To Everything There Is A Season

I have never really had experiences with big guilds. I dabble in many many games but my home for the majority of my MMO life has been the Virtue server of City of Heroes.

City of Heroes is a reasonably casual game. You can hop on to either side, grab a random mission from the Police Radio or Newspaper (assuming you don’t have a contact with missions) and hammer it out quickly. Design aspects were taken and further expanded upon in Cryptics Champions Online and to an extent Star Trek Online. As a result of this casual nature, I have never had the experience I hear of with World of Warcraft guilds where courting them is a multiple week long process. I never really had much interaction with many guilds in Warhammer either. The one that I did join which wasn’t just a collection of City Of Heroes friends merely asked that I play with them a lot rather than a little. Given that more often than not I no longer played with friends at that time I had no problem throwing my various alts in.

However recently in City of Heroes old players have come back from the wilds of Champions Online and here is where I get to the point.

There once was a group. I shan’t name it, though anyone who knows me can guess it, so as not to come across as bashing anyone. I had a wonderful time in the group and made many friends. Some of them persist to this day, some of them I have had the fortune of meeting in person. The group was active, had allies, had stories and had fun. With so many people back in those heady days coming and going in City of Heroes there was a vibrance to the Supergroup. People came and people went but the core of what the roleplay group was remained.

As time passes though, so too do people. Eventually the group withered and died. There were brave attempts at restarting it to be sure. There were good ideas and good intentions but in the end, if no one can give the time to the group, the group does not exist. That is the core of my belief regarding Supergroups. Perhaps with hardcore guilds where it takes months to gain entry, where they are a heavy investment in time, money and effort, there is a greater sense of permanence to the guild. Perhaps in those cases it is about the tools and utility of the guild rather than the people. As I said, I don’t know having had no experience. Supergroups though are all about the people. In a casual game with so many coming and going and having so many faces (ahhh altitis, my bane) the time between a group being one you remember fondly and one being filled with strangers who have little link to the original ideals can be quite small.

In the end the casual nature of the game contributed to the death of the group. Some older hands retried it in Champions Online and it seems it has either diverged from the memory of the original or the game itself does not hold the interest of everyone. Why do I say this? Well those same souls are back in Paragon City and trying once more to recreate the group. The name was never the group. The ideals or roleplay reasons for it were never the group. The group was made and immortalised in peoples memories by the people themselves. They’ve moved on, the groups season turned. I just hope that in trying to bring it back again, people do not tarnish their memories (surely rosily coloured by nostalgia at this point) of what they had by the imitations attempted.

They say you can’t cross the same bridge twice because of the water flowing beneath. I suppose you can’t join the same casual dream twice either.

I called it.

It’s been busy here, hence the infrequent blogging. Up and downs but on the whole it’s getting better.

Of course reading other blogs give me gems like this.

Suffice to say there’s all sorts of goings on over at Cryptic, Atari and with Star Trek Online.

I would just like to remind everyone, I called it.

Star Champions Online Trek off the Starboard Bow

Originally as this entry formed in my thinking meats, I was simply going to do a counterpoint to Syps Six Reasons why he is excited for Star Trek Online. Then as I sat down earlier with a coffee in hand, I caught up on my Massively. Specifically the Kitchen Sink patch.

We’ll deal with Star Trek and come back to Champions. Syp gives his own personal points why he is excited for the game. If you are at all interested in the game or even on the fence, go over and see what he has to say. It may well swing you in the games favour and who am I to stop you? My points though… my points are negative of course.

The first deals with Syps points 4&5, the fact that STO shows marked improvement and potential. Star Trek, as a game, as an IP and as a phenomenon should be commanding attention in the online market. Eve players should be eyeing up gorgeous ships with envy. Cryptic fans should be touting the jewel in their crown. Star Trek vs Star Wars debates should be suffering a blow as STO is out the gate well in advance of TOR. Cryptic made much of the fact that they have voice work from Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. They’ve worked with the plot point presented by the latest (and for me greatest) Star Trek movie. They’ve had all the breaks, all the chances and all the support and fans they could want. The game should be shining as it comes out of beta. Not “improving”, not “showing potential”. Star Trek is so deep within popular culture now that a poor execution of the game wounds fan spirits greater than if it was a newer ip. It’s launch shouldn’t be marred by last minute controversy. In light of the goings on with Champions (the two games being practically joined at the hip) the idea of a big content update 45 days after launch, requiring you to be into the second month of paying is just a further insult.

