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Bleeding Players
sirbrianfa
Member Posts: 14 Arc User
So just my opinion, and i know i will deal with the reprocusions.
For the developers that are trying to make it as hard on players as possible, are you trying to drive your player base away. I would think that you would understand basic ecomomics of scale, i.e. with the pressure of the very competitive online gameing market i would think you would be trying to re-tain as much of your player base as possible. Makeing it difficult (and as time goes by even more difficult every week) on the "grinders" of your game will not only server to drive them away from you, and your franchies, but will also server as a conduit to grab players who can afford to pay big $ on an online game when their friends who can not move on to other games and take those $players with them. It is well known that the stronger your player base is the more players you will attract. Right now STO (and the Arc brand) is on the verge of becomeing another game that is known for it's preditory practises and greed. what do i mean, well;
1. Nerfing gear that has been in the game for years. i know they will say it was not intended to be that way, but is it not ironic that it is "fixed" once their new $ content is coming out. If the gear was good enough people would not want to buy new gear.
2. Changes to the dil weekend on mark turn in after it being that way for years.
3. the cost of new content prices the vast majority of your player base out of buying zen. Basic economics of scale, you can be the best name brand in the market and people will pay a premium for it, but not many people will. You can have a solid brand at a great price and you will have more income by just the shear volume of people purchasing your brand. I would beat that you would see more people buying zen, and your ship packages if they were not so expensive.
As you see your players becomeing more and more disapointed with the direction your game is going, and the messure you are taking to try and squeez money out of them the more players are going to leave and take their freidns with them once they go to another game and come back with tales of how great the new game they are playing is. I am watching this play out every week with the group i play with. i have seen as many as 75 people purchase game packages on new game (and we all know which 2 new space games were are talking about) in the last 3 months. i only see a few of them anymore when they come on our t.s. and talk about what a great new game they are playing and trying to talk even more people into leaveing; then they log off and are not seen agian for a few days till they are back and recruiting.
I know that this will most lickly fall on deaf ears as most developers believe they have all the answers, and being god in their own vertual univers they do not care what the player base thinks, as they are the sheep and will do whatever they are told... right. Well, one thing to remember is that we are customers as much as players, and customer vote with their feet, so if your changing everything and players are still leaveing, you may want the check your premise.
For the developers that are trying to make it as hard on players as possible, are you trying to drive your player base away. I would think that you would understand basic ecomomics of scale, i.e. with the pressure of the very competitive online gameing market i would think you would be trying to re-tain as much of your player base as possible. Makeing it difficult (and as time goes by even more difficult every week) on the "grinders" of your game will not only server to drive them away from you, and your franchies, but will also server as a conduit to grab players who can afford to pay big $ on an online game when their friends who can not move on to other games and take those $players with them. It is well known that the stronger your player base is the more players you will attract. Right now STO (and the Arc brand) is on the verge of becomeing another game that is known for it's preditory practises and greed. what do i mean, well;
1. Nerfing gear that has been in the game for years. i know they will say it was not intended to be that way, but is it not ironic that it is "fixed" once their new $ content is coming out. If the gear was good enough people would not want to buy new gear.
2. Changes to the dil weekend on mark turn in after it being that way for years.
3. the cost of new content prices the vast majority of your player base out of buying zen. Basic economics of scale, you can be the best name brand in the market and people will pay a premium for it, but not many people will. You can have a solid brand at a great price and you will have more income by just the shear volume of people purchasing your brand. I would beat that you would see more people buying zen, and your ship packages if they were not so expensive.
As you see your players becomeing more and more disapointed with the direction your game is going, and the messure you are taking to try and squeez money out of them the more players are going to leave and take their freidns with them once they go to another game and come back with tales of how great the new game they are playing is. I am watching this play out every week with the group i play with. i have seen as many as 75 people purchase game packages on new game (and we all know which 2 new space games were are talking about) in the last 3 months. i only see a few of them anymore when they come on our t.s. and talk about what a great new game they are playing and trying to talk even more people into leaveing; then they log off and are not seen agian for a few days till they are back and recruiting.
