Who buys lifetimes subscriptions to a game that isn't even out yet, is run by two of the most notorious con artists in the industry, may not even survive long enough to make the lifetime subs worth it (see: Hellgate London), and KNOWS they will be spending even more of their money on microtransactions? For those of you on the fence about buying the lifetime sub, let me help you out: Wait... Wait until the game is out and the offer is over because I guarantee you that after a few months and the studio is hurting for more money, they will make that offer available again once more. THEN, you being the smart, savvy shopper can better decide whether or not to buy it because the game has already been out for some time and if it is still standing, you won't be out $300 or however much it costs.
This ---^^^^
I'll be laughing when in 6 mos they tell the world the game is now F2P and the "compensation" for all those lifers will be some form of champions bucks LOL
you know between this and the Turbine thing i have to wonder if some Atari exec got it into his head "any PR is good PR" and is intentionally holding out on Turbine until they raise a stink to get free publicity and the same with these subs then will swoop in and "Fix the oversight"
Since the overwhelming theory seemed to be that they had 'sold out' of the deals because of the STO beta access, how are they doing this? Expanding their tester cap in the STO beta by whatever amount they have to? Kind of scary. But I'm still in.
Like all great 'ideas' the devil is in the details. Just because you are granted Beta access, doesn't mean you get to play the minute the game goes into Beta. Beta can mean Open Beta (1 month before launch). Until then they could call the development phase Alpha Phase 3 or something like that. This way you don't have to honor the thousands of people at once. When you are ready for the stress test, then you declared Closed Beta and invite the people in waves. Again, slowly increasing your numbers..
I was one of the people upset by the situation. It prompted me to for the first time ever in 9 years of play in as many MMOs to post on a game's forum and express my disatisfaction. My husband and I decided to give it a few days to see how/if Cryptic and Atari would respond to the situation before making a decision about canceling our preorders. We are very pleased with the decision to reinstate the original offer in the form it was advertised to many of us. We do plan to buy lifetime subscriptions tomorrow (payday), and this decision has restored, if not improved, our opinion of Cryptic. There is no bad taste left in my mouth, and I find it difficult to believe that this could have been a ploy to try and drum up more subscriptions.
I was one of the people upset by the situation. It prompted me to for the first time ever in 9 years of play in as many MMOs to post on a game's forum and express my disatisfaction. My husband and I decided to give it a few days to see how/if Cryptic and Atari would respond to the situation before making a decision about canceling our preorders. We are very pleased with the decision to reinstate the original offer in the form it was advertised to many of us. We do plan to buy lifetime subscriptions tomorrow (payday), and this decision has restored, if not improved, our opinion of Cryptic. There is no bad taste left in my mouth, and I find it difficult to believe that this could have been a ploy to try and drum up more subscriptions.
you never played City of Heroes did you?
when Cryptic was in change "bait, switch, and rebate" was their Modus Operandi
Since the overwhelming theory seemed to be that they had 'sold out' of the deals because of the STO beta access, how are they doing this? Expanding their tester cap in the STO beta by whatever amount they have to? Kind of scary. But I'm still in.
Like all great 'ideas' the devil is in the details. Just because you are granted Beta access, doesn't mean you get to play the minute the game goes into Beta. Beta can mean Open Beta (1 month before launch). Until then they could call the development phase Alpha Phase 3 or something like that. This way you don't have to honor the thousands of people at once. When you are ready for the stress test, then you declared Closed Beta and invite the people in waves. Again, slowly increasing your numbers..
Star Trek Online
Activated Features
Closed Beta <--------------------------------
This better mean closed beta, not necessarily at the start, but not the "open" beta that CO just had.
Every lifetime Sub that Cryptic sells for this game this month limits the addons/ upgrades that will occur past 13 months from now. A lifetime sub pays for 13 months worth of game play at regular price. Cryptic has a large staff, and the CFO has to sign alot of paycheques. If too many lifetime subs get sold, they are going to have to start budgeting. Little miss what's her dingy that raised the big stink the other day on the CO forums was quite ridiculous. Cryptic would have been better off to simply refund her money, delete her posts and move on. This company and it's developers have received alot of flack from the fans on the forums for any number of sily things. I wish all the whiners would of have stayed on CoX. That was one of the main things that spurred me on toward a move to CO from CoX... the prospect of a new less negetive community. One poster here says "You're damned if you do, you're damed if you don't." With the hero following crowd I would tend to agree. I think Cryptic has done a fine job on CO so far and demonstrates exemplary restraint toward negetive customer feedback and commend them for their acheivement in Champions, it really does stand out as a "unique" MMO.
Why you think they have a Cash Shop?
You can bet that every new addition to this game will end up there. Nothing will be added for free. That much you can count on.
