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Cryptic think about this...
drkfrontiers
Member Posts: 2,477 Arc User
In the greater picture of things, you have all made great progress and equally "oh my g@d" moments, and after often confronted by scathing attacks from the community.
The way I see it, you should count yourself lucky.
It's when the community becomes indifferent, that you really need to start worrying!
People being passionate about your product is the best place ANY MMO can be.
Its the really great moderators, that can sift through all that passion and find the gold.
So to all those posters feeling good about themselves, taking the moral high-ground saying, "Oh stop the whining already!!!" - you've completely missed the moment, contributing nothing to the long-term betterment of the game. Think about it.
Change comes from the minds and hearts willing to stand in the fire, and scream at the machine...
The way I see it, you should count yourself lucky.
It's when the community becomes indifferent, that you really need to start worrying!
People being passionate about your product is the best place ANY MMO can be.
Its the really great moderators, that can sift through all that passion and find the gold.
So to all those posters feeling good about themselves, taking the moral high-ground saying, "Oh stop the whining already!!!" - you've completely missed the moment, contributing nothing to the long-term betterment of the game. Think about it.
Change comes from the minds and hearts willing to stand in the fire, and scream at the machine...
Post edited by Unknown User on
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I think you're insane to ask Cryptic to think though, they have no capacity for that. Unless you offer to pay them to think, that is...
However...based upon the changes to dilithium...grinding just isn't going to be worth it anymore unless the price of ZEN bottoms out in the market.
I think it's important to point out here that Perfect World/Cryptic have through the extremely bad timing of Season 7...quite possibly put this game on its last legs.
Something which I haven't seen mentioned yet is the fact that Star Wars: The Old Republic goes Free-to-play today - and from what I'm reading most of the "premium items" are cosmetic only in nature. I believe there are a small number of "pay to win" items...but most of these items are negligible in their advantage.
The main reason you want to take a game free-to-play is to expand your player base. However...there is a fine line between allowing players to pay to "enhance their experience" and "pay to win". Once a game becomes "pay to win"...which I believe STO has crossed that threshold...many players become angry. Some players don't have unlimited funds they can throw at a video game.
So the first stage of the death of a free to play MMO is that a large part of the player population...those who keep the game "filled with life"...leave.
Suddeny the "pay to win" folks have a lot harder time winning...because most of the people who weren't paying have given up on the game.
In the short term...the solution is to spend more. But then at some point the "pay to win" folks realize that unless they sink a small fortune into the game...they'll never win.
At this point...a large number of the "pay to win" folks will leave as well for greener pastures. The population begins to dwindle...and the costs of running the game begin to exceed the income from the remaining players.
When STO first went free to play...the cost of items and fact that most of the items were cosmetic or provided only minor advantages kept everyone happy. No one really gained an advantage over everyone else...the game was fairly balanced. However the only way this is a sustainable model is to keep providing a steady stream of fresh content to keep players interested. Clearly Perfect World has decided they do not want to keep providing content as often as players would prefer.
There's an excellent writeup on different "free to play" models available at:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134825/the_fwords_of_mmos_freetoplay.php?print=1
But now I believe STO has shifted to the "convenience" model. While this model looks promising to accountants...it is bad for players and will ultimately be the death of an MMO.
From Gamasutra:
From a purely marketing standpoint, it's genius. People can spend all the time they want, and all the money they want. There's no missed opportunity to monetize people here. However, from a game design perspective, it's a catastrophe.
In order to make the convenience model work, games have to be designed with a very high barrier to get that "worthwhile" experience from the game. The requirement in time/money has to be very high in order to get the most money out of everyone. If that bar slips too low, people stop paying what you expected to get. If that bar slips too high, people stop playing, period, because they don't have any fun even after spending all the time and money they have available.
The convenience model tells game designers: design a game that is as inconvenient as possible so that we can sell convenience to players. Actually, make a game that is horrendously addictive so people have to play it, but make it as unpleasant as possible so people are willing to pay money to avoid having to actually play the game. Most game designers I know didn't get into this industry to make games that people loathe so much they pay real money to not have to play it.
Plus, gamers are on to it. They're getting savvy. They're starting to realize they're just being taken advantage of and abused by these sorts of addictive games. Gamers don't want to be a blue/green bar on some economist's spreadsheet. They want to be playing games. They want to be having fun.
Unfortunately there's no easy solution to creating a sustainable MMO. I believe that STO was close to a sustainable model. However...now that the game has cleary shifted to "pay to win"...and unless change occurs quickly to remedy the situation the game will die.
One of the following must occur:
Prices for items to be purchased with dilithium must be drastically reduced
-or-
Rewards for dilithium "grinding" must be drastically increased
If players don't believe grinding for dilithium is worth it...they'll simply stop. Supply and demand dictates that demand for purchasing ZEN with dilithium will drop...the supply of ZEN will exceed the amount of demand...and the market will crash. Players who purchase ZEN to sell on the exchange for dilithium will stop purchasing ZEN if they can't get it to sell.
The economic chaos these changes are causing will be very rough. In the end...people will leave because of the fact that those with deep pockets can always win.
End of line.
It is the least of your problems however: A bit off-track, but worth mentioning, is that what's killing this game is what's killing western civilization in general: Pathological and self-destructive greed. Neither, I suspect, will long survive it.
Think of our little game world as a microcosm of the larger society. Look at the responses you see from people who are defending Cryptic's actions (and there are more than a few) and compare them to the people defending Wall Street today; you might find some very telling parallels.
Brace yourselves, this sort of thing permeates the entire culture and over the coming years it will hit you a lot harder, and in far more vital areas, than any video game could. Enjoy the ride and when when it comes down to the "Donner Diner Party" please note that all the fat and juicy ones were the capitalists.
But it works sadly, just look at the recent elections.
It will work for a while.
I might could do that, but the nagging irritation that I am having to do something I didn't naturally want to do, circles back to the fact I'd rather be doing something else but I can't because the DEVs fracked it all up so there's no joy or reward left in it.
This is something i think more people need to do. In Real life and in game. Stop thinking about their income and just enjoy the ride. You are in command of a freaken STARSHIP, the most advance and wonderful vehicle in the galaxy, and YOU are in the center chair. If you don't want to do an STF, fine, go PVP. Don't want to PVP, fine, Go Exploring. Don't want to Explore, Fine, Play the Foundry. Don't want to play the foundry, fine, MAKE a foundry mission. Don't want to do that?? Find a friend and Roleplay some. You get the picture.
Stop trying to be extrinsically rewarded in this game. Enjoy the game because it is FUN, not because you dinged a new level.