How is LoTRO's deed system any more restrictive than this game's wall-o'-Dilithium?
Because you have to pay for content in LotRO, you don't have to do that here. So any thing you earn by grinding in STO can be used to pay for fluff items. You don't have to pay to level up here. You also don't have to pay for things like mounts, which you do in LotRO, and getting anywhere in LotRO without a mount is painful at best.
In fact, the latter will take you much longer to get anything meaningful done as per end game gear than the prior will for content!
Pure and unadulterated BS. You can buy gear on the EC that will be good enough to do elite STF's. You don't' need to actually buy a thing in STO, and can still play though 100% of the content. The same can not be said of LotRO.
And LoTRO has actual quality expansions to unlock, ripe with throngs of content.
Which again you have to buy, something you've not needed to do with a single STO expansion. The fact that they may or may not be better is completely pointless in this topic.
Because you have to pay for content in LotRO, you don't have to do that here. So any thing you earn by grinding in STO can be used to pay for fluff items. You don't have to pay to level up here. You also don't have to pay for things like mounts, which you do in LotRO, and getting anywhere in LotRO without a mount is painful at best.
Pure and unadulterated BS. You can buy gear on the EC that will be good enough to do elite STF's. You don't' need to actually buy a thing in STO, and can still play though 100% of the content. The same can not be said of LotRO.
Which again you have to buy, something you've not needed to do with a single STO expansion. The fact that they may or may not be better is completely pointless in this topic.
You seem to be of the rather misguided opinion that anything in STO would actually sell as a full fledged expansion pack. The amount of actual new content STO has produced versus what LoTRO has churned out are not at all comparable.
The amount of actual new content STO has produced versus what LoTRO has churned out are not at all comparable.
So?
I'm making no claim about how good or expansive the STO seasons are, I'm simply pointing out that they're free, which is not something that can be said about the LotRO expansions.
I guess however, what I'm responding to is simply a strawman argument, and rather poor one at that.
STO Member since February 2009. 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
I'm making no claim about how good or expansive the STO seasons are, I'm simply pointing out that they're free, which is not something that can be said about the LotRO expansions.
Content patch =/= full blown expansion. There's a huge difference between the two.
Adding a single new zone? Content patch. Adding a single new system? Content patch. Adding multiple new zones, instances, gear, abilities, raising the level cap and advancing the games narrative? Expansion pack.
Tell you what, if you have actual point to make, then make a new thread for it. Myself I'm done firing on poorly constructed strawmen in this thread.
So...when someone disagrees with you and begins to back up their position with facts suddenly they're making a strawman argument because said facts contradict your misguided position? I'll keep that in mind.
I jumped on with a 'free demo' package about a week before F2P launch, with which I got myself an NX class ship. I'd always wanted to try STO, but for various reasons couldn't, but I decided it was too good to pass up.
I'm glad I didn't pass it up. I'm now a subscriber (and have been since the end of January 2012). The game has flaws, sometimes big ones, but frankly, for me at least, it's pretty awesome. Getting the freebie stuff from the trial was great, too, and I got a head start by about a week or two.
Additionally I'd like to thank the Devs for NOT going the route of leaving us stalled out at T2 or T3 ships on F2P accounts. This was probably the main reason I stuck around at the start - I wanted my first char to have a Galaxy class. For a little while I thought that I wouldn't get one, thanks to the rumor mill (possibly based on old news), but someone reminded me to talk to Admiral Quinn, and, well. I got my pretty ship with an intuitive point-and-kill interface.
So...when someone disagrees with you and begins to back up their position with facts suddenly they're making a strawman argument because said facts contradict your misguided position?
Yeah, facts... Facts that I didn't disagree with. Perhaps you should try actually reading what people say before responding?
But again this isn't the place for this discussion, if you wish me to keep firing on your strawmen then make a new thread for it. Quit cluttering up this thread with utter nonsense.
Additionally I'd like to thank the Devs for NOT going the route of leaving us stalled out at T2 or T3 ships on F2P accounts.
In some ways I think they'd of been better off they had. Frankly STO has the fewest reasons to upgrade to Gold then any other F2P MMO I've played. Even CO offers more to it's gold members then STO does. If STO offered something worth my $15 a month I'd pay it, but as it stands there's so little I see no reason to ever upgrade my account.
Of course I actually bought the game back when it was released and paid for a month so I have some of the perks of subscribing already.
I think the game might of been better off with more reasons to sub, which means more money for more content.
