Players have a different perspective that we sometimes take for granted due to having different information at our fingertips. Sometimes it requires that unique perspective to notice the things that we cannot.
Personally, I play plenty. But I'm not watching the digits of every single bit of XP fly by as I destroy another Kazon or Hierarchy vessel. This is admittedly my bias: I trust the data that I have access to, and don't need to be constantly charting everything that happens to be in-game on a spreadsheet or notepad. This is the type of data that goes unnoticed, while I focus on things like "am I having fun?" or "is this AI behaving as expected?" and "was that boss fight tuned to the right difficulty?"
...cause yeah, I'm a spreadsheet kind of guy and I've mentioned several times that I look at parses in Notepad++.
That post ticked me off - still not sure why - but it ticked me off.
You mean all the stuff that has driven a lot more players away then its brought back.
Exactly. It doesn't make sense to me. Before Delta Rising, you could grind missions all you like, you didn't get any specialization point for it.
I could understand if people were focused more on stuff like these stupid Tier 5 Upgrades now that we know* they are going to sell us Tier 6 variants of the old ships anyway. Or that 3-pack ships count a 3 different upgrades. The whole Tier 5 Upgrade system is a waste of dev time and player money in this light.
But no, people are angry at how fast their skill point progress bar moves. Despite that it finally moves at all, and not just that, you get new abilities for it! Youll' have something to tinker with half a year from now, even if the game would stop getting updates right now.
*) Yes, vestereng. You can stop blabbing about fake ships and animations and what not. Cryptic knows perfectly fine that the ships that sell are canon ships. That's why they gave us Tier 6, so they can sell them again. I'm fine with that. I love the new Pathfinder. But I also love the Eclipse and Phantom.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Perhaps not so much being thought of as a dev, but being thought of as a dev for this game...so uh, why did Hawk leave again? Heh...
Hawk left?! Can we have ALL of our Rep Traits back then?! :P "Season 9: The Desolation of Hawk" still grates on my memory.
Oh, and with the tenfold increase in power creep that came with DR, I think we're a little past "ZOMG! Think of the new players who can't keep up with the veterans!" now. LOL, my own alt can't even keep up any more!
I agree, for years Massively used to be nothing more than a mouthpiece for STO the same that Priority one is.
The funny thing is that they stopped their weekly Captains Log on STO, because people found the cheerleader writhing it to be nothing but a sycophant who seemed to want nothing more than to get into Cryptic the same way others have, by fawning over them.
Just because somebody wrote a half-assed, wishy-washy opinion piece agreeing with you, without being scathingly against, doesn't suddenly make them golden. So-called gaming "journalism" is still nothing but a joke, even Massively.
All you have to do is look at the Mass Effect 3 PR fiasco, and the more recent GamerGate, to see the horrendous rot.
So, I don't put much stock in anything from game "journalism" sites and publications.
Terilynn Shull or Shill as she was, just spouted nothing but how great the game was and how the forums were full of malcontented idiots. She deserved all the grief she got both on here and on Massively.
Still, 4 years + and loving these forums. I may not have played STO since the 45 day patch, but the forums have been a gift that keeps on giving.
The only downside is that the CDF seems to be loosing members left right and center.
I note only 2 in this thread when normally I would expect at least 3.
No "Cosmic" input into this thread? No "Iconic" words of wisdoms from the other Knight?
Massively, like Kotaku and others, is still filled to the gills with TRIBBLE kissers and shills. Nothing has changed.
And if you bother to read the forums, here of later Iconians has had some rather serious criticism of Delta Rising and the way the developers are handling it.
not bad but the author has not really spent the time to really understand the issue. He cites time as an issue to upgrades but not COST, for example. I don't CARE that it takes 10 or 12 or whatever hours to upgrade an item. That is 1 day, and it is annoying, but I can live with it. I care a lot more that it takes $50 worth of dil to upgrade an item, or weeks of farming, or your stockpile if you had one, etc.
While it is semi-valid it reads like someone who casually plays, logged in a couple of times, listened to the negative comments, logged out, and wrote a page on it without actually *really* experiencing the many issues first hand.
I agree with the article, but the author has barely scratched the surface with the issues currently facing the game.
Exactly.
The author admits he hasn't played much in the last few years, admits he's barely scratched the surface of DR, and then presumes to summarise our complaints for us. I call BS.
