Star Trek Online: Important Aspects of the Franchise

They definately have some big shoes to fill here.

The last two, no. At least not at launch. To difficult  to pull off w/ an emerging community, and may just be taken as out-of-context by everyone. Those are more personal to the writer, then to the IP as a whole.

The rest though, dead on. It's a shamne that a developer hasn't created a game w/ the care and depth that Star Trek deserves. B/c lets be honest here: w/ less then 3 months to launch, we're pretty much getting what's in beta. And at 3 months to launch w/ CO, it was still regarded as it was launched: clunky, unfinished and shallow. History tends to repeat itself.

Well said, Jon...well said.

Good thinking. I agree with the article.

There have been so many blaaaa Star Trek games over the years that have made most of us shake our heads I am hoping that they do it good.

So far they are already off on the wrong foot buy only allowing those who bought life time membership to  chapions online to do the beta.

I still have some hope but not much.

Nailed it. (Except the last 2 should be rare; maybe even once per character.)

I have very little confidence in Cryptic to deliver more than Champions Online.

I lost hope when I saw the PC Gamer cover with a cleavage showing Vulcan seductress. I see now that Amazon pre-orders get a borg bridge officer. What? and What? Sure, you had Seven, but she should be rare in canon.

Although the recent news of walking on bridges is promising, as far as I understand, it is an instanced social hub. You can't control your ship. Additionally, I would think it would be easy enough to build turbolifts to other parts of your ship.

It sounds like this writer is not fond of the concept of players writing their own backstories. Just as sure as you can make your own race, you can make up your own backstory to go along with it. The funny part about that is that you don't even 'need' anything in game to do that, you just do it yourself. Now, they could add in a little backstory space like with what Champions Online and CoX do with their character biography, but they don't have to. The NPC Bridge officers that you create? Make up their backstories. There's a chance that the NPC bridge officers that you can pick up along the way may have their own backstories already, but if they don't? Make it up yourself.

As for Alternate Realities and Time Travel, it was good in TOS when those concepts were relatively fresh and new in the 1960s, but TNG and beyond seem to have beaten the concept to death. Now it's just cliched, overused, and cheap.

I, for one, can do without time travel.  Very over used plot device in the Trek universe.  Agreed with everything else.

Time travel doesn't make or break Star Trek for me.  It was rarely done well: Voyager just blew up! Oops, guess not, it was all a time travelling plot, nothing really mattered. Oh well, join us next week!

But when done well, such as it was in ST:TNG "Cause and Effect", then you have a story that captures the essence of the Star Trek paradigm: a story about ideas framed in science, and solved through human ingenuity.

But I agree with the rest of Jon's article.

Things I expect.

1. I want to be able to log on every night i play the game and experience something new. I want the missions to suprise me. Exploration is what it is all about for me. If star trek online at all begins to feel like a grind, i will have to give it up. It needs to not feel like a mmo, it needs to feel like star trek.

2.Ship interiors. They just recently announced that at launch you will be able to walk around on your bridge. This is promising. One third of star trek takes place on the ship, one third on the planets and the other third in space. They need to expand ship interiors to all parts of the ship. I appreciate that cryptic realized that ship interiors had to be in the game. That was the biggest worry for me.

3.quests should not be go to a kill b c and d, and return to a. Just tell me where to go and a little information about why i am going there. Once i get there, throw me a curve. Missions should not be repeditive at all in this game. They should make me want to go on them just to see what happens.

4. I picked up CO a few months ago simply to see what kind of game cryptic could make. Honestly I dont like champions, but here is my hypothesis. When I learned this company was going forward with STO. I knew they would quickly dump champions to the side of the road to focus on this project. Champions became this companies second favorite child instantly. I am suprised they even finished the game. Star trek has been around for fourty years. Cryptic was given the keys to daddys ferrari. I am not suprised champions feels like a neglected game. I am pretty sure cryptic will be more focused on the star trek game.

5. I want missions that revolve around my crew, like the author of this post, the crew should be focused on during missions. They should be part of the mission plots. The crew must have some personality.

6. Lots of updates after the game comes out. Players of this game will be very thirsty for content. When you except the challenge of creating a game that has no boundaries. You have commited yourself to expand the game continuously. Space has no edge. Player will want to explore. You have to make this game so that player can do that. If the trekies start to feel boxed in, cryptic will have a problem on thier hands.

 "To boldly go where everyone has gone before" better never be an issue

Originally posted by Cerion

Time travel doesn't make or break Star Trek for me.  It was rarely done well: Voyager just blew up! Oops, guess not, it was all a time travelling plot, nothing really mattered. Oh well, join us next week!

But when done well, such as it was in ST:TNG "Cause and Effect", then you have a story that captures the essence of the Star Trek paradigm: a story about ideas framed in science, and solved through human ingenuity.

 

 

But I agree with the rest of Jon's article.

That was the exact episode I was thinking of in relation to time travel.  That is probably in the top 5 or 10 of my favorites from TNG.  The others I can think of where time travel was done very well was the final TNG episode "All Good Things....", and even Star Trek IV.  I just thought it was a little clever the way the whales were worked into the storyline.

Originally posted by pcolapat

Things I expect.

...

3.quests should not be go to a kill b c and d, and return to a. Just tell me where to go and a little information about why i am going there. Once i get there, throw me a curve. Missions should not be repeditive at all in this game. They should make me want to go on them just to see what happens.

...

I swear, if the first quest is "Go kill 10 tribbles", I'm going to put a disruptor to my head...that is after I shoot a photon torpedo at Cryptic's headquarters.

1)Characters on the crew: I agree with this point I would certainly prefer that the crew comes off as more than just "stats" and have some type of mechanics that allow for "personality" to be shown and I do recall reading somewhere that some of the bridge officers and such you will be able to upgrade to will come from some of your missions so that I see is being taken care of in some way but again I would hope it does not end once you get them into your crew and then they just become relegated to stats again.  But as one player mentioned and as I often do you can actually make your own backstories and hopefully they include a mechanic to show that.

2)Exploration:I'm not overly concerned about this because I think the system generator tends to take care of this and of everything I've read it seems that the devs have mentioned more about that system and how it will work much like the show than they mention combat (As I've heard many others complain).

3)Culture:I don't consider myself a Trekkie or even a Trek fan, I'm much more of a sci fi fan with a strong like of space based ip's and Star Trek is certainly the second most well known and in my eyes the second best, having said that I don't kow a whole lot about the races cultures but I do look forward to learning more from playing the game.

4)A sense of Humor: Again I am not a Trekkie so maybe this is one of the reasons I wasn't *shrugs* I don't know but again since I am not immersed in the world I can only assume that's why I could care less if the game has a sense of humor.  As a matter of fact I think I would prefer to avoid anything that was trying to come off as funny because it was for me one of the turn offs of ST, while many people loved the tribbles episode it to me was one of the reasons the series continually failed to bring in bigger audiences.

