Of course it's censorship and it is absolutely legal. PWE owns these forums. If there is any post on here they don't want, they have every right to remove it.
The point was to show that there are proper ways of going about collecting negative feedback without allowing the forums to be littered with "you suck!" posts.
Still that's feedback. It's not feedback Cryptic/PWE wants to hear.
So, instead of saying "you suck! Cryptic. It's now wrong to say, DR is the best expansion ever!! No really.
In Amazon's case, those reviews are good for business. Bad products get effectively "downvoted", people spend more on the good products, customers are happy and they get repeat business.
Amazon has no vested interest in promoting any one product because they're a distributor. As long as people are generally satisfied with Amazon's service, it's all good.
In the MMO game industry, bad reviews hurt a bit more because these companies aren't Amazon. In most cases they have one stand-out product and maybe a few others that people recognize. If this were still the disconnected boxed-game industry, they'd have a pretty good incentive to bury bad reviews. No company in this day and age can totally bury bad reviews, all they can do is try to spin 'em.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Although the game has issues one cannot deny its pulling its weight financially and even drawing new players. I see lots of new ones I mean really truly new ones asking how to grind for rep marks etc etc on a daily basis.
I have one major beef and its the STF's but I can do without them and still have fun and that is what I do. Hopefully they take another look at them after the holidays. The "hell levels" as they are called in gaming between 50-60 are typical and everything else I have seen them do is typical. That being said the things like levelling is not truly that bad lol I have now 4 characters at 60 with 2 earning specialization points at a decent clip. I have created 2 new characters (talaxians one fed and one klingon since I upgraded to lifetime sub from monthly sub) and am having fun. I have revived an old old klingon fleet created and started in beta and held together with string and paper clips until a proper fleet system has come into place and although I am a quiet person am having fun with it. I may even start recruiting new people into it eventually, but for now its for the couple of friends I brought with me plus the other original guild owners/founders. If I was not enjoying myself I would have done none of this and would be doing something else soo.... People need to accept that there are individuals out there who are enjoying the game as it is now.
When I started this game way back when it was very low on content. Klingons had nothing and we could only level a klingon via pvp and although I enjoyed the PvP 3 maps was hardly a game. So I made a federation because they had a wee bit more content lol. when I returned I saw starfleet academy and a harbour and a redesigned starfleet. I found klingons now had like a proper homeworld base and a nice storyline... soo the game has grown by like a lot... there is tons to do now at level cap and not just 3 pvp maps lol.
In trying to look at the whole picture and looking at crytpics website its hiring like a ton of new staff. Therefore they must be doing something right because they are expanding and not shrinking.
you see in bug elite,eng hides behind his shield and others run for their lives...nobody revives,from 20 runs you will see that maybe in 2 runs..
1) follow the engineer and use his shields he is your tank you need to go where he goes he can't follow 4 people going 4 different directions. That is why he puts down healing stations and landmines and shields in strategic places they are there for people to use he is not hiding and people in these groups learn "engineer = life".
2) there is no time to revive the person reviving you will die as well just get up and run back ...
I'll disagree that they do not want to hear feedback that is negative. As an example;
1. "I found DR to be light on content with the gap between story missions much too lengthy"
2. "DR F*@^KNG sucks!!"
Both are displaying dissatisfaction with the product. Were this your business, which would you prefer to display on your public website?
Everyone puts their best foot forward all the time, be it when meeting someone new, job interviews etc. Businesses censoring their internet properties are doing nothing different.
If that was my company.
I would appreciate comment 1.
As for as comment 2, I would contact the person and at least found out why. If it's a legit reason. I would consider investigating the problem be it a bug or a imbalance issue. Seeing if their is a reasonable solution that can be worked on.
Unlike Cryptic tactics, delete, ban, and censor future comments. Then call players cheaters, whiners, and complainers. Then tell moderators to wipe out messages if need be.
Honestly, not everyone in the core player base is upset. The post, OP is your opinion and I respectfully disagree with it. I'm fine with all of the changes and think that we are at a point where we finally DO have end game content after years of not having it and people can't seem to handle it.
People need to adjust their play styles and expectations and adapt to the new game we have instead of going ape sh*t about it. I think the Queues being pretty empty right now is not a direct result of DR but a combination of different factors. Just my observation but the Winter Wonderland has many populated instances going and I think that many people are enjoying the holiday content.
I also think with all the battlezones and the new DR episodes that people are busy with that stuff too. After the winter thing is done and people finish all their DR stuff we will see more people come back to the queues. It's a popular argument here to say "I has sandwich so you can't be starving" but the bottom line is that I cannot relate at all to all these complaints.
I've been able to upgrade all of my main's gear to MKXIV at a reasonable pace with the help of fleetmates. I've been enjoying having something new to work towards and am working my way to level 60.
My advice to everyone here is to go play the game and stay off the forums completely for a week or two because as someone who enjoys the game I'm sick of all the negativity and would love to read more about new stuff and less about QQ. Or if you are so tired of the game go play something else and come back when you're ready or don't because no one cares.
dude im not talking about tanking im talking about few spots where eng off can hide himself and stay alive ,others ppl keep dying....im no new in this game...u dont undertand wht im saying...i have eng ,eng is best class right now for ground elite,but smart and good tanker not TRIBBLE....lle.. eng/tanker...
your complaining about engineers hiding ? I am an engineer and cant chase 4 people around with shields. I took out other abilities and added a shield dome which i never use for my own personal play to help others. I put down shields for others and so do other engineers. I put down a heal station and a cover shield for tacticals to get behind.
