Well, I guess I'm one of those returning "deadbeat" players, so I thought I would address this. My reason for leaving the game was simple: I was getting really annoyed at the business practices of the company running this game, especially after I paid $135 for a Tier 6 ship upgrade and then discovered my upgrade was a stupid purchase because the good stuff was really coming later, and getting a "hey, send us another $30 and you can get a better ship" email was pretty much what ticked me off and caused me to go back to other games.
Okay, having said that, enough time has passed, and that offer of a new ship was interesting enough for me to decide to take a look again.
Now, having said that, too, let me point out another item that kind of grays the whole "deadbeat" player thing. I'm a lifetime member, having paid for a lifetime of game play back when the game was still pay to play. So, I'm actually never a deadbeat player. I'm just a lifetime member who took a break.
Part of where this game has struggled is in keeping players. When they care less about the reason behind the game than they do about how much money they can squeeze out of each player, they lose people. That's what happened to me. I used to play this game day and night, and I would hate maintenance time because it was a few hours I couldn't play the game. So it took a lot to TRIBBLE me off back then. I think what actually did me in back then was I had to buy the most up to date ship to participate in the newer content (my previous ship was destroyed almost instantly) and then that new ship had serious trouble even getting through the very first mission. I couldn't tell if it was my crappy new ship or that they had just seriously borked the first mission and it needed fixing. Gave up instead of waiting. Only so many times you can get slaughtered before it's just not fun any more.
So, I'm back now and silently in the game observing if the return is worth it. I won't rage quit if it's not. I'll just disappear as I did before. Or I'll find the changes are great and continue contributing to the game as I did before.
Fleet Admiral Duane Gundrum, U.S.S. Merrimack
Fleet Admiral Ventaxa Proxmire, U.S.S. Shaka Walls Fell
Blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/?page_id=1990
Foundry series: Bob From Accounting & For the Sake of the Empire
The height of irony: judging how productive someone else's use of time is, while posting on a video game message board.
Please stop acting like this.
Please.
Like what?
I think wanting other people to "earn" what they have by doing what you do is pretty petty and morally indefensible, honestly. Especially when they didn't choose to be targeted for a promotion, those people are NOT you and have circumstances that may differ from yours, and when Cryptic may want different types of people for different reasons. It's "oldest child" syndrome gone amok to want everyone to suffer like you "suffered", especially when that suffering involves a leisure activity.
What are you talking about? I didn't say anything like any of that.
It seems like you're "on the case" investigating for people who feel that way. I'll concede you may not feel that way.
The height of irony: judging how productive someone else's use of time is, while posting on a video game message board.
Please stop acting like this.
Please.
Like what?
I think wanting other people to "earn" what they have by doing what you do is pretty petty and morally indefensible, honestly. Especially when they didn't choose to be targeted for a promotion, those people are NOT you and have circumstances that may differ from yours, and when Cryptic may want different types of people for different reasons. It's "oldest child" syndrome gone amok to want everyone to suffer like you "suffered", especially when that suffering involves a leisure activity.
What are you talking about? I didn't say anything like any of that.
It's not what you're saying, it's what you're doing.
The height of irony: judging how productive someone else's use of time is, while posting on a video game message board.
Please stop acting like this.
Please.
Like what?
I think wanting other people to "earn" what they have by doing what you do is pretty petty and morally indefensible, honestly. Especially when they didn't choose to be targeted for a promotion, those people are NOT you and have circumstances that may differ from yours, and when Cryptic may want different types of people for different reasons. It's "oldest child" syndrome gone amok to want everyone to suffer like you "suffered", especially when that suffering involves a leisure activity.
What are you talking about? I didn't say anything like any of that.
It seems like you're "on the case" investigating for people who feel that way. I'll concede you may not feel that way.
I'm not arguing for or against either side of this issue. The only point I was making on the previous page was that repetitiveepic is contradicting his own logic by saying that if something doesn't invole you it is none of your business, because the posts he is responding to don't involve him anymore than the free ship involves the people who didn't get it. So by his own logic, the posts he keeps responding to are none of his business.
