Ditto, I'm not spending another cent(lol) in this game till they decide to tone things down. That said, I don't think that our actions will bring about any kind of change if you think about the craploads of money being dropped on lockboxes. Look in the exchange and look simply at all the Recluses and Temporal destroyers on there. Then work out that average amount of money needed to pay for those.
In fact, I'm boycotting lockboxes and fleet retrofit ships due to the insane costs. I wish more people would, but I guess spending 20$ on single character unlocks if fine to a lot of people.
I don't begrudge companies making money, but IMO this is price gouging to the extreme.
Since all my toons are in My Own Fleet, it'll be a long, Long, LONG Time, before I'm anywhere near being able to spend ANY money on those kinda things...
I don't mind buying Master Keys with my stipend and I'm more than willing to spend Actual Money on new C/Z-Store Ships occasionally...
But it will be a very, Very, VERY Cold day in Hell, before I will spend ANY Actual Money on upgrading/building said Starbase and/or the new Rep systems.
I have never bought ZEN (or C-Points) to purchase Dilithium on that exchange...,
... and I never plan to.
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
In fact, I'm boycotting lockboxes and fleet retrofit ships due to the insane costs. I wish more people would
Actually I consider the EC economy way fairer than the dilithium one. You can still get epic gear from the exchange (sometimes the best one) but there's no daily cap, so you can earn as many as you want in a day and thus get your gear in no time if you know the tricks; it's way easier than dil to "farm", and it's a real shortcut since you can choose to buy them (with keys or fleet modules) or not to buy them at all, but nothing is mandatory and nothing will slower your progression if you can get your ship and gear in let's say one day if you're VERY lucky (one week is more reasonable and fairly achievable).
So I see no point to boycott it: it's fair, you can take the shortcuts or completely ignore them if you have the required brain.
Again, Warning to those voting with their wallets.
(Maybe I should put this in my Sig?)
Boycotting STO resulting in falling profits will just get it shut down.
They don't care.
Just pay for what you want in game, you don't need everything at once.
Don't buy into NWN, that way they will keep supporting STO.
Everyone voting with their wallets knows that could happen if enough of us get together and they are too stubborn to adapt. What's the problem? It's like mother nature cleaning out bad survival traits from the gene pool for a stronger next generation.
Everyone voting with their wallets knows that could happen if enough of us get together and they are too stubborn to adapt. What's the problem? It's like mother nature cleaning out bad survival traits from the gene pool for a stronger next generation.
They made their bed, let them roll in it...
Let's just remember that if They roll out of it, we fall too.
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
A guy just posted on the Tribble forum with the news of the Tier 1 unlocks.
Exp goes from 2000 / 800 with the Tier 0 missions, to 200 XP. Plus you have to mess with Project Unlocks like Starbases, which costs a ton of Dilithium.
I'll say this, the more I learn about Season 7, the more I think about leaving STO. Cryptic obviously has no intention of Making Season 7 any fun and purposely inflating the demand of the Dilithium market to force us to buy Zen or grind til or eyes bleed.
Guess the jokes could end up true how Star Trek typically lasts 7 seasons and this STO's seventh season......
Everyone voting with their wallets knows that could happen if enough of us get together and they are too stubborn to adapt. What's the problem? It's like mother nature cleaning out bad survival traits from the gene pool for a stronger next generation.
I for one don't particularly care about/for other MMO's, and as such want to see STO continue to exist. This is particularly important as just about every other MMO I know of is either fantasy-based (sometimes heavily mixed with sci-fi, but still fantasy-based at its roots), is a second job, or deals with twitch-reflex fighters, and so far as I know the space-based ones don't generally have ground components, either. There are a few others that are superhero-based and some others that are off somewhere else, but fact remains, they're not like STO, which is not easily substituted, for all that people claim it's "not Star Trek" and whatnot.
I agree with the previous poster - buy what you want, don't buy what you don't, grind for what's in the middle. Because voting with your wallet is usually like curing a disease by killing the patient. I fork $10/month at them for my sub, and I think that's a fair price. I'll throw in more if they have something I particularly want, but other than that I'll just grind or save up.
Let's just remember that if They roll out of it, we fall too.
Eh.
I think it would suck that some really good people would lose their jobs. It'd be squandered potential. I'd lose my shiny virtual stuff, which is the least important of these.
But I don't think players should really concern themselves with the health of the game when supplying feedback or making decisions about whether or not to spend. Love it or leave it and let the argument fall on the devs why people should spend money or stay if they aren't feeling it.
