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Why i don't understand the community and lockboxes.
latiasracer
Member Posts: 680 Arc User
Hello.
Now, let me get started with something positive. First of Cryptic, i love the latest promotion. Re-ordering the old lockboxes & upping their lobi count is a superb idea, not to mention having the Master Keys at a cut price - Is fantastic.
And now on to the complaining. Cryptic have actually listened to an extent (They can't do everything we ask, due to CBS's restrictions, And personally the idea of having Uber-rare ships is cool), the need/greed has been removed from lockboxes, and the chance of getting that sexy-TRIBBLE D'kora (and the other ships, but they are not important!) has risen, which is brilliant for people like me.
Now, heres the bit that really gets me. "Ermagerd, i opened 100 lockboxes and got nothing!!! I hate this game!!!" - Random Facebook Commenter
What the f***? 1.) Im 17. I don't have that much money. Everytime a new lockbox comes out, i will get a 10 pack of keys, and open 10. If i don't get what i want, oh well. That works out as ?7 for me, every 2 or so months which is nothing on the ?60ish a month i earn. Why on earth (if you hate gambling and lockboxes so much) would you spend so much damn money on them? It's crazy! First off, they are not compulsory, if anything they are funding the game, keeping it alive, and getting new content added to it. (I Can't speak on behalf of KDF Players, as i prefer FED - But i'm aware you are slightly ignored in the content department) and 2.) Don't like them? DON'T BUY KEYS FOR THEM THEN. RIGHT CLICK AND "DISCARD ALL" Not that difficult.
Thank you Cryptic and Perfect world for a fantastic game, and it's bound to get better and better as time goes on. I'll continue to make microtransactions as and when something cool arises that i like, It's mine. Good job guys.
(also, VOYAGER BRIDGE PACK PLS.)
Now, let me get started with something positive. First of Cryptic, i love the latest promotion. Re-ordering the old lockboxes & upping their lobi count is a superb idea, not to mention having the Master Keys at a cut price - Is fantastic.
And now on to the complaining. Cryptic have actually listened to an extent (They can't do everything we ask, due to CBS's restrictions, And personally the idea of having Uber-rare ships is cool), the need/greed has been removed from lockboxes, and the chance of getting that sexy-TRIBBLE D'kora (and the other ships, but they are not important!) has risen, which is brilliant for people like me.
Now, heres the bit that really gets me. "Ermagerd, i opened 100 lockboxes and got nothing!!! I hate this game!!!" - Random Facebook Commenter
What the f***? 1.) Im 17. I don't have that much money. Everytime a new lockbox comes out, i will get a 10 pack of keys, and open 10. If i don't get what i want, oh well. That works out as ?7 for me, every 2 or so months which is nothing on the ?60ish a month i earn. Why on earth (if you hate gambling and lockboxes so much) would you spend so much damn money on them? It's crazy! First off, they are not compulsory, if anything they are funding the game, keeping it alive, and getting new content added to it. (I Can't speak on behalf of KDF Players, as i prefer FED - But i'm aware you are slightly ignored in the content department) and 2.) Don't like them? DON'T BUY KEYS FOR THEM THEN. RIGHT CLICK AND "DISCARD ALL" Not that difficult.
Thank you Cryptic and Perfect world for a fantastic game, and it's bound to get better and better as time goes on. I'll continue to make microtransactions as and when something cool arises that i like, It's mine. Good job guys.
(also, VOYAGER BRIDGE PACK PLS.)
warp plasma can't melt neutronium beams
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Guess s/he was thinking 100 keys will guarantee something based of LUCK, and got butt hurt when they didn't get it.
I myself decided after hording 7000z points i'd just give it a go, on my second to last, got a tholian sci ship
The truly funny thing? if that person sold their keys for 1mil a piece, (100 keys...) they could have BOUGHT the silly ship they wanted and had 20-30mil to spare
There are a lot of reasons why lockboxes aren't liked.
* Dilution of atmosphere
* Perception of constant money grabs
* Just plain annoying
* Ultra-rare ships
* Various issues with lobi
* Etc. etc.
However, from what I observe, the LOUDEST complainers essentially blame Cryptic for what amounts to a gambling addiction they have no inclination of even TRYING to contain or curb. They usually swear off lockboxes for all eternity... and then buy 200+ keys every time one comes out, rinse, repeat. Every. Time.
Some issues with the lock boxes are very much legit concerns IMO, but it's vastly overblown, and lock boxes are an important aspect of the game getting good revenue, something that a lot of people never consider may be a factor in whether or not a game exists at all to complain about.
