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How to treat a Trekkie: Or, abusing the oldest nerd subset for fun and profit.
centersolace
Member Posts: 11,178 Arc User
Trekkies are an interesting lot. Heralding from the late sixties they are one of the oldest subsets of nerds, and as such have developed a unique and interesting set of behaviors. If you are going to make a game that appeals to them, you need to be aware of these:
1. Trekkies do not want to be told what to like. We don't care how much work it took, or how awesome you think it is, if it is shoved in our faces, we will hate it.
Example of this point in Star Trek: Westley.
Example of this point applying to STO: Lockboxes
2. Never, never, ever, lump all Trekkies into the same group. Even though we all love the same franchise, Trekkies are an incredibly diverse group. We all love different series, different characters, and different aspects of each. If you're going to make a game, you have to make us all happy to some extent.
Example of this point in Star Trek: Call DS9ers and ENTers the same thing. I dare you.
Example of this point applying to STO: THE NEW FORUM CHANGES. You have done us a great disservice.
3. We hate being told to "Deal with it". Originally when TOS was canceled that was almost it. The fans had none of that.
Example of this point in Star Trek: Generations.
Example of this point applying to STO: Again. The forums. We brought a franchise back from the dead, TWICE. We deserve custom avatars and Signature BB code.
Conversely.....
4. We will practically throw money at the most bizarre things because it's novel or just Star Trek related. With careful management, this game could outsell every other PWE game combined.
Example of this point in Star Trek: You see this? That is an Enterprise pizza cutter. This, is a bottle opener.
Example of this point applying to STO: Where are the William Ware Theiss costumes? The Ambassador? The Vesta? T5 Connie? TNG & VOY bundles? Off-duty clothes for Boffs?
5. Trekkies will work together faster and better than any other group of nerds in order to squash problems they collectively hate.
Example of this point in Star Trek: Westley.
Example of this point applying to STO: Where are our community events? What happened to the ship design contest? Why can't we have player created STF's and Fleet Actions? Etc?
Star Trek cannot be made with out the fans, it never has. PWE cannot treat STO like one of it's first party titles, it can't even treat it like a western game. Star Trek Online needs to be treated like Star Trek. That is the most difficult lesson PWE (and even Cryptic) will have to learn. And for the sake of this game, they need to learn it fast.
1. Trekkies do not want to be told what to like. We don't care how much work it took, or how awesome you think it is, if it is shoved in our faces, we will hate it.
Example of this point in Star Trek: Westley.
Example of this point applying to STO: Lockboxes
2. Never, never, ever, lump all Trekkies into the same group. Even though we all love the same franchise, Trekkies are an incredibly diverse group. We all love different series, different characters, and different aspects of each. If you're going to make a game, you have to make us all happy to some extent.
Example of this point in Star Trek: Call DS9ers and ENTers the same thing. I dare you.
Example of this point applying to STO: THE NEW FORUM CHANGES. You have done us a great disservice.
3. We hate being told to "Deal with it". Originally when TOS was canceled that was almost it. The fans had none of that.
Example of this point in Star Trek: Generations.
Example of this point applying to STO: Again. The forums. We brought a franchise back from the dead, TWICE. We deserve custom avatars and Signature BB code.
Conversely.....
4. We will practically throw money at the most bizarre things because it's novel or just Star Trek related. With careful management, this game could outsell every other PWE game combined.
Example of this point in Star Trek: You see this? That is an Enterprise pizza cutter. This, is a bottle opener.
Example of this point applying to STO: Where are the William Ware Theiss costumes? The Ambassador? The Vesta? T5 Connie? TNG & VOY bundles? Off-duty clothes for Boffs?
5. Trekkies will work together faster and better than any other group of nerds in order to squash problems they collectively hate.
Example of this point in Star Trek: Westley.
Example of this point applying to STO: Where are our community events? What happened to the ship design contest? Why can't we have player created STF's and Fleet Actions? Etc?
Star Trek cannot be made with out the fans, it never has. PWE cannot treat STO like one of it's first party titles, it can't even treat it like a western game. Star Trek Online needs to be treated like Star Trek. That is the most difficult lesson PWE (and even Cryptic) will have to learn. And for the sake of this game, they need to learn it fast.
Post edited by centersolace on
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i would like to add, that this game does NOT offer much excitement for a non - Star Trek fan.
There are FAR BETTER space related games out there..
So PWE will have to stick with us, ST nerds.
