CAPTAIN'S BLOG

Perfect World Part 2

Captain's Blog Stardate 89205.48

A really hot topic lately seems to be about Atarti selling Cryptic to Perfect World. Not much is known about the company so I did a little research into them. First off, all their games are free to play and they make money through something similar to the C-Store where players can buy all types of items for cash. Probably the biggest concern among players is what will happen to their Atari Tokens? Perfect World's version of Atari Tokens is called Zen and is purchased with real money. Players buy Zen then they can buy items for various purposes. The interesting thing is that their game, Torchlight, does not use Zen. The reason is because Perfect World purchased Runic Games which is the developer of Torchlight and now Perfect World publishes that game. So why does that matter? It�s the same thing that is going on with Cryptic. Perfect World is purchasing Cryptic and will be the publisher of their games (STO, Champion's Online (CO), etc.). Based on this I'm going to assume that since Torchlight doesn't use the Perfect World currency than neither will STO. I'm also assuming that our Atari Tokens might actually be called Cryptic Points in the future. Another thing to keep in mind is that Cryptic and Atari know in which game Atari Tokens are purchased from. There have been a few instances in which Atari Tokens could be used in STO or CO but not in the other game. This leads me to believe that any Atari Tokens purchased through Cryptic will be kept by Cryptic and its players. I truly believe that none of us will lose our Atari Tokens. Cryptic wouldn't let that happen because it�s just bad business. As a side note, I haven't been able to check the price on Zen yet, but when I do I will update this post so keep an eye on it during the week. One other good point is that this could mean Star Trek Online will be going Free to Play. Don't jump to conclusions yet! There is currently a Free to Play model for CO which allows both free and paid subscriptions. Players who have a paid subscription get some added bonuses such as unlimited character slots, free monthly Atari Tokens, etc. So this acquisition by Perfect World could mean that STO will be headed down that path. Frankly I'm looking forward to that. I think this will be a good thing for Cryptic and all of us who play their games. At the very least everything stays the way it is, but only time will tell. Let me know your thoughts and concerns about all this. UPDATE: Two things to report. First I found out that the Zen are worth $1 per point, which is more expensive then Atari Tokens, however I don't see that affecting STO. Speaking of Atari Tokens, Cryptic just released a patch saying that Atari Tokens are being changed to Cryptic Poitns and all our Tokens/Points are still valid. In other words we aren't losing our Tokens.