“I got it, Syp,” a recent commenter posted. “You don’t like STO.”
I don’t? Huh. I guess you know me better than I know myself.
If anything, I’ve tried very hard to be balanced in approaching this game, especially because I feel pulled in both directions about it. I’m not going to be 100% Sunny D about STO, because there are red flags (red alerts?) all over the place: my own experiences in the beta, many other conflicting reports from beta, and echoes of the Champions launch (if you read the latest “state of the game” report, you’d swear nostalgia). But I’m not 100% Doctor Doom on it either — it’s a very solid IP, I do enjoy the space combat and the idea of owning and upgrading a ship, and there’s a definitive “fun factor” in there.
So if I’ve given off any signals about STO, they should reflect this back-and-forth struggle between wanting to like it and being disappointed in it. It’s not the most sterling seal of approval a game’s going to get, but this isn’t a condemnation either.
I’ve been sitting on $50 for the past week or so, which I was going to immediately put into Steam for the pre-order. But for many reasons, I kept holding off doing so. I would log onto the beta, test things out, and continually ask myself the question “Is this a game you’d really feel compelled to play after the first few days?” The thing is, I don’t know. It might be. It might not. We might be seeing a complete Champions repeat with deep combat and shallow game world, we might be on the brink of one of the most popular games of the year.
I thought about using that $50 for other things: District 9 on blu-ray and a few more Kindle books. Which would be the better purchase?
In the end, I decided to pre-order it, mostly because I think I owe it to my younger self to do so. In my teenage years, I was the biggest Star Trek freak you’d ever find. I had all the novels — I mean, ALL the novels — and went to conventions and knew all the shows forwards and backwards and made Enterprises out of Legos and had my senior class picture taken with a Star Trek patch on my jacket and would’ve given at least one-fourth of my genitals to actually be on a spaceship instead of going through high school. This all ended early on in college, when Trek and I had a falling out, and ever since then it’s been a bittersweet tentative friendship. I mean, we talk now and then, but it’s not like it used to be, and unless they do a new TV series and really do it right, that feeling’s gone for good. (Scott Jennings echoes some of these thoughts, but the fire hasn’t died for him, that’s for sure.)
But if STO came out when I was a teen? Forget bugs and excessive instancing and whatnot, I would’ve been in heaven. And I would’ve kicked my older self — lucky handsome devil that he is — for not giving it a solid one month playthrough after launch.
Make it so, he whispers to me. Play long and prosper.
Bio Break 
Play long and prosper indeed. 🙂
I hope the first month playthrough goes well. I’d hate to see the USS Voyager (EVERYONE LOVES ENTERPRISE… BAH!) fall into a black hole and disappear from the MMO gamespace.
Did you dress up at said conventions? If yes, are there any photos?
I’m not judging anyone’s personal preference or opinion but this is exactly why well-established IPs are so powerful. Gamers who would probably have passed up on a mediocre game otherwise will now buy the product because of what it reflects, rather than on it’s merits and gameplay.
Still, I guess that one could argue that the sheer fact that it’s Star Trek gives the player pleasure not found in other product.
“District 9 on blu-ray”
That, to me, is worth 50 bucks right there. Was immediately one of my favorite movies of all time after I pulled myself from my theater chair.
Of course, you don’t HAVE to spend 50 bucks on it, so even better =D
I would buy that, a couple kindle books, and maybe snatch up a game or two on Steam for giggles. (X-Com UFO Defense is always good if you like turn based games)
haha good article.
I hear ya on the Champions Online aspect of things, dont get me wrong I’m not interested in STO itself , Im very much interested in how the launch is handled by Cryptic though to see if they have learned any lessons.
Wait. One-fourth?
Yes. I do. I can read minds 😛
Pretty much my sentiments, except the whole being a star-trek fan.
The IP is solid, the game is relatively interesting to play, and it has huge potential.
