Honestly, I couldn't care less about how Cryptic 'feel' about me.
I pay nothing to play this game, and all grind in it is optional. In return for this I understand I am not a special snowflake and Cryptic can do whatever the hell they want with STO.
Honestly, I couldn't care less about how Cryptic 'feel' about me.
I pay nothing to play this game, and all grind in it is optional. In return for this I understand I am not a special snowflake and Cryptic can do whatever the hell they want with STO.
I think it's a good compromise.
This is the best way I have ever seen it said. This is exactly how I feel. Bravo!
FE was good. I got the ship, was straight TRIBBLE compared to whats already out there. Just looks cool and in 15 days EVERYONE is going to be flying one around until they realize everything they already had outperforms it.
FE was good. I got the ship, was straight TRIBBLE compared to whats already out there. Just looks cool and in 15 days EVERYONE is going to be flying one around until they realize everything they already had outperforms it.
The anniversary used to be subtitled a player appreciation event.
Given that this year we have.....
A grind to get the 'free' ship
They've cancelled hourly events and will put them on the weekend, with the logic of providing a chance for those who can only play then to participate. Nice.
So why have they designed this anniversary grind so those same weekend players cant get any ship at all without using lobi?
Why refuse to even acknowledge a 1700 post thread critical of these design choices for a week?
Why set up an anniversary event that punishes those with more toons, when customer for customer they probably spend more than most?
All in all, I feel less appreciated this year.
So, to show my appreciation, I'll not be buying any more zen until I do feel appreciated again.
I'm not going anywhere, I have my LTS, so you cant haz my stuff......but no zen for cryptic until there is some form of acknowledgement that all is not universally wonderful in STO land.
How appreciated do YOU feel?
Not feeling overly appreciated, but don't expect free stuff, and when I get it, usually it's disposable anyways.. Now I'd be a little more hurt if it was called the "Player Appreciation Event" and not the "Anniversary Event".
I appreciate that there is a cool looking new ship for one of my Romulan characters and won't be wasting my time getting said ship for every character on my account. Most of my characters by the time they reach 50 have their signature ship that they will stay with. Not every toon needs a new shiny, sometimes the old shiny is plenty shiny.
Kyuzo, I can't remember for the life of me what episode that shot your sig is from, whether its TNG or DS9 or whatever, care to refresh my memory please?
Appreciated when:
-I spot a dev in game and wave hi to them and they respond back
-LTS stuff (like auto dil refining) actually works
-Bugs are corrected (ie: Fire at will fiasco)
-Trolls, meanies, and general troublemakers are reportable
-New stuff working without bugs
-Featured Episodes are series and not one offs.
Unappreciated when:
-New stuff is underwhelming (ie: all hype, no substance)
-Mindless grinding
-Boring storylines
-When trolls, meanies, and general troublemakers get away with it
-Functionality breaking bugs (ie: Klingon Costume slotting)
-Messages to devs go unnoticed or ignored.
I feel as appreciated now as I did when I first started playing. Even more so now come to think of it. The player / dev interation has now become one of the focal points I think. The devs interact more with us the players, giving us better insight. The commeradry of the player base here on the forum is second to none, because Brandon had made it that way. Sure you get the odd (fill in your own expression here) come onto the forum, but because of the fantastic community spirit they are short lived.
There is more emphasis on what players want now. Ok Ok they aren't quite there fully on that one, but it is getting there.
yeah, I came to the conclution that maby 2 of my 25 toons will get the new ship, I can't stand chasing little q's around for 3 hours a day. I rarely get to play on weekends and so that's going to hurt. I'm not thrilled with the anniversary ship, its a cool concept, but not my style ship, but I'd love the warp core from it for a bunch of my toons, just not going to happen. It should have been a reward for finishing the mission. I'd play it 4 times to get everything.
Kyuzo, I can't remember for the life of me what episode that shot your sig is from, whether its TNG or DS9 or whatever, care to refresh my memory please?
Mixed feelings.
I appreciate that they are always releasing new stuff and even going back to older ones to update them. But then there's a few things I can't understand. I stopped playing for a few months because of two almost consecutive issues that prevented the game from loading. Issues that affected people with older graphic cards (or so it seemed). And I am not bothered for that happening, mistakes happen. What I really don't accept is that the fixes were always postponed to planned maintenances. That's like my cable company telling me "we could fix your tv and internet problems today, but we're only doing it next week, because there's a scheduled maintenance". Moreover it was even hinted that the problem would be on the user's end, not the game. Please...
