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If you're unhappy with the state of the game...

leviathan99#2867 leviathan99
leviathan99#2867
 Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
edited December 2014 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
Investors focus on average playtime per user. That is a huge deal to investors, who treat it as a market share metric.

If you don't login at all, you probably aren't counted. If you play for a long time, you're helping the metric.

If you login daily and leave after a minute or two, you're dragging average playtime per user down.

The most effective form of expressing dissatisfaction is:

Understand that the forums and facebook are not a significant form of feedback. (According to devs. Someone can dig up the quote on this if they feel like it.)
Don't buy. (This drives monetization.)
Avoid using the dilithium exchange either way. (This drives indirect monetization.)
Don't queue Duty Officer assignments, crafting, or rep projects if you don't need them to progress. (This can be used to indicate satisfaction.)
Don't stop logging in altogether. (Then you don't count as a user.)

Login for a minute. Do as close to nothing as possible. Logout.

This will reduce average playtime per user which will drive action on the part of devs given the focus on "average playtime per user," which is a topic the PWE shareholders will demand action on if it dips.
Post edited by Unknown User on

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    voporakvoporak Member Posts: 5,621 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    Interesting, I hadn't thought about that. I haven't logged on for weeks, but I will spring at any opportunity to mess with those precious "metrics."
    I ask nothing but that you remember me.
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    bareelbareel Member Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    stoleviathan99 wrote: »
    This will reduce average playtime per user which will drive action on the part of devs given the focus on "average playtime per user," which is a topic the PWE shareholders will demand action on if it dips.

    While I agree with the theory haven't we already seen enough Cryptic action on the increasing average playtime per user front?

    Just sayin. Best course of action to show dissatisfaction is to not fund the coffers directly or indirectly. That means no buying zen, no trading dilithium for zen, and no purchasing anything from the zen store (or lockbox) from the exchange for energy credits. That part I agree with 100%.
    http://www.helpscout.net/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/
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    betayuyabetayuya Member Posts: 1,059 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    stoleviathan99 wrote: »
    Investors focus on average playtime per user. That is a huge deal to investors, who treat it as a market share metric.

    If you don't login at all, you probably aren't counted. If you play for a long time, you're helping the metric.

    If you login daily and leave after a minute or two, you're dragging average playtime per user down.

    The most effective form of expressing dissatisfaction is:

    Understand that the forums and facebook are not a significant form of feedback. (According to devs. Someone can dig up the quote on this if they feel like it.)
    Don't buy. (This drives monetization.)
    Avoid using the dilithium exchange either way. (This drives indirect monetization.)
    Don't queue Duty Officer assignments, crafting, or rep projects if you don't need them to progress. (This can be used to indicate satisfaction.)
    Don't stop logging in altogether. (Then you don't count as a user.)

    Login for a minute. Do as close to nothing as possible. Logout.

    This will reduce average playtime per user which will drive action on the part of devs given the focus on "average playtime per user," which is a topic the PWE shareholders will demand action on if it dips.

    yup, they run it like ants, no soul tabulated lol...
    eywdK7c.jpg
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    daqheghdaqhegh Member Posts: 1,490 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    So if you don't like it LEAVE. Got it. Black and white generic solution, nevermind the much bigger marketing issues at hand. Thanx for that.

    EDIT: Limiting actual playtime is pointless. I mean, really. If there's nothing to do then there's no reason to log in in the first place.
    My Old Blog about things that could and should have been added when I wrote it. Not sure what I want to do with it now. I'll just keep it available now that most of it is outdated.
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    kdawgenigmakdawgenigma Member Posts: 300 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    stoleviathan99 wrote: »
    Investors focus on average playtime per user. That is a huge deal to investors, who treat it as a market share metric.

    If you don't login at all, you probably aren't counted. If you play for a long time, you're helping the metric.

    If you login daily and leave after a minute or two, you're dragging average playtime per user down.

