Posts Tagged ‘Star Trek Online’

When I was a child I played a game called “telephone”. It’s a common game and I am sure that most of you have heard of it.  The idea is that one person starts with a story.  It is repeated around the room quietly and you see how it turns out at the other side.  Invariably there are so many different versions of the same story that it bears little resemblence to the original.

“From what I gathered, you’re complaining at the people that are complaining at the people that are complaining.” – Night04

The quote above is something I found on the Star Trek Online forums which, thankfully, will be wiped for the launch of the game tommorow.   Still, somewhere between the ludicrous threats of class action lawsuits by slighted gamers and those who put Cryptic on pedastals so high you couldn’t reach the top with a hook and ladder truck – lays reality. There is little doubt that Cryptic was as surprised as they say they where at the interest in the head start.  While there are those in the blogosphere who will sneer at the downtimes over the last weekend, my mind went instantly to a show we had not to long ago with Saylah from Mystic Worlds as guest.  She pointed out that she didn’t mind ques to get online because that meant that when she was online there would always be someone to game with…and like it or not, Star Trek Online is popular.  Heck, the Star Trek genre is older than many of it’s fans.

Even thought I played in the closed beta, and the open beta the launch of a new mmo, especially this mmo, is exciting.  There may have been a few problems during the head start days. On the other hand anyone who claims to have seen an MMO launch with out any difficulties at all is likely living in some fantasy world.

Like Craig Zinkievich once pointed out, there is alot of ground they can cover with the game, and years of exciting times ahead.  As the hours tick away toward the official launch of the game the line delivered by Simon Pegg in the recent Star Trek movie comes to mind.

I think it’s exciting.

See you online

Julie Whitefeather

(posted by the Webmaster for Julie Whitefeather)

“STO can’t even be labeled a MMORPG. It is multiplayer but beyond that, its arcade, nothing more.” – STO forums

“I am not whining, I am demanding companies produce a quality product, not complete fluff then attempt to market it as something it is not. Cryptic is on the verge of ruining any chance of getting a quality Star Trek game, one that involves tactical thinking, like a Star Trek game should be.” – STO forums

“Maybe it’s just not for you, and others will enjoy it. Maybe even you will enjoy it…” – STO forums

“Right now all you do is die and repsawn over and over under you complete the mission, nothing is hard because you can’t lose anything. EVE Online makes you really pumped up for combat because you can lose everything that’s on you and man it just makes the whole game exciting. – mmorpg forums

“Sorry, most people don’t want to lose days/weeks/months of work becauser they died, have fun torturing yourself though.” – mmorpg forums

“I don’t think we need to go to the point of EVE or Darkfall. Losing everything you’ve gained is no fun. The only time death should be tough is in PVP, and IMO the best way to solve that is to be kicked out of the battle until it is over. As others have said, you have other gaming options if you get an adreniline rush from harsh death penalties.” – mmorpg forums

“Space combat is very much like the shows. It’s not a dogfight—you’re not zipping around. You’re in huge 1,000-meter starships with hundreds of crew onboard. In the shows, it’s all about tactics and positioning. It’s about bolstering a shield that’s taken damage, transferring power from your deflector dish to your weapons or engines at the right time. It’s about knocking your enemy’s shields down with phasers and taking them out with photon torpedoes…” – CZ

“Well, first and foremost, it’s a game. We thought of a whole bunch of different ways to do interesting things for respawn, but it really came down to getting players back into the action. You don’t lose your ship [if it blows up]; you just respawn at the beginning of the map with a little damage done to your systems. But overall, we don’t want you to spend 80 hours getting that Sovereign class vessel, get owned, and then lose that ship.”  – CZ

Quick…of all the opinions above, which one counts – we mean really counts.  If you ask the authors of all of the above statement more than likely each one will probably think their opinion counts. What about this? Whose opinion doesn’t count?  If you find out that “CZ” stands for Craig Zinkievich, executive producer for Star Trek Online the first thought (at least the first reasonable thought) might be that only his opinion counts. But does it?

Home of the un-silent minority…

This last weekend we read through the Star Trek Online (STO) forums. Mind you this is a dangerous habit at best to anyone who actually enjoys the game to which the forums belong. We say this is a dangerous habit because the forums are where what our own Julie has dubbed “the un-silent minority” resides. These are the individuals WHO USUALLY TYPE IN ALL CAPS – no doubt because they feel the rest of humanity lacks the attention span necessary to grasp the meaning of their words otherwise. These are usually accompanied by the individuals who threaten legal action, such as the individual, bereft of any understanding of tort law, who threatened a class action lawsuit for being denied some of their gaming time this weekend, or having to wait a few hours to play his “liberated Borg character”.

Home of the wise (or should we say wizened) blogger…

One of the more irritating habits that players in any mmo have developed is whipping out the “e-peen” meter.  Sister Frances talks about this on our next show where some mage proudly displayed his dps meter during a raid and denounced the good sister (who was playing the tank role) for not doing enough damage. The catch (or two) of course, is that it is the tanks role to take damage. And if the mage manages to dish out enough dps to rival an atom bomb the old mmo adage “you spank it you tank it” comes in to play.

