Death of a Game: Star Trek Online

Live Long & Pro$per. Edit: At about 20:06 to 20:43, we incorrectly reference a source. The proper source is KZbinr MXPHOENIX and here's his video • My Top 6 Favorite Ship...
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#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.
Sources:
www.ign.com/articles/2000/03/...
www.gamesindustry.biz/article...
www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news...
www.wired.com/2007/12/pr-firm...
www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=16944
www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19588
www.gamesindustry.biz/article...
www.ign.com/articles/2009/10/...
store.steampowered.com/app/99...
www.eurogamer.net/articles/st...
www.engadget.com/2011/05/31/p...
www.pcgamer.com/star-trek-onl...
kotaku.com/star-trek-online-d...
www.engadget.com/2016/09/08/s...
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[@ryanb6503]

It's a effective formula: keep your whales happy, let them pay for the upkeep, and make sure not to scare off too many of the little fish swimming around them so the whales don't feel lonely enough to leave. Star Trek does have a long standing tradition of caring for whales after all.

[@jeffspicoli5399]

Get a job and maybe you can be one too one day when you grow up and get hair in weird places.

[@akba666]

You know something is wrong when your rookie captain killed more people in his first week after graduation than the most decorated klingon fleet admiral in his entire career.

[@dramaexterminatus]

This is just golden

[@adamshattuck1985]

except hes not reviewing the game on more advanced settings. the higher difficulty not only increases the hp and damage of foes but you and your ship can and will be injured as well. if he played on advanced or elite difficulty in episodes to max level id here him out. casual play in start trek is "bind to space bar" and "smash skull into spacebar", but at higher levels popping cooldowns is just a faster way to die.

[@Rellana1]

I 100% agree with that. I did play STO at the harder settings some years ago and it took me quite a while to learn the efficient use of cooldowns and a few ship "deaths"in the process. The miss-matched weapons I was using didn't exactly help either.

[@TheTattorack]

adamshattuck1985 Right, so STO on the harder difficulties is simply STO but even more tedious and annoying. Gotcha.

[@iami3rian394]

@@TheTattorack it's neither more tedious nor more annoying. I'm guessing you've never done it....

[@AndyHoward]

What I like about STO is being able to exchange Dilithium (in-game currency) for ZEN (normally paid currency for STO). Wish more games did this

[@catoblepasomega]

@@BuildL33T And then you still needed Dilithium for everything else too! You pretty much had to turn all of your alts into 'dilithium farmers' in order to have the a useful amount of dilithium/zen for one main. The grind in this game is insane.

[@BuildL33T]

@@catoblepasomega yup, pretty much. Getting the cap on Neverwinter tho is a lot harder. Their Diamonds cap is 100k a day. Frigging insane.

[@DeltaElites]

@@BuildL33T ...wait, you can buy a lifetime with Zen? I thought that was a cash only purchase.

[@pwnmeisterage]

A Lifetime seems smart if you're already planning to play the game (and pay subscription) for at least a couple years. But the game is already very niche and arguably failed/failing ... will it even be around in two years, if so then will it even be something you'd want to play?

[@DrakeHunter324]

@@DeltaElites Console only I think.

[@DeathBahamutXXX]

Honestly I have been playing this game on and off since beta. I prepurchased the lifetime subscription when it was on sale. I do exactly what NS is saying. I burn through story missions then go on hiatus. And honestly I bought the game just so I could pilot a Bird of Prey and shoot stuff down. That is when I am happiest.

[@jessezondlewski2597]

Yeah I get behind that. And the beginning of the game did follow with what was addressed in his video. Later missions get a bit closer to the show's concept. And the ship combat is definitely where the game shines. One thing I noticed, is that they are upping the animations for the characters.

[@yllbardh]

exactly my lifetime story been playing on/off since the beginning, and the only reason for me to get back is 'cause there's no other ST mmo.

[@hertbran]

" I bought the game just so I could pilot a Bird of Prey and shoot stuff down. That is when I am happiest." - DeathBahamutXXX What is best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!

[@robertstewart9989]

I have a Fed captain but I rarely play him. I prefer my BoP.

[@damiandarc8643]

Amen. Victory is life.

[@dxBIGBOSSxb]

Probably the best part about this game I remember was how much respect the developers had for Leonard Nimoy after he passed away. I wish they treated the lore with as much respect when it first launched. Nothing screams "Star Trek" more than killing thousands of crewmen to finish a fetch quest.

[@kinggoten]

just play the Klingon or Romulan stories and it fits so much better, also some of the stories could of easily been trek episodes.

[@freequest]

Well ST the original series does go through a lot of red shirts. I swear they must have another ship following them to keep up the supply.

[@Hylanvahr]

The Spock monument on Vulcan was truly one of the greatest things any game developer ever did. It went up only days after Leonard Nimoy passed (his name was also added to the Absent Friends plaque on ESD), and it's so fitting to see it perfectly fitting in with the Vulcan environment, and Mount Seleya nearby. When I later got a T6 TOS Constitution, I named it U.S.S. Seleya in memory of Nimoy and his filmmaking legacy.

[@kinggoten]

@@freequest very true, ToS also was intended to have a lot more action it was just budget reasons why we didn't get it. And it is probably a good thing because the action in the show was well to put it simply bad. The only Trek show to do action decently was DS9, but ever since I was little I have always believed Trek would do better for itself if it had a bit more action every now and then... well no that is not the correct way to put it, Trek needs to have better handled action when it does show up esp in terms of ship to ship combat

[@freequest]

@@kinggoten Yes the Star Trek universe is a very Ivory tower type of place. The thing that I find most annoying about Star Trek is the constant references to well the age we live in now like it was a golden age. What about the history between which you get a glimpse of in the first episode of Star Trek the next generation.

[@Zer0Hour17]

Given I don't know much about Star Trek, but wouldn't the ideal Star Trek game be like 50% exploration, 40% dialogue trees and choices, 9% stealth and like 1% combat? The exact opposite of what most MMOs are.

[@GrayJedi93]

Definitely. It would need to be an Obsidian (or old Bioware) RPG...

[@azraelswrd]

@@GrayJedi93 True but ongoing live games and RPG are a hard recipe so it's just easier to go action-pew-pew for Star Trek which is why 90% of them follow that route. At least STO tries to do non-combat stuff which was why some of the Foundry missions were so much fun but alas that is coming to an end.

[@FairyRat]

Somebody call Chris Avellone.

[@Dudebrotheguy]

@@GrayJedi93 Or new War horse, Larian Studios CDPR

[@Sorrowdusk]

Single player RPG could work

[@whatewer23]

You think it's bad that everyone is a captain? How about everyone being a Fleet admiral?

[@Ackalan]

The federation fleet is a bit top heavy.. Possibly. :P

[@StudioBrock1337]

To be fair lore wise every player is actually the same person. There's only one bad-ass LT who survived the Klingons and commanded a little rust bucket so well the Admiralty gave them that ship. Then when they all don't die after the war they get something half decent for dealing with the Romulan issues, and so forth. The player character is essentially a total combat bad ass who takes advantage of this oddly bloody point in Federation history, and lore wise they end up in their level 40 ship at the end of it. Ranking is kind of odd but for the most part it only existed to easily separate progress into certain sections which fit specific ships and abilities. Most people just have their own head-canon for their character and choose which rank they're at. So most of mine are Captains with some Commanders, an Admiral, a S31 agent, and a Mercenary.

[@I3igI3adW0lf]

@LordKyphoron Or everyone being the chosen one or savior like in WoW and EverQuest and every other mmo to ever exist.

[@Biskawow]

@@I3igI3adW0lf your ass must be huge considering you just pulled a "chosen one" out of it! in wow, you mostly help other heroes to kill the big baddie (for example, you didn't become the new Lich King, Bolvar Fordragon is the real hero), and there is 25 of you players battling the bosses, not a chosen one.

[@I3igI3adW0lf]

@@Biskawow Yeah, that explains why a lowly common person talks to the leaders of the Horde and Alliance. Clearly they have time for that. Fighting bosses with other people and characters is done in every single mmo.

[@DoubleThinkTwice]

*cuts to Spock punching Khan in the face on a flying taxi* Thanks for reminding me. I hate it.

[@jv-lk7bc]

I feel like Zoe Saldana is channelling the fandom: "STOP!"

[@221b]

The "frying pan" ship at 20:14 was a Constellation-class, which was introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation, not designed for STO. It was made by essentially gluing together pieces of models that the studio had lying around from the production of the first four Star Trek movies, so they were pretty limited in terms of design.

[@DeaconG1959]

Did he just bust on Picard's old ship, the Stargazer?

[@TheRyFiNetWork]

DeaconG1959 I was just going to say, so the ship before that was beautiful ??? even though that was clearly a new design with no creativity put behind it and yet he can knock Picards stargazer, 😡 Star Trek online took one look at existing Star Trek ships and then attempted to make their own versions and every original created ship that I’ve seen in this game looks like other crap possibly designed by the Star Trek discovery team. What a joke.

[@tbranch227]

Yeah, and if your a star trek TNG nerd, this ship holds a special place in your heart, so I'm pumped when I see it. Kinda need to see how a maxed build of it would perform

[@TheSpeakersofFlames]

And he call it a Frying Pan? Let's get one thing straight the game maybe a lot of things but the ship models and designs actually look like what is scene to the TV shows and movies. Just simply call it a frying pan is extremely disrespectful.

[@Exigentable]

@@TheSpeakersofFlames it's a frying pan, fuck off nerd

[@RagPlaysGames]

The Star Trek Online Theme is the most memorable and kick ass thing about the game. Most of the music was brilliant in general.

[@razmeanie4519]

I haven't played in a long time but still find myself getting pumped humming that epic theme. I would just let the menu play in the background while doing dishes and stuff.

[@ReyOfLight]

Rag Plays So much yes! I just love the music played on New Romulus (and sometimes in sector space) it’s so relaxing! I especially love it while you’re looking at the introduction cutscenes at the staging area of New Romulus, it can move me to tears

[@reerjgiorge]

Probably the only thing worthy of the game, the music... LOL.

[@ailius1520]

What's funny is...STO feels more 'canon' now than the current crop of movies and TV shows. STO brought back 3/4ths of the cast of Voyager and DS9. It feels like those episodes of TNG where they'd guest star one of the TOS actors so as to build one cohesive universe.

[@reerjgiorge]

And thats the only reason its still alive. But it doesnt matter who they bring, if the game is a complete garbaje anyways. Oh look i can see Janeway, but wait, her face is totally washed out and her clothes are overlapping with tuvok!! oh wait, there is someone floating over there , he has superpowers!!! hahahaha.

