If the daily mission to obtain "Qmendations" for the anniversary ships is anything like the Winter Event's mission, it boggles the mind that anyone considers it a real grind.
The Winter Event mission took all of how much time? A minute? If that...
And it's not like these ships are necessary to unlock additional content, as is the purpose of most grinds. I would go so far as to call them purely cosmetic, like virtually all top-tier ships.
I think some players could use a little perspective.
I don't want to cause any fights among the playerbase, not my intent. I do however want the playerbase to voice their opinion on the topic so that Cryptic and PWE will hear. Will it change things? It may not. But we have to try, we are what makes this game happen after all.
We should not be so hesitant, Doc. Better to be heard, to be loud, even to be obnoxious, than to be quiet and let things continue as they are. We just need to make sure there's more to that voice than whining and tears.
Tell them what they're doing wrong. Tell them how they can fix things. Tell them we will not be silent. We will continue to voice our concerns. We care about this game and we want to see it flourish. We want it to be healthy. Players, Trek fans, should be able to enjoy this game without feeling like sheep. We want to support this game, but we will NOT be taken as fools any longer.
If the daily mission to obtain "Qmendations" for the anniversary ships is anything like the Winter Event's mission, it boggles the mind that anyone considers it a real grind.
The Winter Event mission took all of how much time? A minute? If that...
And it's not like these ships are necessary to unlock additional content, as is the purpose of most grinds. I would go so far as to call them purely cosmetic, like virtually all top-tier ships.
I think some players could use a little perspective.
A grind is not always determined by the length of the repeatable portion. More how fun that portion is and how often you need to repeat it.
If the daily mission to obtain "Qmendations" for the anniversary ships is anything like the Winter Event's mission, it boggles the mind that anyone considers it a real grind.
The Winter Event mission took all of how much time? A minute? If that...
And it's not like these ships are necessary to unlock additional content, as is the purpose of most grinds. I would go so far as to call them purely cosmetic, like virtually all top-tier ships.
I think some players could use a little perspective.
do it for 9 or more toons for 25+ days, it is a grind, and a mindless one, if I'm going to repeat something over and over day after day then at lest make it a challenge and not something I can do before my morning coffee.
do it for 9 or more toons for 25+ days, it is a grind, and a mindless one, if I'm going to repeat something over and over day after day then at lest make it a challenge and not something I can do before my morning coffee.
Then don't do it for 9 or more toons? Do it for 2 or 3? Voila! No more grind!
It hardly seems plausible you "need" 3 of the same versions of the 3 ships. You don't even need one of them.
To be honest, the video was a little boring, just because i was staring at the same thing for the whole length of time. Aside from that though, it was a great video explaining what is happening.
I personally feel like this is a bad business model that reflects poorly on Cryptic as a whole. They've pretty much sucked all of the fun out of their thank you to the fans, and it bothers me that they're still referring to it as a free ship. I'm not sure if this is all just a recurring theme of Cryptic's bad business decisions, or if PWE has been forcing them to do things like this, but it seems very "One step forward, two steps back".
Of course what do you expect though from a company that won't even finish the character skins on a race you have to pay $200-300 to play as.
Mr. Justice,
Just want to say Love the videos! Keep them coming! I'm looking forward to what you think about the Anniversary FE. It was a blast creating it I hope you enjoy it!
To community,
The Doc has a great STO game play and ship coverage youtube channel! Subscribe people! And have a wonderful 4yr anniversary!!
See you all in game!
lcdrmiller, thank you for the kind words, I appreciate it, it means a lot to me. I look forward to the featured episode mission, I have a gut feeling it is going to be epic. I like the progression of the main Iconian storyline, and I like where that is headed. Since we don't have Star Trek on TV right now in the form of a series, Star Trek Online fills that roll and provides new storyline and material. I would love to see STO's storyline on TV, it would be incredible.
Keep up the good work
P.S. now how do I get my channel posted on the front page
Yes, granted. I never denied it was a grind, just that the term hardly seems apt to describe a daily mission that will likely take less than a minute.
And remember, you don't "need" to do something to obtain what's essentially a pretty skin.
A grind is a grind. To me it doesn't matter how long the mission is.
