I really hope people aren't just blowing smoke when they say they'll leave over ARC.
Because that is the only way I see it going away for Cryptic games.
The vast majority don't even come to the forums at all, and only those people who really hate it are even going to bother to post. Some MMOs have looked into people who threaten to quit over changes, and found almost no one does it, or if they do they come back in short order.
Count the unique posts, its really not a significant number of people, so even if every last person that posted they will quit instead of using Arc do quit, which history holds as very unlikely, the impact would be pretty insignificant, lost in the greater churn that is MMO turnover.
The reality of Arc is one day they will push it out as the new launcher, and unless there is some technical fault that prevents a player from logging into a PWE/Cryptic game, players won't even bat an eye at it. So, resistance is futile, and all that.
The best outcome that players that don't want it can hope for is a non-persistent option.
I cannot think of a single issue that's ever been floated on this board that has engendered this much unified disgust.
.
Then you must not spend much time here.
Earning ships through gameplay
B'Tran dailies
STFs as they originally launched
Converting to the reputation systems for Omega gear
Even having a reputation system
Adding a new reputation
The fleet system
Everytime they add a new holding to the fleet system
Everytime they add a new cosmetic project for a holding
Dil changes
Crafting Changes
Lockboxes
PvP
KDF
The Great Content Drought of 2011
PWE buying Cryptic
PWE integrating Cryptic into their account system
The transition to the PWE forum
Design the Next Enterprise - man was that one good for lols.
And I'm sure many many more I'm not thinking of of the top of my head. Arc hate barely reads as a blip on these forums compared to those issues.
Will there be an Arc app for iTunes / Android market etc? We've been asking Cryptic for one for years now and so far they've just dragged their heals, as always.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] @Aquitaine985 Lag Industries STO PvP Fleet - Executive
A Sad Panda of Industrial calibre. 2010: This is Cryptic PvP. Please hold the line, your call is very important to us...
The only point to ARC is to promote PWE Games in General in my honest opinion. I really hope it doesn't become mandatory but it will undoubtedly.... become inevitable. The sad part of this is it's going to be forced on people. I don't want ARC either like many folks 'ere. Not unless... somehow this system actually has some sort of purpose... like making sure that whenever STO releases a new season everyone isn't going to rubber-band to heck.
With any luck I hope that ARC will come positively and use resources wisely and not be obsessively obstructive to gameplay. With any luck that's all we can hope for since... it's going to be forced somewhere down the road and everyone who cares about whatever game they're playing will be given the ultimatum to drink the kool-aid or walk the plank.
Now this could potentially be a positive thing, it could potentially make our experiences more stream-lined and potentially... open us up to the possibility of at least trying out other PWE games. So I wouldn't completely knock it... but I'm not totally for it either. I have my doubts like many here... at least wait, see, listen and observe this app's performance before condemning it completely. That's what I plan to do... at least give it a try before it becomes mandatory.
at this time i feel more and more this game is no longer a cryptic but a perfect world game (ingame the grinds and the forced "multiplayer" shows it also) ... eventually we should all stop paying stuff or even stop playing the game to show that we dont want that ...
(i had arc installed for testing neverwinter ... total bull**** its only a big shop)
Count the unique posts, its really not a significant number of people, so even if every last person that posted they will quit instead of using Arc do quit, which history holds as very unlikely, the impact would be pretty insignificant, lost in the greater churn that is MMO turnover.
Right now, STO is #28 most played game on Steam with 4123 peak users (which means something around 10k players total).
I guarantee you that most (if not all) of these people will NOT tolerate a client to download a client. There are plenty of F2P MMOs on Steam, they will just choose one of them.
I'm just gonna go ahead and say that if you ever take away the ability to launch STO from Steam then I might as well just throw in the towel; and not in an "OMFG /RAGEQUIT SPITTLE FLIES EVERYWHERE" kind of way. It's more in a "sad face" kind of way. I live in a pretty rural area and my DSL is not the greatest. If I had to redownload the entire game again it would probably go "lol no."
So does this mean for me to play STO I first have to login to steam and then log into arc? What's the point in that? It's just another program running in the background chewing up resources.
Also, the Zen purchase on the new site is still longer than Steam. I simply click buy select my amount and bam it's done and through a site that I trust not PWE.
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
Is there any possibility that we can Opt out of ARC and allowing us players to use the current STO launcher?
Many people tested ARC and it severely degrades their computer and online performance that makes PWE games unplayable. Else you are very likely to see people stop playing your games.