My second reason for disliking Star Trek Online is a little more airy. Shannon and I were watching the special features disc for the movie recently and Michael Giacchino made a fantastic point that had never really filtered into my mind before he voiced it. They left the theme of Star Trek right to the very end. They had flirted with it at various points through the movie but the cast and the crew had not yet earned it. As the movie closes, Leonard Nimoy talks us through it, the music swells and the ship, the crew and the franchise leaps into warp speed and the future. Love it or loathe it, the people behind the most recent Star Trek movie loved what they did, strove to be worthy of Star Trek and earned at least my adoration. Cryptic on the other hand has never (in a visible manner) given the same effort. They delivered a game based on an engine that isn’t suited for it with complaints everywhere. They slapped something together, stuck a combadge on it and partied like it was 2399. At no point in the beta build up, the marketing campaign or the public test did they earn the right to create or run Star Trek. IPs have huge power, but slapping an IP on a game you’d already built and calling it a day is nothing less than a gross insult to the fans of the IP. Just because it has the label of Star Trek, this in no way means they earned it.

The Champions debacle is an entry on its own. However there is something that I have taken away from Cryptics pricing, tactics and my own coloured views of Star Trek. This isn’t the game we deserve, this isn’t even the game that should have been. It was thrown together hastily using whatever was handy, marketed and shoved out the door. Why? I say because of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

So much of the industry nowadays is focused on WoW-killers and the next WoW and Bioware could topple Blizzard that they panic. Farming cash from the Star Trek IP in this way says only that Cryptic as a developer and Atari as a publisher had no faith in what they created, they didn’t think it’d survive contact with a Bioware Star Wars and they didn’t even bother to make a new game. Instead of being a virtual world where humanity has grown beyond some of our worst features, instead of being the shining light of hope that Star Trek strove to be, this is an extended exercise in lining ones pockets at the expense of a fanbase. Personally, my heart is broken.

Intellectual Properly

In my fit of nerd rage previously, Terry made a good comment.

It's box art. It's supposed to get your attention and trigger certain subliminal behavior responses.

As far as Marketing is concerned, fighting and spaceships and explosions with a clean cut looking fellow front and center > 5 balding nobodies of various colors with a collection of head ridges sitting around a table, maybe arguing or having tea or something.

He’s completely correct. If you counted up the episodes of the Original series and the amount of times the Captain Kirked out, you’d get a fairly action packed show. Times changed with Captain Picard who favoured more diplomatic or cerebral solutions. Don’t be fooled though, he could still kick your ass up around your ears. Captain Sisko went his own way and had a war to fight, between Gods and Demons and a proper war with Klingons and Cardassians and Breen and so on. Captain Janeway sadly was portrayed about fifteen thousand different ways per season but had her fair share of ass kicking. Captain Archer went a special crazy for all of season three when someone in Paramount decided that the equation “Sci fi+GRIMDARK=Money” applied to any and all science fictions.

On a related but otherwise totally different point, Jim Butcher has a map (illustrated by Priscilla Spencer) now for his Codex Alera series. This is a good thing. It’s a lovely piece of artwork and helps flesh out the world.

Only it’s backwards. Rather, in my head it is. For some reason I had always held Canea as being to the east rather than the west. Perhaps I didn’t pay enough attention, or perhaps I just preferred it that way. Such is the point that people start abusing canon and doing slashfiction. If anyone knows which way up or around the world goes, it’s the author, not me.

This brings me to a point though. The world of Alera to me goes the opposite direction to what is it. The world of Star Trek to me is about the triumph of humanity and its betterment rather than pew pew laser beams. Yes there are battles and action sequences liberally sprinkled throughout the canon. Heck my favourite Captain is from Peter David’s New Frontier series and Mackenzie Calhoun is a complete Kirk style cowboy Captain.

Ultimately, the intellectual property that is Star Trek has many aspects and for each there are fans. Could any company create a game that would satisfy all or even most parties? Is that even achievable in games based on an IP rather than a completely new world where there isn’t 40 or 50 years of fans idolising different aspects of it?

In the end did I lash out at Star Trek because I don’t feel that Cryptic has done the property properly, or is it because they’ve done it justice, but not in a way that suits my mental image of Star Trek? Only time will tell. I’m going to give it a try of course, how could I not? However if in the end it is all brawn and no brain, “Fire all Phasers” rather than “Open Channel” and gung ho at the expense of thought, it just won’t be Star Trek for me.

