Lt. Commander
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 120
# 111
09-15-2011, 05:31 PM
Originally Posted by castmodean View Post
I have been listening tonight alone to a core of dedicated authors who are becoming increasingly fed up with the state things are in and considering just stopping because its not worth it. Will this be how things stand come launch day?
I'd say that I'm one of these. I'm seriously considering giving up on the foundry at this point. They gave up on us. They aren't supporting us. They keep breaking our missions. No one seems to prioritize anything related to it, its community, and its potential.

Why should I care about it if they don't? It's another unfinished and half-baked Cryptic addition to the game, and now they ask me to pay for the privilege of adding content with their abandoned toolset that they don't seem to care about improving.

At some point, they lose us. They are very close to that point. If they're trying to wash the whole foundry experience under the rug until it becomes a ghosttown like other aspects of the game, then they are succeeding.

Cryptic shows no love for the Foundry or its community of authors. Why should we show them love and pay for the privilege of creating content for their game?

It's past the point of ridiculous. Some of us are disillusioned now.
Lt. Commander
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 120
# 112
12-23-2011, 01:39 AM
Ok, I may take a lot of flak for this, but here goes.

First of all, creating content using the Foundry is voluntary. If you're doing it it's because you chose to, so to those who are saying that authors should get paid or that Cryptic is lazy for ASKING players to create the content, I disagree. It would be nice if decent Foundry authors got paid, but it is still a volunteer action and volunteers don't get paid and in the same vein Cryptic provided the option for those that wanted it, they never made it mandatory.

Having said that, yes, Cryptic definitely need to add more features and content to the Foundry, but as it is not the main point of the game it is understandable that it would take lessened priority. On the issue of bugs, I don't think it's fair to abuse Cryptic over every single bug that appears. I am aware that there was at least one bug that was knowingly released, but sometimes the only way to solve a bug is to observe it in the "real world" and then go back and fix it, which they did. The Foundry and STO as a whole are quite complex and bugs are inevitable, and on the whole they are seen to promptly.

Whether the Foundry is worth paying the subscription for or not is obviously very subjective. If you enjoy creating missions and wish to pay the sub then that is your choice, again the Foundry is a voluntary part of the game. If it whittles down the number of Foundry authors I don't think that would necessarily be a bad thing, with two provisions. 1) The authors that remain produce missions of a decent quality and 2) The Foundry is still given attention by Cryptic. Obviously if they are using it as the framework for Neverwinter then it should, but that's not guarantee. In all honesty I'm more irritated by the fact that STO, a game that is active and has people that subscribe, appears to have taken a bit of a back seat to Neverwinter.

I'm not trying to defend every choice and action made by Cryptic, some are quite obviously indefensible, but I find this game very enjoyable, on a lot of levels, and I would be quite sad to see it die. Yes, there are flaws within it that do need to be addressed, but it is Star Trek, and that is something that must be handled very carefully to ensure it gets done right, otherwise we would all have hated it from day one (see: Abrams' "Star Trek").

I'll finish off, adding to my list of unpopular sentiments, by saying this. Paying $15 for the "Gold" subscription is exactly the same as what any of us were paying for before, "Silver" removes Foundry access and adds a few minor inconveniences. I implore those of you who have been long time players who still enjoy the game and more recent additions to look at it this way. You could go with the "Silver" sub, pay nothing and still play the game, but will STO last if we all do that? Does the C-store really make enough to keep the game going (If there is absolutely no question that it does, based on solid fact not wild speculation, then please disregard this statement)? I have no doubt that the people at Cryptic work very hard on STO and honestly I don't mind paying for the privilege of playing a game that I really enjoy and not having to pay outrageous prices for limited expansions (see: Wrath of the Lich King). My point is, STO and its continued existence is a commodity and as such it should be treated like one. The items in the C-store are also commodities (albeit virtual ones) someone still had to spend time doing the coding, graphics work, sound work and whatever else was involved in putting it all together. Cryptic employees work hard to bring this to us, they should be compensated.

If you want, go Silver if you don't think the Foundry is worth your money. If you want, buy a lifetime sub (I believe you're given a few C-points each month if you do, to sweeten the deal). But remember, the Foundry is absolutely voluntary and technically you were paying $15 to use it before anyway, as time spent working in the Foundry was time not spent actually playing the game. I actually do enjoy using the Foundry enough to pay for it (maybe I'm just weird) and I enjoy creating my own stories and being immersed in the stories of others. That's just my choice and I can deal with the bugs and the fact that updates for the Foundry are few and far between because there is still other content being added to the game that can be enjoyed, not to mention just the overall experience, be it playing solo, on a team or with a fleet.

STO is no different to any other MMO, in fact I think the fact that we have been given the opportunity to use a tool like the Foundry at all makes STO better than most MMOs and I'm just glad Cryptic gave us the option.

Disclaimer: I'd just like to state that none of this is meant personally to anyone in this forum, nor is it meant as a specific reply to anyone's post. These are simply my thoughts on the Foundry, Gold and Silver subs and STO as a whole. Please keep that in mind before viciously attacking me for anything posted above.

Thank you,





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