There are far deeper problems than the author mentions. And he is far, far too charitable with Cryptic. They are the corporation, we are The People. Where benefit of the doubt is given, it should go to us, not to them.
But the gaming press is always afraid to anger game companies, lest it should cost them advertising revenue, which is precisely why the gaming press is not to be trusted. The last honest game site was Old Man Murray, and that's been gone for years.
I just had a visual of a big conference call between PWE and Cryptic about that post. Cryptic proceeds to tear apart the article by citing just how bad of shape the game is really in, which makes the article completely inaccurate
I'm a spreadsheet kind of guy and I've mentioned several times that I look at parses in Notepad++.
That post ticked me off - still not sure why - but it ticked me off.
Yeah It did read like a bit of a brush off to the number crunchers, even if that wasn't borts intention. But when players are spending a lot of time and resources gearing up builds based on very specific, in-game mechanics being quoted, how else are they to know if they are worth the time and resources? It always comes down to the numbers, and thats the same in any MMO. And while some people like to min/max for the end game stomping, others just like to match up the figures and prove builds.
Also, applying this statement against the current state of play made me laugh a lottle -
I trust the data that I have access to, and don't need to be constantly charting everything that happens to be in-game on a spreadsheet or notepad. This is the type of data that goes unnoticed, while I focus on things like "am I having fun?" or "is this AI behaving as expected?" and "was that boss fight tuned to the right difficulty?"
So true, that whole tuned bit made me ROFL. The tuning in this game is like a 1960's USA made V8. To those who don't know cars they sound awesome, to those who know and race highly tuned cars, they sound off beat and poorly tuned.
Case in point current 2014 Corvette Stingray has a 460ish BHP V8 at around 6.2 litres of displacement. It's a heavy beast, it's loud and goes fast in a straight line and very sideways through corners! BMW's 2009 M3 Coupe had a 4 litre V8 with 414 BHP which weighed almost the same as your average 2.0l eco hatchback's engine. The car wasn't only epicly fast in a straight line for it's setup, it was one of the best handling cars of it's generation and faster with better handling that the Corvette.
Displacement isn't everything and neither is going fast in the wrong direction
Putting this back into STO territory, they've gone the wrong direction with their balance. They've not got AI that works reliably, they've not managed to have the STF's work reliably or even at all in some cases. This isn't your indie game just being viewed for the first time either, it's a 4yr old MMO which should really have far more QA before any such release to prevent what has occurred. It's just unprofessional and TBH bloody annoying, especially when some of the Dev's reacted like petulant school children who had just been caught smoking behind the bike shed instead of doing the work they were supposed to be doing.
Chris Robert's on SC:
"You don't have to do something again and again and again repetitive that doesn't have much challange, that's just a general good gameplay thing."
Actually, now that I know he's gone, I feel kinda sad. Maybe we gave him too hard a time?!
Day before the bug XP nerf stage 2... this "might" explain some things, does not explain anything on paper but uh, here it sits folks, one more piece of the ever constructing puzzle...
Guessing only that he didn't want to support the beast this was becoming
So true, that whole tuned bit made me ROFL. The tuning in this game is like a 1960's USA made V8. To those who don't know cars they sound awesome, to those who know and race highly tuned cars, they sound off beat and poorly tuned.
Case in point current 2014 Corvette Stingray has a 460ish BHP V8 at around 6.2 litres of displacement. It's a heavy beast, it's loud and goes fast in a straight line and very sideways through corners! BMW's 2009 M3 Coupe had a 4 litre V8 with 414 BHP which weighed almost the same as your average 2.0l eco hatchback's engine. The car wasn't only epicly fast in a straight line for it's setup, it was one of the best handling cars of it's generation and faster with better handling that the Corvette.
Displacement isn't everything and neither is going fast in the wrong direction
Putting this back into STO territory, they've gone the wrong direction with their balance. They've not got AI that works reliably, they've not managed to have the STF's work reliably or even at all in some cases. This isn't your indie game just being viewed for the first time either, it's a 4yr old MMO which should really have far more QA before any such release to prevent what has occurred. It's just unprofessional and TBH bloody annoying, especially when some of the Dev's reacted like petulant school children who had just been caught smoking behind the bike shed instead of doing the work they were supposed to be doing.
