To be fair, I think Gold members should have a shorter posting timer. It should be one of the Gold perks - as there are so few - assuming this 300 second thing is permanent.
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.
Hey, my question is : When we can see a Balance between the old and new power , the pvp at this state make ppl rage quit, the new intel stuff is almost totaly broken, even with a fix on thoose things it is extremly unbalanced.
Plus another things unbalanced KDF FED or ROMULAN starship Trait , ship console, bridge officer trait(superior operative VS efficient ??) and faction intel ships (5 fed 2 rom 2kdf) thats dont help the balance ...
I play mainly KDF and i noticed all the federation ships can cloak in PVP, fed have a couple of advantage but first they have the tachion detection field and KDF not, it will be cool if KDF can access to this console.
I hope somone see it, cause i want help to balance the gameplay in pvp !
To be fair, I think Gold members should have a shorter posting timer. It should be one of the Gold perks - as there are so few - assuming this 300 second thing is permanent.
I'd be willing to bet that gold members on the whole are less satisfied and less even tempered.
And by Asylum, I mean looking after Cryptic, of course...
You'll have to forgive some of the forum outbursts, however, it is a naturally occurring phenomenon from playing a game, made by members of a Mental Asylum.
Which hat do you wear:
The one that is in charge of the PR disasters?
Or,
The one that will be creating new ways to monetize the game?
In either case, you have an uphill battle that none of use relish..
A product manager investigates, selects, and drives the development of products for an organization, performing the activities of product management.
A product manager considers numerous factors such as intended demographic, the products offered by the competition, and how well the product fits with the company's business model.
So you're the whalebait/lockbox guy? I'm generally curious how your position will effect the game.
So you're the whalebait/lockbox guy? I'm generally curious how your position will effect the game.
I think that would be within his job description, sure. But maybe somebody should link that ExtraCredits video here with its case for pursuing more average size fish and converting a larger percentage of players into penny ante players rather than going all Ahab hunting whales to extinction.
You have Boldly Trekked into a strange new world. This world has two main races Those who are loyal to this ip and the defenders of the content creators. These two races are currently in an epic civil war.
The White Knights of the defenders have taken a beating as of late and have pulled back from the front lines.
The Loyalists are pressing on all fronts, using such weapons as logic and common sense.
If your mission is to build a lasting peace you already have the backing of the White Knights, The
Loyalists will be a much much harder sale. However they aren't without reason and eagerly look forward to open communications.
If there was anything nearing a list of demands it would read something like this.
Communicate
Bring the rewards to on par with the effort.
Look at the Stf's If we are going to do advanced we need the drops to make the rep sets, but we have to do the advanced to get the drops but can't cause we don't have the drops to make the gear. ( dear gods that runs in circles)
Players are investors many put a lot of money and time into the game.
We also invest into ships, equipment, and ETC mainly because how we can use it.
1. How will you insure that players feel safe to invest into the game and safe guard players current investments.
2. New players who are looking at STO also need to feel safe before playing and paying.
3. Players need to feel safe playing the game, the current leveling controversy has left people worried. How will you help people feel safe to play repeatable content because they rep marks, dilithium or ETC. Many in the community don't feel it should be up to players to judge something working as intended or not.
This is a good description of my concerns regarding the investment I put in: it's a pretty bad situation when I know I have a possible serious nerfbat coming to my carrier pets yet I lack sufficient trust and confidence to invest in anything to change ships, builds, or buy new hangar pets...and some of us do have a legitimate fear that this nerf is a prelude to selling Epic pets to regain some of what may be taken away from us.
These are not conditions to inspire me to buy. As the Hierarchy would say, my cost analysis matrix says no.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Because trust me, a friendly approach and bringing nice stuff goes a long way.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
This is a good description of my concerns regarding the investment I put in: it's a pretty bad situation when I know I have a possible serious nerfbat coming to my carrier pets yet I lack sufficient trust and confidence to invest in anything to change ships, builds, or buy new hangar pets...and some of us do have a legitimate fear that this nerf is a prelude to selling Epic pets to regain some of what may be taken away from us.
These are not conditions to inspire me to buy. As the Hierarchy would say, my cost analysis matrix says no.
