Doom is an understatement I bet most of us who are on the forums in contrast between forum and the game spend more time in the forums.
For me its like 5 mins on website and what I'll do now is just look at their wallpaper of ships because thats about as much worth I see in the game right now lol. Just watch those will cost money to download now that i've said that rofl.
Maybe it's just me, but I think I'd be able to take your criticisms more seriously if you showed any sign of being able to, y'know, communicate on a forum. Punctuation, spelling, coherence - all appear to be lacking in the above.
Also, if you don't actually play the game, how can you claim to be making any sort of statement regarding the state of the game? There are quite a few games I used to play; it would never occur to me to claim to know anything about how they're going now. (Does the airspeeder on Coruscant still disappear in midair in SWTOR? Always amused me to watch my toon scooting through the sky on his butt...)
Soooooo all the silence from the Cryptic guys etc isn't making peoples concerns ease when a Google search brings up lots of contradiction.
What I am seeing more in those articles is that the moderators' reaction to the threads is drawing suspicion, rather than proof that the layoffs centered around STO. They also miss the fact that this thread, as it has not had any violations in it, has continued and that PWE staff knows it exists.
The situation could be either way, but that is how I read those articles.
I think we should at the least get a statement from Mr. Ricossa (ideally him, because he tends not to mess up his posts) letting us know whether the game is being slated for maintenance mode after Season 10 or if development will continue as normal. I realize no one at PWE will disclose details of who was let go, but at least getting an answer on the status of the game would be helpful.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Seriously? They're trying to make a judgement based on data that doesn't exist?
Yeah, citing a source that you admit no longer exists and is thus unverifiable, seems more than a little shady. more so the fact that the source was vague to start with.
On the other tentacle, if you are enjoying what content there is, there may be some cold comfort in knowing that Cryptic won't shut a game down as long as it's making enough money to pay for its server space (cf Champions Online).
It's not much, but that appears to be our worst-case scenario - the game may simply stay as it is after Season 10. Best-case scenario, of course, is that development continues, probably slightly slowed by the reduction in manpower. We'll just have to wait and see.
Official word from management would be appreciated, obviously...
Thank god I found my foil armor! Now to quit my job, sell my home, and hide in my mom's basement, until the truth comes out!
Don't understand why people think asking for conformation on the state of the game going forward is such a tin foil moment.
Cryptic provide a service and as such as customers we are asking for clarification on how the recent issues effect this service.
When the company I worked for laid off staff and then went into administration (like if all development stopped and Sto went into wind down maintenance mode only) we let any customer know how this was effecting or going to effect the service we provided, not only to keep the money coming in but to safe guard further job losses and maintain the brand image as much as possible.
All we are asking for is clarification are asking for is just that clarification on how this affects the game and the continued confidence in the brand thus setting worries aside to let us keep purchasing goods etc with confidence that it's not going to be wasted effort and money.
With Cryptic using the Star Trek brand I would have thought an official statement would be paramount to keep the big CBS powers happy that their brand isn't going to be tarnished.
Cryptic and PWE are in no way obligated to inform the players of internal issues (in most cases). If anything this is between them and (probably) their investors. As for the moderators not saying anything my guess is a.) they don't know much more than we do and b.) even if they did they've likely been told not to say anything. I'm curious too but I doubt we're going to know anything outside of a leak or a press release coming out.
Now an official statement on the state of the game on the other hand would be more appropriate considering the concerns being caused among the playerbase by all this.
With Cryptic using the Star Trek brand I would have thought an official statement would be paramount to keep the big CBS powers happy that their brand isn't going to be tarnished.
Perhaps so - but that would be a statement to CBS, not to us. (Unless you're actually a CBS exec, and wondering where your update is?)
Don't understand why people think asking for conformation on the state of the game going forward is such a tin foil moment.
Cryptic provide a service and as such as customers we are asking for clarification on how the recent issues effect this service.
When the company I worked for laid off staff and then went into administration (like if all development stopped and Sto went into wind down maintenance mode only) we let any customer know how this was effecting or going to effect the service we provided, not only to keep the money coming in but to safe guard further job losses and maintain the brand image as much as possible.
All we are asking for is clarification are asking for is just that clarification on how this affects the game and the continued confidence in the brand thus setting worries aside to let us keep purchasing goods etc with confidence that it's not going to be wasted effort and money.
With Cryptic using the Star Trek brand I would have thought an official statement would be paramount to keep the big CBS powers happy that their brand isn't going to be tarnished.
Get a sense of humor ,k.
Every time some staff changes, gameplay gets altered, people run to the forum, and act like the cryptic rapture has begun.
