The Star Trek Online site has been updated with the news that current and lapsed subscribers will be able to take advantage of the new F2P iteration beginning Thursday, January 5th. They will have access to the Silver level of the game for one month.

Starting tomorrow (Thursday, January 5th), anyone with a lapsed subscription to Star Trek Online will be able to log into the game and play as a Silver member. This means that any account that has in the past subscribed to the game, even if only for the initial month, can come back and play for free!

Read the full producer's letter on the Star Trek Online site.

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[Mod Edit] cant wait for 17th

deja vu

STO started promising but looks like it is going to die soon? Then Again it seems the who Star Trek universe is not as it once was.

Live long and go play TOR lmao.

Ehh... wasn't Early Access like 2 years ago? 0.o

Oh good, a game to play when SWTOR has downtime.

I pity those who bought lifetime memberships...

Like myself in LOTRO.. lol!

lol

I liked the character customization and the option to customize the companions too, I wished TOR had the same thing.

If you really want to cry over this game, go try to dig up the original design ideas before it was dumbed down into oblivion.  I remember listening to a podcast and just being blown away by the plans the original developer had.  It would have been a real Star Trek MMO.

That reminds me, how stupid are the corporations overseeing these huge intellectual properties?  Star Trek has even more potential to be an amazing IP for an MMO than even Star Wars, and they totally blew it.  A Star Trek MMO should be a cash cow.

Originally posted by Isturi

Live long and go play TOR lmao.

 

[Mod Edit]

Anyhow back  on topic I enjoyed the 3 months I subbed to STO and definately will be hopping back in when f2p goes live.

I played STO in the past and the game was okay had good potential but the game play itself had lack fo players to actually make it fun, now the game going F2P actually really ruins the game experience for me even as a free or paying user here is why.

http://www.startrekonline.com/f2p_features

They add Respec Options, and put limits on how much I can respect my skills this used to be totally free in game as a paying member so why exactly should I pay when they limit me?

Additional Bridge Officer Slots, I assume that these have no value in PVP, otherwise a subscribe, or someone who purchases additional would have an advantage over others in PVP if they actually boosted any stats on the ship.

This is what really makes me pissed off about F2P games, as well all know a game going from Subscribe to Free 2 Play is the game company saying Hey our game failed at a subscription so we are going to give it away free and hope to make a profit, and so far.

1. STO has done this.

2. Lineage 2 has done it

3. Aion did this

But the worst F2P games I will never purchase for are Perfect World International, or Nexon because they charge way too much, add in a confusing point system to each game, add limits to what I can trade or do with stuff I purchase and make all the base game play around a cash shop not something that feels worth paying for when I would rather simply pay for a subscription that gives me all the key features of the game and allows me to play my way, but even with that I will not continue to pay for any game that adds barber shops, and charges me money each time I want to change any detail on my character, I don't care if this be a new game like Tera , or any other new MMO Release the moment they start to add pets, or charge for a character customize, I am hitting my Unsubscribe Button.

Originally posted by MindTrigger

If you really want to cry over this game, go try to dig up the original design ideas before it was dumbed down into oblivion.  I remember listening to a podcast and just being blown away by the plans the original developer had.  It would have been a real Star Trek MMO.

That reminds me, how stupid are the corporations overseeing these huge intellectual properties?  Star Trek has even more potential to be an amazing IP for an MMO than even Star Wars, and they totally blew it.  A Star Trek MMO should be a cash cow.

Yeah but it wasn't even the original developer, Perpetual Entertainment, it was their original lead designer Glen Dahlgren that had the right Idea. When he left in disgust because the suits at PE wanted him to change the direction of the game(Turn it into 'WoW in Space') they hired someone who would do their bidding. The dumbing down was already in full swing when PE went under and Cryptic took over.

Here is an old interview with Glen Dalgren that shows us a little of the STO he invisioned.

I would have loved to play the STO that Glen proposed but it just wasn't to be. The Suits at PE squashed his vision of STO long before Cryptic ever got ahold of the IP. As for the Cryptic game I may give it another shot now that it's going free to play. I don't see it being much better than the last time I played however. They may have added more content but that still won't hide STO's most glaring flaw... The Cryptic Engine.

Bren

The last major content update took them 3 or 4 mo to fix and even then they didn't fix everything. Not to mention the problems they left unattended from before . They then begged Stahl to come back and fix the foundry , which was majorly f'd . ( not to mention Cryptic was made to pull the release of NWN and redo it. Highly embrassing and indicative of  sort of crap Cryptic produces . Major staff turn over , not surprising given , new bosses ) They've been promising to FIX Klingons since the game released , Has that happened ? No. Everything is always on the to do do list . All they keep doing is finding and dreaming up methods to soak the player base of it's cash . This whole project has been an embrassment , to Cryptic and by Cryptic. Everything was Atari's fault previously , now it'll all be PWI's fault. The sooner this aberration dies , the better for the IP. CBS should be embrassed that it allows this game to represent the IP and should pull the licensing , when able. ( Usually these things are 5 year deals , witth another 5 year option ) 

Sorry, but Lineage 2 does not belong in your arguement, becuase unlike the other 2 games mentioned it was p2p for 8 years before going f2p so they could get even more out of a great game.

Originally posted by Renoaku

[snip]

 

sorry to burst your bubble there but this game isn't centered around the cash shop if it were i would not be there right now playing. It's got options in the shop and they aren't necessary to play nor does it require a crazy amount of grinding to get what you need. Their dailies consist of sending subordinates out into the field to do missions and waiting. OOoooh aaaah that's difficult. You get currency, resources and yes rare ones too, and you get new officers for free. It's nothing like it was.