Interesting article and Cryptic states well over 100k subscribers. I think the scariest thing is that Jack Emmert wants to work on Godzilla and D&D. More well known popular ips that they can cut/paste and slap a monthly fee+item mall on ?
Weird... i knew STO may not be console enough, but CO... CO feels as though it was purely designed for a 360 controller.
must be happy with 100,000 subs. (how long they'll last is anybodys guess... 70,000 by end of May.. taking bets please)
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
If Emmert told me the sky was blue, I'd make sure to look and double check. I trust that guy about as far as I could throw him. That said, I don't believe this game could possibly have 100K people that can overlook the terrible quality to pay a monthly sub. In short, I call BS on more than 20-30K paying players currently.
I have learned two things from CO and STO:
1. Never ever buy anything with Cryptic attached to it.
2. Never ever buy anything with Cryptic attached to it.
I understand the skepticism I really do. However I find it unlikely a company (any company) would allow such a lie boasting a 70% increase on actual numbers. There are far to many repercussions for such an act. There's a line between cryptic (no pun) shady behavior, and borderline criminal behavior. Such a claim would boost investing interests, would it not?
Wouldn't that open the door for lawsuits, or worse?
Not really, no; any smart investor would know to steer clear of interviews and other PR, but in any case the investors get their information via Atari's quarterly and six month financial statements (Atari's financial year begins April 1st, if I remember correctly). I think for the moment Emmert's statement is correct, factoring in lifetime subscriptions, multi-month subscriptions, and those monthly subscribers who were hanging around to see the 45 day 'miracle patch.' I'm guessing it's going to drop below the 100,000 player mark before April is finished. I'm more curious in how many of those lifetime and multi-month subscribers are still playing? Cryptic will still count them of course (while they can for the multi-monthers anyway), but I think it would be interesting to know how many still log in on a regular (re: frequent) basis.
Additionally, Atari's next financial statement is supposed to be made under compliance with recently enacted French law; while I'm not sure what all will change, the impression I had was that the creative financial reporting methods Atari was using to try and makes things look not so bad will be going away. Regarding the comment about the them lying about numbers, don't forget that they (Atari/Cryptic) were bragging about their one million accounts on their websiteswhen STO launched and were trying to make it sound like they had one million active STO subscriptions.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I wonder if they count lifetime as active subscriptions? I mean, some people bought life time or one-year subscriptions and some might not be playing anymore. If these people are counted, even if they aren't playing, it can make the numbers seem higher than the actual people currently playing the game.
I believe they are being counted, as Atari's financial statement was splitting up the multi-month and lifetime subscriptions over a period of several months in order to get estimated revenue projections for the upcoming Atari fiscal year (April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011). This fits in with their PR methods, and pads the numbers in their favor when they make statements like this. It's not really a lie either; those lifetime subscribers are actual subscribers, they just pre-paid. If you notice, when they talk about subscribers (whether mentioning numbers or not), they never make a distinction between the various groups of subscribers.
Additionally, I am guessing that approximately 10,000 lifetime subscriptions were sold; a few people in my guild bought a lifetime subscription, and one of them mentioned his order number was 6700 while another who bought one just a few days later had the number 7300. I'm guessing they probably limited the initial batch to 10,000 since they seemed very wary of lifetime subscriptions. Of course now they seem to be embracing them; every time I turn around there seems to be some new perk added to lifetime subscriptions (which are still available, but at a higher cost than the initial offer) in order to entice new costumers.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Just my opinion here... But I would be surprised if they got more than 1 or MAYBE 2 thousand lifetime subs.
Never underestimate the power of hype and fanboy-glasses. A lot of people convinced themselves that they'll be playing the game for years and years. There was a wall in front of their eyes that didn't let them see the game for what it truly was. Believe me, I tried to make some of them see past the 'Star Trek' name, but it was like talking to a wall. Just 2 months later they're not playing anymore.
Try convincing one that cryptic is just as much to blame for the condition of sto as atari, even more so since they knew what they were releasing. Talk about running around in circles.
Heck just try convincing them that Atari owns Cryptic, and that they are not two seperate entities!
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Yup even though Cryptic is doing exactly what they told Atari they could do when they pitched themselves to Atari for purchase.Atari purchased Cryptic with Atari's,at the time, very limited funds and cashflow,because Cryptic said they could turn out MMOs cheaply and quickly with microtransactions built right nto the game.This is exactly what they ave done so they have lived up to their promises so far.The way STO was pushed out and the way Cryptic runs it with minimal server hardware to cover the current population(which is the real reason they investe din the one virtual server thing)...100K sales and subs is probably profitable enough for them to justify their existance and make Atari happy.