I want to boldly go, to seek out new life and new civilisations. Solve their problems, save them from the dangers that plague the universe and work towards a shining ideal first put forward decades ago. I don’t want to spam photons and go for coffee, no matter how much I can customize a race or ship.

I’m sure you wouldn’t…

I’m sure you all wouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover. I’m sure you all wouldn’t jump to conclusions on scant information.

I’m sure each and every one of you was raised right and isn’t going to cause a fuss over this.

According to Massively what you see in the link is the Star Trek Online Box art. Now being responsible mature people you won’t immediately read anything into it. Except we’re on the internet and that’s all bullshit and it’s time for nerd rage.

Specifically if people had a problem with the PCGamer Star Trek covers featuring vast … tracts of land on the girls, then what about this? Gun toting, fire raging, glorified battle with a Star Trek badge.

Suffice to say, diplomacy doesn’t seem to be an option.

We come in pwn, shoot to kill.

EDIT : Addition from a good friend

Doman: This is space, it shouldn't be "vast ... tracts of land" but rather "heavenly bodies"

Cryptic’s Star Trek

First, let’s do the easy bit. To apply for the Star Trek Online closed beta please visit this link. If you get in, remember who sent you and beat up a dev to get me in. Closed beta started October 22nd and Star Trek Online is slated for a first quarter 2010 release. Amazon pre-order link is somewhere below.

So. Star Trek. I was raised on Star Trek. Oh there were other shows, there was Doctor Who ingrained so deeply in my mind that I sleepwalked (slept walked?) to the source of the theme music once. There was Space 1999, Blake’s 7, UFO, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. British 70s sci-fi, American sci-fi it didn’t matter. I was born and raised a geek. I love newer stuff. Stargate, Farscape, Odyssey 5, Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 all are huge to me. Star Trek though… despite the rubbish first three seasons per show, despite the ending of Enterprise or even worse, the Warp 10 episode (disowned from Canon) and despite what people may say about the latest movie, I love Star Trek. Shannon too is a life long Trekkie and we’ve both said to one another that love it or loathe it, we’re honour bound to at least trial Star Trek when it gets to Open Beta/Release (Though Cryptic, I can totally be bought by two closed beta keys if you want me to be nicer). With my geek cred established needlessly let’s get onto the real reason for this post.

KHHHHHHAAAAAAANNNNNNYYYYPPPPTTTIIIIIICCCC. (Why does the spell checker have no problem with that but dislikes “cred”?)

Let’s start with a previous blog entry, The Cryptic Model. I suggested that if “polish” is the watchword of Blizzard, then “custom” is that of Cryptic. Look at what they’ve done to date. I think people have died due to the amount of time they spent in the character creator (Joke, seriously). So far Cryptic has offered up two perks for Star Trek and like any good little nit picking fan boy I have an issue with both. First we have the perk given to the Lifetime subscribers of Champions Online, the mirror universe uniform. That makes no sense. Allow me to explain/Shut up and listen. The Terran Empire as seen in the first Mirror Universe episode, the one that established that evil twins have goatees and thus goateed people are evil, collapsed shortly after Kirk got his Kirk on. By the time of DS9 Earth and such had gone from almighty warmongering empire to a slave race to the Bajorans, Cardassians and Klingons. By the time of STO (some 20/30 years after Nemesis) the idea of wearing a Kirk era alternate universe evil empires outfit? Yeah I’m going to go and put a big fan boy NO on that. The second perk is even more unforgivable. Pre Order From Amazon and get a Borg Bridge officer. If I have to explain why that is wrong you never really got the Borg did you? This isn’t a Seven of Nine type issue where it’s a recently saved human (and generally getting de-borged is reserved for main cast) who happens to have some implants and such. No they are saying here have a Borg. I could come up with methods to justify that, like the individual “Hugh” Borg Lore was hanging out with or the Borg from Unity. In any event, despite any justification, you’d imagine they’d be a rarity as opposed to every Tom, Dick and Harry Kim who pre-orders.

Moving onwards we have further complaints. We’ll swing the bat at Cryptic first and then back to the game. Star Trek Online is being based on the Champions engine. Sure this means that development time has been cut, they already have the engine and tools and whatnot. Star Trek thus will be out in the first part of 2010. February if Amazon is to be believed. That seems rushed to me, terribly so. Further to my complaints, I foresee the C-Store making an appearance in Star Trek. I’ll have to wait and see to complain properly about that one.

