Is this the patch that.. oh never mind

Biggest disappointment of my gaming life?

Maybe.

That's a lot of fixes.

So I've been giving STO a shot... I'm already a bit bored after like 4 days. It's not any one thing in particular that bugs me, it's just that the whole thing feels very half-assed.

It's like they've got a good IP and a good concept but just didn't have the money to make it happen. I'm going to keep going at least until my free time runs out, but I don't see paying monthly for it.

I'd love to find an MMO that'll hold my interest until SW:TOR, but it seems my choices are: WoW, or any number of interchangeable heavily instanced socially-lacking MMOs.

Did you honestly think STO would be any different, any different at all, than the scores of other bland, uninspired pieces of trash that pass for MMORPGs? As soon as a game is labeled "MMO" it's guaranteed to be throwaway junk not worthy of playing. Until there is a DRAMATIC paradigm shift the entire genre is a complete turn off.

PHJF wrote on Apr 29, 2010, 23:24:
Did you honestly think STO would be any different, any different at all, than the scores of other bland, uninspired pieces of trash that pass for MMORPGs? As soon as a game is labeled "MMO" it's guaranteed to be throwaway junk not worthy of playing. Until there is a DRAMATIC paradigm shift the entire genre is a complete turn off.

Ouch. Who the hell stole your flip-flops and got your dog pregnant?

NKD wrote on Apr 29, 2010, 23:23:
I'd love to find an MMO that'll hold my interest until SW:TOR, but it seems my choices are: WoW, or any number of interchangeable heavily instanced socially-lacking MMOs.

Try DDO. It's a fun diversion.

Those release notes read like a checklist of things that should have been in/corrected at release. Obviously released about a year too early, they still have a long long ways to go. Even if they fix all the problems there still isn't any content longevity that I can see. I doubt the few additions since launch amount to more than another days worth of content.

Longswd wrote on Apr 29, 2010, 23:29:
Those release notes read like a checklist of things that should have been in/corrected at release. Obviously released about a year too early, they still have a long long ways to go. Even if they fix all the problems there still isn't any content longevity that I can see. I doubt the few additions since launch amount to more than another days worth of content.

The problem with small independent studios like Cryptic is they DON'T have a bucket of money to continually develop the game to the "nth degree" (especially since MMO's have so much more content than Single Player games). Eventually you're going to need to get money in to pay the rent and feed the peons.

In a lot of ways, Blizzard "spoiled" us all with their "it'll be released when it's done"; they can afford to do it .... and now we expect EVERY developer to do it as well.

That said STO is a bit more bare-bones than many AAA MMO releases. I did need to be in the oven for a couple months longer.

Talisorn wrote on Apr 29, 2010, 23:39:
In a lot of ways, Blizzard "spoiled" us all with their "it'll be released when it's done"; they can afford to do it .... and now we expect EVERY developer to do it as well.

Good point. MMOs are ambitious and expensive projects, and there are very few developers who can afford to do it right. And most of those developers aren't interested in making MMOs anyway.

It's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to TOR. It's the first MMO since WoW and EQ2 launched that is from developers with real financial muscle and the ability to say "This game is going to be in development for as long as we want it to be."

Ya know, I quite enjoyed Cryptic's first MMO - City of Heroes/Villains (I started with COV). Sure, it's the same old grind that you see in every MMO, but it was just a fun and cool game. Combat, when it wasn't lagging, was enjoyable with the ragdolls and physics. The best part of the game is the characters - you can make all sorts of crazy-looking characters and it's pretty awesome when you see someone who makes you actually LOL. Last is that COV/COH has some really awesome mechanics that solve a few problems plaguing MMOs - one is the sidekick/lackey feature and the other is the mission Architect. The Sidekick/lackey feature literally means your level is flexible - group with someone of vastly different level than you and you can artificially change your level to match his. This means you can now earn XP, influence and have a challenge (eg not powerleveling) - this makes playing with friends much, much more enjoyable. Mission architect isn't great but the idea is - allow players to create their own dungeons, list them and allow players to play. A huge problem with MMOs is players run out of stuff to do and developers "solve" this by regurgitating old stuff either with higher difficulties, or have some ultra rare loot so you have to play it 100 times, or simply copy-paste new areas so they *seem* new but it's still the same crap (notice how you still fight boars in WoW, even at level 80).

Last but not least, Cryptic has been supporting CoV/CoH with *free* updates every few months for the past few years - actual content patches, too, like level cap updates, new skills/abilities, new areas and more. This is really rewarding for those who subscribe, since they actually see where their money's going. Again, this is unlike Blizzard, whose updates typically consist of bug and balance fixes as well as content for super-high level play (such as raids). For a normal player, this kind of sucks since you will not see this new content (you have a regular playing schedule) and the balance fixes won't affect you as much since you probably only have 1 or 2 toons.

What does this have to do with STO? Cryptic is a dedicated developer with some interesting ideas. This means eventually, maybe... just *maybe* STO will become good.

"Just *maybe*" is not good enough for a monthly fee, however.

It is amazing to me how every single day you blues newsers waste no time in showing your ignorance and mean spirited stupidity.

