Rumor: Nerd Trek MMO?

[TripleDES]

Supposedly people managed to guess/find/hack promo/teaser pictures of a Star Trek MMO press anouncement online. The first two links contain copies of the supposed pictures, which have been taken offline on the official startrek.com site. The third link features direct links to the serverside applets on startrek.com serving the pictures (bottom of the page), the generated pages the applet serves still refer the images tho they're offline, strings like "promo-online-announcement" in the path suggest it's actually real.

1) http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~starmada/forum/showthread.php?t=4928
2) http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~starmada/forum/showthread.php?t=4926
3) http://www.scifiuniverse.cjb.net/news/gamingannouncementparamount.html

Now, please, tell me how you'd design a MMO where you run around on a capital ship all day, and maybe, just maybe, command it (yeah, a group effort comandeering a ship, in a MMO, that'll work for sure).

[CassandraR]

Well.. As long as it isn't another fantasy MMO.. why not? Not like they could possibly do worse then anything that hasn't already been put out on the market. (Me = Optimistic.)

[AOFanboi]

I never understood why it has taken this long to create a ST MMO. The episodic nature of the series is far better suited to MMOification than, say, the linearity of Star Wars. Built-in teaming (away teams), missions in varied locales against a plethora of different foes... ah. The possibilities are staggering - if they do it right. Use the built-in multiple factions for faction-based PvP, for instance.

Think about it, what is more interesting: Fighting the Borg, or shooting animals on Tatooine? :)

[TripleDES]

Is there a difference between tatooinian fauna and space crap, if shooting both is a mean to level mindlessly?

[stray]

Is there a difference between tatooinian fauna and space crap, if shooting both is a mean to level mindlessly?

Randomly killing shit and playing whack-a-mole would be about the dumbest thing one could implement for a Star Trek setting, unless you were the Borg. Not that that isn't bad for other games as well, but if a ST MMO wasn't strictly missioned based, or could reward you in plenty of other ways besides combat, there'd be no point in making it.

Has there ever been a good single player Star Trek RPG? If they haven't gotten that right yet, then there's no use attempting an MMO.

[TripleDES]

Exploration would be one point that might fit in there. Zip thru space, find new planets, perform exploration missions (drones guided from your ship), extract data, get praise from the Starfleet Command. If they want to get totally sophisticated, add a ground mode in the exploration mode, that could bring you in difficult situations, to be solved by combat, puzzles or whatever else, depending on the planets difficulty in the game universe. Think ST:Nemesis, collecting a fallen apart android on an unknown planet, just as random occurance during exploration ingame.

[Shockeye]

If they want to get totally sophisticated, add a ground mode in the exploration mode, that could bring you in difficult situations, to be solved by combat, puzzles or whatever else, depending on the planets difficulty in the game universe.

Anyone wearing a red shirt has to die soon after beam down, though.

[stray]

Anyone wearing a red shirt has to die soon after beam down, though.

I think that was old school Trek. Later on it was yellow.

[SirBruce]

Well, I knew that a group has been working on developing this game, but I had little hope it would ever see an actual final design and website rollout.  Looks like someone finally got their act together!

Bruce

[Flashman]

Hehe maybe Star Trek Online is  SOE's secret project you were talking about in the other thread Bruce.

[TripleDES]

I hope not.

[geldonyetich]

Something that could potentially fish me into a Star Trek MMORPG:

Starships staffed by player crew.

I've seen something like this in the text based MUS* years ago.  Basically you enter the starship, and here's a bunch of different consoles.  Engineering, Captain's Chair, Weapons, Tactical, ect.   You have a player sit down at each, and you work together in order to overcome your foes.

"Damn It Geldon, give us more power to the forward shield array!"
"I'm givin' her all I canna cap'n!  She canna take anymoore!"
"Ditch the fucking accent and make with the power!"

Anyway, it would be an interesting twist to the ol "lots of players to take one mob" formula.

