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A Hypothesis to understand why Cryptic is doing what they're doing.
patrickngo
Member Posts: 9,963 Arc User
I love the youtube feature "Extra Credits", why?
Because sometimes, it's really useful for gaining understanding of the undiscussed logic (or illogic) of the game designers.
Case in point, after seeing this, I realized what's happened-it's what happened to the Exploration clusters, and it's why so many elements that were here two years ago, have been either neglected into near impotence, or were never delivered in the first place.
Cryptic's decided, I think, to exclusively focus on "Practice" gameplay, after failing to deliver on "Planned" gameplay.
Watch the video, and think about how the game mechanics, and even the often-neglected bugs, factor into it.
Because sometimes, it's really useful for gaining understanding of the undiscussed logic (or illogic) of the game designers.
Case in point, after seeing this, I realized what's happened-it's what happened to the Exploration clusters, and it's why so many elements that were here two years ago, have been either neglected into near impotence, or were never delivered in the first place.
Cryptic's decided, I think, to exclusively focus on "Practice" gameplay, after failing to deliver on "Planned" gameplay.
Watch the video, and think about how the game mechanics, and even the often-neglected bugs, factor into it.
Nature doesn't HAVE to be nice, or polite.
Free Hong Kong.
Free Hong Kong.
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Good video though.
The specialization system was a nice idea for ongoing progression, but they panicked when they realized how well they've trained us to grind.
The HP scaling with higher levels was poorly designed and poorly balanced, but that's just what happens when a release is as rushed out the door as DR was.
Even greed driven changes require a proper gameplay strategy. They aren't tax men, nobody is forced to give them any money; so if they want to get more cash out of people, they still have to come up with something that will appeal to people on some level.
As much as it may at times feel as though STO's current change of direction will spell "DOOM!!!" for the game in a year or two Perfect World International is still kicking in the USA after 6 years of the heaviest cash grabbing I've ever seen in a video game - sans Maplestory.
Even China has strong rules against online gambling. Perhaps it is time we have the same enforced here in my country as well. Sorry, Vegas...
They turned the r&d system into another lockbox system, you want a set of mods like accx3 or crtdx3 well your gonna to need to craft 100 items on average to get just 1 item with that set of mods.
The upgrade system is also another lockbox system, want to upgrade just the mk level well that is easy enough it takes lots of ec/dilithium but you want to upgrade the item quality well now your gambling and getting epic will cost you alot of money.
The increase of difficulty was nothing more then someone adding a couple extra zero's to npc and most of the time randomly and without thought (aka borg bird of prey/spheres having the same hp as a cube)
I took the same approach--but then most of the time I've never been in a huge hurry playing the game. I have all the items I want and really enjoy. Part of my playing is "roleplay" for stories, and I can keep writing stories even if the game is gone or I am no longer competitive. So I won't lose everything even if the game closes.
Honestly my only true concern is getting all of the story files backed up in case something happens to the forum.
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Cryptic is going with what generates money...
That is the plan... Always has been, always will be.
What they don't understand is that you can only squeeze so much blood out of your prey before they go into shock. Using so many schemes could kill their entire game.
You have 2 options - play, or don't play. There is no third. There will always be lock boxes and gameplay mechanics will always be limited or adjusted towards promoting sales of ZEN. Take it or leave it it's up to you. Your baby STO that you used to like has died long time ago. Playing casually helps to not notice how much the game changed. Helps to ignore things. So yeah...
You are right... Except for the last part.
I am a casual player, and the changes are painfully obvious to me.
I would argue based on the video that MMOs frequently DO build on practice design despite being poor candidates for it because MMOs are, by their nature, almost supposed to be buggy. MMOs gets less polish passes than console games, WoW being an exception. And STO is at the extreme here as a game that frequently doesn't test or respond to testing at all.