This can have 2 possible outcomes:
1 - they realize it, sell us the hell, make content, factions, PVE and PVP, exploration, crafting function == they make money, game wins
2 - they will follow this course - in a year also the hardest fans will be outta here -
the game will not see 2014
and it begins with the ability to BUY stuff from inside the game client.
The Trek community is one of the strangest groups I have ever been a part of. Usually in life, I've found that when a group opinion is formed on something, all within must adopt it or be excluded. Those who oppose it face a hard time in swaying the herd.
However, with Trek, I've always found that independent opinions, even if they are contrary on topics, are actually widely respected, encouraged and desired. It seems to keep our community weaving and bobbing so to speak, ensuring it's longevity and really preventing it from being led by any 'seemingly' dominant group. Insofar as we love finding people to agree with us on our knowledge and insights, we also love setting those insights and opinions against others.
heh, nicely constructed topic about the forum changes ^^
before there was trek there was Fireball xl5 and there are such people as "fivers"
before that there were plane spotters before them train spotters and before even them probably stone wheel spotters
Nerds have always led the herd
Fireball XL-5 loved it...
Don't forget the THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!!! :biggrin:
I still have my set of Thunderbird vehicles from Jonny Lighting.
(or ERTL, can't remember which)
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
/signed
Also some of us still like train spotting.... :redface:
wow you just hit me with a blast of nostalgia!
I've got a beaten up old metal Thunderbird Two with extendable legs and a lowerable mid-section with a little Thunderbird 4. *scrambles to go find it* ^^
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
Occidere populo et effercio confractus
I had that one when I was wee, my bloody mother gave it away to some friend of hers' kid and he broke the legs off and lost Thunderbird 4 :mad:
I caught all the Gerry Anderson shows during their late 80's/early 90's resurgence thanks to the repeats on BBC2; Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, and Joe 90 were the best - top stuff :biggrin:
As to the OP, he's almost entirely correct(no T5 Connie!
We are PWE. Your forums and game accounts will be added to our own. Your community will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.
Ain't Nobody Got Time for That
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Two, it's Wesley
Three, who cares, its a forum not your personal game celebrity meter
Four, less than one percent of the game population visits the forums daily
Also Wil Wheaton AKA Wesley, left the show of his own accord, he was not ousted by the fans,
I can't wait for a week to be over so this won't be topic number one.
Nope, never going to happen.
I would say nice try, but you're made a posterior out of yourself.
Glad you corrected the OP on the whole "Westley" thing. And he calls himself a Trekky? And yes, there are Trekkies and there are also Trekkers.
Trekkies tend to be those whom are true fanatics about the show, you know, the ones who go in full Klingon Regalia including professional grade prosthetic foreheads (and not just to conventions either). Trekkers on the other hand, while just as devoted to the shows, do not go all out and dress like Mister Woof (yes this is an intentional "typo" Fellow TNG Trek Fans will get the joke) to go pick up milk from the local store (yes, believe it or not I have seen a couple around here with my own eyes who go out on a daily basis to the grocery store dressed in full Star Trek Costumes).
One of the greatest things I have noticed about the Star Trek community is the Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. It brings people from vastly different walks of life together that might not have otherwise ever spoken to one another or gathered in the same place otherwise. Heck, it even transcends language barriers (Anyone recall the guy who made friends with a Russian when he did not speak Russian and the Russian did not speak English? They both however spoke Klingon.) Whether you are a TOSer or TNGer, DS9er, ENTer, or a Voyager(er?) you in some way like Star Trek, you like a vision and a Universe created by a Legend (Gene Rodenberry RIP). And for the most part, you Trekkers or Trekkies are a great lot, mature and friendly to a fault (though we do have a few old school Klingons amongst our ranks lol).
I laughed at what you didn't write there.
Very well said...
And I'd like to add that Trekkies are also some of most intelligent and creative individuals you'll ever meet.
Whenever someone throws out the tired old line... "If you don't like this game go make a better one", I always think to myself that if anyone could create an amazing Star Trek game, it would be a group of Trekkies
Captain Ariel Trueheart Department of Temporal Investigations
U.S.S. Valkyrie - NCC 991701
=/\= ================================= =/\=
One would have thought Cryptic would have learned this under Atari, when they ran $30k in the red one year and $15k in the red the next. 2 straight years-no profits.
One would have thought Cryptic would have learned this after launch, when entire fleets left the game. Or a year after launch, when entire fleets continued to leave the game (like mine).
