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Infinity promo packs during a Zen shortage?
azniadeet
Member Posts: 1,871 Arc User
I just saw that Cryptic is bringing back the Infinity Promo Packs while we're in the midst of the worst Zen shortage the Dilithium Exchange has ever seen.
The current demand on Zen is punitively high on the F2P playerbase, and they want to increase it even more? This demonstrates, at a minimum, a lack of seriousness in efforts to balance the economy; and at worst, an open hostility to the free exchange market.
Cryptic needs to answer for this timing. They've made a number of statements suggesting they want to fix the economy; but then immediately back it up with this policy that runs directly counter to those statements.
What are you doing to fix this, Cryptic? And why are you doing something that will so obviously make the problem worse??
The current demand on Zen is punitively high on the F2P playerbase, and they want to increase it even more? This demonstrates, at a minimum, a lack of seriousness in efforts to balance the economy; and at worst, an open hostility to the free exchange market.
Cryptic needs to answer for this timing. They've made a number of statements suggesting they want to fix the economy; but then immediately back it up with this policy that runs directly counter to those statements.
What are you doing to fix this, Cryptic? And why are you doing something that will so obviously make the problem worse??
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That would be a fair argument except for the fact that these sales haven't been announced for XBox and Playstation.
I'm sure PWE is behind it. And whatever process they go through to sell their Zen is their own responsibility to manage. If they can't manage things in a swift an efficient manner, that's another problem they need to answer for.
But yes, Cryptic does need to answer for PWE. Sorry, but that's the reality of working under the thumb of the overlords. You don't get to pass the buck.
> It does seem ill-advised. In point of fact, I would argue the near-constant sales are one of the primary reasons for the dil exchange issue.
The list is long. We can argue for ever here as to why but in the end the truth is simply that this game has not enough players left willing to pay for it under current circumstances.
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We had a similar one when the DL Exchange was high one time, then they had a reactionary phoenix box event to counter it... only to have a pre-scheduled thing come up and negate that.
Can we stop pretending that Cryptic and PWE are separate things. PWE bought Cryptic a decade ago. Outright for cash. Cryptic=PWE. Or rather PWE=Cryptic. They are not some independent studio. lol
That is all well and good and true. The thing is this game only runs as long as people spend money. Cryptic has created an economy that is tightly woven with the F2P balance. The whales are few... and Cryptic has priced the game accordingly. If someone was to really buy every single pack they release completely with cash money this would be what a $150 a month game ? Very few people are fully wallet warrior, and their are actually a lot of F2P/Cash money hybrid players. People that spend 20 or 30 bucks a month and combo that with a some dil conversion.
Thing is if they make is the conversion doesn't work things grind to a halt... yes the people that actually buy dil get a good deal no question on that one. But how long do they continue doing that if the game appears dead to them. Sure the super insane 50 toon farms don't effect that much, but I would suggest their are far more people queing TFOs, hanging out in adventure zones and running events past their end date to stockpile Dil. For the game to appear alive so the whales spend... the F2P economy needs to keep the casual grinders grinding.
Actually they ARE separate entities. PWE is just the publisher. Cryptic is the developer that does the actual WORK on the game. PWE just signs the paychecks.
That sounds a bit entitled. Dil farmers do provide a service to lazy whales and minnows who want dil, but their grinding doesn't directly support the game, it's the cash money zen buyers who keep the lights on.
They are a subsidiary of perfect world entertainment. They haven't been an independent game studio since 2008. When they where bought by Atari. Previous to that they where a independent studio and they did have a publisher relationship with NCsoft.
I point it out cause it seems to be the go to excuse for Cryptic things... it was scheduled and it has to be cleared by PWE. I mean they are PWE. So perhaps they do schedule things they can't change... and sure the people running Cryptic have bosses. I don't know I buy the idea that someone at PWE above the EP of STO at their Cryptic subsidiary is all the worried about the week to week promos run in STO.
Ever notice that things like charge bonus events happen for multiple PWE games at once? STO game development management might or might not have any control over the financial side.
And frankly when a bean counter meddles with game development... things get ugly. We've seen it in the past with other Developers and Publishers.
Hell... I wouldn't be surprised if C&C4 was basically just bean counters trying to cash in on the E-Sports craze. Yea they have a single player campaign, BUT IT WAS SHTAKO! And everything was literally tied to multiplayer level. It was GEARED for multiplayer. And the thing flopped hardcore.
Another example I think was ME3's ending.
