Cryptic is making me crazy already.

I am going to play Star Trek Online.  On this we are decided.

Potshot seems to be sharing my enthusiasm on the subject, so it looks like we might have makings of a bridge crew or flotilla or squadron or whatever the group mechanic is for the game.

And if we’re going to play, we might as well pre-order and reap the benefits of that, such that they are.

But the pre-order bennies haven’t been exactly clear up to this point.

In the absence of information, I went to the default, which is to order from Amazon.com.  I’ve been ordering from them for 12 years now and they have always been good to me.

Amazon.com showed a borg bridge officer as the special pre-order item.

I knew 7 of 9, and you're no 7 of 9

Fine, I put in the order.

Then I saw that GameStop had something different.  A “bonus starship” as part of their pre-order package.

On the surface, a bonus starship might be lame.  But when I went to the site to look into it, the ship turned out to be a Constitution class starship from the original series.  For those not up on the lore, that would be the same class as the Enterprise.

To Boldly Go...

Okay, cancel my order at Amazon.com (sorry guys!) and head over to GameStop.

Only at about this point, the gaming press starts reporting on this situation in detail, since Cryptic finally put out a press release on the subject.

NEW YORK, Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ — Atari, Inc., one of the world’s most recognized videogame publishers, and acclaimed MMO developers Cryptic Studios(TM), are pleased to announce several pre-order programs for the highly anticipated Star Trek Online for PC. Based on the world renowned sci-fi series, Star Trek Online gives gamers and fans of the fiction a chance to boldly explore the Star Trek universe for the first time on a truly massive scale. Star Trek Online is available at retailers in North America on February 2, 2010.

All Star Trek Online pre-orders receive guaranteed access to the Star Trek Online Open Beta test from January 12th to January 26th, 2010. In addition, Star Trek Online also offers an exclusive Early Start Program with pre-orders at all participating retailers that runs January 29, 2010 through launch on February 2. The Early Start Program allows players to get a leg up on other interstellar explorers and access the Star Trek universe the weekend prior to the game’s launch. Unlike beta play, all in-game progress made during the Early Start Program will carry over to the live adventure.

All customers who pre-order Star Trek Online receive access to the Open Beta and Early Start Program. Details on exclusive pre-order content for Star Trek Online include:

GameStop

GameStop customers receive the ability to command the exclusive and always classic USS Enterprise from Star Trek The Original Series.

Best Buy

Best Buy is offering their customers a fun in-game pet. As a Federation Captain, players own a famed Tribble of Star Trek lore that will accompany them on their travels into the final frontier. As a Klingon commander, players control the boar-like Targ, a beast found on the Klingon home world of Qo’noS.

Amazon

Amazon is offering an exclusive “Liberated Borg” Bridge Officer. This bridge officer, who comes with unique nanotechnology augmentations, assists in missions and gains experience as the player does.

Wal-Mart

With the Wal-Mart Bonus Skill Points package, receive addition skill points that enable players to improve their characters quickly.

Target

Target customers who pre-order Star Trek Online receive a unique ground weapon — a TR-116. This rare projectile weapon is used in dampening fields and other challenging environments; it is also modified with a micro-transporter which beams the fired projectiles to targets at close range so that a user can fire without a direct line of site.

Direct2Drive

Direct2Drive customers receive an exclusive Multi-Spatial Personal Shield. This advanced personal shield system is based on Borg technology, which constantly regenerates itself and the health of its wearer.

STEAM

STEAM is offering customers Chromodynamic Armor. This armor is based on technology brought back from the Delta Quadrant by USS Voyager improves the damage and critical hits of energy weapons.

In Star Trek Online, players will visit iconic locations from the popular Star Trek fiction, travel to unexplored star systems, and contact new alien species. Every moment spent playing Star Trek Online will feel like a new Star Trek episode in which you are the hero. Immerse yourself in the future of the Trek universe as it moves into the 25th century: a time of shifting alliances and new discoveries. As the Captain of your very own ship, it’s up to you to lead your crew on missions that span the galaxy.

For more information, please log onto www.startrekonline.com

So many choices.

Of course, the real die-hards on the forums want to know if they can buy some or all and combine them on a single account.

I am only buying a single copy, so I had to take a deep breath and think on this a bit.

A pre-order bonus cannot… or at least should not… give you any sort of huge advantage in game.  Every pre-order or collector’s edition item that I can recall has generally outlived its actual usefulness pretty quickly.

And if usefulness is going to be set aside, then style is really the way to go.  And for style, you have your tribble or you have your Constitution class starship.  But that still leaves a choice.

Decisions, decisions!  I’m leaning towards the starship.  I’m already humming the incidental music from the episode “The Doomsday Machine” in my head.  But a tribble…

TenTonHammer recently sat down with Amy Skopik, UI Designer for Star Trek Online and Craig Zinkievich Executive Producer and got there thoughts on how the games was going.