Engineers are epic in bug hunt. I ran a bug hunt elite with 4 engineers last night the tactical that came with us had his choice of shields and heal statiions lol.
Maybe some engineers dont know how to play but many do and they will learn watching other engineers play what to take with them into those instances to help the team. Dont be complaining about engineers they are epic on the ground and pretty darned good in the air as well. :P
I also believe there is an ever growing disconnect between the devs and the game/players. Just watch a livestream or two of a dev trying to play content in game. Unless they are really playing down their skills for the livestream, it's just painful to watch and think about what they can actually do in game without dev commands. (TL;DR = Do they truly know the state of the game from our perspective?)
Lost of good points in the thread but I'd like to expand this one a little.
Livestreams... look at this... let me just equip it... how cool is that... pewpew... and this... of course I didn't have to do any leg work to get this in my inventory but still... cool huh? Hang on let me show you how oh respawn one sec here we go how cool is oh respawn well you get the idea and isn't it cool?
There really should be no disconnect between the game - as is - and the developers. Developers must be players... and without uberdevtools... otherwise their understanding of the game is through stats and metrics which is nowhere near gameplay or gamefeel or gamereality.
The only other alternative is to actually listen to players... and make measured adjustments to the game accordingly.
As for as comment 2, I would contact the person and at least found out why. If it's a legit reason. I would consider investigating the problem be it a bug or a imbalance issue. Seeing if their is a reasonable solution that can be worked on.
Unlike Cryptic tactics, delete, ban, and censor future comments. Then call players cheaters, whiners, and complainers. Then tell moderators to wipe out messages if need be.
1) Would you leave comment 2 in place? Or would you take down comment 2 while trying to reach out to that person?
2) What would you do in the highly likely event that the "you suck" person has no legitimate gripe, but is just venting an inarticulate and baseless sense of anger?
3) How much money would your company be spending on Customer Relations staff in this attempt to reach out? Are you willing to lie and say that you really think the expense would be worth the occasional nugget of unique quality feedback it uncovered?
4) How do you know Cryptic isn't reaching out to some people to find out underlying issues? Why is it wrong to censor or ban people who aren't contributing anything valuable to the discourse in the community?
Setting aside the memes and flames, it's pretty clear that there's a lot of upheaval among the core of Cryptic's playerbase. (...)
Understatement of the Year[tm].
Thank you for opening this thread, azniadeet. Let's hope there will be (mostly) positive suggestions/recommendations.
Your thread title seeks a response from Cryptic. To be fair, I seriously doubt anyone from Cryptic's executive or middle management will directly address this.
With that said, I'll offer a few positive thoughts of my own -- and hope Cryptic actually reads/considers the positive contributions of posters on this thread.
1.) Roadmap
While it's understandable to "tease" the player (customer) base with a forthcoming release, there needs to be a more robust communications plan initiated. A product roadmap needs to be implemented, even if it's 6 months (2 quarters) which is revealed.
Frankly speaking, I'm actually looking away from Cryptic/PWE products like STO -- and taking a VERY serious look at investing my game playing time elsewhere, e.g. Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, etc.
IF I knew what was coming up on the production calendar, IF I felt the community was engaged to get feedback about upcoming events, future plans, etc. THEN I would probable devote more time and resources into STO.
Right now, "Delta Rising" (among other updates/tweaks within STO, post-DR release) have soured me on STO. Same for others. I still play, but a roadmap would go a L O N G way in restoring my faith this game addresses the community's needs (AKA the CuSTOMERS' needs). I would ask the Product Manager to give all of this some serious consideration. This comes from me, an LTS member, plus someone whom has spent considerable $$ on this game (and is currently NOT doing so). The "NOT doing so" should be your primary concern.
2.) New Community Manager Engagement
The role of Community Managers needs to be redefined by Cryptic/PWE. This is NOT a dig at the current team.
The redefined role needs to be communicated directly to the community.
This involves far-better communications during patching (see Neverwinter as a good example of community updating); conducting polls with actual follow-ups (not soliciting for information, then failing to follow through); answering MORE community questions, and/or providing a monthly FAQ-type update based on community-solicited questions. The list goes on...
3.) New Community Forum Software
Personally, I'd prefer a different forum software is used, something akin to Reddit sans up/down votes.
4.) LESS Twitter/Reddit/Facebook engagement, MORE Community engagement
I am not interested in using Twitter or FB to find out the status of offline servers, or new Cryptic Studios STO art, etc.
Cryptic/PWE: Use your official Forum as THE source of information distribution. If posting something unique elsewhere, then take the time to cross-link to it.
5.) Help the Community understand HOW you've listened to them
Executives and management will likely balk at this; however, if STO is a viable property to continue growing/making monies from, this should be a TOP-TIER ACTIONABLE for them.
Gamers are opinionated; Star Trek fans are passionate -- and the combination of both has produced quite a, um... fascinating culture within these forums (and in-game).
To acknowledge the community is being heard:
- Conduct polls regarding what in-game assets/additions are desired by players/customers. These are C-Store items, not freebies.
