Personal Speculation: TP/WRG's goal with the game - Title edited by Shan
Drago Musevni
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With everything that’s been going on since TP/WRG took over the game, including, but not limited to: The honor-wall debacle, 3* crew exclusive packs, the mishap with Adira, a $99 offer that includes 2* and 3* citations, the complete lack of an honor sale, telling players that we need to stop hoarding resources, a completely lackluster fifth anniversary, promises of big things to come and these “big things” being a SIXTH and SEVENTH unit of currencies being introduced to the game, the monetization of the stuck-voyage bug, and just a general tone-deafness to the players by WRG causing long-time players to either go f2p or leave the game entirely … I have to wonder is WRG tanking this game on purpose?
This is complete speculation on my part, but the best hypothesis I can come up with using Vulcan logic is this: WRG is operating Star Trek Timelines at a loss, they’re losing money on the venture. TP/WRG perhaps has a contract with CBS saying something to the effect of “WRG must continue to keep the Star Trek Timelines game operational so long as the active number of players exceeds x-amount”. WRG not wanting to continue eating a loss of revenue then does everything in its power to drive away players with the end-goal of getting active players below the number specified in the speculative contract, so that game can be shut down for good.
As Data said when paraphrasing Sherlock Holmes:
“We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
This is complete speculation on my part, but the best hypothesis I can come up with using Vulcan logic is this: WRG is operating Star Trek Timelines at a loss, they’re losing money on the venture. TP/WRG perhaps has a contract with CBS saying something to the effect of “WRG must continue to keep the Star Trek Timelines game operational so long as the active number of players exceeds x-amount”. WRG not wanting to continue eating a loss of revenue then does everything in its power to drive away players with the end-goal of getting active players below the number specified in the speculative contract, so that game can be shut down for good.
As Data said when paraphrasing Sherlock Holmes:
“We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
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Comments
Wow. We just had the exact same conversation in our fleet chat.
My theory is that TP doesn’t know what they want to do, what their playerbase wants, or how to get there.
Or perhaps their existing contracts are about to expire, needing renegotiations and more $$.....
I doubt their contract is “forever”, and they have all said themselves that 5 years is a really old mobile game....
When we see the new feature it will probably be pretty clear how “long term” this games future will be.
Im no whale, but i used to spend a lot. Not anymore though.
So I've edited the title for this discussion for starters.
Let's keep it more on the productive side, thank you.
If they are not trying to lose players on purpose, then they are failing badly.
They most certainly have not been doing much in the game that would lead me to believe that they have a good pulse of what the players want. This is pretty shocking, considering the constant feedback that they get from players on this forum.
They do indeed get a lot of feedback here. I think it would be cool if Shan picked one idea from Make It So every week to pitch to the team at a weekly meeting or something. Maybe that already happens. I wouldn't know. But I think it would be nice and help the devs know what we want and maybe they might have an idea that could spin off of something we post.
Much more likely is that: 1) The pandemic and home office disrupted their work 2) The financial impact of the pandemic on many players reduced their revenue 3) TP is trying to make as much money as possible out of the game that they bought, while limiting risks and further investments
Now, working under these circumstances (and maybe under TP in general) might not be the funniest thing to do, but I'm sure that the people at WRG would do what everyone does if they were fed up: quit.
And no matter how overworked or disappointed the people who run a business or work for it might be, I'm sure that intentionally leading it to failure would have legal ramifications that no one wants to risk.
Based on what we've seen and TP's reputation from other games, my money's on greed and incompetence rather than malice.
I am really disappointed by Christmas and CD. I think the ill will they are generating and the lack of development and new features is just going to kill the game whether that’s what they are trying to do or not. Surely it would be possible to introduce some new features or to get some form of extra supplies for voyages to get upgrades to the ships beyond schematics to help get extra time on voyages or specialist courses for crew where they need to go back to head quarters to attend a course and sit out for a week and come back with another 15 skill and you have to qualify for these courses? Only one course per month and it uses a shuttle for the journey time or whatever.
