In two words.... Hell No. After being burned by the expensive garbage expansions that Blizzard put out as an example I will not pay a dime ever again for an expansion.
[quote="coldnapalm;12820380"][quote="happyhappyj0yj0y;12820363"] [i]Pro-tip: When someone else picks up the tab that doesn't make your drinks free.[/i][/quote]
Umm...yes it does. When somebody else pays for it, it's the definition of FREE. What, you think if the company gives it away, that somebody else isn't paying for it then? The definition of free is that somebody else paid for it (because somebody ALWAYS has to pay).[/quote]
No, the definition of free is something without cost. Air is free. If your friend buys you a $5 beer that beer is $5 and it cost your friend $5. Not realizing that and understanding that makes you a bad friend who can't acknowledge and understand that your friend did something nice for you, and that it cost him or her (and if it costs it ain't free) .
Beyond which, if the definition of free were that you could theoretically get it without directly paying then EVERYTHING is free. Money is functionally worthless and merely has representative value of work done for another, issued to us because the barter system is a pain in the TRIBBLE. You aren't actually DIRECTLY PAYING for anything because you aren't giving anyone anything of substance, merely trading owed debts from people who do or have dealt in substantive goods or services. So essentially you're getting everything for free, and its in fact your employer who is nice enough to buy you things because you did him the favor of working for him.
When I see how much they wanted for nine ships when DR launched, how much they would want for a whole expansion? That price would be probably in hundreds or thousands, so hell no. This is a F2P game and very far from the standards of blizzard games.
As f2pdrakron has pointed out, there is no free Zen. All C-Store items (barring a few minor giveaways every year) are bought and paid for with real money. They all have a price tag, and if you grind dilithium to avoid paying it yourself that doesn't change that fact one iota.
This is like arguing, "YouTube isn't free, because sponsors and Google foot the bill for all the bandwidth," or "OTA television isn't free, because sponsors pay for all the programming." No. YouTube IS free for everyone precisely because sponsors and Google are paying the bills. OTA television IS free because sponsors pay for everything.
So the argument that you and f2pdrakron are making is just intellectually dishonest. You know very well what people like me mean when we say that the game is "free"--that opposed to other games, it's not, "Either you fork over real cash to play this content, or don't play at all." Players also have the choice of earning that content without paying anything. You're trying to drag in the economics of how the Zen system works in order to talk over/talk down to people, but the economics still have nothing to do with the topic, which is whether there are paywalls in this game. There aren't.
My Foundry Mission--Name: Falling Star | Mission ID: HQIH36HAW | Faction: FED
What is this? SWTOR? No no thats worse, cause in swtor you have to pay to KEEP your expansion. I like this game, I like how its entirly f2p freindly, and I like how all the content is free
... I don't see what is wrong with paying 14 bucks a month O_o
It is not a lot of money heck a pizza pie cost that much
You cant have everything for free sometimes entertainment cost money...
and how is that going to work with players that are gold members and are already paying a monthly sub or have paid for a lifetime sub, would it be fair that they would have to pay again to access this content or on the other hand would it be fair on non subbers who did have to pay when gold members wouldn't.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
This is like arguing, "YouTube isn't free, because sponsors and Google foot the bill for all the bandwidth,"...
No, watching YouTube videos are free because there is no per-video price tag attached. No one is paying for videos, ads are paying for bandwidth. Thus videos are free, bandwidth is not. Apple and oranges.
So the argument that you and f2pdrakron are making is just intellectually dishonest.
No, your dismissal is intellectually dishonest and inaccurate. Someone is paying, the content is being paid for. Without someone paying that content is not disseminated. Period. These are the facts, which you can deny, but that just makes you wrong.
This is like arguing, "YouTube isn't free, because sponsors and Google foot the bill for all the bandwidth,"...
No, watching YouTube videos are free because there is no per-video price tag attached. No one is paying for videos, ads are paying for bandwidth. Thus videos are free, bandwidth is not. Apple and oranges...
