People are constantly asking for things to cost less, or to get more benefit for less expense, but without the cost there is no income. Without the income there is no game. We cannot have it both ways: less cost but Cryptic makes more. It is not possible.
Course you can have less cost but increased revenue. Many stores, both online as well as brick 'n mortar do it. It's going to be within reason, but there are things Cryptic could discount to increase revenue.
Heck, there's even things Cryptic could increase the price of...while making them Account Wide unlocks...to generate increased revenue.
Course you can have less cost but increased revenue. Many stores, both online as well as brick 'n mortar do it. It's going to be within reason, but there are things Cryptic could discount to increase revenue.
Heck, there's even things Cryptic could increase the price of...while making them Account Wide unlocks...to generate increased revenue.
FTP is already the Walmart in terms of business models: high volume means lower costs.
As someone who plays a LOT of FTP games I think few people really have an idea just how inexpensive STO's version is compared to others.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
FTP is already the Walmart in terms of business models: high volume means lower costs.
As someone who plays a LOT of FTP games I think few people really have an idea just how inexpensive STO's version is compared to others.
So you do not feel that if they were to lower the price of Respecs, they would sell far more of them? Do not feel that if they increased the Lobi costs of cosmetic items but made them account bound that they would increase their key revenue?
It's easy to point to games that are worse. The problem is, you can move to a game that is worse...and the odds are you would still be able to point to a game that is worse. It's not about making excuses by saying there are games that are worse - it is about trying to make it better.
Can reasonable changes be made that would increase revenue? No doubt there are many suggestions out there that would completely kill revenue - and - it's almost impossible to point out to folks why...but there are other suggestions, no? That might be worthy of discussion on how they could not only increase revenue for Cryptic but provide a better game experience for the player and thus further increase revenue for Cryptic and thus provide a better game experience...that positive circle...that's all.
Some things should be a Account unlock (Costumes, Ground Equip) or at least should give a decent lobi discount for other chars.
And the Special Consoles from the Lobi/Lockbox Ships as a Account unlock would be nice (so you are still "forced" to get both ships for the dual console bonus, but can have fun with both on 2 different characters)
I'd also get DOFF roster, ship slot, and inventory/bank expansions if they came in account unlock versions.
Would be cool too (i could also see a accountwide expansion of mentioned unlocks as additional veteran rewards)
Beta, LTA, CE, Multiple preorder Versions, all Addon Packs except AoY, nearly all KDF/Rom and ~50% of all Fedships, over 25 LockboxShips, Endurer of Atari's "Year of Hell", but...
If they raised the price of costume items and made the account unlocks sure. Though a second method of getting lobi would be appreciated then as the lock boxes frustrate me to no end.
(So sick of the mirror ships.)
I would love it if they had the same weapon twice at the same price.
Buy the anti-proton minigun, and at lvl 50 you can buy the upgrade to very rare.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
FTP is already the Walmart in terms of business models: high volume means lower costs.
As someone who plays a LOT of FTP games I think few people really have an idea just how inexpensive STO's version is compared to others.
Yes of course this only applies to people who joined after the F2P conversion. As a lifetime member since the beta I personally feel like PWE screwed me and guess what they did... the original deal was pay 300 something dollars and avoid a $15 a month subscription fee. Now its you get $5 worth of Zen a month and some one time unlocks... basically they need to increase my stipend by an additional 1000 zen before I will feel any less sexually violated.
Additionally I find it funny that the members of the Star Trek Online team say they are "continuing with our commitment to improve the overall quality of the game for all players" whilst removing a key feature and a good way of getting dilithium and not getting rid of lockboxes, which for the record has been repeatedly requested...
It all makes you just have to love delusional thinking...
Yes of course this only applies to people who joined after the F2P conversion. As a lifetime member since the beta I personally feel like PWE screwed me and guess what they did... the original deal was pay 300 something dollars and avoid a $15 a month subscription fee. Now its you get $5 worth of Zen a month and some one time unlocks... basically they need to increase my stipend by an additional 1000 zen before I will feel any less sexually violated.
First, if you are an LTS since Beta you probably paid $240.00, not $300.00 - $240.00 was the Beta pre-pay purchase price for an LTS.
