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I'm sure I'm not the only genius who thought of this, but could (or should) Cryptic offer special background music packs for use by Foundry creators for use in their missions? I might be willing to lay down a few bucks for truly awesome, original (canonical) music to enhance the experience for other players.
EB
EB
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No, everything should be free. At least for Foundry mission creation. The whole point is to use the existing assets in the game. Why would you want to pay for extra music? It should just appear in the Foundry like everything else so far like the C-store only costumes.
You're not using them for yourself - you're using them to create mission for other people. Heck, they should be paying YOU.
Even if they made new music specifically for the foundry they should add it to the foundry at no additional cost, just as they do with the costumes and props.
No REALLY???? I dont think he was denying that it's Cryptics decision. He was simply saying what he thought that decision SHOULD be.
A caveat to c-store Foundry purchasing would be: the c-store items shouldn't be 'make or break' elements, in that we should be able to create something similar or 'close enough' with the things we already have access to. It would suck if it boiled down to players being concerned about getting low, or no rating reviews because they lack this or that... elements that another player decided to pay more money for so they could stick them in their missions... BUT, (/sigh, apparently i'm a waffle today) then again, the key to good storytelling is how it the story is told.
d3n
Now, whether the "average" player might have to pay for certain copyrighted and expensive music that was hard to get for Cryptic, well, the player can decide whether it's worth it. Considering that you have to compare the price to that of a Startrek soundtrack.
LordofPit is correct. I'm assuming we'll be given a starting pallete of background music. By me paying for additional content, I'm encouraging Cryptic to take the time to hire musicians to write and to create additional original scores for my content. The only other options would be to use the stock music, no music or if Cryptic had some other way to allow us to use other licensed or free content (which I rate as highly unlikely given how complicated and legally troublesome doing so could be).
EB
The legalities of the Music Business make it difficult for us as players and authors to have any real control over this situation and Cryptic will do what their lawyers tell them to... I think the ball will never be in our court.
Asking players to pay for this music in their Foundry creations, when these creations are built using the freely given volunteered time and effort of authors and given up their rights to the intellecetual properties of these missions to Cryptic (basically anything you make, Cryptic pwns) is a step over the line into obscenity.
You're basically making content for other people to play to encourage people to play STO which people have to pay for the priviliege of doing so. You're suggesting that we should be charged for that.
Any game assets, including musical compositions and licensed works should have their costs come from other budgets rather than funded by the C-Store. If they are not allowed to be used in Foundry missions due to their licenses, then so be it - e.g. the Guardian of Forever model is not in the Foundry. But at least they don't put it in the C-Store to create a situation of haves and have nots.
If they were to put music in the C-Store that we could buy for our Foundry missions, then it should be excluded from appearing anywhere else in the game, because if we're paying for it, then Cryptic shouldn't let other players hear it for free throughout the regular game i.e. if we have to pay for it then Cryptic shouldn't be allowed to use it in their own content. You can see that sounds ridiculous. New stuff, like the assets from new missions should be universally available - e.g. Cryptic makes the new mine interior art assets from the Breen missions available in the Foundry without charging us C-Store access to it.
I'd like to see new music in the game, but I suspect most of it will be their own custom commissioned compositions which they have the rights to and can use whenever they want, including making it available in the Foundry as part of it's library of assets. I haven't really seen them use any licensed music like the DS9 theme tune for example. And if they'ved stayed away from that for Cryptic made missions, then there has to be some kind of reason.
So far, the Foundry is a friendly tool where everyone is on the same level - having access to all the same stuff and no one being at a disadvantage because they don't have premium content.
STO is doing fine money wise, there must be a lot of people playing if STO won so many MMO awards. Especially when you see how much STO won by.
Have faith in the people. Yes it's a small company, which is also a good thing since it has lower overhead costs than a lot of other places.
Everything we want will come, it'll just take time.
PS- It'll be awesome when we do get to choose our music and all the other goodies that's coming into the Foundry!
In essence, this is like those costume packs we already see on the C-Store. We as players have the choice to purchase them, or not. If we purchase them and use them to dress up our characters, other players even though they may not even own these costume packs will still see our characters dressed in their new shiny costume.
I believe the same would apply for individual music tracks made especially for use in Foundry missions. Players will be able to enjoy them if they would play through missions that include the new music whether the player bought the music pack or not!
Foundry authors will be able to choose whether to buy the new music and use it, or ignore it altogether.
That's where it all goes wonky.
If there were to be a C-store charge for music as premium content, then it shouldn't be the authors who pay for it from the C-Store, it should be the players who have to buy it from the C-store as premium content.
So e.g. it's availble free in the Foundry because it's licensed or special music for authors to insert into their missions.
But people who play the mission won't be able to hear it unless they bought it and unlocked it in the C-Store. Because the C-Store is for player content, not author content. They are the ones that ultimately get the end-user experience of the music in the mission, not the person who puts it in the mission.
I think that if Cryptic would go to the trouble of creating unique musical assets (or any art assets) for the sole purpose of being used by Foundry authors in creating missions, the author should pay for the privilege of using the asset if only to ensure the asset actually gets used!
I know for a fact that if Cryptic hired Michael McCann to create music for Foundry missions, I'd probably be interested in buying the pack for use in my missions, but as a player I doubt I'd be as interested since I would not and could not be sure how much use that particular music pack would see.
This would require some complex compositions, but are very possible. Some artists really enjoy challenges and breaking new ground and interactive, adaptive music scoring would seem like the answer...
I have no doubts that something like this could be done, but it seems unlikely that Cryptic will try it... I've got some excellent composers in my short rolodex that enjoy both Star Trek and challenges and have already used the classic TOS style soundtracks & had great success doing so...
But the C-Store currently doesn't operate like you describe. It works like this:
E.g. the playable race costumes. The player buys them from the C-Store so that they are able to use them in the game. But they show up in the Foundry for free and unlocked for authors to put in their missions. We don't have to buy them from the C-Store first.
IF there was purchaseable music in the C-Store, then it wouldn't be for the "sole use" of Foundry missions. It would be an extra that players could add to their game's music in the background, e.g. it would randomly play while they were doing regular missions too. It doesn't make money sense to limit it to only appearing in people's Foundry missions - they'd sell it as a feature that is availble throughout the entire game and make it so that they would inevitably hear it in default Cryptic missions, so that even if no authors use it in Foundry, the players get what they paid for.
Also, you get more money from C-Store by having the hundreds to thousands of end-user players buying it rather than marketing it so that only a handful of authors could buy it.
So basically, what I've suggested is the reality and what they currently do. And if they added music packs it would work like that