Star Trek Online – They may have something here

Returning to the unrelenting soul-sucking grind that is my career has me back to a schedule with little game time.  I’ve hung up my Allods hat until the game releases.  I played enough to know that I want to see more, and that the Empire quests were more inspired in my opinion, than the League side.  I will forgo my preference for running around shire-like zones and instead play the urban steampunk theme of Empire.  In this particular game, my options were a win-win anyway.  The League-side had a few too many kill x critters in the woods type quests that got boring really fast.

The time that I have had since the 2009 holiday season ended has been spent playing the Star Trek Online BETA.  This game wasn’t anywhere on my radar.  I wasn’t going to bother with the BETA or the live game.  A conversation about the game with Tipa from West Karana piqued my interest so I decided to give it a try.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about the game other than, they may have something here.  It’s not the open world MMO design I prefer playing.  The ever present instancing and zoning knock immersion upside the head every few minutes – much how I felt about Pirates of the Burning Sea(PotBS).  However, being a semi Star Trek fan, those annoyances are somewhat offset by the IP.  I’m a fan of the original series.  As a child, friends and I would set up my bedroom as deck of the USS Enterprise, while acting out skits I wrote.  I guess that makes me a fan.  I’m not however,  the card-carrying I-know-the-races-and-political-history of that IP.  I’m more the, enjoyed the story as a backdrop for other sorts of adventures and possibilities.  I liked the story and where it allowed me to take my own imagination.  We’ll come back to “story in games” in another post soon.

As for STO, there’s enough there for it to be a sideline MMO for me.  Lacking full frontal immersion, it would never be a game I’d call home.  The ship control and combat is interesting.  The availability of space AND ground missions is a nice departure from the “all in space pod” experience of EVE Online.  It’s less complex that getting started in EVE, yet more confusing because the UI isn’t that great.  And for a detailed little tutorial, they really do skip over some the basics.  I imagine the PVE could become boring over time. I’m not sure how sophisticated the variety will be with their random generated missions.  But hey, you’re talking to someone that mostly did PVE in EVE Online, where mission variety ain’t its calling card.  I’ve been satisfied enough to stick around EVE, a few months at a time, across a few years now.

Between the IP, ship combat, land combat, your ship as an entity, your crew as an entity and PVP, I think there’s enough to keep many players satisfied.  They won’t be stealing players from EVE.  It’s a different game and mindset.  They may pull in new MMO players because of the IP which is always good for gaming.  I expect it will settle into a dedicated community that sticks around and enjoys the game for what it is, like the current subscribers to PotBS, but with the added advantage of it being S-T-A-R  T-R-E-K.  .

I’m seriously considering buying STO.  I’ve found that if I can’t be immersed to the level I require in an MMO then I’d prefer the easy access gaming, even if it feels more like cooperative play than MMO.  This is another topic I plan to address in a separate post - the rise of cooperative play as an MMO design model. I’m finding that as long as I can run into other players somewhere and easily join groups when I want group-play, I’m not adverse to less MMO in a game that wasn’t going to be immersive for me anyway.  *Shrug*  I still can’t get into RPGs and Guild Wars is just too static outside of the towns but I have become more open to these “other” definitions of massively multi-player.

Yeah, two additional posts promised when I haven’t been posting regularly for a while.  I think I can crank them out across the long weekend.  *Smile*

Comments

[Julie Whitefeather]

Great post. I, of course, am a dyed-in-the-wool Star Trek fan as you know. I am glad to see that Cryptic seems to be concentrating on the core game first rather than do too much. I have spent a good deal of time on the Klingon side as well and mostly enjoy the space combat (I can tell that is the case when I start yelling "Take that you Feddie B***ards" at the computer screen.

Julie Whitefeather

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Julie - Thanks. The show we recorded for No Prisoners No Mercy is what sparked my interest. As soon as we all hung up I gave Tipa a call to hear more about the game. My "what is story" and "rise of the coop-MMO" ideas were sparked from that recording as well. Hopefully, I'll be able to link to the podcast with the post.

[Sente]

@Saylah: What is the distinction you make between cooperative play and MMO, or perhaps how do you define each?

For me cooperative play is something that is part of an MMO, but not exclusive to MMOs.

[Steve K]

@Saylah: I realize this is somewhat off-topic, and also that you have very little time lately for gaming...still, I ran across a f2p game that I thought I'd pass along to you.

Knowing that you like both EVE and RoM, and wanted so much to like PotBS, there is another offering from Frogster that I found.

Bounty Bay Online. Here's some really intriguing screenies:
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/877/877143/imgs_1.html

I'm DL'ing it as I write this...going to try it alongside RoM (which I'm having a blast with btw)

I'll hit ST:O sometime in 2011 or '12.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Steve - Thanks for thinking of me. I've actually run into some good games from blog comment recommendations. That's who I happened across ROM. I'm glad you're having a blast. I'm such a nudge about re-rolling my main after release that the whole 180 launch day patch that changed my class annoyed me. I did plan to return with the elves for a fresh start but that didn't materialize on my end.

I will give BBO a look when I get a chance.

[Alysianah aka Saylah]

@Sente - Post coming to explain.