Link to article on Massively

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Originally Posted by Suricata
Also, I got an email back from the Danish Justice ministry, the Danish Gambling Authorities are now investigating the lockboxes in STO in relation to Danish law, it should be noted that because the ships are tradeable and have shown up on some auction sites, like ebay, they can actually have a real world value, which really complicates the issue!

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Quote Originally Posted by Prower
Just imagine all that lost revenue from one of the richest areas in the world if this goes the worst case scenario.

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Quote Originally Posted by @borticus
Honestly? Probably less revenue than would be lost by not doing any more Lock Boxes.

...

I hope you realize that the most likely course of action here, if any is taken, is that the STO becomes unplayable in the Netherlands. IP blocks, proxy blocks, etc.

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Quotes from Borticus taken from here

So there you have it folks. Cryptic would rather take their toys and go home than give up their precious lockboxes.

Borticus did try to do the usual spin/backpedalling here, but personally I do not buy any of his whining. Anyone stupid enough to be making comments like he did in a public forum for all the world to see deserves what they get. Most companies have policies that forbid an employee from publicly expressing opinions on how the company operates or their feelings about management or representing the companies views. You see this all the time on TV here in the US where a program has a disclaimer to the effect of "the views in this program do not represent the network" etc. If he is dumb enough to publicly talk about how he thinks Cryptic might stop doing business in entire continents should the lockbox scams be ruled as illegal, he should not be crying about that opinion being published.

I could be wrong, but since EU laws may apply here to this kind of thing, it is likely that should the boxes be deemed illegal in Denmark, chances are good they will be all throughout the EU, which would mean STO would become unavailable in Europe. So Cryptic would just take their toy and go home.

Nice to know how little Cryptic values you as a customer, eh?

Thread on the STO forums is here.

I not played sto since the first month of launch so I had to go look up these lock boxes.  First they look like random drops, but you have to go to the cstore to buy the key to unlock them?  Is that a correct statement.

You can buy keys in the C-Store yes.  You can also buy some on the in-game exchange.

I will try to find the posts/threads about it again (although I believe they have since been removed) where it was proven that the on-screen announcements when someone opened a box and received a ship were naming players that never won a ship.  In some cases, the accounts were for people who no longer played the game.

These lockboxes are a scam, plain and simple. 

   lol blowing this out of propotion aint yah...one employee does not an entire company make

Originally posted by apocoluster

   lol blowing this out of propotion aint yah...one employee does not an entire company make

Not at all.  Read the linked articles as well as the various other threads regarding the topic of Lockboxes.

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Originally posted by ShardWarrior
Link to article on Massively

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Originally Posted by Suricata
Also, I got an email back from the Danish Justice ministry, the Danish Gambling Authorities are now investigating the lockboxes in STO in relation to Danish law, it should be noted that because the ships are tradeable and have shown up on some auction sites, like ebay, they can actually have a real world value, which really complicates the issue!

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Quote Originally Posted by Prower
Just imagine all that lost revenue from one of the richest areas in the world if this goes the worst case scenario.

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Quote Originally Posted by @borticus
Honestly? Probably less revenue than would be lost by not doing any more Lock Boxes.

...

I hope you realize that the most likely course of action here, if any is taken, is that the STO becomes unplayable in the Netherlands. IP blocks, proxy blocks, etc.

---

Quotes from Borticus taken from here

So there you have it folks. Cryptic would rather take their toys and go home than give up their precious lockboxes.

Borticus did try to do the usual spin/backpedalling here, but personally I do not buy any of his whining. Anyone stupid enough to be making comments like he did in a public forum for all the world to see deserves what they get. Most companies have policies that forbid an employee from publicly expressing opinions on how the company operates or their feelings about management or representing the companies views. You see this all the time on TV here in the US where a program has a disclaimer to the effect of "the views in this program do not represent the network" etc. If he is dumb enough to publicly talk about how he thinks Cryptic might stop doing business in entire continents should the lockbox scams be ruled as illegal, he should not be crying about that opinion being published.

I could be wrong, but since EU laws may apply here to this kind of thing, it is likely that should the boxes be deemed illegal in Denmark, chances are good they will be all throughout the EU, which would mean STO would become unavailable in Europe. So Cryptic would just take their toy and go home.

Nice to know how little Cryptic values you as a customer, eh?

Thread on the STO forums is here.

 

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Heh, I just wonder what business Borticus had even talking about this sort of thing to the media or to fans. He is still, for all intents and purposes, a Cryptic newbie that is low on the totem pole. Where does he get backing or the right to make these broad statements?

He has GOT to know that whatever he says will be torn to shreds and picked apart by the media and other people that participate in the forums. He has been around long enough to know this. Take into consideration his statements about quelling the haters during the player council fiasco. His words were under heavy scrutiny.

Go back to STOKED J man... that's where you should have stayed. Reporting on the news with unrelenting bias, not creating it through thickheaded and probably misrepresenting statements.

JEREMY RANDALL/BorticusCryptic is an idiot. This moron has has caused controversy through arrogance in and inetptide since early on. This cheeleader for Cryptic has finagled a position at Cryptic  after a while of butt smotching over at STO'ked . Who can possibly forget http://www.startrekonline.com/node/1470. Undoubtly his influential hand at work. While I believe what he said is accurate as far as Cryptic's attitude toward the player base. His ego has reached a proportionally as big as Cryptic's, as an assistant system designer you should do less talking and more work on that POS engine that Cryptic uses.