There are weaknesses to the improvisational game for the MMO as well, largely stemming from the following:
- Latency is frequently baked into the engine. In STO's case, this is why powers are queued rather than clicked. Your position relative to other players and NPCs may also be deceiving in an MMO.
- Lack of replayability is a concern for the MMO because people playing attracts other people to play.
That said, repetition != replayability, something Stephen D'Angelo was actually saying that he was constantly trying to tell the team the last time he addressed us. I think he was on the right side of this but some part of me feels like we've consistently had EPs who start off on the right side of design arguments who seem to get hammered down by design leads.
In some respects, it almost feels like the boss comes in, a few influential employees revolt and rebel until the boss is broken into their perspective. Thus far, said employees' approach generates money which reinforces everyone listening to those designers ahead of players and those employees consistently being allowed to buck the EPs' initial design mandates.
I think it's been a problem on all of Cryptic's games but especially STO that they let the Systems team run the show. This has benefits in early development... and I suspect it started at Cryptic largely because Jack Emmert and some of his cohort were idea people who needed technical people in order to function. Emmert's background was a master's degree in classical history, I think. As a result, I feel like Cryptic's culture has always been a mix of coders, systems designers, and folks with arts and humanities degrees who built arts, content modules, mods for what the other teams gave them.
This probably isn't unique to games or MMOs but is especially pronounced at Cryptic.
The result feels like a restaurant run by chefs. Which, in my experience, might make for fine cuisine on occasion but is almost always a poor repeat casual dining choice. Because chefs (and engineers) don't generally accept reader response theory (aka "the author is dead") or make service or the customer-driven experience the center of what they do. They tend to tell you how to enjoy what they've made rather than designing for customer's maximized enjoyment or rather than the maximum exploitation of the customer as a resource.
If letting chefs run the restaurant is a bad idea from a business perspective, why does it happen?
My theory (and I've seen this borne out not just in actual restaurants but in fields like comics and film) is this:
The chef (or systems designer or writer/artist in comics or film director/cinematographer) actually has the most stressful job. While waiting tables or managing have their stresses as well, the chef's sources of stress boil down to split second decisions that involve a grasp of chemistry, theory, and math, which a good chef understands intuitively if not the theory behind it all. They make a pivotal part of the product happen and they do so in a cramped space, working long hours.
Ideally, this job should be well compensated but subject to heavy demands and oversight from outside.
But when you lack money, a common (well-intentioned) choice is to say to the chef, "I can't compensate you in money for the stress of this job but I'll give you more control over the product."
The good intention behind this is often the first brick in the path to Gre'thor.
When you do this, you have, say, a comic book artist who deviates from character models or the script. You have a writer who distorts the brand of a well-established character. You have a chef who insists that he will never make hamburger and that beef should never be garnished with blue cheese. It doesn't matter about the brand or what the customer finds pleasurable. The chef is a taste authority who dictates how his creations are to be enjoyed. After awhile, the chef becomes an integral part of the business because only he knows how the ordering is done or where the spices are kept.
And therein lies the trap for this as a business approach. You may have started out lacking the full resources to dictate terms of the job but the longer this goes on, you may completely lose any ability or resources to dictate terms, even if the chef's approach is offputting to customers.
"They can eat down the street if they want a hamburger," the chef will say. And many customers do. And by the time that happens, some business owners are no longer in a position to negotiate. If you did manage to get the money together, suddenly you're BOTH having to pay the chef more AND hand over full control. At this point, you have employees whose expertise is more valuable to you than the satisfaction of many customers.
And it is unfortunate that I think a kind of Stockholm Syndrome can set in with managers in this kind of situation. Because they have an employee they value more than their customers, they start to say things like "Our company is a family" or "My employees are like flesh and blood to me." But it's a seductive lure. There are good reasons to say things like that but you want to be sure that it isn't interfering with business. I'd reassign, fire, or transfer my own flesh and blood. If you can't do those things to an employee because they are too pivotal, you may actually be projecting affection onto a power relationship you're trapped in as a means of coping with it.