- Create a program where customers can "vote" by pre-purchasing the C-Store item. Cryptic would announce a possible C-Store item, allowing customers to pre-purchase at a 30% limited-time discount. Allow comments to shape the direction of the C-Store offering. IMPORTANT: Add a grace period where users can withdraw their purchase if they don't agree with the changes. How Cryptic shows enough players are buying the items is up to them. Hiding numbers could create dischord, though.
- More Dev engagement in the Forums. (Sorry, Devs. Put on the thick armor and wade in.)
- Conduct monthly Q&As -- and generate FAQs to showcase responses. (I miss these.)
6.) Bring back the Daily Event Calendar
I'm really, really, really (did I mention really) tired of not being able to participate in events, like "Mine Trap" when there aren't enough players lining up. Don't remove content; bring back the daily event calendar (with expanded rewards) to generate excitement/interest. Run each event for 3-4 hours at a time (or longer) to encourage participation, due to time zone differences for the player base.
7.) Normal Event Requirement BEFORE allowing Advanced or Elite Event participation
Product Manager/Devs: This is a must. You need to add a requirement for all players to achieve five (5) successful runs on Normal events BEFORE being allowed to play Advanced events. You need to mandate players achieve five (5) successful runs in Advanced events BEFORE being allowed to play Elite events.
Depending on how you enact this, it may require Elite users to re-qualify before playing Advance or Elite.
C'est la vie.
As a player, I am very, VERY disappointed and discouraged from players who jump into Advanced (as an example) -- and literally kill the event within minutes from a lack of knowledge or ability.
Cryptic already has level requirements; why not qualifiers, too?
got one simple question. what happend to --> "explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." is that even still part of this game anymore or it this a game only set up to try to make it one group vs another one. because it not startrek if the take out the idea of :explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." it might as well be some thing else other wise. they lost the main reason startrek is startrek then. just a thought i have
I will just say it as I see and feel it, the first Mistake Cryptic made was to totally and completely
get rid of the Old STFs. Yes, they were hard....yes they took time to run them.....yes, they were not something you just jumped into and beat and yes, they pulled together fleets and allowed us to make friends. They were the best end game content I have ever played....and I can say I have played a few. I never left, even as Cryptic was sold and the content came to a halt....the STFs kept me around. I wish they would bring them back, at least give us a choice of which one to play....as I cannot and will not call what I Queue for a STF of any form. Simply put, I would like some type of end game content that makes a group of players come together and have to actually work as a team to complete. That....in my opinion, is what is missing from this game....I don't need simple, I need something to actually challenge me in all areas or I Will Get Bored like I did a while back and left STO for over a year. What we have now is nothing but run and shoot, it is like raid finder in WoW.....and for the record, I hate Raid Finder with a passion. If any Dev reads this, think, if you were bored, would you keep logging on to play, I won't.:rolleyes:
got one simple question. what happend to --> "explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." is that even still part of this game anymore or it this a game only set up to try to make it one group vs another one. because it not startrek if the take out the idea of :explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." it might as well be some thing else other wise. they lost the main reason startrek is startrek then. just a thought i have
It's still Star Trek. Except without all the drama/character-oriented episodes and more focus on the action/drama episodes. The ones where the Feds go in, encounter some trouble, try to talk it out, then usually have to puzzle or shoot their way back out, and solve it with their ship. And even Star Trek rarely ever actually encountered new life and new civilizations; they usually spent most of the time dealing with the issues aboard the ship. Unless we're talking about Voyager, in which half the responses is usually fight first, talk later.
But that doesn't have anything to do with the issue at hand, which is the lack of general communication from the Devs, even if it's just early teases and previews for feedback rather than popping it with a day or two before it goes live.
STEPHEN - Thank you! We put a significant amount of time and effort into planning, designing, and executing our vision for Delta Rising. The entire team really came together and worked for a significant portion of 2014 to build everything that shipped, and Im not sure if the team was more excited to release the expansion or to see the communitys reaction to our work. Once it was actually live, we were incredibly pleased with the feedback from the community about the stories and features in Delta Rising.
I dont get it, if they are so exited and icredibly pleased with the feedback from the community, ¿then why they are closing the feedback threads?
1) Would you leave comment 2 in place? Or would you take down comment 2 while trying to reach out to that person?
2) What would you do in the highly likely event that the "you suck" person has no legitimate gripe, but is just venting an inarticulate and baseless sense of anger?
3) How much money would your company be spending on Customer Relations staff in this attempt to reach out? Are you willing to lie and say that you really think the expense would be worth the occasional nugget of unique quality feedback it uncovered?
4) How do you know Cryptic isn't reaching out to some people to find out underlying issues? Why is it wrong to censor or ban people who aren't contributing anything valuable to the discourse in the community?
1) Yes. I would try to reach out to the person by email and/or invite to a focus group (if possible).
2) If that person is doing that then the message has to be deleted or redacted in some form.
3) Whatever is feasible? It's two options either pay someone to do customer service / relations or loss money in profit because of negative reviews.
4) I wouldn't know but it seems they aren't. Considering the almost 0 response from Cryptic/PWE and the pipe dream Priority One Podcast (Everything is awesome) from Geko and D'Angelo.
It's flat out censorship.
Maybe you can turn that "You suck" comment to "I disagree. They are working on fixing the game. It's not bad". The latter is not stellar but definitely beats the person saying "You suck."