And yes you don't need it but it is a departure from previous years. For example other than the FE I doubt I'll do anything else with this event because the so doesn't impress me enough to make me spend 15 days doing the grind.
I'm happy there are people that understand how unbelievable the changes done to the Anniversary event are and are capable to explain it clearly. I've been trying to explain it to people in several threads, but with minimal results. So I thank you, Doc, for the video.
I entirely agree with you, I will also skip on the 'free' ships. I might get the Romulan 3-pack later (maybe even the KDF one) from the C-Store. (PWE, keep your 4-piece bonuses!)
But, I disagree the Mirror ships in the new lockbox are useless. They're accessible Tier 5 vessels with nice mirror skins.
EDIT: Forgot about the Arc part. Yup, again, similar feelings. If the new Khan outfit becomes available in the C-Store, I'll happily buy it and I'll have no problem with it being free for those with Arc.
If they keep on adding exclusive rewards to Arc users (unavailable to get in any other way in game, be it by spending money), I might end up exploring options like virtualization, finding an expendable machine to get Arc on, ...
TOIVA, Toi Vaxx, Toia Vix, Toveg, T'vritha, To Vrax: Bring in the Allegiance class. Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider. Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
For us, when the game started under Atari, it used to be very different. So this change once PWE bought Cryptic is foreign to us. We know the game one way, and it has changed and mutated into another thing. Hopefully new players will understand how we old players feel about the game changing in such ways. It started off so very different, with different goals, and missions that provided instant reward, the grind then, isn't what it is now, and the whole grind + pay to get the whole thing is new as well.
I saw someone make a great analogy in the big thread about this, and I really think it fits.
We're getting the frog in the pot syndrome. Little by little the grind gets turned up, little by little the pay gates get turned up. We don't notice because hey, its just a little more, we're not at eastern game grind. But...I think we'll get there, bit by bit.
I think what happened this time is they tweaked the heat on the pot a little too hard, and more people are taking notice this time.
I just want to thank you for making this video, I already shared many of your opinions on this whole mess, but something about hearing it from the mouth of someone else really opened my eyes wider to a disappointing trend.
I've now decided I'm not interested at all in doing the grind for these anniversary "gifts". These aren't "gifts" at all, they've turned the anniversary gift into a lame promotion to try and entice you to buy 3 expensive ship packs in the coming weeks so you can complete some new set bonuses. So by not doing this mindless grind for the anniversary ship, I'm now not going to feel tempted at all to purchase any of the coming ship packs from the C-Store, because I'll feel like I'm not getting the complete package of those ships because I didn't do the anniversary grind part. Congrats Cryptic/PWE, your grind actually turned me off from a potential C-Store sale when those ships come out, and I can only hope others feel just as strongly and make this backfire on you.
I really appreciate your video Doctor, thank you. Not only have you saved me days of valuable time I already didn't have, you saved me some money I may have likely spent as well!
Thanks Doctor for the effort in putting out the video .
my personal thoughts , RPGs (MMOs and non MMOs} and most games by nature are a grind , you level up work towards certain in game gear and goodies . but the "grind" should be focused on your schedule not the games . STOs event grind is focused on what schedule they want you to play not based on the players schedule . you literally have to play the game 7 days a week during these events to get these items during a event . while you have some buffer its not much . if there is a "emergency Maintenance " or other unforeseen obstacle ( weather, ISP outage) your work is for naught . one of the biggest points to F2P was to have players come and go to our schedules . instead its like have a schedule for a Job .
the anniversary is a celebration of the launch day of the game , and is a thank you to the players for staying and playing . the way this is setup is anything but that IMO . its telling me that cryptic/PWE only appreciate those that play the game 7 days a week . which to me is a wrong attitude .
that being said , like the doctor I enjoy the FE's . and I like 90% of the direction the game is going . its this other 10% for the events and such that need work . i dont mind a gear grind .What i do mind is not controlling when i get to do it .
A grind is a grind. To me it doesn't matter how long the mission is.
And yes you don't need it but it is a departure from previous years. For example other than the FE I doubt I'll do anything else with this event because the so doesn't impress me enough to make me spend 15 days doing the grind.