Yeah my matrix says no to that too. They have never changed their route of gimmick and bait/switch. Make new rarity get people into it, then nerf existing content, make best new rarity almost as good as pre-nerf, and then people who can't see what it truly is keep the cycle going.
Anyways STO had a good life (fed life) lol all good things must come to and end though.
Dude that would have been hard enough to read alone, why the heck did ya use the BOLD option?
My eyes glossed over right about where I quoted you from.
:cool:
I did not use the bold option and the bold marks do not appear any place in the text. The emboldened text is from the server side, not any thing I chose.
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. ~ Cecil Beaton
The video covers some good points on why but the bottom line is that it would be good to have more conversions. Developers have previously shared with us that around 5% of STO players buy anything at all, which makes the video seem fairly pertinent to STO.
My observation is that there is no good initial value. There has been a lot of attempt at hard economic engineering of the game, SUPPLY-SIDE, particularly with Delta Rising. What I think needs attention is your Customer Value Chain.
Speaking as someone who is probably a whale by STO standards (but doesn't necessarily have a high income), my observation is that there is no clear value in an initial purchase. All the engineering was done supply-side around $25-ish purchases and it seems that cheaper purchases (aside from ground costumes) were designed to be of proportionate value to the $25 purchase. As such, you capture those $25 customers (which might have been a reasonable leap in a sub game) but there is no introductory purchase.
XP boosters offer too little value. Starter packs offer too little value. These may appeal to someone who knows nothing about the game and is brand new but 1000-3000 XP is only a small amount of extra grinding at endgame and the rewards found in the starter bundles can be had for almost free in-game in part due to a lack of economic sinks and in part due to the account age and activity level of players... But largely because they offer relatively little value in terms of gameplay.
So your introductory purchases which MIGHT convert free players are LARGELY only effective to people who do not know the value of things in the game. A 250 ZEN purchase is 1/10th the value (or less) of a 2500 ZEN purchase in general. There is no low price sensational value item aside from maybe lockboxes, which I think historically something like half of purchasers were opposed to. (And key buying may be a poor indicator because people routinely buy keys to sell for energy credits.)
I believe what you need is a sensational value (for the player, low cost to Cryptic) purchase in the neighborhood of $1-5. It ideally needs to be a direct purchase to drive actual conversion from free to paying. I think it needs to be a periodic purchase. It should probably be a money purchase rather than ZEN to avoid people buying it indirectly by exchanging dilithium for ZEN. The goal here is to get primary buyers, To get people to actually pay personally with a credit card.
My advice is a $1 "Silver Plus"/"Gold Lite" subscription. The point of this is not necessarily to generate profits but to convert free players into buyers. As such, people established as periodic spenders (gold subscribers or lifetimers) should probably get this new service for free since the irritation of an extra $1 may strike them as nickel and diming.
For this $1 intro purchase, I suggest a 30 day (or perhaps 7 day) frustration release. This would mean perhaps double experience points (which smooths over any content leveling gaps). Bonus unrefined dilithium (which enables less grind in terms of play time). Reduced upgrade project timer, reduced rep project timer, and perhaps reduced DOff project timer or access to special event projects with reduced input requirements.
At the point where a customer DIRECTLY spends this $1-5 sub fee, the experience should shift dramatically towards the feeling of being a customer rather than a free-to-play grinder. If you're spending, you're automatically given a bit more breathing room to feel satisfied in terms of time commitment. It's a gateway purchase.
People who buy lifetimes or sub monthly naturally get this bundled in because they are established as potential spenders. This is designed entirely to get people over the hurdle of personally spending in the first place. I think once that hurdle is crossed, a magic switch flips between viewing a product as free versus viewing a product as low cost. Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and The Economist, talks about the difference between free as a pricepoint and paid in his book "Free". While he is very glowing about free, I think the important takeaway is that it's a totally different psychology... and you want to get more people in the mindset of paying as a direct purchase as a gateway to generating additional revenues.
Great bit of an idea - and I've recently seen that Extra Credits episode for the first time too - but you also have it treading dangerously close to what I see as the ultimate failing of SWtOR in that there are a number of things that look exactly like what SWtOR does with it's "F2P" model in that free players are very much under heavy restrictions with comparison to subscribers.
