Now that weve completed our websites transition to Arc Games, were excited to announce our next Legacy Pack giveaway. Check out the link below to learn more.
Is this one of those "need to improve Arc related social-media things by any means, bribing playing base to artificially inflate values will do it" decisions?
Wow. Facebook or Twitter. It just doesn't get any more Cryptic than that.
"Win stuff for our game by going to somebody else's web site. [REDACTED] the people on our site."
Yeah, [REDACTED] that [REDACTED] says I. Install ARC? Sure, and run it once per bribe...er..."giveaway." "Like" it in any form, literal or figurative? Pffft.
Uhh... you do realize that the forums are a social media outlet, right?
#Worffail
j/k
But in all seriousness, we don't want to exclude anyone from this contest so much as we want to include those of our fans who do follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and give special attention to those players who do use social media.
Everyone who wants to enter the contest is welcomed and appreciated, and we mean this as a way to include players in a giveaway who may not have the time to join us for Livestreams, and events and other giveaways that are more time restrictive.
Good luck everyone!
~CaptainSmirk
I see. Thank you for your explanation, Trevor; I'm just a little confused because the whole thing seems counterintuitive.
I guess I'll save up the old-fashioned way.
Oh, and do please tell the dev team from me that I am a HUGE fan of the Avenger-class. Just got it on Three and it is a DPS monster...
Smirk, an alternative idea that rewards players for actually playing the game:
Have the dev team and the community team get on to STO, and announce that anyone who plays something with the staff (whether a Borg STF or the Battlezone or a FE or whatever) for an hour or so gets a chance to win a legacy pack.
This would drive numbers up, especially if you publicized it in advance and timed it right for peak US playing hours. It would encourage players to directly play the game, and would probably at least be mentioned on industry websites like MMORPG.com, resulting in publicity free of Facebook's influence (because Facebook makes ARC look like Santa Claus).
k, followed on twitter for the lulz. Not like id win but meh, ive seen worse happen O_o
Oh, I don't expect to win. They'll pull some ridiculous catch like "Answer this skill testing question: Integral between 0 and 2 for ln(x)x^x^2dx", or something a lot more legal, "Sorry, you don't live in the US, we can't give you the reward".
There is ALWAYS a catch.
stardestroyer001, Admiral, Explorers Fury PvE/PvP Fleet | Retired PvP Player
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9 My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
This extraordinary black hole of intense irrational negativity proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that STO & its forums are mainly populated by mentally disturbed curmudgeons.
Complaining about something as simple and benign as Arc was already strong evidence supporting this conclusion, but many many people seriously whining (as in not trolling, but an actual honest response to external stimuli) about having to use social networking to take part in a free giveaway?! Well... that's the new gold standard.
I wish to express to each and every one of you exactly how much you are personally despised as human beings, but the depth is beyond mere words. If ever composure were lost, I'd risk the bends by cooling off.
We, the rational, would like to express our eternal gratitude to the Implementors for their continual benevolence.
Nitpicking is a time-honored tradition of science fiction. Asking your readers not to worry about the "little things" is like asking a dog not to sniff at people's crotches. If there's something that appears to violate natural laws, then you can expect someone's going to point it out. That's just the way things are.
I'm kind of surprised this doesn't violate Facebook's TOS but, they are kind of nefarious anyway. Liking something for any other reason than 'liking' it is deceptive.
Hey leadme2kirk I thought about that for a bit but my guess is that because "Like" on Facebook is akin to "Follow" on Twitter, it is just a simple way of getting page traffic. No one has to 'like' or 'follow', but if you do, you have a chance to win a prize. Based on my first sentence, we all know what's going on, so it's not like the site creators are being deceptive; I don't think site users are being deceptive for 'liking' a page for an incentive either. If people have hang-ups about clicking a button labeled 'like' when they have negative feelings toward it, then they shouldn't click it.
