As you can guess, I am a person who cannot afford to play STO every month. So, I play on the demo version. For those who do the same thing as me, you can say that it is torture. After the first level, you have absolutely nothing to do, whatsoever! I was think if we could have certain areas for the cheep inexpensive people so they can gain levels and do missions that are restricted to certain sectors only. We still won't be able to explore outside of sector space, but we would be able to keep ourselves entertained an learn the game until we get enough money to afford a key. Hopefully, this will inspire the programming wizards and online magicians to have mercy (not too much, of course) on the weak and economy stricken people. Please have pity on the weak and grant us a few privileges so that we have something to do until we can get a better income.

Note: If anyone takes this offensively in any way possible, I am very sorry for your sadness.
Comments
Don't worry too much. I give this game six more months before it's Free-2-Play like Champions Online.
LOL. Seriously though, he's right
Honestly, I doubt it. I think they are Cranking out WAY to many big updates for it to be free 2 play. Devs gotta get payed. I checked the Champions site regularly and I hardly ever saw any updates going or any sort of expansion. Very little updating it seemed like. If this game for SOME reason slows down like that, yah they may, but if they slow down that badly they are on their last legs...
Optimistically? It'll stay sub for at least two years, enough for the Romulan expansion and possibly Cardassian if that ever happens.
He did ALSO say that that statement was sorta of blown out of proportion. And then stated he was simply saying if ever that would happen, that is how it would be. And that it wasn't being considered, and not an option right now. It wasn't like "This is what we know now, and once we get a few details set we will go F2P"
I had the exact same reaction about LOTRO when people suggested it would follow DDOs lead and go F2P. It's a good thing I never did try get into the fortunetelling business.
I agree that STO going F2P in the near future is highly unlikely, but I won't say never. I can't say anything about it specifically due to Non-disclosure agreement, but the CO F2P is going to be absolutely amazing. Cryptic is doing everything right with it, and it will be a huge success. I suspect that following that huge success, they will re-evaluate whether or not STO should go F2P as well, and we will start to feel the first winds of change.
CBS
No doubt. I have this feeling that the terms "fee based subscriber service" are in the license which Cryptic singed with CBS.
That said, there's a stickied thread about this topic. It's the first thread you see when you visit this forum.
It's also less of a risk with Champs.
Cryptic or Jack Emmert one now own the Champs tabletop IP (no license fee) and the game is smaller to begin with. (I've never been clear on that since, with regards to the Champs tabletop system Jack said, "I bought it" but either he personally owns it or Cryptic does.)
STO meanwhile has good enough numbers that it may have saved Atari from shutting down... And Cryptic does pay a regular cut to CBS, meaning less of your sub fee goes into the cost of development here.
This game is in worse shape than CO was at a similar time in it's life, and it's going F2P. Like I said, six months.
Everything I've seen suggests that STO has always been healthier than Champions.
its only $15 a month. Most of us earn that in one hour of work or less, it has nothing to do with the economy, its called budgeting.
you earn 15 dollars an hour?
i haven't made $15 an hour in a long time but when i was new I believe that was my starting wage.
Minimum wage in Ontario is $10.25, thats just $4.75 less than $15.
Even if you only make $5 an hour, it still only takes 3 hours to earn $15 bucks. There are still at least 37 hours left in a full time week., at 4 weeks a month that means you have 160 hours from which to pull those 3 hours from.
hey, i can agree with you to a point, but there are people who at some point or another (including myself) who have to choose between eating and paying that subscription. some people don't even have a full time week. if you did, then sure, i agree.
i'm just sure for some people it's not feasible atm.
Perhaps a system similar to CCP's "PLEX" card or a token system, purchaseable via Energy Credits. At first, this wouldn't appeal to Cryptic or other critics of what I'm suggesting.......
Here is the bonus for Cryptic..... They obviously cn trigger a trial acct to not be allowed to progress past a certain level.... Trigger an account, that has paid with a time token, to recieve a real life ad in an extended bridge between instances, sector space, etc..... Maybe 10-15 seconds to view a printed ad.
Cryptic or CBS can then go to the table and say "We have X players who will see your ad an avg of Y times per gaming session. How about Z Dollars?"
Ideally, the tokens would be purchaseable through Cryptic for real dollars and offered as an in-game item tradeable through the exchange. Can someone say "win/win"?
Sadly, as little guys, you wouldn't be able to afford them right away, but groups of friends or even some fleets might be able to offer assistance until the player can attain the EC themselves.
All I'm saying is that if someone has to choose between STO and food maybe they should cancel their internet subscription too.
Actually, there is. Its what DDO, LOTRO, and now CO have done: the "F2P" version STILL includes a monthly sub option. The free version is a limited experience, and if you want the full game you have to get a monthly sub. So the people who had LT subs automatically get upgraded to the monthly sub package for life. On top of that, you also get a monthly stipend of cryptic points which you can use to buy anything you want in the C-store. So you get the exact same thing you get now, and more.
If the Executive Producer says It's not going free to play yet, It's not going free to play yet.
So naive. Cryptic is a business. It wants money. And not just the amount is already has, it was MORE. What does that have to do with F2P you ask?
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/02/turbine-makes-more-money-by-giving-its-mmo-away-for-free/
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/07/lord-of-the-rings-online-doubles-revenue-since-going-free-to-pla/
Now read it and weep:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?p=2832102#post2832102
It should be noted that he did not say STO will never be F2P. All he is said is there are not CURRENTLY any plans to do so. Thats the type of corporate talk that only has to be true the moment its spoken, not the next hour, day, week, etc
That's what I said
Its called "elaboration"
Did it really need elaboration.
ten character limit