1. STO is a fun game.
2. WoW did not start out with tons of content. its been added over the years
3. ALL MMO's start out with low content and build it up over the years.
4. No one Plays an MMO with the idea that it should last a Few days. Everyone with *any* comon sense knows you play an MMO for the long haul.
5. Why anyone would take anything you dim wits post on this sits is beyond me. You are all a bunch of self important, short sighted, snarky, ignorant jerks.

You all need to wake up and stop being such a bunch of losers.

Hellbinder wrote on Apr 30, 2010, 07:41:
It is amazing to me how every single day you blues newsers waste no time in showing your ignorance and mean spirited stupidity.

1. STO is a fun game.
2. WoW did not start out with tons of content. its been added over the years
3. ALL MMO's start out with low content and build it up over the years.
4. No one Plays an MMO with the idea that it should last a Few days. Everyone with *any* comon sense knows you play an MMO for the long haul.
5. Why anyone would take anything you dim wits post on this sits is beyond me. You are all a bunch of self important, short sighted, snarky, ignorant jerks.

You all need to wake up and stop being such a bunch of losers.

Don't you hang out here?

CannibalBob wrote on Apr 30, 2010, 02:41:
What does this have to do with STO? Cryptic is a dedicated developer with some interesting ideas. This means eventually, maybe... just *maybe* STO will become good.

Cryptic abandoned COH/COV almost as soon as they got the green light to make Marvel's now defunct MMO. They stuck it with a token Dev team of 15 who jumped through hoops to bring good content to the players while maintaining the game.

I'd say COX got better in spite of Cryptic, not because of it.

Mission Architect, Going Rogue and most of the really good recent stuff aren't from Cryptic at all. If anything, Cryptic's purposeful neglect of COX is what made it fall behind in development as much as it has. It's only now beginning to catch up.

It is amazing to me how every single day you blues newsers waste no time in showing your ignorance and mean spirited stupidity.

1. STO is a fun game.
2. WoW did not start out with tons of content. its been added over the years
3. ALL MMO's start out with low content and build it up over the years.
4. No one Plays an MMO with the idea that it should last a Few days. Everyone with *any* comon sense knows you play an MMO for the long haul.
5. Why anyone would take anything you dim wits post on this sits is beyond me. You are all a bunch of self important, short sighted, snarky, ignorant jerks.

You all need to wake up and stop being such a bunch of losers.

Oh my, did we step on your toes there fanboi? Sorry about that. I guess you are right after all STO is a fun game and EVERYBODY else is wrong.

Oh my, did we step on your toes there fanboi? Sorry about that. I guess you are right after all STO is a fun game and EVERYBODY else is wrong.

In his defense, I wouldn't say it isn't a fun game. There's certainly something to be had here if you like your Trek, and I know I got a few hours out of it. Enough to make Commander, at any rate.

It's just... it's repetitive. Extremely so. Ground combat is a tedious, monotonous crawl through bad guys, and ship combat doesn't really feel like it ever changes.

You get access to a new ship every 10 levels, which is one MOTHER of a grind. Basically you have to stomach a week of absolute repetition just for a couple of hours of choosing and customising a new ship... and then it begins again.

If you can go through that four times, you'll make it to admiral. I did it twice, before I absolutely positively couldn't stand the thought of playing any more.

Cryptic sucks, period. It's why Marvel fired them and CO and STO are failures of the epic variety. And these clowns are making a NWN MOG? Count that as epic failure #3. Hopefully after that they'll go away and get real jobs doing anything else.

WoW started out with more content than STO and CO combined.

There are many great Trek games from the past that I've played a ton and I just didn't see what STO was bringing to the table. I don't dig the grind thing so I've just avoided the game. The game looks like what has come before in a number of games, but with today's popular grind gameplay blended in.

I do wish this game would have turned into something more like Star Wars Galaxies in its scale. Or maybe more like The Old Republic might be like. More than just stupid endless combat in space or what looks like boring Mass Effect style ground action.

Honestly I don't think I entirely agree with many of these MMOs being called RPGs because they often lack depth outside of the expected repetitive leveling, looting and click combat. It's a new kind of gaming that isn't necessarily attractive to single player RPG players. IMO anyway.

This comment was edited on Apr 30, 2010, 18:12.

swaaye wrote on Apr 30, 2010, 18:02:
There are many great Trek games from the past that I've played a ton and I just didn't see what STO was bringing to the table. I don't dig the grind thing so I've just avoided the game. The game looks like what has come before in a number of games, but with today's popular grind gameplay blended in.

I do wish this game would have turned into something more like Star Wars Galaxies in its scale. Or maybe more like The Old Republic might be like. More than just stupid endless combat in space or what looks like boring Mass Effect style ground action.

Honestly I don't think I entirely agree with many of these MMOs being called RPGs because they often lack depth outside of the expected repetitive leveling, looting and click combat. It's a new kind of gaming that isn't necessarily attractive to single player RPG players. IMO anyway.

You thought Mass Effect 2 had 'boring' ground combat? ha! ha!