5)Alternate Realities/Time Travel: To me these two are kind of hand in hand and I again didn't particularly care for this aspect of the show either.  For one when you are constantly shifting around these alternate realities and times you make it that much more difficult for new people to actually catch on to what you are doing and it becomes an easy cop out to try crappy ideas and just dismiss them with an alternate time line.  I'd prefer they stuck mostly to dealing with the one universe we are in and keep it mostly a constant.  Given though that Star Trek does in fact use these conditions so often it would be nice if they had some type of special mission arc come up once or twice maybe dealing with alternate realities and time lines but nothing that just randomly pops up all over the game.

In all I am for addition to any game but I don't see most of this list as a game breaker because as I've stated many times before the amount of true Trekkies who were totally endeared to all that was ST have never been enough people to keep many of the series relevant the only one truly succesful being TNG so I don't think that appeasing "Trekkies" is as important as many Trekkies do.  Star Trek is pop culture lore and it will stand on that fact as long as they make a good engaging game.

[quote]Time travel doesn't make or break Star Trek for me. It was rarely done well: Voyager just blew up! Oops, guess not, it was all a time travelling plot, nothing really mattered. Oh well, join us next week!

But when done well, such as it was in ST:TNG "Cause and Effect", then you have a story that captures the essence of the Star Trek paradigm: a story about ideas framed in science, and solved through human ingenuity.

But I agree with the rest of Jon's article.[/quote]

I was thinking the exact same thing. Honestly, I would like the "storytelling" to be more on par with Star Trek: TNG's and Deep Space Nine's writing than Voyager or Enterprise. I guess we'll have to wait and see how truly "espisodic" the missions are. Cryptic claimed that they were writing missions as if they were writing a storyline for a show. So, like another poster, I will also take a photon torpedo to Cryptic HQ if they hand out "kill 10 tribble" quests. However, I am keeping hope alive here.

(It's not as if they don't have reams and reams "intel" to use as fodder for mission ideas. Between the TV shows/books/movies..heck even Fanfiction on the Internets...there is absolutely no reason why this game should have simple, boring kill X missions.)

This will be a run of the mill mmo with trek elements and objects, a skin. I'm sure you'll have some story arcs revolving around some of the more infamous events of the show but that will be it. If you're expecting an all singing, all dancing quest system with rich full objectives and story I think people are going to be thoroughly disappointed. Too much effort and money required.

To the fans (myself included) this is one of the most important ip's that exists, to cryptic this is a revenue source. Nothing more, nothing less.

Unfortunately, mrw0lf is almost certainly correct. What you'll get from Cryptic is a very basic, very generic MMO. Expecting more is just setting yourself up for disappointment.

I hope they use as much of the Trek universe as they can, time travel, has it's place and could be fun, as a way to visit, the iconic characters and encounters of the past.. :)

Originally posted by mrw0lf

This will be a run of the mill mmo with trek elements and objects, a skin. I'm sure you'll have some story arcs revolving around some of the more infamous events of the show but that will be it. If you're expecting an all singing, all dancing quest system with rich full objectives and story I think people are going to be thoroughly disappointed. Too much effort and money required.

To the fans (myself included) this is one of the most important ip's that exists, to cryptic this is a revenue source. Nothing more, nothing less.

Largely the more I have heard (and perhaps more tellingly the more Cryptic has not talked about certain important elements) the more I agree with your sentiments.  A proper Star Trek game would be exceedingly hard to do.  I agree with Cryptic in giving everyone their own ship (can't depend on people logging in to have a crew), but then you run into the very difficult barrier of properly representing all the sorts of characters you could have on the crew.  Given what one of the writers said a couple months back, they plan on "solving" this problem by having the writing be generic enough for anyone to say it, which means we aren't going to see strong and iconic characters as far as I can tell.

They don't seem to want to talk about the random quest system much either, which makes me think it isn't going to be very good.  Sure, maybe all the worlds look different, but they've implied the random quest stuff is going to be pretty basic -- just look at the comparisons when they talk about episodes.  A go fetch mission on random world 1234123 is not going to feel much different from one on world 235232 in all likelihood; scenery changes won't mask the repetition.

Honestly, I am not sure the technology and processing power is really there yet for a proper Star Trek MMO (since you need tons of computer generated personalities for all the various crews people could get).  You'd pretty much need a homemade "translator" to handle the crew dialogue.  For instance, if the science officer is supposed to say he the enemy ship is giving off strange gravity waves, then you'd need the basic form of that statement run through a program to get what you'd want for a Vulcan, Klingon, Betazed, Bajoran, etc science officer (to say nothing of how the personality might further differ).  It's insane to write the dialogue for each possible member individually and it is flat to make it generic (like I said, Cryptic is going for the latter, from what they've said), so you need a program to modify what is said for the given personality/species of the crew member. Similarly, for random quests you'd need random NPCs generated with random personalities, wants, desires, etc, as well as objectives that are randomized, all this put together so that the actually behavior of the quest is emergent and is a result of those randomized elements (say you need to help a member of the Federation with a pirate attack as a random quest, well some sets of random parameters might mean you CAN negotiate with both sides and get a peaceful resolution, but if things are generated differently then perhaps one or both sides won't cooperate or perhaps it will just be a lot more difficult to find a compromise or maybe a happy solution just isn't possible AT ALL -- that does happen sometimes, even in Star Trek).  That's a TON of work, but it would be awesome (and reusable in later MMOs certainly).  We definitely aren't getting any of this though.

What STO is going to be is a pretty flat and boring game largely, with some decent episode questlines, but those questlines are going to be plagued with generic crew dialogue and generally not feel more than superficially like Star Trek, unless, perhaps, your crew happens to be composed of people who'd talk pretty generically anyway -- but who wants a crew like that?

Edit:  Personally for fun story-based stuff I've been looking at DC Online, Star Trek Online, Star Wars:  The Old Republic, and Final Fantasy XIV.  The latter two are looking the most promising to me (and they also look like they'll have the other elements I am looking for, such moving away from the Tank-Healer-DPS Trinity and more interesting and involved combat in general.  To be fair, all four of those games look fairly good combat-wise, but I really want more than a fun combat system).

 Good article.  Though in a way (especially after whats gone on with the STO IP and after seeing other cryptic mmos) I feel sorry for them.  They won't meet MMOers expectations, and if they do they will most likely focus to the casual - in doing so killing it for the hardcore and/or the pvp lovers.  So its only a minor victory at best.

