Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign's of Financial Distress or C-Store Bug?

13

Comments

  • GreatGatsbyGreatGatsby Member UncommonPosts: 19

    I am a Star Trek fan and yet i have done nothing to warrant anything you say... ?

    This is my first time posting on a forum and i wander howmany first time players there are who feel so disipointed at the way Cryptic handles there clients. I have to say i was not upset about the content as i am a casual gamer but then again i only hit RA so i was still about to hit the wall?

    Howerver this being my first MMO i was expecting a unending universe which i could explore and immers myself in after all i paid for the box ..plus $15 per month?. I followed the game from the time it was announced and alot of what they said it would do was not included. I overlooked this because it was a Star Trek game and the only MMO based in space that i knew of at the time... i now see there is a EvE-Online as well!

    But then have stuff promissed and then deleted on the engerneering reports ...then say ..Oh it was not there ... is F&%#d up!... Then to not give me the Items which was prommised on the Box after 3 months of Tick's ... Then to take C-Store Points from me as well and not respond to the Ticket ... and Cancel the Telephone Support .... just SUX!

    I dont know how one can excuse this type of issues..?

  • Maverz290Maverz290 Member Posts: 447

    Originally posted by GreatGatsby

    I am a Star Trek fan and yet i have done nothing to warrant anything you say... ?

    This is my first time posting on a forum and i wander howmany first time players there are who feel so disipointed at the way Cryptic handles there clients. I have to say i was not upset about the content as i am a casual gamer but then again i only hit RA so i was still about to hit the wall?

    Howerver this being my first MMO i was expecting a unending universe which i could explore and immers myself in after all i paid for the box ..plus $15 per month?. I followed the game from the time it was announced and alot of what they said it would do was not included. I overlooked this because it was a Star Trek game and the only MMO based in space that i knew of at the time... i now see there is a EvE-Online as well!

    But then have stuff promissed and then deleted on the engerneering reports ...then say ..Oh it was not there ... is F&%#d up!... Then to not give me the Items which was prommised on the Box after 3 months of Tick's ... Then to take C-Store Points from me as well and not respond to the Ticket ... and Cancel the Telephone Support .... just SUX!

    I dont know how one can excuse this type of issues..?

     They can't, and no you have not done anything. I'm sorry this was your first experience.

    However what I have said is true, Star trek fans, (Yes I am one but I'm a realist which helps when expecting what a game can and cannot do.) are the problem.

    The fact that what makes star trek, star trek, is so different to so many people will always be the killer when making the game. As many ST fans as there are, not all are gamers at all. I wouldn't even say the majority are. So your asking a company (again not you, just hypathetically speaking) to spend unbelievable amounts of resources to make a game, that will not produce the profit they'd want for how much they put in.

    The fact that even then, you can't make every fan happy, because making one group of fans happy will by default, annoy the hell out of others.

    It's a screwed up situation. Nothing we can do about it. I'm just sitting back and expecting an entertaining ride form Swtor. As for a space MMO, I can only recommend EvE (WHEN it gets its damn walkabout addon. The thing that'll add abit more depth to everything that they've promised for so long.) And in the meantime, star wars galaxies offers a solid space ground system. Relatively nice community too, I'd advise going to Starsider if you decide to make that trip.

    Longing for Skyrim, The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3

  • NesrieNesrie Member Posts: 648

    Originally posted by mackdawg19

    No offense Xor, but the BBB is by far the most useless business out there. You don't have to beleive me, but beleive this. When someone reports you to the BBB, all you get is a letter in the mail notifying you, that is it. And anyone can make a complaint too. I've had complaint letters sent to me about how bad our food tasted or that we dont have a public restroom when the business i run is a loan company. Guess they meant the snack machine in the office .... :( Anyways, its sad to see they dropped CS phone support. I can already see the bad that will come out of that.

     A handful of years ago, a relative of mine turned in a rebate to dell, after sending it certified letter, and was told they never received it and she wasn't entitled to a thing. I submitted a complaint on behalf of this relative to the BBB saying it was silly that Dell was denying the rebate as they have a record of the purchase and she has a receipt for it being sent. The next day they called me saying they would honor the rebate but it would have to be sent to the original purchaser. I said of course, I was doing this on behalf of this person so I wanted them to get their rebate. I don't think a couple hundred dollars is worthless and therefore don't find the BBB to be useless. I also used them to get a refund rather than chargeback on a terrible online business as well.

    parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.

  • saxifrsaxifr Member UncommonPosts: 381

    Originally posted by GreatGatsby

    But then have stuff promissed and then deleted on the engerneering reports ...then say ..Oh it was not there ... is F&%#d up!... Then to not give me the Items which was prommised on the Box after 3 months of Tick's ... Then to take C-Store Points from me as well and not respond to the Ticket ... and Cancel the Telephone Support .... just SUX!

