I can't recall back to the days of Asheron's Call 2 and SWG if they had exclusives that were truly exclusives. But, I look at what Blizzard does with WoW and I fail to understand why other companies would tell people you're getting something "exclusive" and then just a few short months later say "Oh hey ... EVERYONE can have these now". That is, I fail to understand it if the company doing it is allegedly supposed to have any sense of integrity.
You attend BlizzCon, you get the special mount. That is the only way to get it. But an authenticator, get the corehound pup vanity pet. And I think there are even some from their trading card game although those may have later somehow been offered via other means in-game, not sure on that.
And as long as the items being offered are vanity items, while I do agree with an previous poster that Cryptic went overboard with the number/variety of offers, the people who don't get them, imo, have nothing to complain about. Here's item A, here's the method of obtaining it, if I want it, go through that method. Simple. To be told it's exclusive and then have a few months go by and realize it's just an every day item to be had, well ... it sucks.
And I haven't even played STO since the beta. But I know I'll NEVER buy a Cryptic game product version based on any sort of pre-order or long term subscription plan to simply get something additional.
But glittering prizes and endless compromises Shatter the illusion of integrity
I can't recall back to the days of Asheron's Call 2 and SWG if they had exclusives that were truly exclusives. But, I look at what Blizzard does with WoW and I fail to understand why other companies would tell people you're getting something "exclusive" and then just a few short months later say "Oh hey ... EVERYONE can have these now". That is, I fail to understand it if the company doing it is allegedly supposed to have any sense of integrity.
At least for AAA titles, before Cryptic and STO, exsclusives were indeed exclusives if they were even offered. Blizzard is not the only company that has offered an exclusive item and kept it exclusive. Sadly AoC also had pre-order items that were exclusive, but recently they made it so that you could purchase them. To be fair though, you buy the exclusives as a bundle (i.e. there were several packages available and each one had multiple items); they are not selling each individually like Cryptic seems to be doing. As far as I know no other company is selling exclusive items, with the possible exception of SWG: I am not sure if SOE is now selling the pre-order ship(s?) that were exclusive.
*edit for additional thought:* Thinking on the matter, AoC and STO are both in the same boat; they have both lost much of their players, and I have to wonder if that is the reason for the selling of these 'exclusive' items? My guess is yes; both games are needing an influx of cash badly.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
I can't recall back to the days of Asheron's Call 2 and SWG if they had exclusives that were truly exclusives. But, I look at what Blizzard does with WoW and I fail to understand why other companies would tell people you're getting something "exclusive" and then just a few short months later say "Oh hey ... EVERYONE can have these now". That is, I fail to understand it if the company doing it is allegedly supposed to have any sense of integrity.
At least for AAA titles, before Cryptic and STO, exsclusives were indeed exclusives if they were even offered. Blizzard is not the only company that has offered an exclusive item and kept it exclusive. Sadly AoC also had pre-order items that were exclusive, but recently they made it so that you could purchase them. To be fair though, you buy the exclusives as a bundle (i.e. there were several packages available and each one had multiple items); they are not selling each individually like Cryptic seems to be doing. As far as I know no other company is selling exclusive items, with the possible exception of SWG: I am not sure if SOE is now selling the pre-order ship(s?) that were exclusive.
*edit for additional thought:* Thinking on the matter, AoC and STO are both in the same boat; they have both lost much of their players, and I have to wonder if that is the reason for the selling of these 'exclusive' items? My guess is yes; both games are needing an influx of cash badly.
As I haven’t played AoC in a very, very long time I stoped playing really I got tired of having to search for my corpse and items death penalty losses was far too strict.
As for STO it has a really easy fix “but one that will never happen”, because smedley can’t get his head out of his own rear, return the game back even if they wont go back to pre CU, return the game back to pre NGE and fix the problems that where plaguing the game from it’s on set.
