Instead of making bloatware, you guys should be focusing on developing end game contents.
New Romulans brought NOTHING to end game content. All you did was let us create a new character to sell new ships to.
At 50, you're still running the same old content that has been around since pre PWE days.
As noted before, Cryptic devs don't have anything to do with the Arc implementation. That's PWE, which owns Cryptic. In this case, Cryptic is following their bosses' orders.
Instead of making bloatware, you guys should be focusing on developing end game contents.
Keep in mind, ARC is a PWE development, not Cryptic specific development.
Getting angry at the Cryptic Devs isn't gonna help. Best we can hope for now is clear, concise explanations to questions the playerbase has, like I asked in post #128 of this thread. If we can't get simple questions answered or a FAQ on ARC, then what's the point of playing STO?
If this thread, and the previous one on ARC's introduction, any indication, current players are not happy with this and I think ARC implementation is gonna be a problem for PWE in the future.
Thank you for the time...
STO CBT Player - 400 day+ Vet, Currently Silver
Cryptic, would you actulaly like me to spend actual Money? It's Simple:
Full, Story-driven, select from start 1-50 Klingon Side
Scrap current Lock Box & Lobi system for something more reasonable
Expand Dil and Rep/Fleet Marks to regular story content
And then we have the PandoMediaBooster issue, which was the one that was the cause of the most vehement hostility.
According to what they said, PMB is a constant torrent streamer which is inbuilt into Arc.
Woah woah woah. Pando is built in to Arc? That changes everything! I was neutral to Arc, (see my previous post about City of Heroes changing to the NCSoft launcher, which wasn't all that bad) but if it has Pando, that is terrible! PMB is never good - sometimes a game forces me to use it to do the initial download, but when it's done, I immediately uninstall. Pando has a terrible reputation, and with good reason. There's a link in here earlier to some of the many complaints.
I just hope that when Arc become mandatory, we are able to uninstall the Pando thing and still play STO.
Since Arc has absolutely nothing to do with digital rights media, I see no reason for why such a system needs to exist. Perfect World's games are free to play and download.
"Star Trek: Online" is my first and last multiplayer online game. Once I finish playing "Star Trek: Online", I will be switching to a single-player and offline game. If I were to continue playing multiplayer online games, the next one on my list would be White Wolf's "World of Darkness". I have absolutely no interest in Perfect World's current library.
I am also a Libertarian and artist. While everyone is willing to conform with establishment constructs, I am a firm believer in both existentialism and individualism. Once I go through the process of ownership, I personally believe I have a right to be left alone.
After a whistle blower revealed that Microsoft, Apple, and Google were helping the NSA, I decided I would never trust another software company again. Regardless about how much a company will address my concerns, I one hundred percent believe that most software publishers and developers sold their souls.
I do not own a Facebook account.
I do not own a Twitter account.
Outside of a small set of controllable outlets, the online finger print I leave is virtually nonexistent.
I would rather use steam myself. I use it to keep in touch with other players so they can see what I'm playing when i login to a title. I also play games from other providers so steam makes it easier.
So I'd rather not use Arc I'd rather NWO be uploaded to Steam because that's the only game I don't have on the steam platform yet.
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.
Regarding existing players*, my quote from the other thread when we introduced it still holds true:
*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 folks. As I read the first bolded part there: we are in the process of making it mandatory.
2nd bolded part: If people DON'T like it, will the plan to make ARC a requirement for launching STO be abandoned?
Sorry folks. As I read the first bolded part there: we are in the process of making it mandatory.
2nd bolded part: If people DON'T like it, will the plan to make ARC a requirement for launching STO be abandoned?
Hardly. They will pay some data analyst and do somesurveys to find out why their sales go down and then adjust but not abandon the software to make it superficially more appealing but keep the ads and data mining features.
I have to say that while I will not be affect as an existing player of STO, my issues with ARC are how much of the system it will use up in resources. I do not need more bloatware using up my 1.6 GHz Intel Atom nor the 1GB of RAM I have on board.
