Apparently, people still can't keep silent about it. Seriously, when something is a violation of the EULA, posting about it in the official fora, and especially in the most heavily trafficked of the fora (this hyar "General Discussion" forum), is a sure way to get someone in trouble. Tact is all too rare these days, I suppose.
I have mixed feelings about it myself. On the one hand, it was a useful source of information (even if it sometimes got things wrong, since things can change significantly from design to implementation). On the other hand, it was a violation of the End-User License Agreement.
If we're lucky it will return in 3-6 months when blabbermouths have largely forgotten about them, but for now we have to do without our sneak preview source.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I'd rather create an unbelievable horrible foundry mission, than stupidly wasting time on extracting some info, that is outdated in a week. No matter if public or closed.
I'd rather create an unbelievable horrible foundry mission, than stupidly wasting time on extracting some info, that is outdated in a week. No matter if public or closed.
Some of the stuff on there wasn't quite outdated. We've known about some of the stuff for a while.
Fleet Admiral Thomas Winston James a.k.a. The Grayfox Fleet Leader of:
Liberty Task Force/Liberty Honor Guard
Pride of the Federation/Pride of the Empire
Liberty Guardians U.S.S. Liberty, NX-42813-L, T-6 Legendary Odyssey Class
Y'know, in a way, it was a beautiful thing, EULA violation non-withstanding. They got to practice datamining (itself a valuable skill with legitimate uses), and we got neat sneak peaks at stuff. I don't see how it hurt Cryptic (though it may've in some way I don't see), and they seemed to let it slide as an 'open secret' of the community. You don't see developer and community... tolerate each others foibles like that too often, and it's sad to see this case get pushed too far.
I don't see how it hurt Cryptic (though it may've in some way I don't see)
There are people at PWE/Cryptic who get paid for releasing information to the playerbase. There's department called "Marketing" that has employees who are both loathed and loved (kind of like lawyers, since the game can't function without them). That is really the only harm these leaks do.
They are doing for free what people get a paycheck to do. I have no opinion on it one way or the other, I'm just saying that's the harm, and other game developers are the same way when it comes to data mining and leaks.
The IQ Fleet cut out the Middle Man, and Middle Men don't take kindly to being cut out.
and they seemed to let it slide as an 'open secret' of the community.
Apparently, that's not the case.
You don't see developer and community... tolerate each others foibles like that too often, and it's sad to see this case get pushed too far.
I think they tolerated it as best as they could. But instead of players remembering that these leaks are against the EULA and that they should remember to at least pretend -- they decided to brag about it and talk about it on the STO forums at great length.
It's kind of like stealing office supplies. Sure, people can get away with stealing a coffee mug or a pen here and there, but when you start getting employees putting office supplies on fork lifts and putting it in the back of their pick-up truck and asking management to help strap it down, you've completely disregarded the idea that what you're doing is wrong.
We've had threads about leaks and slamming Cryptic over unreleased information brought about by datamining. That's the equivelant of asking management to help you steal office supplies.
People decided to be dumb. There's no other way to put it.
You're right, Iconians, it did theoretically pose a threat to marketing. I, for one, got a kick out of seeing just how close to right IQ could get by checking it against the dev blogs, but I could see leaks meaningfully impacting marketing efforts.
It is really simple, people just would not shut up about them, despite clear instructions on the site to "not mentioning them on these forums" so they closed it down.
Hoping it comes back, but somehow I doubt it.
So now we have to go back to being at the whim of the Cryptic devs, never letting any info out about anything, until 2 days before release.
So now we have to go back to being at the whim of the Cryptic devs, never letting any info out about anything, until 2 days before release
Yes, but that information is always subject to change. Cryptic can always massively alter the thing in the dev blog as a result of 2 days of player feedback before it gets rel- BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHA. Oh man, I can't finish that with a straight face.
There goes all your informed buying decisions, I personally stayed away from the episode leaks, wanted it to be a nice surprise but the ship package leaks I welcomed as money doesn't grow on trees and to buy certain ship upgrades only to find a better T6 item the next day with no warning (yes devs you have burned us) just makes me want to hold onto my money and not risk it on the game.
BTW bought the alot of c-store items/ships, but now not knowing whats on the horizon I'll hold off.
Funny thing is all the devs have done is shoot themselves in the foot, now I wont spend anything incase theres something better.
What we need is a trailer/coming soon even a teaser about c-store (cost you money) items other wise no one spends while waiting for the 'what if next'......
Where ever you go, there you are.......
Join The Space Invaders,..... Federation and KDF fleets.
There goes all your informed buying decisions... What we need is a trailer/coming soon even a teaser about c-store (cost you money) items other wise no one spends while waiting for the 'what if next'......
There's a good point, on both sides. Unauthorized C-Store previews undermined Cryptic's sales model (in practice if not theory), but Cryptic's model is arguably unfair to consumers. I know it's affected my plans for how to spend my zen, and without sufficient advance previews, I may wait quite some time before committing to a purchase.