    I dont know how one can excuse this type of issues..?

    Regarding Cryptic's pension for scrubbing their posts and websites after they make a promise they decide not to keep later on...

     

    If there's one single thing that all Star Trek fans can agree on, it's that retconning is lame...it was lame in First Contact, and so on and so forth

    RELAX!@!! BREATHE!!!

  • PlageronPlageron Member Posts: 109

    well thats interesting....

     

    did you notice the poster you show...keeps saying 500....and the actual thing is for 400....LMAO

    Interesting...one mistake is fine but doing it repeatedly is called not telling the truth.

    Also i too got my game from gamestop....i had information on a card an access code to be exact......if he had talked to support they would have asked for the code if it wasnt on his account......the actual account keeps track of all codes you use...so they would have seen the error and he would have too

     

    And lastly the most interesting thing abou that post....if you go and look at the guys captain log....you see he didnt actualy do one respec at all....if he had bought the respecs he would still have them...and he could still refund them for the c-store points....

     

    I know this becasue i bought a race twice by accident...and they refunded my points

     

    oh well...interesting...simply amazing what games people will play....

  • bstiffbstiff Member Posts: 359

    Is the captain's log thing even working now? If I pull my chars log, all I get is "no entries found" in the logeven though there wer some there a couple days ago.

  • PermianPermian Member CommonPosts: 78

    Originally posted by bstiff

    Is the captain's log thing even working now? If I pull my chars log, all I get is "no entries found" in the logeven though there wer some there a couple days ago.

    It's showing no log entries in captains log for any of my three characters. Same story going to the last page of the captains table and picking a character at random - it has no captains log entries either. Looks like it's disabled.

    I'm guessing someone was fetching all the logs to scan dates of the last entry.

  • green13green13 Member UncommonPosts: 1,341

    Originally posted by Maverz290

    Originally posted by choujiofkono

         I wish this game would die soon so bioware can make a real ST mmo.

     ST MMO fans are their own worst enemy. Due to the way they've presented their disapointment over this, no one will ever make them an MMO. At least not until a new 'successful' series is released.

     Who wants to make an MMO for a group of fans that can never be pleased because what they think makes a good ST mmo varies so much from one to the other? No one who values their business. Perpetual died trying to make one, Cryptic tried to make an alternative that wouldn't kill them, but they may have been poisoned by it in the end.

     ST MMO fans have screwed us all over. Blame Cryptic all you want, I'm not happy with them either. However, I know the way people have reacted will prevent anyone trying again for quite sometime, if ever.

    Ummmm. Seriously?

    CO was a complete dud. Cryptic's credibility as an mmo developer isn't exactly hot. So attributing blame to Trekkies seems a bit of a stretch.

    And to be completely frank, it has long been clear to me that Cryptic have no understanding of their target audience.

    I can't imagine an IP less suited to their bastard payment model. Trekkies are, as a group, generally in love with the Federation's lofty ideals. The Federation is big on equality etc. etc. They're really not big on greed and commercialism. I'm honestly amazed they even got 100k subscribers.

    Maybe Cryptic should have made Ferenginar Online. We could have had sooooooo much fun with an mmo called FO :P

    And I've never understood their vision or marketing strategy. They made so much fuss about "creating your own alien race". As a long-time trekkie I can't imagine why you'd want to. They have an IP rich with iconic alien races and most trekkies would want to play one of them. It just seemed like a desperate attempt to take their admittedly very good costume system from CO and oversell it to a bunch of people much, much less interested in that kind of feature.

    I don't think it was wrong to incorporate it into STO. But the way they marketed it, it really seemed like they were clueless about their target audience.

  • FelconianFelconian Member Posts: 103

    Originally posted by Permian

    Originally posted by bstiff

    Is the captain's log thing even working now? If I pull my chars log, all I get is "no entries found" in the logeven though there wer some there a couple days ago.

    It's showing no log entries in captains log for any of my three characters. Same story going to the last page of the captains table and picking a character at random - it has no captains log entries either. Looks like it's disabled.

    I'm guessing someone was fetching all the logs to scan dates of the last entry.

    Cryptic does it again.... they change the goal post's .....Why? ..you would think they have somthing to hide!

  • MMO_DoubterMMO_Doubter Member Posts: 5,056

    Originally posted by green13

    I don't think it was wrong to incorporate it into STO. But the way they marketed it, it really seemed like they were clueless about their target audience.

    I completely agree. They had no idea about Star Trek and why its fans love it.

