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Random Guy says supportive stuff to Cryptic (because he can)
drazursouthclaw
Member Posts: 223 Arc User
Hi gang, Southclaw here again.
You might recognise me as 'the guy who never replies to his other posts', or 'that idiot who's trying to be funny in map chat', or 'that guy who thinks we care who is, judging by his ridiculously longwinded intro to this post.' Or not recognise me at all. Either is fine.
Lately, I've been forced by circumstance to be a casual player. While this is obviously bad in and of itself (bad for me, I'm not saying casuals are a bad thing), it's given me a different perspective on the game.
As both a casual and a hardcore (in time spent, not in skill) LTS player, I'm VERY happy with Season 7. The more content that they put in, the more I want to explore it. I really liked Nukara (farmed it to death now though
), and New Romulus is a fun area, I think.
This game (inclucing the lockboxes) is truly beginning to feel like the game I was expecting when I first signed up. I certainly wouldn't say it's been in Beta the whole time - to me, it's more like Cryptic (including whatever limits/requirements Perfect World have for them) are continually expanding the world. Including things like the interface, the doff/rep systems and the lockbox systems.
Ah, the lockboxes. I thought they spelt doom for the game. I really did. I know others still do. But coming back to them, I'm really impressed at the way that we can still access most of the things from the previous sets. I think they've struck a good balance. I just wish I'd known that was happening, I wouldn't have played Nukara to death for the top-end Tholian ship.
Also, all credit where it's due. It's about a multillion times better than any game I've ever written.
I've started watching "The Guild" web series, and there's a character (Floyd) on it who runs an MMO company. He doesn't notice any of the compliments players give him, but he reads all the hate mail. And it upsets him, because no matter what he does, he feels like he's going to be hated. So he doesn't want to make decisions, and the expansion doesn't get released (so far).
Say what you want about the Cryptic management, but from my angle it doesn't look like they're cowards. They're boldly going. I dig that.
It made me realise that I've complained more about STO than I've praised it. It's a game and a business, I get that. I already understood that. But it's also a community, and another entire universe which we have access to. We wouldn't have that if it hadn't been made. I think it's kinda cool that I can zoom around the galaxies that some design/production personnel worked on, and interact with other people. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not. But that's people for you!
Is Star Trek Online the perfect game?
No.
Because it doesn't work like that. It doesn't even make any sense, really - you can't improve on perfection, and STO is always being improved on. Boldly going, see?
So, keep up the good work Cryptic! - I want you guys to know that I feel that my STO LTS is easily the best game purchase I've made, ever. From my point of view, it's the gift that keeps on giving.
(Insert witty closing line HERE),
Southclaw
You might recognise me as 'the guy who never replies to his other posts', or 'that idiot who's trying to be funny in map chat', or 'that guy who thinks we care who is, judging by his ridiculously longwinded intro to this post.' Or not recognise me at all. Either is fine.
Lately, I've been forced by circumstance to be a casual player. While this is obviously bad in and of itself (bad for me, I'm not saying casuals are a bad thing), it's given me a different perspective on the game.
As both a casual and a hardcore (in time spent, not in skill) LTS player, I'm VERY happy with Season 7. The more content that they put in, the more I want to explore it. I really liked Nukara (farmed it to death now though
), and New Romulus is a fun area, I think.This game (inclucing the lockboxes) is truly beginning to feel like the game I was expecting when I first signed up. I certainly wouldn't say it's been in Beta the whole time - to me, it's more like Cryptic (including whatever limits/requirements Perfect World have for them) are continually expanding the world. Including things like the interface, the doff/rep systems and the lockbox systems.
Ah, the lockboxes. I thought they spelt doom for the game. I really did. I know others still do. But coming back to them, I'm really impressed at the way that we can still access most of the things from the previous sets. I think they've struck a good balance. I just wish I'd known that was happening, I wouldn't have played Nukara to death for the top-end Tholian ship.
Also, all credit where it's due. It's about a multillion times better than any game I've ever written.
I've started watching "The Guild" web series, and there's a character (Floyd) on it who runs an MMO company. He doesn't notice any of the compliments players give him, but he reads all the hate mail. And it upsets him, because no matter what he does, he feels like he's going to be hated. So he doesn't want to make decisions, and the expansion doesn't get released (so far).
Say what you want about the Cryptic management, but from my angle it doesn't look like they're cowards. They're boldly going. I dig that.