I know a game dev who said once that he wished players didn't see themselves as investors and just treated each purchase as exactly what they were getting for exactly the price listed, with no interest in supporting the future.
Again, I'd like more of a Kickstarter model where the players actually shape development with money and where the items are "thank you" party favors. But do not mistake any existing MMO for that.
When you buy a ship here, you aren't investing in projects down the line. You're buying access to a ship. When you buy a lifetime sub, you aren't contributing to the game's survival, you are making a purchase for access and a list of goods. There is no magic happy funtime goodwill charity here. These are purchases. Make your decisions at the margins because that's how the money will be spent once they have it.
A guy just posted on the Tribble forum with the news of the Tier 1 unlocks.
Exp goes from 2000 / 800 with the Tier 0 missions, to 200 XP. Plus you have to mess with Project Unlocks like Starbases, which costs a ton of Dilithium.
I'll say this, the more I learn about Season 7, the more I think about leaving STO. Cryptic obviously has no intention of Making Season 7 any fun and purposely inflating the demand of the Dilithium market to force us to buy Zen or grind til or eyes bleed.
Guess the jokes could end up true how Star Trek typically lasts 7 seasons and this STO's seventh season......
I admit some concern here, but it's difficult to gauge just what this is going to be without more full access to the information. I posted on the thread I believe you refer to asking for a bit more information about the unlocked missions; maybe that will tell a bit more.
Let's just remember that if They roll out of it, we fall too.
All we lose is a game, and for those annoyed enough to boycott supporting it financially, a game that is becoming increasingly frustrating to play. They have more to lose than us, one would think that they would have more incentive to change when the money starts drying up.
They can always put on their next job application that they worked on the wildly popular online sensation known as Star Trek Online.
On second thought, that might do more harm than good.
Just as I can't imagine anyone actually admitting they work for Zynga. I really hate that company.
Yeaaaah, Cause someone is going to look at their resume and say
Well this person has exceptional skills, and is exactly what we are looking for....oh but no wait he worked for X company, and even though he is what we are looking for, and had nothing to do with what went on in X company we wont hire him...let's hire that other guy who is pretty bad at his job, and got fired at Y company for stealing , but Y company is great and we only hire from Y company no matter what.
Again, Warning to those voting with their wallets.
(Maybe I should put this in my Sig?)
Boycotting STO resulting in falling profits will just get it shut down.
They don't care.
Just pay for what you want in game, you don't need everything at once.
Don't buy into NWN, that way they will keep supporting STO.
it isn't just cryptic, that's the part you're forgetting, it's also pwe, and they want to make cash, an established game with an established player base that gets ticked off because of changes,,,they're not going to dump the game. starting to think you're a shill, doom and gloom to try and scare people into staying and paying.
cheaper and easier just to modify what they're doing to keep the game alive and the players happy. cheaper how you ask? because shutting down the servers = 0 revenue, all the code, all the work comes to zero.
altering the content to something the players want = revenue.
so, huge loss shutting down the servers
big gains modifying S7
why i wonder if you work for cryptic or pwe...obvious choice is obvious yet you keep spouting doom, when no other mmo has ever done that in the face of a boycott.
and if they did? good riddance. perhaps somewhere down the road CBS will allow another company to use the star trek IP to make another mmo. whomever it would be can't do a worse job than cryptic has.
Dr. Patricia Tanis ~ "Bacon is for sycophants and products of incest."
Donate Brains, zombies in Washington DC are starving.
Yeaaaah, Cause someone is going to look at their resume and say
Well this person has exceptional skills, and is exactly what we are looking for....oh but no wait he worked for X company, and even though he is what we are looking for, and had nothing to do with what went on in X company we wont hire him...let's hire that other guy who is pretty bad at his job, and got fired at Y company for stealing , but Y company is great and we only hire from Y company no matter what.
It all depends on if some one's pal decides to be truthful and put "big time forum troll" in their job referral...
They won't shut down STO, PWE just paid 50mil for it a year or so back, currently they have 2 incomes (1 from champ 1 from STO) why would you kill off 1 income stream because some people stop paying money as they are ticked off.
What I hope happens is that people will get ticked off (i know i have) and vote by not spending money or "as much money" on STO, this will then show that people are not happy and hope things start getting better.
If people keep spending money Cryptic/PWE think they are doing the correct thing and giving people what they want (no matter what is said here).
I really don't like the changes in S7 at all, I will keep playing but I will not be spending as much time or any money on STO, I may move to another MMO where I will spend money for things I want and think are value for money.