Pushing a button on your screen each day qualifies as a grind too then. Would you feel the same way if you had to do that?
Fortunately, this "grind" isn't necessary to unlock content as typical grinds require.
Excellent video, I am happy someone thoroughly explained this process, just sorry someone from the playerbase had to do it.
I too will be skipping much of the anniversary event. I probably will do the mission on one of my characters, two or more if I like it just to complete it, but like the winter event, I am out. I have been veering away from STO more and more lately (moving it from my primary game to a secondary one).
As far as people concerned you are overly critical, emotional, and lost credibility...well they do not have to watch your video and you are human. Like many of us you are a long-time player that really wants to keep playing the game, wants the best for it, and wants it to be an enjoyable experience. Also like many of us you feel disheartened about the game and its current development path. Your are human, you have emotions and you have opinions.
I saw someone make a great analogy in the big thread about this, and I really think it fits.
We're getting the frog in the pot syndrome. Little by little the grind gets turned up, little by little the pay gates get turned up. We don't notice because hey, its just a little more, we're not at eastern game grind. But...I think we'll get there, bit by bit.
I think what happened this time is they tweaked the heat on the pot a little too hard, and more people are taking notice this time.
The analogy actually fails because most of STO's grinds are not at all necessary to enjoy its content.
If you're a frog in a pot, it's only because you lept into one.
For us, when the game started under Atari, it used to be very different. So this change once PWE bought Cryptic is foreign to us. We know the game one way, and it has changed and mutated into another thing. Hopefully new players will understand how we old players feel about the game changing in such ways. It started off so very different, with different goals, and missions that provided instant reward, the grind then, isn't what it is now, and the whole grind + pay to get the whole thing is new as well.
I was there when the game was under Atari and the main complain was the Klingons were not getting any love, I remember the days when the Klingon players ranted and shouted, good old times.
Thanks for the video it pretty much sums up why I feel the way I do about our Anniversary Event.
I hope that this video puts perspective on why so many of us are upset by the direction Cryptic took with this year's Anniversary Event for the forum goers that were wondering what all the fuss was about.
It's a deliberate double dipping Cash grab and Cryptic made no effort to try to hide the fact.
The analogy actually fails because most of STO's grinds are not at all necessary to enjoy its content.
If you're a frog in a pot, it's only because you lept into one.
Bull puckey.
Almost the entirety of S8 is about grind in one form or another. There's no reason to really do any of it unless you do the rep. There are no special drops to be had from killing, no experience or levels to gain since you have to be max level anyway, precious little story to be had. What little story there is, is locked behind the Dyson rep for the most part.
Fleet holding? Gotta grind. Personal reps? Gotta grind. Winter, summer, and now anniversary? Gotta grind. Sure you can say you don't have to do these things, but when the majority of new content put out is that grind, what else is there to do? The hand full of missions they release every few months? Just do foundry and nothing but? Doff? (even that's a grind after a certain point) STFs I've done so often I could do them blindfolded in a shuttle?
If there was a regular release of a decent amount of story content, raids, something, anything, it wouldn't be so bad. But it seems here lately the busy work content is far surpassing anything else.
Pushing a button on your screen each day qualifies as a grind too then. Would you feel the same way if you had to do that?
Fortunately, this "grind" isn't necessary to unlock content as typical grinds require.
Flynn, not picking a fight here just questioning you defense of this. A grind is a grind, be it 1 minute or one hour, the point is if you want this new shiny, cosmetic/gear/content then you have to do this repeatedly in a limited set number of days. To state that someone should be happy it's just for a thank-you ship and not access to a new sector is equivalent to saying "shut up, you don't need it." Well, you don't Need that new sector do you? The reaction to grinding for cosmetics is natural, a shiny ship and a shiny sector are vary similar and it scares people as to what is coming down the pipelines.
The analogy actually fails because most of STO's grinds are not at all necessary to enjoy its content.
If you're a frog in a pot, it's only because you lept into one.
I agree. You don't NEED to grind anything at all. I keep hearing people complain about how hard it is to grind for SB and 4 rep systems simultaneously.... and I wonder why they bother if they hate it. None of my characters has reached T5 in ANY rep and I don't feel like I'm missing out.