Keep in mind PWE, some of us do not have money to throw at a problem and if I am required to put ARC on my future laptop or PC to play STO...I will take my play time elsewhere. I am a Star Trek fan first and loyal to Cryptic as they are doing a rather good job I feel. PWE though however is not letting Cryptic do what it can or wants very much.|
I feel this is an oversight that PWE needs to address so if Branflakes can get a straight answer from them to give us or if one of the Arc Design Team can get on here and answer all our concerns, I would greatly appreciate that...as would many others.
So I add my voice to the many, many others who have done so and say this.
I've had a lot of problems with Steam and the normal install of Star Trek Online and it got to the point where I ended up downloading and installing Arc a while back. Now so far I like the program and it doesn't hog my resources. If I do see problems in the future, I'll remove it, but as of now I like it and doesn't bother me.
However, it should stay optional and if I decide to go back to Steam it shouldn't be used at all. Maybe if they had it replace the STO Launcher it would seem more beneficial as we would still be only having to use 1 launcher when starting up STO.
But I find when you start forcing consumers to use something, it can result in shooting yourself in the foot. Some people have made comparisons to Steam when they started, but Steam was different. It originally was designed to help players keep in contact with each other and find servers for the Valve games easier and then the store stuff just got added on later which ended up providing existing users benefits in regards to accessing games at a cheaper price.
Arc doesn't really offer any major benefits aside from the fact my game doesn't crash anymore. If they did it right and replaced the STO launcher with it and made it worthwhile for players, they'd use it. Just don't make it mandatory for all users, especially people already using programs like Steam.
Why can't we just use Steam's patch service? I don't get why you launch a game on Steam with a perfectly good patching system then insist we use some garbage launcher program? The current launcher is pretty slow and bad (Engage and Patch as the same button...please slap whoever thought of that!) but we don't want to install another content delivery system. We don't even get a choice as consumers what to use due to publisher bickering.
Ubisoft forced UPlay on me.
EA forced Origin upon me.
GfWL is about the least wanted thing forced upon my system! (Yes even more then Origin).
Now PWE want me to download ARC!
And I just want to use Steam and keep my online profile, achievements and content library there!
Sadly the day where I am playing BF4, get an invite to an STF from a friend, swap to STO and post a screenshot of the team at the end posted to their Steam profile before swapping to Assessins Creed to finish the night will never happen.
Why can't we just use Steam's patch service? I don't get why you launch a game on Steam with a perfectly good patching system then insist we use some garbage launcher program?
You know I completely agree. I bet if they had it set like that, I'd have probably never experienced any problems with STO on Steam. If you want to know how to do something right, just look at Steam.
I don't see what the big deal is. You've got a company that has a program like Steam which is extremely popular, moving to the console market as well. They should suck it up and make deals with Steam. They'd make a lot more money and players would get a more efficient and reliable service.
I will never use it for 2 reasons (well, way more than 2):
1) I still have not recovered from having lost my previous forum account and clicking my name sometimes takes me to a bloody PWE game I never played!
2) When I'm the road (which is most of the time) I'm using the company's laptop. With all the paranoia about spying these days, it does not allow for this type of "insert name"ware. For example, STEAM will not run on this computer. So this means that I just simply could not play the game anymore. Period. Plain and simple. No more C-store purchases. And I know I'm not the only one.
At this moment in time, Arc has definitely improved my experience and I like it.
At the moment its also optional. Even with Arc installed, i can still go in via the launcher on its own and bypass Arc. So that is good.
But with Arc all it does it sends you to the launcher anyway and auto logs you in. it then lets you access the forums and buy zen in game, without needing to open a new browser. That is another bonus which I enjoy using.
Personally I would keep it like this, so that it is optional even when installed and then people can make up their own mind. I think people are mostly worrying over nothing if I'm being honest, but if they are worried then keep it optional to alleviate their fears.
At this moment in time, Arc has definitely improved my experience and I like it.
At the moment its also optional. Even with Arc installed, i can still go in via the launcher on its own and bypass Arc. So that is good.
But with Arc all it does it sends you to the launcher anyway and auto logs you in. it then lets you access the forums and buy zen in game, without needing to open a new browser. That is another bonus which I enjoy using.
