We have already had MAJOR issues with users of Arc in my fleet in fact it was our leader that was using it when ARC took up 99% of CPU usage!!! Now you can see how that might be a problem for gamers.
We do NOT want it, we do NOT Need it and it does NOT work.
Like I mentioned several times, if you still want ARC make it optional, allow us the player to choose if we want it or not. I am not spending one more cent in this game until this mess is fixed. Also I suggest that the players boycott buying anything from Cryptic until they understand that they work for us, to please us, to create content that makes us want to spend money. I say lets boycott any ZEN purchase until Cryptic and PWE realize we are the ones paying so we have our demands that need to be met.
Have you tested out ARC before basing your decision???? Do you have prove that it slows down your computer or are basing your decision on what the first couples pages said???
Just asking out curiosity
Why test something that adds no value to a specific player?
Well as for me i have tryed Arc and do not like or even want it. With the old launcher i could turn off half res. now I can not even do that so my game looks all messed up. I had to redo my whole comp. so now i do not have the old launcher. So now I am forced to use Arc. In the years i have been playing STO i have spent alot of money on the game well no more until they fix or even get rid of Arc. Well i Logged Out for the last time as I see no reason to play or even keep the game on my comp. when the Devs do not listen to the player base that does not want Arc.
Okay, so I decided to put my money where my mouth is and try this out. I already had the original Arc installed, so I could also follow where everything is going. I've also copied down a few bits of info so I could properly figure out what's going on.
First of all, memory usage: Running the original Arc on Windows 8, Arc itself used 4.1 MB of my memory and the Arc Browser (as a Background Process) used 35.9 MB. Upgrading to the Beta, Arc's usage shot up to 15 MB and Arc Browser up to 54.2 MB. STO's activation actually drops Arc's usage (to 10.6,, nearly a third cut), but shoots up the Browser (to about 81,1, nearly a 50% increase). Of course, we're running STO with it, which is 58.3 MB
Now, before you start screaming that that's the smoking gun you needed to prove that Arc is a memory hog, let me toss in a few facts. One: my computer has 6 GB of memory, so both of these are a drop in the water. 15 MB is nowhere as high as my Chrome usage, which is 147.3 MB and the 54.2 for the Background Process Arc? Again, nothing tops Chrome as well as McAfee (which is just stuck there and I don't know how to uninstall it without killing my computer). With the game running, it spikes up my CPU usage 7%
Verdict: While 15 MB, 10.1MB, 54.2 MB and 81.1 MB is quite high, it's not the resource hog you guys are complaining about. There are more resource-gobbling programs out there.
The browser itself: I had Avast up and running and not once has the device warned me of any viruses, trojans, etc. So, it's clean. Ads popping into my face, demanding I play other games? I haven't seen any because it shoots me towards the already-installed STO, where I gotta look at Q's ugly mug. However, my only problem is that, when I click the link that sends me to the Message Boards, I have no way to return to the main STO page without hitting Library. Hopefully, that'll get fixed in the future.
I will admit, though, browsing through everything, that it is VERY cluttered. You guys need to work on your placement, guys.
Verdict: While the cluttering needs cleaning up, if you download STO, you don't have to worry about those evil, evil other games that dare tell you to play them.
Actually getting to the game: I've seen a few people complain about how it takes them forever to get on. I know I've had a few instances where I'd needed to log on again, but that was at the main screen and not the browser itself. Clicking it is still a one-button push that sends me to the old STO launcher that sends me to the game.
Verdict: Still fast.
Ultimate verdict: While I do agree that Arc could use a great deal of polishing, it's not the end of the world that everyone's complaining about. It's starting to become obvious, though, that a lot of people who are saying no are doing it out of brand loyalty (they got it when Cryptic first released it and they don't want to change), because they have old computers, they don't know how to read their computer's memory usage or they want to scare players and prospective players so they can have their own way.