That said I think where SWtOR fails so heavily is its approach. If some of your suggestions (such as free unrefined dilithium, shortened project timers, etc.) were implemented they could be a great boon to the game for easing players into becoming direct spenders, they just need to use current timers and such as baseline and promote it as a bonus - a perk you gain for spending on the game - instead of a restriction lifted by spending money.
Especially if it's a regular or semi-regular purchase.
(Be welcome, Adamanteus. We expect good things from you.)
How about rectifying the paucity of T6 ships for Romulans and KDF?
How about some ship interior variations for Romulan ships?
How about finally opening up the Capitol City on ch'Mol'Rihan (New Romulus), with a club, an Academy, and (at least the exterior of) a New Romulan Senate building -- and access to at least part of the Reman area of the Capitol City?
How about a Security Officer at New Romulus Command?
How about allowing fleet emblems to be displayed on Romulan vessels?
How about fixing the loadout bugs?
How about a further increase of the total number of ships a player can have on each character?
How about more costume slots?
How about a further increase to Bank/Inventory size?
How about giving us Rigel VII, Ter'jas Mor, Gornar, Betazed, Ferenginar, etc?
How about less grind and more storyline missions?
How about fixing the continuing graphics issues with DR zones?
How about Romulan Republic aesthetics being made available for our Fleet Holdings, particularly the Starbases?
How about some Romulan NPCs for our Starbases?
How about some more love for the KDF (including at the very least fixing the issue with the sliding doors that don't open before you walk/jog into them, and which Feds don't have to deal with)?
How about a dedicated Romulan carrier?
How about more Romulan Science ships (especially a T6 Romulan Science ship)?
I have more questions/requests, but these will do for a start.
so welcome, I have a couple o' questions of my own (being as you're the newguy.)
1. do you Play the Game?
2. Do you play factions other than Federation?
Thanks.
1. I sure do. At the very least I try to fit in at least an hour a day playing just like all of you. I don't give myself anything using powers. If I want something from the C-store then I have to purchase it and experience everything just like you.
2. I have a 50+ Fed and have actually been spending more time leveling a Romulan character at the moment.
1. I sure do. At the very least I try to fit in at least an hour a day playing just like all of you. I don't give myself anything using powers. If I want something from the C-store then I have to purchase it and experience everything just like you.
2. I have a 50+ Fed and have actually been spending more time leveling a Romulan character at the moment.
I knew it, more proof devs hate the kdf... (Since it doesn't translate well in writing, that was a joke)
In all seriousness, welcome! What other online games have you played and did you watch the video stoleviathan linked a couple posts above yours?
My advice is a $1 "Silver Plus"/"Gold Lite" subscription. The point of this is not necessarily to generate profits but to convert free players into buyers. As such, people established as periodic spenders (gold subscribers or lifetimers) should probably get this new service for free since the irritation of an extra $1 may strike them as nickel and diming.
While I agree they really need more/better things for players to buy other than ships I don't think pushing toward a subscription model would be the right direction.
Instead I would review existing Cstore offerings like say doff packs and making them offer more value to the player. If they contained a purple in every pack I would actually be interested in purchasing them for example.
My observation is that there is no good initial value. There has been a lot of attempt at hard economic engineering of the game, SUPPLY-SIDE, particularly with Delta Rising. What I think needs attention is your Customer Value Chain.
Speaking as someone who is probably a whale by STO standards (but doesn't necessarily have a high income), my observation is that there is no clear value in an initial purchase. All the engineering was done supply-side around $25-ish purchases and it seems that cheaper purchases (aside from ground costumes) were designed to be of proportionate value to the $25 purchase. As such, you capture those $25 customers (which might have been a reasonable leap in a sub game) but there is no introductory purchase.
Agreed 100% that the value Cryptic places on some things is not the value 'I' would place on them.
But I really think a lack of diversity in the offerings is the heart of the monetization problem for STO. You have ships, and/or gambles. That is it aside from occasional one time purchase services. But without harming the lockbox sales which have gobbled up everything from boosters to costumes, or content like a mission they refuse to charge for directly, what is left to provide?
