousand dollars a day for that.
Finally someone called an engineer that was known for his skill to solve these issues.
He came, he looked at the engine he did take an hammer and he did strike a precise point of the engine. The engine restarted and the problem was fixed.
When the firm manager did read his bill he almost had a stroke "what!!!'''$ 10.000 for an hammer strike and two minutes of work?": The engineer answered " You are not paying for an hammer strike, you are paying for my experise and I was cheap . Just think how many money you were losing every day while that engine was still.
What CO really need is that engineer
So far I can only equate them with a deadbeat dad.
Oh I agree with you man, but we the players don't have the right to ask them to do such a thing. That's not what they signed on for, and that's not what we agreed to expect, and while it would be nice, it's simply not fair.
Also, I agree with Bioshrike and Savagedeacon.
In the current economy, this post is hilarious!
You do know the current trend in general in our economy for the past few years has been increases in employee productivity and a staunch aversion / refusal to hire more staff.
Meaning, more is being asked of and wrung out of remaining employees, and layoffs not being replaced during recovery. That's been the big story of the labor scene for recent years.
Never mind the change in employment expectations and loyalty since past decades, as other replies mentioned. The model nowadays is that neither employer nor employee will be overly devoted to the other, and will ruthlessly lay off or job hunt as convenient.
But facts like that are ignorable if what you really want is to meet an emotional goal. Like making a kids-these-days "my generation was better than yours" post. Which was the real point of the post.
How about a binky? Maybe a blanket? Do you need a bah-bah?
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
I like that, might quote it often.
How To Make Friends And Influence People, Chapter XVI:
When few, if any, are taking your side, make sure to insult those that aren't. For example, call them 'ignorant'. That always works.
Honestly, do you really think you would hear anything if PWE was considering shutting down the game? Look at the recent shutdown of CoX. No warning for that community, let alone the devs.
I'm not saying CO is going to shut down, just making the point that at your level, you hear what PWE wants you to hear. Just sayin'.
No, this is what you get when you have a Baby Boomer or Generation X manager who doesn't know the first thing about making computer games and decides to axe the entire team short of one dev. And one remaining dev happens to be the lead artist who's supposed to magically do the programming as well. Because 3DSMax and Visual Studio totally look like the same mess of windows!
One staff working a 60-hour work week is not going to equate to a team working 40 hours each.
See? I can make sweeping statements that ostracize an entire generation too!
Precisely.
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
Of course you aren't. That's because telepathy doesn't work...
My Amazon author page
How to build a freeform character...the Kenpo way
Demon Keypo's Building Guide
Freeform Builds Directory (Last updated: 04/23/2016)
Serving since September, 2009 / 65 Characters, 63 Level 40's
**Snork**
Stop it!
You made me snort my soda!!!!
CellarRat33 :: formerly Bsquared
***
"The great thing about glory unending is that it's dirt cheap!" - Tateklys
From the Adventures of Thundrax (canadascott)
***
"If you build it - they will come" (to quote the movie; 'field of dreams'), or perhaps more accurately re: Champions-Online; "If you invest in it - they will spend".
Champions-Online is never ever going to reach its potential and grow if its not invested in.
Trailturtle, you can publically state that there are no plans to scrap Champions-Online, but without a solid development plan, without investing in the title at STO's level of commitment, without harnessing your community fanbase's enthusiasm for the title and keeping them appraised and jazzed about it's future - Cryptic-Studios may as well. Just get it over with and scrap-it, because if management are not serious about supporting the title's development the superhero MMO genre deserves better than the support Cryptic have been affording Champions-Online.
Kindly give us one....just one, decent and plausible explanation why there has not been a State of the Game address in so long.
Seriously, aren't you guys ashamed at your half-hearted lacklustre investment in the Champions IP you bought from Hero Games?.
Can you honestly look at all the creative effort from the writers there and honestly say with your hand on your hearts that Cryptic-Studios has done it proud re; recreating the universe there as an online incarnation?.
When was the last time they were even consulted creatively?..... yeah, thought so.
The problem is and always has been, the allocation of staff across Cryptic's spread of titles.
Cryptic are not investing in Champions-Online because at the board level they don't have a company like Paramount to answer to, so the title is easier to shove to the backburner.
PWE / Cryptic-Studios executive management have been lazy and shortsighted, having not stuck to a single development plan as initiative after initiative after sweet-lovin' creative initiative and development plan (expansions, adventure-packs and comic series) have suffered and creaked under the strain of Cryptic's unfocused attitude, and been abandoned and swept under the carpet with little-to-no explanation when it has become apparent that they are no longer feasible with what Champions is allocated resource-wise.
