I have been a Star Trek fan for as long as I can remember. I have even played many (but not all) of the games. Yet no Star Trek game has ever been able to present all that Star Trek is. Some titles have come tantalizingly close, but no Star Trek game has ever lived up to its license.
Enter Star Trek: Online. I have been an active follower of the new Star Trek MMO since it was first announced by Perpetual Entertainment. After four years of development, the company disappeared and took its' Perpetual Engine with it.
I was forced to ask the question: Will we ever get a really GOOD Star Trek game? It seemed increasingly unlikely. But just over six months after Perpetual folded, Cryptic Studios gave me hope. Star Trek: Online still lived, but would now be presented in a totally new way through a new engine. While I was disappointed that the years of work by Perpetual was lost, I appreciated that Cryptic needed to present to us its' own vision.
As soon as the website appeared, I registered on the forum and subscribed to the e-mails. What I saw let me dare to hope that maybe, this time Star Trek would get the game it deserved. I reserved judgement on anything I saw until I got to try the game personally in the open beta.
My initial review was less than favourable. While the game offered a great mix of Star Trek elements, it seemed more unfinished than anything else. But then the patches began to come in. Each day a new patch added content, resolved issues, and the great game hidden inside began to shine through. My experience in the open beta sold me on the lifetime subscription, and I still do not regret that.
Is STO the ultimate Star Trek game? The one that die-hard fans have been waiting for over thirty years? I'm not sure yet. But I will tell you this: I think it could be. The roots are certainly all there, and the content additions keep coming. The in-game community has grown, and I see more and more that players are helping and interacting with each other. That is good, for that is what Star Trek is supposed to be about.
And then I visit the forum. The forums take all the good feelings I have for this game, and beat them into a pulp before kicking them when they're down. It saddens me to realize that so many of STO's players are like me: Happy with this game and the direction that it is going in, but not contributing to the forums. As a result all I see are complaints and rumours of the worlds impending destruction.
To Cryptic: As one of the silent majority, I want you to know that I believe you are doing a great job. Please don't let a handful of malcontents take away from the joy that you have shared with myself and so many others. I look forward to many years of stories and adventures, and hope that you will continue to let us go boldly where none have gone before.
I will agree that whilst this game is no where near what we all hoped it would be, i think most do realise that this is still a work in progress. with some luck in five years we could have a storming game, that we can all be proud of, if cryptic continue to develop it the way the have been over the last few months.
patience and support are the key.
Here here. I came into this post expecting yet another "I wanted to like it but hate it," and was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong. You, my friend, are one of the majority who enjoy the game and just keep playing it without ever coming to the forums; the part of the playerbase that the naysayers like to conveniently forget about when they start talking about how 'most players' this or 'everybody' that.
Thank you for coming forward. If you're lifetime, you should claim your blue forum title so that people know you are.
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patience and support are the key.
Thank you for coming forward. If you're lifetime, you should claim your blue forum title so that people know you are.
Thank you for letting me know about that.
I have played ST:25th, and tried to find a copy of ST:JR. Another game that was very similar was ST: A Final Unity.