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How to convince the players to close thier wallets?
fuglass
Member Posts: 95 Arc User
The one thing I've taken from the all the post I've read in this forum over last month that almost everyone seems to agree on is that:
If we stop spending money Cryptic will change their current policies.
I don't have any suggestions on how to convince people to close their wallets until the game is playable again other than doing what I am now and making this post.
Also as savnoka has pointed out that it only takes one "whale" to make up the difference for many "average" players spending, however if that same "whale" stops spending he/she cancels out the spending done by many "average" players.
I personally think this could be something that we could all agree on (or at least enough of us to make a difference), and this may be the single most effective way to let Cryptic know that we've had enough and will not tolerate these changes.
To paraphrase janus1975 (again)
"As a franchise, Star Trek is a niche. It's big enough to sometimes look like it's mainstream, but it's not. It also has a fanbase that pays enough (and brings enough other people in on occasion) to make it appear to be bigger than it otherwise would. Financially, it has TV shows and movies which operate as the skeleton around which the merchandising, fan art, games, and everything else builds upon. And it's all that surrounding stuff that seems to be where the real money is. STO is part of that merchandising. But it is nonetheless catering to a stable but smallish fanbase that pays for it. "
I agree with janus1975, also I do not believe that for every player that leaves another is waiting to join, there are just too many more interesting or exciting games out there especially for younger people, many of which only know Star Trek from the movies they've seen, and therefore do not hold Star Trek in the high regard that Trekkers and Trekkies do; and when considering a game if it does not offer satisfying advancement and game play they will look elsewhere. Add to that this game has rather low Meta scores and most "Gamers" are intelligent enough to check the forums, and other media to see what the players think of the game rather just the advertising the game puts out. The post in my sig shows that 90% of the people that do play this game now would not recommend it to a friend. None of this 'bodes well' for the life of this game. Also ask yourself "How many of your friends have already quit? How many more are you willing to see quit before you take a stand and do something about it?"
I know many simply don't want to believe STO can die, but it can and in it's current form it is dieing. I don't think you need metrics or statistics to see that, just look around the game itself.
TL/DR
In short I believe we the players can force Cryptic to restore the "fun" that was STO pre-Delta Rising if we can come together and make or voices or rather our money heard.
Do you agree? If so how do we convince others? If you don't agree, do you have a better idea?
Food for thought:
Extra Credits: Metrics
Extra Credits - Free to Play Is Currently Broken - How High Costs Drive Players Away from F2P Games
Extra Credits: Energy Systems
Extra Credits: Microtransactions
Extra Credits: Power Creep
Extra Credits: The Skinner Box
Extra Credits: Differences in Scale vs Differences in Kind
Extra Credits: The Role of the Player
If we stop spending money Cryptic will change their current policies.
I don't have any suggestions on how to convince people to close their wallets until the game is playable again other than doing what I am now and making this post.
Also as savnoka has pointed out that it only takes one "whale" to make up the difference for many "average" players spending, however if that same "whale" stops spending he/she cancels out the spending done by many "average" players.
I personally think this could be something that we could all agree on (or at least enough of us to make a difference), and this may be the single most effective way to let Cryptic know that we've had enough and will not tolerate these changes.
To paraphrase janus1975 (again)
"As a franchise, Star Trek is a niche. It's big enough to sometimes look like it's mainstream, but it's not. It also has a fanbase that pays enough (and brings enough other people in on occasion) to make it appear to be bigger than it otherwise would. Financially, it has TV shows and movies which operate as the skeleton around which the merchandising, fan art, games, and everything else builds upon. And it's all that surrounding stuff that seems to be where the real money is. STO is part of that merchandising. But it is nonetheless catering to a stable but smallish fanbase that pays for it. "
I agree with janus1975, also I do not believe that for every player that leaves another is waiting to join, there are just too many more interesting or exciting games out there especially for younger people, many of which only know Star Trek from the movies they've seen, and therefore do not hold Star Trek in the high regard that Trekkers and Trekkies do; and when considering a game if it does not offer satisfying advancement and game play they will look elsewhere. Add to that this game has rather low Meta scores and most "Gamers" are intelligent enough to check the forums, and other media to see what the players think of the game rather just the advertising the game puts out. The post in my sig shows that 90% of the people that do play this game now would not recommend it to a friend. None of this 'bodes well' for the life of this game. Also ask yourself "How many of your friends have already quit? How many more are you willing to see quit before you take a stand and do something about it?"