The only thing this LifeTime sub has given you is that you don't have to pay the 15 bucks a month. But in return it forces you to stick around for at least 13 months to play even.
And seeing the retention rates of players sticking around in MMO's that have been released these last years. Then selling as much Lifetime Subs as possible will bring them more money than any other MMO that has been released as off late.
Simply because the majority drops the game within 1 to 3 months.
You can bet on that a lot of people buy a LifeTime sub on impulse without thinking clearly and then end up leaving the game in lets say 3 to 6 months. Or maybe even earlier. Stomping themselves against the head out of stupdity.
That means 7 to 9 months of free subfee money straight into Cryptics pockets. Money they wouldn't have had, when those players would have just bought the box only.
I have no idea what your disagreeing with in my post or if you even understood what I was saying because on one hand you seem to be arguing with me; and then you pretty well agree with the genral idea of what Im saying so I'll just leave it alone and assume your from a bad gene pool and just feisty buy nature lol.
Hehe maybe Atari needs to grab some more money now when they are being sued for $30 millions... Why would anyone invest $200 in a shady company like this who just keep on screwing their players aswel as other companies?
my thoughts enzunctly
The sad thing is they are still a slightly better choice then Cryptic's former owner NCSoft, wonder who will be the next owner SOE? :-p
It's important to realize that a life-time subscription does not mean a subcription for your life-time but for the game's life-time... Let's hope it lasts longer than Tabula Rasa.
----------------------------- Real as Reality Television!!!
I do agree this is some kind of marketing strategy.
However, I do fall into that! Simply because Demand and Supply, I WANT a lifetime sub and I don't really care if they do this for marketing or what. I am sure there are many people just the same as me.
From what I think, they probably wanna push those "maybe lifetime sub" people into "I am lifetime sub". Honestly, they did it!!! A very smart move.
I am a businessman as well, so I have nothing against any strategy that can make more money. Instead of like other people complaining or trolling around about their marketing, I am actually impress and tbey do draw me to buy a lifetime sub.
I hope now their game developing team can maintain this game MORE fun !!! (is not like not fun now but everyone always wants more right ?? ^_^ )
It's amazing how jaded we, as gamers, have become. Could you not give them the benefit of the doubt in that a company whom is creating a game they want people to play, brought back an offer simply because they did not know there would be such demand for it?
From a marketing standpoint it makes sense that you would only want a limited number of special discount subscriptions when you are working on a subscription based product. If everyone bought a lifetime subscription they would never make any money past the point of the offer.
I refuse to play free-to-play games with micro-transactions because they are generally terrible and you can only have meaningful and fun game-play unless you purchase their item shop items.
As an informed adult I would rather pay a subscription and have the game reliant on them for success. Having high subscription numbers gives more incentive for Cryptic to put out quality product for everyone to enjoy. The fact they will have OPTIONAL micro-transactions mean that me, an informed ADULT, can choose to simple pay my subscription and never buy a thing if I do not wish.
If you've read this entire post I hope I did not come off as holier-than-thou but sometimes there is too much jaded juvenile sentiment here.
It's amazing how jaded we, as gamers, have become. Could you not give them the benefit of the doubt in that a company whom is creating a game they want people to play, brought back an offer simply because they did not know there would be such demand for it?
I'm with you on this one. I think if maybe we as gamers start to work towards a better realtionship between developing teams and players maybe things wouldnt be so strained. Lets cut crypric some slack here, I belive they have offered a fine product with good potential. I could never imagine what it must feel like to be Bill Roper, hes obviously a very smart man who has been given a chance to prove himself after his last debocle, but all anyone can say in these forums is how much you hate him and wont play CO because of him.
If you hate the man that much the best thing you can do is just not play his games and leave it at that, what greater form of insult is there than complete ignorance.
I'm currently playing the head start for CO and I cant find anything to spend my cryptic bucks on. Everything that they said was available I can craft anyway so I'm all dressed up with no where to go.
While I got a 6 month sub rather than the lifetime, it was a good move to put the lifetime subs back on the table. Cryptic created a lot of fanbois (of which I am one) with that move. For the time being folks in the game seem to feel they are not an evil and greedy corp.
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy. ______________________________ "This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
It's amazing how jaded we, as gamers, have become. Could you not give them the benefit of the doubt in that a company whom is creating a game they want people to play, brought back an offer simply because they did not know there would be such demand for it?
Removing the offer was a bad-faith action in the first place. Bringing it back makes it reek of PR manipulation, possibly due to lack of real interest.
City of Heroes, run by NCSoft, will be my continuing choice. Those who are badmouthing it here, whatev.
