Gee, I guess PWE Branflakes is misinformed by the ARC Dev team as he has stated unequivocally that Pando Media Blaster isn't a part of ARC. (link) (I mean the STO Community Manager wouldn't knowingly be trying to mislead the STO playerbase to promote a new piece of PWE software, would he? <--- An honest question if what the poster I quoted above has stated is in fact true.
I just read that post myself actually, AFTER I posted that. I can say with confidence that I looked through my add/remove program list about a week ago. PMB was not there. The only thing I have downloaded since is ARC, except for .zip archives which I have always been checking. ARC is the only place this could have come from. Either that, or PMB has been hiding itself in a black abyss for a long time and only now decided to make itself know. Since the latter implies that the instance of the computer program on my system gained sentience...
Pando Media Booster is part of the installation process for STO.
I don't know what, if anything, it continues to do after that point. I pretty much clobbered it shortly after I installed it the first time and haven't looked back since.
Whatever it was doing, Firefox has been loading pages and videos alot faster the past few hours than it has been the past year.
ESD in game still lagged like crazy though. So no change there.
*******************************************
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
This is a negative nancy thread at a glance but fairs fair people don't like the lack of choice - see microsoft about lessons in this. I like the choice to use steam or not to and I think ARC being pushed hard is a little iffy.
You want it to be battlenet/steam I just read up a bit so editing to honor that. Guess thats why Neverwinter ain't on steam and why i ain't palying(bar to log on for events but paying and playing are on pause - did play to 20 in beta) it sadly as i cba to set up another payment account with you guys. Hopefully you see the steam market place as somewhere you can use to sell your games still because its my chosen pc gaming platform.
But I offer you the chance to sell me on it being something cooler than a battlenet like service which i find a rather droll and obvious ham fisted attempts to make me buy into your other games. I at the moment fail to see what you can offer over steam excpet to offer only your own games in a closed enviroment void of choice or a wide variety.
If thats all it is the i'm missing nothing and will stick with steam as i trust and like it that way. But please do try and shock me with some amazing features and who knows... just remeber choice is the key in any service market... give it to your customers or people will find it else where.
(I edited shorly after posting so um below i've been quoted and it is a fair quote of a point I re-made)
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet, Tread softly because you tread on my dreams
W.B. Yeats Lifer since beta its never been so good! So now can everyone chill this game is going in the right direction :P
I fail to see what you can offer over steam's services beyond marketing only your own products....
That's the point. They have NOTHING to offer except marketing, ads, and "install these other games! buy more ZEN!" drivel. Arc is being pushed on players because PWE wants to drive up install rates on the other PWE games, and for no other reason.
As a Steam gamer who only plays STO, I simply don't care what PWE's install rates are on other games. If I wanted to install them, I would. I do not want to install them. I do not want to be forced to install worthless bloatware and crapware that "reminds" me to install other PWE games. I am an adult, I do not need pointless and unhelpful "reminders" that a company offers other products that I do not want, and have never expressed any interest in.
If I am forced to use Arc, against my will, I will drop STO. Period. End of story.
Cryptic, you ram this down my throat, and you lose every penny I would have spent in this game.
That's the point. They have NOTHING to offer except marketing, ads, and "install these other games! buy more ZEN!" drivel. Arc is being pushed on players because PWE wants to drive up install rates on the other PWE games, and for no other reason.
As a Steam gamer who only plays STO, I simply don't care what PWE's install rates are on other games. If I wanted to install them, I would. I do not want to install them. I do not want to be forced to install worthless bloatware and crapware that "reminds" me to install other PWE games. I am an adult, I do not need pointless and unhelpful "reminders" that a company offers other products that I do not want, and have never expressed any interest in.
If I am forced to use Arc, against my will, I will drop STO. Period. End of story.
Cryptic, you ram this down my throat, and you lose every penny I would have spent in this game.
And I've spent a fair amount of money already.
Cryptic ... please read this and my question on my signiture: People are not happy.
I for one am mixed, but I do feel for the "no" side.
Hopefully I'll come back from my break; this break is fun; I play intellectual games.