STO is not value for money to me anymore.
When NW comes out I may have a look at it but I have seen this happen to Champs now STO so it's only a matter of time before the same thing happens to the new baby (NW) as well.
Let's just remember that if They roll out of it, we fall too.
If STO gets shut down,it's not because we 'boycotted' the game....it's dumb decisions made,not for gameplay reasons,but for sheer greed that drives people,and their money,away to other games.
And thlaylierah,that is some nerve you have for trying to guilt trip me for not wanting to spend money on this money trap they have the gaul to call game.Go stand in the corner and think about what you did.....and no supper for you!
I think it would suck that some really good people would lose their jobs. It'd be squandered potential. I'd lose my shiny virtual stuff, which is the least important of these.
But I don't think players should really concern themselves with the health of the game when supplying feedback or making decisions about whether or not to spend. Love it or leave it and let the argument fall on the devs why people should spend money or stay if they aren't feeling it.
I know a game dev who said once that he wished players didn't see themselves as investors and just treated each purchase as exactly what they were getting for exactly the price listed, with no interest in supporting the future.
Again, I'd like more of a Kickstarter model where the players actually shape development with money and where the items are "thank you" party favors. But do not mistake any existing MMO for that.
When you buy a ship here, you aren't investing in projects down the line. You're buying access to a ship. When you buy a lifetime sub, you aren't contributing to the game's survival, you are making a purchase for access and a list of goods. There is no magic happy funtime goodwill charity here. These are purchases. Make your decisions at the margins because that's how the money will be spent once they have it.
The question is here......are you getting your money's worth?
The PWE/Cryptic sweatshop...not where the game is made,but where the game is played!
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
They can always put on their next job application that they worked on the wildly popular online sensation known as Star Trek Online.
On second thought, that might do more harm than good.
Just as I can't imagine anyone actually admitting they work for Zynga. I really hate that company.
In the entertainment industry, they judge you by your references, your service history, and your portfolio.
You could work on a smash failure and if YOUR work is good and people say you're hardworking, talented, and easy to work with, it's not gonna hurt a ship artist or junior producer.
I can't think of anyone who would turn someone AWAY for working on significantly inferior games to STO.
Honestly, the folks in the worst positions if something did happen (and it won't, for a long time) would probably be Thomas, Jeremy, and Kestrel since the first two have less than five years' game experience and Kestrel would probably have pretty stable work going back to content, which she has years of background in -- but might find the writing market harsher. I think people judge writers harder and everybody tends to have a writer already in mind for their project. But she'd probably have a shot at Trek novels and TV work OR content. (I know one of the writers on Leverage and he got his start with the Strange New Worlds Trek stuff. Honestly, Kestrel's magazine pieces could be the foundation of a strong career outside gaming altogether if she had the time to focus on it.) It's just harder, I suspect, to get a good "loremaster" position.
And even in Jeremy and Thomas' cases, they have hustle and did work on a major F2P title.
So, really, I'd feel for the devs if the Cryptic Offices were destroyed in a UFO attack tomorrow but I think they'd be fine after a few hard months.
Again, I think you should put the money where the value for YOU is. Don't pretend its a charity or that you're financing some kind of worthy cause. It's a sales pitch so make them pitch you on it.
Yeaaaah, Cause someone is going to look at their resume and say
Well this person has exceptional skills, and is exactly what we are looking for....oh but no wait he worked for X company, and even though he is what we are looking for, and had nothing to do with what went on in X company we wont hire him...let's hire that other guy who is pretty bad at his job, and got fired at Y company for stealing , but Y company is great and we only hire from Y company no matter what.
So you think a possible employer doesn't look at your history in the business. I guarantee they do. Someone that worked on WoW will be looked at much more favorably than someone that worked on some TRIBBLE game that nobody's ever heard of. That may not make sense to you and it may not be fair, but that's how it is.
In no way am I saying that everyone involved in making STO is a moron. But in the end, success matters. Failure looks bad even if it isn't really your fault.
So my point was that it's in their best interest to make the game successful. Having an attitude of...'it's just a job...the consumers are losers...i don't care if you like the product or not' is indicative of someone who doesn't really care. Why would you hire someone who doesn't care about his work.
Again, I think you should put the money where the value for YOU is. Don't pretend its a charity or that you're financing some kind of worthy cause. It's a sales pitch so make them pitch you on it.
Does people make purchases based on other motives? That's weird. I can't even think acting differently than what you stated. If it's worth it I might buy it, if it's not i definitely won't.
