I played STO for only 30 mins, I loved the look of the ships and the atmosphere but the instances and PvP restrictions were too much.
Sadly the game play has no risk so the rewards feel cheap and the more risk / challenge orientated players see past the graphics and Star Trekness and see there is really very little game going on behind the scenes..
There is certainly a large market of players out there that want the theirs games to be low risk, heavy reward, little to no challenge. As MMOs become cheaper to make, hopefully the market for risk based challenging MMOs will grow past the juvenile games that have flooded the market.
Didn't you post this same thing on the official forums in the same annoying font?
And didn't you read where he said that in his post?
I don't read STO forums, I don't play it - never will.
So I'm glad he posted here.
My thoughts...
It's Cryptic - why would I give them any of my money?
Surely not based on their track record.
Cryptic makes poor games/amazing character generators - great for people who are alt aholics.
Agreed. My god, so what if he posted it on the STO forums, we get it already.
Most of us, I know this is a HUGE surprise, dont read the STO forums, I to am glad he posted it here, why in the world if you already read it on the STO forums, do you need to re-read it here, and post a reply?
All I had to do was read this... "I have never, in my 7 year history of MMO gaming, been so bored so quickly in an MMORPG. And as a RP'er (someone who can usually make something out of nothing), big Star Trek fan and casual gamer, that is saying something. Its a sad day when i am actually having to force myself to log in. The first day i logged in, i was having a blast! It was all new, it was Star Trek, it's a space MMO! But then i slowly started to get, well, bored."
IMHO the OP is 100% dead on...I could have wrote those exact words about this Game...I'm an MMO geek...SWG, Vanguard, EQII, LOTRO, and AoC...Even Beta tested Gods and Heroes...LOVED and I mean LOVED ALL those Games for at least the 1st 6 Months or so that I played them...I still play SWG and LOTRO...I'm not hard to please...lol But this Game shocked Me at how little I wanted to Play almost immediately...After the 1st tutorial and the 1st few Missions I was bored stiff...It looks great (to me anyway), but that's about it...I think the OP put it much better than I ever could...But this Game basically did nothing for Me...And that is just weird...
Same experience here, I have been playing MMOs since 2004, and despite going through a lot of free trials that only lasted a few days, STO was different, I was just bored within the first 30 minutes. I was in closed beta too, so I made an effort to try to get into it several times. It is true what the OP says, like this game has no pretense that all there is to do is repetitive and boring. I rarely go around dis-recommending games, since that is people's opinion. But STO is potentially so boring for myself and many others, that in some cases the players will be feeling ripped off within minutes. Keeping in mind that STO is shaping up as one of the most expensive MMOs for players, it is just a terrible value right now.
I agree fully with the thread creator. Honestly I did try this game out with an open mind but it's too unpolished and uninspiring for a P2P game. It's like...with the ground combat, it took you two years to develop that? Really Cryptic? It took you two years to do that? What...really? What were you doing this entire time?
Whole game is laggy on most if not anyone's machine due to HORRIBLE optimization (sort of like when Warhammer Online first came out). There's a good chance that'll be fixed, but the game is far from finished to actually suggest that you start paying to play any further. If it were a free to play game, then I wouldn't feel so strongly about it. But honestly? They're expecting us to subscribe to a game that's still in ALPHA testing.
What sickens me most is Cryptics devious attempts to make as much money as they could before the game even came out because they knew how awful their product was. The most obvious example is the Lifetime Subscriptions tied to head-start bonuses (like playable Borg characters they knew people wouldn't use half way through the game, so they tied a life-time sub to it so that people would buy it in time for the games release before they'd even played the pile of crap - sickening). There is nothing more insulting than a company that tries to sell a product it doesn't even have faith in. And it sickens me that people are spending their hard earned money lining Cryptics pockets. STO for Cryptic was a quick and easy way to 'get ouf of bankruptcy free' card, and out of all the IP's they chose one of the greatest to desecrate, Star Trek.
