"O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?" the Marvel Way

Source article:  http://www.newsarama.com/comics/hey-thats-my-cape-marvel-deaths-for-sales-110216.html

Go ahead, check it out, then come back.  But if you're the impatient type, I'll just give you the main quote:

David Gabriel, Senior Vice President of Sales at Marvel said, “As a result of the Fantastic Four sales and media coverage, Marvel is going to kill a main character every quarter.”  He then made sure to say, “This is not a joke.”

The article goes on to mention other media-hype "events" such as the death of Captain America,  the death of Johnny Storm, and the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate universe.

Once upon a time, this "leak" might have raised my blood pressure.  That's certainly the reaction Marvel would like to get.  It creates buzz.  The fanboys scream, the mainstream media takes note, and sales rise temporarily as the curious and the collectors turn out.

The problem is, the whole "kill off a main character" schtick has been done to... death.  It's nearly impossible to care anymore.  Everytime a comic book publisher pulls this stunt, it makes it harder to make a splash the next time.  Especially when they're meaningless deaths.

"We really killed him/her off," they promise.  And sooner or later, when the buzz wears off, they create another media event and bring 'em back.

Frankly, who cares?  It's just comics.  But it does cause me to wonder about the social impact of turning death into entertainment.  The real tragedy is not the death of a fictional character, but the death of our sensitivity to mortality.

Executive Producer Dan Stahl Leaves For New Frontiers

As announced today, STO's Executive Producer, Daniel Stahl, will be leaving Cryptic at the end of this month.  The going away message was upbeat and seems to suggest that Dan has another opportunity somewhere else and that this is not involuntary.

Dan presided over a very rocky period in the game's short history, which culminated in an announcement that Star Trek Online would be relaunched as a Free-To-Play MMO along the same lines as Champions Online.

A lot of controversial decisions were made, but nobody can argue that Dan helped to shake things up and keep the game alive.

Dan's interim successor managing the project will be Cryptic's CTO, Stephen D'Angelo.  No word on who might permenently replace him.

Until Free-To-Play... Free-To-Leave

It appears that I must now reverse my opinion of Cryptic and Star Trek Online.  Since my last blog, it has come to light that Cryptic's main agenda is converting STO over to a hybrid Free-To-Play model.

I don't really have a problem with this, except that certain expectations were given on what Cryptic was working on during the "content drought" and those expectations are not entirely accurate. 

I hesitate to use the word "lie".  But it is pretty clear that subscriptions (such as mine) were maintained for months in the hopes that certain features and additional content would be added to the game in a short time frame, but the time frame continues to extend.  And in fact, unknown to me, my paid subscription was helping to fund development toward a free-to-play game.

I might have discontinued my subscription had I but known that F2P development trumped everything else, or I might not.  I could have saved up for future C-Store purchases, or not.  But... regardless of the reasons why, Cryptic was not straight with us about this until Perfect World's CFO leaked that Star Trek Online would go free-to-play by the end of the year.  The fact is that I made a bad decision to continue my subscription based on inaccurate information... and that the inaccurate information was at least partly intentional.

Look, all Cryptic had to say was that new features after Ground Combat 2.0 would be delayed until after the sale was complete.  Or say nothing at all.  I realize that they couldn't spill all the beans, but subscribers were deliberately strung along with empty assurances.  Continuing to promise that specific new stuff (the Duty Officer System and the new Featured Episode series) was coming "soon" when they knew full well that what most subscribing players really wanted was NOT coming until after F2P launched...  I call that misleading.  Sure, they would have lost subscriptions temporarily... but not goodwill.  Goodwill is what they will need when they re-launch STO as a free-to-play game and have to compete with other games for time and attention.

Well, now that I am in possession of the necessary information, I have in fact cancelled my subscription and I'm just waiting for the clock to run out.  I wish I'd known two weeks ago what I know now.  I could have saved myself $15.  I have voted with my wallet to send the message that empty assurances have a price tag.

Will I come back when F2P launches?  Probably.  Will I renew my subscription?  Maybe, if it's worth it.  But the odds are worse than they might have been.  Will I buy Cryptic Points for the C-Store?  Less likely than before, actually, if the prices will be as high as they are for Champions Online.

Will I trust Cryptic's assurances from now on?  Will the Engineering Report encourage me to keep hoping for "All Good Things"?  Not a chance, friend.  From now on my motto is:  "It's in there, or it's vaporware."