I probably would have gone about this in a different way. As in, sending that email to everyone, maybe with a variable reward for those that already own the ship. It entices people to come back while making current players feel valued with a surprise.
Because the OP thinks he's better than us all by #HumbleBrag about his and his wife's 6 level 60 characters. This is an incentive to show players WHY they should come back. Get off your high horse OP and go get soem fresh air.
Defending The Galaxy By Breaking One Starfleet Regulation After The Next.
Let's say Cryptic has reasoned over the issue. The campaign will bring back old players, but it will also upset active players. A step forward and a step backward. So they took the negativity for granted. It means they are quite hungry for player numbers. I see a more or less desperate move. What does that mean? Yeah doome thread.
Given Cryptic were giving us all free stuff at the same time, I seriously doubt that they believed there would be a backlash about it. In fact, I figure they timed it this way in order to try and minimize any whining. It's just a shame they went with the "support" wording which I think is the biggest sticking point for most people.
Don't blame the players for coming back. I appreciate them coming back so that queues fill up faster. I also don't blame STO for offering a nice perk to motivate them to come back to the game. The only issue I have is equating the 10 "free" spec points I earned through playing and replaying the missions over 10 weeks to the free gift of 10 free spec points given in the 10 seconds it takes to redeem the code. To the returning players, welcome back and please stay to play. To STO Customer Relations, think about the entire player-base next time.
The height of irony: judging how productive someone else's use of time is, while posting on a video game message board.
Please stop acting like this.
Please.
Like what?
I think wanting other people to "earn" what they have by doing what you do is pretty petty and morally indefensible, honestly. Especially when they didn't choose to be targeted for a promotion, those people are NOT you and have circumstances that may differ from yours, and when Cryptic may want different types of people for different reasons. It's "oldest child" syndrome gone amok to want everyone to suffer like you "suffered", especially when that suffering involves a leisure activity.
What are you talking about? I didn't say anything like any of that.
It seems like you're "on the case" investigating for people who feel that way. I'll concede you may not feel that way.
I'm not arguing for or against either side of this issue. The only point I was making on the previous page was that repetitiveepic is contradicting his own logic by saying that if something doesn't invole you it is none of your business, because the posts he is responding to don't involve him any more than the free ship involves the people who didn't get it. So by his own logic, the posts he keeps responding to are none of his business.
That makes no sense...this is a public forum...by posting here the posters make it other peoples business, so your entire point is completely invalid. He is part of this community like it or not and both sides of the argument have a stake in the discussion which means its very much his business as much as it is someone else's. Frankly your analysis of his logic is a bit daft and comes across as nothing short of an attempt to make someone look stupid in-front of others. which is fairly childish in my opinion.
You want to play the part of "that" kid in the school playground be my guest, but don't make illogical statements when trying to refute other peoples logic it just makes you look stupider than the person you're attempting to slander.
I complain about this too every time it comes up. The pure F2P players get stuff I paid for and I get nothing. (This time as least some of the freebies were services/slots) So yeah, it is like a slap in the face. But this is what always happens in business. Current customers are almost invisible and the NEW! customer is the only thing they chase after.
For example... I just got an email to renew my Norton software for another year. I click on it and the page says 'renew for 1 yr for 89.99'. I then go to the website like I was a new customer and the price there is 59.99. Shocking! Been their customer for many years and I get the crappy full price option. So I guess I get to be a 'new' customer all over again.
Because the OP thinks he's better than us all by #HumbleBrag about his and his wife's 6 level 60 characters. This is an incentive to show players WHY they should come back. Get off your high horse OP and go get soem fresh air.
Retired w/ a wife that plays too, and can play 12hrs+ a day. He's better than me! I barely have time to run my 7 toons through CE. Had to pause on my doffing to make time for CE for the event.
The height of irony: judging how productive someone else's use of time is, while posting on a video game message board.
Please stop acting like this.
Please.
Like what?
I think wanting other people to "earn" what they have by doing what you do is pretty petty and morally indefensible, honestly. Especially when they didn't choose to be targeted for a promotion, those people are NOT you and have circumstances that may differ from yours, and when Cryptic may want different types of people for different reasons. It's "oldest child" syndrome gone amok to want everyone to suffer like you "suffered", especially when that suffering involves a leisure activity.