On the flip side of the coin, TOR, LoTRO et al don't lock you down with a secondary paywall for the majority of their content (dilithium).
Oh and seriously, don't even try to claim that you can't play LoTRO for free. With enough patience and dedication you can unlock every single piece of content and store content simply by deeding (not arguing its not a massive grind, but it can be done). Folks have paid for entire expansions that way.
where are you paying dilithium for content?
I've played every mission (with the exception of the tier 4 romulan rep mission), every PvE event and a fair few PvP maps but never had to pay dilithium for any of it.
Don't make bad arguments in a last ditch attempt to prove yourself right, unless you're grinding for top end gear you don't need dilithium for anything ingame.
I've played every mission (with the exception of the tier 4 romulan rep mission), every PvE event and a fair few PvP maps but never had to pay dilithium for any of it.
Don't make bad arguments in a last ditch attempt to prove yourself right, unless you're grinding for top end gear you don't need dilithium for anything ingame.
Starbases, embassies, etc. You know, the major "content" from the last two seasons, all require truckloads of dilithium. If you aren't interested in those things, then dilithium is not important. If you are, then it is a *major* grind, whether F2P or subscriber.
That said, I do think STO's F2P is decent. The account I set up for my daughter is F2P and we're doing very well with it. We bought the 5000 point package up front for her to unlock characters, costumes, and such and she's happy.
STO's model isn't bad at all; neither is it better than a number of other models (as shown in the examples given).
People are paying dilithium to be at the level of other players so they can compete for purple drops in STF's and for kills in PvP, which is much, much worse.
Anyone can grind to level 50 without the story, nobody can grind competition away.
I've played every mission (with the exception of the tier 4 romulan rep mission), every PvE event and a fair few PvP maps but never had to pay dilithium for any of it.
Don't make bad arguments in a last ditch attempt to prove yourself right, unless you're grinding for top end gear you don't need dilithium for anything ingame.
So you're not participating in any of the following:
Starbases
Embassies
Reputation Systems
Crafting
Buying new ships
Utilizing the dilith store
If so then yes, you don't need to spend dilithium. If you want to actually accomplish anything in-game, then you're absolutely gated behind the dilithium fortress that is STO.
I'm a lifer, it was F2P for me! :P
I preferred before F2P, things were released for content not for making a fast buck off of whatever gambling box they released last.
So you're not participating in any of the following:
Starbases
Embassies
Reputation Systems
Crafting
Buying new ships
Utilizing the dilith store
If so then yes, you don't need to spend dilithium. If you want to actually accomplish anything in-game, then you're absolutely gated behind the dilithium fortress that is STO.
^^^
Which you can earn (and can even convert into Zen to get ANYTHING in the STO C-Store) 100% feww, and never pay a real world cent to get anything available in the game.
Sorry, I don't see how that is 'over-monetization'; or qualifies STO as being the 'most monetized F2P MMO' , when we have F2P MMOs like SWToR where:
- Cartel Coins can only be gotten by spending real cash (or maintaining a subscription)
- You need Cartel Coins to unlock things like extra action bars (unless you were a former subscriber in then days prior toSWToR going F2P); to buy 'licenses' to use/wear end game gear drops, use/display titles earned in game, etc.
- You CAN'T use Cartel Coins in any fashion 9even though you paid real money for them in one way or another) to buy SWtoR paid-expansion content; you have to use real cash, period.
^^^
This last point alone is worse then ANY other Western MMO F2P model on the market atm.
If you're patient, you can get EVERYTHING in STO 100% free (it's your choice if you want to buy Zen to get something faster - but it's not a requirement for any of the content currently available in STO (even Lockbox Keys can be purchased from the EC Exchange - and yes, that means someone paid for them at some point; but that doesn't negate the fact this allows others to acquire them without spending a real-world cent.)
Formerly known as Armsman from June 2008 to June 20, 2012 PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Thing is, you're always "that guy".
All I see you doing on these boards is complain and whine.
[*]Higher costs across the board, especially dilithium for fleet bases, reputation projects, and then once you're over those paywalls, ON TOP OF THAT more to get actual items.
How dare Cryptic make you use ingame currency!!
[*]Small fleets completely or mostly dead in the water on Fleet base advancement, loud and repeated calls for smaller bases for small fleets have been met with a concern about exploiting joining fleets
Small fleets shouldn't be able to afford a giant TRIBBLE space station anyway. If you join or found a small fleet, you should be aware and accepting of certain limitations.
