I think the game suffers from a lack of sustained depth at end game levels. Now I am concerned the Rommies will be a distraction, but then again maybe it would be easier to make new game play once you establish all the groups of actors, instead of trying to go back and insert them into a bunch more established content.
Thing is new ships, new races, new events, new grinds are not going to keep this game going. At some point more sophistication is required. But I don't think it is dying or on a decline. Granted it is closer to its eventual demise, all good things must end, but I consider dying to mean some kind of active and rapid decay toward that demise.
PvE Jem'Hadar motto:Participation Ribbonsare life.
OK, So many wrong assumptions going on here. Lets break them down one by one.
1) The Game exist for my enjoyment. If I am not enjoying it, the game fails Wrong. Star Trek Online's first directive is to make money, as is the first directive of any business. You can make a wicked awesome game, but if you spend too much, and don't get enough money in return, you are broke and then you are starving. Companies needs money, not only to pay for utilities and hardwares, but also to pay the devs so they can take their checks home and feed their own families.
While alot of the devs may REALLY enjoy their job and get a kick out of it, it is still the bottom line they are worried about. Seriously, by raise of hands, how many people have taken a crappy job at McDonalds or the like in order to pay your living expenses instead of going and doing something you love and enjoy? Same principle applies here. Without cash, there is no incentive for the Devs, the studio, or even CBS to invest anything into making a game.
Granted, they DO need to be concerned about customer satisfaction and player retention, but it is not for an altruistic making-sure-everyone-is-having-fun-in-the-park sense. It again comes down to the almighty dollar. If you keep customers around, they will keep buying your goods, and they will network and bring more customers into your business. If you do not, they will leave and drive away their network away from you as well. Losing players means losing money. So, they have to create good quality content in order to keep us gaming. And keep us paying.
2) Those greedy devs, you have to spend real money in order to get ahead in this game. Yes and no. STO F2P model is one of the most fair I have seen in the MMO industry. It is the simple Time=Money Idea. You can either grind it out the old fashioned way, or you can drop cash and get it now. The Devs were betting on the old fashioned instant gratification overcoming common sense, and they won. I am willing to say that 40-50% of their monthly income is due to people dropping Zen for Dilithium in order to get something over with. The rest is from ship sales for the people who wanted the Scimitar six weeks ago :P
I will admit, they devs did tip the scale so that Money is more valuable than Time invested into the game. If you grind out your dill cap per day (8000 dilthium), and at the current average of 130 dil/zen, you can get 62 Zen per day. That is 62 cents worth of Zen for every 20 hours (Because of the cooldown on refinement). Not the best investment of your time, eh Best to get a crappy Minimum wage job and toss in $5 every now and then. Now, instead of just sucking sever time and space, you are putting money into the system. You get a game; Devs get money; Everybody wins.
You can totally and completely buy a Lockbox ship, or even a Zen store ship without YOU spending a dime on it. But, as mentioned before, someone else would have to put cash into the system first. So what? PWE gets their cash, Player A Gets Dilthium, Player B gets Ship. Everyone wins. You can grind up and get the 5000 Zen 3-pack ships solely with Dil/Zen exchanges. You can get a Lockbox ship off the EC exchange. You can get Lobi from buying keys of the exchange or from grinding Dil->Zen->Keys->Lockbox. Yes, it is not cost effective, BY DESIGN SO THE GAME CAN MAKE A PROFIT! But the option is THERE, it is VIABLE if you are willing to wait a bit for it. Otherwise, fall into the trap of thinking you need it now and help pay DStahls Rent for the month :cool:
And while we are on the topic of the Dil exchange 3) The Devs fix the prices on the Dil exchange 100% wrong in much the same way the government fixes the prices on your Big Mac. The Devs only set up the system and the parameters. The actual solid market price is 100% set and managed by the mob model of the Players. All the Devs can do is add or adjust the supply and demand of Dilithium and Zen in the game, which they do quite well.
/soapbox
Live on Earth. Work in Space. Play with Dragons. Join the best add on to STO, the Neverwinter holodeck program! Only 14 GPL a month.
OK, So many wrong assumptions going on here. Lets break them down one by one.
1) The Game exist for my enjoyment. If I am not enjoying it, the game fails Wrong. Star Trek Online's first directive is to make money, as is the first directive of any business. You can make a wicked awesome game, but if you spend too much, and don't get enough money in return, you are broke and then you are starving. Companies needs money, not only to pay for utilities and hardwares, but also to pay the devs so they can take their checks home and feed their own families.