This doesn't make any sense, so I'll just skip it.
So the argument that you and f2pdrakron are making is just intellectually dishonest.
No, your dismissal is intellectually dishonest and inaccurate. Someone is paying, the content is being paid for. Without someone paying that content is not disseminated. Period. These are the facts, which you can deny, but that just makes you wrong.
I'm arguing with a child. Got it.
My Foundry Mission--Name: Falling Star | Mission ID: HQIH36HAW | Faction: FED
Kinda like the blizz game does with their expansions, you could get the Gamma Quadrant expansion, Andromeda expansion, etc. I'm talking about whole new maps, explorable worlds, new villains and allies, and a largse storyline.. like on the oder of legacy of Romulus and the delta expansion combined. in addition, an add on pack with 12 ships, 4 fed Klink and Rom 1 sci 1 cruiser 1 escort one carrier.
If they were to start charging for expacs after the last ones being free this would cease to be a free to play game and go back to a pay to play. No I would not support pay for expansions. I would however support an optional pack with the expansion that gets you some cool stuff like they have done with LoR and Delta.
"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again." - Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek Generations
This is like arguing, "YouTube isn't free, because sponsors and Google foot the bill for all the bandwidth,"...
Ah funny you mentioned that because not all content on YouTube is free, they do have a paywall as they do offer pay steaming services as you can buy or rent movies.
ALL of YouTube's content is free--in other words, content uploaded by YouTuber users. Movies and TV shows are not "YouTube content", just content that belongs to other companies that it's agreed to distribute on the site. But feel free to point me to the areas of YouTube where you can't any channels put out by YouTubers.
Do not call me dishonest when you are setting up strawman, I make a very clear argument based on facts as you starting to move around the question of if STO content is free, it is not ... the Steamrunner cannot be acquired with Zen, LTS cannot be acquired with Zen and many of the pre-orders items cannot be acquired period.
You are free to make a account, I can make a account at Blizzard but that doesnt mean WoW is free because I can and right now that is your argument and worst, this is your argument to justify pay expansions.
I'm not discussing this matter with you or the other poster any further. In a debate, people have to be honest. For example, if we're having a discussion about whether the sky is blue or not, it's intellectually dishonest to go, "Well, technically, because some people are color blind, you can't say it's blue. It's all relative." If we're having a discussion about whether your rottweiler bit me or not and I have a gash on my leg, it's intellectually dishonest to say, "Just because you think all black labs are vicious, doesn't mean my dog did." Either your dog bit me or not.
All you and the other poster keep doing is playing verbal games whenever you get cornered. Now you argue that just because you're free to make an account, it doesn't mean WoW is free? What does WoW have to do with anything? It doesn't. It's just trying to derail the topic. Then you go back and parrot back to me exactly what I said earlier about how people are redefining the word, "paywall" to justify not paying for anything. Very clever.
So fine, you win. STO is full of massive paywalls! It's virtually impossible to get any content without being nickled and dimed for it or grinding as if it were like a full time job. And when a game says it's "Free to Play," all of the content, everything should be completely free of charge. Otherwise, it's just a big, massive paywall and cash crab, and any DLC, microtransaction or EP is just a ripoff.
/endthread
My Foundry Mission--Name: Falling Star | Mission ID: HQIH36HAW | Faction: FED
This is like arguing, "YouTube isn't free, because sponsors and Google foot the bill for all the bandwidth,"...
Ah funny you mentioned that because not all content on YouTube is free, they do have a paywall as they do offer pay steaming services as you can buy or rent movies.
ALL of YouTube's content is free--in other words, content uploaded by YouTuber users. Movies and TV shows are not "YouTube content", just content that belongs to other companies that it's agreed to distribute on the site. But feel free to point me to the areas of YouTube where you can't any channels put out by YouTubers.
