I concur .. I would like to see the MMO news sites takes as much interest in this blunder as they did when hyping the game before release.. Bad or Good.. news is news and should be delivered
That's why I am absolutely baffled MMORPG.com didn't picked this up!!
Conflict of interest regarding STO Add money perhaps?
As they were pretty quick with the other stuff like the Item Shop rage of Allods Online.
Have you seen the number of Star Trek online ads MMORPG.com has up on their website? If anyone has Adblock turned on, I urge them to turn it off and go the the MMORPG.com homepage.
I also think it's quite suspicious how MMORPG.com keeps Star trek Online front and centre of the website as much as possible. There is always an article about it on the main news feed with a huge splash image to remind us it exists, it always stays the top story on the Newsdesk featuring a prominent STO logo (by contrast I've submitted two City of Heroes tips in the past week, one with details on what's going to be in Issue 17, neither was ever the top Newsdesk story, both were buried about half way down when they premiered.)
I've been thinking for a while now that MMORPG.com is bought and paid for by Atari to keep STO in the limelight as much as possible.
Edit: Aw, there are no STO ads currently. A few weeks ago when I installed FireFox there were like 6 or 7.
Maybe they see the writing on the wall. Who wants to be involved with a ongoing train wreck of a game.
I concur .. I would like to see the MMO news sites takes as much interest in this blunder as they did when hyping the game before release.. Bad or Good.. news is news and should be delivered
That's why I am absolutely baffled MMORPG.com didn't picked this up!!
Conflict of interest regarding STO Add money perhaps?
As they were pretty quick with the other stuff like the Item Shop rage of Allods Online.
Have you seen the number of Star Trek online ads MMORPG.com has up on their website? If anyone has Adblock turned on, I urge them to turn it off and go the the MMORPG.com homepage.
I also think it's quite suspicious how MMORPG.com keeps Star trek Online front and centre of the website as much as possible. There is always an article about it on the main news feed with a huge splash image to remind us it exists, it always stays the top story on the Newsdesk featuring a prominent STO logo (by contrast I've submitted two City of Heroes tips in the past week, one with details on what's going to be in Issue 17, neither was ever the top Newsdesk story, both were buried about half way down when they premiered.)
I've been thinking for a while now that MMORPG.com is bought and paid for by Atari to keep STO in the limelight as much as possible.
Edit: Aw, there are no STO ads currently. A few weeks ago when I installed FireFox there were like 6 or 7.
mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer.
This whole mess is unfortunate. I've been a huge Star Trek fan pretty much my entire life. I had high hopes and high expectations for this game. Too bad it's turned out this way.
What's it like in LaLa land? mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer. Suck it up or lock the front door, drawer the curtains and unplug the phone.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
I concur .. I would like to see the MMO news sites takes as much interest in this blunder as they did when hyping the game before release.. Bad or Good.. news is news and should be delivered
That's why I am absolutely baffled MMORPG.com didn't picked this up!!
Conflict of interest regarding STO Add money perhaps?
As they were pretty quick with the other stuff like the Item Shop rage of Allods Online.
Have you seen the number of Star Trek online ads MMORPG.com has up on their website? If anyone has Adblock turned on, I urge them to turn it off and go the the MMORPG.com homepage.
I also think it's quite suspicious how MMORPG.com keeps Star trek Online front and centre of the website as much as possible. There is always an article about it on the main news feed with a huge splash image to remind us it exists, it always stays the top story on the Newsdesk featuring a prominent STO logo (by contrast I've submitted two City of Heroes tips in the past week, one with details on what's going to be in Issue 17, neither was ever the top Newsdesk story, both were buried about half way down when they premiered.)
I've been thinking for a while now that MMORPG.com is bought and paid for by Atari to keep STO in the limelight as much as possible.
Edit: Aw, there are no STO ads currently. A few weeks ago when I installed FireFox there were like 6 or 7.
Maybe they see the writing on the wall. Who wants to be involved with a ongoing train wreck of a game.
Maybe Atari cancelled their advertising contract when the MMORPG.com review gave it a 6.4. "6.4?? We paid for an 8.5 review!!"
What's it like in LaLa land? mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer. Suck it up or lock the front door, drawer the curtains and unplug the phone.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
ATARI is renege on their word. They still take in their stance that the offer never existed!
People contacting ATARI are getting ZERO on request.
That Cryptic is trying to do damage control themselves and go behind ATARI's back to try solve the mess for people buying in the offer. That's entirely different.
It doesn't change the fact, that Cryptic is the daughter company of ATARI and ATARI is commiting fraude!
What's it like in LaLa land? mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer. Suck it up or lock the front door, drawer the curtains and unplug the phone.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
If entitlement means wanting a product that is somewhat finished somewhat polished and somewhat fun then yes i guess you could say we feel entitled
Cryptic can file a cease a desist against Google to have the ad removed, which I'm sure they will. It is actually quite a common practice and Google has removed ads and cached material plenty of times in the past at a companies request.