Second, if you purchased an LTS to avoid paying more via Subscription then you passed your break-even point even before the game went FTP: Feb 2010 to Jan 2012 = 24 months @ $15.00 per = $360.00. Thus you were financially ahead of the game even before it went FTP.
Finally, since going FTP Cryptic has given you 30 months of Stipend, equal to $150.00. So you are around 3/5ths of getting your original investment back at this point. Another 18 months and they will have given you Stipend equal to the pre-pay price of the LTS - so you will have been 100% refunded in Stipend.
I am not exactly certain how you can feel screwed. You were financially ahead before FTP and they have given you over half you money back in Stipend since FTP; and you get all the Vet Rewards on top of that.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
You sure it was $240 Cos? I could have sworn it was $230.
I am fairly sure it was $240.00. I can go back and check my bank records; but I do not think $10.00 either way is a big deal.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
Honestly, I tend to just sit on any Lobi I have since it is a single unlock. Given its relative cost to acquire compared to what you get, plus the extremely limited availability of Lobi itself, spending it on any single unlock isn't really worth it (to me). That the same Lobi item could easily be made obsolete by the next thing to come along, or that the character I bind it to might not end up using it, or that it just might not be all that good... yeah, I have a hard time justifying Lobi purchases, so I don't make them.
As far as either an account-wide unlock or discount, if it was implemented it would have to be under a Lobi Reputation similar to the Event Reputation tab. Everything in the Lobi Store would remain in its crate, Bind on Unpack or whatnot, while everything purchased under the Lobi Reputation would be Bind on Pickup. I say this because if an unlock or discount were applied directly the Lobi Store you would simply have to unlock one Lobi ship and you'd gain the ability to generate additional free or reduced-cost Lobi ships and spam the Exchange... which really wouldn't balance things in terms of microtransactions. Plus, they might be able to justify an individual player getting either, but making that unlock or discount applicable to the general playerbase would defeat the "rarity" of the Lock Box/Lobi ships that makes them acceptable under the license.
Personally, I'd prefer an account-wide unlock, but even a significant discount might at least make the Lobi Store attractive to me... which it is not at this point.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
I think this is a great idea. We put a lot to get those items and they are very expensive any way you look at it. I would be more welcome to buy out of it. So I can use a ship on which characters I want or outfits, etc.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Opening gambling boxes to slowly earn lobi is not my idea of fun. In fact, I am downright scared for those parents who have kids who get sucked into it. Then those kids go and steal daddy's or mommy's credit card and max it out buying zen.
Honestly, lock boxes should be banned for anyone who isn't verified to be over 18. It is a shame companies actually exploit human weakness and OCD to get rich. Why not try earning profits the honest way by making good content that sells on its merits.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I've thought about this, and no I would not buy more.
Don't get me wrong - I like the thought of having it account wide, but part of what drives me to break down and buy more keys is to get lobi. The mechanic is sound business wise.
I lean to making STO profitable to continue development.
The allure of lobi stuff is how rare it is. If every has it (samsung phone), it's not that appealing.
Comments
Course you can have less cost but increased revenue. Many stores, both online as well as brick 'n mortar do it. It's going to be within reason, but there are things Cryptic could discount to increase revenue.
Heck, there's even things Cryptic could increase the price of...while making them Account Wide unlocks...to generate increased revenue.
As someone who plays a LOT of FTP games I think few people really have an idea just how inexpensive STO's version is compared to others.
So you do not feel that if they were to lower the price of Respecs, they would sell far more of them? Do not feel that if they increased the Lobi costs of cosmetic items but made them account bound that they would increase their key revenue?
It's easy to point to games that are worse. The problem is, you can move to a game that is worse...and the odds are you would still be able to point to a game that is worse. It's not about making excuses by saying there are games that are worse - it is about trying to make it better.
Can reasonable changes be made that would increase revenue? No doubt there are many suggestions out there that would completely kill revenue - and - it's almost impossible to point out to folks why...but there are other suggestions, no? That might be worthy of discussion on how they could not only increase revenue for Cryptic but provide a better game experience for the player and thus further increase revenue for Cryptic and thus provide a better game experience...that positive circle...that's all.
