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Romulan Duty Officer Promo - FOR SHAME, CRYPTIC, FOR SHAME.
evilbenfranklin
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
So, like many players, I spent a few bucks on keys in an attempt to get the Jem'Hadar attack ship, when suddenly it occurred to me to think, "...Just what am I doing, here?!" That led me to think further, and come to the realization that just like the lockboxes and master keys, Cryptic and PWI/ARC are once again dangling a carrot over our heads and laughing all the way to the bank as we futilely leap for it.
I understand that the studio needs to remain profitable. I have even come to grudgingly accept lockboxes, although that acceptance is waning with this latest money-grab, but really at this point I am beginning to find the whole thing to be unconscionable, especially given that I am a supporter and subscriber to the game.
Other games, notably The Secret World (whose director recently called Cryptic out on lockboxes in a monthly update), give subscribers a 10% discount to their cash store. You get bonus points for buying points on top of that, as well as veteran points to get spiffier things. Most of their items are purely cosmetic, and the ones that aren't are only a matter of convenience - nothing terribly balance-altering.
What do we get as subscribers to STO? The privilege of paying full price for everything.
As it stands, I will keep playing STO, and supporting it because I have good friends here and do love the game despite its blemishes and faults... but Cryptic, I urge you to rethink this whole thing, and consider at least giving subscribers some incentive - when you've already got your hands in my left pocket, reaching around to get into my right pocket like this as well makes it seem like you only love me for my money... and that is no way to maintain a lasting relationship.
I understand that the studio needs to remain profitable. I have even come to grudgingly accept lockboxes, although that acceptance is waning with this latest money-grab, but really at this point I am beginning to find the whole thing to be unconscionable, especially given that I am a supporter and subscriber to the game.
Other games, notably The Secret World (whose director recently called Cryptic out on lockboxes in a monthly update), give subscribers a 10% discount to their cash store. You get bonus points for buying points on top of that, as well as veteran points to get spiffier things. Most of their items are purely cosmetic, and the ones that aren't are only a matter of convenience - nothing terribly balance-altering.
What do we get as subscribers to STO? The privilege of paying full price for everything.
As it stands, I will keep playing STO, and supporting it because I have good friends here and do love the game despite its blemishes and faults... but Cryptic, I urge you to rethink this whole thing, and consider at least giving subscribers some incentive - when you've already got your hands in my left pocket, reaching around to get into my right pocket like this as well makes it seem like you only love me for my money... and that is no way to maintain a lasting relationship.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Post edited by evilbenfranklin on
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That's the biggest point that gets to me, in this game, but that's not something Cryptic can change anymore, at this point. It's so deeply ingrained in the game systems that it'd be impossible to fix without scrapping half of the design philosophy.
dis gonna be gud :P
seriously man, i understand where you're coming from, but you do know this thread is gonna get trolled to hell and back with the way you worded your opening post
You do understand, you can play Star Trek Online, in full, from start to finish - without spending a single penny in the game.
You do also understand, everything in the C-Store, can be bought, for free, if you are willing to work for it.
At no point are you forced to spend money in Star Trek Online, even this so called "uber bug ship" can be gained with either EC or Dill converted to Zen.
Other games make you buy missions, mounts, items with actual money - in Star Trek Online, using real world money for anything - is optional.
Let 'em come... I felt it had to be said, and I've said my piece. There's really nothing they can do to get a rise out of me.
---
What subscribers get, is the benefits laid out in the matrix. if you don't think the benefits are worth the money then don't sub. save that money and spend it on the boxes or elsewhere.
I will agree that i think subs could get more, although i dont think they want people to sub as all PW games are f2p only, and if they could they would have eliminated the option completely.
but again subscribers do have an incentive. It's unfortunately not the incentive you want but im sure everyone would like a different incentive. if that is not enough stop paying the money.
Cryptic or PW dont love you. they dont care who you are, they do only want your money because they are a business. In return you (hopefully) get enjoyment out of the game. there is no relationship other than a mutual beneficial situation for both parties.
They offer ways to play the whole game for free and they offer a lot of optional stuff that you can choose to buy. no one is reaching round to grab your wallet, you are actively offering it up to them and placing the money in their pockets.
Personally I thank you for your contribution, and I would buy you a round and a Orion ho in Qo'noS bar.
Ain't Nobody Got Time for That
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Also, if you gamble real money for something unreal, you may need to talk to someone about that.
The only reason why cryptic uses this scheme is because people give them money.
The house always wins
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
It took you until now to realize that?
You are absolutely right, obviously, but really that was a problem from the second that came around the first time.