Do not call me dishonest when you are setting up strawman, I make a very clear argument based on facts as you starting to move around the question of if STO content is free, it is not ... the Steamrunner cannot be acquired with Zen, LTS cannot be acquired with Zen and many of the pre-orders items cannot be acquired period.
You are free to make a account, I can make a account at Blizzard but that doesnt mean WoW is free because I can and right now that is your argument and worst, this is your argument to justify pay expansions.
I'm not discussing this matter with you or the other poster any further. In a debate, people have to be honest. For example, if we're having a discussion about whether the sky is blue or not, it's intellectually dishonest to go, "Well, technically, because some people are color blind, you can't say it's blue. It's all relative." If we're having a discussion about whether your rottweiler bit me or not and I have a gash on my leg, it's intellectually dishonest to say, "Just because you think all black labs are vicious, doesn't mean my dog did." Either your dog bit me or not.
All you and the other poster keep doing is playing verbal games whenever you get cornered. Now you argue that just because you're free to make an account, it doesn't mean WoW is free? What does WoW have to do with anything? It doesn't. It's just trying to derail the topic. Then you go back and parrot back to me exactly what I said earlier about how people are redefining the word, "paywall" to justify not paying for anything. Very clever.
So fine, you win. STO is full of massive paywalls! It's virtually impossible to get any content without being nickled and dimed for it or grinding as if it were like a full time job. And when a game says it's "Free to Play," all of the content, everything should be completely free of charge. Otherwise, it's just a big, massive paywall and cash crab, and any DLC, microtransaction or EP is just a ripoff.
/endthread
Actually, it does depend on perspective. You are saying that the game is free, while observing from an individual actor's perspective, f2pdrakron is arguing from a macro-perspective.
So yeah, technically you're both correct. The game may be free for a specific individual, overall @f2pdrakron 's point makes more sense. A lof of stuff in this game cannot be had if no one paid for it, meaning that content is already paid for indirectly.
Whether a specific individual will experience this or not, is not relevant. Each specific individual is in some way tied to what may or may not be described as 'pay-walls', I'm not going to argue semantics here.
And proceeding from that point, there is no reason to start asking the players to pay for even more, and start charging for content releases. We're already paying, be it directly or indirectly, for everything.
Why would you even suggest such a thing? If they even hint at anything like that, I am out of here. It really is just that simple.
Hey, if you really want to put money towards this game, buy a bunch of zen. Spend it on costumes or ships or keys for lockboxes. You already have a million ways to spend your money on this game. If you want to contribute, do it.
Now, what if it was done as a Kickstarter type deal designed to bring features to the game that they normally would not do... How wold that go?
No, I wouldn't pay for an expansion. I probably would purchase a 4/4/4 (or even a 3/3/3) ship pack like you suggested, unlike the 5/2/2 breakdown of the Delta Ops Pack, but I still wouldn't buy an expansion directly even if the cost were the same.
There's also a certain genius to STO's monetization structure, on several levels. It allows F2Pers to obtain cash shop items by selling in-game currency. It allows the company to sell in-game currency for real world money. It convinces some that the game is free, and it is for them, while ensuring that every cash shop item acquired by a F2Per generates income for the company. It allows everyone to access the same group content together, allowing players with shinies to show them off and advertise to those without. It gives everyone a larger playerbase to play the game with, both nurturing potential F2Pers to generate in-game currency for sale and P2Pers to buy that currency or cash shop items directly. It's really rather brilliant.
