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AGDC Progress Report: A Talk With Daron Stinnett
Daron Stinnett, the Producer of Perpetual Entertainment's Star Trek Online took a few minutes out of his Austing Game Developers Conference schedule to speak with MMORPG.com about the progress of the game.
While we were at the Austin Game Developers Convention, Keith Cross and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Daron Stinnett, the Producer of Perpetual Entertainment's Star Trek Online. Now, we haven't heard a lot out of these guys lately, and with good cause. STO is still in the early phases of development and talking about too much, too soon, can be a dangerous thing for an MMO. They don't want to be in a position where they have promised too much and delivered too little.
"When we're ready to talk about it," Daron said with enthusiasm, "the world will know about Star Trek Online."
Stinnett told us that Star Trek is loved by millions and millions of people worldwide and if anyone looked at the franchise, it is immediately apparent as to why the game would make a good MMO. Throughout the interview, he was always clear that they aren't planning to rest on the laurels of the Star Trek franchise. They hope to make a game that will appeal to MMORPG players as well as fans of the franchise.
"We're not building a Trekkers game, we're making a world class MMO."
Further to that, Stinnett hopes that players will be happy because they are treating the license seriously and with respect.
"We're taking the world of Star Trek," he said, "and adapting it to make a killer MMO."
Sometimes, this means educating fans of the Star Trek franchise about what they can expect from an MMORPG, a medium that they may not be familiar with. For example, the upcoming HD DVD release of Star Trek: The Original Series will include trailers for Star Trek Online.
;)
Before we went any further into the interview, I wanted to ask Daron to try and clear up some of the mystery surrounding the question of starship interiors. The game, he assured us, will launch with very rich ship interiors.
There will be, he said, "No shortage of starship interiors."
In STO, the largest ships (and space stations and the like) will serve as player cities, and will obviously be explorable on the inside. There will also be missions that take place on starships.
There was a thought, for a while, that everyone wanted their own personal Galaxy Class Starship. Perpetual's philosophy is that it would be pretty boring to be alone on a ship that size, and that populating it with NPCs isn't really making it an MMO, so the solution seems to be that at around level six, players will begin to get their own ships. It will start with a shuttle, but as characters get higher in level, their ships will improve as well.
Players will be able to group in a traditional way, forming little armadas and of course, away teams.
The game will contain at least 50 different player ships and through one character's career, they may control only four or five of them. This leaves the game open for a lot of diversity.
I took a moment as well to ask Daron about the use of instancing in Star Trek Online. For me, instancing has always been one of those tools that can be used very effectively if wielded properly, but over-use of the convention can sometimes turn a game sour.
"People assume that this game will be highly instanced," he began, "this is not the case." The world, he tells me, is for the most part a public world.
"If the world of Star Trek were real," he told me with a bit of a shrug, "it wouldn't be instanced."
The last thing that we talked about really speaks to how malleable an MMORPG development project can be at this stage in the game. In a video that was playing at the conference, we are told that when a player begins as a Human, they will start at Starfleet Academy and Starfleet Headquarters, both located in San Francisco.
When I asked Daron about this, he told us that that idea has been revisited since the recording of the video. Instead of taking that very recognizable piece of Star Trek lore and saving it for the beginning, the team now feels that they should look at making it a place that more people visit at different points throughout the game.
Development on any MMORPG is fluid, development on an MMORPG with a license as popular as Star Trek requires a lot of thought and often changes.
In any case, we look forward to hearing more about Star Trek Online as development continues.
While it is nice to hear something about STO development after a long silence (the Dev Logs have been interesting, but don't give much info at all), there really wasn't much in there to chew on. I guess we will have to wait until Perpetual releases Gods & Heroes to start hearing some more solid facts.
omg this is just amazing :) :)
When the loooong awaited STO finally comes out and turns out to be a shockingly conventional grinder with Trek skinning, remember the above remark.
We haven't even seen the game and you already cutting it up
Guess you don't like WoW either.
[quote]
Before we went any further into the interview, I wanted to ask Daron to try and clear up some of the mystery surrounding the question of starship interiors. The game, he assured us, will launch with very rich ship interiors.
There will be, he said, "No shortage of starship interiors."[/quote]
The question was never would it have interiors. The question has always been, Will player ships (shuttles ETC.. They don’t all have to be galaxy class) have interiors, and can you bring your friends ON them for missions, and still walk around inside ETC (Think SWG:JTL Multi-passenger ships).
