When Wrath of Khan premiered it broke the record for highest grossing opening weekend for a film. Ever. You may not remember but I do, and it was a big deal to go see it at the time. Of course that was 1982 dollars so the bottom line looks much bigger for the newest film. And if you were to calculate Khan's take in 2009 dollars, the new film would probably still win.
Star Trek IV made more money than II. Anyhow, it isn't directly comparable with modern movies as the industry and consumer habits have changed a lot, as well as the prices. VI was pretty popular as well.
Really the only thing the TNG movies prove is that they were bad movies. The new movie only shows that people will watch idiotic action flicks regardless of the IP. Neither is surprising, and neither does anything to demonstrate that a more thoughtful movie would have done badly.
Have you played STO yet? No? oh, ok.. so you have no idea how much fun the game actually is?
I pre-ordered the collector's edition after playing on Saturday, because I am having that much fun.
Yes! I can honestly say,i stand by my original thoughts. It is potbs all over again, and perhaps worse with the gross fragmentation of community, lack of motivating story-line, no community crafting, economy, faction drive, etc.
Essentailly the game-play boils down to, as someone else mentioned, you having a starship and you blowing up an endless stream of bad guys; a rudamentary shooter.
Im sure you wont have buyers remorse for dolling out almost $300 for a linear space-shooter, but boy, I wish I thought of it first.
can you honestly say you are surprised it turned out the way it did?
personally i was hoping for an mmo that didn't treat me as if I had the IQ of a squashed tomato, especially because this is one based on star trek. Am i disappointed, hell yes. Surprised, unfortunately no.
When Wrath of Khan premiered it broke the record for highest grossing opening weekend for a film. Ever. You may not remember but I do, and it was a big deal to go see it at the time. Of course that was 1982 dollars so the bottom line looks much bigger for the newest film. And if you were to calculate Khan's take in 2009 dollars, the new film would probably still win.
Star Trek IV made more money than II. Anyhow, it isn't directly comparable with modern movies as the industry and consumer habits have changed a lot, as well as the prices. VI was pretty popular as well.
Really the only thing the TNG movies prove is that they were bad movies. The new movie only shows that people will watch idiotic action flicks regardless of the IP. Neither is surprising, and neither does anything to demonstrate that a more thoughtful movie would have done badly.
And that was exactly my point: determining whether one film "beat" another is a fairly subjective exercise, and the only thing you can conclude for sure is that the Abrams film was by no means the first or greatest hit for the franchise. But it was a hit, and we can't ignore that.
Honestly I hated it the first time, too. I'm no scientist but astronomy is a hobby of mine, and everything about the supernova / black hole story is so wrong on so many levels. I also wasn't a big fan of the fact that every single conversation felt like a race to the finish. But that's the fad of the moment so I took it for what it was.
Since you elected to selectively quote me I'll reiterate: I stand by the statement that removing the dullness of TNG and going back to a kind of Star Trek where Captain Kirk & the Enterprise kick something's ass was clearly a good move. After watching it again I felt that this, more than anything, was what I should take away from it. And on balance, despite its flaws, despite its several convenient plot devices, and despite its overly flashy ways, I'm OK with that. Clearly that's a matter of opinion which is fine. But the fact remains, if people wanted to see more TNG movies, or Voyager movies, or more Enterprise episodes, things wouldn't have happened the way they did. What we have now seems, to me, to be a lot closer to the Star Trek I liked than any of the stuff that happened post 1991.
** edit
And at the risk of staying on topic, I think the game has legs if Cryptic considers its release state a beginning rather than an end. And I don't just mean in terms of maintenance and expansion packs, but rather as a platform on which to keep building. If this is just Stage 1 then fine, I'm in. And please don't give me the tired "it's beeeeeeeeeeta" line: no bug fix made between now and release can address these deeper issues which affect the game's ability to foster long term interest.
There are similarities between STO and Potbs. Both have just boring and stupid avatar combat. Avatar combat in Potbs sucked even more. But ship combat is where fun lies in both games. Sadly i had much more fun while at sea than in space, because of one factor only, wind. You had to take that into account on every maneuver you or fleet makes and made formations and such a viable and necessary tactic.
On STO i hardly have seen any of this, been tester for 3 months and its just sad they couldnt do much more with their IP. Customisations are great, as is normal in cryptic products but some mechanics are just strange or slapped on without thinking. If i had to choose between this or Potbs, sea combat wins all times. I just hope that rest of Potbs game would be polished around it, but since STO too is mostly about combat, im not buying this one.
