CAPTAIN'S BLOG

To be honest, I was very puzzled by the Summer Giveaway. I was not expecting to get Ships for free that usually cost 1000 ZEN. So that was a real surprise.

The Lobi Store discounts however are a very clever marketing scheme in my opinion. I speak from personal experience. I wanted the Romulan Liberated Borg Science Officer from the Lobi stored. Including the discount, it costed 255 Lobi Crystals. I needed to open 44 Lock Boxes to get those Crystals. People want Lobi Crystals so badly, that exchange prices for Lock Box Keys has risen dramatically (from averagely 1.5m EC to 1.85m EC). So while Cryptic, makes its money with discounted items, by everyone buying Lock Box Keys like the world's going to end tomorrow. I won't call it an evil master plan. From an economically point of view, I'd call it ingenious.

I think it is clever marketing. This is probably getting some people who never bought keys for the lobi to jump into the pool, so more sales (even at a discount) is better than no sales.

As far as the summer giveaway, I was surprised that they gave away 1000 zen ships, but not terribly, as I am sure they were not giving away top-selling ships. Think of how many nebulas you saw around before the giveaway. Also, since most play Tacs, this ship is not going to take away potential customers. Finally, since there is a fleet version, they are still making money off of those people who choose to stick with it .
I have no problem with them making money. They are a business and have bills to pay.

Greetings Captains,

I agree that it is generous, but also skilled marketing.
I enjoyed getting the new ships (I had the uniforms already) and because of the new ships, I purchased 2 new ship slots on 2 of my characters. (500 zen each that I ground from Dilithium)
I also bought a fleet module on the exchange to upgrade the Nebula-

I still say Cryptic/PWE's 'Free to play' model is the best in the business.

There are still many bugs in the game that never seem to make it on the radar to get fixed, and some of their short term decisions drive me nuts, but on the long haul, the game gets better and better.

Chris

Don't know if there's hidden agenda (probably marketing trick), but giving free ships was indeed very nice move from them (enjoying Marauder).

And I agree with Chris, best F2P model I've experienced yet, even that I'm Gold now (LTS is cheaper, but I don't mind giving them monthly support + few Zens I buy), while playing as Silver, it didn't feel like it was lack of anything, as all can be bought by grinding Dil.

Of course I got silly and equipped a Rom Heavy Destroyer with the Elachi set for fun last week. Then they did the unexpected and dropped the prices on the ships. Oh well, ROFLOL.

In truth, I suspect some of ships recently given away will be discontinued in the not so distant future. They will then roll out something new in place of them. This would be the normal approach. It's like changing car models every year.

The ships weren't end game ships, so I don't think they took that much of a loss. Once you hit 50, the ship you're given becomes antiquated. I speak for myself on this, but why would I go to a ship that opens up at level 40, when at level 50, you get ships that are so much better?

As for the Lobi crystals, the only way you get 'em is from lock boxes, plus one FREE lobi from a ferengi in the early game for Feds. So, throwing a discount at a very protected resource means that the only way to GET the crystals would be to open up many boxes, which in turn need keys, which in turn need zen or a pocket full of EC. So you're either going to be spending a TONNE of EC, or a cheaper way by just putting your bank card down and buying the necessary number of keys.

I use the Nebula full time, since I bought it a year ago. I think it's worse than the Luna class that I was using before. Mostly I assume it's my play style and outfit, but don't know how to meta-play the game in the way to min/max the ship for what 'class' I want to play.

With that in mind, I agree with most everyone here that this was a move to be grateful, but it was a giveaway of uniforms (which Cryptic has admitted are hardly purchased by anyone) and older ships that aren't end level or are otherwise antiquated.

I have 3 Lobi Crystals from the one time I opened a lock box, so I don't know anything about the Lobi store.