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Season 7 - Cryptics Opinion of You - You work for them !!!
bugshu
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Ok season 7 is here
There is no question that if nothing else this season showcases the attitude Cryptic has for its paying customers. Dan Stahl has broken the mold and absolutely lied to us. He said that you could get sets and gear by doing 60% fewer missions in the past but by now we know that its not true. You might need 60% fewer missions to win the Omega marks but you need far more missions and stfs to build enough dilithium to buy them in stores.
Anyway, here is the push / pull dynamic of the game in its state. Most of the time the people who have the money are employing the people they hire. With Cryptic this is not true anymore. Cryptic feels that its customers are really its employees and that they can and should tell them how to enjoy the game and what to do.
When you are employed your employer, tells you how long to work, what to do, and how much they will pay you for your time. This is the state of this game right now.
Direct quotes from DStahl in his dev post today include these tidbits.
Dilithium Ore is an in-game currency that is given out as a reward for completing missions of Cryptic?s choosing.
They are saying they are going to choose when and how much to pay you based on their metrics. If you want to do missions and earn rewards - well too bad - they are going reward you for playing their game only if they feel like it.
Stahl says, In our game design, Dilithium represents time invested in playing a variety of select missions in STO. By setting the max cap per day, obtaining large amounts of Refined Dilithium requires logging in regularly and engaging with missions and systems that the STO team has designated.
Notice the word, requires. If you want dilithium they require you to earn it. It doesnt matter if you are having fun or not. Its a job. You have job requirements. You are required to do what they force you to do or you do without dilithium. You work for them.
This is a long way away from, hey if you show up, we will try to reward your time by giving you fun happy rewards as a thank you for spending your time with us.
They tell you the pay scale.
Stahl says, By the way, the average level 50 player plays approximately 3.5 hours on a given day ..... it means that a player may need to invest about 5 days at 4 hours per session for the best MK 10 Purple item, and well over 10 days for the best Mk 12 Purple item (even more if you the item is part of the Fleet or Reputation tiers).
So if you spend a typical work week or about 35-40 hours of your life working for them they will pay you with a single good item. They know how much people play and they expect them to spend the equivelent of a work week to get their stuff. If you made $10 an hour working a job in real life - a piece of their virtual gear would be worth $400 if you spent equal time working for them in game or working for money you could use on other entertainment options with a real job.
Stahl says, Concern 1 ? Active level 50 players are refining far less Dilithium than we expect them to. Prior to Season 7, the average amount of Dilithium refined by an active level 50 player was 3100 per session or 13,250 per week. That is far less than the cap of 8000 per day when you consider that most level 50 players play multiple days per week and slightly more than the average hours per session.
Right here he admits that hes underpaying his player base for working for him. The best level 50 players are not earning dilithium. He knows it. Still, they view us as peons who need to be told what to do, and how to do it. Also, like most employers, they do not value our time and want to pay us as little as possible for daring to be employed by Cryptic when we thought we were playing a game that was supposed to be fun.
In my opinion, With the great amount of money that Ive spent on this game and with this company, it really chaps my hide being told what is required of me and how much and how hard I have to grind / work if I want to be employed by them and desire to get a single piece of gear to enhance the experience.
40 hours for one piece of gear is too much. But of greater concern, is the utter lack of respect these devs have for me and my time, in daring to issue requirements, and pay scales for the time I share with them.
I want to play the game and have fun. Not be issued commands, requirements, and orders that I have to fall in line to meet should I actually desire to have a couple of pieces of decent equipment on each of my toons.
These guys dont want to be my partner in a quest to have fun. They dont want me as a customer. They want to command me and tell me what to do.
Its a terrible way to treat your player base and customers and I think they will lose many of them over it.
Bug
There is no question that if nothing else this season showcases the attitude Cryptic has for its paying customers. Dan Stahl has broken the mold and absolutely lied to us. He said that you could get sets and gear by doing 60% fewer missions in the past but by now we know that its not true. You might need 60% fewer missions to win the Omega marks but you need far more missions and stfs to build enough dilithium to buy them in stores.
Anyway, here is the push / pull dynamic of the game in its state. Most of the time the people who have the money are employing the people they hire. With Cryptic this is not true anymore. Cryptic feels that its customers are really its employees and that they can and should tell them how to enjoy the game and what to do.
When you are employed your employer, tells you how long to work, what to do, and how much they will pay you for your time. This is the state of this game right now.
Direct quotes from DStahl in his dev post today include these tidbits.
Dilithium Ore is an in-game currency that is given out as a reward for completing missions of Cryptic?s choosing.
They are saying they are going to choose when and how much to pay you based on their metrics. If you want to do missions and earn rewards - well too bad - they are going reward you for playing their game only if they feel like it.
Stahl says, In our game design, Dilithium represents time invested in playing a variety of select missions in STO. By setting the max cap per day, obtaining large amounts of Refined Dilithium requires logging in regularly and engaging with missions and systems that the STO team has designated.