There are also other things I have issues with:
-The fleet system - you are almost forced to join a fleet (still haven't...)
-The "how to get stuff" mechanics. Do the same things over and over and over
-Need to log in everyday
I'm not going into details about this because ith would come out a wall of text, but I think everyone knows what I'm saying.
And the solutions would be so easy to implement. Things like:
-All items are available everywhere. The fleet system would allow you to get them cheaper, and with greater ease and would function more as a social thing.
-The reputation system (marks) would be account bound. The items you get would be account bound too. Being in a fleet could have a mechanism that allowed account bound items to be given to other players of the fleet.
-Weekly limits instead of daily (for events and dilithium). There may be a few days a person can not log in for an hour, but there may be a weekend or a day off in which they could spend more time doing stuff.
considering the rest it cant be changed then whats the point complaining about it?
how appreciated i feel in general on the game and forum? im not concerned.
social aspect: doesnt matter what people want or expect off me.. well, thats their business. i post as i see fit within the rules, including defending myself from others who get annoyed by it. i dont pretend to be friends with anonymous users, nor would i care to know.
game aspect: its a grind, but what isnt a grind?! devs make a choice, not much can be done to stop it especially if it has a split playerbase.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
I've already got the ship for my fed sci toon buy useing lobi and I'm still dissapointed that we have too grind for a ship which I find really annoying. I'm also gonna get the ship for my romulun toon as well but don't have any more Lobi's right now:(
...'course, I'm a Free player(only having 3 characters as a result), and have only been at it since October of last year, but I haven't felt this 'at home' in an MMORPG since City of Heroes(we'll have our revenge yet on a certain company, who's name won't be mentioned!), so I don't mind a little grinding for a ship that's a step up from most of what I have....
...granted, I freely admit to buying 1500 Zen recently(the legal way, mind you) and using it for the Advanced Research Vessel Retrofit, but I consider it incredibly well-spent so far!
...it's just the little things that've made me so happy; the little lore in-jokes(seriously, the Mudd family is STILL at it?), the visuals, and the general storyline at-large...plus, despite me heavily preferring Science ships(I'll have nothing to do with PvP until it becomes mandatory), I've always wanted to fly an Akira-class ship...mission accomplished....
I generally think Cryptic has it's heart in the right place and is really making an effort to bring us an exciting product.
But I also think that this latest grind is a grind too far. For it to feel free there should have been no grind. It's a lot of unfun make-work for a warpcore and a secondary deflector. I get that in normal circumstances these things are designed to give you an incentive to pay to get around the grind, but in a player appreciation event, that has no place.
The anniversary used to be subtitled a player appreciation event.
Given that this year we have.....
A grind to get the 'free' ship
They've cancelled hourly events and will put them on the weekend, with the logic of providing a chance for those who can only play then to participate. Nice.
So why have they designed this anniversary grind so those same weekend players cant get any ship at all without using lobi?
Why refuse to even acknowledge a 1700 post thread critical of these design choices for a week?
Why set up an anniversary event that punishes those with more toons, when customer for customer they probably spend more than most?
All in all, I feel less appreciated this year.
So, to show my appreciation, I'll not be buying any more zen until I do feel appreciated again.
I'm not going anywhere, I have my LTS, so you cant haz my stuff......but no zen for cryptic until there is some form of acknowledgement that all is not universally wonderful in STO land.
How appreciated do YOU feel?
A better choice of words would have been likely better such as, "How shafted do you feel?"
The simplest things that make the game appealing to older players have not been fixed yet (such as fleet emblem colors, end-game Adapted MACO uniform bug, chimera bugs and the list goes on). It is blindly obvious that their focus and attention is not on us but on the weekend 0-50's&quit kiddies that drop $100.00 and never show back up. To be fair, their 48 hours of gameplay for $100.00 is likely a lot more profitable than my 2,000+ hours for only about $2,000.
I've done exactly what you have. Because I believe that by continuing the play without giving a dime more to them, lowering their profit-per-person, for over three months now I have not, and refuse to spend one red cent on STO until some of the simplest bugs at least get some acknowledgement from the staff that they are on the table to be looked at. I believe once they realize massive amounts of players are intentionally refusing to buy their new ships (like the Battle Cruiser, the $100 ship bundle, etc) after buying every other ship they've come out with before, they will realize that it may be a good idea to get some of the smaller items off the bug list that wouldn't take more than a few minutes to fix. I was able to talk to TacoFangs in game and told him about the horrid clipping issues of the Adapted Maco Uniform, and nothing, it has been silent with every post about it falling out of the forums and all the bug reports on it being deleted.