I truly hope Cryptics next endeavors fail miserably. The 2 year development time should have rung alarm bells throughout the MMO industry but pre-release hype and the Star Trek license still managed to sell thousands of copies. Cryptic knew this, hence why they took the IP. Not because they knew they could make a great game with it, not because they had ambitions for it, just because they knew the IP would sell the game on its own and do all the real work for them.
I have pretty much decided that anytime I see a company offering lifetime subscriptions, just not to buy it on that basis alone. It almost always means they know they have a weak product. Maybe I will occasionally miss out on something good that way, but I will avoid a lot more bad.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Well said by the OP, intelligent and makes good points. I personally agree but I found this all out in beta and decided I wasnt going to buy. It is very boring and repetitive and lacks and real long term substance. It has 15 minutes of flare, mostly because its new then it quickly loses its luster.
I have to disagree with saying the post is either intelligent or makes good points.
I know nothing of STO. Haven't followed it since Perpetual bombed it.
But when I read this post, it doesn't tell me what is wrong. It doesn't explain any enhancements or provide any suggestions/solutions or comparisons to better products.
It reads like a rant to be honest.
Now I wont say its wrong. I know nothing of the game. But I should have an idea of why I will be bored with the game after a post of that length. Oversimplification can make anything sound bad.
Take Basketball for example. The game is damn boring. A bunch of tall guys throwing a ball around and every now and then throws it to a hoop. The floor space is also very zoned and limited. It also seems that the game is unbalanced towards taller people and has no real defense.
I vaguely get that the zones are small and the pvp is random/unbalanced. Also the metagame of the PvP is just all out dps wins. I also get that the skill system is unclear.
All of that can be patched. What are the game breakers? Why is the game so boring that content cant help?
All of that can be patched. What are the game breakers? Why is the game so boring that content cant help?
Isn't it obvious? Everything in my 1000+ word post. The PvP is meaningless, a broken pointless skill system in an MMO that boasts its skill progression system is absolutely a game breaker. No interaction with players throughout an online game is a game breaker. Tiny uninspired maps, instanced. Repeatable quests from your very first level. That is literally just scratching the surface. But, if you can't gather why STO is a failure from my 1000 word post then this one won't help you so i won't continue to repeat myself. Sorry it wasn't clear enough for you.
Well said by the OP, intelligent and makes good points. I personally agree but I found this all out in beta and decided I wasnt going to buy. It is very boring and repetitive and lacks and real long term substance. It has 15 minutes of flare, mostly because its new then it quickly loses its luster.
I have to disagree with saying the post is either intelligent or makes good points.
I know nothing of STO. Haven't followed it since Perpetual bombed it.
But when I read this post, it doesn't tell me what is wrong. It doesn't explain any enhancements or provide any suggestions/solutions or comparisons to better products.
It reads like a rant to be honest.
Now I wont say its wrong. I know nothing of the game. But I should have an idea of why I will be bored with the game after a post of that length. Oversimplification can make anything sound bad.
Take Basketball for example. The game is damn boring. A bunch of tall guys throwing a ball around and every now and then throws it to a hoop. The floor space is also very zoned and limited. It also seems that the game is unbalanced towards taller people and has no real defense.
I vaguely get that the zones are small and the pvp is random/unbalanced. Also the metagame of the PvP is just all out dps wins. I also get that the skill system is unclear.
All of that can be patched. What are the game breakers? Why is the game so boring that content cant help?
Are we reading the same OP? Because it was a great review. Very informative.
OP - I lasted about an hour and a half and I logged. The game simply did not draw me in, not even at that basic, first, and most vulnerable hour of 'discovery' that should be a fundamental goal of tutorials.
The graphics were great, character creation was well done, but the gameplay was repetitive even within the short time I played it. I saw nothing different from CO (which I regrettably Lifetime subbed to), and just could not generate the interest in continuing to play.