    1 - combat, combat, and more combat. I destroyed more enemy ships in a couple of hours of play, than Kirk and Picard combined for in their careers.

    2 - phat loot

    3 "Everyone wants to be the captain."

    Unbelievable.

    Now, to be fair - they did say they weren't making the game for Trek fans. That was a huge mistake if they wanted long term success (which I doubt), though.

    "" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2

  • bstiffbstiff Member Posts: 359

    Originally posted by Maverz290

    Originally posted by choujiofkono

         I wish this game would die soon so bioware can make a real ST mmo.

     ST MMO fans are their own worst enemy. Due to the way they've presented their disapointment over this, no one will ever make them an MMO. At least not until a new 'successful' series is released.

     Who wants to make an MMO for a group of fans that can never be pleased because what they think makes a good ST mmo varies so much from one to the other? No one who values their business. Perpetual died trying to make one, Cryptic tried to make an alternative that wouldn't kill them, but they may have been poisoned by it in the end.

     ST MMO fans have screwed us all over. Blame Cryptic all you want, I'm not happy with them either. However, I know the way people have reacted will prevent anyone trying again for quite sometime, if ever.

     No perpetual died because they spent all the time they were given creating their own mmo gods and heroes using the the time/money they were given to create sto. Sure they started from scratch and made their own engine but at the end of the day, they had gods and heroes ready for beta and nothing more than concept art and screen mock ups for sto. Needless to say, cbs wasn't happy.  Then they went bankrupt, created another company which was the exact same except for the name (P2) and tried to sell the star trek license to themselves at a loss. 

  • Maverz290Maverz290 Member Posts: 447

    Originally posted by green13

    Originally posted by Maverz290

    Originally posted by choujiofkono

         I wish this game would die soon so bioware can make a real ST mmo.

     ST MMO fans are their own worst enemy. Due to the way they've presented their disapointment over this, no one will ever make them an MMO. At least not until a new 'successful' series is released.

     Who wants to make an MMO for a group of fans that can never be pleased because what they think makes a good ST mmo varies so much from one to the other? No one who values their business. Perpetual died trying to make one, Cryptic tried to make an alternative that wouldn't kill them, but they may have been poisoned by it in the end.

     ST MMO fans have screwed us all over. Blame Cryptic all you want, I'm not happy with them either. However, I know the way people have reacted will prevent anyone trying again for quite sometime, if ever.

    Ummmm. Seriously?

    CO was a complete dud. Cryptic's credibility as an mmo developer isn't exactly hot. So attributing blame to Trekkies seems a bit of a stretch.

    And to be completely frank, it has long been clear to me that Cryptic have no understanding of their target audience.

    I can't imagine an IP less suited to their bastard payment model. Trekkies are, as a group, generally in love with the Federation's lofty ideals. The Federation is big on equality etc. etc. They're really not big on greed and commercialism. I'm honestly amazed they even got 100k subscribers.

    Maybe Cryptic should have made Ferenginar Online. We could have had sooooooo much fun with an mmo called FO :P

    And I've never understood their vision or marketing strategy. They made so much fuss about "creating your own alien race". As a long-time trekkie I can't imagine why you'd want to. They have an IP rich with iconic alien races and most trekkies would want to play one of them. It just seemed like a desperate attempt to take their admittedly very good costume system from CO and oversell it to a bunch of people much, much less interested in that kind of feature.

    I don't think it was wrong to incorporate it into STO. But the way they marketed it, it really seemed like they were clueless about their target audience.

     Yah, seriously.

    I don't like Cryptic, I agreed with pretty much everything you said, except no blame to the unrealistic demands of the fans.

    They are unrealistic. Nothing wrong with that until your unwilling to accept anything less than perfect, because it doesn't exist. WoW is the most successful MMO of all time, doesn't mean its perfect, far from at times.

    However, I reckon they would've got a group of dedicated fans if they had gone for the simulation approach rather than game approach, as they call it.

    People join the website, sign up for a crew, get the game, play with the crew. Would've attracted a smaller, more organized, mature crowd, but hey, EvE attracted mature players, mostly. Didn't do too bad now did it?

    Point is Bioware would never ever, never ever ever, touch the star trek IP. I'd love them to, they are my favourite developers before Bethesda. They won't because its not a big earner and won't appeal to the masses of people that their games have recently began to appeal to.

    Ahwell. Just hope a small company makes a star trek mmo. Call it 'Star Trek: Starfleet Officer' or something. Bah, I don't know, it's just unrepairable damage by Cryptic.

    Longing for Skyrim, The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543

    Originally posted by Sevenwind

    Don't think Funcom provides phone supprt. Those forums are not lit up with rage rage rage over it.

