Let's say for arguements sake the it is a Romulan faction. Which faction is it? Look at the emblem. There is a single sphere. Is that sphere a representation of the Empire's Rator, or is it a representation of New Romulus?
My guess is that it'll be New Romulus with the Tal'Shiar as the enemies. New Romulus seems to be the main focus for the Romulan Empire at the moment and having players working for it would put them on par with the other factions for working together with them in STFs and such, to do otherwise would just make players pawns of the Iconians rather than active participants in the war against them.
I doubt it'll happen that way, I can already hear people complaining that their Trill should be able to be covert if they want because it's their character. Now, choosing something like super strength should be species locked, but not something that's based on trained skills.
All reflectors to the trenches, load up the 40 mm speculation artillery...
Whatever they come up with I am sure is going to be as thoroughly prepared and well planned as season 7 was.
And that's not even a sarcastic remark because we still waiting on the ground set fix(es).
My time here they have been putting out new stuff regularly and steadily and I hardly ever crash.
It increased both in volume and intervals.
I am sure whatever it is, as per usual, I will totally disagree with mostly everything and have 1 or 2 items I like.
I don't really care if there are 10 factions or 1 faction, in the end we just farm stf anyway.
Well, I think S7 was extraordinarily well planned on certain levels and extraordinarily short sighted in others... and that Cryptic managed to kick it into good shape within a month of it going live. Personally, I think the May update is probably a bigger change on par with the changes that happened in December 2011 with the advent of the dilithium economy and F2P advance changes.
If I'm right, I think that means for a smooth rollout, they should probably look at having a Friends and Family alpha (similar to NW's, which I think many people know involved a good chunk of STO players) in March or so and which needs an open beta on Tribble for a full month, meaning they need it there by the end of April in some form to launch by the end of May.
If they do that, I think the May update (which is bound to STILL be controversial) will have a smooth rollout by the end of May. If they don't have a month of closed alpha followed by a month of Tribble testing and blogs, I expect it will be a rollout about like S7 -- highly divisive and with a month to iron the kinks out of the changes.
It needs a good month of (however buggy, NDA-backed) alpha/closed beta and a month of open beta. Whatever system changes occur may not be wholly up for discussion but the numbers and nature of implementation need to be up for discussion.
And I think they need to be prepared to make an announcement on what they're doing, in broad strokes, no later than around April 1st.
I'll add that Perfect World will have annual results in early March. Last I heard, these may well be a bit below projections. So I'd imagine PWRD will want to have a broad strokes announcement by early march.
The question is, what does remaining silent mean in this case?
With Cryptic it means next to nothing. This is the same company that flat out stated the game was not going to go Free to Play. Then instituted a forum policy to move, lock and shut down all posts about the topic of going Free to Play and issued infractions to posters who said the game would go Free to Play.
And then ... got caught by an eagle eyed poster or two who found in the parent company's shareholder meeting notes ... that the game was going Free to Play.
Only then did they comment on it and ease up on the forum crackdown on the subject.
That's just one funny story about Cryptic's odd take on marketing and promotion from the three years this game's been up and running.
Their silence could simply mean they have no cups in the kitchen. Heh. Or it could mean there's a Romulan faction in the works. There's absolutely no way to tell with these crazy cats and speculating should be rampant since it's about the only fun we could have with the topic.
B - they simply dont care about the rage. They know the teaser page is going to make people think there is going to be a Romulan faction, but they are just fine with letting people get the wrong idea only to be disappointed later. This would essentially be trolling the community.
Personally, I dont see how "B" could be the case, therefore "A" is the only logical answer. But what do you think? Do you think they would actually troll the community on this scale?
You forget about the rage they gonna get, if they gonna neglect Story Content for the 2nd Season in a row, in favor of a new faction ... after telling us both Season 7 & 8 will be heavily focussing on advancing Story ... not mentioning KDF Rage ...
So if a Romulan faction werent what they were actually planning, they could try to diffuse some of that rage before it happens by letting us know that isnt the plan. But they arent. Instead, they are remaining silent. The question is, what does remaining silent mean in this case?
nk they would actually troll the community on this scale?
Well if it's just an FE called "March under the Raptors Wings" i.E. it's kind of your own fault reading too much into a simple Wallpaper ... so why should they diffuse anything ... if Season 8 has nothing to do with Romulans at all ... it's trolling indeed :P
They released a similar Wallpaper one year ago "The 2800 Return" so I don't see how this HAS TO BE any different ... wasn't expecting a Dominion Faction either ...
If they really really want to give us Romulans in May on the other hand, it still might be the best move to say nothing, because if they fail to deliver (wouldn't be the first time) ... they still could cheat the gallows be saying "Well ... that was just a Wallpaper"
It's not like they officially announced playable Romulans ... like announcing Revolutionary Story Content for Season 7, 10 FE's per year in 2010 etc etc etc .... and then were unable to deliver ... so I'm not sure how this would be the biggest rage ever ... they already broke their "promise" like 20 times, and now they didn't even "promise" anything ... it's just a Wallpaper ..
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
With Cryptic it means next to nothing. This is the same company that flat out stated the game was not going to go Free to Play. Then instituted a forum policy to move, lock and shut down all posts about the topic of going Free to Play and issued infractions to posters who said the game would go Free to Play.