This Q&A is all about UI for Star Trek Online:

” A fundamental key to making a good MMOG is its User Interface. A poorly fashioned interface will make it hard to enjoy a game, no matter what its other assets, and a good UI will be almost transparent as users start up the game for the first time and begin taking control, almost without thinking about it. We spoke this week to Amy Skopik, UI Designer for Star Trek Online and Craig Zinkievich, Executive Producer to unveil some of the challenges and innovation of STO’s interface. ”

That sounds like a pretty good statement, nothing kills the mood faster than a poor UI. The best games I played started with my Avatar doing what it was supposed to without me thinking to hard about it and for me the best solution would be a PC using a 360 gamepad and there is encouraging news on that front:

In a Q&A with Strategy Informer Craig was asked:  ” You’ve mentioned before that you might like to take STO onto the Home Console – provided you do, it would be the most serious attempt since FFXI – what are your thoughts about this genre and consoles “

Craig Zinkievich:” We definitely would like to see Star Trek Online on the console. We think that games being on multiple platforms including MMO’s are the future of gaming”

Champions also made this claim and it still has not happened but the good news is that Champions seems to work quit well with the 360 gamepad on a PC according  articles I have reed. Forums seem to agree It’s as if the game was designed for a later release on the Xbox 360. Check out  Tobold’s MMORPG Blog he has an interesting article on it. Star Trek Online will use the same engine as Champions and if you go by Craig’s statement to strategy Informer then one has reason for hope. Just to put things in prospective no MMO of Star Trek’s scope has actually made it to the console since FFXI, and many have tried non have succeeded.  Square Enix has recently announced a release date for  FFXIII of March 9, 2010 and it will be PS3 exclusive, but it’s FFXIV the will be Sony’s MMO contender on the PS3 that I’m waiting to see. To Read the Full interview go to TenTonHammer.

Massively has put out another weekly Q&A for Star Trek Online and Week Two’s subject is Space Combat and I have a feeling this is the subject everyone has been waiting for, me included. Answers were given by Al Revera, senior game designer on Star Trek Online

The first thing that caught my eye was from the Question :

Drexel-: How will the use of our weapon systems and abilities be limited during combat?

In the answer Al  mentions 4 possible weapons slots

• Beam arrays
• Cannons
• Torpedos
• Mines

This is the first mention of Mines which is good but there is nothing about Drones or Drone Racks and these are very effective in keeping an enemy at a distance if you’re trying to make an escape or trying to drain their weapons power I’m keeping my fingers crossed it comes up later like when I mentioned Shuttles and Boarding Parties and the nest day what does Ship Tactics Part II show use, that very subject. Cool Down Rates along with Limited Power will insure you have to think about what you’re doing and not just blast away like some crazed Khan

I like Al’s Answer the Fanboy’s question :

FanBoy: What will happen when you “die”?

In the answer Al shows some humor to a very serious question that every gamer, especially in MMO’s needs to know. What is the penalty for death? there  is a five balance between being a good death and a throw your arms up in the air and walk away death. If it is to high then the player will get frustrated and lose interest in the game if  it’s to light then this encourages reckless play and other players get pissed off, Games these days have gotten a lot more forgiving on the death penalty, partly because we do so much of it and mainly because only the hardcore players would put up with the great loss of time invested with a high penalty.  That is a sure way to lose your subscriber base

Al’s answer to Grandpotato’s question is not exactly an answer

GrandPotato, eddie: Will there be boarding parties? If so, can you capture vessels, or does that just disable them or something?

We know there will be Boarding Parties but will they be able to take control of an opponents ship before he can Self Destruct. My answer would be NO.  How would you feel it someone boarded your ship and took it from you after you’ve spent 10’s maybe 100’s of hours building it up.  I would not be pleased and probably quit right there and if I did not quit I sure wouldn’t get into any fights unless I knew for sure 100% I was going to win. That being said PvE would be different…..?

There also a good question on Science ships and how they affect other ships. you can read the full Q$A at Massively and stay tuned for the third round of Q%A sometime in the near future I’m not even sure what the subject will be maybe Ground Combat if you have any ideas let them know

IGN has recently posted a developer dairy by Star Trek Online Visual Effects Lead (VFX) Artist Michael Cavallaro. The new diary talks about the visual design for Star Trek Online and what he and his team faced in developing the Star Trek universe. Given that the Star Trek Franchise stretches over forty years and 11 movies and incomposes visual styles from the low budgets on TOS in the 1960’s to J.J. Abrams slick high budget reboot of 2009 you can imagine the difficulties of fusing it all together into one style that pleased all the fans.

” The effects changed from series to series and from movie to movie, and of course you have the J.J. Abrams version, which is different than all of them. If there is one thing we learned from Abrams it is if you make it cool enough, the fans will like it. “  said Cavallaro  ” The first step in visualizing an effect is to meet with the design team to see exactly what something does, when it’s used and how much damage it inflicts. From there we scour old episodes and movies to find all the reference for that particular effect. Sometimes we have several versions and sometimes it just doesn’t exist. In the case of different versions from different time periods, we try to find the most iconic one to build off of and give it a modern look. For new effects, we work closely with the Art Lead and Concept Team to make sure that what we are creating looks and feels like it is Star Trek IP. It’s kinda cool to think that a future Star Trek movie or TV show might use something we created as canon “

Judging from what I have seen so far Michael and his team have done a Great job the game looks better than I was anticipating  when Star Trek Online was first announced. To read the full article go to Michael Cavallaro’s dev blog hosted on IGN.