Indeed! Thats exactly where I am with Delta Rising and STO at the moment. From a creative and graphic design perspective, I think DR looks and sounds amazing, as mentioned in hippies blog, but the underlying mechanics? It cant drive a straight line and needs to be pushed 1/3 of every mile travelled.
We have been given lip service and looks, with no real balance or control.. Certainly not what they have been trying to pass it off as.
Day before the bug XP nerf stage 2... this "might" explain some things, does not explain anything on paper but uh, here it sits folks, one more piece of the ever constructing puzzle...
Guessing only that he didn't want to support the beast this was becoming
It must be pretty difficult pouring yourself into the developement of something, then watching it slowly cheapened or worse, bent and twisted into something you no longer want to be associated with.
I dont have a problem with grinding...grinding was the new norm since F2P model launched...Season 6 or so. LOTs of people complained about how bad was back then.However, if you read the Massive article I would agree that there is NO BALANCE now.
From scale of 1 to 10. Pre DR this used to be about 2-3 for grinding. Post DR is more like a 12 in a grinding scale (read the blogs to see the calculation)..CRAPTIC did not have enough content post DR to scale up or SLOW players to level 60. SO what is next...making GRINDING to an extreme level. Grinding is OK but too much of anything is not that great.
BALANCING will be a difficult task for Craptic..perhaps they will need a whole new season to reach that balance...in the meantime dont think he playerbase will give them that much time and we are the losers. :mad:
It's a shame Massively doesn't have an STO focused writer anymore. The contributor of that article seems to write about a bit of everything.
Focused = Bought and paid for?
Focused = Only the good things in STO?
Focused = Can I have lots of cuddly interviews and gush at every word they say?
Nah, Priority one has that all covered.
Straight from the mouth of one of the leaders of the CDF - "I tell you what, Haven't spent any money either - I'm a lousy freeloader" - Jonsills 17/12/2014
I my personal and humble opinion,... the levelling of rank should have ended at Captain for any new character. Any levelling above that should be used for this specialisation tree that we have now. Rank of Admiral can be given to those belonging to a fleet and that rank is optional.
Well,.. that is one suggestion...
I think the reason for the many missing XP between the mission is there because maybe more missions are to come.
But this system can only last for so long until you are at the same problem they where when they where at level 50. IN my humble opinion the current rank system is a problem. More missions are most likely to come since its a popular content, craved my many (me included).
I personally dislikes the patrol mission.. I have still not done all those patrol mission yet I am still level 60. I have 7 more toons that are more or less at level 50 still. Its not the story, the missions (minus the patrols) where written well and was fun. I just haven't felt like doing more (or had time due to RL).
The level 6 ships does§t bother me to much... it just means it will take me longer time to grind. (saving to the intrepid pack.. fingers crossed I will get it until april) However I can understand why people might be upset. Personally I like the new ship system and tier 5U isn't that bad.
I think the reason for the many missing XP between the mission is there because maybe more missions are to come.
I somehow doubt it, since the last Mission they added was LvL 60 only ... maybe they'll "re-design" the LvL-ing progression after another 2-3 years, when enough new Episodes are around ... but that's about it ...
Besides the next Season is only 3-4 months away, when are they supposed to "squeeze in" the "2nd half of DR" (or more like 80%) ... not gonna happen ...
PS : With the current XP-rate, we'd probably need another ~50 Episodes ... DR had 8 ... sounds like a pretty weird release schedule, if you ask me ... 8 at Launch, 1 two months later, the other 50 ?
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
Did anyone hear the podcast of Priority One that Gecko says we was not meant repeat content to level up? I swear he is smoking something.
First, he don't want people to grind to power level but to play content. Second, they are taking content out left and right without adding significant or fixing the content in game already.
WTH!
If we wasn't meant to grind to power level, then why in the hell they put out Delta Rising : Nerf and Grind Bat.
I think the reason for the many missing XP between the mission is there because maybe more missions are to come.
If there's anything beyond the obvious (they want us to do more than just grind through the episodes one after another. Whine as you guys will but that's the scale of the problem here. Its just pacing) it may be that the episode progression tracks with a player coming up from 1 rather than from 50. I started a new romulan recently and got access to the delta quadrant during the Cardassian mission series. If I decided to go through the Breen, Borg, and Solanae I'd be set to plow right through the DQ without any special effort (ie. an attempt to do anything besides missions.)