Still don't want Arc because I have everything I need and want; a game and the means to run it. Someone made the comment that only those who really hate post, yeah and some like me can't be bothered because feedback largely falls on deaf ears, bugs go unfixed and no amount of whining is going to change that especially with the abundance of people who are willing to give their 'feedback' in a stronger form than I would. Think I've made a couple of posts giving my respectful opinion and that's it which I expect will go ignored and Arc is rolled out. When Arc becomes mandatory and affects me I'll make the call to leave or not then.
I just want to know if they are ever going to fully integrate cryptic games into the full PWE family, where your guild shows up and such.
New home of the Romulan Republic.
I have an idea for what Season 11 should be; Season 11: The Big Bug Fix.
I have not been able to read my bug tickets in over a year, not even the tickets about not being able to see my tickets.
I find the drama of your signature proof of your immaturity, this means you, DR whiners.
I'm hoping I won't need to use this since I have the game installed and launch it via Steam, which while there are a lot of people who dislike it I've always found it to be handy for purchasing Zen through my Steam Wallet. Think it's much more secure than the PWE options available and much more convenient.
When Arc is launched, will I have to log in to it even though I'm playing through Steam? It seems crazy to have to log in to two different services just to play a game. What makes me laugh is that we had a great forum pre PWE and then they forced them to convert to their ****ty system.
STO is already pretty resource hungry and frankly quite poorly optimised for the quality of the graphics we're getting. Adding another background application is just going to make it run even slower for most people and add more frustration.
For some reason Cryptic seems bent on making one bad decision after another lately.
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
I have used ARC approximately four times. Each time was accompanied with twenty minute updates to ARC, ARC crashing, and then not responding to me wanting to load up the one and only game I would ever play on it. STO. Then only to have the original way I start up STO appear, and ARCs one and only benefit is it put in my password to STO. It has does this approximately once. ONCE. It still uses the original launcher after all this to update and enter the game. I see no reason or desire to plug along with ARCs brutish ways of giving a half finished steam library look and feel when all I need to do is pop in my CD of the game, and spend the same amount of time installing the game and it's patches as I would waiting for ARC to decide to give me control of my game, install it, begin to patch and then mess up the patching because IT itself needs to upgrade. Needless to say I feel justified in saying ARC is not for me and I hope all PW games will remain possible to start without ARC.
ARCs for hard core PW gamers, not the STO loyal. I just wish they would let us decide if we want to use ARC or the original start up that we could download before ARC from the STO website.
Also, the worst rubberbanding I have ever seen happened when I had ARC running in the background. Not cool.
To add to the chorus, I too, do not want the Arc program, running in the background, and taking up a single bit of data.
I only play STO, and will never play any other Perfect World game, period, end of story. I only want the STO launcher by itself, as I currently have.STO is the only video game I make time to play, from time-to-time, even though I, like many other posters here, have more important things we could be doing, or spending our money on. With that in mind, and the continual promise put out on the forums that Cryptic is listening to it's fan base for the direction of decisions for the game, please, please, please allow for the option, to have the single STO launcher exist, outside of the ARC format for the duration of STO.
When Arc becomes mandatory and affects me I'll make the call to leave or not then.
and if i do leave it will be to goto a game that i've been playing since 2004 , its called darkspace ( http://www.darkspace.net ) stop by and take a look around.....its an ARC-free zone.
Even if I trusted my privacy to any company (which I don't) I still wouldn't use ARC for the sole reason that it's going to use extra resources that I need for running games smoothly.
If ARC becomes mandatory I know I won't be playing anymore, as it is I won't be spending another penny of real money on the game because I have no idea if it'll even be playable with the extra arc drain on my PC resources, once they're live.
***The above ramblings are, as always, my own opinion. Based on my experiences and interpreted by my mind, they by no means reflect the universal truth (unless coincidentally). Peace.***
Little piece of constructive feedback here: Do not extinguish the game specifics web pages. I do not play neither intent to play any other PWE game other than STO, and will be annoying to navigate on some kind of unificated web site to find game content related to STO among other things related to other games which does not interest me. Also, the game website helps to create the sense that the game is unique. I'm nothing againts trying to create an unified website infrastructure. Just do not force this down our throats.
I'm also ok with migrating the launcher to a unified laucher. As long as I am able to hide all other games which I do not have an interest to play.
Bottom line: do whatever you want. Just don't bother me advertising games I do not want to play.
Pre-forum change name: Captain Wilhelm Join Date: March 2009
Thanks Cryptic for introducing the Kelvin Timeline. It remembered why I decided to never more put any money on this game.