Paying for an expansion directly has the unfortunate side-effect of progressively segmenting the playerbase. As another poster commented, DDO has that sort of thing, as does ESO; the effect of this is that the playerbase available to play any given piece of content with you begins to dwindle as time progresses. While much of STO can be a solo experience, other games have shown that finding group content that you've paid for is unavailable because you can't find teammates is frustrating. Add to this the fact that a player that doesn't purchase the expansion will never see what they are missing, and you start to whittle away at some of the aspects of STO's monetization system that work in its favor. Considering the lingering after effects of Delta Rising, I don't think adding paid expansions would be a good idea.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
I'd gladly donate a fixed sum for the upcoming larger scale expansion - if that money would be guaranteed to go to the developing of the actual content (as in, staying with Cryptic and going for new missions, voice actors, ships, bug fixing etc and NOT being transfered to PWE, used for advertising, servers etc) for the said expansion AND if at the same time the expansion would be free to play for everybody. As in, this wouldn't be a true paid expansion, would still be free, but people could donate to progressively make it better.
Seems like a no-brainer to me, no one donates, you get the planned expansion which is bit bare bones compared to what could've been but still enough to showcase the story needed (or rather, that is the expansion like was planned to be released by Cryptic, nothing more nothing less), some people donate, suddenly you for example get more missions, more voice acting, more people donate, you get even more missions, brand new ships, new playable races for captain etc. Likewise, for example if enough money is raised, as a gift everyone could get a certain zen ship for free, it can be a lower tier, as a thank you to the community. I think it would be an awesome incentive for people that are willing (and can) donate more money to the game - and there's nothing wrong with this system because even if no one donates, expansion still gets roled out as planned. Loose nothing by, but can gain so much.
If the quality of this game increased by 50 fold then maybe. As it is its not worth a subscription model pay plan and cryptic knows this better than us. Why do you think they come up with these gimmics to get peoples money. Expensive gimmics to btw. A ship normally will cost someone ruffly 50 dollors. Thats 3 months of play time from a subscription based game. If cryptic can manage to get you to buy a ship one time every 3 months or play the lockbox lotto then they have gotten their monthly sub fee. One way or another cryptic will get their money. If they can't get it from you they will find a way to stick it to your friend(s) extra hard. Thats just how it is.
This has been asked before. I'm 98% confident Cryptic said no.
Wouldn't work with this game anyway. The best you could do would to provide access to content for gold/life members only or something, but even then it'd be a bad idea.
Retired. I'm now in search for that perfect space anomaly.
I'd gladly donate a fixed sum for the upcoming larger scale expansion - if that money would be guaranteed to go to the developing of the actual content (as in, staying with Cryptic and going for new missions, voice actors, ships, bug fixing etc and NOT being transfered to PWE, used for advertising, servers etc) for the said expansion AND if at the same time the expansion would be free to play for everybody. As in, this wouldn't be a true paid expansion, would still be free, but people could donate to progressively make it better.
Seems like a no-brainer to me, no one donates, you get the planned expansion which is bit bare bones compared to what could've been but still enough to showcase the story needed (or rather, that is the expansion like was planned to be released by Cryptic, nothing more nothing less), some people donate, suddenly you for example get more missions, more voice acting, more people donate, you get even more missions, brand new ships, new playable races for captain etc. Likewise, for example if enough money is raised, as a gift everyone could get a certain zen ship for free, it can be a lower tier, as a thank you to the community. I think it would be an awesome incentive for people that are willing (and can) donate more money to the game - and there's nothing wrong with this system because even if no one donates, expansion still gets roled out as planned. Loose nothing by, but can gain so much.
This pretty much to me is the best solution. Cryptic does a few kickstarter projects. You feel like tossing money for paying for exploring the unknown Charlie quadrant or something. They get enough money and they make a new quadrant to explore. This way the expansion is f2p for everyone but the development cost is defrayed. If you don't like the idea of that expansion you simply don't donate.
They just put a link to the kickstarter page on the launcher so anyone can see it and visit. That way people are aware of the option.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Beyond which, who would pay for content in a game this buggy? For a lot of people on a good day it's questionable, on a bad day unplayable.
Ditto to that.
I would pay for an expansion (I do in WoW) but Cryptic would have to up their quality and size of an expansion. Honestly, I don't think they could create such an expansion even if they wanted to.
