Hmmm... One may well wonder what some of those Delta-Rising-disillusioned whales who supposedly stopped spending money on the game were to take their dollars to the stock market and buy as many shares as their previous STO spending budget would allow, each month. In a year, they would own a not-so-insignificant chunk of PWE. Nowhere near enough to hold controlling stock. but enough to earn a voice among the existing shareholders.
If all the minority shareholders of PWE stock were to come together, and elect a single spokesperson on their behalf, the voice could become quite strong. That one spokesperson, may individually own a small number of shares, but if he can eloquently communicate the concerns and interests of those he represents, the collective shareholdings of the group could be enough to shift the status quo. Sway a few of those who hold a large number of shares to join the cause, and the status quo may do more than just shift.
One thing of greatest importance is that shares of PWE stock are not shares of Star Trek Online. Anyone who would engage in such an endeavor as this needs to treat STO as just one of many investments, and the group needs to consider what is best for ALL PWE titles, not just one. If you own shares, you own a piece of the company.
So I would propose pitching this idea to people in other PWE communities as well.
Right now the shares are affordable enough that anyone willing to throw money at anything in any of PWEs games could take at bare minimum one share per month, perhaps more.
As if that is actually possible. Trying to get a bunch of whales to agree on which direction for the game to go or who should represent them is just as easy as a bunch of Star Trek fans agreeing on which is the best Captain.
Different games are different. One game might thrive on a subscription model. STO definitely did not. If we had stuck with subscription only, STO likely would have shut down by now.
Perhaps, but I remind you, taco, that correlation is not causation. I'd place the blame for STO's near-shutdown on an inauspicious launch* and lack of funding from Atari (because they were fragging bankrupt at the time), not the subscription model.
* I would've thought the fate of KOTOR2 would've been enough to dissuade Cryptic from trying to go from concept to finished product in less than two years, even with that promised bonus they didn't get.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Your link there says what the market cap is, its 925m
So, 51% of that.
Ah OK, that makes sense. Your number is a bit off by my calculations.
So calculating what it would take at today's closing price to achieve a controlling interest.
Market Capitalization: 925.53M
925.53 x 1,000,000 = $925,530,000 / $18.58 = 49,813,240 outstanding shares
49,813,240 x 0.51 = 25,404,753 shares required to gain 51% controlling interest
25,404,753 x $18.58 = $472,020,311 investment required as of today
I know that seems to be a big number & it is, but if each investor contributed from $500 to $1000, it would add up quickly. There would have to be a minimum buy-in but many may decide to invest more than the minimum. So, again just for calculations sake, let's assume that the minimum buy-in is $1000.
$472,020,311 / $1000 = 472,021 investors
This number is actually less than my previously supposed number of 500,000, so it is possible.
Here is another interesting site that I found that provides a very interesting perspective on the overall investment viability of the gaming industry.
Ah OK, that makes sense. Your number is a bit off by my calculations.
So calculating what it would take at today's closing price to achieve a controlling interest.
Market Capitalization: 925.53M
925.53 x 1,000,000 = $925,530,000 / $18.58 = 49,813,240 outstanding shares
49,813,240 x 0.51 = 25,404,753 shares required to gain 51% controlling interest
25,404,753 x $18.58 = $472,020,311 investment required as of today
I know that seems to be a big number & it is, but if each investor contributed from $500 to $1000, it would add up quickly. There would have to be a minimum buy-in but many may decide to invest more than the minimum. So, again just for calculations sake, let's assume that the minimum buy-in is $1000.
$472,020,311 / $1000 = 472,021 investors
This number is actually less than my previously supposed number of 500,000, so it is possible.
Here is another interesting site that I found that provides a very interesting perspective on the overall investment viability of the gaming industry.
Which means that almost 500,000 investors would have to give their money to some person since PWE will never deal with almost 500,000 investors. With almost $500 million in the hands of a few people, then there is a very high chance they will just run off with the money. They say that everyone has a price and almost $500 million will cause lots of people to act in a dishonest manner.
I couldn't really summon the energy to slog through 17 pages of this stuff so I don't know if it's been mentioned yet. If so, my apologies on this statement.