There have been ideas on here but we need new features and new content. A new character on each star tier would have been great and with five tiers would have been great.
Aside from the lack of progress, there does also seem to be a lot of cluelessness, which can't be deliberate surely.
Even though this theory is viable, I don't beleive it is the case. I think they are just doing everything according to Minimum Viable Product or more correctly Minimum Marketable Product methodology .
Do the least amount of work (and invest least amount of money) possible to get useful feedback (or money) which helps to avoid working on a product that no one wants.
This also mean that the costs are minimal and as long as there are still enough players than it is profitable.
The companies use this all the time, most of the time the main criteria is "how much will we earn with product - how much it costs to make = profit". The main accent is on lowering the part "how much it costs to make" as much as possible.
My Scrum Master heart skips some beats when I read such misleading term usage.
We sure did, makes me sad, that’s all I can say. I’ll be getting my 4 year anniversary avatar within the next week or so IIRC (or at the very least, before the end of the month) I guess all I can do it keep on doing the same things as per usual and hope that there’s something new coming. Although after Christmas/Holidays and now CD, it’s hard to hope.
Edit: just realized this....
...And i’m in total agreement🖖
Proud member of Patterns of Force
Captain Level 99
Played since January 2017
TP: Do better!!!
I chuckled at the in-game message when it referred to paying attention to and valuing player feedback. The disconnect between players and TP is laughable.
To be fair, I think Shan does pay attention. Ben probably does too. How much influence either has is very much in doubt.
This new feature had better be as good as they’re hyping it, otherwise, revenue is going to be way down. Also, TP has a tendency to overhype things. It only leads to disappointment, when people get ideas of something awesome in their heads only to be met with more of the same or less (at this point, this Convergence Day is not as good as last year’s).
I’ve always dreamed of having what I call a “Legendary Promotion” in the game. Basically a blank 5 star card that can be merged and un- merged with any FE/FF 1-4 star crew. It will boost them up to Legendary stats. For a 4 star, basically +300 to each ability.
There are so many versions of crew that I really liked, but have no use for, now that I have page after page of immortalized legendarys.
Not sure how it would work, but should be hard to get the blank card, but easier to get additional stars to fuse it.
I know it would require too much work to ever really happen, but how I would love it!
Oh, and I don’t know how they compare to previous years, but I thought we got some really nice offers over Christmas. I was especially happy with the $4.99 citations.
I've stopped spending, and I'm only holding on to see what the much-hyped new feature is. If it's just a marketplace, I suspect that'll be it for me.
Im no marketing wiz, but if they were wanting to maximize profit and minimize effort, they could have offered a 5 year anniversary sale, which was structured with $5 deals that have purchase limits of $5.
You know, legendary citation, $5 limit 5 purchases.
1000 dilithium $5, limit 5 purchases.
1000 honor, $5 limit 5 purchases.
1000 chrons, $5 limit 5 purchases.
1,000,000 credits $5, limit 5 purchases.
Legendary crew (someone awesome like locutus) $5 limit 5 purchases.
7 portal packs, $5 limit 5 purchases.
None of those deals would have broke the game. And it would have brought in a ton of money and people would have loved it.
But instead of options that would have been helpful for people with tighter budgets, we get a 5 year anniversary commemorated by an offer to buy 4 legendary citations for $99. I am positive that only a thin % of the player base bit on that deal.
And that offer came at a time when people just heard that the honor sale they had hoped for would not be happening. Its a slap in the face. Its total trolling.
What’s the point of surveys and mods providing feedback, if none of it ever seems to be taken into consideration for game development? When they do something that seems to be based on feedback, it always seem to be botched or not fully understood, as a band-aid solution from people who don’t seem to actually play their own game.
