First off, great work again, Zach. Whether some of us like some of the answers or not, Hailing Frequency asks the bottom-line questions and gets answers. Nice job.
yes guilds are going to play, we know that, but don't go 100% catering to them, give them a bone and a simple system to work together. but owning Bases and ships? that's just asking for a lot of trouble. we've seen it in other titles that are guild centric, and we'll see it in STO now. the large numbered fleets will dominate and the little fleets or individuals will suffer and leave.
I agree. As I've said before: purely as a function of zero-cost internal cooperation and economies of scale, guilds/fleets already have a major advantage over everyone else who plays an online game. If you're part of a big group of people who trust each other and therefore share resources at no cost with others in that group, you're already going to be able to enjoy dominance-gameplay.
Giving such groups special perks, whether those perks add even more to a group's in-game capabilities or not, just makes the game that much less fun for other competitive players.
Non-competitive players won't mind if guilds/fleets are given special perks, but these are a strange people who pay their subscription money without complaining loudly and often, so their gameplay preferences can safely be ignored. *cough*
...
On the larger question raised by Cryptic's revelation of no player ship interiors at launch:
It won't surprise anyone to hear that I'm another person who's disappointed in the no-interiors-at-launch decision. Coupled with the decision not to implement player crews, I think what's left of Cryptic's design for Star Trek Online fails in a major way to capitalize on the important "ship as a character" aspect of Star Trek.
This matters because major MMORPGs make the bulk of their money in the first few months after release (and only catch up again if they last for several years so that the "long tail" effect can kick in). So it's critical to launch the AAA online games with the features that will attract the most subscribers right away. Deferring until some possible future expansion the most crucial features for supporting the "ship as character" vibe tells me that Cryptic doesn't consider Star Trek fans a significant proportion of their target market.
So if I'm someone who likes Star Trek, in addition to enjoying what MMORPGs are capable of being, why shouldn't I be less interested now in paying to play this ships-as-mounts game?
It's been my view for a long time that Star Trek is the last, best IP for building a major MMORPG that appeals not just to Gamists (like today's kill-loot-repeat games) but to Narrativists and Simulationists as well. It looks like BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic may be aiming to profit by making a game appealing to Narrativists. Star Trek Online could have been the game that captured the Simulationist market (in addition to attracting the Gamists who'll always try whatever's new). Instead, Cryptic rushes to market with what it appears will be another hardcore competition/accumulation game, just like all the others except with phasers and holograms instead of lasers and droids or magic and elves.
That's particularly disappointing to me, given what I think was the special opportunity available a Star Trek MMORPG. But I take the long view -- I assume that someone, someday, will make a game that smartly integrates the good competitive/accumulative play that gamers have been conditioned to expect with world-oriented play combining intelligent simulation and engaging narrative. Star Trek Online could have and should have been that game that was fun not just for our hands but for our hearts and minds as well.
But I guess we'll have to wait a while longer for someone else to make that game.
--Flatfingers
