I've played things like Star Wars Online (pre patch) Everquest 1&2 Rift, WoW, LOTRO as well as a host of othe ttitles and inevitably end up quitting for several reasons. One is that it becomes boring. As you indicated, you can only do the same quest a certain number of times before it bores you to tears. The second paying for new game content, promising new dungeons new zones and new classes only to realize that it's the same old zone and classes with some new paint. A third thing is nerfing. Most of these games aren't difficult to begin with. Nerfing them is done to appeal to lazy gamers who have a few bucks to spend. The result is that it makes a boring game even more boring. 

Despite all these things, the one thing guaranteed to drive me away from a game is when it switches from a monthly subscription fee to "free" with in game micro-transactions. Aside from generally destroying the in game economy it's a clearest signto me the game is no longer for gamers but investors demanding a return. At that point there's no more interest in providing new and challanging content, only raking in the bucks. And since the game is "free', and people are stupid most end up paying MORE on a monthly basis for a "free" game then they paid for their subscription.

I'll be handing my vote to EvE. It's the only game I'm aware of that has continually improved since it's inception. They've consistently added new kinds of ships, new missions, did a complete upgrade of thier graphics, intorduced player owned stations, wormholes, Planetary interface sleepers and with the release of Incursion, will upgrade the toons to look far more realistic and have massive Sansha invasions. There is always somethings in the works at CCP and the next great thing will be to allow players to walk around stations.  Best of all they have a stellar management team that provides a direct link from players to programers such that good player ideas can get implemented.  Try doing that with a Sony game.

Originally posted by Yamota

They find themselves in this situation because they decided to build a game which is extremely dependant on ISK (=ig money) to get pretty much anything done. And since it is boring as hell to grind for ISK then people look elsewhere for it.

So if anyone is to blaim for ISK sellers it is CCP themselves.

There is no blame to place. You either like the game or you don't. If you do, you'll play by the rules. If you want to play the game but don't have enough time, then you probably shouldn't be playing an MMO that takes, time, patience and earning ISK to become a sucessful. And finally if you do have the time but don't have the patience, then EvE isn't the game for you. There's no excuse for cheating.

I played EQ2 for two or three years with time out in between.  I eventually dropped the game because, for lack of a better description, it had no soul. It was nothing more than an endless parade of hack and slash to get more gear to hack and slash. The only thing that varied were the envirnoments that still had clones of monsters from other environments.

One of the most sadly undeveloped portion of the game is the storyline, there is none. Unlike the intro trailer that implies some brewing epic battle between forces of dark and light, none of it is reflected in the game. I would say more, but to be honest, the game isn't even worth the time it takes for  a bad review.

In the end it's blantantly clear that SOE's priorities are to thier investors and not the gaming community.  It's a stock MMO, dumbed down over time to appeal to the casual player who doesn't want to take the time to quest or explore. The author gives the game a 7.9, realistically it's about a 5.0

Wait a minute! I played this game years ago and without a doubt it was the very worst game I ever played...ever!  When I say the worst game, I mean it.  That  includes all the baseball and football games, my little league games, golf games, my old Avalon Hill board games, lottery games, card games, every game of tic tac toe I ever played, my old atari games, all computer games and MMO's and yes that includes Star Wars Galaxies!  The game was an excersise in futility. Crap graphics, no economy, no one on line.

To be honest , the fact that there have been four versions of this game indicates to me that indicates the developer is a masochist who, after a long day working on this thing, probably whips himself to sleep with rusty coat hangars. If anyone buys this my recommendation is to load up on antidepressants and antipsychotics  so you can play for more than an hour without feeling a strong urge  to kill yourself  and everyone in your family.  Good luck.

The first poster eric_w66 is correct. There are numerous ways to get baited in Eve. If you learn these, your chances for survival will go up considerably. My favorite is popping a rat in high sec  sitting close by the wreck  in a cloaked heavy assault cruiser waiting for a noob to come by and  loot the wreck.