[*]Many more lockboxes, many more exceedingly expensive Lobi store items.
Pretty sure the drop chance of lockboxes hasn't changed. And Lobi items becoming more expensive is an outright lie. Yes, we didn't have any ships at the start but 800 is a good price for them.
[*]A huge list of equipment, power, and doff nerfs.
I don't feel nerfed at all. On none of my chars.
[*]Almost no updates to Duty Officer missions except to add more doffs, nerf existing doffs, and increase the upgrade grinder costs by 5000%.
The Doff system was Heretics baby and Heretic is gone. Since the system works just fine the way it is, expanding it might be of a somewhat lower priority.
[*]Dilithium Exchange effectively useless for buying dilithium since the market has completely collapsed.
If you need to buy dilithium from the exchange, you're doing something wrong.
If so then yes, you don't need to spend dilithium. If you want to actually accomplish anything in-game, then you're absolutely gated behind the dilithium fortress that is STO.
No, I'm pretty sure I don't spend Dilithium unless I want too. And I still get to play all the content for free as I don't have to pay real money to get Dilithium.
If Cryptic held us at gunpoint and said that we needed to use Dilithium we'd exchanged real money for then you'd have a point about STO being aggressively monetized. But the only limits on Dilithium are time and patience.
The fallacy of this statement is profuse, considering that everyone will be going for the top in any MMO, or they're wasting their time.
I believe you'll find that most people play games to have fun, not to be able to point to a number in conversations and show that their number is higher than another participant's number.
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
I want to see the faces of those who claimed this game isn't worth playing and criticised it as much as they could - telling me I should expect this criticised (not a nice bunch and i've seen their slander cos their hierarchy is pathetic) while they play SWTOR - which funnily enough is almost unplayable for me unless I pay for it - which I won't be and that had no content and went f2p much quicker than STO and will die out as the Cartel Market has nothing worthwhile and the f2p option is TRIBBLE - but that's Star Wars and typical bioware tbh.
I want to see the faces of those who claimed this game isn't worth playing and criticised it as much as they could - telling me I should expect this criticised (not a nice bunch and i've seen their slander cos their hierarchy is pathetic) while they play SWTOR - which funnily enough is almost unplayable for me unless I pay for it - which I won't be and that had no content and went f2p much quicker than STO and will die out as the Cartel Market has nothing worthwhile and the f2p option is TRIBBLE - but that's Star Wars and typical bioware tbh.
Think STO beats SWTOR anyday!
Bioware hasn't been Bioware since EA took the reigns a few years back, they used to produce good RPGs...
Yup, one year ago is when the game that was Star Trek Online, full of great expectation, and promise, was lost with all hands, somewhere near the Romulan Neutral zone. Probably sucked into an alternate reality. It's been bizarrely transposed with this current, mirror image, doppelganger, which, superficially, would seem to be that same game, until you look closely, through the mirror, darkly.
Gone is the promise of fully customizable ship interiors. Exploring strange, new worlds, and giving them your own names? Never materialized. Promotable First Officers? Never saw the light of day. A fully, fleshed out Klingon, (or any other race, for that matter) faction? You'll be elected president, first.
Instead we have lockboxes. Bikini top "winter" coats. StarFleet captains flying alien starships. 6 or 7 currencies of exchange, in a world that supposedly eliminated all money, centuries ago. Server lag that is so crippling, at times the game is unplayable. Bugs that still exist from beta stages of the game.
I guess, from a free to play standpoint, you can celebrate, and marvel at what a feat of engineering STO is in it's current state. However, only when put into perspective, that this game was once subscription based, and failed in that endeavor, does the true picture emerge. In other words, all the best stuff in this game was done by people who are long gone now. Now STO is just your standard, run of the mill, cookie cutter, F2P, MMO, wrapped in a Star Trek wrapper. It's better than your average F2P shovelware, only because the framework was in place, when it was still sub based. I used to look forward to playing STO, but as bad as the game has become, I can't justify any sort of extended time or financial commitment to this product.
In closing, yes, one year ago, was when things officially started going bad, but, for me, I saw the buzzards circling when Dan Stahl, after leaving to explore strange, new, worlds, returned from the void, heralding an ominous future for STO...
,
Yup, one year ago is when the game that was Star Trek Online, full of great expectation, and promise, was lost with all hands, somewhere near the Romulan Neutral zone. Probably sucked into an alternate reality. It's been bizarrely transposed with this current, mirror image, doppelganger, which, superficially, would seem to be that same game, until you look closely, through the mirror, darkly.