    The most effective form of expressing dissatisfaction is:

    Understand that the forums and facebook are not a significant form of feedback. (According to devs. Someone can dig up the quote on this if they feel like it.)
    Don't buy. (This drives monetization.)
    Avoid using the dilithium exchange either way. (This drives indirect monetization.)
    Don't queue Duty Officer assignments, crafting, or rep projects if you don't need them to progress. (This can be used to indicate satisfaction.)
    Don't stop logging in altogether. (Then you don't count as a user.)

    Login for a minute. Do as close to nothing as possible. Logout.

    This will reduce average playtime per user which will drive action on the part of devs given the focus on "average playtime per user," which is a topic the PWE shareholders will demand action on if it dips.


    Actually have been doing the short log ins for a while now. Just restart the rep projects and shut it down. I find myself only ever coming around more often when an event is going on. Then it's the daily event log in and shut down.
    -Rule of Acquisition #113: Always have sex with the boss.
    -I am one of the many victims from the hijacked Caspian Division.
    I will not let the childish acts of a criminal ruin this game for me.
    -The actions of Cryptic, on the other hand......
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    leviathan99#2867 leviathan99
    leviathan99#2867
         Member Posts: 7,747 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    voporak wrote: »
    Interesting, I hadn't thought about that. I haven't logged on for weeks, but I will spring at any opportunity to mess with those precious "metrics."

    For extra effect, do it on a Klingon alt.
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    baudlbaudl Member Posts: 4,060 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    If you're unhappy with the state of the game...












    ...play something you are happy with. It is actually as simple as that.
    Go pro or go home
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    lordmalak1lordmalak1 Member Posts: 4,681 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    Don't queue Duty Officer assignments, crafting, or rep projects if you don't need them to progress. (This can be used to indicate satisfaction.)

    So...loggin in to ONLY que crafting and rep projects for 2 minutes can be used against me ?

    devs: "Look, he's logging in and doing projects, he must be a happy player".
    :(
    KBF Lord MalaK
    Awoken Dead
    giphy.gif

    Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
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    betayuyabetayuya Member Posts: 1,059 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    but what's wrong with the whole "Forsaken Blood Death Knight death gripping and drowning the healer under water" trick? lol :D
    eywdK7c.jpg
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    daqheghdaqhegh Member Posts: 1,490 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    lordmalak1 wrote: »
    So...loggin in to ONLY que crafting and rep projects for 2 minutes can be used against me ?

    devs: "Look, he's logging in and doing projects, he must be a happy player".
    :(

    As I mentioned....there's no point. Why log in at all if the act of logging in in itself adds to the stated metrics?
    My Old Blog about things that could and should have been added when I wrote it. Not sure what I want to do with it now. I'll just keep it available now that most of it is outdated.
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    betayuyabetayuya Member Posts: 1,059 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    no login may register as a thrown % and thus, not count it into the numbers at all thus making the average time higher, addition.
    eywdK7c.jpg
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    janus1975janus1975 Member Posts: 739 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    I thought there'd be some sort of mindless "metric" at play... that's an easy one to do, thanks!
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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    thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    The numbers given to the Shareholders are an average from all 14 games. The Shareholders do not see the financial or metrics from each individual game. To make any real dent you would need to offset all 14 games' players. You are talking about millions of players playing many hours per day across those 14 games.

    Good luck with your log in/out tactics to get the Shareholders to "demand" anything. :)
    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.
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    crusader2007crusader2007 Member Posts: 1,804 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    stoleviathan99 wrote: »
    Investors focus on average playtime per user. That is a huge deal to investors, who treat it as a market share metric.

    If you don't login at all, you probably aren't counted. If you play for a long time, you're helping the metric.

    If you login daily and leave after a minute or two, you're dragging average playtime per user down.