I Think I Would Like That. If My Main Has It Then My Other Toons Get It
So Much Better.
Be Kind To All!!!!!
Account Wide (costumes)
Non-consumable (current consumables)
Non-RNG-based (random non-combat pets)
Cheaper (Gear, Crew, Ships)
And the Special Consoles from the Lobi/Lockbox Ships as a Account unlock would be nice (so you are still "forced" to get both ships for the dual console bonus, but can have fun with both on 2 different characters)
Would be cool too (i could also see a accountwide expansion of mentioned unlocks as additional veteran rewards)
(So sick of the mirror ships.)
I would love it if they had the same weapon twice at the same price.
Buy the anti-proton minigun, and at lvl 50 you can buy the upgrade to very rare.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Yes of course this only applies to people who joined after the F2P conversion. As a lifetime member since the beta I personally feel like PWE screwed me and guess what they did... the original deal was pay 300 something dollars and avoid a $15 a month subscription fee. Now its you get $5 worth of Zen a month and some one time unlocks... basically they need to increase my stipend by an additional 1000 zen before I will feel any less sexually violated.
Additionally I find it funny that the members of the Star Trek Online team say they are "continuing with our commitment to improve the overall quality of the game for all players" whilst removing a key feature and a good way of getting dilithium and not getting rid of lockboxes, which for the record has been repeatedly requested...
It all makes you just have to love delusional thinking...
Second, if you purchased an LTS to avoid paying more via Subscription then you passed your break-even point even before the game went FTP: Feb 2010 to Jan 2012 = 24 months @ $15.00 per = $360.00. Thus you were financially ahead of the game even before it went FTP.
Finally, since going FTP Cryptic has given you 30 months of Stipend, equal to $150.00. So you are around 3/5ths of getting your original investment back at this point. Another 18 months and they will have given you Stipend equal to the pre-pay price of the LTS - so you will have been 100% refunded in Stipend.
I am not exactly certain how you can feel screwed. You were financially ahead before FTP and they have given you over half you money back in Stipend since FTP; and you get all the Vet Rewards on top of that.
Honestly, I tend to just sit on any Lobi I have since it is a single unlock. Given its relative cost to acquire compared to what you get, plus the extremely limited availability of Lobi itself, spending it on any single unlock isn't really worth it (to me). That the same Lobi item could easily be made obsolete by the next thing to come along, or that the character I bind it to might not end up using it, or that it just might not be all that good... yeah, I have a hard time justifying Lobi purchases, so I don't make them.
As far as either an account-wide unlock or discount, if it was implemented it would have to be under a Lobi Reputation similar to the Event Reputation tab. Everything in the Lobi Store would remain in its crate, Bind on Unpack or whatnot, while everything purchased under the Lobi Reputation would be Bind on Pickup. I say this because if an unlock or discount were applied directly the Lobi Store you would simply have to unlock one Lobi ship and you'd gain the ability to generate additional free or reduced-cost Lobi ships and spam the Exchange... which really wouldn't balance things in terms of microtransactions. Plus, they might be able to justify an individual player getting either, but making that unlock or discount applicable to the general playerbase would defeat the "rarity" of the Lock Box/Lobi ships that makes them acceptable under the license.
Personally, I'd prefer an account-wide unlock, but even a significant discount might at least make the Lobi Store attractive to me... which it is not at this point.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Honestly, lock boxes should be banned for anyone who isn't verified to be over 18. It is a shame companies actually exploit human weakness and OCD to get rich. Why not try earning profits the honest way by making good content that sells on its merits.
- Judge Aaron Satie
~Vice Admiral Saskia - U.S.S. Muenzuka (Dyson Science Destroyer)~
~Lieutenant General Kalinka - I.K.S. Kazami (Negh'Var Heavy Battlecruiser)~
~Vice Admiral Lorel - R.R.W. Aureus Aquila (Mirror Mogai Heavy Warbird)~
Don't get me wrong - I like the thought of having it account wide, but part of what drives me to break down and buy more keys is to get lobi. The mechanic is sound business wise.
I lean to making STO profitable to continue development.
The allure of lobi stuff is how rare it is. If every has it (samsung phone), it's not that appealing.