[@pwnmeisterage]

I haven't played the game but I have seen it. Of course it contains tons of Star Trek elements at a glance. And it seems to include a lot of "obvious" things which are conspicuously ignored or absent in the shows and lore. But most of that stuff is highly extrapolated and completely gamified, if you actually watch somebody play the game you would barely even recognize it as Star Trek, it's really not the same animal at all, sprinkling some Andorians and redshirts around just doesn't quite cut it. But yeah, it still looks more Trekky than the stuff the studios have been putting on screen over the last decade.

[@ThisKevinButton]

Yeah, I'm sorry but I don't understand people's argument with that. Especially the ones who are dissing the Discovery content that has been added saying "It doesn't belong there, because it's not real Trek." The DS9 missions that were added were a step in the right direction as far as story content, but sadly the game is way too heavily focused on combat to even remotely be considered as true canon to Star Trek. When there are accolades for Destroy 10,000 Klingon ships for a Federation character, I don't know how anyone can take this as nothing more than a generic mmo with a Star Trek skin job. Since everyone thinks that Star Trek Discovery is too focused on action and combat and the ideals of Star Trek are largely ignored, I feel that it fits like a well worn glove in Star Trek Online. Even the game is a little more hardcore and violent than Star Trek Discovery. Hoping someday we get a Star Trek game where I can just serve any particular role I want aboard a vessel and we go on peaceful missions of exploration where combat is a last resort. I don't want to be a Captain of a ship. I don't want to murder a 100,000 different alien species, essentially committing mass genocide. And I would love to truly explore unique and individuals cultures and planets and share my findings with a galactic community. Unfortunately this will never see the light of day because the general public doesn't want to play that kind of game. They just want Apex Legends. Spawn, Die, Repeat.

[@pwnmeisterage]

@@ThisKevinButton Kelvin and STD are "canon", and they're officially Trek, and they have their own Trek fans, there's no doubt about that. But the overwhelming majority of Trek fans have reviled and condemned them. Opinions are just opinions and everybody has one ... but in this instance there's enough of a schism between studio-Trek and fan-Trek that the whole franchise is dangling off the edge of doom. My opinion is that STO is milking every scrap of canon it's allowed to grab while STD is an odd mix of careful attention to canon and rampant steamrolling over established tone, theme, and continuity ... and I wouldn't personally call either one "real Trek".

[@ThisKevinButton]

@@pwnmeisterage Honestly, I couldn't agree more. My problem is that I sit somewhere in between with the different sections of fans. Those who wish Star Trek Discovery was more like The Orville, I completely understand but I don't agree with it. The Orville is essentially a watered down TNG and I feel there's already enough of Trek with that tone and feel that they dont need to make another series exactly with that same formula. On the other hand, I really despise Discovery ignoring certain principles for the sake of storytelling and I dont know why they continue to make prequel series/movies. Nostalgia bores me, I'd prefer seeing what comes next then be reminded of things in already know about and love. As far as canon, most every series ever created there has always been discrepancies with canon and I try not to over think it too much. And the adhering to canon goes pretty much hand in hand with nostalgia. Once you bring things in for nostalgic reasons, it pretty much runs the risk of ruining the canon unless it's very well handled. Still, in my opinion, I hope this game dies soon and we see something better. I was hoping Star Trek Bridge Crew would have more content or at least a decent random mission generator, but oh well. Just gotta be happy with what we have.

[@117Ironman]

Title reads “Death of a Game: Star Trek Online.” What is said about two minutes in to the video: “Since Star Trek online isn’t actually dead, we’ll set our phasers to stun for this video.” Romulan Senator Vreenak: “It’s a FAKE!”

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

A Star trek fan yet you can't read a dictionary.

[@117Ironman]

N.S. Whoa dude, I was just poking fun at the title and what he said, no need to be hurtful. I rather enjoyed the video. Also, what does a dictionary have to do with this? Edit: Just realized that you were the og poster of the video. I gotta admit, I was not expecting such a reaction to my comment. The only reason I did it was to poke fun, not to try and start anything. To this day, I don’t get the dictionary comment. I get the feeling that it was meant to be a jab at my intelligence or my interpretation of the whole thing. If you feel that I offended you with it, I’m sorry.

[@morales8837]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss Not funny.

[@MrTranzformer1]

@@117Ironman video creator is a moron dw

[@big_ry82]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss what does a dictionary have to do with the comment?

[@WideAwake127]

I still play this game and I am still having fun with it.

[@itzdcx7991]

Nicolas Cole you’re what they called a dedicated player you would play regardless if the game completely dead or dying 😂

[@WideAwake127]

@@itzdcx7991 Wrong I will play as long as I am having fun. I dont care how many servers they have packed with players if I think the game is no longer fun I wont play.

[@itzdcx7991]

Nicolas Cole umm what you just described....that’s basically what a dedicated player is, so good for you if your having fun, you’re keeping the game alive and running

[@WideAwake127]

@@itzdcx7991 You're right :) I just did not want to come off as one of those fan boys that refuse to see the writing on the wall when it comes to a dying game. Again you are correct :)

[@user-yv4mm6bx3c]

I'm still playing the game as well. The crew and ship customization is a childhood fantasy that gets to be fulfilled.

[@basicfailure101]

One or two points that weren't covered specifically; - The video touched on what happened when the level cap was raised, but it was in fact worse than stated. Not only did everyone need to pay to upgrade a Tier 5 ship (the previous max) to a tier 5-upgrade, but most of the existing niches and popular designs from Tier 5 were remodeled/skinned and resold for 5 bucks more on the shop with moderate stats buffs at Tier 6. Despite protests from Cryptic that the new ship Tier would not affect endgame balance vis a vis T5 ships, a child could see through that lie. Suffice to say, rebuying their favourite ships for an inflated price did not go over well with many. - Since the launch of the F2P model, nearly every system added or reworked in the game has been specifically designed as a time and money sink. The launch of F2P saw the introduction of the 'Duty Officer' system - you get various character 'cards' of differing quality, and send them off to do missions for various rewards, taking anywhere up to a few days to complete. The crafting system went from something no one bothered with but could be done quickly with the resources and effort required, to a time-sink that required you to log in once a day for several months to slot in daily exp projects in order to train up just one crafting area out of 6-7 - the rewards for grinding them were admittedly increased however. An identical system to the Duty Officers based around the ships your character owned (and sending them off to do missions for rewards) was added a while back as well. This is not to even mention the reputation system in the game, which likewise requires regular logins to slot daily exp projects. Right now there are 12 separate reputations to grind, each giving significant access to buffs, gear and abilities.

[@jpakke3249]

Don't forget that they added new tier to the reputation system, tier 6, which takes 1,5 times longer to complete from tier 5 -> 6, than it did to get from 1-5 altogether. It takes 20 days to go from tier 1 to 5, but it takes 50 days to to get from tier 5 to 6... and not to talk about the fleet base system, which is LOT worse grind.

[@intrinsical]

Sure, the 12 reputations take time (50-70 days) to slog through. Think of them as extended levels beyond 65 if you like, but once you unlock those 12 reputations, you gain 12 Fleet Ship Modules. Which means every character can buy at least TWO Tier 6 Fleet Ships for free, even if you do not own the C-Store ship.

[@hardcorsD]

Stuff And Nonsense, i remember when crafting had a use and it made some of the best weapons in the game. But last i knew, it was the clan stuff.

[@catoblepasomega]

the T6 ship switch was even scummier than that. Before T6, a top-tier (T-5) ship would cost ~$20-$25 dollars on the C-store, plus an additional $5 for a token to upgrade it to T5 'fleet grade'. When T6 hit, Cryptic advertised that you'd be able to upgrade your ships to 'T6 capabilities', and sold 'starship upgrade requisitions' for $7 a pop. So you upgrade your ship and...it turns out your T5U (upgraded) Fleet-grade ship is still not as good as its T6 equivalent-if you want a top-grade version of your ship again, you actually had to go and buy the T6 version at the C-store for $30, then shell out another $5 for another token to upgrade your ship to fleet grade. so you had to spend another $35 ($42 if you fell for the T5U scam) to have a top-tier ship again and ditch the ship you already spent $25-$30 on. Plus they added an xp grind (naturally) for T5U and T6 ships and their fleet-grade counterparts before they reached their full potential. Ridiculous.

[@ugaanigma3102]

Hardcors d lol you on drugs? Crafted gear is often still the best if you know what to get. Crafted secondary deflectors, wide angle heavy cannons, making [pen], [rapid] and [spread] rolls on weapons. The gear is secondary to a good build. All you need to know is synergy. I can PvP using only mission gear and crafted gear! No fleet or reputation gear is needed

[@jamesstaggs4160]

"Temba, his hotbar on cool down". I must praise that fantastic reference.

[@aeternusdoleo4531]

Temba, logged out. *nod*

[@sgt_s4und3r54]

First of all. I like your video. I do have one gripe though. Most navies have an instance where junior officers can command a vessel. It's not just due to the death of commanders. Destroyers and smaller vessels tend to have junior officers in command of these vessels as a staple. Torpedo boats during WW2 had Lieutenants in command being referred to as either captain or skipper. In time of war(as shown in DS9) as commanders are either killed or crews being lost on a ship to ship basis. In STO it makes sense to start as an LT and work your way to Captain as you get command experience and better ships. I think some people either don't know this or it is overlooked due to it not being part of most Scifi franchises. Once again this is good video. Just thought I'd bring a little more info to the table.

[@nebufabu]

And other factions' explanation of why you are in command... Klingons have that unique method of gaining promotions... (how plausible is that is another story.) Romulans -- basically no one is in the position to say you're not, and by the time it becomes a possible issue you've proven yourself. Jem'hadar don't start at lv 1, and they're Jem'hadar, so of course you're in command...

[@mjohnson5030]

Correct. There are two "Captains": rank and role."Captain" is a rank in most western Navies. In the US it is the equivalent rank of an Army Colonel. Not all rank (or "Post") Captains command ships. The title "Captain" is given to any Commanding officer of a vessel regardless of rank. It is an honorary title, not a rank.

[@pwnmeisterage]

I agree with the gripe ... although I don't think junior officers would get to command cutting-edge supercapital flagships in real life as often as they do in this game.

[@tmcgrenere]

You are correct sir, the infamous Captain Bligh was actually only a Lt. Bligh on his ill fated mission in command of the HMS Bounty. He was promoted to Capt. after he landed back in England..