Starting on Thursday, November 27th at 10 AM (Pacific) – Cryptic Studios will be ‘hosting’ a Free Weekend period of play time. During this time anyone can sign up and play the game for free until November 30th at 10 AM (Pacific). So if you want to try an adventure out in Millenium City, but don’t want to have any strings attached, dive right into the free play. I see this as a sign that maybe the game isn’t quite where Cryptic had hoped it would be, this is the second free play period in the space of about 2 months.

Head on over to the Champions Online website to learn how to get going with this free period.

This could just be an interesting coincidence, but I also think it answers a number of questions about Cryptic’s MMO development strategy.

Jack Emmert

In July 2009, G4TV asked Cryptic’s Chief Creative Officer (and fan favourite punching bag) Jack Emmert how many players Champions Online needed for success:

G4: Speaking of it being successful, when you’re launching an MMO, like how many subscribers do you need in order to survive or thrive?

JE: Well, I think that number is the number for success is over 100,000 for us. If it’s over 100,000, I’m skipping the light fantastic. The break-even point is somewhere below 100,000. And that’s obviously depending upon – every MMO is different – depending on how much money is spent on it. But, clearly, we mark 100,000 as success.

More recently, in November 2009, MaximumPC asked Cryptic’s Executive Producer on Star Trek Online Craig Zinkievich about STO’s business model and the number of players it needs to attract:

Craig Zinkievich

MPC: Is it a chicken-and-egg scenario where you need to have enough subscriber revenue to make new content to attract new subscribers?

CZ: Definitely. There’s a barrier. From our experience, if you don’t break 100,000 subscribers at any point in time, your game tends to just go away. Most games that don’t break that 100,000-subscriber mark tend to just be flashes in the pan. But once you do, you tend to get a really solid fan base with enough revenue to keep adding to the game, and things go pretty well.

It is interesting that both men mention that 100k figure as a key subscription point for their MMOs. It could just be a nice round figure they both plucked out of the air, but I think the potential also exists that Cryptic is aiming to build MMOs that break even at around 100k players, with development budgets to match. In an industry where MMOs need 500k players for success or might spend over $100 million developing a MMO, aiming to be successful at the lower end of six figures might seem like a lack of ambition. However, I see such a plan as a very intelligent given the number of high profile, big budget launches that have since failed to find and keep a sizeable audience.

If Cryptic is going down this path, it explains the reduced development time (2 or so years for STO, 3 or so years for Marvel Universe Online / ChampO), the reduced time given to open betas / testing (expensive to operate), the reliance on an evolving internal development engine (cuts down development time and costs) and the introduction of official microtransaction channels (the C=Store increases per-player revenue over just the subscription fees, meaning a lower subscriber base is required for profitability). It also explains the multiple MMOs in production at one time – Cryptic could be attempting to avoid having all its eggs in one basket by having a number of different MMOs on offer, all profitable at a ‘low’-yet-substantive active subscription figure.

This isn’t to say that Cryptic wouldn’t want to develop a MMO that attracts 5 million players and sees everyone rolling around in cash. It’s just that they aren’t betting the entire studio on only one title to do it.

But What Would Atari Do?

If this was Cryptic’s plan, would Atari have signed off on it? Doesn’t every publisher want to create the next World of Warcraft?

Maybe not Atari. Going back to the original press release of Atari’s (then Infogrames) acquisition of Cryptic, a key focus was on Cryptic’s lower development costs and in creating “unique, high quality MMO games on 18 to 24-month cycles“. It would be impossible to create the next WoW in 24 months even with an existing game engine, so (unless Atari is incredibly unrealistic) they must have some kind of acceptance for the minimum 100k players per MMO for a number of different, rapidly developed MMOs. Cryptic is Atari’s MMO developer / online platform provider, so it unlikely Cryptic is operating completely free of its owner’s control and developing MMOs for 100k players while Atari doesn’t want any less than 1m active subs.

When Cryptic announces its next MMO – rumours of Cryptic’s Neverwinter Nights exist, although I still think that MMO market is open for a dark world / horror MMO that Cryptic’s development art has hinted about for over 2 years (or longer) – it will be interesting to see if they follow the same pattern of rapid development and release (next title due in 2011, according to those same rumours).

Or the 100k figure could just be a coincidence and I’m reading too much into it.

Way back in the dark mists of January 2008 Eric Heimburg, who was Perpetual’s Lead Systems Designer on Star Trek Online back before that company folded, wrote a few points out to Cryptic / whoever might get the Star Trek MMO. With Cryptic’s STO launching just a few short months away in February 2010, I thought it was interesting to compare that advice with what has since been announced. Please read his article – and it is an interesting one, as is its follow-up – for a better perspective on Eric’s experience than I’m going to cover here.

This Star Trek uniform is non-canon and thus an affront to the every true Trek fan.

Advice #1: Don’t try to be too true to the license. and Advice #4: Ignore the fans.

Reading into these points of advice, I see this covering some “remember that you are making a MMO, not a Star Trek simulator, so don’t abandon MMO conventions too easily” territory. And this is good advice.