They let bugs float around for years and never solve them. (I still have to re-place missing powers in my trays and reactivate ship/ground talents every so often; for no apparent reason.) I don't think anybody there knows how to fix some of the bugs. Programmer A wrote that code then later left Cryptic and no one there knows how to modify his code. I think I actually saw some Dev admit to something like that one time.
This is like arguing, "YouTube isn't free, because sponsors and Google foot the bill for all the bandwidth,"...
Ah funny you mentioned that because not all content on YouTube is free, they do have a paywall as they do offer pay steaming services as you can buy or rent movies.
ALL of YouTube's content is free--in other words, content uploaded by YouTuber users. Movies and TV shows are not "YouTube content", just content that belongs to other companies that it's agreed to distribute on the site. But feel free to point me to the areas of YouTube where you can't any channels put out by YouTubers.
Do not call me dishonest when you are setting up strawman, I make a very clear argument based on facts as you starting to move around the question of if STO content is free, it is not ... the Steamrunner cannot be acquired with Zen, LTS cannot be acquired with Zen and many of the pre-orders items cannot be acquired period.
You are free to make a account, I can make a account at Blizzard but that doesnt mean WoW is free because I can and right now that is your argument and worst, this is your argument to justify pay expansions.
I'm not discussing this matter with you or the other poster any further. In a debate, people have to be honest. For example, if we're having a discussion about whether the sky is blue or not, it's intellectually dishonest to go, "Well, technically, because some people are color blind, you can't say it's blue. It's all relative." If we're having a discussion about whether your rottweiler bit me or not and I have a gash on my leg, it's intellectually dishonest to say, "Just because you think all black labs are vicious, doesn't mean my dog did." Either your dog bit me or not.
All you and the other poster keep doing is playing verbal games whenever you get cornered. Now you argue that just because you're free to make an account, it doesn't mean WoW is free? What does WoW have to do with anything? It doesn't. It's just trying to derail the topic. Then you go back and parrot back to me exactly what I said earlier about how people are redefining the word, "paywall" to justify not paying for anything. Very clever.
So fine, you win. STO is full of massive paywalls! It's virtually impossible to get any content without being nickled and dimed for it or grinding as if it were like a full time job. And when a game says it's "Free to Play," all of the content, everything should be completely free of charge. Otherwise, it's just a big, massive paywall and cash crab, and any DLC, microtransaction or EP is just a ripoff.
/endthread
Actually, it does depend on perspective. You are saying that the game is free, while observing from an individual actor's perspective, f2pdrakron is arguing from a macro-perspective.
What's a "macro-perspective"? I mean, even "free beer" isn't actually free - the guy giving it out had to pay for it, for example, and you probably still need to go to the venue where the free beer is available, which might cost you time and money.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Comments
[i]Pro-tip: When someone else picks up the tab that doesn't make your drinks free.[/i][/quote]
Umm...yes it does. When somebody else pays for it, it's the definition of FREE. What, you think if the company gives it away, that somebody else isn't paying for it then? The definition of free is that somebody else paid for it (because somebody ALWAYS has to pay).[/quote]
No, the definition of free is something without cost. Air is free. If your friend buys you a $5 beer that beer is $5 and it cost your friend $5. Not realizing that and understanding that makes you a bad friend who can't acknowledge and understand that your friend did something nice for you, and that it cost him or her (and if it costs it ain't free) .
Beyond which, if the definition of free were that you could theoretically get it without directly paying then EVERYTHING is free. Money is functionally worthless and merely has representative value of work done for another, issued to us because the barter system is a pain in the TRIBBLE. You aren't actually DIRECTLY PAYING for anything because you aren't giving anyone anything of substance, merely trading owed debts from people who do or have dealt in substantive goods or services. So essentially you're getting everything for free, and its in fact your employer who is nice enough to buy you things because you did him the favor of working for him.