While initially I did think (and we were later told and confirmed) the problem with abandoned intiatives lay with little-to-no support from Atari and then the slow transition through to PWE having a knock-on effect, the fact that nothing has changed and come through to fruition much for CO's fortunes even since the PWE aquisition - makes me convinced that both PWE and Cryptic-Studios executive board are either a): entirely clueless about how to develop Champions-Online or b): have totally lost enthusiasm for the very genre that made the studio's fortunes in the first place.
For those of you wondering, yes - it really pains me to think this negatively about Champions-Online's future considering the sheer-amount of creative forum effort a lot of us put forward on the old-boards before they were archived/binned.
And yes, as a lifetime subscriber if I could time-travel back three and a half-years and warn my enthusiastic-self about this new Superhero MMO Cryptic-Studios are so excited about, that I was excited about - I would do.
I would warn myself that the Cryptic-Studios of 2011/12 have (it appears) zero-focus what-so-ever, eyes far bigger than their belly development capability-wise and no apparent consideration for what subscribers pay-for and expect to see developed as-per their specific MMO of choice.
I DO NOT support Champions-Online to have my money invested in Star-Trek Onlline and NeverWinter's development (although apparently we all have been).
I do not expect to find a contradiction in re: what we have been assured here on the forums and what I read in interviews from Cryptic-employees that state the development teams are set in-stone for the year, that STO has a dev-team size of fifty.... FIFTY !!!. And you wonder why you are getting better returns from STO?. Well duh!.
It is pretty self-evident despite Cryptic-Studio's denials that it's different titles are disproportionately, grossly and hilariously outbalanced in both team-size and the dev-time invested in them. You wonder why you are getting better returns from STO? - Just.stop.lying.
I would warn myself that all of this above this would have a serious impact on the title I was about to spend 199.99 GBP on initially and nearly four-years of subsequent c-store purchases.
For those saying that Cryptic are about to overwhelm us with a master-plan of a development stroke and provide evidence that they have been working hard on Champions-Online all-along, and are not distracted by their other more profitable titles or project in development, I would remind you that the onus probandi (burden of proof) is on Cryptic-Studios to keep us engaged and entertained for our custom and to invest back in the title for our future custom - NOT for their ears to suddently perk up after eons of silence as soon as the topic of crowdfunding is mentioned.
I would remind Cryptic-Studios of how excited they were back at Champions-Online's launch (both of them) - and that that the title is still there waiting to be invested in properly - not just to sit on their hands thinking up monetization-schemes whilst affording the title nothing more than meagre-survival rations and an official line of excuses.
Dropping my knitting to buff you whilst hitting - Proudly protecting Millennium City's little ones since 2009.
@Mothers_Love
You have to spend money to make money.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
Though I have made some of the closest friends I have ever had here, it just hurts looking back at what Cryptic has for Champions lore that they have never touched on...
Pathetic is the only word that comes to mind.
Yep, but since CO is 'meeting expectations', they probably have low expectations for their ROI in CO.
Which means, according to their business plan, that we are near the end of our useful shelf life.
Oh, they'll keep us running as long as we make some sort of profit.
But, no more major updates.
Just crumbs to keep us playing. (I still love this game, so I'll be here till the cows come home.)
After NW is released, the devs are going to be shipped off to the next great new shiny project.
CellarRat33 :: formerly Bsquared
***
"The great thing about glory unending is that it's dirt cheap!" - Tateklys
From the Adventures of Thundrax (canadascott)
***
I think this really represents the question that is on the mind of the those who wonder about the future of Champions Online. After NW, will CO get some love or will they let it continue to languish. What happens this year, what Cryptic does with CO this year will likely make or break the title.
All die, so die well.
I have been telling friends this for awhile. wait til Never winter comes out...maybe a month past it's release date.
Things start to pop? Great! Things stay the same? I give this game a year or two tops before it shuts down. How much love this game gets after the release of NW, will tell me all i need to know about what Cryptic/PW think of the future here and if i keep my sub or not.
April, I think, we might have some idea of how much of the 'oh, devs are just redirected to NW for now, I'm sure PW will reallocate after release' is smoke up our tailpipes.
Wicks and Things: NW-DI4FMZRR4 : The Fenwick merchant family has lost a caravan! Can you help?
Beggar's Hollow: NW-DR6YG4J2L : Someone, or something, has stolen away many of the Fenwicks' children! Can you find out what happened to them?
Into the Fen Wood: NW-DL89DRG7B : Enter the heart of the forest. Can you discover the secret of the Fen Wood?
The Dev team wouldn't be backed up if Cryptic-Studios allocated more Devs to Champions-Online. Simple-as.
The abysmal situation is entirely of Cryptic's own making.
Dropping my knitting to buff you whilst hitting - Proudly protecting Millennium City's little ones since 2009.
@Mothers_Love