I know many simply don't want to believe STO can die, but it can and in it's current form it is dieing. I don't think you need metrics or statistics to see that, just look around the game itself.
TL/DR
In short I believe we the players can force Cryptic to restore the "fun" that was STO pre-Delta Rising if we can come together and make or voices or rather our money heard.
Do you agree? If so how do we convince others? If you don't agree, do you have a better idea?
Food for thought:
Extra Credits: Metrics
Extra Credits - Free to Play Is Currently Broken - How High Costs Drive Players Away from F2P Games
Extra Credits: Energy Systems
Extra Credits: Microtransactions
Extra Credits: Power Creep
Extra Credits: The Skinner Box
Extra Credits: Differences in Scale vs Differences in Kind
Extra Credits: The Role of the Player
Proudly F2P
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
Post edited by fuglass on
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Comments
Subscribed For: 4 years 5 months 20 days at 26.10.2014
Free Tibet!
Yah I'm with you on everything you've said. That's why I said I don't know how convince others esp the ones who never come here. Maybe a Zone Chat campaign? I don't know, but I've learned there are some very intelligent people that do visit the forums and I'm hoping some of them will have ideas.
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
2. No worries Cryptic is already doing a great job ...
What needs to happen is that companies need to realize that the health of their company is better served by lots of people spending small amounts then a handful of people spending large amounts. Logically its easier to loose your profit margin to a handful of big spenders then it is to a metric ton of 15-20 dollar a month types but so far they have not figured this out yet.
I do feel the game in its current state is worth the money I do put into it.. which is spent for the next year or so on a lifetime sub because I dont like buy zen outright I would rather earn the bulk of my zen by grinding dilithium so I purchased that sub knowing that I will play for at least a year.
So no the game is certainly not worth hundreds of dollars per month to most people but companies have chosen to cater to that top spender crowd .. I dont think the 15 buck a month crowd not spending will change their view about the top spenders in fact it will probably make them focus on them more lol.
But they won't have to change their organizational culture, simply restoring the xp, hp, rewards and other values they have changed since Delta Rising would make 90% of the player feel like they've won the lottery.
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
The player solution, stop buying memberships or spending money on it, so it turned into a chicken and egg thing, which comes first, the developers improving the game or the players spend, spend, spend, the result was the game being shut down forever. That's the problem, we don't want to pay for nothing and developers don't want to give anything unless we pay and neither side wants to back down first.
Although your reasons are probably justified - I already support them by not paying - but you're never going to get everyone to stop paying - there will always be people that do, no matter what you or anyone else does/says in order to persuade them otherwise.
And then! take a nerf bat to it!
And then! take the new toons for the common hoppers and buff them up and pump their stats!
And then, to make things better for everyone! damn and burn those "evil" veterans! that could help those hate breeding trolls, TRIBBLE! this IS the way, can't have those good players get in the way of profit right? wait they already set that table lol must be ...
"the best expansion ever!!!!111!!"
lol
You too may be right, and I agree it's the "Whales" that have the most influence right now and I think if we convince enough of them and non-whales to stop paying Cryptic for abusing us we could get the changes or at least some of the changes the community is screaming for right now.
Hell if I knew of a one shot solution I'd dam sure say so.
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
Remember, that though Cryptic was an American company and is still operated in America, PWE is a Chinese company that really doesn't understand us, or care to. The company is going to run they way they want to and with free to play came an expanded playerbase, but not one that's necessarily wanted.
Remove the whales and remove the game, hopefully the next one from another company will be better.
I also believe that Star Trek Licensing expires in a year or two so CBS might simply choose to not continue the license. I really don't think that will happen, CBS is in business to make money, as much as possible and as quickly as possible before the IP is dead. The days of keeping an IP alive and well are long gone, it's now turn-and-burn to ride out the profit train as long as possible, kill it off, and go on to the next big thing.
I purchased that game it was a fun concept. It went under in short order however the issue in this case is that the genre and age it was targetted to (even though many adults played it) was children and children dont spend money and their parents wont let them either ^^. So there were obviously not enough adults playing it able to keep the game afloat. This is pretty common many companies started producing MMO type kids games after seeing the apparent success of one (wizards online whatever i forget the name of it). They all found out in very short order is that kids games dont sell in MMO form so the bulk of them shut down.
Hehe.
Yah I don't think we can put that genie back in the bottle...but this last months worth of nerfs is still an achievable goal. I hope.