There will be some who say that I needed to gain X number fo levels to truly see the game. Fair enough. But if it cannot capture my imagination and tantalize me with its possiblities right from the beginning, then I think that is enough justification for someone to cast judgment and decide it is not the game for them.
To those who love it, I am happy you all found an MMO that suits you, and I truly hope Cryptic does the right thing and supports/promotes/expands the game in a way that leaves you happy customers for years.
Its hard for me to gather information from a rant.
PvP is meaningless how?
Is there no reward for winning? You stated there is no risk, that is a big problem.
Skills are meaningless how? You dont see them affect your game if you pick one over the other or go with none? Or are they just not in your set of uses so they dont mean anything to you?
You failed to mention if there are level restrictions to zones or exploration. You failed to mention if there is even exploration or it is all quest instances.
The bit regarding progression is a rant. People level for leveling and phat loot. Is there no better loot? Is the next ship just a new skin?
I am assuming based off your post that there is no reputation or diplomacy with factions as all ships are hostile.
Does the game also not hold true to the franchise in regards to combat flow and style?
This is why I called it a rant and lacking information. There are many things that are bashed but nothing explained.
Same experience here. I played the beta with high hopes but decided not to pre-order or buy .. at least for now.
I can live with a lot of instancing. I can live with a lot of solo mission.
But i agree with OP that the skill progression is not fun at all. It has skills, but i don't feel i am gaining anything special.
And combat usually is the soul of these kind of MMOs. Combat are not done that well. Even after a few days, i don't have much more abilities than when i first started .. namely just phaser down an enemies' shield than torpedo him. There is some manueving involved mainly to keep your weak shield away but range does not seem to be an important factor and so you close to on top of the other ship.
Which exacerbate their horrible restriction of not be able to tilt your ship up/down beyond a certain angle. It is whole stupid NOT to be able to turn the ship up (or down) to face the enemy. The whole combat exercise becoming very cubersome if an enemy is almost directly on top or below.
Second day was still fun but couldnt get myself to play more then 3-4 hours
Third day started to get boring just after the first mission and I am now wondering if there is any point in playing. There is no risk, no significant reward, just mindlessly doing silly instanced missions over and over and/or instanced PvP battlegrounds wich require no more tactic than just plain zerging (if you can call 5-6 on each side for zerging).
Game is, as many expected, another epic fail from Cryptic and the MMO industry is indeed going down the gutters. 2010 will be a make or break it for me as far as MMORPGs are concerned. The industry better show that it is evolving and not devolving or I am done with this shit.
you arent the first to say this about the game but you at least went a little bit more in depth. Because of all the bad reports for this game i am waiting for the free trial.
Even though alot of things the OP says you can find in most MMO's............... i agree with OP that STO is a prime example of a weak and shallow MMO that does not have nearly enough depth to keep MMO gamers happy.
Currently Playing: Fallen Earth Played and liked: TCOS, Vanguard, Guild Wars, DDO Played and didn't like: CO, MO, STO, DF, AoC, WAR, WoW, EQ2, EVE, most f2p Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, Secret World
Cryptic made STO with the leftovers of CO...............they made 2 games with the same engine, I guess probably with the same team and both games in less than 2 years.
It's a win for Cryptic and a big lose for the gamers.
It is time to blacklist Cryptic, so they can join SoE and Funcom.
Agree with all the posts stating it got boring too quickly.
Played closed beta for about 3-5 hours (it became a blur...). The settings were not interesting, the planets looked the same, the space station was dull, lots of big open space and having to fly for a minute plus to reach a battle gets boring very quickly.
The ship based combat was boring. Mostly spamming space bar. Travelling for a battle which seems to take far too long, with little strategy to it. Ship moved too slow to be exciting. Planet side battle - combat was boring. Worlds looked too similar.
