I'm not sure about what you guys think about the game, but the beta was great, especially when everything is on max, details and stuff is good, but really...If I/others have to pay for it, it's not going to last for long.
I get what you're saying. I 'll be there too, for some of the same reasons but mostly due to peer pressure from my gaming buddies, one of which I'm fairly sure trumps you in Star Trek Fandom. I won't be in STO long I think as WoDO should hopefully be entering beta this year and I'm interested in FFXIV as well.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
I'm a fan of the IP and I'll be there at launch. Fact is there probably will never be another Star Trek mmo the way Paramount is with the license. Or if there is, it will be 10+ years down the road. So this is what we have to work with at the moment.
The game is a diamond in the rough to be sure but I think the core play is fun and it's got potential.
I agree. And some of the things that bother me now should get cleaned up once the game goes live and in the following months I think. I love having ground and ship combat.
well, i definitely won't be buying it... and on another note, to those who bought a lifetime sub... you know.. the lifetime bit, isnt the players lifetime.. but the games lifetime... so.. wonder how long that will be
I will only disagree with your first part, it is beta you never were promised a full game you bought the game and preordered for the option to play a beta version early period. You paid for the game and one month of online access and maybe a free gift the beta part is a bonus after all the price of the game was not more jsut becasue you get beta access. so really as long as you have been doing this please stop supporting the idiots that think betas mean full function game it never has and never will you dont get to keep anything from it not ven your name. It wasnt that way in EQ, WOW, SWG, DDO, AOC , LOTR, or any other betas you have played they were all there for one purpose to get you into the game to find the bugs. It is kind a like a soft opening of a casino they let the poor people into find all the bugs and then kick them out if they cant afford the 2k a night grand opening rates. so just enjoy being the worst nightmare and keep reporting the bugs, after all they made it easy they put a green bug on your screen.
have fun and keep playing WOW, but soem of us were ready for soemthing new and since sony killed SWG and the new star wars is at least 18 months out, lifetime means cheaper then any other 15 buck a month game.
The truth is that Crypitc is looking for the people you are trying to satire. They know their game is a pile of sh!t, half assed, paper thin game with lots of pretty graphics and some IP related materails. They don't care! They are only looking to see how many lifetime subs they can get out of people cause selling 20 months of subs on the first day you play is really cool when the game won't last much beyond 12 months. This, along with the push to make games more Casual (I blame consoles for that), is why gaming hasn't moved forward since Crysis. Nobody cares about pushing the boundaries and bring new concepts out cause too many suckers are willing to drop cash into shallow, PVE oriented games. /endrant.
It's a game that was made in 18 months. In a global downturn we haven't seen the likes of since the Great Depression (something the OP himself has not only blogged about, but lost two jobs as a result of). By a relatively small, independent developer. Before Atari picked them up (who isn't exactly Electronic Arts, either). Before JJ Abrams' super sexy smash summer blockbuster. After Enterprise was cancelled, and Nemesis tanked.
Seriously, some of you folks need a healthy dose of reality, not to mention perspective.
But keep dreaming for a seven course meal with linen tablecloths... on a McDonald's budget, while pinning away for a pre-CU SWG redux or pre-Trammel UO. Really, it could happen!
The game is far from finished. Even if they plan to launch it soon; they still have a long ways to go with it; before I would consider it ready. There is a lot there for the developers to expand on and improve. It could easily become a worthwhile game without a lot of greifing and effort. The one thing that had me concerned though is the way they have been selling this game so far. First you had to either win the lottery or buy a life time subscription to CO to get into Closed Beta. Now they are trying to sell life time subs to this game for the lousiest in game rewards I have ever seen. Why pay that much money for a game that is clearly FAR from being a finished product. It's like paying Ford $50,000 for a car they haven't even built yet. Can't you people find better ways to throw your money away? I mean, hell if you really hate your money send it my way!
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
The reviewer makes some statements about CO's skill system, but if you read his link it is totally based on something that was fixed in two weeks: overpriced respecs. Boo for misinformation on an almost dead game, and boo for recommending STO just for the license.
The game is far from finished. Even if they plan to launch it soon; they still have a long ways to go with it; before I would consider it ready. There is a lot there for the developers to expand on and improve. It could easily become a worthwhile game without a lot of greifing and effort. The one thing that had me concerned though is the way they have been selling this game so far. First you had to either win the lottery or buy a life time subscription to CO to get into Closed Beta. Now they are trying to sell life time subs to this game for the lousiest in game rewards I have ever seen. Why pay that much money for a game that is clearly FAR from being a finished product. It's like paying Ford $50,000 for a car they haven't even built yet. Can't you people find better ways to throw your money away? I mean, hell if you really hate your money send it my way!
