A View From The Road: Boldly Going Nowhere
- Thread starter John Funk
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i wholeheartedly agree, now star trek may be the only MMORPG i haven't played but unless they took the heavy rain approach it would always be untrue to its roots, which is why it never should have materialized, an single player star trek game could be great, give the ip to bioware tell them to forget all they knew about ME and you could have a great dialog based game with a little action here and there.
but a star trek game where each murder isnt justified or have a reason beyond xp and maybe an upgrade is just weird.
swaki would love to see the forgotten star trek episode where Picard goes on a killing spree for a new hat
but a star trek game where each murder isnt justified or have a reason beyond xp and maybe an upgrade is just weird.
swaki would love to see the forgotten star trek episode where Picard goes on a killing spree for a new hat
Great article but I have to correct you on a mistake you made when writing this article.
Star Trek Online does not have over 1-million subscribers to its game.
Cryptic fogged up the numbers.. in reality they have over 1million people who have made cryptic accounts. Ie.. You sign up on their forums that counts for one. You register to try out a beta and that counts for one.. What makes it worse is that also included their numbers from people who play champions online.. and yes they include the people who played in beta and people who made a forum account. When called out on this cryptic admiited thats how they were counting numbers. As opposed to counting the number of people who actually had active star trek online paid accounts. There was a story about this on massively.com with refrences in case anyone thinks I am making this up.
Live long and prosper.
Jaiyeson
Star Trek Online does not have over 1-million subscribers to its game.
Cryptic fogged up the numbers.. in reality they have over 1million people who have made cryptic accounts. Ie.. You sign up on their forums that counts for one. You register to try out a beta and that counts for one.. What makes it worse is that also included their numbers from people who play champions online.. and yes they include the people who played in beta and people who made a forum account. When called out on this cryptic admiited thats how they were counting numbers. As opposed to counting the number of people who actually had active star trek online paid accounts. There was a story about this on massively.com with refrences in case anyone thinks I am making this up.
Live long and prosper.
Jaiyeson
The Firefly MMO could possibly work. As MMO's are nothing but a single player game where everyone is playing on the same game. Like a crew a la Mass Effect. You're the captain and your Crew is NPC's. Ones that are picked for you after a short series of questions. And you can create a small clan of like 5 ships. I dunno ...
Wow. A Harry Potter MMO. Now that would be milking the license for all its worth. I wonder where the hat would put me? Probably have to answer a bunch of stupid moral questions first. Or, have several small moral-based missions prior to the sorting, and have the hat base its desicion upon that. But now I'm going off topic.
The fanbase is usually the whiniest bunch; get that right, and the rest of the pack will quickly fall into place, queue money. I must admit, I haven't been following the success of STO very closely, but from the sound of it, the hardcore fans appear to be satisfied. I mean, I haven't picked up any news articles about Trekkie boycotts lately, so I'll assume that the missions are interesting and passive enough to adhere as closely to the source material as possible. I for one prefer to see more adventurin' in my MMO's, so perhaps I should give STO a look, if that's the direction in which they chose to head.
The fanbase is usually the whiniest bunch; get that right, and the rest of the pack will quickly fall into place, queue money. I must admit, I haven't been following the success of STO very closely, but from the sound of it, the hardcore fans appear to be satisfied. I mean, I haven't picked up any news articles about Trekkie boycotts lately, so I'll assume that the missions are interesting and passive enough to adhere as closely to the source material as possible. I for one prefer to see more adventurin' in my MMO's, so perhaps I should give STO a look, if that's the direction in which they chose to head.
That would be kind of cool. Me and my friendds had talked about the idea alot in the past and there is certainly some intresting possibilities if a Firefly MMO was made...Premonition said:
And, not toally out the window...I mean, come on. We had a film made from it so why not a game!
Great article. I would really love to see MMORPG developers come up with some new ideas to make games true to their IP's instead of just slapping in the same MMORPG grind.
One thing I would say in STO's defence is that the Federation and the Klingons are at war and the intro really makes it feel like you're under attack from all sides. I believe Cryptic did a good job of setting up the universe to justify the game play. It feels more like Deep Space 9 in the Dominion war than Kirk boldly going where no man has gone before.
Still, I agree that that's not the heart of the Star Trek franchise.
