To remove that uncertainty, I think their best move is to make it public that that the exclusivity is only true for a limited amount of time. This way everyone "armed" with the knowledge - he can wait the time or he participates in the promotion program. No one can complain about being scammed or betrayed.
And the reality will probably always be that Cryptic cannot offer "exclusive" items that are exclusive forever. Players will alway ask for another access that doesn't require them to run through promotions hoops (that might not even longer exist - pre-orders can't be done once the game is out...)
Some of us were calling for Cryptic to either outright state that they will never use the term 'exclusive' anymore, or give a final definition of what it means. It's not the sort of thing a company would ever do (every company like their wriggle room) but it's something that would help prevent this sort of furor in the future.
For myself, I am mildly baffled. Cryptic virtually wrote the book on veterans' rewards with CoX. If they really wanted to retain people, the preorder bennies, the COLTS and STOLTs bennies, and even the Galaxy-X would make ready-made vets rewards some x00 days down the line. People would keep subscribing for months and months for that stuff.
Ideally, I would have wanted stuff like this to be awarded for in-game activity. Finish a gruelling mission chain, get one of these bennies. Finish a whole mess of them, do a special mission, get a ship. (I already went over how my dream mission to recover a Lakota-type Excelsior would be.) It's a ready-made source of ideas for content; you can even do it with new playable and BOff races. I can sort of understand why they wouldn't go this route -- it doesn't net them more immediate income outside of subscriptions and requires making more content -- but I WISH they had done it.
Making things veterans' rewards is not as ideal, but it's pretty acceptable, and besides... doing that WILL retain players for months and months, which is a steady stream of revenue.
Putting things up on the C-Store just leaves a bad aftertaste. I'm stupified as to what Atari's marketing people are thinking.
I will no longer participate in any referal program. Iam sure others agree after this final straw. This game will now continue to go downhill because a) it continues to lose players due to cryptics stupidity b) no one will even bother in getting people for this game after all the actions that have happened and also there is no incentive to do the referals because all the items will just go on cstore c) because they arnt maken enouph money which is fairly obvious due to there actions.
I truely think STO is pretty much finished. It may linger on for those full of hope but after all the actions and really low down that cryptic has done... yep i think this baby is already in the grave..
This games state is just likes swg's state currently.
how about just stop with the sleazy marketing ploys and recruitment plans and get some real advertising? like maybe TV commercials during popular shows, instead of a one time deal on a sy-fy marathon? maybe a little product placement in a movie or two.
really, if you (Cryptic) want the game community to really grow, you have to do what Blizzard did. spend money on advertising beyond the web. a few banner ads and a bunch of forced word of mouth campaigns just aren't going to cut it.
The marketing people need to improve the image of the game on the web. Whenever I mention the game to anyone I always get the same thing, "That game got pretty brutal reviews."
I would say "UPGRADED" by this date, not "ACCEPTED" that means that the game would need to be "Purchased" before 6-24-10. This would avoid people pushing through purchases to get the cryptic points. Therefore all would need to be "BILLED" before 7-24-10
GMDestra.... YOU OPENED THIS. CORRECT THE PROBLEM
UPDATE:
THE MATTER HAS BEEN CORRECTED, and it 'Appears" to be as described above. Per a personal message received from Rekhan of Cryptic, at 5:56 PM THis date:
". . ., good news. We'll be extending the Cryptic Points bonus until July 23, so you'll be awarded the bonus once your fifth referral matures."
THE MATTER HAS BEEN CORRECTED, and it 'Appears" to be as described above. Per a personal message received from Rekhan of Cryptic, at 5:56 PM THis date:
". . ., good news. We'll be extending the Cryptic Points bonus until July 23, so you'll be awarded the bonus once your fifth referral matures."
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.
Thanks for the update, Burnsy. I'd still like to see it posted though.
Not a single person in my fleet has had any complaints with any of Cryptic's promotions.
In fact, some of them even took great issue with the Referr a Friend program in the first place and saw putting the Galaxy X there as being a scam in itself.
