Star Trek

Hey guys. I've never posted here before, but I'm very excited about the new game, so I thought I'd chime in with my two cents worth.

To be honest, I thought it was only a matter of time before we saw a Star Trek MMORPG. With Star Trek's popularity being what it is nowadays (compared to what it has been at times), it seems like TPTB would be itching to do something like this to spark interest among the masses, saying "Hey, we're still here, and Star Trek is still cool." And I'm glad they did.

I'm a huge Next Generation fan, and I'm glad the game will be set in the more contemporary Star Trek timeline, though I'm very curious and excited to see how they'll slip the Enterprise and original series content in. Because, honestly, what would be more fun than hanging out with Captain Kirk?

I have high hopes for this game. But I have concerns as well.

The biggest concern I have for this game is one that I have (and have had) with every other promising MMORPG on the market. "We'll re-invent the genre with our game," they say, and it sounds good, but the online gaming community has heard it before. A lot. And unfortunately, whether it's EverQuest, Star Wars, Anarcy Online, Final Fantasy XI, or one of the myriad other games in the genre (at least the one's I've played, and I've played most of 'em), the game fails to deliver such revolutionary content. I've squashed rats. I've sliced rats. I've shot rats. I've intimidated rats. I've used mind powers on rats. While this genre provides literally thousands of ways to dispatch a rat, I want something more from a Star Trek game. I don't want to sit there killing tribbles (aka, rats) for the first ten levels. Designers say I won't have to, and with a universe as diverse and compelling as Star Trek's, it's easy to believe them. So I'll just say it would be nice to start my character out in Starfleet Academy doing something other than killing rats. Kobayashi Maru. A game of Strategema with a Zakdorn strategy professor. Even a little combat training would be good, just don't send rats at me.

Speaking of combat, another concern I have is the game's battle mechanics. I've been a tank in every MMORPG I've ever played. Ideally, I've always prefered my hulking, intimidating figure to my 90 lbs weakling, spell-casting counterparts. But it always seems like they're having the most fun. My duties more or less end when I hit the attack button. I hope the Star Trek game makes playing equally fun for every class, every race, and every character at every point of the game, from cadet to admiral.

A final concern is one focused on the Star Trek franchise in general. A criticism of Star Trek that I've had for a while now is that, starting with the Dominion War in DS9, Star Trek has been too much of an "us against them" war epic. It was the Dominion and the Cardassians in DS9, it was the Borg in Voyager, and it's the Xindi in Enterprise. The most enjoyable Star Trek episodes, to me, were, among others, the ones that showed the internal struggle of the characters. Should I follow the Prime Directive, or dismiss it, follow my gut, and help the people on the planet? I also liked episodes where the crew disguised themselves as a planet's inhabitants and surveyed other worlds (or perhaps those cloaked suits and observatory ala Insurrection.) Or alien viruses that threaten the life of a crew onboard a starship or deep space station? Something thoughtful and clever instead of the same old, "conflicts on the *enter alien race name here* border, things are going wrong, and the Federation is faced with the possibility of going to war with them." It's Star Trek, not Star Wars. I hope the game takes us away from all that. Incidentally, that goes for Enterprise too.

Otherwise, the game certainly sounds promising enough. I'd just hate to play for three months and find myself saying, "set phasers on 'cancel' and beam me directly to World of Warcraft." But I don't think I'll have to. To me, Star Trek's always been about a bright and hopeful future--I expect nothing less from what could very well be the greatest MMORPG of all time.

Oh yeah, and no rats.

Sliding Captain Bridger

I like this guy who posts before me, couldn't say it clearer or better.
May all our Trek dreams be only the beginning.

I hear you about the rat's thing. I spent weeks killing the equivilent of rats in thousands of sci-fi fantasy universes. If you are a low level character, use the holodeck and have holo-borg or romulans to shoot at, that definately beats any real tribble.

Awesome.

(Hey Thunder I got pulled over here also :P)

ST:MMO!! *faints* Wooo!!

*tosses back a Romulan Ale in celebration*

Well i hope they keep the matrix part about the evolving story line, but i'm still pissed that you can't be an agent....
lol, man i hope you can be klingons and stuff and goto war with other powers of the alpha quad..

for some odd reason that rocks, i can wait for it to come out
mmorpgs at the moment have become big buisseness and a major gaming genre it was just a matter of time before a star trek mmorpg came out and quite fankly it's going to rock.

you just have to look at star wars galaxies and other such games to see the potenteial thats there plus with the new generation of graphics cards the star trek universe never look so good all that could top that is if they used the doom3 engine as a base for the game.

that would serously rock.