However, it is hard to see this being a competent intention (since scaling the missions as per normal would have the same effect, no special effort, with the one stipulation that it would apply to EVERYONE instead.)
PS. as far as the OP is concerned, yes its nice to read an article about a subject since the format goes into a little more depth than a forum post. But do remember that the only thing separating you from the writer is just that someone else has given him the license to post there.
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!
If there's anything beyond the obvious (they want us to do more than just grind through the episodes one after another. Whine as you guys will but that's the scale of the problem here. Its just pacing) it may be that the episode progression tracks with a player coming up from 1 rather than from 50. I started a new romulan recently and got access to the delta quadrant during the Cardassian mission series. If I decided to go through the Breen, Borg, and Solanae I'd be set to plow right through the DQ without any special effort (ie. an attempt to do anything besides missions.)
However, it is hard to see this being a competent intention (since scaling the missions as per normal would have the same effect, no special effort, with the one stipulation that it would apply to EVERYONE instead.)
Yes, progression's still fast 1-50 so this doesn't fix anything in those terms. For established players, the obvious thing to do would have been to have a grandfathering system where you could turn chunks of your boff skillpoints pool into captain points (say, 50% of those points available to be turned back into player XP, limited to full level chunks). More than one of my toons has several million boff XP, yet I still have to grind out moar points for no real reason. I'm sure I'm nowhere near being the only one in that position.
I dont have a problem with grinding...grinding was the new norm since F2P model launched...Season 6 or so. LOTs of people complained about how bad was back then.However, if you read the Massive article I would agree that there is NO BALANCE now.
From scale of 1 to 10. Pre DR this used to be about 2-3 for grinding. Post DR is more like a 12 in a grinding scale (read the blogs to see the calculation)..CRAPTIC did not have enough content post DR to scale up or SLOW players to level 60. SO what is next...making GRINDING to an extreme level. Grinding is OK but too much of anything is not that great.
BALANCING will be a difficult task for Craptic..perhaps they will need a whole new season to reach that balance...in the meantime dont think he playerbase will give them that much time and we are the losers. :mad:
i dont mind any grind its an indelible part of gaming whether online or console its what keeps our butts in chairs and playing.
but DR is more like cryptic being harsh and sadistic towards the casual gamer for me and this is my opinion that cryptic wanted to alienate the casual gamer.
strange since most games like this casual gamers are the backbone of the playerbase so makes me wonder where they are going with this.
if they are going to go PvP heavy then they need to get something going for PvP ASAP to get PvP junkies to want to play.
if not then what is cryptics goal if its to get more players this is the wrong route instead since DR released this game has started getting a bad reputation and if somethings not done interest in the game will wane.
Comments
Perhaps not so much being thought of as a dev, but being thought of as a dev for this game...so uh, why did Hawk leave again? Heh...
Some of the times we want to grumble about them being incompetent, it's just a case that they've got a different vision - different goals...
Like this post...
...cause yeah, I'm a spreadsheet kind of guy and I've mentioned several times that I look at parses in Notepad++.
That post ticked me off - still not sure why - but it ticked me off.
I could understand if people were focused more on stuff like these stupid Tier 5 Upgrades now that we know* they are going to sell us Tier 6 variants of the old ships anyway. Or that 3-pack ships count a 3 different upgrades. The whole Tier 5 Upgrade system is a waste of dev time and player money in this light.
But no, people are angry at how fast their skill point progress bar moves. Despite that it finally moves at all, and not just that, you get new abilities for it! Youll' have something to tinker with half a year from now, even if the game would stop getting updates right now.
*) Yes, vestereng. You can stop blabbing about fake ships and animations and what not. Cryptic knows perfectly fine that the ships that sell are canon ships. That's why they gave us Tier 6, so they can sell them again. I'm fine with that. I love the new Pathfinder. But I also love the Eclipse and Phantom.
Hawk left?! Can we have ALL of our Rep Traits back then?! :P "Season 9: The Desolation of Hawk" still grates on my memory.