That section was removed from the blog as it does not pertain to STO. Other legacy PWE sites have fan content submissions (screenshots, art, etc.), but we never did.
Having a Perfect World only game launcher would seem like a great idea if I only played PWE games, but since I ONLY play STO as far as PWE/Cryptic games go.
I'm quite HAPPY with my STEAM launcher, and would like to continue to use STEAM as my ONLY means of accessing STO and all the other games/Friends that i have on STEAM.
Even if Arc reaches the gaming excellence that STEAM provides it's only for PWE Games and I for one don't see the point of using Arc just to play STO. When STEAM gives me STO and hundreds of other games that I like to keep and play on one gaming Launcher.
I really hope that Cryptic/PWE continue to offer STO on the STEAM gaming Launcher and not make the HUGE mistake of discontinuing STO to STEAM users.
This is another problem. What browser does Arc use within itself?
I use Google with certain plugins to stop adds and other scripts from activating without my knowledge.
Like right now for instance, every add on the forum is blocked from my view.
I expect to have the same ability within Arc, or at the very least the ability to block the Arc inbuilt browser from the internet full stop...
You know the current launcher is a wrapper around IE dll's, right?
So basically what it means is due to overwhelming excitement from no one at all this will become mandatory to be bombarded with ads and such for games that I completely have no interest in.
Funny how the dev answering questions is only responding to post supporting this nonsense and not making any comments about the concerns and down right negative response this is getting. Can't fool me into thinking they are not seeing the negative responses since they have to read through them to find the positive ones. By choosing to only acknowledge the positive posts does not make this an accepted change.
-Rule of Acquisition #113: Always have sex with the boss.
-I am one of the many victims from the hijacked Caspian Division.
I will not let the childish acts of a criminal ruin this game for me.
-The actions of Cryptic, on the other hand......
Comments
The vast majority don't even come to the forums at all, and only those people who really hate it are even going to bother to post. Some MMOs have looked into people who threaten to quit over changes, and found almost no one does it, or if they do they come back in short order.
Count the unique posts, its really not a significant number of people, so even if every last person that posted they will quit instead of using Arc do quit, which history holds as very unlikely, the impact would be pretty insignificant, lost in the greater churn that is MMO turnover.
The reality of Arc is one day they will push it out as the new launcher, and unless there is some technical fault that prevents a player from logging into a PWE/Cryptic game, players won't even bat an eye at it. So, resistance is futile, and all that.
The best outcome that players that don't want it can hope for is a non-persistent option.
Then you must not spend much time here.
Earning ships through gameplay
B'Tran dailies
STFs as they originally launched
Converting to the reputation systems for Omega gear
Even having a reputation system
Adding a new reputation
The fleet system
Everytime they add a new holding to the fleet system
Everytime they add a new cosmetic project for a holding
Dil changes
Crafting Changes
Lockboxes
PvP
KDF
The Great Content Drought of 2011
PWE buying Cryptic
PWE integrating Cryptic into their account system
The transition to the PWE forum
Design the Next Enterprise - man was that one good for lols.
And I'm sure many many more I'm not thinking of of the top of my head. Arc hate barely reads as a blip on these forums compared to those issues.
Will there be an Arc app for iTunes / Android market etc? We've been asking Cryptic for one for years now and so far they've just dragged their heals, as always.
@Aquitaine985
Lag Industries STO PvP Fleet - Executive
A Sad Panda of Industrial calibre.
2010: This is Cryptic PvP. Please hold the line, your call is very important to us...
With any luck I hope that ARC will come positively and use resources wisely and not be obsessively obstructive to gameplay. With any luck that's all we can hope for since... it's going to be forced somewhere down the road and everyone who cares about whatever game they're playing will be given the ultimatum to drink the kool-aid or walk the plank.
Now this could potentially be a positive thing, it could potentially make our experiences more stream-lined and potentially... open us up to the possibility of at least trying out other PWE games. So I wouldn't completely knock it... but I'm not totally for it either. I have my doubts like many here... at least wait, see, listen and observe this app's performance before condemning it completely. That's what I plan to do... at least give it a try before it becomes mandatory.
its like a slowly drop holes the stone ...
at this time i feel more and more this game is no longer a cryptic but a perfect world game (ingame the grinds and the forced "multiplayer" shows it also) ... eventually we should all stop paying stuff or even stop playing the game to show that we dont want that ...
