... the implication is buyers would get access at the start of beta. Class Action Suit anybody?
Yes, that's what the 'victims' want to make the world believe. But they know better themselves. Though I guess too many people start to believe their owns false ideas...
This looks like an implied contract to me. They guaranteed access to closed beta. while they did not say when, the implication is buyers would get access at the start of beta. Class Action Suit anybody?
Doubt it. They can just open up the server farm to FFA access for closed beta entrants in the last few days & let everyone crash & burn or wait in queues for long hours. That will satisfy the letter of the law I imagine.
I would expect the courts would look at this scheme with a jaundiced eye. It's would be prima fasia evidence of an attempt to hide the basic fraud.
For people who aren't yet in closed beta, be grateful. Early phases of closed beta in games are rife with bugs and horrid-to-the-point-of-being-almost-unplayable performance. Do you really think STO would be any different? If so, could I interest you in this cute little tribble? He's perfectly harmless. I promise.
FYI Gene Roddenbery and Star Trek stole the "Tribbles" from the Robert A Heinlein novel "The Rolling Stones" part of his 'juvenile' series of books. In "The Rolling Stones" a family named "Stone" bought a used Space Ship and traveled around the Solar System. While on Mars they acquired an animal, described just like a "Tribble". On their way to the Asteroid Belt to sell supplies to miners their 'Tribble" multiplied like Rabbits, soon they were being eatin out of their Space Ship. They sold their Tribbles, which made a soothing sound when held, to the miners and got out of Dodge before they Asteroid belt was overrun by the creatures.
Bit late to the party here, but if you're going to blame someone for stealing the idea of Tribbles, you should point your angry finger at David Gerrold, the person who came up with the premise and sold it to Gene Coon, the producer of Star Trek.
I know it adds nothing to the discussion, but I really hate it when someone angrily throws about misinformation, spitting and fuming. And also, for the record, I've read that book many, many times. Good read, for young and old alike!
For people who aren't yet in closed beta, be grateful. Early phases of closed beta in games are rife with bugs and horrid-to-the-point-of-being-almost-unplayable performance. Do you really think STO would be any different? If so, could I interest you in this cute little tribble? He's perfectly harmless. I promise.
FYI Gene Roddenbery and Star Trek stole the "Tribbles" from the Robert A Heinlein novel "The Rolling Stones" part of his 'juvenile' series of books. In "The Rolling Stones" a family named "Stone" bought a used Space Ship and traveled around the Solar System. While on Mars they acquired an animal, described just like a "Tribble". On their way to the Asteroid Belt to sell supplies to miners their 'Tribble" multiplied like Rabbits, soon they were being eatin out of their Space Ship. They sold their Tribbles, which made a soothing sound when held, to the miners and got out of Dodge before they Asteroid belt was overrun by the creatures.
Bit late to the party here, but if you're going to blame someone for stealing the idea of Tribbles, you should point your angry finger at David Gerrold, the person who came up with the premise and sold it to Gene Coon, the producer of Star Trek.
I know it adds nothing to the discussion, but I really hate it when someone angrily throws about misinformation, spitting and fuming. And also, for the record, I've read that book many, many times. Good read, for young and old alike!
I don't see any anger in my post. Roddenbery was the Producer of Star Trek so he is the person responsible. Me thinks thou art trying to start a flame war, or at least making a mountain out of a molehill. Relax. Since "Tribbles" came up in the discussion I was only adding historical perceptive. Roddenbery took Heinlein's creature and build an great episode out of it. In my youth, I was in love with Podkane of Mars.
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Thanks for that, there must be more difference between legal systems than I thought then, I have to say i'm astounded it was stated that explicitly. As the one and only reading of that (here) is "if there is a beta you have access to it". If you remove the word guranteed and just said "Star Trek Online Close Beta Access" - that's the "we'll let you in when we feel like it, even if it's the last 5 seconds" interpretation.
It's free money for whoever actually bothered to sue them, I guess they are relying on our apathy as much as our fandom.
Although if I had to hazard a guess there's quite a cross over between Lawyer and Star Trek fan, them be some high value poker hands they be playing for sure
Cryptic should be very, very careful. A faux pas like this could easily get them cast as in a negative light like Sony. As a side note, I don't buy any of their arguments regarding the $250 access to the beta. IMO this was deceptive marketing that provided some income to keep the investors interested. I've never played a game developed by Cryptic and am going to hold off on purchasing STO until I see how they treat the players.