It made me realise that I've complained more about STO than I've praised it. It's a game and a business, I get that. I already understood that. But it's also a community, and another entire universe which we have access to. We wouldn't have that if it hadn't been made. I think it's kinda cool that I can zoom around the galaxies that some design/production personnel worked on, and interact with other people. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not. But that's people for you!
Is Star Trek Online the perfect game?
No.
Because it doesn't work like that. It doesn't even make any sense, really - you can't improve on perfection, and STO is always being improved on. Boldly going, see?
So, keep up the good work Cryptic! - I want you guys to know that I feel that my STO LTS is easily the best game purchase I've made, ever. From my point of view, it's the gift that keeps on giving.
(Insert witty closing line HERE),
Southclaw
Post edited by drazursouthclaw on
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Comments
Now give us more dil, Cryptic!
"Last Engage! Magical Girl Origami-san" is in print! Now with three times more rainbows.
Support the "Armored Unicorn" vehicle initiative today!
Thanks for Harajuku. Now let's get a real "Magical Girl" costume!
Cryptic seems to have too much on its plate. "Champions Online", "Star Trek", and "Neverwinter" that might be renamed "Neverfinished". They need to focus on one and make it work, then move on to the next. I am not blaming Cryptic for my stock loss either but it is not helping. They have the most potential from all the software manufactures under PWE.
Unless I see growth, I plan to pull out this Spring. I don't mean to sound like thousands of other posters on here yelling they want a big ship or a lightsaber. I invested my money and it is my own damn fault. It is nice to hear positive comments from drazursouthclaw. It would be even nicer to hear people are pleased with the game and want to play it more than any other mmo.
Wish I could say I want to play it more than any other MMO, atm though I find myself spending more and more time playing Star Wars since it went F2P.
While it seems the general community was used to Devs deliberately withholding information (like they did with the Dilithium and STF's), I had thought that maybe Cryptic had gone beyond that. With the whole fiasco it just left a bad taste so to speak in my mouth.
I'm glad that the game -seems- to be going boldly somewhere... I just don't feel like the OP does that it's all positive. The biggest things that a company with a community needs is at least when you do a major update, complete transparency so that your community can at least prepare itself for major changes. It didn't feel like we got that from my perspective.
I haven't been playing for ages, just replying to this response. I am glad that someone is fond of all the changes, just not this blue-guy as it pertains to some things.
This is the place to talk about how you feel about it, that's not derailing (in my opinion). Heaven forbid someone should disagree with me!
But don't get me wrong, it's not all peaches and cream, either. For instance, I really don't approve at all of the new dil requirements to the DOFF personnel recruitment at all. And I think that Fleet Rep stuff is unfairly skewed towards the larger guilds. I'm also a little mystified that it took this long to get a Log Out To Character Select option. And I STILL haven't forgiven Cryptic for making mines unplayable with my gaming mouse for over 2 months (twice, yet!).
I just wanted to say something nice - because I've already said the mean stuff before.
That being said, I still won't touch the lockbox system, improved as it may be. I'm not opposed to it being in the game if it generates revenue (I know one guy, and only one guy, who genuinely loves them and has made a ton on them) but I won't have anything to do with something inherently that random... possibly why I like the reputation system so much. Tangible and well defined goals work wonders for me.
All in all, I like the direction of the game and I like the dev team and their approach with us. I'd *love* to see more feature episodes, KDF content, improved crafting, and real rewards and incentives to play foundry missions but I have enough to keep me playing into the foreseeable future even if that never happens.
A lot of people said that Blizzard released a beta version of the game simply to get more cash to finish development. I kinda agree. The initial release had severe skill balance issues and many features(such as the Horadric cube, mercenaries, and sockets) were obviously unfinished. The first expansion changed that. I don't still play, but I do remember it fondly.
My character Tsin'xing
The only nice thing I can say about Cryptic is this; that I came to the game in Season 6 and despite all the stupid amounts of bugs and half finished content... oh and STF's being broke for an entire week, I was still largely thanks to the friends I made the space and ground combat engines hooked on playing the game for most of my weekends and evenings.
Despite their half assed attitude to the game I actually really enjoyed it and found things achievable even managed to start a small fleet and we were doing quite well.
Season 7 killed my enjoyment and my fleet.
- thanks.
PS. The bare-faced lies about Dilithium in STF's also killed any trust I have in the dev team and I think that's the case for a lot of people.
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Boobie sprinkles.
HOOOORAAAAAAAAY!