I love star trek, but seriously there is no chance they have of meeting all the wants of the OP or any true trek fan.  Some of these responses make me wonder if people have ever played an mmo, let alone think about what they are asking cryptic to do - they are game devs, not magic content miracle workers (even if we really want or expect them to be, you can only hardcode so much randomness & functionality to appease everyone).

Basically, lower your expectations to a reasonable level - think of this game as "meh" to begin with, and hope they give the standard new mmo a decent star trek game feel (like some early / mid 90s star trek titles).  And at the end of the day, if you want all the content you expect...grab a pen & some paper, a decipher hardback game manual or just your imagination & go buck wild.

In the end, I wish cryptic luck enough in competing against the upcoming mmo market (old republic, ffxiv - let alone expectations)...this might end up tabula rasa 2.0 :( 

"That's one of the things that makes me a little bit nervous about the character creation system, as dynamic as it is from an MMORPG standpoint, that allows players to make up their own races and looks for their characters."

This makes me somewhat nervous aswell, I mean like you say from a MMORPG standpoint and if this was some unknown new IP it would be awesome to be able to creat new races and have it blueprinted so that others can become that same race.

But then again they also said they are NOT making a game for Star Trek fans, but more making a game for MMORPG fans. So far it shows.....

For anyone intrested in what kind of races there are in the Star Trek Universe here is a list of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_races

Don't hold your breath. From all the publicly released information. They are slapping together the fastest cheapest game in every way and with release 80 days away with beta only recently started I'm not expecting any more than a WoW in space wanna be. SW-TOR is gonna be 10000 times better. Mark my words. The old republic may not come out until 2011. But it won't matter STO will be a blip on the MMO radar. The only reason STO is be released Feb 2nd is to beat SW-TOR to market to make a quick buck.

This will be another MMO made to a formula to suit all players. The article clearly shows this and it is a real shame as I am a ST fan myself, but I don’t have a uniform in the closet. :)

You may get crews at a later stage but you are talking one year plus, they will have more important issues to sort out.

It is going to be a Star Trek game Jon, but not as we know it.

Even the devs said this game was not designed for just the trek fans. This is another MMO targeted to the masses. Maybe some people are in denial but  it is what it is.  I am not expecting much of this MMO, just wait and see.

"If you want to populate my ship with NPCs, Cryptic, that's your call. But as a Trek fan, I'm putting the onus on you to make them an interesting and engaging part of my game experience."

I didnt know cryptic was making a game just for your taste.

As a ST fan myself I love the direction there going. *shrugs*

---

Originally posted by Centhan

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Originally posted by pcolapat

Things I expect.
...
3.quests should not be go to a kill b c and d, and return to a. Just tell me where to go and a little information about why i am going there. Once i get there, throw me a curve. Missions should not be repeditive at all in this game. They should make me want to go on them just to see what happens.
...

---

 
I swear, if the first quest is "Go kill 10 tribbles", I'm going to put a disruptor to my head...that is after I shoot a photon torpedo at Cryptic's headquarters.

---

Well there should be a quest to Kill Tribble's! Especialy if it's a Klingon Mission. After all they still sing about the Extermination of them, till DS9 brought them back. I also think they should handle any Time Travel mission's as they did on DS9, the mission in the background of the past event. Little interaction with the past to continue continuity but fun.

On a lighter note let's see a PvP Planet of attack and Defend the Tribble breeding grounds!

I think a more interesting topic would be the examination of targeting an MMO to the broad general gamer audiance and less focus on that MMO's IP fans.  As the economy has taken a hit on everyone, the casual gamer who would jump in and try WOW with thier friends is starting to question the spending of that money.  Slowly those casual players who might try a MMO are starting to dry up.  I believe Blizzard  is probably not touting those full 11 Million subs today.  Hardcore MMO fans may commit to a single game that captures thier interest but are finding it harder and harder to stay with it as the times dictate.  I have also read of potential players turning thier collective noses up on new MMO offerings because those same MMO's offer nothing dramaticly different from thier last experiances.  So, less finacial support coupled with market stagnation is not a good thing for MMO's as a whole.  Niche focus on an IP fan base is viewed as myopic but there should be a solid foundation that can be depended for that "cash cow" to keep producing.

Am I trolling?  Sure, but I thought this was a pretty interesting view.

This is going to be an interesting game if they pull it off as there are a lot of potential pitfalls in what they have so far announced with some of their design ideas. I have always enjoyed the stories and the ideas in the varios versions of Star Trek that have come out but I've never really been a Trekkie or wanted to be. What I wanted was to be entertained and generally while there have been some groaners at times they have succeeded.

It is probably too late to make any major development changes to the product and actually have it released on time but the idea of captains and crews seems to be the one that will be the hardest to execute properly and if it doesn't work can pull the whole game down. Personally with the proliferation of people creating alternate characters they might consider that the crew in a ship are alts and not just a bunch of nameless gormless bots that follow you about. If you needed to create the various members of your bridge crew and train them and work with them and then build it up as a team entity that might have some interesting aspects to it. It could be like having a main character with 5 or 6 different specs that you could choose from as you go out on missions.

Dunno, the outlook isn't good for them and if they don't have a solid comittment behind them by their company getting the product to market on time and in a usable fashion is going to be very difficutl.

Well Jon that sounds pretty much like I feel. Lets not just make the game about the mechanics of the game. Lets include the FEEL of Startrek. I realize thats a tough thing to do, but if they at least try it will be a step forward.

Originally posted by Direphoenix

It sounds like this writer is not fond of the concept of players writing their own backstories. Just as sure as you can make your own race, you can make up your own backstory to go along with it. The funny part about that is that you don't even 'need' anything in game to do that, you just do it yourself. Now, they could add in a little backstory space like with what Champions Online and CoX do with their character biography, but they don't have to. The NPC Bridge officers that you create? Make up their backstories. There's a chance that the NPC bridge officers that you can pick up along the way may have their own backstories already, but if they don't? Make it up yourself.

As for Alternate Realities and Time Travel, it was good in TOS when those concepts were relatively fresh and new in the 1960s, but TNG and beyond seem to have beaten the concept to death. Now it's just cliched, overused, and cheap.

Sure.  And while I'm at it, I'll make up that I won the game and am the best ever, and just not bother playing.

Story, in a game, is of limited value if it is not reflected in gameplay or dialogue, at least a little.  Making up fantasy stories in your head is pointless in this context.

There is a vast gulf of difference, thank god, between active roleplaying and fan fiction.

Originally posted by Reklaw

"That's one of the things that makes me a little bit nervous about the character creation system, as dynamic as it is from an MMORPG standpoint, that allows players to make up their own races and looks for their characters."

This makes me somewhat nervous aswell, I mean like you say from a MMORPG standpoint and if this was some unknown new IP it would be awesome to be able to creat new races and have it blueprinted so that others can become that same race.