What are you talking about? I didn't say anything like any of that.
It seems like you're "on the case" investigating for people who feel that way. I'll concede you may not feel that way.
I'm not arguing for or against either side of this issue. The only point I was making on the previous page was that repetitiveepic is contradicting his own logic by saying that if something doesn't invole you it is none of your business, because the posts he is responding to don't involve him any more than the free ship involves the people who didn't get it. So by his own logic, the posts he keeps responding to are none of his business.
That makes no sense...this is a public forum...by posting here the posters make it other peoples business, so your entire point is completely invalid.
Actually, you just proved him wrong even more. His original argument was that the free ship didn't "involve" the people who were complaining about it, and therefore it was none of their business to complain about. But YOU just said that if someone posts something here, then it makes it other people's business. And guess what? People who got the free ship posted it about it here, meaning it IS the business of the people who wanted to complain about it. So by YOUR logic, you just proved his original argument wrong. Good job!
Now, you obviously have a different opinion. You think that if something involves people who are part of YOUR community, then by extension, it involves you too. And that is a valid opinion. However that belief also contradicts his original argument, because the people who got the free ships are a part of our community, so by extension would involve the rest of the community.
See, I think that's where the disconnect is. Getting those players back into the game helps the whole community. We all already benefit from that and again, those players already missed out on way more than 10 spec points and more than 1 free ship. The game has come a long way and it's a bit hard to catch up, so giving them a free end game ship and 10 spec points helps to close the gap. Also, I thought you didn't care either way? You sure sound like you do...
Getting those players back into the game helps the whole community.
In a moment of clarity, I decided to rewrite that post to something much simpler and to the point, so the part you quoted is now gone. However, I completely agree with your above statement.
It never ceases to amaze me why some absent ppl getting a free ship to lure them back in upsets so many ppl. Who cares?! Honestly. I'm just doing my own thing. If Cryptic wants to target some ppl who haven't logged in for a while, in the hope they'll return, all the better for us! Stuff I bought getting nerfed I care about. A non-active player across the globe getting a free ship, I couldn't care less about.
You know what? I'm sick of people trying to make me feel guilty for getting one of these freebie emails.
I don't know why I got it as I've been playing regularly since a little after LoR went live, but I did.
I sympathise with all the confusion and how unfair it all looks but frankly, I'm not going to apologise for getting freebies.
I want to point out this is about 3-5 people on the forums banging this drum and I see nothing indicating it's even a majority forum opinion as most people seem to be disagreeing with those 3-5 people, who are just responding with a high volume of posts.
Welcome to every forum and public outcry since forever. The smaller the minority the louder the voice. With here specifically, even if the majority of the forum regulars jump on the bandwagon they would still be very much the minority when compared to the general STO population who don't visit forums and plain don't care what goes on.
repetitiveposter, nagus. Perhaps you two could just get a room and oo-mox each other to determine who is the winner in your little spat. ;D
And yes, this thread started out bashing a portion of the community for nothing other than cryptic decided to give them something. I haven't seen it improve much since that point.
all i see is entitlement claims. its not for anyone but cryptic to decide what they do with this stuff. i frankly dont care about the andromeda cruiser they are offering. but its ultimately their choice, move on its done, nothing to complain about as its already happened.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Forget about the give-away. Let's pretend it never happened and let's say a player comes to the forum with a post saying,
Hey Cryptic, I took a little break from the game and I have returned. I see you raised the level cap, put in tier 6 six and have specializations now. I want to catch up quickly, so can you give me a T6 ship and 10 spec points.
I would love to see how the community would react to such a post. According to the attitude here most of you would say, yeah Cryptic, give this person what he asks. It is quite reasonable. However the reality is that this poster would be seen as an idiot, a troll or both.
Having a promo campaign to get old players back is ok. Doing the way it is done here, is just horrible.
So having a job, a family and other responsibilities and concerns in life make me a deadbeat? Fine, maybe in 40 years when I retire I can see if I can drop 2/3rds of my day on a game.