So now we have to go back to being at the whim of the Cryptic devs, never letting any info out about anything, until 2 days before release
Yes, but that information is always subject to change. Cryptic can always massively alter the thing in the dev blog as a result of 2 days of player feedback before it gets rel- BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHA. Oh man, I can't finish that with a straight face.
It is really simple, people just would not shut up about them, despite clear instructions on the site to "not mentioning them on these forums" so they closed it down.
Then they're idiots.
You don't go and find this information, buy a domain, build a web site and post it for everyone to see if you don't want people to talk about it. If that's true then it's absolutely ridiculous. If I find something about the game and I don't want the public to know, the last thing I'm going to do is post it on a web site. I would tell people I know. or at most post it on a site that only my friends/guild/fleet/etc could see.
IQ Fleet gets the bulk of their information from dissecting updates like the Season 10.5 pre-load.. that's where the information comes from. So right now, they simply have nothing to report. They're gone until they have something relevant to say, no other reason. People who talked about it on this forum did exactly what anyone with any sense would expect them to do. If IQ didn't want their stuff going public, then they shouldn't have put it on Twitter and a publicly viewable web page.
To blame people for discussing information decimated to them in a public forum makes no sense.
One thing I don't understand is why Cryptic gets so pissed off when theoretically they could just not patch things until they are released. I'm pretty sure it's not rocket science...
I may get pissed if I get robbed but if leave my doors unlocked and put a 'Welcome Robbers' sign on the porch I shouldn't expect anything less. From what I understand all they do is read game files from the latest patches... Anyone who can read can do that.
It is really simple, people just would not shut up about them, despite clear instructions on the site to "not mentioning them on these forums" so they closed it down.
Then they're idiots.
You don't go and find this information, buy a domain, build a web site and post it for everyone to see if you don't want people to talk about it. If that's true then it's absolutely ridiculous. If I find something about the game and I don't want the public to know, the last thing I'm going to do is post it on a web site. I would tell people I know. or at most post it on a site that only my friends/guild/fleet/etc could see.
IQ Fleet gets the bulk of their information from dissecting updates like the Season 10.5 pre-load.. that's where the information comes from. So right now, they simply have nothing to report. They're gone until they have something relevant to say, no other reason. People who talked about it on this forum did exactly what anyone with any sense would expect them to do. If IQ didn't want their stuff going public, then they shouldn't have put it on Twitter and a publicly viewable web page.
To blame people for discussing information decimated to them in a public forum makes no sense.
1: It's not that they were talking about it. It's that they were talking about it in the official STO forums. I sincerely doubt PWE or Cryptic would care or do much about people discussing data leaks in another forum.
Talking about information leaks on the official forums is just plain stupidity.
2: This isn't a public forum, it's a private forum owned by PWE. They set the rules.
3: The IQ Fleet are also idiots if that was their actual fleet name. You are right about giving them partial blame. If I were to do something like IQ Fleet, I would A: Not use my in-game fleet name on the website used for information leaks. B: Not advertise who I was or what fleet I belonged to on that website OR the STO forums.
If Cryptic sent them a cease-and-desist letter, that's really on them for bragging about who they were. They should have used a fleet pen name and anonymous names that couldn't be tied to their PW account or in-game organization.
It is really simple, people just would not shut up about them, despite clear instructions on the site to "not mentioning them on these forums" so they closed it down.
Then they're idiots.
You don't go and find this information, buy a domain, build a web site and post it for everyone to see if you don't want people to talk about it. If that's true then it's absolutely ridiculous. If I find something about the game and I don't want the public to know, the last thing I'm going to do is post it on a web site. I would tell people I know. or at most post it on a site that only my friends/guild/fleet/etc could see.
IQ Fleet gets the bulk of their information from dissecting updates like the Season 10.5 pre-load.. that's where the information comes from. So right now, they simply have nothing to report. They're gone until they have something relevant to say, no other reason. People who talked about it on this forum did exactly what anyone with any sense would expect them to do. If IQ didn't want their stuff going public, then they shouldn't have put it on Twitter and a publicly viewable web page.
To blame people for discussing information decimated to them in a public forum makes no sense.
Actually, they say they're closing it down due to a couple of recent scares they have had. They may come back once the situation dies down a bit.
Comments
Oh look...
I have mixed feelings about it myself. On the one hand, it was a useful source of information (even if it sometimes got things wrong, since things can change significantly from design to implementation). On the other hand, it was a violation of the End-User License Agreement.
"If this will be our end, then I will have them make SUCH an end as to be worthy of rememberance! Out of torpedos you say?! Find me the ferengi!".
Holy Grail of Gamification is Addiction | 5 Ways to Accomplisch | and the Psychology of Freemium
They could no longer afford to make the effort
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Holy Grail of Gamification is Addiction | 5 Ways to Accomplisch | and the Psychology of Freemium
Some of the stuff on there wasn't quite outdated. We've known about some of the stuff for a while.