I think the whole thing is stupid. This is what happens when there is nothing else to talk about. There is no real story here. They offered a limited time offer, and then stopped when the offer was over. End of story. Everything about it was normal business 101. They were kind enough to extend the offer for those that missed the offer for what ever reason.
Never again will I pay to play a beta...I'll wait and see how this train wreck works out after few months and see whether or not it floats or everyone leaves after the 1st month....
From everything I've read, here and there, the powers is a real issue and not up to par with the Real Champions game and Hero System...
So its a wait and see for me......besides, I'll probably get into STO beta anyway so no need to pay for it...
They only realized very fast, that indeed, they were breaking consumer laws in some countries, by giving people emails on the 21th and 22th of august, with lifetime offers and 6th months subs, with the only limitation in the email, that it would be available until 1th september.
You cant then withdraw the offer on the 24th.
Yes, its simple: if you have in your database the information of a person and that person has notified that he wants to receive newsletters, it also means, that the company that will sent an email to such person, has to obey the consumer laws in that country)
So they just didnt dare to take the risk, NOT to open it up again.
Who knows what legal extra trouble and extra bad advertisement that would give.
For some people, that defend them or dont understand it, in some countries customers are protected from false advertisements like they basically did: promise something and then not offering it, with an excuse.
These companies need to learn to spent more time on how they formulate an offer and be CLEAR to their customers.
PS: i complained and yes i got a lifetime now and so far i love the game, but if they didnt open it up again, i would never touch the game. Only wanted the lifetime or nothing.
Comments
This ---^^^^
I'll be laughing when in 6 mos they tell the world the game is now F2P and the "compensation" for all those lifers will be some form of champions bucks LOL
you know between this and the Turbine thing i have to wonder if some Atari exec got it into his head "any PR is good PR" and is intentionally holding out on Turbine until they raise a stink to get free publicity and the same with these subs then will swoop in and "Fix the oversight"
Like all great 'ideas' the devil is in the details. Just because you are granted Beta access, doesn't mean you get to play the minute the game goes into Beta. Beta can mean Open Beta (1 month before launch). Until then they could call the development phase Alpha Phase 3 or something like that. This way you don't have to honor the thousands of people at once. When you are ready for the stress test, then you declared Closed Beta and invite the people in waves. Again, slowly increasing your numbers..
I was one of the people upset by the situation. It prompted me to for the first time ever in 9 years of play in as many MMOs to post on a game's forum and express my disatisfaction. My husband and I decided to give it a few days to see how/if Cryptic and Atari would respond to the situation before making a decision about canceling our preorders. We are very pleased with the decision to reinstate the original offer in the form it was advertised to many of us. We do plan to buy lifetime subscriptions tomorrow (payday), and this decision has restored, if not improved, our opinion of Cryptic. There is no bad taste left in my mouth, and I find it difficult to believe that this could have been a ploy to try and drum up more subscriptions.
you never played City of Heroes did you?
when Cryptic was in change "bait, switch, and rebate" was their Modus Operandi
Like all great 'ideas' the devil is in the details. Just because you are granted Beta access, doesn't mean you get to play the minute the game goes into Beta. Beta can mean Open Beta (1 month before launch). Until then they could call the development phase Alpha Phase 3 or something like that. This way you don't have to honor the thousands of people at once. When you are ready for the stress test, then you declared Closed Beta and invite the people in waves. Again, slowly increasing your numbers..
Star Trek Online
Activated Features
Closed Beta <--------------------------------
This better mean closed beta, not necessarily at the start, but not the "open" beta that CO just had.
Why you think they have a Cash Shop?
You can bet that every new addition to this game will end up there. Nothing will be added for free. That much you can count on.
The only thing this LifeTime sub has given you is that you don't have to pay the 15 bucks a month. But in return it forces you to stick around for at least 13 months to play even.
And seeing the retention rates of players sticking around in MMO's that have been released these last years. Then selling as much Lifetime Subs as possible will bring them more money than any other MMO that has been released as off late.
Simply because the majority drops the game within 1 to 3 months.
You can bet on that a lot of people buy a LifeTime sub on impulse without thinking clearly and then end up leaving the game in lets say 3 to 6 months. Or maybe even earlier. Stomping themselves against the head out of stupdity.
That means 7 to 9 months of free subfee money straight into Cryptics pockets. Money they wouldn't have had, when those players would have just bought the box only.
I have no idea what your disagreeing with in my post or if you even understood what I was saying because on one hand you seem to be arguing with me; and then you pretty well agree with the genral idea of what Im saying so I'll just leave it alone and assume your from a bad gene pool and just feisty buy nature lol.
my thoughts enzunctly
The sad thing is they are still a slightly better choice then Cryptic's former owner NCSoft, wonder who will be the next owner SOE? :-p
got that right
It's important to realize that a life-time subscription does not mean a subcription for your life-time but for the game's life-time... Let's hope it lasts longer than Tabula Rasa.