I love how people who want a reward for "support" handed out to everyone instead of an arbitrarily selected few are labelled as "entitled" by the Cryptic Defence Committee.
Forget about the give-away. Let's pretend it never happened and let's say a player comes to the forum with a post saying,
Hey Cryptic, I took a little break from the game and I have returned. I see you raised the level cap, put in tier 6 six and have specializations now. I want to catch up quickly, so can you give me a T6 ship and 10 spec points.
And that's precisely why Cryptic offers them a little incentive, else the gap is simpy too large for them to even try and bridge. Why is that so hard for you to understand?
i can understand why people are upset.
Look at the bigger picture and this deal is very much like offers that other company's like energy providers broadband tv company's and even banks give to returning or new customers.
Cryptic haven't done something new here but this anger isn't new either, i have worked in marketing and retail and i can tell you that when company's do deals like this it angers loyal current customers as they feel that there loyalty isn't rewarded.
many company's that tried this ended up changing it so that the deal would extend to current customers to. Now im not saying cryptic should do this as it wouldn't end well but they must learn from this so that next time they dont cause this upset.
"It appears we have lost our sex appeal, captain."- Tuvok
It was funny seeing people freak out about it in zone chat this weekend
"Why do theyyyy get one ! I want one ! whaaaaa !"
But if I'm honest I'll tell ya I checked my emails as soon as I heard, and yes I was a little disappointed not to have received anything...
But I've got more then I need at the moment. And just imagine everything those players will have to do to bring that ship up to MK XIV, they haven't played in a year or more in some cases Im sure. I would not want to be in that position.
And I completely understand why this was done.
Even stores are doing this lately, mailing larger discount coupons to those who haven't visited their stores in a while. Its just a marketing thing.
Personally I think its good, hopefully they can retain 25% (or more) of the players they brought back.
More players is better for all of our futures in STO.
Great ship to give away also... They pretty much nailed this one.
Same reason they don't care about LTS players. They already got your money. They want to entice some new whales, who may have been distracted by some other game but are bored now.
Comments
Okay, having said that, enough time has passed, and that offer of a new ship was interesting enough for me to decide to take a look again.
Now, having said that, too, let me point out another item that kind of grays the whole "deadbeat" player thing. I'm a lifetime member, having paid for a lifetime of game play back when the game was still pay to play. So, I'm actually never a deadbeat player. I'm just a lifetime member who took a break.
Part of where this game has struggled is in keeping players. When they care less about the reason behind the game than they do about how much money they can squeeze out of each player, they lose people. That's what happened to me. I used to play this game day and night, and I would hate maintenance time because it was a few hours I couldn't play the game. So it took a lot to TRIBBLE me off back then. I think what actually did me in back then was I had to buy the most up to date ship to participate in the newer content (my previous ship was destroyed almost instantly) and then that new ship had serious trouble even getting through the very first mission. I couldn't tell if it was my crappy new ship or that they had just seriously borked the first mission and it needed fixing. Gave up instead of waiting. Only so many times you can get slaughtered before it's just not fun any more.
So, I'm back now and silently in the game observing if the return is worth it. I won't rage quit if it's not. I'll just disappear as I did before. Or I'll find the changes are great and continue contributing to the game as I did before.
Fleet Admiral Ventaxa Proxmire, U.S.S. Shaka Walls Fell
Blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/?page_id=1990
Foundry series: Bob From Accounting & For the Sake of the Empire
It seems like you're "on the case" investigating for people who feel that way. I'll concede you may not feel that way.
It's not what you're saying, it's what you're doing.
I'm not arguing for or against either side of this issue. The only point I was making on the previous page was that repetitiveepic is contradicting his own logic by saying that if something doesn't invole you it is none of your business, because the posts he is responding to don't involve him anymore than the free ship involves the people who didn't get it. So by his own logic, the posts he keeps responding to are none of his business.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Defending The Galaxy By Breaking One Starfleet Regulation After The Next.
Given Cryptic were giving us all free stuff at the same time, I seriously doubt that they believed there would be a backlash about it. In fact, I figure they timed it this way in order to try and minimize any whining. It's just a shame they went with the "support" wording which I think is the biggest sticking point for most people.
