Coming up for air

Previously I have blogged about how I would love to be involved in Community management amongst other things. To be there with a game as it grows, evolves, stabilises into a community and progresses.
If there is one community that can give me pause, it is the legions of Star Trek fans.

I love watching Star Trek. I was raised on the original series and on the Next Generation. I enjoy the books (New Frontier series in particular) and the other series. I am a born and bred sci-fi geek.
However, I cannot stand the majority of the Star Trek community. I'm on that narrow ledge, knowing enough about MMO's to know when people are talking rubbish, knowing enough about Star Trek to know when people are being daft and knowing enough about the mindset of "fans" to know I need to be careful.

There was a chap on the www.startrek.com boards when Perpetual were doing the game that thought a) the cell processor was a gift from God himself and could do anything we demanded of it and b) that as such Star Trek Online shouldn't be a game, but a fully interactive, 3-d modelled with real time star placement from Nasa computers enviroment where we could live Star Trek. Not play it, not imagine it, not toy with it, but have it as a virtual world as advanced as possible.
I thought he was a freakin loony (and if you're reading this mate, you still owe me $1, I told you the comet wasn't antimatter).

What was scary? People hmmed and hawed and found merit in his suggestion.
The kind of people who think that an IP should be taken so far beyond Roleplay and interactivity to the point where you reading the blog is considered work and your character in a virtual world is the "real" you, they scare me. I sure as hell don't want to answer any lfts in a zone I know they're in.

On the original topic, I wish the community manager of Star Trek Online well. They have a hell of a job ahead of them. Star Trek fans, MMO fans and the darker side of each. For once, I don't want the job for myself.


As an aside...
I may be blithingly oblivious to the same sort of underbelly in Warhammer Online, but I'll change that soon enough by watching forums more. The blogs related to WAR though fill me with confidence. Also I think the transition is easier as you are going from tabletop game or role playing game to online game.

Prediction : Star Trek Online vs Star Wars KOTOR MMO blog posts inside the next two weeks.