It would also be interesting to see a faciton as well realized as I've seen in some MUS*.  An actual player chain of command, ect.   L33t d00ds put on mopping duty for being unable to organize their spastic selves ;)

[Merusk]

Anyone wearing a red shirt has to die soon after beam down, though.

I think that was old school Trek. Later on it was yellow.

Yep, but it was much less blatant in TNG than the good ol' "red shirt" days.  Plus it's such an old joke that everyone, even non-geeks get it.  

Yet another area Enterprise didn't follow suit. Everyone wearing the same blue jumpsuit makes it harder to figgure out who's this week's victim of random_death_01

[eldaec]

Now, please, tell me how you'd design a MMO where you run around on a capital ship all day, and maybe, just maybe, command it (yeah, a group effort comandeering a ship, in a MMO, that'll work for sure).

Either, it will be ground based and have doctor, melee warrior, phaser warrior, and cloaking device users as classes, with ships used solely for transportation (hell, if you can do star wars without either stars or wars....).

Or, I expect everyone will control a single ship (worked well enough for eve). Ships will come in 4 types, heavily shielded, long range missile boats, engineering ships that repair others, and gimped ships with cloaking devices.

The game will be hamstrung by the demands of abstract gaming concepts clashing with those of continuity.

People thought Star Wars continuity was going to cause problems - there was only 6 hours of that at the time. Fricking hell, I can't imagine the amount of stupid that will explode on a trek MMOG forum when people discover things like the fact that game will allow easy travel.

Randomly killing shit and playing whack-a-mole would be about the dumbest thing one could implement for a Star Trek setting, unless you were the Borg. Not that that isn't bad for other games as well, but if a ST MMO wasn't strictly missioned based, or could reward you in plenty of other ways besides combat, there'd be no point in making it.

They'll just claim there's a war on.

[ahoythematey]

Be kind of neat to have any kind(or most) of planetary activity instanced, with the massively part of the game being composed of cruising around the cosmos while fighting wars when they happen and "exploring" during peacetime, although I have no concrete idea on how they would handle exploring without ending up having the gameworld be a giant, empty blackness.  For the people that must have nonstop combat-oriented conflict(meaning no real attachments to ship duty and "science & exploration), etc.), I guess they could have "professions" such as pirates and smugglers, mercenaries, assassins, and perhaps even section-31 agents.

The best way they could probably handle starships while not making the game overly complicated for your average player is to have them be "guild-halls" if you will, where the guild leader is captain of the ship, giving him/her final discretion over where other members are stationed, with the various functions being handle by having maybe one or two people each focusing on any ship-to-ship combat, ship repairs and modifications, while the remain guild members use it as a glorified 3D chatroom/boat-trip inbetween meatier portions of the game(I suppose the holodeck could provide some method of entertainment if the developers would go that extra mile).  You could even explain away why half your guild isn't even on your ship, since quite often in the various series crew members are hopping around the galaxy with their own business or leisure, or temporary missions assigned personally to them by starfleet.

Non-guild affiliated players could travel by freighters and game-run shuttles, or ask to be a passenger on a player(s)-controlled ship, inbetween their ongoings at spacestations and various planets.

Damn, sounds pretty fun to me.  Too bad it'll never happen and instead we'll probably get, at best,  a SWG clone, or at worst, "You Romulans have ruined your homelands, you'll not ruin mine!"

[plangent]

Movies and TV shows do not translate well to MMOs.  The only TV shows I've seen in recent memory that warranted inclusion in an MMO were a bass fishing show and a documentary on whittling.

Mind you, I'm not suggesting that a Star Trek MMO would suck just because it's based on Star Trek.  I just don't think that an MMO is going to have much or anything in common with the TV shows, books and movies on which it is based.

One reason I would like to see it get made is for the shitty role playing.  I've always gotten a kick out the King Jimmy style of English that pervades role playing in fantasy MMOs.  I can only imagine the horrors that will be escaping people's keyboards in a Star Trek setting.

[TripleDES]

Officially announced:

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/gaming/news/article/6630.html

Bits:
- Perpetual Entertainment codes it
- Public beta in 2006
- Release in early 2007

From the FAQ:

Will you be able to explore the surface of planets?
Yes. Action on planets will be an important part of game-play.