I know that this will most lickly fall on deaf ears as most developers believe they have all the answers, and being god in their own vertual univers they do not care what the player base thinks, as they are the sheep and will do whatever they are told... right. Well, one thing to remember is that we are customers as much as players, and customer vote with their feet, so if your changing everything and players are still leaveing, you may want the check your premise.
Post edited by sirbrianfa on
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Comments
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
The game doesn't seem to be bleeding players.
Your valid points:
- you don't like some changes
- you don't like receiving less dil from farming
- you think the new ships are too expensive
- you are disappointed with where the game is headed.
It's true that you think that, and that you feel that. I'm sure you can even find some other players to agree with you.
Does that prove that many players agree or most players agree? No.
Cryptic has been selling T6 ships at the $30 price for almost seven months now. They are a business, so if they had evidence that you were right about prices they would lower the price. Their own sales numbers seem to be telling them that $30 with bundle and sales deals is the right price to maximize profits. They might be wrong, but they have much more information about sales than you or I do.
As far as nerfs to dil awards, yes they did that for farmers who saved up marks and t5 reps on alts to use during dil weekends. That reduced the amount of dil that farmers could earn. But, they also increased the dil that normal, casual players can earn by playing the game. More dil in story missions, more in STFs, etc.
So the direction they seem to be going in is favoring the 1-3 alt casual player while giving less to the 10+ alt farmer. I am OK with that myself since I'm not a farmer.
And like with ship prices Cryptic / PWE has much more information than you or me so I believe they know what they are doing with this change. For example for every 1 farmer who stops playing they may get 2 casual players. Neither of us can prove who is right.
If you look at the current dil exchange price, dil farmers are creating too much dil so it makes sense for Cryptic to make things harder for them. That makes dil more valuable for the casual players that don't have 10 KDF contraband alts.
you would think they would want the game to as enjoyable to play as possible, keeping people in the game longer and more players = more cash?!
but delta is most succesful expansion yet and the players love it. even with players friend lists and fleets getting smaller they arnt leaving the game they are just out of phase
Trek is not made up of one group of fans who want the same things. You have the group which loves TOS and wants everything to be ONLY TOS! You have the group who loves JJ and wants everything JJ added to the game. And onward, and onward, and onward. These are the groups who, on one hand, vote for Voyager and then on the other hand complain about why there is not more DS9 stuff in the game.
Gaming is not made up of one group of fans who want the same things. You have your PvEers, your PvPers, the Sandbox lovers, the Role-players, and so on. A gamer screams about balance and then screams nerf the moment you change something they liked - because balance is only important when it does not affect the things you like.
Then you have the poor guys. All they care about is that they can play the game without paying a cent. Except they want all the toys they rich guys are getting - even if the rich guy spent months earning it in game rather then paying for it - and need to complain every time something is not easy for them to get.
Then you have the optimists and pessimists. Every success is glory! Every minor problem is doom.
Nothing can please all of these people. And it becomes even more problematic when you can only afford to please a small section of them.
STO has decided to make money by selling Toys. And like every business they want to make as much money as they can. STO is not a charity for Trek-hungry fans. It is a business. STO is made for the same reasons Gene made TOS: money. So they are going to position the things in the game which allow them the best opportunity to make money. I am certain whatever company you work for does the same thing.
So here is what I will say to you, OP. If you are not happy with the game that is on you. It is not going to change; because every change Cryptic does will make someone happy and someone else sad. You either need to accept the game for what it is - a casual Trek experience - or you need to drum up the courage to walk away. There is no reason to give yourself angst over something that will forever be completely out of your hands.
I know you want desperately to have a Trek game you can call all your own, but STO might not be it for you. Why not? Because we all want something different.