But mmos participants aren’t the only ones who like to whip out e-peen meters. Every now and then a blogger likes to whip out a meter that measures “numbers of unique hits” on their web site.  If said blogger manages to reach an number that would fill a small school auditorium sometimes said blogger will begin to pat themselves on the back and like Tevia says of “the rich man” in Fiddler on the Roof “think they really know.”  The result will be an individual who sometimes catching the briefest glimpses of beta gaming, or sometimes actually playing the first level or two of live release, will pronounce their edict as if they are the Almighty Himself, relegating the game developer and publisher to gaming Heaven or hell mere based on their whim.

The biggest stick

American president Theodore Roosevelt once said “Speak softly and carry a big stick” – but who really has the biggest stick here? Is it Craig Zinkievich? After all, he is the executive producer of STO.  In the short term perhaps his opinion does matter the most. But even he reports to someone.  Keep in mind here that no matter who Craig Zinkievich reports to, Cryptic Studios is owned by Atari (the other name on the screen when you log on to STO). Taking it a step further even Atari is owned by a French corporation named Infogrames, by some estimations the largest manufacturer of games in the entire world.  So this must mean that the CEO (chief executive officer) of Infogrames has the biggest stick – right? Well maybe not.

The wheel turns…

Julie often says that her grandmother used to describe a “big wheel” as something that “goes around and around in circles, never gets anywhere and little dogs pee on it.” We couldn’t agree more.  We have noted that the more successful the developer or publisher the bigger their “britches” (and sometimes head) seems to get. Mind you this isn’t always the case but believe me there are plenty of examples. (perhaps this is why we love independent developers so much).  But in the long run even the big 800 pound corporate gorillas can be slapped back into their cage and told to beg for bananas for a living.  A heck of a good example is General Motors. They have required not one but two bailouts by the United States government.

“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.” – Tommy Lee Jones as “Agent K” from Men in Black

In the case about the reason that General Motors needed a bailout is simple enough; not enough people bought their cars.  The key word in the last sentence is people, not person.  There may be a very verbal minority that voices their opinions very loudly in the Star Trek Online forums that feel that STO is doomed, DOOMED I SAY,  because Cryptic has had enormous gall, the massive chutzpa, to create the game and institute a virtual death penalty without consulting them first.  The truth of the matter is, of course, that such a concept is ludicrous.  But while a person or even small vocal group of people on the forums may be inconsequential people are dumb, panicky dangerous animals. Taken as a while people can bring even the greatest game, and the best developer or publisher to its knees; but a person, can’t do it, no matter how much they think of themselves.

So in the end, who has the biggest stick? Well it seems to us that in the end analysis no one has the biggest stick. Game development and publishing is just like everything else – it is just like life…it is one big enormous circle.

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

But wait…there’s more. Don’t the pictures we use in our articles always have something to do with the theme of the article? Well in this case the picture is related only in that it is from STO. It’s just something we noticed the first time we saw an “enemy signal contact” in sector space – the very first thing we thought of was, as you can see, the Eye of Sauron, from Lord of the Rings.

Grilka: Hi there stalwart readers, my name is Grilka of  House TOG, and this is my crew. Say hello boys.

Crew: (as one) Hello boys.

Grilka:  (rolls her eyes)  They might not be too much on smarts, but they are  great to look at and when we win battles there is competition for who will be taken my prisoner.

(A banging is heard on the  door to the bridge.  The door opens with a woosh to reveal an angry mob of human males between the ages of 12 and 18)

Angry Mob:  ARE YOU INSANE THIS HAS BEEN THE WORST WEEKEND EVER!

Grilka:  Well the boys and I had fun.

Angry Mob: We didn’t get our liberated borg character on time!!!

Grilka: I did, and here I sit, a liberated borg klingon surrounded by my “liberators.” Isn’t that right boys.

Crew: We think it’s time to “liberate” our commander again.

Angry Mob: The servers kept going down all weekend!!!

Grilka:  Thus forcing you to take the occasional break – how horrible

Angry Mob: We aren’t going to stand for this, we’re revolting!

Grilka: I’ll say you are…

Angry Mob: That’s not what we mean. We are going to take legal action; A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT.

Grilka: and sue  for the five dollars each you had to put down on the pre-order? It will cost you more than that for the gas money to get to the court house.

Angry Mob: WE PAID A LIFETIME FEE!

Grilka:  You paid a lifetime fee?  So you are all paid up for the rest of the game’s life, or yours, whichever comes first – so there isn’t much of a hurry is there.

Angry Mob: Well…

Grilka: And the game hasn’t really launched yet. It doesn’t lauch until February 2nd.   You in the back there…the short one. Weren’t you the one complaining about how poorly the crew tracked? Didn’t they fix that? And label the maps like you asked, and fixed the crew so they beamed down with you all the time, and fixed the broken ground battle quests, and the fleet action?

Quiet female voice in the back of the crowd: Well yes…

Grilka:  And what have you actually lost? What service that you paid for hasn’t been rendered?

