The bottom line is, if we want to hear something self-congratulatory from the devs we can just run the latest dev blog through text-to-speech software.
Personally I hope the community podcast starts representing the community.
Elija, I've enjoyed Priority One for quite a while now. But, in my opinion, your production does not represent the community and certainly does not match my experience or enjoyment of the game.
I will not be listening anymore.
I get the impression from listening to P1's broadcasts that the team is too close to the studio. I think of Icarus here with y'all. I feel you're interviews with the developers are not interviews but advertisements.
What is wrong with this game? We have a group of tremendously gifted artists working for a group of tremendously inept game designers being controlled by a group of tremendously greedy foreign owners.
Perhaps it would be helpful to go back and re-watch the last few episodes of STOked, maybe #124 and around that, then look at what we've tolerated from PWE since that time.
In my opinion STOked at that time represented the community and didn't seem, to me at least, to be a PWE/Cryptic mouthpeice. I'm sad to say that I think P1 has drifted a bit too far in the wrong direction. But it's also fair to say the game has been drifting in the wrong direction for years now.
It is what it is. You do what you feel you and P1 have to do. If this wasn't the only place* for "new" Star Trek content I would have been gone way, way long ago. But, sadly, this game and the "community" coverage of it just keeps changing from something that I once enjoyed and is morphing slowly into something that I find increasingly hard to stomach.
*Besides fan-film productions. I don't really care for the JJ-verse.
While think that the P1 team really tries to do the best they can, I will admit to being slightly dissatisfied with some of your most recent podcasts. You guys are in such a great position to not only get information from the devs, but to really challenge them with some of the harder questions. I do think that you guys sometimes do it, and you do deserve credit where credit is due. Obviously, you don't want to get on their bad sides, but you guys have a wonderful opportunity here. The community is currently hurting and upset about perfectly valid reasons. Why not use your influence within the community to ask devs about why they took certain measures with the launch of Delta Rising? Why not step up and try to help bridge the gap between the devs and the community? Because frankly, sometimes it feels like you only get halfway there and I do think that you guys have the potential to do so much more.
I think that part of the problem is that except on a rare occasion, it seems that you and the rest of the team are very out of touch with the people on the forums. Is the forums the only place where topics and complaints can be found? No, of course not. But it seems that the opinions of players on the official forums for this game often take a back seat on your podcast even when perfectly good things are being discussed. I'm not saying that every post on the forum should be taken seriously and that it should be your only source of information. Far from it. But usually you can look at the topics in General Discussion and get a good idea as to what people are not happy with.
I don't think that you and the team are ever going to make everyone happy, but maybe you should consider looking for a volunteer who would be willing to read the forums and give you constructive information as to what valid points are being discussed.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on things.
~Change of topic to your community question~
I actually prefer the winter event to the summer event, so I'm super excited. I've been having fun just doing all of the events. But I have noticed that only one of my 3 scarves showing up in the tailor...... And Cookie, another way that you can successfully beat the daily race for pictures of Q is to use your mouse to steer your toon and to roll into the turns.
Call me Yuka~
~Vice Admiral Saskia - U.S.S. Muenzuka (Dyson Science Destroyer)~
~Lieutenant General Kalinka - I.K.S. Kazami (Negh'Var Heavy Battlecruiser)~
~Vice Admiral Lorel - R.R.W. Aureus Aquila (Mirror Mogai Heavy Warbird)~
First off, I'm not sure how players like me being unhappy and vocal about the direction STO has taken is tantamount to making the forums a "cesspool". Yes, there are those who take the low road but there are many, many others who do not. Its unfortunate P1 and Cryptic have seemingly decided to paint us all with such a broad brush.
I rarely used to post pre-DR. I was enjoying the game. The nerfs to levelling, rewards and the huge sinks in the game brought me here to find out what was happening. In the last 2 months, all I have seen is unprofessional comments from the game makers that have bordered on flat deception.
I turned to P1 recently for the first time hoping to get a greater understanding about this new direction Cryptic has taken but these "interviews" seem to sidestep the players' concerns completely. I'm an older gamer but these shows I've listened to have this air of a high school click where the "cool kids" fluff and validate each other while mocking and minimizing everyone else.
I'm sure that's not the intention. I hope it's not. If P1 wants to claim they represent the community, then do so by asking the questions the player's have. You folks don't need to agree with every question but throwing Cryptic softballs or avoiding certain topics is doing nothing for anyone involved.
I've been playing STO for quite awhile and there has been a huge disconnect in communication for some time. P1 doesnt seem to be helping that from the recent shows I've heard. The only thing that seems to be getting through is that both Cryptic and the well-meaning people at P1 either aren't hearing the players' concerns or are playing a different game than the rest of us.
When you look at Personal Traits, even that of boffs, it seems already everything is in place for a boff Trait system (except it doesn't work yet). So, will we ever be able to have a boff train Traits like SRO to another boff? Or be able to simply buy boff Traits?
When you look at Personal Traits, even that of boffs, it seems already everything is in place for a boff Trait system (except it doesn't work yet). So, will we ever be able to have a boff train Traits like SRO to another boff? Or be able to simply buy boff Traits?
A Ferengi would ask "where is the profit in that? " .
Cryptic will likely ask "but where is the grind in that ?" .
... and they say Ferengi have no class ... . All it takes is a comparison ...
The bottom line is, if we want to hear something self-congratulatory from the devs we can just run the latest dev blog through text-to-speech software.