And then ... got caught by an eagle eyed poster or two who found in the parent company's shareholder meeting notes ... that the game was going Free to Play.
Only then did they comment on it and ease up on the forum crackdown on the subject.
That's just one funny story about Cryptic's odd take on marketing and promotion from the three years this game's been up and running.
Their silence could simply mean they have no cups in the kitchen. Heh. Or it could mean there's a Romulan faction in the works. There's absolutely no way to tell with these crazy cats and speculating should be rampant since it's about the only fun we could have with the topic.
Well, I get in trouble when I start talking organizational culture critiques from the outside but here's my take:
Cryptic is and always has been a studio. Their marketing gets handled on the outside, via the publisher. First NCSoft. Then Atari. Finally PWE. The one exception was during the brief phase when they left NCSoft but hadn't yet been bought by Atari and they had no live games at that point.
As such, their marketing culture tends to be external. Tacked on. Used as a sales tool. Which is a very 1960s approach to marketing and which nowadays is the domain of businesses a lot smaller than Cryptic's.
In fact, the big reason they're still "small" boils down to the fact that their field is so technical and their location is so expensive, which causes them to spend heavily on labor and have much less infrastructure than non-gaming companies with their audience/revenue size. I'd going to toss out the idea that Cryptic is as big as the direct market publishing wing of Marvel or DC Comics and has a larger core audience than either one. However, creators at Marvel or DC work from home, live in cheaper areas, have less technical overhead, and often make a quarter what a game developer makes.
But back on point: Cryptic's marketing is external. It's a sales tool. This runs contrary to how many modern entertainment companies operate.
They have a CEO, a CFO, a CCO (Chief Creative Officer), and a CTO (Chief Technical Officer).
Notice anything missing, business students out there?
A CMO. Chief Marketing Officer.
Virtually all of Cryptic's engagement and marketing external and utilized as a sales tool.
An integrated marketing approach would call for marketing to be an internal department that is active in the design process.
Here's what I would see a marketing specialist doing that I don't see getting done:
- Clarifying terminology and usability of systems and features.
- Running organized focus groups and analyzing the community. (This gets split between Bran and the Devs' individual areas or personal time projects)
- Having a seat in design meetings to promote engagement and make sure a system is marketable from the ground up rather than simply selling somebody else's idea. (There's nobody as far as I know who wears this hat in a dedicated capacity. Stahl and others may consider it but the problem is that they -- naturally -- have competing agendas as producers and officers. Effectively, if the EP, CTO, Systems Lead, etc. all compromise on an issue, it's likely to be an issue that compromises marketing and engagement because there's no one there speaking on behalf of that, on site, fulltime.)
- Using those studies and current marketing research from the outside to influence design. There is a ton of contemporary literature on marketing, sociology, and psychology. Stahl and Rivera may be well read but I doubt they have time to concentrate on this.
- Handling product transitions. A big problem with Cryptic is that when they devise a better system, they implement it. I think that's a bad approach. Things often need to be implemented in phases. (Somebody here is probably aware of the New Coke conspiracy theory.) Players need to be buffered with not just sales oriented but service oriented communication. Expectations need to be managed. In some cases, I think the marketing guy would probably have to say, "Okay. You implement this system. Great. But here are appropriate ways to compensate players for the changes. I've done research on MMO patch transitions and discovered that these principles apply to maintaining satisfaction in rollouts..." Effectively, where retroactive compensation is warranted, where respecs are warranted, how to effectively manage free promotions.
- Enhancing customer service interactions. In some ways, this could be as simple as adding DO NOT REPLY form letters to bug and GM tickets and designing a service model.
Cryptic operates from a production firm model. But you can't outsource service and marketing to another department. You need at least some marketing with its fingers in everything.
My advice would be to have a CMO for the company, an Associate Marketing Producer for each title who sits in on design meetings, and to have them perform these tasks with an emphasis on marketing R&D, service experience, and engagement. They would interface with the sales and outreach folks like h2orat and Branflakes over at PWE as well, probably weekly or bi-monthly.
It doesn't need to be a tremendously high paid position at the producer level (and could probably be paid less than staff designers) but it does need to be a position with some veto power if the marketing associates can sway the CMO.
Basically, the PWE Marketing folks do their job, which is to sell and collect feedback on the product.
But I think Cryptic needs internal marketing to make sure the product being designed is the optimal product to sell (whether the "product" in this case costs money or not) and that the product is handled in a way that doesn't turn people off from buying.
2 ships and a Mission in over a year. And the two ships were the anniversary ships...
Of course you knew what I was going to say before I said it.
Really, I could have sworn that they added an entire sector block, 2 ground mission zones that make the Defera Invasion look like a closet and several missions on said zones and in said sector block.
I like how every post about Romulan content has people assuming that if they are working on Romulans then they cant be working on KDF.
It makes more sense that all the new Devs they hired are working on both at the same time.
They said they are overhauling the faction system. This leads me to think there is a faction team separate from adding missions for KDF.
If you are going to complete the KDF faction and standardize it to match the FED side. Then all that is left to do when adding new factions is missions skinned in said factions flavor. So you have a Missions team and a Factions team. Magically they can do both KDF and Roms at the same time.