Quiet female voice in the back of the crowd:  I lost part of my weekend; I lost some time.

Grilka: You lost some time.

Angry Mob: WE ALL LOST TIME!

Grilka: Do you know the TIME it was when the average Cryptic employee was at home to do anything but eat and sleep?

(a brief but meaningful silence)

Grilka: Last Tuesday.  And how many of you have actually launched a massively multplayer game.

(half the hands in the crowd go up)

Grilka: …of more than four people

(most of the rest of the hands go down)

Grilka: And a paper and pencil dungeons and dragon campaign doesn’t count

(the rest of the hands go down)

Grilka: So those of you that want to play the liberated borg character had to wait a few hours and got your character anyway.  You got to play this weekend, but had to take a break now and then.  At one point you were in a long que but then Cryptic let you all in anyway.

(only mumbling is heard)

Grilka: I thought so. Now let that nice woman in the back through…its time for the boys to “liberate the Borg Klingons” some more.

Klingon: Ferengi! Another Synthale! This one is only half full!

Nog: Nice try Klingon…Greed is Eternal – the 10^th Rule of Acquisition.

Klingon: This glass of synthale you gave me was only half full!

Nog: You drank the other half.  Why should I trust you.

Klingon: Because of the 47^th rule of acquisition.

Nog:  Never trust anyone wearing a suit better than your own.

(Nog considers the Klingon a moment then pours him a new synthale)

Nog: So how on earth did a Klingon come to know about the Rules of Acquistion?

Klingon: Because I’m only half Klingon and my Ferengi supply officer is forever quoting the things.

Nog: You have a Ferengi supply officer? Don’t you know our reputation? Aren’t you afraid he’ll make off with your entire stock?

Klingon: Actually he’s so stingy with everything we have had to stop for supplies half as often as we used to…

Today is the moment that Star Trek fans have been waiting years for.  I remember how excited I was to hear Star Trek Online (STO) was being developed and how disappointed when Perpetual Entertainment stopped working on it – and how elated I was when it was announced that Cryptic Studios and Atari had saved the day. There are, of course, many faces at Cryptic Studios, and an industry friend of ours tells us that most of them are working on today’s launch. Still, Craig Zinkievich (executive producer for STO) sort of embodies the team for us…and my standing offer to kiss his posterior on main street for saving the day still stands.

Now at this point you may be wondering what the conversation between the Klingon and the Ferengi has to do with “the price of tea”, as grandmother used to say, or more appropriately the price of Synthale at Quarks.

There are some great changes planned (or so the State of the Game announcement tells us).  Being a Klingon fan from way back (but only back as far as when Klingons, like Ruffles, had ridges) I am looking forward to a bit of pve fun somewhere besides the Kahless Expansion. As nice as it is to have something that the players asked for, it is even better to know that the Cryptic is paying attention to the community. After all, not every developer does that.  The big danger with success, of course, is that it tends to go to the heads of those who have attained it.   Perhaps that is why we here at No Prisoners, No Mercy are so fond of independent development Studios – they are usually just nice people who want to please the player, and the only attitude seems to be realizing that they are selling a service and not just a product.

So…dream finally achieved, for both player and developer. The Cryptic Star Ship stands poised to launch (by the time you read this) in just over an hour.  The last time I have been this excited was just before I went on stage in front of an audience of 5,000 people.

But wait…I never mentioned why I brought up the Klingon and the Ferengi did I?

Well I am so happy to have Star Trek Online I feel guilty for even bringing up a couple of disappointments.  It was announced during beta that the Klingon dreadlocks are to be a “Klingon Only” option, and that means those of us who want to play “half klingons” can’t sport them at all (as my Federation “half Klingon” did during beta (see picture above). 

But what of the Ferengi?

The Ferengi brings to mind something I hope to see in the future.  Not just a playable Ferengi (and I am sure that if they ever are playable the whole “you can’t play a female Ferengi” nonsense may come up).  More than that, however, I am hoping for a developed crafting system, and in lieu of that the ability to make a virtual living as a Ferengi trader, playing the highways and byways of space, living by the Rules of Acquisition.  In the end, however, as the day wears on and the time I can launch my own Star Ship approaches… or more appropriately when I can clear all moorings for the first time…I leave you with but one word…

Engage.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Due to the overwhelming kindness of Cryptic Studios, they saw to it that we and some of our listeners were able to participate in the close beta.  The head start program is almost upon us, and we all have our pre-orders.  What impresses us the most is how much work that the Cryptic team has done on the game in just the time we have been beta testing it. And now its time for a bit of Fleet action on the ground.

We had just completed a mission; a massed fleet of 20 star ships had managed to defeat a Klingon Invasion of the Laurentian system led by the Klingon flagship the I.K.S. Kaarg. Miraculously the captain and crew of the U.S.S. William Wallace had managed to survive the battle – time for that promised rest and relaxation and no better place to do it then Deep Space 9.  Not that Deep Space 9 is known far and wide as a resort. What it is actually known for is a worm hole that leads to the Gama Quadrant.  But those of us who ply the space routes know it for something else – Quark’s Bar.