SCM - Hive (S) - [02:31] DMG(DPS) - @jarvisandalfred: 30.62M(204.66K) - Fed Sci
Tacs are overrated.
Game's best wiki
Build questions? Look here!
This is like arguing, "YouTube isn't free, because sponsors and Google foot the bill for all the bandwidth," or "OTA television isn't free, because sponsors pay for all the programming." No. YouTube IS free for everyone precisely because sponsors and Google are paying the bills. OTA television IS free because sponsors pay for everything.
So the argument that you and f2pdrakron are making is just intellectually dishonest. You know very well what people like me mean when we say that the game is "free"--that opposed to other games, it's not, "Either you fork over real cash to play this content, or don't play at all." Players also have the choice of earning that content without paying anything. You're trying to drag in the economics of how the Zen system works in order to talk over/talk down to people, but the economics still have nothing to do with the topic, which is whether there are paywalls in this game. There aren't.
and how is that going to work with players that are gold members and are already paying a monthly sub or have paid for a lifetime sub, would it be fair that they would have to pay again to access this content or on the other hand would it be fair on non subbers who did have to pay when gold members wouldn't.
When I think about everything we've been through together,
maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey,
and if that journey takes a little longer,
so we can do something we all believe in,
I can't think of any place I'd rather be or any people I'd rather be with.
No, watching YouTube videos are free because there is no per-video price tag attached. No one is paying for videos, ads are paying for bandwidth. Thus videos are free, bandwidth is not. Apple and oranges.
No, your dismissal is intellectually dishonest and inaccurate. Someone is paying, the content is being paid for. Without someone paying that content is not disseminated. Period. These are the facts, which you can deny, but that just makes you wrong.
This doesn't make any sense, so I'll just skip it.
I'm arguing with a child. Got it.
If they were to start charging for expacs after the last ones being free this would cease to be a free to play game and go back to a pay to play. No I would not support pay for expansions. I would however support an optional pack with the expansion that gets you some cool stuff like they have done with LoR and Delta.
Star Trek Online volunteer Community Moderator
A child thinks toys are free because mommy and daddy buy them...
ALL of YouTube's content is free--in other words, content uploaded by YouTuber users. Movies and TV shows are not "YouTube content", just content that belongs to other companies that it's agreed to distribute on the site. But feel free to point me to the areas of YouTube where you can't any channels put out by YouTubers.
I'm not discussing this matter with you or the other poster any further. In a debate, people have to be honest. For example, if we're having a discussion about whether the sky is blue or not, it's intellectually dishonest to go, "Well, technically, because some people are color blind, you can't say it's blue. It's all relative." If we're having a discussion about whether your rottweiler bit me or not and I have a gash on my leg, it's intellectually dishonest to say, "Just because you think all black labs are vicious, doesn't mean my dog did." Either your dog bit me or not.
All you and the other poster keep doing is playing verbal games whenever you get cornered. Now you argue that just because you're free to make an account, it doesn't mean WoW is free? What does WoW have to do with anything? It doesn't. It's just trying to derail the topic. Then you go back and parrot back to me exactly what I said earlier about how people are redefining the word, "paywall" to justify not paying for anything. Very clever.
So fine, you win. STO is full of massive paywalls! It's virtually impossible to get any content without being nickled and dimed for it or grinding as if it were like a full time job. And when a game says it's "Free to Play," all of the content, everything should be completely free of charge. Otherwise, it's just a big, massive paywall and cash crab, and any DLC, microtransaction or EP is just a ripoff.
/endthread
Actually, it does depend on perspective. You are saying that the game is free, while observing from an individual actor's perspective, f2pdrakron is arguing from a macro-perspective.
So yeah, technically you're both correct. The game may be free for a specific individual, overall @f2pdrakron 's point makes more sense. A lof of stuff in this game cannot be had if no one paid for it, meaning that content is already paid for indirectly.