Grind is a matter of acquiring rewards. If you want the reward here is what you must do. It boggles the mind that people think they have to have EVERYTHING NOW!
I agree. You don't NEED to grind anything at all. I keep hearing people complain about how hard it is to grind for SB and 4 rep systems simultaneously.... and I wonder why they bother if they hate it. None of my characters has reached T5 in ANY rep and I don't feel like I'm missing out.
Grind is a matter of acquiring rewards. If you want the reward here is what you must do. It boggles the mind that people think they have to have EVERYTHING NOW!
I maybe wrong, only human here, but I don't think the butthurtieness is from having to work for it in this case, but rather having to complete the stuff by a short length of time, I can understand having to start something by a set date but only a what? 7 day window for error when people have lives outside of the game? I got my Rom to t5 Omega and rom, took forever but it was fun, I run a staircase that still is at t1, don't care how long it takes, it's always there.
Almost the entirety of S8 is about grind in one form or another. There's no reason to really do any of it unless you do the rep. There are no special drops to be had from killing, no experience or levels to gain since you have to be max level anyway, precious little story to be had. What little story there is, is locked behind the Dyson rep for the most part.
Fleet holding? Gotta grind. Personal reps? Gotta grind. Winter, summer, and now anniversary? Gotta grind. Sure you can say you don't have to do these things, but when the majority of new content put out is that grind, what else is there to do? The hand full of missions they release every few months? Just do foundry and nothing but? Doff? (even that's a grind after a certain point) STFs I've done so often I could do them blindfolded in a shuttle?
If there was a regular release of a decent amount of story content, raids, something, anything, it wouldn't be so bad. But it seems here lately the busy work content is far surpassing anything else.
You'll get no gripe from me about the lack of story-based content, but if you've played any other MMO, then you'll know this is pretty much the standard complaint across all of them. At least STO has the Foundry, as limited as it is. If a lack of story-based content is your real concern, then I wonder what you're doing in an MMO.
Fleets? Personal reps, shiny new anniversary or Lobi ships? Wholly unnecessary to grind for. Yes, they make some content easier to breeze through, but they're completely optional to the content, not necessary as in many other MMOs.
STO's "grind" is merely cheap filler content that gives players at least something to do on a daily basis. How often do you think its players would log in if no grinds of any kind exist? How many times can you repeat a story mission? Speaking for myself, 3 or 4 is about the limit before I've had enough.
Flynn, not picking a fight here just questioning you defense of this. A grind is a grind, be it 1 minute or one hour, the point is if you want this new shiny, cosmetic/gear/content then you have to do this repeatedly in a limited set number of days. To state that someone should be happy it's just for a thank-you ship and not access to a new sector is equivalent to saying "shut up, you don't need it." Well, you don't Need that new sector do you? The reaction to grinding for cosmetics is natural, a shiny ship and a shiny sector are vary similar and it scares people as to what is coming down the pipelines.
Like I said, you can object to grinds of any kind, but then you're objecting to pretty much an inherent component of the vast majority of MMOs. If you don't like grinding, then you probably shouldn't be playing an MMO.
Besides that, the "grind" in STO is weaksauce compared to most MMOs and isn't even necessary to enjoy the story missions, which most people like. As someone who played both EverQuest and World of ******** at their launches, I can safely say you guys have no idea what a real grind is.
I maybe wrong, only human here, but I don't think the butthurtieness is from having to work for it in this case, but rather having to complete the stuff by a short length of time, I can understand having to start something by a set date but only a what? 7 day window for error when people have lives outside of the game? I got my Rom to t5 Omega and rom, took forever but it was fun, I run a staircase that still is at t1, don't care how long it takes, it's always there.
I haven't heard one complaint about the length of time players have to complete the ship requirements. You only need to log in 15 days out of the 28 the event runs.
You'll get no gripe from me about the lack of story-based content, but if you've played any other MMO, then you'll know this is pretty much the standard complaint across all of them. At least STO has the Foundry, as limited as it is. If a lack of story-based content is your real concern, then I wonder what you're doing in an MMO.