As we arrived at the station the familiar sight of the wormhole greeted us.  It was almost as if the universe itself lit up space with a miraculous display in celebration of our victory.

 On the station the rest of the crew headed straight for the bar.  As for the captain of the William Wallace I stopped off at the chapel first.

We had all settled in to our well deserved drinks and a few spins of the Dabo wheel.  My senior tactical officer had just shouted “dabo” in the Ferengi tradition to announce a win.  But over the sound of the spinning dabo wheel I heard something else…my comm. Badge.

The problem with rest and relaxation promised by admirals is that Star Fleet has more than one admiral. 

“WE JUST GOT HERE” I protested, “AND YOU WANT US TO GO BACK TO THE SAME PLACE!”

“You got it,” said the Admiral, “it is rumored that the Klingons have established an ice mine in the Laurentian System.  Intel has it that they are building a planet killer weapon.”

“Um…” I started hesitantly, “Would this be the same intel source that told us about a small Klingon scouting party that turned out to be a full scale invasion lead by the I.K.S. Kaarg?”

“Well…, started the Admiral, We need you on this mission Lieutenant Commander, you’re our only hope. We need you on that wall. This is top secret. We’re calling the mission “Breaking the Planet.”

There was a long silence that ensued broken only by the sound of the spinning dobo wheel in the background.

“Do it for your planet. Do it to save Earth.”

“I’ve never even set foot on earth,” I replied quickly, “I’m half Klingon.”

“Do it for Star Fleet”

There was another long silence. Then I replied.

“I’ll do it for 10 bars of gold pressed latinum”

“You’ve been spending too much time around your Ferengi bridge officer.”

“So what, I replied, he’s got cute lobes. Besides, you know what the 102^nd Rule of Acquisition says – nature decays but latinum lasts forever.”

It took some doing but eventually the Admiral saw it my way – it was either that or get someone less disposable to do it.  We soon found ourselves back in the same system we had just left. As we approached the planet we received our orders…

1. Destroy mining equipment
   1. Set Charges at station alpha 5/5
   2. Set Charges at station beta 5/5
   3. Set Charges at station gama 5/5
   4. Set Charges at station delta 5/5
   5. Defeat Artillery Spotters for Turret Codes 12/12
   6. Jam Klingon Transmissions 20/20
   7. Keep Rally Point Safe

When I first started out on this mission I wasn’t sure whether or not my bridge crew would beam down with me.  It turns out it didn’t much matter that they weren’t allowed on the mission. 

During those times when there weren’t enough players to fill out the ranks, the empty spots were filled out with NPCs.  Much to my pleasant surprise, the tracking on the NPC’s had improved remarkably (something that later turned out also carried over into my bridge officers. 

NPC AI was so good that the only way to tell the NPC’s from the players was because the NPC’s kept announcing everything they did. We secured the rally point and as we did the mission finished and the following message appeared on my screen, relayed by a Federation Star Fleet officer:

Great work, Lieutenant Commander! We’re transporting everyone out safely, and the klingons have been denied the material they need to complete their planet killer weapon. I’d  say it’s been a good day. I’ve got a few days of leave before my next assignment. If you see me in club 47, I’ll buy the first round

There may not be a magic patch at the end of beta, but credit where credit is due. The overworked team at Cryptic has improved things vastly since the start of closed beta.  In our opinion the game is just about ready for the big launch day.

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy team

“The Laurentian system is one of the Federations’ primary sources for quadratanium.  Hundreds of people have settled at the Laurentian Colony because of the quadratanium industry. Laurentian Outpost is here to defend those settlers and the quadratanium processing facilities. Unfortunately, we’re close enough to the border of Klingonspace to be an attractive target.” – Admiral Grigori Yanishev

Some of the most intense moments in the Star Trek Universe, be it the original series,  The Next Generation, Voyager, or Deep Space 9, are born of confrontation between spaceships.  Every now and then we are treated to mass battles such as the one that took place in the beginning of the movie Star Trek: First Contact – The enemy stands ready for attack, lives hang in the balance and it is doubtful that even the massed fleet can save the day. 

And where, we ask you, would Star Trek Online be without the possibility of experiencing this same moment of crisis?

Joining the fleet

 

Admiral Grigori Yanishev hailed our ship and told us of a battle about to take place in the Pi Canis Sector.   Being the neophyte commander that we are (after all we ARE a junior grade officer commanding a star ship) he informed us of two ways to get in on the action: ask him or travel to a system where the fleet action is occurring. Having received our mission we gave orders to our helmsman to set course for the Pi Canis Sector.   We had no sooner entered the sector when we came upon three Klingon Vor’chas class ships. Even though we were in an escort class ship we heard the words of the immortal bard ringing in our ears: “once more into the breach dear friends!”