[@andrewtaylor940]

@@pwnmeisterage Actually as Junior Officers you are mostly limited to the older aging, broken down and has been stuff. Remember this is set 30 years after Nemesis and maybe 20-25 after the destruction of Romulus seen in the opening of JJTrek 2009. So many of the TNG era ships are old school stuff. Training vessels. Short Haul local space "Back By Friday" type ships or ships pulled out of mothballs given a quick refit and update due to the war being on. And even in the real world the actual Military Rank or the Ships Captain depends on the number of men he commands. Not how new his ship is. The typical commanding officer for a US Navy Nuclear Powered Attack Submarine is a Commander. (The Navy equivalent to Major). The newest boat coming out of the slips gets a Commander. Because it's crew size requires a Commander. At the opposite end of this spectrum is the Navy Super Carriers. While the ship itself will have a Captain (an actual Captain ranked Captain in charge of the Ship operations) There will be several other Captain Ranked Officers aboard each with their own Commands. The Air Group has it's own Captain Ranked CAG for example. And they all answer to the Rear Admiral who has overall command of all the units of the Carrier Task Force. Who has his own floor in the ships island, different from the Captain's.

[@Deioth]

"Leonard N'Moy" "Jane Away" I am sorry but I love your pronunciations.

[@cormoran2303]

"Jane-Away!"

[@Hanfgurkenhasser]

*flicks vulcan ears* "N'moy?"

[@BK-ku1zt]

That's actually how Leonard wanted his name pronounced apparently

[@ArchOfWinter]

I'm hearing a Klingon accent.

[@121597Luke]

"Please get Jane Away before the entire galaxy turns on the Federation"

[@Jossecrouge]

Okay. First of all: You are right, STO needs much more exploration and diplomacy BUT This game is completely free! I am a huge Star Wars fan, but for the end-contend of SWToR you were forced to pay money! In STO however you can play every story-mission and every operation for free. There are lots of missions that show with how much passion and love for Star Trek this game was made. And also the game gives you many ships for free, just as a reward, but if you really want a special ship, you find it in the exchange. You just have to work for it. I know this game is not made for everybody, but give it a try! Especially if you haven't played ist for some time. You could be surprised!

[@Ackalan]

No no, it's "Completely free*". *As long as you don't want to progress in end-game.

[@ReyOfLight]

And should you decide to buy a ship in the zen store for zen you’ve either purchased with real money (at a quite affordable price) or by grinding and exchanging refined Dilithium for zen, the ship or outfit (and many other things) unlocks account wide so that you can reclaim it on all toons of the account, now that is a good deal if you want something else than just the free event T6 ships that you can get during special events (the Vorgon ship from last summer event is really neat even on a sci) STO is a game I play a lot, usually hours each day, both because I enjoy the game and because of the community of people I hang out with in game (and on discord)

[@briankriens5645]

Ackalan I haven't spent a dime on STO in many years, and I have 11 characters, all in T6 ships, and my top 5 favorite characters all have mk15 epic gear. Knowing how to get good stuff and not spending real money on it is not hard.

[@simongraymain9739]

@@ReyOfLight this is slightly misleading. There are faction items in the zen store. a federation ship for 2500 zen ($25) cant be used on a Klingon character for example. However there are many bundles that include a ship for Federation, Klingon, and Romulan characters. To clarify for others that see this, if you buy a Galaxy Class ship from the store all federation characters you create can claim a Galaxy Class starship when they reach the level requirements without needing to buy it again.

[@ReyOfLight]

Simon Graymain True, but all toons of the faction can claim the zen store ship. And there are also many ships that are open for all factions, such as the 31st century Temporal ships, or the Vanguard Jem’hadar ships once you’ve just initially leveled them up to level 6 mastery on a Jem’hadar (and a Jem can fly them instantly as they start at lvl 60 so it’s not difficult to just make a Jem toon to unlock the ships account wide if not having a Jem toon already) The first time I spent any real money into STO was last year when getting the 31st century temporal ship bundle, I have since gotten the Vanguard Carrier partly from grinding and a minor zen purchase, and the other week I got myself the Andorian pilot escort for the improved gravity well trait, and the Andorian ship is the only purchased ship that I can’t use on all my toons, though most of mine are Federation or Federation affiliated (I have 3 KDF in total) and all toons but 3 are science so it made sense for me to get that ship even though it’s not one I can fly on all toons, I’m however currently not planning on getting the KDF version of the ship with improved gravity well as too few toons can fly it. If I didn’t use my saved Dilithium in Phoenix events, I’d probably have a lot more ships from zen store just from grinding... But yeah, it’s very rare for me to spend real money in STO

[@elocfreidon]

Considering that they abandoned player made content in all their games, along with how they treated Champions Online, Cryptic deserves destruction.

[@agentxx3022]

>watching this while playing STO...

[@Vimanas.8209]

Agent XX302 Sameeeeee

[@RavenGlenn]

He has always made it clear that death of a game isn't necessarily about completely dead games but games that have fallen into relative obscurity or fallen from grace to an extent that they are considered a failure or on their way out. STO definitely falls into the category as I got it at release and the game fell HARD on its face out of the gate. And I was an avid roleplayer who tried to engage in it on top of being a massive Trekky.

[@jjcoola998]

Such a fun game you watch KZbin while playing it eh? Typical /v/irgin masterpiece

[@AlphaAceEX]

@@jjcoola998 u can play a lot of games while watching yt, especially grinding games

[@acetown2263]

@@jjcoola998 Sounds like someone doesn't have 2 monitors =( I watch youtube while playing literally anything lmao, even story games, I just pause during cutscenes.

[@garethfairclough8715]

I should note, that a lot of the footage from "STO" you showed early in the vid is (as I understand) pre-production mockups from the days when STO was being worked on the Perpetual. Basically nothing of their stuff made it into STO as developed by Cryptic. Another note, Michael Dorn and Denise Crosby weren't involved for the first few years of STO. The only two actors they had from trek itself early on were (iirc) Zachary Quinto (voicing a character in the tutorial) and Leonard Nimoy, who did some generic voice overs on level up (i.e. "Congratulations captain!" sort of stuff each time you levelled up) and some voice lines when visiting certain areas for the first time. Pvp...well...STO just flat not suited to pvp. It never was and this is on a fundamental level. There is just far too much going on for one person to keep track of. Combat is over in pvp ...pretty much instantly if you win, and if you don't "win" instantly, you've failed and are going to get insta-whacked in a very short amount of time by someone else looking to do to you what you failed to do to someone else. The game is built like an old table top RPG/math game, but scaled up *enormously*, i.e. instead of one or two calculations, rolls & checks every so often for damage, resistance etc, you get hundreds of them done every second. It works rather well at the low levels and on the ground, where options are limited, numbers of foes are small and combat is slow. You end up with an experience that is, in many ways, much more like combat in the show. Blows aren't that big, you have enough time to think ahead, consider maneuvering/positioning etc. Later on, it's just a "PEWPEWPEWPEWPEW" spamfest against dozens, if not hundreds of enemies, with so much VFX spam that you literally cannot see the game. I am not exaggerating here. You 100% cannot see a thing beyond your UI, because everything else is washed out by visual effects from ship, gear and officer powers. The ground is bad for this too, as quite a few effects can lead to screens being whited out briefly. Instead of toning things down, the devs legitimately doubled down on this and made a ship device based on the "Klingon Beacon" from Discovery, which whites out the screens of all players in the instance briefly while summoning a few NPC Klingon ships to fight for you. Anyway, over the years, the game has become faster and faster paced, with more and more power & visual fx spam. It is a very complex game mechanically, which would be fine if things were slower. However, in the last few years things have become so fast paced that, when coupled with the inherent mechanical complexity of the game and it's sheer visual spam, players are overwhelmed. Overwhelmed to the point where they'll just bind everything to one button (the space bar, according to the meme), fly their ship in to the rough location of the "big blurry glowy thing" and whack that space bar repeatedly until a "respawn" button appears, when they'll hit respawn and rinse/repeat.

[@Shinzon23]

It's still shit...especially on the consoles

[@garethfairclough8715]

It always was going to be a poor decision to put it on the consoles. THAT's the real reason they started having real problems with dev resources. It had nada to do with the foundry being "too problematic".

[@Shinzon23]

@@garethfairclough8715 wrong, since they very much don't care in the slightest about the console players, and don't bother fixing anything in favour of simply monetizing everything they can

[@garethfairclough8715]

You literally just proved my point.

[@Hylanvahr]

For years, I was one of the few strange ones that enjoyed ground combat a bit more than space. Space was too quick, too pewpew like you said. Mostly a constant cycle of hitting a bunch of buffing, control, and heal powers over and over while firing everything until everything was dead. All the great Starfleet Command style strategy you see during the tutorials and early episodes evaporates by endgame. They kept screwing with the space mechanics, nerfing and buffing over and over while adding more and more ships and gear (the best ones always in the lockboxes, of course) and constantly making the meta a never-ending hamster wheel of pay-to-win which still persists. It's a vicious cycle of endless exploitation and temptation that lets them fish for more financing from the playerbase's wallets. I don't really blame Cryptic for any of that, they are merely executing the will of their cunning Chinese masters. The ground, however, remained mostly unchanged since the Crossfire update with tweaks here and there to keep up with the level caps and new mechanics. To this day lots of people still play the Dyson Ground Battlezone for the dilithium rewards, although it gets very repetitive fighting the same dinosaurs and drones over and over.

[@AndrewBrZa]

I am a massive Star Trek far and started playing around the new Romulus expansion, so that makes it around 5-6 years I have been playing STO. You kept quoting Steam numbers, but the game is available through PWE's own launcher Arc, and once the game is installed you can even launch the game directly. The ground battles were improved tremendously around the new Romulus expansion when they added a 3rd person battle mode, where you could aim and point with a mouse. Think of how fighting worked in the Witcher 1 vs Witcher 3. You can see in your footage you have a lot of the old 'blue' interface, which was the early combat system. It is a game you come back to . The Summer and Winter events bring in players, and I personally I spend a lot of time in game then. After these events I am a bit burnt out, and takes me a month to get back in. With these events you get a pretty good ship. You can earn dilithium and convert that to zen, which you can also get from real world money. You can get a ton of dilithium by just doing the reputations and daily duty officer missions. You can also over time earn a lot of energy credits, and a lot of lock box ships are put on the exchange. I bought a Discovery type ship recently with the ingame energy credits. I think the game is very fair and reasonable when it comes to the usual currency acquisition. You really do not have to spend any money to get a great ship. This is probably the best MMO if you want to play solo, or not have to play with a bunch of friends. With the vast amount of episodes, it can be an incredible experience for a single player Star Trek fan. The game gives you an something to work for every weekend, and 3 week events that come up quite often. They are still adding new content, with Discovery based content being added on the last two expansions. They also just added Jem'Hadar as a faction. The newly designed Deep Space Nine is beautiful. Unlike the Star Wars MMO, you can actually go into space! I will agree that every mission involves combat, which is not very 'Roddenbery', but I think the missions still carry the humanity and the greater good theme throughout.

[@AugmentedDictatorGames]

Look at that, two years ago and the game is still not dead.