But then again they also said they are NOT making a game for Star Trek fans, but more making a game for MMORPG fans. So far it shows.....

For anyone intrested in what kind of races there are in the Star Trek Universe here is a list of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek_races

 

Agreed completely. When I heard of the race creation system, I thought it was cool, but I'm afraid that all the traditional races are going to get sidelined by people creating "kewl" races for every character they roll.

Races and their history, culture and lore are a huge part of Star Trek, and it will be a horrible shame if this aspect is sidelined for an extensive character creation process where people can ignore the established races in favour of their own simply because Cryptic has the technology to make it so and they want another bullet point for the box.

Originally posted by Home15

"If you want to populate my ship with NPCs, Cryptic, that's your call. But as a Trek fan, I'm putting the onus on you to make them an interesting and engaging part of my game experience."

I didnt know cryptic was making a game just for your taste.

As a ST fan myself I love the direction there going. *shrugs*

I think the author gave clear and concise evidence from Star Trek as to why the NPC bridge characters should be well fleshed out. YOU, on the other hand, are basing your opinion on nothing more than your personal opinion and preferences. Do you really believe TNG was the "Jean Luc Picard Hour?" Or DS9 was "The Adventures of Ben Sisko?"

Each Star Trek show has 5 to 7 main characters the show revolves around, sometimes more, and (in the case of TOS) sometimes less. However, there are always interesting and engaging characters apart from the captains. Griping about the author wanting his NPC bridge crew to have backstories and histories and personalities is pure insanity in my opinion.

Originally posted by mrw0lf

This will be a run of the mill mmo with trek elements and objects, a skin. I'm sure you'll have some story arcs revolving around some of the more infamous events of the show but that will be it. If you're expecting an all singing, all dancing quest system with rich full objectives and story I think people are going to be thoroughly disappointed. Too much effort and money required.

To the fans (myself included) this is one of the most important ip's that exists, to cryptic this is a revenue source. Nothing more, nothing less.

Unfortunately, as we discover more and more about the game, this seems to be the case.   And it explains why getting information about the game has been like pulling teeth.

Its shaping up to be the same, bland, mindless, "one shoe fits all" trash the industry has been throwing at us for years now.

I've concluded we are not going to get anything more than City of Heroes with different avatars and sidekicks (BOs).

Originally posted by JYCowboy

I think a more interesting topic would be the examination of targeting an MMO to the broad general gamer audiance and less focus on that MMO's IP fans.  As the economy has taken a hit on everyone, the casual gamer who would jump in and try WOW with thier friends is starting to question the spending of that money.  Slowly those casual players who might try a MMO are starting to dry up.  I believe Blizzard  is probably not touting those full 11 Million subs today.  Hardcore MMO fans may commit to a single game that captures thier interest but are finding it harder and harder to stay with it as the times dictate.  I have also read of potential players turning thier collective noses up on new MMO offerings because those same MMO's offer nothing dramaticly different from thier last experiances.  So, less finacial support coupled with market stagnation is not a good thing for MMO's as a whole.  Niche focus on an IP fan base is viewed as myopic but there should be a solid foundation that can be depended for that "cash cow" to keep producing.

Am I trolling?  Sure, but I thought this was a pretty interesting view.

Not trolling at all.  This very view has been my contention for years.  A game company should NOT focus its efforts on attracting Nomad Gamers. They will leave you the at the earliest opportunity. It is very short sighted (but then what's new with American business these days?)  A game company should develop product for a core audience, the question is what core audience.  That will be different for different games. EQ1 decided to focus on the core audience of Raiders, for example.  For all its innovation at launch, SWG didn't focus on Star Wars fans, but focused on the generic "MMO Fan".  To which Raph Koster famously admitted "All the usual suspects showed up."  The fact that SWG hadn't tapped into the vast Star Wars fan base led directly to the NGE.  SWG tried to go after the Star Wars fans AFTER they had already established a game -- and we see how successful that was. It needed to happen from the start.

Now Cryptic has been coy about their relations with Star Trek fans -- at points wooing them, and at other points openly mocking them.  But it can be said that they certainly are NOT designing STO to appeal to a core of Star Trek fans. They've readily admitted as much.  They're going for that same group, that nebulous, nomadic group where "all the usual suspects" show up.

Of all the things game companies have learned and try to learn from WoW's success, they haven't gleaned one of the more important aspects. Namely: design a game for your core fans.  Blizzard did that (and more), and it paid off in spades.

Originally posted by Cerion 

Now Cryptic has been coy about their relations with Star Trek fans -- at points wooing them, and at other points openly mocking them.  But it can be said that they certainly are NOT designing STO to appeal to a core of Star Trek fans. They've readily admitted as much.  They're going for that same group, that nebulous, nomadic group where "all the usual suspects" show up.

 

Now, my question to you is: why are they doing that? Are they misguided in thinking they can hold a large section of the nomads, or it is their business plan to release big (box sales, CE, and extended subscriptions) and let the game wither away?

Originally posted by Cerion

Originally posted by JYCowboy

I think a more interesting topic would be the examination of targeting an MMO to the broad general gamer audiance and less focus on that MMO's IP fans.  As the economy has taken a hit on everyone, the casual gamer who would jump in and try WOW with thier friends is starting to question the spending of that money.  Slowly those casual players who might try a MMO are starting to dry up.  I believe Blizzard  is probably not touting those full 11 Million subs today.  Hardcore MMO fans may commit to a single game that captures thier interest but are finding it harder and harder to stay with it as the times dictate.  I have also read of potential players turning thier collective noses up on new MMO offerings because those same MMO's offer nothing dramaticly different from thier last experiances.  So, less finacial support coupled with market stagnation is not a good thing for MMO's as a whole.  Niche focus on an IP fan base is viewed as myopic but there should be a solid foundation that can be depended for that "cash cow" to keep producing.

Am I trolling?  Sure, but I thought this was a pretty interesting view.

 

Not trolling at all.  This very view has been my contention for years.  A game company should NOT focus its efforts on attracting Nomad Gamers. They will leave you the at the earliest opportunity. It is very short sighted (but then what's new with American business these days?)  A game company should develop product for a core audience, the question is what core audience.  That will be different for different games. EQ1 decided to focus on the core audience of Raiders, for example.  For all its innovation at launch, SWG didn't focus on Star Wars fans, but focused on the generic "MMO Fan".  To which Raph Koster famously admitted "All the usual suspects showed up."  The fact that SWG hadn't tapped into the vast Star Wars fan base led directly to the NGE.  SWG tried to go after the Star Wars fans AFTER they had already established a game -- and we see how successful that was. It needed to happen from the start.

 

Now Cryptic has been coy about their relations with Star Trek fans -- at points wooing them, and at other points openly mocking them.  But it can be said that they certainly are NOT designing STO to appeal to a core of Star Trek fans. They've readily admitted as much.  They're going for that same group, that nebulous, nomadic group where "all the usual suspects" show up.

