What you should have done, is said that this is the last year for the pearls, and allow us to use what we earned previously.
That would have been the honest way to do things, not make them obsolete and tell us "ha ha, sucks to be you"....
^^^^This^^^^
Also, if the devs who came up with this and their white knights think this will die easily, remember how often major questions are asked/raged about by players who never read the launcher, visit your website, or hang out on Reddit. (Which I would also point out is less than happy with this move despite being positive but not usually White Knights about it.)
"Why are you retiring the Risian Lohlunat Pearls?"
To TRIBBLE over those of you who saved them from last year. Because if that wasn't the point, we'd let you trade them in for this year's currency. We, of course, muddled that in bureaucratese and letting you buy dross you can get in a queue anyway, and see the shiny spec points? But really, it was to TRIBBLE over everyone who saved them from last year.
To be perfectly & brutally honest, does anyone actually KEEP using their Risan ships six months later? Yeah, it's cute to wear a holiday item like a Mardi Gras mask during Marti Gras, but to still be wearing it in August?
I haven't seen a Risan Cruiser in several months now, and the Corvette even less. It's just a cheesy Meh Award for giving Cryptic their precious metrics for three weeks.
Now, imagine if the majority of players simply said "no" and didn't bother to play that event, much like people tend to avoid Viscous Circle like the plague that it is. The Dev staff would totally lose their minds if that happened.
1.- People will play the grind with 1 char to grind 1000 pearls (or whatever) and then 40 with their alters, and that is it.
2.- People will not play everyday, the first days Risa will be packed and with a lot of map#, while the last ones will be almost empty.
3.- No one will save currency for the next year, because it's unlikely we will get another "compensation sale" like this one.
Also, on the subject of the costs:
800 pearls == 4 specialization points == 16 * 25000 tech upgrade points (saving ~32000 dilithium). Which means, incidentally, that the official line about XP ratio can be deduced to:
a) Officially, 15 minutes of game equates to ~480 dilithium
b) The pearl conversion table gives us the value of 1 specialization point: 8 times as much as a single Superior Tech Upgrade (in dilithium)
c) The Superior Tech Upgrade requires 1075 Dilithium, which is ~2.24 times 480
d) For Cryptic, each specialization point at level 60 should require 268.75 minutes, or roughly 4 hours and nearly 30 minutes.
Yay. -.-U
nice math ... and indicative of the increasing trend towards "grind until you drop " we were all observing ( this equation is evidence enough) .
Just Started the Launcher to see if there are any New News...and yea there is.....RETIRING LOHLUNAT PEARLS...and i was like WHAT THE BLOODY ****?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it feelt like a TRAIN JUSR RUN OVER ME, came to the Forum and See Old Risa Ships are also Retired :eek:....but than again, why am i Surprised? I Mean Lately we have DOOM News EVERY Friggin Week? Doff Missions Nerfed...Patrols Nerfed....Red Alerts Nerfed.....Missions Rewards (Assimilation) Nerfed.....and Countless other Things...Nerfed or made WORSE.....and every time...EVERY SINGLE TIME, iam asking the same Question...why?...just...just..WHY?!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST WHY CANT YOU LEAVE THE GOD DAMN GAME ALONE, JUST WHY DO YOU HAVE TO NERF THE TRIBBLE AND EVERY LITTLE BIT OF FUN OUT OF THIS GAME, JUST WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!!!!!!
Like Many others (MOST) i also have enough Pearls to get the New Ships right from Minute one...and on all my Alts (42 Chars) another 40 for the Discount....i have Grinded my BUTT of Last Year so i can Enjoy the Event this Year to Farm the Favors and outfit my Chars with nice Stuff from the Summer Stores...so what? Am i Cheating? Am i Exploiting? FRIGGING NO!!!! I Legitematly Grinded for those Pearls to Save the Time this Year and now you are Making those Perals that i have Spend so much time to get them USELESS, you are DEVALUEATING THEM!!!! and NO i dont give a TRIBBLE about those RIDICILOUS Ship Emotes...WHO the Hell is Comming up with such a STUPID Idea Anyway?!!!!! "OH Look my Ship now also can make Emotes, how FrIgGiN AWESOME, and soooo REALISTIC!" Yea thats what everyone was asking for right? WRONG, thats just a CHEAP EXCUSE to make our Currency the Pearls USELESS.