[@exilestudios9546]

6 months later and it has only grown in popularity. its almost like with the currant revival of star trek people want to play game with a fuck ton of star trek content

[@AugmentedDictatorGames]

@@exilestudios9546 Yep, that's why I hate these negative videos.

[@jhenson1618]

I had a "lifetime" sub since the game went live. I only log in two or three times a year for a few hours. That's really all the time you need to get your spaceship battle fix. The spaceship battles have always made me feel like I was in a Star Trek episode.

[@TheOldMan-75]

It's probably the only game ever where I actually enjoyed travelling from A to B because I got to see my beautiful ship fly around.

[@FirstLast-qm4ye]

I remember, years ago, stumbling on a Star Trek mud that was really good. It was unbelievably complex but if you put in the time to learn it really did make you feel like a Starfleet crew member. I don't think its around anymore unfortunately.

[@FirstLast-qm4ye]

Multi-User Dungeon. Think text based adventure meets MMO. They are super oldschool but you can still find small active communities and some neat games. The MUD Connector is still up and has a list of active games. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD www.mudconnect.com/index.html

[@grandlancer]

Sounds like you'd be interested in Star Citizen in about 50 years

[@czdaniel1]

_"Nothing can come this year but hopefully Squadron42 can launch some time next year, and maybe with luck Star Citizen will get a Beta launch some time around Christmas next year"_ -- *Yep. Been saying that for six years now!* [I'm kidding, I'm kidding...mostly]

[@velox4439]

SC will be "finished" in like 3 years

[@numberyellow]

50 years? I like your optimism, but you're daft, lol

[@planescaped]

I remember seriously considering donating to Star Citizen when I was in highschool.... I am nearly 30 years old now. Star Citizen is a pipe dream, and the *truest* example of sunken cost fallacy. People are desperate to believe in it because of all the time and money they have invested in following it. But it's vaporware.

[@dread-cthulu]

At this point SC is a bad joke....I feel bad for all those people who poured so much money into it.

[@senorcapitandiogenes2068]

All I want is a Star Trek game that is actually good and, most importantly, is not set in ST:D or anything from the JJ-Verse

[@moviemaniacdjp]

Yeah, it's called Star Trek Online

[@moviemaniacdjp]

@@HelghastStalker but it isn't dead

[@moviemaniacdjp]

@@HelghastStalker at least, at the time if this video it wasn't dead. But now I kind of agree with you.

[@Sentient.A.I.]

@Ivaiyo Ivanov What star trek needs are a group of fans with a nice game engine and toolkit and i bet a group of 50 fans with a build kit and maybe 2 devs could build a game that would rival SWTOR. Literally husband and wife duo's are putting out better content than we see in STO. Just the right fans and a Dev or two with a quality engine and a better product could be realized in probably less time than cryptic spent on it before launch. I don't understand why the big companies arent using this model to develop there games in the first place. If the Devs could focus on core mechanics/the engine/toolkit and you put a large community of superfans in play train them for a week with the dev kit after the engine is built and finessed you would end up with a superior product the likes of we have yet to see. Hell i bet some of the fans would intern/ work for little to nothing just to have their names in the credits on a big IP like star trek or marvel or something. This is the problem when your devs have to code and churn out content both of them suffer. The content has no motivation or magic behind it like it would with a fan designing a planet or level of their favorite IP and mechanics are trash because because your coders are playing with the dev kit all day making cookie cutter levels that no one is into.

[@Sephivoiceactor]

@@HelghastStalker it references both but still technically takes place in the universe of the old shows. It tries to be both universes at once, but with it primarily aiming to be about the older shows.

[@OneofInfinity.]

You forgot one of the best, ST Voyager: Elite force.

[@baronsengir187]

And the Star Trek Armada Series.

[@TheRyFiNetWork]

SengirShowsU Star Trek Armada was perfection, Elite Force also for me as those two games were so fun and so true to trek. If they were to do a HD remaster of both those titles I’d just give you as much money as you want right now.

[@Izcer]

@@baronsengir187 startrek starfleet command 1 and 2 also were good

[@BuriBuster]

Don't forget Klingon Academy

[@reerjgiorge]

The best star trek games ever made were -> startrek starfleet command, and star trek starfleet command 2 and the expansion orion pirates.

[@commanderkyel]

I sunk hundreds of hours into this game during middle school and the beginning of high school. I stopped after the Dyson Sphere content launch bc the game just got boring and I did everything. I made a diplomatic captain and was very disappointed in the exploration end game. I made a tac captain became a MACO and legitimately spent a year fighting the BORG. What kept me around for so long was the community but once I grew apart from my fleet the game itself couldn’t keep me playing. It’s sad because I sunk so much time into this game and had so many happy memories on it but still the game was flawed.

[@imaginaryfriend4512]

There _were_ exploration-type missions. Not only did Cryptic delete the missions, they completely threw away the areas that those missions even happened in (because you didn't need the latest lockbox ships to complete them). That was shortly before I quit playing.Good Video, thorough analysis. You pretty much listed all the factors that drove me away from the game.

[@mrcyberpunk]

they also took out the Voice acting for your crew as well. Your crew used to have voiced barks and you could customise them. This was in the beta but was removed in the v.1.0 release. Cryptic massively messed up when they removed the exploration missions, there was a lot of potential there but was undermined by the fact that the combat overtook the entire game this is mainly because everyone in Beta was playing the Klingon raids and grinding rather than doing the exploration missions. The original cryptic team was completely incompetent.

[@10011110011]

I returned to it a few years ago after taking a break. Now I understand why did it feel like it's missing parts I remembered.

[@roadkillz78]

I do miss those missions. They were good content fillers that I could keep playing with capped characters. Without them, I don't get to enjoy my capped character anymore after completing all the story episodes.

[@thcollegestudent]

We lost those randomly generated areas in favor of more well crafted, more expansive areas with better story, all be it at first in fewer number.

[@Quetzalcoatl_Feathered_Serpent]

The exploration type missions were pulled due to the Foundry. with the Foundry now being deleted. Thankgod cause it most of the time never worked maybe they might re-introduce the exploration missions. Now that the dev have more time to focus on the actual game and not players fan stories that well some were awesome just wasn't part of the game.

[@samst-pierre7416]

i play this since the beta, i put ZERO $ and you know what? i still love this game!!

[@averylargecrow]

Ah my dude It's a fine game that I enjoyed playing 6 months of and smashing all content before the recent DS9 to say this game is anywhere near dead is a lie.

[@joshuabrandenburg8308]

Just because the game has hardcore fans that will play it just for the name doesn't make it a good or alive game. There's literally 1,200 people playing 🤣🤣🤣

[@joshuabrandenburg8308]

Which means those 1,200 people put so much money into the game, 1,200 people alone, the devs see it profitable to keep releasing updates when the game shoulda been dead years ago. That just means the game has whales spending thousands upon thousands.

[@lancerfour]

for a lot of the same reasons you made a video at this time about STO, i'd recommend checking out Mechwarrior Online. not for the same reasons, but i'd also love to see a breakdown of Hawkin and Tribes: Ascend. Granted, i'm sure you have other things on the burner, so no worries. Love the channel, please keep it up :D

[@Serious_Ludd]

Mechwarrior Online is honestly a great game destroyed by the microtransactions. Pretty sad cause it's a load of fun at first. Living Legends was the best.

[@Feuerhamster]

Tribes: Ascend can be summarized with a single word: Smite.

[@kinggoten]

Mechwarrior Online... it is a great game with a fair F2P model, but lacks any real content the whales who support it are not numerous enough for them to push out proper content that the IP deserves and the game being very niche as well as pvp only with a decent learning curve do not help it either. Like STO it is another example of a game that was killed by having a poor launch

[@Horos101]

RIP Hawken

[@sebaseba285]

if every youtube video would contain Rich Evans and Mike the world would be a better place!

[@Pwnstared]

Love those guys!

[@narev6569]

I'm hoping Mr Plinkett will agree to be my new dad

[@fallout3fanboy1]

Coming up on the 11th anniversary, nearly two years after this was posted, game is still very alive and doing fine!

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Seems like it. It's gained nearly no new consistent players and has had no serious updates since.

[@killfordosh1]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss This is a comment that has aged like milk with two big named updates being released since that comment

[@CaptPatrick01]

@@killfordosh1 Make that 4. And a new story arc on top of that. With many miscellaneous overhauls in between that addresses some of the issues. It did seems like the game was on its backfoot when the video was made, but after CBS decided to loosen their grip a little, the devs made a ton of good decisions, trimming back some of the excess grind and reducing FOMO. Pretty sure most in these comments haven't played or looked at it since 2018, and have no idea the game is still up and running, let alone 50-100k concurrent users. Edit: should've led with the fact that I've been playing silver since 2014.

[@reikahn1603]

@@CaptPatrick01 Unfortunately that's not really accurate. You're right that its gotten a new story arc, and it's gotten a few overhauls. The problem is, things have still been getting worse. There are more missions, more actors from the show, more ships, etc. All very well and good, from the outside anyway. But at this point this game has gone so far towards pay to win that it might as well be called "pay to play." To get any of the endgame ships, and along with them the gear and traits necessary to make a functional build, you have three choices: Grind for dilithium (one of the premium currencies) and exchange it for zen (the real money currency) to buy the ship. Except you can't, because the dilithium exchange has been capped out for about a year with a months long backlog, and there's an 8000 per day refinement cap. Grind the reputation system up to tier six to get five fleet ship modules (one per maxed rep, and you'd have to grind every day for 70 days minimum to get the rep to maximum for the first time on the account) and buy a ship from the fleet. Except that those fleet ships do not come with the special equipment and traits that come with the zen store version, and to grind them in the first place you'd have to be doing endgame content in a ship inadequate for the endgame. Or, of course, just buy the ship for real money and skip all of that. But it doesn't end there. Because at this point to have a decently competitive build even once you have a fair collection of endgame ready ships, you all but have to acquire traits and equipment that can only be gotten through paid lockboxes (lootboxes). You can try to buy what you need from the player exchange, but the prices are in the tens of millions and grinding that currency is likewise abysmally slow and tedious. Most characters top out at about one million EC (the basic ingame currency) per day if actively grinding. The cost of one trait? Somewhere around sixty million. The cost of the cheapest premium (gambling) ship? Somewhere over three hundred million. The cost of the most sought after premium ships? Beyond the price cap for the exchange, which is one and a half billion. Ultimately, virtually every aspect of the game is designed to extract as much money from the player base as possible. We get more lockbox ship releases than new missions. Not expansions, just half hour story missions. Or fifteen minute max raids. And it doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. Just recently cryptic broke their old "excuse" for having ships in lockboxes at all, and put two era appropriate federation ships in their gamble boxes. I'm a lifetime member of STO. I've been playing for over ten years now. But I cannot recommend that anyone new start playing. And anyone who is already playing should seriously consider whether its worth the cost.