Personally I hope the community podcast starts representing the community.
Lol js that made me laugh, I might have to try that some day :P
I will say this though. I have been very involved in what goes on concerning STO as time has gone on, having been aware of all the major groups involved and what not. As a result I tend to quite easily get a very good overview of the mood of all these different communities, their standing in their understanding of the game and what they are thinking.
Now on the back of that, every time I listen to this podcast all I hear on the most part is the self-congratulatory rubbish from the devs. I mean Geko made at least two seriously dumb statements in the last podcast, the main one being that the queues are visually bugged, which would imply that queues should start anyway so long as people join. Not to mention if you're engaged with the game in any serious way that private queue creation from channels id down in the frequency that it used to be pre-DR.
Oh, I do work for the community. I work for the community that dialogues respectfully and conscientiously. I work for the community that wants to engage in constructive dialogue.
I didn't question anyone's involvement or game time. I questioned motivation. What drives players -- like you -- who seem so unhappy -- to continue to play this game. I think it's a legitimate question -- that a community "leader" (like you assume I believe myself to be) should be asking.
So, you can either continue to attack me and try to demean me. Or you can help me.
That just stinks of hypocrisy right there. The one, single time that you should have lifted that banner recently was when they released the upgrade system early, when it was far from ready with all the bugs, the unconsidered costs and the impact it would have more widely on the game. The thread in the tribble forums that dealt with that was full with considerations of everything that could happen with it, and you have never, at any point, actually raised them seriously with a dev. You're argument is void.
Another thing you seem to be blind to, seeing as you really ought to know the answer to this, is that a lot of us are staying around as we want to see the game go back to the way it was, which was a game that was accessible, fun and encouraged more diversity in build design than what is here now post DR. I'm one of them, and I know a lot of others that are in the same position.
On being a community leader, I have this to say. When I test on tribble, or post a video or whatever, I do it keeping the entire player base in mind. I consider how the thing I'm testing is going to work for someone who is less knowledgeable for me, or how realistic the system is for someone with a lot of time or little time, just as examples. If it is a video, I'll make sure that if people have questions about it I'll do my best to answer them, so that they might take away something that'll make them a better player.
Now I'm not saying I'm a community leader, I'm not and neither would I want to be, but when I am testing or offering advice or whatever, I do my best to tailor that advice to the person receiving it or bare all types of player in mind when I test a system. You fail in this capacity, because being a community leader is that and a whole lot more, including admitting where you are wrong, and you can't claim not to be a community leader of some sort when you do what you do and claim to represent us, which you have yet to get right.
I also happen to know a few other people in this game who think of themselves as 'community leaders' yet they offer the worst advice possible, including advice to stick cannons and torpedoes on a D'Deridex, something any veteran would know would not be doing justice to the ship. Unfortunately there are quite a few groups out there that do this and it only serves to harm the community, the only difference with you is that you damage the community through misrepresentation and encouraging the use of secondary media platforms for dev to community interaction, which I wouldn't mind so much if it weren't for the fact you don't achieve anything when you do that.
Short of it is Elijah, you very, very rarely represent the views of anyone except your own. Now I have to either come to the conclusion that you're either very clueless as to the feeling of the various communities in the game, or you read what you want to read and have your own agenda, and I'm inclined to think it's a mix of the two.
Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides
I no longer do any Bug Hunting work for Cryptic. I may resume if a serious attempt to fix the game is made.
The 200 was the first show I listened to. It was my hope to hear what was going on in the mind of Gecko. Unfortunately that happened.
the EC nerf. I used to be able to sell a MK XII inpluse engine for 50k, now it is less then 10k. You let him make it about crafting.
the instant fail optionals. You asked him about the fail conditions in elite and advance, then let him correct you by saying normal and advance. I thought I heard you jaws hit the floor.
I love this game. I don't do a lot of grind. I will run the Q's for marks if I want something, gear or rep. Mostly I am hear for the story. After the DQ arc it was back to the Foundry, now it is QWW. I find the winter and summer events a nice distraction.
"The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
Douglas MacArthur - Quote on the dedication plaque of the U.S.S. Ranger NCC-97332-A Armitage class Fleet Heavy Strike Wing Escort.
I think the general theme here is that people are unimpressed by the "soft interview" technique and the clear lack of understanding that the interviewer himself has about the game. When I said "ask about the "death by 1000 cuts" series of nerfs" you had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. You don't know that skill points and XP payouts for ground and space NPC kills have been reduced by around 66%, do you?
If you are ever going to have a serious interview with a developer and actually ask questions that aren't just set-up lines so the developer can talk about something amazing he has done, that'll be worth listening to.
You ask a straight question and expect a straight answer, it can be respectfully asked without being nasty, but you can be insistant in askiing it.
If all's that we hear from your podcast are the 'good' things in the game, whiist it is clear there are also 'bad' ones occuring, then you must agree that your podcast is not balanced, surely?
For instance last week Geko started that only Elites (not advanced) had optionals that made you fail, and you did not correct him, or confront him on this statement, why?
Oh, I do work for the community. I work for the community that dialogues respectfully and conscientiously. I work for the community that wants to engage in constructive dialogue.
If you "work" for the community, then you work for the whole community regardless of whether or not you agree with their methods of communication or not. It's pretty much part of the whole of using "the community" otherwise you work for "some" of the people who make up the community. There is a difference.