Cryptic should be very, very careful. A faux pas like this could easily get them cast as in a negative light like Sony. As a side note, I don't buy any of their arguments regarding the $250 access to the beta. IMO this was deceptive marketing that provided some income to keep the investors interested. I've never played a game developed by Cryptic and am going to hold off on purchasing STO until I see how they treat the players.
I think they are already at that point. This entire publicity stunt might cost them. Then again it might not. The entire were only having a small group of folks testing his at various stages speaks volumes to me of how bad it could possibly be. Thus the need to keep the control group small to prevent leaks of what is really going on with the testing.
So far its all hype, the kind of hype that keeps me away from the game until I start reading really ver good stuff about it, after having seen so many so so star trek games that were all so bad.
Originally posted by AkumaDaimyo Paying 250 dollars for beta access is just sad to me. Much better things to spend your cash on.
I agree with this. This all seems like a lot of whining about absolutely nothing. Players have put betas on some kind of pedestal these days, like it's so important to get in to an MMO 3 months before release. But betas are typically very limited, lagged, buggy, and generally annoying to be involved in, at least until it gets close to release. It's not like people are missing out on some glorious thing, IMO.
I do think that offering beta access to STO as a perk for the CO subscription was a bad idea, but not because of this fiasco it's caused. A beta should be populated by as diverse a group as possible based on the answers given in the applications. You want different age groups, gaming experience, and computer hardware in your beta. If most of the STO testers have to come from the group of CO subscribers, they could have a lot of gamers that are too similar to each other and therefore they won't get the best information out of the beta test. Based on all of the complaints, it seems Cryptic is not just taking from the pool of CO subscribers first, but also taking testers from other sources in order to maintain a diverse group of testers which is the right thing to do.
It sucks if you spent $250 to get into a beta test, but that's your fault because no offense but that's a pretty dumb thing to spend money on. The fact is you paid for a CO subscription, and the STO beta is a freebie. They can put you into the beta 1 day before it goes to open beta, and they will be 100% making good on their end of the bargain, so give it a rest and go play with your super hero.
Another slandering article on mmorpg.com . The title is way off base to the content of the story. O noes , Cryptic has made mistakes, the game is ruined. blah blah, seriously fail at writing about mmorpg's. from what I gathered about mmorpg.com, they are here to give insightful information about up coming games, not stir the troll pot for a let bash cryptic today, day. Just quit writing, save the database space for people who actually can write. I'm so fed up with people who think they have a right to something that isn't even in closed beta, the right to drive companies names in the dirt for a quick thrill of posting articles that do nothing positive for a community, the right to act like a high and might authority of mmorpg genre, and yet these people crawl right back in Wow and pretend they are the end all be all of mmo gaming. Fuck off, really. Sick of these weak ass articles, would rather have mmorpg podcast back, then this crap.
Wow, someone feels a lot of baseless rage and anger.
Paying 250 dollars for beta access is just sad to me. Much better things to spend your cash on.
I agree with this. This all seems like a lot of whining about absolutely nothing. Players have put betas on some kind of pedestal these days, like it's so important to get in to an MMO 3 months before release. But betas are typically very limited, lagged, buggy, and generally annoying to be involved in, at least until it gets close to release. It's not like people are missing out on some glorious thing, IMO.
I do think that offering beta access to STO as a perk for the CO subscription was a bad idea, but not because of this fiasco it's caused. A beta should be populated by as diverse a group as possible based on the answers given in the applications. You want different age groups, gaming experience, and computer hardware in your beta. If most of the STO testers have to come from the group of CO subscribers, they could have a lot of gamers that are too similar to each other and therefore they won't get the best information out of the beta test. Based on all of the complaints, it seems Cryptic is not just taking from the pool of CO subscribers first, but also taking testers from other sources in order to maintain a diverse group of testers which is the right thing to do.
It sucks if you spent $250 to get into a beta test, but that's your fault because no offense but that's a pretty dumb thing to spend money on. The fact is you paid for a CO subscription, and the STO beta is a freebie. They can put you into the beta 1 day before it goes to open beta, and they will be 100% making good on their end of the bargain, so give it a rest and go play with your super hero.