Oh, and with the tenfold increase in power creep that came with DR, I think we're a little past "ZOMG! Think of the new players who can't keep up with the veterans!" now. LOL, my own alt can't even keep up any more!
https://twitter.com/JeffAHamilton/status/535108017193091072
Just because somebody wrote a half-assed, wishy-washy opinion piece agreeing with you, without being scathingly against, doesn't suddenly make them golden. So-called gaming "journalism" is still nothing but a joke, even Massively.
All you have to do is look at the Mass Effect 3 PR fiasco, and the more recent GamerGate, to see the horrendous rot.
So, I don't put much stock in anything from game "journalism" sites and publications.
Massively, like Kotaku and others, is still filled to the gills with TRIBBLE kissers and shills. Nothing has changed.
And if you bother to read the forums, here of later Iconians has had some rather serious criticism of Delta Rising and the way the developers are handling it.
Warning:Earthspace dox Chatting community may get you suspended or make you laugh.
Ps. If Missions cant kill you Earthspacedox chat will. Enjoy your visit
Discretion advised
This is very random reply.
i have hurt many people and i am deeply sorry but i hope i you will forgive me and i will try to make it better i am sorry.
While it is semi-valid it reads like someone who casually plays, logged in a couple of times, listened to the negative comments, logged out, and wrote a page on it without actually *really* experiencing the many issues first hand.
Exactly.
The author admits he hasn't played much in the last few years, admits he's barely scratched the surface of DR, and then presumes to summarise our complaints for us. I call BS.
There are far deeper problems than the author mentions. And he is far, far too charitable with Cryptic. They are the corporation, we are The People. Where benefit of the doubt is given, it should go to us, not to them.
But the gaming press is always afraid to anger game companies, lest it should cost them advertising revenue, which is precisely why the gaming press is not to be trusted. The last honest game site was Old Man Murray, and that's been gone for years.
Actually, now that I know he's gone, I feel kinda sad. Maybe we gave him too hard a time?!
Maybe he disagreed with recent business decisions. Maybe he just got a better job.
We'll never know.
Well your attitude on the forums has certainly changed.
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Yeah It did read like a bit of a brush off to the number crunchers, even if that wasn't borts intention. But when players are spending a lot of time and resources gearing up builds based on very specific, in-game mechanics being quoted, how else are they to know if they are worth the time and resources? It always comes down to the numbers, and thats the same in any MMO. And while some people like to min/max for the end game stomping, others just like to match up the figures and prove builds.
Also, applying this statement against the current state of play made me laugh a lottle -
Currently, I cant see the fun for the work
My kamikaze carrier pets suggest otherwise
Sorry, cant move past the word "tuned" :rolleyes:
Case in point current 2014 Corvette Stingray has a 460ish BHP V8 at around 6.2 litres of displacement. It's a heavy beast, it's loud and goes fast in a straight line and very sideways through corners! BMW's 2009 M3 Coupe had a 4 litre V8 with 414 BHP which weighed almost the same as your average 2.0l eco hatchback's engine. The car wasn't only epicly fast in a straight line for it's setup, it was one of the best handling cars of it's generation and faster with better handling that the Corvette.
Displacement isn't everything and neither is going fast in the wrong direction
Putting this back into STO territory, they've gone the wrong direction with their balance. They've not got AI that works reliably, they've not managed to have the STF's work reliably or even at all in some cases. This isn't your indie game just being viewed for the first time either, it's a 4yr old MMO which should really have far more QA before any such release to prevent what has occurred. It's just unprofessional and TBH bloody annoying, especially when some of the Dev's reacted like petulant school children who had just been caught smoking behind the bike shed instead of doing the work they were supposed to be doing.
"You don't have to do something again and again and again repetitive that doesn't have much challange, that's just a general good gameplay thing."
Day before the bug XP nerf stage 2... this "might" explain some things, does not explain anything on paper but uh, here it sits folks, one more piece of the ever constructing puzzle...
Guessing only that he didn't want to support the beast this was becoming
Indeed! Thats exactly where I am with Delta Rising and STO at the moment. From a creative and graphic design perspective, I think DR looks and sounds amazing, as mentioned in hippies blog, but the underlying mechanics? It cant drive a straight line and needs to be pushed 1/3 of every mile travelled.
We have been given lip service and looks, with no real balance or control.. Certainly not what they have been trying to pass it off as.
It must be pretty difficult pouring yourself into the developement of something, then watching it slowly cheapened or worse, bent and twisted into something you no longer want to be associated with.
