As is typical on this board, You all can defend DB and be as contrary as you like. Go ahead and offer up random examples of people that don't have MJLP FF. Bottom line, mirror Picard is without a doubt the most widely held FF Picard variant in the game. Don't bring the tried arguments back to me... Gun to your head, you know my statement is 99.9% most likely true. DB knows it, and they DELIBERATELY picked that card. Now that should be enough to call BS. Add in the Picard gate fiasco, and it is even more trolling BS.
It is "contrary" to defend the company that made this game that most of us are enjoying? The logic of this choice eludes me. And I do have some concern for DB's bottom line as a result of this decision. But if they are merely trolling, I can't help but wonder what you have done to provoke them...
The simplest fact:
If DB had chosen any other 5* Picard, they would have more sales.
Regardless of new vs old players, Mirror Picard is the ONLY 5* Picard that would make a subset of players question whether to buy it.
Why would DB NOT want to make sales?
This is certainly not a fact and I would guess it is likely false which is why DB chose Mirror Picard. You're right DB wants sales. The way to maximize sales it not based on what percent already have a character or not. It is based on how desirable the character is. If 5% of people have ISP or Mambo Picard and 35% have Mirror Picard (that's almost certainly an overestimate based on how the game has grown since the mega) that doesn't mean they should offer ISP or Mambo just to please some people who already have Mirror Picard.
you've proved my point, even with the low estimates you gave.
if 5% have Mambo Picard and 35% Mirror Picard, DB is already hampering their sales from those 30% extra people who have Mirror Picard.
Even if some of those 30% still buy the premium campaign because of the other items, there is a non-zero percentage of people who will not (let alone the percentage of players who are still sour from PicardGate). And judging from the comments here, it's not going to be only 1% that won't buy the campaign bc of Mirror Picard.
Honestly, it's not about pleasing one set of players or another. It's straight numbers: supply and demand economics. The more people who have the card FF, the less sales you will have vs a different card with less players who have it FF.
If your argument was between Mambo Picard and say Smitten Picard or Enterprise-E Picard, that's a different story. There, the % of players who have one vs the other should be relatively similar.
But Mirror Picard - you're dealing with a Mega Event character, not to mention all the bad blood from PicardGate.
to rank the % take rate of possible characters:
Mambo/Smitten/Any other Picard >> Prior Mega Character > Mirror Picard
If they decided to give out a different card that I happen to have FF, that's a completely different story. I either paid or earned my way to that legendary FF. I would not complain about that. But Mega event character (let alone PicardGate) is a completely different story.
Why would DB intentionally chose to preclude sales from up to 30% of its playing population???
to rank the % take rate of possible characters:
Mambo/Smitten/Any other Picard >> Prior Mega Character > Mirror Picard.
Smitten Picard has notoriously low stats. But he is quite popular as the meme. So you think the meme popularity would significantly outweigh MJLP's superior stats? I'm mostly curious to know if you think stats or variant popularity is the bigger factor to the community. The current event to get Neelix (who does not seem popular) is more competitive than normal. His stats seem to be the driving factor.
(Reminder: I would prefer a different variant of Picard. I just enjoy the conversation regarding some of the nuances.)
The simplest fact:
If DB had chosen any other 5* Picard, they would have more sales.
Regardless of new vs old players, Mirror Picard is the ONLY 5* Picard that would make a subset of players question whether to buy it.
Why would DB NOT want to make sales?
This is certainly not a fact and I would guess it is likely false which is why DB chose Mirror Picard. You're right DB wants sales. The way to maximize sales it not based on what percent already have a character or not. It is based on how desirable the character is. If 5% of people have ISP or Mambo Picard and 35% have Mirror Picard (that's almost certainly an overestimate based on how the game has grown since the mega) that doesn't mean they should offer ISP or Mambo just to please some people who already have Mirror Picard.
you've proved my point, even with the low estimates you gave.
if 5% have Mambo Picard and 35% Mirror Picard, DB is already hampering their sales from those 30% extra people who have Mirror Picard.
Even if some of those 30% still buy the premium campaign because of the other items, there is a non-zero percentage of people who will not (let alone the percentage of players who are still sour from PicardGate). And judging from the comments here, it's not going to be only 1% that won't buy the campaign bc of Mirror Picard.
Honestly, it's not about pleasing one set of players or another. It's straight numbers: supply and demand economics. The more people who have the card FF, the less sales you will have vs a different card with less players who have it FF.
If your argument was between Mambo Picard and say Smitten Picard or Enterprise-E Picard, that's a different story. There, the % of players who have one vs the other should be relatively similar.
But Mirror Picard - you're dealing with a Mega Event character, not to mention all the bad blood from PicardGate.
to rank the % take rate of possible characters:
Mambo/Smitten/Any other Picard >> Prior Mega Character > Mirror Picard
If they decided to give out a different card that I happen to have FF, that's a completely different story. I either paid or earned my way to that legendary FF. I would not complain about that. But Mega event character (let alone PicardGate) is a completely different story.
