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Massively Interviews dezstravus About Arc
pwebranflakes
Member Posts: 7,741
Massively sat down to talk with dezstravus about Arc and to answer more community questions about it. The interview can be read here.
Link to the interview.
Link to the interview.
Post edited by pwebranflakes on
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Additionally, there was not a single positive response to Arc in the Massively article when I read it. Other threads in other places, including threads for other PWE games, have nary a positive thing to say about it either.
Just imagine if some mathematical formula existed that would allow PWE to use all that information like polling data...
Unified infrastructure tool to better manage games: Yes
Unified infrastructure tool to better manage games that collects/transmits data and runs when I don't wish it to do so: No.
"No" means "No."
I feel sorry for you people at Cryptic Studios. When Arc fails and the inevitable hammer falls I suspect you will be the first ones on the chopping block.
Sorry to say this, branflakes, but you're wasting computer memory with these threads. The answer is still no.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Runs on startup = DO NOT WANT
Doesn't run on startup = eh.....
It's amazing how pretentious and self important devs and marketing guys are. One of the things I hate about Steam is that it runs on start up.... sure you can disable that... but I don't budget my computing time to go around and ensure all these random programs aren't starting when my computer starts... YOUR PROGRAM IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT THAT IT NEEDS TO RUN AT STARTUP.
Let me ask these questions:
What defines actively using the application?
Can I actually shut down ARC once I have the game(s) of my choice updated/launched and not have said game(s) shut down and/or crash?
Because honestly, the quoted reply is the most serious non-answer I've seen concerning ARC. If you want discouraged players to take ARC seriously, give them serious answers. Give us actual reasons to believe that we can trust ARC.
It's simple: If ARC can completely shutdown after a game updates/launches and has zero impact after the game of choice is running, then you might see better acceptance of ARC.
Thank you for the time...
Cryptic, would you actulaly like me to spend actual Money? It's Simple:
Rule of Acquisition 48 "The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife."
"Currently, the application does not need to run after a game is launched, though in the future if the game is updated to utilize functionality from Arc, it may be required to keep the Arc application open in order for the game to function 100% properly."
And so it begins.
Centurion maximus92
12th Legion, Romulan Republic
12th Fleet
=\/= ================================ =\/=
In all seriousness though, we don't need arc. Everything it currently does can be done with existing tools. Wait, hasn't this been said already, or is it just me?
That's what they said about the NSA. And, lo and behold, it wss 20x worse even than any tinfoiler could have imagined.
Existing tools that don't snoop around your hard drive even when you tell it not to, I might add.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Don't like the idea of forcing me to run another program to run STO that is in any way invasive, or hard to disable.
Don't like the sound of this.
It seems the vast majority of your most active players (forum regulars) hate the idea... and while that's a small subset of the playerbase, I think it's an important constituency.
THE PLAYERS DO NOT WANT THIS.
But hey, Massively not really a gaming journalist site anyway as if they were most of the companies they deal with wouldn't give them easy access to info, but I's surprised Terilynn Shull didn't just link the Blog as she pretty much re-parroted it on Massively.
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..."
I've logged on just twice since it went live and that was mostly to check on my DOff's.
I guess when this ARC thing goes live, that'll pretty much be the end of my STO playing.
I have no wish to have any more of my personal information, collected by yet another unknown entity.
I don't care how "wonderful" I'm told ARC will be, I don't want it on my computer.
<shrug>
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 don't mind ARC, at least I got nothing to hide on my computer!!! And I'm proud of it!!!
People may not have anything to hide but I would rather my details remain with me and not be taken and possibly sold to third party organisations.
Also the memory that gets taken up is also stupid just for one game
Vice Admiral Volmack ISS Thundermole
Brigadier General Jokag IKS Gorkan
Centurion Kares RRW Tomalak
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
The 10GB of storage ARC reserves was not addressed either. Most of the players here are only here for STO and don't wish to play other PWE titles. Reserving hard drive space and 10GB of it for other PWE games that people have no intention on playingg is ridiculous!
> <
> <
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So how do your customers feel about arc...
They ahem *insert Jedi Mind Trick* oh we have 1000% excitement from every single one of the players out there because they want to play every single game we have 24/7 and want to find out where on their computer the slot is to drop the quarters into.
I got a feeling between dinosaurs and arc that arc will be the downfall of most people leaving sto.
What's pissing me off, is this: In order to download the game now, you HAVE to use ARC.
SO, I have to log onto ARC just to get the ORIGINAL Start-Up screen to RE-LOG in, just to get started?