My partner went on to purchase the game and he reckons he'll get a month or two of playtime from it. He enjoys the ship to ship combat, and I think his hook is the IP - he likes seeing different pieces of Star Trek episodes pop up. It looks like you do get to see more interesting things as you level up, but the game only had a couple hours to make a first impression with me and it failed.
********************************************************************************** ***4 out of 5 voices in my head agree--I'm ok. It's the fifth one the scares the hell out of me.***
Comments
And didn't you read where he said that in his post?
I don't read STO forums, I don't play it - never will.
So I'm glad he posted here.
My thoughts...
It's Cryptic - why would I give them any of my money?
Surely not based on their track record.
Cryptic makes poor games/amazing character generators - great for people who are alt aholics.
OP, how many hours per week do you spend playing games?
I played STO for only 30 mins, I loved the look of the ships and the atmosphere but the instances and PvP restrictions were too much.
Sadly the game play has no risk so the rewards feel cheap and the more risk / challenge orientated players see past the graphics and Star Trekness and see there is really very little game going on behind the scenes..
There is certainly a large market of players out there that want the theirs games to be low risk, heavy reward, little to no challenge. As MMOs become cheaper to make, hopefully the market for risk based challenging MMOs will grow past the juvenile games that have flooded the market.
And didn't you read where he said that in his post?
I don't read STO forums, I don't play it - never will.
So I'm glad he posted here.
My thoughts...
It's Cryptic - why would I give them any of my money?
Surely not based on their track record.
Cryptic makes poor games/amazing character generators - great for people who are alt aholics.
Agreed. My god, so what if he posted it on the STO forums, we get it already.
Most of us, I know this is a HUGE surprise, dont read the STO forums, I to am glad he posted it here, why in the world if you already read it on the STO forums, do you need to re-read it here, and post a reply?
Same experience here, I have been playing MMOs since 2004, and despite going through a lot of free trials that only lasted a few days, STO was different, I was just bored within the first 30 minutes. I was in closed beta too, so I made an effort to try to get into it several times. It is true what the OP says, like this game has no pretense that all there is to do is repetitive and boring. I rarely go around dis-recommending games, since that is people's opinion. But STO is potentially so boring for myself and many others, that in some cases the players will be feeling ripped off within minutes. Keeping in mind that STO is shaping up as one of the most expensive MMOs for players, it is just a terrible value right now.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
I agree fully with the thread creator. Honestly I did try this game out with an open mind but it's too unpolished and uninspiring for a P2P game. It's like...with the ground combat, it took you two years to develop that? Really Cryptic? It took you two years to do that? What...really? What were you doing this entire time?
Whole game is laggy on most if not anyone's machine due to HORRIBLE optimization (sort of like when Warhammer Online first came out). There's a good chance that'll be fixed, but the game is far from finished to actually suggest that you start paying to play any further. If it were a free to play game, then I wouldn't feel so strongly about it. But honestly? They're expecting us to subscribe to a game that's still in ALPHA testing.
What sickens me most is Cryptics devious attempts to make as much money as they could before the game even came out because they knew how awful their product was. The most obvious example is the Lifetime Subscriptions tied to head-start bonuses (like playable Borg characters they knew people wouldn't use half way through the game, so they tied a life-time sub to it so that people would buy it in time for the games release before they'd even played the pile of crap - sickening). There is nothing more insulting than a company that tries to sell a product it doesn't even have faith in. And it sickens me that people are spending their hard earned money lining Cryptics pockets. STO for Cryptic was a quick and easy way to 'get ouf of bankruptcy free' card, and out of all the IP's they chose one of the greatest to desecrate, Star Trek.
I truly hope Cryptics next endeavors fail miserably. The 2 year development time should have rung alarm bells throughout the MMO industry but pre-release hype and the Star Trek license still managed to sell thousands of copies. Cryptic knew this, hence why they took the IP. Not because they knew they could make a great game with it, not because they had ambitions for it, just because they knew the IP would sell the game on its own and do all the real work for them.
