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PvP Weekly Update 05/18/2012

Hi folks,

Here we are at weekly update number two. Don’t have a great deal of information to share with you this week but I can give you an update on where we are in the process.

Before we get into that though, I want to clarify something from last week’s post. There seems to be some confusion about the fact that only one person is working on PvP at the moment. I think this stems from the fact that most players are unaware of the process that’s involved when creating (or re-creating in this case) a complete system in a game. When I say “system”, I’m talking about large scale features like Crafting and Duty Officers.

The process generally has multiple stages and depending on the stage you may only need one person actually working on it. Right now we are in a very early stage with the re-design of PvP. We don’t need multiple people devoted to the system at the moment. This doesn’t mean other team members are not involved in the process.

Creating a new system in a game is much like building a new house. You start with an architect (one person) and later on you need more people with different skill sets to complete the overall goal. For instance a house will eventually need electricians, plumbers and lots of general contractors before its completely finished. Game systems will need designers, artists, and programmers before it is complete and ready to be released. Hope this example helps to clear up the confusion.

This brings me to where we are at in the re-design process of PvP at the current time.

At the moment I am in the process of defining the overall big picture of PvP. I’m looking at your feedback, I’m looking at what other games are doing, I’m talking with Dan and Jack and other team members about what features they would like to see in the system. I’m also taking a long look at the current capabilities of our game engine in relation to any new or improved features planed for PvP.

I’m actually making a great deal of progress but that sort of progress is generally invisible to you guys the players. I’m hoping that this weekly forum update will keep you involved in the process and give you an idea of where we are at and where we might be going with the system overall.

If you want to help me right now in this current stage of the process, what I need are ideas. Tell me what you would like to see, tell me what you think would be great features we should consider for a new PvP system. Just post an idea, how you think it adds to PvP, how you think it fits within the IP, and why you think it’s a “must have” new feature. Later on in the process I’ll be asking for different kinds of feedback but at the moment this is really the only kind of feedback that really helps.

That’s about it for this week, I should have a few more juicy items for you next week .

Have a good weekend,

Goz

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Call them lockboxes, lootboxes, super packs, gift packs, treasure boxes, mystic chests, or Chupacabra's lunchpails, but these virtual boxes of mystery, fame, and fortune are all the rage in MMOs these days. Few studios have resisted the siren's call of such easy money, much to the dismay of many-a-gamer.

The idea is that a game will dish out to players free locked treasure boxes that require purchased keys to open. The allure of the box's mystery prize is often too strong to resist, especially when there's the possibility of a huge reward inside. The result too often is strong buyer's remorse and studio glee.

There's been a lot of conversation around lockboxes here on Massively, so I wanted to dedicate this week's Perfect Ten to dissecting the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of these items for you.


1. Lockboxes are gambling, plain and simple.

If anyone tries to refute the above claim to you, then be prepared to listen to a chain of logic so twisted and bent that it's probably been run through a yoga class. The simple truth of all this is that you're plunking down a set amount of real-world money for a possibility of getting a reward you desire. It's gambling.

It's gambling... except it's worse.

You know what would be weird? If you walked into a casino and none of the machines or tables told you the odds. Everything else would be the same: the payout, the mechanics, the money required to play, but no odds. Just give us your money and hope you win but never have a clue how great or small your chances are of actually winning.


That is lockboxes in a nutshell. Nobody's forcing MMO studios to disclose odds, and it's in their best interests to not do it. They wouldn't want to scare away those pocketbooks, after all!


2. The house always wins.

Any smart person knows that it's never in a gambling establishment's best interests to have its clients win more than the house. Over time, the house always wins. Period.

This is no different when it comes to MMOs utilizing lockboxes, except that the situation is even more stacked against the player. Not only are the odds never disclosed (see #1), but the studio is risking absolutely nothing by offering these rewards. You think a Cardassian joy-cruiser costs any more or less to virtually produce than a few XP potions?

The studio risks nothing by losing and gains everything by your simply playing (and paying).


3. You feel wasteful if you throw out lockboxes.

What enrages a lot of folks over lockboxes is that it's hard not to feel like we're being psychologically manipulated with this system. You know why we feel like that? Because we are -- and in so many, many ways.