If I were to own this MMO, I would change it so that failing the optional mission on any of the queues wouldn't cause an abrupt end to the mission. After all, the word optional is defined as available to be chosen but not obligatory. It just seems silly that we're basically told that these little snippets are things that we can choose to accomplish, but don't really have to. To that end, balancing this out would be a matter of buffing the rewards for completing the optional task, or maybe decreasing your overall end reward for failing it, or maybe both. But to have the game tell you to pack it up because your team screwed up on completing something that isn't labelled as compulsory is just poor form. Or heck, if that's too much to ask for, make it so that anyone that failed a mission doesn't get locked out of queueing up again as if they did succeed.
So basically now we know it would take just shy of 288,000,000.00 to own PWE the parent company of Cryptic. How much would it take just to own Cryptic? The above poster indicated it was bought lock stock and barrel for 50 mill. So surely the net worth has not doubled, otherwise there would be no lay offs and content would be working without all the SNAFUS.
So basically now we know it would take just shy of 288,000,000.00 to own PWE the parent company of Cryptic. How much would it take just to own Cryptic? The above poster indicated it was bought lock stock and barrel for 50 mill. So surely the net worth has not doubled, otherwise there would be no lay offs and content would be working without all the SNAFUS.
Yes, because companies never lay off people when they're profitable...except in many real world industries.
Someone needs to start by addressing the lag, snr's, zone dc's, rubber banding and UI lag. They can blame the hops all day long and yet continue to bow to those very hops. They are at the mercy of someone who can cut their customers completely off. It would not surprise me if the hops were blocking traffic for a ransom.
Want to be on the cutting edge? Join your fellow gaming companies and look for an alternate solution, your own infrastructure to secure the future of MMO Gaming.
I constantly wonder how much of the "Net Neutrality" issue is playing into these things now - and will play an even bigger part in the future.
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.
After all, it cannot take too terribly long to slap an extra seat on a ship, make minor artistic tweaks, and adjust the stats accordingly...
I think the "artistic tweaks" is what takes a lot of the time - because they are not content with just selling the exact same ship, they tweak the original (at least for the Voyager and Galaxy Class), and then add another ship model.
But I think that the release schedule is not just based on technical limitations, but also on sales considerations. Offering a ship is not the same as selling them - if you just bought Ship A, you might not buy Ship B. If they wait some time between Ship A and Ship B, Ship A will often feel like an "old hat", and Ship B looks more attractive to buy.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
- Allow Fed-Romulans to buy and fly the D'kyr Science Vessel
- Remove all the arbitrary customes restrictions (Such as a lot of good outfit pieces being off-duty only)
- Add all the unused customes lingering in the files to the C-Store (Full Tal Shiar set, Enterprice MACO, etc.)
- Significantly lower the experience needed to get to 60 so you don't have to grind like crazy. (Specialization points remain the same)
- Initiate work on quality interiors that can be sold on the C-Store. (Enterprise D, etc)
- Readd the Pathfinder bundle to the C-Store
- Add Trophy slots on Romulan interiors
- Reintroduce trophies for content
- Allow all Tier 5 ships to upgrade to Tier 5U
- Lower the points needed to upgrade gear up to XIII
- Readd all removed STFs, such as Terra dome, and Elachi Alert, and balance them to have unique rewards so they'd be played
I wouldve said this game lived or died by the queues, but it appears your fanbase would replay old missions ad nauseum til the end of eternity itself. I still think you need to fix the queues whether by removing fail conditions and/or tweaking rewards.
Also the OP suggestion towards user content has some merit, since I do not feel your staff has the capabilities to produce maps that interest the players or we wouldnt be flying Khitomer/Crystalline/Infected still after all these years over the newer ones. Have a contest and let some foundry makers create adventure zones or stfs and reward them with unique ship materiels or even models, zen or lobi whatever. voila I guarantee you will soon have better stfs and zones than anything your group has put out. Sorry to be so blunt, but you have failed dozens of times over, its time for new blood. That is of course goin on my perspective that STFs and BZs are what makes this game and not overpaid and overplayed missions.
I wouldve said this game lived or died by the queues, but it appears your fanbase would replay old missions ad nauseum til the end of eternity itself. I still think you need to fix the queues whether by removing fail conditions and/or tweaking rewards.
Also the OP suggestion towards user content has some merit, since I do not feel your staff has the capabilities to produce maps that interest the players or we wouldnt be flying Khitomer/Crystalline/Infected still after all these years over the newer ones. Have a contest and let some foundry makers create adventure zones or stfs and reward them with unique ship materiels or even models, zen or lobi whatever. voila I guarantee you will soon have better stfs and zones than anything your group has put out. Sorry to be so blunt, but you have failed dozens of times over, its time for new blood. That is of course goin on my perspective that STFs and BZs are what makes this game and not overpaid and overplayed missions.
