Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Star Trek Online: Craig Zinkievich Leaving, Daniel Stahl Taking Over
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Star Trek Online is losing its executive producer according to a new blog post (i.e. farewell letter) on the official STO site. In the post, Zinkievich speaks of taking a break from Cryptic Studios and expresses his pride in having worked on Star Trek Online.
Getting to work on Star Trek Online has truly been the highlight of my career. Since I was little, I’ve been a fan of the shows and movies. And since the internet and MMOs became prevalent, I, along with you guys, have watched, hoped and waited to get the chance to explore that universe online. I still can’t believe how lucky I was when it became my responsibility to help make STO a reality. I’m often asked in interviews or online, “Isn’t your job the coolest job ever?” Yes, yes it is.
Check out the rest of the note at the official STO site.
Thanks Crockopoopoo and Cacaphony for the tip!
Comments
I wouldn't be proud of working on it if I were him, the game sucked, and this was in the CB, OB, and final release. I may try the game again next year, if it doesn't get shut down before that.
--
Michael
I dont like to critisize cryptic, since I liked city of heros/villians, but sto has just been funny to watch over. There forums havent been that bad though, from what I read so that could just be partly me, but when ever I see someting about cryptic, especially here, I cant help but get excited and look at what kinda crazy antics people are writing about them.
Can I have a refund? 2x copies?
I've been waiting for this to happen. Looks like Cryptic's replacement won't be any improvement.
From Wikipedia:
"Daniel Stahl (born 1971) is an American game designer best known for creating German-style board games. In 2002, his game ''Pirate's Cove'' (with Paul Randles) was published by Amigo Spiele in Europe (under the name Piratenbucht) and then in the United States by Days of Wonder.
A former member of the ImagiNation Network, He became a webmaster in 1994 and later created Alphastrike.com, a BattleTech trading card game fansite. He was also an online producer at Wizards of the Coast during the Hasbro acquisition where he managed development for the Star Wars: TCG, and MagicTheGathering.com websites.
He was a member of the Xbox 360 and Zune launch teams while working at Microsoft and later went on to work for Cryptic Studios where he was a game producer on Champions Online and Star Trek Online."
Cryptic seems to have a real knack for putting marginally-qualified people in charge of major projects.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
Zinkievich speaks of taking a break from Cryptic Studios and expresses his pride in having worked on Star Trek Online.
Thanks Crockopoopoo and Cacaphony for the tip
I find the above having been submitted by a user named Crockopoo to be hilariously ironic
Oh well cryptic ontinues to sprial down the drain. Ill say this i would not folks to read my resumue saying yes i was the executive producer of STO, gosh knows you would get some good poke in the ribs as they excort you back out of the building
Whooooa!!
This is likely the best news STO could have. Its not going to make me go rushing back, but it will make me keep an eye on it.
I doubt I will every go back ... they are just too intrenched in the Cryptic Store (now selling advantageous items, not just fluff).
But still I have a helluva lot of respect for Dan, and I think if Atari and Emmert leave him the hell alone, he could be the one to turn that game around for those who don't mind the C-Store.
I have to disagree. Dan was the one Dev that was putting out the content people enjoyed (and I imagine that is why they chose him).
It was clear before he left Cryptic, that something wasn't right between him and Zinc. All you had to do was read between the lines and watch his video interviews.
I'm guessing Dan was the driving force all along with Zinc just getting in the way. Once Dan left and Zinc was on his own, the writing was on the wall. Amazing how a wound can become annoying when you remove the bandage.
In this capacity, Dan doesn't have to code ... he just needs to lead the Dev Team to implement his vision.
Like I said previously tho ... if Atari and Emmert stay out of his shorts, it will result in major improvements. Unfortunately, I don't think Atari or Emmert are capable of keeping out of it ... so they will ruin it.
BTW ... I want to be clear, I have to grind with Zinc. It just became clear to me before the game even launched that he was not the guy for the job. IMO, He wasn't driving the game, Atari and the Market Team was. That is always a disaster. The only reason (I believe) that Zinc got the job in the first place, was because he was Emmert's boy.
eh i hate BS quitting letters. Dont tell me its the greatest job ever, awesome to work here, then quit. Tell the damn truth for once in ur lives people. We know the game sucks so you saying isn't going to change anyones opinions on the matter because we all know.