Yeah, that's a perfect way of putting it. I like them, so i spent ?7 every two months. Spending ?50-60 on them when you "hate" them is just madness.
Those complaints are valid, although personally i don't find it breaks atmosphere for me because i loot literly everything anyway, most of the time i don't notice when ive picked one up untill later! Glad to see im not the only one who see's the fans as morons in this entire lockbox affair rather than cryptic!
Haha, that's pretty good on of you! (I find the "explore brave new worlds" so dry and dull, STF's are my only dilithium income nowerdays). And yeah, i have no idea why people traid Zen for dilithum, and who the hell pays real money for things (Lockbox key) and then sells them for the virtual credits O.o (Although, i'm not complaining that they do!)
This is a compelling idea, and I agree those people are loud. However, I actually think the loudest complainers are just people who expect to get everything for free/cheap (perhaps subsidized by fantastically generous advertisers) and don't understand that these lockboxes ships they can't afford allow them to enjoy their slightly-less-cool ship for free.
There are many things that can dilute the atmosphere for me (most notably being blown to smithereens). However, I consider lockboxes to be a very paltry thing in this equation. I notice them in my inventory and chuck 'em. My mental filters may just be able to throw them out better than most, although I suppose it helps that I have no interest in commanding a non-Starfleet ship.
That said there is a HILARIOUS take on the boxes in the Literary Challenges in Ten Forward. I forget where it is, and might edit this post if I find it later, but I think you would appreciate the humor.
EDIT: For wording, and for the URL - http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=4217447&postcount=2
I cracked up a little seeing it again.
It could just be that I'm noticing the ones who are complaining while purchasing keys more, because it hits the 'WHAT?!' button in my brain a little harder when someone says how they spent $250 on keys for every lock box before this and hates them horribly, and then the next time I see them they're grousing about how they spent $50 on keys on THIS lock box.
Yea, i understand the dissapointment side of things (Nothing like spending all day grinding dilithum to get your 14th Duty officer pack :@)
This. I'm honestly not sure what I'd do with a non-faction ship if I ever won one (which I haven't). I'd probably end up making a Ferengi or "Cardassian" captain, and handing the ship to them.
I recently bought several stacks of keys (on sale), with Zen I had bought when it was on sale. Even as a pre-F2P lifer, I have no issues with occasionally spending money on this game. The things that I want are in the Lobi Store, so my motivation for opening boxes is to get crystals. In the end, I got what I wanted and felt I had gotten a bit of a bargain (relatively speaking).
Personally, I strongly believe that they would do much better offering the lock box content through the Cryptic Store for a limited time offer purchase, with a limited quantity of the ultra-rare ships. It would be best if these ultra-rare ships were account wide un-locks.
If this lock box content was handled in this way it would be fair. It would also drive Zen Sales because the content would be limited time and limited offer. Just like in a real capitalism!!!
As it is now? it is an un-ethical practice. It favors the very wealthy players, wealth does not have to necessarily mean real life wealth and it causes real world anger with the company from its consumer and fan base.
In fact, I myself will never recommend a Cryptic Studio game again; at least, not as long as these lottery revenue systems are a main-stay for the best gear and loot in the game!
Guess what I won a D'Kora and a Galor off 100 keys last night, and afterwards had enough Lobi to buy the Recluse and the Widow Fighter And I still have +-300 Lobi
Not suggesting that anyone does what I did, as in previous times I got nothing. Ranted a bit. Bought the damn Jemmy for 150 mil and now own all the Lockbox ships
In what way is this an un-ethical practice???
Show me proof that anyone is making any attempt to start legal action against Cryptic, I just don't believe the "i'm gonna sue" threat has any weight to it anymore.
Favors the very wealthy players? Would this be players buying the ships for easy to get EC off the exchange?
How about it causes real world anger from a subset of the companies consumer and fan base, because its obviously very popular over all or Cryptic wouldn't keep bringing it back?