Actually, the 'one server' helps them more in another way; having only one server helps hide (for a while) how many players are leaving a game, until people start noticing how few instances there are and do the math themselves.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
That's really awful for an AAA release with the Star Trek IP. Warhammer and AOC had at least double that 1.5 months in.
Someone was comparing Eve but Eve is an independent game with an unknown IP.
I can't find figures but I'm willing to bet Tabula Rasa and maybe even Matrix Online had better numbers 1.5 months later.
Also, people saying it means the game is profitible assume these 100k people are going to stay for a long time. Considering there is little to no endgame, and the game itself is incredibly repetative, that seems highly unlikely. It is possible they made a profit on box sales, but Cryptic/Atari took a big hit to their reputation. Who wants to join an MMORPG that is likely to be limping along after 3 months?
That's the record Cryptic is setting with Champions and now STO. There's no reason to believe their next game is going to be any different.
I take issue with labelling either CO or STO as AAA titles; both games are clearly not AAA titles. At least AoC and WAR tried to be AAA titles, though they did fall on their faces, but Cryptic didn't even try for AAA status with either game.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I seriously doubt the validity of over 100K subs.. Why? Most of the games that I know that are in the 100K, 200K, 500K or 1 million + subs have much better Xfire numbers.. Even SWG is ranked higher then STO and I bet has more active subs.. and SWG is around 50-100k sub range if I recall..
Actually, there currently is a known problem with Xfire tracking STO; apparently it is not tracking time played, as well as some other problems. From what people said on the Xfire forums, it was the same with with CO after it launched for a while; something to do with how Cryptic games run.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Who wants to bet that next month they are bragging about 50k subs?
Sad thing is I think I recall an interview with the devs that stated that 100k would be profitable but they could "get by" with 50k. Guess it just shows how many resources they have actually invested. Cryptic: Aim for the horizon.
Apparently they did some forum changes for lifers:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=143262 Wow $300 and I can change my forum name color too? Do people who buy life times have some deep seated desire to prove their "special" or better than other players this much? It will be interesting to see what color the forums light up in.
Heck WWIIOnline seems to get by with just under 12,500 subs, so I could see a 'bigger' game get by one 50,000; the question is, will Atari let them 'get by' on that few?
Also, never underestimate how many people are willing to throw money away on a MMO. Just look back to EQ; you had Cloaks of Flames selling for $8,000.00 (that's not a typo!), and SOE made a special server where you paid $40.00 per month (the standard at that time was $10.00 per month) so that you get get a few frills such as decent customer service (something other games gave as part of the normal monthly subscription cost). Interestingly enough, SOE's guy formerly in charge of customer service (John Needham) is Cryptic's current Chief Executive Officer.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Who wants to bet that next month they are bragging about 50k subs?
Sad thing is I think I recall an interview with the devs that stated that 100k would be profitable but they could "get by" with 50k. Guess it just shows how many resources they have actually invested. Cryptic: Aim for the horizon.
Apparently they did some forum changes for lifers:
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=143262 Wow $300 and I can change my forum name color too? Do people who buy life times have some deep seated desire to prove their "special" or better than other players this much? It will be interesting to see what color the forums light up in.
Heck WWIIOnline seems to get by with just under 12,500 subs, so I could see a 'bigger' game get by one 50,000; the question is, will Atari let them 'get by' on that few?
Also, never underestimate how many people are willing to throw money away on a MMO. Just look back to EQ; you had Cloaks of Flames selling for $8,000.00 (that's not a typo!), and SOE made a special server where you paid $40.00 per month (the standard at that time was $10.00 per month) so that you get get a few frills such as decent customer service (something other games gave as part of the normal monthly subscription cost). Interestingly enough, SOE's guy formerly in charge of customer service (John Needham) is Cryptic's current Chief Executive Officer.
The difference is, WWIIOL has an extremely small but dedicated developer base, some of whom are actually owners of Cornered Rat Software. They don't have to report to the higher power of the publisher/owner about why they're not making massive profits. At least, not anymore. And most importantly, CRS doesn't have another MMO in the works, so every dollar they make goes into WWIIOL itself.