I too plan to withhold my wallet until I see that I'm not on their back burner.
Said NO to Arc. Gets punished by not being given a free outfit, free lobi, and free shuttle. Now forced to use Arc's site when trying to get to STO site. Still not rewards for beta testing the Arc website by force. Bravo Cryptic.
I generally think Cryptic has it's heart in the right place and is really making an effort to bring us an exciting product.
But I also think that this latest grind is a grind too far. For it to feel free there should have been no grind. It's a lot of unfun make-work for a warpcore and a secondary deflector. I get that in normal circumstances these things are designed to give you an incentive to pay to get around the grind, but in a player appreciation event, that has no place.
Just my 2 cents
I sit here and think of what would happen if a store that sold physical goods had a customer appreciation day (or just a celebration for being open X years) where say you got a free gallon of milk--all you had to do was come in and do a dance every day for 15 days, and work for an hour one day doing random stuff--but at the end you got a gallon of milk "free". Probably similar, they're thinking the person will come in, see what they have to do, and just give money for the "free item". Nothing says celebration/appreciation like paying for your free item.
Really, appreciation/celebration things shouldn't be grind-like. Winter/Summer events? annoying, but sure put a grind in. Rep? same thing.... A appreciation or celebration event? Not the place for a grind--especially when the prize is something people will probably stop using within a week or two after getting it, because something new will be out. If they wanted a grind for this appreciation/celebration, they should've given the ship for playing the mission, and then put in a "10K-50K dil" for grinding out 15-25 days of the other thing.
considering the rest it cant be changed then whats the point complaining about it?
I figure the place for the detailed complaining is the monster thread.
what I was attempting to do with this thread was to elicit how people feel about the changes to the anniversary, and specifically whether they have made people more or less likely to spend real world money on zen.
Because I truly believe that the devs have both the right and the duty to make the game as financially viable as possible.
Cryptic having enough cash to hire people to do all the things i'd like them to do is a consummation devoutly to be wished.
However, I'm not convinced that the recent changes have encouraged people in the way Cryptic hoped.
Seems to me that, while metrics are an important part of any business, so is the more nebulous sort of feedback. The sort of thing that asks you how you feel about something.
I welcome those who post on this thread who feel differently than i about these changes.
As I welcome those who agree with me and those in the middle.
The point is not to discuss the mechanics of the change, but our responses to it.
Specifically, our will-we-spend-cash response.
Because, I truly believe that cryptic, if they did look for data like that to put their metrics in context, didnt get enough of it.
Because, I truly believe that cryptic, if they did look for data like that to put their metrics in context, didnt get enough of it.
The problem is, I don't think Cryptic/PWE will pay attention -- they have way too many cash cows of kids dropping $100-$200 for only a few days of gameplay that makes the profits made on us players who's been around forever and can't really buy much more with maxed out toons look like a drop in a bucket in comparison.
It is important in understanding profits for this type of company. You see, being a lifer, we can go ahead and assume I've paid at least $400.00 for just my account to Cryptic (of course, my wife and 4 kids all have lifetime subs). And I've been playing for what, 3 years now, some 10-20 hours per week? You see, that is a lot of load I and my family puts on the servers for 3 years. So, to break that down, $400.00 for 2880 hours of server-time or $200.00 for 20 hours of server time? Which do you believe they think is more important?
I highly doubt you could get even a nod from Cryptic that they have the time or compassion to even look at the issue. And that is because it is not coming from a new player that just bought 8 ships.
Said NO to Arc. Gets punished by not being given a free outfit, free lobi, and free shuttle. Now forced to use Arc's site when trying to get to STO site. Still not rewards for beta testing the Arc website by force. Bravo Cryptic.
Whether or not I feel appreciated? Why does this matter? STO is a Star Trek based game which I play for entertainment and relaxation. Nothing more. It does not always conform to my personal view of what Star Trek ought to be like. But I am not a zealot ready to declare holy war over this.
This is a game. The game designers made some choices and had some others forced on them which I may not entirely agree with. I am a regular garden variety gamer and Star Trek fan. Just like all the people who may read this post. But whether or not they appreciate me and my contributions is irrelevant. Because I'm not that entitled. I am not so special pwe/cryptic needs my hand written permission before they change the TOS phaser's beam color from Sky Blue to Icy Sky Blue.
