I'm tired of the C-Store

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Well, since you saw fit to create this subforum... here you go...

I'm tired of the C-Store. Extra character slots, renaming your character, a respec token that can be earned in-game, OK fine. Playable races, ship skins, bridge layouts, that cannot be had by any other means, NO. We are paying to play.

If you want to continue with the C-Store then you should just put everything on the C-Store and make the monthly fee optional. This gives us two ways to play. We either opt out of the monthly fee and have to buy everything from the C-Store (the type of stuff there now and the Season updates) or we pay the monthly fee and get the Season updates and everything else for free (or some amount of Cryptic points per month to purchase the type of things that are in the C-Store now).

I got free Cryptic points with my DDE and from the Survey. These I will eventually spend, but I will never spend money on Cryptic points to buy stuff in the C-Store. It's a double dip and I will not partake, which means I'm going to miss out on some content, which pretty much blows.

Hopefully you will change things or give us opportunities (other than the referral program... that is not going to work for me) to get free Cryptic points so we can buy things from the C-Store without us having to shell out money above and beyond the monthly fee. Again, it's a double dip and I refuse to pay extra for things I feel should be included in my subscription. Game content is game content.

[Archived Post]

Well, since you saw fit to create this subforum... here you go...

I'm tired of the C-Store. Extra character slots, renaming your character, a respec token that can be earned in-game, OK fine. Playable races, ship skins, bridge layouts, that cannot be had by any other means, NO. We are paying to play.

If you want to continue with the C-Store then you should just put everything on the C-Store and make the monthly fee optional. This gives us two ways to play. We either opt out of the monthly fee and have to buy everything from the C-Store (the type of stuff there now and the Season updates) or we pay the monthly fee and get the Season updates and everything else for free (or some amount of Cryptic points per month to purchase the type of things that are in the C-Store now).

I got free Cryptic points with my DDE and from the Survey. These I will eventually spend, but I will never spend money on Cryptic points to buy stuff in the C-Store. It's a double dip and I will not partake, which means I'm going to miss out on some content, which pretty much blows.

Hopefully you will change things or give us opportunities (other than the referral program... that is not going to work for me) to get free Cryptic points so we can buy things from the C-Store without us having to shell out money above and beyond the monthly fee. Again, it's a double dip and I refuse to pay extra for things I feel should be included in my subscription. Game content is game content.

I completely agree with this post. Frankly I find the C-store distasteful. You give us a very unfinished game with a major lack of (endgame) content, yet instead of implementing the new ships, bridges and races as something to work towards to ingame, you keep the game as shallow as it is and dump the stuff in your C-store.
The C-store should have been an alternative way of acquiring certain ingame rewards, and not the only way.

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agreed everything should be obtainable through ingame means instead of paying for it. It is just bad

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I completely agree with this post. Frankly I find the C-store distasteful. You give us a very unfinished game with a major lack of (endgame) content, yet instead of implementing the new ships, bridges and races as something to work towards to ingame, you keep the game as shallow as it is and dump the stuff in your C-store.
The C-store should have been an alternative way of acquiring certain ingame rewards, and not the only way.

I would not have a problem with the C-Store if all the game content in the C-Store was attainable in-game. There are several good ways to do it.

Playable races could be unlocked by aiding one of their planets or distressed ships. Ship skins and bridges could be unlocked by accolades, you aided 20 planets, did 50 explore missions, or rescued a prominent figure, etc.

Imagine doing exploration missions and getting an "Aid a Planet" and then discovering it's a rare "Aid a Tellarite Planet" mission, which when completed unlocks the playable Tellarites. Or imagine flying around sector space and getting a random distress call to aid or rescue a Tellarite ship, which when completed unlocks playable Tellarites. Not only are these types of missions sorely needed in the game, but the rewards are actually worth something. And it makes things in the C-Store attainable in-game, which in turn makes the C-Store items simply a time-savor for those that don't want to grind and have to have their bling now.

Hopefully, Cyptic will see this thread and take some action.

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Hm. In WoW, I thought the only way one could gain new races was to buy the expansions. Maybe I'm incorrect in this.

I could research this, but it's not really important enough to do more than post the position.

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I'm of two minds on this. While I love the idea of alternate methods of getting things, I do think we should have known prior to purchase (where existing things are concerned) that there would be these alternate methods, so we could make an informed choice.

For example if someone paid $10 for something and find out after they could have gotten it for free in game, they'd feel stupid. On the other hand, if everything had an in game method of obtaining, then nothing would sell on the c-store. Which I know wouldn't concern you, but would concern Cryptic.

Perhaps an interesting compromise would be to attach Free C-points to the various Veteran Reward packages.

Players win because they can get free things of their choice without being forced to pay extra. Players who bought things prior also win, because they could buy more things. And Cryptic wins because it further encourages long term customers.