While alot of the devs may REALLY enjoy their job and get a kick out of it, it is still the bottom line they are worried about. Seriously, by raise of hands, how many people have taken a crappy job at McDonalds or the like in order to pay your living expenses instead of going and doing something you love and enjoy? Same principle applies here. Without cash, there is no incentive for the Devs, the studio, or even CBS to invest anything into making a game.
Granted, they DO need to be concerned about customer satisfaction and player retention, but it is not for an altruistic making-sure-everyone-is-having-fun-in-the-park sense. It again comes down to the almighty dollar. If you keep customers around, they will keep buying your goods, and they will network and bring more customers into your business. If you do not, they will leave and drive away their network away from you as well. Losing players means losing money. So, they have to create good quality content in order to keep us gaming. And keep us paying.
2) Those greedy devs, you have to spend real money in order to get ahead in this game. Yes and no. STO F2P model is one of the most fair I have seen in the MMO industry. It is the simple Time=Money Idea. You can either grind it out the old fashioned way, or you can drop cash and get it now. The Devs were betting on the old fashioned instant gratification overcoming common sense, and they won. I am willing to say that 40-50% of their monthly income is due to people dropping Zen for Dilithium in order to get something over with. The rest is from ship sales for the people who wanted the Scimitar six weeks ago :P
I will admit, they devs did tip the scale so that Money is more valuable than Time invested into the game. If you grind out your dill cap per day (8000 dilthium), and at the current average of 130 dil/zen, you can get 62 Zen per day. That is 62 cents worth of Zen for every 20 hours (Because of the cooldown on refinement). Not the best investment of your time, eh Best to get a crappy Minimum wage job and toss in $5 every now and then. Now, instead of just sucking sever time and space, you are putting money into the system. You get a game; Devs get money; Everybody wins.
You can totally and completely buy a Lockbox ship, or even a Zen store ship without YOU spending a dime on it. But, as mentioned before, someone else would have to put cash into the system first. So what? PWE gets their cash, Player A Gets Dilthium, Player B gets Ship. Everyone wins. You can grind up and get the 5000 Zen 3-pack ships solely with Dil/Zen exchanges. You can get a Lockbox ship off the EC exchange. You can get Lobi from buying keys of the exchange or from grinding Dil->Zen->Keys->Lockbox. Yes, it is not cost effective, BY DESIGN SO THE GAME CAN MAKE A PROFIT! But the option is THERE, it is VIABLE if you are willing to wait a bit for it. Otherwise, fall into the trap of thinking you need it now and help pay DStahls Rent for the month :cool:
And while we are on the topic of the Dil exchange 3) The Devs fix the prices on the Dil exchange 100% wrong in much the same way the government fixes the prices on your Big Mac. The Devs only set up the system and the parameters. The actual solid market price is 100% set and managed by the mob model of the Players. All the Devs can do is add or adjust the supply and demand of Dilithium and Zen in the game, which they do quite well.
/soapbox
I actually /agree with a lot of what you have to say here. Altho......, I doubt if Cryptic is depending upon player retention and what I would think is more of the actuality is they depend upon turn-over. 1 unsubs and another joins. I can't remember where but I did read a study on F2P games that held this as the norm. It would seem that today's gamers just do not play a game as I played SWG for 8 years with 4 accounts and my wife's 5 accounts. We're really not afraid to support something that we enjoy as those 9 account cost us about $134.91 per month.
Dan Rubinfield created a blog over the NGE explaining dev involvement in the same. He used a phase something to the effect of, "if the office wants pink, fluffy, bunnies we make pink, fluffy, bunnies to the best of our ability." I would imagine that's what's going on here as well. Devs get told what to develop, Cash items, content, raids, etc and they try and do their best at what they are told to do. However, devs do get a following, good and bad, for the things they develop. Is it fair? Probably not, but Rubinfield, himself, had to move to Europe just to get another job after the NGE as no US company would even touch him via his name alone.