Trust me, real gaming has nothing to worry about when it comes to social gaming. Social gaming is another word for convenient gaming. I played farmville ONLY because I was logged into facebook and for no other reason. Its a distraction while you're logged into Facebook. nothing more. It will never compete with real gaming because they are two different worlds. As far as Zygna is concerned, they rip off thier "ideas" from other gaming programmers. He was so obvious about it he got sued for 10 million.

Originally posted by Xondar123

I found this interesting thread on the STO forums: forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php

Here's the text of the post:

 

Here is my opinion, I try to show some facts but please consider this is a personal deduction. Feel free to respond with your personal opinion.

Rushing vs Quality
There is no point in further arguing on how and why all Atari/Cryptic games are rushed (18 to 24 months of development corporate.atari.com/infogramesgb/2007/04/strategy_1.php), and release more unfinished than the average MMO on the market. STO is a single-player game, with a multiplayer mode set in a semi-permanent world (aka over-instanced world). This is what we call multiplayer games these days. I am really sorry for the whole dev team that worked hard, but the truth is your management never gave you any chance to do a proper job in the end. You guys must face it and take your skills somewhere they'll be put to better use.
Some players "get it" (anyone who's played MMO before, a majority of players at an MMO launch statistically), some "don't get it" (anyone who's blinded by the IP or never played MMO). The point is simple: Atari/Cryptic is not helping itself by doing so. There are leaders on this market (Activision/Blizzard, NCSoft, Squaresoft) that, regardless of the game styles they offer, know how to finish and polish their products. Atari corporate.atari.com/infogramesgb/2007/04/management.php doesn't have a single chance to enter that Top3 at this point. My guess is, it never was its ambition.

Killing an IP is seldom a good way to create value for your other IPs
Atari has effectively killed the possibility of a healthy, long-lasting Star Trek MMO. While most of us will just dig it and move on, Atari will have to live with it as its value falls sharply by most counters.
What should concern them, even more, is that their next "big IP", namely Neverwinter Nights, will have to deal with its publisher most negative fame, one of the worst currently in this industry, short of SOE maybe. I assume at this point they'll never mean for that NWN MMO to be either great or long-lasting anyway.

The mockery for hardships and participation: no compensation
It is so widespread in this business to offer a few days of free play to compensate for downtime, bugs and repeated early maintenances that I can't even begin to understand how unprofessional it is to deny that (by not even addressing it), or how greedy it is not to implement it.
But Atari/Cryptic should be aware that it's the first blow they dealt to their own community. We should reasonably expect more 'nothing' in compensation for future bugs and downtime.

The "Discountgate"
As called by Ten Ton Hammer, www.tentonhammer.com/sto/news/atari_removes_60_day_offer the 60-days issue will not go away so easily, especially after Phil Dean failed to do more than a vague apology. What he didn't fail, however, is to clearly state that we should expect more of those practices.
This is the second (and probably biggest to date, over a long list (read a summary here forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php) of blows Atari/Cryptic dealt to themselves and their community.

Consequently, the value of the lifetime memberships has effectively lowered drastically, since the risk associated to them has raised sharply during the past month.

Third blow has yet to come: why lifers are in a very bad position as we speak
On march 11, the MMO Final Fantasy XIV beta will start. Star Wars: TOR will be released in 2011, the beta process may start late this year. NCSoft has no less than two titles for 2010, a continuation to the Lineage IP going by the name of Blade'n'Soul (Lineage I&II combined currently hosts some two millions players, third only to WoW and Aion) and another big title (TERA). All these games are way above the STO category. More direct competitors (smaller MMOs from smaller publishers, but also classic multiplayer games) will enter the market this year. Oh, should I mention Cataclysm, too?
Short story: the third blow will come (in the form of a multi-hit 'combo'), from the market itself, namely the leaders and top-quality providers of the MMO market. If STO ever survives that, it will not be because of its inherent quality, nor because of Atari's sound management. If lifers are all there is left, how will Atari keep the servers running, let alone continue to develop the game?