Of all the things game companies have learned and try to learn from WoW's success, they haven't gleaned one of the more important aspects. Namely: design a game for your core fans.  Blizzard did that (and more), and it paid off in spades.

 

 

Very well said. And I submit further that if Cryptic tried to appeal to the core Star Trek fan base and tried to make a game that Star Trek fans would find fun and would really enjoy then all the rest will follow.

As it stands they seem to scoff at making a game that appeals to Trek fans because "Trek fans don't like what 'normal' people like." That's pure BS and keeping that philosophy will hurt them. Hardcore Trek fans have held vast tournaments and played games like Bridge Commander and Starfleet Command to death because they could play against each other. There, we now have an entire PvP system in place. In one game (Starfleet Command I think) it was flexible enough that you could fight your friend's Borg cube in a shuttlecraft! Trek fans have always dreamed of having their own quarters on a starship. There, you've got player housing. Trek fans have always wanted to hang out at Ten Forward or Quark's with their friends. There, we have a social aspect to the game. Trek fans want to explore the galaxy, go on diplomatic missions, save the Earth, visit Vulcan, trade with Ferengi, beat up (or get beaten up) by Nausicans. These are not "boring" things that "normal" people wouldn't want to do.

I find it really sad that we get WoW with a Star Trek skin. This game could be something complex and fun, but instead the more I see of it the more shallow and uninteresting it looks. I think Cryptic should have listened to the Star Trek fan side of things instead of the desire for uber profits side of things.

I also firmly believe that if a game company ignores the profit side of the equation and focuses soley on the fun and interest factors of a game they will design a game that is fun and a game that people will want to play. The profits will naturally follow.

I am not a big fan of Star Trek,  Its a great show but never had time.   Just wonder if the other Star Trek games paid for licensing or rights if they used the actual characters, etc.    We could not expect Cryptic to shell out that kind of dough but would expect it to be an insane game to play in order to keep the fans intersted.

I just want something other than bows and arrows to shoot.   CO does a good job their,  but the whole spaceship and star trek theme should be outrageous with the talent they have.   Yes CO has its bugs but they all do early on.   The ones that dont,  check out the size of their company and dev team.

"But then again they also said they are NOT making a game for Star Trek fans, but more making a game for MMORPG fans."

I think both can be achieved. It just needs to be done in the right way. You need to look at both perspectives and see if things can "bridge" both sides. By all means, it obviously isn't going to be easy but isn't that the whole point of spending millions on a team that can figure this out the "right way". To be honest, I think the greatest problem is figuring out how solo players can fit within this universe.

For example, a groups of friends who all take different roles to crew a starship is fairly easy to achieve. In effect, you're creating a situation similar to questing in a group or raiding in WoW. Different skills and roles are required to achieve a group objective. Guilds are handled by creating crew  "teams" of say six to eight people who each run a starship of their own and their player housing is their cabin on that ship (and maybe they even have their own guild starbase they can all meet at as well). Actually the more successful the guild, the better ships they may get access to fly (similar to Warhammer's guild XP increasing your guild's abilities and resources).

Again though, the team aspect is probably the easier part. What about all of the players who want to play solo though? Are they only allowed to fly smaller ships and thus don't get the opportunity to command a starship of their own like the Enterprise because that requires a team of people to run? That I think is the most difficult question to ask. Do we alienate solo players to give social players what they really want?

Be interesting to hear from people here how they would envision these problems being addressed.

There are a LOT of Trek fans out there, and given the nature of the shows and their fans, a lot of them would play a good MMORPG based on that IP. Do a good job with such a game, and you wouldn't need any casuals for the game to be a success.

I think players should have to be part of a crew to fly in the larger ships, just like you need to be in a group or raid to do the dungeons in a standard fantasy MMORPG. Solo players could be designated as available crew to any ships leaving starbase for a mission.

Having solo captains running capital ships won't work alongside player crews. If the NPC crew are inferior to players, then the soloers will complain, and vice versa.

It will be interesting to follow how this game develops as I've read so much of the game is centered aroun PvP and not the other aspects os Star Trek we hope would be included in the game, such as exploration. I'm also not sure about trying to run a ship with pre-determined NPC's.

No judgement yet on how the game will turn out. Wait and see

I have to vote no confidence in this game. I was really excited when it was announced and that enthusiasm has gone down with almost every detail I hear.

Here's hoping I'm wrong.

Good article, and I agree with what several others said that the article hits the nail on the head except for the last two points. Alternate Universes and Time Travel are gimmicks that Star Trek used often, sometimes effectively and sometimes not. It's a story tool that Cryptic can use if they want to, but it's not at all necessary IMO.

I also agree that STO should be targeted toward Star Trek fans. The whole point of using an established IP is to attract those fans. If they just want to make an MMO that attracts any MMO gamers, they don't need to pay Paramount for the rights to develop a Star Trek game. They could just make up a new story and universe and be free to develop it in any direction that they want (see: EVE Online). And to be fair, while they have said that they want to make a great MMORPG game and not just a great Star Trek game, they've also said they want it to be a true Star Trek experience. So I believe they are trying to get it right on both sides of the coin, which of course is exactly what they have to do. To be truly successful, it will have to be a great Star Trek experience and a great MMORPG game experience.

On the topic of players creating their own races, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I did a bit of Star Trek fan fiction many years ago, and created new races in the stories. It was a lot of fun, and I also enjoyed reading what other writers came up with. So I expect that some players will take it seriously, and they'll write up some very cool races with history and background and culture that will be a joy to discover in the game. On the other hand, there will be players that create "TEH OMG AWSOMEFACE RACE!!!1!!1!" and unless Cryptic puts some oversight on race creation, there's going to be a lot of nonsense in the game.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Cerion 

Now Cryptic has been coy about their relations with Star Trek fans -- at points wooing them, and at other points openly mocking them.  But it can be said that they certainly are NOT designing STO to appeal to a core of Star Trek fans. They've readily admitted as much.  They're going for that same group, that nebulous, nomadic group where "all the usual suspects" show up.

 

Now, my question to you is: why are they doing that? Are they misguided in thinking they can hold a large section of the nomads, or it is their business plan to release big (box sales, CE, and extended subscriptions) and let the game wither away?

I don't know. I wish I knew.  Perhaps they're highly cynical about the longevity of an MMO game's life cycle.  I have an inkling, though it's only a gut feeling, that Paramount has its fingers in this deal (more than simply licensing) and is demanding an quick, early return on investment -- but hey, I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, lol.  Going for the nomad gamer would give you that quick return.