I do remember when WWIIOL fell on its face though. Almost the entire dev team was laid off and progress reduced to a trickle, which is where it remains to this day, nine years later. If STO drops to 50,000 subs, you're likely to see a similar outcome. With at least one new game already underway, Cryptic isn't going to have the resources to keep a large or even mediocre dev team sitting around on STO. And with STO's "completion", they're likely to begin work on a fourth game just to keep up with the 18-24 month development cycle program Atari has them locked into.
I seriously doubt the validity of over 100K subs.. Why? Most of the games that I know that are in the 100K, 200K, 500K or 1 million + subs have much better Xfire numbers.. Even SWG is ranked higher then STO and I bet has more active subs.. and SWG is around 50-100k sub range if I recall..
Actually, there currently is a known problem with Xfire tracking STO; apparently it is not tracking time played, as well as some other problems. From what people said on the Xfire forums, it was the same with with CO after it launched for a while; something to do with how Cryptic games run.
It seems that xfire is now starting to track it again whether that do to patching on xfires part or people using the work around they posted. It's back up to 59 today and the curve appears similar to the overal pattern. Guess we'll see how it turns out over the weekend. I think we'll see another dip after the novelty of the update wears off sometime next week.
I seriously doubt the validity of over 100K subs.. Why? Most of the games that I know that are in the 100K, 200K, 500K or 1 million + subs have much better Xfire numbers.. Even SWG is ranked higher then STO and I bet has more active subs.. and SWG is around 50-100k sub range if I recall..
Actually, there currently is a known problem with Xfire tracking STO; apparently it is not tracking time played, as well as some other problems. From what people said on the Xfire forums, it was the same with with CO after it launched for a while; something to do with how Cryptic games run.
It seems that xfire is now starting to track it again whether that do to patching on xfires part or people using the work around they posted. It's back up to 59 today and the curve appears similar to the overal pattern. Guess we'll see how it turns out over the weekend. I think we'll see another dip after the novelty of the update wears off sometime next week.
More than likely so; none of the content released in this update looks like it will be able to help their retention problem.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Interesting article and Cryptic states well over 100k subscribers. I think the scariest thing is that Jack Emmert wants to work on Godzilla and D&D. More well known popular ips that they can cut/paste and slap a monthly fee+item mall on ?
Interesting article and Cryptic states well over 100k subscribers. I think the scariest thing is that Jack Emmert wants to work on Godzilla and D&D. More well known popular ips that they can cut/paste and slap a monthly fee+item mall on ?
Weird... i knew STO may not be console enough, but CO... CO feels as though it was purely designed for a 360 controller.
must be happy with 100,000 subs. (how long they'll last is anybodys guess... 70,000 by end of May.. taking bets please)
From what I remember, CO was developed to be on the XBox 360. What I think happened was they were rejected by Microsoft.
That could possibly be.. As I recall when Cryptic was beginning to lose their relationship with NCSoft, Cryptic started to look for a new bed partner to do games with.. Microsoft had jumped in at one point, then changed their minds and Cryptic was left high and dry.. As I recall that was the final straw that pretty much foced Cryptic to sell CoX to NCSoft, which then inturn gave them the money to find and develop CO.. possibly switching it from a console game to a mmo PC game.. STO I think would of been much better received if it was releaased as a console game with addons, then to dish it out as a full subscription based MMO..
That could possibly be.. As I recall when Cryptic was beginning to lose their relationship with NCSoft, Cryptic started to look for a new bed partner to do games with.. Microsoft had jumped in at one point, then changed their minds and Cryptic was left high and dry.. As I recall that was the final straw that pretty much foced Cryptic to sell CoX to NCSoft, which then inturn gave them the money to find and develop CO.. possibly switching it from a console game to a mmo PC game.. STO I think would of been much better received if it was releaased as a console game with addons, then to dish it out as a full subscription based MMO..
oh well.. times are changing
The reason it wasn't sold as a console game is because they realized they could have people not only buy the box, like a console, but they could charge a monthly fee, bork the skill system and charge for respec, charge for char slots, charge for fluff, charge for expacs, add content to encourage LTS instead of putting the game into retail shape with their time.
Why sell one box which will fail by all standards, when you can sell an MMO with so many many excuses? "No MMO is finished", "It's only the game will get better", and so on.
A console is a one time sale, and expected to be QA'd and polished.
An MMO can be half done, charge a box, sub, C-Store, X-Pacs, etc.