Atari/Cryptic is small, and will remain small for years - if it survives
Here are some approximate charts on MMO subscriptions over the last decade:
(1M to 12M subs) users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/1m-12m.png
(150k to 1M subs) users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/150k-1m.png
The best success, in 2011, I can imagine for STO is to cruise close to SWG, which means less than 50k subs. These are the "happy people" we hear from on these forums, the sceptics will have left for other games in all likelihood.
STO could probably end up there if Atari doesn't change its strategy quickly, and it may be already too late: users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/40k-150k.png
Three games at 50k are not worth one at 200k (LOTRO, CoX, even EQ I), did anyone at Atari realize that?

We all know why SWG, a Star Wars IP no less, is so low (50k) after reaching some 300k subs in 2005: the reasons are called SOE and NGE (read a dev's apology rubenfield.com/). It is sad to realize that the Star Trek IP, no less, will not do any better. But there's no chance it could, with such poor quality and management, especially considering the market is much more competitive now than it was in 2003-2005.

Any hope that Neverwinter Nights could do better is far-fetched for all the reasons mentioned above, since NWN will be a product of comparable quality to CO and STO, and managed by Atari too.

The logical conclusion...
... is failure. Atari/Cryptic trashed this IP into a joke of an MMO at launch (better call this a multiplayer game), has behaved less than adequately with its community (to put it mildly), and the market in 2010 will deal the final blow to the game. I am sorry about that. I would have loved a great space combat MMO. I guess I'll have to wait, like most others, for someone to do that properly by industry and customer care standards. I hear Jumpgate Evolution and Black Prophecy are in the works. It's 'good' they're not released yet, if STO is to live even half-choking, but this will not be true forever.

Should you need further evidence on why STO is way below reasonable expectations, I invite you to google/youtube the soon-to-be released games I mentioned in this post. I, for one, will continue to monitor STO, for my own culture, while playing other games.

If you need a new strategy Atari, I can help for a decent salary.
I also warmly invite developers to share their experiences, my guess is some of your peers are about to quit Atari/Cryptic.
To all players, please say if you agree or not, and why. I'm waiting for any viable argument to counter all these facts and projections.

 

I'm sure the devs were/are capable of producing a much more polished game so I would hesitate to criticize them. What you are witnessing are the demands of investors taking precedence over the desire of gamers and devs.  This isn't a new trend. It's been played out numerous times with many  MMO's . The devs get crunched between time and money constraints and release a product that's unfinished. Realistically STO should have stayed in developement for at least another 1.5 to 2 years before it was released. This would have allowed the devs to work on giving STO the feel of the real Star Trek as well as polishing missions, crafting etc. However the fiscal realities likely didn't permit it and you get what you get.

"Anyone else been playing since launch and having a blast with this game?"

No.

Look, there is no such thing as a free to play MMO. You are correct, they need to make money and if that means changing the rules to force you to buy a bunch of ingame crap they will do it. My suggestion is to quit and move on.

Originally posted by Rydeson

Please don't take this offensively, but have you looked at the STO forums of late?   99% of what I consider are legitimate problems are going unanswered, and many are getting frustrated about it..  Then when you finally do get a Dev response, you get some snippy or rude response.. This wasn't the first time this unprofessional behavior has shown it's ugly face.. It's been documented with in game ticket responses, forum responses, etc etc.. The thing is..as I would like to get back to.. Customers that are PAYING to play have a right to talk, or complain.. If the Devs are setting an example of how to handle a complaint, it doesn't help that fanboys follow in suit..

Someone needs to be held accountable for community behavior.. Granted posters will say and do as they may, but it's Cryptic's forums and if they wish to salvage any reputation here, they should start by being accountable themselves for their actions.. What is happening in STO customer service is a prime example how 99% of all business should NOT follow..The STO community is struggling and the Cryptic employees aren't helping matter 

The last MMO  I ran out and bought based on hype was Pirates of the Burning Seas which turned out to be a disaster. I was bored with it within two weeks and quit in disgust. The hype that preceded STO reminded me of the hype that preceded PoTBS so I held off, and after reading these comments I'm glad I did.

When any game developer attempts to emulate a successful TV series or movie the deck is automatically stacked against them. Getting the "feel"of the series can be extremely difficult, especially if they are under pressure from investors to get the thing on the market  and start making money. I suspect this is what happened with STO. Consequently, they release a product that is basically a bare bones space combat sim that probably would be more successful if it handn't been branded with the Star Trek name which implies much, much more.