I represented a part of my community on a TA and I represented those that voted for me and those that didn't. There were other representatives for other parts of the community. I do have experience here. This included people who used a lot of colourful language which I then cleaned up, removing the swear words only, for putting before the TA this was despite that I thought they were wrong it was their complaint and I had no right to deny them that.
If I had gotten to the point where I made the split based on whether or not I liked them, their language or what not, then I would have quit my post. This is because if I got to that point then all I am representing is myself as I would only represent those who I thought were correct according to me.
You have placed yourself in this position of a community rep so you need to take personal feelings out of it. You either represent all or you represent none.
I didn't question anyone's involvement or game time. I questioned motivation. What drives players -- like you -- who seem so unhappy -- to continue to play this game.
Simple answer they care for the game and want it to continue. It is not the people complaining you have to worry about as they want to continue to play the game and so want to see it improve.
The group you have to worry about most, even more so than the flip coin that is the fanboi/hater is the following group:
The silent leavers. These people leave and then when asked about the game they tell people not to bother it is rubbish now. Word of mouth is the most powerful advertising tool out there, no more so than when it is negative as those that hear the bad then pass it on.
"Earning free." Isn't that an oxymoron? I mean, log in and a message says, "There's a new boxed ship waiting in your inventory!" Now that's free. Sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine.
"Free" means "without charge". I guess if you consider the grind a "charge", then sure, it's not free. But some could even define the logging in a charge... where should it end?
I see it like this. If the only thing you gotta do is play the game, it's free. You're gonna play the game anyway, right? Sure, you technically do use some form of in-game currency for every non-levelup ship, but would you really want to count the currency that's made specifically for that ship?
I don't know. I'm confused right now. Too early in the morning.
"Free" means "without charge". I guess if you consider the grind a "charge", then sure, it's not free. But some could even define the logging in a charge... where should it end?
I don't know. I'm confused right now. Too early in the morning.
You're both right. It's free of charge and therefore cost 0$ = free. But technically, everything in this game is free of charge via exchange, but we never think of the c-store stuff being 'free'. Even Cryptic doesn't advertise it as such(imagine if they did!).
As for the podcast, I honestly don't have that much of an opinion on it to be honest. I only listened the lasted two episodes and didn't finish listening to them even with I sped it up by 1.5x to get through it faster.
What you guys do is what I would come to expect. I am in no means trying to come off as negative but it's more for the benefit of Cryptic than it is to the community.
I don't think there is anything wrong with that, lets be honest, if they did in fact represent the community, how often do you think devs or like wise would visit the pod cast? Probably as often as they visit these forums.
Anyway, while it's something that's not my cup of tea, or even see any value in it, I can understand why it is the way it is.
Retired. I'm now in search for that perfect space anomaly.
Short of it is Elijah, you very, very rarely represent the views of anyone except your own. Now I have to either come to the conclusion that you're either very clueless as to the feeling of the various communities in the game, or you read what you want to read and have your own agenda, and I'm inclined to think it's a mix of the two.
Agreed. 100%.
PS: XP math change resulted in a reduction (measured by % of level gain) from ship kills. Yet Geko stated their was no nerf intended when the math was changed. Two minutes later he flat out states ship kills were overperforming and reduced as part of the change.
PS2: EC nerf was once again a 'restructuring' of what npc loot drops sold for. In the end it massively reduced the amount of average EC gained from enemies.
PS3: If you don't understand a question perhaps you should have the author clarify before asking it to a dev in an ignorant (lack of knowledge) fashion and failing both to get an answer to the question and making a portion of the community feel ostracized from P1.
That's also the kind of interview that would make Cryptic never agree to an interview again. This is business, not politics. If they reveal too much, they get fired and replaced with someone who won't squeal.
I think that at the very least, if it weren't for Elijah and the crew interviewing Geko, we wouldn't even be exposed to the blatant contradictions between their metrics and in-game demonstrations. I think they should at least be given credit for that.
So what you said that if people aren't polite they should be silenced immediately really has no place anywhere and is an example that you really identify with - and sell out to, the developers?
The part I highlighted in red made me realize something. Yes, I think the P1 team identifies with the folks at Cryptic. To not identify with people you have gone and spent lots of time with? That's something you should go see a psychiatrist about.
At the same time, I think the P1 team needs to be mindful about this relationship and how it may interfere wih the responsibility they have to the community.
A real life personal anecdote as to how familiarity can change interactions in a less personal venue:
I geocache. If you don't know what that is, it is basically a high tech scavenger hunt using GPS. On the geocaching forums I would get into long, drawn out discussions (arguments) with other cachers over the need for permission to hide a cache. One person in particular seemed to oppose my viewpoints on a very regular basis. He and I were practically sworn enemies, and we each felt the others' viewpoint would be the end of the game.
Someone pointed out that if we sat down over a couple brews and then went geocaching together, we'd probably have a grand time. Turns out, the other guy was a pilot, and had an extended layover at the local airport, so we decided to test this theory out...
Turns out, schedule-wise, that our brews were coffee with breakfast, but we set out. Had a good time, too. Found out we actually had a lot in common. By the time I had to drop him off at the airport, we were friends.
Back in the forums? The arguments still raged about the same issues, but he and I? We never really butted heads again, even though I think he's dead wrong, as I'm sure he thinks of my stance in the debate.
While neither of us represent the community at large, the familiarity leaading to willingness to let stuff slide is my point, one that should be taken to heart.
"Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell BAD." - Spock
I think that at the very least, if it weren't for Elijah and the crew interviewing Geko, we wouldn't even be exposed to the blatant contradictions between their metrics and in-game demonstrations. I think they should at least be given credit for that.
I agree. I also think it is very easy to forget that these people are volunteers, and it must be very disheartening to see your hard (free) work disparaged on the forums (the very people you are attempting to cater for). Its also easy to forget that these people are not professional reporters/investigative reporters and are interviewing the devs to find out upcoming news ect (not to 'dig the dirt')
I had infact been guilty of this myself (and for that I apologize to the people who give up their spare time to make the podcast).
I would ask one thing of you though (if you can do it in a way that stops you being completely cut off by the dev team, which given their silence on the forum is a very definite possibility). I would ask that you be more assertive when you question the dev team, and try to blend in a few 'negative' issues along with the 'good' news, in order to give a more rounded representation of the community.
That said, it is your time and your effort - I have realized I really cannot demand anything from a group of volunteers. And as Orangeitis has pointed out P1 does on occasion reveal unknown issues that may not have otherwise been published.
There are those that are fond of aspects of this game... and though they are currently angry and disillusioned (with good reason as I hope you are dispassionate and objective enough to understand) this does not negate their willingness to continue playing and perhaps salvage some fun and enjoyment from the game.
Speaking personally, I am dischuffed. Yet my dischuffedness doesn't turn on a sixpence; it has a wider turning-circle and whether I continue to play the game is dependent upon what PWE do next.
While this is a good point, its only valid from your situation. You need to remember that there are people who were happy with the game, people who were hanging in there, people hoping on the forums, and those already left. After DR you might have gone from happy to on the fence, like many others but all those people on the fence have been switched to not playing.
So just because you are one point in your cycle of the game, doesn't mean its the right point to be, it is just where you are. Anyone beyond your point has been in your shoes, and moved past that.
As someone that is well past that point, I know how much fun this game can be when you are ignorant of the mechanics, as people start to learn, they'll grow out of it. Of course some people never learn so they remain where they are.
I agree. I also think it is very easy to forget that these people are volunteers, and it must be very disheartening to see your hard (free) work disparaged on the forums (the very people you are attempting to cater for). Its also easy to forget that these people are not professional reporters/investigative reporters and are interviewing the devs to find out upcoming news ect (not to 'dig the dirt')
I had infact been guilty of this myself (and for that I apologize to the people who give up their spare time to make the podcast).
I would ask one thing of you though (if you can do it in a way that stops you being completely cut off by the dev team, which given their silence on the forum is a very definite possibility). I would ask that you be more assertive when you question the dev team, and try to blend in a few 'negative' issues along with the 'good' news, in order to give a more rounded representation of the community.
That said, it is your time and your effort - I have realized I really cannot demand anything from a group of volunteers. And as Orangeitis has pointed out P1 does on occasion reveal unknown issues that may not have otherwise been published.
Another instance where a "Like" button would be pushed.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so if the people that put together this podcast in their spare time likes the game as is, that should be ok. However, saying that the forum community doesn't have legitimate issues with the game is naive at best.
The queues are dead and it's not a reporting bug. Viscous cycle advanced and elite will fail when you have to scan the anomaly because it's bugged. Korfez is unbalanced with the benthans escort mission being just about impossible except for maybe 50k dps builds.
I try to run only private queues with the dps channel and both of those queues are a gamble to try and run. They can fail five times in a row, which is highly annoying. Getting groups together to run anything other than isa and cca can take a while depending on when you are on. Pre dr i didn't need to run private queues because pugging was viable, and the game though it still had a lot of problems was a lot more enjoyable.
That's really the tip of the iceberg of what is wrong with STO, post DR. I realize that now a days it's normal for developers to release buggy unfinished content, but a good developer would at least acknowledge some of these issues. I haven't seen the anomaly issue be addressed in a dev blog/patch note yet (may have missed), definitely not Korfez.
I would hope that the bugs, the nerfs and some poor design choices would be addressed with the devs. However, i also understand that it's not my call, if they want to sidestep the issues in their podcast that's their choice.
I will say that at least we have the chance of getting some great statements from the devs for more memes.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so if the people that put together this podcast in their spare time likes the game as is, that should be ok. However, saying that the forum community doesn't have legitimate issues with the game is naive at best.
I'm sorry -- who said that? I don't remember saying that the forum community does not have legitimate concerns. What I have said is that it can be a full-time job to sift through unmitigated hatred to find the diamonds in the rough.
Now, before anyone challenges me and replies with something like, "Well, if you can't spend the time to read these forums, then you shouldn't be podcasting about the game" -- To you, I say... Join the team and help us improve. Become that volunteer member that helps the volunteer hosts.
This is a global community, my friends. I don't get paid to Community Manage.... wait a second... I don't even get paid to podcast! The audio editors don't get paid to spend their weekends editing the show. The graphic artist doesn't get paid for their creative talents. The bloggers don't get paid for expressing their thoughts. Heck, even the lawyer doesn't get paid to make sure we're making smart (legal) business decisions.
So -- If anyone is interested in consulting more directly with me and the team -- It is very easy to reach me.