The cost of a lifetime sub is equivalent to paying for 16 months of subscription fees.
For those not mathmatically inclined, lifetime > 16 months. Of course that's assuming the game lasts at least 16 months (free trollbait!), but if Age of Conan can pull it off (not to mention Darkfall), I see no reason to believe this one won't.
You also get the exclusive privilege to play a "liberated" Borg (ala 7 of 9), and two additional character slots.
Seemed like a pretty good value for my entertainment dollar, but then again I've been known to spend more on a bag of weed. Your mileage may vary.
The cost of a lifetime sub is equivalent to paying for 16 months of subscription fees. For those not mathmatically inclined, lifetime > 16 months. Of course that's assuming the game lasts at least 16 months (free trollbait!), but if Age of Conan can pull it off (not to mention Darkfall), I see no reason to believe this one won't. ... Seemed like a pretty good value for my entertainment dollar, ...
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
Will you still want to play in 16 months? How much content is there?
Ten Ton Hammer: How long do you expect it will take the average player to get to the endgame?
Zeke: It’s roughly about 80 hours I think for the average player.
So once you get to 'endgame' how much longer will the game keep your attention? That is what will decide if a 'lifetime sub' is worth it or not.
80 hours over 16 months is only about 1 hour a week.
If you play for 2 hours a night then you will be at end game in a little over a month and will play 'endgame' from then on.
So - is there 15 months of endgame content?
Even if you play all the Alts (that would make 5 total characters?) that equals 400 hours of play - which is about 6-7 months at two hours a night. (Probably less since once you know a quest you tend to do it quicker?) So that leaves 10 months worth of endgame?
The cost of a lifetime sub is equivalent to paying for 16 months of subscription fees. For those not mathmatically inclined, lifetime > 16 months. Of course that's assuming the game lasts at least 16 months (free trollbait!), but if Age of Conan can pull it off (not to mention Darkfall), I see no reason to believe this one won't. ... Seemed like a pretty good value for my entertainment dollar, ...
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
I must be dense. If there's a distinction there I'm missing it.
The cost of a lifetime sub is equivalent to paying for 16 months of subscription fees. For those not mathmatically inclined, lifetime > 16 months. Of course that's assuming the game lasts at least 16 months (free trollbait!), but if Age of Conan can pull it off (not to mention Darkfall), I see no reason to believe this one won't. ... Seemed like a pretty good value for my entertainment dollar, ...
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
I must be dense. If there's a distinction there I'm missing it.
Meaning a game can last for 20 years, but if you only play it for 5 hours in those 20 years, was it really worth the money you spent on it?
I really dont see whats so hard to understand, this is fairly simple logic.
The cost of a lifetime sub is equivalent to paying for 16 months of subscription fees. For those not mathmatically inclined, lifetime > 16 months. Of course that's assuming the game lasts at least 16 months (free trollbait!), but if Age of Conan can pull it off (not to mention Darkfall), I see no reason to believe this one won't. ... Seemed like a pretty good value for my entertainment dollar, ...
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
I must be dense. If there's a distinction there I'm missing it.
Meaning a game can last for 20 years, but if you only play it for 5 hours in those 20 years, was it really worth the money you spent on it?
I really dont see whats so hard to understand, this is fairly simple logic.
Captain Obvious is obvious? Are you familiar with the expression, "it goes without saying"? That said, let's play out your concern...
What's the price of a movie ticket these days? $10?
And what's the average length? 2 hours?
Let's be super generous and make it 3!
80 / 3 = 26.66666
Now let's be generous again and round DOWN.
That's 26 movies.
26 x $10 = $260
Cost of lifetime STO sub? $239
I'm still ahead even if all I get out of it is 80 hours of fun time. And that's presuming they never, ever expand, patch or improve the game. Whatsoever. Over the course of... my lifetime.
I wasn't really a big fan of STO even though i love Star Trek. I played Champions and was thinking STO would be the epic fail that Champions is. Well, after playing the beta I can say the game was decent. It wasn't great, but it was decent. It isn't enough for me to want to go buy it, but I think a lot of people will be satisfied with the game and buy it. Hopefully, Cryptic does well with the game and adds a lot of the polish the game needs. I honestly think I wasn't as harsh on this game, because I have waited for a STO game since Perpetual owned the license and it was great to just see a Star Trek MMO. I will keep tabs on the game and see what they do down the line to improve it, but it's not too bad right now.