Will there be starship versus starship combat?
Yes. You and your crewmates will work together to navigate and fight your way across hostile space.

[SirBruce]

Sounds very lame, unless they've come up with breakthrough design ideas.  Who wants to be the comm officer when everyone wants to be the captain?  Yes, yes, so people won't... that's hardly the point.

In my design, everyone would be a ship captain.  Depending on career path, it could be a merchant vessel, or a starship... work your way up from small ones to Galaxy-class cruisers.  But I wouldn't require you to have other characters serve on them.

The only way that would work is if, for example, you HAD to get a 1st officer's job before you could become a captain, so newbie characters would have to work their way up that way.  Only problem is, how are such characters going to advance to start with?  NPC captains?

Really, the devil is in the design details, but if they're talking a full-blown crew cooperative mandatory model... I don't see how it'll ever be wildly popular.

Bruce

[Trippy]

- Perpetual Entertainment codes it

Here's are the bios on the two co-founders from their website:

Joe Keene, Co-Chairman & CEO
Prior to co-founding Perpetual Entertainment, Joe Keene held a variety of executive position at Electronic Arts, the industry’s largest independent games publisher, including Associate General Counsel, Chief Operating Officer of the Maxis Studio, Vice President of Worldwide Publishing, Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Operating Officer of EA.com. In these positions he participated in or led many of EA’s major business initiatives during the period of its greatest growth, including the acquisition of several critical studios and publishing companies, the negotiation of major property and publishing deals, and the formation of EA.com. Prior to joining Electronic Arts Mr. Keene practiced law in San Francisco, specializing in corporate transactions in intellectual property-based industries. Mr. Keene received his A.B. from Harvard University and his J.D. from the University of California.

Chris McKibbin, Co-Chairman & President
Prior to co-founding Perpetual Entertainment, Chris McKibbin held various executive positions at Electronic Arts, the industry’s largest independent games publisher, including Chief Financial Office and Chief Operating Officer of the EA Canada Studio, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of the Origin Systems Studio, and General Manager of Programming and Production for EA.com. In these positions he managed game development and operations for PC, Console, and Online games including Ultima Online, Majestic, Motor City Online, Earth & Beyond, The Sims Online, FIFA Soccer, NBA Live Basketball, Need for Speed, NHL Hockey, Triple Play Baseball, and PGA Tour Golf. Prior to joining Electronic Arts, Mr. McKibbin was a founder and CFO of Digital Domain, a leading Hollywood special effects studio responsible for movies including Titanic, Apollo 13, and True Lies. Mr. McKibbin received his B.A. from Princeton University his M.B.A. from Columbia University.


Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[plangent]

The game will deliver action, adventure and combat mechanics unique to persistent world games.

My Corporatese isn't in practice at the moment.  I translated that as, "Same shit, different franchise."  Is that about right?

[NewGuy]

The company looks a bit iffy. The founders are two former EA execs that have no (or very little) actual game development experience. The board of directors are all venture capitalists that have invested (the initial?) USD 11M in the company. No track reckord whatsoever.

[Alkiera]

In these positions he managed game development and operations for PC, Console, and Online games including Ultima Online, Majestic, Motor City Online, Earth & Beyond, The Sims Online

So, he's managed 2 games that never released, 2 that have died, and only one that is still around, mostly because it alienated the players who made it popular in the first place.

So, just off hand, I'd say it's got maybe a 40% chance to see the light of day, and odds are that it won't be up a year if it does go live.

--
Alkiera

[Merusk]

Ok, so this lawyer and his accountant buddy decided to code a game..

[HaemishM]

I can imagine no greater convergence of suck than a Star Trek MMOG managed by the executive founders of EA.com. The only possible way it could get worse is if Bruce invested in it, Serek Dmart developed the engine and Dawn's creator was brought in to create the netcode.

How much more stupid can be piled onto one project?

