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ANNOUNCING STAR TREK ONLINE: INCURSION!
baddmoonrizin
Member Posts: 10,897 Community Moderator
Star Trek Online's next story update, Incursion, comes to PC on September 12th, and stars Garrett Wang, Kipleigh Brown, and Erin Macdonald!
https://www.playstartrekonline.com/en/news/article/11552853
https://www.playstartrekonline.com/en/news/article/11552853
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I'm sure a lot of the people who've been requesting Prodigy content are going to want to know about that.
Also: new uniforms, yay! And hopefully some Borg ground content, as well as more activity in the existing Borg ground TFO's.
...but I suppose licensing and whatnot get in the way of my hopes!
T6-X2 Dalek Saucer!
And yes new uniforms going to be awesome. Looking forward to seeing what I can do with it.
WTH are you guys thinking adding items from a CHILDRENS show to a gamble box.
Are you TRYING to get renewed gov attention to gamble mechanics?
A prodigy box is gross... and IMMORAL. Not to mention any potential legal issues. Does Gearbox know about this one?
I haven't had any issue with the gamble mechanics in this game until now.
It's also approved by the powers at be, including Nickelodeon. Prodigy is not strictly a kids show (see. where it aired), just as a lot of Trek isn't strictly for adults. Growing up with the IP is a very, very common experience. Any presumption that this wouldn't be coming to a lock box was simply that, folks projecting their moral take on loot boxes as a hard line (because Nickelodeon and the will to believe) when none of the COMPANIES involved feel the same way in actual fact. For example: Nickelodeon runs an *extensive* suite of F2P games. While they don't apply Cryptic's monetization schemes, these are still predicated on exploitive gameplay loops that play to addiction centers to drive engagement beyond the creative experience. This in turn buffs their business by getting kids hooked on their IP to a greater degree than the IP would otherwise foster.
You aren't throwing a "gambling" mechanic in here (cracker jack prize boxes now tantamount to poker, without real money out there's a hard argument to make *legally* that this is gambling, hence why all the purported legislation against loot boxes broadly went no where beyond the moral posturing around protecting young people. What's had the greatest negative impact on loot boxes across the industry is the rise of battle passes) but Nickelodeon is a company predicated on driving its revenue through the psychological manipulation of kids (even if they feel its symbiotic or nurturing). They craft shows, ancillary media, and merchandizing to press psychological levers that target how likely a kid is to engage with their products beyond simple appreciation. Show content, format, style, pacing, and marketing all push kid-captivating buttons that we've normalized in how our culture under the umbrella of "kids media" (equating the psychological manipulations of targeted marketing with a required tack necessary to engage with developing human minds.)
Ie. This is who you're dealing with, and dealing with many many times over across children's media companies. They're not paragons, divorced from issues of corporate behavior despite what they pay their marketing departments to say to parents. So reacting with pearl clutching horror over the Protostar going loot box (which is an especially expensive ship to produce given the complexity of its drive animations, modeling and additional FX required; requiring big returns to justify which the regular c-store won't be able to cover in all likelihood) in a T rated game is a fairly extreme take as you have to presume, to even get on the board, that STO's audience will suddenly be filled with kids (who wouldn't be here otherwise) to make it an issue.
Are you expecting Nick to suddenly launch ads for STO based on this lock box?
If there's kids playing STO, it's as a regular part of the game's market. They're bombarded with lock box advertisement for every ship released to that format. The Protostar being one doesn't move the needle, at all. In this hypothetical example of a kid being sat down and left to the unfiltered marketing of an MMO...the problem is the lack of due parenting (deferring responsibility on the assumption that whatever's flickering on a screen is filtered by corporations to be kid safe), not the choice of lock box ship for which any candidate may appeal. Chances are, kids playing this game haven't ONLY watched Prodigy as STO's done nothing to capitalize on, reach to, or acknowledge that market beyond the latest events (targeting THEIR regular audience instead). Any fundamental appreciation an STO kid has for this ship is, in all likelihood, no different to some other ship from Trek property they like (TNG, TOS, TAS, LDS, TMP, what have you.)
Just as with any adult.
The exploitation of whom isn't any better because as a society we have still not adapted our conventions and infrastructure around how to raise any human in online ecosystems. Individuals falling to self-destructive, compulsive behaviors because they've lacked the support/training necessary to avoid them is not exclusive to kids nor have adults been adequately prepared to deal with the problems of exploitive corporate behavior towards consumers. Young or old, this ship or another ship, it's all the same dynamic at play with more or less sympathy being applied per the optimal optics of a moral panic. Here, just as with anywhere else, human impulses are exploited to the profit of a company and where responsibility ultimately lies for governing this behavior (given the constraints of plausible regulation) is on impulse control by you or instilled by involved parents. If you expect Cryptic to moderate their monetization system to cover your ambivalent approach to kid gaming time, you are not helping said kid with their core issues (ex. being abandoned to online spaces without guidance from those with the greatest possible responsibility for providing it.) Playing the SHAME card on Cryptic isn't going to move the needle, as it hasn't for the last 12 years as folks tried this, that, or another moralistic argument to force change irrespective of underlying numbers and real player behavior (which set how Cryptic is able to support the game and deliver its core narrative experiences.)
