test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Age of STO as an MMORPG versus PAY TO PLAY/WIN
stealthmodeeq2
Member Posts: 1 Arc User
As an aging game. Yes, you do not have to sub. But it will take you forever to level equipment up. Without using pay to win.
I digress. I see this in the latest " sale " adverts.
Star Trek Online: Lifetime Subscription
Subscribing to Star Trek Online will get you great features and benefits as you venture through the final frontier.
Downloadable Content: Requires the base game Star Trek Online on Arc in order to play.
-$100.00 $299.99 $199.99
Who in their sane mind would waste that much money in this 11 year old, outdated engine, with so much push for pay to win on top of that.
How do you mod a ship to experimental without purchasing upgrade tokens ? Talking about from t6 to t6x. Pay to win.
How do you upgrade ships equipment ?
Pay to win.
For an 11 year old outdated mmorpg. This company sure does try to price gouge its remaining customer base.
That said, game got real boring end game. Content is there. Progression is only pay to win though. Unless you have a few years.
I digress. I see this in the latest " sale " adverts.
Star Trek Online: Lifetime Subscription
Subscribing to Star Trek Online will get you great features and benefits as you venture through the final frontier.
Downloadable Content: Requires the base game Star Trek Online on Arc in order to play.
-$100.00 $299.99 $199.99
Who in their sane mind would waste that much money in this 11 year old, outdated engine, with so much push for pay to win on top of that.
How do you mod a ship to experimental without purchasing upgrade tokens ? Talking about from t6 to t6x. Pay to win.
How do you upgrade ships equipment ?
Pay to win.
For an 11 year old outdated mmorpg. This company sure does try to price gouge its remaining customer base.
That said, game got real boring end game. Content is there. Progression is only pay to win though. Unless you have a few years.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
The model seems reasonable (if not generous at times). There's nothing to win. Take your time and try to enjoy things.
There is no real player vs player competitive elements to the game
Best part of the game.
Cirran
Aside from Ultimate upgrades, Phoenix upgrades are the most efficient path to upgrading your equipment. A Single Event can give you enough dilithium to exchange for enough phoenix upgrades to reach mk15 for most, if not all, of your gear. (Reaching gold rarity will obviously take a bit more work, but isn't really necessary.)
You'll generally be able to do both of those in the span of a single month. Maxing out your Reputations, by comparison, will take far longer. If a month to reach 'end game' gear is too much for you.. I don't know what to tell you.
I don't understand this pay to win claim at all.
There's no pay to win in this game, absolutely none! You can become quite decent within 20-30 hours of gameplay, and you don't have to spend a penny. The engine maybe old, but it ain't the same engine it launched with. In fact they made many updates to it. You also are not competing for resources, can't be forced into a PvP match, and you certainly can't lose your stuff you've built up of time....those are the signs of a P2W game, which this has none.
You don't need a T6, you can do with T4 just fine, plus T5U are more than good enough....and let's not forget the FREE T6's you get through the year. And the Upgrade Tokens....they literally throw them at you. Every other event is usually a Red Alert event where you get one.
Equipment upgrades, buy them with Dil or make them yourself.
This folks is the WORST and most clueless argument I've ever seen.
Perhaps he wants to be 'hardcore' but Cryptic will not let him do it for free. Some people have to pay good money to be 'hardcore'... some people are not allowed to be... at all!
*I* on the other hand, am VERY hardcore, and I conform to NOBODY.
plus the other goodies and the stipend, yeah, it's not too badly priced on sale.
Tbh, you're wasting your time here. For some reason most of the playerbase is convinced that because you can be successful with free ships and free gear the game is not P2W, even though all the best stuff requires someone (either you or someone who's selling it on the exchange) to pay real world cash.
I personally am of the opinion that the NEED for the best gear is completely irrelevant, and I am absolutely aware that I spend a ridiculous and irresponsible amount of money on this game (FAR more than I spend on my WoW sub and expansions), so I'm never going to defend Cryptic's blatant P2W practices and predatory lootboxes, but a lot of players are either delusional or are trying too hard to rationalize their purchases and simply refuse to see the obvious.
You have to admit though that there is no competition in STO aside from the one the community has created themselves. Competing for high DPS is nothing the game itself supports, it's a made up competition made possible by third-party tools. The game itself offers single player content and TFOs which are however nothing like classic dungeon raids as there is nothing to gain from it aside from having "fun".
Yes, the objectively better and best gear is kinda hid behind a paywall, but aside from feeling you have to collect it all there is no real advantage in getting it. So it is difficult to classify it as "pay to win", isn't it?
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
SOMEONE paid cash at some point even if you are using Zen you acquired through the dilithium exchange or using EC to buy lockbox ships from the exchange. Someone at some point pays real money for the Zen that allows any of those things to be possible.
Dude, it's not like Cryptic pays its bills in goodwill, STO is a F2P Game Model, it has to earn its devs cash somewhere and make it where it's enticing to spend money.