On the other hand, we do have echoes of Champions, things Not Yet Implemented, mission killing bugs making it out of closed beta and the looming spectre of the final-day patch (remember how divided people were with CO’s day-0 nerfs)
Star Trek vs Cryptic. One of them will come out with it’s reputation changed forever. I hope to god it’s Cryptic.
Thought you might be interested:
http://www.massively.com/2010/01/21/star-trek-online-releases-ginormous-beta-patch/
“unless they do a new TV series and really do it right”
But what does this really mean, since even among Trek fans there is no consensus on what the “right” series is? If you ask some, Enterprise struck precisely at the heart of what Trek means to them; others have a hard time considering it canon. Ditto Voyager, ditto DS9, and even TNG had to win over fans of TOS first.
I don’t know what the staying power of STO is going to be, myself. I keep asking my better half – since he is the Trek fan of all the series (mostly TOS) here – “but do you really like Star Trek Online? So many people are disappointed, are saying it isn’t Trek enough for them. How do you feel about it?” and he insists he is having so much fun, that the feel is just about perfect for him. He logs in to the beta more often than I do now.
I do wonder if he is in the minority.
“Is this a game you’d really feel compelled to play after the first few days?”
I’d rather ask myself if I’d have fun with the game. Once I feel compelled to play, I think something is wrong.
For all it’s bugs, and problems. When I hear that red alert klaxon, my phasors fire, and I hear the torpedo go off, I become all giddy like a school girl.
You are lucky. You find yourself doing this on Star Trek, I find my self spending 50 dollars on games in beta for promise of features.
At least you’re going to have the IP you’re paying for 🙂
who makes star trek starships out of lego? the cool kids made X-wing fighters instead 😉
In my post-WoW MMO life, I’ve changed the big question I’m asking of new MMOs. Now the question is this: “How many months of fun am I going to get from this title?”
For the 18-24 months after my Burning Crusade burnout, I kept comparing new MMOs to the standard set by my love affair with WoW and asked the question: will this game hold me in its arms for two or three years?
Sadly, I faced one disappointment after another (LOTRO, POTBS, WAR) because those games couldn’t keep me coming back once I hit or got close to the end-game.
But then I made a mental shift on how I judged an MMO, one that really asked, “How long will this game continue to be fun for me?” And honestly, changing to that simpler question has made a lot of difference.
I’ve been in the CB and OB and I can see trouble spots. I also see some really fun gameplay in an IP that I grew up on (being an old fart who watched TOS in the 70s in the pre-CGI era when Shatner was cool and Klingons wore metallic grey weave). When I go play in the OB, I’m usually having fun, especially now that some of the learning curve is past.
So when I ask the ‘how much fun’ question, I think it’s worth the $50 and possibly worth a few $15 chunks more. Is it worth the lifetime sub? No. I can’t justify that at this point. But is it worth $15 a month? Probably for a few months anyway.
And I suspect that like I’m doing with Champions, LOTRO, and WAR (and frankly WoW), I’ll revisit them as new content appears on the scene or as my interest/love of the IP kicks back up.
You should log in, they just patched the game and it is the build with which they should have started the Beta.
Granted, if it simply does not tickle your fancy, this will change nothing. But I was quite positively surprised.
A bit too much fuss about this comment. I read it, too. The only thing you really did not like was Avatar, after all. 😉
I think this game’s going to need about 6 months to a year to reach its full promise. Its “crafting” system is more of a glorified questing system. There should be more effort into noncombat, interesting/unique forms of gameplay — there’s so much sandbox potential in the holodecks, as well as diverse gameplay potential with non-combat diplomatic/puzzle missions. Why not try to bring this MMO to those places — and attract a wide group of players, with diverse and deep styles of gameplay?
I think the emphasis on combat is great and it should have a fantastic space and ground combat system — it just shouldn’t be left at that. At least not with this IP. It would take a long time to add all the elements I think it should have, many of them should be left in the province of future expansions, but Cryptic should push hard to bring a real kind of crafting system to the game, as well as continue to push deeper content and play, if it’s going to be anything close to a “deep” game.