PoTBS was probably a deeper game, since it included ship building and an economy. It was possible to play as a trader, and not have to fight much at all. It was fun to ship goods around while avoiding the Pirates. It had 4 playable factions, and lots of NPC factions that you could work with.
PoTBS was a great ship simulator, and also had decent crafting and also non-combat play. From what I can tell of STO, it has a decent ship simulator and that is IT.
This does not seem to be a star trek game, sadly. I doubt its even an mmorpg, as stated in their faq.
I agree. It's just a space shoot-em-up with a very, very superficial layer of Star Trek tacked onto it. "Starfleet Command", which seems to have heavily influenced STOs starship combat, is, even after a decade, a better version of starship combat than that featured in STO - and it had the benefit that you could play online for free. STO starship combat is reasonably interesting though, even if destruction on such a massive scale is about as far from the Star Trek ethos as it is possible to get.
Ground missions in STO are the pits. Short, boring, repetitive, uninspired and pointless are the words that spring to mind.
The instancing is so heavy that, as you say, I wouldn't actually call it an MMO at all.
Originally posted by ElgarL Star Trek the original was a MASSIVE hit, but they decided to take it and change it because it wasn't nitty gritty enough for them. They didn't understand that the original was a hit because of it's design. People didn't want it changed, and they are still making the same mistakes today.
ahmmmm.... No it wasn't. It barely got sold to the network. I think if it wasn't supported by Desi A/Lucy's company it probably wouldn't have been picked up. Then it almost got cancelled at the end of it's 2nd season. It got saved by one of the first letter writing campaigns I believe. Either way the writing etc.... went so far down hill in the 3rd season it was pretty much a given it wouldn't go to a 4th.
Beyond all that from the OP:
The 3 different classes (Tac / Eng / Sci) aren't that different. Actually even in the various shows they weren't. That's why you could have Spock, Worf and Crusher moving up to the Capt seat. Heck even Tori got to be a Bridge Watch Officer. You're just not going to see that much variation as you would from a fantasy game with fighter's, Magic User, Thieves. Even today when a Naval Officer graduates from the Academy they have an Engineering Degree no matter if they'll be a pilot, ship driver or construction corp.
Something from the MMORPG Closed Beta review that bothered me at the time was when he talked about spamming his phaser attacks over and over and over again. Well now that I've played some and thought about it - duh, what other weapons are there? Granted Klingons get the B'atlah (sp?) for HtH, but other than that it's disrupters. Fed gets phasers, even the civilians had a form of phaser in a few shows. Would be nice to see other weapons but there just weren't that many out there so it does all come down to spamming your phaser attack over and over and over again. I think how they 'helped' this with flank shots etc... is nice, gives you some variety.
Comments
Didn't JJ Abram's sexed up reboot beat them all?
Depends on how you look at it.
When Wrath of Khan premiered it broke the record for highest grossing opening weekend for a film. Ever. You may not remember but I do, and it was a big deal to go see it at the time. Of course that was 1982 dollars so the bottom line looks much bigger for the newest film. And if you were to calculate Khan's take in 2009 dollars, the new film would probably still win.
Star Trek IV made more money than II. Anyhow, it isn't directly comparable with modern movies as the industry and consumer habits have changed a lot, as well as the prices. VI was pretty popular as well.
Really the only thing the TNG movies prove is that they were bad movies. The new movie only shows that people will watch idiotic action flicks regardless of the IP. Neither is surprising, and neither does anything to demonstrate that a more thoughtful movie would have done badly.
pretty much what i wanted to say
Have you played STO yet? No? oh, ok.. so you have no idea how much fun the game actually is?
I pre-ordered the collector's edition after playing on Saturday, because I am having that much fun.
Yes! I can honestly say,i stand by my original thoughts. It is potbs all over again, and perhaps worse with the gross fragmentation of community, lack of motivating story-line, no community crafting, economy, faction drive, etc.
Essentailly the game-play boils down to, as someone else mentioned, you having a starship and you blowing up an endless stream of bad guys; a rudamentary shooter.
Im sure you wont have buyers remorse for dolling out almost $300 for a linear space-shooter, but boy, I wish I thought of it first.
can you honestly say you are surprised it turned out the way it did?
personally i was hoping for an mmo that didn't treat me as if I had the IQ of a squashed tomato, especially because this is one based on star trek. Am i disappointed, hell yes. Surprised, unfortunately no.
Didn't JJ Abram's sexed up reboot beat them all?
Depends on how you look at it.
