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DEVS: It's not about price.It's not about price.
It's not about the amount of content.
The "mega-adventure pack" could be ten solid levels of content for $3. I would still call it outrageous at this time.
For me, it's about the fact you haven't been releasing free content, or supporting the game enough, to even warrant the $15 subscription fee(or cost of a lifetime sub for that matter).
Five months since launch there's been a couple of moderately-poorly recieved holiday events, a handfull of missions to fill the leveling gaps the launch day patch created and a high end Lair I don't even like.
Other games with a $15 a month fee have done better in the same period of time. Much better. Those games didn't even have a lifetime subs for a quick cash injection early on to support said releases. For that matter, those other games had more in them out of the box.
Five months in, we're still plagued with bugs and imbalances and broken zones and server outages and untargetable zombies.
Other games have done maybe as good a job in this repect, but the subscription fees on those games were ALSO going to free content releases. If you're going to say the $15 a month for CO is only for server access and bug patching, you should be doing a much better job at it than you have been.
This dabacle is also about communication.
Three days later, the forums are still in an uproar and there's been no official comment. I want to hear you guys as least try to defend the move. As is, it looks like you know you've done wrong and you're laying low and waiting until everything blows over.
Jack Emmert wants Cryptic to be known as the studio that communicates and promises better interaction in the future?
Well the first time you're put to the test, you zip your lips and go into lockdown.
You devs KNEW you were being vague about what the "fantastic big 2010 update" would be. You knew many people thought CO was light out of the box. You knew a LOT of people were expecting a large free content release about this time and feel they're owed one. You knew a lot of people were sticking around just for said release.
You knew all of this, so why didn't you expect an outcry from this announcement?
CO is a game that still has potential. It requires better support to reach that potential. Having a bunch of your customers walk won't allow it to reach that potential.
If you want to pull things around you're going to have to support it better with free content releases and better bug killing. You're going to have to do better than the next guy in both of these areas to pull ahead.
You shouldn't been looking at ANY paid content releases until you've got things stable here first. That means releasing much much more free content than you have been. That means killing the bugs that have been here since launch. That means finding ways to attract customers instead off making them rage or driving them off.
Take the advice for what it's worth. It's common sense.