But even then I fear it won’t be enough because well put simply SOE has long since lost the trust of the general public even now they strive to continue to surprise new players with new ways of stabbing them in the back.
So really the best FIX I can honestly say that would revitalize the I.P. or by that matter S.O.E, would be to Fire the direct cause of their problems Smedley, while I have always blamed SOE for what they did to a great I.P., get rid of the virus killing the company get rid of Smedley!
As I haven’t played AoC in a very, very long time I stoped playing really I got tired of having to search for my corpse and items death penalty losses was far too strict.
As for STO it has a really easy fix “but one that will never happen”, because smedley can’t get his head out of his own rear, return the game back even if they wont go back to pre CU, return the game back to pre NGE and fix the problems that where plaguing the game from it’s on set.
But even then I fear it won’t be enough because well put simply SOE has long since lost the trust of the general public even now they strive to continue to surprise new players with new ways of stabbing them in the back.
So really the best FIX I can honestly say that would revitalize the I.P. or by that matter S.O.E, would be to Fire the direct cause of their problems Smedley, while I have always blamed SOE for what they did to a great I.P., get rid of the virus killing the company get rid of Smedley!
I find it interesting how all the big names from the early years of MMOs have been falling on their faces in the last couple of years; Garriot, Jacobs, and whats-his-name from Funcom (Ragnussen? Magnussen?). Now alomg comes Cryptic with Needham from SOE's 'customer service' department, Roper of Hellgate: London infamy, and Emmert who believes that only he has the 'vision' to do games right (and rams that 'vision' down the players throats). They've fallen on their faces twice now; I wonder if they will survive a third time.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
Thanks for all your votes and replies and can clearly see that the majority have opinions close to mine.
It was an interesting poll, even if it did turn out like I suspected it to. I wonder if Cryptic even remotely did some product research along these lines before deciding on the subscription + cash shop+ rush out the door model? My guess would be no, but then again never underestimate people's ability to do stupid things.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
But looking at what's been going on with the game, looking at the fact that they have Microtransactions AND a Subscription based game, and now whoring out the Exclusives to anyone, one thing is clear: The greedy bast*rds at Cryptic are just grabbing every possible amount of coin from anyone still in the game before the ship goes down (or in all likeliness, adrift in the middle of nowhere). Despite players earlier demanding Exclusive item access when they didn't buy any of the non-standard editions, I didn't think Cryptic at first would do it. But now it doesn't surprise me.
The one thing I truly regret about this whole affair was that I bought the game as a Star Trek fan. When this little fiasco finally implodes for good, it is not going to do any help for Star Trek gaming in general. Very few ST games have come out since '03, and all of them that did, have atrocious quality. STO has jumped on the Manure Wagon, but reaching for your pockets as it passes by.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
To arms! To arms! The furries are coming! The furries are coming!
Note: If I see the word above which is highlighted in red used in a negative fashion again, I will issue the appropriate 10 point infraction which comes with a week long ban. Q will be doing the same. These are the Star Trek Online Forums, and we don't tolerate discrimination of any sort here, this is why we have the Protected Classes rule:
Protected Classes
Posts and/or private messages that allude to, contain language, comments, references, links, symbols, terms and/or imagery about and/or promote and/or otherwise support, in any manner whether directly or indirectly, hatred, discrimination and/or denigrations based on or related to any protected class (e.g., race, ethnicity, religion, sect, color, national origin, age, gender, familial status, sexual orientation, disability status, veteran status, genetic information, etc.) may be subject to an infraction.
Comments
I can't recall back to the days of Asheron's Call 2 and SWG if they had exclusives that were truly exclusives. But, I look at what Blizzard does with WoW and I fail to understand why other companies would tell people you're getting something "exclusive" and then just a few short months later say "Oh hey ... EVERYONE can have these now". That is, I fail to understand it if the company doing it is allegedly supposed to have any sense of integrity.