Let's see. We have:

1) Franchise that is thrashing about trying to find anything profitable (Enterprise is only midly successful, no more movies are planned, Voyager blew monkeys)
2) Most restrictive license in existence with regards to storylines, even moreso than LucasArts
3) History of really shitty games
4) Most widely reviled nerd fanbase this side of FurryMuck - there's a reason the word "Trekkie" is synonymous with "Geek"
5) Two-year old company that has produced nothing for sale

I can see no scenario where this game will not suck given the state of MMOG's today. No one will want to be the red shirt. No one will want to always be the comm officer. Pickup groups involving actually taking a ship somewhere will be overrun with muffinsnatching morons who only want to take a job then abandon it as you fly into the fucking sun. How much fun will it be to be stuck as the science officer when fighting Romulans? How will they include PVP if everyone has to serve the Federation? How will you be punished for breaking the Prime Directive, which will be broken OFTEN if allowed?

Nothing good can come of this.

[Arcadian Del Sol]

just theories on how this could work, not that I know anything:


guilds could be represented as 'crew'
classes are represented by the standard trek roles (red command, blue medical, yellow tac/ops, etc)
private housing = crew quarters
guild housing = starship

size of guild and/or mathematical breakdown of guild exp = size/class of starship/guildhouse.

realm vs realm by virtue of The Neutral Zone.
exploration by virtue of 'instanced episodes' with an instanced planet/space object to send guild 'squads' to explore.


I think it has some real potential to fit into traditional mmog molds.

[WayAbvPar]

I can imagine no greater convergence of suck than a Star Trek MMOG managed by the executive founders of EA.com. The only possible way it could get worse is if Bruce invested in it, Serek Dmart developed the engine and Dawn's creator was brought in to create the netcode.

How much more stupid can be piled onto one project?

Let's see. We have:

1) Franchise that is thrashing about trying to find anything profitable (Enterprise is only midly successful, no more movies are planned, Voyager blew monkeys)
2) Most restrictive license in existence with regards to storylines, even moreso than LucasArts
3) History of really shitty games
4) Most widely reviled nerd fanbase this side of FurryMuck - there's a reason the word "Trekkie" is synonymous with "Geek"
5) Two-year old company that has produced nothing for sale

I can see no scenario where this game will not suck given the state of MMOG's today. No one will want to be the red shirt. No one will want to always be the comm officer. Pickup groups involving actually taking a ship somewhere will be overrun with muffinsnatching morons who only want to take a job then abandon it as you fly into the fucking sun. How much fun will it be to be stuck as the science officer when fighting Romulans? How will they include PVP if everyone has to serve the Federation? How will you be punished for breaking the Prime Directive, which will be broken OFTEN if allowed?

Nothing good can come of this.

Pure gold. Write it in Shatner's blood and nail it to the front door of the dev house.

[Furiously]

Star Trek the 25th Anniversary was a great game.

[SirBruce]

Star Fleet Battles have all been great.  Academy and Bridge Commander both had their moments.  And there was that 4x strategy game, I forget what it was called... it wasn't bad, but it got kinda boring after a while.

Bruce

[SurfD]

I actually thought the Armada RTS wasnt all that bad either

[AOFanboi]

And there was that 4x strategy game, I forget what it was called... it wasn't bad, but it got kinda boring after a while.

Birth of the Federation. I found it boring unless I played with cheats (add -Mudd to the command line) that let me have infinite income. Too much micromanagement. Best thing about it was that the four sides (Fed, Klingon, Cardassian and Romulan) were "personalized" when it came to NPC dialogue and user interface looks.

[Trippy]

IGN has almost entirely useful-information-free Q&A with the Perpetual founders:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/545/545392p1.html?fromint=1

Virtually all of their answers are of the form "we've sort of thought about it but haven't decided anything yet".

[Rishathra]

Edit: Never mind.  I guess we couldn't keep him.

[Mrbloodworth]

This is from 04'.

[Phred]

Edit: Never mind.  I guess we couldn't keep him.

Damn. I'm totally curious what was worth ninjaing this anciant thread for.

[IainC]

At a guess it was a now-deleted spammer.