Whether a specific individual will experience this or not, is not relevant. Each specific individual is in some way tied to what may or may not be described as 'pay-walls', I'm not going to argue semantics here.
And proceeding from that point, there is no reason to start asking the players to pay for even more, and start charging for content releases. We're already paying, be it directly or indirectly, for everything.
Now, what if it was done as a Kickstarter type deal designed to bring features to the game that they normally would not do... How wold that go?
There's also a certain genius to STO's monetization structure, on several levels. It allows F2Pers to obtain cash shop items by selling in-game currency. It allows the company to sell in-game currency for real world money. It convinces some that the game is free, and it is for them, while ensuring that every cash shop item acquired by a F2Per generates income for the company. It allows everyone to access the same group content together, allowing players with shinies to show them off and advertise to those without. It gives everyone a larger playerbase to play the game with, both nurturing potential F2Pers to generate in-game currency for sale and P2Pers to buy that currency or cash shop items directly. It's really rather brilliant.
Paying for an expansion directly has the unfortunate side-effect of progressively segmenting the playerbase. As another poster commented, DDO has that sort of thing, as does ESO; the effect of this is that the playerbase available to play any given piece of content with you begins to dwindle as time progresses. While much of STO can be a solo experience, other games have shown that finding group content that you've paid for is unavailable because you can't find teammates is frustrating. Add to this the fact that a player that doesn't purchase the expansion will never see what they are missing, and you start to whittle away at some of the aspects of STO's monetization system that work in its favor. Considering the lingering after effects of Delta Rising, I don't think adding paid expansions would be a good idea.
I'd gladly donate a fixed sum for the upcoming larger scale expansion - if that money would be guaranteed to go to the developing of the actual content (as in, staying with Cryptic and going for new missions, voice actors, ships, bug fixing etc and NOT being transfered to PWE, used for advertising, servers etc) for the said expansion AND if at the same time the expansion would be free to play for everybody. As in, this wouldn't be a true paid expansion, would still be free, but people could donate to progressively make it better.
Seems like a no-brainer to me, no one donates, you get the planned expansion which is bit bare bones compared to what could've been but still enough to showcase the story needed (or rather, that is the expansion like was planned to be released by Cryptic, nothing more nothing less), some people donate, suddenly you for example get more missions, more voice acting, more people donate, you get even more missions, brand new ships, new playable races for captain etc. Likewise, for example if enough money is raised, as a gift everyone could get a certain zen ship for free, it can be a lower tier, as a thank you to the community. I think it would be an awesome incentive for people that are willing (and can) donate more money to the game - and there's nothing wrong with this system because even if no one donates, expansion still gets roled out as planned. Loose nothing by, but can gain so much.
Wouldn't work with this game anyway. The best you could do would to provide access to content for gold/life members only or something, but even then it'd be a bad idea.
This pretty much to me is the best solution. Cryptic does a few kickstarter projects. You feel like tossing money for paying for exploring the unknown Charlie quadrant or something. They get enough money and they make a new quadrant to explore. This way the expansion is f2p for everyone but the development cost is defrayed. If you don't like the idea of that expansion you simply don't donate.
They just put a link to the kickstarter page on the launcher so anyone can see it and visit. That way people are aware of the option.
Originally Posted by pwlaughingtrendy
Network engineers are not ship designers.
Nor should they be. Their ships would look weird.
Ditto to that.
I would pay for an expansion (I do in WoW) but Cryptic would have to up their quality and size of an expansion. Honestly, I don't think they could create such an expansion even if they wanted to.
They let bugs float around for years and never solve them. (I still have to re-place missing powers in my trays and reactivate ship/ground talents every so often; for no apparent reason.) I don't think anybody there knows how to fix some of the bugs. Programmer A wrote that code then later left Cryptic and no one there knows how to modify his code. I think I actually saw some Dev admit to something like that one time.
It's like Epistemology Freshman year.