Not only do studios dangle the promise of powerful rewards by taking the easy path of a credit card payment, but they go the extra step of making you feel bad if you don't participate. Most games that I know utilize lockboxes hand them out like candy to players. "Here!" the game grins, "Have one! Or two! It's free! All for you!"

Before you know it, your inventory is packed full of these boxes you've discovered. The problem is that you can't open them without that expensive key. Sure, you could just throw the box away (I do and never regret it), but there's that part of your brain that's telling you you've already won whatever is in that box. It's yours, by golly! Why would you waste it by tossing it aside?

See how you're being played?


4. Lockboxes can jeopardize an MMO's standing in a country.

The lockbox phenomenon has been going on a lot longer in the East than it has in the West, and as such many of those countries have butted heads with the game companies over these shady practices. As a result, there have been laws and regulations put into place to hold back the companies from going full-on Ebenezer Scrooge on players, but American and European governments have yet to respond in kind.

I'm just saying that if the argument can be made that lockboxes are virtual gambling, then they're going to end up as subjects of court rulings and possible legal entanglements. We've already seen this happen, and there's no reason to think it won't occur again.


5. Lockboxes cheapen any MMO in which they appear.

People care deeply about their MMOs, sometimes to the point of silliness, but the emotion is genuine. The games we love we want to see succeed, thrive, and live for a long time. What we don't generally want is for someone with a polyester sports coat, pinkie rings, and greased-back hair stomping into our beloved playgrounds and "classing up the joint" by throwing slot machines everywhere.

Lockboxes are tacky. There, I said it. They don't add to the atmosphere or the fun; they just exist to make money and be obnoxious about doing so. They're a sign to me that a developer has sold out on standards to an extent and has little concern for the original vision of the game or the players' feelings of ownership. They take away the pretense of earning anything through skill or time and just trade it for money and randomness.


6. Lockboxes tarnish the good aspects of the free-to-play model.

You'd think that with my obvious distaste for lockboxes I've soured on that whole F2P "fad," but that's not the truth. I actually love F2P. I think it helps more than harms the industry, and it aggravates me when elements of it like lockboxes spoil the rest of the model's reputation by association.

What people want is the ability to just outright purchase the item they like. You know, as if you were in a store. But since that's just a one-time purchase with a fixed cost, it doesn't have the same potential as a lockbox, which may reward the same item only after multiple purchases often costing far more money than the item is worth.

One blogger investigated how many of Star Trek Online's red gift boxes would be opened to statistically ensure that a Jem'Hadar ship would be looted. It came out to 153 tries (and $153 spent). No wonder the studios don't want to tell you the odds.

I guess that with any business model, you're going to have the potential for good business-client endeavors as well as the bad. Doesn't mean we have to like it all or throw it all out.


7. Public support for lockboxes is minuscule.

Here's the crazy thing that most people can't quite comprehend: People publicly hate lockboxes, and yet the lockboxes persist. Players who come out supporting their inclusion in any MMO are far outnumbered by those who think they're evil. Every major MMO I've seen that put them in has suffered a constant forum barrage of angry players yelling at the company to take them out of the game. Heck, we've gotten into this fight more than once.

It's pretty much a PR disaster for any game studio. Some studios try to reason with players, ignore the controversy, or even disguise it somewhat. Recently, many MMOs have made a token effort to offer free keys as drops or what have you in the game, but that dog won't hunt. It's a losing battle to try to convince players that a studio's scamming them for money is a good thing.

So if there's so little public support and its giving these studios black eyes, why do it? Well, that's simple:


8. Lockboxes make money, and that's hard for F2P studios to ignore.

I don't have any solid numbers on this, but there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to support it, not to mention developers who justify lockboxes by saying just this.

Let's step into an MMO game studio's shoes for a minute. Making games is a business. The studio's bottom line is to make money, ideally by doing something the developers love. If it does not make money, it closes up shop, and the online game that cannot function alone. So making a healthy profit is paramount to the studio's and game's survival, and it is almost impossible to ignore a proven hit source of revenue that costs very little to set up and will most certainly make bucketfuls of cash.