Now that the Galaxy X will be otainable on the c-store maybe people will start using the promotion properly.
And i personally and others will continue to referr people to a game that really is fun to play and quite enjoyable once your interest in the game stops revolving around feeling special about pixels.
You have no idea how much time you have to spent to bring 5 new subscribers to the game. I tell you what: If the ships costs 100$ in C-store and I would have known this eight weeks ago, I would have waited and easily paid the money instead of doing this bunch of work.
I had to do promotions, ingame-support, newbie-help and answer endless mails and PNs about the game. I had about 20 players at the same time in my referal account, and only 6 of them finally bought the game and subscribed so I got the ship. It was hell of work to get this done...
I spent hunderts of hours of free time to succeed. 100$ are peanuts compared to this. And you ask me what I lost? I lost nothing. But Cryptic has lost all of their reputation by this huge scamming of their promoters. I will never ever trust them again.
They billed 4000 CP at my account as compensation. They should put their CP to a place where the sun never shines. I don't need their CP... and there's nothing of interest in their C-Store.
They are scammers and liars. Plain and simple.
God take a midol. You working "hundreds of hours" to get the Galaxy X is just a foolish as the people who bought the game 5 times over with 5 more subs. The ship is slightly different and you just needed to have it, and we're supposed to feel sorry for you now that you realize it wasn't worth the trouble. If only you got that news flash before you wasted all that time.
You have no idea how much time you have to spent to bring 5 new subscribers to the game. . . I had about 20 players at the same time in my referal account, and only 6 of them finally bought the game and subscribed so I got the ship. It was hell of work to get this done...
They billed 4000 CP at my account as compensation. They should put their CP to a place where the sun never shines. I don't need their CP... and there's nothing of interest in their C-Store. .
Thaxx, Watched your posts in the other thread. I agree there is little that most of us can use those points for, but the point is Cryptic is trying to make ammends. We expected to have an "exclusive" item that others had to "Work Very Hard" for if they wanted one. Marketing had an exclusive to push their program, and Game Support wanted the same item in the C-Store. When marketing lost the Exclusivity battle, they decided on the 4000 points to try to reconcile a situation that was beyond their control.
Yes, Cryptic did this, but accept that "Cryptic making the best of a bad situation". At least the people who referred got something. Lifers who saw their preorder bonuses got nothing, and I am sure will never get anything.
Lifers who saw their preorder bonuses got nothing, and I am sure will never get anything.
I'm also I lifer.
I also preordered.
I had also a COLTS.
I payed about $500 for Game, LTS and Retail Boxes to Cryptic, because I thought "exclusive" didn't mean "exclusive" just for a few weeks. They are making the best out of this? Sorry, but I don't see anything good in scamming customers.
But your're all right. It's my fault. I trusted Cryptic, I loved the game, so I supported them with my money and with bringing new players here. Lessen learned. It will never ever happen again.
I'll do what's the smartest thing to do in the next Cryptic game (if I ever play one again): Buy the cheapest standard-retail key you can find at e-bay, buy it, use Gametime Cards from China, wait some weeks and buy your favorite bonuses for a few additional cents at the c-store.
I'll do what's the smartest thing to do in the next Cryptic game (if I ever play one again): Buy the cheapest standard-retail key you can find at e-bay, buy it, use Gametime Cards from China, wait some weeks and buy your favorite bonuses for a few additional cents at the c-store.
You can get cheap secondhand Lifetime accounts on e-bay too.
(And sorry, but:LOL)
Instead of 5 Boxes you should have bought retail keys from e-bay instead, they have been around for a while for ~14.
Comments
That's the sad part really
Some of us were calling for Cryptic to either outright state that they will never use the term 'exclusive' anymore, or give a final definition of what it means. It's not the sort of thing a company would ever do (every company like their wriggle room) but it's something that would help prevent this sort of furor in the future.