    And who knows the tone of the email sent. If you're an ass don't expect much help.

    Also there is other means of getting help if the customer service rep was no help. They could send a PM to one of the admins on the board or posted in the PC and Technical Issues forum. No they would rather vent which I don't think helped their case.

    Even twitter is useful. I've sent tweets to stormy about server lag and mobs acting up. He checked and they restarted some zones.

    Funcom is a European company. They may do business in the States, but there is no guarentee they have any sort of presence in the States in the form of offices.

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543

    Originally posted by Maverz290

    Originally posted by choujiofkono

         I wish this game would die soon so bioware can make a real ST mmo.

     ST MMO fans are their own worst enemy. Due to the way they've presented their disapointment over this, no one will ever make them an MMO. At least not until a new 'successful' series is released.

     Who wants to make an MMO for a group of fans that can never be pleased because what they think makes a good ST mmo varies so much from one to the other? No one who values their business. Perpetual died trying to make one, Cryptic tried to make an alternative that wouldn't kill them, but they may have been poisoned by it in the end.

     ST MMO fans have screwed us all over. Blame Cryptic all you want, I'm not happy with them either. However, I know the way people have reacted will prevent anyone trying again for quite sometime, if ever.

    If Cryptic designed a real MMO instead of just MMO-lite, it would go a huge way toward mollifying many of the Star Trek fans who are also disappointed with the game.

    Using examples from MMOs already on the market, it is entirely possible to make a good Star Trek MMO. I have no idea what show you like if you seem to think that there are ten thousand different things that a Star Trek MMO could be.

  • Shatter30Shatter30 Member UncommonPosts: 487

    You cant blame the fans.  Heaven forbid fans want an in-depth game with lots to do, explore, etc.  Instead what they produced was a single player game with mild multiplayer attachments.  I dont think the players were expecting too much, they just produced far too little to even meet minimum expectations. 

  • Xondar123Xondar123 Member CommonPosts: 2,543

    Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

    Originally posted by green13



    I don't think it was wrong to incorporate it into STO. But the way they marketed it, it really seemed like they were clueless about their target audience.

    I completely agree. They had no idea about Star Trek and why its fans love it.

    1 - combat, combat, and more combat. I destroyed more enemy ships in a couple of hours of play, than Kirk and Picard combined for in their careers.

    2 - phat loot

    3 "Everyone wants to be the captain."

    Unbelievable.

    Now, to be fair - they did say they weren't making the game for Trek fans. That was a huge mistake if they wanted long term success (which I doubt), though.

    I still find it hilarious that they've suddenly realized that the only people playing this game are Trek fans, so they're scrambling to add as much "Star Trek" as they can to the game after the fact.

  • green13green13 Member UncommonPosts: 1,341

    Originally posted by Maverz290

     Yah, seriously.

    I don't like Cryptic, I agreed with pretty much everything you said, except no blame to the unrealistic demands of the fans.

    They are unrealistic. Nothing wrong with that until your unwilling to accept anything less than perfect, because it doesn't exist. WoW is the most successful MMO of all time, doesn't mean its perfect, far from at times.

    However, I reckon they would've got a group of dedicated fans if they had gone for the simulation approach rather than game approach, as they call it.

    People join the website, sign up for a crew, get the game, play with the crew. Would've attracted a smaller, more organized, mature crowd, but hey, EvE attracted mature players, mostly. Didn't do too bad now did it?

    An MMO developer doesn't need to meet the demands of fans. In fact some MMOs have gone off the rails specifically at the point where developers have compromised their vision of the game to comply with 'popular demand'.

    Because you've used WoW as an example.... WoW is in my opinion so successful not because it's an amazing game, but because it's bland. It's the McMMO. McDonalds food is relatively tasteless - but the upside of that is that it won't offend most taste palettes. If instead they'd tried to meet the often competing demands of their potential consumers then they would have created a schizophrenic mess.

    Fans are never responsible for decisions that MMO developers do or don't make. They certainly have a voice, but it's the developer who decides what their product will be.

    The mistake that Cryptic made with STO - just looking at the basic game design - was making everyone a captain. As with the MT store and over-marketing the 'make your own alien race' thing, they just didn't think about who their audience is.

    A simulation Star Trek mmo would be ok - but there's no reason they couldn't have made a real Star Trek MMO.

    They could have had 'real' Federation vessels travelling throughout the alpha quadrant. Players could get themselves assigned to a particular vessel and when they login, that's where they are. Then they participate in any away missions, space encounters etc. that occur. When you log off, the ship continues to exist and interact with the gameworld. Generally you'd work through these encounters with other players assigned to that vessel but you'd also have NPCs available to fill any gaps.