Its not a common practice for a company to file a cese and desist order to one of its advertisers.
What's it like in LaLa land? mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer. Suck it up or lock the front door, drawer the curtains and unplug the phone.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
ATARI is renege on their word. They still take in their stance that the offer never existed!
People contacting ATARI are getting ZERO on request.
That Cryptic is trying to do damage control themselves and go behind ATARI's back to try solve the mess for people buying in the offer. That's entirely different.
It doesn't change the fact, that Cryptic is the daughter company of ATARI and ATARI is commiting fraude!
What's it like in LaLa land? mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer. Suck it up or lock the front door, drawer the curtains and unplug the phone.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
ATARI is renege on their word. They still take in their stance that the offer never existed!
People contacting ATARI are getting ZERO on request.
That Cryptic is trying to do damage control themselves and go behind ATARI's back to try solve the mess for people buying in the offer. That's entirely different.
It doesn't change the fact, that Cryptic is the daughter company of ATARI and ATARI is commiting fraude!
What's it like in LaLa land? mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer. Suck it up or lock the front door, drawer the curtains and unplug the phone.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
No, people don't feel entitled, people want to feel that they are getting value for money they actively spend on this game. If you think that's entitlement, then I hope you never enter the service or retail industries. I can image you as a hotel manager: "People are whining they want clean towels? What childish and abhorrent behaviour!"
Also, a non-answer from a Cryptic employee means very little. He can't even mention exactly what the sale is and what people will get. It's about as transparent as a mud puddle.
What's it like in LaLa land? mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer. Suck it up or lock the front door, drawer the curtains and unplug the phone.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
No, people don't feel entitled, people want to feel that they are getting value for money they actively spend on this game. If you think that's entitlement, then I hope you never enter the service or retail industries. I can image you as a hotel manager: "People are whining they want clean towels? What childish and abhorrent behaviour!"
Also, a non-answer from a Cryptic employee means very little. He can't even mention exactly what the sale is and what people will get. It's about as transparent as a mud puddle.
1. I've worked in the retail service industry for 12 years as a Licencee.
2. The level of emo rage is way out of balance with the problem at hand. We are talking a $50 video game, not someone's life savings fraudulently taken from. Ohh but it's the principal ~ yawn, simple lodge a legitimate complaint to your CC company, your local representative, whoever.
3. "Hi everyone,
We understand that some of you are upset about the current sale on Atari.com. There are a number of threads on the forums about this, which is making it very difficult to find information about anything else on these forums. Due to this, we are closing all other threads regarding this matter. We do value your feedback on this, matter however, and would appreciate it if you would post your feedback regarding this matter here, in this thread. All other threads regarding this will be closed.
Thanks,
Phoxe
Addendum:
I've heard many voicing concerns that we will not be honoring this sale for anyone who took advantage of it this weekend. This is not the case at all, and anyone who decided to take advantage of the offer will receive what they purchased, as advertised."
4. Reading some of the posts here I can only presume that some of you have never experienced a real crisis or suffered a real loss, lucky you.
5. Sentiments that include "I beta'd the game, pre-ordered the game so I expect special treatment" are nice but ultimately futile and stupid.
6. I doubt there is a product on the market that has not been offered at a special price, inevitably someone will have bought it the day before at normal retail.
1. I've worked in the retail service industry for 12 years as a Licencee. 2. The level of emo rage is way out of balance with the problem at hand. We are talking a $50 video game, not someone's life savings fraudulently taken from. Ohh but it's the principal ~ yawn, simple lodge a legitimate complaint to your CC company, your local representative, whoever. 3. "Hi everyone, We understand that some of you are upset about the current sale on Atari.com. There are a number of threads on the forums about this, which is making it very difficult to find information about anything else on these forums. Due to this, we are closing all other threads regarding this matter. We do value your feedback on this, matter however, and would appreciate it if you would post your feedback regarding this matter here, in this thread. All other threads regarding this will be closed. Thanks,
Phoxe Addendum:
I've heard many voicing concerns that we will not be honoring this sale for anyone who took advantage of it this weekend. This is not the case at all, and anyone who decided to take advantage of the offer will receive what they purchased, as advertised." 4. Reading some of the posts here I can only presume that some of you have never experienced a real crisis or suffered a real loss, lucky you. 5. Sentiments that include "I beta'd the game, pre-ordered the game so I expect special treatment" are nice but ultimately futile and stupid. 6. I doubt there is a product on the market that has not been offered at a special price, inevitably someone will have bought it the day before at normal retail. 7. The sky is not falling.
