Excellent article, Jon.  The "bundling" of the STO beta with one of the Champs sub models was pretty much the knell of doom for CO.  I hope STO will be better but based on the extreme brevity of beta vs the announced launch date, I expect a very unfinished and unpolished game.

 Weird. They showed up in my inventory as "apytha" or something like that.

 "The first items you'll be able to gather are Angelica, Mela, and Iron."

Well, I saw iron but never the other two.  I got some sort of weed and an apple-like thing. Maybe I'm playing a different game?

 Haven't you made the exact same post before here? :)

 Neat idea. But... TOS? on Blu Ray? Why?  It's not like (even re-mastered) that any additional quality could be wrung out of the original.

 It's too bad you're leaving.  I think you've inspired some of the other writers to push it harder/better.  I'll miss your work and hope that you can occasionally drop out a drive-by-column.  Best of luck!

Originally posted by Terranah

I only have a couple things to say.

 

First, it's not, "Launch rear photon torpedoes."  It's, "Aft torpedoes, fire!"

 

And it's not, "Warp speed 9, engauge."  It's, "Warp 9, engauge."

 

Pretender...

You missed "Thrusters on full!"

"Full impulse" would work. Did any ship in the series even have thrusters as such?  :)

I got "fluff piece" from the article which is unusual since most of her work seems pretty even keel.  Based on that, I'm guessing she really is/was excited about it.  I would have preferred a more factual approach than opinion myself, but it *was* a first impressions AND hands-on piece so she gets some slack in my book.

I'm interested in seeing how this all works out.  I didn't make it into beta tho.  Guess I'll have to wait until Friday night to try to get hands on at Dragon*Con.  :)

Originally posted by xaldraxius

 

---

Originally posted by grimfall
 
Well there's a couple of things that bother me about this post.  The first thing is that he says he was an alpha tester, but he was posting critiques on a forum which was then moderated.  That's the first time I've heard of an alpha test that took input in this manner .  At the Alpha stage you should be so open to feedback that a forum shouldn't be used.  If you're using a forum and filtering the content with moderators, you've got way too many alpha testers.
 
The second thing is, that bothered me is that someone let this jerk into alpha and closed beta of their game.  If you can't be mature enough to post in a reasoned manner when playing someone's game for free... maybe you shouldn't be a tester.  You're doing a job and being compensated, act like a grownup.

---

 

He's telling nothing but the truth. Hell, we didn't even open up to having more than two days a week with limited times to test until open beta.

Cryptic ran it like they had set in stone what they wanted the game to be and wouldn't budge on anything that was important. Though you should be thankful we fought so long to get the hotbar increased, otherwise you'd have a max of 7 powers available at one time.

This pretty much sums up my experience in beta. I tried over a dozen times to provide really good constructive criticism and lots of others replied back with ideas of their own. But Cryptic was interested in making what they wanted to make.  It was like taking a leak in the ocean for all I was concerned.  Hopefully, this will flop hard and fast and they can learn from their mistakes while their is still time to listen to their testers for STO!

Originally posted by banthis

First everyone cries fowl they're even offering it..then they stop offering it because they reached the peak projection that finicially makes sense (something they probably never expected to reach so early) and everyone cries fowl again.  They can't win if they don't and can't win if they do...the gamer community in today's world is nothing but an entitlement wanting bunch of whiner babies.  Its really sad to see how much people cry these days. 

I mean SWG made sense to cry over atleast because it was a complete ripping scam..it made sense when people cried fowl about Age of Conan because it couldn't and never even tried to truely deliver on everything they yammered about.  But crying over a limited offer deal to spend 200 bucks and play the game for life? Yea..you know alot of nuts are going to come out of the wood work and claim fowl despite having no previous interest ... they're the same people that would sue McDonalds because they spilled their own hot coffee on themselves.

Obsessed MMO entitlement wishing players = Epic Fail.  

Atleast cry over something worth while like how the pvp never truely worked during the beta or how bad the first day of OB was but geezus over a limited subscription plan? Boo friggin woo really....

Bad Games aren't ruining the community anymore..its bad Community members.

Who cried about a bird?  ;)

Actually, I was in CB from March until I uninstalled it at the start of OB. I had no plans to buy but I thought the Lifetime/6 month sub was a good idea for someone who enjoyed it.  I'm hoping that they offer that again for STO and (unless I don't enjoy beta on it), I'll buy in and fast!

Originally posted by Manchine

People wonder why people stay away from MMORPG.  Its due to the number of idiots on this site who just slam a game when nothing is wrong with it.

Some folks have been waiting with bated breath for the NDA to be lifted in order to share their experience. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you have a different opinion, go ahead and give it voice.  I'm with the doomsayers on this and I got into beta in early March.

With such an incredibly diverse variety of skills and appearance, and the ability to create a character that is far beyond unique, one would think that this would be a fantastic game.  That is until you login and realize that the UI is lackluster, the small number quests are incredibly dull, levelling up consists of only increasing stat points and also you find yourself fighting the exact same thing over and over and over again.

