None in quite some time, at least directly. Most likely to remain that way too, as the majority of stuff released lately I have little or no interest in. My stipend and what little dilithium trading I do gets me the few things I actually do want.
I just added up what I spent on STO this month. I got a little here and a little there but in the end it adds up. I've noticed I spend around 20 dollors every 2 weeks. Thats 40 dollors a month (way more than a 15 dollor sub). Thats not counting the Lifetime, Legacy pack, 3 piece ship sets and numerous services. My hats off to cryptic for making revenue for the game. I just wonder how many other ppl spend what I spend. I know the question is kinda taboo (like asking a women how much she weighs).
I have to wonder tho if I didn't spend any money on the game would I still feel the same level of comentment. Am I only sticking around because I have money invested. Would I have the same level of Fun if I hadn't spend anything. Would I be haveing more fun if I grinded out every piece of dil to buy stiff. I don't know. If the gameing community would be so kind as to answer a few questions I would greatly appreciate the Feedback.
1. How much money do you spend on sto on a normal basis or total.
2. People who have spent alot of money on sto are you still enjoying the game.
3. People who haven't spent any money on STO , do you enjoy the game.
4. Do you feel you have to spend money to enjoy sto.
5. Do you, IYO beleive F2P is better than a sub. I know this is a big discussion all to itself. Just for this thread a simple yes or no will suffice.
Well, i used to work abroad and earn a lot of money doing security work. I had a lot of disposable income, and i do love this game. Since i stopped that line of work due to an injury, i have less money to play with so i spend much, much less now, than i did last year.
I am not showing off, as i said i have less money now but i thought it would be useful to demonstrate that while some people think its cool to play for free, there are others that oppose that view.
I feel its largely dependent on your personal resources. I actually hate F2P. Not only do i think it kills good communities, and fosters bad ones, but if you want to really flesh out one character, there is already enough grind to do without grinding every day just for basic resources. To grind everything would take years. In my eyes its the same as paying money into the game.
When you work you get paid for your time, but grinding you don't. You basically work for Cryptic for free, grinding your dil and exchanging it for zen that people like me will buy first. Therefore, the only real money gained from any grind goes to Cryptic. So time spent working and using the money to buy things, is exactly the same as using the time to grind. But i get that it works for some people, that's cool.
Anyway, that is just my own opinion. To answer the questions:
1. Around £0 - £20 per week currently (as i said above it used to be more). Total over 2 years = approximately £3000 ($5000)
2. Yes i still enjoy the game. I have 2 fully repped out characters, Legacy pack, LTS and both with a maximum ship roster fleet, lockbox and cstore ships. I have now decided to level a KDF Nausicaan so i will then have 3 captains, one from each faction.
3. See Q2.
4. Yes and no. Yes because when new things come out i want to get them, its strangely addictive. But no because if i stop and think about what i already have i usually realise i don't actually need a lot of it.
5. No.
EDIT: Lol saw something that made me laugh in an earlier post. As someone said, if i compare it to some things i have spent money on such as BEER, then this STO money is nothing for a hobby i have spent well over 2000 hours playing. When i was still in the army i spent around £8/9000 ($12000?) on one holiday in Vegas/New Orleans/Austin/LA! As i said it all largely depends on how much disposable income you have.
" Experience is a hard mistress, she gives the tests first, and the lessons after... "
1. Since launch I've probably spent around £400-£500 (roughly $650-$800) between buying the game, subbing for a while then getting the lifetime and the occasional zen purchase. It's been a long time since I put any money in since I get free zen every month. I might if they ever put new stuff (particularly outfits) in the store for zen. I won't open lock boxes with anything other than my free zen as I only ever get junk and I don't think the lobi return is worth it.
2. I still enjoy the game, I wouldn't play if I didn't. Little bugs like the power tray and marauder officers notwithstanding.
3. n/a
4. Nope. Loads to do and lots of loot for free.
5. One of the best things to happen to STO was going f2p and it's really a model for doing it right that other MMOs could learn from. Just not lockboxes.