Why would DB intentionally chose to preclude sales from up to 30% of its playing population???
To test our acceptance of the value of the other premium track rewards and potentially revise the price of future campaigns? As Shan needs to remind us from time to time, regular forum-goers represent a pretty small percentage of the total player base. While we can all talk until we’re blue in the face about how much we love or hate something, DB needs other means to gauge the response from everyone else.
See also: the short-lived experiment with pricing single legendary crew offers at $25 instead of $10.
I said this in another thread, as bad as Picardgate was, I think the HMS Pentafor Data fiasco was FAR worse. They screwed up the event he was a prize for, offered him as compensation for those that made a certain rank (below what you needed to get just one copy), AND then messed up that by giving him away to players that ranked even farther below that! What was their solution? The players that were supposed to get him and got him by mistake got to keep him. The rest if us? We were basically told too bad (that is the nice version). Ultimately it doesn't matter who DB decides to put in the campaigns because people are either going to buy ot they aren't. I understand the frustration, but honestly if they are in the portal (as I've heard Mirror Picard is), they it's fair game for the premium campaign track. Personally I'd like to sew a couple more past Mega Legendaries in the premium track cause then I can finish a few off (as long as they are in the portal) ..... I'll be stepping off my soap box now.
The simplest fact:
If DB had chosen any other 5* Picard, they would have more sales.
Regardless of new vs old players, Mirror Picard is the ONLY 5* Picard that would make a subset of players question whether to buy it.
Why would DB NOT want to make sales?
This is certainly not a fact and I would guess it is likely false which is why DB chose Mirror Picard. You're right DB wants sales. The way to maximize sales it not based on what percent already have a character or not. It is based on how desirable the character is. If 5% of people have ISP or Mambo Picard and 35% have Mirror Picard (that's almost certainly an overestimate based on how the game has grown since the mega) that doesn't mean they should offer ISP or Mambo just to please some people who already have Mirror Picard.
you've proved my point, even with the low estimates you gave.
if 5% have Mambo Picard and 35% Mirror Picard, DB is already hampering their sales from those 30% extra people who have Mirror Picard.
Even if some of those 30% still buy the premium campaign because of the other items, there is a non-zero percentage of people who will not (let alone the percentage of players who are still sour from PicardGate). And judging from the comments here, it's not going to be only 1% that won't buy the campaign bc of Mirror Picard.
Honestly, it's not about pleasing one set of players or another. It's straight numbers: supply and demand economics. The more people who have the card FF, the less sales you will have vs a different card with less players who have it FF.
If your argument was between Mambo Picard and say Smitten Picard or Enterprise-E Picard, that's a different story. There, the % of players who have one vs the other should be relatively similar.
But Mirror Picard - you're dealing with a Mega Event character, not to mention all the bad blood from PicardGate.
to rank the % take rate of possible characters:
Mambo/Smitten/Any other Picard >> Prior Mega Character > Mirror Picard
If they decided to give out a different card that I happen to have FF, that's a completely different story. I either paid or earned my way to that legendary FF. I would not complain about that. But Mega event character (let alone PicardGate) is a completely different story.
Why would DB intentionally chose to preclude sales from up to 30% of its playing population???
To test our acceptance of the value of the other premium track rewards and potentially revise the price of future campaigns? As Shan needs to remind us from time to time, regular forum-goers represent a pretty small percentage of the total player base. While we can all talk until we’re blue in the face about how much we love or hate something, DB needs other means to gauge the response from everyone else.
See also: the short-lived experiment with pricing single legendary crew offers at $25 instead of $10.
Very well reasoned @Dirk Gunderson. It seems pretty obvious to me that this is what is going on, and quite a few people have said similar things earlier in this thread.
Not gonna lie though, I've gotten no small amount of joy reading all the people yelling at the wind.
Still think this is a weird one. Definitely driven by a disappointment that he’s one of only 11 5* FF crew I have (3 of which are gauntlet rewards so different).
That said, today is my first day without campaign goodies and I already have withdrawal so I’ll no doubt be buying. Could do with the extra honor to beef up existing crew and saves me a crew space...
The simplest fact:
If DB had chosen any other 5* Picard, they would have more sales.
Regardless of new vs old players, Mirror Picard is the ONLY 5* Picard that would make a subset of players question whether to buy it.
Why would DB NOT want to make sales?
This is certainly not a fact and I would guess it is likely false which is why DB chose Mirror Picard. You're right DB wants sales. The way to maximize sales it not based on what percent already have a character or not. It is based on how desirable the character is. If 5% of people have ISP or Mambo Picard and 35% have Mirror Picard (that's almost certainly an overestimate based on how the game has grown since the mega) that doesn't mean they should offer ISP or Mambo just to please some people who already have Mirror Picard.
you've proved my point, even with the low estimates you gave.
if 5% have Mambo Picard and 35% Mirror Picard, DB is already hampering their sales from those 30% extra people who have Mirror Picard.
