Interesting article, but I think you are missing something.
Yes if you want a big foundry update, on the order of a season's worth, you will have to convince Crytpic that it will pay them somehow. But if you want them to keep working on it, to keep fixing it and introducing new stuff on a schedule that is better than the current one, you will need to keep it paying, which Cryptic has not managed to do so far. All previous seasons and other new content basically work for one month, after which Cryptic drops it and moves on to the next thing. They only come back to it if it breaks horribly. Cryptic has decided that the best way to make money is to give us the new shiny every month or so, and then give us a different new shiny so we pay them again. If they ever really looked at the foundry, I doubt they would do any different.
So, what do you think is better, the current state of affairs, or one big update with a bunch of hype, and then back to, hopefully, the same as now?
i don't want a big one-time update. i want them to pay more attention to foundry and offer us more assets, features, ect ... more regularly than they have been -- even if it comes as a buy this thing once a quarter/month, i'm all for it means foundry gets the attention it deserves.
one idea i've been throwing around is a Holodeck Adventure Pack that has a mission for the general player base, and unlocks those related maps and assets in the foundry. ie. Captain Proton, Sherlock Holmes, and more.
I'm not opposed to Foundry monetization. I might even buy a pack or two, but I do think that you would never get enough paying authors together to make it worthwhile for Cryptic to even implement the system.
Cryptic used to sell bridge packs. The don't anymore, not because people didn't buy them or because people don't want new bridges, but because they couldn't get enough return on investment.
You would simply have too few customers to make a dent in Cryptic's profitability, and that's assuming it doesn't cost them money to set up the monotization system in the first place. The real roadblock is not community support, it's the fact that we would be, at best, an extremely niche market.
the thing with a bridge pack is that , there is nothing to do on the bridge. There is no reason to go to a ship interior for the most part, especially since they made the UI change that basically only means like 2 or 3 things are only doable doff wise inside the ship.
A foundry pack might float but it would have to, as you said be bought by enough people to make it worthwhile . And therein is the cruz, how to improve the author community in order to support such an endevour.
the way to make it profitable would be to include something that everyone can appreciate and would be willing to pay for, while benefiting Foundry at the same time.
The secret sauce of that is what is that exactly. We have been told that costumes arent a big seller and that ships are where the money is at. So then, does that mean we have to have a ship that also comes with foundry stuff, and the requisite price increase to justify it?
ships wouldn't really work, because the assets would be separate. but holodeck adventures do. The assets (maps, costumes, characters, objects, fx) would all be created for that adventure and linked to it. So Buy a zen-store holodeck adventure everyone gets the mission and unlocks those pieces in foundry for the author. the author can buy the same pack for the assets and get the mission as a secondary reward. But the point it is has something for everyone. and in the end the bigger group of players help support the smaller foundry player base.
I can't help but admire the hope in this thread. But I don't think you're getting my point. In my opinion, Cryptic doesn't make much money off the ship sales. I mean, sure lots of people buy them, and its 25 bucks a pop for the end tier ones, but they are one time sales to every account. Why do you think Cryptic comes out with a new better ship every so often? Because after a couple of months, most of the people who are going to buy that ship have bought one and they need the new hotness.
Now a mission is probably going to take more time and effort and money to develop than a ship. So its going to cost more than a ship. And that means that fewer people are going to want to buy it, which probably means that Cryptic will not think its worth it. Even if they came out with this pack, at best you're going to get a small update at slightly more regular intervals.
What you need for continued development of the foundry is something that will sell at a low cost, but high volume. Something that the vast majority of the player base will decide that they can throw a few bucks at. Cryptic already has something like this in the c-store. Its called a lockbox key, and people buy them for the chance at fabulous prizes in the next lockbox.
Have Cryptic lock off access to the foundry, or make it so that you don't get anything beyond what you do now if you play it. But, if you use the foundry key, you get a chance at prizes, including the grand prize for this month, you're own Satan's Robot from Captain Proton. Secondary prizes include a bomber jacket, Miss Goodhearts dress, and Queen Arachnia's outfit. Then foundry authors could use those "prizes" as elements in their stories for the period of time the promotion was going on. IMHO, that is what would have to happen for Cryptic to put the amount of effort into the foundry that you are looking for. And I really don't know if the player base would follow them for it.
the foundry key idea is interesting, but i don't know if another key and lock box in addition to the regular ones are the answer. But you are right the development of a new mission is a major undertaking. But, the missions are the kind of assets (maps, costumes, characters, objects, fx) that foundry would benefit the most from.
Interestingly, we discussed this last year on episode 18 of the Foundry Roundtable, and brought up some of the exact things as this thread and the twitter discussion.
A few months ago on the Roundtable podcast, someone brought up the excellent point that UGC is best understood as a "retirement plan" for an MMO. That is, something that game companies can lean on to extend the viability of their games for long after they've shut down any new content development of their own and might otherwise have shut the game down altogether.