Also, the SWTOR game isn't delayed. It was always scheduled to be released in 2011. The community just was never told that.
The cost of a lifetime sub is equivalent to paying for 16 months of subscription fees. For those not mathmatically inclined, lifetime > 16 months. Of course that's assuming the game lasts at least 16 months (free trollbait!), but if Age of Conan can pull it off (not to mention Darkfall), I see no reason to believe this one won't. ... Seemed like a pretty good value for my entertainment dollar, ...
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
I must be dense. If there's a distinction there I'm missing it.
Meaning a game can last for 20 years, but if you only play it for 5 hours in those 20 years, was it really worth the money you spent on it?
I really dont see whats so hard to understand, this is fairly simple logic.
Captain Obvious is obvious? Are you familiar with the expression, "it goes without saying"? That said, let's play out your concern...
What's the price of a movie ticket these days? $10?
And what's the average length? 2 hours?
Let's be super generous and make it 3!
80 / 3 = 26.66666
Now let's be generous again and round DOWN.
That's 26 movies.
26 x $10 = $260
Cost of lifetime STO sub? $239
I'm still ahead even if all I get out of it is 80 hours of fun time. And that's presuming they never, ever expand, patch or improve the game. Whatsoever. Over the course of... my lifetime.
Your looking at this in the completely wrong way, Look even if you only played 2 hours a week, after 10 months you would have played 80 hours.
You could just have subbed monthly at 15 dollars a month, and your total would be 120 bucks after ten months.
Thats saying that you only played 2 hours A WEEK! Do you realize how little that is, and you are still getting the same amount of time, thats the point were trying to make.
In an MMO, you dictate how much time you spend in a game. If you think that 240 dollars for 80 hours of gameplay is fair, then by all means get a LFT sub, I wont argue that.
But for someone like me, who doesnt want to just throw 240 dollars out, I look at the cost/gain ratio. To me, (If I planned on playing STO at launch) I could probably get through to end game in a few months. So I would spend probably 30 bucks to get to end game (One free month included with the game). So to me, buying a lifetime sub wouldnt seem worth it.
Or lets say I really liked the game, and I played it for a whole year. 12 months. Lets say I clocked in well over 200 hours into the game. I would still be satisfied with the fact I didnt buy a lifetime sub.
Now if this was World of Warcraft on the other hand, I wish they would have handed out lifetime subs, seeing as I have spend well over 300 dollars on that game. But I think thats 300 dollars well spent, because I have played it on and off for 5 years.
See what im saying, Ive spend 300 dollars on WoW, but its been when I wanted to spend the money, when I felt like playing. So like I said, if you feel its worth it, go ahead and buy it, but to me its crazy to spend 240 dollars at once on a game you havent even played for more than a couple weeks.
Comments
ROFL !!!!! Great piece on what sounds like a great game for trek peeps.
Good luck capt. And always be on the watch for Tribbles! Trouble, ya'know.
Great....article...Mr. Jennings. Now I must know...how...will..this game end?
Thanks for the article. I enjoyed your sarcasm and passion for Star Trek and games in general.
Must....not... be....assimilated!
I'm not sure about what you guys think about the game, but the beta was great, especially when everything is on max, details and stuff is good, but really...If I/others have to pay for it, it's not going to last for long.
I get what you're saying. I 'll be there too, for some of the same reasons but mostly due to peer pressure from my gaming buddies, one of which I'm fairly sure trumps you in Star Trek Fandom. I won't be in STO long I think as WoDO should hopefully be entering beta this year and I'm interested in FFXIV as well.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
The game is a diamond in the rough to be sure but I think the core play is fun and it's got potential.
I'm a fan of the IP and I'll be there at launch. Fact is there probably will never be another Star Trek mmo the way Paramount is with the license. Or if there is, it will be 10+ years down the road. So this is what we have to work with at the moment.