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agreed everything should be obtainable through ingame means instead of paying for it. It is just bad

Careful what you wish for.

Have you played the STFs?

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I 100 percent agree with this thread/post.

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I kind of agree with this post, but I also like the idea of one of the other posters ...

I think it would be great if one of the veterans rewards were some Cryptic points so people who love the game and don't feel that anything should have to be paid for would be able to get things in the C-store just by being loyal to the game.

This will also let the people who want everything right away and don't care about the cost to be able to buy the points and spend them anyway they want.

Just My 2¢.......

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Still can't believe people are complaining about the C-Store...

Seriously.... it was a well known FACT that there would be a lot of C-store stuff already long before the game launched or entered Open Beta.

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Get used to it. Cryptic are hell bent on making this a Korean style cash shop MMO, with a western monthy fee tacked on.
The sad thing is, that's fast becoming the lesser of two evils, as the alternative is game content being used for "exclusive" promotions, where you must play salesman for Cryptic or do god knows what else in the coming months (the new t5 Intrepid with "Endgame" armor! Yours when you get 5 friends to buy a lifetime subscription!).

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Still can't believe people are complaining about the C-Store...

Seriously.... it was a well known FACT that there would be a lot of C-store stuff already long before the game launched or entered Open Beta.

The complaining never really stopped, its just become more vocalnow because people are starting to have enough of it. Most people were expecting, as Cryptic said, lots of fluff items, like vanity pets and the like, I don't think the majority of people were expecting new ship skins and races (with traits only available to these races).

As it is now, the games itemisation is pretty boring, the only item in the game with any kind of creative itemisation is the MK IV efficient engine, other than that all the items are almost the same, but instead of adding more items to the game for people to work towards achieveing, the game is seeing a constant flow of items you have to pay for ontop of your monthly subscription. I also believe the reason people are complaining more now is because people have used up the free c-store points they got from pre-orders and the questionairre and its sinking in they have to actualy use real money nowto buy the c-store points to buy these items.

I think its perfectly reasonable for people to get annoyed with the C-store to be honest, it feels like every patch is devoting more items to the C-store, with very little content wise been added to the game, if this was a F2P game I'd have no issue with it, but some of the items in the C-store are way past been vanity items and adding races, like Caitens, which so many people have asked to be included as a race you have to actually pay for just seems a bt low to me.

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The complaining never really stopped, its just become more vocalnow because people are starting to have enough of it. Most people were expecting, as Cryptic said, lots of fluff items, like vanity pets and the like, I don't think the majority of people were expecting new ship skins and races (with traits only available to these races).

A ship skin is a fluff item. I have the imperial skin. That assault cruiser does the exact same thing in game whether I have a sovereign skin or an imperial skin on it.

The playable races that have been put in there ... so far don't have anything all that popular or that you can't emulate elsewhere, in terms of gameplay impact.

There's even been an entire crusade launched by one poster about how horrible and how in need of an update the playable ferengi race's traits really are.

A crusade I support, simply because the trait choices don't fit the ferengi story all that well from the shows.

I don't think Pakleds dumb luck or the Maelstrom are really ticking people off here.

EDIT: And really, I don't think it's the C-Store at all. Because in the midst of this HUGE storm of fury and bluster about the referral program ... the most oft-given suggestion by poster after poster after poster was ... to put the Galaxy X IN the C-Store.

Irony. It burns through your shields quickly. Polarize the hull!

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And really, I don't think it's the C-Store at all. Because in the midst of this HUGE storm of fury and bluster about the referral program ... the most oft-given suggestion by poster after poster after poster was ... to put the Galaxy X IN the C-Store.

Irony. It burns through your shields quickly. Polarize the hull!

Thats one thing I cringe at everytime I hear it, that its starting to become acceptable in the playerbase for an item that a player wants to be added to a store where you have to buy it, instead of been added as content in the game to help retain people, right now the game feels more like a 'collectors trading store' with all the items in the C-store.

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You all had better just get use to MT's. Its becoming industry standard. Take a look at what happened to DDO. From my understanding, that game was on the brink. They made it a free to play game with MT's and also offer a monthly sub like regular MMO's. Since then, the game has turned into a cash cow. Turbine was a private company and very hush hush on numbers. With the success of their new busness model, they had no issues posting the info. Get use to it folks, MT's are here to stay.

One more thing I wish to remind you all. These are For Profit companies. They are out to make Money! And it It just so happens, they make their money by making games. You can whine, belleyache, nerdrage all you want.....you will Not change that fact.

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Thats one thing I cringe at everytime I hear it, that its starting to become acceptable in the playerbase for an item that a player wants to be added to a store where you have to buy it, instead of been added as content in the game to help retain people, right now the game feels more like a 'collectors trading store' with all the items in the C-store.

indeed it seems like a marketiing ploy in a way, allow me to put my tin foil hat on for a sec *rummages around*

they could be telling us about the ship in the referral program in the hopes that, given that worse alternative, we'll accept the 'lesser evil' of the c-store that we would normally rage about if it was simply placed there.