Eventually, STO will go away. Like all things do. Treating this game and these forums as some sort of sacred trust which all sides must rigidly adhere to(except for us because we're entitled, By God!) is well over on the ridiculous side of things. There are many many things in life which matter far more than STO does.
Even if STO is my most favorite game ever. Which I spend far too much time on.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
Whether or not I feel appreciated? Why does this matter? STO is a Star Trek based game which I play for entertainment and relaxation. Nothing more. It does not always conform to my personal view of what Star Trek ought to be like. But I am not a zealot ready to declare holy war over this.
This is a game. The game designers made some choices and had some others forced on them which I may not entirely agree with. I am a regular garden variety gamer and Star Trek fan. Just like all the people who may read this post. But whether or not they appreciate me and my contributions is irrelevant. Because I'm not that entitled. I am not so special pwe/cryptic needs my hand written permission before they change the TOS phaser's beam color from Sky Blue to Icy Sky Blue.
Eventually, STO will go away. Like all things do. Treating this game and these forums as some sort of sacred trust which all sides must rigidly adhere to(except for us because we're entitled, By God!) is well over on the ridiculous side of things. There are many many things in life which matter far more than STO does.
Even if STO is my most favorite game ever. Which I spend far too much time on.
Quick question, if you went to the theater, paid $12.00 to see Into Darkness, and when it came time to show the movie they showed you an anime version, what would you do? Would you demand your money back? Would you leave?
Well, lets assume the last time you watched a trek movie at CenemaA no clerks would make eye contact, and when you went to buy your popcorn they made you wait 10 mins and said they had better things to do than to serve you. Would you go to CenemaA or CenemaB to see Into Darkness?
But that too is just entertainment, right? It's "just a movie" too. The problem is, no matter what you put your dollars up for, if you don't feel like you're getting what you paid for, or that your business is appreciated, it is human nature to get a little up-tight about it.
Question is, what's the difference besides PWE has a captive audience for STO?
Said NO to Arc. Gets punished by not being given a free outfit, free lobi, and free shuttle. Now forced to use Arc's site when trying to get to STO site. Still not rewards for beta testing the Arc website by force. Bravo Cryptic.
Quick question, if you went to the theater, paid $12.00 to see Into Darkness, and when it came time to show the movie they showed you an anime version, what would you do? Would you demand your money back? Would you leave?
Well, lets assume the last time you watched a trek movie at CenemaA no clerks would make eye contact, and when you went to buy your popcorn they made you wait 10 mins and said they had better things to do than to serve you. Would you go to CinemaA or CinemaB to see Into Darkness?
But that too is just entertainment, right? It's "just a movie" too. The problem is, no matter what you put your dollars up for, if you don't feel like you're getting what you paid for, or that your business is appreciated, it is human nature to get a little up-tight about it.
Question is, what's the difference besides PWE has a captive audience for STO?
Answer: I'd chalk it up to a learning experience and not go back to that theater. Or the other one either. Getting mad after it happens is pointless if nothing is going to change immediately. I should have been observant enough in the first place to avoid wasting my money or my time. Caveat Emptor, Y'all. Eventually, both theaters will start showing a loss and either go out of business or change their operations and personnel. Neither will happen as fast as I'd like but they will happen.
But to stand outside either theater and shout angrily and loudly about and at them would be foolish. It accords them too much gravitas. There are other, far more important things in the world to get militant over. Like civil rights abuses and starving children.
And no, pwe/cryptic doesn't have a captive audience. Last time I checked, Netflix still had Star Trek on tap. The demo version of Star Trek: Armada II is still a free download as well. Past time I figured out out how to add the Physics Project to it. The other day when the servers were down, I pulled out my Bridge Commander game and installed it. Saffi is still annoying. BTW. And WileyCoyote's JJPrise mod is still just as impressive.
STO is a game, not a lifestyle choice. Getting worked up as much as some do around here over something ingame which doesn't suit them is silly. Sillier still to do so in public. Are there things in STO I don't care for? You betcha. Do I need to rain on someone else's parade here about them? Nope.
But to go back to the original topic: Do I feel appreciated? Actually, I don't care whether or not I feel appreciated. pwe/cryptic is putting out a product which I currently like. When I stop liking it, I'll stop playing. But it is their product, not mine. All I can do is vote with my money and my time on the changes they make. My feelings have nothing at all to do with it.