Fraud is a key word here. Atari made an offer and hastily buried it after customers had bought the package. Those who bought it were charged for things that were supposed to be included for free (shipping). Atari denied refunds. They retracted issued 60-day codes. Atari customer service reps hung up on customers and refused to speak about the matter. Atari tried to cover up the fact that the offer had been issued at all. When customers stormed the forums to express concern, they were (silenced) banned from the forums and the threads were deleted. This is blatant bait & switch, it's fraud and anyone who thinks this matter should just go away has no concept of what is right and wrong.
Atari had no recourse, after sitting on the matter for a day and finding out that customers who took the matter to their credit card company (or internet bank) were able to get charge-backs based on cached ads, they had to fess up else they'd leave themselves wide open for lawsuits.
I expect they can still be sued for bait & switch (in a class action lawsuit). Atari willfully blocked refunds, covered up evidence, lied and only agreed to honor the deal when technology failed them. There remains a legal issue of the rights of those who bought the package. These customers should be compensated for the grief that Atari put them through. (IANAL)
What's it like in LaLa land? mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer. Suck it up or lock the front door, drawer the curtains and unplug the phone.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
No, people don't feel entitled, people want to feel that they are getting value for money they actively spend on this game. If you think that's entitlement, then I hope you never enter the service or retail industries. I can image you as a hotel manager: "People are whining they want clean towels? What childish and abhorrent behaviour!"
Also, a non-answer from a Cryptic employee means very little. He can't even mention exactly what the sale is and what people will get. It's about as transparent as a mud puddle.
1. I've worked in the retail service industry for 12 years as a Licencee.
I have worked in the hospitality field for 8 years. There is such a thing as truth in advertising and loyalty to your customers.
2. The level of emo rage is way out of balance with the problem at hand. We are talking a $50 video game, not someone's life savings fraudulently taken from. Ohh but it's the principal ~ yawn, simple lodge a legitimate complaint to your CC company, your local representative, whoever.
Agreed, but sometimes principles are important because they represent an entire philosophy or show you a glimpse of the business model. WE felt replaced, cast aside, ignored when it was we that supported the game in the beginning. And it is not about money...I could care less about and extra $30...it is the message it sent to the existing community that it is ok for us to pay for the unfinished game for the next few months while this new group of people don't have to.
3. "Hi everyone,
We understand that some of you are upset about the current sale on Atari.com. There are a number of threads on the forums about this, which is making it very difficult to find information about anything else on these forums. Due to this, we are closing all other threads regarding this matter. We do value your feedback on this, matter however, and would appreciate it if you would post your feedback regarding this matter here, in this thread. All other threads regarding this will be closed.
Thanks,
Phoxe
Addendum:
I've heard many voicing concerns that we will not be honoring this sale for anyone who took advantage of it this weekend. This is not the case at all, and anyone who decided to take advantage of the offer will receive what they purchased, as advertised."
And yet in the addendum he is still not specifying what was purchased or what will be honored...and all those who have ordered from the sale have still YET TO RECEIVE the free game time code. And when speaking to Atari they still deny the offer existed.
4. Reading some of the posts here I can only presume that some of you have never experienced a real crisis or suffered a real loss, lucky you.
Lack of true tragedy? That is your argument? You must be one of the guys that says ,"guys why are you so mad there are orphans in Africa." That argument is overplayed and is no more relevant now than any other time it is used. I Never said this is some global catastrophe I simply said it was fraudulent and the community at large needs to know about it.
5. Sentiments that include "I beta'd the game, pre-ordered the game so I expect special treatment" are nice but ultimately futile and stupid.
It is not a sense of entitlement for being there. It is a lack of loyalty to those customers by offering this special less than 3 weeks after launch. It said to us that it was ok for US to buy a broken game but anyone after us wouldn't have to pay.
6. I doubt there is a product on the market that has not been offered at a special price, inevitably someone will have bought it the day before at normal retail.
I am not disputing the validity of a discount. A discounted box price is widely accepted...but not so close after launch and certainly not containing the more than standard amount of game time. and I encourage you to find any MMO in history that has offered a similar deal...I looked and found nothing.
Man for such a young game, it sure does suffer from a lot of drama.
This was supposed to be Star Trek. One of the biggest and most beloved stories for generations. Not some random new game about something or other.
Man has evolved beyond violence, has gone beyond racism, can even accept alien races. It had a fantastic appeal.
STO has failed in that regard, making many of us unhappy. And now to see some squirrelly business behaviour, that smacks of corporate greed, is just too much. A ripoff company, with a shallow and shoddy product, is charging full price, and trying to cover up their missteps. And this is with one of the biggest IP's, EVER, in a generation.
Every single Star trek game I seen have sucked badly (not to mention the trading card game). The companies making the crap never lost the right for the IP anyways. Cryptic never been one of the best devs and even CoX was at best average as a MMO.
