State of the Game: July 2012

pwebranflakes

Star Trek Online Executive Producer Dan Stahl checks in with this month's State of the Game article. Give it a read by clicking on the link below and let us know your thoughts in this thread!


Link to the news article.

zorbane

Cool news about the spotlight foundry rewards. I'm looking forward to expanding the rewards given to players for playing UGC missions

kingdoxy

Does the new Foundry rewards have anything to do with why its still off line?

trek21

"Some positive feedback about the new Tholian Lockbox"

Good thing you said some, as it was only some There was the standard outrage that it was a lockbox, but the rewards were much improved (4 ships instead of 1, for starters)

diogene0

Nice to see that the Foundry gets some love.

Don't rush into season 7 too soon though, there are still many bugs that needs to be fixes. It's astounding to see that the whole community is complaining about the broken exchange and that no member of the team is telling us what is about to be done or even if someone is working on that, with some sort of ETA. I don't think you realize how important it is for many of us. I see people complaining every time I read the zone chat on ESD.

And in the meantime, instead of fixing this important feature, the UI team is working on making the doff UI inefficient and barely useable - no one asked for that.

Season 6 brought many good and positive changes about content itself, but it still needs a lot of fixes, please don't forget to clean the mess before introducing more mess.

thepleasuredome

So, no mention about the hose job he gave pvp when he systemically and categorically denied every idea Gozer put forth to fix it? And now it sits to stagnate or get worse for another undefined time? I'd call that a very important State of Part of The Game which seems to have been omitted.

mikewendell

My feedback which I;m sure will be removed from the main site shortly:

I have to agree. No mention of all of the players having issues with just logging into the game. No mention of player after player reporting poor customer service received from the company. Moderation is non existent on the support forums with racism, bigotry and personal attacks abound while the moderators and staff turn a blind eye. I got proved to yesterday that the employee who is supposed to be in charge of the forums doesn't even know what the settings for the software. The in game item exchange has fallen to a very well know bug that's been known for for at least four months and now has gotten worse. And if you want to mention the foundry, how about mentioning that for many months many of us couldn't even access it? Pretty much an article full of fluff and just shows that Mr. Stahl is completely out of touch with his own game. How about a real and honest State of the Game that covers both the positives as well as acknowledging what's wrong and how your company is working towards fixing and/or addressing the issues?

edit: Oh and can we please get whatever software you;re using for comments to accept a paragraph break/use of the enter key?

thepleasuredome

mikewendell wrote: »

My feedback which I;m sure will be removed from the main site shortly:



edit: Oh and can we please get whatever software you;re using for comments to accept a paragraph break/use of the enter key?

Totally agree with your quote MikeW.

mikewendell

thepleasuredome wrote: »

Totally agree with your quote MikeW.

I;m sitting here looking at the typos....

sumghai

Yep, another PR fluff piece.

I may be able to log into the game without trouble, but I feel for those who can't.

mikewendell

sumghai wrote: »

Yep, another PR fluff piece.

I may be able to log into the game without trouble, but I feel for those who can't.

In their defense, there's been at least two threads since last night's patch where people have reported that they can now get in.

cryptiecop

Please release more KDF uniform packs prior to Season 7....pretty please with sprinkles on top ...

mewi

Daniel Stahl, we appreciate what devs have put into this game, but please get your Zynga ideals out of STO or go back to Zynga which is a known predatory company that squeezes its base dry of money relentlessly until they get fed up.

Did I mention Zynga is getting pwned by quarterly losses?

thepleasuredome

mewi wrote: »

Daniel Stahl, we appreciate what devs have put into this game, but please get your Zynga ideals out of STO or go back to Zynga which is a known predatory company that squeezes its base dry of money relentlessly until they get fed up.

Did I mention Zynga is getting pwned by quarterly losses?

LOL you said pwned.

pogmahone70

When you look at it it is truly amazing to see the lack of content that was put in the game over the past 2 and a half years. PvP being one of the biggest effected by the lack development and solid leadership. People can blame atari all they want but in reality it comes down to Dan Stahl. Maybe his time at zynga has poisoned his mind to the point where he feels it is acceptable to nickle and dime the players to death, the same players that stood by STO through its many up's and down's.

game5pock

Yay! More disingeuous BS!

zaynar

?it is absolutely a GREAT time to start playing STO.?


I find this especially funny since I have not played the game since December and Season 6 has done nothing to draw me back in, the opposite may actually be true.

centersolace

I think Pvp needs an address, after all, a lot of people were looking forward to seeing what Gozer was going to do.

tankalot42o

pogmahone70 wrote: »

When you look at it it is truly amazing to see the lack of content that was put in the game over the past 2 and a half years. PvP being one of the biggest effected by the lack development and solid leadership. People can blame atari all they want but in reality it comes down to Dan Stahl. Maybe his time at zynga has poisoned his mind to the point where he feels it is acceptable to nickle and dime the players to death, the same players that stood by STO through its many up's and down's.

i agree with all but one thing.......$20-$50 is far more than nickle and diming.....

we are being gouged.........

mewi

Daniel Stahl

On July 1, 2010 Daniel Stahl left Star Trek Online.