WoW has its subscription, ESO has its ESOPlus membership that makes QoL A heck of a lot easier than F2P and access to paid-only content, unless you want to buy all expansions one by one.
Other games have 60/80 $ Prices upfront, even Indie games you have to pay for.
Let's stop being Freebie hunters and start to realize that most stuff needs to be paid for.
Part of this statement, I will agree with. The lifetime Subscription at this point in the games life cycle is probably not a good value. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying the game is dying because it's not.. just at this point the LTS does not offer good value for the money you pay. You would be better off buying one of the other larger C-Store packs then a LTS at this point. Now, people that bought it years ago, or back when the game first went live.. sure they have absolutely received incredible value from the purchase.
While it's been explained, T6X Tokens are given away all the time. You can also buy them from other players on the exchange, and since T6X is not needed for anything.. it's not Pay to Win.
Again, I agree with your premise just not the particular wording. The game is heavily monetized, yes.. more so then it previously was and progression is fairly slow by design. It's a common tactic in MMO's to create the problem and then sell the solution, and normally the 'problem' is that something takes a long time. Still, it doesn't fit the nature of a P2W game but it does fit the mold of being arguably overly monetized. I personally think the idea of ship packs costing $300+ as absolutely absurd but others seem to feel it's reasonable. Value is completely subjective and as long as people are paying what is being asked there is no motivation for Cryptic to reduce prices. Paying to speed up the process is also something that commonly sells well in games like this, but those things have the advantage of not being needed, they're just convenient. There are games where you cannot complete game content without this progression, but STO is not one of them. You don't need to be maxed out to achieve anything in this game.
This is common misnomer that comes up a lot and is actually not true. Zen is completely 'in house' generated currency, it's actually backed by nothing tangible. There is absolutely nothing to keep Cryptic from injecting Zen into the exchange to keep players exchanging. I am not saying they do this, I kind of doubt they do, but situations like this is often one of the reason that these self generated currencies exist. Zen has no actual value on the Cryptic side they can make up as much of it as they want anytime they want, so players are only assuming that all the Zen in the exchange comes from other players. There is absolutely nothing guaranteeing that at all. If the exchange ever reached a point where there was no Zen to buy and Cryptic felt that this was damaging to the game health, they are free to inject as much into the exchange as they feel appropriate.
Now, more then likely, you're right and it's actual Zen bought by players.. but we don't know that for sure.
I am no freebie hunter, I don't fault Cryptic for paying the bills I simply despise the "Free" to Play business model, and I resent the F2P players that don't support the games they enjoy and thereby force their share of development expenses onto other players. I've never tried to hide these things either. In six months I've spent more on STO than I will in two YEARS on WoW including the deluxe edition of whatever the next expansion is, and WoW adds SIGNIFICANTLY more content in that amount of time. It's absolutely infuriating when I think about it so I usually try not to, but my resentment is always there.
Use that to get you those fancy phoenix upgrades. Buy cheap low level gear - upgrade it.
Use exciting KDF ground and space sets you get for free.
pew pew - win!!!!!!
cost = 0 $
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Could be some of the free Zen generated for Lifers in the mix.
There is a JH Heavy Destroyer. And technically there's actually 7 HDs if you count the T5s. However... the Lifer Perks do need a revamp badly. Yea you got the EV suits, the ships, and the monthly 500 Zen, but other than that there isn't much else. Access to the Captain's Table would be more enticing... if there was anything there worth going there for. There's nothing there you can't get at say ESD or First City other than peace and quiet in Zone Chat, and THAT can be achieved just by turning Zone Chat OFF.
Also guys... anyone notice that our OP has never returned to defend their opinion? They just LET themselves get crucified, probably hoping to start a brushfire.
I was going to also mention that it being their first post, probably someone already banned.
Yeah, the avatar would look like this:
I'd like to be proven wrong and this person turn out to be something other than that... but... seen it happen a few too many times where we get one post wonders that never return after posting something controvertial.
Perhaps Cryptic could offer an "ad supported" version of STO where you earn free zen by playing with 3/4 of the screen covered by ads for Taco Bell, the latest movies, stuff to buy from Amazon, etc.?
Now here I will agree with great enthusiasm!
I liked MMO's much better back in the days when we either paid our sub or didn't get to play at all. Everybody had some skin in the game. There were no freeloaders with nothing to lose, and no gold farmers.
For the record, I racked up over 1000 days of paid subscription here in STO, before it went F2P
"Sorry mom, the mob has spoken. Monorail!"
Unfortunately, F2P is what works for funding most MMOs while subscriptions did not. People voted with their wallets for F2P, just like they voted for free websites filled with autoplay ads instead of paying for subscriptions.
Whales need players to lord over, to be superior to.. and those players come from the free 2 play player base.
You may not like them, but F2P players are essential to the games survival. Whales aren't going to stick around and spends thousands of dollars on an empty game.
that's not pay to win. that's impatience on the buyer for the benefit of the seller.
Anyways... I'm thinkin' this thread's pretty much run its course and we're just beating a dead horse into mashed potatoes now. Everyone good with me closing this one down?