1. I sure do. At the very least I try to fit in at least an hour a day playing just like all of you. I don't give myself anything using powers. If I want something from the C-store then I have to purchase it and experience everything just like you.
2. I have a 50+ Fed and have actually been spending more time leveling a Romulan character at the moment.
I really think this game would have far fewer growing pains if this 'hour a day playtime' was mandatory and paid for every employee in the STO office. Happy to hear you are doing it.
Congratulation/Condolences on joining the forums as a dev. If you plan on being on as a regular I Would like to warn you of your fate. There are two outcomes.
1) You open Pandora's thread before you realize it is too late and by time you close it all the evil would have escaped and only hope will be left, trapped inside. Never to pear back inside due to fear.
2) You continue to engage in forum until you go slowly insane, forever warped and unable to quite as it becomes like a drug eating away at your mind, continually needed you next adrenalin fix. To see living proof please refer to Tacofangs. You will find at one time he was a normal person living a care free life until he was mutated into the troll you see today. Simply tragic.
Now that your prospects have been laid out my only question I have for you is "what your history as a trek fan?" Feel free to insert favourite series captains etc.
Comments
Quote from your sig
"...............I'd give good money to be able to converse every 150 Seconds..."
Don't give them any ideas here! UGH... I can see a new Z-Store token coming...
Forum Token (50% posting cooldown reduction) 700 Zen
4 pack only 2000 Zen
Zeus
Plus another things unbalanced KDF FED or ROMULAN starship Trait , ship console, bridge officer trait(superior operative VS efficient ??) and faction intel ships (5 fed 2 rom 2kdf) thats dont help the balance ...
I play mainly KDF and i noticed all the federation ships can cloak in PVP, fed have a couple of advantage but first they have the tachion detection field and KDF not, it will be cool if KDF can access to this console.
I hope somone see it, cause i want help to balance the gameplay in pvp !
@nebulgamnezar aprox 444 days, 209 hours, 731 minutes, 780 seconds
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showpost.php?p=16715151&postcount=1
Sry for my bad english !
JOIN us in Star Citizen https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/INQ <
I'd be willing to bet that gold members on the whole are less satisfied and less even tempered.
And by Asylum, I mean looking after Cryptic, of course...
You'll have to forgive some of the forum outbursts, however, it is a naturally occurring phenomenon from playing a game, made by members of a Mental Asylum.
Which hat do you wear:
The one that is in charge of the PR disasters?
Or,
The one that will be creating new ways to monetize the game?
In either case, you have an uphill battle that none of use relish..
So you're the whalebait/lockbox guy? I'm generally curious how your position will effect the game.
I think that would be within his job description, sure. But maybe somebody should link that ExtraCredits video here with its case for pursuing more average size fish and converting a larger percentage of players into penny ante players rather than going all Ahab hunting whales to extinction.
You have Boldly Trekked into a strange new world. This world has two main races Those who are loyal to this ip and the defenders of the content creators. These two races are currently in an epic civil war.
The White Knights of the defenders have taken a beating as of late and have pulled back from the front lines.
The Loyalists are pressing on all fronts, using such weapons as logic and common sense.
If your mission is to build a lasting peace you already have the backing of the White Knights, The
Loyalists will be a much much harder sale. However they aren't without reason and eagerly look forward to open communications.
If there was anything nearing a list of demands it would read something like this.
Communicate
Bring the rewards to on par with the effort.
Look at the Stf's If we are going to do advanced we need the drops to make the rep sets, but we have to do the advanced to get the drops but can't cause we don't have the drops to make the gear. ( dear gods that runs in circles)
Some public relations training for Dev's.
most importantly BRING BACK THE FUN.
This is a good description of my concerns regarding the investment I put in: it's a pretty bad situation when I know I have a possible serious nerfbat coming to my carrier pets yet I lack sufficient trust and confidence to invest in anything to change ships, builds, or buy new hangar pets...and some of us do have a legitimate fear that this nerf is a prelude to selling Epic pets to regain some of what may be taken away from us.