While the devs give a "range" on dil, they still give a low end and a high end. I'm sorry but that doesn't quite qualify as a player ran economy, at least not in the games I'm used to. SWG, and even AO today, has a player ran economy and players set the prices with no ranges what-so-ever. That is certainly a 2-edged sword that cuts both ways as there were paintings and other items in SWG that sold for many, many, millions due to rarity but there again, that was after the game was out for several years and there was a boat-load of credits in the game to substanciate those prices. This can be a shock to the new player but after a bit when you have a level 59 toon (out of 220 levels) with 7 million credits, as I do now in AO, you can see how credits are a bit easier to obtain. This becomes even more playable when you realize that EVERYTHING drops credits. There are no NPCs there that drop nothing as is the norm in STO.
It's all a matter of design. And I would imagine that most design of this nature comes from front office and not the dev doing the actual coding. I would hold Dstahl more to the fire on these deals than the dev doing the coding. And he could very well get a rep as well. Dallas Dickerson certainly got one for both the NGE and TOR.
im just saying not as m any people seem to be playing as they use to it takes forever to get a pvp teain the past people would line up to be on a pvp team together when
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaait, you ask this question based on PvP queues?
Yep the game is totally dead. No one plays anymore, all these ships that block my way in sector space are all ghost ships from the STOpocalypse.
The forums are also all manned by automated troll bots...
/sarcasm
How true....I don't recall in the past 3 years of the life of STO seeing that many ships and specially blocking that much that I cannot maneuver my way out from ESD or New Romulus...This thread is silly
I dont think the game is dying either, but i do agree it was never really alive in the first place. Mostly you have spree gamers who jump in for the first couple days of any big f2p or expansion launch in any mmo then get bored and leave. This does not constitute being alive.
I do think though you have the same problem as we did at launch, a very small group of apologists and fanboys (I am not naming names) who are absurdly delusional about things and refuse to see the truth.
Unless your some thirteen year old on summer vacation or a citizen citizen, excessive grinding is not a solution and a waste of time for most people with actual lives, so yes, top gear and reputation and such is not casual friendly. To be fair, alot of mmos, even WoW is like this so its not STO itself by any means, it is however pretty bad in STO. If something takes years to grind out the free way, its not a solution, its a actually a blatant attempt to force players to use real money.
Making deals with fleets and other such stuff rarely ever happens in the 'real world' unless you have some buddys available to help you out. Guilds/Fleets are notorious for protecting their interests when crime is prevalent.
CO's been left to wither on the vine for something over a year now - but it still isn't dead.
STO's getting expansions, goodies, bug fixes, new shinies - and you think this game might be dying?
Pardon me while I go laugh my aft thrusters off...
Oh, and as for the contention that you need to spend money at endgame - I've got two 50s right now, and one 48. I have yet to drop so much as a single penny on this game. Nor have I engaged in the so-called "grind" (seriously, go to WoW and try to get the current top-tier gear, without which you cannot finish the game because you have to team with people who only care about gear-score, then come back and tell me with a straight face that STO has a "grind"). Combat drops are more than sufficient for PvE adventures.
I dont think the game is dying either, but i do agree it was never really alive in the first place. Mostly you have spree gamers who jump in for the first couple days of any big f2p or expansion launch in any mmo then get bored and leave. This does not constitute being alive.
I do think though you have the same problem as we did at launch, a very small group of apologists and fanboys (I am not naming names) who are absurdly delusional about things and refuse to see the truth.
Unless your some thirteen year old on summer vacation or a citizen citizen, excessive grinding is not a solution and a waste of time for most people with actual lives, so yes, top gear and reputation and such is not casual friendly. To be fair, alot of mmos, even WoW is like this so its not STO itself by any means, it is however pretty bad in STO. If something takes years to grind out the free way, its not a solution, its a actually a blatant attempt to force players to use real money.
Making deals with fleets and other such stuff rarely ever happens in the 'real world' unless you have some buddys available to help you out. Guilds/Fleets are notorious for protecting their interests when crime is prevalent.
When did liking a game and being a fan of it become a bad thing? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
When did it become "good" to hate the game your playing and the company that makes it yet your constantly playing it and talking about it on the forums? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
Can you point or direct me towards ANY content in STO whatsoever that demands your character have top end gear before you ever attempt it? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
If a player is casual then is it not logical that it's going to take them some long length of time to even get leveled to where they can access the top end gear? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
If players, especially casual players take a long time to get everything they want in the game, does that not help keep the game from dying or just prolong its existence? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
Can you explain to my why I continue to see some fleet members or owners continually spamming the chat channels offering to make deals to access ships and gear? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
I play this game on and off but I think it is a good game and it definitely has a lot of life still in it. I can understand the issues people have but it's obvious this game is more suitable for casual gamers.