A lot of people have the attitude that since STO is using the Star Trek IP, it needs to follow it exactly. This just isn’t true. The highly successful new “Star Trek” film basically threw out every bit of existing Star Trek lore barring the character names and it didn’t hurt the franchise at all. (Side note: personally I thought the film was over-rated, but that’s another issue.) Instead, “Star Trek” just focused on making a fast-moving action film with a clear story and the box office was very good, so dumping decades worth of lore had little impact on its success.

So, although there have been some complaints of terms like “tanking”, “DPS” and “support’ appearing in STO trailers, the reality is that STO has to appeal to existing MMO players as a whole, not just Trek fans who might also play MMOs. Love or hate the holy trinity terms, they are basic role definitions for combat in MMOs, so not having them is a red flag to all those players who want to better understand the game. Now, an STO ‘tank’ might not be the same as a World of Warcraft ‘tank’, but simply having the concepts there make it more acceptable to a lot of MMO players.

To date, it appears that Cryptic is following this advice. They certainly want to give the title a Star Trek flavour, but they are setting out to make a MMO first. How well it all plays is only going to be known during open beta, but this is going to be more important to the title’s success than if the lore is followed 100%.

Also, regardless of what Cryptic did, there would always be a group who felt that it “wasn’t Star Trek enough”. This isn’t an area where everyone can be satisfied with the outcome.

Advice #2: Make a fun game loop first.

The ‘fun’ won’t be known until the title hits open beta, but Cryptic has indicated that they have episode missions and procedurally generated content. This at least seems that they are trying to make the core of the game feel Trek-ish in its game loop.

Advice #3: Don’t try to make the ground and space games at the same time.

Cryptic is making the ground and space games at the same time, as seen here. Advice ignored.

Advice #5: Don’t go public too soon.

Is an extended testing period really an expendable for STO?

Although STO has probably spent two years in development at Cryptic, here is where I feel the need to go, “Hmmm … yeah … well …” as this would seem to be a large trap that Cryptic are heading towards. STO’s closed beta looks like it is going to only run for about 3 months while open beta is going to be 1 month (January 2010) and then STO launches. That’s an awfully big rush out the door.

I’m going to write a longer piece on Champions Online’s beta, but a key thing it needed was longer server up times and longer testing. If anything, STO is getting a shorter testing period than Cryptic’s other MMO and it would be hard to say that ChampO didn’t have a good number of issues to deal with at launch that more testing would have helped smooth out. STO could easily fall into the same hole. Regardless of when STO is launched, there will always be players who will say it needed more time, but only having such a short beta period limits the ability to actually change game features according to testing feedback.

Of all the pieces of Eric’s advice, it is this last one that was probably the most important – launch it right and spend the time required to get there. Unfortunately, it appears to be the piece of advice that Cryptic isn’t paying attention to.

Guess we’ll see at launch if this was the wise thing to do… or not.

More videos then you can shake a stick at but thats OK let them keep coming In this video we see Romulan D’deridex class Warbirds and what looks like a Klingon Vor’cha class attack cruiser and a Borg cube being attacked by a Federation Intrepid class starship but what was most interesting were the  Jem’Hadar Fighters (also referred to as an attack ship or patrol ship) which was a small type of warship  that formed the bulk of the Dominion fleet These versatile starships have also been known to perform the roles of patrol ships and scouts. Even stranger were the Kazon ships which can’t be unless we somehow end up in the Gamma quadrant as part of a mission. Also on the federation side there is a Sovereign class Battlecruiser and a Miranda class Light cruiser. there are many more ships but these are the ones that stood out in the crowd.

This is sounding better and better all the time Boarding Parties using shuttles This video is shorter than last one but has two key points that every Captain needs to know, but can I actually take over his/her ship with my parties or will self destruct always rob me of my victory are their Gatling phasers to destroy the other ships shuttles before they can beam their parties over to my ship. I have many QUESTIONS  as Khan once said, you can view the video at IGN.com and you can see PART I of “Ship Tactics” Here

Cryptic Studios has announced that the open beta for STO will be from January 12 to the 26th  giving players two weeks to play the game prior to the February launch. Open beta keys will be given out on a first come, first serve basis, with players urged to watch the game’s official website Star Trek Online”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          “We are excited to announce the dates for the open beta phase as this is one of the final steps in launching Star Trek Online to the public,” said Craig Zinkievich, Executive Producer on Star Trek Online. “We are looking forward to the launch of our first-of-a-kind MMORPG with anticipation and excitement and we expect Star Trek Online to explode onto the scene, giving fans and gamers a Star Trek experience like no other.”

Champions Online's box art: The 80s called and they want their pen and paper RPG cover back.

Massively.com recently asked the question about how important subscription numbers are to consumers. On an immediate level they probably aren’t vital, but longer-term they point to a game’s survival and potential to be a success. This is especially true for MMOs launched since 2008 – their typical active player numbers have seen sharp declines since launch, more resembling ski slopes than healthy growth potential.

Which is why I’m interested in how many copies Champions Online sold at launch. Cryptic didn’t say how many copies they’d sold, possibly because they’ve seen how trumpeting that you’ve sold huge numbers when three months later your retention rate is less than 50% works out for you. In short: badly. It could also be because they didn’t want to be compared to Aion, who was releasing in the same month and had more pull as a title. Or maybe they are pulling a Turbine and not getting into announcing their player numbers on principle. Instead, what Cryptic did reveal is that about two months post-launch over 1 million characters had been created in ChampO – a pretty meaningless statistic when it comes to assessing active player numbers.

