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The Fate Of STO?
yumpinyimini
Member UncommonPosts: 81
So how much longer will STO last?
I'd give it about 2-3 years at the most.
Comments
If Cryptic continue their current level of customer service towards non-lifers, i doubt it will last even that long. Once the cash from the sycophants dries up, that'll be it for STO.
Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-pope.
2-3 years is way to optimistic, i give it 1 year tops.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
Not sure if it's a question of "how long will STO last" as much as "How long will Cryptic last?". They now have 2 of 2 games on their hands that will go nowhere but down.
CO is almost at rock bottom. Decided to check things out on Sunday with the free weekend and it wasn't just the literal ghost town in the desert that was a ghost town. That's bad news on a free weekend to have 4 shards of 50 players in the desert.
At the rate they're putting out content for STO, and considering they were missing almost an entire faction at launch, AND that they're coddling the lifers in lieu of subscribers... GATING content from paying players to appease the snobbery of "already paid" players... they may as well be asking to be put out of business.
Two years max if Cryptic stays in charge. You can't keep a subscription based game going by insulting your subscribers whenever they bring up a complaint. That's just not good business.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Its a good point, if Cryptic doesn't come up with a winner (financially) one day the funds to keep building new games is going to dry up. No way to really tell how their finances are or when it might become an issue.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I suspect very few people were playing in CO's desert because most players were in the new 35-40 zone that was launched last week; I know I was, and I saw no shortgage of other people.
The sad thing is that Cryptic has come up with a winner financially due to box sales, lifetime and year subs and first month subs so Cryptic/Atari has made a profit from STO they just havent made a good game.
This sentiment I can see but I think the whole "how long will game X last?" is an irrelevant point to even make, anyone who knows mmo's can probably attest to games much worse than this surviving and in my opinion worse companies too, but I agree with this sentiment and find it a much more "mature" statement to make Cryptic unless they can turn this game around are going to have a hard time convincing people to give them money to keep producing games.
But it's still a waste of time to try and speculate about one particular game, while I don't like it I know lot's of people do and am not vain enough to assume I speak for the majority or even that the forum posters (who 2 to 1 are usually negative) speak for the majority either.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I am certain that they ARE making money on their MMOs. I very much doubt that long-term viability is in their business model.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Oh no doubt. Cryptic seem to be the Uwe Boll of MMO makers. STO wont last long, but they will squeeze every last penny they can from it before churning out another mediocre title based on a popular IP and doing the exact same thing again. I only wish i'd known about this site prior to buying a copy of STO.
Your friendly neighbourhood Spider-pope.
My guess is that CO and STO both will end up F2P microtranaction games by 2012.. OR.. They'll start grouping games together as a package subscription plan.. I just don't see the game maintaining a strong enough player base at $15 a month.
Well said.
I would imagine that since STO is just a cut/paste job to CO that Crytpic probably 'spent' relatively very, very little bringing this game live and the ST name and void when they launched probably saw them making money of box sales and initial interest. Moreover, the way they make content for CO/STO I doubt it takes much resources to push out a couple episodes here and there and keep enough of the fanboys happy to pay the monthly bills with some cash leftover. Poitn being, the game can make money and still be an epic fail due to how many corners Cryptic was obviously willing to cut to get STO, and CO for that matter, out the door.
The real issue is what next. CO and STO leave littel doubt that Crytpic is a micky mouse developer with little talent and less interest in really building games, not to mention how the two games highlight their complete lack of ability to manage a game/community. I doubt that even in the wierd world of games they can sucker enough people on their next game to cash in on box sales and limp along on fanboys. But then again, as willing as they are to stick a happy meal on a plate and call it a gourmet meal (and sell it accoridngly) who knows that they will do. I do know this, any fan of MMOs that ever buys anything from this company again mind as well just shoot themselves in the foot becuase Crytpic is the embodiment of what is wrong with gaming and MMOs. Keep in mind, this goes beyond the Failcom and SWG stuff, Cryptic is not just incompetent, they are willfully exploiting IPs and gamers with these fake MMOs half built and pushed out the door at full price+.
As to staying open, mid to long term. There is no reason they could not keep going indefinitely. The costs of keeping these games up is minimal with bandwidth and processer power costs these days. Especially for a game without a real persistent world and a single server farm hosting various instances like CO/STO are. Yeah, they won't be able to develop the game much but they where never goign to do that. They got their random content creator that just reskins the same few missions over and over and add to that a couple people to stick stupid dialogue in and some extra bits and pices and you got raid-i-sodes and stf stuff (all really just re-skinning and re-packaging of everything else) and they are good to go. Heck, look at DDO - that game went for 2 years with under 30k subs and still managed to put out decent chunks of content all things considered. Now, the one issue they might have is that, perhaps, many of their fanboys or niche players may be on lifetime subs so it is possible they could be hurting for monthly money in 6 months or so, but that is hard to say from the outside.
Ultimately though, I think we would all be shocked at how easy it is to keep these games up so long as the intial surge from live pays the backcosts of development and it seems possible STO got enough buz and attention that it might have done as much. It is far more likely that they just pull the plug in the future because the headache of it is not worth it, i.e. it pays for itself and evens makes a small amount but that amount is not worth the effort. Of course, it also matters a good deal what happens with their next project. They might want STO and CO as promotional vehicles (i.e. package deals) for wahtever their next cut/paste port project is, especially since the word is obviously out on Cryptic making their hype and cash in on box sales strategy tougher to pull off agian.