Big Wall of Text, read it by the way, the point is not what you are mentioning, the problem is do we need ARC to play STO and the answer is simple No. So why to have something you don't need to play something you can without what you don't need.
It is like given someone a spoon and a fork to drink soup, why do I need the bright shinning fork if the spoon is the right tool to drink the soup?
Verdict: While 15 MB, 10.1MB, 54.2 MB and 81.1 MB is quite high, it's not the resource hog you guys are complaining about. There are more resource-gobbling programs out there.
That was not the point. Noone said that Arc is the most resource-gobbling program in the universe. The point was that Arc drains those resources for nothing. I don't get anything out of it, it doesn't do anything for me other than draining those resouces regardless them being a drop of water or a whole bucket dependant on the machine.
Why do I need to have a completely useless program draining those resources and running in background while I do completely another thing? Why would I want even that amount of virtual memory drained by something I don't need nor use? That's the question here.
So why to have something you don't need to play something you can without what you don't need.
It's not a matter of your need or your desire. The only concern that matters here is that of the marketing folks at PWE, and their directive to subject the playerbase with absolutely as much advertising as we will tolerate without cancelling our subscriptions. They don't care if you want it, need it, or like it. They care how much you will put up with in order to net them a .00001% chance of getting people to try other games.
And I still don't think there's anything to be gained from denying them membership dues or c-store purchases. If the game stops being profitable, they will just discontinue it and move on. Unfortunately, that leaves us with the temptation to look for our own...ways...to continue playing STO without running Arc.
It's not a matter of your need or your desire. The only concern that matters here is that of the marketing folks at PWE, and their directive to subject the playerbase with absolutely as much advertising as we will tolerate without cancelling our subscriptions. They don't care if you want it, need it, or like it. They care how much you will put up with in order to net them a .00001% chance of getting people to try other games.
And I still don't think there's anything to be gained from denying them membership dues or c-store purchases. If the game stops being profitable, they will just discontinue it and move on. Unfortunately, that leaves us with the temptation to look for our own...ways...to continue playing STO without running Arc.
So in your opinion the creation of this ARC is just to increase the volume of advertisement to make us wanting to buy more stuff? Because if this is the goal is going to backfire big time.
So in your opinion the creation of this ARC is just to increase the volume of advertisement to make us wanting to buy more stuff?
I am 100% convinced of it. Every single one of the supposed "benefits" to the players are just window dressing camouflage.
Because if this is the goal is going to backfire big time.
The question is how it will backfire. I seriously doubt PWE is going to let STO be it's own unique little snowflake that doesn't require an Arc install. So will the game die off for lack of interest, or be plagued with a rash of "enforcement actions" against players who take matters into their own hands to circumvent the Arc requirement?
Well with time those players who barely come here will notice the problems and may become aware. I don't know.
In one hand I don't mind having a platform for all the PWE games if improves the game and diminishes the login problems, automatically updates without issues but as long as it will not affect greatly or drastically the performance of my PC, many games out there have some type of this already on them, Steam in itself is this kind of platform.
On the other hand I hate the unknown, the lack of clarity, trustworthiness and honesty on PWE and Cryptic part, they are selling us a wrapped toy telling us that we will like it and that is very dishonest. Unwrap the toy and let us look at it and decide if we want it.
Verdict: While 15 MB, 10.1MB, 54.2 MB and 81.1 MB is quite high, it's not the resource hog you guys are complaining about. There are more resource-gobbling programs out there.
With all due, that's not a very good argument. It's not as bad as others :rolleyes:
Other programs may be of more use to me personally than ARC is. Other programs aren't becoming mandatory.
I have to decide if the benefit is worth the cost/risk with every single program I put on my system.
Ultimate verdict: While I do agree that Arc could use a great deal of polishing,
For this reason alone, It shouldn't be forced on anyone. Much less people who will gain nothing from it.
Come back at me when it's "polished" and made into something useful to me.