[@laughingalex7563]

@@reikahn1603 They FINALLY fixed the exchange some, there was a fuckton of bots loading up zen orders so much there was no path to earning zen, they banned the bots and suddenly we are seeing zen orders in the “offers to sell zen” again. Maybe things will finally improve, maybe.

[@zootopiawilson]

For me the only thing that kept STO interesting was the Foundry. When they removed it from STO and Neverwinter I kinda stopped playing both games.

[@yokorose]

really do hope you do a video on champions online as that game has not had updates in years and i mean years. and your tease for next death of a game made me so sad as i played that mmo to hell and back...

[@ForeverKnightmare]

No, it has been getting alot of updates but one thing thing they did do, is completely throw out the subscription model all of a sudden one day last year against player protests. Since that model was heavily ingrained in the game, alot of players like me had been using that to play for like 8 years now and now are locked out of their characters with no option but to either quit the game like me after all these years or start a new character as an archetype (which I haven't done since I first came to the game when it first went free to play since I come there for the huge customisation and not just set classes) or pay 20 dollars for each character you were locked out of to get them back which is insane when you think about the fact that some people have upwards of 50+ characters after all these years.

[@josht9518]

@@ForeverKnightmare I don't really see any content added to that game (granted, they did just release an archetype.... but I mean real content). Every time I look it's just another event that they are repeating from a previous year, followed by more cosmetic stuff. Cryptic is giving it the dirty treatment and keeping it in maintenance mode.

[@ForeverKnightmare]

@@josht9518 Depends on what you consider content, but I actually agree with you but Everytime I used to bring up that no real content like new alerts or adventure packs we're being added, I would get shouted down by some players. The only real new thing they added lately was the custom villains special alert Save the World I believe. Other than that it's just been more grind events, lockboxes, and focus on the same old cosmic fights. That, plus the game seems to be over the thing that I initially started playing for which is the alting aspect. Something they seem to forget recently with all the character bound currency.

[@josht9518]

@@ForeverKnightmare Totally agree. I was writing an article that criticized Champions and their lack of features in years when they curve balled the "Nightmare" archetype on me. I'm hoping one of two things will happen. 1) They die off peacefully into the sunset. 2) Perfect World refuses to get beat by some independent developers and rise from the ashes in the name of competition once City of Titans, Ship of Heroes, and Valiance Online officially launch (supposedly by this year). But being as they showed no interest to even compete with DCUO, I doubt they will care enough to save themselves.

[@ForeverKnightmare]

@@josht9518 Sigh...See thats kind of my problem though 1) As much as I am still upset at PW/Cryptic for basically locking me out of the game when they did away with the sub model, I still have alot of friends and people who really enjoy the game and been playing for years since, personally, no other game touches it in terms of customization over your character design and power-set. Also it still stands out after all these years (sadly) as one of the only mmos that isnt just yet another medieval fantasy or sci-fi fantasy one. Which is sad to think about cause superheroes are perfect for the genre and have been hot for a long time now especially with the MCU and DCU doing their thing...yet they made no effort to promote or capitalize on that for Champions. 2)I really would like that to happen but I am highly skeptical since while it would be great for an indie like them to come in a save the day, I havent heard much hype for any of those besides when used in someone saying that they hope those will be better than Champs. Also, I feel like I would be more confident if they were making less ambitious projects like a single player or 4 player co-op typed game but going for something like an MMO when even Champions really doesnt do that great attention-wise is a bit concerning. But then again I fully blame PW/Cryptic since, as I have been saying for years, IT LITERALLY TAKES NOTHING TO ATLEAST MAKE UPDATE VIDEOS OR PROMOTIONAL ONES TO POST TO THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA OR KZbin CHANNEL. I mean for god sakes even on steam the most recent update posted for the game is the Shadow of Destruction event....in 2016.... I mean at this point, DCUO to me atleast, isn't as great as CO in terms of what I look for in a game about superheroes. I like the combat so I still go back I would say like maybe once or twice a year to play but that whole time im not playing, I still constantly get emails whenever they start beta testing or getting ready to put out a new Issue (their word for updates)....while I get radio silence from CO.. I have to load up the launcher just to see the latest news, which is usually just a sale on some cash shop items or just more content they are putting in gambleboxes.

[@planktonic-larvae]

The secret World for your next video!?

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Good work ;)

[@azraelswrd]

pretty sure that died the minute they "rebooted" and pissed off their loyalists.

[@cindychung7002]

Which version? Or both? I preferred the original :)

[@chubbubdreamer6904]

@@azraelswrd Yeah, I saw that. I jumped on late, but my boyfriend and I were enjoying it. Then they did some huge revamp and apparently pissed off a lot of their fans.

[@chubbubdreamer6904]

@@nerdSlayerstudioss I gotta admit, I couldn't help but grin hearing that music.

[@justthisguyrevamp7709]

Go ahead and call me geeky but I'm almost positive it's not pronounced Jane-a-way ;)

[@alteredbeast7145]

It-isa whena you saaay it in a Mario voice

[@OizenX]

Its pronounced Insaneway

[@jv-lk7bc]

its a pithy commentary.

[@TheBlackB0X]

I kind of liked it, because it would be a fantastically snarky way to dismiss her off your bridge.

[@FiddlerForest]

I did what several others did, i bought the life time membership when the game was still subscription based. But i quit playing in late 2011 and just returned to the game last week. So finding this video is just as hilarious as it is perfectly on the nose. If i remember correctly it STO was originally billed/described as something between EVE online and WoW. WoW like mechanics but EVE levels of galaxys to explore and you had to rank up to be able to push the edges of the Federation with a random event/mission generator that meant every new system you discovered, you not only got to name, but could have "countless" types of combat or exploratory missions to engage with. What we got was... not that. That said, coming back to having $470+ worth of banked free Zen has made things nice, even if i have no idea what to spend it on. I've also been super impressed by the level of story and voice acting, even if you have to make the cognitive leap from Cadet to acting Captain. It is very interesting to see the investment in story, but also in the late game GRIND. The TCG like crew members for missions that take 30min-6hrs, the Task Force reputation that takes 1-Xhrs + grindy resources, the Admiralty Fleet missions that last 2-42hrs, the R&D which takes tons of resources or 20+hrs slots to grind out for what appears to be dimensioned returns, and all totally benefit the long long term hard core players but add just another barrier of entry to the casuals or new players tht i think really hurts STO. And these are things you can't really even buy your way through. Good video.

[@thenerdygamer3944]

God played this game for legit 1000 hours over the years, it was a way of me and my dad bonding of all things. Like I turn 20 on Friday and I have fond memories of it with my dad even if it is a shitshow now.

[@deevee5327]

I disagree. Star Trek Online had a ton of exploration!' For example, I played the gam for about 4 days and had absolutely ZERO idea about where I am, what is going on, what is the weir warp space thing you had to use to travel, etc. So much unknown.

[@deevee5327]

@@HelghastStalker Or Maybe *Wait for it!* Maybe the tutorial was just really awful and the game was a weird instance-based linear experience with a single quest to follow and that was mostly about it, really.

[@robertwood9572]

I bought and played STO at launch and had the same thoughts “well, most trek games suck ass so this one is relatively good”. Took a few year break and forgot about it entirely until I checked it out again a year or so ago (on steam, and all my original stuff was still there from ‘10-‘11). It’s a much better game now than it was then, and the quests (episodes) are like being in an “episode” of Star Trek with your captain and crew as the main focus. Personally, I really like that. Ground combat is garbage, it was garbage then (I played before it was a thing during the beta) and it’s still pretty bad. The graphics are pretty dated *but* it will run on max settings and look decent on a potato laptop. My biggest complaint about STO is the rabid monetizing and the loot boxes. The boxes are common af but you need to spend money to buy the key to open it, and there’s no guarantee on what you’ll get. There’s also a limit to the “free” ships you get based on your captain level, and you’ll run into a paywall unless you devote yourself to min/maxing your captain or ship. It’s a very enjoyable game for trek fans who can ignore the constant money grabs and get immersed in the story.

[@Atharun18999]

The last part about min/maxing isn't true. Each year, they do multiple events that reward the player with premium ships. Additionally, they have a year long event every year, that allows the player to choose from 2 free T6 (store) ships, a lockbock ship of your choice, or enough currency for a premium lockbox ship. Additionally they partner with companies like Alienware and Steelseries to give free codes that give players a ton of items that would otherwise require cash. They actually have one of the best f2p models out there. You just have to dig for that info.

[@paulfrehley3010]

Ground combat is lousy, but I love the ships and the stories are the best for star trek in 20 years.

[@cormoran2303]

I gots my STO ship model and that's all I need :P The critiques are pretty on point. The starship combat in particular is basically just the flying mechanics from Champions Online. Whatever happens in the future I hope the starship designs can be kept on in some way. Cryptic designed some purty Star Trek ships over the years!

[@GoomerNotABoomer]

Hey as a former player who owns a discovery ship which i got for free because u can grind the entire game for free and fleets "clans" work together and build communitys my experience is much different than your but i ask did u really really reach out to the community

[@Unf0rget]

Video gaming havnt evolved enough compelling mechanics to handle star trek narratives. A good star trek game is gonna have to innovate away from common mechanics to build a compelling gameplay loop. That's hard. Combat has always been the 'immediate challenge' of choice to break up the flow of a game. Really, any mmo attempt at star trek has such a tremendous hurdle to overcome.

[@no-one_nobody]

Agreed...The closest of game mechanics to portray the essence of Star Trek in a videogame has ever been maybe Mass Effect and Fallen Order.

[@ProfDragonite]

"Temba, his hotbar on cooldown" Now *THAT* is a deep cut.

[@HGGundamPlays]

STO may be closer to dying than you might think, in the last 48 hours Cryptic studios announced they are sun setting the player created "Foundry" system. They will do this for STO and Neverwinter so it's possible, even though they are still selling and advertising LifeTime Subscriptions ($299.99 USD), the game may only have 1 or 2 years left in it before it's closed. At least that's my fear as a current player.

[@azraelswrd]

and Cryptic is already diverting assets towards the Magic the Gathering MMO so who knows where the other franchises will be in the future.

[@Mael6469]

They did that because each time a new patch came out, it was broken for 2 months and the devs that coded it left 6 years ago. It was their bug team that fixed it each time and kept them away from fixing the main game. I know it is not the "best" MMO but I hop into it here and there to poke around and burn through the new story missions.

[@cmdraftbrn]

foundry didnt die, it was murdered.