Arc is here. Are you are referring to the possibility that it may be required in the future? If so, we'd love to eventually evolve Arc to the point where it is fully integrated in all of our games, but we're simply not ready to do that yet, as we're still in the experimental, early development phase. First, we want to test it out, add new features, make sure people like it, and, above all else, grow it into something that players want to use because it legitimately improves the overall game experience.
so basically you are going to subject your newest members to an 'experimental, early development' launcher, and then using their feedback try to make it work and turn it into something nearing bearable before forcing it on all the other users.
i cant say i am very happy about that, but thumbs up for such a brutally honest post. you rock
I think that most of the negativity is caused because of how the system requirements are labeled on the arc download page and then we don't have a full understanding of what it exactly takes in our systems. And the fact that the phrase "fully integrated web browser" screams security holes.....
A similar layer of bloatware was steamrollered over me when I was a City of Heroes user. The identical, disingenuous "but try it and see!" of the OP means it'll happen again. This lump is too big to swallow. I would rather push game performance than waste memory - I am already around the limit with texture quality auto-downgraded from time to time. I've had to delete Champions to make space for the LoR patch. I am now encouraged to find a new pastime, hopefully before this becomes compulsory.
*Do note that if you uninstall the game and need to reinstall, or get a new computer, you will need to download Arc to install and launch STO.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Sorry to burst your bubble Brandon but I just built a new PC yesterday, reinstalled and can launch STO perfectly fine how I always have without ARC or even Pando Media Booster being installed.
Used the standard installer so no workrounds to bypass it either.
Would it be possible to install Arc on an external hard or flash drive and start the game without it once downloaded?
Then I would have Arc available whenever I might find it useful but otherwise disconnected from my system evey other time.
Sorry to burst your bubble Brandon but I just built a new PC yesterday, reinstalled and can launch STO perfectly fine how I always have without ARC or even Pando Media Booster being installed.
Used the standard installer so no workrounds to bypass it either.
That's because you got lucky enough to get it before it forced the Arc thingy on you..........by 1 or 2 days.
To continue gathering feedback on this incredible platform, starting this Thursday, July 18th, new players registering to play STO will be downloading the Arc client first before jumping in-game. Once they?ve installed and logged in, with a click of a button, they?ll be able to download Star Trek Online.
That is today they are going to force it on anybody using the new download client for installing the game.
Edit: That was posted July 16, which means they only gave players 2 days notice to get the old download client if they needed it for any reason. Also, in threads like these started by someone from Cryptic, it helps to 'Click here to read more' in the first post of the thread.
That is today they are going to force it on anybody using the new download client for installing the game.
Edit: That was posted July 16, which means they only gave players 2 days notice to get the old download client if they needed it for any reason. Also, in threads like these started by someone from Cryptic, it helps to 'Click here to read more' in the first post of the thread.
Also helps if people from Cryptic stop assuming people don't make backups with a statement like "you WILL need to install ARC if you get a new computer", as well as thinking people will be happy being 'forced' to install something that serves no real purpose, other than wasting resources on the PC and internet connection.
Some people might be happy having their PC load a ton of cr*p just to play a game, but looking at some of the replies in this thread most aren't.
A similar layer of bloatware was steamrollered over me when I was a City of Heroes user. The identical, disingenuous "but try it and see!" of the OP means it'll happen again. This lump is too big to swallow. I would rather push game performance than waste memory - I am already around the limit with texture quality auto-downgraded from time to time. I've had to delete Champions to make space for the LoR patch. I am now encouraged to find a new pastime, hopefully before this becomes compulsory.
I dunno, personally when it happened with CoH I found it an improvement in the long run, the new launcher patched a lot faster than the old one did for me at least. And really, the game always had a launcher. That there was now a few other things in that window that was usually open for all of five seconds if that never really bothered me.
Regarding Arc though, I have only three questions. Firstly once it's fully up and running, which is to say at the point where we'll inevitably be forced to use it, will it entirely replace the current launcher? That is, will Arc open and check for patches then log me into the game directly as the current launcher does without needing to open anything else including but not limited to the current launcher?
Secondly will it then shut down and cease to be running at all, if I so desire it? Given its purpose as a marketing tool I hardly expect that to be the default but will there at least be an option for it.
Thirdly, will I still be able to run the game through Steam? By which I mean if I start it from Steam as I do now, will I still have the option to buy Zen through Steam Wallet rather than using PWE's system? Even if I have to run Arc in place of the launcher, I still want to buy Zen through Steam because it's just easier. In fact, the lack of that ability is pretty much the sole reason I never bought anything for Neverwinter.
