"In my opinion, this game does not and completely missed the mark I, II and III."

Ha Ha!!! Nice. Not much more to add here, but as a guy who paid for the lifetime sub and a lifelong ST fan - disappointment isnt even close. Even with my lifetime sub, I havent even logged on to get updates in a good 3-4 months....

Honestly, I would have loved to see STO, SWG with ST skins essentially - cause IMO SWG is more a space MMO than STO will ever be. A mix of Eve, SWG and oddly enough WOW would have really done this game a world of good. Now, we are left to just watch it painfully shrivle and fade away - probably never to be revised. Aside from the guys who think they are in honest to God "fleets", no one has said ANYTHING favorable about this game and I am throughly saddened by it.....

I liked the game, but I didn't feel it was worth spending 15 bucks a month on. It doesn't offer enough to be honest. 

I hear that Bill Roper has bought one Beanie Baby for every lifetime subscription to one of his games and when he gets lonely he "swims" in a pool filled with them, while on a heroin binge, eating saltine crackers.

Originally posted by ssjdagas

I've heard a lot of negative feedback from players playing this game. Most of it from sites like mmorpg.com where most people are hardcore mmo-players. I'm a huge Star Trek fan, but only a casual MMO-player. Been playing every now and then since 2003 (first MMO was SWG then EVE soon after). Too me it seems like most MMO games, based on leveling up, getting new skills and gear etc. with some typical destroy 10 klingon ships missions and some more interesting.

I've only been playing for 1½ weeks playing roughly for 8-10h a week so granted I can't fully judge it yet, but it seems so far to be fun at least to me. All the trekkies I know like the game. Many of them have not even played an MMO before.

Perhaps if you judge the game as a star trek game that happens to be an MMO rather than an MMO that happens to be a Star Trek game it will seem better.

My question is what exactly makes this game so bad? The problems I have with are the same problems I have with it most MMO's such as too many generic quests. I've seen games with more grind, less interesting missions and more generic gameplay that doesn't get as bashed as STO. So can you hardcore gamers tell me what I am missing because from my casual view point it's just as good or bad as most MMO's I've played over the years, except this one is Star Trek (and I admit I would not play it otherwise). I played SWG during its hayday and I must say that so far I like STO more.

 Well there is really no true defined meaning of hardcore player so it makes it kind of tricky to answer, I don't play mmo's exclusively but do log a few hours a day when I do play so not sure if you would consider me a hardcore player or not but one thing I can say is I don't care for STO.

I think the better statement this post can make is more along the lines of STO being a good game really only for casual players because anything over casual is going to see the flaws inherent in this game.

As far as the problems exhibited by STO, the payment system is what I'd consider atleast shady a mandatory sub fee and lot's of content that is C-store exclusive with only way to get c store points regularly is to pay for them.  The content is very shallow with little depth and highly repititious I often found myself a few levels later wondering if a bug had me doing a mission I had already done only to learn that the mission was somehow supposed to be a continuation of that mission chaiin (I guess) as the writing is pretty poor and doesn't do a very good job of relaying that.

Those are just really my main two problems with the game as there are so many other things that they just don't do well, there is nowhere that is remotely fun to just explore, the few random encounters that happen (not sure if they are supposed to or not) are not fun either and are actually rather annoying compared to other mmo's (probably due to the excessive amount of loading to play a session of STO).

In conclusion yes I will say to a large degree many "hardcore" mmo players will certainly not like STO but it is much more a case that only a truly casual gamer with a low value expectation in comparison to what is offered by other mmo's will really enjoy STO.

I told myself never buy that game after all the bad review i saw.  This morning was in a local store and saw the game for sale at 9.99$ and pick it up, after at that price wont be a big lost.   I played 2 hours and i'm already bored.  Ground combat is bad, feel unresponsive and slow, space combat is even worst, ship control is bad.   Cost me 10$ to figure out something i already knew, game suck.

Originally posted by Lohdown

I tried this game in OB and I couldn't have been more dissappointed.  I am somewhat of a Star Trek fan, but I did not follow along with the STO developement so I really had no idea what the game was going to be.  However, I have played oh-so-many games in my life, several of them mmos, and what I did expect was a game that followed the genre it was advertised to be in.  In my opinion, this game does not and completely missed the mark I, II and III.

