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Do you think star trek online will stay around forever?
mrwuffaus
Member Posts: 44 Arc User
I like startrek online, so much that I just paid for a lifetime membership today. Alot of games I have found especially some online ones often die. One of the main reasons I have been paying for my membership is to try to support the game and also that there have been so many improvements being made to it. I just wanted to get other peoples thoughts about the popularity of the game. Ive been playing it for quite awhile and slowly they have been improving the game like bringing in the duty officer system, making the game free to play and a host of other things. Also since I have paid for the lifetime membership what are the main things that I should see happening? Also I read that lifetime membership means that I can change colours or something in posts is that correct?
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And yes it seems we are allowed colored font! :cool: But not in our signatures, lol.
STO forum member since August 2008! :cool:
Kirk's Protege.
very very few games are around 'for a very long time' this will not be one of them. development is too slow and resources for that development too limited, to be able to put the kind of work in that is necessary for a game with a very long lifespan. Star trek games have never been a large selling point, nor have they ever had a large audience, in terms of the gaming market. Hell, it hasn't done all that well thus far as it is. Look at the bugs, the broken mechanics, the poor testing, the slow releases and the state of the KDF. None of those things points to a long and healthy life.
I give it 5 years. A few more perhaps if they start getting their act together and allocating more resources to development, a few less if they start putting out more TRIBBLE instead of content.
STO however has something no other MMO's aroud have yet, the Foundry. Community generated Content. So to speak the neverending storytellig without dev's. As long as you are a Trekker and like missions, because ot the told stories, you'll allways have do to something in here.
The only question for me is how to fund the game, to remain this way? Not every user wants the same, and some of us even hate some payable content (dropboxes). I for one would throw my money on avatar expansions, tails, more alienated bodyparts, suites, uniforms, colors, etc.. I however would't pay money for dropboxes at all, just simply don't care. As well as for the most other items from the C-Store. I don't hate the idea, I just simply see no reason for me personally.
From this point of view, I hope not every other user here thinks the same, otherwise Cryptic would shut STO down.:biggrin:
that aside, because of the foundry alone there is probably reason enough to keep the game going for ages even if the development fizzles out, as players can just keep making new stuff themselves. a few c-store products here and there to pay the bills and the game can almost sustain itself, albeit with a much reduced population. so even if the worse happens i still think the servers will be open for a very long time.
its hard to say for sure because mmo's are still relatively new concepts when you look back over the last 100 years. who knows how long any of them will survive for, or what new technology will make our current games obsolete.
Wow and others are old as well
they are still there
I see no reason this game should not last many many years (or at least the rest of my lifetime )
Even the worst MMOs tend to last well above five years.
There are really only three things that sink an MMO:
- Losing the IP license.
- The publisher going bankrupt, generally impossible except if a company has just one MMO and is close to launch.
- Dwindling population/revenue, below $4 million or so a year.
Barring those three things, no MMO has ever shut down to the best of my knowledge. They may stop getting content but the servers stay up. While it's easy for MMOs to enter a phase where content/feature development ends, that's never killed one to my knowledge.
MMOs are generally not designed to be shut down and can keep running well beyond the last content patch with a skeleton crew.
Nothing lasts forever but STO will last as long as CBS doesn't hike the license fee and the existing license is able to be renewed.
Now... I think we may see an end to dev content patches and system updates in 5 years. Although I can't think of an MMO where that happened offhand either.
Generally, a company goes broke before launch (or close to launch) or the shutdown is a creative decision, generally centered around how the publisher or IP company want to brand themselves. To date, I think those are virtually the only circumstances under which a commercial MMO has EVER died to date.
So that depends now, since the IP is expansive, and CBS has the right to terminate the contract after the time expires. I guess if CBS renews the contract and the game earns profits for PWE it will stay for atleast 10 years.
Developement will stop at a certain point, and no new content will be released, but that would be in a far future.
But who knows what can happen...
But buying a lifetime membership, even with the discount was a mistake...investing the same amount of money directly in c-points or purchasing c-points from time to time, would have been the smarter idea in my opinion.