OR Throw me some Zen for my trouble. I can be bought.
I still don't want ARC, but if you throw, oh, about 10 thousand ZEN at me, I can be bought. I'll just surf for TRIBBLE while ARC is on, anyway. That way PWE is thwarted, the devs keep their jobs, and everybody lives reasonably happily ever after.
If I actually need to do something important with my computer, I'll just get another or borrow one from a friend.
If u force me to change to ark i will not downloaded it i will stop playing sto i dont wont adds links or any thing else to do with pwe games.
It doesn't work like that basically if you just play STO it will only show you stuff that you look at anyways like the website. Then for forums you just click on STO forums but other than that it doesn't have ads or anything other than what you already see.
If they added some features to it that you could use for resources/podcasts/stuff helps you ingame while you can't be logged in for whatever reason then there would be more reason to want to use it.
That was not the point. Noone said that Arc is the most resource-gobbling program in the universe. The point was that Arc drains those resources for nothing. I don't get anything out of it, it doesn't do anything for me other than draining those resouces regardless them being a drop of water or a whole bucket dependant on the machine.
Why do I need to have a completely useless program draining those resources and running in background while I do completely another thing? Why would I want even that amount of virtual memory drained by something I don't need nor use? That's the question here.
^This, if PWE wants arc, a unified launcher for all games fine, but all the extra "features" that I don't care to use should not be wasting space in my memory, is it resource hogging? No, is it high resource demanding? Yes. All I want is an option in the launcher setting to be able to enable the features I want when I want them and disable them when I don't.
I think the greatest danger to modern consumerism are forums. When one consumer slams another, due to having an alternate experience, the logic behind old school consumerism gets lost. We do not live in a world of like minded individuals. Its only normal to have different tastes and expectation.
I am extremely worried about conformists. Prior to video games entering into mainstream, the average gamer use to rebel against the machine. Now, some of you are conforming to the machine. I find it rather ironic.
As someone who does rage against the machine, I am against the implementation of Arch for a million reasons. My main gripes are due to privacy and advertising harassment issues. I personally want to be left alone. While I understand that DRM is important, I think Arch borderlines on blatant consumer harassment.
Keep Arch off my machine, or I will delete STO from my machine.
As I have said before: I understand the thought behind ARC. A unified launcher does make some sense after all.
What I do not understand however, is why they flat out refuse to answer the question as to why ARC has to stay active whilst we are playing. This to me screams "Red Alert".
Can anyone say security breach? We want to know exactly what ARC does in the background. So, until we get some answers, not only about the above, but also some of the other questions asked in this thread, I will not even be testing ARC, as I care about my rigs safety.
Also, why is ARC so system heavy? I have an older gameing rig, not the newest, but it runs STO smoothly. But with ARC, I might need some upgrades, and upgrades ain't free...
As I have said before: I understand the thought behind ARC. A unified launcher does make some sense after all.
What I do not understand however, is why they flat out refuse to answer the question as to why ARC has to stay active whilst we are playing. This to me screams "Red Alert".
Can anyone say security breach? We want to know exactly what ARC does in the background. So, until we get some answers, not only about the above, but also some of the other questions asked in this thread, I will not even be testing ARC, as I care about my rigs safety.
Also, why is ARC so system heavy? I have an older gameing rig, not the newest, but it runs STO smoothly. But with ARC, I might need some upgrades, and upgrades ain't free...
As far as multi game launchers are concerned I couldn't tell you, but for launchers in general... always on is not new, I play Tera Online from time to time and it's stand a lone launcher must be active while the game is running. For Tera it's a mechanics issue as the launcher is what makes since and assembles the raw DATA (my understanding). With PWE... your guess is as good as mine.
It isn't altruism driving the company to implement this software and if advertising their other games were the only motivation, it would be a futile one since users will merely plow through the advertising onslaught to get to the game of their choice.