    Then when you get to the guild level of the game, a guild-leader would be the captain of their own vessel and accordingly be able to select their own crew (i.e. their guild members). Players would also be in charge of these vessels and be able to direct their course and have some influence over the kinds of encounters they have.

    If there was actually a signficant number of fans wanting the 'everyone is a captain' game design then you'd only have to allow 1-person guilds for them to be happy.

    In terms of game mechanics it's not a terribly long way from what they delivered. But it would have pleased a lot more players - especially trekkies.

  • raistalin69raistalin69 Member Posts: 575

    Originally posted by Plageron

    well thats interesting....

     

    did you notice the poster you show...keeps saying 500....and the actual thing is for 400....LMAO

    Interesting...one mistake is fine but doing it repeatedly is called not telling the truth.

    Also i too got my game from gamestop....i had information on a card an access code to be exact......if he had talked to support they would have asked for the code if it wasnt on his account......the actual account keeps track of all codes you use...so they would have seen the error and he would have too

     

    And lastly the most interesting thing abou that post....if you go and look at the guys captain log....you see he didnt actualy do one respec at all....if he had bought the respecs he would still have them...and he could still refund them for the c-store points....

     

    I know this becasue i bought a race twice by accident...and they refunded my points

    oh well...interesting...simply amazing what games people will play....

    ignore the man behind the curtain plageron???

    no thanks. the op was about someone who felt ripped off by cryptic, and no matter how much you try to change the subject to "500 points" most of us have the common sense to see that the guy got screwed and has a legitamate complaint.

    oh well...interesting...simply amazing what games people will play....plageron

     

     

    IF THE ONLY DEFENCE FOR CRITICISM OF A GAME IS CALLING SOMEONE A TROLL OR HATER, THAT SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE GAME

  • bstiffbstiff Member Posts: 359

    Apparently gamestop is offering 400 points for buying STO. Some guy on the forums posted the gamstop link on the forums and got an infraction for advertising.

  • NesrieNesrie Member Posts: 648

    Originally posted by bstiff

    Apparently gamestop is offering 400 points for buying STO. Some guy on the forums posted the gamstop link on the forums and got an infraction for advertising.

     Sounds like Cryptic to me, how dare you advertise a sale on their own game when they want to offer their own sale and then renig on it later!

    parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.

  • bstiffbstiff Member Posts: 359

    apparently they decided not to edit his post again but closed the thread.

     

    http://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=2590371&postcount=50

    Apparently cryptic is becoming their own worst enemy. At least he found out was things were like before putting up the money for a lifetime sub.

  • Die_ScreamDie_Scream Member Posts: 1,785

    Originally posted by bstiff

    apparently they decided not to edit his post again but closed the thread.

    The OP certainly remained quite reasonable considering the all out blitz play the CDF employed against him, kudos to self control.

  • HricaHrica Member UncommonPosts: 1,129

    This game was the last straw for this MMO vet.

    Nothing released in near history is worthy of paying $50 and $15 a month, very very sad.

    Moved on to 360

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441

    Originally posted by Hrica

    This game was the last straw for this MMO vet.

    Nothing released in near history is worthy of paying $50 and $15 a month, very very sad.

    Moved on to 360

    I agree, the last few years have been rather sad but 2011 actually looks good. Guildwars 2, TOR, World of darkness online, Final fantasy XIV and possibly a few more is the best list since 2004.

    To quit the genre just because someone releases a half made game after 2 years sounds unfair to the MMOs, anyone who looks on how much time and money it took Cryptic to make STO would realize that it couldn't be a good MMO. Not even a master dev could have saved it and Cryptic have no one like that, Roper is probably their best guy and he is average.

    Taking a break is not a bad idea if you are done with the old games, but you should give it a try again next year.

  • Die_ScreamDie_Scream Member Posts: 1,785

    Originally posted by Hrica

    This game was the last straw for this MMO vet.

    Nothing released in near history is worthy of paying $50 and $15 a month, very very sad.

    Moved on to 360

    I haven't lost complete faith in the MMO genre. There are good companies out there. I personally like Turbine. They turned DDO around and took the wise and courageous step of making it F2P. LOTRO is still my fav MMO of the last 3-4 years.

    The sandbox sub genre is apparently dead, as the only good one I know coming is Mortal Online. *sob*

    However, I generally appreciate good themepark gameplay with more things to do than you can decide on.

    I digress.

    Blizzard, Turbine, Bioware, CCP...there are quality studios on the scene. They just take forever to release games (which is why they are so good).

Sign In or Register to comment.