STEPHEN - Thank you! We put a significant amount of time and effort into planning, designing, and executing our vision for Delta Rising. The entire team really came together and worked for a significant portion of 2014 to build everything that shipped, and Im not sure if the team was more excited to release the expansion or to see the communitys reaction to our work. Once it was actually live, we were incredibly pleased with the feedback from the community about the stories and features in Delta Rising.
I dont get it, if they are so exited and icredibly pleased with the feedback from the community, ¿then why they are closing the feedback threads?
I second that. The article is PR nonsense. The questions and answers are orchestrated.
TBH (as the OP requested) - if you're unhappy with the game, I think you're fooling yourself if you think you're going to get anything beyond the status-quo.
They will do nothing. Plain and simple. Don't get me wrong - I also feel the current state of the game is a mess and there have been countless constructive suggestions for improvement mostly tossed aside/ignored over the years. The way I realistically see it - we have 2 choices:
1) Keep playing the game regardless of the things we don't like. Vainly hoping for the day our constructive feedback doesn't feel like peeing in the wind as peeps desperately clutch their LifeTime Subs.
2) Stop playing the game. Eventually another (better) one can rise from the ashes run by more competent game developers/studio. There are lots of options here. Since the game came out it has spanned the life of 2 generations of console games. Don't like consoles? - Find something on PC to entertain you in the meantime. Go find a copy of Bridge Commander III (STILL the most epic ST game of all time) or ST: Armada II. Or better - find a Star Trek mod to a game thats a little newer and on the cheap on Steam (GREAT TIME FOR THAT RIGHT NOW BTW - Steam xmass sale is on till Jan 2) - not sure where to start? Do a YouTube search for ideas. I found a Doctor Who mod for Fallout New Vegas where you get to BE the Doctor and fly the TARDIS all over the place ... best $7.50 I ever spent and have plugged over 200hrs into it.
Might as well. You KNOW little will be addressed yet alone changed.
Bottom Line: We are the consumers and there ARE options.
Yeah i mean years ago i was mod myself in a football forum, now if you have seen football you will know that passions and tone rise very fast, but the heat was mostly players like x and the players from y are ...... and so, player against players discusing by features, caracteristics, results, blabla, but i have never seen another forum where the whole comunity is against the people in charge. just think, ?how bad do you have to make your job to get a whole forum full of anger against you? its epic...
I would like to throw my 2 EC's in... if they mean anything.
I have been playing STO for a year now and man do I wish I would've started earlier.
I've always enjoyed ST from the moment I saw the Enterprise D cross my TV screen when I was younger. I was into more the space battles but that doesn't mean to say I didn't enjoy the stories told.
Through playing STO I have been ablel to feel and experience some ST thru the various story content which it has produced and for the most part have enjoyed it. My favorite episode being "A Step Between the Stars" as it REALLY felt like a ST episode IMO. Even with the recent DR content... the VO has made it feel a bit more ST.
When I started STO I was able to meet a lot of awesome people online who have taken the time to teach me the ropes and guide me through STO's ins & outs. I got to the point where I was in the DPS race and was getting pretty good, IMO at least, and laying waste to anything I went into but that's where it got pretty boring for me as well. I went the AP route with an escort ship so it was pretty much fly to target and get within 5k, spam space bar & move back & forth. At that point I thought of all the ST games I played before like STSC or STBC & I only got that experience when I was levelling up.... Minus replacing the weapons you had with better ones which usually meant you ended up with a rainbow boat.
So after reaching that point and thinking of the games I previously played I decided to play the game MY own way or the way I was use to.... optimal dps be damned. I play mostly FED so it was phasers & torps for me and THAT brought the excitement back. Was actually able to find some like minded people who like running canon loadouts as well as run a bit lower dps to enjoy the missions more.
Pre DR we were able to finish any content with each players having about 2k - 7k dps. I agreed to certain point that the content was easy, hence the dps nerf, and wanted more "challenging" content. Post DR thougts... 1st ISA I tried with a full group was failed in the first 2 mins. Which SHOCKED me because these new Advanced ques were supposed to be like the old Elites... but they were NOT. That meant now we had to up our game and get our canon loadouts hitting harder. Prior to the adjustments on the missions we were able to finish ISA with our average DPS being 10k. But I felt that old playstyle coming back where it was hit everything hard and I didn't really like it... I still don't but am trying to make a loadout that works for ME. Other things we were able to tackle were Hive Advance & Korfez. We finshed Hive advanced & Korfez with an average of 7.2k dps. TBH I enjoyed Korfez more as it had an element of what's next rather than Hive which you had to blow up Tac cubes that had more HP than the players in all the ques combined, shot at the "empty ques". Korfez I think is a fun mission and I hope more of that type of missions come out as it forces you to work as a group and adjust on the fly.
I personally do NOT like the new advanced missions with auto failure... they are NOT like the old elites where you just lost 10 bonus marks if you didn't get the optional you could still carry on. I think they should bring them back to the old Elites and only have that feature in the Elites IMO. This is one of the factors I think causing the decline in the ques but as mentioned it can also be that everyone is just doing something else like levelling up.
To the grindfest that has become of new specialization tree... I also didn't agree with the xp nerfs here and there but at this point in time I've been able to get 3 of 4 toons to 60. The way I've treated that is... it will happen when it happens. For me I find no need to get all the points on all my toons RIGHT NOW... It gives me something to shoot for and really ones that were not 60 yet still did ok in the new content. I do hope that they continue on the trend with stuff being ulocked across ones account to make the grind better but as a player we have the choice to grind or not to grind. For now I just try to stuff with the friends I've made which as made STO a better place.