This also makes sense as to why KDF took so long to be brought up to speed. They didn't have the teams for it and until the overhaul on how factions work. The couldn't complete the KDF. Now that the ground work is laid down. Adding new factions is a snap (relatively;)).
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] Help rebuild the Romulan Star Empire to glory. Click the banner to join today.
B - they simply dont care about the rage. They know the teaser page is going to make people think there is going to be a Romulan faction, but they are just fine with letting people get the wrong idea only to be disappointed later. This would essentially be trolling the community.
No, they care about it, or at least they think that giving the right answers at the right moment will disarm the bomb. Because there is no Romulan faction for season 8. They gave enough hints on what season 8 will be right after the release of season 7 to be absolutely sure about that.
Well i think it's pretty silly to expect MORE from Cryptic than what they already announced for Season 8 .... last time i checked we got LESS for 7 Seasons now ...
So even if they're gonna announce a Romulan Faction for Season 8 (which they didn't) all you'll probably get in the end is a Reman Lockbox ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
. Because there is no Romulan faction for season 8. They gave enough hints on what season 8 will be right after the release of season 7 to be absolutely sure about that.
It's not trolling, it's marketing.
Except there is no longer any 'Season 8' what probably happened is PWE told them to take whatever they were doing for what was supposed to be 'Season 8 and Season 9' and combine them into some giant 'Expansion' like Dstahl is saying and release it at once and then go back to seasons. Why? Probably because of all the complaints about there not being any new content on the forums.
You might wanna compare Stuff Dstahl said for the last three years and what really happened ... just wondering why Dstal didn't declare World Peace by now ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
There will be NO Season 8 At This Time..., according to Dsthal.
There's going to be something Wonderful and Large released, which will be added to the game come May.
But, it's so Marvelously, Overwhelmingly, Indescribable, that for us to comprehend it, we'll just have to wait and see it.
...or something like that...
:P
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
You might wanna compare Stuff Dstahl said for the last three years and what really happened ... just wondering why Dstal didn't declare World Peace by now ...
Sure, it could very well turn out to be just smoke and mirrors. Though, they've never gone out and done some big thing like this 'March Under' website teaser for any of the other seasons before that I know of. Whatever they're doing, they're putting a lot up. If they don't deliver, then it's on their heads.
Sure, it could very well turn out to be just smoke and mirrors. Though, they've never gone out and done some big thing like this 'March Under' website teaser for any of the other seasons before that I know of. Whatever they're doing, they're putting a lot up..
They did ... one year ago ... 2800 Return Wallpaper (which was just an FE not even a Season) ... pretty much the same ...
Wouldn't be the first time ... except this time they didn't even promise anything ... it's just a Wallpaper ... there is absolutly NO word on Romulan Faction ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
They did ... one year ago ... 2800 Return Wallpaper ... pretty much the same ...
Wouldn't be the first time ... except this time they didn't even promise anything ... it's just a Wallpaper ... there is absolutly NO word on Romulan Faction ...
People are just assuming it's a Romulan faction. It could just be a bunch of STFs or missions where you're put in command of a Romulan vessel or part of one much like Riker was on a Klingon ship in one episode of TNG.
We'll known in a couple months, either one group or the other will be proven 'right' and then the fallout will begin. Since there will be fallout either way.
Except there is no longer any 'Season 8' what probably happened is PWE told them to take whatever they were doing for what was supposed to be 'Season 8 and Season 9' and combine them into some giant 'Expansion' like Dstahl is saying and release it at once and then go back to seasons. Why? Probably because of all the complaints about there not being any new content on the forums.
Due to the forums? No.
But due to Neverwinter's planned release? Maybe.
I can see where the rationale might be to stir up talk about Cryptic/PWE in a positive way before Neverwinter launches.
They don't want people going into NW saying, "Look at how Cryptic manages their games! Unfinished features years later! Lack of polish in the UI!"
So they throw gobs of resources at STO to revamp the game.
Additionally, I'd bet the EVEN BIGGER motive of that decision is to try to make STO converts out of new NW players.
So they have to clean up the house for the new arrivals.
And I think that is where some of the Klingon stuff may be controversial. Because I think the changes made will be designed to make new players excited about playing Klingons or Romulans, not necessarily what the old people want.
And I'll predict that the changes will benefit KDF population numbers and satisfaction level but that it may also prompt existing KDF players to quit and post a lot of "This is the last straw!" threads. Because I sincerely believe they'll finish the KDF but it won't be what was discussed or offered two years ago and that anyone clinging on to that can expect to have a seizure.
Which is why I think Cryptic needs to start breaking some of the news. You don't announce to your kid that he's getting a little brother instead of the bike he wanted at Thanksgiving Dinner in front of everyone else.
And I think that is where some of the Klingon stuff may be controversial. Because I think the changes made will be designed to make new players excited about playing Klingons or Romulans, not necessarily what the old people want.
And I'll predict that the changes will benefit KDF population numbers and satisfaction level but that it may also prompt existing KDF players to quit and post a lot of "This is the last straw!" threads. Because I sincerely believe they'll finish the KDF but it won't be what was discussed or offered two years ago and that anyone clinging on to that can expect to have a seizure.