If there is, great, fantastic. If not, we don’t need another EvE (A fine game, but we don’t need another). They have already said, all player ships will be controlled from 3ed person view, and that you can bring friends, but they will also share that third person view and HUD.
If you have been following the game, you would understand the frustration being exhibited by online gammers and Trek fans.
The game has been in the early stages of concept development (pens, pencils, paper and markers) since I believe, July of 2004. Several months back PE scrapped their earlier work on play style philosophy (players interacting with LCARS panels on-board ships) and art direction (from photorealism to more stylized).
My personal opinion is that its currently vaporware. There are no in-game screen-shots, 3D avatar models, 3D object models or environments.
Right now STO is nothing but talk and not much of that, and when you consider some negative comments are already leaking out about the other PE game Gods & Heroes, I have serious doubts that PE can turn STO into a "World Class MMO".
The people who have been waiting for a Trek game all this time haven't been holding their breath because in their judgment the market needed another "world class MMO" regardless of content. It seems to get one of those every eight months anyway. We've been waiting because we want Trek. In part because we think that the more it's Trek, the better an MMO it is by definition. So when a designer says "It's not just a Trek game, it's a world class MMO" that's somewhat nervous making.
I'd love to be wrong! If for any reason I'm not - remember Stinnett's quote.
Don't give up your day job for the mind reader circuit.Big lover of star trek and of course the game will be a must for me!
I'm really looking forward to this game and i'm by no means a huge star trek fan.
I just wish they'd kept quiet until they had something more solid to show us... I mean, we're still looking at 2009 or 2010 before they'll be looking to release it and the wait is going to be agony for anyone who is either dying for a new space themed mmorpg to sink their teeth into or to the Star Trek fans who want to immerse themselves in the closest thing they're gonna get to the real thing.
Why couldn't they have waited until late 2008 and said, "oh btw, we made STO and would like some people to beta it".
In all honesty, I wouldnt be surprised if Perpetual were looking at a simultaneous Star Trek movie release / game release - so as to capitalise upon the media and hype surrounding the movie to carry the game on some free publicity!
Why have we heard so little?
Why is development still at a early planning stage?
Just watch and wait. You will see that Paramount is trying to flex creative control in some way. They have a new movie on the way and, if a hit, will want this game to reflect it. IP's can be a troublesome product for a MMO company. If you look at the spotty products for the Star Trek franchise in gaming you will see my point. I would love for this game to set new standards and be the best example of how to do an IP MMO. I just don't trust Paramount.
Heh, and you think Lucas Arts is a bitch...
"We're not building a Trekkers game, we're making a world class MMO."
That one sentence explains everything.
I would like to tack that on as one of those famous last words quotes...
Further to that, Stinnett hopes that players will be happy because they are treating the license seriously and with respect.
"We're taking the world of Star Trek," he said, "and adapting it to make a killer MMO."
With five different ST series and countless films, some great and some awful I'd like to add, if a design team focused on jumping through hoops for Trekkers, they'd be pulled in a million different directions. IMHO, this is the first established sci-fi license that offers a political/social world with any potential MMO depth and I'll be perfectly happy with a "world class MMO that treats the license seriously and with respect" even if it doesn't pander to fans 100%.
Not to split hairs, but as far as I remember, Paramount was recently purchased whole by CBS, including everything Trek-related. There has been some restructuring, I am sure, but the new CBS/Paramount is a new entity. Although I do share some of your skepticism, I won't pre-judge how, or even if, they will influence the development of the game. As for the Trek IP in games of the past... Well, yeah - they need a good one finally.
ummmmmm....NO!!! they are not showing proper respect for Star Trek...they are changing it into something they want it to be. If they were to make an acutal Star Trek game, they would go with their original idea by having starships ran by a full crew of players....respect my @$$....its going to be garbage just like how SWG ended up to be.
Some past examples:
With any license, you trade having the disadvantage of restrictions on what you can do, with the advantages of having a rich, deep history from which to pull content. Our team has been extremely happy working on Star Wars, as LucasArts has provided a tremendous amount of resource material for us to work with. Our LucasArts producer, Haden Blackman, has been involved in the game since it began. He’s been helping with the design, participating in the community, reviewing our concept art, and providing suggestions on our direction.