What would you do, Mr. or Ms. Business Owner? Ignore piles of money on principle or suck up the bad PR and make money back for the company and its investors?


9. It's in the studio's best interest to push lockboxes as hard as they can.

Once you are sliding down that slippery slope of compromised values, it is hard to put on the brakes. You might as well go for the gusto and advertise these lockboxes up the kazoo. (That's my column limit for cutesy words, by the way.)

It is a little like movie studios pushing popcorn concessions or restaurants pushing wine: There are the big profit margins to be made, and it would be negligent for the company to undersell it.

This is why we get obnoxious moves like STO throwing a message up on every player's screen whenever the big prize is looted from a lockbox by someone else in the game. I don't mean to keep single out STO here, but it's just the most blatant about these practices, so it invites criticism.


10. Lockboxes open the back door to real money trading.

RMT is another hot topic that I am not interested in judging today, but it is important to note that lockboxes can and sometimes do establish roundabout ways for a game to engage in RMT without being blatant about the practice.

How so? Well, if the game allows you to sell anything you find in the lockbox to other players, you've got a quick way to make a virtual buck with a real one. Say you buy a pack of in-game trading cards (SOE is famous for these) or a lockbox and find a very rare treasure. You can then sell the item you bought with real-world cash for in-game currency, and the RMT gods smile down on you.

This is not the most egregious aspect of lockboxes, but it is worth noting and watching.

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We will be bringing the Tribble server down for maintenance to apply a new update.
ST.17.20120423a.18

UPDATED to clarify Runabout pet note.

General:

Pressing Escape and changing maps will no longer cause the power tray to change positions.
Resolved an issue that prevented dragging powers to the power trays.
Foundry authors should get better results when setting up dialog trees with Bridge Officers, especially on the Klingon side.
Updated tooltips and descriptions for some carrier pets to resolve some typos.
Runabout carrier pet Tractor Beam performance scales with their quality level.

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Recently Cryptic Studios' Star Trek Online team has pressed forward with a mix of new releases and old reruns in an effort to entertain the playerbase while we await the anticipated release of Season 6 in June.

Some of the recent releases, such as Spotlight on the Foundry, a new Klingon mission titled Alpha, the new Caitian Atrox carrier for the Federation faction, and a duty officer commendation XP bonus weekend, have all been fairly well-received. We have also seen the return of the Ask Cryptic blogs, and apparently we will also be seeing the return of the fan-favorite Engineering Reports at the end of this month.

The question remains, however, whether or not the those relative successes can overcome the controversies that seem to surround the game's other recent releases -- namely, the introduction of what is arguably a new currency and the infusion of yet another time-gated mission.


Featured Episode reruns return!

Huzzah, right?! Right?! Well, I have to admit, there are new players who will be very happy to see the return of the unique rewards offered for the completion of the Featured Episode series. Players will recall that the four series consist of The Devidians, The Breen, Cloaked Intentions, and most recently, The 2800.

From May 3rd to May 10th, players can undertake the Devidian series again, and upon completion of the final mission (The Night of the Comet), they can obtain the useful Ophidian cane.

Each subsequent week, a different series will become available to replay so that its unique reward can be obtained: a Breen Tactical bridge officer from the Breen series, a Reman Science bridge officer from Cloaked Intentions, and the Shard of Possibilities from The 2800.

However, veteran players were just a tad disappointed with the reruns of missions they've already played and from which they've already received the rewards. Where is their incentive to replay those missions?

And Cryptic responded: Lobi Crystals. Lobi crystals? What are they, you ask? Well, let's get down to it, shall we?


Is it a currency or isn't it?

It should come as no real surprise to anyone who has played STO since the game transitioned to the free-to-play model that the changes in priorities of the development of the game have been tumultuous at best.

The introduction of the new currency called dilithium was meant to unify and replace the myriad currencies the game had before the F2P change. Medals, marks, and emblems were all combined into dilithium that is also tradable for C-Store points, which can be purchased for real-life currency. An exchange was even created so the market could handle the ebb and flow of the value of the dilithium in comparison to the C-Store points. Gone were the days when non-tradable currencies likes marks or emblems would hang around gathering dust... or so we thought.