But... There are other parameters: is it pay to win/game breaking? If the answer is yes then there's a problem and probably won't buy it because when i invest my time in a game i want it to last and won't approve that. That's what I did with the Armittage, I boycotted it because it's pay to win. Can I get it for free? If it's possible, i'll find workarounds to get it quicker, especially if it brings me a new challenge to overcome. And finally is it ethical? I know i'll never use anything else but some stipend to buy lockbox keys, and it will remain an exception. Keys are designed to use our human weaknesses to make money, and it's not ethical at all. So it's a huge 'no way' for me.
A purchase isn't only a price and an item, it's also a lot of things you have to consider, and if things are going wrong from my poinf of view you can dream to see my money in your game, even if you're putting the most desirable item everin your store. :P
I'm done with cryptic and pwe. I will continue flying what I currently have u til it can no longer compete. I never wanted to lump cryptic in with the pwe crowd and perhaps they don't want to do the things that pwe is making them do, bit that doesn't change the fact that cryptic = pwe.
Cryptic is now borgified ferengi to me and their purpose is not to achieve perfection, but achieve all money from those inside and outside of their collective. I will resist and resistance is NOT futile.
I AM NOT A FAN OF PWE!!!!
MEMBER SINCE JANUARY 2010
So you think a possible employer doesn't look at your history in the business. I guarantee they do. Someone that worked on WoW will be looked at much more favorably than someone that worked on some TRIBBLE game that nobody's ever heard of. That may not make sense to you and it may not be fair, but that's how it is.
In no way am I saying that everyone involved in making STO is a moron. But in the end, success matters. Failure looks bad even if it isn't really your fault.
So my point was that it's in their best interest to make the game successful. Having an attitude of...'it's just a job...the consumers are losers...i don't care if you like the product or not' is indicative of someone who doesn't really care. Why would you hire someone who doesn't care about his work.
When I hire someone i will look at their history, and compare...if I get someone who worked for a major company, and someone who worked for a small business, I look at their work. If someone who came from a small and limited place, where they did great work with a limited budget, and someone came from a multi million dollar corporation, but the same work cost more...I'm going with the guy who can work on a budget, and still give me quality.
Now if it's two CEO's bidding for a job as CEO of another company, well failure will be number one on that broads agenda.
So you think a possible employer doesn't look at your history in the business. I guarantee they do. Someone that worked on WoW will be looked at much more favorably than someone that worked on some TRIBBLE game that nobody's ever heard of. That may not make sense to you and it may not be fair, but that's how it is.
In no way am I saying that everyone involved in making STO is a moron. But in the end, success matters. Failure looks bad even if it isn't really your fault.
So my point was that it's in their best interest to make the game successful. Having an attitude of...'it's just a job...the consumers are losers...i don't care if you like the product or not' is indicative of someone who doesn't really care. Why would you hire someone who doesn't care about his work.
Cryptic's employees, outside of gaming industry newbies like Thomas and Jeremy, include some of the folks behind the Sims, Blizzard devs, WoW devs, Fallout devs.
The game industry is a high turnover field. I think there are a lot of issues to find with STO but the quality of their hiring stock isn't one of them.
Failure is NOT your fault in creative fields. The expectation is always that your boss or your customers are crazy lunatics who crashed the game. Because that happens. And if you're the boss, the assumption is always that you were saddled with high dividends and low reinvestment and your employees were corporate saboteurs who stole office supplies and put them on eBay.
Having a big project that you're attributed to as the source of its success means, well... It means that you're financially independent and probably not looking for work but starting your own company.
Everybody else runs between successes and failures and they really aren't judged by it unless they get on the 6 O'clock news being arrested for selling office supplies on eBay. Everybody quits jobs. Everybody gets fired. Everybody works on huge hits and bombs. The only sin is having a resume that's too short, lacking basic skills for your job (which may be a LOT of skills), or getting in the news for being a jerk or breaking the law. Anything else goes and nothing else sticks.
This is all creative fields. I mean... Look at Ted McGinley! Patron saint of cancelled TV shows!
Again, my point wasn't that the people working on STO are bad programmers or have inferior skills.
My point was that some of them seem to have a very bad attitude. Maybe in the programming business, it's totally normal and acceptable to think your customers are the enemy. Maybe it's normal to give off the impression that you're perfect and if nobody likes your ideas, it's because they're too stupid to understand your "vision". But I certainly don't see how that would be a helpful attitude.
Some people want to defend every aspect of STO.