The Star Trek MMO is the one we have all been waiting for. The devs have mentioned procedurally generated content yet they mention nothing about player generated content, combining these two things is definitely the wave of the MMO future. I would like to craft holodeck adventures personally and would probably pay for the privilege but oh well.

I doubt the Prime Directive is going to play much of a role in this game, even though it should always be in your mind as you explore strange new worlds, unless you aren't in the Federation.

I don't really care for space combat in a Star Trek game, so this one is already down a few notches in my book, I'll give it a shot though as we all will. There is MMO precedent for allowing mutiple PC's on the same ship, check out Pirates of the Caribbean Online from Disney lol!

Perhaps champions was just a quick revenue generator for Cryptic so they could fund what they believe to be the real money maker? I just hope the game is good.

Originally posted by mynameisben

The Star Trek MMO is the one we have all been waiting for. The devs have mentioned procedurally generated content yet they mention nothing about player generated content, combining these two things is definitely the wave of the MMO future. I would like to craft holodeck adventures personally and would probably pay for the privilege but oh well.

I doubt the Prime Directive is going to play much of a role in this game, even though it should always be in your mind as you explore strange new worlds, unless you aren't in the Federation.

I don't really care for space combat in a Star Trek game, so this one is already down a few notches in my book, I'll give it a shot though as we all will. There is MMO precedent for allowing mutiple PC's on the same ship, check out Pirates of the Caribbean Online from Disney lol!

Perhaps champions was just a quick revenue generator for Cryptic so they could fund what they believe to be the real money maker? I just hope the game is good.

 

 

Are you completely sure you want to?

Edit: didn't grab everything for the change.

Originally posted by mynameisben

There is MMO precedent for allowing mutiple PC's on the same ship, check out Pirates of the Caribbean Online from Disney lol!

Or Star Wars Galaxies from 2003...

Originally posted by edgehead

I have to vote no confidence in this game. I was really excited when it was announced and that enthusiasm has gone down with almost every detail I hear.

Here's hoping I'm wrong.

Your not. It's worse then you've heard. With every detail STO looks worse and worse. On the other hand with every detail Star Wars - The Old Republic looks better and better.

Originally posted by Elannar

Originally posted by mynameisben

There is MMO precedent for allowing mutiple PC's on the same ship, check out Pirates of the Caribbean Online from Disney lol!

Or Star Wars Galaxies from 2003...

SWG has the best multiplayer set in space. On the new gunships you can have a pilot, operations and 6 gunners. All working together. SWG even has an awesome voice over IP built in to the game. Hey wait. You mean SOE the company that can do no right did multi role ship combat right?!? 6 YEARS ago? and cryptic can't? FAIL. If you want a game that has actual people running the entire ship and not just pressing npc buttons. There really is only one MMO that supports this, and ironically it's Star Wars Galaxies. How's that for a kick in the pants? There are also other multiplayer ships in SWG for 2, 4, and 8 player ships. And there is still room in the ships to for repair in flight. (That sounds just like Star Trek :P).

Originally posted by Erolis

Originally posted by Elannar

Originally posted by mynameisben

There is MMO precedent for allowing mutiple PC's on the same ship, check out Pirates of the Caribbean Online from Disney lol!

Or Star Wars Galaxies from 2003...

SWG has the best multiplayer set in space. On the new gunships you can have a pilot, operations and 6 gunners. All working together. SWG even has an awesome voice over IP built in to the game. Hey wait. You mean SOE the company that can do no right did multi role ship combat right?!? 6 YEARS ago? and cryptic can't? FAIL. If you want a game that has actual people running the entire ship and not just pressing npc buttons. There really is only one MMO that supports this, and ironically it's Star Wars Galaxies. How's that for a kick in the pants? There are also other multiplayer ships in SWG for 2, 4, and 8 player ships. And there is still room in the ships to for repair in flight. (That sounds just like Star Trek :P).

A system like that just wouldn't work in Star Trek, because in Trek you aren't flying ships as diversion or fun extra but are instead in your particular ship most of the time.  I'd wager for 95-00%+ of the players, having to log on to a ship, then being able to do almost nothing because the Captain, First Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and Security Chief aren't logged in wouldn't be any fun.  Nor would it be fun to play on a ship where the captain was a jerk (or equally unfun if you couldn't rise up in the ranks because of your personality as viewed by a small set of other players).  Frankly, there just isn't a good way to capture this in an MMO without having the rest of the crew as AI.  If you want to play as a member of a crew and have other crew members also be players, then play a Pen and Paper RPG.

Btw, the SWG system wouldn't work in Star Wars if you were a member of the Imperial Military or the New Republic Military either.  These things just can't be done adequately with multiple real people unless you start paying people to show up or you are willing to accept certain breaks from reality such as logging in and being on a different ship each time.

Originally posted by Cerion

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Cerion 

Now Cryptic has been coy about their relations with Star Trek fans -- at points wooing them, and at other points openly mocking them.  But it can be said that they certainly are NOT designing STO to appeal to a core of Star Trek fans. They've readily admitted as much.  They're going for that same group, that nebulous, nomadic group where "all the usual suspects" show up.

 

Now, my question to you is: why are they doing that? Are they misguided in thinking they can hold a large section of the nomads, or it is their business plan to release big (box sales, CE, and extended subscriptions) and let the game wither away?

I don't know. I wish I knew.  Perhaps they're highly cynical about the longevity of an MMO game's life cycle.  I have an inkling, though it's only a gut feeling, that Paramount has its fingers in this deal (more than simply licensing) and is demanding an quick, early return on investment -- but hey, I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, lol.  Going for the nomad gamer would give you that quick return.

 

I believe it's CBS that is involved with the licencing of STO. But, you have to remember that the Trek license has been out for an MMO for like 4 years already. Perpetual botched it up and went down, so Cryptic might be feeling a bit of pressure from the suits with dollar signs in their eyes.

I agree with the article.

Here are my thoughts;

Uni-Server; I do LOVE champions "Everyone plays on the same server"  approach. However, for Star Trek I could really see there being two servers. One with no custom races. I'd pick that one, because I'd prefer more canon than someone making "Uncle Pedobear" race like they do in Champions Online.

NPC Depth; OP is totally right, I want to not only get some backstory to my NPCs, but I would like a little Baldurs Gate/Dragon Age where they argue or develop relationships in the background. Just some fluff would be nice. a dynamic system could be created not unlike Jagged Alliance treated Mercenaries (except on a more macro scale).

Let's say at first they create 50 NPC "Personalities" but let you name the Character (or pick the default random one) which get assigned based on whether its a male/female or whatever race it is. Then they create a matrix of relationships connecting each one to another.

"If Personality 31 and Personality 32 are together on the Bridge, randomly play voice conversation #432"

Players will only get 4-5 of these npcs, so it's possible you will get a totally different experience than I would, and if I start a new guy I would get a new crew as well. Then as the game continues to be developed, add new personalities to the mix.

