R. Francis Smith

@Super Nerd

Yeah, I was trying to be funny, but blew it. I play only free2play games, LOTRO in particular.

Darn it, my fake "massivelycommentermode" HTML tags around the first paragraph got eaten. Well, just imagine them. :)

Everything Cryptic does is terrible, the game has already failed, free2play never makes any money, lol rofl.


Seriously, I'm in mid-download of the client (or was when I left for work) -- I played in the beta and wasn't knocked out but that was then and, of course, they were going to charge me a subscription fee.

But I like STO, so what do I know?

This is one of those with a simple yes or no answer.

Yes. Yes it is.

Okay, longer answer: I'm done with sub fees. They stress me out. They make me feel bad that I'm not playing the game enough. I'm a 40-something parent with, you know, a day job, other hobbies, responsibilities, yadda yadda. I don't NEED to feel stressed about not getting my money's worth out of a game.

And I've got stuff like LOTRO, Uncharted Waters, and oh yes, Star Trek Online (yes, I'm the guy who won the Christmas giveaway of the lifetime membership, hi) -- so I'm happy to stick with those options. And tomorrow, I expect I'll make a Champions Online character... well, maybe later this week after the deluge quiets down. :)

DCUO looks interesting, but no. No more sub fees. I finally left my beloved City of Heroes over this, and I'm not going to just get into it somewhere else.

I don't roleplay on MMOs... with others. (I tend to solo all the time, for that matter.) But inside my head... hmm. I've always got a mindset of how my character reacts to situations and so forth; if I don't, I get bored of that game. (Funny the article should reference LOTRO and STO, two games I've found excellent for having a feel for my character, along with City of Heroes.)

So maybe I RP, just inside my own head. :)

I've been fascinated -- to borrow a word -- by the idea of Star Trek Online since well before it launched -- I mean, I've been a Trek watcher for some 35 years and am introducing my kids to the original series even now -- we watched Balance of Terror tonight. :)

So... yeah. Interested in STO.

As a former subscriber who's now a f2p plebe: I like the Tasks system fine. Why? Because the rhythm of the quests are a little jerkier for f2p players, in my experience; because we don't get XP bonus for our logged-out time, we don't level up as fast. Now, I'm cool with that, but it means that, for example, I found myself starting to run a little shy on my level 19 character who's ready go to to the Barrow-downs; I'd like to be level 20 before heading out. Also, as it happens, I could stand to polish off my journeyman (and, let's face it, some of my apprentice) crafting levels.

Solution: farm me some of the higher level Bree Tasks in the North Bree-fields, collecting hides and hopefully the occasional ash resources while I'm up there. It's quick farming, high enough level critters that I'm making some XP, and then when I get back I turn 'em in for XP _and_ reputation, I note. Do some crafting, log off, start again tomorrow evening. Probably one more evening and I'll hit 20 and hop on the ol' dusky nimblefoot and head for those pesky Barrow-downs...

Anyway, long story short, I think the Tasks have some value for f2p folks to fill in some XP gaps. For subscribers, eh, probably not so much.

Regarding female dwarves and the Tolkien observation: my wife for a long time played a dwarf character wearing a cosmetic item that looked, well, it was a dress, no question about it. So, there are ways and there are ways...

"Utahraptor, I'm all furry now! Maybe we're not even dinosaurs!"

Look at the Linkedin profile again. The Cryptic listing is prior to Paragon -- in other words, it's from when Cryptic was running CoH.