The fact Cryptic sold out in both the literal and figurative senses of the word to foreign company is proof STO is in Salvage Operation mode- which might be profitable for the company, but is negligent to the game and the IP.
Stop treating STO like a salvage operation (lockboxes, releasing 1-2 missions at a time like 'snacks' to tide players over 'til next month, releasing in-game items obtainable only through paying cash-money a la lobi store BS) . . .
. . .And start treating it like Star Trek because that's the only way it will truly succeed.
But once PWE took over and we started to move down this style of F2P methodology, I noticed quality degregation, Featured Episodes cut and story quality itself lost, non-trekky items being thrown in just to make a quick buck and everything suddenly being a nickle and dime. ESD was re-done with cartoonish interfaces instead of keeping the 25th century look it had before, the Trek theme from the launcher and then eventually the website.
In essence, the game became MMO centric instead of Star Trek Centric. The appeal of being a good online game based on Star Trek that allowed your own pace of progress and your own style became nothing but a grind or pay just to get simple novelty items. It truely saddens me to see how this game became as it had so much potential at the begining.
The fact is that we really get the feeling that the game management has little concern about the game being Star Trek, and I bet that most of the PWE management team members didn't watch any single Star Trek episode. Which is sad, since they are consequently unable to understand what the players want and why they really want that. Instead of that, we get nice but very classical MMO features, a card game (doffs), territory control coming after starbases, the cheapest pvp ever...
Come on ! This is not just a game ! This should be adding to the Star Trek universe, not just copying-pasting old scripts and ideas every MMO uses with a Star Trek skin. I believe that what we all love in star trek are the amazing stories, characters we really like, the interactions between races and factions, and so on. Where is that in STO ?
The most interesting feature I see there is the foundry, but it looks like the ressources investment goes somewhere else. For uncreative features, obviously. :biggrin:
Oh, and OP, the true Star Trek fans aren't abused here, you shouldn't say that. It's a cool MMO woth a Star Trek skin but I'm sure we all know that. Consequently, people will stay here for the people they know, not for the skin itself, which is, probably, just an excuse for a MMO.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Just a heads up... ATARI was in the red because of their lousy accounting and bad business decisions...
(In fact, buying Cryptic was probably the only Good decision they had made in years.)
Cryptic was the only thing they had that was making them money and the main reason they sold it was to pay off their other overwhelming debts... (and the fact that PWI was willing to give them a huge sum of money... about $50 million.)
ATARI claimed that Cryptic was a godsend while trying to sell it... (and proved it with their adjusted tax claims, it really was the only thing they had that brought in more money than it lost.)
Then claimed it lost them money, after they sold it. (which they also proved with their next year adjusted tax claims in order to write-off/pay-off most of those overwhelming other debts... about $30 million.)
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
The guy who would jump around and scream while reading the entrails of the latest kill to determine if the gods where happy or if rain would come soon. The crazy guy that held power in the tribe based off his knowledge as oppossed to his skill of arm and body.
R.I.P
And the one with the craziest hair-doo.
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
P.S. I never wanted to step on the backs of our geeky-forefathers. I was going to say "Or, abusing one of the oldest nerd subsets for fun and profit". I seriously was, it just didn't fit in the header. :frown:
Hehe, yep. Glad someone else picked that up, too.
They will have to deal with the consequences, whatever they are.
I understand why they did not announce the changes, they knew real ST fans would not agree with theses changes.
I do blame Cryptic for putting the game in this position. I really hope they'll wake up before thing get too worse to be fixed.
As the Borg would say "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated". Let's show them resistance is never futile.
I've been trekkin for 40 years or so, I wrote a letter to NBC to keep them from cancelling, it wasn't until much later that I found out so many others had done the same thing. I'm an old guy, and I am here to tell you...
When PWE finally destroys this game, another Star-Trek game will eventually pop-up. If PWE refuses to learn about how Trek fans behave and react, then perhaps the next producers will. Star Trek fans spend MILLIONS and MILLIONS every year, and with no show or movie, STO is the only place to go for a trek-hit, and yet they are squandering this mega-opportunity by trying to fit this game into their PWE box.
I am appalled at what they are doing, and it is very very clear that they think TREK will fit into some goofy MMO-formula that they are using. It won't. They could be having a wild-runaway success here, and if they had any idea just how much money they are losing, they wouldn't be doing this. They clearly are ignorant of the HUGE potential for mega-profits.
Sad really.
Join Date: Sep 2008
:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: CHANGE THE FORUMS BACK !!!