Since I am slightly drunk and my inhibitions are way too low, I thought I post the reasons why I like Cryptic games.

#1 (and probably most points here) is going to come out of left field:

1. Their Troubleshooting Section:  I have a crappy (and now probably faulty) HD 4800 Radeon card (which, thank to an insidious *alleged* firmware problem, let my card overheat and slowly fry over the months without my knowledge, so now any games I play locks my PC up after a peroid of playing, unless I have access to throttling options --  which Cryptic games have an excellent support for in their Options section). Their Options sections let me lock the refresh rate to 30 FPS and throttle the GPU with various options. The end result is that I can play CO and STO *indefinitely* at pretty high graphics settings while my PC locks up with a "Thermal Trip" after 30 seconds of play for most other (single or MMO) games. +1 Cryptic.
2. Their Games are Games, not Jobs: I have a fairly high pressure job (intellectually) and in the end of the day I want to come home and play a game that doesn't require me to think too much about how I want to accomplish stuff in game... I just want to smash some villains head in with a huge fist while wearing a mask and a cape, and feel better about myself doing it. Yes, that's right. I use my head at work, I don't want to do it while relaxing.
3. Imaginative and funny: I don't know how long have you all been around, immersing yourself in popular culture, but I could not help but notice (and crack up laughing repeatedly) at the POP Culture references in CO: from Anchorman to Clockwork Orange, from Big Trouble In Little China to ... well, you name it, it''s all there, and I loved every quote from those Alex-dressed nutjobs in CO, because I knew what those references were. Some of the Bieber-loving kiddos probably never heard of Kubric, so these will probably go over their heads, but for those of us who were born before 1995, these are hilarious. Oh yes, +1 Cryptic.
4. UI Scaling: dammit I am old and have bad vision, I run an old crappy 1280x1024 monitor and even it has higher resolution than my eyeballs. Therefore, I am looking at options to reduce load on my GPU (so as to not fry it after an hour of play) and still be able to see the dialoge options popping up. And guess what: Cryptic games have an option to scale my UI to 125% so my glaucoma can be overcome by good software design. Who else is doing this? LotrO (partially). And then ... long silence (I am looking at you too, Perpetuum). +1 Cryptic.
5. They never lied to me: (so far) I am a veteran SWG refugee, I had seen my whole guild quit over the CU and NGE, and if you know what that means, you know that my feeling are easily hurt by unscrupulous Executive Producers (and also know that the word "Smedley" in my dictionary is a synonym for "Palpatine"). Having said that, Cryptic's effors in STO with their Engineeering Reports (while sometimes funny, ie. last report's  "More Skirt Options") are very commendible and welcomed by their fans and followers (me). Yes, I DO appreciate the things they tell us they are working on, and the stuff they are ommiting, because then I know which way the game is going. I don't take these as concrete promises, but rather *hopes* and *directions* and to some extent indications to where the game is going. But foremost, they are COMMUNICATIONS to the players that say to them "yes, we want to let you know what we are working on" and that is a HUGE PLUS in my book, because it os "going the extra mile" to connect to your fanbase. +10 Cryptic.   ...What's that Lassie? ATARI lied to you? Hmm...  I've read every single release from Cryptic since day one and I have a YD sub, and never once felt I was lied to, about *anything*. Have *you* read your EULA?
6. Fun, dammit: yes, I find both CO and STO fun to play, perhaps for most of the above reason, but in the end of the day, I don't really need a reason, do I. As long as I have fun.

Ok that's about it for now {Mod edit}

This Mod Edit made me smile a bit.

The edit removed the last half of that last sentence where I said something like  "flame away, Jack Burton can take it" (and there were, in fact, two flame posts that seem to have been removed also).

I think it was edited due to the Mod thinking I was posting my name and this proves perfectly one of the points I was making with the original post:  the game references popular culture that just goes over the head of some players.

"Jack Burton" is an NPC in CO who is standing outside a bar downtown and send you on various missions around Chinatown. He is a caricature of the protagonist from the movie "Big Trouble In Little China" (also named Jack Burton) whose one of many catchphrase is "Give me your best shot, I can take it" and if I recall correctly, frequently references himself in the third person. CO is full of stuff like this that people who never watched classic action, comedy and arty movies from the 80s (and some even from the 70s) will never appreciate.

And it's a shame, because some of the fun I find in CO is due exactly to stumbling across these.

Hear hear!

Every forum post should be made while slightly drunk.

Well your enthusiasm for your favorite games is admirable and I'm glad they make you happy. You're definitely in a minority but if you are having fun that's what matters. Now I've flamed STO no doubt but I still love the IP. Bottom line is Cryptic relies to heavily on micro transactions and their C store. It's OK to have a few things in the cash store like CoH or WoW or whatever but Cryptic simply overdoes it. I mean 2 character slots in STO and CO.... and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Even when CO was P2P you never felt like you got your $15 worth. Definitely not with STO.

Please, dont drink and post..

1. Their Troubleshooting Section:

Some need this I certainly dont

1. Their Games are Games, not Jobs

This means simple, simple means gets old quick.  I need depth in my games.

1. Imaginative and funny:

1. UI Scaling

1. They never lied to me

Thats cool

1. Fun, dammit:

And the thread now enters the obligatory counter-troll phase. Let's go then.

@jpnole
Since you brought up the C-Store: I've find the restrictions placed on Silver players fun to work around, and they have caused me to discover things about the game that I would probably not have otherwise. On the way back to Ren Cen (bag restrictions) I have found lore plaques, came across random world events, noticed the changing athmosphere of the game due to day / night changes, came across other players, etc.

I've had similar experiences with Vanguard (like working out how to play it in User mode, after their ridiculous -and completely unneccessary- requirement of forcing people to play it in Admin mode). But that's SOE for you.

The 2 character slot restriction is not unique to Cryptic: I think Turbine also has a 2 character limit for their F2P'ers. Having said that, this kind of restriction is a bit pointless, since you are not limited how many F2P accounts you can create, so you can, in fact, have unlimited number of characters.

But "your favorite game" is an assumption on your part; Similarly, "You're definitely in a minority" is another (unsubstantiated) assumption on your part; judged by what? Posts on this board? Posts on some other board?


@alderdale
Whether you need the Troubleshooting section or not, is irrelevant. It's there for when you do. I just happened to pass the day when I started needing it (thanks to ATI). After I switch to NVidia I (hopefully) won't. There are a lot of aggravated people posting on Forums and in-game chat complaining how "CO or STO overheats their cards". When others point them to this section, their response usually is "oh I never saw that". Same happens in LotRO, btw. The attention span of your average MMO player is not exactly astronomical.

Same goes for UI Scaling: whether something is "part of the game design" or is "just a feature", is irrelevant. It's there to help you when you need it. It was something that was helpful for me where other game infrastructure didn't (to this day I have trouble reading EVE menus).

What you probably meant to say there was "it's not part of the game so this is not a positive thing about the game". In contrast, consider DCUO's chat system: it is also not "part of the game" yet it is excrutiating to use and therefore detracts from the game experience overall.


@Dave3216
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."