Personally I would keep it like this, so that it is optional even when installed and then people can make up their own mind. I think people are mostly worrying over nothing if I'm being honest, but if they are worried then keep it optional to alleviate their fears.
Pando Media Booster is my fear! That thing isn't going near my PC ever! Rift had to get rid of it because they were in danger of being sued (they never mentioned PMB being installed with their online client) by ticked off customers that had nothing but issues with PMB. I think PWE is going in the same sh*tty direction with this as well.
Make Arc OPTIONAL, don't force it down our throats!
Pando Media Booster is my fear! That thing isn't going near my PC ever! Rift had to get rid of it because they were in danger of being sued (they never mentioned PMB being installed with their online client) by ticked off customers that had nothing but issues with PMB. I think PWE is going in the same sh*tty direction with this as well.
Make Arc OPTIONAL, don't force it down our throats!
Pando sucks but it does not use Pando. Branflakes has confirmed this.
1) I have steam, (in my head i can see that when arc becomes mandatory. If and when it does everyone that uses steam will probably find that they can no longer use steam to launch sto, due to cryptic/pwe removing it's games from there. Meaning it's arc or no sto).
2) This is the only mmo i play, 'cause it's star trek, and i'm sorry but none of the other games cryptic/pwe owns appeal to me. I tried champ's, got past the tutorial and got bored.
i happily run this game using wineskin, but if i find that i need to reinstall this game for some reason, but i need to download some bad "steam-copy" to actually play it again, ill simply spend my time on another game. I already use steam and there is no way im gonna put ANOTHER of those programs on my computer(if it works on mac, I dont feel like checking." One is more than enough. Forcing people to download some PWE-made copy of steam will probably be the worst mistake you guys ever made, and result in a mass exodus of players from this game.
I already have a launcher that works just fine. In fact, the launcher might just be the single smoothest running, least buggy piece of programming that this game has to offer.
How in the world did you people figure that we needed a new one?
It isn't even a legitimate replacement, as it merely wraps around the current launcher and "improves" it with easier advertisement opportunities.
Do you know what I would do if I wanted to play another PWE game? I would download that particular game, not this Arc thingy.
Furthermore, can you guess what I would do if I wanted all of my games in the same place? I would make this nifty little thing called a folder on my desktop, and save all my games there.
If you think this will drum up interest in your other games, you underestimate human curiosity. I'm positive that almost every STO player has at least skimmed the myriad of games covered in the website you previously used to wrap around the STO website (kind of familiar, huh?).
In doing this, you have also made another, possibly fatal miscalculation. You have overestimated the consumer interest in your products, especially from this particular community.
The majority of what I've seen of the STO playerbase plays this game for STAR TREK - not gameplay, not grind, but STAR TREK. You have just shown how out-of-touch you are with the Trek fandom, who are unquestionably the real reason this game is still alive.
If the Trekkies don't want your other games, it means that they don't want your other games. Simple as that.
(P.S. If this remains optional, and is not forced down our throats, I think I'd be able to live with it. I believe the negative responses in this thread stem from fears of this either becoming mandatory, or becoming a malware/spyware/virus problem. If the former becomes a reality, you can expect to lose players. If the latter becomes a reality even for a small number of players, you can expect a massive loss in your playerbase, and hence a massive dent in your wallets. I implore you: do this very carefully.)
Comments
As noted before, Cryptic devs don't have anything to do with the Arc implementation. That's PWE, which owns Cryptic. In this case, Cryptic is following their bosses' orders.
I do not want to have to uppgrade my rig with the extra requirements this bloat/spyware ARC thingy is.
I get the thought behind ARC, but that's it.
Why punish your playerbase with useless bloat/spyware???
My rig will need more RAM, who will pay for that when ARC is forced down our throats???
Rethink this one, now!!!
Keep in mind, ARC is a PWE development, not Cryptic specific development.
Getting angry at the Cryptic Devs isn't gonna help. Best we can hope for now is clear, concise explanations to questions the playerbase has, like I asked in post #128 of this thread. If we can't get simple questions answered or a FAQ on ARC, then what's the point of playing STO?