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
I don't feel I'm playing an anniversary at all. All I do is grinding like with every season release.
I have my new reputation to grind, in some way (event), my new dailies to grind for it (Q minigame), and my new mission to grind (3times).
Sort of season light. With all the grind, and limited fun.
Usually, anniversary mean devs show their customer they like them for making the game possible. But this time, it's just cheap content and cash grab.
If there had been no miniQ games, if all the SoI model had been used, resulting in you having to run the FE four times. Once for the ship and the core, three times more for the rest of the space set.
Would you have been more or less likely to buy a zen store bundle of a ten console version of the ship?
I would have been very likely (~95%) to get the bundle if not for the grind component.
Replaying the FE is fine, no problem there, even on more than one character. That's the kind of content I enjoy: there's story and obvious effort put into the whole thing. I like Vulcans in general and I like Tuvok, so that's all good.
It was stated earlier that some people pay up to avoid the grind, and some grind to avoid paying. The fact that these options exist is one of the things that makes (made?) this game worthwhile. This time, there's no option. You'll grind AND pay, or get an incomplete package. No thanks. I won't grind or pay, and leave the new shinies be.
Account-wide unlocks are the way to sell me stuff. Give me something I find interesting that will be available for all present and future characters, I'll fork over fifty euros without blinking. Adding a catch like they've done here means no sale.
I don't feel entitled to any special treatment, nor do I feel ragey over this thing. I'm just going to practice responsible consumerism and vote with my wallet: it stays closed.
To be fair, I couldn't care less. I don't really think that "anniversaries" are that big of a deal and I certainly have no need to get my hands on a free ship immediately (only to have it sit in my bank) so it's all business as usual for me.
well, done some more thinking...the 4 set bonus on the Cstore ship will be dependent on having the Anniversary version secondary deflector. The Cstore ship will come as a 3 pack...all other 3 packs have been whole and complete without having to grind away on some lesser version to complete a set. I think a good way for Cryptic to solve much angst is to make that secondary deflector avail on the Cstore version as well. Then if I pony up the cash...I have the complete ship,
In short, I feel reasonably appreciated by Cyptic but don't feel they have a proper appreciated for our time. As I put in a previous post...people pay money to avoid grinding, they grind to avoid paying money. That's been the F2P model that has worked well thus far...lets not jack it up by starting to ask people to do both for the same item.
Answer: I'd chalk it up to a learning experience and not go back to that theater. Or the other one either. Getting mad after it happens is pointless if nothing is going to change immediately. I should have been observant enough in the first place to avoid wasting my money or my time. Caveat Emptor, Y'all. Eventually, both theaters will start showing a loss and either go out of business or change their operations and personnel. Neither will happen as fast as I'd like but they will happen.
But to stand outside either theater and shout angrily and loudly about and at them would be foolish. It accords them too much gravitas. There are other, far more important things in the world to get militant over. Like civil rights abuses and starving children.
And no, pwe/cryptic doesn't have a captive audience. Last time I checked, Netflix still had Star Trek on tap. The demo version of Star Trek: Armada II is still a free download as well. Past time I figured out out how to add the Physics Project to it. The other day when the servers were down, I pulled out my Bridge Commander game and installed it. Saffi is still annoying. BTW. And WileyCoyote's JJPrise mod is still just as impressive.
STO is a game, not a lifestyle choice. Getting worked up as much as some do around here over something ingame which doesn't suit them is silly. Sillier still to do so in public. Are there things in STO I don't care for? You betcha. Do I need to rain on someone else's parade here about them? Nope.
But to go back to the original topic: Do I feel appreciated? Actually, I don't care whether or not I feel appreciated. pwe/cryptic is putting out a product which I currently like. When I stop liking it, I'll stop playing. But it is their product, not mine. All I can do is vote with my money and my time on the changes they make. My feelings have nothing at all to do with it.
So then, how is someone saying that they're not giving cryptic any more money for not giving them the time of day any different than you refusing to go back to the theater for the same reason? And why would you chastise someone for something you just admitted you would do yourself?
"It's just a game, bro!" Maybe? Ironically that term was coined by the Game Producer EA.
Said NO to Arc. Gets punished by not being given a free outfit, free lobi, and free shuttle. Now forced to use Arc's site when trying to get to STO site. Still not rewards for beta testing the Arc website by force. Bravo Cryptic.
Comments
I pay nothing to play this game, and all grind in it is optional. In return for this I understand I am not a special snowflake and Cryptic can do whatever the hell they want with STO.