Gone is the promise of fully customizable ship interiors. Exploring strange, new worlds, and giving them your own names? Never materialized. Promotable First Officers? Never saw the light of day. A fully, fleshed out Klingon, (or any other race, for that matter) faction? You'll be elected president, first.
Instead we have lockboxes. Bikini top "winter" coats. StarFleet captains flying alien starships. 6 or 7 currencies of exchange, in a world that supposedly eliminated all money, centuries ago. Server lag that is so crippling, at times the game is unplayable. Bugs that still exist from beta stages of the game.
I guess, from a free to play standpoint, you can celebrate, and marvel at what a feat of engineering STO is in it's current state. However, only when put into perspective, that this game was once subscription based, and failed in that endeavor, does the true picture emerge. In other words, all the best stuff in this game was done by people who are long gone now. Now STO is just your standard, run of the mill, cookie cutter, F2P, MMO, wrapped in a Star Trek wrapper. It's better than your average F2P shovelware, only because the framework was in place, when it was still sub based. I used to look forward to playing STO, but as bad as the game has become, I can't justify any sort of extended time or financial commitment to this product.
In closing, yes, one year ago, was when things officially started going bad, but, for me, I saw the buzzards circling when Dan Stahl, after leaving to explore strange, new, worlds, returned from the void, heralding an ominous future for STO...
,
Some facts, it didn't fail as a Sub model, if it had Atari would have turned it into F2P a lot sooner (CO went F2P after just over a year), it was simply that PWE uses the F2P model on all their other games and wanted STO to be the same.
Also the currencies before F2P were a lot worse, there were marks for every rank of play (a different mark for each rank) and no way to gain or convert marks of lower ranks. I believe there were 15 different currencies at one point. Besides, currencies are a necessary evil in MMOs to regulate the equipment and keep things fair, (i.e. those who work harder get bigger and better things).
The promises the devs made before F2P haven't been forgotten just because the devs don't talk about them, and as for the rest, people want more customisation, and I still don't know where all these complaints about crippling server lag is coming from, I play for 4-6 hours a day on average and never see any connecting from the UK.
I believe you'll find that most people play games to have fun, not to be able to point to a number in conversations and show that their number is higher than another participant's number.
You and I have obviously had very different interactions with the gaming community.
I'll sell you some weapons from New Romulus. Never fired, only dropped once.
i have to say im loving the STO F2P experience, it has caused me to reevaluate my addiction to STO and move on to other more entertaining games
Why grind the same TRIBBLE over and over again to rep up & not to mention the zero new meaningful content when i can play other games and get a far more worthwhile less boring game play experience.
i have to say im loving the STO F2P experience, it has caused me to reevaluate my addiction to STO and move on to other more entertaining games
Why grind the same TRIBBLE over and over again to rep up & not to mention the zero new meaningful content when i can play other games and get a far more worthwhile less boring game play experience.
And why post on the forums of games you don't like when you can play games you do?
Comments
Because you have to pay for content in LotRO, you don't have to do that here. So any thing you earn by grinding in STO can be used to pay for fluff items. You don't have to pay to level up here. You also don't have to pay for things like mounts, which you do in LotRO, and getting anywhere in LotRO without a mount is painful at best.
Pure and unadulterated BS. You can buy gear on the EC that will be good enough to do elite STF's. You don't' need to actually buy a thing in STO, and can still play though 100% of the content. The same can not be said of LotRO.
Which again you have to buy, something you've not needed to do with a single STO expansion. The fact that they may or may not be better is completely pointless in this topic.
You seem to be of the rather misguided opinion that anything in STO would actually sell as a full fledged expansion pack. The amount of actual new content STO has produced versus what LoTRO has churned out are not at all comparable.
So?
I'm making no claim about how good or expansive the STO seasons are, I'm simply pointing out that they're free, which is not something that can be said about the LotRO expansions.
I guess however, what I'm responding to is simply a strawman argument, and rather poor one at that.
Do we really have to have this discussion here?
It's kind of a downer for the topic-at-hand.
Party!... Party!!... Party... !!!
(least till the 3rd Anniversary comes around)
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
Content patch =/= full blown expansion. There's a huge difference between the two.
Adding a single new zone? Content patch. Adding a single new system? Content patch. Adding multiple new zones, instances, gear, abilities, raising the level cap and advancing the games narrative? Expansion pack.