Whilst I have acquiesced to the existence of lockboxes, perhaps it's good to point out again, that Cryptic does not, in fact, admit to them being a gambling scheme. By adding kinda worthless other junk they can call the ship you're going for just a little bonus win. That way they can avoid having to publish the odds too.
Well not really. Someone has to buy the zen/keys first for real money before you can trade it on the (dil-)exchange so in the end it may be possible for some to get stuff without paying a dime but someone did pay for it.
The exchange only means cryptic doesnt care who uses it in the end.
And on the main subject i too think there should be some more stuff ppl get for spending on this game besides what they spend it on. Even in real stores you get stuff like payback-points an similar rewards for buying there.
They are gambling only if you're spending tons of money opening lockboxes specifically in order to win the "big prize", but you'd have to be a bit of an idiot to do that, wouldn't you?
Treat them as what they are: a bit of fun to do now and then, a moment of excitement as you buy a few keys and anticipate what's in the boxes. Gambling lite, like playing the lottery now and then. Then they're fine.
THIS.
I keep reading complainings about everyone, and they are right, cryptic is a money eater. BUT. The fault is from the customers, not from cryptic. If you dont buy master keys, or you charge zen, you are not giving cryptic money. Cryptic and STO are only alive because a really high ammount of people is buying every month high ammounts of zen, or they are paying a monthly subscription. Cryptic uses that money to keep launching new content and new things for the c-store. Not to invest on improving and fixing the game. And thats the decision of the customer, not cryptic's. People complain a lot about all the bugs in the game but they seem not to realize, in the end, is the fault of the casher players.
You can buy a master key a day for free just trading dilithium with 2 characters.
But i stopped buying things ages ago, there is no sense on it. Not in STO. In other games, you can "contribute" if you see the company is taking care of the customers and they are trying to keep the game free of bugs an clean. But not in STO, contributing to cryptic is just, stupid.
And its your fault and only yours that you waste real money on survivor packs only to gather the ship, that is really a stupid maneouver. You will waste more zen by far than just buying the damn ship in the c-store. But people usually never think on this.
I
Well, my suposition is he had free zen and he wasted it on doff packs. Cuz i cant imagine somoeone would charge zen on purpose to buy the packs.. that will be, well.. i better s up..
This. Really.
Buying a billion packs to get a JHAS when you have a couple hundred DOFF slots and no way to use all of those DOFFs is not the best decision.
I look at these promos as a little extra incentive. The only reason I don't buy a ton of them for my Romulan characters is because I'm on a budget and those DOFFs aren't in it.
Buy two or a few packs for the DOFFs, if you can use them. If not for your own roster, then to use on fleet projects or to sell on the Exchange.
If you get either ship (JHAS or SCS), great! If not, you got more Lobi than you would have gotten for opening up a lockbox and you got DOFFs you can use.
If you don't need them, don't buy them -- promo or not. If money's tight, don't spend a lot -- promo or not.
I agree it's easy to overspend on this game. But Cryptic is not morally culpable for their customers' bad decisions any more than the guy at Best Buy is responsible for someone overextending their credit to buy a home theater system.
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That's beside the point - the promotion doesn't involve keys, which the OP bought for it.
It looks to me like the OP is either woefully misinformed about the promotion (which colors his opinion on it), or is simply repackaging the standard lockbox complain for the promotion and has not actually taken part in it (which means he's flatly lying that he has come to tolerate lockboxes).
The rom pack is a problem because people are selling something with the same name that does NOT have a shot at the ship --- it enabled a scam which is VERY POOR on cryptic's part.
Both the boxes and the packs are fine by me: optional purchase to gamble on an optional item, with small consolation rewards.
As for comparison to other games, in that other game can you earn the cash shop items easily by farming like we can? Can you get anything in the game 100% for free if you take a little time for it? As for getting nothing for paying, I am at a loss to understand why your paid sub did not give you anything. You should have gotten a lot of stuff (http://community.arcgames.com/en/news/star-trek-online/detail/3026713) for your money. You should write a ticket to get this fixed. Also you should note that cryptic regularly sells zen at a discount. Pay full price for everything? You get $5 zen a month with it, which is effectively $60 worth of store items at no cost per year. Lifetime is particularly good --- all the benefits, $5 a month, pay once. If you consider the perks to be worth say $100 (vet rewards, EC cap, char slots, BO slots, free zen ship per char, ... etc) then lifetime pays for itself in about 3 years. Or if you look at it from a sub side, 2 years of subbing at 150 a year vs lifetime....
All that aside you can play 100% for free. Anything you spend, you CHOOSE to spend. Not many games like that --- I have tried many 'free to play' games that were really "free trials" that cost money to unlock additional content or the grind to do so was worse than a full time job.