In September 2011 he revealed as taking a position at Zynga http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=3769999

In December 2011 he rejoined Star Trek Online

How coincidental that Heretic of Star Trek Online wrote a post ( not directly mentioning star trek online ) regarding using their base as something to be squeezed dry instead of as something to be cherished and cared for. Also commenting on Zynga the company itself in the same glomp. Oh yes, that is just a coincidence.

This is, I think, the inevitable result of a business strategy that sees customers as resources to mine rather than, well, customers.
Works for a while, but it's not something that can be easily leveraged into a long term business proposition.
I disagree with the article, however, that this is a sign of weakness in the concept of social games at all; rather, it is a sign of weakness in a
relentlessly predatory approach to both customers and the industry as a whole. Treat your customers well, and they will treat you well.

How coincidental that all this gamble gouge your customer nonsense starts around the same time Daniel comes back from a gouge your customer company.

Zynga is now all about the gamble http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/zynga_loss_sends_stock_to_garbageville_lYZoidzwnCrFV9thlOLpNK

STO is becoming all about the... can someone tell me?

allyoftheforce

I don't even know what to say to this anymore...

hypl

Great time to start playing STO? Ha! That's a good one, Mr. Stahl! Very funny!

...

...Wait, you weren't joking? :rolleyes:

zeuxidemus001

hypl wrote: »

Great time to start playing STO? Ha! That's a good one, Mr. Stahl! Very funny!

...

...Wait, you weren't joking? :rolleyes:

If i was selling beach front property in south dakota... I would be saying its a great time to buy too!

vengefuldjinn

There are things regarding season six, I really want to applaud, (the new defend starbase missions, the new Tholian missions, un-restricting the Deferi Invasion mission).

I'll even go so far as to say that I appreciate the way some aspects of the Tholian lock box has been handled.
I liked the Mirror universe ships, the awesome Tholian warfare doffs.
I like the fact that If you are unlucky enough to get the Tholian web weaver ship, you can save crystals to work towards obtaining a Recluse carrier. BUT I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE COST !
The actual lobi to real world cost to get the recluse carrier in the lobi store, hundreds of dollars... REALLY !?

Which brings me to my growing concerns about the fleecing of the playerbase.

The latest Zen store offering, those really cool environmental suits, come right to the top of my mind. 700 Zen, for one character per account, not account - wide, is pure ludicrousness !

Star bases......... the grind to spend more money, so you and only 5 of your fleetmates can get the fleet ships at a time, then the bar gets raised.... insanity. 4 fleet ship modules? !!!

The company needs to make money, but the real world cost to get some of this cool new content, is getting seriously out of hand, and the value is going DOWN, (no longer account wide, non reclaimable).
The spending requirements to partake in all of this "fun" is starting to get out of my personal paygrade.

Now before anyone points out the obvious, that you don't actually NEED these things to enjoy the rest of the game, I want to point out that all this new content requires a Zen purchase, (a lot of them!) from SOMEONE.

These things like the lock box ships and such are designed to be FUN and add to the enjoyment of the game, and that the reality is, a growing portion of the players are going to keep missing out unless they spend HUGE sums of money. To me, that's a sad state.

meurik

State of the GAME? More like State of the FLUFF; cause that's all this was. Nothing but fluff.

No word as to what problems are currently plaguing the game, such as:
- Inability to log in for some players
- Broken Exchange
- Broken Foundry (admitted half-broken, since missions are now playable, but not editable)
- Revamped DOff UI which NOBODY asked for
- Overpriced and ridiculous "Combat EV suits"

And that's just for starters... It is absolutely NOT a great time to play STO. Pre-F2P, the "State of the Game" was in a far better state than it is today. All they've managed to do to improve the game, is to streamline the leveling process, and adding Fleet Starbases. They completely failed to utilize the PVP aspects of Fleet Starbases, such as having Fleet vs Fleet "Starbase Incursions", or "Starbase Defenses".

At this point, all Cryptic knows how to do, is to squeeze as much cash out of it's players as it can, before the well runs dry. Once Neverwinter is launched, STO will quietly end up in obscurity, and they'll start squeezing people for cash via Neverwinter instead.

Sorry to say this, but at this point, Daniel Stahl MUST be replaced as Executive Producer. Not saying Stephen D'Angelo was an improvement, but Mr Stahl is certainly not a good EP anymore. His decisions are ultimately HURTING STO, more than it's helping.

hawks3052

Read the article and just shook my head.
I can't say nothing to this PR fluff anymore.

trek21

meurik wrote: »

State of the GAME? More like State of the FLUFF; cause that's all this was. Nothing but fluff.

