Star Trek Flash MMO Interview
MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller spoke to Gameforge VP of Publishing Ralf Valm to discuss the newly announced casual free-to-play MMO based on the Star Trek IP.
Interviews By Garrett Fuller on June 14, 2010
| MMORPG.com: | Tell us about how you got the Star Trek IP to create the game? |
| Ralf Valm - VP of Publishing: | We came into contact with CBS through our extensive international network. We were looking for an IP that would translate well into a free-to-play game and works for a broad consumer base. Star Trek is one of those brands that appeal to people all around the world and from all age groups. Under the license agreement, Gameforge will publish casual free-to-play browser and social media games, starting in 2011. |
| MMORPG.com: | What plans do you have to reach fans of Star Trek and bring them into the game? |
| Ralf Valm - VP of Publishing: | The Star Trek franchise offers a great variety of different universes, timelines and stories, which gives us a broad pool of settings to pick from for our games. Our expertise lies in developing and publishing free-to-play games that appeal to people all over the world because they are easily accessible and provide fun gameplay for years to come. For our upcoming games under the agreement, we want to bring both Star Trek and browser gaming fans high quality experiences that will entertain them for a long time. The first two games we will release in 2011 will cover different settings from the universe: One will be a Facebook game, the other a browser game. They will also be different in tone and style. |
| MMORPG.com: | Can you talk about the game design? What will players be able to do? |
| Ralf Valm - VP of Publishing: | We are still in pre-production for the first two games. The browser game will feature strategic space combat with lots of RPG elements. The Facebook game will be more about space exploration and character customization. That’s all we can reveal at this point. |
| MMORPG.com: | How does the game tap into the Star Trek Universe? What time period will be the setting? |
| Ralf Valm - VP of Publishing: | Our license covers all six TV series and the ten movies up to 2002. The Facebook game will be set in Star Trek: The Original Series, and the browser game will feature a setting in the timeline of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. |
| MMORPG.com: | Why do you think Star Trek appeals to so many people? |
| Ralf Valm - VP of Publishing: | Star Trek emerged at a time when the world was fascinated with space travel, so I think it really hit a nerve in the public consciousness at the time. The other thing that makes it so appealing is the fact that despite being set in such a highly technical and scientific universe, at the core the series was always about very universal themes. |
| MMORPG.com: | Do you have a schedule for the game yet, launch, beta, etc.? |
| Ralf Valm - VP of Publishing: | We will go live with the first two games in 2011, that’s all we can confirm right now. |
| MMORPG.com: | Will you be at any game shows this summer to promote the game? |
| Ralf Valm - VP of Publishing: | Since we are a Germany-based company, gamescom in Cologne is obviously big on our list. |
| MMORPG.com: | What would you like to tell players about the game in these early stages? |
| Ralf Valm - VP of Publishing: | That we are very excited about the license agreement and the entire team is extremely dedicated to making great games for you and staying true to the Star Trek franchise and honoring the legacy that it is. |
Nice, thanks :D
I am against this game. Cryptic didn't release a great product, but their product has potential. Releasing a competing product agsint undermines that potential and will force the same market shares to choose between the two. I am against this project.
Seriously? Great product? I'll give you that it's fun for maybe an hour but that's all it is, just candy and once devoured you have a bad stomach ache.
I for one am for this product, we all know they whore out this IP. This game, even just announced has more potential than STO will EVER have.
Jamion, how is this a competing product exactly? You're talking about a browser run flash game for social networking sites & the like compared to a fully fledged 3D graphic intensive application.
Ugh another star trek mmo.... I think not >.<
lol. He said they DIDN'T release a great product. ^_^
I know you guys probably don't care but I posted this at 35000 feet while over Indiiana. That's how much I love you all. Plane on the way to E3? Who cares! Gotta work!
Is just a facebook and browser game. If these games can compete with cryptic's game than that's really sad.
Now THATs commitment. Enjoy the expo!
This seriously sounds like a clusterphuck of epic proportions. For those that didn't like STO this sounds like a much shallower dip into the deep pool that is the Star Trek IP. Cryptic released a good product that is moving towards being a great addtion to the franchise. These browser products are going to just come off as time wasters while waiting for your porn to download, and not deep and immersive products. More Choose Your Own Adventure books on one of them and the other sounds like a browser version of a shooter. Two games that are just going to dilute the pool of players, and just be waste of space in the Internet universe.