If the answer to all of those is yes, then I have no problem with it.
I dunno, personally when it happened with CoH I found it an improvement in the long run, the new launcher patched a lot faster than the old one did for me at least. And really, the game always had a launcher. That there was now a few other things in that window that was usually open for all of five seconds if that never really bothered me.
Regarding Arc though, I have only three questions. Firstly once it's fully up and running, which is to say at the point where we'll inevitably be forced to use it, will it entirely replace the current launcher? That is, will Arc open and check for patches then log me into the game directly as the current launcher does without needing to open anything else including but not limited to the current launcher?
Secondly will it then shut down and cease to be running at all, if I so desire it? Given its purpose as a marketing tool I hardly expect that to be the default but will there at least be an option for it.
Thirdly, will I still be able to run the game through Steam? By which I mean if I start it from Steam as I do now, will I still have the option to buy Zen through Steam Wallet rather than using PWE's system? Even if I have to run Arc in place of the launcher, I still want to buy Zen through Steam because it's just easier. In fact, the lack of that ability is pretty much the sole reason I never bought anything for Neverwinter.
If the answer to all of those is yes, then I have no problem with it.
Think you might find NO is more appropriate to at least 2 of the points above looking at how this thing 'actually' works or is supposed to work...., not sure about Steam Wallet, I use Paypal as I've used it for years and like yourself, don't see any reason to change.
Did anybody else pick up on the 'Exclusive Offers' comment in the blog post? Does that mean when we are forced to use this dog we are going to have pop-ups trying to sell us cold drinks, snaks and insurence? I s this how it is done over in Japan and and South Korea for their games? We are screwed folks
Did anybody else pick up on the 'Exclusive Offers' comment in the blog post?
I picked up on it, as did many others.
I'll drop this game like a stone if I am forced against my will to install a bloated, poorly-thought-out 1gigabyte mess of advertising and TRIBBLE offers.
Cryptic, I can't say this loudly enough -- I will not spend another penny in this game if this is rammed down my throat! And I am not the only one who feels this way! Are you paying attention at all to this thread?
PWE have a brief history of forcing things down our throats with the account merge. I'm expecting being forced into this damned useless Arc thing too. (It's useless to me, none of the benefits are useful at all)
I'll drop this game like a stone if I am forced against my will to install a bloated, poorly-thought-out 1gigabyte mess of advertising and TRIBBLE offers.
Cryptic, I can't say this loudly enough -- I will not spend another penny in this game if this is rammed down my throat! And I am not the only one who feels this way! Are you paying attention at all to this thread?
It has been said a million times; Cryptic is not responsible for ARC - Perfect World Entertainment is. Direct your anger at PWE, not Cryptic.
PWE have a brief history of forcing things down our throats with the account merge. I'm expecting being forced into this damned useless Arc thing too. (It's useless to me, none of the benefits are useful at all)
It has been said a million times; Cryptic is not responsible for ARC - Perfect World Entertainment is. Direct your anger at PWE, not Cryptic.
Don't shoot the messenger.
Shoot the messenger? Now why would we want to do that? Just because many of us already HAVE something that has all of the functionality of ARC, but has exponentially MORE content, as well as not being limited to PWE's lackluster games?
Personally, I wouldn't mind if ARC is part of the full launcher, as long as it doesn't interfere with what I already am utilizing.
Branflakes, PLEASE take this message to PWE:
1) Facebook merger - interesting, but fail attempt at socializing STO
2) Raptr promo - Interesting attempt, but completely forgotten and under utilized.
3) ARC launcher - Gee ... do we see a pattern emerging?
PWE, if we wanted to play your other TRIBBLE games, we'd already be there.
OK Brandon, hope you're right about the Arc team watching this thread, I'm not holding out any hope whatsoever, but here goes.
I DIDN'T ASK for Arc, I DON'T NEED it and I certainly DON'T WANT it. Even with it's benefits it is completely useless to me as I won't be spending any money on any PWE game at any point in time, nor will I be interested in any social aspects of this new launcher as I rarely use chat. As for any special offers or incentives, I'm not even remotely interested.
Please also pass on this message to your bosses at PWE. I do not appreciate having changes like these FORCED DOWN MY THROAT, and I'm sure I'm not the only one going by some of the responses in this thread, PLEASE consider this when taking decisions like this in future. Give us the opportunity to opt out of anything like this if we want to.
