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The "Real" Federation Outreach Program
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The Real Federation Outreach Program
I pitched a very similar idea on the City of Heroes forums back when I was obsessed with that game. (Ah, the memories.) For whatever the reason, it didnt take too well. Im hoping that the community here will be more receptive to it. It would be a TERRIFFIC public relations boost and would help get this game more attention. Its free advertising, really plus it would help so many people. And again, the attention certainly couldnt hurt, as we definitely need it to keep these servers alive. (Matrix Online ring a painful bell for anyone?)
So here it is in a nutshell. Give everyone the ability to checkmark an option on their account. This option will be to pay an extra $1-$5 tacked onto their monthly bill. This extra cash will be donated to some named charity organization such as the Childrens Miracle Network for example. The player can checkmark $1, $2, $3, $4, or $5. They will continue to be billed that amount with each gaming cycle until they opt out of it or change it to a different amount. Life time or bulk subscribers will still have the option, and will be billed separately per month.
Now heres the fun incentive. Every time you donate, the total amount that youve donated is pooled. When you reach certain milestones in collected donation money, you earn neat in-game rewards similar to how veteran rewards work in this and other online games. However, the rewards for this would be relevant to the program. For example, here are a few ideas for certain milestones.
1. Officer Title: Role Model (Many more can be unlocked with different milestones.)
2. Commemorative Plaque An item that looks just like the cardboard cutout that the children from TNG episode Disaster made for Picard. This could either be a simple collectable, an item that offers a temporary buff, or perhaps a decorative item if bridge customizations are ever introduced.
3. Child Prodigy skin Allows you to make a child character, for those who want a kid genius like Wesley Crusher as one of their bridge crew. Lord knows why youd want him, but whatever. :P (Or maybe youre a genius child captain yourself or maybe an android model or an alien species that ages differently whatever. The option for it is now there.)
4. Real life commemorative plaque After a particularly high milestone, they physically mail you an actual cardboard commemorative plaque, similar to the one Picard got, but with a more relevant message inscribed.
Those are just SOME of the many possibilities that could be used as incentives to get people to donate, and are of course subject to change and debate. Just throwing them out there off the top of my head. There could perhaps be server-wide rewards for meeting whole community goals, too. Its a neat alternative to the C-Store, since it helps folks out AND boosts PR.
To my knowledge, NO MMORPG currently on the market has any kind of feature like this. We NEED this. If this is implemented, it WILL receive attention, as Star Trek Online will be setting a new standard that has not been explored by anyone before. Dont make me recite a geeky credo about exploration .Ill do it, I swear! Make this so! (Ohhh damnit couldnt help that one.)
I pitched a very similar idea on the City of Heroes forums back when I was obsessed with that game. (Ah, the memories.) For whatever the reason, it didnt take too well. Im hoping that the community here will be more receptive to it. It would be a TERRIFFIC public relations boost and would help get this game more attention. Its free advertising, really plus it would help so many people. And again, the attention certainly couldnt hurt, as we definitely need it to keep these servers alive. (Matrix Online ring a painful bell for anyone?)
So here it is in a nutshell. Give everyone the ability to checkmark an option on their account. This option will be to pay an extra $1-$5 tacked onto their monthly bill. This extra cash will be donated to some named charity organization such as the Childrens Miracle Network for example. The player can checkmark $1, $2, $3, $4, or $5. They will continue to be billed that amount with each gaming cycle until they opt out of it or change it to a different amount. Life time or bulk subscribers will still have the option, and will be billed separately per month.
Now heres the fun incentive. Every time you donate, the total amount that youve donated is pooled. When you reach certain milestones in collected donation money, you earn neat in-game rewards similar to how veteran rewards work in this and other online games. However, the rewards for this would be relevant to the program. For example, here are a few ideas for certain milestones.
1. Officer Title: Role Model (Many more can be unlocked with different milestones.)
2. Commemorative Plaque An item that looks just like the cardboard cutout that the children from TNG episode Disaster made for Picard. This could either be a simple collectable, an item that offers a temporary buff, or perhaps a decorative item if bridge customizations are ever introduced.
3. Child Prodigy skin Allows you to make a child character, for those who want a kid genius like Wesley Crusher as one of their bridge crew. Lord knows why youd want him, but whatever. :P (Or maybe youre a genius child captain yourself or maybe an android model or an alien species that ages differently whatever. The option for it is now there.)
4. Real life commemorative plaque After a particularly high milestone, they physically mail you an actual cardboard commemorative plaque, similar to the one Picard got, but with a more relevant message inscribed.
Those are just SOME of the many possibilities that could be used as incentives to get people to donate, and are of course subject to change and debate. Just throwing them out there off the top of my head. There could perhaps be server-wide rewards for meeting whole community goals, too. Its a neat alternative to the C-Store, since it helps folks out AND boosts PR.
To my knowledge, NO MMORPG currently on the market has any kind of feature like this. We NEED this. If this is implemented, it WILL receive attention, as Star Trek Online will be setting a new standard that has not been explored by anyone before. Dont make me recite a geeky credo about exploration .Ill do it, I swear! Make this so! (Ohhh damnit couldnt help that one.)
Post edited by Unknown User on
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I'm sorry to say so, but we don't need this. Sorry.
If I want to donate to charity I can just write a cheque to any charity I want already. Then again, your idea is completely voluntary and it's something you have to join, which is a good thing. I just don't see a lot of people making use of it.
I must say it's a very original idea and it's definately not bad either, but it doesn't do anything to me personally.
I'm also not sure how much it would really do PR wise, but it is at least interesting to investigate this option.
To everybody who posts after my reply, keep in mind that though the OP didn't mention it, this idea would be voluntary, so it's not something that forces you to cough up extra money.
(I can imagine that's a big reason why people were probably against it on the CO forums.)
Now...as far as simply writing a check to someone goes, this is different. You don't have to think about it, as it is an entirely automatic process. People tend to prefer this route.
Keep in mind, other companies DO offer a donation sevice like this. Ebay, for example, gives you the option with every purchase. Even Walmart does it. No MMORPG has EVER done it, to my knowledge. And companies such as Ebay and Walmart don't reward you for it, either.
From a payoff standpoint, the fact is, Cryptic has NOTHING to lose from implimenting this, and can only profit in the long run. Not to mention, it's ultimately to HELP people.
Unless you meant that Cryptic could keep like 25% of those donations for themselves, but then people would intrepret it as yet another easy money grab by Cryptic, which results in more negative PR for them. :rolleyes:
From Cryptics POV they might gain positive PR, but either/ or it will cost them money.
I see a few problem with this but the biggest one is this game is worldwide. So it mean that if i wanted to allow that, i do not want the money i give go to some state charity organization because i do not live there. I want the money to go the the charity in the province i live because it is where it should go. That mean that Cryptic would have do that that worldwide... What a nightmare... Just for that, i think it is a bad idea because i do not really think they can manage that.
/sigh
:cool:
It doesn't. In fact for the user something like this is incredibly easy: You just set a check box on your account page and do no more.
The problem is that for the company to manage it is MUCH harder. There are literal butt load of regulations to be sure that the money goes where it's stated to go, and that anyone paid to manage the money is paid a fair wage and is not taking from the fund ect ect.
The administration is the complicated part.
I like the spirit of the idea, but I can see it going wrong in many ways.