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druhin
Member Posts: 7 Arc User
Quoting moderator Askray:
While this might be true for some MMOs, the big elephant of MMOs (a name which apparently can't be uttered on these forums), regularly updates the community on # of subscribers every 3 months.
Now, understandably STO will never have 10 million+ subscribers (or even Players), but one would assume it possible to release some kind of official statistics from time to time? Without that information, people are led to speculate and assume (such as posting Steam stats).
And for the record, Steam stats may be diminishing, but I can almost guarantee it's still more popular than using the Arc client. Neither Arc nor Steam takes into consideration the # of people who log into the game directly from the STO launcher. Until Cryptic/PWE makes Arc mandatory (removal of the standalone STO launcher), it will still be the most common method of logging into the game.
TL;DR: Official statistics, released on a regular basis, please!
You do realize actually a lot of mmo's don't release numbers except milestones?
While this might be true for some MMOs, the big elephant of MMOs (a name which apparently can't be uttered on these forums), regularly updates the community on # of subscribers every 3 months.
Now, understandably STO will never have 10 million+ subscribers (or even Players), but one would assume it possible to release some kind of official statistics from time to time? Without that information, people are led to speculate and assume (such as posting Steam stats).
And for the record, Steam stats may be diminishing, but I can almost guarantee it's still more popular than using the Arc client. Neither Arc nor Steam takes into consideration the # of people who log into the game directly from the STO launcher. Until Cryptic/PWE makes Arc mandatory (removal of the standalone STO launcher), it will still be the most common method of logging into the game.
TL;DR: Official statistics, released on a regular basis, please!
Post edited by druhin on
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Free Tibet!
It could also be people are getting tired of the server issues. Rubber banding back and forth then getting kicked out of the game. That has a lot do to with people getting fed up and leaving as well.
Yeah, LoR was nice wasn't it.
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
You do realize actually a lot of mmo's don't release numbers except milestones?"
Yeah I do Ray, and I also know that certain MMOs in the launcher show "Number of Players Online" and a number there. So what's your point? Cryptic doesn't even publish milestones. We know little to nothing other than some random comments like the infamous "Delta Rising is the best! blah blah blah.
It really blows when a mod has nothing of interest to add to a discussion, can't even come up with a logical argument as to why Cryptic does what they do and then just closes a thread so a Dev gets the last word, no one can questions him and there is no discussion!!!
What's the point of these forums exactly? Ray?
Also war thunder.
That is a really good point, why the hell a mod closed the thread just when the dev post it? To me is a clear indication that there is something wrong and it was like "nothing to se here, move along".
They are afraid to show numbers and the only thing they said is that "all is well" and then they close the thread. Humm...
Sorry, but I may have belived that what pweadamanteus said was true, if they had not closed the thread.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
No, the thread was closed because you got the definitive answer - STOs numbers aren't down, despite the steam charts, along with a few explanations why that was the case and a dev telling you that they are not at all concerned about the state of those numbers. That's pretty final - all your opinions to the contrary are irrelevant. What you are doing now is basically saying you think the devs are lying to you, and trying to catch them in the lie by demanding the numbers, without realizing that you have absolutely no way to fact check their assertions, meaning you would be no better off than you are now.
If they were to say "We had 1.5 million unique accounts log in over the last three months, and over 30% of those accounts spent at least $10 on the game, which is up about 13% year over year and means that taken as a whole 2014 was the single most successful year in STO history"*, would you have any way to counter that? Since the answer is clearly "no", why is it any less believable to you to get just the summary instead of the privileged, private internal information? If you can't trust Cryptic when they tell you what the numbers say, why are you willing to trust them to tell you what the numbers are?
As to why they wouldn't share that information? Well, there are lots and lots of reasons, not least of which is the fact that there is currently a standing offer to buy PWE, and thus people have to be very careful exactly what information they release since it would be easy for someone to see the public release of internal financial data as an attempt to manipulate that sale in some way, which is generally considered a bad idea. I think it's much more likely that Cryptic is just exercising caution than it is that they are trying to outright lie to people.
Also, it's worth noting that Askray is NOT a PWE employee, which makes it highly unlikely that he is part of some sort of conspiracy to "protect the lie", since it would be beyond foolish for anyone actually constructing a conspiracy to fold in someone external to the company who isn't even being paid for his work. It's just begging for leaks.