I think it's a good compromise.
This is the best way I have ever seen it said. This is exactly how I feel. Bravo!
Don't waste your time. Get the ZEN version later.
You don't need this ship. at all.
so how do you feel wasting all that lobi...
Not feeling overly appreciated, but don't expect free stuff, and when I get it, usually it's disposable anyways.. Now I'd be a little more hurt if it was called the "Player Appreciation Event" and not the "Anniversary Event".
I appreciate that there is a cool looking new ship for one of my Romulan characters and won't be wasting my time getting said ship for every character on my account. Most of my characters by the time they reach 50 have their signature ship that they will stay with. Not every toon needs a new shiny, sometimes the old shiny is plenty shiny.
Appreciated when:
-I spot a dev in game and wave hi to them and they respond back
-LTS stuff (like auto dil refining) actually works
-Bugs are corrected (ie: Fire at will fiasco)
-Trolls, meanies, and general troublemakers are reportable
-New stuff working without bugs
-Featured Episodes are series and not one offs.
Unappreciated when:
-New stuff is underwhelming (ie: all hype, no substance)
-Mindless grinding
-Boring storylines
-When trolls, meanies, and general troublemakers get away with it
-Functionality breaking bugs (ie: Klingon Costume slotting)
-Messages to devs go unnoticed or ignored.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10052253
Why are you not rejoicing?
There is more emphasis on what players want now. Ok Ok they aren't quite there fully on that one, but it is getting there.
DS9.
Season 7 Episode 5 Chrysalis.
I appreciate that they are always releasing new stuff and even going back to older ones to update them. But then there's a few things I can't understand. I stopped playing for a few months because of two almost consecutive issues that prevented the game from loading. Issues that affected people with older graphic cards (or so it seemed). And I am not bothered for that happening, mistakes happen. What I really don't accept is that the fixes were always postponed to planned maintenances. That's like my cable company telling me "we could fix your tv and internet problems today, but we're only doing it next week, because there's a scheduled maintenance". Moreover it was even hinted that the problem would be on the user's end, not the game. Please...
There are also other things I have issues with:
-The fleet system - you are almost forced to join a fleet (still haven't...)
-The "how to get stuff" mechanics. Do the same things over and over and over
-Need to log in everyday
I'm not going into details about this because ith would come out a wall of text, but I think everyone knows what I'm saying.
And the solutions would be so easy to implement. Things like:
-All items are available everywhere. The fleet system would allow you to get them cheaper, and with greater ease and would function more as a social thing.
-The reputation system (marks) would be account bound. The items you get would be account bound too. Being in a fleet could have a mechanism that allowed account bound items to be given to other players of the fleet.
-Weekly limits instead of daily (for events and dilithium). There may be a few days a person can not log in for an hour, but there may be a weekend or a day off in which they could spend more time doing stuff.
At least this grind/ C-Store ship aquisition bypasses the Fleet System!
By myself I have a level 2 Fleet, many miles away from all the tier 5 Fleet ships.
Maybe make a grind/ c-store purchase an alternate way to get Fleet ships?
considering the rest it cant be changed then whats the point complaining about it?
how appreciated i feel in general on the game and forum? im not concerned.
social aspect: doesnt matter what people want or expect off me.. well, thats their business. i post as i see fit within the rules, including defending myself from others who get annoyed by it. i dont pretend to be friends with anonymous users, nor would i care to know.
game aspect: its a grind, but what isnt a grind?! devs make a choice, not much can be done to stop it especially if it has a split playerbase.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
...'course, I'm a Free player(only having 3 characters as a result), and have only been at it since October of last year, but I haven't felt this 'at home' in an MMORPG since City of Heroes(we'll have our revenge yet on a certain company, who's name won't be mentioned!), so I don't mind a little grinding for a ship that's a step up from most of what I have....
...granted, I freely admit to buying 1500 Zen recently(the legal way, mind you) and using it for the Advanced Research Vessel Retrofit, but I consider it incredibly well-spent so far!
...it's just the little things that've made me so happy; the little lore in-jokes(seriously, the Mudd family is STILL at it?), the visuals, and the general storyline at-large...plus, despite me heavily preferring Science ships(I'll have nothing to do with PvP until it becomes mandatory), I've always wanted to fly an Akira-class ship...mission accomplished....
But I also think that this latest grind is a grind too far. For it to feel free there should have been no grind. It's a lot of unfun make-work for a warpcore and a secondary deflector. I get that in normal circumstances these things are designed to give you an incentive to pay to get around the grind, but in a player appreciation event, that has no place.