But how can you defend things like spelling errors? Using a spellchecker isn't exactly difficult or time-consuming. I understand that they are pushed to get things done on a schedule. But running a spellchecker will cost them an extra 10 minutes a week. While spelling errors may not be a huge issue for most people, to me, it's indicative of a lack of effort.
One of the big complaints about S7 is that it appears to be extremely light on story content. And by light, I mean that it's non-existent. I don't consider a Defera / Tholian type zone to be story content and neither do most people. They claim that creating story missions consumes too many resources and their time is better spent on other things. If they put out 1 new mission every month, people would stop harping on that issue. And believe it or not, it shouldn't be difficult to do. This has been mentioned a million times, but the Foundry is the perfect way to accomplish that. There are countless Foundry missions that are as good as or better than the official story missions. There have been numerous threads about how the Foundry could be used to create official missions. But seemingly, that possibility is ignored. I have no idea why they choose not to take advantage of such a simple possibility. It would cost them virtually nothing and in return would gain them quite a bit of legitimate content. Content that the vast majority of players have been begging/whining/asking/pleading for. Again, I understand that this decision is not made by the lower-ranking employees. And so my annoyance, at least on this issue, is not aimed at them. I imagine the idea has already been pitched and shot down by CBS for "legal reasons".
I didn't like that game enough to keep paying for it, and I don't like that plan enough to even play it for free.
I think I was very much spoiled by (Pre-NGE) SWG...
I tried TOR for three months, I just didn't care for the mechanics of the game...
It seemed overly complicated to me...
(or perhaps my heart just wasn't in it enough, to try and figure it all out)
Granted SWG had a lot of entailed things in it also, but when I first started playing it (SWG) it didn't seem as overwhelming as TOR does.
TOR kinda just throws everything at ya at once, I guess the learning curve is a bit to much for this Old Troll.
I very much doubt I'll be trying it again, when it goes F2P.
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
I think I was very much spoiled by (Pre-NGE) SWG...
I tried TOR for three months, I just didn't care for the mechanics of the game...
It seemed way to complicated to me...
(or perhaps my heart just wasn't in it enough, to try and figure it all out)
Granted SWG had a lot of entailed things in it also, but when I first started playing it (SWG) it didn't seem as overwhelming as TOR does.
TOR kinda just throws everything at ya at once, I guess the learning curve is a bit to much for this Old Troll.
I very much doubt I'll be trying when it goes F2P.
IMHO TOR's strongpoint was the storyline, everything at end-game was no different than what we are doing here in STO. Playing the same content over and over again, until the next grind.
To me, what both these MMOs lack is allowing players to do their own thing. In Everquest, ****, and SWG, there was a hundreds of locations you could spend time at. If Cryptic actually opened up the STO galaxy and let us go beyond the borders and go treking to the Gamma or Delta Quadrants, we would feel like our wings have been freed. Let us choose if we want to do PvP, or exploration, or Foundry.
Instead, they make simple maps, add some mega grind missions, and say "there's your content" and if you wanted more they point the way to the Foundry, which is their "content". (Basically they are shirking responsiblity).
...maybe it's because SWG right from the outset, felt like you were actually playing in the Universe that the movies created...
TOR on the other hand seems so far removed from that... (to me anyway)
I kinda-sorta felt outta place while playing the game...
It just didn't 'feel' right to me.
I guess I'm too old to appreciate all the stuff that's been added to that Universe since I saw the movies the first time.
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Comments
Since all my toons are in My Own Fleet, it'll be a long, Long, LONG Time, before I'm anywhere near being able to spend ANY money on those kinda things...
I don't mind buying Master Keys with my stipend and I'm more than willing to spend Actual Money on new C/Z-Store Ships occasionally...
But it will be a very, Very, VERY Cold day in Hell, before I will spend ANY Actual Money on upgrading/building said Starbase and/or the new Rep systems.
I have never bought ZEN (or C-Points) to purchase Dilithium on that exchange...,
... and I never plan to.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Actually I consider the EC economy way fairer than the dilithium one. You can still get epic gear from the exchange (sometimes the best one) but there's no daily cap, so you can earn as many as you want in a day and thus get your gear in no time if you know the tricks; it's way easier than dil to "farm", and it's a real shortcut since you can choose to buy them (with keys or fleet modules) or not to buy them at all, but nothing is mandatory and nothing will slower your progression if you can get your ship and gear in let's say one day if you're VERY lucky (one week is more reasonable and fairly achievable).
So I see no point to boycott it: it's fair, you can take the shortcuts or completely ignore them if you have the required brain.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
(Maybe I should put this in my Sig?)