Regardless of the articles inaccuracies, Delta Rising is a massive mess.
Nah ... , a little self criticism is good for the soul ... :P
I like the tips they show on loading screens in Swordsman.
From scale of 1 to 10. Pre DR this used to be about 2-3 for grinding. Post DR is more like a 12 in a grinding scale (read the blogs to see the calculation)..CRAPTIC did not have enough content post DR to scale up or SLOW players to level 60. SO what is next...making GRINDING to an extreme level. Grinding is OK but too much of anything is not that great.
BALANCING will be a difficult task for Craptic..perhaps they will need a whole new season to reach that balance...in the meantime dont think he playerbase will give them that much time and we are the losers. :mad:
Focused = Bought and paid for?
Focused = Only the good things in STO?
Focused = Can I have lots of cuddly interviews and gush at every word they say?
Nah, Priority one has that all covered.
Well,.. that is one suggestion...
I think the reason for the many missing XP between the mission is there because maybe more missions are to come.
But this system can only last for so long until you are at the same problem they where when they where at level 50. IN my humble opinion the current rank system is a problem. More missions are most likely to come since its a popular content, craved my many (me included).
I personally dislikes the patrol mission.. I have still not done all those patrol mission yet I am still level 60. I have 7 more toons that are more or less at level 50 still. Its not the story, the missions (minus the patrols) where written well and was fun. I just haven't felt like doing more (or had time due to RL).
The level 6 ships does§t bother me to much... it just means it will take me longer time to grind. (saving to the intrepid pack.. fingers crossed I will get it until april) However I can understand why people might be upset. Personally I like the new ship system and tier 5U isn't that bad.
I somehow doubt it, since the last Mission they added was LvL 60 only ... maybe they'll "re-design" the LvL-ing progression after another 2-3 years, when enough new Episodes are around ... but that's about it ...
Besides the next Season is only 3-4 months away, when are they supposed to "squeeze in" the "2nd half of DR" (or more like 80%) ... not gonna happen ...
PS : With the current XP-rate, we'd probably need another ~50 Episodes ... DR had 8 ... sounds like a pretty weird release schedule, if you ask me ... 8 at Launch, 1 two months later, the other 50 ?
First, he don't want people to grind to power level but to play content. Second, they are taking content out left and right without adding significant or fixing the content in game already.
WTH!
If we wasn't meant to grind to power level, then why in the hell they put out Delta Rising : Nerf and Grind Bat.
If there's anything beyond the obvious (they want us to do more than just grind through the episodes one after another. Whine as you guys will but that's the scale of the problem here. Its just pacing) it may be that the episode progression tracks with a player coming up from 1 rather than from 50. I started a new romulan recently and got access to the delta quadrant during the Cardassian mission series. If I decided to go through the Breen, Borg, and Solanae I'd be set to plow right through the DQ without any special effort (ie. an attempt to do anything besides missions.)
However, it is hard to see this being a competent intention (since scaling the missions as per normal would have the same effect, no special effort, with the one stipulation that it would apply to EVERYONE instead.)
PS. as far as the OP is concerned, yes its nice to read an article about a subject since the format goes into a little more depth than a forum post. But do remember that the only thing separating you from the writer is just that someone else has given him the license to post there.
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!
Yes, progression's still fast 1-50 so this doesn't fix anything in those terms. For established players, the obvious thing to do would have been to have a grandfathering system where you could turn chunks of your boff skillpoints pool into captain points (say, 50% of those points available to be turned back into player XP, limited to full level chunks). More than one of my toons has several million boff XP, yet I still have to grind out moar points for no real reason. I'm sure I'm nowhere near being the only one in that position.
i dont mind any grind its an indelible part of gaming whether online or console its what keeps our butts in chairs and playing.
but DR is more like cryptic being harsh and sadistic towards the casual gamer for me and this is my opinion that cryptic wanted to alienate the casual gamer.
strange since most games like this casual gamers are the backbone of the playerbase so makes me wonder where they are going with this.
if they are going to go PvP heavy then they need to get something going for PvP ASAP to get PvP junkies to want to play.
if not then what is cryptics goal if its to get more players this is the wrong route instead since DR released this game has started getting a bad reputation and if somethings not done interest in the game will wane.
well thats just my two cents on this