That's certainly possible. Didn't they say at one point it'd take a couple years of work to get the Klingons even on par with where the Federation was at opening? Unless there's been mind-boggling amounts of work done in the background on them in addition to whatever is going into this Romulan thing, whatever it might be, I doubt they're going to have them up to snuff in two months.
I'm not sure what other changes they could make, though, aside from some kind of pointless 'filler' like New Romulus to fill in the gaps with grind missions instead of actual story content. Which, as you mentioned, isn't what most Klingon players would want.
Additionally, I'd bet the EVEN BIGGER motive of that decision is to try to make STO converts out of new NW players.
So they have to clean up the house for the new arrivals.
And I think that is where some of the Klingon stuff may be controversial. Because I think the changes made will be designed to make new players excited about playing Klingons or Romulans, not necessarily what the old people want.
And I'll predict that the changes will benefit KDF population numbers and satisfaction level but that it may also prompt existing KDF players to quit and post a lot of "This is the last straw!" threads. Because I sincerely believe they'll finish the KDF but it won't be what was discussed or offered two years ago and that anyone clinging on to that can expect to have a seizure.
Which is why I think Cryptic needs to start breaking some of the news. You don't announce to your kid that he's getting a little brother instead of the bike he wanted at Thanksgiving Dinner in front of everyone else.
More interesting speculation, and it is a possibility. I suspect we won't get any significant information this month on what's going on though.
We'll known in a couple months, either one group or the other will be proven 'right' and then the fallout will begin. Since there will be fallout either way.
Just hard to imagine Cryptic is gonna pull some hidden, unannounced Content out of their Magic Hat ... just remembering what they told us about Season 4 ... 90% of what Season 4 was supposed to be was released in Season 5 ... just like Season 7 was supposed to be big on Story Content and the Return of Sela ...
There won't be a fallout either way, though ... because if they're gonna release Content beyond what to be expected ... for the first time ... i'm probaly gonna build a Cryptic Shrine ... just don't wanna be disappointed for the 8th time ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
That's certainly possible. Didn't they say at one point it'd take a couple years of work to get the Klingons even on par with where the Federation was at opening? Unless there's been mind-boggling amounts of work done in the background on them in addition to whatever is going into this Romulan thing, whatever it might be, I doubt they're going to have them up to snuff in two months.
I'm not sure what other changes they could make, though, aside from some kind of pointless 'filler' like New Romulus to fill in the gaps with grind missions instead of actual story content. Which, as you mentioned, isn't what most Klingon players would want.
Two solutions:
Faction Merge.
OR
All content is made faction agnostic. All missions are reassigned to be given by third parties. The nature of a faction is redefined more narrowly as "What ships you can fly, what costumes you can wear, and what thematic bonus dialogue options you get."
So... Rip Starfleet out of the existing missions or rip Klingons out of being their own faction.
I don't see a faction merger as the more profitable route. But I DO think removing most references to Starfleet in the existing content and doing up a Klingon tutorial while giving KDF access to current missions is viable. And the option that will allow for more factions.
IF... You define a faction as having 5 or so unique missions (and access to all the fronts, tweaked to no longer refer to your faction or be assigned as "orders"), unique ships, unique costumes, and some occasional thematic dialogue choices. Factions as a "species plus" approach.
It won't fill ravenous hunger for distinct content but it will fill the rosters of factions.
In response to several questions here, we (our fleet) interviwed Branflakes about Season 8 and Fleet Involvement, and got some interesting answer's along with the usual we cant go into deep deatils...
Couldn't they introduce the Romulans AND add to the KDF at the same time?
What I mean is this,
What if they introduced the third faction, the tal Shiar, then start a story arc involving a new conflict between the "bad" Romulans and the KDF ? Throw in a few missions the Feds can share and you'd have a HUGE expansion (paid ?) on the game.
Kill several birds with one stone, content for the KDF to help round them out, content for the new playable Romulans mini faction expansion, (pay to play a Romulan ?).
I just have a feeling that doubling their staff as they said they have, will bring us some big surprises.
Dstahl did say that may's update was "Too big to be called a season" He mentioned this the other day during the Q&A session on tribble.
He's also said that the now defunct season 8 would be all about stories and would advance the game's overall story.
TBH, we've NEVER seen Cryptic as staffed up as they are at the moment. If there were a time to over deliver, now would be it.
I just have a feeling they are going to blow our minds come this May.
1 - Faction "merge" is not going to happen . What would they do with all the Fleets, Starbases and so on???
2 - your previously proposed faction irrelevant content transformation is very probable.
3 - i have very mixed feelings when i hear DStahl talking about "putting factions in the right place" and such..
My personal bet would be - a faction has:
- own HQ and academy
- own tutorial and some 3 introduction missions (1FE)
- own ships and races
- own costumes (perhaps they will finally free some fed costumes for all factions)
- Fleets and holdings
- DOFF's and DOFF assignments
- Fleet Marks events only allow grouping with the own faction
what the factions will share:
- lvling and daily missions
- foundry missions
- reputations
- all of the PVE and PVP endgame content with the possibility of cross-faction teaming
- all new FE's which are to come will be shared too
This does one thing - it gives BOTH existing factions a big amount of content to play through and creates a very nice amount of playable content for every new faction to come.
i also think they will introduce a "switch faction" token some time after the new faction comes. it will be very expensive as it will involve retrait and race change. You will not loose any reputation and stuff as these things will be shared, along with the accolades.
