ARC is supposed to be a straight steam rip-off which comes with ads for PWEs other crappy games that they will throw in your face. Additionally, it'll run in the background, hogs system resources and scans your harddrive for "other PWE titles".
The selling point is, once again, "everything is going to be better now". Though I doubt Steam will allow them to distribute their shabby rip-off via Steams architecture and as a resut will most likely terminate it's contract with PWE, effectively removing STO from the Steam library.
Once that happens I look back at all the moments I actually enjjoyed STO, hit uninstall and play something else.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
spyware? No. Adware? Yes. But so is steam... steam runs in the background eating bandwidth and cpu in order to advertise to me games that I do not want. It also has pop-ups (to hang out with your steam buddies, this popup appears every time you start the game!).
Both are going to do exactly the same thing (soak CPU and bandwidth in the background in order to advertise TRIBBLE at you) and neither one serves any useful purpose other than the initial download of the game files (the game itself should self patch, without a third party).
In a sense they are spyware in the way that google is spyware --- pretty sure steam tracks what you download for their database --- but they do not seem to run through your PC reading all your files etc. Arc would not have to do this, as they already know which cryptic games you play on your account.
spyware? No. Adware? Yes. But so is steam... steam runs in the background eating bandwidth and cpu in order to advertise to me games that I do not want. It also has pop-ups (to hang out with your steam buddies, this popup appears every time you start the game!).
Both are going to do exactly the same thing (soak CPU and bandwidth in the background in order to advertise TRIBBLE at you) and neither one serves any useful purpose other than the initial download of the game files (the game itself should self patch, without a third party).
In a sense they are spyware in the way that google is spyware --- pretty sure steam tracks what you download for their database --- but they do not seem to run through your PC reading all your files etc. Arc would not have to do this, as they already know which cryptic games you play on your account.
In Steam's defense it's much less aggressive at advertising (only a pop-up window after a game is closed/when it starts up once in a while), is a lot more efficient in the background, and doesn't install itself as add-ons on all your browsers.
Devs, thank you very much for your hard work.
However, I am not interested in running arc to play STO unless it is my choice, and I realize this is probably out of your hands.
Please give a link to people above you that i can express this feedback about arc. Or if someone reading this can find a link.
I wonder how it's going to be for those delivering this feedback. Something like this?
(Optional)
"Okay so what did they like about Arc?"
"...."
"Okay, what suggestions did they make to make it better?"
"Erm...they thought <insert the one or two constructive feedback suggestions that would be like finding a needle in a haystack>."
"Really? That's it? Well that doesn't sound too much to change. We'll consider Arc to be accepted by the community and ready for mandatory launch once we've made the necessary changes."
I'd hate to be the one that says pretty much every post remotely regarding Arc is indifferent at best or strongly negative it's beyond question. Assuming they were made aware of it I can imagine the response would be "Well we can't do anything about that, let's just have the feedback we can act on."
Devs, thank you very much for your hard work.
However, I am not interested in running arc to play STO unless it is my choice, and I realize this is probably out of your hands.
Please give a link to people above you that i can express this feedback about arc. Or if someone reading this can find a link.
Thanks
Firstly you are correct in saying that ARC is out of the Devs hands. ARC has nothing to do with the Devs.
Secondly regarding giving feedback, just go to the ARC is ready for your feedback thread under galactic news network
I DO NOT WANT.........because I am a 63 year old trekker. this is the ONLY game I play. I have no need for a HUGE download that will take up space on my computer. I do not care about tracking fellow players in other games. I am a life sub who spends additional cash for what I want. been here since beta. However, if not given the opportunity to opt out of this , I may well have to quit the game because I really , really do not want this..........reg
I personally like the arrangement of the game slections.
I find the forum section kind of cluttered, in the current version of Arc that I use, I wish it would only list the forums to the games I currently play. For example, STO's forum is on the bottom right, which I have to scroll down to get to it.
I do like the advanced ability to make one click to Charge Zen. What I do not understand is that I have to input my paypal login everytime, where if I go through the regular website (outside of Arc) my paypal login is already listed.
It's spyware that sits on your hard disk, periodically sending packets to Cryptic's servers about what games you play, how long you play, web sites you visit, words typed out on your keyboard, so Cryptic can hopefully, "tailor" your gaming experience, to you. Which is corporate double talk for "We want to put this spyware on your machine, so we can keep tabs on you, in order to hopefully sell you stuff, but if our computers are ever TRIBBLE and your personal info is compromised, we're not responsible as you have waived any legal recourse by agreeing to our EULA."