Boycotting STO resulting in falling profits will just get it shut down.
They don't care.
Just pay for what you want in game, you don't need everything at once.
Don't buy into NWN, that way they will keep supporting STO.
Everyone voting with their wallets knows that could happen if enough of us get together and they are too stubborn to adapt. What's the problem? It's like mother nature cleaning out bad survival traits from the gene pool for a stronger next generation.
They made their bed, let them roll in it...
Let's just remember that if They roll out of it, we fall too.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Exp goes from 2000 / 800 with the Tier 0 missions, to 200 XP. Plus you have to mess with Project Unlocks like Starbases, which costs a ton of Dilithium.
I'll say this, the more I learn about Season 7, the more I think about leaving STO. Cryptic obviously has no intention of Making Season 7 any fun and purposely inflating the demand of the Dilithium market to force us to buy Zen or grind til or eyes bleed.
Guess the jokes could end up true how Star Trek typically lasts 7 seasons and this STO's seventh season......
I for one don't particularly care about/for other MMO's, and as such want to see STO continue to exist. This is particularly important as just about every other MMO I know of is either fantasy-based (sometimes heavily mixed with sci-fi, but still fantasy-based at its roots), is a second job, or deals with twitch-reflex fighters, and so far as I know the space-based ones don't generally have ground components, either. There are a few others that are superhero-based and some others that are off somewhere else, but fact remains, they're not like STO, which is not easily substituted, for all that people claim it's "not Star Trek" and whatnot.
I agree with the previous poster - buy what you want, don't buy what you don't, grind for what's in the middle. Because voting with your wallet is usually like curing a disease by killing the patient. I fork $10/month at them for my sub, and I think that's a fair price. I'll throw in more if they have something I particularly want, but other than that I'll just grind or save up.
Eh.
I think it would suck that some really good people would lose their jobs. It'd be squandered potential. I'd lose my shiny virtual stuff, which is the least important of these.
But I don't think players should really concern themselves with the health of the game when supplying feedback or making decisions about whether or not to spend. Love it or leave it and let the argument fall on the devs why people should spend money or stay if they aren't feeling it.
I know a game dev who said once that he wished players didn't see themselves as investors and just treated each purchase as exactly what they were getting for exactly the price listed, with no interest in supporting the future.
Again, I'd like more of a Kickstarter model where the players actually shape development with money and where the items are "thank you" party favors. But do not mistake any existing MMO for that.
When you buy a ship here, you aren't investing in projects down the line. You're buying access to a ship. When you buy a lifetime sub, you aren't contributing to the game's survival, you are making a purchase for access and a list of goods. There is no magic happy funtime goodwill charity here. These are purchases. Make your decisions at the margins because that's how the money will be spent once they have it.
I admit some concern here, but it's difficult to gauge just what this is going to be without more full access to the information. I posted on the thread I believe you refer to asking for a bit more information about the unlocked missions; maybe that will tell a bit more.
On second thought, that might do more harm than good.
Just as I can't imagine anyone actually admitting they work for Zynga. I really hate that company.
Yeaaaah, Cause someone is going to look at their resume and say
Well this person has exceptional skills, and is exactly what we are looking for....oh but no wait he worked for X company, and even though he is what we are looking for, and had nothing to do with what went on in X company we wont hire him...let's hire that other guy who is pretty bad at his job, and got fired at Y company for stealing , but Y company is great and we only hire from Y company no matter what.
Raptr profile
True dat!
I didn't like that game enough to keep paying for it, and I don't like that plan enough to even play it for free.
it isn't just cryptic, that's the part you're forgetting, it's also pwe, and they want to make cash, an established game with an established player base that gets ticked off because of changes,,,they're not going to dump the game. starting to think you're a shill, doom and gloom to try and scare people into staying and paying.
cheaper and easier just to modify what they're doing to keep the game alive and the players happy. cheaper how you ask? because shutting down the servers = 0 revenue, all the code, all the work comes to zero.
altering the content to something the players want = revenue.
so, huge loss shutting down the servers
big gains modifying S7
why i wonder if you work for cryptic or pwe...obvious choice is obvious yet you keep spouting doom, when no other mmo has ever done that in the face of a boycott.
and if they did? good riddance. perhaps somewhere down the road CBS will allow another company to use the star trek IP to make another mmo. whomever it would be can't do a worse job than cryptic has.
Donate Brains, zombies in Washington DC are starving.
It all depends on if some one's pal decides to be truthful and put "big time forum troll" in their job referral...