Fleets? Personal reps, shiny new anniversary or Lobi ships? Wholly unnecessary to grind for. Yes, they make some content easier to breeze through, but they're completely optional to the content, not necessary as in many other MMOs.
STO's "grind" is merely cheap filler content that gives players at least something to do on a daily basis. How often do you think its players would log in if no grinds of any kind exist? How many times can you repeat a story mission? Speaking for myself, 3 or 4 is about the limit before I've had enough.
I'm an MMO player going all the way back to the early early days of EverQuest. Heck, I still have the yellow CD of the original game that has 989 Studios on it. Believe me when I say I know what grind is. Heck, simple things like leveling in EQ makes anything STO has for grind look like chump change. As someone that played a Dark Elf Warrior back in the day when things like that made a difference in the game, I can share some horror stories about what grind and difficulty means.
The problem I have isn't the grind itself. In EQ, at least for me, the grind was a means to an end. Getting those levels, getting that shiny piece of loot, was my ticket to doing something more difficult. Lore fell from the sky if you cared to find it. The absolute need for teamwork was there. Even at higher levels there were places I dared not tread alone. (Kithicor Forrest after dark anyone?) Death penalties that lost XP, and could even lose levels. Corpse runs with no gear on, and heaven help you if your raid wiped in the Plane of Fear and you didn't have a Necromancer handy.
Now the problem I see in STO, is that grind goes nowhere, yet the grind itself is still pervasive. The only real goal is that next shiny, because there for dang sure isn't anything harder to do. There have been times I'm doing the Romulan patrol, and just bulldozing everything in my way. So I go to set difficulty to elite, only to find I'm already on elite. I suppose I could use lesser ships, or swap out to common gear, but why should I have to intentionally gimp myself just to find even a little challenge?
I love Trek, and I keep hoping this game will eventually go somewhere. Be it story, difficulty, or some form of raids. But instead we get more grind that leads nowhere heaped on top, and its getting tiresome.
I'm an MMO player going all the way back to the early early days of EverQuest. Heck, I still have the yellow CD of the original game that has 989 Studios on it. Believe me when I say I know what grind is. Heck, simple things like leveling in EQ makes anything STO has for grind look like chump change. As someone that played a Dark Elf Warrior back in the day when things like that made a difference in the game, I can share some horror stories about what grind and difficulty means.
The problem I have isn't the grind itself. In EQ, at least for me, the grind was a means to an end. Getting those levels, getting that shiny piece of loot, was my ticket to doing something more difficult. Lore fell from the sky if you cared to find it. The absolute need for teamwork was there. Even at higher levels there were places I dared not tread alone. (Kithicor Forrest after dark anyone?) Death penalties that lost XP, and could even lose levels. Corpse runs with no gear on, and heaven help you if your raid wiped in the Plane of Fear and you didn't have a Necromancer handy.
Now the problem I see in STO, is that grind goes nowhere, yet the grind itself is still pervasive. The only real goal is that next shiny, because there for dang sure isn't anything harder to do. There have been times I'm doing the Romulan patrol, and just bulldozing everything in my way. So I go to set difficulty to elite, only to find I'm already on elite. I suppose I could use lesser ships, or swap out to common gear, but why should I have to intentionally gimp myself just to find even a little challenge?
I love Trek, and I keep hoping this game will eventually go somewhere. Be it story, difficulty, or some form of raids. But instead we get more grind that leads nowhere heaped on top, and its getting tiresome.
So I've gathered it's not the grind in STO that annoys you per se; it's that the grind in STO doesn't reward you with the things you think it should (well, most of the things, since you're fine with grinding for "shinies", whether they be ships or swords.)
This was once a concern of mine as well. But it is no longer because I've come to enjoy the different styles of play that the classes and various vessels offer me. Yes, I may have done Conduit a hundred times, but the experience is very different on my T'Varo torp boat with a Tac captain versus my Engineer in her Odyssey. I also enjoy the challenge of "min maxing" my ships, though it's wholly unnecessary to complete the content.
Sorry to say, but it seems your desire for STO is quite different from what the developers and producers have decided for it. My recommendation is to try out some other MMOs, see if any suit your preferences better, and periodically come back to STO to experience the new periodic story content.