[@lapaloma2138]

Disco Content will give STO the rest

[@Rheinguard]

Does that mean their retroactively removing ALL Foundry missions? There were some very good ones, and no I'm not talking about the farming sims.

[@m3nguele]

So, exploration is a real difficult thing to sell, and hard to make. That's the reason why most Star Trek games fail critically, afterall, in the Atari era, just 3 games were made with it in mind (that I know). So maybe. just maybe, Bethesda is the right developer to this franchise (they're developing Starfield already), just don't expect it to be online, or a good online game

[@sarysa]

I come back to it time to time for its story elements, but you basically hit the nail on the head. Flawed but enjoyable...if you're a trekkie like me. The one thing I miss, though, is the mission creator. There was some damn good fanfiction that came out of it, and the user-based curation system worked very well to this effect.

[@jeanzupan6460]

In 2020 during quarantine, people began playing more video games so STO has been slowly gaining a bit of popularity.

[@trygveplaustrum4634]

Painful. I was an avid fan, and I got heavily into it- right before they closed the Mac client. I have a Mac. FML If you're interested, I made a foundry mission: The Jefferson Secession. Feel free to look it up and play it. Sorry for the bugs. Can't edit it anymore.

[@cormoran2303]

Painful will be when you find out they're shutting down the foundry system. So sad....

[@trygveplaustrum4634]

@@cormoran2303 Ha ha ha! *cries*

[@velox4439]

gaming on a mac isnt really a thing

[@allocater2]

Couldn't find "The Jefferson Secession". Are you sure it's spelled like this? Also could not found "The Je" or anything like that.

[@Yanrogue]

Loved STO when it first came out, but as you leveled you realized they had no idea what they were doing for end game and social systems

[@blackcitadel37]

That's true for all Craptic games.

[@blackcitadel37]

@Ivaiyo Ivanov any game related to one of these companies: NCSoft, Perfect World, Nexxon, Cryptic Studios, should be avoided or at least not be taken seriously.

[@milhousevanhoutan9235]

Ironically STO was ahead of the curve with a more militaristic and insular federation hiding behind it's own values as we've seen in Picard. The rogue synth attack and destruction of romulus (destruction of romulus has been mentioned in the game since the beginning, one of the bonuses for preordering was a red matter capacitor, and explicitly added with the Romulans update). While I don't think Rogue Synths have been added (haven't played in a while) it stands to reason if one happened then the other did too. So either the Picard writers took inspiration from the game, or the game just happened to predict the Federation would become more militaristic after the destruction of Romulus. While they didn't necessarily get the reason for it (attributing to the Klingons engaging in 'warm war' of sorts as well as continued borg activity, etc) they still got the correct evolution of the federation. So yes the Federation of 2410 IS one that blasts shit while talking about it's high ideals it abandoned long ago. Also as for the captian thing- nobody wants to be a tactical officer on an NPC ship for 15 years. Also the game explains it pretty well, the Federation is kind of getting their ass kicked so if the ship flys welcome to field promotions. Also naming Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway is unfair because there are hundreds of thousands, or maybe even millions of nameless captains in starfleet that have the same job. Also the idea that the federation would be giving old referb ships like the Miranda to leutenants and ensigns to fly makes total sense if you're pressing everyone into service during a war. NEVER forget that Starfleet is first and foremost a military organization. It has it's own justice system, it has all the ranking and trapping of a military, and is primarily responsible for the defense of the federation. The fact that it is engaged for exploration and diplomatic missions does not make it non-military. In the real world the military assists with diplomatic missions all the time in a similar manner to starfleet (providing guard in potentially hostile civilizations). This is not even mentioning that Starfleet is referred to on screen in the shows and films as the military arm of the UFP multiple times (especially in DS9). Starfleet is the definition of an Iron Fist in a velvet glove.

[@exilestudios9546]

due to picard being a smaller scale show they havent been focusing on content from it outside of ships especially since Patrick Stuart refuses to voice Picard in this game. he is one of the only members of the trek cast who doesnt want to do something in STO

[@powerbeard5653]

@@exilestudios9546 so he'll do Emoji Movie but not STO? ...interesting.

[@tangentslayer]

The one problem I had with Star Trek Online was the mandatory starship battles. I was looking for more of the "Explore strange, new worlds...meet new people and new civilizations...boldly go, etc."

[@IHateHandlesWayTooMuch]

Pair STO with No Man’s Sky and add a quest system from skyrim. GG perfect game Jk

[@TheTrueCaptainAwesome]

Painfully accurate.

[@CaptPatrick01]

You are going to hate Elite Dangerous then.

[@peterchasten2790]

Tbh I feel that could be a pretty neat game one which I would play, I love no man's sky and play it every now and then.

[@JoseChavez-qn5qm]

I liked STO but haven’t played in years.

[@Trooper10231]

Same.

[@dontcheckmychanel]

The Victory is Life stuff is actually great. I'd whip out your old character and play through that, at least.

[@revolrz22]

This fucking game. It could have been so good, with a deep, methodical pace to its combat that could have stricken a more casual-leaning balance between EvE and other space faring MMOs. Instead, we get phaser discoballs and so manu visual effects stacking on top of one another that you never actually see your ship in combat.

[@MUMSUniverse]

Really interesting breakdown. I too hope that one day we get a good ST game that beings all the feels we get from the ST shows (& some of thr movies). Good vid!

[@SabinStargem]

If you want games authentic to Star Trek's classic character, give Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites a try. They are basically Point & Click adventure games, with dialogue trees. Being an ideal representative of Starfleet is key to getting a good score on your missions. Channel your inner Kirk and Picard, try not to be a Janeway or Lister.

[@Tamara_SL]

Add to that the TNG game "A Final Unity" as well, as it plays similar to those TOS adventure games. I hope it will one day be re-released on GOG eventually. I love all 3 of those games. They best capture Star Trek's spirit of using diplomacy and trying to find the least negatively impactful solution to problems.

[@TrejoDuneSea]

I started playing this game a little after the Victory is Life expansion. It's odd that micro transactions are so prevalent, because I managed to go through all of the storyline content without spending a dime or using any kind of ship other than the ones you receive for free as you level up.

[@PDYork]

Compliments of the Alliance.

[@viysnjor4811]

you can definitely do all content with the ships they give you, using credits to buy upgrades etc, and you can save dilithium to convert to zen (premium currency) and eventually buy a cash shop ship without spending real money. on top of that, they frequently make decent tier 6 ships available as rewards for the various holiday events, and theyre even easier to get done now than ever before.

[@Shadowkey392]

I love this game. I don’t think STO is dying, and I don’t think it will begin to die any time soon. That said, it would be nice if they could focus a little more on exploration, but like you said, that’s probably a really hard thing to get right in an MMORPG. Good video.

[@CRAZYMUGMAN]

sto is not dying, it's growing

[@radeadcool]

2 years later... still going just hit the 12 year mark.

[@Warhammered]

I'm a lifetime subscriber (and have been since release) and I have to say...you're so spot on. I really hate this as a Star Trek game. It has nothing about it or in it that is what I wanted. Only playing because I'm a lifer. What did I want? I wanted Perpetual's vision of the game, even if it was un-obtainable back then. Not this, everyone's the Captain and micromanaging their ship and crew to shoot everything mentality. I wanted to be a character on a ship, with a crew of other players and NPCs. Akin to that Bridge Commander and Bridge Crew game, but with characters that can move around and do things inside the ship. All while exploring the unknown and doing missions. Finding your role on the ship, and working your way up a little. All I ever wanted to be was an XO, for instance. And I wanted to live like a Starfleet officer, not some murder-hobo. On that note, I hate PvP, so I've never cared about it and Star Trek is fine without it. It's non-sequitur and pointless. This does not need to be EVE online, a game that would be dead itself if not for it's sole focus being said constant douche-bag PvP. You don't need massive content when your players are content with being as destructive and deceitful as possible in making chaos, to give the illusion that you the devs, are doing so much to enrich the setting with something not PvP. This episode of yours was made before the recently announced closure of the in-game Foundry coming in April. You know, the thing that allowed players to make better content than the game devs (who no longer have anyone who knows how to use it, let alone update it because it never was.) I have to say, I want this game to die and be replaced by something better. I really, really do. But until that happens, I'm still playing it because they're giving me essentially $5 a month to play. (The lifetime sub paid for itself half a decade ago for me.) And yeah the loot boxes suck and I don't know why they aren't in the news as being bad, as other games using them have been shown as. *sigh* And no, I'm not a (space) whale. I'm just a sucker that won't let go, but still knows to keep my money safe from buying everything they put in front of me.

[@TheAdmiralGhost]

I'm also a Lifer. It was the feline species (Caitians) that sold the game for me. Been playing since the game received it's first update 6 months after launch. Tried to turn my experience into a profitable KZbin channel. Sadly it never came to pass, game was never that relevant. Not to mention I hate Star Trek Discovery. It was fun while it lasted, but I barley play it anymore now that I have maxed out gear and want NOTHING to do with STD. So it sits there on my SSD, un-updated, wasting away when it was once my #1 game that I played day in and day out for hours on end. I will be sad to see this game go after sinking $4K into it.

[@AnonEyeMouse]

I'm a lifer. I must admit I play less than ten hours a month now. I literally just log in to earn a little Zen, look at new ships and see if my free Zen has dropped yet. I might run some alerts for nostalgia's sake. I cycle through my 14 characters and reset all their crew missions, etc. Set them all going with new ones... That's about it.

[@numberyellow]

Fellow Lifer here.... Totally agree with this post. Perpetual's vision was better, this game should die, and be replaced with a proper-looking, proper-playing Trek MMO. I also used to play Eve Online.... What attracted me to that game was the lore, and the genuine exploration... I know it's known for everyone being a cunt, and endless PvP, and everything being awful....but that wasn't my experience, at least not entirely. About 2 weeks in, I loaded myself into a tristan (frigate very low HP, poorly armed), and i made a pilgrimage to the EVE gate, it's a pretty normal thing lots of n00bs do. Of course, the gate, and pretty much the entire route to get to it, is in low-sec space. I encountered plenty of pilots out there, and a few of them even locked weapons on me, but when i announced that i was on a pilgrimage to the gate, everyone left me alone...and i'd get messages like "safe travels", and "good luck"....even had a couple of them escort me a few jumps out, because they knew there was bad shit a little ways ahead on my road to the gate. There are plenty of good people in that game.. Now, that's not to say there aren't genuine bastards in the game too.. My clan's first, and last attempt to set up interests in low-sec space came to a spectacular end when our convoy was ambushed by PvP pilots, almost immediately after gating in.....we never stood a chance. it was a fucking disaster. we all kinda got disillusioned after that.. The trip to the eve gate was totally worth it, though.. Hell of a sight, the gate.. And i saw a lot of other amazing things in my time playing eve.. If i had the time, and the money, i'd probably go back. In my opinion, EVE is doing everything right.. The game looks good, plays really well, Has a fun, tight combat system, is immersive....it has something STO doesn't: atmosphere... between the music, and beautiful visuals...it all just FEELS right. Cryptic could learn some things from CCP.