#stofacepalm
Fleet Leader of:
Liberty Task Force/Liberty Honor Guard
Pride of the Federation/Pride of the Empire
Liberty Guardians
U.S.S. Liberty, NX-42813-L, T-6 Legendary Odyssey Class
Game Handle: Grayfox@GrayfoxJames
Website: https://www.libertytaskforce.com
Armada (STOFA Member Fleet): https://www.libertytaskforce.com/stofa
Discord: https://discord.gg/bGp9N7z
Twitter: STOFA@LTFGrayfox
Email: CSDynamix@Hotmail.com
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
There are people at PWE/Cryptic who get paid for releasing information to the playerbase. There's department called "Marketing" that has employees who are both loathed and loved (kind of like lawyers, since the game can't function without them). That is really the only harm these leaks do.
They are doing for free what people get a paycheck to do. I have no opinion on it one way or the other, I'm just saying that's the harm, and other game developers are the same way when it comes to data mining and leaks.
The IQ Fleet cut out the Middle Man, and Middle Men don't take kindly to being cut out.
Apparently, that's not the case.
I think they tolerated it as best as they could. But instead of players remembering that these leaks are against the EULA and that they should remember to at least pretend -- they decided to brag about it and talk about it on the STO forums at great length.
It's kind of like stealing office supplies. Sure, people can get away with stealing a coffee mug or a pen here and there, but when you start getting employees putting office supplies on fork lifts and putting it in the back of their pick-up truck and asking management to help strap it down, you've completely disregarded the idea that what you're doing is wrong.
We've had threads about leaks and slamming Cryptic over unreleased information brought about by datamining. That's the equivelant of asking management to help you steal office supplies.
People decided to be dumb. There's no other way to put it.
Hoping it comes back, but somehow I doubt it.
So now we have to go back to being at the whim of the Cryptic devs, never letting any info out about anything, until 2 days before release.
Yes, we cannot have nice things....
Yes, but that information is always subject to change. Cryptic can always massively alter the thing in the dev blog as a result of 2 days of player feedback before it gets rel- BWAHAHAHAAHAHAHA. Oh man, I can't finish that with a straight face.
BTW bought the alot of c-store items/ships, but now not knowing whats on the horizon I'll hold off.
Funny thing is all the devs have done is shoot themselves in the foot, now I wont spend anything incase theres something better.
What we need is a trailer/coming soon even a teaser about c-store (cost you money) items other wise no one spends while waiting for the 'what if next'......
Join The Space Invaders,..... Federation and KDF fleets.
There's a good point, on both sides. Unauthorized C-Store previews undermined Cryptic's sales model (in practice if not theory), but Cryptic's model is arguably unfair to consumers. I know it's affected my plans for how to spend my zen, and without sufficient advance previews, I may wait quite some time before committing to a purchase.
Lol, we both know how it is.
Then they're idiots.
You don't go and find this information, buy a domain, build a web site and post it for everyone to see if you don't want people to talk about it. If that's true then it's absolutely ridiculous. If I find something about the game and I don't want the public to know, the last thing I'm going to do is post it on a web site. I would tell people I know. or at most post it on a site that only my friends/guild/fleet/etc could see.
IQ Fleet gets the bulk of their information from dissecting updates like the Season 10.5 pre-load.. that's where the information comes from. So right now, they simply have nothing to report. They're gone until they have something relevant to say, no other reason. People who talked about it on this forum did exactly what anyone with any sense would expect them to do. If IQ didn't want their stuff going public, then they shouldn't have put it on Twitter and a publicly viewable web page.
To blame people for discussing information decimated to them in a public forum makes no sense.
I may get pissed if I get robbed but if leave my doors unlocked and put a 'Welcome Robbers' sign on the porch I shouldn't expect anything less. From what I understand all they do is read game files from the latest patches... Anyone who can read can do that.
Put a lid on the TRIBBLE cookie jar Cryptic!
Then we'd complain about how heavy the metaphorical lid was. Without some level of pre-patching, we'd be looking at some pretty hefty downloads.
1: It's not that they were talking about it. It's that they were talking about it in the official STO forums. I sincerely doubt PWE or Cryptic would care or do much about people discussing data leaks in another forum.
Talking about information leaks on the official forums is just plain stupidity.
2: This isn't a public forum, it's a private forum owned by PWE. They set the rules.
3: The IQ Fleet are also idiots if that was their actual fleet name. You are right about giving them partial blame. If I were to do something like IQ Fleet, I would A: Not use my in-game fleet name on the website used for information leaks. B: Not advertise who I was or what fleet I belonged to on that website OR the STO forums.
If Cryptic sent them a cease-and-desist letter, that's really on them for bragging about who they were. They should have used a fleet pen name and anonymous names that couldn't be tied to their PW account or in-game organization.
Smartest fleet, indeed.
Actually, they say they're closing it down due to a couple of recent scares they have had. They may come back once the situation dies down a bit.