And that book was also inspired in part by the TOS episode The City on the Edge of Forever, which is regarded as the best Star Trek Episode ever. On another note Imazdi was also the last book that Gene Roddenberry gave his blessing to create before his death. That more or less solidifies the arguement for its importance.

How about something for us Klinks... a new tier 5 ship would be great... or how about a mission?! I will not recruit 5 people for a stinking fed ship which i will never use... Kingon love please... All we have is pvp...

Any item, ship or power that's made available for promotions should also at least be made available in the C-Store to purchase.

That should be a no brainer on Cryptic's part.

This is a carrot. For referrals.

If they made the carrot attainable through an easier means, like the C-Store ... the carrot loses its value. It is no longer an incentive for referrals.

there is no incentive for the referred people to play the game either.

Then don't bother with the referral program?

I'd still personally like to see it as a reward for EITHER bulk of referrals or retention of any one referral.

Ie. get 5 friends to resub an extra month (the current model) or get one friend to sub for 5 additional months (6 total, including the boxed gametime). Having two criteria would make it more attainable and I think the longterm healthier approach would be to encourage each of us to get one friend who will stick around than to get 5 who may not.

That's been one of the better ideas I've seen come out of this discussion. It addresses the complaint of 5 referrals being too many. But then still keeps to the core of the idea. Having one player sub for 6 months. You do the game a service. Mathematically their sub fees equal the effort of 5 friends. But you give the game a sub with some retention value.

I like that idea.

I find the suggestion to put this ship directly into the C-Store is a cop out. It does not consider the intent of the referral program and really only serves to fill players "wants" with no real consideration of what the company is trying to do.

I find your idea actually works within the framework of what the company is trying to do. While still making it easier to obtain the item. Since most of us interested in the thing can probably find one really close friend to go through 6 months of subscribing. Where finding 5 friends is ... less likely.

I disagree completely. By putting incredibly sought after items as a referral only ploy, you alienate a large percentage of the player base by putting the item out of their reach. The only friends I have that would be remotely interested in playing STO already bought the game. We were all there since closed beta. Out of those 12, only myself and one other are still playing and that's only due to my having lifetime and his having a year long membership. the others stopped playing less than 2 months after launch. That's why they're going for the 5 friends with one month payed for approach, they probably don't think they can get but 5% of those who buy in to remain more than one month so they think getting 5 "suckers" to buy in for a month will net them more cash.

They're better off making it for sale in the C-Store and make the cash they can from there as well and avoid ****ing of the those who are loyal c-store spenders.

For how much?

The plan is for 5 subscribers for at least one month. That equates to;

~$20 for game purchase (5 x $20 = $100) + ~15$ for a 1 month subscription (5 x $15 = $75) = ~$175

Why would they put this in the C-Store for $10 or $20?

Just curious about the thinking there...