People raging about their dislike of social media just gets me shaking my head. We don't need to know that in the forums as it's only minimally related to the thread. I chuckle because they're using the internet for crying out loud. Whoever wanted to "find/watch" them has likely done it already. Welcome to 2014, folks.
On a more relevant note, I'd really enjoy that Legacy Pack. Here's to hoping I get picked!
Uhh... you do realize that the forums are a social media outlet, right?
#Worffail
j/k
But in all seriousness, we don't want to exclude anyone from this contest so much as we want to include those of our fans who do follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and give special attention to those players who do use social media.
Everyone who wants to enter the contest is welcomed and appreciated, and we mean this as a way to include players in a giveaway who may not have the time to join us for Livestreams, and events and other giveaways that are more time restrictive.
What really riles me about this whole thing is that PWE expects me to lie to the whole internet in exchange for a raffle ticket. It's unethical any way you slice it - even before you get into the security/privacy debacle that is Facebook's entire history.
I don't like anything about Arc - it eats far more memory and bandwidth than there's any excuse for, it installs secondary programs without user permission, it lacks functionality that comes standard on systems it's clearly trying to emulate, and the website is utterly useless. How DARE you ask me to give you free advertising for that pile of scrapcode?
EDIT: It hurts, is what I'm trying to say. I'm being asked to go directly against my morals in exchange for the offchance of getting something nifty.
It would be nice, but those resources are better used on developing the game, doing CM engagement, etc. We could hire someone to do that, but then again, I think you would all rather having that extra person developing the game, doing CM engagement, etc. when the Wiki already gets as much love as it does now from the playerbase.
STO players, due the sheer number, will always be able to update the wiki faster than we ever could. It's really exciting to see how many players work on the Wiki and contribute to the Community as a whole through it. I use it all the time (used it over the weekend to decide on a Warp Core), and I was thankful it was there.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
The problem with the wiki is not only the sheer number of pages needed to be created/refined with new updates, but also the accuracy of the pages as well; some of which can only be answered by a Dev.
stardestroyer001, Admiral, Explorers Fury PvE/PvP Fleet | Retired PvP Player
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9 My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
This may have been the mindset 5 years ago, but the times have changed, and information sharing has evolved. Many more games (and companies not even in the entertainment sector) are using their Wikis, or 3rd party Wikis if they already exist (like the STOWiki), to house information. The reason: an entire playerbase (or usergroup) can contribute information much faster and in greater detail than a few of us on the Community Team can*. The STOWiki has flourished into an amazing resource that has allowed us and the community to utilize it as a knowledge base, and we are proud of the fact that we can link to it and call it the official Wiki.
*Of course the CM team could take all that over, but with how much new information is pumped out in each blog, patch, and update, that would require us to set aside most of our other projects, including community engagement, livestreams, events, and much more. We're humans, not Androids, so we can't do it all, and we consider Engagement far more impacting for our Community
Regarding your concerns, we're official partners with the Wiki, which is owned by Curse. One of their main business lines is their Wikis, and they are very successful with the traffic that visits it. They have a vested interest in ensuring the doomsday scenarios you mentioned do not occur, and take proper safety measures for backups, etc.
I do appreciate your feedback, and hopefully this post helps illustrate the greater picture a bit better.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Brandon, If you haven't heard, please go ask Trail Turtle or the other folks over at Champions Online what happened to that wiki recently. As a hint, it is gone completely.
The only silver lining is that the old host sent a copy of the files to Cryptic.
Some will always be oldschool (like your name :P), and that's cool too. We're not locking you out of content or the game. It's a contest, and like any contest out there, if you don't like the terms and conditions, you don't have to participate. It's optional, and you're only loosing out at the opportunity of potentially winning something if you don't participate.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
B-b-b-but that requires reasonable thinking!!! We don't do that here!!! :P
What about players who don't use social media?
(...)