I think to have fun in STO you need to treat it like a game which it is what it is. Yes there are dill sinks... xp problems and bugs galore but in the end it's a game which has ST in and it's that which will bring me back for more for hopefully more years to come. I have supported this game with money, not a lot, and will continue to do so but I find without upgrading my gear and stuff I have PLENTY of dill which I intend to get more ships with. I'll slowy upgrade some things here and there but will not worry about it to the point where I have to throw more money at the game to have it all now.
I read from Taco that the STO forum is like less than 3% of the playerbase. Also something to consider when pugging... the team that you are with may NOT all speak the same language which I have personally come across. There is a lot for the devs to consider and I'm sure they are trying their best and I hope they continue to do their best in making STO better by listening to the forums and whatever sources they have.
Apologies for the long rant but I felt the need to get my EC's in.... to all the Captains out there.... Have fun playing.
It should be obvious that this community is not in a healthy place right now. I'm honestly trying to be constructive here and voice our concerns rationally. This isn't rage and this isn't flaming. I know and have interacted with devs who care about this game and about the art that STO can be. I just think it's important that you hear how we feel in a cool, respectful tone. Because maybe we're not doing that very well... but that cycle gets fed from both sides.
The OP's post was really well written. I applaud the effort and time constructing that post. Bravo. Hopefully it will land on willing ears.
Where's that STO mouthpiece that usually bigs them up thesedays? Terilynn, not sure if thats how you spell her name.
I think they are getting new mouthpieces. The old ones don't work. They seriously managed to set up a Dev/Cryptic vs. Playerbase PVP and the forums and review sites are the mediums of exchange.
Go Cryptic! Everything is awesome.
Anyway, off to a museum. For some real educational fun!
Comments
Still that's feedback. It's not feedback Cryptic/PWE wants to hear.
So, instead of saying "you suck! Cryptic. It's now wrong to say, DR is the best expansion ever!! No really.
Amazon has no vested interest in promoting any one product because they're a distributor. As long as people are generally satisfied with Amazon's service, it's all good.
In the MMO game industry, bad reviews hurt a bit more because these companies aren't Amazon. In most cases they have one stand-out product and maybe a few others that people recognize. If this were still the disconnected boxed-game industry, they'd have a pretty good incentive to bury bad reviews. No company in this day and age can totally bury bad reviews, all they can do is try to spin 'em.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I have one major beef and its the STF's but I can do without them and still have fun and that is what I do. Hopefully they take another look at them after the holidays. The "hell levels" as they are called in gaming between 50-60 are typical and everything else I have seen them do is typical. That being said the things like levelling is not truly that bad lol I have now 4 characters at 60 with 2 earning specialization points at a decent clip. I have created 2 new characters (talaxians one fed and one klingon since I upgraded to lifetime sub from monthly sub) and am having fun. I have revived an old old klingon fleet created and started in beta and held together with string and paper clips until a proper fleet system has come into place and although I am a quiet person am having fun with it. I may even start recruiting new people into it eventually, but for now its for the couple of friends I brought with me plus the other original guild owners/founders. If I was not enjoying myself I would have done none of this and would be doing something else soo.... People need to accept that there are individuals out there who are enjoying the game as it is now.
When I started this game way back when it was very low on content. Klingons had nothing and we could only level a klingon via pvp and although I enjoyed the PvP 3 maps was hardly a game. So I made a federation because they had a wee bit more content lol. when I returned I saw starfleet academy and a harbour and a redesigned starfleet. I found klingons now had like a proper homeworld base and a nice storyline... soo the game has grown by like a lot... there is tons to do now at level cap and not just 3 pvp maps lol.
In trying to look at the whole picture and looking at crytpics website its hiring like a ton of new staff. Therefore they must be doing something right because they are expanding and not shrinking.
1) follow the engineer and use his shields he is your tank you need to go where he goes he can't follow 4 people going 4 different directions. That is why he puts down healing stations and landmines and shields in strategic places they are there for people to use he is not hiding and people in these groups learn "engineer = life".
2) there is no time to revive the person reviving you will die as well just get up and run back ...
If that was my company.
I would appreciate comment 1.
As for as comment 2, I would contact the person and at least found out why. If it's a legit reason. I would consider investigating the problem be it a bug or a imbalance issue. Seeing if their is a reasonable solution that can be worked on.
Unlike Cryptic tactics, delete, ban, and censor future comments. Then call players cheaters, whiners, and complainers. Then tell moderators to wipe out messages if need be.
People need to adjust their play styles and expectations and adapt to the new game we have instead of going ape sh*t about it. I think the Queues being pretty empty right now is not a direct result of DR but a combination of different factors. Just my observation but the Winter Wonderland has many populated instances going and I think that many people are enjoying the holiday content.
I also think with all the battlezones and the new DR episodes that people are busy with that stuff too. After the winter thing is done and people finish all their DR stuff we will see more people come back to the queues. It's a popular argument here to say "I has sandwich so you can't be starving" but the bottom line is that I cannot relate at all to all these complaints.
I've been able to upgrade all of my main's gear to MKXIV at a reasonable pace with the help of fleetmates. I've been enjoying having something new to work towards and am working my way to level 60.