Ferrengi; I don't care about playing Klingon or starfleet, Ferrengi sounds fun. Let us "Go Rogue" and save those nausicans and other bad guy races for a third faction!

Originally posted by Drachasor

Originally posted by Erolis

Originally posted by Elannar

Originally posted by mynameisben

There is MMO precedent for allowing mutiple PC's on the same ship, check out Pirates of the Caribbean Online from Disney lol!

Or Star Wars Galaxies from 2003...

SWG has the best multiplayer set in space. On the new gunships you can have a pilot, operations and 6 gunners. All working together. SWG even has an awesome voice over IP built in to the game. Hey wait. You mean SOE the company that can do no right did multi role ship combat right?!? 6 YEARS ago? and cryptic can't? FAIL. If you want a game that has actual people running the entire ship and not just pressing npc buttons. There really is only one MMO that supports this, and ironically it's Star Wars Galaxies. How's that for a kick in the pants? There are also other multiplayer ships in SWG for 2, 4, and 8 player ships. And there is still room in the ships to for repair in flight. (That sounds just like Star Trek :P).

A system like that just wouldn't work in Star Trek, because in Trek you aren't flying ships as diversion or fun extra but are instead in your particular ship most of the time.  I'd wager for 95-00%+ of the players, having to log on to a ship, then being able to do almost nothing because the Captain, First Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and Security Chief aren't logged in wouldn't be any fun.  Nor would it be fun to play on a ship where the captain was a jerk (or equally unfun if you couldn't rise up in the ranks because of your personality as viewed by a small set of other players).  Frankly, there just isn't a good way to capture this in an MMO without having the rest of the crew as AI.  If you want to play as a member of a crew and have other crew members also be players, then play a Pen and Paper RPG.

Btw, the SWG system wouldn't work in Star Wars if you were a member of the Imperial Military or the New Republic Military either.  These things just can't be done adequately with multiple real people unless you start paying people to show up or you are willing to accept certain breaks from reality such as logging in and being on a different ship each time.

Don't know about the rest of you, but I grow tired of explaining, for the hundredth time, to people who clearly follow the development of STO, solutions that solve and refute their arguments.  Seriously Drachasor, why do you not let it sink into your head the solutions offered? Why do you instead offer up the same straw man arguments?

It has been suggested numerous times that if you log in, and none of your crewmates are live, then those positions would be filled by AI -- the same AI that Cryptic is ACTUALLY implementing now.  And you wouldn't be forced to play on any multi-crewed ship. You could still captian your own ship, so you can safely ignore that 'jerk' captain.  Presumably you'd only crew on a ship where you enjoyed the company of the players, and likely would be a Guild of some sort.

As far as one's personality flaws...well, an MMO can't do anything about that can they?

 

Don't know about the rest of you, but I grow tired of explaining, for the hundredth time, to people who clearly follow the development of STO, solutions that solve and refute their arguments.  Seriously Drachasor, why do you not let it sink into your head the solutions offered? Why do you instead offer up the same straw man arguments?

It has been suggested numerous times that if you log in, and none of your crewmates are live, then those positions would be filled by AI -- the same AI that Cryptic is ACTUALLY implementing now.  And you wouldn't be forced to play on any multi-crewed ship. You could still captian your own ship, so you can safely ignore that 'jerk' captain.  Presumably you'd only crew on a ship where you enjoyed the company of the players, and likely would be a Guild of some sort.

As far as one's personality flaws...well, an MMO can't do anything about that can they?

 

It could be like "Puzzle Pirates", but in Space, with Star Trek Stories and races.  Seriously, Puzzle Pirates has an excellent implementation of ships manned by semi-permanent, pick up, and NPC crews.  Check it out.

Exploration should take a big part of the game. As the article said, it's not just all about war and combat. I would like to boldly go where no man has gone before. Spend time exploring far away, discover new worlds, new civilization, new technology.

On the ship interior part. I accept that there's only limited access at launch. But I expect it to be available within a year, with full ship interior wandering, ship/starbase crew quarters customizable.

"to beam down on this Planet, you will have to purchase clearance from the Cryptic Store"

They will tell you that those particular planets will not affect your gameplay and are only vanity items.

Expect some of the content that is in the beta to be removed from the game before its release.

Seriously, Cryptic should not be involved with this game nor should Atari. If they really cared about Star Trek, they would not be rushing it. CO is going nowhere and neither will this game thanks to the poor design decisions of Bill Roper.

Honestly most of you need to go buy SIMS and download some star trek skins, because that is the only area your going to get your lovey dovey star trek feel. Make sure your playing online with others of your ilk.

This game will be just a go get X and bring it to Y. Go kill B and return for your reward from A.

The game most want could not be done with any realistic budget and certaintly not by Cryptic. Maybe Bioware but not Cryptic. Anyways a realistic Star Trek game would also allow me as a pirate type player to jump you as a carebear type starfleeter with only consequence being you might beat me or star fleet would try and hunt me down. PvP will not be that way, rather it will be capture the flag, planet, or whatever object they want to give and it will be in an instance...yea!

As for culture, I only care about it for the known races. If someone makes a new race, it is their job to flesh out the race with backstory. This is an MMO and if you see some race your unfimiliar with, do like everyone here preaches about and explore. Explore the person. Ask them about themselves. That isn't something that needs to be spoonfed from the creators. But I believe the developers should give tools to do this also. Like a backstory tab or something that is readable by other characters.

As for time and realities, these should be handled as maybe instanced quests. No need to make it some huge underlying part of the story.

I think exploration will be there, but some of it will be instanced. I think if  I visit a planet, I don't know if you will necessarily find that same planet on your own.

I don't really care alot about the crew and their personalities. Their NPCs, if they have no personality, then I'll just assume the are androids without an emotion chip or an uptight Vulcan.

I just want a mission where my bridge crew and myself are mysteriously changed into children then have to crawl around the ship's conduits to repel a boarding force of Klingons by throwing tribbles at them.

-w

All of the Star Trek we know and love is dead.  The latest film killed it.  In its wake will be a brand new universe - more seedy, more hollywoody, more sexy, more expletivy, and much less like the vision of Roddenberry than anyone thought Star Trek would ever become.

The question is - will they put it back or will they drive a stake into the heart of Star Trek and make all of the movies and tv shows we've seen be like the lost season of Dallas - one big dream?

How will the movie affect the game?  Hopefully it won't, but you never know.

Originally posted by battleaxe

How will the movie affect the game?  Hopefully it won't, but you never know.

The latest movie took place in two different universes: The original one we know from the TV series and previous movies (which is where Nimoy Spock and Nero hail from, and JJ Abram's parallel-but-time-displaced universe where Quinto Spock and Pine Kirk come from.