My next bet is they will cut timers on Fleet projects to 1/2 or less for the new faction, so that people have the chance to be competitive. The prize and amounts of materials will stay as is. This will bring them massive amounts of hard earned cash.
It's tricky to judge all this at this point. Past statements certainly suggest against a Romulan faction, but something is different about how they're acting since the teaser.
The next Ask Cryptic will be critical in unraveling this mystery. Phrase your questions wisely when it comes.
Let be honest and look at things objectively. Dstahl has said repeatedly they want to complete the KDF before adding any new factions. Discounting that statement for a moment, let look at what would be required for a true 3rd faction. They would have to add tech to the engine to allow that sort of thing. Next they would have add dupilcated to the faction specifc fleet actions. Next they would have to revamp all of the cross faction content. In addition to that they would creating a new tutorial and enough PvE content to take a new faction to level 50. That sounds like a mega-update like Season 8 is purported to be. But they would leave the KDF in the lurch and no new content for the rest of the players.
So I really don't thing that a new Romulan faction is coming. Now back to Dstahl's repeated statements about now creating a new faction until the KDF is complete, and his statements about personally pushing for a complete KDF inside of the company. So what I think mega-update of Season 8 (which will be going back to regular Updates for a while) will be is the completion of the KDF. They have the added personal to do this. Now lets look at what they need for this.
1) Tutorial - This will carry a KDF character to level 4 or 5.
2) Level 5-20 Content (assuming that currnet content levels don't change)
What would be good for these levels? Well the equivalent Fed levels are dealing with the KDF. A lot of content can be created telling the KDF side of things.
a) Tracing an evidence trail of Undine infiltrators which leads an a high ranking Federation Ambassaor. And then leading to a hidden KDF listneing output which your have to fortify incase teh Feds come calling.
b) Then getting involved with B'Vat and helping him in his plots. Trying to kidnap the Kuvah'Mag from a peace conference. Tracking a supposed traitor down to a trading station. Find the hidding place of the second Doomday Machine and bringing it back to KDF space. Getting involved with a new weapons development program. Dealing with a gene agumentation program be B'Vat's pet mad scientiists Amar Singh.
c) Kidnapping the Miral Paris successfully this time. Taking her back into time to have the shameful era of ridgeless Klingons undone.
d) Taming and discovering the secrets of controlling the Doomsday Machine.
All lots of other good stuff.
3) My musing are tapped out at this point. But we need enough upper level content to get a KDF player over the humps in the 20+ level content. It need to be KDF specific content. Preferably some inside of KDF space and others in the various other fronts (i.e Romulan, Carsassian, etc).
Edit: And as to the Raptor's Wings. I'm guessing it's a Romulan based Featured Episode with the epic awesomness was are accustom to. Since DShathl has said that Denise Crosby will be returning to Cryptic for more (I assume) voice over work. It can only be centered around the fate and return of Sela (and maybe, hopefully, the history of Sela and her mother as well).
Comments
My guess is that it'll be New Romulus with the Tal'Shiar as the enemies. New Romulus seems to be the main focus for the Romulan Empire at the moment and having players working for it would put them on par with the other factions for working together with them in STFs and such, to do otherwise would just make players pawns of the Iconians rather than active participants in the war against them.
2 ships and a Mission in over a year. And the two ships were the anniversary ships...
Of course you knew what I was going to say before I said it.
Trill can't currently be Covert.
Whatever they come up with I am sure is going to be as thoroughly prepared and well planned as season 7 was.
And that's not even a sarcastic remark because we still waiting on the ground set fix(es).
My time here they have been putting out new stuff regularly and steadily and I hardly ever crash.
It increased both in volume and intervals.
I am sure whatever it is, as per usual, I will totally disagree with mostly everything and have 1 or 2 items I like.
I don't really care if there are 10 factions or 1 faction, in the end we just farm stf anyway.
Well, I think S7 was extraordinarily well planned on certain levels and extraordinarily short sighted in others... and that Cryptic managed to kick it into good shape within a month of it going live. Personally, I think the May update is probably a bigger change on par with the changes that happened in December 2011 with the advent of the dilithium economy and F2P advance changes.
If I'm right, I think that means for a smooth rollout, they should probably look at having a Friends and Family alpha (similar to NW's, which I think many people know involved a good chunk of STO players) in March or so and which needs an open beta on Tribble for a full month, meaning they need it there by the end of April in some form to launch by the end of May.
If they do that, I think the May update (which is bound to STILL be controversial) will have a smooth rollout by the end of May. If they don't have a month of closed alpha followed by a month of Tribble testing and blogs, I expect it will be a rollout about like S7 -- highly divisive and with a month to iron the kinks out of the changes.
It needs a good month of (however buggy, NDA-backed) alpha/closed beta and a month of open beta. Whatever system changes occur may not be wholly up for discussion but the numbers and nature of implementation need to be up for discussion.
And I think they need to be prepared to make an announcement on what they're doing, in broad strokes, no later than around April 1st.