Even if some of those 30% still buy the premium campaign because of the other items, there is a non-zero percentage of people who will not (let alone the percentage of players who are still sour from PicardGate). And judging from the comments here, it's not going to be only 1% that won't buy the campaign bc of Mirror Picard.
Honestly, it's not about pleasing one set of players or another. It's straight numbers: supply and demand economics. The more people who have the card FF, the less sales you will have vs a different card with less players who have it FF.
If your argument was between Mambo Picard and say Smitten Picard or Enterprise-E Picard, that's a different story. There, the % of players who have one vs the other should be relatively similar.
But Mirror Picard - you're dealing with a Mega Event character, not to mention all the bad blood from PicardGate.
to rank the % take rate of possible characters:
Mambo/Smitten/Any other Picard >> Prior Mega Character > Mirror Picard
If they decided to give out a different card that I happen to have FF, that's a completely different story. I either paid or earned my way to that legendary FF. I would not complain about that. But Mega event character (let alone PicardGate) is a completely different story.
Why would DB intentionally chose to preclude sales from up to 30% of its playing population???
To test our acceptance of the value of the other premium track rewards and potentially revise the price of future campaigns? As Shan needs to remind us from time to time, regular forum-goers represent a pretty small percentage of the total player base. While we can all talk until we’re blue in the face about how much we love or hate something, DB needs other means to gauge the response from everyone else.
See also: the short-lived experiment with pricing single legendary crew offers at $25 instead of $10.
Very well reasoned @Dirk Gunderson. It seems pretty obvious to me that this is what is going on, and quite a few people have said similar things earlier in this thread.
Not gonna lie though, I've gotten no small amount of joy reading all the people yelling at the wind.
Yes @ByloBand , "Please continue the petty bickering" from Data comes to mind.
As for you people trying to share/guess at stats, @Dirk Gunderson has made a solid point, you are all guessing. How many active players are on the forums? The liberal estimate is <5%.
DB has told us they monitor the threads, but honestly, they know the actual stats, they have the facts, they have the motivation (whatever that is) and it is their plan to implement and no one here on the forums is likely to change that. You can protest if it makes you feel better, but it really is like "yelling at the wind".
My 2¢, chill out, play the game, have fun! No one [company] can please everyone all the time, don't expect it and you won't be disappointed.
Many times DB has changed something after people have been angry on forum and complained. DB does read it and they often do make changes if enough people are angry about something. Even with this Mirror Picard. When DB gave everyone a free Mirror Picard and people who had cited him already and got angry on forum and then DB exchanged that Mirror Picard for a free citation. Or when people were angry about the Polywater Yar nerf on forum and then DB offered to exchange people's copies of Polywater Yar for a citation. Or when people were angry about event errors and DB has given chrons and other things if they could not fix the event error. Or when people were upset that DB did not tell everyone about Evolved lizard Janeway until after we had airlocked our Captain Janeway copies from the event and DB gave people back their airlocked copies of Janeway. These are just a few of the examples of DB listening to players and changing the game as a result. It is incorrect to say that complaining on forum is just "yelling at the wind" when DB has listened to people on forum and DB has made changes because of players' complaints or suggestions on forum.
The simplest fact:
If DB had chosen any other 5* Picard, they would have more sales.
Regardless of new vs old players, Mirror Picard is the ONLY 5* Picard that would make a subset of players question whether to buy it.
Why would DB NOT want to make sales?
This is certainly not a fact and I would guess it is likely false which is why DB chose Mirror Picard. You're right DB wants sales. The way to maximize sales it not based on what percent already have a character or not. It is based on how desirable the character is. If 5% of people have ISP or Mambo Picard and 35% have Mirror Picard (that's almost certainly an overestimate based on how the game has grown since the mega) that doesn't mean they should offer ISP or Mambo just to please some people who already have Mirror Picard.
you've proved my point, even with the low estimates you gave.
if 5% have Mambo Picard and 35% Mirror Picard, DB is already hampering their sales from those 30% extra people who have Mirror Picard.
Even if some of those 30% still buy the premium campaign because of the other items, there is a non-zero percentage of people who will not (let alone the percentage of players who are still sour from PicardGate). And judging from the comments here, it's not going to be only 1% that won't buy the campaign bc of Mirror Picard.
Honestly, it's not about pleasing one set of players or another. It's straight numbers: supply and demand economics. The more people who have the card FF, the less sales you will have vs a different card with less players who have it FF.
If your argument was between Mambo Picard and say Smitten Picard or Enterprise-E Picard, that's a different story. There, the % of players who have one vs the other should be relatively similar.
But Mirror Picard - you're dealing with a Mega Event character, not to mention all the bad blood from PicardGate.
to rank the % take rate of possible characters:
Mambo/Smitten/Any other Picard >> Prior Mega Character > Mirror Picard
If they decided to give out a different card that I happen to have FF, that's a completely different story. I either paid or earned my way to that legendary FF. I would not complain about that. But Mega event character (let alone PicardGate) is a completely different story.