Because it is also possible that you lose interest in the game.
PS: Funny fact, officials at blizzard never dreamed that WOW would survive 7 years when they developed it.
Other thing, Star wars galaxys was terminated, because EA released SWTOR, and the IP got terminated.
So maybe if somebody would develope another Star trek online game, this could happen to STO too.
this game will last longer and survive better if people accept what they have and stop begging for more and more and more
We need to let the Devs Develop the game not waste time and resources making over powered super weapons out of SHUTTLES and every ship in the game more powerful than the death star.
We need to stop forming "elite" and "noob" groups and putting people in boxes
and we need to do away once and for all with all the HATE and moaning directed at the people doing the work of creating and managing this game
oh and if we could stop abusing each other and forbidding disagreement that might help as well
Ask for less
Do more for others
and NEVER call someone "noob"
That said, STO will probably be around longer than some people might think. Remember that CBS has a stake in this thing. Regardless of what happens in the future with Cryptic or PWE or anyone else who becomes involved, the value of the IP might just extend the game's lifespan as CBS would rather keep it alive and kicking in someone's hands then let it die off completely and risk damaging their brand.
See also: why it took until TOR's release for SWG to finally end. Inversely, why no one fought tooth and nail for Matrix Online or others with less prestigious franchise attachments.
Star Trek is still one of the highest-regarded entertainment juggernauts in the world, despite not being on first-run television for several years and receiving a total revamp in theatres. It has survived lows far lower than the worst STO has to offer. So while we won't still be playing it by the time First Contact Day rolls around, the brand name alone could end up putting STO in a SWG situation where it'll only die when Cryptic or someone else decides that it's time for a STO2.
I hope it lasts, but where the game goes now will be determined by PWE. Keep in mind a number of Cryptic employees left Cryptic Studios recently too. I read one of their farewell posts on the forums just the other day. I think that more than anything shows you the level of confidence that they have in PWE.
Cryptic was all-but paralyzed under Atari for most of that last year of ownership. Say what you want about PWE, but at least they've got development rolling again.
It might also be worth noting that Runic Software is also part of PWE. It's safe to assume that the eventual Torchlight MMO will exist much as Champions and STO do now, but it hasn't hurt them any in the meantime.
Isn't Heretic the only recent departure? I haven't really been paying too close attention lately.
I also think Champions Online and perhaps Neverwinter will both outlive Star Trek Online, simply because the Cryptic engine is better utilized with Champions. And we've yet to see how Neverwinter will work. Star Trek Online with the Cryptic engine began as a complete mess, and now it's just a slightly cleaner mess...
But it's still a mess.
Hey now, I agree with the "Final Frontier" but "Undiscovered Country" was one of the better, probably 3rd best of the original 6(2 and 4 being best and second best) and "Country" is certainly better than "Insurrection" and "Nemesis". Ughh.
I think the reason no other MMO has user generated content is because the folks who are being paid to make content in other MMOs are actually doing so.
The fact that you have to be a paying subscriber to try and generate the content you can't get from the Developer's who are making a living off your money speaks volumes to me.
No, I don't think STO will be around forever...how long, who knows, but not forever.
I will be surprised if it lives as long as SFC...which is still being played online after over 10 years.
KBF CO
We are the Dead
join date Aug 2008
Nuff said.
STO is still in an upswing of adding producers and employees.. so theoretically it should be around a good long while. In what shape or form? who knows... As long as a title is profitable a company will keep it...
EQ and Ultima are both still around. WoW will probably go F2P in about 18 months. People don't seem to have realized that their in-game C-Store was being tested in Pandaria beta not too long ago. But WoW will be around in 10 years, sure. I think the final major paid expansion will launch around late 2015. It may go to UGC and/or adventure packs or whatever after that but at 10 million subs currently (and likely more interest after F2P), I think it could well be 20 years before the last server shuts down... and WoW's new features like cross-server zones will mask that.
Titan is pretty much in limbo. I think Blizzard laid off most of the Titan team not long ago.
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