Not saying it could not be better. IMHO reduced prices would sell more, making up the profits with quantity. For example if a ship cost $5, people would buy more ships and more often. If bank space cost $1 for 10 slots, everyone would max it out. If keys cost $0.10 each, we would open more boxes, and more people would do it. In short I think cryptic fails to understand that *loads* of ppl would spend a $1-5 whereas only a few will spend $100 for a 3 pack of the same item.
500 zen a month, something special every 100 days, larger inventory size, higher EC cap, account bank, and cutting in line when the server is overloaded, and occasional skill respec tokens for all your toons. Sounds good to me.
But I jumped on the subscription sale two years back, $30 every 3 months, so I am only in for the equvilent of $10 a month.
Sure many of those features you can buy with zen, I've spent quite a bit on expanding my account bank actually, but I am very happy with what I get for Gold Membership.
I have complaints about the game, but this is not one of them.
I'm somewhere arround 600 days, cannot find where to look that up after the website migration for one thing...
The only real worthy from that is the 500 zen a month, and honestly i dont think that is a good incentive to buy a lfs. Not even in dreams lol. 500 zen/month is almost nothing. A stupid name change cost already about 250 zen if i remember right, lol. The EC cap, the account shared, etc all can be adquired without the need to drop high ammounts of money. Just save a bit of zen every day and in 3 days you can buy the EC cap or watever you want forever. The "gifts" from the lfs are the veteran rewards, thats the only thing you should look, everything else. PFFF.
I will never , never buy a LFS. Not if cryptic is behind this game. But, well people have a different sense of what is worthy or not. If they have money to spare, the lfs is worthy, if they dont have , it is not.
So, what you get for paying that insane ammount of money?? almost nothing. Yes. Only some items that you actually bought paying that life time subscription xD. You paying that EC cap, account shared account and everything else LOL. Think on this. Its even stupid to buy a lfs. But well, some people need to feel "special", even if they know it is just another strategy of cryptic to grab the money of your pockets without actually offering you anything valuable at all.
Yes, and long before Cryptic there were people with more money than sense or patience - hence why the "Gold Selling" industry was born. Even in STO we seen the whole "buy EC for X dollars".
All Cryptic did was set up their "Free to Play" so people can take full advantage of the aforementioned people with money to burn.
So my point still stands, ANYONE can play this game, from start to finish, for FREE, because Cryptic found great ways to part fools and their money, so that the frugal player can advance at no cost to themselves
What I or anyone else does with their money isn't for any of you to judge lmao.
I earned that money and if I want to spend it on booze and hookers it's still no one's business but my own (and the arresting officer).
If you do not wish to spend it on the promo pack, don't. However, don't begrudge those who chose to. For whatever reason they wanted to...the bug ship or the lobi.
My money is valued by me in a way that is subjective only to me.
I think it is a fine promotion, I can juice up my doff roster a little, and at the very least get some lobi to add to my collection. I don't particularly need anything out of the lockboxes so these packs make much more sense for me.
Its not an insane amount of money -- people pay as much for one year of a phone (basically portable entertainment system). We can agree that cryptic's prices are high, but given that, what you have to understand is value over time AND how much use a player gets from it.
As a player with 6 level 50s, that is
6 $20 zen store ships for free: value $120
1 fleet vet ship (could have 6 but I only use 1), value $20
shared bank ($10)
6 respecs ($30)
6 sets of extra BOs ($12)
$5 per month ($15 so far)
extra char slots ($5 I think?)
gold cap ($5)
and tons of other minor things that I will not even try to poke a value on.
Total value so far is about $225 (added fast, its close) just for the items listed. By the end of this year I will easily have $300 worth in terms of pure zen -- that is, it would have taken me $300 or more in zen to have the same amount of stuff by the end of the year.
Now, if you want to argue that $20-25 per ship is outrageous, go for it, and we can agree. But if you accept the price to be what it is, $300 for an active player with a lot of characters looks pretty nice.
I do not know where you get your info but anyway this is the case.
First off it was Jeremy from stoked radio that sugested the lockboxes, the men took a lot of heat back then, Now he don't want to apear anymore in front of a camara , thanks guys.
Seccond if you gut any sence you allready knew that it would be a gamble product those darn boxes.
I litterly bought 250 keys and opened 250 boxes and guess what, I had power ups i had mirror ships 16 off them I had a bunch off duty oficers I gave most of them away to the starbase project and a lot off other nick naks from those boxes.
But ships I had none !!! So whatever you say it's a gamble a big one !!!
If you do score one ship !!! run down to the post office to buy lottery tickets to win some cash !!!
But those who are buying keys for real it's a waste of money !!!
Greets
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Voil
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