- John Donham
I think everyone on the team is both inspired and intimidated by the level of interest and the high expectations for Star Wars Galaxies. We know that we can't please everyone and that the game can't be all things to all people, but the level of interest does motivate us to work as hard as we can to refine and polish our core feature set.
- Haden Blackman
Now the interesting point, is that Star Wars Galaxies was designed (initially) more for the Star Wars gamers and not the world-wide mass market as has been done with Worlds of Warcraft. The New Game Enhancements is a reflection of making SWG for the mass-market. I see Star Trek Online following the same path.
I think its safe to say however that if SWG had been made with NGE in place from the start it would have had no where near the abuse which has been thrown at it. Its the fact that it changed from being something, into something completely different a year or two post release that rubbed all the players the wrong way.
Very good point. It was the shift from sandbox to Blizzard-esque linear game that got the panties of crotchety SWG players in a bunch. If it had been the way it is now from day one, we'd be spared a lot of whining on forums like this. For future reference, I think if anyone expects an MMORPG attached to a mainstream cash cow of an IP (be it Lucas, Star Trek, Marvel, DC, etc) to shoot for anything but being mainstream, it's time for a reality check.
How 'bout, "we're taking mmo and adapting it to make a killer Star Trek game"
Thats what people actualy want, and expect out of this game.
Bingo
Yep, for all the professed understanding and lip service as to why previous Star Trek games have failed, Stinnett doesn't get it. He is right on one account. The MMO is the perfect vehicle for Star Trek. Too bad I see their particular vehicle heading over a cliff.
I have little faith in Perpetual's ability to make a good Star Trek game. Of any kind.
For some reason, Star Trek gaming seems to be cursed. More than that, though... ah, I can't say any more.
Too bad the Firefly MMO license belongs to a nothing-company.
Hurm, you seem to have knowledge about Perpetual I lack? Can you elaborate, or is it just because other Star Trek games were bad?
I am still quite open minded. We will see it when its there. We really should not start reading into every single word someone says, both positive or negative. He said very little and what is there is really too less to make a realistic judgement IMO.
I too hope its not like EVE, and more like SWG or so, which Planets and much ground to explore. I really would not want to be confined to a starship all the time with some tiny away missions every 10 levels. But thats just my taste of gaming. I feel being inside starship all the time may get boring very fast, so I hope its planet-based with starship as addition, not the other way around.
@LordKyellan: I always snicker when I read your quote, heh. ^^ Could be SO me to say that.
I am going to reserve making any comment good or bad until it comes out and I give it a try.
While I'm not the shockingly pessimistic, like Clattuc, I think these people should think about the things LOTRO did to integrate "well known" content into a game that we can all have fun playing. LOTRO is the gold standard for a game of this nature. Another Star Wars galaxies would be a mistake.
Agreed.
I put this somewhere else on this site, but it might be better here where we might have a rational debate.
"There was a thought, for a while, that everyone wanted their own personal Galaxy Class Starship. Perpetual's philosophy is that it would be pretty boring to be alone on a ship that size, and that populating it with NPCs isn't really making it an MMO, so the solution seems to be that at around level six, players will begin to get their own ships. It will start with a shuttle, but as characters get higher in level, their ships will improve as well.
Players will be able to group in a traditional way, forming little armadas and of course, away teams.
The game will contain at least 50 different player ships and through one character's career, they may control only four or five of them. This leaves the game open for a lot of diversity. "
This really bothers me, the whole thought process tells me the player that the concept of crew is not even on the table. Little armadas honestly does not feel very much in the spirit of the universe. Away teams were in the shows formed from a central crew, not ohh lets all take our epix purple nightsaber class mount..err ships and go seperately to the mission on planet feralis.
yet still best advice is wait and see, see if this is a game you want to spend yoru money on.;
[quote]Sometimes, this means educating fans of the Star Trek franchise about what they can expect from an MMORPG, a medium that they may not be familiar with.[/quote]
I really doubt the people who are aware of STO and post on the STO forums wouldn't know what a mmorpg looks like. More likely they know all to well .
I also agree. By the way the question was dodged I guessing there still will not be player ship interiors. Which is, as many have pointed out, an extremely foolish design choice.
Well to be honest this interview has been a major disappointment and furthermore much of what was said was nothing. Iam rather skeptical on this title in part that Perpetual is a new company and there title which is coming out soon Gods and Heros hasn’t received the greatest marks and while it isn’t out yet many things have already plagued this company.