No word as to what problems are currently plaguing the game, such as:
- Inability to log in for some players
- Broken Exchange
- Broken Foundry (admitted half-broken, since missions are now playable, but not editable)
- Revamped DOff UI which NOBODY asked for
- Overpriced and ridiculous "Combat EV suits"

And that's just for starters... It is absolutely NOT a great time to play STO. Pre-F2P, the "State of the Game" was in a far better state than it is today. All they've managed to do to improve the game, is to streamline the leveling process, and adding Fleet Starbases. They completely failed to utilize the PVP aspects of Fleet Starbases, such as having Fleet vs Fleet "Starbase Incursions", or "Starbase Defenses".

At this point, all Cryptic knows how to do, is to squeeze as much cash out of it's players as it can, before the well runs dry. Once Neverwinter is launched, STO will quietly end up in obscurity, and they'll start squeezing people for cash via Neverwinter instead.

Sorry to say this, but at this point, Daniel Stahl MUST be replaced as Executive Producer. Not saying Stephen D'Angelo was an improvement, but Mr Stahl is certainly not a good EP anymore. His decisions are ultimately HURTING STO, more than it's helping.

*buzz* Wrong.

PWE needs to go. Even Atari could be brought back, but anything to get out of this squeeze-dry phase.

Blaming the branches is not dealing with the root of the issue.

mewi

trek21 wrote: »

*buzz* Wrong.

PWE needs to go. Even Atari could be brought back, but anything to get out of this squeeze-dry phase.

Blaming the branches is not dealing with the root of the issue.

Fairly certain Daniel Stahl is the mastermind behind these gouge boxes and other gouge style methods of gameplay.

trek21

mewi wrote: »

Fairly certain Daniel Stahl is the mastermind behind these gouge boxes and other gouge style methods of gameplay.

But without proof, that assumption means very little...

Plus, we only got them after PWE took over, and Dstahl was around long before that. So I'm sarcastically saying 'uh-huh, sure'.

meurik

trek21 wrote: »

*buzz* Wrong.

PWE needs to go. Even Atari could be brought back, but anything to get out of this squeeze-dry phase.

Blaming the branches is not dealing with the root of the issue.

trek21 wrote: »

But without proof, that assumption means very little...

Plus, we only got them after PWE took over, and Dstahl was around long before that. So I'm sarcastically saying 'uh-huh, sure'.

Perhaps so. Perhaps PWE is to blame for all our troubles. But as Executive Producer, Mr Stahl certainly is able to voice his own opinions, if he feels the game is headed in the wrong direction. Clearly, he agrees with PWE, which makes him just as much a part of the problem.

- I blame Atari, they let the game falter until Cryptic was virtually bankrupt
- I blame Stephen D'Angelo, who started the whole lockbox scheme (Jem Hadar Winter event?!?)
- I blame Free-to-play, which allowed the game to degenerate into a cash-grabbing pay-to-win cesspool.
- I blame Perfect World, for trying to plunder our wallets, cash-grabbing and pushing us as far as they can, until they can't push any further.
- I blame Daniel Stahl, who willingly/reluctantly agrees with all of the above incidents.

Suffice it to say, the blame can be shared among many factors. But STO under it's current leadership (Daniel Stahl), is certainly not improving. Season 6 has been full of negative feedback, from the get go. Broken Foundry since launch, broken Exchange, broken Mailing system, overpriced EV suits, overpriced Fleet Ship Modules, punishing long-time players (Vice Admiral token invalid, Emblem ships invalid for discounts)

Need I go on?

edna

meurik wrote: »

And that's just for starters... It is absolutely NOT a great time to play STO. Pre-F2P, the "State of the Game" was in a far better state than it is today. All they've managed to do to improve the game, is to streamline the leveling process, and adding Fleet Starbases. They completely failed to utilize the PVP aspects of Fleet Starbases, such as having Fleet vs Fleet "Starbase Incursions", or "Starbase Defenses".

And why was better before f2p?
You only gave one reason why is better now and none why was better before.PvP is now like it was before f2p.That doesnt make it better or worse than before.

meurik wrote: »

Suffice it to say, the blame can be shared among many factors. But STO under it's current leadership (Daniel Stahl), is certainly not improving. Season 6 has been full of negative feedback, from the get go. Broken Foundry since launch, broken Exchange, broken Mailing system, overpriced EV suits, overpriced Fleet Ship Modules, punishing long-time players (Vice Admiral token invalid, Emblem ships invalid for discounts)

Need I go on?

Those are new problems with the game .I still cant see any reason for "heads in the wrong direction".
The game is still live and if they make money it means the game is played and people pay ...when that happens it means the game is heading the right direction.