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Does Cryptic ever listen to the Ordinary F2P player?
stuart1965
Member Posts: 691 Arc User
I'm just curious. Does cryptic ever listen to the ordinary F2P player, or is it a select circle of players with money???
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AKA, themselves and the occasional bug reporter if the bug somehow involves dilithium or something like that.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10052253
Why are you not rejoicing?
Cryptic listens to the ordinary f2p player. However, whether they act on the opinions of the ordinary f2p player is going to vary.
If the silver player in question spends no money and has no intention of spending any money, then the cost of that player becomes a liability to STO -- not an asset. By using Cryptic's services without paying money for those services, then the money not generated by that player is covered by other players who do spend money.
A crude approximation would be whether or not a restaurant listens to the opinions of individuals who show up to use their bathroom, but aren't a paying customer. What does the restaurant care? They are using the facilities, not purchasing food.
f2p games make the gamble that the money spent by players who choose to spend money will cover the money lost on players who are 'hitching a ride' for free. And that said f2p players will be encouraged to spend money through microtransactions.
Does Cryptic listen to potential dollar signs? Yes. But not as closely as they would with a 'select group of players with money'.
Because those players are the ones who pay the bills. Not the 'ordinary' f2p player. The more money they spend (or are likely to spend), the opinion of that person matters more.
they will however also be guided by metrics. the entire forum can demand x, but if no one is game is buying x and is instead buying y then they will make more y. so they will follow the money, but anyone is free to give feedback and be heard.
Is the question: Does cryptic listen to people who don't vote with their wallet?
Yeah. That's his question.
Why didn't the folks at pwe/crytic act immediately on my latest demand?
Listening to us and acting upon those comments aren't connected.
We have a winner!
He hit the nail on the head.
And why would they not listen to F2Pers? I very much doubt anybody who actually works on building and fixing the game looks at the forum and checks people's account status to see how much they've spent before reading a post. A problem is a problem. Just because your paying customers aren't saying anything about it at the moment doesn't mean they are not affected; you have to remember that only a tiny fraction of gamers ever get involved with their game's community. The only exception would be where the F2P economics are concerned, where obviously they must weigh what people say they want versus how it's gong to affect their revenue.
^Pretty much this
In the past year we have seen Cryptic:
- listening and replying (e.g. bug reports, even if it's just an *investigatin*)
- listening and acting as well (e.g. account bound lobi, Rep system)
Overall things have improved I'd say. But they're still overworked and have too much on their plate.
im lts and branflakes completely ignores me. so i doubt it's just a money thing and cryptic never responds to threads about these entitlement claims, that people with money believing they have been ripped off and want something in return. you should search the forum ore often, never know what you will turn up under the nearest rock.
then there was a poll over a year back about which race you would like to see make it as playable, romulans hit the jackpot with the 10% forum majority as 90% of the players don't attend the forums. it was added to the game, then there are the many bug reports and other serious issues that get attention, if it gets personal attention from a dev or branflakes is another matter entirely.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Cryptics devs only listen to criticism they like and to the small minority of PvPers.
(but the fact that PvE demands a whole different approach to most powers and game mechanics gets ignored by them.)
So no they do not much differ between F2P and silver/gold players. They have other criteria...
(like ignoring certain people like me or some annoying issues like canon trek....)
You think Silvers are the only ones to be ignored? Open your eyes then please.
Somewhat fair, but then again, while many of us obviously aren't expecting immediate results, it would be nice to see results sooner than several months later, if at all. Someone reposted a bug that has apparently been reported for nearly three years with not even an acknowledgement. Then there's the Delta Volanis bug I had reported in early November which has not even warranted a mention in the known issues of the patch reports, despite it affecting the entire KDF faction.