 

Now, assuming I know nothing of this game going into it other than it is based on the vastly diverse lore of Star Trek and it is an mmo, this is what I would have expected before ever even logging into STO for the first time.

 

1.  A selection of playable races - Star Trek online has none.  Your race is The Federation.  That is not a race.  That is a faction.  Yes, there is a wide and diverse character creation where you can choose racial traits, but when you start the game you are The Federation, no exceptions.

 

2.  A selection of starting worlds - Star Trek online has none.  You start off in the Sol system on a space station orbiting Earth.  On a spacestation orbiting Earth?  Really?  Not even Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco?  Just some unnamed station around Earth.  Where is Vulcan, Romulus, Remus, Cardassia, Bajor, Andoria, the Klingon home world whose name I forget, etc.  Also, the very use of the name Sol system seemed to smack me in the face immediately.  I know that is what we call our system IRL, but is this what it was called in Star Trek?  I always thought we were Terrans, but I may be wrong on this.  Shouldn't it be the Terran system?

 

3.  A selecton of classes - STO has 3.  All combat based.  How about something more?  Traders, smugglers, diplomats, etc. 

 

4. Factions - Star Trek Online has 2 race / faction combinations, but no real factions.  One of which was an afterthought.  Perhaps the Vulcan Science Academy, Vulcan High Council, Klingon Empire, Maquee (sp?), etc.

 

5.  An economy that actually falls within the lore of Star Trek - Energy Credits?  What is an Energy Credit? Basically it is money and humans don't use money.  I guess it falls well within the shallowness that is STO, but in a diverse STO MMO that never was, there should have been a much more complex economy between the races.

 

6.  Crafting - Had anyone at Cryptic ever even heard of replicators?  My idea is that the replicators always needed a "pattern" of an item before it would create objects.  This could have easily been the recipies in the game.  And they could have made it so the replicators only made parts of an object and not the complete object.  The player would then only be able to assemble something if they had the correct skill.

 

7. PvP - Yes, I know it is in the game, but it does nothing as far as I know in terms of influencing the galaxy.  I could never get into any PvP during OB to even test this out.  Hasn't anyone at Cryptic ever heard of the Neutral Zone?  I mean, come on.  A wide and diverse PvP system could have been put in place fighting over the neutral zone and this would have completely fallen well within the lore of Star Trek.

 

8. The Borg - This is probably one of my biggest issues that I had with STO.  They took what is arguably the most sinister villian ever created in any form of storytelling ever, and they turn them into the generic "kill ten rats".  The borg should have been endgame.  They should have been the final fight.  When you killed The Borg you knew you could turn the game off and be happy that you accomplished something.  Instead you fight the most powerful enemy in Star Trek lore as a total noob, and worst of all, you win.  This is the same issue I had with the Star Trek TV shows.  They were overdone to death.  They went from being sinister and evil to being the carebears of the galaxy.  It has been quite sad to see the demise of the borg over the years.

 

IMO, this is not an mmo.  This game should have been sold as a single player game called The Federation with no monthly fees.  It is not deserving of the title Star Trek Online.

I want to play this MMO, so sad crypic didnt have the vision.

Originally posted by Aguitha

I told myself never buy that game after all the bad review i saw.  This morning was in a local store and saw the game for sale at 9.99$ and pick it up, after at that price wont be a big lost.   I played 2 hours and i'm already bored.  Ground combat is bad, feel unresponsive and slow, space combat is even worst, ship control is bad.   Cost me 10$ to figure out something i already knew, game suck.

    Some people are still paying full price, while others are paying $20.00 for a copy of STO. If Cryptic's claims about new lifetime susbcribers are true, those people are also shelling over $299.99 for those subscriptions now. I'd say you got off fairly cheap.

I wouldn't say that only hardcore players hate the game, I am sure that there is more than enough hate from the casual player to around.

STO is one giant single player game with a few mmo components. There are no raids (STF'S dont count), PvP is boring because there is no war zone or real meaning to pvp, craftings does not exist, not enough content to keep up with the lvl cap. If they stay with the weekley episodes model it wont be a good result. I could keep going but you get my point and all this is from a lifer!