It's also just that 250 bucks is a lot of money in the first place. I would never get lifetime to any mmo because no way am I going to be playing any MMO for the rest of my days. Wont happen. There is always something new and better coming out eventually. In this economy I can't afford such a cost anyway. It is indeed silly to be able to buy your way into a beta. How the hell do they know your a good tester then? Some teen with mom and dads money could buy his way in and never report any bugs and just exploit all day long. See who actually has experience and contributes meaningfully on the forumns. Don't do it based on cash. Way to show how much you don't care. Kinda the first step towards showing all you care about is money.
This article is really suspicious. I'm reminded of the Shakespeare line: "Methinks he dost protest too loudly!" My cynical siren is sounding, telling me the author bought a lifetime sub to CO and is angry at not being in the Closed Beta yet. Of all the controversy, THIS beta access is the one focused on? No mention of the other legitimate controversies?
The correct line is "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." It is spoken by Queen Gertrude in Act III, Scene II of Hamlet. The famous "play within a play."
Thank you. That's what I get for relying on Google, and not going directly to the source.
_____________________________ Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Buying ones way into a beta overall would more than likely produce much better testers than any other method. Only people who are really interested in the game and willing to put it through its paces and scream about all the broken things and help the devs fix them would be willing to actually pay to enter a closed beta.
On the flip side how stupid of a game company to piss off a base of players who have allready demonstrated a willingness to shell out big bucks on an unproven game. These are the people they should be pursuing in hopes of getting them to buy long subs to STO. To ignore them while giving out large numbers of otherwise random invites to people half of which probably dont really care about the game but just want to see if its worth playing as a sort of free trial is again just plain stupid.
I personally have been around long enough to know that beta offer wasnt going to honoured the way people thought it would be when champions came out and had no interest in it in any case, however, for all those who were excited about STO and are now getting hosed from their point of view...its just a bad way to build a business.
Cryptic has been one of the worse MMO companies I can remember from the beginning of MMO's (UO and EQ). Cryptic had a decent IP like Champions and rushed it into release. The beta testers were telling them it wasn't ready and they didn't listen. Then, on top of everything they rushed a fool hearty patch on release day that completely changed the way the game was. Without so much as testing it they just released it. Then, they had the fiasco with the sucking people into purchasing lifetime and 6 month subs for CO. People were guaranteed access to the Closed beta. I knew from what Cryptic did with the Champions beta that these people would not be in the closed beta very long before the open beta began. They are just repeating what they did PR wise with Champions. Now, the madness ensued with the beta invites and how Cryptic was allowing people into closed beta now that didn't buy lifetime subs. Cryptic has no real clue how to do PR.
I have childed Cryptic Daeke myself on twitter because the guy is using a Cryptic twitter account talking about playing every other game in the world, but his own. Half the time when he does release info it is wrong. I honestly have no idea how they put this guy in charge of PR for Cryptic.
Cryptic has egg on their face now 3x. The Champions release, The Halloween patch/free weekend when no one could log into the game for almost the entire weekend and servers were down, and now the last free weekend over the Thanksgiving holiday. People I know tried to download the game and patch and play, but were again not able too, because of the way Cryptic runs their company. Not enough bandwith, poor infrastructure, and terrible communication with their fans.
I have been waiting for Star Trek since the days of Perpetual. We have waited a long time for this game. When Cryptic got the license I was intrigued and wished for the best, but after seeing how they ran/run Champions I am all but worried this game will get half assed and we will all be disappointed. One of my main concerns is that fact the game is nothing but Combat from the gameplay trailers,etc. Combat is only one facet of Star Trek and it seems Cryptic is making the game their main focus which is a shame since Star Trek is not just about combat.
I'm waiting patiently to see how the game turns out. I don't have a lot of hope for it, but I hope I am wrong.
But, on the other hand I can fully understand why these people are pissed off. Cryptic has actually held contest to give away beta keys? Really? As far as I'm concerned that's a huge slap in the face to those who already won a "contest" by buying subscriptions to Champions Online. First of all, betas are supposed to be for testing the game, I doubt the common sense of any company that uses their game's beta as a big PR move. Second, if they are able to give away beta keys as contest prizes, then they ought to have given those beta keys to people who shelled out cash for them.
