Illogical.

Originally posted by Timberwolf0

"I'm one of those terrible players that ignores the story entirely by default."

I stopped reading after this. I find it hard to believe this qualifies as a front page review

I stopped reading after this.

This is not a review, this is a preview, and the previewer was just telling you his preferred style of play, one that jives with a large number of MMO players out there. That's not to say that he actually ignored the story of the game, in fact he also mentions that for people who do follow the story, there are lots of references to lore and the like... so I ask you how he was actually able to convey that message if he had, in fact, ignored the story.

So, yeah. I'd just suggest comprehending a) the kind of article you're reading and b) the points being made before criticizing the text.

A lot of wether or not this game succeeds or fails will be based on how long it can keep people interested. Then again, not everyone is the same. Not everyone finds the same things interesting. I for example, cannot understand how WoW is as big as it is as that is about the most boring 'Single Player' game ever. When a game punishes you for grouping except in specific places/instances... it's not really an MMO either.

STO, like any MMO has some good and some bad. For me, I already pre-ordered a single copy but I am not even remotely pretending like this is going to be better than sliced bread. For me it comes down to enjoyment. If the combination of Space and Ground is enough to entertain me for more than 12 hours it's a net win as 6 movies cost the same as the box and a months worth of gametime.

I don't think it's going to be a fail, I don't think it's going to be a 'WoW Killer' either. No matter how many trekkies there are it's still somewhat a niche market. As for the 'review' the person not even reading storyline is a big negative for me. No wonder they get bored with stuff if they don't bother immersing themselves in the story which (Ground or Ship based) is the point of Star Trek. The story.

That said, I am glad that it isn't 'go kill ten rats' or 'go collect 5 ears' that you see so often. I am also glad it's not mindless grind like old style EQ for example. Will it be perfect? Not likely. No such thing as a perfect for everyone game. Opinions vary but one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how many people must vent their own vitriol just because they don't like something. If you don't like it, don't play it, no point in trying to stop others from trying it themselves and enjoying it.

Originally posted by socrates656

Some of you guys are extreamly nieve and airheaded. It's no wonder why gamers are so surprised when after playing there games after 1 week they find out how much of a waste of money the game was, and how bad it is. Havin't you people learned anything from past experiances with mmo's? This game looks good, but you don't know anything until you have actually sat down and played it. Anyone can make a game look good with nice screenshots and trailers, and it continues to amaze me how gulluble gamers are and they go and waste their money on somthing they havin't even played yet or have at least waited to see the ratings on them before considering buying it, and whats even more amazing is some of you people are older people that believe in such bullshit.

The game companys love you type of gamers, because they see you as their greatest wetdream.

I find your signature very ironic. Better practise what you preach.

Majority of people are pre-ordering because its a Star Trek MMO. Hell people have spent millions to collect Star Trek merchandise what is a 50 dollar game to them? will they be disappointed later? maybe or maybe not. But thats none of your business now is it? if anything STO is driven by sheer force of Star Trek fans. Its not your typical MMO release. Thus, it doesn't matter if people had bad experience with MMO in past years. When huge IP like STO is about to release such matters take back seat.

The game might suck but you have to look at it through the eyes of a Star Trek fan to understand it.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Obidom 

as Blurr said, no-one is forcing you to use it, its only for single ground combat to allow players the choice of pausing to set up a tactic or smack the kids for annoying you.

Its about giving players CHOICES and OPTIONS, you know, the things that appeal to some players

From what I read it's for instanced PvE - which could include group content. There seems to be some dispute about whether it is available in space or not.

Lets just say I know better than you on this point, Dispute between who? oh thats right, the people reading about it and the people trolling the game...

I can 100% state that my statement is Correct, I am sure Jon could ask Dana to reclarify this point when the next beta session comes up, or could just ask Cyrptic to confirm, Either way i dont need it as I know.

There's another point - being able to solo group content by using 4 pets. Another huge step forward for the Massively Single player Online RPG.

Unless you want to be playing the game solo you dont have to use the BO's for Ground battles, again its about giving players choices, its merely a variation on you PC crew that you so badly want, HERE, there is an option to have a PC crew or have an NPC crew if you want to solo ground combat, so what is the problem? ok its not on a ship but HEY PC and NCP crews are in there in some form.....

Let's just take out all chat functions while we are at it. No messy player interaction needed, after all.
 