I realize that now a days it's normal for developers to release buggy unfinished content, but a good developer would at least acknowledge some of these issues
In the 'good ol' days' when games were released on floppy disc/cartridge - bugs where simply out of the question (if you wanted your game to succeed that is), there was NO option to download a patch to fix a bug, and you sunk or swam based on your quality assurance/test team. (I remember watching the credits to many Amiga games and the list of testers was HUGE).
Contemporary developers not only have access to a virtually unlimited supply of free testers/bug finders, they ALSO have the ability to patch these bugs via a simple download.
The fact is, the game industry has become so lazy, that even when they are handed a list of bugs on a dish for free (by diligent players who use their free time to find them) - even when these bugs are highlighted BEFORE a game/update is released - many developers simply don't care, and release the content anyway.
It has to stop - I don't think I know of any other industry that gets away with such blatant shoddy work.
Oh, I do work for the community. I work for the community that dialogues respectfully and conscientiously. I work for the community that wants to engage in constructive dialogue.
I didn't question anyone's involvement or game time. I questioned motivation. What drives players -- like you -- who seem so unhappy -- to continue to play this game. I think it's a legitimate question -- that a community "leader" (like you assume I believe myself to be) should be asking.
So, you can either continue to attack me and try to demean me. Or you can help me.
You are a politician,an unofficial spokesperson for a big company that no one voted for but got anyway.You call yourself a 'community leader' and say that you 'work for the community'....but we have yet to see any proof of that,in fact,everything you have done so far has been the exact opposite.You have been nothing more than a mouthpiece for Cryptic/PWE propaganda.
If you want our respect...EARN IT! Don't blame the players,the community for your actions or the lack thereof.
The PWE/Cryptic sweatshop...not where the game is made,but where the game is played!
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
In the 'good ol' days' when games were released on floppy disc/cartridge - bugs where simply out of the question (if you wanted your game to succeed that is), there was NO option to download a patch to fix a bug, and you sunk or swam based on your quality assurance/test team. (I remember watching the credits to many Amiga games and the list of testers was HUGE).
In the good old days, developers used assembly, and fiddled directly with the hardware. Games were written by 1, maybe 2 people, and your video card has 1000x more memory then the entire computer they were using.
In the 'good ol' days' when games were released on floppy disc/cartridge - bugs where simply out of the question (if you wanted your game to succeed that is), there was NO option to download a patch to fix a bug, and you sunk or swam based on your quality assurance/test team. (I remember watching the credits to many Amiga games and the list of testers was HUGE).
Contemporary developers not only have access to a virtually unlimited supply of free testers/bug finders, they ALSO have the ability to patch these bugs via a simple download.
The fact is, the game industry has become so lazy, that even when they are handed a list of bugs on a dish for free (by diligent players who use their free time to find them) - even when these bugs are highlighted BEFORE a game/update is released - many developers simply don't care, and release the content anyway.
It has to stop - I don't think I know of any other industry that gets away with such blatant shoddy work.
I'm afraid we really can't blame the testers for this one. There are only 5 of them in the QA department at Cryptic.
I thnk you are receiving undue criticism, but desperation has set in for many players now. You have your desire for what you wish to do, and others have theirs and would like to use yours to aid their cause. There is no dialogue with Cryptic and hope is fleeting that any positive changes will restore the game to what it once was.
I have a friend who since this year has put in thousands of dollars into the game. More than triple what I have invested in years since beta. That one player can make up for hundred casuals or more. As long as there are enough 'whales', there is nothing for the rest of us. That is all PWI care about. Not if the rest of us are having fun. Even us leaving will do nothing to change things now. In the long run, this is a bad trend for gaming. To have to spend so much cash that entire climate and design of a game revolves around this... sad state of affairs and the golden days of gaming are gone. Sorry for not bein eloquent enough or making valid points but it is how I feel. Game is dying for the majority of players.
Comments
Personally I hope the community podcast starts representing the community.
Free Tibet!
I will not be listening anymore.
I get the impression from listening to P1's broadcasts that the team is too close to the studio. I think of Icarus here with y'all. I feel you're interviews with the developers are not interviews but advertisements.
What is wrong with this game? We have a group of tremendously gifted artists working for a group of tremendously inept game designers being controlled by a group of tremendously greedy foreign owners.
Perhaps it would be helpful to go back and re-watch the last few episodes of STOked, maybe #124 and around that, then look at what we've tolerated from PWE since that time.
In my opinion STOked at that time represented the community and didn't seem, to me at least, to be a PWE/Cryptic mouthpeice. I'm sad to say that I think P1 has drifted a bit too far in the wrong direction. But it's also fair to say the game has been drifting in the wrong direction for years now.
It is what it is. You do what you feel you and P1 have to do. If this wasn't the only place* for "new" Star Trek content I would have been gone way, way long ago. But, sadly, this game and the "community" coverage of it just keeps changing from something that I once enjoyed and is morphing slowly into something that I find increasingly hard to stomach.
*Besides fan-film productions. I don't really care for the JJ-verse.
I think that part of the problem is that except on a rare occasion, it seems that you and the rest of the team are very out of touch with the people on the forums. Is the forums the only place where topics and complaints can be found? No, of course not. But it seems that the opinions of players on the official forums for this game often take a back seat on your podcast even when perfectly good things are being discussed. I'm not saying that every post on the forum should be taken seriously and that it should be your only source of information. Far from it. But usually you can look at the topics in General Discussion and get a good idea as to what people are not happy with.
I don't think that you and the team are ever going to make everyone happy, but maybe you should consider looking for a volunteer who would be willing to read the forums and give you constructive information as to what valid points are being discussed.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on things.