One thing I would say in STO's defence is that the Federation and the Klingons are at war and the intro really makes it feel like you're under attack from all sides. I believe Cryptic did a good job of setting up the universe to justify the game play. It feels more like Deep Space 9 in the Dominion war than Kirk boldly going where no man has gone before.
Still, I agree that that's not the heart of the Star Trek franchise.
A View From The Road is now officialy my favourite article to read, it's just consecutively a good, interesting read.
I was well on my way to playing Star Trek Online until I made the realisation that my character would not be the man I wanted him to. It's perfectly fine being a vicious little thing when I'm playing something like The Elder Scrolls or Fallout, but when it comes to Star Trek I just don't see me enjoying the fact that my role play value would no doubt be affected considerably. Unless I simply avoided any quest which involved killing, then I'd probably be at a disadvantage. It just wouldn't let me play my character out how I'd like.
However in Harry Potter I see it being different, at least for me. Because I'd most likely end up a Slytherin and I'd enjoy being an evil little sonovabitch, hopefully working my way up to becoming a Death Eater.
I was well on my way to playing Star Trek Online until I made the realisation that my character would not be the man I wanted him to. It's perfectly fine being a vicious little thing when I'm playing something like The Elder Scrolls or Fallout, but when it comes to Star Trek I just don't see me enjoying the fact that my role play value would no doubt be affected considerably. Unless I simply avoided any quest which involved killing, then I'd probably be at a disadvantage. It just wouldn't let me play my character out how I'd like.
However in Harry Potter I see it being different, at least for me. Because I'd most likely end up a Slytherin and I'd enjoy being an evil little sonovabitch, hopefully working my way up to becoming a Death Eater.
I like to think that the zero-point space of Eve is part of the universe my Star Trek mother warned about when you left the space station. A place where the free enterprise system, you wits and ship get you through the day.
I would like to see a place for the Utopian Trek in gaming landscape; and maybe Cryptic will give the core Trekies fan-base their five acre Oklahoma land rush deal.
And somehow squeeze in enought free-enterprise Fire-Eve.
I would like to see a place for the Utopian Trek in gaming landscape; and maybe Cryptic will give the core Trekies fan-base their five acre Oklahoma land rush deal.
And somehow squeeze in enought free-enterprise Fire-Eve.
There's a big difference in the Star Trek setting we're familiar with and the setting Cryptic went with in Star Trek Online: In STO the Star Trek Universe is in a "Hot War". The treaty with the Klingons has broken down and the Klingon Empire has organized itself almost as an "Anti-Federation" with Gorn, Orions, and Naausicans, The Romulans aren't as a coherent state anymore. Also the Borg are an active threat in this area of the galaxy again.
The original Star Trek (when it wasn't "Doing it's own thing") was basically a universe in a "cold war". TNG and DS9 were "New World Order"-type setting. Enterprise tried to be Post 9/11. Voyager made the mistake of taking out a lot of what liked about Trek, and tried to go the Odyessy/Robinson Crusoe route. However they were hamstrung by the fact their writing pool had become burnt out.
Although, I personally think the music direction in Trek has stunk ever since Roddenberry stopped having anything to do with the show. You watch the old Trek and you hear some great music, Post season three TNG the music was bland as hell. STO made some good steps in the music department, but there not enough of it.
They could do something similar with Serenity if they decided to write the game so the was a new "Browncoat" colonial revolution and different parts of the Alliance (read 'Social Hubs') "decalared neutrality".
The original Star Trek (when it wasn't "Doing it's own thing") was basically a universe in a "cold war". TNG and DS9 were "New World Order"-type setting. Enterprise tried to be Post 9/11. Voyager made the mistake of taking out a lot of what liked about Trek, and tried to go the Odyessy/Robinson Crusoe route. However they were hamstrung by the fact their writing pool had become burnt out.
Although, I personally think the music direction in Trek has stunk ever since Roddenberry stopped having anything to do with the show. You watch the old Trek and you hear some great music, Post season three TNG the music was bland as hell. STO made some good steps in the music department, but there not enough of it.
They could do something similar with Serenity if they decided to write the game so the was a new "Browncoat" colonial revolution and different parts of the Alliance (read 'Social Hubs') "decalared neutrality".
Even in WoW, slaughtering a village of quillboars because they raided a cart felt a little excessive. But I guess it all goes back to D&Ds kill-and-loot backbone, and I was just standing there and, technically, they attcked me, or at least would have.