Guesses Follow Below

So, apart from that 1 million characters figure, what other data is there? Atari won’t be releasing any financial reports that include September 2009 for a while yet, so that’s unavailable at this point. What is known is that Champions Online was the third most purchased PC box title in September 2009. Now, the PC monthly sales charts are a sad place to visit, given that sales numbers aren’t given out probably so that PC box sales don’t look so pathetic next to console box sales (Case in point: Wolfenstein launched in August 2009 on multiple platforms and bombed, selling just 106k boxes. 17k of those were on the PC, which still got it to #7 for that month’s top PC box sales – by comparison, the #7 selling non-PC title sold 130k copies, while the 59k sales for the Xbox 360 version of Wolfenstein got it to a non-PC chart #18).

Aion was the most popular title in September 2009 and NCsoft has indicated they sold 970k boxes in Western markets – since it launched end of September 2009, all of those sales would have been launch sales. It gets tricky to compare ‘box sales’ to ‘copies’ because of digital downloads, but NCsoft’s own financials refer to those numbers as box sales. However, even that 970k isn’t so straight forward, given that there was also an Aion Collector’s Edition at #5 in the PC box sales chart. So, what kind of proportion of ‘normal’ to collector’s editions might there be?

Age of Conan released those kind of figures when 111k Collector’s Editions sold out along with 700k normal editions when the title launched, while eventually about 1 million boxed versions of AoC were released. That’s about 11% of all boxes being the more expensive collector versions. Although that kind of proportion makes sense to me, it is also the only kind of data I can see on collectors versus normal edition sales for the PC – if anyone has any further data / links, I’d be interested in seeing them.

If AoC’s experience is similar to Aion, about 11% of that 970k box figure were collector editions, which is about 107k. This would mean that about 863k normal boxes were sold for Aion, putting ChampO’s box sales somewhere between 108k and 863k. Free data on sales for The Sims 3 (#2) and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King  (#4) for September doesn’t seem to be available, so right now we move from “trying to take an educated guess” to “throwing a dart while blindfolded”.

Even Guessier Guesses

I know it's a guess-timate. I'll be interested to see how right (or wrong) I am.

If there really are about 1 million players just waiting to jump into the Next Big Thing MMO, then ChampO certainly attracted some of them. But probably not to the same extent as for Aion’s launch – for one, there were quite a few MMO players saving their money for Aion to launch in the same month and secondly because ChampO was trying to do something a bit different for a MMO (different genre, different server structure, different character creation, etc – final quality of execution is up for you to decide). Difference is a barrier to entry, so it probably kept some players away.

Given how top loaded most sales charts are – the top few titles can often sell more than the rest of the list combined – it’s likely that ChampO sold closer to the 863k figure than the 107k figure. As a stab in the dark, I’d say that ChampO was looking at 400k – 500k box sales at launch, which isn’t bad at at all. If I wanted to be optimistic, I’d go as high as 600k boxes, but I think that would be pushing it.

On top of this, ChampO also was #1 for digital distribution sales by revenue in its launch week on both Steam and Direct2Drive. So for launch, ChampO did pretty well for itself.

Player retention to this point however is probably another story for this title, but that’s a different topic to cover.

Money Money Money

Here's what it is all about.

One of the things that was noticed is that it didn’t take long for discounted ChampO box offers to start appearing. This led some to assume that ChampO’s box sales weren’t that hot so they’d started slashing prices to move them. There are two potential reasons I see for this:

1) ChampO’s box sales weren’t so hot so they started slashing prices to move them. If someone at Cryptic / Atari had 1m boxes printed, or if negative word of mouth after the launch day patch was really that bad, then this is possible.

2) Someone realised that ChampO had about 20 days at which to charge a price premium before Aion launched and stole their thunder.

Discounting box costs towards the end of the month could have been a driver towards ChampO’s overall position in the PC games sale chart, but ultimately post-September 21 Aion was the hot seller. So most of the sales would have been made during the early launch period, before Aion came and the discounting was applied.

About 2 weeks ago I posted an article about Massively Starting up a weekly Q&A in which readers submitted question about Star Trek Online  on a select subject for each week and Cryptic Studios giving you there replies. The first weeks subject was SHIPS and Massively choose the best question for Cryptic to answer. one question or should I say answer peaked my interest:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ” Marix: Will ships of different classes (IE: escort/science/engineering) have different combat styles? Will a small Bird of Prey and defiant class move faster at impulse and do a lot of circling and swerving whilst a large engineering cruiser’s moves slower and tries to punch in as much damage as possible whilst repairing itself?