But I could be wrong and they could be decent games that I will definitely give a look when they become available for play. I would like to think that the game universe is large enough for all but with such an IP as Star Trek, I would like great care taken with any additional attempts to bring more games into the fold.
That's why you're a hero.
Cool beans! :)
At least you're gonna play some awesome demos to tease us with (hopefully... or not) :P
@ Interview
Okay, first of all, they're not making one game to rule them all, they're making multiple F2P browser/social titles, pretty much like Zinga and all their games, except they will be most likely focusing many of them on a single IP. Anyway, not interested as it's not the platform I am interested in. This won't even complete with STO, unless it's like Free Realms, being pseudo-browser-based (because it just uses the browser to download and launch a client).
It doesn't even really sound like a MMO.
Glad to see that even CBS knows how badly Cryptic trashed the Star Trek IP with that engine rehash/reskin of an MMO.
Ah, the modern workplace! Have fun at E3!
No; Cryptic released a shallow game disguised and billed as a AAA MMO, and they have already diluted their playerbase in STO without needing anyone else's help. At least this person is being upfront about what exactly they are making.
STO + Great Product = Oxymoron
Star Trek Games have been utter shite for several years now, and STO continues that tradition. As an old Star Trek fan who left recently from STO, it's a bad state of affairs. It can't get any worse, so why not let this flash game go on? Not like STO is worth anything to begin with anyways.
Well if it turns out to be better than STO (which should not be too difficult) why not, else a waste time & resources.
Personal opinion -
STO was far from the excitement of Star Trek as I remember it, and I saved a lot of money throwing it in the bin.
Even if they just rehash one of the older games, the price is a lot more inviting...
Nothing, Nada, Zip, Not a cent.
You want to play, you're happy to play it as much as you want. F2P are games funded by 'however much you want to pay'. Pay-to-play games are funded by a flat rate that, in STO's case, was too much.
Hahahahahahaha! You're not serious right?
Anyway, the term "Star Trek MMO" is becoming a sad joke of epic proportions.
Am I the only one who thinks that a Star Trek: Original Series Facebook game based on exploration and customization might just as well work?
IMO the concept would be much closer to the original than the action-based crap all Star Trek games inevitably get pushed into.. This might be a nice old-school relaxing thing where you go around weird cosmos, meet aliens, collect stuff and maybe solve puzzles.. Anyone remember games such as Nomad and the legendary Captain Blood?
As long as they stay away from the crappy xp grind and leveling shit the Facebook mmos are so infamous for (you get xp and level while GARDENING? oh pleeeease...) I think this game might have some potential.
And besides, they are a german firm. Germans have a board-game culture second to none and their games traditionally center more on cooperation and combination play rather than raw linear power and conflict (Setlers of Catan vs Risk, for example). if they carry over their expertise to flash and facebook mmos we might finally get some quality products on these platforms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Blood_%28video_game%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad_%28game%29
The reason this is going the browser and Facebook route is because Atari owns the exclusive Star Trek mmo license. None of these games by Gameforge will be real mmos, but rather just casual little flash games. Perhaps mmorpg.com should have asked them for more details on that little matter.
http://trekweb.com/articles/2010/06/14/Gameforge-Announces-Web-Browser-New-Star-Trek-MMORPG-Game.shtml
"Atari holds the exclusive MMO Star Trek license and continues to support its subscription-based Star Trek Online with new content. Star Trek actors Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto are featured in that game. Nimoy will actually be on hand at E3 to promote Yoostar. "
It's amazing sites like Massively, the site I just linked, and mmorpg.com are all saying these are going to be mmos when their own accompanyng articles clearly show otherwise. Gameforge has no license to make a Star Trek mmo.
I would give you a pat on the back and a big, fat BZ if it wasn't for the fact that you are headed to E3 and I'm...well...not! Woe onto thee the ugly face of jealously!
"One will be a Facebook game, the other a browser game"
Its funny how some people getting the impression that these clowns are making an MMO. They aren't. Browser / Facebook games are not games that offer the same level of depth as MMORPGS.