Why would DB intentionally chose to preclude sales from up to 30% of its playing population???
To test our acceptance of the value of the other premium track rewards and potentially revise the price of future campaigns? As Shan needs to remind us from time to time, regular forum-goers represent a pretty small percentage of the total player base. While we can all talk until we’re blue in the face about how much we love or hate something, DB needs other means to gauge the response from everyone else.
See also: the short-lived experiment with pricing single legendary crew offers at $25 instead of $10.
Very well reasoned @Dirk Gunderson. It seems pretty obvious to me that this is what is going on, and quite a few people have said similar things earlier in this thread.
Not gonna lie though, I've gotten no small amount of joy reading all the people yelling at the wind.
Yes @ByloBand , "Please continue the petty bickering" from Data comes to mind.
As for you people trying to share/guess at stats, @Dirk Gunderson has made a solid point, you are all guessing. How many active players are on the forums? The liberal estimate is <5%.
DB has told us they monitor the threads, but honestly, they know the actual stats, they have the facts, they have the motivation (whatever that is) and it is their plan to implement and no one here on the forums is likely to change that. You can protest if it makes you feel better, but it really is like "yelling at the wind".
My 2¢, chill out, play the game, have fun! No one [company] can please everyone all the time, don't expect it and you won't be disappointed.
You guys are saying "yelling at the wind" but Polywater-gate Yar was discussed at length on the forum and players got some form of apology, with option to exchange the card for another one. Clearly, DB will not change things this time. But that's not to say we shouldn't ask.
I still refer to the HMS Pentafore Data debacle where DB refused to listen to it's fanbase (myself being one of them). Regardless, it's been 2 years almost since Picardgate and it's time to move on please. Just like with Cheesecake Seven, let it go and move on.
Many times DB has changed something after people have been angry on forum and complained. DB does read it and they often do make changes if enough people are angry about something. Even with this Mirror Picard. When DB gave everyone a free Mirror Picard and people who had cited him already and got angry on forum and then DB exchanged that Mirror Picard for a free citation. Or when people were angry about the Polywater Yar nerf on forum and then DB offered to exchange people's copies of Polywater Yar for a citation. Or when people were angry about event errors and DB has given chrons and other things if they could not fix the event error. Or when people were upset that DB did not tell everyone about Evolved lizard Janeway until after we had airlocked our Captain Janeway copies from the event and DB gave people back their airlocked copies of Janeway. These are just a few of the examples of DB listening to players and changing the game as a result. It is incorrect to say that complaining on forum is just "yelling at the wind" when DB has listened to people on forum and DB has made changes because of players' complaints or suggestions on forum.
That was all BEFORE DB was bought up. Now CS as in reimbursement is non existing. I spent 4 citations on gauntlet crew before they changed it so that you can get old gauntlet crew.
With regards to the reimbursement we got with the additional copies of voyage only crew (if you used citations there) I asked DB CS to reimburse my 4 x gauntlet copies (200k of honor from citations!) so I could earn my doubles from the normal event like everybody else.
They refused. That was the final point when I refused to pay anything more than my abo. I spent roughly 100 USD/months prior to that. They lost already 300-400 bucks on me since then.
DB is king for alienating their most loyal PAYING customer base.
So be it. I will pass on the next campaign for sure and be it out of principle.
And by the way to the marketing people at DB from another MBA marketing guy ..... if you want to try something out you do surveys first before you change anything on your product that could alienate your customers....especially your A category customers!
Many times DB has changed something after people have been angry on forum and complained. DB does read it and they often do make changes if enough people are angry about something. Even with this Mirror Picard. When DB gave everyone a free Mirror Picard and people who had cited him already and got angry on forum and then DB exchanged that Mirror Picard for a free citation. Or when people were angry about the Polywater Yar nerf on forum and then DB offered to exchange people's copies of Polywater Yar for a citation. Or when people were angry about event errors and DB has given chrons and other things if they could not fix the event error. Or when people were upset that DB did not tell everyone about Evolved lizard Janeway until after we had airlocked our Captain Janeway copies from the event and DB gave people back their airlocked copies of Janeway. These are just a few of the examples of DB listening to players and changing the game as a result. It is incorrect to say that complaining on forum is just "yelling at the wind" when DB has listened to people on forum and DB has made changes because of players' complaints or suggestions on forum.
That was all BEFORE DB was bought up. Now CS as in reimbursement is non existing. I spent 4 citations on gauntlet crew before they changed it so that you can get old gauntlet crew.
With regards to the reimbursement we got with the additional copies of voyage only crew (if you used citations there) I asked DB CS to reimburse my 4 x gauntlet copies (200k of honor from citations!) so I could earn my doubles from the normal event like everybody else.
They refused. That was the final point when I refused to pay anything more than my abo. I spent roughly 100 USD/months prior to that. They lost already 300-400 bucks on me since then.
DB is king for alienating their most loyal PAYING customer base.
So be it. I will pass on the next campaign for sure and be it out of principle.