If this thread, and the previous one on ARC's introduction, any indication, current players are not happy with this and I think ARC implementation is gonna be a problem for PWE in the future.
Thank you for the time...
Cryptic, would you actulaly like me to spend actual Money? It's Simple:
Woah woah woah. Pando is built in to Arc? That changes everything! I was neutral to Arc, (see my previous post about City of Heroes changing to the NCSoft launcher, which wasn't all that bad) but if it has Pando, that is terrible! PMB is never good - sometimes a game forces me to use it to do the initial download, but when it's done, I immediately uninstall. Pando has a terrible reputation, and with good reason. There's a link in here earlier to some of the many complaints.
I just hope that when Arc become mandatory, we are able to uninstall the Pando thing and still play STO.
"Star Trek: Online" is my first and last multiplayer online game. Once I finish playing "Star Trek: Online", I will be switching to a single-player and offline game. If I were to continue playing multiplayer online games, the next one on my list would be White Wolf's "World of Darkness". I have absolutely no interest in Perfect World's current library.
I am also a Libertarian and artist. While everyone is willing to conform with establishment constructs, I am a firm believer in both existentialism and individualism. Once I go through the process of ownership, I personally believe I have a right to be left alone.
After a whistle blower revealed that Microsoft, Apple, and Google were helping the NSA, I decided I would never trust another software company again. Regardless about how much a company will address my concerns, I one hundred percent believe that most software publishers and developers sold their souls.
I do not own a Facebook account.
I do not own a Twitter account.
Outside of a small set of controllable outlets, the online finger print I leave is virtually nonexistent.
Now that I see this, I'll just use my dilithium-given Zen to buy the Scimitar, and invest no money.
Brandon, please tell the PWE bosses that the playerbase does not like it.
Since PWE games are MMORPG style games, they cant be pirated, so a software like this is redundant.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
Leave it optional and don't force bloatware on people.
So, in other words,
So I'd rather not use Arc I'd rather NWO be uploaded to Steam because that's the only game I don't have on the steam platform yet.
Sorry folks. As I read the first bolded part there: we are in the process of making it mandatory.
2nd bolded part: If people DON'T like it, will the plan to make ARC a requirement for launching STO be abandoned?
Hardly. They will pay some data analyst and do somesurveys to find out why their sales go down and then adjust but not abandon the software to make it superficially more appealing but keep the ads and data mining features.
Keep in mind PWE, some of us do not have money to throw at a problem and if I am required to put ARC on my future laptop or PC to play STO...I will take my play time elsewhere. I am a Star Trek fan first and loyal to Cryptic as they are doing a rather good job I feel. PWE though however is not letting Cryptic do what it can or wants very much.|
I feel this is an oversight that PWE needs to address so if Branflakes can get a straight answer from them to give us or if one of the Arc Design Team can get on here and answer all our concerns, I would greatly appreciate that...as would many others.
So I add my voice to the many, many others who have done so and say this.
Thank you and have a good day.
Steam is a program that runs on your computer. IT launches some games, and lets you chat with other steam users.
Its basically a shop, and a DRM at the same time.
However, MMORPGs dont need such things, as they cant ever be pirated since you need a subscription.
And since STO is free to play, it is unpirateable. The account you make is free, so why put a Steam like thing on it? It makes... no sense.
However, it should stay optional and if I decide to go back to Steam it shouldn't be used at all. Maybe if they had it replace the STO Launcher it would seem more beneficial as we would still be only having to use 1 launcher when starting up STO.
But I find when you start forcing consumers to use something, it can result in shooting yourself in the foot. Some people have made comparisons to Steam when they started, but Steam was different. It originally was designed to help players keep in contact with each other and find servers for the Valve games easier and then the store stuff just got added on later which ended up providing existing users benefits in regards to accessing games at a cheaper price.
Arc doesn't really offer any major benefits aside from the fact my game doesn't crash anymore. If they did it right and replaced the STO launcher with it and made it worthwhile for players, they'd use it. Just don't make it mandatory for all users, especially people already using programs like Steam.
Ubisoft forced UPlay on me.