These are not conditions to inspire me to buy. As the Hierarchy would say, my cost analysis matrix says no.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Aww, I was hoping you'd say to take this: http://www.lolroflmao.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/its-dangerous-to-go-alone-take-this1.jpg
Because trust me, a friendly approach and bringing nice stuff goes a long way.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Yeah my matrix says no to that too. They have never changed their route of gimmick and bait/switch. Make new rarity get people into it, then nerf existing content, make best new rarity almost as good as pre-nerf, and then people who can't see what it truly is keep the cycle going.
Anyways STO had a good life (fed life) lol all good things must come to and end though.
Welcome to the Grinder xD
Mwahahahahahahaha
Let me know, do you have the "Approved by Trendy" logo over your hand? It's important :P
Given the general mood of the forums on a good day Taco's little tongue-in-cheek warning was quite appropriate.
That said: I want a kitty!
This is a great little Extra Credits video that has been circulated on the forums on how F2P as a model might be broken and what can be done about it:
http://youtu.be/FwI0u9L4R8U
The video covers some good points on why but the bottom line is that it would be good to have more conversions. Developers have previously shared with us that around 5% of STO players buy anything at all, which makes the video seem fairly pertinent to STO.
My observation is that there is no good initial value. There has been a lot of attempt at hard economic engineering of the game, SUPPLY-SIDE, particularly with Delta Rising. What I think needs attention is your Customer Value Chain.
Speaking as someone who is probably a whale by STO standards (but doesn't necessarily have a high income), my observation is that there is no clear value in an initial purchase. All the engineering was done supply-side around $25-ish purchases and it seems that cheaper purchases (aside from ground costumes) were designed to be of proportionate value to the $25 purchase. As such, you capture those $25 customers (which might have been a reasonable leap in a sub game) but there is no introductory purchase.
XP boosters offer too little value. Starter packs offer too little value. These may appeal to someone who knows nothing about the game and is brand new but 1000-3000 XP is only a small amount of extra grinding at endgame and the rewards found in the starter bundles can be had for almost free in-game in part due to a lack of economic sinks and in part due to the account age and activity level of players... But largely because they offer relatively little value in terms of gameplay.
So your introductory purchases which MIGHT convert free players are LARGELY only effective to people who do not know the value of things in the game. A 250 ZEN purchase is 1/10th the value (or less) of a 2500 ZEN purchase in general. There is no low price sensational value item aside from maybe lockboxes, which I think historically something like half of purchasers were opposed to. (And key buying may be a poor indicator because people routinely buy keys to sell for energy credits.)
I believe what you need is a sensational value (for the player, low cost to Cryptic) purchase in the neighborhood of $1-5. It ideally needs to be a direct purchase to drive actual conversion from free to paying. I think it needs to be a periodic purchase. It should probably be a money purchase rather than ZEN to avoid people buying it indirectly by exchanging dilithium for ZEN. The goal here is to get primary buyers, To get people to actually pay personally with a credit card.
My advice is a $1 "Silver Plus"/"Gold Lite" subscription. The point of this is not necessarily to generate profits but to convert free players into buyers. As such, people established as periodic spenders (gold subscribers or lifetimers) should probably get this new service for free since the irritation of an extra $1 may strike them as nickel and diming.
For this $1 intro purchase, I suggest a 30 day (or perhaps 7 day) frustration release. This would mean perhaps double experience points (which smooths over any content leveling gaps). Bonus unrefined dilithium (which enables less grind in terms of play time). Reduced upgrade project timer, reduced rep project timer, and perhaps reduced DOff project timer or access to special event projects with reduced input requirements.
At the point where a customer DIRECTLY spends this $1-5 sub fee, the experience should shift dramatically towards the feeling of being a customer rather than a free-to-play grinder. If you're spending, you're automatically given a bit more breathing room to feel satisfied in terms of time commitment. It's a gateway purchase.
People who buy lifetimes or sub monthly naturally get this bundled in because they are established as potential spenders. This is designed entirely to get people over the hurdle of personally spending in the first place. I think once that hurdle is crossed, a magic switch flips between viewing a product as free versus viewing a product as low cost. Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and The Economist, talks about the difference between free as a pricepoint and paid in his book "Free". While he is very glowing about free, I think the important takeaway is that it's a totally different psychology... and you want to get more people in the mindset of paying as a direct purchase as a gateway to generating additional revenues.