My alt army: K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical. T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
I just added up what I spent on STO this month. I got a little here and a little there but in the end it adds up. I've noticed I spend around 20 dollors every 2 weeks. Thats 40 dollors a month (way more than a 15 dollor sub). Thats not counting the Lifetime, Legacy pack, 3 piece ship sets and numerous services. My hats off to cryptic for making revenue for the game. I just wonder how many other ppl spend what I spend. I know the question is kinda taboo (like asking a women how much she weighs).
I have to wonder tho if I didn't spend any money on the game would I still feel the same level of comentment. Am I only sticking around because I have money invested. Would I have the same level of Fun if I hadn't spend anything. Would I be haveing more fun if I grinded out every piece of dil to buy stiff. I don't know. If the gameing community would be so kind as to answer a few questions I would greatly appreciate the Feedback.
1. How much money do you spend on sto on a normal basis or total.
2. People who have spent alot of money on sto are you still enjoying the game.
3. People who haven't spent any money on STO , do you enjoy the game.
4. Do you feel you have to spend money to enjoy sto.
5. Do you, IYO beleive F2P is better than a sub. I know this is a big discussion all to itself. Just for this thread a simple yes or no will suffice.
1. I've spent 1k or more. I got the Rom expansion, lifetime and dumped money to get the JHAS.
2. I don't really enjoy the game like I used to. I just got back from a 6 or 7 month break.
3. N/A
4. Not at all.
5. It depends on the game really. I think STO is easily one of the better F2P games. I played Final Fantasy XI for over 10 years and it's a good game but no where as quality as this game. Plus it's not hard to "catch up" here.
The reputation events are a marketing scheme to get people logged in. The whole point of daily events is to get people logged in daily so they can keep their 'player base' high - even if a player only logs in to do one daily, they can tally it as a player and revenue.
Here's a question, how the hell do you know what daily grinders are doing? If they hardly interact with anyone in STO then how can you (being part of that anyone) possibly assess who they are, what they're doing, and what they are not? How do you know that they ONLY log in once to satisfy a daily rep project, and for that matter to what benefit is it to cryptic if someone just logs in ONCE and hardly plays? They don't publish their daily player counts nor is anything like ad-revenue part of their in-game business model.
Daily reputation projects and bonuses are something to get players logged in but that is a natural part of the MMO format. You need to provie the players with some incentive to stock the PVE queues, populate the exchanges, and fill the social zone with bodies and yet hold back just enough so someone with a bit of extra time on their hands can't burn through all that potential incentive with an intense burst of grinding. Ergo, the reputation system. You have your big payoffs (ie. equipment and the like which is content TO BE USED, not just briefly looked at), and along the way all the little benefits. Those are TWO FOLD, the daily events and the hourly. The daily gets you in but the hourly helps extent that playtime. And once you multiply them across our FIVE rep systems you have easily provided enough incentive to not just log in once and be done with it but to long in for extended periods and play the damned game. They grind, they consume, they do everything involved with enjoying an MMO even if, to take the most cynical view possible, it's focused around the big 20hr timer.
That's NOT something to complain about, that's how a successful MMO opperates and for it to be something cryptic have added post-launch is a great sign that they care about the health of their game (and certainly in greater terms than the net cash flow.)
As for supporting their products - look through the bug forums. Look at bugs that have existed for YEARS. Look at shoddy costume and model errors. If something isn't making them money RIGHT NOW they don't care. I've given Cryptic my share of money. Between the lifetime subscription and the ships I have bought - I've probably given them a thousand or so total.