And by the way to the marketing people at DB from another MBA marketing guy ..... if you want to try something out you do surveys first before you change anything on your product that could alienate your customers....especially your A category customers!
DB sure has a way of making the worst moves imaginable (I know, let’s select the MOST COMMON 5 Star crew in the entire game and give everyone 4 more copies of him) it’s like whoever’s is making these decisions has no clue about the game at all.
÷Dr. Claire Finn - Admiral of the Battleship Yamato & Founder of both the Battleship Yamato & ISS Yamato
Many times DB has changed something after people have been angry on forum and complained. DB does read it and they often do make changes if enough people are angry about something. Even with this Mirror Picard. When DB gave everyone a free Mirror Picard and people who had cited him already and got angry on forum and then DB exchanged that Mirror Picard for a free citation.
As far as I know, yes, the forum backlash resulted in that exchange offer after a few days.
Or when people were upset that DB did not tell everyone about Evolved lizard Janeway until after we had airlocked our Captain Janeway copies from the event and DB gave people back their airlocked copies of Janeway.
Errmmm... correct me if I'm wrong, but CS has a standard policy of allowing people to change their minds about airlocks within a few weeks anyway, don't they? There was no special treatment there - people just asked CS to reverse a recent airlock, and CS obliged. How did the forum affect this?
You guys are saying "yelling at the wind" but Polywater-gate Yar was discussed at length on the forum and players got some form of apology, with option to exchange the card for another one.
Actually, in the Polywater Yar case, months of complaining and wailing and gnashing teeth on the forums resulted in almost no effect - just offers of refunds and a few Chronitons (!). The citation/Killy-exchange compensation was eventually offered as the result of an external, non-forum-related action. That compensation was then announced in-game and here on the forum.
But yes, AFAIK, the original Mirror Picard issue being complained about on the forums here almost 20 months ago did seem to have some effect. Unless, of course, it was Scott's complaint to the "Law Enforcement Agencies" that did the trick...
Actually, in the Polywater Yar case, months of complaining and wailing and gnashing teeth on the forums resulted in almost no effect - just offers of refunds and a few Chronitons (!). The citation/Killy-exchange compensation was eventually offered as the result of an external, non-forum-related action. That compensation was then announced in-game and here on the forum.
Thank you for that info. I was unaware of the external part. Admittedly, I did not get Polywater Yar, so I wasn't very invested. I saw a lengthy, angry thread, followed by an apology. Thank you for adding that piece that I missed.
Given that campaigns are new, I'm not surprised that DP is experimenting with what's available.
I haven't sprung for the premium track yet, and I'm considering this one. But I will also admit that Mambo Picard would be more tempting, and I don't own Mirror Picard myself. But of the legendary Picards available in the portal, Mirror Picard is a shiny head and shoulders above the competition.
(I also wish Galen was in the standard track simply because I enjoy that two-parter and still haven't gotten this card. But it really makes more sense to go with an older Picard right now, and if they're trying out portal-available crew, that means the Admiral.)
Six degrees in Inter-species Veterinary Medicine. Treating all manner of critters, from Tribbles to Humans.
Polywater Yar was nerfed on August 15th, 2018. People complained on forum and DB responded and fixed the problem by offering exchange for citation or Killy in September 2018. Weeks not months. I believe it was about two-three weeks but cannot get exact date on forum posts from back then they just say September 2018. DB listened to players complaining on forum and made changes because of those players.
DB listened to players complaining on forum and made changes because of those players.
The quotes do not indicate this though. They rather sound like "CS got hundreds of tickets on this topic, so we need to take action."
Wir, die Mirror Tribbles [MiT] haben freie Plätze zu vergeben. Kein Zwang und kein Stress, dafür aber Spaß, Discord und eine nette, hilfsbereite Gemeinschaft, incl. voll ausgebauter Starbase und täglich 700 ISM.
DB listened to players complaining on forum and made changes because of those players.
The quotes do not indicate this though. They rather sound like "CS got hundreds of tickets on this topic, so we need to take action."
Shan says "we have heard from some of our players..." You say we cannot assume DB is talking about forum but I don't think you can assume DB is talking about support tickets. That statement likelu refers to both forum and support tickets. Forum and in game support tickets are both lines of communication from the players to DB. With Polywater Yar nerf players complained in both places. Often the same players voice the exact same anger and statements in both places. How can you differentiate the one from the other? DB sees both whether it is from Shan and other representatives reading forum and sending the messages on or from CS agents reading tickets and sending the messages on. DB sends responses to forum and to in game mail. We have seen Shan reply directly to players in forum and say she will pass our thoughts on to DB. We have seen CS agents respond to our tickets. Both are lines of communication between the players and DB. DB listens to and responds to both. The same players often say the same complaints in both forum and in game support tickets. DB heard the players' complaints about Polywater Yar and responded with a fix.
That statement likelu refers to both forum and support tickets.
Exactly this. But you made it sound like it was the forum only before.