EA forced Origin upon me.
GfWL is about the least wanted thing forced upon my system! (Yes even more then Origin).
Now PWE want me to download ARC!
And I just want to use Steam and keep my online profile, achievements and content library there!
Sadly the day where I am playing BF4, get an invite to an STF from a friend, swap to STO and post a screenshot of the team at the end posted to their Steam profile before swapping to Assessins Creed to finish the night will never happen.
You know I completely agree. I bet if they had it set like that, I'd have probably never experienced any problems with STO on Steam. If you want to know how to do something right, just look at Steam.
I don't see what the big deal is. You've got a company that has a program like Steam which is extremely popular, moving to the console market as well. They should suck it up and make deals with Steam. They'd make a lot more money and players would get a more efficient and reliable service.
1) I still have not recovered from having lost my previous forum account and clicking my name sometimes takes me to a bloody PWE game I never played!
2) When I'm the road (which is most of the time) I'm using the company's laptop. With all the paranoia about spying these days, it does not allow for this type of "insert name"ware. For example, STEAM will not run on this computer. So this means that I just simply could not play the game anymore. Period. Plain and simple. No more C-store purchases. And I know I'm not the only one.
This is bloatware and spyware that offers no benefit to me.
It wasn't created for me, because I don't want it, and didn't ask for it.
I launch the game through Steam, or I don't play the game. Period.
At the moment its also optional. Even with Arc installed, i can still go in via the launcher on its own and bypass Arc. So that is good.
But with Arc all it does it sends you to the launcher anyway and auto logs you in. it then lets you access the forums and buy zen in game, without needing to open a new browser. That is another bonus which I enjoy using.
Personally I would keep it like this, so that it is optional even when installed and then people can make up their own mind. I think people are mostly worrying over nothing if I'm being honest, but if they are worried then keep it optional to alleviate their fears.
Pando Media Booster is my fear! That thing isn't going near my PC ever! Rift had to get rid of it because they were in danger of being sued (they never mentioned PMB being installed with their online client) by ticked off customers that had nothing but issues with PMB. I think PWE is going in the same sh*tty direction with this as well.
Make Arc OPTIONAL, don't force it down our throats!
Pando sucks but it does not use Pando. Branflakes has confirmed this.
The reasons for this are,
1) I have steam, (in my head i can see that when arc becomes mandatory. If and when it does everyone that uses steam will probably find that they can no longer use steam to launch sto, due to cryptic/pwe removing it's games from there. Meaning it's arc or no sto).
2) This is the only mmo i play, 'cause it's star trek, and i'm sorry but none of the other games cryptic/pwe owns appeal to me. I tried champ's, got past the tutorial and got bored.
How in the world did you people figure that we needed a new one?
It isn't even a legitimate replacement, as it merely wraps around the current launcher and "improves" it with easier advertisement opportunities.
Do you know what I would do if I wanted to play another PWE game? I would download that particular game, not this Arc thingy.
Furthermore, can you guess what I would do if I wanted all of my games in the same place? I would make this nifty little thing called a folder on my desktop, and save all my games there.
If you think this will drum up interest in your other games, you underestimate human curiosity. I'm positive that almost every STO player has at least skimmed the myriad of games covered in the website you previously used to wrap around the STO website (kind of familiar, huh?).
In doing this, you have also made another, possibly fatal miscalculation. You have overestimated the consumer interest in your products, especially from this particular community.
The majority of what I've seen of the STO playerbase plays this game for STAR TREK - not gameplay, not grind, but STAR TREK. You have just shown how out-of-touch you are with the Trek fandom, who are unquestionably the real reason this game is still alive.
If the Trekkies don't want your other games, it means that they don't want your other games. Simple as that.
(P.S. If this remains optional, and is not forced down our throats, I think I'd be able to live with it. I believe the negative responses in this thread stem from fears of this either becoming mandatory, or becoming a malware/spyware/virus problem. If the former becomes a reality, you can expect to lose players. If the latter becomes a reality even for a small number of players, you can expect a massive loss in your playerbase, and hence a massive dent in your wallets. I implore you: do this very carefully.)