We entered the battle and soon found ourselves amidst a fleet of 20 Federation ships.  Our communications officer notified us of an incoming call from Star Fleet.  “On screen” I ordered.  The stern visage of Admiral Yanishev filled the ships screen. It seems the Klingons had sent a scouting party to the Laurentian System and we were ordered to send them back where they came from – the hard way.

“Scouting party?” I asked the Admiral over our subspace transmitter, “There must be at least sixty Birds-of-Prey, and Raptor class ships out there!”

“And we want you to give them each a chance to experience Stovokor first hand Lieutenant Commander!”

“But sir, that’s three to one odds!”

“And so?” responded the admiral from our view screen.

“Well,” I said to my superior officer hesitantly, “That hardly seems fair…they should have brought more Klingons.”

“That’s the spirit Lieutenant Commander”

With that the voice of the Admiral, who sat in his office hundreds of light years away from harm sent the 20 of us into battle.

The Task at hand

We had no sooner managed to defeat 60 of the birds of prey when our communications officer informed us of yet another message from Star Fleet.  “On screen,” I ordered.  It was the admiral again; telling us that what he thought was just a scouting party wasn’t what he thought. It seems the Klingons where better prepared than we thought – they had cruisers with them.  And with a smile (or was a knowing wry grin) the admiral bid us defeat the cruisers.  Our tactical bridge officers tells me that 36 cruisers were destroyed that day, along with a goodly number of birds-of-prey that came with them.

The bridge of the ship shook as the last cruiser vanished off our port side in a blinding flash of light accompanied by a minor shock wave. At least we thought it was the last cruiser.

“Um Captain…” came a hesitant voice of the communications officer behind me.

“Let me guess,” I said, “It’s the admiral.”

“On screen?”

“On screen” I grunted.

At this point I was wondering where the admiral was getting his intel.  What he initially thought was merely a scouting party was in fact an invasion force that had managed to set up phaser turrets on nearby asteroids to clear the path for the battleships that entered the system hot on the heels of the Klingon cruiser class ships.  And so the battle raged on. The asteroid fields were soon littered with quantum and photon mines.  Phaser cannons blazed across the space, answered in turn by Klingon disruptor cannons.  At the conclusion of the battle the total was 60 birds-of-prey, 36 cruisers, 15 turrets, and 12 battleships.

Congratulations were had all around and I was about to order the helmsman to lay in a course for Deep Space 9 and Quarks Bar when the communications console  beeped again. I considered blasting it with a nearby phaser but instead I simply said, “On screen.”

“Have I or my crew done something to offend you?” I immediately barked at the view screen.

“I have another mission for you because I have confidence in you Lieutenant Commander.  The I.K.S. Kaarg has been seen entering the system. We want you to destroy it.”

“The Kaarg?” I asked the Admiral.

“Yes”

“The Qang class heavy cruiser 479.40 meters long, 22 decks, a crew of 2,725 capable of warp 9.82. The same Kaarg that has 12 disruptor banks, 102 photon torpedoes, and 36 quantum torpedoes? You mean THAT I.K.S. Kaarg?”

“Yes” replied the admiral sternly.

“I won’t do it.”

“Yes, you will Lieutenant Commander.”

“You know, I said, it’s no wonder you are short on command grade officers to command your star ships. I’ll tell you what. I will do it if you make it worth my while.”

“What!” came the incredulous voice from the view screen, “What are you a Ferengi?”

Ignoring the admiral I continued, “…and speaking of Ferengi, not only do I want hazard pay for my crew and myself, I want a personal bonus in the way of equipment and while you are at it throw in a week at Quark’s bar at Deep Space 9”

There was a long pause at the other end.

“Done.”

As you may have surmised by now, if you were keeping track all this time, the fleet consists of 20 players and their star ships.  The task is to destroy the following:

60 birds-of-prey and raptors

36 cruisers

15 turrets

12 battleships

And the I.K.S. Kaarg and her escorts

This last task takes quite a bit of doing as the Kaarg is accompanied by three Vor’chas class ships you saw at the outset.  And the Kaarg is one tough nut to crack. No single ship can do it – in fact it takes most of the 20 federation ships to defeat it. Rewards come in the way of skill points for yourself, bridge officer skill points for your crew and star fleet merits which can be used for services back at Star Fleet or major star bases.  There are other rewards to be had that are awarded based on your participation.

Next time – Fleet Feet.

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

One of the subjects that was suggested by Saylah of Mystic Worlds (and one that I am sure we will end up using) was to have a show were we had another round table discussion about what each of the guests looks for in Star Trek Online (STO) and in Eve Online.  This would, of course, necessitate using guests that have played, one or the other or both. Fortunately we know people (including members of the No Prisoners, No Mercy Team) who fall along all three of the delineations. 

One of the factors in what a gamer looks for  in a new game may very well be not finding it in the last game they played. It was not that long ago that I read an article about marketing mmos that pointed out that when someone leaves your game, you don’t just lose a subscriber, you gain a detractor.  That is certainly true – at least in many cases.  

Sometimes people leave a game because they are bored with it.