It's our own fault, we buy from these terrible companies, they make a profit, they release more crap onto the market. The MMO community needs to stop buying this junk and demand some quality. If we don't, we are allowing the genre to be buried in these "me-too" wanna be games. Then we canb't complain when companies give us what we are willing to pay top dollar for.
Agreed.. I didn't buy STO because of my fears of what I saw coming.. and from this debackle, I'll never touch an Atari or Cryptic product.. I for one do put my money where my mouth is.. I have a very long memory and I do not forgive that easily.. It took me 5 years to forgive Sony.. lol If SOE ever game out with a contending game, I might consider it at this point.. Hoping that SOE learned their lesson this time..
Cryptic/Atari if you are listening.. The clock just started, you have 5 years minimum to get your shit together if you are wanting me to ever be a customer.. Good Luck.. lol
Maybe there is 100K people who are so blinded by the supposed Star Trek theme of the game to ignore...the lack of game. maybe there are. That's sad, because that makes Cryptic's business model right: Toss anything out the door every two years and you'll make money because we, as consumers are so fraking stupid.
You could create a Starfleet officer uniform in CO and just as much a Star Trek game, oops, except in CO, you can fly straight up and down!
Wonder what IP they will re-skin onto the engine for next year's 2-year wonder?
I would bet that this is almost spot on with how they feel behind closed doors.
You think I'm joking?
I'd bet the entire idea is just plain stupid, if they could actually make a game that everyone liked and subbed to do you think they would do this? I say no they just don't have a clue how to make a good game but that's not going to stop them from trying because hey we all have bills to pay. They are just not good mmo makers, and I don't see anything wrong with the business model they use either just the dull and uninspired development they do.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Comments
Weird... i knew STO may not be console enough, but CO... CO feels as though it was purely designed for a 360 controller.
must be happy with 100,000 subs. (how long they'll last is anybodys guess... 70,000 by end of May.. taking bets please)
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
Not really, no; any smart investor would know to steer clear of interviews and other PR, but in any case the investors get their information via Atari's quarterly and six month financial statements (Atari's financial year begins April 1st, if I remember correctly). I think for the moment Emmert's statement is correct, factoring in lifetime subscriptions, multi-month subscriptions, and those monthly subscribers who were hanging around to see the 45 day 'miracle patch.' I'm guessing it's going to drop below the 100,000 player mark before April is finished. I'm more curious in how many of those lifetime and multi-month subscribers are still playing? Cryptic will still count them of course (while they can for the multi-monthers anyway), but I think it would be interesting to know how many still log in on a regular (re: frequent) basis.
Additionally, Atari's next financial statement is supposed to be made under compliance with recently enacted French law; while I'm not sure what all will change, the impression I had was that the creative financial reporting methods Atari was using to try and makes things look not so bad will be going away. Regarding the comment about the them lying about numbers, don't forget that they (Atari/Cryptic) were bragging about their one million accounts on their websites when STO launched and were trying to make it sound like they had one million active STO subscriptions.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I believe they are being counted, as Atari's financial statement was splitting up the multi-month and lifetime subscriptions over a period of several months in order to get estimated revenue projections for the upcoming Atari fiscal year (April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2011). This fits in with their PR methods, and pads the numbers in their favor when they make statements like this. It's not really a lie either; those lifetime subscribers are actual subscribers, they just pre-paid. If you notice, when they talk about subscribers (whether mentioning numbers or not), they never make a distinction between the various groups of subscribers.
Additionally, I am guessing that approximately 10,000 lifetime subscriptions were sold; a few people in my guild bought a lifetime subscription, and one of them mentioned his order number was 6700 while another who bought one just a few days later had the number 7300. I'm guessing they probably limited the initial batch to 10,000 since they seemed very wary of lifetime subscriptions. Of course now they seem to be embracing them; every time I turn around there seems to be some new perk added to lifetime subscriptions (which are still available, but at a higher cost than the initial offer) in order to entice new costumers.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Heck just try convincing them that Atari owns Cryptic, and that they are not two seperate entities!
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Actually, the 'one server' helps them more in another way; having only one server helps hide (for a while) how many players are leaving a game, until people start noticing how few instances there are and do the math themselves.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I take issue with labelling either CO or STO as AAA titles; both games are clearly not AAA titles. At least AoC and WAR tried to be AAA titles, though they did fall on their faces, but Cryptic didn't even try for AAA status with either game.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Actually, there currently is a known problem with Xfire tracking STO; apparently it is not tracking time played, as well as some other problems. From what people said on the Xfire forums, it was the same with with CO after it launched for a while; something to do with how Cryptic games run.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Heck WWIIOnline seems to get by with just under 12,500 subs, so I could see a 'bigger' game get by one 50,000; the question is, will Atari let them 'get by' on that few?