My advice to everyone here is to go play the game and stay off the forums completely for a week or two because as someone who enjoys the game I'm sick of all the negativity and would love to read more about new stuff and less about QQ. Or if you are so tired of the game go play something else and come back when you're ready or don't because no one cares.
your complaining about engineers hiding ? I am an engineer and cant chase 4 people around with shields. I took out other abilities and added a shield dome which i never use for my own personal play to help others. I put down shields for others and so do other engineers. I put down a heal station and a cover shield for tacticals to get behind.
Engineers are epic in bug hunt. I ran a bug hunt elite with 4 engineers last night the tactical that came with us had his choice of shields and heal statiions lol.
Maybe some engineers dont know how to play but many do and they will learn watching other engineers play what to take with them into those instances to help the team. Dont be complaining about engineers they are epic on the ground and pretty darned good in the air as well. :P
Simply grey out the option to join for anyone who is injured (ground) or has a damaged ship (space) for advanced and elite stfs.
Some peopl need to be forced to learn.
Lost of good points in the thread but I'd like to expand this one a little.
Livestreams... look at this... let me just equip it... how cool is that... pewpew... and this... of course I didn't have to do any leg work to get this in my inventory but still... cool huh? Hang on let me show you how oh respawn one sec here we go how cool is oh respawn well you get the idea and isn't it cool?
There really should be no disconnect between the game - as is - and the developers. Developers must be players... and without uberdevtools... otherwise their understanding of the game is through stats and metrics which is nowhere near gameplay or gamefeel or gamereality.
The only other alternative is to actually listen to players... and make measured adjustments to the game accordingly.
1) Would you leave comment 2 in place? Or would you take down comment 2 while trying to reach out to that person?
2) What would you do in the highly likely event that the "you suck" person has no legitimate gripe, but is just venting an inarticulate and baseless sense of anger?
3) How much money would your company be spending on Customer Relations staff in this attempt to reach out? Are you willing to lie and say that you really think the expense would be worth the occasional nugget of unique quality feedback it uncovered?
4) How do you know Cryptic isn't reaching out to some people to find out underlying issues? Why is it wrong to censor or ban people who aren't contributing anything valuable to the discourse in the community?
Thank you for opening this thread, azniadeet. Let's hope there will be (mostly) positive suggestions/recommendations.
Your thread title seeks a response from Cryptic. To be fair, I seriously doubt anyone from Cryptic's executive or middle management will directly address this.
With that said, I'll offer a few positive thoughts of my own -- and hope Cryptic actually reads/considers the positive contributions of posters on this thread.
1.) Roadmap
While it's understandable to "tease" the player (customer) base with a forthcoming release, there needs to be a more robust communications plan initiated. A product roadmap needs to be implemented, even if it's 6 months (2 quarters) which is revealed.
Frankly speaking, I'm actually looking away from Cryptic/PWE products like STO -- and taking a VERY serious look at investing my game playing time elsewhere, e.g. Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, etc.
IF I knew what was coming up on the production calendar, IF I felt the community was engaged to get feedback about upcoming events, future plans, etc. THEN I would probable devote more time and resources into STO.
Right now, "Delta Rising" (among other updates/tweaks within STO, post-DR release) have soured me on STO. Same for others. I still play, but a roadmap would go a L O N G way in restoring my faith this game addresses the community's needs (AKA the CuSTOMERS' needs). I would ask the Product Manager to give all of this some serious consideration. This comes from me, an LTS member, plus someone whom has spent considerable $$ on this game (and is currently NOT doing so). The "NOT doing so" should be your primary concern.
2.) New Community Manager Engagement
The role of Community Managers needs to be redefined by Cryptic/PWE. This is NOT a dig at the current team.
The redefined role needs to be communicated directly to the community.
This involves far-better communications during patching (see Neverwinter as a good example of community updating); conducting polls with actual follow-ups (not soliciting for information, then failing to follow through); answering MORE community questions, and/or providing a monthly FAQ-type update based on community-solicited questions. The list goes on...
3.) New Community Forum Software
Personally, I'd prefer a different forum software is used, something akin to Reddit sans up/down votes.
4.) LESS Twitter/Reddit/Facebook engagement, MORE Community engagement
I am not interested in using Twitter or FB to find out the status of offline servers, or new Cryptic Studios STO art, etc.
Cryptic/PWE: Use your official Forum as THE source of information distribution. If posting something unique elsewhere, then take the time to cross-link to it.
5.) Help the Community understand HOW you've listened to them
Executives and management will likely balk at this; however, if STO is a viable property to continue growing/making monies from, this should be a TOP-TIER ACTIONABLE for them.
Gamers are opinionated; Star Trek fans are passionate -- and the combination of both has produced quite a, um... fascinating culture within these forums (and in-game).
To acknowledge the community is being heard:
- Conduct polls regarding what in-game assets/additions are desired by players/customers. These are C-Store items, not freebies.
- Create a program where customers can "vote" by pre-purchasing the C-Store item. Cryptic would announce a possible C-Store item, allowing customers to pre-purchase at a 30% limited-time discount. Allow comments to shape the direction of the C-Store offering. IMPORTANT: Add a grace period where users can withdraw their purchase if they don't agree with the changes. How Cryptic shows enough players are buying the items is up to them. Hiding numbers could create dischord, though.