Notice the word, requires. If you want dilithium they require you to earn it. It doesnt matter if you are having fun or not. Its a job. You have job requirements. You are required to do what they force you to do or you do without dilithium. You work for them.
This is a long way away from, hey if you show up, we will try to reward your time by giving you fun happy rewards as a thank you for spending your time with us.
They tell you the pay scale.
Stahl says, By the way, the average level 50 player plays approximately 3.5 hours on a given day ..... it means that a player may need to invest about 5 days at 4 hours per session for the best MK 10 Purple item, and well over 10 days for the best Mk 12 Purple item (even more if you the item is part of the Fleet or Reputation tiers).
So if you spend a typical work week or about 35-40 hours of your life working for them they will pay you with a single good item. They know how much people play and they expect them to spend the equivelent of a work week to get their stuff. If you made $10 an hour working a job in real life - a piece of their virtual gear would be worth $400 if you spent equal time working for them in game or working for money you could use on other entertainment options with a real job.
Stahl says, Concern 1 ? Active level 50 players are refining far less Dilithium than we expect them to. Prior to Season 7, the average amount of Dilithium refined by an active level 50 player was 3100 per session or 13,250 per week. That is far less than the cap of 8000 per day when you consider that most level 50 players play multiple days per week and slightly more than the average hours per session.
Right here he admits that hes underpaying his player base for working for him. The best level 50 players are not earning dilithium. He knows it. Still, they view us as peons who need to be told what to do, and how to do it. Also, like most employers, they do not value our time and want to pay us as little as possible for daring to be employed by Cryptic when we thought we were playing a game that was supposed to be fun.
In my opinion, With the great amount of money that Ive spent on this game and with this company, it really chaps my hide being told what is required of me and how much and how hard I have to grind / work if I want to be employed by them and desire to get a single piece of gear to enhance the experience.
40 hours for one piece of gear is too much. But of greater concern, is the utter lack of respect these devs have for me and my time, in daring to issue requirements, and pay scales for the time I share with them.
I want to play the game and have fun. Not be issued commands, requirements, and orders that I have to fall in line to meet should I actually desire to have a couple of pieces of decent equipment on each of my toons.
These guys dont want to be my partner in a quest to have fun. They dont want me as a customer. They want to command me and tell me what to do.
Its a terrible way to treat your player base and customers and I think they will lose many of them over it.
Bug
Post edited by bugshu on
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But yeah, I agree. My "Playing as Intended Thread" speaks to this in=passing. (please don't merge, devs...)
Only in STO will Star Track die.
Hahahaha!!!
I got silenced in-game for preaching about Star Track. Reply to my other posts though, since you have played as long as I have and your insight would be interesting to hear...
Sorry for my english but i am french Canadian (i am not perfect). I agree whit my friend here. They really broke are fun whit this terrible season 7. I am not impress at all. Very bad job. Thinking to quit seriously.
When they show me the canteen and say;
"Hey! Look at all this extra stuff we just built for you!"
I say;
"I like it... But it's not as fun as I remember it, I'll spend my money elsewhere. But I'll be back to have more fun later. Bye!"
I'm "meh", only because I loathed the STF monotony and never did the B'Tran's, anyway.
The reason nothing changes is because the small amount of players that are willing to drop 2 years worth of monthly recurring fees in 30 days. F2P/P2W is only going to ensure this game dies a horrible death, and CBS refusing to allow another Star Trek game for 10-15 more years.
Woot, aren't we lucky
Two things can solve that,
Lawyers
And contacting the licenses original owner IE paramount.
I do actually understand the reasons these nerfs have gone ahead, but will it affect my gameplay that much? It's too early to say just yet.
On a last note though, since CoH went belly up I do realise that "All good things..."
Come to an end, so I'm spending more wisely these days
Just so you don't think I'm some johnny come lately to STO, I've been a gold subscriber since day one of launch -- 33ish months x $15, 1015+ days the old fashioned way, I wasn't grandfathered into the 1000 day club by swiping my credit card for $200. I had hoped to be around to celebrate the game's third anniversary in February of 2013 but I guess that won't happen.
I guess it's fitting, no Star Trek series ever went past Season 7. Star Trek Online may well push a S8 or beyond on a bunch of F2Pers who stick around, but it won't be the same game that I loved since day one of launch.
No Star Trek Series went past Season 7.
Will Star Trek Online survive Season 7?
Yes, I'm a little disappointed by the loss of some of the dilithium. The expansion of content in this season to me far outweighs a little bit of dissapointment, as I'm glad that there is something worthwhile for me to look forward to when I complete a tier in the reputation system.
So while you guys continue to whine about what a horrible mess Cryptic has made of things, I'm going to be continuing to improve my characters and work to make them the best that I can make them. I won't let complaints ruin my day.
But if you'll just answer them with "By Your Command !" I have a feeling things will work out for the best !
Come on , try it !
It works a 1000 times better if you have a metallic voice (or a voice synthesizer !) .