Technically any MMO can get this information, especially with shared accounts, without the need to have ARC since they can track your information on the servers. Unless your thinking that Arc will tell them when you're playing non PWE games for some reason.
Technically any MMO can get this information, especially with shared accounts, without the need to have ARC since they can track your information on the servers. Unless your thinking that Arc will tell them when you're playing non PWE games for some reason.
Two words - "browser plugin." This is a new level of intrusion.
Yet, PWE insists that at least STO, if not the entire Cryptic lineup, will remain available via Steam.
Actually, when pressed on this point, Cryptic devs said that their intent was to make sure that the games were still available on Steam. They also admitted that they hadn't figured out exactly how to do this.
"Participation in PVP-related activities is so low on an hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly basis that we could in fact just completely take it out of STO and it would not impact the overall number of people [who] log in to the game and play in any significant way." -Gozer, Cryptic PvP Dev
I left my very blunt feedback when I uninstalled it but sadly I think resistance is definitely going to be futile on this issue. They're bound to force this horrible software on us whether we want it or not.
Hoggs too much computer resources, vastly slowing down the computer. And it prevents me from 2-boxing on my computer as I am able to do now with STO, which is necessary for my gameplay style.
While the spyware issue is questionable, given ARC is scanning my HDs, it makes me nervous.
ARC features nothing that feels necessary to me. Like the Webbrowser, I got other browsers that are far more efficient, secure, and protected against intrusions. The friend features are unnecessary for me, I rather log in and see who is on. And I have no desire to play any other Perfect World Titles, so having a launcher for other games is unnecessary for me.
Please, let us have the option to keep using the STO launcher. Or give us a version of ARC that functions similarly to a basic game launcher without the clutter.
It does everything I have Steam doing, but worse and with fewer games to select from. Seriously PWE if I want to play your other games, I will let you know by going to they're website and downloading the client.
I do not want this drive scanning resource hog on my main PC.
The more that I hear about ARC the less and less I see it has a good thing.
To go back to when ACR was first mentioned by Cryptic and PWE the player base was told that ACR would not be mandatory and that users with existing installations of PWE games would not have to use ARC at all but now we get the ok guys it?s all or nothing when it comes to ARC and if you chose not to install ARC you more or less chose to stop playing any PWE game.
PWE needs to be 100% up front about what ARC does and does not do has well has offer a bare minimum option within the program that only launches and updates the PWE games installed under ARC.
If this bit about ACR installing add on?s to browsers turns out to be true, ARC will be a big no go for me until someone figures out how to block its functions that have nothing to do with updating and running games.
Heh. I begin to understand why polls are not permitted here.
^^
I kinda like how this "Uninstall" link sneaked in on the STO front page, dunno for how long it's been there. But it's a tiny move in the right direction.
I also don't like to install ARC only to be able to play STO, i wan't to be able to multi-boxing STO and i don't wan't another useless tool hooking at the background.
You want feedback on the ARC? How's about the software caused my anti-virus to go insane, as well as TRIBBLE around with my files looking at things it shouldn't be doing. That is the reason ARC was uninstalled and why I use the actual game client's launcher to play my STO. The day you make ARC mandatory will be the day I quit STO and go to another MMO. I have Steam, yet Steam does what it's supposed to do: Launch my games without anything I do NOT want. Once my game starts, Steam goes away to take a nap till I want it to do something. ARC on the other hand, stays active and is "Raiding my Fridge and looking at things it shouldn't"
DO NOT USE ARC!!!!!! Take those people making ARC, put them as part of the STO team to fix bugs, and do away with the P.O.S. called ARC.
By the way, Klingon clothing is bugged outta hell...when are you guys going to fix that?!?! Right.....those people are making ARC mandatory....what a waste.
You want feedback on the ARC? How's about the software caused my anti-virus to go insane, as well as TRIBBLE around with my files looking at things it shouldn't be doing. That is the reason ARC was uninstalled and why I use the actual game client's launcher to play my STO. The day you make ARC mandatory will be the day I quit STO and go to another MMO. I have Steam, yet Steam does what it's supposed to do: Launch my games without anything I do NOT want. Once my game starts, Steam goes away to take a nap till I want it to do something. ARC on the other hand, stays active and is "Raiding my Fridge and looking at things it shouldn't"
DO NOT USE ARC!!!!!! Take those people making ARC, put them as part of the STO team to fix bugs, and do away with the P.O.S. called ARC.
By the way, Klingon clothing is bugged outta hell...when are you guys going to fix that?!?! Right.....those people are making ARC mandatory....what a waste.
