First, I think it's easy to demonstrate that STO is a highly profitable game so securing a loan might not be difficult.
Second, Hire a media staff. Some things you will need are a massive advertising campaign, art direction, a CGI sequence, and a 10 track symphonic score.
*At the start of second release at the start of summer You need to convince CBS to give you a prime time slot where reruns of their least popular shows are airing that night, and instead air action oriented fan picks of Voyager, DS9, Generations, Enterprise, and Kirk era later at night.
*This has to be done with limited commercial interruption, and in between you should show things like footage of the symphonic scores being produced, In game footage, and a full motion CGA of the intro mission where you encounter the borg and another that lays out the state of the federation and the relationships between it and the other empires and organizations in the universe: what happened to the cardassians, romulans, klingons, borg, undine, bajorans, etc. I think you would not go wrong having either Nimoy or Stewart narrating.
*I would also like to suggest an art direction in going with Rob Liefeld style art,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Liefeld and also please google images with the search string: Rob Liefeld Art
Third: The game engine needs an over haul I think the most prominent thing that needs to be done is low end system compatibility, low end gaming PCs that are slightly obsolete dominate the market, if yo make some over the top requirement game your cutting out a large portion of the community. Stability is still a bit of an issue. Ground missions don't run smooth at all, colliding with planets in space is weird.
*Network optimization should also be worked on: being able to box your server aps and then run them on systems local to large portions of subscribers should be viable. Like if you have 30% on the east coast, 40% on the west, 20% in the UK, and 10% in Asia you would tailor where those boxes are and in what numbers accordingly
Fourth: In game support needs to be improved. I am not sure if an escalation system is in place, but tickets should first be sorted and judged viable by volunteers or whoever you can get to work for the cheapest. They can decide about what in game advice to give, for example giving hints to how to complete missions is unacceptable, however explaining a work around for a bug in that mission or known issue is, they can kick people from the server, they have a limited amount of bans they can issue in a day as well. If advice will not help them or it is beyond the operator's scope of knowledge or ability the issue becomes escalated. The next tier of operation can add or remove recently aquired items from a character, has unlimited amounts of bans, and can mass kick. The next tier can do all of the above but can also alter character traits, remove or add any item from a character, and is in direct contact with the legal department, the final tier is developer, the people who program the game they should really not be used in any situation that doesn't require modification to the game itself or extremely specialized knowledge.
Fifth: Blizzard's biggest turn around in subscriptions is the people who pop in level from 1-20 and then quit. In the STO equivalent, all missions up to Commander are about in that time frame, and these missions need to be prioritized to run flawlessly.
Sixth: try your best to conform to the ISO 9k standards, or actually one of the newer models of ISO. These are designed to keep a company on the cutting edge of productivity.
Comments
This game is designed for people who like Sci/Fi and Star Trek, who like to shoot things. I'm not saying that's necessarily bad, but it's sort of a niche product (not for everyone).
That's really all I can say. It's got alot of subs, and it's got a big following, but look at it this way:
Star Trek has alot of fans. Tolkien and LoTR has more fans, and many Star Trek fans are also Tolkien fans, but not nearly as many Tolkien fans are Star Trek fans. The LoTR MMO sort-of tanked, but from what I understand, it was more of a MMO movie in a game box.
I hate WoW just as much as the next guy, but you have to admit, it's got a strong following. The gameplay is intuitive, addictive, and compelling (to those who like it), and it carries a very large number of subscriptions. It has constantly-expanding content, as well.
So, in order to compete with a giant like that, I think that STO needs to do the following to grow as big as WoW:
1) Continuously add new content to the game.
2) Support the playerbase.
3) Fix problems quickly and effectively.
4) Don't do things that are extremely unpopular with the majority of your playerbase.
Thanks for the laughs.
^2
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Seems like marketing and customer service ideas.
However your comment about many wow accounts being 1 to 20 level, does indicate the concept is to get as many people in, even if not keeping them in.