Star trek is the hardest IP you can make into a MMO (After Zelaznys Amber). So I don't really see the big point here.
Sure, Atari acts stupidly and unethical but so does Activision/Blizzard (firing a guy that earned you a billion last year really sucks), SOE, EA and more than a few others.
The game could have been a lot better if the just made enough content for it, sure but it is time to get over it and move on now.
Atari might loose their D&D license which would be a disaster for their upcoming Forgotten realms MMO but they won't loose the license for this soon.
As an optimist I hope they actually keep the license and make a great FR MMO but I wouldn't protest if a more competent company got it instead. But as I said there is really no need to cry about this unless you were so stupid that you bought a life-time sub before you played the game and then you only have yourself to blame, a bit of research on the companies involved tells you to try the game before buying anything from them no matter how much you love Star trek.
Every single Star trek game I seen have sucked badly (not to mention the trading card game).
Then you must have never played Star Trek: Bridge Commander. It was a great game and should have been Cryptic's model for how to handle a Star Trek game.
Every single Star trek game I seen have sucked badly (not to mention the trading card game).
Then you must have never played Star Trek: Bridge Commander. It was a great game and should have been Cryptic's model for how to handle a Star Trek game.
Bridge Commander and Starfleet Command II, Only good star trek games ever made imo.
What is it about space themed MMORPGs and the inevitable disaster that follows? First there was "Star Wars" now there is "Star Trek". Am I seeing a pattern here?
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
In STO's case:
1.- Atari pushed Cryptic to release one of the biggest IP's way too early.
2.- The same team behind the mastermind and downfall of Hellgate London is working for Cryptic.
3.- Cryptic was already working on a 3rd MMO before STO even launched, that tells you that they are not completely focused on making STO what it must and should be, imho it makes me feel that they just wanted to milk the IP enough to be able to stay afloat to release their next MMO.
Look at Mythic and Blizzard, they only had 1 MMO each (daoc and wow respectively) for the longest time and they were the best (I personally hated wow but gotta give props where they are due). SOE even was doing a good job with EQ but then as it got greedy and started adding more MMO's the quality of all of them went down. Same thing with Cryptic, Champions was an insult of release and still is, not even to the knees of what CoH was, STO was an insult to fans and MMO players alike (yes it's fun for the first 2 weeks and lets you play a ST ship, etc, but it's not even 10% of what it should have been at release).
There is a pattern going on, but it's not reserved to space MMO's, it only seems that way because there are so few of them, but the pattern is that more and more developers are going MMO with greed and without interest for the paying players, from the lack of content (pve, pvp, craft), incredible amount of bugs, and the whole "pay to test for 3 days every 2 weeks", just tells you that they simply do not care.
And the excuses they give are unwarranted as well, STO released with 1.5 factions, on top of that most of the finished faction pve was repetitive and boring, look at DAoC, only game that launched successfully with 3 working factions with fun pve and pvp from day 1, given, the content was implemented to midway as past 29-30 there were no spawns to kill, but all 3 factions had their lands about 80% developed (along with no spawns 29+ the npc's in towns in those zones were not there either unless they were connected to a quest), the entire pvp frontiers for all 3 factions were fully developed, and the rest of the 30+ content was added not even 2-3 weeks after release.
As for beta testing, I was there testing WAR from day 1 of the closed beta, all the way back when there was a choppa to test and mushrooms spoke to you giving you your name and some strange code, that was the last time I saw a proper beta, the beta server was up every day and night, every second, except for scheduled maintenance that was posted on their beta forums, there was open and free communication with the developers, they actually changed the entire PvP system they had in mind from testers suggestions (there were no keeps and sieges planned from the beginning, just open PvP in the lakes). The beta server ran every day for about a year, after the pre orders started getting in, that's when Mythic decided to do focused testing (around when the elves got introduced).
The publishers also have a great hairy hand in most of the MMO's failures, EA pushed Mythic to release unfinished, and then changed the game from what Mythic wanted it to be, Atari pushed Cryptic to the point you all know by now, Funcom shot itself in the foot they weren't even listening to their testers and bugs that we found a year before release, were still in release and of course the game was so unfinished that they had to merge classes and make cuts.
Publishers and Developers must understand that a MMO takes time, takes about 3-4 years of development sometimes even more, and testing for bugs and refinement takes a long time, a year minimum if you want a quality product in the market, and keep in mind that bugs come out during constant game play, during random and/or out of normal moments or actions that can't be found or simulated on a controlled, timed, focused environment, so they better be ready to hold on their product for years and push back release as it is needed.
Why would you even bother to write such a useless and pointless post? It served no purpose other than for you to express your need for attention.