That makes no sense...this is a public forum...by posting here the posters make it other peoples business, so your entire point is completely invalid. He is part of this community like it or not and both sides of the argument have a stake in the discussion which means its very much his business as much as it is someone else's. Frankly your analysis of his logic is a bit daft and comes across as nothing short of an attempt to make someone look stupid in-front of others. which is fairly childish in my opinion.
You want to play the part of "that" kid in the school playground be my guest, but don't make illogical statements when trying to refute other peoples logic it just makes you look stupider than the person you're attempting to slander.
For example... I just got an email to renew my Norton software for another year. I click on it and the page says 'renew for 1 yr for 89.99'. I then go to the website like I was a new customer and the price there is 59.99. Shocking!
Retired w/ a wife that plays too, and can play 12hrs+ a day. He's better than me!
Actually, you just proved him wrong even more. His original argument was that the free ship didn't "involve" the people who were complaining about it, and therefore it was none of their business to complain about. But YOU just said that if someone posts something here, then it makes it other people's business. And guess what? People who got the free ship posted it about it here, meaning it IS the business of the people who wanted to complain about it. So by YOUR logic, you just proved his original argument wrong. Good job!
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
In a moment of clarity, I decided to rewrite that post to something much simpler and to the point, so the part you quoted is now gone. However, I completely agree with your above statement.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
I don't know why I got it as I've been playing regularly since a little after LoR went live, but I did.
I sympathise with all the confusion and how unfair it all looks but frankly, I'm not going to apologise for getting freebies.
A "Deadbeat Player"
Welcome to every forum and public outcry since forever. The smaller the minority the louder the voice. With here specifically, even if the majority of the forum regulars jump on the bandwagon they would still be very much the minority when compared to the general STO population who don't visit forums and plain don't care what goes on.
And yes, this thread started out bashing a portion of the community for nothing other than cryptic decided to give them something. I haven't seen it improve much since that point.
@Liath | My PRIMUS Page | Altaholics | New Vehicle Models | New Emblems | Flag Tights
Asterelle's Forum Enhancement Extension | Game Side Panel Add-In* | Game Server Status Add-In
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Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Hey Cryptic, I took a little break from the game and I have returned. I see you raised the level cap, put in tier 6 six and have specializations now. I want to catch up quickly, so can you give me a T6 ship and 10 spec points.
I would love to see how the community would react to such a post. According to the attitude here most of you would say, yeah Cryptic, give this person what he asks. It is quite reasonable. However the reality is that this poster would be seen as an idiot, a troll or both.
Having a promo campaign to get old players back is ok. Doing the way it is done here, is just horrible.
And that's precisely why Cryptic offers them a little incentive, else the gap is simpy too large for them to even try and bridge. Why is that so hard for you to understand?
Look at the bigger picture and this deal is very much like offers that other company's like energy providers broadband tv company's and even banks give to returning or new customers.
Cryptic haven't done something new here but this anger isn't new either, i have worked in marketing and retail and i can tell you that when company's do deals like this it angers loyal current customers as they feel that there loyalty isn't rewarded.
many company's that tried this ended up changing it so that the deal would extend to current customers to. Now im not saying cryptic should do this as it wouldn't end well but they must learn from this so that next time they dont cause this upset.
"It appears we have lost our sex appeal, captain."- Tuvok
"Why do theyyyy get one ! I want one ! whaaaaa !"
But if I'm honest I'll tell ya I checked my emails as soon as I heard, and yes I was a little disappointed not to have received anything...
But I've got more then I need at the moment. And just imagine everything those players will have to do to bring that ship up to MK XIV, they haven't played in a year or more in some cases Im sure. I would not want to be in that position.
And I completely understand why this was done.
Even stores are doing this lately, mailing larger discount coupons to those who haven't visited their stores in a while. Its just a marketing thing.
Personally I think its good, hopefully they can retain 25% (or more) of the players they brought back.
More players is better for all of our futures in STO.
Great ship to give away also... They pretty much nailed this one.