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General: Cryptic in 2010
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller speculates about the year ahead of Cryptic Studios and brings to light an interesting "In Development" piece of concept art that many of us may have forgotten about.
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Cryptic Studios has had quite a turbulent year in 2009. The studio launched Champions Online back in September to mixed reviews and now is set to unleash the online version of Star Trek on a very Trek heavy world. There are designers who would love to get their hands on an IP like Star Trek to make an MMO. Then there are others who have said they would never touch it. Star Trek is a tough one; the expectations are higher or more complex than most games. Moving into 2010, players will experience Star Trek Online courtesy of Cryptic Studios. What else does the studio have in store for us?
Read Cryptic in 2010.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
That "concept art" has been on their site for about three years (2007). It's pre-Champions, pre-Star Trek, pre-Marvel Online fiasco...heck, it's pre-break up with NCSoft.
I don't know if that's a game that is ever going to be made. And I doubt its a Cthulu, for three reasons: 1) When that was drawn up, they had yet to get a major license from anyone; 2) I doubt that a Cthulu mmo would remain that much of a secret for 3 years (heck, they couldn't even keep Start Trek secret for more than a few months); 3) While I could easily see them putting it on hold for Marvel online, I doubt they would have delayed work on it in favor of Champions...and their pursuit/development of the STO property.
But, let's imagine for a minute that they did, and it IS what this article speculates...how excited can one be for a three year old property that was likely frozen somewhere around the concept art stage in favor of one/two rushed titles that could "break" the company. I don't have much confidence/hope in this one, even if it is that property.
Good editorial though: (paraphrasing) "Company with shaky release in '09 has do or die release scheduled for '10. Fickle fans may love, or hate their next mmo. If company is secretly developing "dream" mmo, they could make a ton of cash."
Exactly the type of insight I expect from this site. :rolleyes: If only it had a "top five" list too, it'd be perfect :rolleyes:
the studio is a joke
their games are pathetic
the big names of the studio (Roper and Emmert) are two-faced lying douchebags
and over all, I see Cryptic going the way of mythic... developers in name only. STO is going to be the nail in the coffin when the rush-job-that-shouldn't-have-been is released.
People are going to play STO for a month, realize they've run out of things to do, then cancel their subscriptions.
"Some players believe Star Trek will launch too soon, but if Cryptic keeps the game active with multiple updates throughout the year, players will be in for some great events and upgrades which will take them into 2011."
What exactly do you mean by that? Some say they'll launch too soon, but Cryptic can use the money to get a good game together in 2011?!?! THAT,if they don't release another "great mmo" in the meantime,right?
The debacle with thier billing dpeartment over the Lifetime Subscriptions for Champions will be something I won't forget. Turned out their lying asshole tatics were the best thing that could have happened. Saved me 200 bucks and a ton of headaches. Also everything that guy said.
"Let's begin by talking about Champions Online. The game has continued to grow throughout the last quarter of 2009..."
You what?
They should have just gotten a copy of Eve-Online and changed the ship skins to Starfleet, Klingon, Cardassian etc.
Many will speculate if the game will sink or swim; whatever you believe no one can argue with the power of Star Trek. If the game is fun as beta testers have mentioned, then STO could become the game of the year for 2010. We will just have to wait and see.
If only a successful IP guaranteed success, and fanboi beta testers never lie through their teeth about a game they want others to buy so it doesn't crash and burn....
Personally I don't hold out much hope for STO. I don't care for the subscription + MT payment model and think (other) Trekkies will also find it a bit stinky.
And while I played and enjoyed CoH for several years, I also tried CO... Any credibility Cryptic had with me took a serious kick to the nads after that.
WOW, lots of Cryptic haters around here.. Champions may not have started great but seems to be finding its footing as of late, and I loved COH, played it since it began back in '04.. excellent game. As far as STO.. give a chance before you decide to throw it in the trash can.. but it seems to easy to trash Cryptic first.. that is a shame... well, if STO is a huge hit and is at least fairly successful, I suspect some of the "haters" will try and deny that they ever said anything bad about it.. kind of like FOX news.. well whatever works... I'll be playing STO and loving it regardless..