Anyway, Cryptic/Atari pretty much destroyed Star Trek's success as an MMO. By taking one of the biggest and famous Sci-Fi stories to date and making it into a mockery of a game. As well as destroying any relationship they had with their community.
Why would you even bother to write such a useless and pointless post? It served no purpose other than for you to express your need for attention.
Anyway, Cryptic/Atari pretty much destroyed Star Trek's success as an MMO. By taking one of the biggest and famous Sci-Fi stories to date and making it into a mockery of a game. As well as destroying any relationship they had with their community.
Maybe he mistook this for the official forum where is not only welcome but encourged.
Just have to say I think the behavior of Cryptic/Atari here is quite extraordinary. There are other game Dev's that have done some shady things but with STO Cryptic has taken MMO sleeze to a whole new lvl. Simply put, Cryptic's business model is the same as major CreditCard companies, revenue comes primarily from tricky scams pasted over by the minimum of product. The "apology" admitted as much by stating that they were "experimenting" and essentially signaled that they plan on doing this sort of "experimenting" in the future. What's the difference between Cryptic and one of the "F2P" slot machines? I dunno...
Comments
That's why I am absolutely baffled MMORPG.com didn't picked this up!!
Conflict of interest regarding STO Add money perhaps?
As they were pretty quick with the other stuff like the Item Shop rage of Allods Online.
Have you seen the number of Star Trek online ads MMORPG.com has up on their website? If anyone has Adblock turned on, I urge them to turn it off and go the the MMORPG.com homepage.
I also think it's quite suspicious how MMORPG.com keeps Star trek Online front and centre of the website as much as possible. There is always an article about it on the main news feed with a huge splash image to remind us it exists, it always stays the top story on the Newsdesk featuring a prominent STO logo (by contrast I've submitted two City of Heroes tips in the past week, one with details on what's going to be in Issue 17, neither was ever the top Newsdesk story, both were buried about half way down when they premiered.)
I've been thinking for a while now that MMORPG.com is bought and paid for by Atari to keep STO in the limelight as much as possible.
Edit: Aw, there are no STO ads currently. A few weeks ago when I installed FireFox there were like 6 or 7.
Maybe they see the writing on the wall. Who wants to be involved with a ongoing train wreck of a game.
That's why I am absolutely baffled MMORPG.com didn't picked this up!!
Conflict of interest regarding STO Add money perhaps?
As they were pretty quick with the other stuff like the Item Shop rage of Allods Online.
Have you seen the number of Star Trek online ads MMORPG.com has up on their website? If anyone has Adblock turned on, I urge them to turn it off and go the the MMORPG.com homepage.
I also think it's quite suspicious how MMORPG.com keeps Star trek Online front and centre of the website as much as possible. There is always an article about it on the main news feed with a huge splash image to remind us it exists, it always stays the top story on the Newsdesk featuring a prominent STO logo (by contrast I've submitted two City of Heroes tips in the past week, one with details on what's going to be in Issue 17, neither was ever the top Newsdesk story, both were buried about half way down when they premiered.)
I've been thinking for a while now that MMORPG.com is bought and paid for by Atari to keep STO in the limelight as much as possible.
Edit: Aw, there are no STO ads currently. A few weeks ago when I installed FireFox there were like 6 or 7.
mmorpg.com secures revenue by selling advertising space. There is nothing "suspicious" about it. Newspapers do it, TV netwroks do it, magazines do it etc etc.
As to this whole thing, wake up to the real world. It happens day in day out. You buy one offer the following day there is a better offer.
[Mod Edit]
This whole mess is unfortunate. I've been a huge Star Trek fan pretty much my entire life. I had high hopes and high expectations for this game. Too bad it's turned out this way.
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Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
That's why I am absolutely baffled MMORPG.com didn't picked this up!!
Conflict of interest regarding STO Add money perhaps?
As they were pretty quick with the other stuff like the Item Shop rage of Allods Online.
Have you seen the number of Star Trek online ads MMORPG.com has up on their website? If anyone has Adblock turned on, I urge them to turn it off and go the the MMORPG.com homepage.
I also think it's quite suspicious how MMORPG.com keeps Star trek Online front and centre of the website as much as possible. There is always an article about it on the main news feed with a huge splash image to remind us it exists, it always stays the top story on the Newsdesk featuring a prominent STO logo (by contrast I've submitted two City of Heroes tips in the past week, one with details on what's going to be in Issue 17, neither was ever the top Newsdesk story, both were buried about half way down when they premiered.)
I've been thinking for a while now that MMORPG.com is bought and paid for by Atari to keep STO in the limelight as much as possible.
Edit: Aw, there are no STO ads currently. A few weeks ago when I installed FireFox there were like 6 or 7.
Maybe they see the writing on the wall. Who wants to be involved with a ongoing train wreck of a game.