[@glytch83]

Seems like you've started a support group for Lifers. I'm a lifer... I gave up after the short lived Victory is Life bomb. New species that I'd been waiting on for years, no veteran rewards, no support, just a throw away story. I was sorely disappointing. It was my last straw after 9 years and hundres of dollars blown.

[@reerjgiorge]

Being a lifer has nothing to do with anything. I am not a lifer (i must be completely our of my mind to buy that hahahaha) but ive been playing almost since the release (since 2011). Well, back in the days you could even think on buying a lifetime sub, but nowaday you must be the most stupid person in the world to do that lol.

[@billyhyde1415]

Your analysis is good with regard to why Star Trek Online never took off, but there IS, I think, a lot more to say about why it's maintained its core audience fairly consistently: (1) Star Trek online has PLAYER-CREATED CONTENT, in the form of the Foundry system -- itself a development on City of Heroes / City of Villains' player content system, the Mission Architect. This system is a toolset that allows Star Trek fans to create their own stories set in the star trek universe, using a stripped down, user-friendly set of tools and simple code bits and a catalogue of models, graphics, maps, and the like. The missions created can then be hosted either privately or publicly for friends or the general playerbase. This system was hugely popular in City of Heroes, and the inclusion of Foundry on STO meant that the players could, if they managed the learning curve on the toolset, create and share missions beyond the main content. In a basic sense, the players themselves could fill the content drought between expansions, and this feature attracts and keeps players that might otherwise drop away, especially considering that it's attached to such a devoted fantbase's IP. In looking at some of the most popular missions created in Foundry, you can see a depth and vibrancy in storytelling that few gaming experiences can match - not just from the satisfaction of playing, but from creating as well. (2) Although the monetization in the game is fairly aggressive and pay-to-win, one thing that it's largely NOT is random. Lootboxes are in, and they do contain some unique ships and such that don't come from any other source, but once they're in the game, they can be sold on the in-game marketplace between players for game currency. Outside of that, the cash shop's offering of ships, skins, outfits, races, and the like means that you CAN shop for things and get what you want, rather than having to gamble.

[@grgotoplak1127]

Pity they are shutting down the Foundry on 11.04. Only real unique selling point of the game, and they're cutting it out. Sad. However, one of the main reasons game is still alive is one of the most generous F2P models in MMOs - aside from some Lifetime Subscription items, practically everything else can be earned with moderate amount of grind.

[@Fleet-Admiral-Harrison]

@@grgotoplak1127 I agree. I have played the game, for about 7 years, and was a LTS, for about 3 or 4 of those years, and I managed to get the things I have, from just a bit of grind, and saving my stipend, for those items. The only things that I wished they would do, is have a bit more exploration, and new species, to explore with. Other than that, getting the ships, that are canon, to look like they did, in the shows/movies, is the only thing that keeps me entertained, by this game. Thomas Marone is dong a fantastic job redoing those ships, imo.

[@billyhyde1415]

I haven't actually played STO in about a year and a half, other than casually goofing around for a night here and there - I'm quite disappointed, if they're doing away with Foundry. I suppose it IS a pretty big database by this time, that takes money to keep updated and running, not to mention checking for reported/offensive content. It might be worth a revisit, though, after Foundry is dropped to see if it has any impact on the concurrent users.

[@Fleet-Admiral-Harrison]

@@billyhyde1415 The missions that are in the Foundry currently, will be saved, from what Mike Fatum, STO's community manager, said in the stream about it, which tells me, if they get some more people dedicated to making a better foundry, that's not over 8 or 10 years old, and quite prone to breaking, maybe we'll see it return, in some fashion. Here's to hoping.

[@billyhyde1415]

@@Fleet-Admiral-Harrison I was always more impressed with Foundry than I had been with CoX's Mission Architect, but the Mission Architect was very bare-bones, and kind of made to be as break-proof as possible. The freedom to build, change, and create in Foundry was startlingly delightfully wide, but when you have that many people pushing the limits of a tool kit designed to have fairly few limits, it's bound to be troublesome. Here's hoping another version of it comes along.

[@goldman77700]

Oh yes what a good day for a new episode!

[@BRWeisensel]

One of the other major issues is that the game play is more of a padded single player experience than an actual multi-player one. Much like you mentioned, each player has to be a ship captain. There is only awkward raid missions for multiple players to work together on and public instanced continuous combat activities, and that is it for cooperative game play. The vast majority of the game's content is entirely single player, just bloated with MMO grind to make it take more hours of investment.

[@TheGreenGoblinator]

The game has had huge updates for a constant period over the last few years. It really does lack any 'generic' content (ie that would appeal to a non star trek fan), but ultimately they've remade the canon enough that (most) missions are not very similar to the episodes of the various shows. STO has a lot of paid context, but there are very few MMORPGs with as much stuff/content to do without every spending a single dime, and most of the ships are highly cosmetic with very few special features (that also take up the equivalent of an equipment slot (30~% increase in damage, for example)).

[@HYDRAdude]

@16:50 Cryptic games have always had garbage PVP. No idea as to why.

[@elmoisred616]

Honestly neverwinter PvP is some of the best PvP I've seen in an MMO

[@TheTrueCaptainAwesome]

I would pay a substantial amount of money to see City of Heroes come back again, but I also distinctly remember that very, VERY few people enjoyed the PVP introduced via City of Villains. It was always the most one-sided bullshit. You can't be a Scrapper and hope to have a "fair fight" against a Tanker that calls you out.

[@reerjgiorge]

Becasue they dont have skillez devs. Thats why. So in the moment they see a tiny difficulty programming pvp, they think "well, wth, why are we going to waste resources on this, stupid dumb rich kids and money whales are already making us rich". So, they ignore pvp completely. They will do something by time to time to make people think they actually care a little for pvp, but in reality they will do nothing. In fact, thats what they have beendoing for years, saying we are going to do this or whatever, and they never ever do anything at all hahahahahahah. But its hilarious when you see a new player asking for a fix for a ship that has broken nacelles, and someone who has been playing for 4 years tells him "welcome to star trek online. Yup, i already reported that 4 years ago... " hahaha.

[@danielball959]

Developers do a better job building the kind of games they, themselves want to play. NOBODY at Cryptic likes PvP gaming as a concept, most have no experience playing player vs player games, the ones who do are open about how much of a negative experience it was for them. It's not particularly hard to figure out why if you understand that the company lacks anyone with the mindset to understand what makes a PVP game good.

[@pwnmeisterage]

The devs have probably observed the majority of their subscribers prefer to play solo or cooperative modes. And of course the aggressive PKers always find ways to manipulate free-to-play titles to gain anonymity and other advantages while ganking noobs (the same noobs the devs want to recruit as loyal subscribers and ongoing microtransaction revenues). So I'm guessing PvP will probably stay nerfed and broken forever. Even if there ever is enough demand they'll probably contain it on isolated PvP servers/instances.

[@arempy5836]

I literally just looked stuff up about this game yesterday. What a coincidence.

[@secondavenger9775]

I'd love to see you do an episode on Silicon Knights, really enjoying this series from the vids I've seen.

[@Thedownliner2015]

It's funny that STO in November 2021 now has more concurrent players than Marvels Avengers.

[@Bebhell]

Oh shit I got here early this time. Your content rocks NS, thanks a ton :)

[@badmojo90]

Age of Discovery Murdered STO- even loyal players have left in droves.

[@donotryon9389]

No it didn't.

[@donotryon9389]

And no they didn't.

[@crispymidget8531]

I didn't leave, don't get why startrek discovery gets so mich hate.

[@navy3001]

No, they did not leave.

[@SFox-nf3bo]

So STO got me into the whole series, im still playing to this day, its still fun. A bit grindy but still fun.

[@femmedracula6857]

1) Video needed more deconstruction of Emmert's ego. 2) Looking forward to a Secret World post-mortem.

[@500a6500]

Lol, Jack.

[@femmedracula6857]

@@500a6500 "Don't worry regen scrappers!"

[@Over10rDPrime]

I love Star Trek online, I hope it never dies. There are so many people willing to help and support new players and the community itself isn't toxic like some other games are.

[@artexjay]

Most MMO's that i've tried that are dying has very helpful communities, even the ones only alive via private servers.

[@TheSpeakersofFlames]

"Kirk worked 15 years to be captain" Do you really expect players to wait that long? This science fiction guys; not a license to drive your parents car!

[@timer3770]

Swish Fish Lieutenants have commanded ships before like in WW2 some torpedo boats but yeah right after Graduation nah. Play TOS Starfleet and you get to time travel to the future and play as a lieutenant commander When you have good Battle experience

[@TheDragonProject]

Honestly the issue is bigger than everyone becoming captain right away. Leveled progression of a characters rank is a fairly simple concept for an RPG. And also I would enjoy playing more than one type of character too, not everyone watching the show wants to take on the role of captain, just like how an avengers game with only Spiderman playable would obviously disappoint some people. Captain is fun and all, but it would be a truly excellent goal to reach for, and it looses all value when it's a starting game rank. Ideally you'd start off as a lower rank, maybe with a shuttle. Then as you level your character to full, you gain better ranks and bigger ships as reward. That kind of progression is necessary for any mmo rpg, and especially so given the setting of star trek.

[@tmcgrenere]

Ha ha ha!

[@ED-yo4qi]

Here we are in late 2020. The game is full, active and it doesn't seem to go away, by any means. They create content monthly and while the community always complains, the game goes on with great excitement and great cash flow.

[@caitdurl9111]

There is two things about STO that I will always love despite any and all flaws. First, it's genuinely touching sendoff to Nimoy. That was really great. And two... Victory Is Life. Just... as a huge, and I mean crazy huge, fan of Deep Space Nine, that was like pure crack for me. I loved it. Completely mad. Other then that though STO is completely bizarre to me. I have so many weird feeling about the entire game.

[@aka-47k]

i really hated it to play as a bug, im star ship troopers fan : "only a dead bug is a good bug!" but the storys in ViL were really nice played em with my main and few others and the voice acting, facial animations and ambience were really great. I just hate bugs.

[@DarthHavoc1]

Cait Durl I still visit the huge tribute to Nimoy on Vulcan he was what got me into the Star Trek series

[@klaust3307]

I remember when Victory Is Life was the featured "episode" mission. It was so, so good. I wish we'd gotten more thematically based content like that.