More than 50% according to cryptic people they will not give the exact number beyond that.
Something that has been mentioned before is the reasonable person test. How would a reasonable person judge the offer of Closed beta access. Well to make that judgment the first thing a reasonable person would need to do is know what the closed beta process is.
In general the closed beta process is an external testing process where in a limited number of total users are invited in groups over time slowly building server population and testing for bugs balance and sever capacity using the widest possible player base the company can get.
Thus a judge using the reasonable person test knowing what a closed beta involves would likely either laugh you out of the court room or depending on the humor of said judge have a not so pleasant response.
In short you paid for a process with a limited number of users allowed in at a time and said invites sent out over time not all at once which is exactly what you are getting.
But then again you did not. What was bought was a champions online 6 month or life time sub. Lets see people have those check. Included in the offer was where some champions online in game bonus items people have those so another check. Also included in the life time sub where special costumes for STO after launch the game has not launched yet so waiting on a check. And of course the big subject of the day a promise that one of those ultimately limited closed beta slots would be yours for many that is already a check or others its still a check in waiting but you know the closed beta is still going on the only date attached to the offer was sometime this year and last I checked this year is not over yet.
If they made any mistakes it was in marketing to a group of gamers and assuming they might actually know a thing or 2 about games ops. The lesson here is obvious always use the 2 yearold test. Which is anything you offer or explain should always be worded in a manner even a 2 yearold can understand that way you generally avoid any break downs in communication.
Here's the thing I find funny: how many people does this impact on? Could all the players with lifetime subs to ChampO or a six-month account please raise their hands?
Because if you didn't buy one of those, it isn't an issue that impacts on you. If you did buy one of those accounts, closed beta is still going so there is still the opportunity for you to get in and meet the contractual agreement.
If Cryptic finishes closed beta without letting in the people who have a legitimate claim to access, then sure, the forums can blow up. Otherwise it really is a storm in a teacup (and a poorly written article - I was looking for at least more than one controversy for something to be 'rife'... even the short testing period is probably more controversial than a limited number of players not getting into closed beta).
Is Ms Skelton one of those holding a ChampO life / 6-month pass, waiting for her closed beta invite?
If you bought the Lifetime package for Champions Online because you wanted to get into STO beta, you deserve to get taken for a ride. Buy a game because you want to play THAT game not in the chance to pre play another game.
I swear these are the same people who prolly get scammed by every fly by the night pyramid scheme.
I am one of those who got influenced by the beta offer when I bought the 6 month sub for CO.
Fortunately for me, CO was such a bad experience that I don't really worry about not getting into the STO beta now.
Cryptic is lead by people who have almost no understanding of what makes a game tick, it became very clear after they left CoX and had NCsoft hire a new dev team to take over that game, they turned it around and made it a lot better than it were while Cryptic handled it.
So I have no expectations that STO will be worth anything.
"You are the hero our legends have foretold will save our tribe, therefore please go kill 10 pigs."
Comments
Yes, that's what the 'victims' want to make the world believe. But they know better themselves. Though I guess too many people start to believe their owns false ideas...
It truly amazes me the amount of Hucksterism and yellow journalism that takes place in the gaming media.
I fully expect next weeks article to read:
Do people hate Cryptic more than Hitler or Satan?
Or
STO: Cryptics failure before launch.
Doubt it. They can just open up the server farm to FFA access for closed beta entrants in the last few days & let everyone crash & burn or wait in queues for long hours. That will satisfy the letter of the law I imagine.
I would expect the courts would look at this scheme with a jaundiced eye. It's would be prima fasia evidence of an attempt to hide the basic fraud.
FYI Gene Roddenbery and Star Trek stole the "Tribbles" from the Robert A Heinlein novel "The Rolling Stones" part of his 'juvenile' series of books. In "The Rolling Stones" a family named "Stone" bought a used Space Ship and traveled around the Solar System. While on Mars they acquired an animal, described just like a "Tribble". On their way to the Asteroid Belt to sell supplies to miners their 'Tribble" multiplied like Rabbits, soon they were being eatin out of their Space Ship. They sold their Tribbles, which made a soothing sound when held, to the miners and got out of Dodge before they Asteroid belt was overrun by the creatures.