Just my 2 cents
It has the feel of the shows and movies.
It has the characters from the shows/movies or their descendents.
It's made for fun.
Sit back and play the game, relax in it.
Being the first player to get the "newest" shiny thingofabob is fun, but remember the fun part.
A better choice of words would have been likely better such as, "How shafted do you feel?"
The simplest things that make the game appealing to older players have not been fixed yet (such as fleet emblem colors, end-game Adapted MACO uniform bug, chimera bugs and the list goes on). It is blindly obvious that their focus and attention is not on us but on the weekend 0-50's&quit kiddies that drop $100.00 and never show back up. To be fair, their 48 hours of gameplay for $100.00 is likely a lot more profitable than my 2,000+ hours for only about $2,000.
I've done exactly what you have. Because I believe that by continuing the play without giving a dime more to them, lowering their profit-per-person, for over three months now I have not, and refuse to spend one red cent on STO until some of the simplest bugs at least get some acknowledgement from the staff that they are on the table to be looked at. I believe once they realize massive amounts of players are intentionally refusing to buy their new ships (like the Battle Cruiser, the $100 ship bundle, etc) after buying every other ship they've come out with before, they will realize that it may be a good idea to get some of the smaller items off the bug list that wouldn't take more than a few minutes to fix. I was able to talk to TacoFangs in game and told him about the horrid clipping issues of the Adapted Maco Uniform, and nothing, it has been silent with every post about it falling out of the forums and all the bug reports on it being deleted.
I too plan to withhold my wallet until I see that I'm not on their back burner.
I sit here and think of what would happen if a store that sold physical goods had a customer appreciation day (or just a celebration for being open X years) where say you got a free gallon of milk--all you had to do was come in and do a dance every day for 15 days, and work for an hour one day doing random stuff--but at the end you got a gallon of milk "free". Probably similar, they're thinking the person will come in, see what they have to do, and just give money for the "free item". Nothing says celebration/appreciation like paying for your free item.
Really, appreciation/celebration things shouldn't be grind-like. Winter/Summer events? annoying, but sure put a grind in. Rep? same thing.... A appreciation or celebration event? Not the place for a grind--especially when the prize is something people will probably stop using within a week or two after getting it, because something new will be out. If they wanted a grind for this appreciation/celebration, they should've given the ship for playing the mission, and then put in a "10K-50K dil" for grinding out 15-25 days of the other thing.
I figure the place for the detailed complaining is the monster thread.
what I was attempting to do with this thread was to elicit how people feel about the changes to the anniversary, and specifically whether they have made people more or less likely to spend real world money on zen.
Because I truly believe that the devs have both the right and the duty to make the game as financially viable as possible.
Cryptic having enough cash to hire people to do all the things i'd like them to do is a consummation devoutly to be wished.
However, I'm not convinced that the recent changes have encouraged people in the way Cryptic hoped.
Seems to me that, while metrics are an important part of any business, so is the more nebulous sort of feedback. The sort of thing that asks you how you feel about something.
I welcome those who post on this thread who feel differently than i about these changes.
As I welcome those who agree with me and those in the middle.
The point is not to discuss the mechanics of the change, but our responses to it.
Specifically, our will-we-spend-cash response.
Because, I truly believe that cryptic, if they did look for data like that to put their metrics in context, didnt get enough of it.
The problem is, I don't think Cryptic/PWE will pay attention -- they have way too many cash cows of kids dropping $100-$200 for only a few days of gameplay that makes the profits made on us players who's been around forever and can't really buy much more with maxed out toons look like a drop in a bucket in comparison.
It is important in understanding profits for this type of company. You see, being a lifer, we can go ahead and assume I've paid at least $400.00 for just my account to Cryptic (of course, my wife and 4 kids all have lifetime subs). And I've been playing for what, 3 years now, some 10-20 hours per week? You see, that is a lot of load I and my family puts on the servers for 3 years. So, to break that down, $400.00 for 2880 hours of server-time or $200.00 for 20 hours of server time? Which do you believe they think is more important?
I highly doubt you could get even a nod from Cryptic that they have the time or compassion to even look at the issue. And that is because it is not coming from a new player that just bought 8 ships.