- More Dev engagement in the Forums. (Sorry, Devs. Put on the thick armor and wade in.)
- Conduct monthly Q&As -- and generate FAQs to showcase responses. (I miss these.)
6.) Bring back the Daily Event Calendar
I'm really, really, really (did I mention really) tired of not being able to participate in events, like "Mine Trap" when there aren't enough players lining up. Don't remove content; bring back the daily event calendar (with expanded rewards) to generate excitement/interest. Run each event for 3-4 hours at a time (or longer) to encourage participation, due to time zone differences for the player base.
7.) Normal Event Requirement BEFORE allowing Advanced or Elite Event participation
Product Manager/Devs: This is a must. You need to add a requirement for all players to achieve five (5) successful runs on Normal events BEFORE being allowed to play Advanced events. You need to mandate players achieve five (5) successful runs in Advanced events BEFORE being allowed to play Elite events.
Depending on how you enact this, it may require Elite users to re-qualify before playing Advance or Elite.
C'est la vie.
As a player, I am very, VERY disappointed and discouraged from players who jump into Advanced (as an example) -- and literally kill the event within minutes from a lack of knowledge or ability.
Cryptic already has level requirements; why not qualifiers, too?
Thanks for reading!
get rid of the Old STFs. Yes, they were hard....yes they took time to run them.....yes, they were not something you just jumped into and beat and yes, they pulled together fleets and allowed us to make friends. They were the best end game content I have ever played....and I can say I have played a few. I never left, even as Cryptic was sold and the content came to a halt....the STFs kept me around. I wish they would bring them back, at least give us a choice of which one to play....as I cannot and will not call what I Queue for a STF of any form. Simply put, I would like some type of end game content that makes a group of players come together and have to actually work as a team to complete. That....in my opinion, is what is missing from this game....I don't need simple, I need something to actually challenge me in all areas or I Will Get Bored like I did a while back and left STO for over a year. What we have now is nothing but run and shoot, it is like raid finder in WoW.....and for the record, I hate Raid Finder with a passion. If any Dev reads this, think, if you were bored, would you keep logging on to play, I won't.:rolleyes:
It's still Star Trek. Except without all the drama/character-oriented episodes and more focus on the action/drama episodes. The ones where the Feds go in, encounter some trouble, try to talk it out, then usually have to puzzle or shoot their way back out, and solve it with their ship. And even Star Trek rarely ever actually encountered new life and new civilizations; they usually spent most of the time dealing with the issues aboard the ship. Unless we're talking about Voyager, in which half the responses is usually fight first, talk later.
But that doesn't have anything to do with the issue at hand, which is the lack of general communication from the Devs, even if it's just early teases and previews for feedback rather than popping it with a day or two before it goes live.
STEPHEN - Thank you! We put a significant amount of time and effort into planning, designing, and executing our vision for Delta Rising. The entire team really came together and worked for a significant portion of 2014 to build everything that shipped, and Im not sure if the team was more excited to release the expansion or to see the communitys reaction to our work. Once it was actually live, we were incredibly pleased with the feedback from the community about the stories and features in Delta Rising.
I dont get it, if they are so exited and icredibly pleased with the feedback from the community, ¿then why they are closing the feedback threads?
1) Yes. I would try to reach out to the person by email and/or invite to a focus group (if possible).
2) If that person is doing that then the message has to be deleted or redacted in some form.
3) Whatever is feasible? It's two options either pay someone to do customer service / relations or loss money in profit because of negative reviews.
4) I wouldn't know but it seems they aren't. Considering the almost 0 response from Cryptic/PWE and the pipe dream Priority One Podcast (Everything is awesome) from Geko and D'Angelo.
It's flat out censorship.
Maybe you can turn that "You suck" comment to "I disagree. They are working on fixing the game. It's not bad". The latter is not stellar but definitely beats the person saying "You suck."
And the fact that they'd have to wade through all that just to get to the few actual constructive criticism posts.
I second that. The article is PR nonsense. The questions and answers are orchestrated.
Compare that to http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/30/captains-log-why-star-trek-online-is-kind-of-a-mess-right-now/
They will do nothing. Plain and simple. Don't get me wrong - I also feel the current state of the game is a mess and there have been countless constructive suggestions for improvement mostly tossed aside/ignored over the years. The way I realistically see it - we have 2 choices:
1) Keep playing the game regardless of the things we don't like. Vainly hoping for the day our constructive feedback doesn't feel like peeing in the wind as peeps desperately clutch their LifeTime Subs.
2) Stop playing the game. Eventually another (better) one can rise from the ashes run by more competent game developers/studio. There are lots of options here. Since the game came out it has spanned the life of 2 generations of console games. Don't like consoles? - Find something on PC to entertain you in the meantime. Go find a copy of Bridge Commander III (STILL the most epic ST game of all time) or ST: Armada II. Or better - find a Star Trek mod to a game thats a little newer and on the cheap on Steam (GREAT TIME FOR THAT RIGHT NOW BTW - Steam xmass sale is on till Jan 2) - not sure where to start? Do a YouTube search for ideas. I found a Doctor Who mod for Fallout New Vegas where you get to BE the Doctor and fly the TARDIS all over the place ... best $7.50 I ever spent and have plugged over 200hrs into it.
Might as well. You KNOW little will be addressed yet alone changed.