When I log in I'm not presented with an unstable game that rocks off the hinges when I press the W key. I'm not presented with an unreasonable amount of eye-bleeding graphical errors. What I find is the odd bug and I do mean odd because despite what the forums might lead you to believe they are not the norm for this game. Things generally work out, and mind you they work better than they did last year or the year before (which is when I started playing). For however ugly one particular set of the KDF boots are the improvements they've made to facial modeling and textures, just for example, far outweigh those minor and quite livable flaws. Sure, none the less you can still fixate. You can still hold up the one or two odd glitches as signs of a terrible game but being able to find specific examples to build a single argumentin no way provides a representative reflection of the state of STO or cryptics involvement with it. You need perspective, you need to look at the bigger picture (the sum total of ALL arguments that you can possibly construct with the current set of facts before you, which to summarize is THE TOTAL GAME and everything that's been changed over the last 4 years), not just what you see in the glitch repository.
Bipedal mammal and senior Foundry author.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Hmmm...about $250, maybe, since Noverber '13. This includes the inflated price I paid for the Collector's Edition, the Gold subscription I now carry, and all the Zen I bought in my impatience to boost my alt's through master keys and DOff packs... I think I'm done, though, since Cryptic seems content to let the game die by refusing to improve game mechanics (bugs) and write more (quantity) intelligent content. I'll just enjoy what I have, with an occasional new bauble, until they turn off the lights. :rolleyes:
Expendables Fleet: Andrew - Bajoran Fed Engineer Ken'taura - Rom/Fed Scientist Gwyllim - Human Fed Delta Tac Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
1. How much money do you spend on sto on a normal basis or total.
2. People who have spent alot of money on sto are you still enjoying the game.
3. People who haven't spent any money on STO , do you enjoy the game.
4. Do you feel you have to spend money to enjoy sto.
5. Do you, IYO beleive F2P is better than a sub. I know this is a big discussion all to itself. Just for this thread a simple yes or no will suffice.
1.) That generally depends on how I feel about the game. I usually put in $10-20 a month and usually a little extra with each major update. If I'm happy with something, I'll usually invest a bit more into this hobby; if I'm not, then I'll probably withhold a some of my money AND time.
2-3?.) I try to separate my sense of enjoyment from my purchases - I aim to play the game for fun, not to 'win' it or stroke my ego(I'm human and still get caught up like everyone else at times). Personally, I still regularly enjoy just running Tau Dewa patrols simply because I enjoy the nice space combat skirmishes it provides.
4.) No. My purchases are, primarily, a show of support to the development team so they can keep working on and improving this game(the stuff I get is just an added bonus). The only thing I really felt compelled to purchase was the Mogh in an effort hopefully stimulate continued development of KDF ships.
5.) I don't think it's better or worse, overall, just a different business model with different strengths and weaknesses. /bitetongue
I just added up what I spent on STO this month. I got a little here and a little there but in the end it adds up. I've noticed I spend around 20 dollors every 2 weeks. Thats 40 dollors a month (way more than a 15 dollor sub). Thats not counting the Lifetime, Legacy pack, 3 piece ship sets and numerous services. My hats off to cryptic for making revenue for the game. I just wonder how many other ppl spend what I spend. I know the question is kinda taboo (like asking a women how much she weighs).
I have to wonder tho if I didn't spend any money on the game would I still feel the same level of comentment. Am I only sticking around because I have money invested. Would I have the same level of Fun if I hadn't spend anything. Would I be haveing more fun if I grinded out every piece of dil to buy stiff. I don't know. If the gameing community would be so kind as to answer a few questions I would greatly appreciate the Feedback.
1. How much money do you spend on sto on a normal basis or total.
2. People who have spent alot of money on sto are you still enjoying the game.
3. People who haven't spent any money on STO , do you enjoy the game.
4. Do you feel you have to spend money to enjoy sto.
5. Do you, IYO beleive F2P is better than a sub. I know this is a big discussion all to itself. Just for this thread a simple yes or no will suffice.
1. been here since mid season 6. Spent around $500 so far not counting subscription.