Comments
The Winter Event mission took all of how much time? A minute? If that...
And it's not like these ships are necessary to unlock additional content, as is the purpose of most grinds. I would go so far as to call them purely cosmetic, like virtually all top-tier ships.
I think some players could use a little perspective.
We should not be so hesitant, Doc. Better to be heard, to be loud, even to be obnoxious, than to be quiet and let things continue as they are. We just need to make sure there's more to that voice than whining and tears.
Tell them what they're doing wrong. Tell them how they can fix things. Tell them we will not be silent. We will continue to voice our concerns. We care about this game and we want to see it flourish. We want it to be healthy. Players, Trek fans, should be able to enjoy this game without feeling like sheep. We want to support this game, but we will NOT be taken as fools any longer.
do it for 9 or more toons for 25+ days, it is a grind, and a mindless one, if I'm going to repeat something over and over day after day then at lest make it a challenge and not something I can do before my morning coffee.
Yes, granted. I never denied it was a grind, just that the term hardly seems apt to describe a daily mission that will likely take less than a minute.
And remember, you don't "need" to do something to obtain what's essentially a pretty skin.
Then don't do it for 9 or more toons? Do it for 2 or 3? Voila! No more grind!
It hardly seems plausible you "need" 3 of the same versions of the 3 ships. You don't even need one of them.
I personally feel like this is a bad business model that reflects poorly on Cryptic as a whole. They've pretty much sucked all of the fun out of their thank you to the fans, and it bothers me that they're still referring to it as a free ship. I'm not sure if this is all just a recurring theme of Cryptic's bad business decisions, or if PWE has been forcing them to do things like this, but it seems very "One step forward, two steps back".
Of course what do you expect though from a company that won't even finish the character skins on a race you have to pay $200-300 to play as.
lcdrmiller, thank you for the kind words, I appreciate it, it means a lot to me. I look forward to the featured episode mission, I have a gut feeling it is going to be epic. I like the progression of the main Iconian storyline, and I like where that is headed. Since we don't have Star Trek on TV right now in the form of a series, Star Trek Online fills that roll and provides new storyline and material. I would love to see STO's storyline on TV, it would be incredible.
Keep up the good work
P.S. now how do I get my channel posted on the front page
JustGaming4US - https://www.youtube.com/user/JustGaming4Us/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/Brent_Justice
Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/brentjustice
And yes you don't need it but it is a departure from previous years. For example other than the FE I doubt I'll do anything else with this event because the so doesn't impress me enough to make me spend 15 days doing the grind.
I entirely agree with you, I will also skip on the 'free' ships. I might get the Romulan 3-pack later (maybe even the KDF one) from the C-Store. (PWE, keep your 4-piece bonuses!)
But, I disagree the Mirror ships in the new lockbox are useless. They're accessible Tier 5 vessels with nice mirror skins.
EDIT: Forgot about the Arc part. Yup, again, similar feelings. If the new Khan outfit becomes available in the C-Store, I'll happily buy it and I'll have no problem with it being free for those with Arc.
If they keep on adding exclusive rewards to Arc users (unavailable to get in any other way in game, be it by spending money), I might end up exploring options like virtualization, finding an expendable machine to get Arc on, ...
Toi'Va, Ti'vath, Toivia, Ty'Vris, Tia Vex, Toi'Virth: Add Tier 6 KDF Carrier and Raider.
Tae'Va, T'Vaya, To'Var, Tevra, T'Vira, To'Vrak: Give us Asylums for Romulans.
Don't make ARC mandatory! Keep it optional only!
I saw someone make a great analogy in the big thread about this, and I really think it fits.
We're getting the frog in the pot syndrome. Little by little the grind gets turned up, little by little the pay gates get turned up. We don't notice because hey, its just a little more, we're not at eastern game grind. But...I think we'll get there, bit by bit.
I think what happened this time is they tweaked the heat on the pot a little too hard, and more people are taking notice this time.