Hope that sparks some thoughts!
Great bit of an idea - and I've recently seen that Extra Credits episode for the first time too - but you also have it treading dangerously close to what I see as the ultimate failing of SWtOR in that there are a number of things that look exactly like what SWtOR does with it's "F2P" model in that free players are very much under heavy restrictions with comparison to subscribers.
That said I think where SWtOR fails so heavily is its approach. If some of your suggestions (such as free unrefined dilithium, shortened project timers, etc.) were implemented they could be a great boon to the game for easing players into becoming direct spenders, they just need to use current timers and such as baseline and promote it as a bonus - a perk you gain for spending on the game - instead of a restriction lifted by spending money.
Especially if it's a regular or semi-regular purchase.
I don't know...persuade Trendy to chime in?
(Be welcome, Adamanteus. We expect good things from you.)
How about rectifying the paucity of T6 ships for Romulans and KDF?
How about some ship interior variations for Romulan ships?
How about finally opening up the Capitol City on ch'Mol'Rihan (New Romulus), with a club, an Academy, and (at least the exterior of) a New Romulan Senate building -- and access to at least part of the Reman area of the Capitol City?
How about a Security Officer at New Romulus Command?
How about allowing fleet emblems to be displayed on Romulan vessels?
How about fixing the loadout bugs?
How about a further increase of the total number of ships a player can have on each character?
How about more costume slots?
How about a further increase to Bank/Inventory size?
How about giving us Rigel VII, Ter'jas Mor, Gornar, Betazed, Ferenginar, etc?
How about less grind and more storyline missions?
How about fixing the continuing graphics issues with DR zones?
How about Romulan Republic aesthetics being made available for our Fleet Holdings, particularly the Starbases?
How about some Romulan NPCs for our Starbases?
How about some more love for the KDF (including at the very least fixing the issue with the sliding doors that don't open before you walk/jog into them, and which Feds don't have to deal with)?
How about a dedicated Romulan carrier?
How about more Romulan Science ships (especially a T6 Romulan Science ship)?
I have more questions/requests, but these will do for a start.
Hann'yyo (Thanks),
Gessatra ir'Virinat t'Prell,
Fvillhu u'galae'Enriov s'Tal'Diann/Tal-Diann
1. I sure do. At the very least I try to fit in at least an hour a day playing just like all of you. I don't give myself anything using powers. If I want something from the C-store then I have to purchase it and experience everything just like you.
2. I have a 50+ Fed and have actually been spending more time leveling a Romulan character at the moment.
I knew it, more proof devs hate the kdf... (Since it doesn't translate well in writing, that was a joke)
In all seriousness, welcome! What other online games have you played and did you watch the video stoleviathan linked a couple posts above yours?
While I agree they really need more/better things for players to buy other than ships I don't think pushing toward a subscription model would be the right direction.
Instead I would review existing Cstore offerings like say doff packs and making them offer more value to the player. If they contained a purple in every pack I would actually be interested in purchasing them for example.
Agreed 100% that the value Cryptic places on some things is not the value 'I' would place on them.
But I really think a lack of diversity in the offerings is the heart of the monetization problem for STO. You have ships, and/or gambles. That is it aside from occasional one time purchase services. But without harming the lockbox sales which have gobbled up everything from boosters to costumes, or content like a mission they refuse to charge for directly, what is left to provide?
I really think this game would have far fewer growing pains if this 'hour a day playtime' was mandatory and paid for every employee in the STO office. Happy to hear you are doing it.
Congratulation/Condolences on joining the forums as a dev. If you plan on being on as a regular I Would like to warn you of your fate. There are two outcomes.
1) You open Pandora's thread before you realize it is too late and by time you close it all the evil would have escaped and only hope will be left, trapped inside. Never to pear back inside due to fear.
2) You continue to engage in forum until you go slowly insane, forever warped and unable to quite as it becomes like a drug eating away at your mind, continually needed you next adrenalin fix. To see living proof please refer to Tacofangs. You will find at one time he was a normal person living a care free life until he was mutated into the troll you see today. Simply tragic.
Now that your prospects have been laid out my only question I have for you is "what your history as a trek fan?" Feel free to insert favourite series captains etc.