Their player engagement reminds me of the Seinfeld episode, when Jerry complained that if the restaurant can take a reservation but not keep it, what’s the point? TP asks for player feedback, says they value it, then we get stuff that leaves the players scratching our collective heads. I’d rather they not even ask for feedback.
Tilting Point is a game publisher foremost. Look at their Wikipedia page. They make their money by getting a game out, ad sales, etc. A similar idea would Wal-Mart. They make some products themselves, but they sell a lot more beyond those. They make ad engines, development deals, acquire other studios or form partnerships, etc.
They created Wicked Realm when they bought Timelines, hired the team (mostly) behind it, added more staff, and set about doing what they do- making money from games, not making games themselves. The STT title was a good one to buy. They could use the large, global player base as a selling point to ad buyers- think a magazine citing circulation numbers when dealing with advertisers. Losing players will hurt them.
I think it is ignorance at best and incompetence at worst that we are dealing with.
Part of the staff is learning as they go along the nuances of the game and they are doing it remotely. There isn't someone ten feet away to just ask. It wouldn't surprise me if this is what happened with Adira. Someone confused file extensions or dropped it in the wrong group folder, et c.
The old group and probably some or all of the new ones are figuring out whatever new demands TP has put on them.
TP just isn't familiar with what the players are used to. They likely know the basics, but not the specifics. They maybe understand honor sales and pack offers, but they may not understand when we expect them and what sort of precedence has been set.
As for hoarding...we earn or are given it to spend when we want or need it, like any resource, virtual or tangible.
I have 440k+ honor and growing because...
* I have several cites of both major kinds.
* I have all the Honor Hall crew.
* I need all my slots for thawed event crew and am not interested in buying begolds because of that.
I have no current need to spend it, so i save it, like any reasonable person.
They have given me no incentives or new opportunities to spend it either. I bought Borg Phlox the day he was added. I had the other crew from the Hall and the other variants of our beloved Denobulan physician. I wanted that Phlox. I had space. I had cites, in case. I had enough honor for a small reserve, which I spent at the sale that followed. I bought him. I haven't had a need or enticement since. I'm not hoarding. I'm just not blowing it like a five year old.
You mean the $4.99 Citations that today are valued at $25? That was a good deal.
This is a good idea.
Well said. I suppose I might be hording honor in some ways, but I have no need right now, as you said, to use any of it. I make 10 hour voyages regularly. I can get top 1500 in any event I choose. I have almost all the important and reasonably achievable collections. It is worse for chronitons (150K) and merits (50K) and I don't even know how many millions of credits. And I have unused citations and many thousands of replicator rations. I keep getting more, but have no real use for them. Please give me an incentive, TP. I would use it if I saw a value. An honor sale is value. Maybe this new feature that is supposedly coming is a value.
Yeah, the $25 price only elicits an epic eye roll. I generally ignore prices and offers that don’t fit my idea of good. I just expect that there will be things that are for other players and not me. For example, Tuesday legendarys. If it’s a good card I have at least one star in, that’s for me. Same if it’s just a card I really like. I’m less inclined to buy if it’s just because they relate to the upcoming event. I haven’t cracked top 2k yet and this one card isn’t going to make that happen.
If this "new feature" isn't the earth shattering, Armageddon inducing, pregnant pause they've hyped it up to be; especially after this disappointing past 30 days, then I'm done. I have another game that's holding my attention and leaving STT will be an easy decision.
It was weird there was no holiday deal. It didn’t even have to be good. It just had to be something. They could easily sell avatars and make huge bank. Wouldn’t even have to necessarily be Star Trek. Could sell a mistletoe avatar, a turkey avatar, etc and clean up.
I had $25 set aside in case they ran the 15/4k/4k that they had last year. I haven't seen a good enough deal lately, so I'm still sitting on the money. The current $50 deal is pretty good, but I'm not ready to part with that much money. Oh well. I'm a patient fellow. I'll wait until a deal in my price range gives the value I'm looking for.