Why not, it shows initiative.
What I hope happens is that people will get ticked off (i know i have) and vote by not spending money or "as much money" on STO, this will then show that people are not happy and hope things start getting better.
If people keep spending money Cryptic/PWE think they are doing the correct thing and giving people what they want (no matter what is said here).
I really don't like the changes in S7 at all, I will keep playing but I will not be spending as much time or any money on STO, I may move to another MMO where I will spend money for things I want and think are value for money.
STO is not value for money to me anymore.
When NW comes out I may have a look at it but I have seen this happen to Champs now STO so it's only a matter of time before the same thing happens to the new baby (NW) as well.
If STO gets shut down,it's not because we 'boycotted' the game....it's dumb decisions made,not for gameplay reasons,but for sheer greed that drives people,and their money,away to other games.
And thlaylierah,that is some nerve you have for trying to guilt trip me for not wanting to spend money on this money trap they have the gaul to call game.Go stand in the corner and think about what you did.....and no supper for you!
The question is here......are you getting your money's worth?
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
In the entertainment industry, they judge you by your references, your service history, and your portfolio.
You could work on a smash failure and if YOUR work is good and people say you're hardworking, talented, and easy to work with, it's not gonna hurt a ship artist or junior producer.
I can't think of anyone who would turn someone AWAY for working on significantly inferior games to STO.
Honestly, the folks in the worst positions if something did happen (and it won't, for a long time) would probably be Thomas, Jeremy, and Kestrel since the first two have less than five years' game experience and Kestrel would probably have pretty stable work going back to content, which she has years of background in -- but might find the writing market harsher. I think people judge writers harder and everybody tends to have a writer already in mind for their project. But she'd probably have a shot at Trek novels and TV work OR content. (I know one of the writers on Leverage and he got his start with the Strange New Worlds Trek stuff. Honestly, Kestrel's magazine pieces could be the foundation of a strong career outside gaming altogether if she had the time to focus on it.) It's just harder, I suspect, to get a good "loremaster" position.
And even in Jeremy and Thomas' cases, they have hustle and did work on a major F2P title.
So, really, I'd feel for the devs if the Cryptic Offices were destroyed in a UFO attack tomorrow but I think they'd be fine after a few hard months.
Again, I think you should put the money where the value for YOU is. Don't pretend its a charity or that you're financing some kind of worthy cause. It's a sales pitch so make them pitch you on it.
So you think a possible employer doesn't look at your history in the business. I guarantee they do. Someone that worked on WoW will be looked at much more favorably than someone that worked on some TRIBBLE game that nobody's ever heard of. That may not make sense to you and it may not be fair, but that's how it is.
In no way am I saying that everyone involved in making STO is a moron. But in the end, success matters. Failure looks bad even if it isn't really your fault.
So my point was that it's in their best interest to make the game successful. Having an attitude of...'it's just a job...the consumers are losers...i don't care if you like the product or not' is indicative of someone who doesn't really care. Why would you hire someone who doesn't care about his work.
Does people make purchases based on other motives? That's weird. I can't even think acting differently than what you stated. If it's worth it I might buy it, if it's not i definitely won't.
But... There are other parameters: is it pay to win/game breaking? If the answer is yes then there's a problem and probably won't buy it because when i invest my time in a game i want it to last and won't approve that. That's what I did with the Armittage, I boycotted it because it's pay to win. Can I get it for free? If it's possible, i'll find workarounds to get it quicker, especially if it brings me a new challenge to overcome. And finally is it ethical? I know i'll never use anything else but some stipend to buy lockbox keys, and it will remain an exception. Keys are designed to use our human weaknesses to make money, and it's not ethical at all. So it's a huge 'no way' for me.
A purchase isn't only a price and an item, it's also a lot of things you have to consider, and if things are going wrong from my poinf of view you can dream to see my money in your game, even if you're putting the most desirable item everin your store. :P
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Cryptic is now borgified ferengi to me and their purpose is not to achieve perfection, but achieve all money from those inside and outside of their collective. I will resist and resistance is NOT futile.
I AM NOT A FAN OF PWE!!!!
MEMBER SINCE JANUARY 2010
When I hire someone i will look at their history, and compare...if I get someone who worked for a major company, and someone who worked for a small business, I look at their work. If someone who came from a small and limited place, where they did great work with a limited budget, and someone came from a multi million dollar corporation, but the same work cost more...I'm going with the guy who can work on a budget, and still give me quality.
Now if it's two CEO's bidding for a job as CEO of another company, well failure will be number one on that broads agenda.