YOU Cryptic Dudes AGAIN Proved that you HATE your Playerbase and that you HATE this Game, or else i CANT Explain why you can do so much BS OVER AND OVER and OVER x1000 AGAIN!!!!!
Look at this Thread, allready 64 Pages Full with ANGRY and DISSPLEASED Players in Just a FEW HOURS...Funny Thing is...there are a Few Players here who dont care for those Changes, they ask a Question and BAM There is a Answer (Trendy) but you Guys and Girls IGNORE EVERYONE ELSE HUH? Just SAD BAD SAD BAD SAD BAD and again SAD AND BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad::mad:
Every time we get an influx of new players the old players get screwed. F2P screwed, Delta screwed. I've got 1360 Pearls on my main and most of my 22 alts have 640 pearls what the hell am I going to use them on. Most of my Alts are still below level 60, due to the freaking level grind. Don't bother with upgrades any more as a total gamble and a waste of time. Elite Queue rewards, don't really craft any more, my main still hasn't complete the all the R&D schools. Emotes! Who the hell uses emote in game. The only emote of any use in the this game would be The Finger. Cryptic you could have at least had an XP package for toons not level 60 or was that a little too hard for you to do.
Why the hell retire the ships, at least let players get them with the new currency at a much reduced rate.
This is another example of Cryptic's incompetence. :mad: x 1,000,000
"Quick! Get your Risian Corvette and Cruisers before the event because we're retiring them!"
*event starts and players learn the truth*
"Haha! Look at those "new" T6 Risian Corvette and Cruiser with everything the T5 versions have already and more! What? You used your pearls to earn the T5 because we didn't warn you about the T6 and now you have 2 ship slots filled for nothing! Awww, too bad... "
What the Brainiacs at Cryptic fail to recognize is that not everyone has the time to play the daily event every single day. Some times, a greater MMO called "Real Life" takes priority. So, people will try to log on when they can get their pearls/Qmendations/Shards (oh, you just KNOW they're coming after our Qmendations and Shards next!) and if they cannot get the ship this year they can just save what they managed to gather and wait for the next year's event.
Well, Cryptic wants everyone on ALL the time to make those precious Metrics happen, so they're scrubbing the whole thing and giving people cheesy holo-emoticons instead for all their efforts.
The question is, will people allow this or will they just decide to simply boycott the event altogether? Sadly, we all know that people don't make a stand for their principles anymore, so strap on those Floaters and fly through those rings day after day like obedient metric-generating monkeys. OOK OOK!
This will be the process going forward a new item to be collected each year.
Our goal for this change is to ensure that everyone participates on equal footing for the release of each year's new ship.
What a wonderful lesson to give to teens...
"Hey, kids, remember! Those who save up money to anticipate a purchase and spend less time grinding next time are losers! Spend all your earnings at once and support grinding! Because grinding is good for you! Savviness and anticipation will lead you nowhere!"
I agree with you that, in these hard times, they desperately need metrics.
However, be it an evul plan or not ... 200 lohlunat pearls for a full spec point : you have that going on for you, which is nice.
As for those starship emoticons ... LOL ! ( is there a LOL emoticon too perhaps? )
So i got a question about that as you say the current summer ships, (corvett and the cruiser) wont be available anymore. So i was just wondering, since i have the cruiser on 3 toons, and i have the corvett slot on one of them at the moment, (last year event was the first when i was able to actively participate) and now I wont be able to make the corvett on any other toon available?
I mean basicly i can't get the set and the ship for only 1 of my toon. Why don't you make it as the last winter event, that we still could get the old ships, and the new one as well, so given a chance that the new joined players, or in this matter those who already playing for years, but couldn't get the old ships out yet to have them. I know this new line of T6 ships has to be in game and gotta make ppl like them, but I personaly collecting the ships tho. I have started it as the new year came. At the moment i have 30 ships on the collector character including only 1 that comes by leveling, (so thats a nice bunch of ships slots) 1/3rd of them is from C-Store. But it still makes me sad that I wont be able to get the corvett on that spesific character.
Im sure there are a some ppl who feel the same way about this change, so would be there any chance to get the ship or if i have it in slot just make it available for the other characters, so we would be able to have it on any character?