And good point OP, I don't own a LTS and i've only been playing since this febuary, Although i feel like i've got my moneys worth a thousand times from my ZEN purchases and Gold subscription.
This truely is a fantastic game.
although i wouldn't say no to more dilithium sources
I am not calling you disingenuous, I am just going to say it might be hard for you to tell propaganda from praise, but I can. And so can everyone else that reads your posts and sees how hard you strained to make connections and tie them to new talking points that nobody really cares about or gives credit to Cryptic for doing.
So, I don?t think I am going to provide argumentative examples to the relevance of Cryptic providing old and new loot in lock boxes (which decrease your odds of getting new stuff you want when old stuff is still there), that they are constantly updating the game (? and breaking stuff, just last Wednesday for example), or them being cowards (? maybe that is a little strong, let?s use narrow-minded, single-focused, and not forget short sighted- see previous item on breaking stuff).
No Sir, I am just not going to do it.
What I am going to say is that I agree that the producers of this game should be doing all of the points that you mentioned as part of their standard obligation to the customers of this game. And, that they should be able to create a better game than you considering this is their profession. I will also add that the things I didn?t mention above shouldn?t really happen (of course not? what would that be like?)
She said boobie sprinkles... /bow /bow "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!"
Well all I can say is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5RtlpXsl8k
Nice choice of words
New Romulus was a great addition, because it appeals to pretty much any kind of player. Combat players can try their luck against those nasty Tholian ground forces, explorers can study the planet's history and ecology, and grinders can grind those dailies to their heart's content.
My favorite thing about Mol'Rihan, though, is that it's new. It changes up the ST universe like never before. For the first time, we have a large faction of Romulans that reject the Imperial order and want to live peacefully. Much more dynamic and interesting than the usual "Gotta blow up some aliens...again." I look forward to seeing where it all leads.
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
Recently earnings expectations for the last quarter were .46 cents and PWRD underperformed these numbers and disappointed with .34 cents per share for the quarter. GAAP earnings were substantially less at .06 which is substantially less and a bit interesting because usually GAAP earnings are higher than normal.
Clearly the meltdown in the chinese market overall hurt the stock price and this had little to do with the prospects of this company. Based on traditional metrics PWRD is undervalued as are many other Chinese companies like LPH or CNTF. CNTF has $5 per share of cash on the books, no debt and is breaking even on earnings and selling for a buck and change. Its a cell phone gaming app company and shows comparable sector trends.
PWRD is by far more financially stronger than Atari. Its good for this game that they own it. But they do not seem very tolerant of games that do not make them money.
Watching the value of PWRD stock drop $35 per share after they bought Cryptic is pretty harsh and I imagine there is going to be some fallout from this happenstance.
IF you can find where Cryptic Studios is directly responsible for PWE's loss of value, then that can mean one of serveral things. The one that comes to my mind and would be that Eastern MMO tactics DO NOT work in a Western Market.
The Guild is pure awesome if you have the "geek streak" !
I too used to think that , except that the Devs (most of them anyway) have pulled back from the community .
The honesty was lost , the transparency was lost , replaced by "car dealership" retoric .
To give you a quote from G.I.Joe :
"I used to be a used car dealer, Destro! You could say that forming Cobra was a step towards honesty for me! " - Cobra Commander
And speaking about that community -- do you think that as Cryptic changed , that community has changed as well ?
If so how do you rate those changes ?
Because from the players Pov , the more BS we got , the more angry we got .
What do you think Cryptic's Pov is ?
Do you think that they think that the playerbase just got more mean , less respectful , less inclined to make "positive suggestions" -- all that happened out of the blue ?
Prior to the start of S.5 / F2P all we heard was "this is for the new players , and this too is for the new players" and so on and so on .
So ... on an emotional level , some players have gotten the message (even if it was not intentional) that Cryptic really wanted to exchange their old playerbase for a new one .
And that message , the message of "you're not important" has been hammered into us again and again and again -- be that by verbally marginalizing segments of the community , be that making decisions that clearly went against what was best to the majority .
The message that is clear for me is -- this is not the Company that produced the game that I'm playing .
THAT Company is gone ... , and it's likely never coming back .
What I see is that I'm happy that some ppl that can still feel like that toward STO .
I'm a little bit sad for myself that I can no longer see STO & Cryptic in that light .
You think I'm a shill?
Well, Cryptic had better pony up some cash because I'm sure not seeing any. Fanboi, sure. Totally. Brown nose? Not really, but I'll wear that.
But 'Shill'? Pffft. What, because I can research how words are spelt?