 

All in all, I have to say "I certainly hope that Star Trek Online will be better than this, or they surely would face The Wrath Of....."

 

Exactly, STO has got to be better.

CO had some very neat ideas. The cell shading was not among them however. I absolutely detested that and was thrilled when I finally got a dev respond to my request and tell me the command line to turn that off. Then the graphics actually became breathtaking. It's like Cryptic had a really sharp/crisp game and then scribbled with a crayon on it.

Anyways, I still could have dealt with the look if the gameplay had been fulfilling. It wasn't. You have to use an endurance building power over and over until it builds up enough of a bar for you to fire off a bigger attack.  This translates to a lot of 1-1-1-1-1-2 style of number-mashing. Oh and occasionally, a 1-1-1-1-3!  Essentially, Champs is a MMO designed for the console and you have no choice but to feel that.

Some may enjoy that. I did not. Take it as you will.

Originally posted by Stradden

Garrett uses his column this week to talk about the upcoming BlizzCon and what surprises it might hold.

Lines sum up BlizzCon the best, lines for everything from Morlochs to Jinx shirts. Next week, Blizzard is hosting its own private convention in Anaheim, CA for all things Blizzard. This is an interesting year for the company with allof the rumors that have been surrounding the event over the last few weeks. Starcraft 2 delays, WoW expansion rumors, and the ever looming Diablo 3 news all come into play when Blizzard takes the stage. Can the game company that can do no wrong ever possibly make a mistake? We'll look at Blizzard's three ring circus and how it impacts the industry, fans, and the games to come.

Read BlizzCon: Reading Between the Lines

Morlochs?  I think we're getting H.G. Wells confused with Blizzard.  Although even that was spelled differently.  C'mon, Garrett -- if you're going to attempt a hip reference, try to get closer to target.  :)

Originally posted by Xondar123

I agree with Jack Emmert that microtransactions are a load of crap. The fact that they've announced them for Star Trek Online and Champions Online has really dulled my enthusiasm for both games. It really has.

I think MT can be done properly -- I don't think Cryptic is on the rigth track to doing it with what I've read so far on CO.  I haven't seen anything yet on STO yet.  Can someone post a link for that?

edit: sadly, I probably *would* shell out $10 to "unlock" the TOS red shirts for my characters!  (it would be so wrong...)

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Nice article Dana. Definitely agree with your number one choice.

Yes, excellent article, Dana!  I wish you had written it. 

I don't think anyone notices that the poster of the comment thread is generally NOT the author of the actual article.

Originally posted by GreenChaos

Originally posted by Slackerboy

I wish I could say more here, However I am under NDA so...

All I think I can say is I do not plan on buying the game.

 

Whatever - I loved CoX for 5 years and most people here think it's crap.  So I'm not going to listen to anyones opinion on this game.  

I'm gong to do what I did with CoX, listen to my own opinion only and not go with the crowd.

I also thought WAR was a great game, so people opinions on MMOs mean crap to me.

 

I would even now consider purchasing a lifetime sub for CoX (for a reasonable price). Having played the beta for 5 months for Champs, I'd have to say I don't want to give them a dime and would only consider purchasing because I want to play STO that bad.

Originally posted by lornphoenix

hmm... I may do the six month thing just to get in the STO beta...

kinda sad huh?

 

Sad? Yes.
Do I understand where you're coming from? Sadly, yes.

I was even doing the math to figure out if I really want in on STO that bad... would it really be worth getting a 6 month sub to a game I won't play? Maybe I could gift it to a friend.

 I tried the re-eval out. The former 10k latency issue seems to have been replaced with a 5k latency issue.  Outside of OT, it wasn't bad.  I really didn't see much in the way of itemezation changes. I traded in my used iron skirt for a different one with better stats. I kept swapping back and forth and couldn't  see any visible differences. I tried other pieces of armor and only saw very minor changes.  The gear is still bland greys and browns. Gameplay doesn't seem to have changed much if at all to me. Part of my dissatisfaction stems from the server merges... all of my characters were moved to Wiccana -- the unofficial RP server. And I detest RP. Sure, I can move a character for free. But I have 4 that I invested a lot of time in and I have no intention of paying to move the rest.  Before I picked a server at launch, I did my research to make sure I didn't accidentally pick the unofficial RP server (seems like there is always one in a MMO that doesn't identify them officially).  And now my 8 characters are all there. I put in 5 days and then gave it up.

 Another well-venting article -- thanks!

And I thought I was the only one resorting to PBAoE's to attempt killing those cats.  I *do* draw the line at virtual fishing tho!

Originally posted by wlvnspectre

You mean I might finally get out of my NDA agreement (The second most strict I have ever seen)!!!

Under its terms I am still playing the "beta".

Oh the tales I could tell if I could tell... 

LOL.  And I completely understand. ;)