Then you are of no interest since you don't generate revenue for clicking/liking/following/blah.
Me neither, btw.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
weve completed our websites transition to Arc Games
You call this "completed"? Seriously?
No logo.
No server status.
No maintenance messages.
No design. startrekonline.com still points to the remains of the old website with "redirected to Ark" window.
I'm interested to know which ship that is in the title picture of the blog - the scorpion-tailed-looking romulan vessel. Is that just an unusual angle or is it some kind of mirror-romulan ship? I ask mostly because I don't recognise it, and I'm curious (and it looks cool).
I'm interested to know which ship that is in the title picture of the blog - the scorpion-tailed-looking romulan vessel. Is that just an unusual angle or is it some kind of mirror-romulan ship?
Some will always be oldschool (like your name :P), and that's cool too. We're not locking you out of content or the game. It's a contest, and like any contest out there, if you don't like the terms and conditions, you don't have to participate. It's optional, and you're only loosing out at the opportunity of potentially winning something if you don't participate.
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
True Brandon, but even many companies here in the UK who do contest on Twitter ,Facebook, or by text give a website alternative or even a snail mail address. They do it because they listened to the complaints of their customers who do not have either a mobile, Twitter or Facebook account. The exceptions tend to be those that have an hourly draw when post is pretty much going to be useless.
I know you are not in the UK but it would be an idea to take the complaints on board for the next one. Though as with other companies it is quite understandable if you ignore those throwing insults around as part of their complaint.
However even they don't bribe you for likes or followers. Lordy even the free app games I play give away things for writing a review, they don't say a positive one, and I wrote an even one listing it pros and cons to me, and got my bunch of premium currency.
Personally I do not have a Facebook or Twitter account. If I want any of my friends to know something I do one of two things I pick up the phone and call them or I go out and pop round to their homes and speak to them in person. I know so analogue but I have not had any interest in the ramblings of strangers or my "friends" count which is just a bunch of strangers.
Now on this competition I wouldn't have entered anyway ever if there was an alternative, I tend not to be luck in this area. I have only ever won one things and that was 20 years ago and was a set of chef knives from a home design/decorating mag as I had not long just got my own place. After another 10 years of not wining anything I gave up.
Comments
Is this one of those "need to improve Arc related social-media things by any means, bribing playing base to artificially inflate values will do it" decisions?
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Win stuff for our game by going to somebody else's web site. [REDACTED] the people on our site."
Yeah, [REDACTED] that [REDACTED] says I. Install ARC? Sure, and run it once per bribe...er..."giveaway." "Like" it in any form, literal or figurative? Pffft.
I see. Thank you for your explanation, Trevor; I'm just a little confused because the whole thing seems counterintuitive.
I guess I'll save up the old-fashioned way.
Oh, and do please tell the dev team from me that I am a HUGE fan of the Avenger-class. Just got it on Three and it is a DPS monster...
Don't use the twitbooks, so will gladly pass this by.
Fleet Admiral Rylana - Fed Tac - U.S.S Wild Card - Tactical Miracle Worker Cruiser
Lifetime Subscriber since 2012 == 17,200 Accolades = RIP PvP and Vice Squad
Chief of Starfleet Intelligence Service == Praise Cheesus
Have the dev team and the community team get on to STO, and announce that anyone who plays something with the staff (whether a Borg STF or the Battlezone or a FE or whatever) for an hour or so gets a chance to win a legacy pack.
This would drive numbers up, especially if you publicized it in advance and timed it right for peak US playing hours. It would encourage players to directly play the game, and would probably at least be mentioned on industry websites like MMORPG.com, resulting in publicity free of Facebook's influence (because Facebook makes ARC look like Santa Claus).
Just a thought.
Oh, I don't expect to win. They'll pull some ridiculous catch like "Answer this skill testing question: Integral between 0 and 2 for ln(x)x^x^2dx", or something a lot more legal, "Sorry, you don't live in the US, we can't give you the reward".