Do me a favour, Mr "I-Can-Tell-Propoganda-From-Praise" - do a forum search for the phrase "Random Guy" and read my other posts. Better yet, do a search for Southclaw and prepare to cover your ears. I believe I told Cryptic to "**** a shark made of broken glass.", once. Oh, wait - that was all part of my long term plan, naturally. No - it really was. And now I'm just saying exactly what I did, but now it sounds like irony. Will the madness ever end? Evil genius etc.
I really am glad that you want to use your words that you've learnt, but I am not the target you're looking for. Unless you're a troll, in which case: "Well played, you nailed it."
Excellent points. I think that Cryptic has moved away from the community, at least more than I am comfortable with. For instance, I certainly wouldn't have chosen to have put the non-combat pets in the lockboxes - I would have removed them, and replaced them with all of the combat pets.
By the same token, name me one other MMO that has Foundry Missions on the Splash page, or as part of the official dailies. I'm not saying they're not out there, I'm saying that I've never seen it. This is part of what I mean about the community.
While we're on that, I think that they should release the stats for the Lockboxes, too.
I notice that the community is a bit more vocal than I remember from just 2 months ago, people are complaining over the smallest things. You did well to point out that this was the end result of years of frustration on the behalf of the player base, because I hadn't thought about it from that angle. As I say, I've been happy with what I've gotten from the game myself. It's no Arkham City (which I DO think is the perfect game - or as close as humans have come yet - because it's a closed circuit, so it can do that), but STO is what it is. And I like what it is.
I started playing just before Season 5 (about a month before F2P) so there is some history that I wasn't privy to. The idea that 'a lot of resentment has built up over time and is now coming to a head' makes a LOT more sense to me than 'People are just being selfish'.
I think that some people are so used to being negative that there is no way that Cryptic can ever make it right. But I fully understand that Cryptic caused this. As I said, the game is hardly perfect. But I choose to look at that from the angle that I do. Doesn't mean I'm delusional (fingers crossed, anyway) it means I'm able to find something that I like about it.
Let's get something straight, and let me be clear about this:
I posted my post to make ME feel better, so I could say that I'd said some nice stuff to Cryptic.
It makes me feel good to think that one day, a Cryptic employee might look at the post and it might cheer them up, because really they're just another cog in the money making machine, just like the rest of us. Might never happen, but there it is.
I played a bit of Champions Online back in the day, and you'd often see the GMs online at random times, without being advertised. I miss that. Your final line about the company never coming back makes me a little sad, I must admit. Because I sense that I might have missed STO when it was at its most vibrant.
I hadn't seen 'disappointment' in all the negative posts/comments before - and now I can see nothing but that. Betrayal, even. I feel the same about another compay which I will not give free advertising to here - all I will say is that people should keep their promises, and people who run companies are no excepeption. Not because of 'morals' (althought I think that would be a valid reason), but because of the fallout of people feeling like they were lied to and ripped off.
I can't think of a positive note to end on right now, so...
"Boobie Sprinkles."
Shill, no. I have no doubt you are real person. But that isn?t in my post other than my acknowledging that you I don?t know/remember you. I think you might be misdirecting the statement of others in this regard.
So let?s not deflect and get back to the point, shall we.
Your problems perceiving reality from the way things are vs. where we want them to be is the argument I am making. It was the reason that I wasted my time posting in your thread. Those small illustrations of what you praise, the majority of this forum community considers standard obligations, poorly managed, or short-sighted on Cryptic?s part. Look around, you can?t miss it in almost every sub-section of this forum. Do me a favor and search that.
My vocabulary aside (including my ability to use proper English and form complete sentences), you?re the target in the sense that the rebuttals I am making are based on your comments/praise. Believe me, there isn't much else, however ironic that might seem.
No thanks are necessary.
You're delusional.
I came to this game midway through Season 6, it was fun, a little bland and the Episode mission were utter trash. But the community, mainly the STF regulars and the like really made the content at end game fun for me. I spent a fair amount of money and the future looked okay, even had designs on building a fleet.
Then Season 7 screwed everything basically. So no it's just long-term players building up aggression or that Cryptic will never be able to appease the salty old seadogs who've been here since Season 1, it's new players like me who are just as much left shaking our heads at what this Development team is doing.
You know what makes me feel good as a business owner and someone who works with the public? Real positive feedback where I know my hard work and attention to detail is being praised, not someone who feels like they need to pity me for their own reason because they feel guilty about criticizing my work too much.
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