Cryptic's employees, outside of gaming industry newbies like Thomas and Jeremy, include some of the folks behind the Sims, Blizzard devs, WoW devs, Fallout devs.
The game industry is a high turnover field. I think there are a lot of issues to find with STO but the quality of their hiring stock isn't one of them.
Failure is NOT your fault in creative fields. The expectation is always that your boss or your customers are crazy lunatics who crashed the game. Because that happens. And if you're the boss, the assumption is always that you were saddled with high dividends and low reinvestment and your employees were corporate saboteurs who stole office supplies and put them on eBay.
Having a big project that you're attributed to as the source of its success means, well... It means that you're financially independent and probably not looking for work but starting your own company.
Everybody else runs between successes and failures and they really aren't judged by it unless they get on the 6 O'clock news being arrested for selling office supplies on eBay. Everybody quits jobs. Everybody gets fired. Everybody works on huge hits and bombs. The only sin is having a resume that's too short, lacking basic skills for your job (which may be a LOT of skills), or getting in the news for being a jerk or breaking the law. Anything else goes and nothing else sticks.
This is all creative fields. I mean... Look at Ted McGinley! Patron saint of cancelled TV shows!
My point was that some of them seem to have a very bad attitude. Maybe in the programming business, it's totally normal and acceptable to think your customers are the enemy. Maybe it's normal to give off the impression that you're perfect and if nobody likes your ideas, it's because they're too stupid to understand your "vision". But I certainly don't see how that would be a helpful attitude.
Some people want to defend every aspect of STO.
But how can you defend things like spelling errors? Using a spellchecker isn't exactly difficult or time-consuming. I understand that they are pushed to get things done on a schedule. But running a spellchecker will cost them an extra 10 minutes a week. While spelling errors may not be a huge issue for most people, to me, it's indicative of a lack of effort.
One of the big complaints about S7 is that it appears to be extremely light on story content. And by light, I mean that it's non-existent. I don't consider a Defera / Tholian type zone to be story content and neither do most people. They claim that creating story missions consumes too many resources and their time is better spent on other things. If they put out 1 new mission every month, people would stop harping on that issue. And believe it or not, it shouldn't be difficult to do. This has been mentioned a million times, but the Foundry is the perfect way to accomplish that. There are countless Foundry missions that are as good as or better than the official story missions. There have been numerous threads about how the Foundry could be used to create official missions. But seemingly, that possibility is ignored. I have no idea why they choose not to take advantage of such a simple possibility. It would cost them virtually nothing and in return would gain them quite a bit of legitimate content. Content that the vast majority of players have been begging/whining/asking/pleading for. Again, I understand that this decision is not made by the lower-ranking employees. And so my annoyance, at least on this issue, is not aimed at them. I imagine the idea has already been pitched and shot down by CBS for "legal reasons".
I think I was very much spoiled by (Pre-NGE) SWG...
I tried TOR for three months, I just didn't care for the mechanics of the game...
It seemed overly complicated to me...
(or perhaps my heart just wasn't in it enough, to try and figure it all out)
Granted SWG had a lot of entailed things in it also, but when I first started playing it (SWG) it didn't seem as overwhelming as TOR does.
TOR kinda just throws everything at ya at once, I guess the learning curve is a bit to much for this Old Troll.
I very much doubt I'll be trying it again, when it goes F2P.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
IMHO TOR's strongpoint was the storyline, everything at end-game was no different than what we are doing here in STO. Playing the same content over and over again, until the next grind.
To me, what both these MMOs lack is allowing players to do their own thing. In Everquest, ****, and SWG, there was a hundreds of locations you could spend time at. If Cryptic actually opened up the STO galaxy and let us go beyond the borders and go treking to the Gamma or Delta Quadrants, we would feel like our wings have been freed. Let us choose if we want to do PvP, or exploration, or Foundry.
Instead, they make simple maps, add some mega grind missions, and say "there's your content" and if you wanted more they point the way to the Foundry, which is their "content". (Basically they are shirking responsiblity).
TOR on the other hand seems so far removed from that... (to me anyway)
I kinda-sorta felt outta place while playing the game...
It just didn't 'feel' right to me.
I guess I'm too old to appreciate all the stuff that's been added to that Universe since I saw the movies the first time.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Awwww, I miss SWG.
I had more fun in that game sight seeing then playing
Wish this game had more POI places it has some, but not as much.
or Characters...I miss Picard, use some lock box money and get Stewart ...The man is all over the place using his voice, he might want extra cash.