Originally posted by Pogmahone

STO is one giant single player game with a few mmo components. There are no raids (STF'S dont count), PvP is boring because there is no war zone or real meaning to pvp, craftings does not exist, not enough content to keep up with the lvl cap. If they stay with the weekley episodes model it wont be a good result. I could keep going but you get my point and all this is from a lifer!

I think everyone already knows that, well almost everyone, you still have the CDF that will argue with you.  Now if only Cryptic would get it.

Originally posted by ScribbleLay1

Originally posted by Pogmahone

STO is one giant single player game with a few mmo components. There are no raids (STF'S dont count), PvP is boring because there is no war zone or real meaning to pvp, craftings does not exist, not enough content to keep up with the lvl cap. If they stay with the weekley episodes model it wont be a good result. I could keep going but you get my point and all this is from a lifer!

I think everyone already knows that, well almost everyone, you still have the CDF that will argue with you.  Now if only Cryptic would get it.

 Problem is they doi get and they've proved it twice . This is the model they work by . Actually three times . The same formula they used in CoX , they applied to CO and STO . They are going to do this to NwN . It will continue as long as they can continually grasp well known IP's and rape the initial player enthusism for these IP's. Nothing will change until consumers wise up to their methodology and business practices. Sadly they got me once , but it won't happen again , I swear it.

Nope  OP, people with unrealistic expectations hate this game. Its a fun casual game nothing more and it does what it does best. Most of the unhappy players were expecting more of a sandbox experince.

I'm no hardcore mmo player, i was looking for a fun game to play, pick up STO at 9.99$ at a local store and played 30 minutes before getting bored, i think i did'nt even finished the tutorial part of the game.  That's to tell you how bad it is.  And this was 2 weeks ago and i havent log in the game one second after that.   So saying only hardcore MMO player hate this game is ridiculous, the game is bad.

I play MMO since 1999 and STO is one of the worst i seen so far.  Very few mmo i tried turned me away so fast as this one.

Originally posted by Shastra

Nope  OP, people with unrealistic expectations hate this game. Its a fun casual game nothing more and it does what it does best. Most of the unhappy players were expecting more of a sandbox experince.

I think most were expecting a Star Trek game based on what everyone loved about Star Trek, not a single player shooter with Star Trek skins that was based on nothing Star Trek.

Originally posted by ssjdagas

I've heard a lot of negative feedback from players playing this game. Most of it from sites like mmorpg.com where most people are hardcore mmo-players. I'm a huge Star Trek fan, but only a casual MMO-player. Been playing every now and then since 2003 (first MMO was SWG then EVE soon after). Too me it seems like most MMO games, based on leveling up, getting new skills and gear etc. with some typical destroy 10 klingon ships missions and some more interesting.

I've only been playing for 1½ weeks playing roughly for 8-10h a week so granted I can't fully judge it yet, but it seems so far to be fun at least to me. All the trekkies I know like the game. Many of them have not even played an MMO before.

Perhaps if you judge the game as a star trek game that happens to be an MMO rather than an MMO that happens to be a Star Trek game it will seem better.

My question is what exactly makes this game so bad? The problems I have with are the same problems I have with it most MMO's such as too many generic quests. I've seen games with more grind, less interesting missions and more generic gameplay that doesn't get as bashed as STO. So can you hardcore gamers tell me what I am missing because from my casual view point it's just as good or bad as most MMO's I've played over the years, except this one is Star Trek (and I admit I would not play it otherwise). I played SWG during its hayday and I must say that so far I like STO more.

I have no real disagreement aside from a differing opinion, but I'll respond to the highlighted...

That is true, but people aren't paying month to month for a star trek game.  STO is BARELY, technically, an MMO.  And in practical use, it's not really an MMO at all.

Any decent MMO will have at least 200+ hours of content zerged.  And it will also have reasons for doing things other than straight up quests, raids, etc.  It will have enjoyable, rewarding crafting, exploring, and character development that will keep most people busy for months and months, if not years.  Even with the new content since the launch, this game has about a months worth of once-through content, and a smidge of repeatable content that is highly repetitive and groan inspiring.