No, they want this software running on a users computer for other reasons and the presence of things like unexplained browser plugins leads one to the obvious conclusion that whatever it's true purpose, it is not one that is beneficial to the user.
Arc currently may not contain a peer file exchange function, at this time, but I suspect in its final incarnation when it is required to remain active in the background all the time, that will be it's primary function and then every user will then be forced to share bandwidth, for PWEs benefit.
Use of conformist tactics like peer pressure and ridicule won't alter the reality that this program poses a considerable security risk to the user in a time when such risks are of great importance nor does it change the fact that honest answers to the many questions about its functionality have been near to nonexistent.
If something is not broken, don't fix it, if it is broken, don't leave it broken.
Maybe PWE is been forced by NSA to collect information about the gamers, it is already been known that is taking place in WoW?
:rolleyes: Yeah and we all see how that turned out, the bad guys aren't playing the games their controlling them (joking but really, all we got out of the nsa messing with WoW is a bunch of ns-agents addicted to video games)
Just sent my feedback email to PWE, but I figured I'd post here as well.
The ARC UI itself looks pretty good. It's fairly straightforward and easy to navigate. My concern comes from the "always-on" requirement. The multi-launcher I have the most experience with is NCSoft's NCLauncher, and there's an option to close the launcher after your chosen game is running. But then, PWE doesn't want ARC to be just a launcher.
Given ARC's layout, I can see that they're going for a Steam-like experience. Unfortunately, I have no real need of a Steam-like experience when I already use Steam. Heck, I launch ALL my games through Steam, including Non-Steam games and gaming-related programs. I even launch PWE MMOs through Steam. And it is because of this versatility that I use Steam. Not to mention the acceptable memory footprint that it uses. Now, you CAN add non-ARC games to your ARC library, but Steam offers several different ways of sorting and viewing your library. Also, Steam uses (on my system) somewhere around half the memory that ARC uses.
So, it's not that I think ARC is bad, per se; I just find it superfluous when I already have Steam installed.
Just sent my feedback email to PWE, but I figured I'd post here as well.
The ARC UI itself looks pretty good. It's fairly straightforward and easy to navigate. My concern comes from the "always-on" requirement. The multi-launcher I have the most experience with is NCSoft's NCLauncher, and there's an option to close the launcher after your chosen game is running. But then, PWE doesn't want ARC to be just a launcher.
Given ARC's layout, I can see that they're going for a Steam-like experience. Unfortunately, I have no real need of a Steam-like experience when I already use Steam. Heck, I launch ALL my games through Steam, including Non-Steam games and gaming-related programs. I even launch PWE MMOs through Steam. And it is because of this versatility that I use Steam. Not to mention the acceptable memory footprint that it uses. Now, you CAN add non-ARC games to your ARC library, but Steam offers several different ways of sorting and viewing your library. Also, Steam uses (on my system) somewhere around half the memory that ARC uses.
So, it's not that I think ARC is bad, per se; I just find it superfluous when I already have Steam installed.
Comments
When STO only works with ARC it to will get un-installed..
We do NOT want it, we do NOT Need it and it does NOT work.
Why test something that adds no value to a specific player?
First of all, memory usage: Running the original Arc on Windows 8, Arc itself used 4.1 MB of my memory and the Arc Browser (as a Background Process) used 35.9 MB. Upgrading to the Beta, Arc's usage shot up to 15 MB and Arc Browser up to 54.2 MB. STO's activation actually drops Arc's usage (to 10.6,, nearly a third cut), but shoots up the Browser (to about 81,1, nearly a 50% increase). Of course, we're running STO with it, which is 58.3 MB
Now, before you start screaming that that's the smoking gun you needed to prove that Arc is a memory hog, let me toss in a few facts. One: my computer has 6 GB of memory, so both of these are a drop in the water. 15 MB is nowhere as high as my Chrome usage, which is 147.3 MB and the 54.2 for the Background Process Arc? Again, nothing tops Chrome as well as McAfee (which is just stuck there and I don't know how to uninstall it without killing my computer). With the game running, it spikes up my CPU usage 7%
Verdict: While 15 MB, 10.1MB, 54.2 MB and 81.1 MB is quite high, it's not the resource hog you guys are complaining about. There are more resource-gobbling programs out there.