Is the game dieing? Na there's plenty of people playing it. As long as the suckers keep trickling in, it will keep going.
I'm primarily a KDF player though and I'm at the end of my rope. Yeah I know KDF finally got their 1-50 progression and 2 low tier ships, but its been 16 MONTHS since a T5 C-store ship was released. Theres no C-store uniforms to speak of other then the academy one that everyone already has. And lets face it, those C-store bits are one of the only things people play for.
You cannot convince me that the story to this game is good. Bi-polar Janeway was more interesting, so story is out. Game play is a constant grind, have fun grinding out those Nukera marks for a +10 to weapons training in that rep system(or whatever it is, I'm being sarcastic).
Also, they can spew out endless shinies in the latest lock box but they can't fix a few simple bugs. It took 3 years to fix the Klingon Transporter officer. The fleet Scourge and Corsair still can't be customized unless you own the originals. Nothing like a 2000Z ship thats stuck with the original bridge....which isn't a big deal. Excepts its a $20 ship, whoever buys it should have a functioning customization tool.
As for spending money on this game, I'm not pulling out my credit card ever again for Cryptic unless its for a KDF release.
When did liking a game and being a fan of it become a bad thing? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
When did it become "good" to hate the game your playing and the company that makes it yet your constantly playing it and talking about it on the forums? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
Can you point or direct me towards ANY content in STO whatsoever that demands your character have top end gear before you ever attempt it? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
If a player is casual then is it not logical that it's going to take them some long length of time to even get leveled to where they can access the top end gear? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
If players, especially casual players take a long time to get everything they want in the game, does that not help keep the game from dying or just prolong its existence? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
Can you explain to my why I continue to see some fleet members or owners continually spamming the chat channels offering to make deals to access ships and gear? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
Its a bad thing when, when blind devotion is involved and no other thing can be seen. Just like anything else, blind devotion is never good. Its not my truth, or anyone else's truth, it just is what it is. You can believe all you want the sky is purple, but its not anyone elses truth its really blue, it just is what it is. People have been running off with their wild 'interpretation' of thingsfor ages, and it doesn't make them any less delusional.
Where did anyone say they hate the game? This is another problem with blind devotion, any thing that doesn't match the rose colored view of something is automatically viewed as hate. This is the reason why fanboys do more harm then good, how can the proper people get feedback on anything if their cultists are ranting at anyone that doesn't subscribe to their delusion? Thats the real reason things take forever to get better in mmos, the loud vocal fanboys drown out proper feedback.
Because casual players are the majority, and this is in most any game. When something becomes work or a chore, when its suppose to be fun, its a problem. This is the main reason you can pick almost any mmo out there and find casuals complaining about heavy, unnecessary grinds. Casual players money keeps things afloat, and their time is just as valuable as people with the time to live in a mmo. This isnt anyones truth, its just fact. You can bash casuals all you want for 'ruining mmos' but its not a problem with them, its your own flawed vision.
You see those things because you want to see it. I've been playing STO from closed beta, and I have three maxed VAs, and a Klingon and Reman maxed VA with some Captain ranked toons and I've never seen this. I've also not even finished anything to do with the Reputation system. Just like most people I know, the other problem is all this end game content goes to waste when the 1% only have access to it due to pointless grinds. Punishing people who actually do have lives and still give money to the game and keep it afloat for players with too much time on their hands is bad form.
Regardless of this, if your a trek fan it is a good game, the events might be lame but the mission content and combat system is fun. So again no one has said they hate STO, they have just pointed out factual problems in it.
in 2011, barely no content (including c-store TRIBBLE) was released, and yet, almost 2 years later, the game is still here.
And the PvP queues being empty in STO is probably he poorest element to base the games ability to survive on, since that element has never been very attractive to most players.
not to mention the PvPers cry foul every time a new ship comes out and basically "go on strike" until they do enough private queue stuff to figure out how to beat it.
I have played a good bit of mmos, the most fun I have is in scfis like this one. So lets look at whats going around sto. Sto comes out with a real expansion, with real content, with a good deal of good look ships, with interiors, and a solid story line. Does not sound like the game is dying to me?