So, instead of logging in ONCE, we now have to log in twice? Sorry, but get rid of this P.O.S.
I'm just waiting for the bug's and crashes to start taking place every 30 min now...
Would also like to add, that after logging into ARC, when it brings up the Start-up Launcher for STO, it tries to auto-log in, here's the kicker, it can't, get a laugh at the pop-up saying that the password is incorrect. Wow, great, so log into ARC, get the Auto-launcher, Auto-launcher fails to log in on its own, close down launcher, re-load launcher, and manually type in password, great, wonderful, nothing like wasting time to get into a game.
Actually, I think I posted something to this effect in one of Dez's earlier ARC threads - Cryptic already uses a unified launcher that posts ads/news and links to all Cryptic games, has inter- and intra- game chat on an already-existing in game chat window, etc. The only thing Cryptic's existing tech doesn't do that ARC is being designed to is the data-mining...
The thrust of that post was that if PWE actually paid attention to what they've paid good money for, they have "most" of the answers to their ARC platform that they are looking for - and since the entire PWE slate needs adaptation to "fit" into ARC, well, why couldn't these programmers be paid to adapt PWE games to Cryptic tech rather than design a whole new tech then adapt everything to fit that...
Which is leaving me more and more of the opinion that either the stuffed heads at PWE are either way too ego-centric (we can design a better system than our sub-unit already did, even though that's hard to do and extremely expensive) or the data mining that they're building into ARC is "so essential" to PWE's existence that they need to design a tool around that...
Even though a smart company would have attempted to stash the data mining in the existing tech and not announced it... Therefore it seems we have a bit of both going on, hyper-important data mining and their ego-centricity demands them build a new tool instead of using what their US sub-unit already built...
To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
It's called Follow the Leader. If something is successful, then people will try to mimic it in order to mimic its success.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
The more I read about ARC, the worse it sounds.
NOTE TO ANY DEVS READING THIS...make having a standalone launcher for STO an option for us after ARC.
RIP KDF and PvP 2014-07-17 Season 9.5 - Death by Dev
I have LTS for both Champions onLine and STO. I have much to lose by leaving this game if forced to run ARC. I stopped playing Champions because of poor treatment by that franchise. I will stop playing STO if forced to install ARC. Further, I will quit playing any MMO. I have plenty of real life things to do. And this is a shame. Cryptic will lose a thousand or so in revenue, I will lose a game I had fun with but will gain time to engage in more important venues, save some money, not risk my data to questionable content or access.
It is Cryptics choice. No ARC, we continue our business relationship. Force ARC upon me, I walk away and they learn a lesson.
Player and forumite formerly known as FEELTHETHUNDER
Expatriot Might Characters in EXILE
Well, good for you...
There's nothing personal on my computer (except my passwords..., I hope), that hasn't already been DL'd to the internet at least once since '1994, when I first connected.
(whether I am currently "proud" of that or not, is a story for another time)
I just take umbrage to the fact that as far as we know at this point, ARC is being forced upon us in such a manner that gives us no alternative.
(even though we've been told, that that would not be the case)
And, it seems to be designed to infiltrate our computers too such an extent, that we really won't know just how much of our info is being collected, without our knowledge or express given permission.
What I do with my entertainment time on my computer, is really nobody's business to keep track of, unless I wish them too.
Arbitrarily forcing upon me a program that does so while I'm playing a game, is a sure fire way to get me to STOP playing that particular game.
<shrug>
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
U.S.S. Maelstrom, NCC-71417 (Constitution III-class/flagship) --- Fleet Admiral Hauk' --|-- Dahar Master Hauk --- I.K.S. qu'In 'an bortaS (D7-class / flagship)
Thanks for posting your feedback and questions here.
We looked into this claim and were not able to confirm it. Upon investigation, the behaviors that were reported were:
a.) Arc was accessing the hard drive and
b.) Arc was accessing the internet
Both of these behaviors should be expected, as Arc needs both the internet and your hard drive to install games. This process does not include collecting or submitting any of your personal data.
We take privacy very seriously and are happy to look into any reports from players if they feel that Arc is doing something that it should not.
I apologize for any confusion caused by previous documentation; Arc does not reserve any hard drive space. It does recommend 10GB of free space to allow for the installation of games, but it doesn't have any process for reserving this space.
If you discover an issue where Arc is taking more hard drive space than it needs for the application and the game that you have chosen to install, please let us know and we will be happy to look into it.