But bottom line, in a post-WoW world this is just lazy game design. Whatever gratifiation I once felt in leveling up by slaughtering woodland creatures was fulfilled by WoW many times over. In the end, it was only battlegrounds and to a lesser degree instances and raids that kept me going.
Any game that follows this model will almost certainly suffer when compared to WoW.
But bottom line, in a post-WoW world this is just lazy game design. Whatever gratifiation I once felt in leveling up by slaughtering woodland creatures was fulfilled by WoW many times over. In the end, it was only battlegrounds and to a lesser degree instances and raids that kept me going.
Any game that follows this model will almost certainly suffer when compared to WoW.
Never really thought about it like that. But it's an excellent point. Any MMO that "beats" WoW can't beat it at it's own game. Blizzard has had too much time perfecting the formula and insane amounts of money to keep the system working (relatively) smoothly. Maybe this means that an MMO could beat (or co-exist with) WoW would be story-driven.
Also, I thinking during his article when he talked about a less combat-driven Star Trek game, does anyone else think that a Star Trek Bioware-style RPG would be freaking awesome?
Also, I thinking during his article when he talked about a less combat-driven Star Trek game, does anyone else think that a Star Trek Bioware-style RPG would be freaking awesome?
Yes its sad, we may never get anything close to our dream worlds, except we might but there will be omnicide present and accounted for
Interesting question. I haven't played STO but I think part of the problem is something I've noticed myself, everyone seems to think an MMO has to be a WoW clone. There are some Properties that the WoW mold just doesn't work for, true, but why does this all of a sudden mean you can't make an MMO out of them. We need to remember that MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game and not WoW Iteration #5326.
So on the Harry Potter MMO, you'd be a muggle in real life, pretending to be a wizard on a game, pretending to be a muggle. What if while you were pretending to be a muggle and you had to play the Harry Potter MMO? Aaggh
In a true Star Trek MMO you'd start out in star fleet academy or a similar setting. You'd then get a job on a star ship or space station.
Not everyone would have their own ship and each ship would require a full crew and not just a single person to fly. You may ask about what to do if your pilot is offline but, that's simple, a ship doesn't have to have just one pilot. People died on the Enterprise all the time but there was always replacement crewmen. It wouldn't be difficult to have crew members that are trained at more than one job. Also, the missions would need to be more fitting to the Star Trek universe of exploration, negotiation and cultural exchange.
People on space stations could have jobs like security, running various shops, political positions and so on.
However, such a game would require real work and a lot of talented writing. These are things that are extremely rare in video games these days and you'll likely never see it happen.
Not everyone would have their own ship and each ship would require a full crew and not just a single person to fly. You may ask about what to do if your pilot is offline but, that's simple, a ship doesn't have to have just one pilot. People died on the Enterprise all the time but there was always replacement crewmen. It wouldn't be difficult to have crew members that are trained at more than one job. Also, the missions would need to be more fitting to the Star Trek universe of exploration, negotiation and cultural exchange.
People on space stations could have jobs like security, running various shops, political positions and so on.
However, such a game would require real work and a lot of talented writing. These are things that are extremely rare in video games these days and you'll likely never see it happen.
This is probably a bit off topic but i felt i should share after reading all the posts.
The other day i watched the movie "Pandorum" while not a very good movie the ending gave me a spark of an idea i would love to see explored by some development company.
Giant last hope colony ship crash lands on a life sustaining planet. Humans awake from cryogenic/hyper sleep and must(tutorial aspect)escape the ship. From there its a bleak dark world where every person must band together in order to survive the planets denizens and other harmful pitfalls.
There could even be an opposing race that had collided with the human colony ship. Introducing PvP.
I dunno, but i have always wanted a good survival MMO but i do not think any development company is brave enough to try it.
SO yeah watch pandorum and pay attention to the ending and see if you understand what i am jabbering about.
The other day i watched the movie "Pandorum" while not a very good movie the ending gave me a spark of an idea i would love to see explored by some development company.
Giant last hope colony ship crash lands on a life sustaining planet. Humans awake from cryogenic/hyper sleep and must(tutorial aspect)escape the ship. From there its a bleak dark world where every person must band together in order to survive the planets denizens and other harmful pitfalls.
There could even be an opposing race that had collided with the human colony ship. Introducing PvP.
I dunno, but i have always wanted a good survival MMO but i do not think any development company is brave enough to try it.
SO yeah watch pandorum and pay attention to the ending and see if you understand what i am jabbering about.