It occurs to me that that explains Cryptic's lack of attention to the Foundry at least as well as lack of monetization does. If Cryptic ever does give the Foundry any significant upgrade, that would send a message, accurately or not, that they're starting to lean more heavily on UGC than before - in other words, that STO is now on that UGC retirement plan, and that therefore the game's deathwatch can now commence in earnest. Cryptic is not about to risk chasing away a big chunk of STO's player base by doing anything to suggest that this perfectly healthy game is anywhere near its last legs.
We shouldn't pay to make missions in lieu of Cryptic.
Those missions are helping cryptic to add content to the game, the Foundry itself is content. We don't pay for it, because in the long run, it's good for them (they can talk about it, and players play more).
So yeah, I don't know why we should pay for something that help them.
I won't pay for the Foundry ever. I think it belongs to what Cryptic owe us. They always claimed they would not make us pay for content. So far, they followed that. I hope they'll continue.
I know authors are starved for more foundry updates, but I don't think taking them at any cost is a good idea.
Also, monetization, the cryptic's way, doesn't mean more. Look at the Romulan, now that they are "done" with them, they are left here without love. On one side you have OP space trait, and on the other, they doesn't have an academy, unique fleet uniform, security officer...
Once cryptic is done with something they move on. The same would probably happen to the Foundry.
Comments
Yes if you want a big foundry update, on the order of a season's worth, you will have to convince Crytpic that it will pay them somehow. But if you want them to keep working on it, to keep fixing it and introducing new stuff on a schedule that is better than the current one, you will need to keep it paying, which Cryptic has not managed to do so far. All previous seasons and other new content basically work for one month, after which Cryptic drops it and moves on to the next thing. They only come back to it if it breaks horribly. Cryptic has decided that the best way to make money is to give us the new shiny every month or so, and then give us a different new shiny so we pay them again. If they ever really looked at the foundry, I doubt they would do any different.
So, what do you think is better, the current state of affairs, or one big update with a bunch of hype, and then back to, hopefully, the same as now?
Nouveau riche LTS member
one idea i've been throwing around is a Holodeck Adventure Pack that has a mission for the general player base, and unlocks those related maps and assets in the foundry. ie. Captain Proton, Sherlock Holmes, and more.
Cryptic used to sell bridge packs. The don't anymore, not because people didn't buy them or because people don't want new bridges, but because they couldn't get enough return on investment.
You would simply have too few customers to make a dent in Cryptic's profitability, and that's assuming it doesn't cost them money to set up the monotization system in the first place. The real roadblock is not community support, it's the fact that we would be, at best, an extremely niche market.
A foundry pack might float but it would have to, as you said be bought by enough people to make it worthwhile . And therein is the cruz, how to improve the author community in order to support such an endevour.
Stuff like costumes for normal players.
ie. the Holodeck Adventure Pack.
Now a mission is probably going to take more time and effort and money to develop than a ship. So its going to cost more than a ship. And that means that fewer people are going to want to buy it, which probably means that Cryptic will not think its worth it. Even if they came out with this pack, at best you're going to get a small update at slightly more regular intervals.
What you need for continued development of the foundry is something that will sell at a low cost, but high volume. Something that the vast majority of the player base will decide that they can throw a few bucks at. Cryptic already has something like this in the c-store. Its called a lockbox key, and people buy them for the chance at fabulous prizes in the next lockbox.
Have Cryptic lock off access to the foundry, or make it so that you don't get anything beyond what you do now if you play it. But, if you use the foundry key, you get a chance at prizes, including the grand prize for this month, you're own Satan's Robot from Captain Proton. Secondary prizes include a bomber jacket, Miss Goodhearts dress, and Queen Arachnia's outfit. Then foundry authors could use those "prizes" as elements in their stories for the period of time the promotion was going on. IMHO, that is what would have to happen for Cryptic to put the amount of effort into the foundry that you are looking for. And I really don't know if the player base would follow them for it.
Nouveau riche LTS member
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM98tpplmpo&index=18&list=PLZuDSOW9mgW5gAw23rCbp0wTgirH11XgJ
It occurs to me that that explains Cryptic's lack of attention to the Foundry at least as well as lack of monetization does. If Cryptic ever does give the Foundry any significant upgrade, that would send a message, accurately or not, that they're starting to lean more heavily on UGC than before - in other words, that STO is now on that UGC retirement plan, and that therefore the game's deathwatch can now commence in earnest. Cryptic is not about to risk chasing away a big chunk of STO's player base by doing anything to suggest that this perfectly healthy game is anywhere near its last legs.
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
Those missions are helping cryptic to add content to the game, the Foundry itself is content. We don't pay for it, because in the long run, it's good for them (they can talk about it, and players play more).
So yeah, I don't know why we should pay for something that help them.
I won't pay for the Foundry ever. I think it belongs to what Cryptic owe us. They always claimed they would not make us pay for content. So far, they followed that. I hope they'll continue.
I know authors are starved for more foundry updates, but I don't think taking them at any cost is a good idea.
Also, monetization, the cryptic's way, doesn't mean more. Look at the Romulan, now that they are "done" with them, they are left here without love. On one side you have OP space trait, and on the other, they doesn't have an academy, unique fleet uniform, security officer...
Once cryptic is done with something they move on. The same would probably happen to the Foundry.