Do they at least allow you to revisit old missions again?  Because the last I played(a couple months ago), you still were blocked from all the content you completed, which left you with some bases to park, some "diplomacy" missions, some "kill X" missions and a bunch of shoeboxes to fly your ship around in.

Feature to feature, gameplay to gameplay, STO is inferior to pretty much every AAA title out there(and many budget MMO's), save for maybe Champions Online.  Almost every game offers more in almost every aspect.  Better crafting, bigger, explorable worlds(even DDO, which says ALOT!), better interaction with the world, better graphics, better balance, more factions, better PvP(even LotRO!), even more environment variety.  My saying this, is about as close to fact as an opinion can get.

Having said all that, I don't hate the game, I just find it inferior to most other MMO's, even those I like less than STO.  Like a trophy chick in her 40's, you can find enough to like about it to hang out for about a month, but there's not much point in sticking around.  And in both cases, that kinda blows the point of bothering in the first place.

Finally, on the green highlighted bit.  The only "less interesting than STO" quests I see in your run of the mill MMO are the kill/get/use X quests.  Thing is, these are usually set up to go along with much more interesting quests, aka a "while you're in the area" type sub-quest.  With a few notable exceptions, STO's missions are mostly Kill/Get/Use quests; the nebula and system missions are almost strictly that.  The episode missions are about as good as it gets, and they're pretty much hit or miss, IMO.  And there aren't a terrible lot of them.  And you can't repeat them.

Sto claimed to be on AAA mmo when they only had 1 week to 1 month of content. They also heavly use Mircotransations(spelling) so you can buy better charater races and ship,.

Sto and champs are not mmo's but strate RPGs with online play,  were you can make powerfull charaters. with your credit card.

Playing sto will just run up your credit card with special offers.

The content cant compare to AAA mmos like World of Warcraft, AION, and Fallen Earth. thows 3 have months of content and are AAA mmos. sto has maybe 3 months max.

Originally posted by Robsolf

I have no real disagreement aside from a differing opinion, but I'll respond to the highlighted...

That is true, but people aren't paying month to month for a star trek game.  STO is BARELY, technically, an MMO.  And in practical use, it's not really an MMO at all.

Any decent MMO will have at least 200+ hours of content zerged.  And it will also have reasons for doing things other than straight up quests, raids, etc.  It will have enjoyable, rewarding crafting, exploring, and character development that will keep most people busy for months and months, if not years.  Even with the new content since the launch, this game has about a months worth of once-through content, and a smidge of repeatable content that is highly repetitive and groan inspiring.

Do they at least allow you to revisit old missions again?  Because the last I played(a couple months ago), you still were blocked from all the content you completed, which left you with some bases to park, some "diplomacy" missions, some "kill X" missions and a bunch of shoeboxes to fly your ship around in.

Feature to feature, gameplay to gameplay, STO is inferior to pretty much every AAA title out there(and many budget MMO's), save for maybe Champions Online.  Almost every game offers more in almost every aspect.  Better crafting, bigger, explorable worlds(even DDO, which says ALOT!), better interaction with the world, better graphics, better balance, more factions, better PvP(even LotRO!), even more environment variety.  My saying this, is about as close to fact as an opinion can get.

Having said all that, I don't hate the game, I just find it inferior to most other MMO's, even those I like less than STO.  Like a trophy chick in her 40's, you can find enough to like about it to hang out for about a month, but there's not much point in sticking around.  And in both cases, that kinda blows the point of bothering in the first place.

Finally, on the green highlighted bit.  The only "less interesting than STO" quests I see in your run of the mill MMO are the kill/get/use X quests.  Thing is, these are usually set up to go along with much more interesting quests, aka a "while you're in the area" type sub-quest.  With a few notable exceptions, STO's missions are mostly Kill/Get/Use quests; the nebula and system missions are almost strictly that.  The episode missions are about as good as it gets, and they're pretty much hit or miss, IMO.  And there aren't a terrible lot of them.  And you can't repeat them.

 From what i understand, they are going to make it so you can go back and repeat those quests that were one-time only quests. At least that's what they have said.