Bit late to the party here, but if you're going to blame someone for stealing the idea of Tribbles, you should point your angry finger at David Gerrold, the person who came up with the premise and sold it to Gene Coon, the producer of Star Trek.
I know it adds nothing to the discussion, but I really hate it when someone angrily throws about misinformation, spitting and fuming. And also, for the record, I've read that book many, many times. Good read, for young and old alike!
FYI Gene Roddenbery and Star Trek stole the "Tribbles" from the Robert A Heinlein novel "The Rolling Stones" part of his 'juvenile' series of books. In "The Rolling Stones" a family named "Stone" bought a used Space Ship and traveled around the Solar System. While on Mars they acquired an animal, described just like a "Tribble". On their way to the Asteroid Belt to sell supplies to miners their 'Tribble" multiplied like Rabbits, soon they were being eatin out of their Space Ship. They sold their Tribbles, which made a soothing sound when held, to the miners and got out of Dodge before they Asteroid belt was overrun by the creatures.
Bit late to the party here, but if you're going to blame someone for stealing the idea of Tribbles, you should point your angry finger at David Gerrold, the person who came up with the premise and sold it to Gene Coon, the producer of Star Trek.
I know it adds nothing to the discussion, but I really hate it when someone angrily throws about misinformation, spitting and fuming. And also, for the record, I've read that book many, many times. Good read, for young and old alike!
I don't see any anger in my post. Roddenbery was the Producer of Star Trek so he is the person responsible. Me thinks thou art trying to start a flame war, or at least making a mountain out of a molehill. Relax. Since "Tribbles" came up in the discussion I was only adding historical perceptive. Roddenbery took Heinlein's creature and build an great episode out of it. In my youth, I was in love with Podkane of Mars.
Thanks for that, there must be more difference between legal systems than I thought then, I have to say i'm astounded it was stated that explicitly. As the one and only reading of that (here) is "if there is a beta you have access to it". If you remove the word guranteed and just said "Star Trek Online Close Beta Access" - that's the "we'll let you in when we feel like it, even if it's the last 5 seconds" interpretation.
It's free money for whoever actually bothered to sue them, I guess they are relying on our apathy as much as our fandom.
Although if I had to hazard a guess there's quite a cross over between Lawyer and Star Trek fan, them be some high value poker hands they be playing for sure
Cryptic should be very, very careful. A faux pas like this could easily get them cast as in a negative light like Sony. As a side note, I don't buy any of their arguments regarding the $250 access to the beta. IMO this was deceptive marketing that provided some income to keep the investors interested. I've never played a game developed by Cryptic and am going to hold off on purchasing STO until I see how they treat the players.
I think they are already at that point. This entire publicity stunt might cost them. Then again it might not. The entire were only having a small group of folks testing his at various stages speaks volumes to me of how bad it could possibly be. Thus the need to keep the control group small to prevent leaks of what is really going on with the testing.
So far its all hype, the kind of hype that keeps me away from the game until I start reading really ver good stuff about it, after having seen so many so so star trek games that were all so bad.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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Paying 250 dollars for beta access is just sad to me. Much better things to spend your cash on.
I agree with this. This all seems like a lot of whining about absolutely nothing. Players have put betas on some kind of pedestal these days, like it's so important to get in to an MMO 3 months before release. But betas are typically very limited, lagged, buggy, and generally annoying to be involved in, at least until it gets close to release. It's not like people are missing out on some glorious thing, IMO.
I do think that offering beta access to STO as a perk for the CO subscription was a bad idea, but not because of this fiasco it's caused. A beta should be populated by as diverse a group as possible based on the answers given in the applications. You want different age groups, gaming experience, and computer hardware in your beta. If most of the STO testers have to come from the group of CO subscribers, they could have a lot of gamers that are too similar to each other and therefore they won't get the best information out of the beta test. Based on all of the complaints, it seems Cryptic is not just taking from the pool of CO subscribers first, but also taking testers from other sources in order to maintain a diverse group of testers which is the right thing to do.
It sucks if you spent $250 to get into a beta test, but that's your fault because no offense but that's a pretty dumb thing to spend money on. The fact is you paid for a CO subscription, and the STO beta is a freebie. They can put you into the beta 1 day before it goes to open beta, and they will be 100% making good on their end of the bargain, so give it a rest and go play with your super hero.