2. Yep! Everyday. Even bought a gaming laptop to play when i'm away from home or at "work".
3. n/a
4. Nah. I spend money on new ships that i like, or Uniforms and such. But i don't have to spend it to enjoy it. I just like new shinys.:P
5. Yes. In short...you don't have to spend a dime to play and enjoy, it's all up to the player. I do however feel that subs and Lifers should have some better perks. Nothing game breaking or off balance, but something a little more saying "we appreciate the continuous support".
i use to put out about $100 a month into STO, i been around since Season 4 so its prob like 3k so far maybe. but since season 7 i have not put a dime in i have not been real happy with some of the work the STO team has been doing and i refuse to contribute to their paychecks untill they start fixing some of the major issues that have been going on for seasons that they just keep iqnoring.
and now they are planning to add 2 more reps? and they left us with only 4 reputation traits for space n ground that really screwed up alot of my build.
instead of taking away from that and adding more reps and making ESD look like a giant apple store, they could have used that same effort to fix the KDF and actually complete it. it has become so abandoned very few people actually use KDF anymore.. with the romulans being basically a upgraded version of the KDF why would they want to.
there are still a few loyal KDF players out there i see you all the time in ker'ret but the numbers seem to be getting fewer and fewer.
1. How much money do you spend on sto on a normal basis or total.
Nought. I've only ever been F2P.
3. People who haven't spent any money on STO , do you enjoy the game.
I do, well did. I'm taking a break at the moment. But at it's best STO is a great game and I do have fun. It's great that as a F2P'er I am still competitive with everyone else. I still have a decent choice in ships and gear thanks to lockbox ships on the exchange and fleet/rep gear.
4. Do you feel you have to spend money to enjoy sto.
Not at all. I'm not one to spend money on pixels, though I don't judge those who do. Ultimately it's their cash and if they gain some further enjoyment with a ship or vanity item then all power to them.
5. Do you, IYO believe F2P is better than a sub. I know this is a big discussion all to itself. Just for this thread a simple yes or no will suffice.
Yes. It's a good compromise in STO and probably the best F2P model out there now.
1. How much money do you spend on sto on a normal basis or total.
2. People who have spent alot of money on sto are you still enjoying the game.
3. People who haven't spent any money on STO , do you enjoy the game.
4. Do you feel you have to spend money to enjoy sto.
5. Do you, IYO beleive F2P is better than a sub. I know this is a big discussion all to itself. Just for this thread a simple yes or no will suffice.
1. About $50 I would guess.
2. I don't know. What is a lot?
3. I think so. There isn't anything I bought I couldn't have had for free given time.
4. No. As above.
5. Yes, it definately can be. It give players more choices, which is always a good thing. Players who cannot pay much (or any) can pay what they're comfortable with and those who wish to spend more can.
1-5 Just my monthly sub. Hardly play anymore, games so stale. Bug fixes are few and far between, and please dont defend them. Awful rep for releasing bugged content, shame really as I have supported it since beta.
I don't spend any money. PWE doesn't want my money! They keep rejecting my card, (I have a titanium visa, a pre paid visa card), must not like my visa. I will never touch pay-pal again with a 10' pole. Had no end of grief with them, (what, with payments being rejected for some reason or another, or the last straw, it taking over a year of hair pulling, screaming at them to get money back, the system is all fracked-up), so I guess I don't get to spend my money on PWE.
I usually spend between $20-40 a month on STO depending on how much dilithium I want or need (and don't feel like grinding to get) or how many c-store items, usually ships with a console I want or think I need.
STO is currently my main hobby and comparatively, STO is cheap. Maybe I'll spend more.
I have a lifetime sub, the LOR pack and a bortasqu' and an Oddyssey 3-pack and I believe it's money well spent because I enjoy it and compared to gasoline or my utility bill, the amount is neglible. I reduced my cable TV bill, since I play STO more than I watch TV nowadays, so I think I actually come out ahead at the end of the month.
Unlike where I work, where I set low goals so that I can fail to ahieve them without guilt, and even though I don't consider myself a "hardcore PVP'er", one of my goals is to make my engineering ships "pvp invicible" (or at least difficult to destroy) and to heal well enough that I will make any PUG enjoyable for those on my side by preventing them from being "vaped" with those disheartening 15-0 pvp matches. I want the "hardcore pvp'ers" to see me and think, "Oh no, it's that guy again" then have them focus fire on me and take "forever", by their standards, to destroy me.