If Cryptic does indeed create a Cthulu MMO.. that will be something else to see.. I would love it! Go for it Cryptic.. give it your best shot! Major kudeos to ya!
Cryptic has some serious PR problems. Whatever the games flaws, they have been very bad at communicating Champions' strengths. They have tried to do a lot of new things to progress the genre (open build classless system, action combat), but without hardcore players that are willing to stand up for something new, you get a lot of ex-wow players who gave up when they found out they could not just automatically be "tanks" and "healers" without thinking. Another big mistake was the high CPU requirements, since a lot of gamers do not pay enough attention to CPU, I saw a lot of "but my grafics card cost $$$ why it no good, this game sux." I blame Cryptic for not doing a better job at teaching people how to play, because then they play it just like some 5 year old MMO and get bored/frustrated and give up. If you are sick of hearing about "tank" and "healer" then please come play Champions Online, where there is just so much more variety in team mates then that stale class stuff.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
Seems to me Cryptic is going the same way as NcSoft. AKA teams that make "good looking games" and amazing "promises" but it just turns out to be hollow shell of what it could be because of a lacking end game content and a boring leveling system. Cryptic seems to have a trend of pushing games out far before anything is made for people to do. CoX, to me, was a joke because of the quests. It was just "oh noes gear robots stole some poison! kill them all and click a poison thing!".
I will give credit to Cryptic though for their character customization but thats about it. If blizzard, for example, takes that from Cryptic(lets face it blizzard are masters of taking stuff thats innovative or fun and throwing it into wow under a new name) in whatever their new MMO is good luck to Cryptic in the future.
I had forgotten about that concept art. However, it is from a time that is pre-breakup with NCSoft. Which may mean that whatever that project was, it didn't follow Cryptic in the divorce (sort to speak).
However, don't count either NCSoft's Paragon or Cryptic out; those two teams will be powerhouses in the future. I, for one, would count those dev houses as more solid than anything SOE has done lately (with the possible exception of Free Realms, I have no idea how that has gone, other than being the brain drain from SOE's other projects).
These guy's to finally write something nice for them, considering all the other articles that tore then a new one. Now we get a an article saying look how great these guys are. I have to wonder what the deal is.
I cant belive what they said about champions online. I knew several folks who tried it and all of them hated it.
I did the beta for warhammer, lets just say 2 weeks of that pos and I quit.
Im not totaly a cryptic hater, but I am very very very weary of them and their billing department and that stunt to get into the closed beta.
I guess some folks love them, but I am very skeptical of anything they do, and I will just wait until I can see a finished product before giving them any of my cash.,
Wow. Why don't you tell us how you really feel?
Seriously, what on earth did these guys do to you? Ok, I can buy the Roper part, but Emmert? Dunno. And personally I only bought CO so that I could get into STO, (And waited forever to get in to the Beta) so I didn't have a whole lot of expectations there, but I found that I really enjoyed the game, and I don't regret buying the six month sub for an instant. I probably won't keep up the sub once STO is out, but hey, it was fun.
Anyway, I guess it's the vehemence that got me. How can anything that those guys do (or did) affect you that severely? Unless you worked for them? Maybe Roper fired you? Why care that much?
No offense intended, just curiosity.
I'm all for a horror mmo but I'm not sure I really want Cryptic doing anything more than what they have done already.
I've played Champions Online for a few weeks and found it to be fun but also lacking some of the things that would keep me playing - keep me paying - but i'll have another look in 3 or 4 months and see if it is any better. Basically i found the game fell into a 2 button action - button 1 build power and button 2 unleash built power for great damage. The world it self was about what i expected from a cartoon super heroes game... but just because it wasn't a perfect fit for me i feel no need to flame the company or assume anything about their other titles...
I paid $20 to play champions for a month and it was worth it - i mean i pay a lot more than that here in Australia and play the game for 12-18 hours. Call of duty Modern warfare 2 was only 14 or 15 hours of game play - I'll play it again - but i got a lot more value from Champions (which i played for a couple of hours per day for weeks ) and If i'm playing it enough $15 a month is worthwhile.
