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A Cryptic Retrospective

Forums being what they are, I am sure the Star Trek Online Retrospective post will spawn a fair amount of negative commentary. I would just like to say that, for me personally, Cryptic since their earliest days has been a producer of innovative, ground-breaking, genre-changing and purely enjoyable games.

Before I get called a fanboi, let's just say I've posted my share of 'this sucks, you guys can't get it right, why the exact same error re-posted for this years event, don't you guys take notes?' type comments. And yes, as I read the retrospective, the bugs, issues and gaffes of those seasons and episodes scrolled through my mind.

That being said, since the very first days of City of Heroes, Cryptic has managed to come up with a gaming experience for me that is amazingly positive - not the typical end of the world, days of darkness, blood-and-gore fare that is all too common out there. They've created nice looking, hopeful worlds where the emphasis is on building, re-building, and fighting the good fight.

They (and their successors at Paragon) created whole new styles of gaming (non-inventory oriented, amazing customization of looks/abilities, Foundry etc) that have since become either gold standards or are still practically unique to Cryptic.

A lot of times, breaking new ground means running into a lot of snags along the way. Cryptic has done their share of both.

So on STO's 6th year, Star Trek's 50th, and Cryptic's 16th year, I just wanted to say "Thank you Cryptic! Keep up the good work! Here's to another 16 years of innovation!"

(Oh, and also, please take notes on previously fixed bugs so you don't re-publish them. They aren't really all that nostalgic anyway.) :)

Comments

  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    Yes, Cryptic has kept improving STO. We lost things a few people liked (the broken madlibs exploration missions, PVP that isort of worked) and some things have stagnated (duty officers) but overall the game is in much better shape than when I first played it in 2012.

    The added KDF, Romulan and now TOS level-up stories are great. (More TOS please!)

    Crafting 2.0 is much better and much fairer to F2P than 1.0 was. No more spending zen for required paywall components! No more level-locked gear! Bound to account! ... now just give us a way to spend mats or craft special sub-components to let us craft specific mods and we can declare victory.

    The boff skills revamp was a great quality of life improvement. Being able to switch between skills at any time without retraining or losing the old skills is very handy and lets me keep a small, known to me bridge crew instead of an anonymous horde of variants.
  • gavinrunebladegavinruneblade Member Posts: 3,894 Arc User
    I started with season 6 after city of heroes died. It is pretty amazing how different the game is today. I have tried many other games, not just mmos but all types, and yet even though i want more kdf stuff, sto is the only place that feels like home.

    So thanks all you cryptic peoples, I appreciate all the hard work.
  • tribbulatertribbulater Member Posts: 291 Arc User
    edited July 2016
    Yeah, I also started shortly after City of Heroes died... after a suitable mourning period of course.

    I've got to admit that overall, Cryptic games - CoH/CoV, STO, even Neverwinter to a lesser extent - have a more 'unique' flavor than most of the other MMO's I've played. Can't really say much about Champions as I've not played more than a couple hours in it, but like the OP said they've got a nice optimistic feel about them.

    If I had one quibble it would be that someone at Cryptic needs to learn what the micro in micro-transactions means. Really though I can't point to many other games that I have enjoyed as much my Cryptic ones. The Secret World and LotRO maybe, that's about it.

    Now if only they had bought back City of Heroes when NCSoft decided they needed to make a statement...
  • vendoodvendood Member Posts: 77 Arc User
    I also remember the City of Heroes days fondly, and from my perspective City, Star Trek Online and NeverWinter have been some of my best gaming experiences.

    7 years playing Heroes, 4 years in Star Trek Online, only started playing Neverwinter in the last year. I think I can safely say that despite a few missteps here and there, Cryptic knows how to hold my interest. I also like that their games aren't simply run-of-the-mill MMOs but generally have unique systems or approaches that really add to the gaming experience.

    Thanks Cryptic, keep it coming!
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