Sorry if I tweeked yer bum, I'm a bad cheeky monkey.
Get a sense of humor ,k.
Every time some staff changes, gameplay gets altered, people run to the forum, and act like the cryptic rapture has begun.
Sorry if I tweeked yer bum, I'm a bad cheeky monkey.
Nah its not the rapture even though that was a good DS9 episode lol I'm just frustrated that even though there is is an outcry for answers in usual cryptic fashion they are living up to their name and leaving us with uncertainty which in the long run will only hurt their bottom line.
Nah its not the rapture even though that was a good DS9 episode lol I'm just frustrated that even though there is is an outcry for answers in usual cryptic fashion they are living up to their name and leaving us with uncertainty which in the long run will only hurt their bottom line.
An outcry by who, exactly? You and 4 other people on the forum? Your posts are primarily the only ones constantly demanding that Cryptic tell you want is going on.
And the sad part of it is if they tell you everything is fine and will progress as usual you will simply say they are lying and trying to cover up. At the end of the day nothing they can say will reassure those who are already disgruntled or disenfranchised.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
Soooooo all the silence from the Cryptic guys etc isn't making peoples concerns ease when a Google search brings up lots of contradiction.
I've heard people talk about the game going into wind down mode after season 10..
Guys in my fleet all saying they won't be spending money on STO until they hear something concrete Bout the state of the game...
All many people want is to know what's going to happen with the game..
Since you link to articles quoting the first 'rumor' article on this from 'Massively OP' - I find it interesting you didn't see the SECOND Massively OP article:
Massively OP has been contacted by a Cryptic employee — who wishes to remain anonymous and whose identity we have confirmed — about the Perfect World/Cryptic layoffs yesterday that one former PWE staffer called a “slaughter.”
Our source tells us that 18 people were let go from Cryptic itself, approximately 14% of the studio. Half of those were Neverwinter staff, evening out the Neverwinter and Star Trek Online teams (we do know some STO staff, including former City of Heroes lead designer Matt Miller and the game’s community manager, were among those let go)[/B]. The source believes the PWE Redwood Shores offices were hit significantly harder; our source reluctantly agreed that “yes, PWE is mostly to blame” for the debacle.
So actually, it seems the NeverWinter Dev team was hit harder than STO (STO lost one Dev; while NeverWinter lost 9 - and actually, 'Captain Smirk' the STO Community manager was in fact a PWE employee - not a Cryptic employee. In the end, it appears those bloggers didn't really look far into what Massively OP reported BECAUSE the article I linked to (which states a number from an unnamed Cryptic source - was up on Massively OP's site on March 17th, a full two days prior to the March 19th articles from Bloggers who claim "STO was hit hardest..."
It appears that in anything NeverWinter's Dev team size was reduced to be the same size as the current STO Dev team (per that later MassivelyOP article.)
In the end though, until (and if) those affected decided to talk about what happened; we'll never know, nor is it legal for a Company to disclose the names of those laid off/terminated without the affected party's permission; so those expecting PWE/Cryptic to fully disclose in detail who was let go will be disappointed.
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
How much distinction actually remains between being a PWE vs. a Cryptic employee on the staff level, at this point? That is a serious question I've been wondering about lately; different companies handle acquisitions in very different ways.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Gutting neverwinter was probably never a question of profitability given the fact that 4e was the most hated edition of dnd (in particular the 4e forgotten realms setting which the game is set in).
5e essentially threw most of it out the window and i doubt WoTC or whoever owns the license atm will renew it for what is essentially a hated dead horse.
Now if only they'd rehire them to work on STO... (wishful thinking i know)
Gutting neverwinter was probably never a question of profitability given the fact that 4e was the most hated edition of dnd (in particular the 4e forgotten realms setting which the game is set in).
5e essentially threw most of it out the window and i doubt WoTC or whoever owns the license atm will renew it for what is essentially a hated dead horse.
Now if only they'd rehire them to work on STO... (wishful thinking i know)
As far as I know neverwinter is a cryptic own brand so to speak
As far as I know neverwinter is a cryptic own brand so to speak
Neverwinter gets its lore from the Forgotten Realm books. The Neverwinter devs have to follow what the Wizards of the Coast say just like how Star Trek Online devs have to follow what CBS say. The only Cryptic MMO that was owned by Cryptic instead of being licensed was City of Heroes which was inspired by Champions. Although, I haven't heard anything about Champions Online requiring approval from Hero Games for their decisions.
As far as I know neverwinter is a cryptic own brand so to speak
Nope - It's licensed to Cryptic via an agreement with Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast (who own everything D&D). NeverWinter was a campaign setting of the Dungeons and Dragons pencil and paper RPG going WAY back.