Definitely. Escorts are the quick-moving, precision-striking ships of the fleet. They’re not as hardy as other ships, but they’re tough to hit and can fit cannons, which are high-damage, almost sniper-style weapons. Cruisers are big ships with a big crew and huge engines that provide them lots of power, so they can fit a lot of guns, send big BOARDING PARTIES and repair their hull and subsystems very quickly. And Science ships can detect cloaked vessels, use tractor beams to hold other ships in place and expose a weak side, take out shields with powerful tachyon beams, and lend aid to other ships in need. ”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  There are going to be boarding parties?  does this mean we can take over someone else’s ship  or more likely a PvE ship and use it or explore it for loot I want to hear more about these Boarding Parties To see the full Q&A  just follow the link

Cryptic Studios announced late last week that the bridge would be a playable space in your ship which was a bit of a surprise to me since I assumed there was always going to be a bridge, where else am i supposed to put my bridge officers. There you go we now know for sure there is a bridge and at least 20 different ones at that, with the release of the “Bridge gameplay“ video we get to see our new home and that is what it will be were the Captains will do all there strategizing and if I read this right other Captains can beam over to see use face to face, hopefully for good and not evil. The bridge officers will be at the stations you choose for them to best help your ship in what ever endeavor it is up to. Give me the Defiant bridge with a borg at each station and lets see how long you last, I can dream can’t I. This video is mild compared to the second video “Ship Tactics“ which is in the same vein as the FUTURE PAST videos. It  is an actual walk-through of the ship systems and a first look at your HUD and how the bridge officers fit in, how they and your ship can be customized. this one is a must see for every future Captain out there. Thanks to Kotaku and IGN for the videos

Wihelm: Continuity One Two Three Abort Reminiscence!

Computer: Code invalid. Abort failed

Computer: Nostalgia field engaged

Computer: memory distortion set to random

Wilhelm: *scream*

So here we go.

Way back when I was a kid, back in a time between kindergarten and about third or fourth grade we, as kids, seemed to go through a stage where we ceased just playing with things and spent our recess and lunch hours playing at being things.

Looking back, it was very much a reflection of what was influencing us as kids… which is to say we played at things we saw on television.

Unlike my father in his day, we rarely ever played at being soldiers, at least at school.  He grew up in the shadow of WWII, which was viewed as a “good thing.”  For us, the Vietnam was on the news every night and it was a “bad thing.”  Many of our teachers actively discouraged anything that smacked of the military.

So we had to find other ways to dress up our desire to run around and pretend to shoot each other.

Cops and robbers was popular, primarily because it required little in the way of window dressing.  Some people were cops, some people were robbers, cops chased the robbers around, we had shoot outs, and argued about who shot whom first.  Generally the cops lost.  Authority figures were on the out, lawlessness reigned.  It was quite the exaggerated reflection of the country beyond the school yard.

We also played Planet of the Apes quite a bit.  This was not as popular because you had to conform at least minimally to the story line.  But it was an outlet for gun play and we did not care about the symbolism represented by the failure of man and the ascension of the apes.  We just wanted to pretend to shoot at each other.  Apes tended to lose and man usually reasserted his primacy.  In some way this probably predicted the election of Ronald Reagan.

And then, once in a while, we would play Star Trek.

Star Trek was different.  Not as many people would play, but girls would join in.  They wouldn’t play cops and robbers or Planet of the Apes, but a few would tag along for Star Trek.  So I knew there was something special going on, since the last time we played pretend with the girls was back before we decided playing house was for sissies.

And while we would cut to space battles and shooting phasers pretty quickly, the whole thing was different.  We would start out behind the backstop standing around as arrayed like the bridge crew.   We would crash around as the ship went into battle, then beam down to a planet or over to another ship looking for trouble.  Prime directive?  Our phasers were never set to “stun.”

But unlike the other two things we played, nobody was playing the bad guys.  This was a PvE roleplaying affair.  Nobody played a Klingon or a Romulan, they were all pretend.  When we shot, there was no follow on argument about who shot whom to break the flow of the story.

I should have written down the names of those who joined up on the bridge for these occasional play sessions, these pre-pubescent Trekkies, just to see who still feels the pull of that show to this day.

I don’t need to say that Star Trek was huge and had a lot of influence.  I think the fact that I can write about Star Trek without giving much in the way of context says enough.

But to be there, in the early 1970s, was to feel the influence when it was still young and fresh and still fit into its uniform and did not require a hair piece.  The original series was in syndicated reruns constantly throughout that decade. (Though at one point, every time I turned on the TV they seemed to be playing “And the Children Shall Lead,” an episode I grew to loathe.)

Star Trek lived on through some really bad episodes in the third season (see above), through cancellation, through an animated series, through some really weak movies and bad uniform choices, through a series of spin-offs (each with its own major flaws) and unlikely aliens, and through wave after wave of truly bad video games (with a rare gem now and again) to still exert influence today.

And I have pretty much eaten it up through most of its history.  I have watched all the shows, seen all the movies in the theater, read a disturbing number of the books, played the table top games, the role playing games, the MUDs, and a good portion of the computer games.  And after all of that, I still feel a great affinity for the universe of Star Trek.

Which is a blessing and a curse.

Star Trek again looms on the horizon for me.  Not a new TV series or a movie to stress my faith more than any midichlorian ever could.  No, it is a new computer game, a game with a lure unlike most that have come before it.

Star Trek Online.

Press Release Screen Shot - Your Game May Vary

A massively multiplayer version of the Star Trek universe.

Something within me sings with joy at the thought of a Star Trek MMO.  This is exactly what we were trying to achieve standing in a semi-circle out on the edge of the field at school way back in the day.

But part of me wants to look away.  That part shudders with the fear brought on by the dozens of mediocre TV episodes and poorly thought out games that came before.