Enter Lobi Crystals, STO's response to the supposed cries for a "second-chance currency" for those who bought the revenue-generating keys and opened lockboxes but didn't get what they really wanted.

Currently, there are two ways to obtain Lobi Crystals. The first way is to replay the Featured Episodes during this month's reruns of all four series. There is only one crystal hidden in each episode, and that crystal can only be obtained once. This means that a player has the ability to earn a total of 20 crystals during the month of May, and then only if he finds each one hidden in all 20 episodes. He cannot grind the missions over and over in order to gain more crystals.

If he wants more than 20 crystals, he'll have to use the second method for obtaining them, and that's by obtaining a key to open a lockbox. Each lockbox contains an item, which is at least supposed to be desirable, like an XP boost, a set of consumable battle pets or batteries, or even the Ferengi D'Kora Marauder ship. But the boxes also contain a small (very small) number of Lobi crystals.

The crystals are non-tradable. They can be used only to buy items at the Lobi Crystal Consortium at Drozana Station. The store has a selection of uniquely desirable items that include a Ferengi shuttle, a MACO tactical bridge officer, ship consoles, Klingon skirts, and other costume pieces. All of those items can be obtained only by collecting Lobi crystals, and the only real way you can gather more than 20 crystals is by buying keys and opening lockboxes.

The prices of the items in the store range from the "we're-sorry-we-screwed-up-the-initial-launch-of-this-crystal-thing-so-we'll-drop-in-one-cheap-item-so-people-playing-the-reruns-of-the-Featured-Episodes-can-get-it-without-having-to-spend-real-cash" 15 Lobi Crystals to 800 crystals for the Ferengi Shuttle.

When opened, most lockboxes contain anywhere from one to ten crystals and very rarely contain 100. Each key costs 100 C-Store points (approximately $1.25 US). Therefore, a player earning two to five crystals per box may have to spend $250-$400 in order to collect enough crystals to obtain the 800-crystal shuttle. Yes, it could be less than that. It could also be much, much more.

Of course, it's possible to grind the game to earn enough dilithium to trade for C-Store points to obtain a key. The going rate on the exchange is hovering around 300 dilithium for each C-Store point, meaning a player would have to earn at least 30,000 dilithium to buy one key. Since it's possible to earn only 8000 dilithium per day, it would take that player four days of max playing to earn a single key and then would likely only result in two Lobi crystals.


Whose time is it anyway?

On top of the hoopla the Lobi Crystal Consortium has caused, Cryptic pulled another stunner by releasing a highly anticipated mission in the popular shuttle/small craft map called The Vault.

The downside has been that the mission has been made available for play only on a completely arbitrary schedule. The mission has been relegated to the game's "event calendar" and appears on a floating schedule twice every 24 hours.

Players have one hour to complete the mission as many times as possible in order to earn Reman datalogs, which can be used to generate a special duty officer assignment, and in turn, can reward gear "including a very rare set of Mark XII ship equipment" if you're successful.

The obvious problem with the release has been the mere fact that it's available only for two hours every day. There are two other "event" missions in the game: the Mirror Universe events and the Borg Invasion of Defera. They are also time-gated.

The community (including me) has made its dissatisfaction with the expansion of restricted play heard pretty well in the forums and on many of the podcasts that focus on STO. A company representative recently tried to explain the use of restricted play as a means to corral players into the game at specific times of the day. While that may be true, there seems to be a majority of players who have jobs, families, community responsibilities, and hobbies that take priority over a video game. It seems counterintuitive for a game to make itself and its content less available to those who want to play it when they can, not when a developer says it's OK.

I have yet to play any of the restricted missions. I would like to. I'm the game's biggest Obisek fan, and I really would like to hear that Reman voice once more, but I'm not about to interrupt my work day or put off making dinner for my family in order to go listen to it.

I look forward to reading everyone's feedback on these subjects. Tell me why I'm wrong (or right). Tell me why Lobi crystals aren't a currency or why timed play is beneficial to the game.

Until next week, live long and prosper!

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Q: When will we eventually be allowed to group with feds outside of STF and vise versa ?

Any cross faction grouping is happening on a per mission basis. For Season 6 we plan to introduce a new PVP mission that allows cross faction teaming.

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