If This Is Love, I'd Hate To See Hate

This is my response to a post by CaptainGeko.

More love for Gold members:
If you are a gold member, each time you log in, the system will automatically refine your Dilithium Ore for each day that has passes since you last logged in - up to one week.
The 500 day Veteran reward will now come with a free Vice Admiral ship token (account unlock). This change will be retroactive. If you are a 500 day veteran and already have a character that has earned a Vice Admiral Ship Token, that character will not get another one.

Source: http://forums.startrekonline.com/showpost.php?p=3844420&postcount=1

I've already posted about Dilithium, so I won't spend a lot of time on that point.  Retroactive Dilithium refinement is better than not having it, I suppose, but I'm not sure it's really going to add much QoL to the game for subscribers.  You still have to earn it, and the system is still set up to starve the economy artificially.

VA Ship Tokens.  Or should I say "token", no "s"?  Previously, if you leveled up to VA/LG, you got a VA token for that character.  You could buy a VA ship, even if only for that one character.  Now, you want it, you buy it.  Except that 500 day subscribers can get ONE for free, for ONE character.

Again, better than nothing, but still pretty weak for shelling out $15 a month in my opinion.  An account-wide unlock of one free token for every character, would be more like it.  Players can't sell it, they couldn't get more than one VA ship per character without shelling out more money, so why such a draconian limit?

Sure, there are lots of benefits for Gold accounts... just not any that we care about very much.  I get that they need to make money... but they're already getting steady cash from subscribers.

This isn't really love.  This is more, "We like you... Sort of... It's your money we really love."

Star Trek: The Netflix Frontier

I just need to say that I love the fact that Netflix is carrying all of the episodes of every Star Trek TV series.

I'd been working my way through TNG anyhow.  Last night while enduring a bout of insomnia I caught the opener for Deep Space Nine.  Pseudo-religious babble aside, I'd forgotten how awesome this show was.  I'll have to start fitting this in to my limited geek viewing schedule.

I may never have enough time to get through them all, but it's nice to know they're there.

The Marvel Office

Here's the reason behind the management problems at Marvel Comics:

Coincidence?  I think not.

Dilithium Dilemma

So... STO's economy revamp is shaping up to be the worst idea Cryptic has ever had, from a player's standpoint.  Bear in mind all my information here is second-hand, because I'm still not subbing.  (One of the best financial decisions I ever made.)

The idea behind Dilithium is that it is a "time-based currency".  In other words, you only get it by investing time in playing the game.  Or, eventually, by trading for it with C-Points.  All of the good stuff in the game is eventually going to cost either Dilithium or C-Store points.  Probably necessary, considering they want players with free accounts to spend money in the C-Store.

The real problem with this idea is that Dilithium costs are way too high, if the forums are to be believed.  You have to buy ships with it, you have to buy gear with it, and now you need it for crafting, too.  The Dilithium economy is capped with a restriction on how much of it you can refine per day... because while the game awards you with unrefined Dilithium ore, you can only spend the refined stuff.

It seems to me that Dilithium is being set up to be in high demand.  Too high, I suspect.  I have a feeling that the demand will not only exceed the supply, but that it will "starve" players out of the economy and out of the game.  Cryptic will have to adjust it of course, but not before STO's reputation takes yet another hit.

Worse, subscribers who pay their monthly fee appear to get very little respite from the Dilithium demand.  They'll have to grind it like everybody else, or they'll be spending their meager stipend of C-Store points on nothing but Dilithium and not enough to do them any real good.

Here's my suggestion, but I can't tell Cryptic because as a non-subber I am locked out of their forums:  Make Dilithium REALLY time-based.  Subscribers should get Dilithium just for time logged in, over and above whatever they get actually playing the game.  Or even a small amount just for subscription time.  If Cryptic does that, I can just about guarantee that they'll not only preserve their existing subscriber base, they'll get others like me to resub.

Spock attends his last ‘Star Trek’ convention - Chicago Sun-Times

Spock attends his last ‘Star Trek’ convention - Chicago Sun-Times

"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.