Cryptic explains Star Trek Online's quick turnaround time

It would be nice if they shows us the agreement. And if that is the case
how do they explain Champions online. Is Cryptic going to use that same excuse for CO.I don't understand why Cryptic would rehash an event that has already past. What does it matter trying to make excuses at this point.

But 'm glad that PW is investing in STO. this shows they have hopes that more players will pick this game up and give STO a boost in revenue.
And make the game players have been asking for.

Tolkien fans: Given much love and goodness
Star Trek Fans: given a quickie mart microwave burrito
Star Wars fans:... ?

Kind of sad how Turbine seems to be the only company who can take a hallowed IP and really do it well, (lord of the rings online) and satisfy the vast majority of fans.

STO is a really small-scope console-like version of what could have been a really truly Massively Multiplayer universe of a game.
I couldn't see continuing to pay for that one monthly. Maybe in 3 years if they keep adding stuff it will be deeper and more enjoyable.

We'll see what TOR has for hardcore star wars fans. Space combat on rails is already kind of a fun-killer for me. Can't understand that one.

I mean, we had good and serviceable freerange space combat a decade ago with Wing Commander. we're not talking reinventing some never-before-seen feature.

It doesn't matter if they felt rushed or not they accepted the licensing deal. Whatever the quality of the game they churn is all on them.

I admire Cryptic's energy in continuing to refine the game. Most MMOs will just throw more gear at you; Cryptic is overhauling their UI and presentation scheme (e.g., sector space). Not that they should not; rather, they most definitely need to. STO fit and polish still feels sophomoric.

Long range, I see STO's problem mainly being maintaining fresh content. Pets, more ships, more races... well, that might be interesting for Star Trek fans, but that's all pretty boring for the rest of us science fiction fans. They're in a Borg rut right now, and I don't see how they're going to dig themselves out of that one.

The Star Trek franchise stands on pretty short, tired pegs: Time-travel contortions, the big bad Borg, and your assorted intergalactic imperiums. They need to be more creative. They can't depend on the glacial production speed of franchise movies to drive the IP, but rather be the dog that wags the tail.

"Well, we gave it a quick turnaround by spending most of our time watching Star Wars, playing WoW, and trying to hire people with talent. Eventually we just decided to follow the traditional Star Trek merchandise route of simply shoving it out the door knowing that enough Trek fans and suckers would pony up money right out of the gate."

Actually, didn't Cryptic buy out the Champions pen & paper RPG entirely to get the rights? So no real excuse, not to mention the guy in charge even said their goal was to crank out MMOs as fast as possible and make a bundle on the box sales before moving on to the next game. While the Star Trek contract certainly had some impact, their design goals were clearly geared towards churning out games as fast as possible and worrying about content and such later on.

While I thought CO was pretty bad, I actually liked my short time in STO, at least the space combat part.

Bring back One Shots and give Rubi a pay raise for doing the column! :)

Bad game is a bad game. STO has so many flaws that I think it is beyond saving point tbh.

Cryptic place way too much stock in IPs.

They sold off their share of the CoH in order to buy the Champions IP - an IP I'd never heard of. Look how that turned out for them... And they agreed to a 2 year turn-around in order to nab the Star Trek IP?

That's lunacy.

And I always felt the Star Trek IP - based in the cashless, greedless Federation - was a very poor fit for Cryptic's sub + cash shop business model.

Make a good game. IP can be value adding on top of that but so far all of the big-name IP MMOs have been pretty poor.

I feel for these guys on the contractual front; iffy launches can really tarnish an image and rep and it can take awhile to rebuild that. Nevertheless, I'm really looking forward to the relaunch, however Cryptic may have fumbled with deadlines and time crunches earlier. I'm fairly neutral on the great payment model debate - if a game is fun, I'll play it, period; I buy LOTRO VIP in 3-month increments but there are plenty of months just play free. I have played and do play sub-only titles as well, but some games I feel ARE too unpolished to merit subscription-only models. STO was one of them for me.

That said, I was both excited and dubious when Cryptic was acquired by Perfect World Entertainment, because I've conversely found PWE's existing products to be dull and uninspired, if very graphically pretty. However, recent communiques from the devs are reassuring, and it seems that *real* development of the game will continue, and that it's not part of some...'dubious', shall we say, F2P conversion scheme on PWE's part.

Thank you Cryptic for finally admitting you will release a rushed product to meet a deadline. Explains a lot about your last couple of titles.

Notice the reduction of currency to 3 different types: Dilithium, Gold Pressed Latinum, and Energy. Suddenly the fact they have currency limitations for their Free-to-Play makes this something to keep an eye on.

There needs to be some clarification on the F2P Matrix:

Energy Credit Storage Limit: Gold: Unlimited Silver: Limited

Does this expand to all currencies or is it just energy?

They're looking into making more money sinks, so how much currency you have may start eating into your ability to progress. All that remains is to see how benign(or harsh) it is.