I agree. And some of the things that bother me now should get cleaned up once the game goes live and in the following months I think. I love having ground and ship combat.
well, i definitely won't be buying it... and on another note, to those who bought a lifetime sub... you know.. the lifetime bit, isnt the players lifetime.. but the games lifetime... so.. wonder how long that will be
I will only disagree with your first part, it is beta you never were promised a full game you bought the game and preordered for the option to play a beta version early period. You paid for the game and one month of online access and maybe a free gift the beta part is a bonus after all the price of the game was not more jsut becasue you get beta access. so really as long as you have been doing this please stop supporting the idiots that think betas mean full function game it never has and never will you dont get to keep anything from it not ven your name. It wasnt that way in EQ, WOW, SWG, DDO, AOC , LOTR, or any other betas you have played they were all there for one purpose to get you into the game to find the bugs. It is kind a like a soft opening of a casino they let the poor people into find all the bugs and then kick them out if they cant afford the 2k a night grand opening rates. so just enjoy being the worst nightmare and keep reporting the bugs, after all they made it easy they put a green bug on your screen.
have fun and keep playing WOW, but soem of us were ready for soemthing new and since sony killed SWG and the new star wars is at least 18 months out, lifetime means cheaper then any other 15 buck a month game.
It's a game that was made in 18 months. In a global downturn we haven't seen the likes of since the Great Depression (something the OP himself has not only blogged about, but lost two jobs as a result of). By a relatively small, independent developer. Before Atari picked them up (who isn't exactly Electronic Arts, either). Before JJ Abrams' super sexy smash summer blockbuster. After Enterprise was cancelled, and Nemesis tanked.
Seriously, some of you folks need a healthy dose of reality, not to mention perspective.
But keep dreaming for a seven course meal with linen tablecloths... on a McDonald's budget, while pinning away for a pre-CU SWG redux or pre-Trammel UO. Really, it could happen!
The game is far from finished. Even if they plan to launch it soon; they still have a long ways to go with it; before I would consider it ready. There is a lot there for the developers to expand on and improve. It could easily become a worthwhile game without a lot of greifing and effort. The one thing that had me concerned though is the way they have been selling this game so far. First you had to either win the lottery or buy a life time subscription to CO to get into Closed Beta. Now they are trying to sell life time subs to this game for the lousiest in game rewards I have ever seen. Why pay that much money for a game that is clearly FAR from being a finished product. It's like paying Ford $50,000 for a car they haven't even built yet. Can't you people find better ways to throw your money away? I mean, hell if you really hate your money send it my way!
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. - Galileo Galilei
The reviewer makes some statements about CO's skill system, but if you read his link it is totally based on something that was fixed in two weeks: overpriced respecs. Boo for misinformation on an almost dead game, and boo for recommending STO just for the license.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
The cost of a lifetime sub is equivalent to paying for 16 months of subscription fees.
For those not mathmatically inclined, lifetime > 16 months. Of course that's assuming the game lasts at least 16 months (free trollbait!), but if Age of Conan can pull it off (not to mention Darkfall), I see no reason to believe this one won't.
You also get the exclusive privilege to play a "liberated" Borg (ala 7 of 9), and two additional character slots.
Seemed like a pretty good value for my entertainment dollar, but then again I've been known to spend more on a bag of weed. Your mileage may vary.
'Delayed' from the imaginary release dates people were throwing around without even pretending to have evidence, mind you.
'Delayed' from the imaginary release dates people were throwing around without even pretending to have evidence, mind you.
The most realistic of which (as I recall) was 2012. Sounds to me like they're ahead of schedule.
'Delayed' from the imaginary release dates people were throwing around without even pretending to have evidence, mind you.
/agree
'Delayed' from the imaginary release dates people were throwing around without even pretending to have evidence, mind you.
The most realistic of which (as I recall) was 2012. Sounds to me like they're ahead of schedule.
there never was a release date for TOR until recently. everything else was thrown out by people who thought they knew something and didnt.
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
Will you still want to play in 16 months? How much content is there?
Well, the Devs have answered that here http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79456
Ten Ton Hammer: How long do you expect it will take the average player to get to the endgame?
Zeke: It’s roughly about 80 hours I think for the average player.
So once you get to 'endgame' how much longer will the game keep your attention? That is what will decide if a 'lifetime sub' is worth it or not.
80 hours over 16 months is only about 1 hour a week.
If you play for 2 hours a night then you will be at end game in a little over a month and will play 'endgame' from then on.
So - is there 15 months of endgame content?
Even if you play all the Alts (that would make 5 total characters?) that equals 400 hours of play - which is about 6-7 months at two hours a night. (Probably less since once you know a quest you tend to do it quicker?) So that leaves 10 months worth of endgame?
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
'Delayed' from the imaginary release dates people were throwing around without even pretending to have evidence, mind you.