What an inane, artificial way to force the playerbase to grind through your lackluster recycled content.
Except quite a few won't play anyway. I haven't bothered with the Mirror/Crystaline events the last 2-3 times either, and I'm sure I'm not alone. The shinies aren't shiny enough.
Delta Recruitment was a hit! We lurves us our new players! Oh but you wanted the Summer/Winter ships? Too bad, noob. Did we mention the new ship will use the consoles from the first two?
Watch them not change a thing/bug the first two weeks, too. This game gets less appealing with every week that goes by.
"See? The sheep still play our ****ty events DESPITE us!"
The lesson is: If you anticipate and learn to think you'll be punished. It's like socialists are running development of this game. Forcibly trying to make players equal and punishing those who want to excel. Telling people how to play the game and banning players who put extra effort into it. Socialists also make people work a lot for measly rewards. Well, the good thing about every socialism is that it eventually fails because you run out of other people's money to spend.
Okay now. This whole affair is bad enough, but let's not inject politics into it.
I spent many a day collecting Lohlunat Pearls for each of my characters after I acquired the latest Risian ship. I did so to ensure that I would not need to repeat "Flyin' high" much in order to get the new ship next year for classes I believe it would fit. Now all my efforts are going to be wasted and I will have to start all over again with this new alternative.
Why is it that Lohlunat Pearls cannot simply be converted into the new form instead?
Also, I was hoping to be able to acquire the Risian ships for any new characters I make in the future. Now it seems I will not have the chance. Indeed, this is quite a disappointment.
I don't see why you would want to completely remove stuff from the game anyway. The designs are already there, they spent time working on these ships, why destroy all that hard work?
At least they should consider making these ships available from the Z-store for a small price, something like 1000 zen. That way they can still earn some money from these ships while there are no or almost no additional costs for them.
It just doesn't make sense to me to remove stuff you've already completed and that's popular when it doesn't require any resources to keep them in the game and when they could even keep earning money off these ships.
Edit: or at least it would be nice to know the reasoning behind retiring these ships. If there's a good reason, fine, at least we get a chance to understand something we may still not like. But this just doesn't make sense to me.
Please never introduce floating cartoon emotes. <--Too late, they're coming
2.)
Next time you get an idea that some of the players will hate with an intensity that rivals lag, ask us how much we hate it before you introduce it. Idiots and griefers will love this. <-- So... only idiots would have use for it, and some small, arbitrary jury of players should be consulted before decisions?
Trekkers want to take trek seriously, and this looks like a joke.
As an aside... what about the Trekkies's input? :P
Our goal for this change is to ensure that everyone participates on equal footing for the release of each year's new ship.
If equality is your goal, then you shouldn't permanently remove stuff from the game anyway. Everyone may be on equal footing at the start of the event, but newer characters or newer players in general will always have access to less ships if you remove them.
I doubt anyone, be it a newer player or a veteran, cares that some people have a new fancy ship a few weeks before they can get it. I tend to believe they would be more annoyed seeing people in a Corvette knowing they won't ever have a chance to get that same ship.
There is an old saying that comes to mind. If it isn't broke, don't fix it.
Cryptic, stop trying to fix things that aren't broken and focus on the things that are, like the stupid XP grind since Delta Rising, or how about the million of bugs running around.
I sense a large can of worms has been opened, and never before has the community hated Cryptic quite as much as they seem to now.
I don't see why you would want to completely remove stuff from the game anyway. The designs are already there, they spent time working on these ships, why destroy all that hard work?
They could put them in the Lobi Store. They could also create a Tier 6 variant with new customization options that are compatible with the old. (Or just a new Tier 6 variant without new customization options, but I doubt that.)
Or maybe they will create special "rerun" events like they do with special featured episode rewards.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Anyone whimpering about the space emotes needs to try actually playing the game for once. Notice all the constant spam stuff when ships fight, it has nothing to do with star trek at all.
I've resigned myself to just learning to live with the obnoxious ability visuals.
The space emotes are a genuinely good idea. Take the thumbs up/thumbs down ones, now we have a way to show our judgment for other ships we see. A simple visual cue like these emotes makes communication a lot easier.
Damn! I wanted to buy specialization points, now you're giving me a reason to buy the emotes.