I think I enjoy the game more if I spend a little money on it (but not too much) so I will continue to do so, rather than upgrading my cable TV from 50 channels of trash to 100 channels of trash.
I like to find "work arounds" to bugs and solutions/defenses for OP stuff. I sometimes even enjoy finding a "bug work around" as much as new content. I like looking at some of the interesting and even sometimes hilarious looking characters that other people create and reading some of the bios that people sometimes include with their characters. It's often more fun and cheaper than many sci-fi e-books.
I think the game is what you make it and I enjoy immersing myself in the "Trek Universe", I have an "STO budget", as stated, about $20-40 a month because I want Cryptic to make money so they will keep the game going for a long time because I don't want to lose people I've met and the friend's I've made or even my BOFFs and ships that I have spent and will spend time creating and customizing.
Do I spend money? Yes.
Do I enjoy the game more when I do? Yes, probably
Do I think Cryptic is perfect? No, but it's better than most IMO's I've played
Comments
Well, i used to work abroad and earn a lot of money doing security work. I had a lot of disposable income, and i do love this game. Since i stopped that line of work due to an injury, i have less money to play with so i spend much, much less now, than i did last year.
I am not showing off, as i said i have less money now but i thought it would be useful to demonstrate that while some people think its cool to play for free, there are others that oppose that view.
I feel its largely dependent on your personal resources. I actually hate F2P. Not only do i think it kills good communities, and fosters bad ones, but if you want to really flesh out one character, there is already enough grind to do without grinding every day just for basic resources. To grind everything would take years. In my eyes its the same as paying money into the game.
When you work you get paid for your time, but grinding you don't. You basically work for Cryptic for free, grinding your dil and exchanging it for zen that people like me will buy first. Therefore, the only real money gained from any grind goes to Cryptic. So time spent working and using the money to buy things, is exactly the same as using the time to grind. But i get that it works for some people, that's cool.
Anyway, that is just my own opinion. To answer the questions:
1. Around £0 - £20 per week currently (as i said above it used to be more). Total over 2 years = approximately £3000 ($5000)
2. Yes i still enjoy the game. I have 2 fully repped out characters, Legacy pack, LTS and both with a maximum ship roster fleet, lockbox and cstore ships. I have now decided to level a KDF Nausicaan so i will then have 3 captains, one from each faction.
3. See Q2.
4. Yes and no. Yes because when new things come out i want to get them, its strangely addictive. But no because if i stop and think about what i already have i usually realise i don't actually need a lot of it.
5. No.
EDIT: Lol saw something that made me laugh in an earlier post. As someone said, if i compare it to some things i have spent money on such as BEER, then this STO money is nothing for a hobby i have spent well over 2000 hours playing. When i was still in the army i spent around £8/9000 ($12000?) on one holiday in Vegas/New Orleans/Austin/LA! As i said it all largely depends on how much disposable income you have.
2. I still enjoy the game, I wouldn't play if I didn't. Little bugs like the power tray and marauder officers notwithstanding.
3. n/a
4. Nope. Loads to do and lots of loot for free.
5. One of the best things to happen to STO was going f2p and it's really a model for doing it right that other MMOs could learn from. Just not lockboxes.
K'ymara, Orion Engineer. Caedera of Borg, Liberated Borg Tactical, Elyza Vix, Joined Trill Scientist. Christina Bellona, Augmented Human Tactical.
T'Lana, Vulcan Scientist. Arbol, Martian Tactical. Ayzer Bryn, Joined Trill Engineer. Hawke, Betazoid Scientist. Karna Valkras, Klingon Engineer. Beth Parker, Human Tactical
Sarel, Romulan Engineer (Federation). Yazuri, Reman Scientist (KDF)
1. I've spent 1k or more. I got the Rom expansion, lifetime and dumped money to get the JHAS.
2. I don't really enjoy the game like I used to. I just got back from a 6 or 7 month break.
3. N/A
4. Not at all.
5. It depends on the game really. I think STO is easily one of the better F2P games. I played Final Fantasy XI for over 10 years and it's a good game but no where as quality as this game. Plus it's not hard to "catch up" here.