Wow, someone feels a lot of baseless rage and anger.
I agree with this. This all seems like a lot of whining about absolutely nothing. Players have put betas on some kind of pedestal these days, like it's so important to get in to an MMO 3 months before release. But betas are typically very limited, lagged, buggy, and generally annoying to be involved in, at least until it gets close to release. It's not like people are missing out on some glorious thing, IMO.
I do think that offering beta access to STO as a perk for the CO subscription was a bad idea, but not because of this fiasco it's caused. A beta should be populated by as diverse a group as possible based on the answers given in the applications. You want different age groups, gaming experience, and computer hardware in your beta. If most of the STO testers have to come from the group of CO subscribers, they could have a lot of gamers that are too similar to each other and therefore they won't get the best information out of the beta test. Based on all of the complaints, it seems Cryptic is not just taking from the pool of CO subscribers first, but also taking testers from other sources in order to maintain a diverse group of testers which is the right thing to do.
It sucks if you spent $250 to get into a beta test, but that's your fault because no offense but that's a pretty dumb thing to spend money on. The fact is you paid for a CO subscription, and the STO beta is a freebie. They can put you into the beta 1 day before it goes to open beta, and they will be 100% making good on their end of the bargain, so give it a rest and go play with your super hero.
It's also just that 250 bucks is a lot of money in the first place. I would never get lifetime to any mmo because no way am I going to be playing any MMO for the rest of my days. Wont happen. There is always something new and better coming out eventually. In this economy I can't afford such a cost anyway. It is indeed silly to be able to buy your way into a beta. How the hell do they know your a good tester then? Some teen with mom and dads money could buy his way in and never report any bugs and just exploit all day long. See who actually has experience and contributes meaningfully on the forumns. Don't do it based on cash. Way to show how much you don't care. Kinda the first step towards showing all you care about is money.
The correct line is "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." It is spoken by Queen Gertrude in Act III, Scene II of Hamlet. The famous "play within a play."
Thank you. That's what I get for relying on Google, and not going directly to the source.
_____________________________
Currently Playing: LOTRO; DDO
Played: AC2, AO, Auto Assault, CoX, DAoC, DDO, Earth&Beyond, EQ1, EQ2, EVE, Fallen Earth, Jumpgate, Roma Victor, Second Life, SWG, V:SoH, WoW, World War II Online.
Games I'm watching: Infinity: The Quest for Earth, Force of Arms.
Find the Truth: http://www.factcheck.org/
Buying ones way into a beta overall would more than likely produce much better testers than any other method. Only people who are really interested in the game and willing to put it through its paces and scream about all the broken things and help the devs fix them would be willing to actually pay to enter a closed beta.
On the flip side how stupid of a game company to piss off a base of players who have allready demonstrated a willingness to shell out big bucks on an unproven game. These are the people they should be pursuing in hopes of getting them to buy long subs to STO. To ignore them while giving out large numbers of otherwise random invites to people half of which probably dont really care about the game but just want to see if its worth playing as a sort of free trial is again just plain stupid.
I personally have been around long enough to know that beta offer wasnt going to honoured the way people thought it would be when champions came out and had no interest in it in any case, however, for all those who were excited about STO and are now getting hosed from their point of view...its just a bad way to build a business.
Cryptic has been one of the worse MMO companies I can remember from the beginning of MMO's (UO and EQ). Cryptic had a decent IP like Champions and rushed it into release. The beta testers were telling them it wasn't ready and they didn't listen. Then, on top of everything they rushed a fool hearty patch on release day that completely changed the way the game was. Without so much as testing it they just released it. Then, they had the fiasco with the sucking people into purchasing lifetime and 6 month subs for CO. People were guaranteed access to the Closed beta. I knew from what Cryptic did with the Champions beta that these people would not be in the closed beta very long before the open beta began. They are just repeating what they did PR wise with Champions. Now, the madness ensued with the beta invites and how Cryptic was allowing people into closed beta now that didn't buy lifetime subs. Cryptic has no real clue how to do PR.
I have childed Cryptic Daeke myself on twitter because the guy is using a Cryptic twitter account talking about playing every other game in the world, but his own. Half the time when he does release info it is wrong. I honestly have no idea how they put this guy in charge of PR for Cryptic.