The only property Cryptic currently owns outright is the Hero Games "Champions' IP - which they used for "Champions Online".
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Neverwinter gets its lore from the Forgotten Realm books. The Neverwinter devs have to follow what the Wizards of the Coast say just like how Star Trek Online devs have to follow what CBS say. The only Cryptic MMO that was owned by Cryptic instead of being licensed was City of Heroes which was inspired by Champions. Although, I haven't heard anything about Champions Online requiring approval from Hero Games for their decisions.
That's because Cryptic didn't actually own the CoH intellectual property - that was NCSoft. So when NCSoft decided they wanted their own in-house studio, they dumped Cryptic and took away the IP.
Cryptic then started working on what was supposed to be Marvel Online, with partial backing from Microsoft (which is why XBox 360 controller support was built in). However, after a while, Marvel decided they didn't think MMOs would be more than a fad, and pulled out. Microsoft, not seeing how Cryptic could succeed without Marvel's IP, left as well. Cryptic's reponse to this was to go hunting for an IP that couldn't be taken away. They happened upon Hero Games during a low point (5th Edition Champions hadn't sold well, apparently, and their other games were pretty niche too). Cryptic proceeded to purchase the Champions IP in its entirety; part of the money keeping CO afloat is the license fee Hero Games pays to relicense the PnP rights back. They then took the work that had been done toward the Marvel game, applied the Champions background and characters, and the rest is history.
As a side note, the devs at Cryptic knew the end was coming from NCSoft, and actually started work on the Marvel MMO before they were fired, so they could land on their feet. They couldn't talk about it in front of the brass, of course, or anyone involved in Paragon Studios. That's why the filenames for Champions Online all start with "fc", for "Fight Club" - because the first rule of working on this new game was that you weren't allowed to talk about this new game.
Comments
Also, if you don't actually play the game, how can you claim to be making any sort of statement regarding the state of the game? There are quite a few games I used to play; it would never occur to me to claim to know anything about how they're going now. (Does the airspeeder on Coruscant still disappear in midair in SWTOR? Always amused me to watch my toon scooting through the sky on his butt...)
Iconians your sig...:eek:
What happened your old sig was so cool man always gave me a nice chuckle each time i saw it sorry it had to go:(
Is that what keeps happening on SWTOR? I just assumed I'd ascended to a higher state of Jedi-hood and no longer required such trivial conveyances...
I'll try to endeavour to communicate more with the forums. I apologize for the misinformation.
We're still cool, right? An apology is enough, right? I mean I edited the text. That's the same thing as if it never happened in the first place.
This is the epoch of the epohh!
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/layoffs-hit-perfect-world-s-cryptic-studios/0146904
And!...
http://www.develop-online.net/news/layoffs-hit-perfect-world-entertainment/0204580
Seem to suggest its STO effected more...
Soooooo all the silence from the Cryptic guys etc isn't making peoples concerns ease when a Google search brings up lots of contradiction.
I've heard people talk about the game going into wind down mode after season 10..
Guys in my fleet all saying they won't be spending money on STO until they hear something concrete Bout the state of the game...
All many people want is to know what's going to happen with the game..
What I am seeing more in those articles is that the moderators' reaction to the threads is drawing suspicion, rather than proof that the layoffs centered around STO. They also miss the fact that this thread, as it has not had any violations in it, has continued and that PWE staff knows it exists.
The situation could be either way, but that is how I read those articles.
I think we should at the least get a statement from Mr. Ricossa (ideally him, because he tends not to mess up his posts) letting us know whether the game is being slated for maintenance mode after Season 10 or if development will continue as normal. I realize no one at PWE will disclose details of who was let go, but at least getting an answer on the status of the game would be helpful.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Yeah, citing a source that you admit no longer exists and is thus unverifiable, seems more than a little shady. more so the fact that the source was vague to start with.
My character Tsin'xing
Cryptic Leadership/PR, please make an official statement/blog explaining what's going on and describing the state of the game.
Thanks.
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
It's not much, but that appears to be our worst-case scenario - the game may simply stay as it is after Season 10. Best-case scenario, of course, is that development continues, probably slightly slowed by the reduction in manpower. We'll just have to wait and see.
Official word from management would be appreciated, obviously...
Don't understand why people think asking for conformation on the state of the game going forward is such a tin foil moment.
Cryptic provide a service and as such as customers we are asking for clarification on how the recent issues effect this service.