*please note, I have no idea what the numbers actually are, and this sentence in no way represents any kind of attempt to generate factual data.
Is it a game breaker not to know? Nope.
Is there less players in the game since Dilithium Rising launched? It sure as hell feels like it. I mean when it takes you 10mines to even get in an STF at prime time...
Threads should really only be closed with a reason, not just because someone feels like it. I'm guessing that's what some are trying to say here.
These are workers trying to sell you a product in an un-regulated industry, hello? Is 1+1=2 in your world?
That being said, DR is the best expansion ever if you meassure by the amount of dil the got the whales to spend.
And is not at all in any danger.
What you going to learn at some point is there is large portion of star trek additct-fanatics who play the one game and don't do anything else in life.
They won't ever quit and they won't ever stop spending - 700$ for an upgraded ship? I will take 5.
And with that in mind it could potentially be better to kill the queues so you don't a population to fill them up.
Just have the whales single player grinding spec points and clicking time gates that came with DR.
Don't need animtions, don't need to model anything and don't even need players. Just a button to insert dil.
From that perspective the game is honestly doing outstanding
I disagree. We didn't get a definitive answer as far as I'm concerned. And I'm not one of the forum goers that want to use the information to point the finger and say doom! I just want to know what shape the game is actually in. Just because I like to know things like that.
My main point is that it would only benefit Cryptic to be more transparent about these things instead of making stupid comments in Podcasts that no one listens to that then get out of hand.
The way the thread was closed was very much, "Dev gets last word, no one can question what he said" and that's just completely BS.
No point in having a discussion forum where discussion is so restricted and badly moderated. I'm done posting in this forum. Permanently. Not that anyone cares, but maybe one day this game will get some quality community managers and moderators. Until then...
Agreed. I'm sure there's a lot of good stuff in these Podcasts, but when they are anywhere from 60 min to 2-3 hours in length, it would be nice if someone could post a more condensed (10-15 minute) version, of the USEFUL content of said podcast. The parts that most people would be interested in.
Or a transcript
Lion Heart of Hammer Squadron
You can make damn sure I always believe in what I am doing, I might not convince everyone but I will never give up trying.
Backing out from the forums - not being able to stand up for what you did, on YOUR TURF, only justifies everything ever said about them.
The more they hide and the more the try to silence veto issues and problems the more they enhance them.
Ultimately, as the people in charge - certified professionals right, everything is their responsibility including customer relations, PR or whatever.
Anything not being handled or taken care of properly, goes back to who is getting paid to do a job here.
The podcasts are defnitely an example of the run and hide doctrin where it's gotten so bad your entire team can't deal with a single question from reality.
Well, maybe if you hadn't let it pile up in the first place mr. professional
To be honest, for a Freemium MMO no statistics counts except the number of whales, as they generate most of the profit.
They could have a million f2p people spending less than one Moby **** does. So why care for stats.
You role is to be the content for him and his shiny OP stuff.
Holy Grail of Gamification is Addiction | 5 Ways to Accomplisch | and the Psychology of Freemium
Do I sense another signature thread coming up?
All we have to really go on is subjective numbers. And from the low numbers of open instances of ESD, to the horrendous wait times in the queues (lol, reporting error), to the fact that formerly active fleets seldom have more than a handful of people online, the numbers are down.
Whether you choose to ignore that because it's "irrelevant" is absolutely no skin of any part of my face. Whether it impacts my game experience, and the experience of others is what matters. It does, and it does.
If not, why not just keep arguing for changes based on arguments independent of player numbers? All the good you achieve with talking about player numbers is to open you up for an attack. It's kinda like a reverse strawman argument - instead of others building up a straw man for your position and attacking it to prove you wrong despite them not actually dealing with you, you create one for them.
"You do realize" that the actual reason that thread was closed was because folks were being really, REALLY snarky to each other.
I think Askray was using Adamantus post as a way to avoid ramping up the snark.
Of course, it doesn't work very well when folks get a snit in their bonnet and can't let it go.
<shrug>
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
For all your posts you seem to have just arrived here yesterday. Players have been arguing against changes made over the past 6 months vigorously. What we've done recently is point to the drop in active players as a possible causal link to Cryptic's changes.