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
don't tell my you thought i WAS one of those? if so you have met an honest player who plays the game "the right way" ...
No, no. I would never think that, silly!
Thing is, even those capable of going 17x faster than me are NOT cheating. My point just was, that there are simply people who are genuinely *very* good at this game. And that Cryptic should not continually punish them, but instead treat them as the assets that they are!
I'm pretty sure they fixed Japori (was never there myself either, btw). Apparently that wasn't enough, though, and they started nerfing XP across the board.
I don't think this is the most effective way to get Cryptic's attention, I think not logging at all is the most effective way.
I just thought this might me easier for most people to do.
Ok- I'm off for awhile I just needed to get that off my chest.
-Glass
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
We can make suggestions, we can rally people to push for change, we can make purchases in certain areas while abstaining from others to show them what we are interested in, but above all this we need to remember we are not entitled to a Star Trek game, the world does not owe us this, it is not some precious thing that developers must rush to produce should none be available, so if STO goes under, that may be the last chance for a Star Trek MMO, ever.
God forbid people create logical feedback and suggestions without having to resort to doom and damnation threads that mock the greedy executive overlords who rule us with a golden fist. Honestly, some people need to grow up. Righteous indignation is something I'd expect from a humanitarian crisis, not a video game.
If you don't like the product, do not invest in it. If people like the product, let them invest in it all they like. What you should be doing is instead of ranting about how you like the product, make suggestions or provide feedback as to why not. Bonus points: The devs might actually read it if you don't come off as a fool.
Ok making a liar out of myself again, but this post appeared while I was reading another and I feel I have to respond.
Maxvitor I have to ask, have you re-read what you just wrote? I understand you love Star Trek that's obvious, but your response is a lot like what you would expect from a with person with Stockholm Syndrome. They may not change paths, they may have money trees in their backyard and not need jobs. But to just accept someone beating and robbing you which is essentially what Cryptic has done to every player in the game isn't right my man. If you care about something you fight for it. If you don't it will be taken away from you anyway.
I swear to you I do not mean this to be a personal attack, but I haven't surrendered just yet and I don't want anyone else to either.
Would you recommend STO to a friend?
This game is in it's death throws. It may not finally die for another year or two but it's gonna happen unless cryptic does something drastic to fix it and we all know it's only going to go downhill from here. Imho I say just let it happen. As much as I love star trek this game is not trek anymore. It hasn't been for years. I only play sto to get my fix by flying my favorite trek ships now, not for the story, the mechanics or whatnot cause frankly, I've seen far better and more canon stuff from average joe's in there mothers basements then whats in this game. I've stopped playing this game on several occasions and even uninstalled it once but I kept coming back because it's the only star trek mmo on the market but even that excuse is not good enough anymore. It's not gonna be much longer before i give up completely especially with star citizen in the works.
I'm a freshly minted noob, ~6-8 wks in. I have a long history with MMOs, going clear back to MUDs and proto-MMOs like NWN on AOL. I am a P2P/P2W Korean Grindfest's nightmare customer -- I spend with my head, not with my heart. Yes, I actually run cost-benefit analysis on my entertainment expenditures. (Which is probably why I stuck with EVE for a good long time.
The DR debacle has had me doing nothing but laughing and shaking my head. I had no money sunk, no significant time wasted. So long as I'm still having fun and still have content, I still play. What it has done, though, is shown me that if I'm even contemplating spending a penny on this game, I'm going to spend the absolute minimum for the maximum irrevocable gain. Anything with a variable that could change tomorrow, I'd never touch. I feel for the long termers, the lifers, and the smaller whales that blew a lot of money on content that keeps whipsawing all over the place. I'd be pist.
PWE and Cryptic should look to Turbine and LOTRO for how to structure a F2P that pulls customers toward spending instead of obstinately pushing them. It's the single best model I've seen as far as monetization cost - benefit, paid versus free content, free acquisition of paid currency, and enticing you to skip the grind. Then again, I could likely count the number of MMO devs that learn from their own actions, let alone the mistakes and successes of others, one one hand, with enough fingers left over for a variety of obscene gestures.
i know lol, in the end even like SWG, and PoTCO darn it, i even had the Behemoth Blade lol, this game will die on it's current course, maybe not quickly, it may take a while, and one thing i do have if anything considering a trait, is a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, long memory, if anything, i will judge Cryptic/PW's following games decades after this game is long gone, and will never play anything by them if it does, but i will still love star trek. and i have as a person made my own fun, i will never forget.
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