If players are patient and the game developers are committed they may, in time, be able to add sufficient content and complexity to STO so that it eventually begins to "feel" like Star Trek., but I won't be holding my breath.

Originally posted by Rockgod99

Originally posted by cosy

 

EVE Voice, Mail & Chat

* Voice fonts have now been added to EVE Voice. This new feature will allow you to alter your voice during chat to increase or lower pitch or to change from male to female voices. This is certainly not going to be abused in any way.

lol! I can see it now, Dude switch their voice to female and cyber sexing the Eve virgins. Add "Hotline Ho" to the list of Eve jobs.

What was the purpose of doing this?

I MIGHT try this game, but only after it's been out for at least 6 months. There are two advantages to this 1) it gives the developers time to work out some of the bugs 2) I'll be able to read some reviews to get a sense whether it's any good.

I'm sick and tired of throwing away $40-$50 at a whack to find out a game isn't worth the price of the box it comes in.

Sorry but impressive graphics and hot , scantily clad female toons do not a winner make. With the exception of the generous amount of skin that is revealed,  the gameplay and concept falls dead center in the middle of a pack of games that never exceed mediocre. 

I swear the more I come to this site the more dissapointed I become. What is becoming blatantly clear is that MMORPG.com is aware of who pays the bills.  A bad review always has the chance of alienating the game developers from the reviewers.  Therefore there is little to no chance that a game released by a big, well known gaming company will ever hear a discouraging word from this site lest they sacrifice all the little perks that are sent their way.  Too bad. This used to be a pretty cool place.

This is just foolish.  How can anyone form a relationship with another person in an MMO? You can't  hear the nuaces in their voices, you can't recieve any of the non verbal communication  i.e. a wistful glance, a hand touching your cheek, a soft sigh etc , that relationships  thrive on and you certainly can't have sex with them. If fact, assuming you're heterosexual, you have no way of know for certain that the person you're having a relationship is the opposite sex!!  Oh wait, they told you what sex they were? Really?  How silly of me to think people would ever tell a lie online. LOL

Get real people. I've heard of dumbing down MMOs but had no idea this concept would be extended to relationships. You'd be better off going to a bar or paying for a hooker. At least there is a human being standing in front of you that can be communicated with on all the levels people typically do.

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.

Originally posted by kasta

I don't think Eve will be impacted by STO at all.  Eve is a totally different type of game and appeals to a different crowd.  STO will be a simple, casual game with very little depth and no soul.

I tend to agree. EvE appeals to a different kind of player base and from what I've seen STO borrows many concepts from EvE. What will probably happen is that some folks will move to STO but will come back to EvE. I've gone through this a number of times myself and every time I come back the game is better than when I left. One reason for this is that the developement team has stayed with the game continually tweaking, improving, and modifying such that its a well balanced, challenging MMO. There subscription numbers bear this out. It's one of the only games, if not the only game that has improved its subscription numbers every year since it began in 2003. When I started playing in 2003 it was common to see only 2,000 to 3,000 peeps on line. Now, on a slow day there are close to 30,000 and on busy ones well over 50,000.  This is no fluke. It is the result of commitment on CCPs part to deliever the most immersing MMOs on the market today. Currentlly, they're working on an expansion that will allow players to walk around stations, set up stores, have private rooms etc. When that happens those folks who left to play STO will come back in addition to a whole new influx of players. They've done it numerous times over the last six years with other superhyped MMOs have been introduced, and STO will be no exception.

I'm wondering how popular the game would be if they redesigned it such that the women toons were forced to be fully clothed.

The game is aging, but more importantly, like any MMO, it has maxed out its player base such that most of the "new" players are alts who have no desire to play a massive amount of time to reach level 80 again.  This is why they've allowed people to level faster, give mounts at level 20 and basically nerf the entire game. As I said, it is an indicator that the game has reached it apex and is on a slow downward decline.  Every successful MMO goes through this process and WoW is no exception.

Graphics have to be appealing and lately, if it doesn't say elf, dwarf, orc or undead anywhere on the box I might give it a try.