Cryptic has egg on their face now 3x. The Champions release, The Halloween patch/free weekend when no one could log into the game for almost the entire weekend and servers were down, and now the last free weekend over the Thanksgiving holiday. People I know tried to download the game and patch and play, but were again not able too, because of the way Cryptic runs their company. Not enough bandwith, poor infrastructure, and terrible communication with their fans.
I have been waiting for Star Trek since the days of Perpetual. We have waited a long time for this game. When Cryptic got the license I was intrigued and wished for the best, but after seeing how they ran/run Champions I am all but worried this game will get half assed and we will all be disappointed. One of my main concerns is that fact the game is nothing but Combat from the gameplay trailers,etc. Combat is only one facet of Star Trek and it seems Cryptic is making the game their main focus which is a shame since Star Trek is not just about combat.
I'm waiting patiently to see how the game turns out. I don't have a lot of hope for it, but I hope I am wrong.
Why don't we wait until the game launches before crucifying it.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
.jpg)
Sad when Cryptic's fanboys come here defending that company when the obvious is so easy to see.
More than 50% according to cryptic people they will not give the exact number beyond that.
Something that has been mentioned before is the reasonable person test. How would a reasonable person judge the offer of Closed beta access. Well to make that judgment the first thing a reasonable person would need to do is know what the closed beta process is.
In general the closed beta process is an external testing process where in a limited number of total users are invited in groups over time slowly building server population and testing for bugs balance and sever capacity using the widest possible player base the company can get.
Thus a judge using the reasonable person test knowing what a closed beta involves would likely either laugh you out of the court room or depending on the humor of said judge have a not so pleasant response.
In short you paid for a process with a limited number of users allowed in at a time and said invites sent out over time not all at once which is exactly what you are getting.
But then again you did not. What was bought was a champions online 6 month or life time sub. Lets see people have those check. Included in the offer was where some champions online in game bonus items people have those so another check. Also included in the life time sub where special costumes for STO after launch the game has not launched yet so waiting on a check. And of course the big subject of the day a promise that one of those ultimately limited closed beta slots would be yours for many that is already a check or others its still a check in waiting but you know the closed beta is still going on the only date attached to the offer was sometime this year and last I checked this year is not over yet.
If they made any mistakes it was in marketing to a group of gamers and assuming they might actually know a thing or 2 about games ops. The lesson here is obvious always use the 2 yearold test. Which is anything you offer or explain should always be worded in a manner even a 2 yearold can understand that way you generally avoid any break downs in communication.
All you ppl crying foul is so pathetic and anyone trying to predict the success or failure of a game before launch is a fool.
Here's the thing I find funny: how many people does this impact on? Could all the players with lifetime subs to ChampO or a six-month account please raise their hands?
Because if you didn't buy one of those, it isn't an issue that impacts on you. If you did buy one of those accounts, closed beta is still going so there is still the opportunity for you to get in and meet the contractual agreement.
If Cryptic finishes closed beta without letting in the people who have a legitimate claim to access, then sure, the forums can blow up. Otherwise it really is a storm in a teacup (and a poorly written article - I was looking for at least more than one controversy for something to be 'rife'... even the short testing period is probably more controversial than a limited number of players not getting into closed beta).
Is Ms Skelton one of those holding a ChampO life / 6-month pass, waiting for her closed beta invite?
Didn't read the whole article...
Reading about Cryptic's mess up once is fine, reading about it twice on the same site is just wasting my time and everyone else's.
Is it me or have the columns become somewhat boring and repetative recently?
If you bought the Lifetime package for Champions Online because you wanted to get into STO beta, you deserve to get taken for a ride. Buy a game because you want to play THAT game not in the chance to pre play another game.
I swear these are the same people who prolly get scammed by every fly by the night pyramid scheme.
I am one of those who got influenced by the beta offer when I bought the 6 month sub for CO.
Fortunately for me, CO was such a bad experience that I don't really worry about not getting into the STO beta now.
Cryptic is lead by people who have almost no understanding of what makes a game tick, it became very clear after they left CoX and had NCsoft hire a new dev team to take over that game, they turned it around and made it a lot better than it were while Cryptic handled it.
So I have no expectations that STO will be worth anything.
"You are the hero our legends have foretold will save our tribe, therefore please go kill 10 pigs."