Thank you for your time and please pay very close attention to all the posts in this thread, whether they be positive or negative.
If this is true I had better enjoy whatever time I have left because if I have to install a separate program to run STO im sorry but I will not be playing anymore. Especially if its true what someone else said that it takes up around 1GB.
Sorry to burst your bubble Brandon but I just built a new PC yesterday, reinstalled and can launch STO perfectly fine how I always have without ARC or even Pando Media Booster being installed.
Used the standard installer so no workrounds to bypass it either.
Thanks for the report, jonthehack. This starts later today, as mentioned in the article.
Comments
Oh lord, what have I said this time?
Trials of Blood and Fire
Moving On Parts 1-3 - Part 4
In Cold Blood
I just read that post myself actually, AFTER I posted that. I can say with confidence that I looked through my add/remove program list about a week ago. PMB was not there. The only thing I have downloaded since is ARC, except for .zip archives which I have always been checking. ARC is the only place this could have come from. Either that, or PMB has been hiding itself in a black abyss for a long time and only now decided to make itself know. Since the latter implies that the instance of the computer program on my system gained sentience...
I WILL re-download ARC however to check.
Trials of Blood and Fire
Moving On Parts 1-3 - Part 4
In Cold Blood
It must have been from a previous STO patch and I never noticed it before. I apologise for the misinformed allegation.
Trials of Blood and Fire
Moving On Parts 1-3 - Part 4
In Cold Blood
Whatever it was doing, Firefox has been loading pages and videos alot faster the past few hours than it has been the past year.
ESD in game still lagged like crazy though. So no change there.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
You want it to be battlenet/steam I just read up a bit so editing to honor that. Guess thats why Neverwinter ain't on steam and why i ain't palying(bar to log on for events but paying and playing are on pause - did play to 20 in beta) it sadly as i cba to set up another payment account with you guys. Hopefully you see the steam market place as somewhere you can use to sell your games still because its my chosen pc gaming platform.
But I offer you the chance to sell me on it being something cooler than a battlenet like service which i find a rather droll and obvious ham fisted attempts to make me buy into your other games. I at the moment fail to see what you can offer over steam excpet to offer only your own games in a closed enviroment void of choice or a wide variety.
If thats all it is the i'm missing nothing and will stick with steam as i trust and like it that way. But please do try and shock me with some amazing features and who knows... just remeber choice is the key in any service market... give it to your customers or people will find it else where.
(I edited shorly after posting so um below i've been quoted and it is a fair quote of a point I re-made)
W.B. Yeats
Lifer since beta its never been so good! So now can everyone chill this game is going in the right direction :P
That's the point. They have NOTHING to offer except marketing, ads, and "install these other games! buy more ZEN!" drivel. Arc is being pushed on players because PWE wants to drive up install rates on the other PWE games, and for no other reason.
As a Steam gamer who only plays STO, I simply don't care what PWE's install rates are on other games. If I wanted to install them, I would. I do not want to install them. I do not want to be forced to install worthless bloatware and crapware that "reminds" me to install other PWE games. I am an adult, I do not need pointless and unhelpful "reminders" that a company offers other products that I do not want, and have never expressed any interest in.
If I am forced to use Arc, against my will, I will drop STO. Period. End of story.
Cryptic, you ram this down my throat, and you lose every penny I would have spent in this game.
And I've spent a fair amount of money already.
Cryptic ... please read this and my question on my signiture: People are not happy.
I for one am mixed, but I do feel for the "no" side.
I hope STO get's better ...
so basically you are going to subject your newest members to an 'experimental, early development' launcher, and then using their feedback try to make it work and turn it into something nearing bearable before forcing it on all the other users.
i cant say i am very happy about that, but thumbs up for such a brutally honest post. you rock
free jkname
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Sorry to burst your bubble Brandon but I just built a new PC yesterday, reinstalled and can launch STO perfectly fine how I always have without ARC or even Pando Media Booster being installed.
Used the standard installer so no workrounds to bypass it either.
^ this. I don't need chinese spyware on my rig.
Then I would have Arc available whenever I might find it useful but otherwise disconnected from my system evey other time.