Good post, I suspect that most of the LOUD protests over lockboxes are, just poor losers sounding off.
you have nothing to say. nothing whatsoever. all you are doing here is lying and insulting people and acting as an apologist.
is that a serious question? this has been discussed dozens upon dozens of times
lets start with the fact that they do not disclose the odds. lets also add in the fact that according to california state law this amounts to gambling, and its being encouraged for minors to participate. lets also add in there the offensive comments a certain dev made about being investigated, lets also add in there the fact that they are being investigated in at least two countries for unlawful business practices
you mean like two countries investigating them for illegal activities? as it stands right now, anyone does have grounds to file such action, if they wanted to. however their gain would only be the money they paid into it back, which normally would be far less than they would pay in legal costs. thats why no individual person has filed such a suit
your statement makes no sense. everything there is limited in number and in the hundreds of millions of credits when it is available. not everyone has that kind of money lying around. and that still doesn't counter the fact that this setup does in fact favor those with money
that is circular logic
how about you stop insulting people
the lockboxes are for those who like a gamble... or have plenty of expendable cash, I have neither. I'm gonna try to get the Time Traveller Outfit, anything I get whether its the ship or anything of any value is being sold on the exchange.
I play a Fed Science main toon, you think I'd be jumping for joy with a new science ship looming... well no... not really. I have a lovely Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit the next ship on my list is the Fleet version, then after that? I'm jumping to The Elder Scrolls Online... no crappy lock boxes there. (prayers to Dibella)
I like Star Trek Online I'm currently still very passionate but these lockboxes are disheartening.
RachelJ88
We are told that CBS lays down the law in regard to what is and what isn't allowed. We were also told that the Galor and D'Kora were to remain rare (cause CBS didn't want everyone flying around in them; reasonable, it's logical. It's not like Starfleet would be issuing a Federation crew with a Galor Cruiser anyway) but here's the snag, at our request, the Galor, D'Kora and Tholian ships have suddenly become more available to everyone. The chance of attaining one has increased. I can't believe for a single moment that this was a choice by CBS. I don't think they had any say on the lock box content, and that it's all Cryptics doing.
They say they're rare and can't be given to everyone so more people pay the money to unlock 100+ boxes and receive nothing (people that spend this sort of money don't use the brains they were born with). After some fan feedback, Cryptic decides to make these vessels more open to the community so that more people can use them, again, now making even more money out of us.
It's all about the greedy little hobbitses.
The thing about any business is that it set standards and then it's constantly adjusting those standards to fit the continuing markets they must operate in. What was right 4 years ago isn't right today, and that equally applies for 1 year ago, or even 6 months ago. In global recessions corporations' decisions are very bendy.
It's quite possible that CBS saw the revenues from the Lockboxes and decided they'd like more - as I'm sure their license probably includes a percentage of revenues. It's also possible that even though you see a lot of Lockbox ships that compared to the entire player-base it's still a very small percentage of the whole. 10,000 Lockbox ships in a 300,000 playerbase is only 3.3%. The simple truth is we have no idea how many ships from each Lockbox have been won or how many people are playing STO monthly.
A big problem on this forum is that people take everything said on it as an absolute. Life really isn't that simple. Just as you can change your mind about something 6 months from now so can the STO team, Cryptic, and CBS. That's the reality of life.
Okay, getting down to some technical details here, but with gambling, you're usually spending money, and winning nothing - with lockboxes, you're always winning something, and IIRC Cryptic mentioned a while back that on average the winnings are worth more than the 125/112.5 Zen it costs to purchase a Master Key.
So, comparing Cryptic's lock boxes to gambling seems a bit off, doesn't it? I mean, you always get (at least from Cryptic's perspective) 112.5 Zen worth out of a lock box, and sometimes you get items worth WAY more than that.
It's in the "winner's" eyes to perceive if what they won is something truly rewarding or not, but technically they always win something worth at least what they paid. Is this still gambling? Certainly in a way, but I don't have an education in law or in gambling to tell me if this is unlawful or not.
By extension, do they have a similar issue (concerning the law) with purchasing and opening DOFF packs? It's random chance who you get, in addition to the fact that you may win the Tuffli freighter (and near the end of the Gamma Quadrant DOFF run, the Jem'Hadar Bug), or something far less appealing (but who wasn't excited to win some Dosi Rotgut lately!:D). The biggest difference I see between the purchasable DOFF packs and the lock box/Master Keys is the disparity between the lowest valued prize, and the highest. The lock box/Master Keys have bigger potential, thus greater angst when you 'win' something of lower value.
Just throwing in my two cents to give it another perspective.
I'm not sure about other MMO-like games, but I know Guild Wars 2 has a similar chest that you have to open with keys (granted, there are random key drops, so you can open them for free if you were doing a lot of grinding).
You said: It's quite possible that CBS saw the revenues from the Lockboxes and decided they'd like more - as I'm sure their license probably includes a percentage of revenues. That's great, except why would they receive more revenue? The same people are going to be buying those keys. I don't see how they'd get any more money by suddenly deciding to release some unique ships some more.