Swtor comes out with an expansion, a obvious storyline, a poorly designed planet, hardly any good looking gear, and all they plan on adding is more pve and simple pvp wzs. The general thought over there is it was not an expansion. More then that they dont even have space and ground like we do. That alone should tell you how well this game is doing. Though I have major gripes with the zen, Dilithium, and the poor voice acting in some parts. I cant really say anymore this is a bad game.
World of ********, rumor has the walls street Journal put out a article about blizzard trying to sell their stocks to various other companies. Even more then that they have been bleeding players for awhile. There primary focus like swtor simple pvp bgs, and pve. Most players have had their fill of that game. Meaning its too familiar.
Sto has sector maps, with multiple planets you can visit, ships with interiors, fleet starbases, fleet embassy's, and now fleet mines. I am not saying they will ever bring all this together into a full fledged galactic war, but this game most surely has the pieces to do something unique.
The major gripe ive had with this expansion is the bugs, and I dont like having multiple toons down because of a bug. This being said show me any expansion that releases fully bug free.
In closing to my response. I think it would really help out this game is they boosted beam damage drastically while boosting the escorts in the area of speed/tanking. By tanking I mean taking damage not argo. People see a big ship like a Galaxy class star ship, they want that ship, and expect major firepower to come with it.
Activity is Up. You want to see how the game doing watch the exchange. Prices are rising, the top gear is going for load and loads. Take a look at the Doff Market.
STO will continue to rise, the new Ship pack with Scimitar/Falchion/Tulwar I suspect will be HUGE. From what I hear and have seen, cloaked ship with working shields and weapons. Crazy tough Kids.
yes, lack of content, poor story lines, inability to keep the servers stable and consistant. and the general disregard for star trek.. do i think its quickly dying.. no, do i think its losing players on the reg.. yes..
i have a very leangthy friends list.. and i have been playing since beta.. i have chose to stop palying recently. in the begining, and up till about a year and a half ago, i could log on, and at least 60-70 percent of those friends were on.. now a days, i log on and im lucky, if 3 or 4 friends are on at any given time.. i have also noticed in alot of fleets that i am in with alts, or friendly with, that the number of players being inactive, is increasing faster than they can replace them...
CO's been left to wither on the vine for something over a year now - but it still isn't dead.
STO's getting expansions, goodies, bug fixes, new shinies - and you think this game might be dying?
Pardon me while I go laugh my aft thrusters off...
Pretty much. Between this game and Champions, if STO is dying, it's going to make for a very healthy and well fed corpse.
Seriously, the doomcriers here should gain some perspective and spend time on Champions. The poor red-headed step child superhero MMO is still plodding along with a very anemic-looking playerbase, and yet Star Trek with its voluminous playerbase is somehow going to be the one to shuffle off this mortal coil?
I disagree. I get the real joke and sadly it's not funny and it's on us. (and I'm only speaking about Americans because I don't know what it's like in other countries) Every year our school systems pump out students who are more poorly educated than the previous year. It's not just the abysmal reading and writing skills, but all subjects.
I've met people that think American and English are separate languages.
I've met people that think England and Britain are different countries.
I've met people that think Canada is part of the United States because they're on the same map.
I've met people that don't understand that cities in different states and countries can have the same name.
George Carlin was right.
To be fair, England is a country and Britain is an island. England and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are technically two separate countries, although obviously the first is a part of the second.
To be fair, England is a country and Britain is an island. England and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are technically two separate countries, although obviously the first is a part of the second.
Technically Northern Ireland is also part of the second, unless there's been a secession over there recently that I wasn't aware of.
Comments
yeah, concentrate on english fro a game message baord
lol
Thing is new ships, new races, new events, new grinds are not going to keep this game going. At some point more sophistication is required. But I don't think it is dying or on a decline. Granted it is closer to its eventual demise, all good things must end, but I consider dying to mean some kind of active and rapid decay toward that demise.
*takes off gloves*
*gentleman slaps all teh trollz*
OK, So many wrong assumptions going on here. Lets break them down one by one.
1) The Game exist for my enjoyment. If I am not enjoying it, the game fails Wrong. Star Trek Online's first directive is to make money, as is the first directive of any business. You can make a wicked awesome game, but if you spend too much, and don't get enough money in return, you are broke and then you are starving. Companies needs money, not only to pay for utilities and hardwares, but also to pay the devs so they can take their checks home and feed their own families.
