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Anniversary Buyback
ikonn
Member Posts: 1,450 Arc User
What many of us have long anticipated to happen has finally arrived. The Anniversary Event has now fallen victim to the metrics...
https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9743063
This comes as no surprise, but the "Exclusivity and Collectibility" argument goes out the window when lockboxes, special Doff packs, and R&D Packs are involved and/or are re-released, of course
As we all know, money trumps metrics.
https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/9743063
This comes as no surprise, but the "Exclusivity and Collectibility" argument goes out the window when lockboxes, special Doff packs, and R&D Packs are involved and/or are re-released, of course
As we all know, money trumps metrics.
-AoP- Warrior's Blood (KDF Armada) / -AoP- Qu' raD qulbo'Degh / -AoP- Project Phoenix
Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
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So, nothing is ACTUALLY changing really, coz you're still a year behind if you don't have the last ship, and if you didn't have the projects then you still won't have them now.
Now that DOESN'T meant they shouldn't do a 're-run' on some of those ships some day, but of all Cryptics failings, this actually isnt one of them, right now.
But seriously. Why? Its something nobody needed or asked for. Nobody went round going, "I MUST have this ship as a status symbol to show I was playing for this arbitrary 2 week period. Its ridiculous. I've been really impressed with Cryptic and STO more recently, been loving how things have been, but this is still a ridiculous practice.
Also the selection of ships is pretty nice and may seriously damage C-Store sales if people could get any free ship they wanted at any time.
To appease people who derive satisfaction from depriving others of their enjoyment.
Not exactly the sort of person who should be driving policy, if you ask me.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Seriously... I have an average of 800 per character... and 15 characters. It'd take the next decade to spend them all... but by that time I'll have several thousand more....
So yeah, cashing out is a HUGE score for me.
My character Tsin'xing
Not exactly problem - just do new ship on other character - it will be (almost sure about it) account unlock anyway....
Running the grind on 2 or even 5 toons every day (if the ship will be faction specific) should be light load on any player... now doing Mirror Invasion on 16 toons to get the Agony Rifle for each was literally pain in the back (i needed some massage after that event)
same here, I collected the excess tokens from both the winter events and the anniversary events just because they were awarded and I didn't like to just discard them for nothing but in all honesty I don't think I would have ever used them to bypass the events as I enjoy playing them so the buybacks from both events has been a massive boon for me.
sure I feel sorry for anyone who missed out on the old ships but it was pretty obvious from the start that this practice wasn't going to last for long so it came as no surprise to me when it eventually happened.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
BUT.....The Samsar has a console that's part of a 4pc set for the command cruisers so how are people to complete that set now? I can see it being available in the lobi store like with the DSD but they've not done that with every event ship even so it leaves some people a bit concerned.
Yes I did.
I still say its because Cryptic is scared CBS might get mad at them for all the non-faction ships that are in-game. These non-faction ships were always supposed to be really rare, but there's been so much of them over the years that if you go to certain instances, you might find half the ships there aren't fed/Rom/KDF.
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
Dang forum search is so weak that it gimps my search-fu. And of course Google's not locking into the "new" version of this, as it was all said "pre-vanilla"...
But the actual reason behind this, as I recall Salamiinferno posting during the original "flame fest" leading up to Risa last year, was much more "businesslike".
This decision was made with an eye on the "almighty metric" - with a not-so-subtle nod to income rates...
To wit, I gathered from his posts back in the summer lead-up that the two "critical metrics" during a "grind-a-thon" for an event reward ship are unique daily logins and number of times that the currency dispensation mission is ran.
And he needs, for whatever reason(s), to ensure that said metrics "line up appropriately" and "are as large as possible".
Now, we can all understand part two of the above. But part one needs a touch of explanation: He cited that during the summer where the Risian Cruiser was the prize, there was a distinctly noticeable discrepancy between the amount of people repeatedly logging in during the event and the number of times flying high was run for pearls, and the number of cruisers handed out - which could not be explained away with corresponding increases in lobi spending on pearls. This told him that not only did a "significant" amount of players have large enough stockpiles to afford to "day one" the cruiser, these players also retained a large enough stockpile to be able to "day one" future event ships without need to replenish the stockpiles (ie, a guy with 10 alts ran all 10 through the missions in one year, and therefore did not need to participate in the event for the next 8 years, having used alt 1 to get the corvette in the year he ran it 10 times, and used alt 2 to get the cruiser.)
And he did make reference to knowing that (more his style), a "side effect" of the exclusivity card is a distinct... motivation... to help maximize the "critical metrics" in the window he needs them in - not a future window., explained away as "I can't allow for the spectre of a player logging in next year, running two alts, and getting two rewards. I need the logins & mission runs this year..."
And whether he said it himself, or relied on the playerbase to do so, the "alternative" of shelling out large amounts of cash (or buying said large amounts of cash from others in the form of Dil to Zen or keys off exchange) and getting wads of Lobi could still "circumvent" the "granting" of the desired metrics while still allowing the acquisition of the event ship.
And keep in mind that (hazy / interpreted) memory of postings does not indicate support - it only indicates an understanding of what's going on "behind the scenes somewhat" and a (tactic) understanding of the choice(s) made.
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
Removing things that players want to play events or pay for doesn't make any sense. The company is losing money here, they're lowering enthusiasm of the playerbase for these events, there's less people playing them for ships they missed out in previous years and they're losing the support of newer players. I honestly cannot understand how any of those who make the decisions at the company could think this would be a good idea. Decisions like these are, eventually, in no-one's interest as everyone's losing here.
Even if it doesn't matter to some players personally, those players - the entire playerbase - are also suffering from this decision and the reduced income (and thus reduced funds that could be used for game development). Again, I doubt this decision is in anyone's interest.
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
possibly because they want to see players play for this years ships this year not last year or next year, just guessing.
just as players could save the currency's and get the ships from multiple years without playing the events players could not play the events and then get all the ships a few years later.
the only way to ensure players play the events every year is to retire both the currency's and the past ships being offered.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
But if they retire the currency at the end of each event, removing them from your inventory, then you can't actually grind for then next year's ship. And why would they care if you're grinding for a previous ship? Twice (or more) the participation means twice as good metrics.
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Not my decision. Not a democracy.
so they have retired the currency but still out of say every 300 players only 100 players play this event the other 200 players still end up getting the ship from the event next year, this doesn't look good on the metrics, far better for their metrics to retire past ships and ensure that every one of these players play the event this year to get the ship.
they are not concerned with next years metrics, anything could happen between now and then, the game could go bust and shut down or the world could end so they are not concerned with next year, it is only this year they care about and they want to show the maximum possible players played the event.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
as for those looking to bypass this absurd mechanic if it is what it appears, cryptic have to decide whats more important to them, short term monetary gains from playersgains through players who are taking the long route? if their metrics sayonly a few are taking the short route and the rest are going the long route, may as well just cut out the lobi altogether on the event ships and force everyone down one path to inflate the numbers even more.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
My character Tsin'xing