When the company I worked for laid off staff and then went into administration (like if all development stopped and Sto went into wind down maintenance mode only) we let any customer know how this was effecting or going to effect the service we provided, not only to keep the money coming in but to safe guard further job losses and maintain the brand image as much as possible.
All we are asking for is clarification are asking for is just that clarification on how this affects the game and the continued confidence in the brand thus setting worries aside to let us keep purchasing goods etc with confidence that it's not going to be wasted effort and money.
With Cryptic using the Star Trek brand I would have thought an official statement would be paramount to keep the big CBS powers happy that their brand isn't going to be tarnished.
Now an official statement on the state of the game on the other hand would be more appropriate considering the concerns being caused among the playerbase by all this.
Get a sense of humor ,k.
Every time some staff changes, gameplay gets altered, people run to the forum, and act like the cryptic rapture has begun.
Sorry if I tweeked yer bum, I'm a bad cheeky monkey.
Lol sadly not as I would be rather rich instead of rather poor like I am lol.
Nah its not the rapture even though that was a good DS9 episode lol I'm just frustrated that even though there is is an outcry for answers in usual cryptic fashion they are living up to their name and leaving us with uncertainty which in the long run will only hurt their bottom line.
And the sad part of it is if they tell you everything is fine and will progress as usual you will simply say they are lying and trying to cover up. At the end of the day nothing they can say will reassure those who are already disgruntled or disenfranchised.
Since you link to articles quoting the first 'rumor' article on this from 'Massively OP' - I find it interesting you didn't see the SECOND Massively OP article:
http://massivelyop.net/2015/03/17/cryptic-layoffs-alone-totaled-18-people/
Which states:
So actually, it seems the NeverWinter Dev team was hit harder than STO (STO lost one Dev; while NeverWinter lost 9 - and actually, 'Captain Smirk' the STO Community manager was in fact a PWE employee - not a Cryptic employee. In the end, it appears those bloggers didn't really look far into what Massively OP reported BECAUSE the article I linked to (which states a number from an unnamed Cryptic source - was up on Massively OP's site on March 17th, a full two days prior to the March 19th articles from Bloggers who claim "STO was hit hardest..."
It appears that in anything NeverWinter's Dev team size was reduced to be the same size as the current STO Dev team (per that later MassivelyOP article.)
In the end though, until (and if) those affected decided to talk about what happened; we'll never know, nor is it legal for a Company to disclose the names of those laid off/terminated without the affected party's permission; so those expecting PWE/Cryptic to fully disclose in detail who was let go will be disappointed.
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
In my experience, they are most often true
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
My apologies, Matt! And I still think it was really stupid of them not to put you on the CO staff!
5e essentially threw most of it out the window and i doubt WoTC or whoever owns the license atm will renew it for what is essentially a hated dead horse.
Now if only they'd rehire them to work on STO... (wishful thinking i know)
As far as I know neverwinter is a cryptic own brand so to speak
Neverwinter gets its lore from the Forgotten Realm books. The Neverwinter devs have to follow what the Wizards of the Coast say just like how Star Trek Online devs have to follow what CBS say. The only Cryptic MMO that was owned by Cryptic instead of being licensed was City of Heroes which was inspired by Champions. Although, I haven't heard anything about Champions Online requiring approval from Hero Games for their decisions.
Nope - It's licensed to Cryptic via an agreement with Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast (who own everything D&D). NeverWinter was a campaign setting of the Dungeons and Dragons pencil and paper RPG going WAY back.
The only property Cryptic currently owns outright is the Hero Games "Champions' IP - which they used for "Champions Online".
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Cryptic then started working on what was supposed to be Marvel Online, with partial backing from Microsoft (which is why XBox 360 controller support was built in). However, after a while, Marvel decided they didn't think MMOs would be more than a fad, and pulled out. Microsoft, not seeing how Cryptic could succeed without Marvel's IP, left as well. Cryptic's reponse to this was to go hunting for an IP that couldn't be taken away. They happened upon Hero Games during a low point (5th Edition Champions hadn't sold well, apparently, and their other games were pretty niche too). Cryptic proceeded to purchase the Champions IP in its entirety; part of the money keeping CO afloat is the license fee Hero Games pays to relicense the PnP rights back. They then took the work that had been done toward the Marvel game, applied the Champions background and characters, and the rest is history.
As a side note, the devs at Cryptic knew the end was coming from NCSoft, and actually started work on the Marvel MMO before they were fired, so they could land on their feet. They couldn't talk about it in front of the brass, of course, or anyone involved in Paragon Studios. That's why the filenames for Champions Online all start with "fc", for "Fight Club" - because the first rule of working on this new game was that you weren't allowed to talk about this new game.