According to the press release, Star Trek Online will be here soon.

ATARI TO SHIP STAR TREK ONLINE ON FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Star Trek Online Offers Fans and Gamers Opportunity to Experience Beloved Star Trek Universe through Space and Ground Gameplay

New York, NY (November 9, 2009) – Atari, Inc., one of the world’s most recognized videogame publishers, and Cryptic Studios™, creators of the acclaimed Champions Online, City of Heroes and City of Villains, announced today the highly anticipated Star Trek Online for PC is set to release on February 2, 2010 in North America and February 5, 2010 across Europe and Australia.  This first-of-a-kind massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) will offer space and ground gameplay to fans and players.

“Star Trek Online is poised to become the ultimate Star Trek gaming experience,” said Jim Wilson, CEO of Atari, Inc. “Throughout the last four decades, Star Trek has been a mainstay in pop culture, influencing legions of fans through television, film, and more. Star Trek Online opens a whole new chapter and expands upon this incredible universe in 2010.”

Taking place in the year 2409, continuing the story of the latest film installment, Star Trek Online boasts extraordinary features and lets fans both new and old experience unparalleled adventures.  Players will have the opportunity to become a high ranking Starfleet officer and will participate in missions that will take them into the depths of space, across exotic planets and even inside other starships.  Star Trek Online offers total customization, where every ship players command can be customized, from color to construction. Additionally, anyone can create their own species in Star Trek Online, as well as customize the look of their avatar’s uniform.

For more information, please visit: www.startrekonline.com

February 2nd is sooner than I would have thought possible, which does not help me deal with the dread.

In an office just miles from where we played Star Trek as kids… and even closer to where I live today… a team at Cryptic Studios is preparing Star Trek Online.

Of course, just a couple of years back, the same game (or not the same game) was being developed by a team at Perpetual Entertainment just an hours drive from my home before it was cancelled, so salt is being consumed in quantities large enough to get a caution from my doctor when it comes to the eventual availability of the game.

Something about all of this playing out within proximity of my home makes it all the more compelling for no logical reason.

Not that it matters.  Logic is a pretty flower that smells bad.

I do not have much in the way of a choice when it comes to this.  I’ll be there on day one.  If they offer a lifetime subscription, I’ll buy it.  A collectors edition?  Let me get out my credit card.  Star Trek alien prostetics I can wear whilst I play?  Sign me up.

Press Release Screen Shot - Things May Never Be This Cool

So you know where I will be on February 2nd.  Prepared for disappointment but still full of hope.

Unless, of course, the whole thing gets delayed.

Nah… that never happens!

Get your copy today while it’s cheap and help make Star Trek XI the top-selling DVD/Blu-Ray of the year. which I have no doubt it will be and enjoy It all over again in the comfort on your home Visit the “official” site to see the basic chooses you have of course every retailer will have their own exclusives see the links on the right under Star Trek.

Atari and Cryiptic Studios have confirmed that February 2nd 2010 will be the launch date for Star Trek Online for the PC in North America  and February 5 it will launch in Europe. that’s only 2 and a half months away wow when they said that It would be out sooner than you expected at their press conference in Las Vagus they weren’t kidding, will it actually be ready?. Bio Break has a few words to say about the subject and I have to largely agree with him, It does seem all a bit rushed. This game is going to draw large numbers and give Cryptic Studios a much larger presence in the gaming world if it succeeds over the long-term. Thay have one shot. so do it right because the fans will never forgive you if its bad and they feel It’s because of a beta that seems way to short or a studio that just wanted to cash in. I could be completely wrong here and the game is indeed ready for launch in that case  my worrying is for nothing and I will be the first in line at midnight to get my grumpy little hands on a copy. We now know what that copy will look like thanks to MMORPG with our first peek at the box art for STO which looks very combat oriented and fits in with the rest of their promotional campaign and some people have found fault with that pointing out that                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    “Star Trek has always been more about finding the ideal solution rather than just setting phasers to kill. Sure it has to be done from time to time but the best Captains always try to find a way around the fight”     Ardue.  Nov 11, comment                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        That my be true but most people play MMO’s to kill things not to collect rocks all thought I’m sure we will be all doing a lot of that to, if I’m going to captain my own ship then battle with other ships is at the top of my list of things to do I’m not saying Star Trek should be a kill fest that would be a disservice to the whole idea of Star Trek but for the purposes of marketing a MMO  it’s what works the best.

If you, like me have been waiting patiently for Star Trek Online to arrive, which it now seems will happen on February 2ed if all the internet chatter is to be believed,  [Cryptic has stated that this is not the "official" release date but it will be announced very soon]  then like me. you have a million questions that need to be answered by the good folks at Cryptic. Massively those guys who specialize in all things massive have heard us and will hold a series of Q&A’s over the next couple of weeks to hopefully bring some clarity to our restless souls concerning what should be ‘will be’ the most awesome MMO ever seen. Each week will feature a round of questions submitted by YOU on that week’s topic. This weeks topic: SHIPS  unfortunately the deadline for submissions on SHIPS was Friday November 6 at 12 P.M. Pacific Time. I don’t type as fast as I used to.  BUT there is always next week were YOU can make suggestions on what that topic will be. Just follow this link to Massively for further details