I've now decided I'm not interested at all in doing the grind for these anniversary "gifts". These aren't "gifts" at all, they've turned the anniversary gift into a lame promotion to try and entice you to buy 3 expensive ship packs in the coming weeks so you can complete some new set bonuses. So by not doing this mindless grind for the anniversary ship, I'm now not going to feel tempted at all to purchase any of the coming ship packs from the C-Store, because I'll feel like I'm not getting the complete package of those ships because I didn't do the anniversary grind part. Congrats Cryptic/PWE, your grind actually turned me off from a potential C-Store sale when those ships come out, and I can only hope others feel just as strongly and make this backfire on you.
I really appreciate your video Doctor, thank you. Not only have you saved me days of valuable time I already didn't have, you saved me some money I may have likely spent as well!
my personal thoughts , RPGs (MMOs and non MMOs} and most games by nature are a grind , you level up work towards certain in game gear and goodies . but the "grind" should be focused on your schedule not the games . STOs event grind is focused on what schedule they want you to play not based on the players schedule . you literally have to play the game 7 days a week during these events to get these items during a event . while you have some buffer its not much . if there is a "emergency Maintenance " or other unforeseen obstacle ( weather, ISP outage) your work is for naught . one of the biggest points to F2P was to have players come and go to our schedules . instead its like have a schedule for a Job .
the anniversary is a celebration of the launch day of the game , and is a thank you to the players for staying and playing . the way this is setup is anything but that IMO . its telling me that cryptic/PWE only appreciate those that play the game 7 days a week . which to me is a wrong attitude .
that being said , like the doctor I enjoy the FE's . and I like 90% of the direction the game is going . its this other 10% for the events and such that need work . i dont mind a gear grind .What i do mind is not controlling when i get to do it .
Pushing a button on your screen each day qualifies as a grind too then. Would you feel the same way if you had to do that?
Fortunately, this "grind" isn't necessary to unlock content as typical grinds require.
I too will be skipping much of the anniversary event. I probably will do the mission on one of my characters, two or more if I like it just to complete it, but like the winter event, I am out. I have been veering away from STO more and more lately (moving it from my primary game to a secondary one).
As far as people concerned you are overly critical, emotional, and lost credibility...well they do not have to watch your video and you are human. Like many of us you are a long-time player that really wants to keep playing the game, wants the best for it, and wants it to be an enjoyable experience. Also like many of us you feel disheartened about the game and its current development path. Your are human, you have emotions and you have opinions.
The analogy actually fails because most of STO's grinds are not at all necessary to enjoy its content.
If you're a frog in a pot, it's only because you lept into one.
I was there when the game was under Atari and the main complain was the Klingons were not getting any love, I remember the days when the Klingon players ranted and shouted, good old times.
I hope that this video puts perspective on why so many of us are upset by the direction Cryptic took with this year's Anniversary Event for the forum goers that were wondering what all the fuss was about.
It's a deliberate double dipping Cash grab and Cryptic made no effort to try to hide the fact.
Bull puckey.
Almost the entirety of S8 is about grind in one form or another. There's no reason to really do any of it unless you do the rep. There are no special drops to be had from killing, no experience or levels to gain since you have to be max level anyway, precious little story to be had. What little story there is, is locked behind the Dyson rep for the most part.
Fleet holding? Gotta grind. Personal reps? Gotta grind. Winter, summer, and now anniversary? Gotta grind. Sure you can say you don't have to do these things, but when the majority of new content put out is that grind, what else is there to do? The hand full of missions they release every few months? Just do foundry and nothing but? Doff? (even that's a grind after a certain point) STFs I've done so often I could do them blindfolded in a shuttle?
If there was a regular release of a decent amount of story content, raids, something, anything, it wouldn't be so bad. But it seems here lately the busy work content is far surpassing anything else.
Mine Trap Supporter
Flynn, not picking a fight here just questioning you defense of this. A grind is a grind, be it 1 minute or one hour, the point is if you want this new shiny, cosmetic/gear/content then you have to do this repeatedly in a limited set number of days. To state that someone should be happy it's just for a thank-you ship and not access to a new sector is equivalent to saying "shut up, you don't need it." Well, you don't Need that new sector do you? The reaction to grinding for cosmetics is natural, a shiny ship and a shiny sector are vary similar and it scares people as to what is coming down the pipelines.
Grind is a matter of acquiring rewards. If you want the reward here is what you must do. It boggles the mind that people think they have to have EVERYTHING NOW!