Wir, die Mirror Tribbles [MiT] haben freie Plätze zu vergeben. Kein Zwang und kein Stress, dafür aber Spaß, Discord und eine nette, hilfsbereite Gemeinschaft, incl. voll ausgebauter Starbase und täglich 700 ISM.
Perhaps 'all for naught', but I've attempted to reach out to / contact Kevin the CEO at Titling Point about this Mirror Picard mess. I figure nothing ventured, nothing gained.
÷Dr. Claire Finn - Admiral of the Battleship Yamato & Founder of both the Battleship Yamato & ISS Yamato
Polywater Yar was nerfed on August 15th, 2018. People complained on forum and DB responded and fixed the problem by offering exchange for citation or Killy in September 2018. Weeks not months. I believe it was about two-three weeks but cannot get exact date on forum posts from back then they just say September 2018. DB listened to players complaining on forum and made changes because of those players.
I'm sorry, I happen to know that it wasn't people complaining on the forum in that instance (note that the message didn't mention the forums - not a coincidence, but I can see your misunderstanding) - there was an external action on September 12th that led directly to that in-game message on September 13th.
But I don't have any inside information on the Mirror Picard issue from a couple of years back, and can certainly believe that in that case it was either the forum feedback or Scott's cop buddies!
And if it happened once, it can certainly happen again. Scott, still got your contacts on the force?
I actually started playing right after the Mirror Picard mega, and so this is right up my alley. It's disappointing about Admiral Picard being the silver track character since we just had him a reward in an event however.
There is so much wrong about this game once you reach a certain level......boredom because you have no more crew to level (besides the odd golden you get) ...... frustration in gauntlet because you WILL LOOSE 80% of all fights when your same crew copy has BETTER stats due to collection/fleet perks .......... shuttles that fail at a 50% rate although you have 90%+ crews on them ......... but the biggest is their amateurish build of a databank that only holds 1000 different items and anything above it is DELETED without notice.
Noone at DB warns its players about that. I just found out because I farmed for a building event and my 300+ database1* were gone when the event started. I dont want to know how much I lost before that without recognizing it .......
To make things worse the only way you can get rid of items (which you are forced to get rid of if you dont want to have mandatory deletion!) is to use them in the replicator.
But since you dont have crew to level and you have a storage full of building equipment anyhow you cant use the replicator in a sensefull manner = you get a green crew and replicate any useless stuff on him to get rid of access items which you could use but cant have since their stupid database only holds 1000 items!
That design flaw of the database is there from the beginning but my inquiry about it brought that they will do something someday and inform people ingame someday but at the moment only a few player are at my level so they have time.
Incredible indeed as the "few players" are those that pay their wages ......
If I were not so heavily invested in this game I would have booted DB a long time ago. They are just not professional enough and dont let me start on their childish "bad word filter issue" ........
Comment moderated. Do not copy/paste private exchanges between you and Support, thank you. ~Shan
There is so much wrong about this game once you reach a certain level......boredom because you have no more crew to level (besides the odd golden you get) ...... frustration in gauntlet because you WILL LOOSE 80% of all fights when your same crew copy has BETTER stats due to collection/fleet perks .......... shuttles that fail at a 50% rate although you have 90%+ crews on them ......... but the biggest is their amateurish build of a databank that only holds 1000 different items and anything above it is DELETED without notice.
Noone at DB warns its players about that. I just found out because I farmed for a building event and my 300+ database1* were gone when the event started. I dont want to know how much I lost before that without recognizing it .......
To make things worse the only way you can get rid of items (which you are forced to get rid of if you dont want to have mandatory deletion!) is to use them in the replicator.
But since you dont have crew to level and you have a storage full of building equipment anyhow you cant use the replicator in a sensefull manner = you get a green crew and replicate any useless stuff on him to get rid of access items which you could use but cant have since their stupid database only holds 1000 items!
That design flaw of the database is there from the beginning but my inquiry about it brought that they will do something someday and inform people ingame someday but at the moment only a few player are at my level so they have time.
Incredible indeed as the "few players" are those that pay their wages ......
If I were not so heavily invested in this game I would have booted DB a long time ago. They are just not professional enough and dont let me start on their childish "bad word filter issue" ........
First off, expect Shan to edit your post - it’s verboten to post actual CS messages.
Anyway, you’re not alone in dealing with some of these issues. I think if you really did a thorough analysis of gauntlet and shuttle success rates (as has been done by others many times), you might find that the failures aren’t so bad or so frequent as you might think...without going into the psychology of positive versus negative outcomes, it’s easy to think things are much worse than they really are. If you’ve run out of crew to level, work on some duplicates. Burn off all of the unnecessary items clogging your inventory by replicating one or two 5* items for those duplicate crew.
Ultimately, though, don’t let the Sunk Cost Fallacy force you to continue playing if you can’t find something about it that makes you happy. It’s a game - if it feels like work or angers you instead pleasing you, take care of yourself and call it quits. It can be hard at first to let those pixels go...I speak from experience with other games, and can confirm that you will feel better later.