Tell you what, if you have actual point to make, then make a new thread for it. Myself I'm done firing on poorly constructed strawmen in this thread.
So...when someone disagrees with you and begins to back up their position with facts suddenly they're making a strawman argument because said facts contradict your misguided position? I'll keep that in mind.
I'm glad I didn't pass it up. I'm now a subscriber (and have been since the end of January 2012). The game has flaws, sometimes big ones, but frankly, for me at least, it's pretty awesome. Getting the freebie stuff from the trial was great, too, and I got a head start by about a week or two.
Additionally I'd like to thank the Devs for NOT going the route of leaving us stalled out at T2 or T3 ships on F2P accounts. This was probably the main reason I stuck around at the start - I wanted my first char to have a Galaxy class. For a little while I thought that I wouldn't get one, thanks to the rumor mill (possibly based on old news), but someone reminded me to talk to Admiral Quinn, and, well. I got my pretty ship with an intuitive point-and-kill interface.
Yeah, facts... Facts that I didn't disagree with. Perhaps you should try actually reading what people say before responding?
But again this isn't the place for this discussion, if you wish me to keep firing on your strawmen then make a new thread for it. Quit cluttering up this thread with utter nonsense.
In some ways I think they'd of been better off they had. Frankly STO has the fewest reasons to upgrade to Gold then any other F2P MMO I've played. Even CO offers more to it's gold members then STO does. If STO offered something worth my $15 a month I'd pay it, but as it stands there's so little I see no reason to ever upgrade my account.
Of course I actually bought the game back when it was released and paid for a month so I have some of the perks of subscribing already.
I think the game might of been better off with more reasons to sub, which means more money for more content.
where are you paying dilithium for content?
I've played every mission (with the exception of the tier 4 romulan rep mission), every PvE event and a fair few PvP maps but never had to pay dilithium for any of it.
Don't make bad arguments in a last ditch attempt to prove yourself right, unless you're grinding for top end gear you don't need dilithium for anything ingame.
Starbases, embassies, etc. You know, the major "content" from the last two seasons, all require truckloads of dilithium. If you aren't interested in those things, then dilithium is not important. If you are, then it is a *major* grind, whether F2P or subscriber.
That said, I do think STO's F2P is decent. The account I set up for my daughter is F2P and we're doing very well with it. We bought the 5000 point package up front for her to unlock characters, costumes, and such and she's happy.
STO's model isn't bad at all; neither is it better than a number of other models (as shown in the examples given).
Nobody is paying dilithium for content.
People are paying dilithium to be at the level of other players so they can compete for purple drops in STF's and for kills in PvP, which is much, much worse.
Anyone can grind to level 50 without the story, nobody can grind competition away.
The fallacy of this statement is profuse, considering that everyone will be going for the top in any MMO, or they're wasting their time.
bloodpact.net
"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."
-Michelangelo
So you're not participating in any of the following:
Starbases
Embassies
Reputation Systems
Crafting
Buying new ships
Utilizing the dilith store
If so then yes, you don't need to spend dilithium. If you want to actually accomplish anything in-game, then you're absolutely gated behind the dilithium fortress that is STO.
I'm pretty sure this is a fallacy itself, but I'm too lazy to go look up which one.
I preferred before F2P, things were released for content not for making a fast buck off of whatever gambling box they released last.
^^^
Which you can earn (and can even convert into Zen to get ANYTHING in the STO C-Store) 100% feww, and never pay a real world cent to get anything available in the game.
Sorry, I don't see how that is 'over-monetization'; or qualifies STO as being the 'most monetized F2P MMO' , when we have F2P MMOs like SWToR where:
- Cartel Coins can only be gotten by spending real cash (or maintaining a subscription)
- You need Cartel Coins to unlock things like extra action bars (unless you were a former subscriber in then days prior toSWToR going F2P); to buy 'licenses' to use/wear end game gear drops, use/display titles earned in game, etc.
- You CAN'T use Cartel Coins in any fashion 9even though you paid real money for them in one way or another) to buy SWtoR paid-expansion content; you have to use real cash, period.
^^^
This last point alone is worse then ANY other Western MMO F2P model on the market atm.
If you're patient, you can get EVERYTHING in STO 100% free (it's your choice if you want to buy Zen to get something faster - but it's not a requirement for any of the content currently available in STO (even Lockbox Keys can be purchased from the EC Exchange - and yes, that means someone paid for them at some point; but that doesn't negate the fact this allows others to acquire them without spending a real-world cent.)