    The most effective form of expressing dissatisfaction is:

    Understand that the forums and facebook are not a significant form of feedback. (According to devs. Someone can dig up the quote on this if they feel like it.)
    Don't buy. (This drives monetization.)
    Avoid using the dilithium exchange either way. (This drives indirect monetization.)
    Don't queue Duty Officer assignments, crafting, or rep projects if you don't need them to progress. (This can be used to indicate satisfaction.)
    Don't stop logging in altogether. (Then you don't count as a user.)

    Login for a minute. Do as close to nothing as possible. Logout.

    This will reduce average playtime per user which will drive action on the part of devs given the focus on "average playtime per user," which is a topic the PWE shareholders will demand action on if it dips.

    Just curious..what are your sources?

    Also, I DON'T believe anything DEVs are saying about forums/facebook. IMO they just want to portray as everything is rosy and peachy...thats why they dont want to "appear" like they "read" social media. For instance in the past Dstahl did listen to what "social media" was saying about F2P changes and STFs...then he did make some MAJOR amends. Other examples...the foundry...remember back then when there was a huge outcry of those losing EC/DIL foundry missions instead of giving high scores to "real" froundry authors...they used social media to make the change....that was well documented in the forums...(do a search and you will see how authors used social channels to turn things around in their favor)

    I dont believe for a minute social media was not instrumental...applies the same now.
    DUwNP.gif

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    betayuyabetayuya Member Posts: 1,059 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    in theory the math works, but over 14 games, this type of thing would have to be uh.

    "Legendary" lol
    eywdK7c.jpg
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    vipercgvipercg Member Posts: 40 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    #boycotzenn
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    groomofweirdgroomofweird Member Posts: 1,045 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    I am frustrated with certain aspects of the game, but I am just about getting by.
    I personally wont be making any such kind of protest action. Not because I don't see the validity of this by some people, but because of other people who rely on my logging in (fleet members and such) to set projects, run promotions etc. This more than anything has kept me going through the bad times where I have considered walking away.
    I haven't spent any money on STO since DR dropped, (I spent £90 on ships, upgrades and Dil alone just before and still did not scratch the surface of what needs to be done). This may seem contradictory to my statement that I do not participate in protest type action, but this reflects a RL income change rather than my own motivations.
    Often I login, if only do set doffs, R+D, rep and fleet projects/promotioins, and am immediately greeted by fleet members who un-knowingly have encouraged me to stay online and keep playing throughout the day.
    For me STO has become more than a game, more than a grind-fest and more than just Star Trek, I cant put a label on it, but yeah...
    That's what keeps me playing.
    Nimoysig1_zpsr79joxz3.jpg
    "If this will be our end, then I will have them make SUCH an end as to be worthy of rememberance! Out of torpedos you say?! Find me the ferengi!".
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    carcharodon1975carcharodon1975 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    daqhegh wrote: »
    So if you don't like it LEAVE. Got it. Black and white generic solution, nevermind the much bigger marketing issues at hand. Thanx for that.

    EDIT: Limiting actual playtime is pointless. I mean, really. If there's nothing to do then there's no reason to log in in the first place.

    What's the alternative?Go to Los Gatos and protest in front of Cryptic Studios?Go to Foster City and loot PWE headquarters?Would love to,honestly I do....but not realistic is it.

    The best we can hope for is that they try to cheat the IRS...
    The PWE/Cryptic sweatshop...not where the game is made,but where the game is played!

    Take back your home,end the grind!

    Volunteer moderators policing the forums is like a mall cop trying to solve a murder.
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    originalkaticoriginalkatic Member Posts: 81 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    stoleviathan99 wrote: »
    This will reduce average playtime per user which will drive action on the part of devs given the focus on "average playtime per user," which is a topic the PWE shareholders will demand action on if it dips.

    Lev, you and I have at times been in agreement with certain things, but this isn't one of them. From what I can tell, the direction they've taken the game over the last few years seems to be a response to just these kinds of metrics.

    Players log in, but don't stay for long, so PWE insists on action, the Devs, already pressed for time and budget with other Content they're hoping to bring to us, go the easy route of making the things they're working on, crafting, levelling, upgrades, missions, etc.. Simply take longer. More grinding, longer timers, etc..