Just so you know (relating to your final comment) The Devs are and have nothing to do with ARC. ARC is a totally separate entity from the Devs, none of the Devs have or do work on ARC. I suggest if you have an issue relating to something ingame either submit a support ticket or start a new thread relating to the issue, that is if there isn't one already in existence.
So if the devs have nothing to do with ARC and this is a PWE move, give me 5000 Zen a month and you can install ARC PCR, BBC, FOX, DDD, MMM whatever you want on my PC, the only you will learn is that I shop in Amazon.com and that is it.... :eek: (I am pretty boring)
So if the devs have nothing to do with ARC and this is a PWE move, give me 5000 Zen a month and you can install ARC PCR, BBC, FOX, DDD, MMM whatever you want on my PC, the only you will learn is that I shop in Amazon.com and that is it.... :eek: (I am pretty boring)
I agree. PWE, you are free to install ARC on my computer for 5000 ZEN a month. All you will learn is that I am entirely willing and able to do nothing but surf TRIBBLE websites on a bugged computer. I can get another machine for any confidential stuff I may need to do.
So if the devs have nothing to do with ARC and this is a PWE move, give me 5000 Zen a month and you can install ARC PCR, BBC, FOX, DDD, MMM whatever you want on my PC, the only you will learn is that I shop in Amazon.com and that is it.... :eek: (I am pretty boring)
You have Perfect World Entertainment a parent company, they in turn own Cryptic Studios who produces STO, then you have Arcgames.com another company owned by Perfect World who they use as a platform to launch their titles.
You have Perfect World Entertainment a parent company, they in turn own Cryptic Studios who produces STO, then you have Arcgames.com another company owned by Perfect World who they use as a platform to launch their titles.
As long as they give me 5000 Zen a month even Obama can take a looky at my PC.
Seeing as ARC is probably coming from the "Squeeze every dime we can out of them Department" a Zen stipend is probably very unlikely and if there were one I would expect something fairly expensive for the users to come along with it.
If something is not broken, don't fix it, if it is broken, don't leave it broken.
I believe I have researched and heard enough about this subject.
If ARC installation becomes mandatory to play STO, then I will fill my gaming fix in some other way. Too bad since I've invested a lot of time and money on it, but the line must be drawn here. This far, no further! :P
I decided to go against community feedback and give Arc a try. I was also HOPING to eventually recieve some kind of incentive (like Zen) to allow my activities to be monitored by this company. It was pointless but obvious spyware before the recent beta update. Now? My gods! It's a jumbled, compacted eyesore that does nothing more than slow down the process of getting into the game. The normal client launcher was fine. I liked not having to load dozens of icons, thumbnails and video player windows.
Arc will be removed from my PC if some serious improvements haven't been made at the next update. If I am forced to use only Arc to launch STO and Neverwinter, I'm very likely to stop playing them, period. I'll miss the games, sure. The rights to make online games of my two favorite fictional multiverses are pretty much pwnd. But trust me, I can always spend more time and money on my first love, Eve. She is a sadistic lover but I love her nonetheless.
Comments
The selling point is, once again, "everything is going to be better now". Though I doubt Steam will allow them to distribute their shabby rip-off via Steams architecture and as a resut will most likely terminate it's contract with PWE, effectively removing STO from the Steam library.
Once that happens I look back at all the moments I actually enjjoyed STO, hit uninstall and play something else.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Both are going to do exactly the same thing (soak CPU and bandwidth in the background in order to advertise TRIBBLE at you) and neither one serves any useful purpose other than the initial download of the game files (the game itself should self patch, without a third party).
In a sense they are spyware in the way that google is spyware --- pretty sure steam tracks what you download for their database --- but they do not seem to run through your PC reading all your files etc. Arc would not have to do this, as they already know which cryptic games you play on your account.
Who said that?
Pin them down, mother. Who gave the order?
In Steam's defense it's much less aggressive at advertising (only a pop-up window after a game is closed/when it starts up once in a while), is a lot more efficient in the background, and doesn't install itself as add-ons on all your browsers.
However, I am not interested in running arc to play STO unless it is my choice, and I realize this is probably out of your hands.
Please give a link to people above you that i can express this feedback about arc. Or if someone reading this can find a link.
Thanks
(Optional)
"Okay so what did they like about Arc?"
"...."
"Okay, what suggestions did they make to make it better?"
"Erm...they thought <insert the one or two constructive feedback suggestions that would be like finding a needle in a haystack>."
"Really? That's it? Well that doesn't sound too much to change. We'll consider Arc to be accepted by the community and ready for mandatory launch once we've made the necessary changes."