However, leaving a game because you are bored with it doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong with the game you have left. Perhaps it has run the course of your interest, or you just don’t feel like leveling up yet another alt. “Bored” can come in several shades of meaning where games are concerned.  You can be bored with a game mechanic, bored with the content, and bored with the boors.

In Aion Online I left purely because of some of the game mechanics used.  Both Star Trek Online and Aion Online make use of quests that can be repeated.  The difference between the two is that in Star Trek Online not only do the parameters of the quest/mission change, so do the settings themselves.  This is one of the benefits of using instanced content – the setting change be changed every time it is entered. procedural generation can be used, generating content algorithmically rather than manually, creating a level that changes whenever the game needs it to, the player needs it to or both.  Hellgate London made use of this technique extensively to keep content fresh. There is a nice discussion of procedural generation here. In the end, it was because Aion Onlines repeatable quests were about nothing more than “go kill 10 more rats” that bored me to distraction.

Now and then a case presents itelf where the market presents the player with a new opportunity in the same genre.   This, of course, is one of the benefits of competition in the market place – it can, and often does, drive improvements in the product being marketed as the manufacturers of the product vie for both the consumer’s attention and dollars.  A limiting factor in this particular case occurs when the product addresses what is a limited market. Many is the time that a large manufacturer doesn’t address the needs of a smaller market because by definition that market is limited, and in turn limits viability and profitability – and so we have what gamers have come to call the “niche market”.  In this particular case Star Trek Online has an intellectual property (IP) that may very well expand the number of players that are interested in a game with an outer space theme.  Caution should also be taken any time we consider that a given market is only “so big”.  If nothing else, one of the lessons that the success of World of Warcraft taught us is that the market can surprise us by being bigger than our estimation of it.

On rare occasion, as the No Prisoners, No Mercy Team is seeing in the case of Eve Online versus Star Trek Online,  detractors come out of the woodwork, not because they have left a given game, but rather because they still play it.  As I have always said, hell hath no fury like a gamer whose game has been scorned.   Lately we have received an increasing number of spams by individuals who purport to be Eve Online players (they may just be people who simply don’t like us…in that case the line starts to the left, make sure to take a number).  The general nature of the spams (or so I am told – I never check the spam filter, I just hit the “delete” button) when we write about Star Trek Online often turns to those individuals who feel it is necessary to enlighten us as to all that is wrong with STO.  The webmaster tells me that the missives go on to attempt to convince us how much superior one product is over the other, and that a truly unenlightened being wouldn’t dare play a game of which the author of the email does not approve.

I will borrow an analogy from Tobold and say that I don’t like cooked carrots (it changes the flavor). That doesn’t mean the carrot is bad simply because I don’t like the flavor after it is cooked. Likewise there is nothing intrinsically wrong with either Star Trek Online nor Eve Onine.  However, in the case of Eve Online, one of the lessons to be had from games such as Warhammer Online come in to play: Mark Jacobs pointed out that the major game mechanic that embodied the reason for Warhammer Online was the realm versus realm combat.   What I saw, while I was playing the game were the many players who took the path of least resistance and spent their time in scenarios (battlegrounds for all you World of Warcraft players out there).  In the end, no matter how Mythic Entertainment tried to entice players out of the scenarios, they couldn’t control how their customers made use of their product. Likewise the developers at CCP may be incredibly talented, but short of actions that would drive away many of their long time customers there is no way to control the way Eve Online players use their product.  Beau Turkey once wrote an interesting article where he maintained that Eve Online was a pve game (I will try and find the url later).   Even if CCP did want the game to be geared toward pve there is very little that can be done to keep it that way if their customers chose to do otherwise. As a senior producer friend of my said, “gamers will always find the path of least resistance.”

In the end there are many games likeEve Online where the developers either can’t, won’t, or don’t care to even attempt to change the way their product is used.  And that is often where the “bored with the boors” enters the picture.  The odd little side effect of that particular quality, that shade of the word “boredom” comes into play when those individuals who have chosen one path in their pursuit of happiness feel the need to enlighten those “poor souls” who “just don’t understand.”  We often see individuals who have not only been busy hurling handfuls of crap over into our virtual back yard when they see things in a different light than we, but sometimes include their e-peen measuring stick…to which I can only reply, “we’re nuns,and we don’t care about your e-peen”.  I might also add that some of those measuring sticks are very, very small.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Early this morning, long before the sun even thought of making the valiant attempt at sending its rays of sunshine through the thick layer of clouds that seems to hang over the Midwest like a pall, we sat sipping our morning coffee. As you can imagine the conversation often turns to theology mixed in with a bit of gaming – and this morning’s bit of pondering was on just what to call our liberated borg” that will come with the lifetime subscription.

5 willgetya 10?
10 willgetya 20?
7-11?

The first two options, of course, come from a “Dead Like Me” episode last night were Rube is teaching someone how to run “the old shell game.”  While we contemplate what may become a cumbersome task of finding a creative name for our borg, our conversation also strayed in to the territory of yesterdays big patch over at Cryptic Studio’s Star Trek Online (STO).