    If we gie the Devs reason and motivation to make everything take longer, they will do so.
    Original Join Date: January 2010. Ragequit Date: January 7th 2012. Return Date: October 23rd 2014.

    Almost called it.
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    dpsloss88dpsloss88 Member Posts: 765 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    You really don't need to do anything. DR has already caused everyone to stop playing. PW will eventually order Cryptic to fix it, may take a year....

    Of course they may double down and try to squeeze twice as much out of whales to make up for all the casuals who left.

    Then they will either fix it within 2 years or declare bankruptcy...
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    dareaudareau Member Posts: 2,390 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    I see the "logic" behind the boycott...

    Cryptic wants both a lot of players, and of these players they want pretty much all of them to hang out for the entire "4 hours / day play window"...

    You know, kind of like how TV stations try their best, especially during "sweeps weeks", to make all their shows so interesting and critical that you do nothing but watch their channel all evening...

    By logging in, maybe doing an activity (DOffing) to trigger the logged in metric, then logging out, you're hoping to tell those who see the numbers that there are players who desire this game, but are not content with the actual product so they leave almost as soon as they come in.

    Problem with this is, will they see it as the protest it is, or will the spin doctors say that "all your players care about anymore is this "DOffing" thing, focus on finding ways to make people need to stay in game 4 hours to do their DOffing"...
    Detecting big-time "anti-old-school" bias here. NX? Lobi. TOS/TMP Connie? Super-promotion-box. (aka the two hardest ways to get ships) Excelsior & all 3 TNG "big hero" ships? C-Store. Please Equalize...

    To rob a line: [quote: Mariemaia Kushrenada] Forum Posting is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever. However, opinions will change upon the reading of my post.[/quote]
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    sesshoseki7sesshoseki7 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    stoleviathan99 wrote: »
    Investors focus on average playtime per user. That is a huge deal to investors, who treat it as a market share metric.

    If you don't login at all, you probably aren't counted. If you play for a long time, you're helping the metric.

    If you login daily and leave after a minute or two, you're dragging average playtime per user down.

    The most effective form of expressing dissatisfaction is:

    Understand that the forums and facebook are not a significant form of feedback. (According to devs. Someone can dig up the quote on this if they feel like it.)
    Don't buy. (This drives monetization.)
    Avoid using the dilithium exchange either way. (This drives indirect monetization.)
    Don't queue Duty Officer assignments, crafting, or rep projects if you don't need them to progress. (This can be used to indicate satisfaction.)
    Don't stop logging in altogether. (Then you don't count as a user.)

    Login for a minute. Do as close to nothing as possible. Logout.

    This will reduce average playtime per user which will drive action on the part of devs given the focus on "average playtime per user," which is a topic the PWE shareholders will demand action on if it dips.

    What you leave out is that Cryptic/PWE don't really care how much or little you play...

    They make theirs either way... If you aren't paying, they weren't making money off of you whether you play for a minute or for a month...

    Metrics, statistics, and figures bandied about at a meeting among the vacuous husks attending some "pat ourselves on the back" meeting at Cryptic/PWE headquarters is merely an opiate for those that are being talked to, not those that are making the decisions...

    The real measures are as simple as their ledger book, and the bottom line thereof...

    Whether or not you log in, if they've gotten money, they couldn't care less if you use your toy because they have the money they sought.


    The only way to bend their ear is to have sufficient influence in a stockholder's meeting...

    Beyond that Cryptic/PWE quite literally don't, and won't, hear a thing you have to say and couldn't possibly muster less interest in your comings and goings within the game.
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    adorenkoadorenko Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited December 2014
    Players are just as much content as actual content. No one can run a Conduit solo.
    Looking for more info on Dilithium Rising? Click on the link below:

    [SIGPIC]Click here to visit my STO YouTube channel[/SIGPIC]
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