Lock boxes suck, but then again the game is built around the levers folks actually respond to. Want change? Go back in time and build a different culture around spending money on STO and what ships folks have the most interest in. It wasn't the bread and butter of 2409 that really got people to open their wallets and Cryptic, as a developer, ultimately has to follow where their market actually is for their content. The argument was lost long ago when people voted with their time and wallets and voted for the state the game finds itself in now. It's a dead horse, however its spiced, and the best thing folks can do now is move on and engage with any other part of the game in hope the numbers someday turn through real behavioral shifts. We could prove Cryptic wrong tomorrow about how much people engage with the regular c-store if we really wanted to, spreading the cost of the game more equitably across the population (eschewing the whale dynamic and associated monetization schemes). But we don't.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Anyway, yay for new uniforms... yay they're free... yay for a new ground set other than the kuumarke one that turns everything an awful pink... yay for new content... Stupid new lockbox... so sick of those... another ship I'll never fly...
p.s. can we get a T6 version of the D'Kyr? And before you tell em we have one... I have one word for you: "lockbox". If they have to, put it and some new goodies in an overpriced Mudd pack so I can have it account unlocked...
How about authoritarian fascistic governments not be everyone's parent's, and parents and people with gambling addictions act responsibility with their financial resources? If it's an activity that doesn't harm anyone as long as it's safe in moderation, it shouldn't be a governments business, regulating all bad behavior is impossible, and no sane person should desire to be dependent on a machine that's sole existence is dependent on wealth extortion (taxes).
Because that means you have to buy all new versions of your current ship now, and T6 did not go well PR wise. Personally, I like the upgrades the way they are, and I won't have to spend hundreds on new ships to stay current.
No because we already went through a tier transition between T5 and T6 and we're STILL waiting on a few ships to get their next-tier successors. Obsoleting every ship in the game with an analogous Tier+ version that you can only upgrade to by buying a full ship (including loot box ships) is bad. The better approach for us players is an upgrade system that lets you bring any ship in the game up to a higher performance level. Tier-X is what T5-U should have been, ideally.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Trait slot isn't currently important to me because I still have nothing major to put in them (from a combination of the correct ships not ending up in Mudd's store and the massive pain involved in unlocking traits - not wasting time on that at all until I can do so once and never have to worry about that specific trait ever again) but the console slot I definitely needed.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
If it were me in power, it'd absolutely be a second upgrade of X with the same item. It solves the problem of experimental upgrade tokens depreciating over time as veteran players max out what they care to of their shipyard. At a certain point all you need is upgrades at a rate equal to your ship buying rate, which is easy to do between phoenix upgrade promos and red alert events. So, up demand by layering in a 2nd upgrade. It boosts engagement across all systems while also bringing the population up in power to better handle (say) elite content.
Also if it's a 2nd type of upgrade I'd think it would be called something other than Tier X (not the best brand association at present...) and focus on different aspects of the ship (ex. another mastery slot for notable stat buffs). Having two different types for tier-Twitter upgrades is also a usability nightmare guaranteed to result in customer support complaints from folks buying the wrong one for their needed upgrade.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Sure while we are at it lets slip some Joe Camel ads into the box as well. Kids are not legally allowed to buy scratch offs, or sit at a black jack table. Sure ya ok older people enjoy Prodigy, its still a children's show. This is a small step from seeing loot boxes in a Lego game or something. I don't like it and it has made me rethink how I view Cryptic frankly. Everyone is free to draw their own conclusions. I think most of this stuff could have been used as event rewards, and not stuffed into a gamble box. I am not anti gamble box, but come on this is kids show content. (They could have used the ship as an anniversary ship or something... and done a Picard S3 themed box instead.)
From the Cushing movies!
Noooo!!!! We need the big bronze one! It can be a dreadnought carrier XD
"Timelines" reset, that Worf goes back, only one who knows. That Enterprise eventually gets assimilated. Those Borg spend the next few decades trying to pop open the door.
One thing the STO team are good at is finding places to jump off on, the dangling threads left lying about and then using them to find stories, often from a single line. So this could be it, or any other you can think of. It's interesting that they are using Harry Kim, in this. Could point to the alternate universe of Endgame
I want the saucer from the Cushing movies!!!!!
Without a doubt, the Cushing movies had an awesome saucer, with a clearly delineated front and rear.
The new-era of Doctor Who definitely gives us a far more intimidating design, though.
Would be nice to switch between those skins, similar to how the TOS/26th century ships work.
It can be the Lobi reward!
A while back Cryptic was edging towards a deal that would have seen another scifi IP in STO. Said deal fell through, but part of me still wonders if it was Dr. Who. It'd be perfect for this arc.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!