~Change of topic to your community question~
I actually prefer the winter event to the summer event, so I'm super excited. I've been having fun just doing all of the events. But I have noticed that only one of my 3 scarves showing up in the tailor...... And Cookie, another way that you can successfully beat the daily race for pictures of Q is to use your mouse to steer your toon and to roll into the turns.
~Vice Admiral Saskia - U.S.S. Muenzuka (Dyson Science Destroyer)~
~Lieutenant General Kalinka - I.K.S. Kazami (Negh'Var Heavy Battlecruiser)~
~Vice Admiral Lorel - R.R.W. Aureus Aquila (Mirror Mogai Heavy Warbird)~
I rarely used to post pre-DR. I was enjoying the game. The nerfs to levelling, rewards and the huge sinks in the game brought me here to find out what was happening. In the last 2 months, all I have seen is unprofessional comments from the game makers that have bordered on flat deception.
I turned to P1 recently for the first time hoping to get a greater understanding about this new direction Cryptic has taken but these "interviews" seem to sidestep the players' concerns completely. I'm an older gamer but these shows I've listened to have this air of a high school click where the "cool kids" fluff and validate each other while mocking and minimizing everyone else.
I'm sure that's not the intention. I hope it's not. If P1 wants to claim they represent the community, then do so by asking the questions the player's have. You folks don't need to agree with every question but throwing Cryptic softballs or avoiding certain topics is doing nothing for anyone involved.
I've been playing STO for quite awhile and there has been a huge disconnect in communication for some time. P1 doesnt seem to be helping that from the recent shows I've heard. The only thing that seems to be getting through is that both Cryptic and the well-meaning people at P1 either aren't hearing the players' concerns or are playing a different game than the rest of us.
When you look at Personal Traits, even that of boffs, it seems already everything is in place for a boff Trait system (except it doesn't work yet). So, will we ever be able to have a boff train Traits like SRO to another boff? Or be able to simply buy boff Traits?
A Ferengi would ask "where is the profit in that? " .
Cryptic will likely ask "but where is the grind in that ?" .
... and they say Ferengi have no class ... . All it takes is a comparison ...
Lol js that made me laugh, I might have to try that some day :P
I will say this though. I have been very involved in what goes on concerning STO as time has gone on, having been aware of all the major groups involved and what not. As a result I tend to quite easily get a very good overview of the mood of all these different communities, their standing in their understanding of the game and what they are thinking.
Now on the back of that, every time I listen to this podcast all I hear on the most part is the self-congratulatory rubbish from the devs. I mean Geko made at least two seriously dumb statements in the last podcast, the main one being that the queues are visually bugged, which would imply that queues should start anyway so long as people join. Not to mention if you're engaged with the game in any serious way that private queue creation from channels id down in the frequency that it used to be pre-DR.
And what's this?
That just stinks of hypocrisy right there. The one, single time that you should have lifted that banner recently was when they released the upgrade system early, when it was far from ready with all the bugs, the unconsidered costs and the impact it would have more widely on the game. The thread in the tribble forums that dealt with that was full with considerations of everything that could happen with it, and you have never, at any point, actually raised them seriously with a dev. You're argument is void.
Another thing you seem to be blind to, seeing as you really ought to know the answer to this, is that a lot of us are staying around as we want to see the game go back to the way it was, which was a game that was accessible, fun and encouraged more diversity in build design than what is here now post DR. I'm one of them, and I know a lot of others that are in the same position.
On being a community leader, I have this to say. When I test on tribble, or post a video or whatever, I do it keeping the entire player base in mind. I consider how the thing I'm testing is going to work for someone who is less knowledgeable for me, or how realistic the system is for someone with a lot of time or little time, just as examples. If it is a video, I'll make sure that if people have questions about it I'll do my best to answer them, so that they might take away something that'll make them a better player.
Now I'm not saying I'm a community leader, I'm not and neither would I want to be, but when I am testing or offering advice or whatever, I do my best to tailor that advice to the person receiving it or bare all types of player in mind when I test a system. You fail in this capacity, because being a community leader is that and a whole lot more, including admitting where you are wrong, and you can't claim not to be a community leader of some sort when you do what you do and claim to represent us, which you have yet to get right.
I also happen to know a few other people in this game who think of themselves as 'community leaders' yet they offer the worst advice possible, including advice to stick cannons and torpedoes on a D'Deridex, something any veteran would know would not be doing justice to the ship. Unfortunately there are quite a few groups out there that do this and it only serves to harm the community, the only difference with you is that you damage the community through misrepresentation and encouraging the use of secondary media platforms for dev to community interaction, which I wouldn't mind so much if it weren't for the fact you don't achieve anything when you do that.
Short of it is Elijah, you very, very rarely represent the views of anyone except your own. Now I have to either come to the conclusion that you're either very clueless as to the feeling of the various communities in the game, or you read what you want to read and have your own agenda, and I'm inclined to think it's a mix of the two.
the EC nerf. I used to be able to sell a MK XII inpluse engine for 50k, now it is less then 10k. You let him make it about crafting.
the instant fail optionals. You asked him about the fail conditions in elite and advance, then let him correct you by saying normal and advance. I thought I heard you jaws hit the floor.
I love this game. I don't do a lot of grind. I will run the Q's for marks if I want something, gear or rep. Mostly I am hear for the story. After the DQ arc it was back to the Foundry, now it is QWW. I find the winter and summer events a nice distraction.