It might not be the proverbial magic patch but it definately has a heap-load of magic fairy dust in the lines of it’s code. This is the first time we have seen anything in patch notes as being “150% sexier” but we will have to admit that many of the new changes were indeed “150% better looking – and perhaps a bit more.

Some magic touches…

Before anything else, I have got to say what fun it was to have Lenoard Nimoy give a little summary when the player enters a new sector of space. It definately added another layer of immersiveness to STO. While we are not big fans of the look of sector space, we accept the reasons behind it and no matter what anyone says the look of sector space does have the same style and concept of astrometrics.  As we have said earlier on this cite, if the alternatives are the mind numbing hour long and more virtual voyages from Eve Online we will take Cryptic’s Sector Space look every time.

Such a rush…

At the start of every new game or expansion of an existing game there is a rush that would dwarf any any of the land rushes in America’s “old west”. That rush is, of course, the rush to the level cap.  The big news for all you people who level so fast you could set a land speed record is that now is your chance as the level cap for open beta has been removed. This means you have between now and January 26th to hit the level cap for the game.  What this means for us, however, is a show of confidence that Cryptic studios has in thier game – so much so that they are willing to give everyone access to their entire product.

When it comes to Richard Bartles division of gamers by types we here on the No Prisoners, No Mercy team fall squarely in the explorers category. This is why we are so happy to find two new zones to explore for our Federation characters: the Cardassian and the Romulan sectors. There is nothing quite so exciting in any of the Star Trek movies or television shows as when the Star Trek Enterprise, the pride and joy of the fleet, the enormous ambassador class ship meets a Romulan “Warbird” that could bring the enterprise on board like it was a shuttle craft.  Just thinking about moments like this makes being blown out of the sky worth while (that and knowing we will quickly respawn afterwards).

Among the other improvements that caught our eye are the fact that players who leave a pvp battleground will now have to wait to re-que. More than once we have found ourselves wandering around looking for Klingons who have logged off early (and yes that is a taunt to all you Klingon players out there).

The central part of any Star Trek movie has always been the ships themselves.  Many are the officers who long to serve on board the renown U.S.S. Enterprise.  Part of the Star Trek experience (for that is exactly what is taking place here) is having officers vieing for positions as part of your bridge crew. In fact when we logged on last night one of the first events that took place are three officers requesting transfer to our flagship (yes I said “flagship” because you can have more than one ship).   We engaged our transwarp drive and soon found ourselves in the personnel office of Earth space dock reviewing candidates.  If, like us, you are fond of trying out all the ships out there, for each has its own characteristic and role, you will find that they have their own compliment of bridge officers that are allowed. The science ships (they make us drool every time we see one because they look like they are moving just standing still) allow extra science officers.  If you find yourself flying a cruiser you will find yourself in need of an extra engineering officer instead.

Another change we are looking forward to, especially since we come from such a large organization of gamers (The Older Gamers with about 14,000 members) we are looking forward to the first chance we have to don the guild uniform, and walk across our bridge looking out at the view screen which will have actual stars now instead of just being a black void. We are also looking forward to the improved ground combat performance with our guildies and our bridge officers. We look forward to having one of those scheming Ferengi as a bridge officer but we have other designs where Ferengi are concerned.

What we are hoping for in the furture is the ability to play a Ferengi and make a living by plying the virtual space lanes as a captalist.

More later.

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

Before we go any further, you may have noticed a problem or two with the site earlier in the day: Our tremendous thanks to our “guy who knows a guy” (you know who you are) for solving the problem.

And now for something completely different…

The world if full of exciting places to go and things to do – but there are many times when those places are out of our reach for whatever reason.  But what if that was not the case? What if your favorite vacation spot where right next door, or down the street? What if you could drop in whenever you wanted?

Those are the thoughts that ran through my head a few summers ago at a lunch counter in Orlando, Florida.  As a child, Disney World was tops on my list of “dream vacations”.  But it remained a far distant dream until well into my adult years. So the first time I was able to take said vacation I packed up my bags and off I went.  When the waitress came around to refill the ever filled, bottom-less cup of coffee that is the stock and trade of every diner, I asked her what her thoughts were on the subject.

What she related was not what I expected.   As for me I was a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the famous mouse for many years, but unable to do much of anything about it growing up. And so the thought of being able to hop on down to Disney World seemed like a small slice of heaven to me.  The truth of the matter (at least in this case) was that as a Florida resident it was easy for her to trip the light fantastic of the Disney World streets whenever she chose.  But after awhile, it seems, even your favorite activity can get old. So in the end what attracted this particular local resident to the World that Walt built where the new attractions, the new rides, that appeared every now and then – and being a local resident she was able to easily and cheaply (or relatively so) take a gander at the latest changes whenever the mood struck her.

Whenever the mood struck her…

That’s the side of the fence that a lifetime subscription falls on for me.  There are of course, the “perks of being able to play a “liberated Borg” or the extra character slots.  Considering “subscription plus” (the plus being a store for in game items in this case) the perks might simply be something you could otherwise purchase.  When Turbine offered a lifetime subscription for Lord of the Rings Online I jumped at the chance, and I have never regretted it for a moment. I liked what I saw in beta and when the “bait” was offered I struck at the line.  Since then I have been able to go back to the virtual shores of Middle Earth whenever something new was announced, the lifetime subscription having long ago paid for itself.