Odan Brota (Science Officer): Captain of a 28k DPS Scryer Intel Science Vessel, U.S.S. Kepler
Patiently waiting for a Romulan Science Vessel
It does not matter where the Feedback comes from as long as it is reasonable feedback. Although, if I was a dev and wanted to improve PvP, then I would talk to PvPers instead of PvEers, but it doesn't matter if the PvPer never paid a cent or spent thousands of dollars on the game.
Ah Haha! Love your signature.
Thats a funny one.
"This is Fleet Commander BumBle!..
Vice Admiral of the U.S.S. Prometheus!..
I order you to lower your shields and weapons or ill be forced to fire upon you!!!"
Well they haven't listened to us actual lifers for years now so I doubt it's because of real money revenues.
On the other hand... You want changes to be made to STO, but are unwilling to contribute to the funds necessary to make that change possible... Should STO listen to you???
At the end, Cryptic is a private business, they are in to make money, this is no charity with their hearts on their hands. This is already incredibly rare to see a 100% free to play game such as this where a player can access the entire content for $0.00
To take the food/restaurant analogy as I saw it: Yes, Cryptic is a "soup kitchen" as far as listening, they will take and note all feedback. However, they work more like a "honor system" restaurant where customers pay what they think the service is worth. Some will walk in, eat and walk out without leaving a penny on the table, the next may land a $100 bill for the same meal. That's how Cryptic runs STO... quite a gamble...
The worth of a player is not only derived from how much they spend. Every free-player in the game makes the place more alive, speeds up grouping and encourages others to play. If everyone who isn't spending money on the game were to leave, paying customers may also leave due to the game feeling that much more deserted. An active free-player with good community spirit, is likely worth more than a grumpy old toad who pays out monthly and does nothing but whine and grumble in zone chat. (Of course, most players fall somewhere between those two extremes).
(Also PWE gets paid for all the 'free zen' questionnaires, offers, adverts and surveys, so whilst someone who completes those may not be forking over the cash themselves, someone is giving money on their behalf).
they generally listen to a large group of feds, but thats about it.
free jkname
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
1) They can't implement every requested change/feature/request; Many times on these forums, you will find players coming from different angles (i.e. FAW shouldn't Crit, FAW should). So there are often differing viewpoints on any suggestion/recommendation/request. "You can't please everyone".
2) It has to make business sense. Cryptic is a company, and every request needs to be vetted for whether or not it will generate revenue, and/or produce a ROI (Return on Investment). Every projet/request/enhancement requires investment of resources (be that cash, human time (Dev's need paid) etc. These costs are then measured against how much they believe they will get back (i.e. If they invest $1000 in a new costume, and sell it for $3... how many players do they believe will buy it).
3) All projects/requests/enhancements need to be weighed against impact and priority. As much as we would all like certain things, Cryptic does not have infinite resources at its dispolsal, so a rather legnthy request list, would (at least this is how I work programming request lists) then have to be filtered into how much time we have a vailable, what will make the largest impact, any contractual/regulatory changes, ROI, and etc. This also applies to bug fixes. The impact of a bug must be evaluated against the time and resources required to correct, and its overall impact on the customer base. They are also ranked by severity. A costume clipping issue, while annoying, isn't game breaking... nor is a mission with low number of plays that isn't working exactly right. Issues impacting large numbers of players, and that a) impact the bottom line (i.e. Dilithium Exploits), and/or b) prevent players from logging in and playing (and spending) take a higher priority.
I can tell you, from experience, that no developer wants bugs, that programmers take their work very personally... and when there is an issue with their work, they want to fix it. However, the demands of the company may take priority.
So in the end, its not that they don't listen... but they simply can not do everything we ask for.
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
Not sure where this is heading ... but if they listen to anyone ... it's "the ordinary F2p player" ... otherwise Gold Membership or LTA would be worth anything these days :P ...
Doubt we're on the same page on what an "ordinary F2P Player" is supposed to be though ... imho people with the attention span of a fruit fly who do some Rep-Grinds, while spending some cash in the shop, and then leave ... to be replaced with the next fruit flies with wallets ... (aka "How F2P works")