While alot of the devs may REALLY enjoy their job and get a kick out of it, it is still the bottom line they are worried about. Seriously, by raise of hands, how many people have taken a crappy job at McDonalds or the like in order to pay your living expenses instead of going and doing something you love and enjoy? Same principle applies here. Without cash, there is no incentive for the Devs, the studio, or even CBS to invest anything into making a game.
Granted, they DO need to be concerned about customer satisfaction and player retention, but it is not for an altruistic making-sure-everyone-is-having-fun-in-the-park sense. It again comes down to the almighty dollar. If you keep customers around, they will keep buying your goods, and they will network and bring more customers into your business. If you do not, they will leave and drive away their network away from you as well. Losing players means losing money. So, they have to create good quality content in order to keep us gaming. And keep us paying.
2) Those greedy devs, you have to spend real money in order to get ahead in this game. Yes and no. STO F2P model is one of the most fair I have seen in the MMO industry. It is the simple Time=Money Idea. You can either grind it out the old fashioned way, or you can drop cash and get it now. The Devs were betting on the old fashioned instant gratification overcoming common sense, and they won. I am willing to say that 40-50% of their monthly income is due to people dropping Zen for Dilithium in order to get something over with. The rest is from ship sales for the people who wanted the Scimitar six weeks ago :P
I will admit, they devs did tip the scale so that Money is more valuable than Time invested into the game. If you grind out your dill cap per day (8000 dilthium), and at the current average of 130 dil/zen, you can get 62 Zen per day. That is 62 cents worth of Zen for every 20 hours (Because of the cooldown on refinement). Not the best investment of your time, eh
You can totally and completely buy a Lockbox ship, or even a Zen store ship without YOU spending a dime on it. But, as mentioned before, someone else would have to put cash into the system first. So what? PWE gets their cash, Player A Gets Dilthium, Player B gets Ship. Everyone wins. You can grind up and get the 5000 Zen 3-pack ships solely with Dil/Zen exchanges. You can get a Lockbox ship off the EC exchange. You can get Lobi from buying keys of the exchange or from grinding Dil->Zen->Keys->Lockbox. Yes, it is not cost effective, BY DESIGN SO THE GAME CAN MAKE A PROFIT! But the option is THERE, it is VIABLE if you are willing to wait a bit for it. Otherwise, fall into the trap of thinking you need it now and help pay DStahls Rent for the month :cool:
And while we are on the topic of the Dil exchange
3) The Devs fix the prices on the Dil exchange 100% wrong in much the same way the government fixes the prices on your Big Mac. The Devs only set up the system and the parameters. The actual solid market price is 100% set and managed by the mob model of the Players. All the Devs can do is add or adjust the supply and demand of Dilithium and Zen in the game, which they do quite well.
/soapbox
"pay and play with other people all over the world!"
not such a big deal
it used to be content for people to play = money
the new model is concept fro people to buy
toi anypone i would mention the game to i would sugfgest they play til they cap - then leave
like oblivion or somethng
its what most people do anyway
I actually /agree with a lot of what you have to say here. Altho......, I doubt if Cryptic is depending upon player retention and what I would think is more of the actuality is they depend upon turn-over. 1 unsubs and another joins. I can't remember where but I did read a study on F2P games that held this as the norm. It would seem that today's gamers just do not play a game as I played SWG for 8 years with 4 accounts and my wife's 5 accounts. We're really not afraid to support something that we enjoy as those 9 account cost us about $134.91 per month.
Dan Rubinfield created a blog over the NGE explaining dev involvement in the same. He used a phase something to the effect of, "if the office wants pink, fluffy, bunnies we make pink, fluffy, bunnies to the best of our ability." I would imagine that's what's going on here as well. Devs get told what to develop, Cash items, content, raids, etc and they try and do their best at what they are told to do. However, devs do get a following, good and bad, for the things they develop. Is it fair? Probably not, but Rubinfield, himself, had to move to Europe just to get another job after the NGE as no US company would even touch him via his name alone.