Darron Stinnett has been around for many different titles of Star Trek and iam rather skeptical that they can pull it off as its been two years and there is nothing to really show and they are still in early development though they are looking at 2009-2010 is not that far off. Iam rather concerned with the amount of no information.
My opinion on this title:
Iam hoping and that is a big hope they can pull it off though iam rather concerned with a few things as well in this interview which are very out there and nothing came out of the question. He talks about the academy and Iam wondering are we restricted to being only Human, when there are hundreds of different types of races which to be honest I don’t want to be Human I would like to be a Klingon, Andorian, Orion Pirate. As for the shuttle and such iam inclined to have and want only a shuttle instead so I can perhaps explorer on my own and what ever. Iam not into having one person having a starship of some sorts or something along those lines and it makes sense to do it in the manner in which they suggest. Id would have liked to hear about perhaps the specialty areas of
It has its potential to be a good game and I do hope they can and iam hoping this ends the Startrek gaming plague of its past. Ive always have thought Startrek should have gone the way of an MMO as other games in the past were great but they never gave you living the life in Starfleet or experiencing your favorite race in the Star Trek Universe.
Iam glad to see that they aren’t going to be building this for the trekkie as I think they need and are making it for a wider audience which it makes good sense and it also allow for some different dynamics while keeping and respecting Startrek Lore and that doesn’t mean Canon as you can be restricted too much by such things. Also someone said that it might be around the time of the new movie and while they can get some more publicity on this front STO is taking place 20yrs in the future from the last film.
Cheers,
Acidrain
To me, being a creative type, I understand the hesitation with talking about a project of any scope and/or magnitude. To prematurely talk about STO in extensive detail, especially when those details are very fluid and subject to change month by month, would be inviting more criticism than is already being hurled in their direction. I don't really believe that there are haters out here that would wish them to fail or really believe that the devs at Perpetual would so callously train wreck the IP rather than create a rich, interactive MMO reflective of the ST franchise.
But, if we they are to develop STO and turn it into a world class Trek themed MMO, then they are going to have to add/remove things as they go along. They are trying to bring together all of the elements of Star Trek that fans, both casual and die hard alike, can recognize and go 'Wow, that's cool' and blend them in with traditional MMO elements so that those players who are not Trek fans but want to play a good MMO based on a popular Sci-Fi series will get what they want to.
I, for one, was satisfied with Daron's interview and the answers he gave are exactly what I would say, given the current state of development and the need to not expose too much of what's going on that might be changing in the following months to come. I'm not concerned about the lack of game play videos, stills of in game play or any major announcements concerning what's going on at this stage in development, because they are working hard with the resources they have and once Gods and Heroes is released, they will shift development right into STO and then the flood gates will be opened and news, images and videos will pour forth from the house of Perpetual and we will all drink it up.
Do not mistake me for some blind apologist for Perpetual or someone who is easily fooled by the words of someone in an interview. I have worked in the gaming industry and film industry and understand how both work, and although it is increasingly harder and harder to keep film projects totally under wraps, I know the pains that gaming companies go through to protect their property and try to control the flow of information regarding the development of any property until they are comfortable with what they have so far, and in my estimation, Daron and Perpetual are well within their right to hold back as much info as they can until things get to a point where they feel comfortable with what they've got best represents their work.
The doubts will continue to flow forth and those that feel that they are being wronged will state this quite loudly and strongly, and those are the people that Perpetual and the devs will be trying to make sure are well satisfied when the game does reach a point at which all can get their hands on it and touch/see and feel an online, interactive ST universe. They will try and if they can at least deliver it to you, then the rest of us can be assured that everything will be okay. At least until we start getting restless for that 'Shore Leave on Risa' module to come out real soon
.
They dodge it EVERY time.
I would assume that their would be there was no real dodging of the question from what I saw. He just said there would be no shortage of interiors which maybe I misread to mean that the interiors will be (rightfully) designed by what ship you have. This interview has too little substance to form opinions over anything could change this early. Maybe I'm in the minority but I like they pushed you back so that they will have eniugh content for release alot of mmos just tack it on as they go along.
maybe I misread but I saw nothing saying there wouldn't be crews. I think they are hesistant because they would have to see how to interface it. I think this article gives too little and its to early to form any opinions it would be like taking commenting on a book when ya only read the prelude.