Concerning lockboxes in the Netherlands, the correct course of action is to simply not have the game playable in the Netherlands. No reason that everyone in the game should be denied something they want just because one country has different views on virtual items.

About the other stuff and lockboxes being a scam, I have no idea. Cryptic has always done cheap work on the two games I've played that they produced so I think it's more likely that their system didn't work right, rather than it was a scam. I'm not sure that's better...scam at least implies that they knew what they were doing.

   Im not the sort to hold dull games against a game company, So i guess ill agree to disagree.   STO was crap and I quit playing it...but I eagerly anticipate Neverwinter. 

   AS for the lockboxes them selves...seems like a minor issue. DCUO has htem as well and im sure a slew of other f2p mmo's that im unaware of also provide them and with the buy a key in teh cash store feature.  I dont see it as game breaking nor do I see it as Pay 2 Win.  I do see it a a scam, but just a little one and being entirely blown out of proportion

Originally posted by lizardbones

Concerning lockboxes in the Netherlands, the correct course of action is to simply not have the game playable in the Netherlands. No reason that everyone in the game should be denied something they want just because one country has different views on virtual items.
 

It is possible that the EU law would apply here as well.  Cryptic would have to block access to any country in the European Union, which I would imagine is a significant chunk of income for them.  Is that worth it?

Cryptic knew full well what they were doing with the lockboxes.  They are a scam. 

Originally posted by apocoluster

  I do see it a a scam, but just a little one and being entirely blown out of proportion

If my memory is right, Prime Minister Chamberlain said something similar about Germany invading Poland in 1933.   "It was only a "little" invasion...  "  

Conjecture aside, complacency over the "little" things is what can lead to the whole MMO market getting polluted with junk like these lockboxes.    Just my 2 cents.

Originally posted by ShardWarrior

Originally posted by lizardbones

Concerning lockboxes in the Netherlands, the correct course of action is to simply not have the game playable in the Netherlands. No reason that everyone in the game should be denied something they want just because one country has different views on virtual items.
 

It is possible that the EU law would apply here as well.  Cryptic would have to block access to any country in the European Union, which I would imagine is a significant chunk of income for them.  Is that worth it?

 

Cryptic knew full well what they were doing with the lockboxes.  They are a scam. 

EU law may not be relevant sometime in the near future anyway.....if Spainish and Greek meltdowns and French comments are any indicators. Ultimately, the issue (or non-issue?) is in the hands of the Netherlands.

It isn't "lockboxes are a scam" but rather Free to Play is a scam.

I didn't know anyone still gave a shit what Cryptic is or isn't concerned with?

It's not like I look in the bowl before flushing and ask my turd if it has any concerns.

Originally posted by eyeswideopen

I didn't know anyone still gave a shit what Cryptic is or isn't concerned with?

It's not like I look in the bowl before flushing and ask my turd if it has any concerns.

This cracked me up!  LOL!

I've been patiently waiting for the  U.S. legal system to take notice of games using these systems.  Companies can manipulate the percentages of winning on the fly.   Raise them to generate excitement in the community, then set them to basically zero.  Even better a script can do this.  If a person has played a game which uses these systems they've seen it time after time.

Player1: Did you know player A got 2 yesterday off of 20 boxes!!!

Player2: Ya! I heard PlayerB got 2 from 15 !

Player3: I think it's time for me to try my luck.

Sometime later:

Player1: Dam...  I heard PlayerB, PlayerC, PlayerD all bought 40 each and not a one of them won this time.

Player2: I know right.... :( I guess PlayerE got lucky with his 1 win from 60 :S

Player1: I so want <such and such>, but I don't feel like getting burned.. 

ect.... ect... ect....

The whole appeal to using these systems.

1: Small amount of resources to create items.

2. Zero upkeep until it's time to freshen up the system a year + later. 

3. A script can handle the percentages so that the server does not become over saturated to quickly. 

4. Profit.

I hope they get sued, they can go choke on a bankruptcy for all I care. The gambling scam they're pushing on players is pathetic.

Originally posted by Zekiah

I hope they get sued, they can go choke on a bankruptcy for all I care. The gambling scam they're pushing on players is pathetic.

Not that I support or like what Cryptic are doing here, but MMORPGs have been about gambling for years... a fruit machine where the currency is time.

Now they have decided they don't want your time, they want your cash.

Play less, spend more... yep, the modern MMORPG working exactly as intended.

Some people don't agree with this and that's ok we don't have all to agree.

I hope lockboxes and similar things will get banned in as much countries as possible.

If there will be anything possible for me to do , like voting for a politican that want to do it, lobby for it , sign a citizen project of law ,etc I will do it.

Originally posted by ShardWarrior

Originally posted by apocoluster

  I do see it a a scam, but just a little one and being entirely blown out of proportion

If my memory is right, Prime Minister Chamberlain said something similar about Germany invading Poland in 1933.   "It was only a "little" invasion...  "  

 

Conjecture aside, complacency over the "little" things is what can lead to the whole MMO market getting polluted with junk like these lockboxes.    Just my 2 cents.

13 posts before Godwin's Law kicked in....is that a record?

(Also, I think you meant 1939)

But yeah, much as I enjoyed Champions Online, I've since abandoned Cryptic entirely. They had enough problems on their own, but just when they looked like they were starting to turn around (CO F2P was actually pretty decent for a bit), becoming part of Perfect World seems to have brought the evil out in droves.