Ah, nah... I'll stick with fireworks.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
... JUST WHY DO YOU HAVE TO NERF THE TRIBBLE AND EVERY LITTLE BIT OF FUN OUT OF THIS GAME,...
That's it. No more or no less. Just that!
@Cryptic: I'll decide. what I do from your offerings. Grinding, Upgrades, R&D for creating stuff - that's all work for me, which I will NEVER do.
I want to have fun and I play the fun. Anything else offered by you, I will not do. And my wallet will be closed for you. I'm not supporting changes, that I hate.
To be perfectly & brutally honest, does anyone actually KEEP using their Risan ships six months later? Yeah, it's cute to wear a holiday item like a Mardi Gras mask during Marti Gras, but to still be wearing it in August?
I haven't seen a Risan Cruiser in several months now, and the Corvette even less. It's just a cheesy Meh Award for giving Cryptic their precious metrics for three weeks.
Now, imagine if the majority of players simply said "no" and didn't bother to play that event, much like people tend to avoid Viscous Circle like the plague that it is. The Dev staff would totally lose their minds if that happened.
I'm using my Risian Luxury Cruiser because it turned out to be a better option than spending money upgrading my Odyssey Tactical to T-5U. And that's the behaviour Cryptic wants to stop: not spending money.
Hell, I understand they have a bottom line that needs to be met, but the people who want to spend money on ships will, whether there are free options are not. This is simply a poor, poor decision.
Don't buy the emotes. After the event, they'll be available for GPL.
Thanks for the tip-off. Looks like Cryptic was trying to pull a double-TRIBBLE on us.
I wonder how long it will be before the STO White Knights come galloping in to defend this dreadful idea (one certain person who's the Whitey-Knightiest of them all comes to mind who won't be mentioned by name, but by his "Megamind" icon ye shall know him)? They've certainly got their job cut out for them in trying to put perfume on this TRIBBLE.
I wonder how long it will be before the STO White Knights come galloping in to defend this dreadful idea (one certain person who's the Whitey-Knightiest of them all comes to mind who won't be mentioned by name, but by his "Megamind" icon ye shall know him)? They've certainly got their job cut out for them in trying to put perfume on this TRIBBLE.
I'm another of the people who typically gives Cryptic the benefit of the doubt and calls for reason, particularly when it comes to a lot of the complaints that are just plain unfair or ignorant of how programming and business works.
I refuse to defend this. This is one of the more tone-deaf, out-of-touch decisions I've seen in an online game in quite some time.
Fleet Admiral L'Yern - Screenshot and doffing addict
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
Thanks for the tip-off. Looks like Cryptic was trying to pull a double-TRIBBLE on us.
By telling folks...
/facepalm
It says right there in the blog.
STARSHIP EMOTE PACKS
Each of these packages unlocks one or two new powers, which can be slotted into your Starship Power Trays. Activating any of these Powers will display a brief holographic symbol above your ship while in System or Sector Space. All share a brief cooldown period, so as to discourage noisy over-use of this new feature.
Our hope is that having a few quick communication options at your fingertips may help even total strangers communicate with one another with ease, while flying among the stars.
While these will remain exclusively available on the Summer Buyback Store for the time being, these Emote Packs will eventually also become available for Gold-Pressed Latinum.
But maybe they were...they've been around a bit, they know a bunch of players don't bother reading anything and just comment blindly or parrot stuff.
It's interesting that they apparently think this is going to help their metrics. Previously people had a reason to continue playing the event after day 20, now we don't. I know all they care about is money and that customer satisfaction and good will are apparently concepts they've never heard of, but these kinds of decisions are bad for them as well as us. It's mind boggling that someone actually thought this was a good idea.
I really, really wish I could still be properly angry when cryptic pulls moves like this, but at this point I'm just resigned to it more than anything. I've stopped paying money in and that's all I can really do, other than quitting the game entirely.
Comments
^^^^This^^^^
Also, if the devs who came up with this and their white knights think this will die easily, remember how often major questions are asked/raged about by players who never read the launcher, visit your website, or hang out on Reddit. (Which I would also point out is less than happy with this move despite being positive but not usually White Knights about it.)
To TRIBBLE over those of you who saved them from last year. Because if that wasn't the point, we'd let you trade them in for this year's currency. We, of course, muddled that in bureaucratese and letting you buy dross you can get in a queue anyway, and see the shiny spec points? But really, it was to TRIBBLE over everyone who saved them from last year.