Amazon has attached a release date to there Star Trek Online pre-order listing according to a report from MMORPG …. [more]

MM()RPG has a good article on Episodes when the game launchs there will be 3 seasons of 14 episodes each will last from 45 to 90 minutes and will play out like an episode on the TV series…. [more]

The good folks over at Gamespot have a 1 minute video from Cryptic Studios featuring more space combat showing some Borg action, can these guys (borg) be stopped without bringing your whole fleet I think not, and we have our first shots of a Hope or Horizon Class research science vassal which is a Tier 3 ship, these ships will be your buff specialists dealing in EW and counter EW very important if you have a cloaked ship out there lets say, and of course planet exploration the enemy fleet will want to take these guys out as soon as possible, an example of a sister class was Captain Crusher’s ship the “Pasteur“ seen in the  TNG series finale which was an Olympic Class but looks very similar the primary hull  is a sphere. All this being speculation of course until the game comes out. There is also a good amount of ground footage more than we have seen so far ant it looks good, the red shirt appears to be holding his own but we all know what happens to him/her in the end and what’s with the girl that is  glowing blue is she being hit by some sort of weapon

Yougamers has 15 new screenshots for STO these latest shots are a mix of land and space battles between various species. the quality doesn’t seem as good as the last batch but this is the first shots of land combat and maybe this is a more realistic portrait of what the game will actually look like and that is still pretty darn good what I really like in all these shots I’ve seem so far is the colour lots of it all over the place and even in space which could have been blackness there is vibrance, it is not a sterile enviroment. Thank you ‘Wrath of Khan’

With the STO beta about a week old and the demo making the rounds thought various cons first at MCM which ran Oct 24/25 in London where we got a review from ROCK, PAPER SHOTGUM and now the demo is at EUROGAMER EXPO London which started yesterday and concludes today. MCM was more of an entertainment expo with a game element were as EUROGAMER EXPO is exactly what the name says all games all the time. The industries heavy hitters are here and among the games making their UK debuts will be Aliens vs Predator, Assassin’s Creed II, God of War III, Mass Effect 2, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Red Steel 2, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Left 4 Dead 2 and more. Rupert Loman, managing director of Eurogamer had said prior to the event                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         “It’s been nine months in planning but we’re now only a few days from opening the doors to Eurogamer Expo 2009,”  and  “Judging by the number of emails and calls we’re getting since London sold out, we could have sold twice as many tickets as we made available. This bodes very well for our plans for next year.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Gamers began queuing three hours ahead of the expo’s opening, keen to play upcoming games from publishers including EA, Ubisoft and Capcom. Over 4000 gamers are expected through the doors of the two-day London event and a lot of those gamers will be looking for Star Trek Online like Josh Fall who’d travelled from Bristol for the event and was the first person on the floor                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           “I’m looking forward to all of the games to be honest,” he said, “but particularly Star Trek Online.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Eurogamer also did a review of the game and gave some good details of the game mechanics but then thats what they do as a bussines is reviewing games and this one has me being optimistic about game issues like movement during battle which could be a game breaker if it isn’t done right. In an interview with TENTONHANNER Craig Zinkievich also answered a question I have been wondering about                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    “Will STO have separate servers, or will it be one massive universe?”
“at launch it’s going to be one shard, one universe. Bruce Rogers, our CTO, has done a fantastic job of architecting a system that allows us to have that one shard, one universe,’      Basicly the same as Champions                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Eurogamer’s review and the TENTONHAMMER Q&A with Craig are both worth reading as they actually shed some light on the game and it all sounds very good

This weeks T.G.I.F. (This Game is Free) edition is sponsored by Cryptic Studios’ Champions Online.  Experience the thrill of creating your own hero and performing amazing super combos on invading aliens and regular street thugs.  Champions Online’s free weekend runs from 10AM PST today through 10am PST Monday in celebration of their live event called Blood Moon.  Battle hordes of undead heroes and be one of the first to tool around with the new celestial power set.  Click the link above to get started right away or feel free to browse some of our preview and impression articles by clicking the links below!

PNG, Bill Roper, and Champions Online
PNG Adventures in Champions Online – The Equestrian Born
PNG Adventures in Champions Online – Getting Stronger

In a move that could only make me beg the Klingons for mercy a second video called ‘Federation’ has surfaced in response to  ‘Klingon Propaganda’ that came out late last week, it’s short very short at about 17 seconds and promotes diversity in the Federation of Planets                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              ” Fellow sentients, it can be difficult to make the right choice of which galactic organization you want to be a part of. Choose the one that lets you be you. Because you’re special and you should go on being special. ”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The animation is similar in style to ‘Propoganda’ and the time period that both take place in is the same, we see a Klingon D7 Battle Cruiser human looking klingons and ‘Cage’ era ensigna in ‘Federation’ which suggests a TOS time frame, this should rule out any link to STO which is about a 150 years later, or does it?. There is a viral marketing campaign going on here but for what reason that is the question. is it Trek 2 or maybe a new animated series or as one person suggested and ‘online clan’ doing some recruiting of their own. What ever it is it’s far to short to draw anything but superficial comparisons between the two, ‘Federation’ my only be a clip of a larger video that we will see at some later time.