My character Tsin'xing
I maybe wrong, only human here, but I don't think the butthurtieness is from having to work for it in this case, but rather having to complete the stuff by a short length of time, I can understand having to start something by a set date but only a what? 7 day window for error when people have lives outside of the game? I got my Rom to t5 Omega and rom, took forever but it was fun, I run a staircase that still is at t1, don't care how long it takes, it's always there.
You'll get no gripe from me about the lack of story-based content, but if you've played any other MMO, then you'll know this is pretty much the standard complaint across all of them. At least STO has the Foundry, as limited as it is. If a lack of story-based content is your real concern, then I wonder what you're doing in an MMO.
Fleets? Personal reps, shiny new anniversary or Lobi ships? Wholly unnecessary to grind for. Yes, they make some content easier to breeze through, but they're completely optional to the content, not necessary as in many other MMOs.
STO's "grind" is merely cheap filler content that gives players at least something to do on a daily basis. How often do you think its players would log in if no grinds of any kind exist? How many times can you repeat a story mission? Speaking for myself, 3 or 4 is about the limit before I've had enough.
Like I said, you can object to grinds of any kind, but then you're objecting to pretty much an inherent component of the vast majority of MMOs. If you don't like grinding, then you probably shouldn't be playing an MMO.
Besides that, the "grind" in STO is weaksauce compared to most MMOs and isn't even necessary to enjoy the story missions, which most people like. As someone who played both EverQuest and World of ******** at their launches, I can safely say you guys have no idea what a real grind is.
I haven't heard one complaint about the length of time players have to complete the ship requirements. You only need to log in 15 days out of the 28 the event runs.
I'm an MMO player going all the way back to the early early days of EverQuest. Heck, I still have the yellow CD of the original game that has 989 Studios on it. Believe me when I say I know what grind is. Heck, simple things like leveling in EQ makes anything STO has for grind look like chump change. As someone that played a Dark Elf Warrior back in the day when things like that made a difference in the game, I can share some horror stories about what grind and difficulty means.
The problem I have isn't the grind itself. In EQ, at least for me, the grind was a means to an end. Getting those levels, getting that shiny piece of loot, was my ticket to doing something more difficult. Lore fell from the sky if you cared to find it. The absolute need for teamwork was there. Even at higher levels there were places I dared not tread alone. (Kithicor Forrest after dark anyone?) Death penalties that lost XP, and could even lose levels. Corpse runs with no gear on, and heaven help you if your raid wiped in the Plane of Fear and you didn't have a Necromancer handy.
Now the problem I see in STO, is that grind goes nowhere, yet the grind itself is still pervasive. The only real goal is that next shiny, because there for dang sure isn't anything harder to do. There have been times I'm doing the Romulan patrol, and just bulldozing everything in my way. So I go to set difficulty to elite, only to find I'm already on elite. I suppose I could use lesser ships, or swap out to common gear, but why should I have to intentionally gimp myself just to find even a little challenge?
I love Trek, and I keep hoping this game will eventually go somewhere. Be it story, difficulty, or some form of raids. But instead we get more grind that leads nowhere heaped on top, and its getting tiresome.
Got a lot more to cover, next I'll be recording the QMendation daily and such. Then I'll play the Featured Episode Mission.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6t3UvVzFi4&feature=share&list=UUn4zU6WXABPUvmUOpluwbTw
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So I've gathered it's not the grind in STO that annoys you per se; it's that the grind in STO doesn't reward you with the things you think it should (well, most of the things, since you're fine with grinding for "shinies", whether they be ships or swords.)
This was once a concern of mine as well. But it is no longer because I've come to enjoy the different styles of play that the classes and various vessels offer me. Yes, I may have done Conduit a hundred times, but the experience is very different on my T'Varo torp boat with a Tac captain versus my Engineer in her Odyssey. I also enjoy the challenge of "min maxing" my ships, though it's wholly unnecessary to complete the content.
Sorry to say, but it seems your desire for STO is quite different from what the developers and producers have decided for it. My recommendation is to try out some other MMOs, see if any suit your preferences better, and periodically come back to STO to experience the new periodic story content.