I haven't seen a Risan Cruiser in several months now, and the Corvette even less. It's just a cheesy Meh Award for giving Cryptic their precious metrics for three weeks.
Now, imagine if the majority of players simply said "no" and didn't bother to play that event, much like people tend to avoid Viscous Circle like the plague that it is. The Dev staff would totally lose their minds if that happened.
nice math ... and indicative of the increasing trend towards "grind until you drop " we were all observing ( this equation is evidence enough) .
Like Many others (MOST) i also have enough Pearls to get the New Ships right from Minute one...and on all my Alts (42 Chars) another 40 for the Discount....i have Grinded my BUTT of Last Year so i can Enjoy the Event this Year to Farm the Favors and outfit my Chars with nice Stuff from the Summer Stores...so what? Am i Cheating? Am i Exploiting? FRIGGING NO!!!! I Legitematly Grinded for those Pearls to Save the Time this Year and now you are Making those Perals that i have Spend so much time to get them USELESS, you are DEVALUEATING THEM!!!! and NO i dont give a TRIBBLE about those RIDICILOUS Ship Emotes...WHO the Hell is Comming up with such a STUPID Idea Anyway?!!!!! "OH Look my Ship now also can make Emotes, how FrIgGiN AWESOME, and soooo REALISTIC!" Yea thats what everyone was asking for right? WRONG, thats just a CHEAP EXCUSE to make our Currency the Pearls USELESS.
YOU Cryptic Dudes AGAIN Proved that you HATE your Playerbase and that you HATE this Game, or else i CANT Explain why you can do so much BS OVER AND OVER and OVER x1000 AGAIN!!!!!
Look at this Thread, allready 64 Pages Full with ANGRY and DISSPLEASED Players in Just a FEW HOURS...Funny Thing is...there are a Few Players here who dont care for those Changes, they ask a Question and BAM There is a Answer (Trendy) but you Guys and Girls IGNORE EVERYONE ELSE HUH? Just SAD BAD SAD BAD SAD BAD and again SAD AND BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad::mad:
Why the hell retire the ships, at least let players get them with the new currency at a much reduced rate.
This is another example of Cryptic's incompetence. :mad: x 1,000,000
"Quick! Get your Risian Corvette and Cruisers before the event because we're retiring them!"
*event starts and players learn the truth*
"Haha! Look at those "new" T6 Risian Corvette and Cruiser with everything the T5 versions have already and more! What? You used your pearls to earn the T5 because we didn't warn you about the T6 and now you have 2 ship slots filled for nothing! Awww, too bad... "
Actually, what it says is that the current pearl-based projects wont be complete able...
Nowhere does it say that there won't be projects for said ships based off the new currency.
Well, Cryptic wants everyone on ALL the time to make those precious Metrics happen, so they're scrubbing the whole thing and giving people cheesy holo-emoticons instead for all their efforts.
The question is, will people allow this or will they just decide to simply boycott the event altogether? Sadly, we all know that people don't make a stand for their principles anymore, so strap on those Floaters and fly through those rings day after day like obedient metric-generating monkeys. OOK OOK!
What a wonderful lesson to give to teens...
"Hey, kids, remember! Those who save up money to anticipate a purchase and spend less time grinding next time are losers! Spend all your earnings at once and support grinding! Because grinding is good for you! Savviness and anticipation will lead you nowhere!"
However, be it an evul plan or not ... 200 lohlunat pearls for a full spec point : you have that going on for you, which is nice.
As for those starship emoticons ... LOL ! ( is there a LOL emoticon too perhaps? )
I mean basicly i can't get the set and the ship for only 1 of my toon. Why don't you make it as the last winter event, that we still could get the old ships, and the new one as well, so given a chance that the new joined players, or in this matter those who already playing for years, but couldn't get the old ships out yet to have them. I know this new line of T6 ships has to be in game and gotta make ppl like them, but I personaly collecting the ships tho. I have started it as the new year came. At the moment i have 30 ships on the collector character including only 1 that comes by leveling, (so thats a nice bunch of ships slots) 1/3rd of them is from C-Store. But it still makes me sad that I wont be able to get the corvett on that spesific character.