True but unfortunately neither does STO.
Trekville? Fantastic.
/smirk
I play some Facebook games, but they are just mini-games to me, something to do with coffee in the morning, between e-mail and the real world. We'll see how that part turns out.
I have played a few browser games that were at least somewhat interesting and amusing. I check out everything my kids play, seeing what the game is like and (especially) what the community is like, and customers at our shop have recommended a few. In the course of looking at these things, I've found that "browser" could mean anything.
Freesky, Evony, and Business Tycoon Online are browser based games you can find on this site, but they are really more like persistent multiplayer strategy games with chat. Or chat with a strategy game, depending on how you play.
It could also mean Dead Frontier, AdventureQuest Worlds, Faunasphere or Earth Eternal. Those start to approach what traditional client-based MMO players would recognize as being at least similar to an MMO.
I might look at a Trek-themed browser game if it had plenty of social space and ways to interact with aliens besides shooting them. A problem-solving game could be okay, if there were just enough unpredictability to keep it interesting and some semi-smart AI presenting you with the situations based on what you'd done before.
(EDIT: My internal editor just threw that post back on my desk and recommended I engage my brain before posting again. I think she's mad.)
My hero!
I sense potential in the category of time-wasters, but if these thigns are going to start being labeled as MMOs, I"m out of this genre. Take me back to consoles and platformers where I can get at least a decent story with my RPG. I'm sick of people thinking that MMO means a bunch of sheep all being corraled in the same direction. Trekville, indeed.
I'm all for the casual market. It has its place. But it isn't a MMO. It just isn't. I don't care of 17 billion humans and aliens eventually play it at the same time. That's like calling Fallout 3 a MMO because 3 million people are playing it while connected to Live. What? I'm chatting with them. I might even be talking to them on voice. Isn't that the only thing that makes some of the crap being pimped here MMO? It has chat. I can talk to other people playing the same otherwise single-player game and so it much be a MMO now.
Give me a break. If other players aren't central, integral, and required for your game play experience, it isn't a MMO. It's a single-player game with chat. Call a spade a spade.
Best of luck to the publishers, but I despise Facebook with all my heart and soul and I dedicate my life to never becoign a minion of the most moronic thing to ever happen to gaming. I might be interested in seeing how the browser-based ones not affiliated with Facebook play, but the second I need a Facebook account to play a game, I'm gone.
DO YOU HEAR ME BLIZZARD?!
Cryptic released a joke, a fraud, a pile of you know what. If a F2P game can jerk the rug from under them, good.
Whos the character from your avatar picture Warmaker? Looks familiar.
a facebook game....ugh...yeah...
then a browser flash game......
pffffffttt.......that is my response....
Good chance we're talking Evony level quality game at best here having said that this company should join up with Cryptic convince them to offer their craptastic STO for free and utilize the revenue streams they planned to use on the farmvile edition of STO they are planning. Honestly though I'll probably give this game a go but until Cryptic makes that garbage game they made F2P/w cash shop (since we all know the cash shop is going nowhere) I'm never subbing again, the simplistic nature of the engine alone says it all in regards to this game.
I just could not get past the Star Trek Online demo, it was just so bad. But one thing I did like was the space ship flying, kinda. So if they make a game based solely off the space aspect, I think that people would play it.
The anti-STO venom here is thick and kinda sucks. Some of you haters should give it another shot. Chapter 2 has continued to add a lot of features and overal "theme" to the game. Just watching the Federation ships passing by in space while at Spacedock is awesome. While still in need of additional missions, etc. the Federation Diplomatic Corps and the new non-combat missions are awesome and step in the right direction for those who do not like combat or find the incessant combat anti-Trek (I don't, I love blowing ships up hah). We have dabo at DS9, a minigame that gives us a chance to procure additional data in missions, and before long we'll have poker that we can play on our ships (just like in TNG)!
They (the devs) also agree that both Sector Space and land combat need to change/improve and are working on those... once land combat is on the same quality level of space combat (which is the best space combat in any MMORPG to date) then its going to be taking STO to the next level.
Anyway, try less bile and give the game another shot. Ship interiors are also in and with Chapter 3 I'm sure we will be seeing even more stuff.
Oh yeah, heya Jamion :)