WOW. Well done Star Trek Online!
Last Thursday, Cryptic threw it’s support behind Chase Masterson’s Pop Hero Coalition with a special promotion to raise much-needed funds for the charity. The plan was to sell a number of T1 and T2 ships at the $1 level, and a bonus T6 Ship pack for the first 2500 players who purchased $10 or more. If the promotion reached the $25K level, then everyone who participated would also receive a Mirror Leeta holographic bridge officer.
What started out as a decent target goal of $25,000 dollars quickly ballooned into a short extension of the charity event and doubling the revenue to over 54,000 dollars USD!
To call this promotion a success would be an understatement. While I don’t have insight into the projections, reaching the 25K goal was likely thought as a best-case scenario. Ultimately this promotion helped raise over 35,000 dollars for Chases’ charity which focuses on an anti-bullying agenda. Approximately 70 cents out of every dollar raised reaches it’s intended target, a percentage that while decried by some in the community is actually quite good when compared to other non-profits.
The original promotion can be seen here. It is now closed.
The success of the promotion was one part serendipity in terms of timing with the Admiralty system and the other being the generosity of Star Trek fans in general. What really surprised me was the number of unique purchases – my guesstimate of over 4600 – in just a few short hours. If anyone doubts the longevity of Star Trek Online as a game needs to take a close look at how quickly these sold out.
I wonder if STO would consider this method of adding other ships to our roster? Perhaps a promotion for KDF and Romulan science ships?
The promotion was not without it’s share of momentary glitches. While I caught on to the sale early in the day, making it through the purchasing system was difficult at best. My experience was a bit of a downer, after a rejected credit card and a second attempt, my purchases didn’t make it through the system. The issues had more to do with the overwhelming interest of STO fans than the validity of my credit card 
Hopefully if they do this again – and I highly recommend they do – that the the donation page at Groupee’s can handle the volume.
My credit card is ready
Lootcritter