STO takes place in the original universe 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis and 22 years after (old) Spock and Nero get sucked into a black hole in the new movie. The effects of the movie prior to the transportation of Spock and Nero into JJ Abrams' universe is in there. From the standpoint of everyone in the original universe, the Hobus system went into an absolutely ridiculous supernova that destroyed Romulus (and probably a whole slew of other planets, outposts, and starbases that noone seems to care about), and then Spock flew in to create a black hole to negate the effects of the supernova. He succeeded, but in the process got sucked into that black hole along with Nero's Narada and was never heard from again. Presumed dead.

So, 22 years later, where do we find ourselves? Well, in our (STO) universe, Vulcan still exists but Romulus is gone. This leaves the Romulan empire with a destabilized government and several different factions are claiming that they're the one true Romulan empire. This leaves them vulnerable to the Klingon's encroachment (Khitomer Accord = gone). The Federation has offered aid, but Romulans for the most part are a proud people. The majority of the factions have branded the minority of planets that have applied for Federation assistance as traitors.

Originally posted by Raevanhawk

Honestly most of you need to go buy SIMS and download some star trek skins, because that is the only area your going to get your lovey dovey star trek feel. Make sure your playing online with others of your ilk.

 

This game will be just a go get X and bring it to Y. Go kill B and return for your reward from A.

 

The game most want could not be done with any realistic budget and certaintly not by Cryptic. Maybe Bioware but not Cryptic. Anyways a realistic Star Trek game would also allow me as a pirate type player to jump you as a carebear type starfleeter with only consequence being you might beat me or star fleet would try and hunt me down. PvP will not be that way, rather it will be capture the flag, planet, or whatever object they want to give and it will be in an instance...yea!

Yeah, because we often saw pirates in Star Trek going around ganking random Starfleet vessels. No wait, we didn't because pirates generally get leftover technology while Starfleet gets the biggest, best and most advanced technology around.

Maybe you should watch the shows before making dumb comments?

I find it frustrating that for the first time in history, vast numbers of like minded people can gather in a virtual space that lets them shed their "mortal" coils and fill the shoes of anyone they can possibly imagine AND one of the longest running science fiction IPs about the challenges and drama of GROUPS of people flying into the deep dark recesses of space ...

And they chose to boil it down to PEW PEW PEW ...

This really could've been the genre defining game ... No more grind. No more forced combat. This IP really could've allowed for people to BE Star Trek.

Star Trek, it should definitely not be about pvp, the federation was definitely more exploration and diplomatic encounters above 'military action' .. prime directive anyone? and as it is supposed to be an mmo, how about cooperative gameplay - seriously, would the federation really send half a dozen or more ships to investigate a single planet (only captains are players so a group of 6 players would therefore mean 6 ships were involved!) its just crazy. likewise, the ships captains werent tank classes or dps, or whatever, it just goes so much against everything know about star trek, it would have been better to recruit 'crews' for ships from a playerbase, rather than npc's. its not that im against pvp in games, its just that star trek was always about discovering something new, and the adventure, okay, maybe the odd klingon :D besides, we already have a spaceships in space game. its called eve ;D

Good article.  

Excellent points about how the bridge crews need personalities/backstories rather than just being windowdressing.  

I also very much agree with the point on humor.    Some of the most memorable scenes in Star Trek were ones with Q or other elements that had humor as well as a serious streak.  

Indeed, there are High expectations, and i think your trying to say there has to be a soul to the game similer to the series, Some personnel touch and passion like we see with the real characters in every series. 

I think this works great with the series but the way it is put into a game is more fun and adventureous, giving you the feel like your really having an effect on the Star Trek Universe in game.  Im sure there will be elements that some dont love but some think make the game great for them.  I for one cant wait for the game, its gonna be epic.

And i look forward to playing with you all out there in my Sovereign !

And if anyone is looking for a Fleet to join in game, please consider Federation Fleet,

Main aims are to have as much fun as possible and to get as much out of all areas of STO as possible for our members.

Admiral Darren Wright

Federation Fleet

http://federationfleet.guildlaunch.com

 Ahh yes, here we go with the usual wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth.. really folks.. here's a concept for you: LETS WAIT until the game COMES OUT.. then PLAY the game and THEN begin the "oh woe is me... this game is bad.. blah blah blah.." Just a thought. STO will not be for everyone (even some Star Trek fans) but if it is even half as good as some of the things that are being shown and talked about over there on STO.com, then it should be a good game that should be a lot of fun.

As far as the continual thrashing of Cryptic goes: Yeah, they did badly with Champions... yes they pushed that game out too fast and over the tester's objections about flaws in the game... yes I know and have heard all the stories, but goodness people.. they made a mistake.. amazing! Let's burn them at the stake!!! Let's rally the people, grab the pitchforks and torches and let's destroy Cryptic!!!   Ridiculous. Yes, the folks at Cryptic ain't Bethesda or Bioware or Blizzard or NCSoft but they aren't Sony Entertainment either. I guess alot of people forget that Cryptic gave us City of Heroes! An excellent game that I personally have enjoyed for all the 5 years of its awesome existence. Now they have secured my second favorite Sci-fi IP... it looks promising and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun.. so, let's give it chance first.. maybe, just maybe, it might surprise all of us.

So Mote It Be.

Originally posted by Masoniclight

 Ahh yes, here we go with the usual wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth.. really folks.. here's a concept for you: LETS WAIT until the game COMES OUT.. then PLAY the game and THEN begin the "oh woe is me... this game is bad.. blah blah blah.." Just a thought. STO will not be for everyone (even some Star Trek fans) but if it is even half as good as some of the things that are being shown and talked about over there on STO.com, then it should be a good game that should be a lot of fun.

As far as the continual thrashing of Cryptic goes: Yeah, they did badly with Champions... yes they pushed that game out too fast and over the tester's objections about flaws in the game... yes I know and have heard all the stories, but goodness people.. they made a mistake.. amazing! Let's burn them at the stake!!! Let's rally the people, grab the pitchforks and torches and let's destroy Cryptic!!!   Ridiculous. Yes, the folks at Cryptic ain't Bethesda or Bioware or Blizzard or NCSoft but they aren't Sony Entertainment either. I guess alot of people forget that Cryptic gave us City of Heroes! An excellent game that I personally have enjoyed for all the 5 years of its awesome existence. Now they have secured my second favorite Sci-fi IP... it looks promising and it looks like its going to be a lot of fun.. so, let's give it chance first.. maybe, just maybe, it might surprise all of us.

So Mote It Be.

Your argument is much more suited to saying we should way for 6 months and then see what things are like in a Free Trial, not that we should spend 60+ dollars on release day for a game of unknown quality that they rushed out the door in just 2 years.