Alas Cryptic is afraid what the playerbase using a full set of foundry tools could come up with. Because then a whole lot of Cryptic's "PEOPLE" would be out of jobs because the Foundry is free and all content belongs to Cryptic.
Sometimes content isn't what the public wants. So give them a vanilla PvP server it isn't like it will cost you anything. I have already stated make it a sub only server. People will find it and play it. Even if it means forking over five bucks a month.
@OP
I concur and I am glad someone like you is not the owner of this game. Most of what you want would end the game faster than you think.
I also find it funny that you would include "technically experienced", because I wonder what that actually means. I know people that are great programmers and yet they could never run/or manage a game.
From my experience as a game master for table top games like D&D, I can tell you there is a big difference from game mastering to actually running a whole gaming group. Having done both I can tell you that technical experience does not help when dealing with many different groups of people and playing styles. It really all comes down to people experience and dealing with people and trying to keep them all there in that place. That is what PW is trying to do, it is trying to keep its players on this server playing this game....I do not think you realize the big challenge it is and what limited resources they may have at their disposal.
* Revamp energy types, current list is overcomplicated and overshadows canon weapons
* Phasers made Federation Blue (Andorian Phaser animation)
* Placate proc, large Shield damage chance (Tetryon proc), small Shield damage bonus
* Placate proc higher chance against bare hull
* Disruptors made Klingon Blood-Red (Antiproton animation)
* Disruptor proc, plus extra CritH chance and small damage bonus against bare hull
* Plasma Disintegrator is Romulan / Borg Green (current Disruptor animation)
* Plasma Fires and Disruptor procs plus small hull damage bonus
The goal of all of these changes would be to bring the game closer to Star Trek in feel and more closely adhere to the canon of the franchise. More canon-like ship selection, more canon weapons types
at all. Phasers are orange, dammit
And disruptors are green, why are you giving the Klingons red ones? I don't understand.
Comments
Where did you get this information?
Fed/Vulcan: T'jar Voltek Fleet: Section 31
Fed/Andorian: Lissan Ek'Noor sh'Aqabaa Fleet: Section 31
KDF/Cardi: K'Im Qah da Sian Fleet: Klingon Intelligence
KDF/Reman: R'Chras Jonzor Fleet: Klingon Intelligence
Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying a company's shares outstanding by the current market price of one share.
What I did was take the market Cap and divide by share price. Quick and dirty.
As if that is actually possible. Trying to get a bunch of whales to agree on which direction for the game to go or who should represent them is just as easy as a bunch of Star Trek fans agreeing on which is the best Captain.
Perhaps, but I remind you, taco, that correlation is not causation. I'd place the blame for STO's near-shutdown on an inauspicious launch* and lack of funding from Atari (because they were fragging bankrupt at the time), not the subscription model.
* I would've thought the fate of KOTOR2 would've been enough to dissuade Cryptic from trying to go from concept to finished product in less than two years, even with that promised bonus they didn't get.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Ah OK, that makes sense. Your number is a bit off by my calculations.
So calculating what it would take at today's closing price to achieve a controlling interest.
Market Capitalization: 925.53M
925.53 x 1,000,000 = $925,530,000 / $18.58 = 49,813,240 outstanding shares
49,813,240 x 0.51 = 25,404,753 shares required to gain 51% controlling interest
25,404,753 x $18.58 = $472,020,311 investment required as of today
I know that seems to be a big number & it is, but if each investor contributed from $500 to $1000, it would add up quickly. There would have to be a minimum buy-in but many may decide to invest more than the minimum. So, again just for calculations sake, let's assume that the minimum buy-in is $1000.
$472,020,311 / $1000 = 472,021 investors
This number is actually less than my previously supposed number of 500,000, so it is possible.
Here is another interesting site that I found that provides a very interesting perspective on the overall investment viability of the gaming industry.
https://www.motifinvesting.com/motifs/online-gaming-world#/overview
Fed/Vulcan: T'jar Voltek Fleet: Section 31
Fed/Andorian: Lissan Ek'Noor sh'Aqabaa Fleet: Section 31
KDF/Cardi: K'Im Qah da Sian Fleet: Klingon Intelligence
KDF/Reman: R'Chras Jonzor Fleet: Klingon Intelligence
Which means that almost 500,000 investors would have to give their money to some person since PWE will never deal with almost 500,000 investors. With almost $500 million in the hands of a few people, then there is a very high chance they will just run off with the money. They say that everyone has a price and almost $500 million will cause lots of people to act in a dishonest manner.