With Cryptic it means next to nothing. This is the same company that flat out stated the game was not going to go Free to Play. Then instituted a forum policy to move, lock and shut down all posts about the topic of going Free to Play and issued infractions to posters who said the game would go Free to Play.
And then ... got caught by an eagle eyed poster or two who found in the parent company's shareholder meeting notes ... that the game was going Free to Play.
Only then did they comment on it and ease up on the forum crackdown on the subject.
That's just one funny story about Cryptic's odd take on marketing and promotion from the three years this game's been up and running.
Their silence could simply mean they have no cups in the kitchen. Heh. Or it could mean there's a Romulan faction in the works. There's absolutely no way to tell with these crazy cats and speculating should be rampant since it's about the only fun we could have with the topic.
You forget about the rage they gonna get, if they gonna neglect Story Content for the 2nd Season in a row, in favor of a new faction ... after telling us both Season 7 & 8 will be heavily focussing on advancing Story ... not mentioning KDF Rage ...
Well if it's just an FE called "March under the Raptors Wings" i.E. it's kind of your own fault reading too much into a simple Wallpaper ... so why should they diffuse anything ... if Season 8 has nothing to do with Romulans at all ... it's trolling indeed :P
They released a similar Wallpaper one year ago "The 2800 Return" so I don't see how this HAS TO BE any different ... wasn't expecting a Dominion Faction either ...
If they really really want to give us Romulans in May on the other hand, it still might be the best move to say nothing, because if they fail to deliver (wouldn't be the first time) ... they still could cheat the gallows be saying "Well ... that was just a Wallpaper"
It's not like they officially announced playable Romulans ... like announcing Revolutionary Story Content for Season 7, 10 FE's per year in 2010 etc etc etc .... and then were unable to deliver ... so I'm not sure how this would be the biggest rage ever ... they already broke their "promise" like 20 times, and now they didn't even "promise" anything ... it's just a Wallpaper ..
Well, I get in trouble when I start talking organizational culture critiques from the outside but here's my take:
Cryptic is and always has been a studio. Their marketing gets handled on the outside, via the publisher. First NCSoft. Then Atari. Finally PWE. The one exception was during the brief phase when they left NCSoft but hadn't yet been bought by Atari and they had no live games at that point.
As such, their marketing culture tends to be external. Tacked on. Used as a sales tool. Which is a very 1960s approach to marketing and which nowadays is the domain of businesses a lot smaller than Cryptic's.
In fact, the big reason they're still "small" boils down to the fact that their field is so technical and their location is so expensive, which causes them to spend heavily on labor and have much less infrastructure than non-gaming companies with their audience/revenue size. I'd going to toss out the idea that Cryptic is as big as the direct market publishing wing of Marvel or DC Comics and has a larger core audience than either one. However, creators at Marvel or DC work from home, live in cheaper areas, have less technical overhead, and often make a quarter what a game developer makes.
But back on point: Cryptic's marketing is external. It's a sales tool. This runs contrary to how many modern entertainment companies operate.
They have a CEO, a CFO, a CCO (Chief Creative Officer), and a CTO (Chief Technical Officer).
Notice anything missing, business students out there?
A CMO. Chief Marketing Officer.
Virtually all of Cryptic's engagement and marketing external and utilized as a sales tool.
An integrated marketing approach would call for marketing to be an internal department that is active in the design process.
Here's what I would see a marketing specialist doing that I don't see getting done:
- Clarifying terminology and usability of systems and features.
- Running organized focus groups and analyzing the community. (This gets split between Bran and the Devs' individual areas or personal time projects)
- Having a seat in design meetings to promote engagement and make sure a system is marketable from the ground up rather than simply selling somebody else's idea. (There's nobody as far as I know who wears this hat in a dedicated capacity. Stahl and others may consider it but the problem is that they -- naturally -- have competing agendas as producers and officers. Effectively, if the EP, CTO, Systems Lead, etc. all compromise on an issue, it's likely to be an issue that compromises marketing and engagement because there's no one there speaking on behalf of that, on site, fulltime.)
- Using those studies and current marketing research from the outside to influence design. There is a ton of contemporary literature on marketing, sociology, and psychology. Stahl and Rivera may be well read but I doubt they have time to concentrate on this.
- Handling product transitions. A big problem with Cryptic is that when they devise a better system, they implement it. I think that's a bad approach. Things often need to be implemented in phases. (Somebody here is probably aware of the New Coke conspiracy theory.) Players need to be buffered with not just sales oriented but service oriented communication. Expectations need to be managed. In some cases, I think the marketing guy would probably have to say, "Okay. You implement this system. Great. But here are appropriate ways to compensate players for the changes. I've done research on MMO patch transitions and discovered that these principles apply to maintaining satisfaction in rollouts..." Effectively, where retroactive compensation is warranted, where respecs are warranted, how to effectively manage free promotions.
- Enhancing customer service interactions. In some ways, this could be as simple as adding DO NOT REPLY form letters to bug and GM tickets and designing a service model.
Cryptic operates from a production firm model. But you can't outsource service and marketing to another department. You need at least some marketing with its fingers in everything.