I have nothing to add about the politics of how any decisions were arrived at, but just so @(HGH)Apollo and anyone else interested knows, if you hover your cursor over the date of a post, it will display the exact time stamp:
Are we posting screenshots of our crew quarters now to make our points? I am game for that.
I have augment Picard off the screen and Galen/Dixon also Fffe. Bottom line, if they had picked augment Picard, or smitten Picard, or ent-e Picard or any other variant I have fffe, I wouldn't say ANYTHING ABOUT IT. No complaints, no whining, nothing. The only unacceptable crew for campaigns are crew DB gave copies of as form of compensation for their mistakes. It makes them making up for their mistakes meaningless and inherently says "sorry, not sorry". THAT is the "slap in the face" part of all of this.
Comments
It is "contrary" to defend the company that made this game that most of us are enjoying? The logic of this choice eludes me. And I do have some concern for DB's bottom line as a result of this decision. But if they are merely trolling, I can't help but wonder what you have done to provoke them...
you've proved my point, even with the low estimates you gave.
if 5% have Mambo Picard and 35% Mirror Picard, DB is already hampering their sales from those 30% extra people who have Mirror Picard.
Even if some of those 30% still buy the premium campaign because of the other items, there is a non-zero percentage of people who will not (let alone the percentage of players who are still sour from PicardGate). And judging from the comments here, it's not going to be only 1% that won't buy the campaign bc of Mirror Picard.
Honestly, it's not about pleasing one set of players or another. It's straight numbers: supply and demand economics. The more people who have the card FF, the less sales you will have vs a different card with less players who have it FF.
If your argument was between Mambo Picard and say Smitten Picard or Enterprise-E Picard, that's a different story. There, the % of players who have one vs the other should be relatively similar.
But Mirror Picard - you're dealing with a Mega Event character, not to mention all the bad blood from PicardGate.
to rank the % take rate of possible characters:
Mambo/Smitten/Any other Picard >> Prior Mega Character > Mirror Picard
If they decided to give out a different card that I happen to have FF, that's a completely different story. I either paid or earned my way to that legendary FF. I would not complain about that. But Mega event character (let alone PicardGate) is a completely different story.
Why would DB intentionally chose to preclude sales from up to 30% of its playing population???
Smitten Picard has notoriously low stats. But he is quite popular as the meme. So you think the meme popularity would significantly outweigh MJLP's superior stats? I'm mostly curious to know if you think stats or variant popularity is the bigger factor to the community. The current event to get Neelix (who does not seem popular) is more competitive than normal. His stats seem to be the driving factor.
(Reminder: I would prefer a different variant of Picard. I just enjoy the conversation regarding some of the nuances.)
To test our acceptance of the value of the other premium track rewards and potentially revise the price of future campaigns? As Shan needs to remind us from time to time, regular forum-goers represent a pretty small percentage of the total player base. While we can all talk until we’re blue in the face about how much we love or hate something, DB needs other means to gauge the response from everyone else.
See also: the short-lived experiment with pricing single legendary crew offers at $25 instead of $10.
Very well reasoned @Dirk Gunderson. It seems pretty obvious to me that this is what is going on, and quite a few people have said similar things earlier in this thread.
Not gonna lie though, I've gotten no small amount of joy reading all the people yelling at the wind.
That said, today is my first day without campaign goodies and I already have withdrawal so I’ll no doubt be buying. Could do with the extra honor to beef up existing crew and saves me a crew space...
Yes @ByloBand , "Please continue the petty bickering" from Data comes to mind.
As for you people trying to share/guess at stats, @Dirk Gunderson has made a solid point, you are all guessing. How many active players are on the forums? The liberal estimate is <5%.
DB has told us they monitor the threads, but honestly, they know the actual stats, they have the facts, they have the motivation (whatever that is) and it is their plan to implement and no one here on the forums is likely to change that. You can protest if it makes you feel better, but it really is like "yelling at the wind".
My 2¢, chill out, play the game, have fun! No one [company] can please everyone all the time, don't expect it and you won't be disappointed.
You guys are saying "yelling at the wind" but Polywater-gate Yar was discussed at length on the forum and players got some form of apology, with option to exchange the card for another one. Clearly, DB will not change things this time. But that's not to say we shouldn't ask.
That was all BEFORE DB was bought up. Now CS as in reimbursement is non existing. I spent 4 citations on gauntlet crew before they changed it so that you can get old gauntlet crew.
With regards to the reimbursement we got with the additional copies of voyage only crew (if you used citations there) I asked DB CS to reimburse my 4 x gauntlet copies (200k of honor from citations!) so I could earn my doubles from the normal event like everybody else.
They refused. That was the final point when I refused to pay anything more than my abo. I spent roughly 100 USD/months prior to that. They lost already 300-400 bucks on me since then.
DB is king for alienating their most loyal PAYING customer base.
So be it. I will pass on the next campaign for sure and be it out of principle.
And by the way to the marketing people at DB from another MBA marketing guy ..... if you want to try something out you do surveys first before you change anything on your product that could alienate your customers....especially your A category customers!