If this guy actually gets some content out that doesn't involve charging more money from already paying customers, then I guess it's an improvement. However, if this "we only improve the cash-shop" crap continues, then it's just another empty uniform. I'm pretty sure his hands are so tied that none of this actually matters in the long run. STO remains a cash-grab and will not change until there's an option to earn cash-shop items within the game.
Surely you must know that burning bridges in any industry can screw you. He probably feels differently about it, but one must be diplomatic.
They won't shut it down before next year ... if anything they will go F2P.
Its the opinion of a lot of people that they are setting the game up (along with Champions Online) to go that direction anyway. Just like Atari did with Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Why do people believe that? Because when they added the Galaxy class to the CStore, they basically blew off the subscriber base that was upset that they broke their promise not to put game enhancing items on the CStore. Clearly, they told em to take it down the road, they didn't want to hear it.
That speaks volumes that they have given up on the subscriber base.
I palyed this game since the begining... just cancelled it this month... but i still have hope that they can make this Universe as amazing as it deserves to be.... if the go f2p ill give it another shot... otherwise im going to wait a year at least for needed updates and actually mmo interactions... besides a few starbases and "co-op" missions where everyone runs off on there own....
im still hopeing and praying !
if not im sure there will be a star trek:old republic to save a great storied universe. :-)
meh... crockopoopoo should get the real credit here. All I did was click on the forum topic he already made and put in the link to the sto homepage. It was a good read though.
Yep, also known as not burning your bridges when you leave.
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
*cough*Jack Emmert*cough*
"Oh my, how horrible, someone is criticizing a MMO. Oh yeah, that is what a forum is about, looking at both sides. You rather have to be critical of anything in this genre as of late because the track record of these major studios has just been appalling." -Ozmodan
can anyone else say scapegoat? someone has to take the fall for not making the 20,00,000$ bonus. its well documented that theres a bonus on the line in a very short time. zinq didnt leave voluntarily 3 months before the bonus cheques were going to show up, so i would guess he got fired. why would a company fire a man who just earned them a huge bonus?
hopefully this shows cryptic that there business model of gouging there customers for every cent they can for a sub-standard product isnt going to work.
IF THE ONLY DEFENCE FOR CRITICISM OF A GAME IS CALLING SOMEONE A TROLL OR HATER, THAT SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE GAME
well i like the game....
sad to see Craig go....but i wish him luck in his future ventures.
I just hope this doesnt slow them down...they have way too many place holder missions in that game right now...( i am refering to missions that you know they are going to be putting alot of stuff into...becasue the text for mission literally tells you)
My thoughts exactly.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
If you look at the numbers for Atari, they lost 23 million last year, (total for the 12 month period) and that loss included the launch of CO and STO. Now that most people who are going to buy the game have done so and most of the remaining players are lifetime subbers, all they have left to make money on is the C-Store. Guess thats why they just released the Galaxy-X ship for $25 on the C-Store.
Their third MMO based on Neverwinter Nights will be lucky to get 150k subbers at launch due to the bad reputation Cryptic has. I think Zinc saw the writting on the wall and tried to ruffle some feathers and lost his job over it.
Should fire that entire team - ST:O was a complete garbage title to Trekies, MMO fans, the casual, the hardcore, etc etc. They failed on an enormous scale - I'm surprised it took this long to get rid of someone.
I wanted to like this Game so badly...But it is by far the most soulless Game I've ever played...It's a complete and utter borefest...I'm truly amazed anyone is left playing it...
Yep you can add Jack Emmert to the list of major obstructions to designing a decent game. As long as he is at Cryptic, their games will be marginal at best.
Wow, one of the rubes that helped make STO such a crappy crappy game is no longer working on it. I hope Craig "just don't get it" Zinkievich goes through a major attitude adjustment, takes some game design courses, and I dunno, gets religion to help him curb the greed he steeped his game in before he ever designs another game. Now all we need is for Bill "Flagshipped" Roper and Jack "talk about features we never intend to impliment" Emmert get the boot as well.
I really don't think anything short of shutting down the game and performing a major, major overhaul will ever make STO into a good game now, but getting rid of Zinc is a good start.
They should make the executive producer come to work in a red original series uniform, to set the proper tone for the job.