Maybe Atari cancelled their advertising contract when the MMORPG.com review gave it a 6.4. "6.4?? We paid for an 8.5 review!!"
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
ATARI is renege on their word. They still take in their stance that the offer never existed!
People contacting ATARI are getting ZERO on request.
That Cryptic is trying to do damage control themselves and go behind ATARI's back to try solve the mess for people buying in the offer. That's entirely different.
It doesn't change the fact, that Cryptic is the daughter company of ATARI and ATARI is commiting fraude!
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
If entitlement means wanting a product that is somewhat finished somewhat polished and somewhat fun then yes i guess you could say we feel entitled
Its not a common practice for a company to file a cese and desist order to one of its advertisers.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
ATARI is renege on their word. They still take in their stance that the offer never existed!
People contacting ATARI are getting ZERO on request.
That Cryptic is trying to do damage control themselves and go behind ATARI's back to try solve the mess for people buying in the offer. That's entirely different.
It doesn't change the fact, that Cryptic is the daughter company of ATARI and ATARI is commiting fraude!
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=130549
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
ATARI is renege on their word. They still take in their stance that the offer never existed!
People contacting ATARI are getting ZERO on request.
That Cryptic is trying to do damage control themselves and go behind ATARI's back to try solve the mess for people buying in the offer. That's entirely different.
It doesn't change the fact, that Cryptic is the daughter company of ATARI and ATARI is commiting fraude!
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=130549
I Would read that but the ban prevents me from doing so.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
No, people don't feel entitled, people want to feel that they are getting value for money they actively spend on this game. If you think that's entitlement, then I hope you never enter the service or retail industries. I can image you as a hotel manager: "People are whining they want clean towels? What childish and abhorrent behaviour!"
Also, a non-answer from a Cryptic employee means very little. He can't even mention exactly what the sale is and what people will get. It's about as transparent as a mud puddle.
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
No, people don't feel entitled, people want to feel that they are getting value for money they actively spend on this game. If you think that's entitlement, then I hope you never enter the service or retail industries. I can image you as a hotel manager: "People are whining they want clean towels? What childish and abhorrent behaviour!"
Also, a non-answer from a Cryptic employee means very little. He can't even mention exactly what the sale is and what people will get. It's about as transparent as a mud puddle.
1. I've worked in the retail service industry for 12 years as a Licencee.
2. The level of emo rage is way out of balance with the problem at hand. We are talking a $50 video game, not someone's life savings fraudulently taken from. Ohh but it's the principal ~ yawn, simple lodge a legitimate complaint to your CC company, your local representative, whoever.
3. "Hi everyone,
We understand that some of you are upset about the current sale on Atari.com. There are a number of threads on the forums about this, which is making it very difficult to find information about anything else on these forums. Due to this, we are closing all other threads regarding this matter. We do value your feedback on this, matter however, and would appreciate it if you would post your feedback regarding this matter here, in this thread. All other threads regarding this will be closed.
Thanks,
Phoxe
Addendum:
I've heard many voicing concerns that we will not be honoring this sale for anyone who took advantage of it this weekend. This is not the case at all, and anyone who decided to take advantage of the offer will receive what they purchased, as advertised."
4. Reading some of the posts here I can only presume that some of you have never experienced a real crisis or suffered a real loss, lucky you.
5. Sentiments that include "I beta'd the game, pre-ordered the game so I expect special treatment" are nice but ultimately futile and stupid.
6. I doubt there is a product on the market that has not been offered at a special price, inevitably someone will have bought it the day before at normal retail.
7. The sky is not falling.
BORG!!!
Fraud is a key word here. Atari made an offer and hastily buried it after customers had bought the package. Those who bought it were charged for things that were supposed to be included for free (shipping). Atari denied refunds. They retracted issued 60-day codes. Atari customer service reps hung up on customers and refused to speak about the matter. Atari tried to cover up the fact that the offer had been issued at all. When customers stormed the forums to express concern, they were (silenced) banned from the forums and the threads were deleted. This is blatant bait & switch, it's fraud and anyone who thinks this matter should just go away has no concept of what is right and wrong.
Atari had no recourse, after sitting on the matter for a day and finding out that customers who took the matter to their credit card company (or internet bank) were able to get charge-backs based on cached ads, they had to fess up else they'd leave themselves wide open for lawsuits.
I expect they can still be sued for bait & switch (in a class action lawsuit). Atari willfully blocked refunds, covered up evidence, lied and only agreed to honor the deal when technology failed them. There remains a legal issue of the rights of those who bought the package. These customers should be compensated for the grief that Atari put them through. (IANAL)
Another totally clueless person that has no idea what's actually going on.
Please read yourself in this first, before posting.
I've read it ALL thank you very much. The time is to be honoured. The whining is childish and abhorable. Iv'e never seen so many people with such a feeling of entitlement, that is misplaced. last I checked pre-order customers got their token thanks, as did I, in the form of in game items.