This is a game. The game designers made some choices and had some others forced on them which I may not entirely agree with. I am a regular garden variety gamer and Star Trek fan. Just like all the people who may read this post. But whether or not they appreciate me and my contributions is irrelevant. Because I'm not that entitled. I am not so special pwe/cryptic needs my hand written permission before they change the TOS phaser's beam color from Sky Blue to Icy Sky Blue.
Eventually, STO will go away. Like all things do. Treating this game and these forums as some sort of sacred trust which all sides must rigidly adhere to(except for us because we're entitled, By God!) is well over on the ridiculous side of things. There are many many things in life which matter far more than STO does.
Even if STO is my most favorite game ever. Which I spend far too much time on.
Quick question, if you went to the theater, paid $12.00 to see Into Darkness, and when it came time to show the movie they showed you an anime version, what would you do? Would you demand your money back? Would you leave?
Well, lets assume the last time you watched a trek movie at CenemaA no clerks would make eye contact, and when you went to buy your popcorn they made you wait 10 mins and said they had better things to do than to serve you. Would you go to CenemaA or CenemaB to see Into Darkness?
But that too is just entertainment, right? It's "just a movie" too. The problem is, no matter what you put your dollars up for, if you don't feel like you're getting what you paid for, or that your business is appreciated, it is human nature to get a little up-tight about it.
Question is, what's the difference besides PWE has a captive audience for STO?
Answer: I'd chalk it up to a learning experience and not go back to that theater. Or the other one either. Getting mad after it happens is pointless if nothing is going to change immediately. I should have been observant enough in the first place to avoid wasting my money or my time. Caveat Emptor, Y'all. Eventually, both theaters will start showing a loss and either go out of business or change their operations and personnel. Neither will happen as fast as I'd like but they will happen.
But to stand outside either theater and shout angrily and loudly about and at them would be foolish. It accords them too much gravitas. There are other, far more important things in the world to get militant over. Like civil rights abuses and starving children.
And no, pwe/cryptic doesn't have a captive audience. Last time I checked, Netflix still had Star Trek on tap. The demo version of Star Trek: Armada II is still a free download as well. Past time I figured out out how to add the Physics Project to it. The other day when the servers were down, I pulled out my Bridge Commander game and installed it. Saffi is still annoying. BTW. And WileyCoyote's JJPrise mod is still just as impressive.
STO is a game, not a lifestyle choice. Getting worked up as much as some do around here over something ingame which doesn't suit them is silly. Sillier still to do so in public. Are there things in STO I don't care for? You betcha. Do I need to rain on someone else's parade here about them? Nope.
But to go back to the original topic: Do I feel appreciated? Actually, I don't care whether or not I feel appreciated. pwe/cryptic is putting out a product which I currently like. When I stop liking it, I'll stop playing. But it is their product, not mine. All I can do is vote with my money and my time on the changes they make. My feelings have nothing at all to do with it.
I have my new reputation to grind, in some way (event), my new dailies to grind for it (Q minigame), and my new mission to grind (3times).
Sort of season light. With all the grind, and limited fun.
Usually, anniversary mean devs show their customer they like them for making the game possible. But this time, it's just cheap content and cash grab.
I would have been very likely (~95%) to get the bundle if not for the grind component.
Replaying the FE is fine, no problem there, even on more than one character. That's the kind of content I enjoy: there's story and obvious effort put into the whole thing. I like Vulcans in general and I like Tuvok, so that's all good.
It was stated earlier that some people pay up to avoid the grind, and some grind to avoid paying. The fact that these options exist is one of the things that makes (made?) this game worthwhile. This time, there's no option. You'll grind AND pay, or get an incomplete package. No thanks. I won't grind or pay, and leave the new shinies be.
Account-wide unlocks are the way to sell me stuff. Give me something I find interesting that will be available for all present and future characters, I'll fork over fifty euros without blinking. Adding a catch like they've done here means no sale.
I don't feel entitled to any special treatment, nor do I feel ragey over this thing. I'm just going to practice responsible consumerism and vote with my wallet: it stays closed.
In short, I feel reasonably appreciated by Cyptic but don't feel they have a proper appreciated for our time. As I put in a previous post...people pay money to avoid grinding, they grind to avoid paying money. That's been the F2P model that has worked well thus far...lets not jack it up by starting to ask people to do both for the same item.
Not at all
So then, how is someone saying that they're not giving cryptic any more money for not giving them the time of day any different than you refusing to go back to the theater for the same reason? And why would you chastise someone for something you just admitted you would do yourself?
"It's just a game, bro!" Maybe? Ironically that term was coined by the Game Producer EA.