Im sure there are a some ppl who feel the same way about this change, so would be there any chance to get the ship or if i have it in slot just make it available for the other characters, so we would be able to have it on any character?
Except quite a few won't play anyway. I haven't bothered with the Mirror/Crystaline events the last 2-3 times either, and I'm sure I'm not alone. The shinies aren't shiny enough.
Delta Recruitment was a hit! We lurves us our new players! Oh but you wanted the Summer/Winter ships? Too bad, noob. Did we mention the new ship will use the consoles from the first two?
Watch them not change a thing/bug the first two weeks, too. This game gets less appealing with every week that goes by.
"See? The sheep still play our ****ty events DESPITE us!"
Actually, yes it does.
If you don't already have the project slotted, you are out of luck. The ships are being retired.
Okay now. This whole affair is bad enough, but let's not inject politics into it.
Why is it that Lohlunat Pearls cannot simply be converted into the new form instead?
Also, I was hoping to be able to acquire the Risian ships for any new characters I make in the future. Now it seems I will not have the chance. Indeed, this is quite a disappointment.
I don't see why you would want to completely remove stuff from the game anyway. The designs are already there, they spent time working on these ships, why destroy all that hard work?
At least they should consider making these ships available from the Z-store for a small price, something like 1000 zen. That way they can still earn some money from these ships while there are no or almost no additional costs for them.
It just doesn't make sense to me to remove stuff you've already completed and that's popular when it doesn't require any resources to keep them in the game and when they could even keep earning money off these ships.
Edit: or at least it would be nice to know the reasoning behind retiring these ships. If there's a good reason, fine, at least we get a chance to understand something we may still not like. But this just doesn't make sense to me.
As an aside... what about the Trekkies's input? :P
If equality is your goal, then you shouldn't permanently remove stuff from the game anyway. Everyone may be on equal footing at the start of the event, but newer characters or newer players in general will always have access to less ships if you remove them.
I doubt anyone, be it a newer player or a veteran, cares that some people have a new fancy ship a few weeks before they can get it. I tend to believe they would be more annoyed seeing people in a Corvette knowing they won't ever have a chance to get that same ship.
Cryptic, stop trying to fix things that aren't broken and focus on the things that are, like the stupid XP grind since Delta Rising, or how about the million of bugs running around.
I sense a large can of worms has been opened, and never before has the community hated Cryptic quite as much as they seem to now.
Or maybe they will create special "rerun" events like they do with special featured episode rewards.
Damn! I wanted to buy specialization points, now you're giving me a reason to buy the emotes.
Ah, nah... I'll stick with fireworks.
That's it. No more or no less. Just that!
@Cryptic: I'll decide. what I do from your offerings. Grinding, Upgrades, R&D for creating stuff - that's all work for me, which I will NEVER do.
I want to have fun and I play the fun. Anything else offered by you, I will not do. And my wallet will be closed for you. I'm not supporting changes, that I hate.
I'm using my Risian Luxury Cruiser because it turned out to be a better option than spending money upgrading my Odyssey Tactical to T-5U. And that's the behaviour Cryptic wants to stop: not spending money.
Hell, I understand they have a bottom line that needs to be met, but the people who want to spend money on ships will, whether there are free options are not. This is simply a poor, poor decision.
Don't buy the emotes. After the event, they'll be available for GPL.
Thanks for the tip-off. Looks like Cryptic was trying to pull a double-TRIBBLE on us.
I wonder how long it will be before the STO White Knights come galloping in to defend this dreadful idea (one certain person who's the Whitey-Knightiest of them all comes to mind who won't be mentioned by name, but by his "Megamind" icon ye shall know him)? They've certainly got their job cut out for them in trying to put perfume on this TRIBBLE.
I refuse to defend this. This is one of the more tone-deaf, out-of-touch decisions I've seen in an online game in quite some time.
Eclipse Class Intel Cruiser U.S.S. Dioscuria NX-91121-A - Interactive Crew Roster
By telling folks...
/facepalm
It says right there in the blog.
But maybe they were...they've been around a bit, they know a bunch of players don't bother reading anything and just comment blindly or parrot stuff.
I really, really wish I could still be properly angry when cryptic pulls moves like this, but at this point I'm just resigned to it more than anything. I've stopped paying money in and that's all I can really do, other than quitting the game entirely.