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but for the iconic Trek IP, would you still be here?
keepcalmchiveon
Member Posts: 4,292 Arc User
as the title states...
but for the fact its Star Trek, one of the world largest, well known IPs, would you still be playing the game will all the unaddressed bugs, flavor of the month, lack of imagination in using the myriad of planets to use for exploration and other mini missions...and so on. we all could offer comparisons to other games, but this is not that. im just curious how many would still be here, those from beta to today, and anywhere in between, if but for the name...
ive made the poll anonymous - just FYI. also, feel free to offer details and/or reasonings for answers if you choose to.
but for the fact its Star Trek, one of the world largest, well known IPs, would you still be playing the game will all the unaddressed bugs, flavor of the month, lack of imagination in using the myriad of planets to use for exploration and other mini missions...and so on. we all could offer comparisons to other games, but this is not that. im just curious how many would still be here, those from beta to today, and anywhere in between, if but for the name...
ive made the poll anonymous - just FYI. also, feel free to offer details and/or reasonings for answers if you choose to.
meh
but for the iconic Trek IP, would you still be here? 57 votes
yes
19%
11 votes
no
49%
28 votes
yes with caveat(s)
12%
7 votes
uncertain
12%
7 votes
other
1%
1 vote
no poll option fits my vote
5%
3 votes
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
STO still is a fantastic game despite it's age.
I love Star Trek, I DO enjoy the base mechanics of the game (both space and ground), I am an absolute nut for games that let me create and customize characters, but Cryptic as a company has lost so much of what made it a small fun company. There's no soul or creativity to it anymore. That's not saying employees aren't creative or amazing, a lot of the devs as individuals are awesome, and clearly don't like towing the current company line. No, as a whole, Cryptic really needs to work to better its monetization and return to creative ideas and customizations.
A great example of this is Neverwinter. It's a game based on Dungeons and Dragons, where making your character is part and parcel of the game, having adventures based around those fun characters. Cryptic has taken away ALL of that, tossing out boring prebuilds that don't really seem all that fun or customizable, while focusing in on all the horrible monetization schemes that are ruining STO. They even use STO's terrible "shooter mode" as their main combat... It's terrible.
On the other hand, is Champions Online. Champions Online, which they abandoned outright for STO, is more of what makes Cryptic Games fun and interesting. You get MASSIVE amounts of customization for a game that really has so little going for it. It's clearly an early game that didn't get the love and attention it should have had but it has so much to offer in the ways of making and customizing your own heroes. A D&D game should have been WAAAAAY more like champions that what neverwinter did, and it's sooooo disappointing.
Now, Cryptic just seems morally and creatively bankrupt, all while flat out admitting that the only thing keeping them going right now is STO, and the only thing that really keeps STO from being Champions or Neverwinter is the Star Trek IP. Especially NOW, when they're doing so well with getting screen characters and actors into the game. NOW that they're getting more cooperation from the people behind the shows, to add show stuff to the game and add game stuff to the show (Picard).
I can understand WHY STO doesn't get to have the great customization and character creation that CO does, CBS had a lot of rules for Cryptic, from the sound of it. But even then, the company has simply LOST a lot of that fun stuff which made me overlook all the bad stuff. The idea and base game design here ISN'T bad. I would love to see it applied to other styles, like steampunk (imagine the space combat but as airships and the travel map as a travelling to different cities on a world map) or even an underwater style game where they're submarines, etc. There is a LOT of potential for being able to do what Cryptic has done here.
They just... don't.
And being able to go back and change character looks without having to buy a token the way you have to in most games is also hard to beat, especially with the low cost of character slots compared to many games nowadays. On top of that they hand out top tier ships for free (and about ten minutes of grinding per day for a few weeks) several times a year, which is not a common thing in F2P games.
I played Champions Online for quite a while when it first went F2P, and while their initial character customization is good only a few classes were available without scaling the paywall and once you created the character the looks were pretty much fixed, and a lot of scenario content was locked behind that same wall. They loosened up a little since then, but they still don't have quite the no-paywalls policy regarding characters and content that STO has.
And yes, STO has gambleboxes, just like a lot of other games do. The difference is that nothing in those boxes or in the cash shop are absolute must-haves to be successful in the game, so while the stuff is nice to have there is no harm in ignoring it. In fact, with the phoenix box the 'gamble' is just whether you get a bonus item or not, and how valuable that bonus is compared to the base level token. It is not like DCUO was (and might still be, I haven't played it in a while) where the endgame difficulty ramps up so sharply that it is almost completely unplayable without their cash-shop endgame gear.
The game is not perfect (not that I have found any others to be either), and if it were up to me I would have done some things differently, but it is a decent game overall.
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It was also very friendly towards free to play(ers) back then and you could not only obtain, but also easily modify a top-of-the-line meta build without spending a single cent. It was a tinkerer's paradise. I was HAPPY to buy stuff to support team for making such a friendly and accessible game. I honestly can't tell you the last time I was even 'satisfied' after making a purchase for this game in the past half-decade.
The reality is that Science Fiction(especially spaceships) is often a red flag for corporate big-wigs, so there really isn't a lot of competition/alternative to the gameplay that STO provides. If there was a well-made alternative that didn't have the economic scumbaggery, or the jank, I'd probably jump ship. I sincerely wish there WAS some competition to chase away the pit of complacency this game has fallen into.
However, the fact that the game is Star Trek offers a layer of security. People invested in the franchise will keep the game afloat simply because it has the Star Trek name. That's probably the main reason I still linger and tinker with stuff as I can without making 'reckless expenditures' - this game will be around as long as there are people who love star trek.
However I think that they leaned into the wrong aspects of Trek and ignored other ones that are more important as they let gameplay fall away. Ships are generally very well done, but they spend too much on the voice actors and rehashing old stories rather than adding to the universe. They also spend too much time on NuTrek and its atmosphere of disrespectful, unprofessional characters, and sitting through the latest episodes with all the inane, childish banter is that on full display.
It isn't easy to try and emulate an established universe, especially when it varies greatly between generations, so it ends up hurting the themes of the game, in the end. If they were freer to make up their own stuff, they could better set the tone and establish things that make more consistent sense. However they would have to rely much more on gameplay to succeed without the draw of an established IP and they have definitely let that fall apart, so would they do it if they weren't distracted by the bells and whistles of Star Trek? That is hard to know.
Each to their own an all that but it just aint for me in its trending state & I mainly just play the dailies now and log until a new shiny catches my eye which with the attention on the newer stuff is rarer & rarer.
It's a time filler if I can't be bothered doing something else.
Stopped spending a while back though, if they can't be bothered to do any work then I can't be bothered with paying them. The money is going elsewhere.
I'm not a hardcore Star Trek guy though, so if it was Neverwinter tier grindy it'd be off my console in short order. I am a big D&D guy however.
I enjoy the space combat, sometimes the ground combat, and the Space Barbie. Having the Trek IP improves all that but I think I'd enjoy the game enough to keep playing even without it.
I do dread the day, when this ride does come to an end...but I want to remember with fondness, at least I go to journey around the verse of Trek...the true one.
So, sure - if it weren't for the Star Trek IP I wouldn't "still be here"... because I never would have been here to begin with. /shrug
But hey, the cash shop works, and the boys at cryptic are still shamelessly shoveling lockbox items down our throats. At least those systems are working.
But we cant fix the lag, or the loadout issues, or broken graphical textures on almost every social zone and older story mission zone.
I only play because it's star trek in name.
The devs and community managers have made sure thats all it is, in spirit, in gameplay and in everything else, they have destroyed and perverted the name Star trek to shill out gambling, broken content and gameplay.
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