New Star Trek MMOG Announced 302
jabagi writes "Perpetual Entertainment and Viacom decided to produce a Star Trek MMOG. Not many details yet, but beta will be available in 2006, and the game will be launched in 2007. Here is
the discussion on gamespy."
antoher one? (Score:0, Insightful)
hmmm (Score:3, Insightful)
Aagh. (Score:5, Insightful)
Aren't they being sued for a Star Trek related game contract gone awry already?
Announced? (Score:5, Insightful)
How about not publishing MMORPG stories until they're "finished" - at least finished enough to alpha test.
As a side benefit, we'll not have to read any of the "cancelled" stories the following year...
Re:Who cares? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Aagh. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh God (Score:1, Insightful)
Doubtful. All the spin offs from Star Trek always seem to be a disappointment, especially the games.
Re:Preview of game play (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone figures out how to get rid of this crap, andit would revitalize MMO games.
Re:Starship Crew (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll be Star Wars Galaxies with "star wars" races replaced with "star trek" races.
They could have done what you suggested with Galaxies. Join the empire as a low level stormtrooper, rise through the ranks - kind of like an America's Army type of thing. Or be a crew member on a smugglers ship. Or become a bounty hunter, and get assignments from Jabba himself.
Nah, just another boring ass RPG game where you sit around levelling up all day. They forgot the MMO part, it seems.
Star Trek is all about exploitation and milking the last few bucks out of a dried out franchise. MMOGs are "hot", so there's a Star Trek MMOG.
Most Star Trek games have sucked ass, they've all been clones of popular titles with Star Trek characters. Descent Freespace, except you're in a Federation vessel, or Unreal with Klingons. I doubt this'll be different.
Boring? (Score:2, Insightful)
No Room Left On the MMORPG Planet (Score:3, Insightful)
As far as business goes, if they plan ahead for a high level of member churn and keep the game fun for newcomers, then maybe there is a chance. But if they think that in today's market they'll get and keep say 500000 players, they're crazy! The people who would play this game are probably already playing an MMORPG. After EQ and SWG, I've settled on FFXI as my MMORPG home and have no plans to leave. I also have no plans to add another fee based game to the budget.
Even as a fan, at least three things would have to happen for me to look at a Star Trek MMORPG.
1. Fee must be very low, or some entirely new and palatable fee model. No fee would be great, but not likely.
2. It'd better have content and be a generally kick a*s game. In other words, I won't be there on day one and will wait for player reviews. So they'd better have learned for the SWG fiasco.
3. The system requirements must be reasonable. I won't spend $100 or more to upgrade my rig. I know my 1GHz PIII is pokey by todays standards, even with a fast video card and 512MB of RAM, but it runs most things just fine. No I wouldn't even think of Doom 3 on this box!
Don't gag, but I'd be more likely to try this game if there were an XBox version, or PS2 with HD. So I hope they're at least least thinking about tapping the console market.
Re:Who cares? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Preview of game play (Score:3, Insightful)
I admin a MUD, and 99% of the problem people like this are in middle school. If you get rid of the middle school people, you could have a much nicer game.
Re:check out the job requirements on perpetual's s (Score:1, Insightful)
I find it difficult to believe that Paramount is interested in supporting a Linux client, due to other companies' past failures to make it in that arena, (e.g., the late, lamented Loki). While there's no technical reason why they couldn't, it seems that it's simply better for a company to spend its resources elsewhere. Comments were made in a recent Slashdot thread [slashdot.org] that even id Software considers their Linux conversions a labor of love, more than a way to directly* generate revenue.
(* Of course, a Linux conversion of Doom III means more buzz.)
Re:Great potential - most likely wasted (Score:2, Insightful)
That may work in a more intimately sized game, like a MUD, but when you're designing a game to be massively multiplayer, you can't afford to squander significant resources on one-shot quests/events that are only going to be enjoyed by a handful of players.
In current MMOs, you have powergamers, uber guilds, as well as more casual players, sure, but one powergamer accomplishing a certain task does not prevent others from enjoying the challenge of accomplishing that same task. Same goes for casual gamers. Though being just one of thousands of players who has slain a certain dragon or saved a specific damsel in distress for the thousandth time doesn't quite match the feeling of satisfaction you would get from being the first and only person to do so, being able to play through that experience is worth something. Maybe hearing about some other player having done those heroic deeds isn't worth a damn... if I wanted to be a spectator, I'd read a book or watch a movie.
Really, I'm not sure having a player-influenced storyline is possible/practical in a MMORPG, as nice as that would be. The best you can really do is make the content as accessible as possible and making a world flexible enough that a player or group of players can entertain themselves and make their own story.
Give players the tools to create missions/tasks/quests/events for other players. Allow players to compete over finite resources (doesn't have to involve direct PvP, but it can) in ways that may alter the "landscape" of the game world. Maybe occasionally run events or put in quests that are of a "one shot" variety that give a player or group of players a way to dramatically change the game world at least temporarily, but only to add a bit more spice and variety... the lion's share of development resources would have to be invested in expanding the avenues players have available to amuse themselves/each other. That's really the only way I can see a storyline that is meaningful to individual players in a massively multiplayer game happening, and it wouldn't be easy.
Some would argue that it simply isn't possible, because it counts on players having the initiative to "role-play" a persona in the first place, and it's well known that the quality/quantity of roleplaying is inversely proportionate to the number of players in the community. The game designers would have to find some way of encouraging smaller, discrete subcommunities to form, while at the same time allowing/encouraging those subcommunities to interact with other subcommunities. Compelling/fun gameplay would be a necessity, as well as a constant balancing act to ensure that the rewards for participating in a community are worth it. The game world would have to be immersive... the graphics, music/sound and game lore would have to be of high quality, and mesh believably with the gameplay.
I can think of a few ways this could be effectively done in a Star Trek game, without having players design uniforms or make first contact with the Cardassians, but it would still be pretty to balance it all, and to keep it from becoming too stale.