I agree with you they for sure run separate. One of the worst things to happen to the game industry in general imo was the studio scoops. There was a time when most games where developed by small studios who found publishers. Nature of things I guess with the internet publishers became a bit more superfluous, combo that with MS and Sony buying studios themselves and a decade later their are not many independent studios anymore. The big players picked up every studio with a decent franchise or license.
In any event all I was trying to do was defend Cryptics agency a bit. They are not the abused little studio that is just doing what they are told. Yes as Dave says their are some things like Zen sales that are setup to happen across PWE properties.... but promo pack sales and the like are not that. Such things are well within Andres purview.. if he wants to run back to back to back sales or not run them. It probably is his call. And know I'm not ragging on them either... imo they are likely trying to move as much as they can before summer vacations at Cryptic, and the summer sales slump set in. I would imagine over the summer the zen exchange will likely settle a bit. Unless they are planning to run back to back to back sales all summer long.
To show my support for the DilEx I went ahead and sold the remaining Zen I had purchased as soon as I won, it wasn't much (1,500 Zen) but I'm sure every little bit helps right now.
I think if everyone spent $0.50 to $1.00 a day on the game that provides an average of two, or even more, hours a day of entertainment for them, the publisher and developers wouldn't need whales to keep it going. Like if everyone were the "hybrid players" you mentioned (I'm one of them, as I budget $30 a month to play with on this game), the game and its economy would be in a better place. Maybe it's because I'm old, but I'm of the mindset that if someone can't afford a dollar a day, they shouldn't be wasting their time playing a Star Trek video game. Go out and "work to better yourself and the rest of humanity." ;-)
Defiance was wrecked by the bean counters too. First, they added Alcatraz as a ticketed lobby game in the middle of the open world game "because it proved popular in other games", not considering that those games were nothing like Defiance.
Then the company was bought out and the new owners decided to make an "improved" game by upping the resolution slightly but still use the old artwork assets and tossing almost all the unique parts of the game for a "more structured and easier to understand" system that was supposed to attract more players than the old one did (it didn't), which just ended up splitting the playerbase.
Not only that, I believe Defiance shut down last month... BOTH versions.
Yep,both versions were recently shut down.
That is the first I heard of it, but I am not surprised. The game was starting to struggle even before the split of the playerbase and while people were still there in both versions early this year it was feeling noticeably underpopulated.
It is a shame, the controls and general gameplay were excellent in the original game (far less so in the newer version though), and the AI was really innovative with its own form of emergent behavior. The range was more realistic than most games too, sniper rifles and telescopic scopes actually meant something, and in general combat was wild but neither overwhelming nor boring.
One of its problems though was that a tie-in is more likely to pull in fans of the show looking for some roleplaying rather than general shooter gamers so having better roleplay support layered over the mostly shooter engine, as well as better character customization to cash in on the Barbie factor, would have helped retain people a lot.
So would better integration between the game and the TV series. Even when the show went to the game location for a few episodes there were huge errors, like the bus heading for the bridge passed right where the "Bug'n Chug" service area was in the game but there was nothing there in the episode (one thing I find funny in STO is that Starfleet Academy is pretty much right where Bug'n Chug was). Also the show totally botched a lot of the technology from the game point of view, especially the EGO implants.
Another problem was that it mixed PC and Console on the same server while attempting to support PvP which led to nerfing things down to least common denominator levels and failed to take advantage of either platform properly. You can get away with that in PvE where balance is not so important, but not so much with PvP.
Okay gamers has anyone thought of the idea of converting inventory items into Zen, just like discarding items into dilithium or energy credits?
That would cut into Cryptic's income, basically giving away the cash money currency that funds the game. So... absolutely NO.
Its a terrible idea.
This is a data-gathering opportunity for Cryptic. Whether intentional or not, they have an opportunity to obtain some extremely important data that will help them to decide the future of the dil exchange. Specifically, they are learning how many players -- and what kinds of players -- would spend money to buy zen-goods if the dil exchange did not exist. Also, how that spending responds to the kinds of promotions Cryptic typically runs: new bundles, ship sales, and flash promo-pack sales. Of course, this is short-run data, and they'll have to be careful about extrapolating long-run consumer behavior from it. But more data is almost always better than less -- or none.
It's not much fun to be in the middle of the experiment, but it's wise and prudent on Cryptic's part to run the experiment, given the opportunity. And with unprecedented hard data in hand about how the dil exchange (or its absence) actually affect the game's revenue stream, they can make better business decisions about the future (if any) of the exchange.
Per forum rules, this Necro is torpedo'd.
*Casts Holy Photon Torpedo*