IF Atari renege on their word that's a different matter
No, people don't feel entitled, people want to feel that they are getting value for money they actively spend on this game. If you think that's entitlement, then I hope you never enter the service or retail industries. I can image you as a hotel manager: "People are whining they want clean towels? What childish and abhorrent behaviour!"
Also, a non-answer from a Cryptic employee means very little. He can't even mention exactly what the sale is and what people will get. It's about as transparent as a mud puddle.
1. I've worked in the retail service industry for 12 years as a Licencee.
I have worked in the hospitality field for 8 years. There is such a thing as truth in advertising and loyalty to your customers.
2. The level of emo rage is way out of balance with the problem at hand. We are talking a $50 video game, not someone's life savings fraudulently taken from. Ohh but it's the principal ~ yawn, simple lodge a legitimate complaint to your CC company, your local representative, whoever.
Agreed, but sometimes principles are important because they represent an entire philosophy or show you a glimpse of the business model. WE felt replaced, cast aside, ignored when it was we that supported the game in the beginning. And it is not about money...I could care less about and extra $30...it is the message it sent to the existing community that it is ok for us to pay for the unfinished game for the next few months while this new group of people don't have to.
3. "Hi everyone,
We understand that some of you are upset about the current sale on Atari.com. There are a number of threads on the forums about this, which is making it very difficult to find information about anything else on these forums. Due to this, we are closing all other threads regarding this matter. We do value your feedback on this, matter however, and would appreciate it if you would post your feedback regarding this matter here, in this thread. All other threads regarding this will be closed.
Thanks,
Phoxe
Addendum:
I've heard many voicing concerns that we will not be honoring this sale for anyone who took advantage of it this weekend. This is not the case at all, and anyone who decided to take advantage of the offer will receive what they purchased, as advertised."
And yet in the addendum he is still not specifying what was purchased or what will be honored...and all those who have ordered from the sale have still YET TO RECEIVE the free game time code. And when speaking to Atari they still deny the offer existed.
4. Reading some of the posts here I can only presume that some of you have never experienced a real crisis or suffered a real loss, lucky you.
Lack of true tragedy? That is your argument? You must be one of the guys that says ,"guys why are you so mad there are orphans in Africa." That argument is overplayed and is no more relevant now than any other time it is used. I Never said this is some global catastrophe I simply said it was fraudulent and the community at large needs to know about it.
5. Sentiments that include "I beta'd the game, pre-ordered the game so I expect special treatment" are nice but ultimately futile and stupid.
It is not a sense of entitlement for being there. It is a lack of loyalty to those customers by offering this special less than 3 weeks after launch. It said to us that it was ok for US to buy a broken game but anyone after us wouldn't have to pay.
6. I doubt there is a product on the market that has not been offered at a special price, inevitably someone will have bought it the day before at normal retail.
I am not disputing the validity of a discount. A discounted box price is widely accepted...but not so close after launch and certainly not containing the more than standard amount of game time. and I encourage you to find any MMO in history that has offered a similar deal...I looked and found nothing.
7. The sky is not falling.
Agreed
Answers in red.
Respectfully,
-Vox
I am take your power k thanks
False Advertisement = Fraud.
I'd be pissed.
Man for such a young game, it sure does suffer from a lot of drama.
This was supposed to be Star Trek. One of the biggest and most beloved stories for generations. Not some random new game about something or other.
Man has evolved beyond violence, has gone beyond racism, can even accept alien races. It had a fantastic appeal.
STO has failed in that regard, making many of us unhappy. And now to see some squirrelly business behaviour, that smacks of corporate greed, is just too much. A ripoff company, with a shallow and shoddy product, is charging full price, and trying to cover up their missteps. And this is with one of the biggest IP's, EVER, in a generation.
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2024: 47 years on the Net.
Every single Star trek game I seen have sucked badly (not to mention the trading card game). The companies making the crap never lost the right for the IP anyways. Cryptic never been one of the best devs and even CoX was at best average as a MMO.
Star trek is the hardest IP you can make into a MMO (After Zelaznys Amber). So I don't really see the big point here.
Sure, Atari acts stupidly and unethical but so does Activision/Blizzard (firing a guy that earned you a billion last year really sucks), SOE, EA and more than a few others.
The game could have been a lot better if the just made enough content for it, sure but it is time to get over it and move on now.
Atari might loose their D&D license which would be a disaster for their upcoming Forgotten realms MMO but they won't loose the license for this soon.
As an optimist I hope they actually keep the license and make a great FR MMO but I wouldn't protest if a more competent company got it instead. But as I said there is really no need to cry about this unless you were so stupid that you bought a life-time sub before you played the game and then you only have yourself to blame, a bit of research on the companies involved tells you to try the game before buying anything from them no matter how much you love Star trek.