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Careful what you wish for.

Have you played the STFs?

yes and i do not mind clearing them, i run them with pug's for fun. I know suprising isnt it, someone enjoying himself.

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You all had better just get use to MT's. Its becoming industry standard. Take a look at what happened to DDO. From my understanding, that game was on the brink. They made it a free to play game with MT's and also offer a monthly sub like regular MMO's. Since then, the game has turned into a cash cow. Turbine was a private company and very hush hush on numbers. With the success of their new busness model, they had no issues posting the info. Get use to it folks, MT's are here to stay.

One more thing I wish to remind you all. These are For Profit companies. They are out to make Money! And it It just so happens, they make their money by making games. You can whine, belleyache, nerdrage all you want.....you will Not change that fact.

You make an interesting point. But thank god my console gaming system doesn't use any sort of microtransactions. God imagine what it would be like to have that kind of horrible greedy idea infect the pure, harmonious ivory tower of my x-box 360.

;)

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We can thank horse armor for this.
But that's neither here nor there.

Way before that, people paid almost the price of the game for extra content. They call them expansion packs.
Some people would argue that the game should have been that way the whole time, then there would be nothing to complain about.

On the other hand, we're stuck with it now, and to be honest, I prefer the micro transaction approach over the expansion approach. It can be less expensive in the long run. And it's optional.

With an expansion pack, if you don't buy it, in many cases, you can't play that game's extra content. The patch requires a certain version, and you don't have it, or you'll never get to see what everyone else who did buy it can enjoy on a regular basis.

With the C-store, everyone can buy, or they don't have to.
As marginal an option as that is, it's still an optional purchase.

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Get used to it. Cryptic are hell bent on making this a Korean style cash shop MMO, with a western monthy fee tacked on.
The sad thing is, that's fast becoming the lesser of two evils, as the alternative is game content being used for "exclusive" promotions, where you must play salesman for Cryptic or do god knows what else in the coming months (the new t5 Intrepid with "Endgame" armor! Yours when you get 5 friends to buy a lifetime subscription!).

I do not disagree with this post! This does not sound to far off the mark?

LT. Expendable how does a lifetime subscriber get banned?

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I do not disagree with this post! This does not sound to far off the mark?

LT. Expendable how does a lifetime subscriber get banned?

By telling the truth.

I fully expect them to ban me for criticizing them.

There is a huge difference between being a fan, and being a fanboi.

Actually, probably the best thing that could happen to a dissatisfied LTS is a permaban, that's all you would need to get a refund, not from Cryptic, from your bank (assuming you used a Visa or Mastercard).

If Cryptic would agree to give me back just $100 of the cost of my LTS, I'd go voluntarily, and they still would have made a profit off of me.

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Still can't believe people are complaining about the C-Store...

Seriously.... it was a well known FACT that there would be a lot of C-store stuff already long before the game launched or entered Open Beta.

2nd

Like give it a break already, half the stuff is fluff anyways. Its not needed to play the game..its optional, if you want it so bad...get it..stop restorting to complaining...like a bunch of 5 yr olds.. I swear :rolleyes:

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By telling the truth.

I fully expect them to ban me for criticizing them.

There is a huge difference between being a fan, and being a fanboi.

Actually, probably the best thing that could happen to a dissatisfied LTS is a permaban, that's all you would need to get a refund, not from Cryptic, from your bank (assuming you used a Visa or Mastercard).

If Cryptic would agree to give me back just $100 of the cost of my LTS, I'd go voluntarily, and they still would have made a profit off of me.

You can be banned from the forums and still have access to the game. And play the game. And what not.

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indeed it seems like a marketiing ploy in a way, allow me to put my tin foil hat on for a sec *rummages around*

they could be telling us about the ship in the referral program in the hopes that, given that worse alternative, we'll accept the 'lesser evil' of the c-store that we would normally rage about if it was simply placed there.

Honestly, this was my first reaction on hearing about the RAF/Galaxy-X issue. It's not too far a stretch considering the very bad behavior of certain businesses. Though I hope it's just me being cynical/jaded.

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You all had better just get use to MT's. Its becoming industry standard. Take a look at what happened to DDO. From my understanding, that game was on the brink. They made it a free to play game with MT's and also offer a monthly sub like regular MMO's. Since then, the game has turned into a cash cow. Turbine was a private company and very hush hush on numbers. With the success of their new busness model, they had no issues posting the info. Get use to it folks, MT's are here to stay.

One more thing I wish to remind you all. These are For Profit companies. They are out to make Money! And it It just so happens, they make their money by making games. You can whine, belleyache, nerdrage all you want.....you will Not change that fact.