I have pretty much decided that anytime I see a company offering lifetime subscriptions, just not to buy it on that basis alone. It almost always means they know they have a weak product. Maybe I will occasionally miss out on something good that way, but I will avoid a lot more bad.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
I have to disagree with saying the post is either intelligent or makes good points.
I know nothing of STO. Haven't followed it since Perpetual bombed it.
But when I read this post, it doesn't tell me what is wrong. It doesn't explain any enhancements or provide any suggestions/solutions or comparisons to better products.
It reads like a rant to be honest.
Now I wont say its wrong. I know nothing of the game. But I should have an idea of why I will be bored with the game after a post of that length. Oversimplification can make anything sound bad.
Take Basketball for example. The game is damn boring. A bunch of tall guys throwing a ball around and every now and then throws it to a hoop. The floor space is also very zoned and limited. It also seems that the game is unbalanced towards taller people and has no real defense.
I vaguely get that the zones are small and the pvp is random/unbalanced. Also the metagame of the PvP is just all out dps wins. I also get that the skill system is unclear.
All of that can be patched. What are the game breakers? Why is the game so boring that content cant help?
Isn't it obvious? Everything in my 1000+ word post. The PvP is meaningless, a broken pointless skill system in an MMO that boasts its skill progression system is absolutely a game breaker. No interaction with players throughout an online game is a game breaker. Tiny uninspired maps, instanced. Repeatable quests from your very first level. That is literally just scratching the surface. But, if you can't gather why STO is a failure from my 1000 word post then this one won't help you so i won't continue to repeat myself. Sorry it wasn't clear enough for you.
On Xfire, CO debuted at #25 and slid down to past #200 already. Today STO debuted at #24, chances are we'll see a repeat.
I know Xfire isn't a rock solid source of measurement.
I have to disagree with saying the post is either intelligent or makes good points.
I know nothing of STO. Haven't followed it since Perpetual bombed it.
But when I read this post, it doesn't tell me what is wrong. It doesn't explain any enhancements or provide any suggestions/solutions or comparisons to better products.
It reads like a rant to be honest.
Now I wont say its wrong. I know nothing of the game. But I should have an idea of why I will be bored with the game after a post of that length. Oversimplification can make anything sound bad.
Take Basketball for example. The game is damn boring. A bunch of tall guys throwing a ball around and every now and then throws it to a hoop. The floor space is also very zoned and limited. It also seems that the game is unbalanced towards taller people and has no real defense.
I vaguely get that the zones are small and the pvp is random/unbalanced. Also the metagame of the PvP is just all out dps wins. I also get that the skill system is unclear.
All of that can be patched. What are the game breakers? Why is the game so boring that content cant help?
Are we reading the same OP? Because it was a great review. Very informative.
OP - I lasted about an hour and a half and I logged. The game simply did not draw me in, not even at that basic, first, and most vulnerable hour of 'discovery' that should be a fundamental goal of tutorials.
The graphics were great, character creation was well done, but the gameplay was repetitive even within the short time I played it. I saw nothing different from CO (which I regrettably Lifetime subbed to), and just could not generate the interest in continuing to play.
There will be some who say that I needed to gain X number fo levels to truly see the game. Fair enough. But if it cannot capture my imagination and tantalize me with its possiblities right from the beginning, then I think that is enough justification for someone to cast judgment and decide it is not the game for them.
To those who love it, I am happy you all found an MMO that suits you, and I truly hope Cryptic does the right thing and supports/promotes/expands the game in a way that leaves you happy customers for years.
Its hard for me to gather information from a rant.
PvP is meaningless how?
Is there no reward for winning? You stated there is no risk, that is a big problem.
Skills are meaningless how? You dont see them affect your game if you pick one over the other or go with none? Or are they just not in your set of uses so they dont mean anything to you?