(i had arc installed for testing neverwinter ... total bull**** its only a big shop)
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/
Right now, STO is #28 most played game on Steam with 4123 peak users (which means something around 10k players total).
I guarantee you that most (if not all) of these people will NOT tolerate a client to download a client. There are plenty of F2P MMOs on Steam, they will just choose one of them.
Is 10k players significant enough for you?
Also, the Zen purchase on the new site is still longer than Steam. I simply click buy select my amount and bam it's done and through a site that I trust not PWE.
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
Many people tested ARC and it severely degrades their computer and online performance that makes PWE games unplayable. Else you are very likely to see people stop playing your games.
luckily it states that ARC is not a requirement just yet. rather put off ARC until i know exactly what ARC is doing on my computer.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
it wont be that long before it is tbh
DELTA PRICE RISING
All I need and want is in Steam, don't need anything else whatsoever.
I have an idea for what Season 11 should be; Season 11: The Big Bug Fix.
I have not been able to read my bug tickets in over a year, not even the tickets about not being able to see my tickets.
I find the drama of your signature proof of your immaturity, this means you, DR whiners.
When Arc is launched, will I have to log in to it even though I'm playing through Steam? It seems crazy to have to log in to two different services just to play a game. What makes me laugh is that we had a great forum pre PWE and then they forced them to convert to their ****ty system.
STO is already pretty resource hungry and frankly quite poorly optimised for the quality of the graphics we're getting. Adding another background application is just going to make it run even slower for most people and add more frustration.
For some reason Cryptic seems bent on making one bad decision after another lately.
Looking for a dedicated Star Trek community? Visit www.ufplanets.com for details.
give it until the end of Q1, 2014 before it is a requirement.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
ARCs for hard core PW gamers, not the STO loyal. I just wish they would let us decide if we want to use ARC or the original start up that we could download before ARC from the STO website.
Also, the worst rubberbanding I have ever seen happened when I had ARC running in the background. Not cool.
To add to the chorus, I too, do not want the Arc program, running in the background, and taking up a single bit of data.
I only play STO, and will never play any other Perfect World game, period, end of story. I only want the STO launcher by itself, as I currently have.STO is the only video game I make time to play, from time-to-time, even though I, like many other posters here, have more important things we could be doing, or spending our money on. With that in mind, and the continual promise put out on the forums that Cryptic is listening to it's fan base for the direction of decisions for the game, please, please, please allow for the option, to have the single STO launcher exist, outside of the ARC format for the duration of STO.
When Arc becomes mandatory and affects me I'll make the call to leave or not then.
and if i do leave it will be to goto a game that i've been playing since 2004 , its called darkspace ( http://www.darkspace.net ) stop by and take a look around.....its an ARC-free zone.
Even if I trusted my privacy to any company (which I don't) I still wouldn't use ARC for the sole reason that it's going to use extra resources that I need for running games smoothly.
If ARC becomes mandatory I know I won't be playing anymore, as it is I won't be spending another penny of real money on the game because I have no idea if it'll even be playable with the extra arc drain on my PC resources, once they're live.
I'm also ok with migrating the launcher to a unified laucher. As long as I am able to hide all other games which I do not have an interest to play.
Bottom line: do whatever you want. Just don't bother me advertising games I do not want to play.
Join Date: March 2009
Thanks Cryptic for introducing the Kelvin Timeline. It remembered why I decided to never more put any money on this game.
Have you ever thought about adding it in?
U.S.S. Maelstrom, NCC-71417 (Constitution III-class/flagship) --- Fleet Admiral Hauk' --|-- Dahar Master Hauk --- I.K.S. qu'In 'an bortaS (D7-class / flagship)
I'm quite HAPPY with my STEAM launcher, and would like to continue to use STEAM as my ONLY means of accessing STO and all the other games/Friends that i have on STEAM.
Even if Arc reaches the gaming excellence that STEAM provides it's only for PWE Games and I for one don't see the point of using Arc just to play STO. When STEAM gives me STO and hundreds of other games that I like to keep and play on one gaming Launcher.
I really hope that Cryptic/PWE continue to offer STO on the STEAM gaming Launcher and not make the HUGE mistake of discontinuing STO to STEAM users.
You know the current launcher is a wrapper around IE dll's, right?
Yup I do, but the launcher has no browser built in it.
-Rule of Acquisition #113: Always have sex with the boss.
-I am one of the many victims from the hijacked Caspian Division.
I will not let the childish acts of a criminal ruin this game for me.
-The actions of Cryptic, on the other hand......