Community upset causes Cryptic to make a statement on STO promotion

Yes, Cryptic/Atari is under no obligation to its current customers, and is perfectly free to offer new customers a vastly better deal. The $10 is nothing, and most posts in the outrage threads didn't care about it (heck, I got $10 towards my next game at Amazon when I preordered STO, which is basically the same thing).

But, it was a stupid move.

1 - Again, Cryptic/Atari are under no obligations, but given they have a subscription service, doing something that gives a deal to one set of customers and not another, well its not going to make the original customers happy, or want to continue with the service.

2 - The offer suggests the game is doing badly in sales and/or numbers who have already cancelled before the 30 day free period is up. Anyone on the fence (either having bought the game already and deciding if they'll sub, or new buyers), have to ask, is the game really healthy enough I want to invest money and time into it?

3 - How did this decision pass the basic "smell test" - I mean, anyone, anyone who has experience with MMO communities should have realized what a firestorm this would set off. And in MMOs, not all publicity is good publicity. Either they are incompetent or just don't care how people view them. And, really, in either case, it makes you question why anyone would want to do business with them.

Just to be clear, I am more mind boggled by this move than anything else. I effectively paid $40 for the game, feel like I got about $30 of entertainment out of my free month (space combat is fun, just can get repetitive since there's nothing else to do).

I'm a current subscriber. I didn't know new subscribers were being offered this deal until I saw the article. I don't care one bit.

Honestly, it was a really stupid move on Cryptics part, but I'm not going to whine just because someone got a better deal than me.

This move by Cryptic doesn't surprise me in the least. When I purchased Champions, the box was clearly labeled with stickers saying that it included the base 30 days free and a bonus 60 days. Cryptic refused to honor this promotion and the retailer refused to take the game back because it had been opened. I have refused to even consider playing Star Trek online because I will not give Cryptic any monthly fees after they cheated me on Champions.

This is the first time I've ever felt the need to post here, but this whole thing is laughable. Have any o the Cryptic nerd core considered that maybe Atari decided this was a great idea, promoted it, took sales on it and then let the fallout begin?
Ah....... No. Everyone decided it was Cryptic's fault and they should pay.
The Cryptic community looks from the outside to be the most childish and petulant group of rage filled losers on the net.

Wow. What spoil-sports some 'fans' are. So you didn't get the deal. So what - let someone else. It could only have been a good thing for the game. But, I forget (being an American not living in American for eight years) - typical American culture is - me, me, me. 'And if you can't have it, you shouldn't, either.'

I preordered from Amazon.co.uk and *got* extra time, thank you very much. 30 days, iirc. Unfortunately, I didn't find the game enjoyable (space combat feels - silly - to me; I really hated bouncing up against another object and constant circling - really ruined the immersion) so it's wasted time.

So there.

I'm a lifer (not directly affected) and was extremely angry. In part because I knew a few people on the fence about STO who became convinced that the game was worthless after seeing how deep the discount was.

Most angry players I've talked to would have to problem with Atari giving away retail boxes or selling them for $5 or $10.

The issue is that service, which the monthly players still have to pay for, being $0 for new subs. It's uneven levels of service.

It's like repricing a steak at 7 O'Clock in a restaurant and telling anyone on their salad that they don't get the new price.

It's treating gametime as a product rather than a straight up service.

It's a very semantic issue but, for some of us, one that makes us mistrust Atari on everything else if they choose to see gametime as a service when it benefits them to treat it as a service (reverse engineering ban issues, private server issues, bans, their ability to change content) but then say it's not a service but a product when it suits them (promotions, lack of updates, changes in terms, pricing models, etc.)

I think they should have to pick: Product or Service. And then live with that. Personally, I think it's a service but if that's the case, you don't concurrently offer people the same service for different prices or you have built in justifications for the differences aside from "I want to attract customers". It makes you liable to your customers.

You know honestly this was the best thing for new gamers to this game. If it turns people away the more the better. This mmorpg is plauged with bugs an issues, No content was released at launch for the 2nd faction (klingons) only way to level was through pvp, The Pre-order items ended up not being exclusive, Cryptic didn't turn on the pre-order bonus items till the lanuch on2nd so all the items you got were worthless minus uniforms if you played in the headstart, Uniforms missing an other pre-order bonus items that were advertised, They slapped a skill cap on at the last second and chopped the last 5 levels out of the game to add in at the susposed 45 day patch (they are releasing stuff that was in the game that they took away to say it was new content) Some is new but hey w/e works right?.
The quests are repetitive once out of the story line which has good type but is short an even those missions are the SAME THING over an over scan this, kill this scan while killing this, rinse repeat these shallow an depth lacking content. They say this game takes 80 hours to reach final level eh no its less large groups have hit max level with ABSOLUTELY nothing to do but a couple omg repetitive quests over an over an over at least games like galaxies, wow an I can list on didn't have you at max level after 8 days and there was always something differnt to do.
A poor ground pvp system an bunk AI on your away team, semi ok space pvp, No true 3d space flight to go up or down you can't do 90 degree turn you have to circle the drain. The videos that advertised this had about 2 seconds of actual game play rest is cgi falseness not in game.
There is nothing Massive about this game either and thats what bothered me the most, no in game communtiy like you had in SWG,WoW, an a list a mile long where you could walk up an see hundreds of ppl and its because it is so heavily instanced, it feels an play like a single player game. Ok I shouldn't say nothing they have a multi zone chat but thats all that is massive about this game.
Max players in group in mission 5 max players in fleet action 20. Crafting is a total time sink an worthless and totally lacking any depth at all. Its like it was an after thought along with the rest of the game. ( system graphics look good so do ships but its stops there) So over all shallow an waste of money game maybe just maybe in about 6 months to a year this might be worth it, if it stays alive, I was so overly disappointed by this game I quit, and won a refund from steam to get purchase price of 59.99 back.
If your expecting to be Captain Kirk an bodly go you won't if your expecting Trek cannon and the enviorment of exploration an diplomacy, its more like goto this system go here kill this go there, heck they have you turning life support off to jem'hadar egg pods (thats right baby killing in STO) how Trek is that.

I am an OB/headstart player and I dont really have a problem with the deal. We paid extra to play the game for the first month of release - that is the entitlement we got (irrespective of the faults of the game, we still got to play the game a month before people who took the deal!).

Having said that, I do try to play Devils advocate and defend Cryptic where ever possible (assuming there is a defense) but in this case it does seem irresponsible to offer this deal so soon and before the first major patch has come. It seems there is always some kind of controversy coming out of Cryptic HQ these days regarding STO or CO and someone who keeps making these decisions really should take a long look at themself and fall on their sword as people are running out of patience with these stupid decisions...!

For those who said in this thread.. 'I was all set to buy in till I read this thread' blah blah blah...

The offered was over on 3/1/10. You are a day late and dollar short. :P

this game has no content or endgame. if you're on the fence, wait.

Cryptic screwed up, misjudged the existing player base. And, that base is full of whining MFs, but still, Cryitic made a mistake. Ain't no big deal. lol. STO will live for many years and Cryptic will make their profit in the long run. And, as for the marketing department guy who thought up this scheme---he's now been reassigned to the messenger department.