At this point in the entry I was geared up for further bile and ranting. However I think I will leave it here for now and save that for another day. Suffice to say, the ship list does not please the Ardy. Instead I will end with one or two positives.

While I don’t necessarily agree with the view of the Klingons being presented, I admit that it is a good move to have an iconic pvp based race. Klingons love to fight and it can even be another Klingon. Also the progression and some of the ships interest me. Still, with the game only going into beta, a lot can change. Let’s hope the needs of the many are satisfied by what Cryptic is attempting.

STO Placeholder

This is a post I've joked about a few times to friends.

I'm going on record as disliking Star Trek Online, the direction Cryptic are taking, the information released and pretty much most of everything I hear about it.

Placeheld so I can refer to it later and either laugh at myself for my misguided nature (yeah right) or more likely point and prove I was on the hatewagon first :P

Cryptic? You just go and bugger off.

Star Trek Premiere

Spoiler Free I promise.

Some folks know, others may not, I won two tickets a fortnight or so ago on Facebook for the Irish Premiere of the new Star Trek. Paramount Pictures was hosting it in the Savoy screen 1 on O'Connell street.
Both myself and Shannon are still, as she put it, buzzing from last night. It was bloody epic.

To keep this spoiler free, we're not going to discuss the plot nor most of the effects. Instead here's a quick run down of my thoughts.

1) I missed Paul McGillon (Dr. Carson Beckett from Stargate Atlantis). I know he was given a role and we even checked the credits but I just didnt spot him. Still on the 8th I'll be going back and having another go. Simon Pegg does a wonderful job as Scotty though, so I'm not too bothered (they both went up for the role).

2) The Constitution class Starship Enterprise. Registry number NCC 1701. Abrams, your guys are geniuses. To elaborate, the Constitution is a workhorse. It's ugly, it's the 60s. When The Next Generation came about they kept the shape but smoothed it out, so we got the delightful Galaxy Class Enterprise D. In the Next Gen movies they further sexed it up in the Soverign class Enterprise E.
This version, this reimaging of the Enterprise and the Constitution class? Gorgeous. They took something that, while iconic, was outdated and kept its spirit intact while giving it some much needed love.

3) Realism. Aliens, phasers and Warp speed aside, this universe feels real. It feels as though we could get there, unlke the old Federation which was just a little bit Stepford.

4) The biggest thing they've done? They've made this exciting.
Of course there is bang and whizz and graphics and half naked women, that's to be expected nowadays but that's not what I mean.

I was raised on science fiction. The 60's British sci fis, the 70's and 80's American faire. Star Trek from the get go all the way to the current era. I have grown up with my mind in the stars and you know what? For the longest time I didn't much care about Star Trek.
I was excited to see new Babylon 5, I'd be thrilled when Battlestar was going to do something awesome. I look forward to new Fringe and Sarah Connor Chronicles (they better bloody renew that last one). Though for the longest time Star Trek was that thing I did. It happened somewhere in the run of Voyager, I wasn't looking forward to next week anymore. I would watch but because I had always watched. Enterprise, I just lost it there. Manny Cotos 4th season was genuinely good and certainly brought me back to the fold, but Enterprise was so ... uninteresting to me that when I missed an episode, I wouldnt try catch it again despite the fact that nowadays things get repeated fifteen more times before the end of the week. I lost the faith.

After this movie, after this reimaging/reboot/reawakening ... I want more. I am excited once again and Star Trek is king of the hill. They signed up for three movies? I want those movies.

In the end, that's part of what comes next. I am going back on May 8th. Not just to spot Paul McGillon, not just for Shannon to get buttered popcorn and not just because my friends will be going then. I am going back to buy my ticket, show my support and show my love.

In MMOs people always say you vote on the game with your money, I'm voting for more Star Trek. It was and is just that good.

IP (Freely)

Intellectual properties are a wonderful thing.
When you are starting a game, there are many hurdles. Too much exposition and fluff and people will get bored. Too little explanation of the why of your gaming experience and people will find it shallow and unmemorable. So IP's with their already established stories, fans, rules and reasons are great right?

Welllll....I suppose it depends on the medium. Take Star Wars. The movie franchise (love or hate the new ones) is hugely popular. The books are fantastic (YMMV). The games are hit and miss and the MMO .... well all I will say on that is NGE.