Bottom Line: We are the consumers and there ARE options.
That's the most insulting comment, I've seen in 12+ pages ... I don't get it ... are you trying to confess ?
Yeah i mean years ago i was mod myself in a football forum, now if you have seen football you will know that passions and tone rise very fast, but the heat was mostly players like x and the players from y are ...... and so, player against players discusing by features, caracteristics, results, blabla, but i have never seen another forum where the whole comunity is against the people in charge. just think, ?how bad do you have to make your job to get a whole forum full of anger against you? its epic...
Where's that STO mouthpiece that usually bigs them up thesedays? Terilynn, not sure if thats how you spell her name.
You don't want to give up and keep hoping for the best in people.
However, the fact of the matter is they don't "include the forums or the players" and have neither any intention nor incentive to do so.
They already have your money so that's that.
I would like to throw my 2 EC's in... if they mean anything.
I have been playing STO for a year now and man do I wish I would've started earlier.
I've always enjoyed ST from the moment I saw the Enterprise D cross my TV screen when I was younger. I was into more the space battles but that doesn't mean to say I didn't enjoy the stories told.
Through playing STO I have been ablel to feel and experience some ST thru the various story content which it has produced and for the most part have enjoyed it. My favorite episode being "A Step Between the Stars" as it REALLY felt like a ST episode IMO. Even with the recent DR content... the VO has made it feel a bit more ST.
When I started STO I was able to meet a lot of awesome people online who have taken the time to teach me the ropes and guide me through STO's ins & outs. I got to the point where I was in the DPS race and was getting pretty good, IMO at least, and laying waste to anything I went into but that's where it got pretty boring for me as well. I went the AP route with an escort ship so it was pretty much fly to target and get within 5k, spam space bar & move back & forth. At that point I thought of all the ST games I played before like STSC or STBC & I only got that experience when I was levelling up.... Minus replacing the weapons you had with better ones which usually meant you ended up with a rainbow boat.
So after reaching that point and thinking of the games I previously played I decided to play the game MY own way or the way I was use to.... optimal dps be damned. I play mostly FED so it was phasers & torps for me and THAT brought the excitement back. Was actually able to find some like minded people who like running canon loadouts as well as run a bit lower dps to enjoy the missions more.
Pre DR we were able to finish any content with each players having about 2k - 7k dps. I agreed to certain point that the content was easy, hence the dps nerf, and wanted more "challenging" content. Post DR thougts... 1st ISA I tried with a full group was failed in the first 2 mins. Which SHOCKED me because these new Advanced ques were supposed to be like the old Elites... but they were NOT. That meant now we had to up our game and get our canon loadouts hitting harder. Prior to the adjustments on the missions we were able to finish ISA with our average DPS being 10k. But I felt that old playstyle coming back where it was hit everything hard and I didn't really like it... I still don't but am trying to make a loadout that works for ME. Other things we were able to tackle were Hive Advance & Korfez. We finshed Hive advanced & Korfez with an average of 7.2k dps. TBH I enjoyed Korfez more as it had an element of what's next rather than Hive which you had to blow up Tac cubes that had more HP than the players in all the ques combined, shot at the "empty ques". Korfez I think is a fun mission and I hope more of that type of missions come out as it forces you to work as a group and adjust on the fly.
I personally do NOT like the new advanced missions with auto failure... they are NOT like the old elites where you just lost 10 bonus marks if you didn't get the optional you could still carry on. I think they should bring them back to the old Elites and only have that feature in the Elites IMO. This is one of the factors I think causing the decline in the ques but as mentioned it can also be that everyone is just doing something else like levelling up.
To the grindfest that has become of new specialization tree... I also didn't agree with the xp nerfs here and there but at this point in time I've been able to get 3 of 4 toons to 60. The way I've treated that is... it will happen when it happens. For me I find no need to get all the points on all my toons RIGHT NOW... It gives me something to shoot for and really ones that were not 60 yet still did ok in the new content. I do hope that they continue on the trend with stuff being ulocked across ones account to make the grind better but as a player we have the choice to grind or not to grind. For now I just try to stuff with the friends I've made which as made STO a better place.
I think to have fun in STO you need to treat it like a game which it is what it is. Yes there are dill sinks... xp problems and bugs galore but in the end it's a game which has ST in and it's that which will bring me back for more for hopefully more years to come. I have supported this game with money, not a lot, and will continue to do so but I find without upgrading my gear and stuff I have PLENTY of dill which I intend to get more ships with. I'll slowy upgrade some things here and there but will not worry about it to the point where I have to throw more money at the game to have it all now.
I read from Taco that the STO forum is like less than 3% of the playerbase. Also something to consider when pugging... the team that you are with may NOT all speak the same language which I have personally come across. There is a lot for the devs to consider and I'm sure they are trying their best and I hope they continue to do their best in making STO better by listening to the forums and whatever sources they have.
Apologies for the long rant but I felt the need to get my EC's in.... to all the Captains out there.... Have fun playing.
The OP's post was really well written. I applaud the effort and time constructing that post. Bravo. Hopefully it will land on willing ears.
I think they are getting new mouthpieces. The old ones don't work. They seriously managed to set up a Dev/Cryptic vs. Playerbase PVP and the forums and review sites are the mediums of exchange.
Go Cryptic! Everything is awesome.
Anyway, off to a museum. For some real educational fun!