More accurately, why dont you try getting into Beta to actually get more of an understanding of what is actually happening in the game ATM than just trolling?

 

Originally posted by Stradden

In part one of a two part preview of Star Trek Online, Dana Massey discusses key gameplay elements like: Missions, PvE, Aesthetics and more.

Nice article

Originally posted by Getalife

 

The game might suck but you have to look at it through the eyes of a Star Trek fan to understand it.

 

I am a Star Trek fan. Try looking through MY eyes.

Originally posted by Obidom 

 

More accurately, why dont you try getting into Beta to actually get more of an understanding of what is actually happening in the game ATM than just trolling?

 

 

How do I get into beta - without being stupid enough to pre-order Champions Online?

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Obidom 

 

More accurately, why dont you try getting into Beta to actually get more of an understanding of what is actually happening in the game ATM than just trolling?

 

 

How do I get into beta - without being stupid enough to pre-order Champions Online?

There will be lots of open beta key giveaways and you can sign up for a free fileplanet account and get it that way. The first week might be paid fileplanet subscribers only but it always switches over to free subscribers for the last week. If you get a key through a giveaway it won't matter. Also you don't get STO open beta for pre-ordering champions online, you get it for pre-ordering STO. The champions online lifetime subscription was for the closed beta it wasn't the pre-order.

Originally posted by Pantheos

 Opinions vary but one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how many people must vent their own vitriol just because they don't like something. If you don't like it, don't play it, no point in trying to stop others from trying it themselves and enjoying it.

 

There is a point to trying to keep fellow Trek fans from being duped into buying a game which will disappoint them greatly.

Tell the truth about the game (both good and bad), and then they can make an informed choice.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Pantheos

 Opinions vary but one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how many people must vent their own vitriol just because they don't like something. If you don't like it, don't play it, no point in trying to stop others from trying it themselves and enjoying it.

 

There is a point to trying to keep fellow Trek fans from being duped into buying a game which will disappoint them greatly.

Tell the truth about the game (both good and bad), and then they can make an informed choice.

I had an image of 'You cant handle the Truth'
 

its all very good and well saying this but people are individuals, have their own opinions, you are drawing yours from 2nd/3rd hand sources, incomplete date and facts

oh and for those of you who know

840!!!!! WTF!!!!

Originally posted by Obidom

I had an image of 'You cant handle the Truth'
 

its all very good and well saying this but people are individuals, have their own opinions, you are drawing yours from 2nd/3rd hand sources, incomplete date and facts

From information released and stated by Cryptic, themselves.

several of us from here are drawing ours from the source, we know whats happening, as much as we want to prove you wrong we cant, mainly because we enjoy our access to much.

I've heard "I know something you don't know" before.

all we can say is wait and see, this is by far one of the better Beta's I have been in, the devs are listening and the testers are feeding back

I heard that all the time from Warhammer's Beta testers. They were lying.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Obidom

I had an image of 'You cant handle the Truth'
 

its all very good and well saying this but people are individuals, have their own opinions, you are drawing yours from 2nd/3rd hand sources, incomplete date and facts

From information released and stated by Cryptic, themselves.

as with all information released by any company, the information can then become moot as changes happen, short of having an update daily on changes I accept that this infomration may then be out of date

several of us from here are drawing ours from the source, we know whats happening, as much as we want to prove you wrong we cant, mainly because we enjoy our access to much.

I've heard "I know something you don't know" before.

thus our information is more up todate in relevant than a Press release from last week or two months ago where the subject at hand has been amended and altered

all we can say is wait and see, this is by far one of the better Beta's I have been in, the devs are listening and the testers are feeding back

I heard that all the time from Warhammer's Beta testers. They were lying.

WAR did truly suck though........ STO IMO doeant

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

How do I get into beta - without being stupid enough to pre-order Champions Online?

Well I put down $5 for a STO preorder at Gamestop to get into the open beta, and I hear Target has $0.99 preorder boxes that get you into OB.  If the game sucks as bad as I think it's going to, I'll just cancel the preorder and get store credit for that $5.  Being a huge Trek fan, I'm sure I'll be hugely disappointed in this game, and for the most part I'm just waiting for this train to derail at this point.

Originally posted by Obidom

WAR did truly suck though........ STO IMO doeant

We'll see. If I get into open Beta. I will provide as much information as possible to let players make an informed decision on whether to buy or not.