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
All I see you doing on these boards is complain and whine.
How dare Cryptic make you use ingame currency!!
Small fleets shouldn't be able to afford a giant TRIBBLE space station anyway. If you join or found a small fleet, you should be aware and accepting of certain limitations.
Pretty sure the drop chance of lockboxes hasn't changed. And Lobi items becoming more expensive is an outright lie. Yes, we didn't have any ships at the start but 800 is a good price for them. I don't feel nerfed at all. On none of my chars. The Doff system was Heretics baby and Heretic is gone. Since the system works just fine the way it is, expanding it might be of a somewhat lower priority.
If you need to buy dilithium from the exchange, you're doing something wrong.
Yes. A few bumps here and there but overall yes.
Nope, the fleet I'm in is too small for either of those.
Yes but I'm currently only ranking up which costs zero dilithium.
Never really saw the point.
I have the majority of the Fed C-Store ships so I don't need to pay for the ships ingame.
People actually use that?
No, I'm pretty sure I don't spend Dilithium unless I want too. And I still get to play all the content for free as I don't have to pay real money to get Dilithium.
If Cryptic held us at gunpoint and said that we needed to use Dilithium we'd exchanged real money for then you'd have a point about STO being aggressively monetized. But the only limits on Dilithium are time and patience.
Then again, STO doesn't make you pay to press the "shift" button when you want to go faster.
I believe you'll find that most people play games to have fun, not to be able to point to a number in conversations and show that their number is higher than another participant's number.
*Make your own thread* instead of hijacking this partaayy.
You will get a more thorough response of how the game "sux" and will get an argument from the opposite side in an APPROPRIATE thread of your own.
If you cant understand that, it seems that you are just not a palatable kind of person and I pity you.
Sincerly sorry for the way you are man
HAPPY F2P ANNIVERSARY STAR TREK ONLINE
Interested in Role Playing? Join the 12th Fleet Science division!
Think STO beats SWTOR anyday!
Bioware hasn't been Bioware since EA took the reigns a few years back, they used to produce good RPGs...
Gone is the promise of fully customizable ship interiors. Exploring strange, new worlds, and giving them your own names? Never materialized. Promotable First Officers? Never saw the light of day. A fully, fleshed out Klingon, (or any other race, for that matter) faction? You'll be elected president, first.
Instead we have lockboxes. Bikini top "winter" coats. StarFleet captains flying alien starships. 6 or 7 currencies of exchange, in a world that supposedly eliminated all money, centuries ago. Server lag that is so crippling, at times the game is unplayable. Bugs that still exist from beta stages of the game.
I guess, from a free to play standpoint, you can celebrate, and marvel at what a feat of engineering STO is in it's current state. However, only when put into perspective, that this game was once subscription based, and failed in that endeavor, does the true picture emerge. In other words, all the best stuff in this game was done by people who are long gone now. Now STO is just your standard, run of the mill, cookie cutter, F2P, MMO, wrapped in a Star Trek wrapper. It's better than your average F2P shovelware, only because the framework was in place, when it was still sub based. I used to look forward to playing STO, but as bad as the game has become, I can't justify any sort of extended time or financial commitment to this product.
In closing, yes, one year ago, was when things officially started going bad, but, for me, I saw the buzzards circling when Dan Stahl, after leaving to explore strange, new, worlds, returned from the void, heralding an ominous future for STO...
,
It's funny, I wrote that in my original response as well, but I decided not to.
Some facts, it didn't fail as a Sub model, if it had Atari would have turned it into F2P a lot sooner (CO went F2P after just over a year), it was simply that PWE uses the F2P model on all their other games and wanted STO to be the same.
Also the currencies before F2P were a lot worse, there were marks for every rank of play (a different mark for each rank) and no way to gain or convert marks of lower ranks. I believe there were 15 different currencies at one point. Besides, currencies are a necessary evil in MMOs to regulate the equipment and keep things fair, (i.e. those who work harder get bigger and better things).
The promises the devs made before F2P haven't been forgotten just because the devs don't talk about them, and as for the rest, people want more customisation, and I still don't know where all these complaints about crippling server lag is coming from, I play for 4-6 hours a day on average and never see any connecting from the UK.
You and I have obviously had very different interactions with the gaming community.
Why grind the same TRIBBLE over and over again to rep up & not to mention the zero new meaningful content when i can play other games and get a far more worthwhile less boring game play experience.
And why post on the forums of games you don't like when you can play games you do?
Oh wait.