-----------------------------
Real as Reality Television!!!
I do agree this is some kind of marketing strategy.
However, I do fall into that! Simply because Demand and Supply, I WANT a lifetime sub and I don't really care if they do this for marketing or what. I am sure there are many people just the same as me.
From what I think, they probably wanna push those "maybe lifetime sub" people into "I am lifetime sub". Honestly, they did it!!! A very smart move.
I am a businessman as well, so I have nothing against any strategy that can make more money. Instead of like other people complaining or trolling around about their marketing, I am actually impress and tbey do draw me to buy a lifetime sub.
I hope now their game developing team can maintain this game MORE fun !!! (is not like not fun now but everyone always wants more right ?? ^_^ )
Seems like a marketing ploy that is working successfully. Not buying the game anyway so it's not affecting me either way.
Our spirit was here long before you
Long before us
And long will it be after your pride brings you to your end
It's amazing how jaded we, as gamers, have become. Could you not give them the benefit of the doubt in that a company whom is creating a game they want people to play, brought back an offer simply because they did not know there would be such demand for it?
From a marketing standpoint it makes sense that you would only want a limited number of special discount subscriptions when you are working on a subscription based product. If everyone bought a lifetime subscription they would never make any money past the point of the offer.
I refuse to play free-to-play games with micro-transactions because they are generally terrible and you can only have meaningful and fun game-play unless you purchase their item shop items.
As an informed adult I would rather pay a subscription and have the game reliant on them for success. Having high subscription numbers gives more incentive for Cryptic to put out quality product for everyone to enjoy. The fact they will have OPTIONAL micro-transactions mean that me, an informed ADULT, can choose to simple pay my subscription and never buy a thing if I do not wish.
If you've read this entire post I hope I did not come off as holier-than-thou but sometimes there is too much jaded juvenile sentiment here.
I'm with you on this one. I think if maybe we as gamers start to work towards a better realtionship between developing teams and players maybe things wouldnt be so strained. Lets cut crypric some slack here, I belive they have offered a fine product with good potential. I could never imagine what it must feel like to be Bill Roper, hes obviously a very smart man who has been given a chance to prove himself after his last debocle, but all anyone can say in these forums is how much you hate him and wont play CO because of him.
If you hate the man that much the best thing you can do is just not play his games and leave it at that, what greater form of insult is there than complete ignorance.
I'm currently playing the head start for CO and I cant find anything to spend my cryptic bucks on. Everything that they said was available I can craft anyway so I'm all dressed up with no where to go.
While I got a 6 month sub rather than the lifetime, it was a good move to put the lifetime subs back on the table. Cryptic created a lot of fanbois (of which I am one) with that move. For the time being folks in the game seem to feel they are not an evil and greedy corp.
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
______________________________
"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
Removing the offer was a bad-faith action in the first place. Bringing it back makes it reek of PR manipulation, possibly due to lack of real interest.
City of Heroes, run by NCSoft, will be my continuing choice. Those who are badmouthing it here, whatev.
I think the whole thing is stupid. This is what happens when there is nothing else to talk about. There is no real story here. They offered a limited time offer, and then stopped when the offer was over. End of story. Everything about it was normal business 101. They were kind enough to extend the offer for those that missed the offer for what ever reason.
Never again will I pay to play a beta...I'll wait and see how this train wreck works out after few months and see whether or not it floats or everyone leaves after the 1st month....
From everything I've read, here and there, the powers is a real issue and not up to par with the Real Champions game and Hero System...
So its a wait and see for me......besides, I'll probably get into STO beta anyway so no need to pay for it...
http://www.forceofarms.com/index.php
They didnt make up their mind.
They only realized very fast, that indeed, they were breaking consumer laws in some countries, by giving people emails on the 21th and 22th of august, with lifetime offers and 6th months subs, with the only limitation in the email, that it would be available until 1th september.
You cant then withdraw the offer on the 24th.
Yes, its simple: if you have in your database the information of a person and that person has notified that he wants to receive newsletters, it also means, that the company that will sent an email to such person, has to obey the consumer laws in that country)
So they just didnt dare to take the risk, NOT to open it up again.
Who knows what legal extra trouble and extra bad advertisement that would give.
For some people, that defend them or dont understand it, in some countries customers are protected from false advertisements like they basically did: promise something and then not offering it, with an excuse.
These companies need to learn to spent more time on how they formulate an offer and be CLEAR to their customers.
PS: i complained and yes i got a lifetime now and so far i love the game, but if they didnt open it up again, i would never touch the game. Only wanted the lifetime or nothing.