...unless it's just a flesh wound or 'tis but a scratch.
edit: In all serious mind you, there are a growing number of players that simply can't play even though they want to play...
for the record i have "invested" in my account from time and $ standpoint. what i anquish is seeing good players, who can not pay and i enjoy playing with, become more and more desalosioned and leave. but it is not just the "poor" players as you have so well articulated, but it is others as well. but there will always be players to come to the defense of the dev's before they can even do it for themselves. i think i hear the shepard calling, run along.
and one last thought, how many love the new contend that is nothing more than 2 or 3 missions that they make you run 3 or 4 time over a month instead of actually having new episodes... anyone else remember the weekly episodes... so is also the decline in actual quality of content.
If you post something on the public forums, then it is for the entire community. If you have something just for the devs, send Trendy a PM and she can give you an email to send it to.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
STO is a for-profit business. Like any business there will be people who cannot afford their products or services. That was true when STO had a Subscription and people could not afford the $15.00 a month to play. I am not going to have pity for someone who cannot afford a $30.00 ship when they can earn 3,000 Zen in the game in a small amount of time - or pay $15.00 for it and earn 1,500 Zen. YMMV
Because that was your entire intent on posting. Congratulations, have some more attention.
That's because your post is basically baiting. And it's effectively a 'doom' thread about the game supposedly losing players in droves so... in before lock :P
i'm far too lewd for this game
Advice to you kids. Always wear protection.
It's curious how often when one is being mocked, they think it is a case of somebody defending/cheering on Cryptic rather than it simply being a case of being mocked.
ie...a few of the folks that have replied, that you'd call the fanbois...have said far worse about Cryptic.
Think about it...yeah?
I'm willing to bet that e-mail she gives you is somebody's throw-away e-mail account they use for spam. I can't imagine anyone at Cryptic letting Trendy give away their e-mail addresses for players to contact them.
She probably won't give a dev's email without their permission, but she might give hers. She is the CM, so she can pass along whatever ideas someone sends her. I've emailed her before and she has responded, though I won't give out her email here. Like I said, you can PM her if you have a direct concern that you don't want to post here. But if you do post here, you can't complain about the community responding to it.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
they had made some odd moves, but many improve the game, very painfully though
I think they really play with fire sometimes, and don't realize that's what they are doing
but the only thing that worries me very VERY seriously is the lag situation
Of course they can expect it. They are free to think/expect anything they want. What they can't do is actually *prevent* people from doing it
See how I just did that same kind of thing that you just did?
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
As a nurse, I must agree with that first bit.
A scratch can be dangerous. I had a guy puff up like a balloon from a scratch from his cat. Or maybe cats are just dangerous... no they're wonderful.
And I'm in that boat of wanting to play, but it's such a frustrating experience to do anything but doff.
Are they bleeding players, No. Your not forced to buy stuff. Or making you want to keep on paying. Its all your choice if you want to buy their items. I hadn't bought all their items. Even in WoW when they created their store. Players cried those items should be had in game. After doing special events or hours of gaming. And every time a new one came out they criticized and cried some more. In all it just another way for them to make money.
Nerfing/buffing gear:
This happens as some items needs to be adjusted. You will always find this in games. Other games are constantly changing stuff around. And those players cheered or cried.
Mass Dil turn in weekend:
That was an exploit so it needed to be fixed. It just took them longer to realize it or had other things to deal with at that time. Some players are always looking for a way to "cheat" in some form.
Buying stuff out of scale:
I don't see it. I buy stuff to feed my belly for one time deal for that price. And that was a short enjoyment. Where these items I can keep on enjoying. As long I keep playing or the game is around. They set a price to see if player accept it. I see all kinds of those new items being used. So they see it a success. If not they would change it. Plus they give out deals. So you can buy when they are at a deal. This is when I buy items.
USS Casinghead NCC 92047 launched 2350
Fleet Admiral Stowe - Dominion War Vet.
Actual research. Carried by trained professionals. Not pulled out of thin air based upon prejudicial feelings. Otherwise there's a very good reason your pants are on fire.
Can I haz ur stuffs?
Can one get the blood stains out of stuffs?
Not if it's Bloodwine.
Oh wait... thats just ketchup on my finger. *nom*.
Ok I'm sorry was there a point to this thread?