I'd hate to be the one that says pretty much every post remotely regarding Arc is indifferent at best or strongly negative it's beyond question. Assuming they were made aware of it I can imagine the response would be "Well we can't do anything about that, let's just have the feedback we can act on."
In a Perfect World.....there is no Arc :cool:.
Firstly you are correct in saying that ARC is out of the Devs hands. ARC has nothing to do with the Devs.
Secondly regarding giving feedback, just go to the ARC is ready for your feedback thread under galactic news network
I personally like the arrangement of the game slections.
I find the forum section kind of cluttered, in the current version of Arc that I use, I wish it would only list the forums to the games I currently play. For example, STO's forum is on the bottom right, which I have to scroll down to get to it.
I do like the advanced ability to make one click to Charge Zen. What I do not understand is that I have to input my paypal login everytime, where if I go through the regular website (outside of Arc) my paypal login is already listed.
I have no other feedback at the current time.
A
Real
Catastrophe
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
Two words - "browser plugin." This is a new level of intrusion.
Actually, when pressed on this point, Cryptic devs said that their intent was to make sure that the games were still available on Steam. They also admitted that they hadn't figured out exactly how to do this.
CUUCUUMBEER! "-With slight partigen with it."
Proud member or DPS-800 "-We kill dem mines with our scitter turrets."
Hoggs too much computer resources, vastly slowing down the computer. And it prevents me from 2-boxing on my computer as I am able to do now with STO, which is necessary for my gameplay style.
While the spyware issue is questionable, given ARC is scanning my HDs, it makes me nervous.
ARC features nothing that feels necessary to me. Like the Webbrowser, I got other browsers that are far more efficient, secure, and protected against intrusions. The friend features are unnecessary for me, I rather log in and see who is on. And I have no desire to play any other Perfect World Titles, so having a launcher for other games is unnecessary for me.
Please, let us have the option to keep using the STO launcher. Or give us a version of ARC that functions similarly to a basic game launcher without the clutter.
It does everything I have Steam doing, but worse and with fewer games to select from. Seriously PWE if I want to play your other games, I will let you know by going to they're website and downloading the client.
I do not want this drive scanning resource hog on my main PC.
To go back to when ACR was first mentioned by Cryptic and PWE the player base was told that ACR would not be mandatory and that users with existing installations of PWE games would not have to use ARC at all but now we get the ok guys it?s all or nothing when it comes to ARC and if you chose not to install ARC you more or less chose to stop playing any PWE game.
PWE needs to be 100% up front about what ARC does and does not do has well has offer a bare minimum option within the program that only launches and updates the PWE games installed under ARC.
If this bit about ACR installing add on?s to browsers turns out to be true, ARC will be a big no go for me until someone figures out how to block its functions that have nothing to do with updating and running games.
ARC needs to be 100% transparent
^^
I kinda like how this "Uninstall" link sneaked in on the STO front page, dunno for how long it's been there. But it's a tiny move in the right direction.
Screenie
Thank you but - no thanks.
Link: Castra - a german Fleet.
DO NOT USE ARC!!!!!! Take those people making ARC, put them as part of the STO team to fix bugs, and do away with the P.O.S. called ARC.
By the way, Klingon clothing is bugged outta hell...when are you guys going to fix that?!?! Right.....those people are making ARC mandatory....what a waste.
Just so you know (relating to your final comment) The Devs are and have nothing to do with ARC. ARC is a totally separate entity from the Devs, none of the Devs have or do work on ARC. I suggest if you have an issue relating to something ingame either submit a support ticket or start a new thread relating to the issue, that is if there isn't one already in existence.
I agree. PWE, you are free to install ARC on my computer for 5000 ZEN a month. All you will learn is that I am entirely willing and able to do nothing but surf TRIBBLE websites on a bugged computer. I can get another machine for any confidential stuff I may need to do.
You have Perfect World Entertainment a parent company, they in turn own Cryptic Studios who produces STO, then you have Arcgames.com another company owned by Perfect World who they use as a platform to launch their titles.
As long as they give me 5000 Zen a month even Obama can take a looky at my PC.
If ARC installation becomes mandatory to play STO, then I will fill my gaming fix in some other way. Too bad since I've invested a lot of time and money on it, but the line must be drawn here. This far, no further! :P
Seriously though...NO to ARC.
Arc will be removed from my PC if some serious improvements haven't been made at the next update. If I am forced to use only Arc to launch STO and Neverwinter, I'm very likely to stop playing them, period. I'll miss the games, sure. The rights to make online games of my two favorite fictional multiverses are pretty much pwnd. But trust me, I can always spend more time and money on my first love, Eve. She is a sadistic lover but I love her nonetheless.