DB sure has a way of making the worst moves imaginable (I know, let’s select the MOST COMMON 5 Star crew in the entire game and give everyone 4 more copies of him) it’s like whoever’s is making these decisions has no clue about the game at all.
Really? The forum is useful for quick notifications about event errors, but isn't the Chroniton compensation done regardless of forum complaints?
Errmmm... correct me if I'm wrong, but CS has a standard policy of allowing people to change their minds about airlocks within a few weeks anyway, don't they? There was no special treatment there - people just asked CS to reverse a recent airlock, and CS obliged. How did the forum affect this?
Actually, in the Polywater Yar case, months of complaining and wailing and gnashing teeth on the forums resulted in almost no effect - just offers of refunds and a few Chronitons (!). The citation/Killy-exchange compensation was eventually offered as the result of an external, non-forum-related action. That compensation was then announced in-game and here on the forum.
But yes, AFAIK, the original Mirror Picard issue being complained about on the forums here almost 20 months ago did seem to have some effect.
Thank you for that info. I was unaware of the external part. Admittedly, I did not get Polywater Yar, so I wasn't very invested. I saw a lengthy, angry thread, followed by an apology. Thank you for adding that piece that I missed.
I haven't sprung for the premium track yet, and I'm considering this one. But I will also admit that Mambo Picard would be more tempting, and I don't own Mirror Picard myself. But of the legendary Picards available in the portal, Mirror Picard is a shiny head and shoulders above the competition.
(I also wish Galen was in the standard track simply because I enjoy that two-parter and still haven't gotten this card. But it really makes more sense to go with an older Picard right now, and if they're trying out portal-available crew, that means the Admiral.)
Starport
Polywater Yar was nerfed on August 15th, 2018. People complained on forum and DB responded and fixed the problem by offering exchange for citation or Killy in September 2018. Weeks not months. I believe it was about two-three weeks but cannot get exact date on forum posts from back then they just say September 2018. DB listened to players complaining on forum and made changes because of those players.
I'm sorry, I happen to know that it wasn't people complaining on the forum in that instance (note that the message didn't mention the forums - not a coincidence, but I can see your misunderstanding) - there was an external action on September 12th that led directly to that in-game message on September 13th.
But I don't have any inside information on the Mirror Picard issue from a couple of years back, and can certainly believe that in that case it was either the forum feedback or Scott's cop buddies!
And if it happened once, it can certainly happen again. Scott, still got your contacts on the force?
Don't Feel bad. I am missing a few, too. And one of my Picards is Beverly.
{I do have the 1*, but it did not show up.Nor did Tommy Gun Dixon. I can't remember if I have Galen or not.}
Noone at DB warns its players about that. I just found out because I farmed for a building event and my 300+ database1* were gone when the event started. I dont want to know how much I lost before that without recognizing it .......
To make things worse the only way you can get rid of items (which you are forced to get rid of if you dont want to have mandatory deletion!) is to use them in the replicator.
But since you dont have crew to level and you have a storage full of building equipment anyhow you cant use the replicator in a sensefull manner = you get a green crew and replicate any useless stuff on him to get rid of access items which you could use but cant have since their stupid database only holds 1000 items!
That design flaw of the database is there from the beginning but my inquiry about it brought that they will do something someday and inform people ingame someday but at the moment only a few player are at my level so they have time.
Incredible indeed as the "few players" are those that pay their wages ......
If I were not so heavily invested in this game I would have booted DB a long time ago. They are just not professional enough and dont let me start on their childish "bad word filter issue" ........
Comment moderated. Do not copy/paste private exchanges between you and Support, thank you. ~Shan
First off, expect Shan to edit your post - it’s verboten to post actual CS messages.
Anyway, you’re not alone in dealing with some of these issues. I think if you really did a thorough analysis of gauntlet and shuttle success rates (as has been done by others many times), you might find that the failures aren’t so bad or so frequent as you might think...without going into the psychology of positive versus negative outcomes, it’s easy to think things are much worse than they really are. If you’ve run out of crew to level, work on some duplicates. Burn off all of the unnecessary items clogging your inventory by replicating one or two 5* items for those duplicate crew.
Ultimately, though, don’t let the Sunk Cost Fallacy force you to continue playing if you can’t find something about it that makes you happy. It’s a game - if it feels like work or angers you instead pleasing you, take care of yourself and call it quits. It can be hard at first to let those pixels go...I speak from experience with other games, and can confirm that you will feel better later.
I have augment Picard off the screen and Galen/Dixon also Fffe. Bottom line, if they had picked augment Picard, or smitten Picard, or ent-e Picard or any other variant I have fffe, I wouldn't say ANYTHING ABOUT IT. No complaints, no whining, nothing. The only unacceptable crew for campaigns are crew DB gave copies of as form of compensation for their mistakes. It makes them making up for their mistakes meaningless and inherently says "sorry, not sorry". THAT is the "slap in the face" part of all of this.