The most realistic of which (as I recall) was 2012. Sounds to me like they're ahead of schedule.
there never was a release date for TOR until recently. everything else was thrown out by people who thought they knew something and didnt.
On these forums??! Say it isn't so.
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
I must be dense. If there's a distinction there I'm missing it.
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
I must be dense. If there's a distinction there I'm missing it.
Meaning a game can last for 20 years, but if you only play it for 5 hours in those 20 years, was it really worth the money you spent on it?
I really dont see whats so hard to understand, this is fairly simple logic.
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
I must be dense. If there's a distinction there I'm missing it.
Meaning a game can last for 20 years, but if you only play it for 5 hours in those 20 years, was it really worth the money you spent on it?
I really dont see whats so hard to understand, this is fairly simple logic.
Captain Obvious is obvious? Are you familiar with the expression, "it goes without saying"? That said, let's play out your concern...
What's the price of a movie ticket these days? $10?
And what's the average length? 2 hours?
Let's be super generous and make it 3!
80 / 3 = 26.66666
Now let's be generous again and round DOWN.
That's 26 movies.
26 x $10 = $260
Cost of lifetime STO sub? $239
I'm still ahead even if all I get out of it is 80 hours of fun time. And that's presuming they never, ever expand, patch or improve the game. Whatsoever. Over the course of... my lifetime.
I wasn't really a big fan of STO even though i love Star Trek. I played Champions and was thinking STO would be the epic fail that Champions is. Well, after playing the beta I can say the game was decent. It wasn't great, but it was decent. It isn't enough for me to want to go buy it, but I think a lot of people will be satisfied with the game and buy it. Hopefully, Cryptic does well with the game and adds a lot of the polish the game needs. I honestly think I wasn't as harsh on this game, because I have waited for a STO game since Perpetual owned the license and it was great to just see a Star Trek MMO. I will keep tabs on the game and see what they do down the line to improve it, but it's not too bad right now.
Also, the SWTOR game isn't delayed. It was always scheduled to be released in 2011. The community just was never told that.
Um...small point here...
It has nothing to do with how long the game lasts.
It has to do with how much you play it or want to play it.
I must be dense. If there's a distinction there I'm missing it.
Meaning a game can last for 20 years, but if you only play it for 5 hours in those 20 years, was it really worth the money you spent on it?
I really dont see whats so hard to understand, this is fairly simple logic.
Captain Obvious is obvious? Are you familiar with the expression, "it goes without saying"? That said, let's play out your concern...
What's the price of a movie ticket these days? $10?
And what's the average length? 2 hours?
Let's be super generous and make it 3!
80 / 3 = 26.66666
Now let's be generous again and round DOWN.
That's 26 movies.
26 x $10 = $260
Cost of lifetime STO sub? $239
I'm still ahead even if all I get out of it is 80 hours of fun time. And that's presuming they never, ever expand, patch or improve the game. Whatsoever. Over the course of... my lifetime.
Your looking at this in the completely wrong way, Look even if you only played 2 hours a week, after 10 months you would have played 80 hours.
You could just have subbed monthly at 15 dollars a month, and your total would be 120 bucks after ten months.
Thats saying that you only played 2 hours A WEEK! Do you realize how little that is, and you are still getting the same amount of time, thats the point were trying to make.
In an MMO, you dictate how much time you spend in a game. If you think that 240 dollars for 80 hours of gameplay is fair, then by all means get a LFT sub, I wont argue that.
But for someone like me, who doesnt want to just throw 240 dollars out, I look at the cost/gain ratio. To me, (If I planned on playing STO at launch) I could probably get through to end game in a few months. So I would spend probably 30 bucks to get to end game (One free month included with the game). So to me, buying a lifetime sub wouldnt seem worth it.
Or lets say I really liked the game, and I played it for a whole year. 12 months. Lets say I clocked in well over 200 hours into the game. I would still be satisfied with the fact I didnt buy a lifetime sub.
Now if this was World of Warcraft on the other hand, I wish they would have handed out lifetime subs, seeing as I have spend well over 300 dollars on that game. But I think thats 300 dollars well spent, because I have played it on and off for 5 years.
See what im saying, Ive spend 300 dollars on WoW, but its been when I wanted to spend the money, when I felt like playing. So like I said, if you feel its worth it, go ahead and buy it, but to me its crazy to spend 240 dollars at once on a game you havent even played for more than a couple weeks.