While the devs give a "range" on dil, they still give a low end and a high end. I'm sorry but that doesn't quite qualify as a player ran economy, at least not in the games I'm used to. SWG, and even AO today, has a player ran economy and players set the prices with no ranges what-so-ever. That is certainly a 2-edged sword that cuts both ways as there were paintings and other items in SWG that sold for many, many, millions due to rarity but there again, that was after the game was out for several years and there was a boat-load of credits in the game to substanciate those prices. This can be a shock to the new player but after a bit when you have a level 59 toon (out of 220 levels) with 7 million credits, as I do now in AO, you can see how credits are a bit easier to obtain. This becomes even more playable when you realize that EVERYTHING drops credits. There are no NPCs there that drop nothing as is the norm in STO.
It's all a matter of design. And I would imagine that most design of this nature comes from front office and not the dev doing the actual coding. I would hold Dstahl more to the fire on these deals than the dev doing the coding. And he could very well get a rep as well. Dallas Dickerson certainly got one for both the NGE and TOR.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaait, you ask this question based on PvP queues?
Do you know the state of PvP in this game?
In the middle of a weekday, only one one planet, for an essentially useless event, yes it is a lot.
The forums are also all manned by automated troll bots...
/sarcasm
How true....I don't recall in the past 3 years of the life of STO seeing that many ships and specially blocking that much that I cannot maneuver my way out from ESD or New Romulus...This thread is silly
Is it alive ?
That depends on your definition ... .
I do think though you have the same problem as we did at launch, a very small group of apologists and fanboys (I am not naming names) who are absurdly delusional about things and refuse to see the truth.
Unless your some thirteen year old on summer vacation or a citizen citizen, excessive grinding is not a solution and a waste of time for most people with actual lives, so yes, top gear and reputation and such is not casual friendly. To be fair, alot of mmos, even WoW is like this so its not STO itself by any means, it is however pretty bad in STO. If something takes years to grind out the free way, its not a solution, its a actually a blatant attempt to force players to use real money.
Making deals with fleets and other such stuff rarely ever happens in the 'real world' unless you have some buddys available to help you out. Guilds/Fleets are notorious for protecting their interests when crime is prevalent.
You've only been here a month. Now cough up whatever sources you have that state there is a net loss of players.
STO's getting expansions, goodies, bug fixes, new shinies - and you think this game might be dying?
Pardon me while I go laugh my aft thrusters off...
Oh, and as for the contention that you need to spend money at endgame - I've got two 50s right now, and one 48. I have yet to drop so much as a single penny on this game. Nor have I engaged in the so-called "grind" (seriously, go to WoW and try to get the current top-tier gear, without which you cannot finish the game because you have to team with people who only care about gear-score, then come back and tell me with a straight face that STO has a "grind"). Combat drops are more than sufficient for PvE adventures.
When did liking a game and being a fan of it become a bad thing? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
When did it become "good" to hate the game your playing and the company that makes it yet your constantly playing it and talking about it on the forums? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
Can you point or direct me towards ANY content in STO whatsoever that demands your character have top end gear before you ever attempt it? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
If a player is casual then is it not logical that it's going to take them some long length of time to even get leveled to where they can access the top end gear? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
If players, especially casual players take a long time to get everything they want in the game, does that not help keep the game from dying or just prolong its existence? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
Can you explain to my why I continue to see some fleet members or owners continually spamming the chat channels offering to make deals to access ships and gear? Please enlighten this old delusional fanboy who refuses to see the wisdom of YOUR truth.
LOL! Totally this!
I'm primarily a KDF player though and I'm at the end of my rope. Yeah I know KDF finally got their 1-50 progression and 2 low tier ships, but its been 16 MONTHS since a T5 C-store ship was released. Theres no C-store uniforms to speak of other then the academy one that everyone already has. And lets face it, those C-store bits are one of the only things people play for.
You cannot convince me that the story to this game is good. Bi-polar Janeway was more interesting, so story is out. Game play is a constant grind, have fun grinding out those Nukera marks for a +10 to weapons training in that rep system(or whatever it is, I'm being sarcastic).
Also, they can spew out endless shinies in the latest lock box but they can't fix a few simple bugs. It took 3 years to fix the Klingon Transporter officer. The fleet Scourge and Corsair still can't be customized unless you own the originals. Nothing like a 2000Z ship thats stuck with the original bridge....which isn't a big deal. Excepts its a $20 ship, whoever buys it should have a functioning customization tool.
As for spending money on this game, I'm not pulling out my credit card ever again for Cryptic unless its for a KDF release.