Instead of just sheepishly following every other MMO out there.
If I were to own this MMO, I would change it so that failing the optional mission on any of the queues wouldn't cause an abrupt end to the mission. After all, the word optional is defined as available to be chosen but not obligatory. It just seems silly that we're basically told that these little snippets are things that we can choose to accomplish, but don't really have to. To that end, balancing this out would be a matter of buffing the rewards for completing the optional task, or maybe decreasing your overall end reward for failing it, or maybe both. But to have the game tell you to pack it up because your team screwed up on completing something that isn't labelled as compulsory is just poor form. Or heck, if that's too much to ask for, make it so that anyone that failed a mission doesn't get locked out of queueing up again as if they did succeed.
Ah-ha... Some examples?
So basically now we know it would take just shy of 288,000,000.00 to own PWE the parent company of Cryptic. How much would it take just to own Cryptic? The above poster indicated it was bought lock stock and barrel for 50 mill. So surely the net worth has not doubled, otherwise there would be no lay offs and content would be working without all the SNAFUS.
Yes, because companies never lay off people when they're profitable...except in many real world industries.
But I think that the release schedule is not just based on technical limitations, but also on sales considerations. Offering a ship is not the same as selling them - if you just bought Ship A, you might not buy Ship B. If they wait some time between Ship A and Ship B, Ship A will often feel like an "old hat", and Ship B looks more attractive to buy.
- Allow Fed-Romulans to buy and fly the D'kyr Science Vessel
- Remove all the arbitrary customes restrictions (Such as a lot of good outfit pieces being off-duty only)
- Add all the unused customes lingering in the files to the C-Store (Full Tal Shiar set, Enterprice MACO, etc.)
- Significantly lower the experience needed to get to 60 so you don't have to grind like crazy. (Specialization points remain the same)
- Initiate work on quality interiors that can be sold on the C-Store. (Enterprise D, etc)
- Readd the Pathfinder bundle to the C-Store
- Add Trophy slots on Romulan interiors
- Reintroduce trophies for content
- Allow all Tier 5 ships to upgrade to Tier 5U
- Lower the points needed to upgrade gear up to XIII
- Readd all removed STFs, such as Terra dome, and Elachi Alert, and balance them to have unique rewards so they'd be played
Second your opinion.
Here here,,,, buy this poster a drink in Club 47!!!
Also the OP suggestion towards user content has some merit, since I do not feel your staff has the capabilities to produce maps that interest the players or we wouldnt be flying Khitomer/Crystalline/Infected still after all these years over the newer ones. Have a contest and let some foundry makers create adventure zones or stfs and reward them with unique ship materiels or even models, zen or lobi whatever. voila I guarantee you will soon have better stfs and zones than anything your group has put out. Sorry to be so blunt, but you have failed dozens of times over, its time for new blood. That is of course goin on my perspective that STFs and BZs are what makes this game and not overpaid and overplayed missions.
Alas Cryptic is afraid what the playerbase using a full set of foundry tools could come up with. Because then a whole lot of Cryptic's "PEOPLE" would be out of jobs because the Foundry is free and all content belongs to Cryptic.
Sometimes content isn't what the public wants. So give them a vanilla PvP server it isn't like it will cost you anything. I have already stated make it a sub only server. People will find it and play it. Even if it means forking over five bucks a month.
I concur and I am glad someone like you is not the owner of this game. Most of what you want would end the game faster than you think.
I also find it funny that you would include "technically experienced", because I wonder what that actually means. I know people that are great programmers and yet they could never run/or manage a game.
From my experience as a game master for table top games like D&D, I can tell you there is a big difference from game mastering to actually running a whole gaming group. Having done both I can tell you that technical experience does not help when dealing with many different groups of people and playing styles. It really all comes down to people experience and dealing with people and trying to keep them all there in that place. That is what PW is trying to do, it is trying to keep its players on this server playing this game....I do not think you realize the big challenge it is and what limited resources they may have at their disposal.
And disruptors are green, why are you giving the Klingons red ones? I don't understand.