For myself, I am mildly baffled. Cryptic virtually wrote the book on veterans' rewards with CoX. If they really wanted to retain people, the preorder bennies, the COLTS and STOLTs bennies, and even the Galaxy-X would make ready-made vets rewards some x00 days down the line. People would keep subscribing for months and months for that stuff.
Ideally, I would have wanted stuff like this to be awarded for in-game activity. Finish a gruelling mission chain, get one of these bennies. Finish a whole mess of them, do a special mission, get a ship. (I already went over how my dream mission to recover a Lakota-type Excelsior would be.) It's a ready-made source of ideas for content; you can even do it with new playable and BOff races. I can sort of understand why they wouldn't go this route -- it doesn't net them more immediate income outside of subscriptions and requires making more content -- but I WISH they had done it.
Making things veterans' rewards is not as ideal, but it's pretty acceptable, and besides... doing that WILL retain players for months and months, which is a steady stream of revenue.
Putting things up on the C-Store just leaves a bad aftertaste.
I truely think STO is pretty much finished. It may linger on for those full of hope but after all the actions and really low down that cryptic has done... yep i think this baby is already in the grave..
This games state is just likes swg's state currently.
really, if you (Cryptic) want the game community to really grow, you have to do what Blizzard did. spend money on advertising beyond the web. a few banner ads and a bunch of forced word of mouth campaigns just aren't going to cut it.
marketing seems to view it as a disposable rocket, making as much $ as they can until it runs out of steam.
UPDATE:
THE MATTER HAS BEEN CORRECTED, and it 'Appears" to be as described above. Per a personal message received from Rekhan of Cryptic, at 5:56 PM THis date:
". . ., good news. We'll be extending the Cryptic Points bonus until July 23, so you'll be awarded the bonus once your fifth referral matures."
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING.
Thanks for the update, Burnsy. I'd still like to see it posted though.
:cool:
Not a single person in my fleet has had any complaints with any of Cryptic's promotions.
In fact, some of them even took great issue with the Referr a Friend program in the first place and saw putting the Galaxy X there as being a scam in itself.
Now that the Galaxy X will be otainable on the c-store maybe people will start using the promotion properly.
And i personally and others will continue to referr people to a game that really is fun to play and quite enjoyable once your interest in the game stops revolving around feeling special about pixels.
God take a midol. You working "hundreds of hours" to get the Galaxy X is just a foolish as the people who bought the game 5 times over with 5 more subs. The ship is slightly different and you just needed to have it, and we're supposed to feel sorry for you now that you realize it wasn't worth the trouble. If only you got that news flash before you wasted all that time.
Thaxx, Watched your posts in the other thread. I agree there is little that most of us can use those points for, but the point is Cryptic is trying to make ammends. We expected to have an "exclusive" item that others had to "Work Very Hard" for if they wanted one. Marketing had an exclusive to push their program, and Game Support wanted the same item in the C-Store. When marketing lost the Exclusivity battle, they decided on the 4000 points to try to reconcile a situation that was beyond their control.
Yes, Cryptic did this, but accept that "Cryptic making the best of a bad situation". At least the people who referred got something. Lifers who saw their preorder bonuses got nothing, and I am sure will never get anything.
I'm also I lifer.
I also preordered.
I had also a COLTS.
I payed about $500 for Game, LTS and Retail Boxes to Cryptic, because I thought "exclusive" didn't mean "exclusive" just for a few weeks. They are making the best out of this? Sorry, but I don't see anything good in scamming customers.
But your're all right. It's my fault. I trusted Cryptic, I loved the game, so I supported them with my money and with bringing new players here. Lessen learned. It will never ever happen again.
I'll do what's the smartest thing to do in the next Cryptic game (if I ever play one again): Buy the cheapest standard-retail key you can find at e-bay, buy it, use Gametime Cards from China, wait some weeks and buy your favorite bonuses for a few additional cents at the c-store.
You can get cheap secondhand Lifetime accounts on e-bay too.
(And sorry, but:LOL)
Instead of 5 Boxes you should have bought retail keys from e-bay instead, they have been around for a while for ~14.