Its a bad thing when, when blind devotion is involved and no other thing can be seen. Just like anything else, blind devotion is never good. Its not my truth, or anyone else's truth, it just is what it is. You can believe all you want the sky is purple, but its not anyone elses truth its really blue, it just is what it is. People have been running off with their wild 'interpretation' of thingsfor ages, and it doesn't make them any less delusional.
Where did anyone say they hate the game? This is another problem with blind devotion, any thing that doesn't match the rose colored view of something is automatically viewed as hate. This is the reason why fanboys do more harm then good, how can the proper people get feedback on anything if their cultists are ranting at anyone that doesn't subscribe to their delusion? Thats the real reason things take forever to get better in mmos, the loud vocal fanboys drown out proper feedback.
Because casual players are the majority, and this is in most any game. When something becomes work or a chore, when its suppose to be fun, its a problem. This is the main reason you can pick almost any mmo out there and find casuals complaining about heavy, unnecessary grinds. Casual players money keeps things afloat, and their time is just as valuable as people with the time to live in a mmo. This isnt anyones truth, its just fact. You can bash casuals all you want for 'ruining mmos' but its not a problem with them, its your own flawed vision.
You see those things because you want to see it. I've been playing STO from closed beta, and I have three maxed VAs, and a Klingon and Reman maxed VA with some Captain ranked toons and I've never seen this. I've also not even finished anything to do with the Reputation system. Just like most people I know, the other problem is all this end game content goes to waste when the 1% only have access to it due to pointless grinds. Punishing people who actually do have lives and still give money to the game and keep it afloat for players with too much time on their hands is bad form.
Regardless of this, if your a trek fan it is a good game, the events might be lame but the mission content and combat system is fun. So again no one has said they hate STO, they have just pointed out factual problems in it.
not to mention the PvPers cry foul every time a new ship comes out and basically "go on strike" until they do enough private queue stuff to figure out how to beat it.
Swtor comes out with an expansion, a obvious storyline, a poorly designed planet, hardly any good looking gear, and all they plan on adding is more pve and simple pvp wzs. The general thought over there is it was not an expansion. More then that they dont even have space and ground like we do. That alone should tell you how well this game is doing. Though I have major gripes with the zen, Dilithium, and the poor voice acting in some parts. I cant really say anymore this is a bad game.
World of ********, rumor has the walls street Journal put out a article about blizzard trying to sell their stocks to various other companies. Even more then that they have been bleeding players for awhile. There primary focus like swtor simple pvp bgs, and pve. Most players have had their fill of that game. Meaning its too familiar.
Sto has sector maps, with multiple planets you can visit, ships with interiors, fleet starbases, fleet embassy's, and now fleet mines. I am not saying they will ever bring all this together into a full fledged galactic war, but this game most surely has the pieces to do something unique.
The major gripe ive had with this expansion is the bugs, and I dont like having multiple toons down because of a bug. This being said show me any expansion that releases fully bug free.
In closing to my response. I think it would really help out this game is they boosted beam damage drastically while boosting the escorts in the area of speed/tanking. By tanking I mean taking damage not argo. People see a big ship like a Galaxy class star ship, they want that ship, and expect major firepower to come with it.
STO will continue to rise, the new Ship pack with Scimitar/Falchion/Tulwar I suspect will be HUGE. From what I hear and have seen, cloaked ship with working shields and weapons. Crazy tough Kids.
i have a very leangthy friends list.. and i have been playing since beta.. i have chose to stop palying recently. in the begining, and up till about a year and a half ago, i could log on, and at least 60-70 percent of those friends were on.. now a days, i log on and im lucky, if 3 or 4 friends are on at any given time.. i have also noticed in alot of fleets that i am in with alts, or friendly with, that the number of players being inactive, is increasing faster than they can replace them...
Pretty much. Between this game and Champions, if STO is dying, it's going to make for a very healthy and well fed corpse.
Seriously, the doomcriers here should gain some perspective and spend time on Champions. The poor red-headed step child superhero MMO is still plodding along with a very anemic-looking playerbase, and yet Star Trek with its voluminous playerbase is somehow going to be the one to shuffle off this mortal coil?
Give me a break. :rolleyes:
To be fair, England is a country and Britain is an island. England and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are technically two separate countries, although obviously the first is a part of the second.
Technically Northern Ireland is also part of the second, unless there's been a secession over there recently that I wasn't aware of.