But even without factoring in new players the fact that the same people might be buying the Keys does not mean that everyone who wanted X from a particular Lockbox earned it the first time around. As long as there is a demand for something the revenues will be up due to people trying to get that something.
In simple terms: just because 5% of the players have something doesn't mean that 10%, or more, don't want it. As long as there's a "wanting" the potential for revenues exists.
1. *Thanks for answering my question , sorry you were feeling angry at the time but no I haven't read every post in the forums much of it is so negative and angry I just stop reading.*
2. Now a days companies being investigated for something is meaningless, if enough people complain someone will investigate. *That doesn't make the complaint justified.*
3. *What in life doesn't favor the wealthy?
*4. *In what way is this circular logic?
5. *If you read the fine print of my post you quoted you'll find that I edited this last sentenced because it was over stated. Meaning I was insulting people who didn't deserve it and if I insulted you, I apologize.*
I'll further modify that last sentence to read "Not everyone griping about lock boxes has a valid reason to do so, too many are just sore losers jumping on the band wagon so they can sound off"
1. I am not an addict ans suffer from "I-want-the-best-of-the-best" syndrome. Hence, I am quite happy with my Heghta BoP. I guess many players have problems to control the desire to buy/get the latest stuff for some reason
2. I am not a PvPer anyways. If I feel to kill someone then I take my Brel, and engage battlecloak for annoying torpedo attacks. Kerat is a perfect place for me to do PvP
3. I don't suffer from gambling addiction.
4. Again, I am more into flight sims so I'd spend my cash on games like DCS: A-10 and rather buy pedals, HOTAS etc
5. Real life hobbies and responsibilities.
6. Chances of scoring lock box ships very low. I'd rather work on collecting cash and buy those ships from exchange.
Ain't Nobody Got Time for That
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Logically it can be assumed that the idea for lockboxes and other paid perks was what laid the groundwork for the F2P launch in the first place. Cryptic can then use the F2P platform to bring in far more players than would normally be attracted by a pay-only game. As in advertising the more people you reach the more customers you get even if the overall percentage remains the same. five percent of five thousand new players is still bigger than five percent of five hundred. I just hope that if Cryptic is listening they heed my next words.
Get to work with all this new cash you guys are hauling in. I know from your recent "State of STO" news that you are bringing in new talent for development of the game but please keep in mind that while a brand new penny may be nice and shiny those old tarnished ones are worth the same thing. What I mean is you can keep adding new content all you want but if you were to ever become lacking in the upkeep of everything before it then what is the point. It is my recommendation that you use all the time you can spare to begin a systematic bug fix and general update project to remedy the numerous complaints that I have read not just here but in chat in-game too.
As far as any specific suggestions I may have concerning content and cost I would like to simply add that in my opinion the way the system is set up right now seems to be working in that you guys are making more money, more money means a bigger, better game (if you manage it correctly), and all that adds up to more fun for everyone.
The biggest thing I would like to see though is for y'all to set up an actual currency exchange in-game that would be able to be used by players to convert all currency into all other currency. I believe this could solve a lot of the fussing because it would allow each individual to earn or buy what they want in any way they choose. You need ten million EC you can grind Dilithium and convert it. You have a pile of cash in Zen you can convert it into the Latnium you want. Their are already ways to do some of this but it can be tedious and it doesn't work for all currencies.
Perhaps if the programming will allow it you could even be able to choose the method of payment on the exchange. Either way it all comes down to flexibility and isn't that one of the pillar principals at the heart of all Trek-dom?
Sorry if I was a bit long-winded.
(My eyes glazed over about 1/3rd in. I tried, I really did.)
It's not the "long-winded" that is a problem to read, it need to be broken up into paragraphs for ease of reading. I am not trying to insult you, but help you communicate and for us to read it to respond.
My dyslexia went into overdrive trying to read your post, so I am not really sure what you were saying.
When they first come out, I sell them for as much EC as I can get. Then wait for them to go away to get rid of the rest.
Despite Cryptic not posting odds (which some people are complaining about), we all know that the odds are slim on getting what you want, so I don't buy the keys to use the boxes.
The people complaining about the immorality or illegality of the "lock-box scam" also need to make a decision, if Cryptic is so "immoral" or "illegal", then why are you still playing the game, thus supporting the game? If it is such a violation of their sensibilities, then why lower yourself? Don't play.
I recommend players really evaluate what they need versus what they want. No one needs these ships, they just want them. Mixing up a want with need is what causes the frustration.
In my humble opinion.