The browser itself: I had Avast up and running and not once has the device warned me of any viruses, trojans, etc. So, it's clean. Ads popping into my face, demanding I play other games? I haven't seen any because it shoots me towards the already-installed STO, where I gotta look at Q's ugly mug. However, my only problem is that, when I click the link that sends me to the Message Boards, I have no way to return to the main STO page without hitting Library. Hopefully, that'll get fixed in the future.
I will admit, though, browsing through everything, that it is VERY cluttered. You guys need to work on your placement, guys.
Verdict: While the cluttering needs cleaning up, if you download STO, you don't have to worry about those evil, evil other games that dare tell you to play them.
Actually getting to the game: I've seen a few people complain about how it takes them forever to get on. I know I've had a few instances where I'd needed to log on again, but that was at the main screen and not the browser itself. Clicking it is still a one-button push that sends me to the old STO launcher that sends me to the game.
Verdict: Still fast.
Ultimate verdict: While I do agree that Arc could use a great deal of polishing, it's not the end of the world that everyone's complaining about. It's starting to become obvious, though, that a lot of people who are saying no are doing it out of brand loyalty (they got it when Cryptic first released it and they don't want to change), because they have old computers, they don't know how to read their computer's memory usage or they want to scare players and prospective players so they can have their own way.
It is like given someone a spoon and a fork to drink soup, why do I need the bright shinning fork if the spoon is the right tool to drink the soup?
That was not the point. Noone said that Arc is the most resource-gobbling program in the universe. The point was that Arc drains those resources for nothing. I don't get anything out of it, it doesn't do anything for me other than draining those resouces regardless them being a drop of water or a whole bucket dependant on the machine.
Why do I need to have a completely useless program draining those resources and running in background while I do completely another thing? Why would I want even that amount of virtual memory drained by something I don't need nor use? That's the question here.
It's not a matter of your need or your desire. The only concern that matters here is that of the marketing folks at PWE, and their directive to subject the playerbase with absolutely as much advertising as we will tolerate without cancelling our subscriptions. They don't care if you want it, need it, or like it. They care how much you will put up with in order to net them a .00001% chance of getting people to try other games.
And I still don't think there's anything to be gained from denying them membership dues or c-store purchases. If the game stops being profitable, they will just discontinue it and move on. Unfortunately, that leaves us with the temptation to look for our own...ways...to continue playing STO without running Arc.
So in your opinion the creation of this ARC is just to increase the volume of advertisement to make us wanting to buy more stuff? Because if this is the goal is going to backfire big time.
I am 100% convinced of it. Every single one of the supposed "benefits" to the players are just window dressing camouflage.
The question is how it will backfire. I seriously doubt PWE is going to let STO be it's own unique little snowflake that doesn't require an Arc install. So will the game die off for lack of interest, or be plagued with a rash of "enforcement actions" against players who take matters into their own hands to circumvent the Arc requirement?
In one hand I don't mind having a platform for all the PWE games if improves the game and diminishes the login problems, automatically updates without issues but as long as it will not affect greatly or drastically the performance of my PC, many games out there have some type of this already on them, Steam in itself is this kind of platform.
On the other hand I hate the unknown, the lack of clarity, trustworthiness and honesty on PWE and Cryptic part, they are selling us a wrapped toy telling us that we will like it and that is very dishonest. Unwrap the toy and let us look at it and decide if we want it.
Other programs may be of more use to me personally than ARC is. Other programs aren't becoming mandatory.
I have to decide if the benefit is worth the cost/risk with every single program I put on my system.
For this reason alone, It shouldn't be forced on anyone. Much less people who will gain nothing from it.