That's because you got lucky enough to get it before it forced the Arc thingy on you..........by 1 or 2 days.
http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=939331
That is today they are going to force it on anybody using the new download client for installing the game.
Edit: That was posted July 16, which means they only gave players 2 days notice to get the old download client if they needed it for any reason. Also, in threads like these started by someone from Cryptic, it helps to 'Click here to read more' in the first post of the thread.
Also helps if people from Cryptic stop assuming people don't make backups with a statement like "you WILL need to install ARC if you get a new computer", as well as thinking people will be happy being 'forced' to install something that serves no real purpose, other than wasting resources on the PC and internet connection.
Some people might be happy having their PC load a ton of cr*p just to play a game, but looking at some of the replies in this thread most aren't.
I dunno, personally when it happened with CoH I found it an improvement in the long run, the new launcher patched a lot faster than the old one did for me at least. And really, the game always had a launcher. That there was now a few other things in that window that was usually open for all of five seconds if that never really bothered me.
Regarding Arc though, I have only three questions. Firstly once it's fully up and running, which is to say at the point where we'll inevitably be forced to use it, will it entirely replace the current launcher? That is, will Arc open and check for patches then log me into the game directly as the current launcher does without needing to open anything else including but not limited to the current launcher?
Secondly will it then shut down and cease to be running at all, if I so desire it? Given its purpose as a marketing tool I hardly expect that to be the default but will there at least be an option for it.
Thirdly, will I still be able to run the game through Steam? By which I mean if I start it from Steam as I do now, will I still have the option to buy Zen through Steam Wallet rather than using PWE's system? Even if I have to run Arc in place of the launcher, I still want to buy Zen through Steam because it's just easier. In fact, the lack of that ability is pretty much the sole reason I never bought anything for Neverwinter.
If the answer to all of those is yes, then I have no problem with it.
Think you might find NO is more appropriate to at least 2 of the points above looking at how this thing 'actually' works or is supposed to work...., not sure about Steam Wallet, I use Paypal as I've used it for years and like yourself, don't see any reason to change.
I picked up on it, as did many others.
I'll drop this game like a stone if I am forced against my will to install a bloated, poorly-thought-out 1gigabyte mess of advertising and TRIBBLE offers.
Cryptic, I can't say this loudly enough -- I will not spend another penny in this game if this is rammed down my throat! And I am not the only one who feels this way! Are you paying attention at all to this thread?
we need mOAr pennies!!
hmm, *implements arc*.
It has been said a million times; Cryptic is not responsible for ARC - Perfect World Entertainment is. Direct your anger at PWE, not Cryptic.
Don't shoot the messenger.
Trials of Blood and Fire
Moving On Parts 1-3 - Part 4
In Cold Blood
Well, that's one way of putting it.
Trials of Blood and Fire
Moving On Parts 1-3 - Part 4
In Cold Blood
You have that perfectly stated.
How dare Steam try to do something useful!
Shoot the messenger? Now why would we want to do that? Just because many of us already HAVE something that has all of the functionality of ARC, but has exponentially MORE content, as well as not being limited to PWE's lackluster games?
Personally, I wouldn't mind if ARC is part of the full launcher, as long as it doesn't interfere with what I already am utilizing.
Branflakes, PLEASE take this message to PWE:
1) Facebook merger - interesting, but fail attempt at socializing STO
2) Raptr promo - Interesting attempt, but completely forgotten and under utilized.
3) ARC launcher - Gee ... do we see a pattern emerging?
PWE, if we wanted to play your other TRIBBLE games, we'd already be there.
I DIDN'T ASK for Arc, I DON'T NEED it and I certainly DON'T WANT it. Even with it's benefits it is completely useless to me as I won't be spending any money on any PWE game at any point in time, nor will I be interested in any social aspects of this new launcher as I rarely use chat. As for any special offers or incentives, I'm not even remotely interested.
Please also pass on this message to your bosses at PWE. I do not appreciate having changes like these FORCED DOWN MY THROAT, and I'm sure I'm not the only one going by some of the responses in this thread, PLEASE consider this when taking decisions like this in future. Give us the opportunity to opt out of anything like this if we want to.
Thank you for your time and please pay very close attention to all the posts in this thread, whether they be positive or negative.
I do not play battlefield for this exact reason.
Thanks for the report, jonthehack. This starts later today, as mentioned in the article.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=