There is ALWAYS a catch.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
Complaining about something as simple and benign as Arc was already strong evidence supporting this conclusion, but many many people seriously whining (as in not trolling, but an actual honest response to external stimuli) about having to use social networking to take part in a free giveaway?! Well... that's the new gold standard.
I wish to express to each and every one of you exactly how much you are personally despised as human beings, but the depth is beyond mere words. If ever composure were lost, I'd risk the bends by cooling off.
We, the rational, would like to express our eternal gratitude to the Implementors for their continual benevolence.
All marketing is deceptive. Calling it deceptive is redundant. :P
Joined January 2009
Hey leadme2kirk I thought about that for a bit but my guess is that because "Like" on Facebook is akin to "Follow" on Twitter, it is just a simple way of getting page traffic. No one has to 'like' or 'follow', but if you do, you have a chance to win a prize. Based on my first sentence, we all know what's going on, so it's not like the site creators are being deceptive; I don't think site users are being deceptive for 'liking' a page for an incentive either. If people have hang-ups about clicking a button labeled 'like' when they have negative feelings toward it, then they shouldn't click it.
People raging about their dislike of social media just gets me shaking my head. We don't need to know that in the forums as it's only minimally related to the thread. I chuckle because they're using the internet for crying out loud. Whoever wanted to "find/watch" them has likely done it already. Welcome to 2014, folks.
On a more relevant note, I'd really enjoy that Legacy Pack. Here's to hoping I get picked!
Now THAT is a good point. I think Google+ should also be included. Set that up, and I'll add Arc to my circle too, haha.
3 points CaptainSmirk
#megafacepalm
How is this an ethical quandary for people??
The problem with the wiki is not only the sheer number of pages needed to be created/refined with new updates, but also the accuracy of the pages as well; some of which can only be answered by a Dev.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
I don't mind the social media thing. I use them often enough.
Brandon, If you haven't heard, please go ask Trail Turtle or the other folks over at Champions Online what happened to that wiki recently. As a hint, it is gone completely.
The only silver lining is that the old host sent a copy of the files to Cryptic.
Hate to see something like that happen here.
B-b-b-but that requires reasonable thinking!!! We don't do that here!!! :P
*Sniffs*
No.. no, that's bacon I think.
Then you are of no interest since you don't generate revenue for clicking/liking/following/blah.
Me neither, btw.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Nice, they should use that in the adverts.
Come play STO, we have bacon!!
You call this "completed"? Seriously?
No logo.
No server status.
No maintenance messages.
No design.
startrekonline.com still points to the remains of the old website with "redirected to Ark" window.
Completed. Sure.
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Haakona_Advanced_Warbird
True Brandon, but even many companies here in the UK who do contest on Twitter ,Facebook, or by text give a website alternative or even a snail mail address. They do it because they listened to the complaints of their customers who do not have either a mobile, Twitter or Facebook account. The exceptions tend to be those that have an hourly draw when post is pretty much going to be useless.
I know you are not in the UK but it would be an idea to take the complaints on board for the next one. Though as with other companies it is quite understandable if you ignore those throwing insults around as part of their complaint.
However even they don't bribe you for likes or followers. Lordy even the free app games I play give away things for writing a review, they don't say a positive one, and I wrote an even one listing it pros and cons to me, and got my bunch of premium currency.
Personally I do not have a Facebook or Twitter account. If I want any of my friends to know something I do one of two things I pick up the phone and call them or I go out and pop round to their homes and speak to them in person. I know so analogue but I have not had any interest in the ramblings of strangers or my "friends" count which is just a bunch of strangers.
Now on this competition I wouldn't have entered anyway ever if there was an alternative, I tend not to be luck in this area. I have only ever won one things and that was 20 years ago and was a set of chef knives from a home design/decorating mag as I had not long just got my own place. After another 10 years of not wining anything I gave up.