You failed to mention if there are level restrictions to zones or exploration. You failed to mention if there is even exploration or it is all quest instances.
The bit regarding progression is a rant. People level for leveling and phat loot. Is there no better loot? Is the next ship just a new skin?
I am assuming based off your post that there is no reputation or diplomacy with factions as all ships are hostile.
Does the game also not hold true to the franchise in regards to combat flow and style?
This is why I called it a rant and lacking information. There are many things that are bashed but nothing explained.
Same experience here. I played the beta with high hopes but decided not to pre-order or buy .. at least for now.
I can live with a lot of instancing. I can live with a lot of solo mission.
But i agree with OP that the skill progression is not fun at all. It has skills, but i don't feel i am gaining anything special.
And combat usually is the soul of these kind of MMOs. Combat are not done that well. Even after a few days, i don't have much more abilities than when i first started .. namely just phaser down an enemies' shield than torpedo him. There is some manueving involved mainly to keep your weak shield away but range does not seem to be an important factor and so you close to on top of the other ship.
Which exacerbate their horrible restriction of not be able to tilt your ship up/down beyond a certain angle. It is whole stupid NOT to be able to turn the ship up (or down) to face the enemy. The whole combat exercise becoming very cubersome if an enemy is almost directly on top or below.
The ground combat is even worse.
See... Telling me you cant tilt your ship in a space game is a HUGE no no.
Its space. I can understand a strategy game or old game not allowing free angles, but this is 2010 and you should be able to do weird things in space.
Agree with you OP.
Game is, as many expected, another epic fail from Cryptic and the MMO industry is indeed going down the gutters. 2010 will be a make or break it for me as far as MMORPGs are concerned. The industry better show that it is evolving and not devolving or I am done with this shit.
My gaming blog
To the OP
you arent the first to say this about the game but you at least went a little bit more in depth. Because of all the bad reports for this game i am waiting for the free trial.
Even though alot of things the OP says you can find in most MMO's............... i agree with OP that STO is a prime example of a weak and shallow MMO that does not have nearly enough depth to keep MMO gamers happy.
Currently Playing: Fallen Earth
Played and liked: TCOS, Vanguard, Guild Wars, DDO
Played and didn't like: CO, MO, STO, DF, AoC, WAR, WoW, EQ2, EVE, most f2p
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, Secret World
Of course you can't tilt your ship in space silly billy...
Because if you could tilt your ship all the drinks would slide off the table in the Lounge Bar...
You have to remember about gravity... in space...silly.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
great write up
Cryptic made STO with the leftovers of CO...............they made 2 games with the same engine, I guess probably with the same team and both games in less than 2 years.
It's a win for Cryptic and a big lose for the gamers.
It is time to blacklist Cryptic, so they can join SoE and Funcom.
Character creation is the best part of STO. Next.
Agree with all the posts stating it got boring too quickly.
Played closed beta for about 3-5 hours (it became a blur...). The settings were not interesting, the planets looked the same, the space station was dull, lots of big open space and having to fly for a minute plus to reach a battle gets boring very quickly.
The ship based combat was boring. Mostly spamming space bar. Travelling for a battle which seems to take far too long, with little strategy to it. Ship moved too slow to be exciting. Planet side battle - combat was boring. Worlds looked too similar.
My partner went on to purchase the game and he reckons he'll get a month or two of playtime from it. He enjoys the ship to ship combat, and I think his hook is the IP - he likes seeing different pieces of Star Trek episodes pop up. It looks like you do get to see more interesting things as you level up, but the game only had a couple hours to make a first impression with me and it failed.
**********************************************************************************
***4 out of 5 voices in my head agree--I'm ok. It's the fifth one the scares the hell out of me.***
Thanks to the OP for taking the time to write-up. Thanks to all those who've commented since exacerbating his points.
I was so close to buying this game yesterday. Now it'll be a free trial before I take a look.