Douglas MacArthur - Quote on the dedication plaque of the U.S.S. Ranger NCC-97332-A Armitage class Fleet Heavy Strike Wing Escort.
If you are ever going to have a serious interview with a developer and actually ask questions that aren't just set-up lines so the developer can talk about something amazing he has done, that'll be worth listening to.
Free Tibet!
When they have made mistakes and are clearly in the wrong (like when they accused players of being exploiters...)
THIS IS THE KIND OF INTERVIEW I EXPECT
You ask a straight question and expect a straight answer, it can be respectfully asked without being nasty, but you can be insistant in askiing it.
If all's that we hear from your podcast are the 'good' things in the game, whiist it is clear there are also 'bad' ones occuring, then you must agree that your podcast is not balanced, surely?
For instance last week Geko started that only Elites (not advanced) had optionals that made you fail, and you did not correct him, or confront him on this statement, why?
If you "work" for the community, then you work for the whole community regardless of whether or not you agree with their methods of communication or not. It's pretty much part of the whole of using "the community" otherwise you work for "some" of the people who make up the community. There is a difference.
I represented a part of my community on a TA and I represented those that voted for me and those that didn't. There were other representatives for other parts of the community. I do have experience here. This included people who used a lot of colourful language which I then cleaned up, removing the swear words only, for putting before the TA this was despite that I thought they were wrong it was their complaint and I had no right to deny them that.
If I had gotten to the point where I made the split based on whether or not I liked them, their language or what not, then I would have quit my post. This is because if I got to that point then all I am representing is myself as I would only represent those who I thought were correct according to me.
You have placed yourself in this position of a community rep so you need to take personal feelings out of it. You either represent all or you represent none.
Simple answer they care for the game and want it to continue. It is not the people complaining you have to worry about as they want to continue to play the game and so want to see it improve.
The group you have to worry about most, even more so than the flip coin that is the fanboi/hater is the following group:
The silent leavers. These people leave and then when asked about the game they tell people not to bother it is rubbish now. Word of mouth is the most powerful advertising tool out there, no more so than when it is negative as those that hear the bad then pass it on.
I see it like this. If the only thing you gotta do is play the game, it's free. You're gonna play the game anyway, right? Sure, you technically do use some form of in-game currency for every non-levelup ship, but would you really want to count the currency that's made specifically for that ship?
I don't know. I'm confused right now. Too early in the morning.
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You're both right. It's free of charge and therefore cost 0$ = free. But technically, everything in this game is free of charge via exchange, but we never think of the c-store stuff being 'free'. Even Cryptic doesn't advertise it as such(imagine if they did!).
As for the podcast, I honestly don't have that much of an opinion on it to be honest. I only listened the lasted two episodes and didn't finish listening to them even with I sped it up by 1.5x to get through it faster.
What you guys do is what I would come to expect. I am in no means trying to come off as negative but it's more for the benefit of Cryptic than it is to the community.
I don't think there is anything wrong with that, lets be honest, if they did in fact represent the community, how often do you think devs or like wise would visit the pod cast? Probably as often as they visit these forums.
Anyway, while it's something that's not my cup of tea, or even see any value in it, I can understand why it is the way it is.
Agreed. 100%.
PS: XP math change resulted in a reduction (measured by % of level gain) from ship kills. Yet Geko stated their was no nerf intended when the math was changed. Two minutes later he flat out states ship kills were overperforming and reduced as part of the change.
PS2: EC nerf was once again a 'restructuring' of what npc loot drops sold for. In the end it massively reduced the amount of average EC gained from enemies.
PS3: If you don't understand a question perhaps you should have the author clarify before asking it to a dev in an ignorant (lack of knowledge) fashion and failing both to get an answer to the question and making a portion of the community feel ostracized from P1.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I think that at the very least, if it weren't for Elijah and the crew interviewing Geko, we wouldn't even be exposed to the blatant contradictions between their metrics and in-game demonstrations. I think they should at least be given credit for that.
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At the same time, I think the P1 team needs to be mindful about this relationship and how it may interfere wih the responsibility they have to the community.
A real life personal anecdote as to how familiarity can change interactions in a less personal venue:
I geocache. If you don't know what that is, it is basically a high tech scavenger hunt using GPS. On the geocaching forums I would get into long, drawn out discussions (arguments) with other cachers over the need for permission to hide a cache. One person in particular seemed to oppose my viewpoints on a very regular basis. He and I were practically sworn enemies, and we each felt the others' viewpoint would be the end of the game.
Someone pointed out that if we sat down over a couple brews and then went geocaching together, we'd probably have a grand time. Turns out, the other guy was a pilot, and had an extended layover at the local airport, so we decided to test this theory out...
Turns out, schedule-wise, that our brews were coffee with breakfast, but we set out. Had a good time, too. Found out we actually had a lot in common. By the time I had to drop him off at the airport, we were friends.
Back in the forums? The arguments still raged about the same issues, but he and I? We never really butted heads again, even though I think he's dead wrong, as I'm sure he thinks of my stance in the debate.
While neither of us represent the community at large, the familiarity leaading to willingness to let stuff slide is my point, one that should be taken to heart.