Here's a question, how the hell do you know what daily grinders are doing? If they hardly interact with anyone in STO then how can you (being part of that anyone) possibly assess who they are, what they're doing, and what they are not? How do you know that they ONLY log in once to satisfy a daily rep project, and for that matter to what benefit is it to cryptic if someone just logs in ONCE and hardly plays? They don't publish their daily player counts nor is anything like ad-revenue part of their in-game business model.
Daily reputation projects and bonuses are something to get players logged in but that is a natural part of the MMO format. You need to provie the players with some incentive to stock the PVE queues, populate the exchanges, and fill the social zone with bodies and yet hold back just enough so someone with a bit of extra time on their hands can't burn through all that potential incentive with an intense burst of grinding. Ergo, the reputation system. You have your big payoffs (ie. equipment and the like which is content TO BE USED, not just briefly looked at), and along the way all the little benefits. Those are TWO FOLD, the daily events and the hourly. The daily gets you in but the hourly helps extent that playtime. And once you multiply them across our FIVE rep systems you have easily provided enough incentive to not just log in once and be done with it but to long in for extended periods and play the damned game. They grind, they consume, they do everything involved with enjoying an MMO even if, to take the most cynical view possible, it's focused around the big 20hr timer.
That's NOT something to complain about, that's how a successful MMO opperates and for it to be something cryptic have added post-launch is a great sign that they care about the health of their game (and certainly in greater terms than the net cash flow.)
When I log in I'm not presented with an unstable game that rocks off the hinges when I press the W key. I'm not presented with an unreasonable amount of eye-bleeding graphical errors. What I find is the odd bug and I do mean odd because despite what the forums might lead you to believe they are not the norm for this game. Things generally work out, and mind you they work better than they did last year or the year before (which is when I started playing). For however ugly one particular set of the KDF boots are the improvements they've made to facial modeling and textures, just for example, far outweigh those minor and quite livable flaws. Sure, none the less you can still fixate. You can still hold up the one or two odd glitches as signs of a terrible game but being able to find specific examples to build a single argumentin no way provides a representative reflection of the state of STO or cryptics involvement with it. You need perspective, you need to look at the bigger picture (the sum total of ALL arguments that you can possibly construct with the current set of facts before you, which to summarize is THE TOTAL GAME and everything that's been changed over the last 4 years), not just what you see in the glitch repository.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Savik - Vulcan Fed Temporal Sci
Dahar Masters Fleet: Alphal'Fa - Alien KDF Engineer Qun'pau - Rom/KDF Engineer D'nesh - Orion KDF Scientist Ghen'khan - Liberated KDF Tac
Welcome to StarBug Online - to boldly Bug where no bug has been before!
STO player since November 2013
I haven't put a dime down since f2p.
1.) That generally depends on how I feel about the game. I usually put in $10-20 a month and usually a little extra with each major update. If I'm happy with something, I'll usually invest a bit more into this hobby; if I'm not, then I'll probably withhold a some of my money AND time.
2-3?.) I try to separate my sense of enjoyment from my purchases - I aim to play the game for fun, not to 'win' it or stroke my ego(I'm human and still get caught up like everyone else at times). Personally, I still regularly enjoy just running Tau Dewa patrols simply because I enjoy the nice space combat skirmishes it provides.
4.) No. My purchases are, primarily, a show of support to the development team so they can keep working on and improving this game(the stuff I get is just an added bonus). The only thing I really felt compelled to purchase was the Mogh in an effort hopefully stimulate continued development of KDF ships.
5.) I don't think it's better or worse, overall, just a different business model with different strengths and weaknesses. /bitetongue
1. been here since mid season 6. Spent around $500 so far not counting subscription.