My advice would be to have a CMO for the company, an Associate Marketing Producer for each title who sits in on design meetings, and to have them perform these tasks with an emphasis on marketing R&D, service experience, and engagement. They would interface with the sales and outreach folks like h2orat and Branflakes over at PWE as well, probably weekly or bi-monthly.
It doesn't need to be a tremendously high paid position at the producer level (and could probably be paid less than staff designers) but it does need to be a position with some veto power if the marketing associates can sway the CMO.
But I think Cryptic needs internal marketing to make sure the product being designed is the optimal product to sell (whether the "product" in this case costs money or not) and that the product is handled in a way that doesn't turn people off from buying.
Really, I could have sworn that they added an entire sector block, 2 ground mission zones that make the Defera Invasion look like a closet and several missions on said zones and in said sector block.
It makes more sense that all the new Devs they hired are working on both at the same time.
They said they are overhauling the faction system. This leads me to think there is a faction team separate from adding missions for KDF.
If you are going to complete the KDF faction and standardize it to match the FED side. Then all that is left to do when adding new factions is missions skinned in said factions flavor. So you have a Missions team and a Factions team. Magically they can do both KDF and Roms at the same time.
This also makes sense as to why KDF took so long to be brought up to speed. They didn't have the teams for it and until the overhaul on how factions work. The couldn't complete the KDF. Now that the ground work is laid down. Adding new factions is a snap (relatively;)).
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No, they care about it, or at least they think that giving the right answers at the right moment will disarm the bomb. Because there is no Romulan faction for season 8. They gave enough hints on what season 8 will be right after the release of season 7 to be absolutely sure about that.
It's not trolling, it's marketing.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
So even if they're gonna announce a Romulan Faction for Season 8 (which they didn't) all you'll probably get in the end is a Reman Lockbox ...
Except there is no longer any 'Season 8' what probably happened is PWE told them to take whatever they were doing for what was supposed to be 'Season 8 and Season 9' and combine them into some giant 'Expansion' like Dstahl is saying and release it at once and then go back to seasons. Why? Probably because of all the complaints about there not being any new content on the forums.
You might wanna compare Stuff Dstahl said for the last three years and what really happened ... just wondering why Dstal didn't declare World Peace by now ...
There's going to be something Wonderful and Large released, which will be added to the game come May.
But, it's so Marvelously, Overwhelmingly, Indescribable, that for us to comprehend it, we'll just have to wait and see it.
...or something like that...
:P
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Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Sure, it could very well turn out to be just smoke and mirrors. Though, they've never gone out and done some big thing like this 'March Under' website teaser for any of the other seasons before that I know of. Whatever they're doing, they're putting a lot up. If they don't deliver, then it's on their heads.
They did ... one year ago ... 2800 Return Wallpaper (which was just an FE not even a Season) ... pretty much the same ...
Wouldn't be the first time ... except this time they didn't even promise anything ... it's just a Wallpaper ... there is absolutly NO word on Romulan Faction ...
People are just assuming it's a Romulan faction. It could just be a bunch of STFs or missions where you're put in command of a Romulan vessel or part of one much like Riker was on a Klingon ship in one episode of TNG.
We'll known in a couple months, either one group or the other will be proven 'right' and then the fallout will begin. Since there will be fallout either way.
Due to the forums? No.
But due to Neverwinter's planned release? Maybe.
I can see where the rationale might be to stir up talk about Cryptic/PWE in a positive way before Neverwinter launches.
They don't want people going into NW saying, "Look at how Cryptic manages their games! Unfinished features years later! Lack of polish in the UI!"
So they throw gobs of resources at STO to revamp the game.
Hence UI/character creation/species/faction overhauls.
Additionally, I'd bet the EVEN BIGGER motive of that decision is to try to make STO converts out of new NW players.
So they have to clean up the house for the new arrivals.
And I think that is where some of the Klingon stuff may be controversial. Because I think the changes made will be designed to make new players excited about playing Klingons or Romulans, not necessarily what the old people want.
And I'll predict that the changes will benefit KDF population numbers and satisfaction level but that it may also prompt existing KDF players to quit and post a lot of "This is the last straw!" threads. Because I sincerely believe they'll finish the KDF but it won't be what was discussed or offered two years ago and that anyone clinging on to that can expect to have a seizure.
Which is why I think Cryptic needs to start breaking some of the news. You don't announce to your kid that he's getting a little brother instead of the bike he wanted at Thanksgiving Dinner in front of everyone else.
That's certainly possible. Didn't they say at one point it'd take a couple years of work to get the Klingons even on par with where the Federation was at opening? Unless there's been mind-boggling amounts of work done in the background on them in addition to whatever is going into this Romulan thing, whatever it might be, I doubt they're going to have them up to snuff in two months.
I'm not sure what other changes they could make, though, aside from some kind of pointless 'filler' like New Romulus to fill in the gaps with grind missions instead of actual story content. Which, as you mentioned, isn't what most Klingon players would want.
More interesting speculation, and it is a possibility. I suspect we won't get any significant information this month on what's going on though.
Just hard to imagine Cryptic is gonna pull some hidden, unannounced Content out of their Magic Hat ... just remembering what they told us about Season 4 ... 90% of what Season 4 was supposed to be was released in Season 5 ... just like Season 7 was supposed to be big on Story Content and the Return of Sela ...