Also, never underestimate how many people are willing to throw money away on a MMO. Just look back to EQ; you had Cloaks of Flames selling for $8,000.00 (that's not a typo!), and SOE made a special server where you paid $40.00 per month (the standard at that time was $10.00 per month) so that you get get a few frills such as decent customer service (something other games gave as part of the normal monthly subscription cost). Interestingly enough, SOE's guy formerly in charge of customer service (John Needham) is Cryptic's current Chief Executive Officer.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
The difference is, WWIIOL has an extremely small but dedicated developer base, some of whom are actually owners of Cornered Rat Software. They don't have to report to the higher power of the publisher/owner about why they're not making massive profits. At least, not anymore. And most importantly, CRS doesn't have another MMO in the works, so every dollar they make goes into WWIIOL itself.
I do remember when WWIIOL fell on its face though. Almost the entire dev team was laid off and progress reduced to a trickle, which is where it remains to this day, nine years later. If STO drops to 50,000 subs, you're likely to see a similar outcome. With at least one new game already underway, Cryptic isn't going to have the resources to keep a large or even mediocre dev team sitting around on STO. And with STO's "completion", they're likely to begin work on a fourth game just to keep up with the 18-24 month development cycle program Atari has them locked into.
over 100k? I call bullshit.
WAR has more players than this game and its sitting at around 50k subs.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
It seems that xfire is now starting to track it again whether that do to patching on xfires part or people using the work around they posted. It's back up to 59 today and the curve appears similar to the overal pattern. Guess we'll see how it turns out over the weekend. I think we'll see another dip after the novelty of the update wears off sometime next week.
More than likely so; none of the content released in this update looks like it will be able to help their retention problem.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I wonder if this is the same reason why SOE dumped their console plans for SWG, do I really need to give an explanation why?
From what I remember, CO was developed to be on the XBox 360. What I think happened was they were rejected by Microsoft.
That could possibly be.. As I recall when Cryptic was beginning to lose their relationship with NCSoft, Cryptic started to look for a new bed partner to do games with.. Microsoft had jumped in at one point, then changed their minds and Cryptic was left high and dry.. As I recall that was the final straw that pretty much foced Cryptic to sell CoX to NCSoft, which then inturn gave them the money to find and develop CO.. possibly switching it from a console game to a mmo PC game.. STO I think would of been much better received if it was releaased as a console game with addons, then to dish it out as a full subscription based MMO..
oh well.. times are changing
The reason it wasn't sold as a console game is because they realized they could have people not only buy the box, like a console, but they could charge a monthly fee, bork the skill system and charge for respec, charge for char slots, charge for fluff, charge for expacs, add content to encourage LTS instead of putting the game into retail shape with their time.
Why sell one box which will fail by all standards, when you can sell an MMO with so many many excuses? "No MMO is finished", "It's only the game will get better", and so on.
A console is a one time sale, and expected to be QA'd and polished.
An MMO can be half done, charge a box, sub, C-Store, X-Pacs, etc.
It's our own fault, we buy from these terrible companies, they make a profit, they release more crap onto the market. The MMO community needs to stop buying this junk and demand some quality. If we don't, we are allowing the genre to be buried in these "me-too" wanna be games. Then we canb't complain when companies give us what we are willing to pay top dollar for.
Agreed.. I didn't buy STO because of my fears of what I saw coming.. and from this debackle, I'll never touch an Atari or Cryptic product.. I for one do put my money where my mouth is.. I have a very long memory and I do not forgive that easily.. It took me 5 years to forgive Sony.. lol If SOE ever game out with a contending game, I might consider it at this point.. Hoping that SOE learned their lesson this time..
Cryptic/Atari if you are listening.. The clock just started, you have 5 years minimum to get your shit together if you are wanting me to ever be a customer.. Good Luck.. lol
I'd bet the entire idea is just plain stupid, if they could actually make a game that everyone liked and subbed to do you think they would do this? I say no they just don't have a clue how to make a good game but that's not going to stop them from trying because hey we all have bills to pay. They are just not good mmo makers, and I don't see anything wrong with the business model they use either just the dull and uninspired development they do.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....