Then you must have never played Star Trek: Bridge Commander. It was a great game and should have been Cryptic's model for how to handle a Star Trek game.
Then you must have never played Star Trek: Bridge Commander. It was a great game and should have been Cryptic's model for how to handle a Star Trek game.
Bridge Commander and Starfleet Command II, Only good star trek games ever made imo.
In STO's case:
1.- Atari pushed Cryptic to release one of the biggest IP's way too early.
2.- The same team behind the mastermind and downfall of Hellgate London is working for Cryptic.
3.- Cryptic was already working on a 3rd MMO before STO even launched, that tells you that they are not completely focused on making STO what it must and should be, imho it makes me feel that they just wanted to milk the IP enough to be able to stay afloat to release their next MMO.
Look at Mythic and Blizzard, they only had 1 MMO each (daoc and wow respectively) for the longest time and they were the best (I personally hated wow but gotta give props where they are due). SOE even was doing a good job with EQ but then as it got greedy and started adding more MMO's the quality of all of them went down. Same thing with Cryptic, Champions was an insult of release and still is, not even to the knees of what CoH was, STO was an insult to fans and MMO players alike (yes it's fun for the first 2 weeks and lets you play a ST ship, etc, but it's not even 10% of what it should have been at release).
There is a pattern going on, but it's not reserved to space MMO's, it only seems that way because there are so few of them, but the pattern is that more and more developers are going MMO with greed and without interest for the paying players, from the lack of content (pve, pvp, craft), incredible amount of bugs, and the whole "pay to test for 3 days every 2 weeks", just tells you that they simply do not care.
And the excuses they give are unwarranted as well, STO released with 1.5 factions, on top of that most of the finished faction pve was repetitive and boring, look at DAoC, only game that launched successfully with 3 working factions with fun pve and pvp from day 1, given, the content was implemented to midway as past 29-30 there were no spawns to kill, but all 3 factions had their lands about 80% developed (along with no spawns 29+ the npc's in towns in those zones were not there either unless they were connected to a quest), the entire pvp frontiers for all 3 factions were fully developed, and the rest of the 30+ content was added not even 2-3 weeks after release.
As for beta testing, I was there testing WAR from day 1 of the closed beta, all the way back when there was a choppa to test and mushrooms spoke to you giving you your name and some strange code, that was the last time I saw a proper beta, the beta server was up every day and night, every second, except for scheduled maintenance that was posted on their beta forums, there was open and free communication with the developers, they actually changed the entire PvP system they had in mind from testers suggestions (there were no keeps and sieges planned from the beginning, just open PvP in the lakes). The beta server ran every day for about a year, after the pre orders started getting in, that's when Mythic decided to do focused testing (around when the elves got introduced).
The publishers also have a great hairy hand in most of the MMO's failures, EA pushed Mythic to release unfinished, and then changed the game from what Mythic wanted it to be, Atari pushed Cryptic to the point you all know by now, Funcom shot itself in the foot they weren't even listening to their testers and bugs that we found a year before release, were still in release and of course the game was so unfinished that they had to merge classes and make cuts.
Publishers and Developers must understand that a MMO takes time, takes about 3-4 years of development sometimes even more, and testing for bugs and refinement takes a long time, a year minimum if you want a quality product in the market, and keep in mind that bugs come out during constant game play, during random and/or out of normal moments or actions that can't be found or simulated on a controlled, timed, focused environment, so they better be ready to hold on their product for years and push back release as it is needed.
Why would you even bother to write such a useless and pointless post? It served no purpose other than for you to express your need for attention.
Anyway, Cryptic/Atari pretty much destroyed Star Trek's success as an MMO. By taking one of the biggest and famous Sci-Fi stories to date and making it into a mockery of a game. As well as destroying any relationship they had with their community.
Why would you even bother to write such a useless and pointless post? It served no purpose other than for you to express your need for attention.
Anyway, Cryptic/Atari pretty much destroyed Star Trek's success as an MMO. By taking one of the biggest and famous Sci-Fi stories to date and making it into a mockery of a game. As well as destroying any relationship they had with their community.
Maybe he mistook this for the official forum where is not only welcome but encourged.
Just have to say I think the behavior of Cryptic/Atari here is quite extraordinary. There are other game Dev's that have done some shady things but with STO Cryptic has taken MMO sleeze to a whole new lvl. Simply put, Cryptic's business model is the same as major CreditCard companies, revenue comes primarily from tricky scams pasted over by the minimum of product. The "apology" admitted as much by stating that they were "experimenting" and essentially signaled that they plan on doing this sort of "experimenting" in the future. What's the difference between Cryptic and one of the "F2P" slot machines? I dunno...