Come back at me when it's "polished" and made into something useful to me.
OR Throw me some Zen for my trouble. I can be bought.
If I actually need to do something important with my computer, I'll just get another or borrow one from a friend.
It doesn't work like that basically if you just play STO it will only show you stuff that you look at anyways like the website. Then for forums you just click on STO forums but other than that it doesn't have ads or anything other than what you already see.
If they added some features to it that you could use for resources/podcasts/stuff helps you ingame while you can't be logged in for whatever reason then there would be more reason to want to use it.
^This, if PWE wants arc, a unified launcher for all games fine, but all the extra "features" that I don't care to use should not be wasting space in my memory, is it resource hogging? No, is it high resource demanding? Yes. All I want is an option in the launcher setting to be able to enable the features I want when I want them and disable them when I don't.
I am extremely worried about conformists. Prior to video games entering into mainstream, the average gamer use to rebel against the machine. Now, some of you are conforming to the machine. I find it rather ironic.
As someone who does rage against the machine, I am against the implementation of Arch for a million reasons. My main gripes are due to privacy and advertising harassment issues. I personally want to be left alone. While I understand that DRM is important, I think Arch borderlines on blatant consumer harassment.
Keep Arch off my machine, or I will delete STO from my machine.
Its that simple.
What I do not understand however, is why they flat out refuse to answer the question as to why ARC has to stay active whilst we are playing. This to me screams "Red Alert".
Can anyone say security breach? We want to know exactly what ARC does in the background. So, until we get some answers, not only about the above, but also some of the other questions asked in this thread, I will not even be testing ARC, as I care about my rigs safety.
Also, why is ARC so system heavy? I have an older gameing rig, not the newest, but it runs STO smoothly. But with ARC, I might need some upgrades, and upgrades ain't free...
As far as multi game launchers are concerned I couldn't tell you, but for launchers in general... always on is not new, I play Tera Online from time to time and it's stand a lone launcher must be active while the game is running. For Tera it's a mechanics issue as the launcher is what makes since and assembles the raw DATA (my understanding). With PWE... your guess is as good as mine.
No, they want this software running on a users computer for other reasons and the presence of things like unexplained browser plugins leads one to the obvious conclusion that whatever it's true purpose, it is not one that is beneficial to the user.
Arc currently may not contain a peer file exchange function, at this time, but I suspect in its final incarnation when it is required to remain active in the background all the time, that will be it's primary function and then every user will then be forced to share bandwidth, for PWEs benefit.
Use of conformist tactics like peer pressure and ridicule won't alter the reality that this program poses a considerable security risk to the user in a time when such risks are of great importance nor does it change the fact that honest answers to the many questions about its functionality have been near to nonexistent.
:rolleyes: Yeah and we all see how that turned out, the bad guys aren't playing the games their controlling them (joking but really, all we got out of the nsa messing with WoW is a bunch of ns-agents addicted to video games)
The ARC UI itself looks pretty good. It's fairly straightforward and easy to navigate. My concern comes from the "always-on" requirement. The multi-launcher I have the most experience with is NCSoft's NCLauncher, and there's an option to close the launcher after your chosen game is running. But then, PWE doesn't want ARC to be just a launcher.
Given ARC's layout, I can see that they're going for a Steam-like experience. Unfortunately, I have no real need of a Steam-like experience when I already use Steam. Heck, I launch ALL my games through Steam, including Non-Steam games and gaming-related programs. I even launch PWE MMOs through Steam. And it is because of this versatility that I use Steam. Not to mention the acceptable memory footprint that it uses. Now, you CAN add non-ARC games to your ARC library, but Steam offers several different ways of sorting and viewing your library. Also, Steam uses (on my system) somewhere around half the memory that ARC uses.
So, it's not that I think ARC is bad, per se; I just find it superfluous when I already have Steam installed.
Very good letter. +1 from me. -Fwiw.