[@reerjgiorge]

And again, thats cool. But if the whole story is based on broken episodes, glitchy graphics, and completely outdated and broken environments, i dont give a f1ck about anything they release. Not if there is not a minimum quality control in place. There is no point. If i wanted to play a videogame from 1990, i have plenty of em to chose from. In fact i could pick any star trek title from the past and it will be far better than Star crap online.

[@TheBlazzer12]

Coming from a programming perspective, making a decent exploration experience is not exactly feasible. It would necessarily need to be procedurally generated content, or else would need vast amounts of development time...and still likely be fully explored by its community within weeks. This was the problem faced by No Man's Sky, (technically) an MMORPG centered around exploration.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

How is it technically an MMORPG? Technically it isn't.

[@TheBlazzer12]

Ehh...instanced. I'll concede that. The point remains either way, though, that true exploration-based content will either be fully explored by any sizable community in very little time at all, or something in the same vein as No Man's Sky. In other words, something the majority of people would call a boring game. Mind you, I still have friends who claim they liked No Man's Sky. That said, you do have titles such as EVE which, while ruthless capitalism is very much the focus of that game, there is a layer of exploration there.

[@elmoisred616]

I wanted to mention that despite its flaws I will say Star Trek Online definitely captured that episodic feel. Each Mission felt like an episode and the writing was really good sometimes. I played the Romulan Alliance and it had a surprising amount of nuance and complexity in the story. Many plot lines are laden with moral dilemma and diplomacy along with action and combat. And I've only played the recent years but there are many exploration based missions.

[@Jasonwolf1495]

My god that mans laugh is amazing. Sounds like a door opening on the bridge followed by a weird weird alarm.

[@Oscar_Myk]

I think a large part in what keeps STO going is that until Picard came along it was the only CBS approved content set post-Nemesis. That it made you the hero of that content meant it was ultimate fan-fiction, and the storylines they made were pretty well done, taking a lot of the threads that episodes left hanging and tying them up quite neatly (Miral Paris curing the Klingon Augment virus, bringing in the Iconians as the big bad, revisiting a lot of Delta Quadrant races Voyager encountered). Yeah, the graphics are dated (especially ground), the ground combat is borderline terrible and paid content prices insane but the space combat somehow doesn't get old. That said, I wouldn't say no to an engine-overhauled STO2 that went a bit more Mass Effect/Division in ground combat and dropped the MMO auspices for more of a 'up to 4/8 player co-op' live service mindset.

[@aeternusdoleo4531]

STO is odd for an MMO. It's primarily a cooperative PVE game, and even the starter ships are okay for that purpose. You do not *have* to spend to be viable for the mission content. But trekkies generally don't mind tossing a coin to your coder. Sunk cost fallacy is heavily used, both for invested time and invested money however. There's a lot of timelimited daily missions. Do x for y days and get a free ship, or free powerful upgrade. With PvP not being a thing in STO, selling power isn't that big of an issue. You don't get to lord it over other players. At best, you get to shine in missions - but making them dull and short in the process.

[@jv-lk7bc]

very good reveiew and BIG points for actually comprehending and daring to speak of what trekkers & trekkkies actually care about (being not combat). Thank you.

[@viysnjor4811]

honestly, i think STO has found a nice niche and doesnt need to try to hard and escape that. it clearly has enough loyal fans to keep the game running. trying to get new players interested would be nice, and of course id like if the game somehow miraculously became mainstream and popular, but cryptic should put the long time loyal fans first, and not do anything to sabotage what they have in the process of trying to fill the "wow killer" gap. I get on star trek online and play a month or two multiple times a year, have tons of characters of various races, factions, subfactions, each with their own ships and customized crews etc, spend money now and then for a new ship or two, and i like to take them out on new missions or replay old arcs, then i put the game down for months until i get the urge to come back. Im happy with that situation personally.

[@FredGee420]

I’ve been away from STO for a over a year or so. Leave, come back, leave...you get the picture. I’m afraid to come back now because I don’t think I can take it if there’s effing Discover content added. Since STD isn’t canon, but is “prime” universe, they should never mix.

[@Blackreaper95]

Not that bad some discover ships got added 2 weeks ago and we got jem hadar faction added to the game if you didn't know other then that same old same old

[@starkiller18]

ya i played for a long time but quit a few months after the romulan expansion came out because the game had become pay to win with the loot boxes and if i hadn't found a great fleet i wouldn't have made it that long. (Caspian Division/Caspian Rising)I only stuck around because i liked the people i was playing with and enjoyed their company. The game itself was very meh for me for the most part.

[@CAPTAIN_D-MAN]

Can you write something at least 25% different from "STD nut cannon"?

[@goldblackbrownwhite]

Being a former long time STO player thanks for this one...absolutely nailed it! 👍 And STO is in fact pretty much dead now...just another example when basically a good idea gets doomed over time by greed. Sad stuff, but we see this over and over again in real life these days. 🙄😠

[@notacompleteidiot...1285]

It's basically held up by the hardcore fans who act as "whales".

[@kyle223cat]

It is most certainly not dead. It’s player base has seemingly not changed in the past 6 years.

[@captc0ck5lap60]

When I found out I could be a hulking Gorn scientist, commanding a Gorn/Kingon Battle-carrier, and a bridge crew of all scantely clad Orion super-ladies, I was hooked. All for free, too!

[@johnkennedy7234]

Well I've been playing STO for 9+ years, left WOW for STO. I love this game and can't wait for Friday to play.

[@arakheno4051]

Wow, I haven't seen such a descent fully fleshed out commentary that missed such a huge addition to a game in a long time. The question that should have been/should be, asked is " Why do people continue to play it? " And the answer is as simple as it is brilliant, Except for a few non-criticial items, everything and yes EVERYTHING can be gotten by even the free to play player. This is the balance that STO has brought, that no other game in my knowledge, has. Even if you never sink a penny into STO, you can get every single thing than any other player can get .. ya you can buy a new ship, or you can grind it out .. either way works .. find that SWTOR or any other title. Oh and the rare items that can't be gotten .. most of those are anniversary junk/cute toys that have little to no impact on gameplay.

[@reerjgiorge]

Sorry dude. People keep playing because they are completely stupid, i know it sounds harsh, but its a truth like a temple.

[@tmcgrenere]

So many of the actors continue their roles and the lore in this game, that is what I like. The ground game has always been weakest, but the lore is great. The space battles is what I personally need. Also, torpedoes away!

[@MidKnight2142]

I used to play STO ALOT, well for me at least. I put over 1000 hours into it and had tons of fun and made some good friends, for the longest time it was the only MMO I bothered playing, the other mainly being Tera Online. To me the ground combat was by far the worst part of the game, but space combat was awesome. I also very much enjoyed the story, it filled in alot of gaps that where in the TV shows, as well as expanding on them, and connecting them all together. I stopped playing it when they started going more into the STD (Star Trek Discovery) nonsense, if they avoided STD then I'd probably play it more often, but thanks to CBS, I doubt that was possible.

[@ken90ny]

Same here... I quit because of the STD nonsense

[@CaptainPikeachu]

funny, you claim to enjoy the story because it filled in a lot of gaps for the TV shows and expanded and connected them, yet when they decided to add in more content for a Star Trek TV show, you got mad and threw a hissy fit and left? Really? the hypocrisy in this comment is just hilarious how is it nonsense that a Star Trek game is doing more Star Trek content that links to a new and currently airing show? literally every franchise has done that yet you scream nonsense just because you don't like it?

[@tobiasstamenkovic9628]

To be fair, if you treat STO as a single player game its actually pretty awsome. The story missions play more like a TV episode and dont have much resemblance with the usual MMO stuff. Just dont get into the endgame stuff, enjoy the story for what it is and call it a day. If your a Treckie your totally goina like it, even tho its goina railroad you alot. Endgame basically boils down to either forking out some cash for new ships, or doing the ridiculous lootbox gamble Cryptic is so renown for. Alot of wasted potential, but i still did actually enjoy the several story campaigns.

[@Puckanm]

This was a Great Video to watch man! I played my share of StarTrek Online and Loved it I just dont see myself going back. I got to admit I spent about $100 bucks on ships and stuff dont regret it one bit.

[@Geo-EM1581]

NerdSlayer, can you take a look at Shadowrun Chronicles - Boston Lockdown? I honestly think it you make a nice DOAG. Cheers from Brazil!

[@RetroMaticGamer]

E Menger That game never lived. It was a late-term abortion, except the mother went and put the stillborn baby corpse up for adoption anyways, telling everyone it was still a perfectly good baby despite being dead. Total crap - a lesson in why kickstarters and preorders are for fools.

[@luapdd1]

Oh boy, thats gonna hurt, sunk like 1000 bucks into that game

[@stevenhemingway1211]

Tarlock so did I

[@Dreznin]

@@512TheWolf512 The game drops lockboxes with cash shop keys and for a very long time the best ship in the game was an extremely rare drop out of one of the very first ones (they rotated them out seasonally). This game had lootboxes before they became highly mainstream. I'd know - I've opened many of them since I get a monthly supply of "free" Zen (the cash shop currency) since I had purchased a Lifetime Subscription back when the game wasn't Free to Play. It's been a while since I've played, my fleet fell apart and I didn't have the heart to keep going without all the guys I'd been running content with for years.

[@BloodyBobJr]

1000? Holy guess I can see how it's still active

[@monopoman]

@@BloodyBobJr Pretty easy to spend that in any MMO even being subscribed to WoW for 3 years is high $400's to low $500s not counting buying expansions. People act like these are huge expenses when really shelling out $12-15 a month adds up to that in a hurry especially when in many of these games they force you to buy $40 expansions every 2 years or so.

[@M0ntarro]

I spent like 3k $ in 2k15 and after they nerf the meta I stop playing.

[@mitchellhorton9382]

Exploration is literally one of the official gameplay paths in Elite Dangerous and for me, personally, has been the most fun and fulfilling.

[@L1z43vr]

To be fair about the Tutorial, the Federation was at war with the Klingons, the Borg had returned to the Delta Quadrant and the Undine were infiltrating on Starfleet. It was only natural that the crew would have gotten command of their ship after proving their worth in the tutorial missions, heck, even Admiral Quinn admits the characters' courage, and how that was needed in Starfleet at the time

[@Metal_Enjoyer]

damn I love this game and still play it to this day I really hoped that it wouldn't show up here

[@mandykarevicius9746]

I'm hoping to never see Team Fortress 2 up here.

[@MenWithVen]

TF2 is consistently in the top 10 on Steam I don't think you have to worry

[@mandykarevicius9746]

@@MenWithVen I always worry. lol

[@mandykarevicius9746]

@@AEspiral I still play Neverwinter Nights and enjoy it, even if the classes are unbalanced.

[@Metal_Enjoyer]

Josias Acauan I never really could get into the old republic