You attend BlizzCon, you get the special mount. That is the only way to get it. But an authenticator, get the corehound pup vanity pet. And I think there are even some from their trading card game although those may have later somehow been offered via other means in-game, not sure on that.
And as long as the items being offered are vanity items, while I do agree with an previous poster that Cryptic went overboard with the number/variety of offers, the people who don't get them, imo, have nothing to complain about. Here's item A, here's the method of obtaining it, if I want it, go through that method. Simple. To be told it's exclusive and then have a few months go by and realize it's just an every day item to be had, well ... it sucks.
And I haven't even played STO since the beta. But I know I'll NEVER buy a Cryptic game product version based on any sort of pre-order or long term subscription plan to simply get something additional.
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity
At least for AAA titles, before Cryptic and STO, exsclusives were indeed exclusives if they were even offered. Blizzard is not the only company that has offered an exclusive item and kept it exclusive. Sadly AoC also had pre-order items that were exclusive, but recently they made it so that you could purchase them. To be fair though, you buy the exclusives as a bundle (i.e. there were several packages available and each one had multiple items); they are not selling each individually like Cryptic seems to be doing. As far as I know no other company is selling exclusive items, with the possible exception of SWG: I am not sure if SOE is now selling the pre-order ship(s?) that were exclusive.
*edit for additional thought:* Thinking on the matter, AoC and STO are both in the same boat; they have both lost much of their players, and I have to wonder if that is the reason for the selling of these 'exclusive' items? My guess is yes; both games are needing an influx of cash badly.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
As I haven’t played AoC in a very, very long time I stoped playing really I got tired of having to search for my corpse and items death penalty losses was far too strict.
As for STO it has a really easy fix “but one that will never happen”, because smedley can’t get his head out of his own rear, return the game back even if they wont go back to pre CU, return the game back to pre NGE and fix the problems that where plaguing the game from it’s on set.
But even then I fear it won’t be enough because well put simply SOE has long since lost the trust of the general public even now they strive to continue to surprise new players with new ways of stabbing them in the back.
So really the best FIX I can honestly say that would revitalize the I.P. or by that matter S.O.E, would be to Fire the direct cause of their problems Smedley, while I have always blamed SOE for what they did to a great I.P., get rid of the virus killing the company get rid of Smedley!
Thanks for all your votes and replies and can clearly see that the majority have opinions close to mine.
I find it interesting how all the big names from the early years of MMOs have been falling on their faces in the last couple of years; Garriot, Jacobs, and whats-his-name from Funcom (Ragnussen? Magnussen?). Now alomg comes Cryptic with Needham from SOE's 'customer service' department, Roper of Hellgate: London infamy, and Emmert who believes that only he has the 'vision' to do games right (and rams that 'vision' down the players throats). They've fallen on their faces twice now; I wonder if they will survive a third time.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
It was an interesting poll, even if it did turn out like I suspected it to. I wonder if Cryptic even remotely did some product research along these lines before deciding on the subscription + cash shop+ rush out the door model? My guess would be no, but then again never underestimate people's ability to do stupid things.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
But looking at what's been going on with the game, looking at the fact that they have Microtransactions AND a Subscription based game, and now whoring out the Exclusives to anyone, one thing is clear: The greedy bast*rds at Cryptic are just grabbing every possible amount of coin from anyone still in the game before the ship goes down (or in all likeliness, adrift in the middle of nowhere). Despite players earlier demanding Exclusive item access when they didn't buy any of the non-standard editions, I didn't think Cryptic at first would do it. But now it doesn't surprise me.
The one thing I truly regret about this whole affair was that I bought the game as a Star Trek fan. When this little fiasco finally implodes for good, it is not going to do any help for Star Trek gaming in general. Very few ST games have come out since '03, and all of them that did, have atrocious quality. STO has jumped on the Manure Wagon, but reaching for your pockets as it passes by.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
The moddy doth protest too much, methinks.
STO is a milking machine. It was obvious from the beginning.
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2025: 48 years on the Net.