2. Yep! Everyday. Even bought a gaming laptop to play when i'm away from home or at "work".
3. n/a
4. Nah. I spend money on new ships that i like, or Uniforms and such. But i don't have to spend it to enjoy it. I just like new shinys.:P
5. Yes. In short...you don't have to spend a dime to play and enjoy, it's all up to the player. I do however feel that subs and Lifers should have some better perks. Nothing game breaking or off balance, but something a little more saying "we appreciate the continuous support".
and now they are planning to add 2 more reps? and they left us with only 4 reputation traits for space n ground that really screwed up alot of my build.
instead of taking away from that and adding more reps and making ESD look like a giant apple store, they could have used that same effort to fix the KDF and actually complete it. it has become so abandoned very few people actually use KDF anymore.. with the romulans being basically a upgraded version of the KDF why would they want to.
there are still a few loyal KDF players out there i see you all the time in ker'ret but the numbers seem to be getting fewer and fewer.
Nought. I've only ever been F2P.
3. People who haven't spent any money on STO , do you enjoy the game.
I do, well did. I'm taking a break at the moment. But at it's best STO is a great game and I do have fun. It's great that as a F2P'er I am still competitive with everyone else. I still have a decent choice in ships and gear thanks to lockbox ships on the exchange and fleet/rep gear.
4. Do you feel you have to spend money to enjoy sto.
Not at all. I'm not one to spend money on pixels, though I don't judge those who do. Ultimately it's their cash and if they gain some further enjoyment with a ship or vanity item then all power to them.
5. Do you, IYO believe F2P is better than a sub. I know this is a big discussion all to itself. Just for this thread a simple yes or no will suffice.
Yes. It's a good compromise in STO and probably the best F2P model out there now.
1. About $50 I would guess.
2. I don't know. What is a lot?
3. I think so. There isn't anything I bought I couldn't have had for free given time.
4. No. As above.
5. Yes, it definately can be. It give players more choices, which is always a good thing. Players who cannot pay much (or any) can pay what they're comfortable with and those who wish to spend more can.
THEY DO NOT WANT MY MONEY. :mad:
STO is currently my main hobby and comparatively, STO is cheap. Maybe I'll spend more.
I have a lifetime sub, the LOR pack and a bortasqu' and an Oddyssey 3-pack and I believe it's money well spent because I enjoy it and compared to gasoline or my utility bill, the amount is neglible. I reduced my cable TV bill, since I play STO more than I watch TV nowadays, so I think I actually come out ahead at the end of the month.
Unlike where I work, where I set low goals so that I can fail to ahieve them without guilt, and even though I don't consider myself a "hardcore PVP'er", one of my goals is to make my engineering ships "pvp invicible" (or at least difficult to destroy) and to heal well enough that I will make any PUG enjoyable for those on my side by preventing them from being "vaped" with those disheartening 15-0 pvp matches. I want the "hardcore pvp'ers" to see me and think, "Oh no, it's that guy again" then have them focus fire on me and take "forever", by their standards, to destroy me.
I think I enjoy the game more if I spend a little money on it (but not too much) so I will continue to do so, rather than upgrading my cable TV from 50 channels of trash to 100 channels of trash.
I like to find "work arounds" to bugs and solutions/defenses for OP stuff. I sometimes even enjoy finding a "bug work around" as much as new content. I like looking at some of the interesting and even sometimes hilarious looking characters that other people create and reading some of the bios that people sometimes include with their characters. It's often more fun and cheaper than many sci-fi e-books.
I think the game is what you make it and I enjoy immersing myself in the "Trek Universe", I have an "STO budget", as stated, about $20-40 a month because I want Cryptic to make money so they will keep the game going for a long time because I don't want to lose people I've met and the friend's I've made or even my BOFFs and ships that I have spent and will spend time creating and customizing.
Do I spend money? Yes.
Do I enjoy the game more when I do? Yes, probably
Do I think Cryptic is perfect? No, but it's better than most IMO's I've played