Greed is Eternal

As the chief engineer reports during the maiden voyage of the “Stargazer-E” (depicted above), the 10^th Rule of Acquisition states “greed is eternal.” 

The Stargazer-E is a heavy cruiser, and like all ships in Star Trek Online (STO) upon reaching the next full rank, the first one is free. Well…free only in the sense that you have earned enough merit by completing missions, both pvp and pve, to earn rank.  “Rank” in this case is Ensign, Lieutenant, Lieutenant-Commander, Commander, Captain, and Rear-Admiral with 10 grades in between each major rank.  As always, of course, there are those detractors, who will continue to insist that STO is a bad game based on a single, if not well thought out, justification “because they said so” – and believe you me their justification certainly is not well thought out.  As my character stood there at the promotion ceremony (depicted below) several thoughts ran though my mind…

The first, of course, is that you can tell when people are engrossed in the game when they bother with an optional promotion ceremony (there was a line to do this). The second thought was about the merit that is part and parcel, and least in some part, to obtaining bridge officers and their training.  If you want to requisition personal equipment for ground combat, as well as Star Ship equipment, you must earn medals such as medals of achievement, and medals of bravery. You can, of course, purchase lower level equipment from vendors or for sale by other players through the exchange. The quality of the game mechanic that uses Star Fleet merit (all you WoW players can think of it like honor…sort of) and medals is that they can’t be sold or traded. And that is where the 10^th Rule of Acquisition comes in to play.

Greed is Eternal…

Never underestimate the incredible drawing power of greed.  Richard Garriott once described World of Warcraft as being “a system of inventory management.”  This may be (and it certainly is) but the simple fact of the matter is that greed works. 

The 287^th Rule of Acquisition…

The 287^th Rule of Acquisition, which I shall unabashedly call Julie’s Rule, is An MMO is not just a game – it is a service and a business.  And as a business, the goal of the publisher of every mmo is to make a Dollar, Yen, Kroner, Won, Euro or any of the other myriad currencies.  As such it is obviously their goal to keep players interested in playing the game, even when they run out of levels.  The biggest hindrance to this of course is the players who rush to the level cap and say “so now what do I do?”

It is not enough I succeed…

If the gamer who participates in an mmo is to be kept interested there are several possibilities, the hardest of which is simply providing more to do.  That “more” can take several forms, such as actual game content, meaningless achievements (hey, at least you get a pop up window right), and the easiest way espoused by the 288^th Rule of Acquisition (which I call Pardo’s rule)…

It is not enough to succeed, you must been seen to succeed.

After all, what good is it to have obtained the “uber sword of uberness” if it looks just like any other run of the mill sword. The uber sword of uberness must look resplendent; it must shine like the sun, it must hum with power and inspire all who gaze upon it with envy (or at least awe).  Let’s face it, what people really mean when a game developer sells a cosmetic perk is that they don’t want anyone else to get it the same perk the easy way.  Players want to be able to engage in the age old (well maybe not age old as the tradition doesn’t go back much further then Ultima Online and maybe Meridian 59) tradition of bank sitting. Bank sitting is, of course, where players gather, a place where they go to be seen.  Everyone wears what grandmother used to call their “Sunday go to meeting best.”  This, after all, is why people earn the uber armor of uberness…not just be able to get even better armor but to show other players they have earned it.

The Uber Starship of Uberness

Recently the executive producer of Star Trek Online, Craig Zinkievich, announced the intent of Cryptic Studios (developer of STO) to expand the ship interiors available to players. This, of course, presents a tremendous opportunity for Cryptic Studios and where to take end game.

Anyone who has ever played Everquest 2 (EQ2) knows that one of the major pastimes is being able to purchase ever larger player housing.  But the outside of that player housing all looks the same. When I purchased a home on number 1 Antonya Bayle Lane I entered my house through the same door as everyone else.  The interior of that house was the same as everyone else who owned that same house.  What was different was how the house was decorated. The decoration system in EQ2 was second to none. You could put furniture anywhere.  It wasn’t like Lord of the Rings Online where you can only put certain bits and bobs of décor in a certain (and very limited) number of pre-set positions. Some of the furniture could be made of course, but much of the best pieces had to be earned. If STO where to take a page from this particular book and allow the uber (insert name of cosmetic ship or personal item here) to be earned but only with merit or medals so much the better. The drive then, or course, is for currency that can’t be sold by the ever infamous “gold sellers.”

However it works out it is certain that those who denigrate STO simply because they have a burr under their proverbial tail will continue to do so. The rest of us will continue to enjoy the game including the raid content, the borg content, and the ship interiors when their time comes. Until then…

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

(posted by The Webmaster for Julie Whitefeather)