There won't be a fallout either way, though ... because if they're gonna release Content beyond what to be expected ... for the first time ... i'm probaly gonna build a Cryptic Shrine ... just don't wanna be disappointed for the 8th time ...
Two solutions:
Faction Merge.
OR
All content is made faction agnostic. All missions are reassigned to be given by third parties. The nature of a faction is redefined more narrowly as "What ships you can fly, what costumes you can wear, and what thematic bonus dialogue options you get."
So... Rip Starfleet out of the existing missions or rip Klingons out of being their own faction.
I don't see a faction merger as the more profitable route. But I DO think removing most references to Starfleet in the existing content and doing up a Klingon tutorial while giving KDF access to current missions is viable. And the option that will allow for more factions.
IF... You define a faction as having 5 or so unique missions (and access to all the fronts, tweaked to no longer refer to your faction or be assigned as "orders"), unique ships, unique costumes, and some occasional thematic dialogue choices. Factions as a "species plus" approach.
It won't fill ravenous hunger for distinct content but it will fill the rosters of factions.
Full interview + Forum link Here:
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=531361&highlight=access+denied
What I mean is this,
What if they introduced the third faction, the tal Shiar, then start a story arc involving a new conflict between the "bad" Romulans and the KDF ? Throw in a few missions the Feds can share and you'd have a HUGE expansion (paid ?) on the game.
Kill several birds with one stone, content for the KDF to help round them out, content for the new playable Romulans mini faction expansion, (pay to play a Romulan ?).
I just have a feeling that doubling their staff as they said they have, will bring us some big surprises.
Dstahl did say that may's update was "Too big to be called a season" He mentioned this the other day during the Q&A session on tribble.
He's also said that the now defunct season 8 would be all about stories and would advance the game's overall story.
TBH, we've NEVER seen Cryptic as staffed up as they are at the moment. If there were a time to over deliver, now would be it.
I just have a feeling they are going to blow our minds come this May.
2 - your previously proposed faction irrelevant content transformation is very probable.
3 - i have very mixed feelings when i hear DStahl talking about "putting factions in the right place" and such..
My personal bet would be - a faction has:
- own HQ and academy
- own tutorial and some 3 introduction missions (1FE)
- own ships and races
- own costumes (perhaps they will finally free some fed costumes for all factions)
- Fleets and holdings
- DOFF's and DOFF assignments
- Fleet Marks events only allow grouping with the own faction
what the factions will share:
- lvling and daily missions
- foundry missions
- reputations
- all of the PVE and PVP endgame content with the possibility of cross-faction teaming
- all new FE's which are to come will be shared too
This does one thing - it gives BOTH existing factions a big amount of content to play through and creates a very nice amount of playable content for every new faction to come.
i also think they will introduce a "switch faction" token some time after the new faction comes. it will be very expensive as it will involve retrait and race change. You will not loose any reputation and stuff as these things will be shared, along with the accolades.
My next bet is they will cut timers on Fleet projects to 1/2 or less for the new faction, so that people have the chance to be competitive. The prize and amounts of materials will stay as is. This will bring them massive amounts of hard earned cash.
The next Ask Cryptic will be critical in unraveling this mystery. Phrase your questions wisely when it comes.
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So I really don't thing that a new Romulan faction is coming. Now back to Dstahl's repeated statements about now creating a new faction until the KDF is complete, and his statements about personally pushing for a complete KDF inside of the company. So what I think mega-update of Season 8 (which will be going back to regular Updates for a while) will be is the completion of the KDF. They have the added personal to do this. Now lets look at what they need for this.
1) Tutorial - This will carry a KDF character to level 4 or 5.
2) Level 5-20 Content (assuming that currnet content levels don't change)
What would be good for these levels? Well the equivalent Fed levels are dealing with the KDF. A lot of content can be created telling the KDF side of things.
a) Tracing an evidence trail of Undine infiltrators which leads an a high ranking Federation Ambassaor. And then leading to a hidden KDF listneing output which your have to fortify incase teh Feds come calling.
b) Then getting involved with B'Vat and helping him in his plots. Trying to kidnap the Kuvah'Mag from a peace conference. Tracking a supposed traitor down to a trading station. Find the hidding place of the second Doomday Machine and bringing it back to KDF space. Getting involved with a new weapons development program. Dealing with a gene agumentation program be B'Vat's pet mad scientiists Amar Singh.
c) Kidnapping the Miral Paris successfully this time. Taking her back into time to have the shameful era of ridgeless Klingons undone.
d) Taming and discovering the secrets of controlling the Doomsday Machine.
All lots of other good stuff.
3) My musing are tapped out at this point. But we need enough upper level content to get a KDF player over the humps in the 20+ level content. It need to be KDF specific content. Preferably some inside of KDF space and others in the various other fronts (i.e Romulan, Carsassian, etc).
Edit: And as to the Raptor's Wings. I'm guessing it's a Romulan based Featured Episode with the epic awesomness was are accustom to. Since DShathl has said that Denise Crosby will be returning to Cryptic for more (I assume) voice over work. It can only be centered around the fate and return of Sela (and maybe, hopefully, the history of Sela and her mother as well).