I'm a star trek fan and so i'm looking forward to seeing what they have done with it. If i pay $20 to $40 to look at it for a month it will be money well spent to see what they have done and if i like it. If i like it $15 a month is cheap compared to the 2 or 3 games at $50 to $100 (Australian) that i could spend buying games to keep myself busy. The point being MMO's are (IMO) always worth a look if you like the theme be it fantasy or sci fi -at a good price playing them for 30 days is cheap compared to the alternatives...
I look for the positives in life and in games but i'm not blind to the negatives - I simply choose not to focus on them. That doesn't mean I'll play a game with too few positives though...
Wow lots of harsh words for Cryptic.
Rightly so in my opinion.
After Champions I am certain I will never give them another dime of my money.
They're just godawful at communicating, period.
It took them, what, 2+ months to confirm their payment model was going to be subscription AND microtransactions after the presence of an item mall leaked.
And when they do communicate it's too often via Bill Roper, who just seems to talk in dizzying circles in the desperate hope no-one realises he hasn't actually said anything. The man seriously belongs in politics, not game development.
I'm a major trekkie, but the mongrel subscription + microtransactions model means STO isn't even a consideration for something I'd ever play.
And even if STO was just subscription based, I wouldn't touch STO at release after CO. I'd wait a few months and guage reviewer and player reactions before handing over any money to try it.
If STO is a huge hit as you say it might be I'd play it but I would never deny the things I have said about Cryptic. They are a terrible company period, and my experience with them hs been sub par.
It's really a moot point as the chances of them releasing a quality product are about 1 in 1000 and that is me being as optimistic as possible.
Why would I deny anything?I stand by what I've said as it;s all true. If I am wrong and STO is a huge hit great! I am a big Star Trek fan, I just don't see it happening. I certainly wouldnt have any trouble admitting I was wring if it turns out that I am. Infact it would be very exciting to play STO and have fun in the Star Trek universe.
I seem to lack the seething hatred for Cryptic that others around here have, but I have to admit that Star Trek Online is probably going to suck. What I've played of it reminds me of Pirates of the Burning Sea, at least as far as the combat is concerned. In your ship, you have to maneuver the thing so you can fire as many of your weapons at once, which is pretty much the same as ship combat in Pirates. Except, of course, that you can go up or down... which adds a whole new level of annoyance to it.
As for Champions, I like it but I was expecting more. The things they told us to build up hype before launch had me thinking they were going to do something really cool with advantages (which made it in, but not quite in the way I was thinking), disadvantages (which didn't make it in), and the free power selection (which was not quite as promised). With the latter, it still feels as if we're stuck in Archetypes, with too many things like the stats limiting our choices.
That probably would have been a pretty cool game.
I love City of Heroes, but I feel that that game vastly improved after Cryptic sold it. I think the new CoH expansion Going Rogue will be a huge test for Paragon Studios, and if it turns out that Going Rogue is as awesome as it is looking now, then they will soon start development on a new non-CoH MMO project.
I love City of Heroes, but I feel that that game vastly improved after Cryptic sold it. I think the new CoH expansion Going Rogue will be a huge test for Paragon Studios, and if it turns out that Going Rogue is as awesome as it is looking now, then they will soon start development on a new non-CoH MMO project.
I so wish that a good well funded dev company would take over STO. Only hope i have for a decent game in a year or so.
Otherwise it will just be a game that you play for a month every 6 months or so to see what if anything has changed. Too bad, that IP so deserves a well funded dev company to do it justice.
I know most people hate Bliz, but the way they make games, taking the time to do them justice, is what Star Trek IP needs, not a cut down, little over 2 year dev cycle and then throw it out there no matter what it looks like.
Just makes you sad to know that the IP will be tied up for years with that company. No hope for a good Trek MMO for another 10 or more years now.
Another subpar MMO by Cryptic.
I Am so glad NcSoft's took over the development of CoX. God knows what Cryptic would have done if NcSoft wasn't there to keep them in line.