Flying in the future

Of course simply because Cryptic Studios is owned by Infogrames/Atari, that is no guarantee of longevity.  Likewise, a well known intellectual property (IP) can be help or a hindrance in the long run. But issues of trust aside, what piques my interest at this point is a thought from an article that appeared over at Ten Ton Hammer some time ago on the issue of Star Trek Online versus Eve Online:

“I firmly believe that developing content to attract new players is just as important as pumping out an endless stream of high-end challenges for an established player base if an MMO hopes to survive in an aggressively expanding market. If I look at Game X as it stands today and think it looks cool but not quite cool enough to purchase, why would I purchase it tomorrow when an expansion is released boasting, ‘More high-end raids! Faction grind until you’re blind! Endless Doodles of POW for hardcore Zippers! Oh, and for low level players we’ve added an awesome cardboard box that just kind of sits there on your shelf.’” -  Sardu, Ten Ton Hammer (available here)

There seems little doubt in my mind, having played both Eve Online and Star Trek Online, that the long time player base for CCP’s product is firmly entrenched.   But what of the newer player base? That is another matter altogether.  Even though CCP has made strides in the direction of accessibility in Eve Online in the last year, it seems to be far from what one would call an accessible game. Even if it were an accessible game, any time a game has been in existence for some time new content will normally be aimed at the veteran players, as discussed above, and by Paul Barnett when he was a guest on the No Prisoners, No Mercy show.   Whenever a developer makes their product accessible it is likely to stir feelings of hostility among long time players. What it also is likely to do is expand the market.  And what this particular IP has more so than many others are potential players that might never have even considered touching a keyboard; after all, the original Star Trek series was around before anyone even considered the idea of an internet.   Like World of Warcraft (WoW) it seems that Star Trek Online presents a very real possibility of expanding a market that other companies don’t seem as interested in any more…the older gamer.

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team

“There is no ‘magic patch’…”

One “no prize” to the first person who can not only identify what former guest on the No Prisoners, No Mercy show said those words, but also where the concept of the “no prize” came from.

When you are done pondering the words above, ask yourself the following: What would it be like to have an audience on your job?  The first time I heard that suggestion it was being made by George Carlin (God rest his soul).  Think about it. If you do the books for any business of any sort what would it be like if every time the debits and the credits balanced (as they always should) there was a thunderous round of applause coming from somewhere nearby? What if every time you made an error of any sort there was a deafening sound of people jeering, booing and general catcalling, quickly followed by random insults?

Let’s take it a step further. What if you where a surgeon, and someone’s life hung in the balance by your very actions? Imagine the same person trying to operate in the middle of a room of crowded people.  The doctor, normally completely composed, is performing delicate surgery – a laser scalpel stands poised above someone’s eye.  The operating room is so quiet you could literally hear a pin drop when suddenly…

“NO, NO, NO, YOU IMBECILE YOU ARE DOING IT ALL WRONG!”

When the doctor, having climbed back down off the ceiling, turns around she finds it is a plumber giving her advice on how to perform eye surgery.

Now imagine you are a coder. You work for a smaller development company. The bills get paid, but only just. On one side you have the pressures of your supervisor, but that person is busy coping with the pressures from the CEO. The CEO has been given a feather duster and told to fight off the onslaught of the publisher who is peering down from the vantage point of the top of an M-1 Abrams tank.

But that’s just one side that our coder friend has to cope with – and this isn’t a coin. There are many sides to this particular issue.  The coder is working on a game, and that game is about a week or so from the launch date.  The coder has just about been living at work and hasn’t seen her family except to say “hi” and go to sleep in days (and anyone who has ever been married can tell you just how much stress that heaps on a relationship).  Our coder friend is at work, and it is midnight. She is still busy at work on an “emergency maintenance patch”.  She has just changed one line in the code, only to find it has a ripple effect that changes 20 other lines of code – 20 lines that she hadn’t intended to change in the first place.

But as she goes to correct her mistake thousands of voices from behind her jeer and start shouting…

“YOU IMBECILE, THE GAME LAUNCHES IN ONE WEEK. LOOK AT THE STATE OF THIS GAME. WORK FASTER!”

Oddly enough, not one of the myriad voices that come magically from behind her come from anyone who works in the same company she does. In fact, they don’t work for a developer at all…they are all gamers.  She is tempted to flip the source of the jeers the proverbial “bird” but she doesn’t. She just wonders why the hell she has an audience on her job when the job she is doing just might have the future of her job and everyone else’s in the balance.

The game you see in beta may not see a magic patch that fixes everything at launch – in fact we are sure it won’t. After all, it is quite true that there is no such thing as a “magic patch”.  What there really is however are people working there asses off nearly 24/7 as any given game prepares for launch under similar circumstances.

See you online,

The No Prisoners, No Mercy Team