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I suggest that it is the ethical responsibility of every regular poster here to be active on any boards relating to Cryptic's next boondongle reminding those who have forgotten of their method of business.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I can only advise everyone not to touch/buy their next product. They are not making MMOs that are supposed to last long anyway, they cut down on production costs and development time and then set everything in box sales and lifetime subscriptions. To squeeze out some more money, the item shop comes in. After you bought that box, they won't give a damn anymore if you are happy as their customer or not. They already got enough money to have made STO profitable. And I think such business methods are an insult to us players and to Star Trek.
I think this is it exactly. I felt the same way about Age of Conan and Warhammer. It seemed like the entire business model was based on up-front hyping to get the initial sales out, and then absolutely no support to follow up on that. But that's just my opinion, I wasn't in the board rooms of these companies, obviously.
Still, that pretty much means I'm never going to buy another Cryptic or Funcom game. Mythic I'm kinda stuck with, as they've been semi-merged with Bioware and no matter how much I hate Mythic, I can't turn away from Bioware quite that easily. So I'll still be playing TOR...
What about all the newbs (like me) who ventured out into the desert and into Canada?
I didn't see many people in Canada, and to be honest I had to force myself to log on and play during the free weekend.
Oh my lord. Sounds like some of you need to get organized and form your own "TEA Party" movement and name yourselves something. I guess if you got nothing else to do knock yourself out.
All this nerd rage posts make for fun reading. Not once has a poster on these forums or any forums convinced me to buy or not to buy a game. Either get the trial or wait for a buddy key and make an educated decision yourself if you find the game fun. You know yourself better than anyone. Even if the game is not an amazing success who says you won't find the game fun? Tastes vary, and discovery is more entertaining than reading advice on a forum.
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
And your point was? lol
Cryptic knows that they have let down the fans and the industry, and they know they need to make better games if they want their studio to survive. (source: Jack Emmert podcast)
In the short term the studio has met it's revenue targets, thanks to STO, and so their worth in the Atari deal goes up, and the studio will survive in the near future.
Only time will tell whether they can improve their reputation by improving their games.
One of Cryptic's great new policies is for the developers to communicate openly with players through the forums. This is working great in CO, since nearly all the trolls have left a long time ago, but the dev posts are not as good in STO forums yet, probably because the devs don't want to read through all that troll crap. So STO players, you haven't seen the full extent of Cryptic's communication yet, but it's really good and you'll enjoy it.
Around the time I did closed beta for STO, I thought Cryptic was finished. We all know what STO is like, and on top of that, they had been ignoring CO for so many months (to produce STO) that I could barely enjoy CO through all the bugs and non-improvements.
But now in CO, the output is finally on track for a sub-game (I am not even talking about the Revelations patch, but for example the extensive reworking and balancing of powers) and the recent level of communication is unprecedented (there is tons of back and forth with the devs about how to improve the powers, and other aspects of the game, and then amazingly they follow through with the changes and it shows they are listening to us closely). It's been two months like this so far, and hopefully they keep it up and also apply the same plan to STO.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
I checked into Cryptic's other mmo, CO, for the free weekend...only about an hour. Logged in where I last quested. In Millenium City. It surely wasn't jam packed in general area...but there were a number of players. When I did a pop check ...there were quite a few overall . Most of them were top levels...as was suggested by another poster...likely there to experience the new higher level content. The quest givers near me had many more quests available than the last time I played (about 6 months ago). Typical..clean up x number of gang members and this leader or that leader ...and similarly styled missions...as well as other more creative ones. I like the game and I think it will be profitable and maintained for a while by Cryptic. I am unsubbed but keep it installed (stuck with my current favorites AoC and Fallen Earth). It's great for quick change ups...to prevent burn out on other mmos ..maybe I'll play it for longer periods at some point...DCUO is the one thing that might steal arseloads of population from CO. COX ...which still has a decent pop and continual changes ...new power sets...graphic update coming soon and the Going Rogue and Incarnate coming. CoX will likely outlive both DCUO and CO. time will tell.
As for StarTrek Online...well...it's like CO...I haven't uninstalled it yet...because I enjoy it in small doses. I was kinda digging it for beta and a few weeks after launch. Then I stopped signing on every other day (Keep in mind I am only a Commander 4)..and after they pulled the price drop and free 60+days..for new purchasers....I cancelled. I'll keep up with it's progress to see if they start making better decisions and improve the game ...hopefully make it feel more like Star Trek in the process...I think Cryptics games aren't excellent...but they are also not complete shite. Just not interesting enough (imo) to want to play for $15 a month every month.They really do seem set up to be Free2Play with Massive C-Store content...which I would actually prefer. as long as it's priced within reason and there is still enough basic content to play without a purchase being critical. to sum it up.. STO (and CO)...are very casual and very playable mmos...not the best...not the worst. Despite not being stellar.I don't think they are going to shut down anytime soon.
How many times have we done this? doesn't matter how many years you give to it. it's not going anywhere.
For those that didn't know...
Bill Roper is now in charge of both STO and CO !
Like someone put it
"What's the term now... rearranging deckchairs on a sinking ship?
"
First of all, there's an old saying "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." How many time will you let Jack Emmert fool you? The guy is a habitual liar (at least when it comes to talking to people who play the sad excuses he calls "games,")
Second, wow! What a great new policy! I don't think I've ever seen a development company do something like have the high and mighty devs deign to communicate with the lowly community before ever in my life! http://boards.cityofheroes.com/tracker.php?do=showresults&type=dev&outputType=&searchid=2943906&language=
Oh wait, this "great new policy" was something Cryptic started back when they made games instead of just making money. It's a policy they seem to have dropped when they decided that nothing is more important than profit. I'm glad you're happy they introduced this "great new policy." We'll see how long they can keep it up and if they ever decide to impliment this "great new policy" with STO.
Sometimes - the sky DOES fall.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Not to mention "too many chiefs," how big do they need their executive team over at Cryptic to be?