Keep in mind that the preview author is a self addmitted "OCD completionist" who doesn't read the in game quest content and only played the game for 20 hours (which is perhaps 3 or 4 days for the average player). Could you enjoy the game you are playing now if you played for only a few days and read none of the story content? Sounds to me like we just got a preview of what should/could be STO's free trial week, when played by a typical power leveler.  

Originally posted by Drachasor

Originally posted by storm-dragon

Yeah I wouldn't  take the whole don't need Torps as gospel guy....it is the case now but we have already been told it's changing.

I think you misunderstood what I said.  I've gotten the impression that Torpedoes just aren't worth getting AT ALL.  It is just flat-out better to go with phasers.
 

I'm not a huge min/maxer, but I found phasers were better against single targets and in PvP (see part two). That said, it's way too soon to tell for sure (balance will no doubt be changed over time).

Against multiple targets with less shields though, the key is to get rid of enemies as fast as possible while moving around. Phasers are not nearly as good there. Projectiles are needed because once you make a hole, it's important to capitalize and get a torpedo in there fast.

Originally posted by Saerain

I don't see what the problem with a 45-second pause feature is, and I'd be surprised if it's not a configurable option just like the looting rules. Frankly, I couldn't be more thankful for it. Learning of it got a big smile out of me. I've never understood why it's such a taboo feature in multiplayer games of any kind.

'But it could be abused!' Yeah, and? If you can't trust who you're playing with, disable it or find better people.

Anyway, I wanted to comment on this:

 

---

The first thing you'll notice about Star Trek Online is the sound. Cryptic would have had to go out of their way to screw this up, and naturally they didn't. From the first loading screen, the music is dead on what you'd expect. Once in the game, the voice of the computer, the sound of phasers and doors is all exactly what you'd want it to be. The computer on your ship, which provides helpful tips like "Enemy's shields are down" either is the voice of the "computer," or someone who did a bang on impression.

---

 

I strongly doubt it was Majel. She died of leukemia in December of 2008, so the recording would have had to occur very early, indeed.

Me too, but it did sound like her a lot. And she never says anything she likely didn't say 1000 times in the various movies and films. So, I figured, it was possible that they just reused old voice samples, but that said, I honestly have no idea. The point is that it sounds authentic whatever it is.

Originally posted by Finbar

Keep in mind that the preview author is a self addmitted "OCD completionist" who doesn't read the in game quest content and only played the game for 20 hours (which is perhaps 3 or 4 days for the average player). Could you enjoy the game you are playing now if you played for only a few days and read none of the story content? Sounds to me like we just got a preview of what should/could be STO's free trial week, when played by a typical power leveler.  

I may not have been clear on the story comment. I typically ignore story in MMOs. I knew I was previewing this though, so I quite intentionally read much of it. Thus, the comments about it.

Also, I'm by no means a power leveler. A completionist spends as much time as is necessary to do every single mission regardless of the reward or necessity. A power leveler takes the most efficient path to max XP. I am the former.

I want to be fair so I'll say that this may be a great game for some people.  Unfortunately it looks like I won't be one of those people.  To me this sounds terrible.

It seems to me that this game isn't built for free roaming exploration at all.  Can I just point my ship towards the galatic core and head off....that-a-way?  You know, that urge to go explore where no-one has gone before?  It doesn't sound like it and even if we could it seems obvious that the game isn't really built for that sort of thing so random exploration probably wouldn't be very thrilling anyway.

It looks like this game is going to follow the typicall quest hub formula.  Start in this area, load up on quests/chores, slog through all of that tedium, then an NPC admiral or someone will send you off to the next quest hub area.  And it sounds like it's all very heavily instanced so I'm left wondering how much actual persistant world there is.  Is there ANY persistant world outside of the quest hub areas?

And then there's the grouping question of course...but, oh well, that ship has sailed.  It seems clear that this is a single player game with some co-op options which will almost certainly lead to grouping being more difficult and less rewarding than just doing your little chores solo to get them over with so you can load up on your next batch of chores.

And the ability to pause the game during these instanced missions?  Come on, if that isn't a clear indication that this is primarily a single player game then I don't know what is. 

Whatever, some people will love it I'm sure.  But to me this looks like an extension of the trend to turn mmorpgs into pay-to-play single player games and I'm not interested in that at all.  If I could play it offline without a subscription fee I might very well buy it but otherwise no.