Two big IPs are coming to an MMO near you soon (for a given value of soon). Star Trek and Warhammer.

First we'll deal with a question on Star Trek.

Originally when Perpetual were running the game, they had decided to move the setting for the game 25 years beyond the end of Nemesis. This was a fantastic move I think. It put it far enough away so that familiar faces would exsist, but still left expansion room for current books, movies and shows. It also put it just far enough in the future for the lads at Perpetual to make up any damn story they wanted.
So far I have heard nothing, though granted I've not yet looked hard, to suggest Cryptic is retaining that story, making a new one or just plonking every new player in the universe ten minutes after the end of Nemesis.

Warhammer on the other hand is being created with huge input from Games Workshop. They are helping the lads at Mythic pick the classes, the look and feel of the world, even having final say on certain things (as far as I understand it) like the removal of the Dwarven beertractor.

I wonder how far the interaction from Games Workshop can be taken, or the creative control that Paramount may exert on Cryptic. Take the other big Cryptic game, Champions Online. Cryptic can do pretty much anything they want as they now own the IP. What happens in their game setting is now lore and the books that will be released in tandem and after the game launch will reflect that. Cryptic can manipulate that IP any way they want. Mythic cannot however suddenly declare that all Dwarfs adore pink and should ride bunnies and that Chaos really isn't that bad, they just need a /em hug once in a while.

What do you think is best for an MMO? Free reign to manipulate the world anywhich way? Or should the companies have a fluff bible and strict guidelines?

Personally I favour the guidelines. As much as I trust Mythic, the majority of my interest in Warhammer Age of Reckoning isn't the RvR or Living Guilds/Cities or any of that. It's the fact that it is Warhammer. A game and universe that I love and enjoy playing in.

Another universe that I enjoy is the setting for World of Warcraft. I am currently re-reading Richard A. Knaak's War of the Ancients trilogy. It's a good fun read I think.
I however made the mistake of looking over http://wowwiki.com earlier.
Blizzard have not retained a strict control of their world and as such I see chaos creeping in. Print media is not agreeing with the RTS which in turn is different again in ways from the MMO. Sure the little separations are that, little. Sure this happens all the time, look at comic books and the Infinite Crisis idea.

For me though, for my immersion in the game, for my stories that I play out and for my own enjoyment, I am glad there is someone there watching Mythic and helping them keep the corners tidy (or as tidy as they ever are in the Games Workshop, 25 years is alot of backstory). An ordered universe can only make it easier for us to play surely?

That said, maybe WoW needs to release the Crisis of Infinite Azeroths and Cryptic release something that tells us what stars we'll be trekking.

Warning : If you click on the WoW wiki you are subject to the wiki effect (link in title).

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.

Something on sensors....

So it hath arrived!

Star Trek Online has been officially unveiled by Cryptic Studios.

Bullet point time!

• There is a quite obvious change from the Perpetual version, Klingon and Federation starting races rather than just the Federation
• There seems to be the implication we're all going to captain our own ships.
• Customizable ships as well as characters.
• User generated content.
• ... Console release.

So then. There are some good sounds coming from it. The two empires at start will please all those bloody noisy people from the old boards (I swear, if I see one serious "I want to be Borg", I will lose all reason). The Cryptic touch from City of Heroes of letting you customize everything!

Then there are the things that give me pause. I know MMOs are making a push into consoles, hell FFXI has been on them for years. I know Champions Online is doing it too. The reason I am wary is simple. Cryptic made a great game in City of Heroes in that you can pick it up for 10 minutes and feel good walking away after. Immersion is what you make it. Consoling this up ... how much of an impact will your ship really make in the universe if it's a 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there console accessible game? That may just be me being paranoid.

The only other thing that sticks out in my mind at the moment is Jack Emmerts letter to the community. Now, he may be perfectly honest and if so I am sorry for being a doubting Thomas, but why do I get the feeling if Cryptic made a game on bread mold, he'd post about what a huge lifelong fan of mold he is? That's my potshot at Jack "Forcefields are fine, lets not fix it" Emmert. I'll behave for now.

It's the final countdown

It's no secret I am a sci-fi geek.

It is also no secret that Cryptic Studios have taken on Star Trek Online from Perpetual (a game I used to follow on the official boards).

So... with some 30 odd minutes till the timer runs out, I wonder what they'll be announcing.
Sadly, I've got to go to work right now, so I suppose I'll find out closer to an hour from now.