I agree. I also think it is very easy to forget that these people are volunteers, and it must be very disheartening to see your hard (free) work disparaged on the forums (the very people you are attempting to cater for). Its also easy to forget that these people are not professional reporters/investigative reporters and are interviewing the devs to find out upcoming news ect (not to 'dig the dirt')
I had infact been guilty of this myself (and for that I apologize to the people who give up their spare time to make the podcast).
I would ask one thing of you though (if you can do it in a way that stops you being completely cut off by the dev team, which given their silence on the forum is a very definite possibility). I would ask that you be more assertive when you question the dev team, and try to blend in a few 'negative' issues along with the 'good' news, in order to give a more rounded representation of the community.
That said, it is your time and your effort - I have realized I really cannot demand anything from a group of volunteers. And as Orangeitis has pointed out P1 does on occasion reveal unknown issues that may not have otherwise been published.
While this is a good point, its only valid from your situation. You need to remember that there are people who were happy with the game, people who were hanging in there, people hoping on the forums, and those already left. After DR you might have gone from happy to on the fence, like many others but all those people on the fence have been switched to not playing.
So just because you are one point in your cycle of the game, doesn't mean its the right point to be, it is just where you are. Anyone beyond your point has been in your shoes, and moved past that.
As someone that is well past that point, I know how much fun this game can be when you are ignorant of the mechanics, as people start to learn, they'll grow out of it. Of course some people never learn so they remain where they are.
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Nothing to do anymore.
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Another instance where a "Like" button would be pushed.
The queues are dead and it's not a reporting bug. Viscous cycle advanced and elite will fail when you have to scan the anomaly because it's bugged. Korfez is unbalanced with the benthans escort mission being just about impossible except for maybe 50k dps builds.
I try to run only private queues with the dps channel and both of those queues are a gamble to try and run. They can fail five times in a row, which is highly annoying. Getting groups together to run anything other than isa and cca can take a while depending on when you are on. Pre dr i didn't need to run private queues because pugging was viable, and the game though it still had a lot of problems was a lot more enjoyable.
That's really the tip of the iceberg of what is wrong with STO, post DR. I realize that now a days it's normal for developers to release buggy unfinished content, but a good developer would at least acknowledge some of these issues. I haven't seen the anomaly issue be addressed in a dev blog/patch note yet (may have missed), definitely not Korfez.
I would hope that the bugs, the nerfs and some poor design choices would be addressed with the devs. However, i also understand that it's not my call, if they want to sidestep the issues in their podcast that's their choice.
I will say that at least we have the chance of getting some great statements from the devs for more memes.
I'm sorry -- who said that? I don't remember saying that the forum community does not have legitimate concerns. What I have said is that it can be a full-time job to sift through unmitigated hatred to find the diamonds in the rough.
Now, before anyone challenges me and replies with something like, "Well, if you can't spend the time to read these forums, then you shouldn't be podcasting about the game" -- To you, I say... Join the team and help us improve. Become that volunteer member that helps the volunteer hosts.
This is a global community, my friends. I don't get paid to Community Manage.... wait a second... I don't even get paid to podcast! The audio editors don't get paid to spend their weekends editing the show. The graphic artist doesn't get paid for their creative talents. The bloggers don't get paid for expressing their thoughts. Heck, even the lawyer doesn't get paid to make sure we're making smart (legal) business decisions.
So -- If anyone is interested in consulting more directly with me and the team -- It is very easy to reach me.
In the 'good ol' days' when games were released on floppy disc/cartridge - bugs where simply out of the question (if you wanted your game to succeed that is), there was NO option to download a patch to fix a bug, and you sunk or swam based on your quality assurance/test team. (I remember watching the credits to many Amiga games and the list of testers was HUGE).
Contemporary developers not only have access to a virtually unlimited supply of free testers/bug finders, they ALSO have the ability to patch these bugs via a simple download.
The fact is, the game industry has become so lazy, that even when they are handed a list of bugs on a dish for free (by diligent players who use their free time to find them) - even when these bugs are highlighted BEFORE a game/update is released - many developers simply don't care, and release the content anyway.
It has to stop - I don't think I know of any other industry that gets away with such blatant shoddy work.
You are a politician,an unofficial spokesperson for a big company that no one voted for but got anyway.You call yourself a 'community leader' and say that you 'work for the community'....but we have yet to see any proof of that,in fact,everything you have done so far has been the exact opposite.You have been nothing more than a mouthpiece for Cryptic/PWE propaganda.
If you want our respect...EARN IT! Don't blame the players,the community for your actions or the lack thereof.
Take back your home,end the grind!
Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
I'm not blaming anyone. Again -- if you read more carefully -- you would see that I'm asking for help.
In the good old days, developers used assembly, and fiddled directly with the hardware. Games were written by 1, maybe 2 people, and your video card has 1000x more memory then the entire computer they were using.
Lower case is for wimps.
I'm afraid we really can't blame the testers for this one. There are only 5 of them in the QA department at Cryptic.
Free Tibet!
I have a friend who since this year has put in thousands of dollars into the game. More than triple what I have invested in years since beta. That one player can make up for hundred casuals or more. As long as there are enough 'whales', there is nothing for the rest of us. That is all PWI care about. Not if the rest of us are having fun. Even us leaving will do nothing to change things now. In the long run, this is a bad trend for gaming. To have to spend so much cash that entire climate and design of a game revolves around this... sad state of affairs and the golden days of gaming are gone. Sorry for not bein eloquent enough or making valid points but it is how I feel. Game is dying for the majority of players.