DDO's model is as i suggested in my OP. Cryptic's model is bologna and not only am I tired of the C-Store, I'm also tired of people asking for game content to be placed in the C-Store. The game content people are requesting should be put in the game as part of the monthly fee. That's what we are paying for, or already paid for in my case.

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I think some things are ok for the c-store and some things are not.

Playable races for example make me pause, as I think races should be included in the game package and factions through expansions.

I was under the impression that only fluff items and only some game features such as respecs where pretty much the only thing we would see hit the store.

Char re-names cost I think no matter what game you go to.

It would take all the gamers in the world to stand up and say "not in my game" with so many companies using purchaseable items, well at least a majority of the players anyways.

Even Blizzard has a store, they have non-combat pets and at least one mount for sale in theirs.

It is not a really big deal as long as they do not go overboard with it.
If they can make a little extra money to get us more content and at a faster rate than I am not too concerned as long as they set up some boundries and keep within them.

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I have a relative simple solution that would help alleviate the c-store headache and add some extra content for free to help those bored RA-5 at least have *something* to grind for.

Make missions offer c-store points as rewards upon completion.

It doesn't have to be a whole ton of points, maybe just 1 or 2 on normal, 3-4 on advanced and 5-6 on elite. (And if that's too fast only let RA 5's accumulate them)

For those of us at RA 5 without anything beyond some dailies to run there's not a whole lot of incentive to log in every day/weekend (or even stay subbed until season 2 comes out) however many bored RA-5's I suspect would be happy to grind for their "fluff" and doubly so for the extra races and new ships. (if there were any)

C-store stuff would still sell through MT to the "I want it now* players who don't feel like grinding 100-200+ missions for the reward, as well as and the casual gamers who don't play often enough to grind for their fluff in any realistic period of time.

Combine this with making missions scale to the highest rank of the team member doing it, and suddenly there's incentive to play through all those missed lt 4 and lc 2 mission people skipped over while sailing towards RA 5 and the brick wall of doom.


* * * * *
On the subject of the whole "Refer a friend to get a awesome ship you'll never get anywhere else" scheme:

I understand greed prevents the addition of the ship to the game for free but at the very least add this stuff to the c-store as well, so those of us who already "referred a friend" (or three) before this offer came out don't get shafted as badly.


* * * * *

On the subject of "Wow charged for an expansion to get new races:"

True, to play a Blood Elf or a Dreanai you had to buy an expansion, but that expansion came with a whole lot more then new races; it came with 10 more level and and entire new world area] with a ton of content to expand end game.

Also more importantly, you very likely already had the character slots available to roll up the new race fi you wanted to and anjoy it.

Here it's "buy a new race" and if you are like most people with 3 chars already rolled and being played it's "fork over more cash" for the char slot so you can actually make one without deleting the toons you already put work into.

In short, include a free char slot for each new race purchased and lay off milking that poor cash cow, her teats are already mighty sore from the rest of your abuse. ;)

* * * *
On the C-store in general:

It really does feel like a money grab selling things like "character slots" when virtually every other mmo out there lets you have around 5+ chars and the hard drive space for each one is less then 100kb of data.

If they insist on making such an obvious money grab out of such things they should at least lower the monthly fee to $8 or so or the c-store cost of stuff to something more reasonable than hundreds points.

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Giving Cryptic Points as rewards for level-cap content, currently RA5, is a welcome idea. I'm open to any change that will allow us to acquire game content currently being placed in the C-Store without us having to spend money above and beyond the subscription fee.

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There is also the underlying question if a sub-based game should have an item store at all, but well.

I would like to second the idea to make the C-Store a "convenience store", i.e. you can obtain the stuff for ingame activities or special achievements, or you pay for it if you are lazy.

The other idea is to make this a Free 2 Play game. But this would put even more emphasis on the C-Store, as the game would need to give players incentives to buy from the store, otherwise it would simply not work that way.

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How many times does this thread need to be made before people get the point? The C-Store will not be going away. If people are not willing to but an item out of the C-store they will just stop making that type of item. (Ship Skins) You may feel that you are being double charged because you pay a sub and then have to buy this crap from the store, as far as Cryptic is concerned you are paying a sub to plat the game and then you have the option of buying this extra crap on top of that.

Even if all the stuff in the store became free tomorrow there would be nothing to do with it because most of us are VAs stuck wandering around hoping for the day we get some kind of new playable content. How my character is dressed when that day comes is less important to me then how many more months it is going to take for that day to come.

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What a Necrotic Strike !

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Dammit. Not ANOTHER zombie thread.

**pulls out a shotgun and Molotov cocktail**

Time to put this thread to rest.

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Hey guys,
This is a somewhat outdated and old thread, so we're going to close her down.

Thanks.