When Wrath of Khan premiered it broke the record for highest grossing opening weekend for a film. Ever. You may not remember but I do, and it was a big deal to go see it at the time. Of course that was 1982 dollars so the bottom line looks much bigger for the newest film. And if you were to calculate Khan's take in 2009 dollars, the new film would probably still win.
Star Trek IV made more money than II. Anyhow, it isn't directly comparable with modern movies as the industry and consumer habits have changed a lot, as well as the prices. VI was pretty popular as well.
Really the only thing the TNG movies prove is that they were bad movies. The new movie only shows that people will watch idiotic action flicks regardless of the IP. Neither is surprising, and neither does anything to demonstrate that a more thoughtful movie would have done badly.
And that was exactly my point: determining whether one film "beat" another is a fairly subjective exercise, and the only thing you can conclude for sure is that the Abrams film was by no means the first or greatest hit for the franchise. But it was a hit, and we can't ignore that.
Honestly I hated it the first time, too. I'm no scientist but astronomy is a hobby of mine, and everything about the supernova / black hole story is so wrong on so many levels. I also wasn't a big fan of the fact that every single conversation felt like a race to the finish. But that's the fad of the moment so I took it for what it was.
Since you elected to selectively quote me I'll reiterate: I stand by the statement that removing the dullness of TNG and going back to a kind of Star Trek where Captain Kirk & the Enterprise kick something's ass was clearly a good move. After watching it again I felt that this, more than anything, was what I should take away from it. And on balance, despite its flaws, despite its several convenient plot devices, and despite its overly flashy ways, I'm OK with that. Clearly that's a matter of opinion which is fine. But the fact remains, if people wanted to see more TNG movies, or Voyager movies, or more Enterprise episodes, things wouldn't have happened the way they did. What we have now seems, to me, to be a lot closer to the Star Trek I liked than any of the stuff that happened post 1991.
** edit
And at the risk of staying on topic, I think the game has legs if Cryptic considers its release state a beginning rather than an end. And I don't just mean in terms of maintenance and expansion packs, but rather as a platform on which to keep building. If this is just Stage 1 then fine, I'm in. And please don't give me the tired "it's beeeeeeeeeeta" line: no bug fix made between now and release can address these deeper issues which affect the game's ability to foster long term interest.
There are similarities between STO and Potbs. Both have just boring and stupid avatar combat. Avatar combat in Potbs sucked even more. But ship combat is where fun lies in both games. Sadly i had much more fun while at sea than in space, because of one factor only, wind. You had to take that into account on every maneuver you or fleet makes and made formations and such a viable and necessary tactic.
On STO i hardly have seen any of this, been tester for 3 months and its just sad they couldnt do much more with their IP. Customisations are great, as is normal in cryptic products but some mechanics are just strange or slapped on without thinking. If i had to choose between this or Potbs, sea combat wins all times. I just hope that rest of Potbs game would be polished around it, but since STO too is mostly about combat, im not buying this one.
Played: Quite a few Mmos
Playing: Something
PoTBS was probably a deeper game, since it included ship building and an economy. It was possible to play as a trader, and not have to fight much at all. It was fun to ship goods around while avoiding the Pirates. It had 4 playable factions, and lots of NPC factions that you could work with.
PoTBS was a great ship simulator, and also had decent crafting and also non-combat play. From what I can tell of STO, it has a decent ship simulator and that is IT.
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2025: 48 years on the Net.
I agree. It's just a space shoot-em-up with a very, very superficial layer of Star Trek tacked onto it. "Starfleet Command", which seems to have heavily influenced STOs starship combat, is, even after a decade, a better version of starship combat than that featured in STO - and it had the benefit that you could play online for free. STO starship combat is reasonably interesting though, even if destruction on such a massive scale is about as far from the Star Trek ethos as it is possible to get.
Ground missions in STO are the pits. Short, boring, repetitive, uninspired and pointless are the words that spring to mind.
The instancing is so heavy that, as you say, I wouldn't actually call it an MMO at all.
ahmmmm.... No it wasn't. It barely got sold to the network. I think if it wasn't supported by Desi A/Lucy's company it probably wouldn't have been picked up. Then it almost got cancelled at the end of it's 2nd season. It got saved by one of the first letter writing campaigns I believe. Either way the writing etc.... went so far down hill in the 3rd season it was pretty much a given it wouldn't go to a 4th.
Beyond all that from the OP:
The 3 different classes (Tac / Eng / Sci) aren't that different. Actually even in the various shows they weren't. That's why you could have Spock, Worf and Crusher moving up to the Capt seat. Heck even Tori got to be a Bridge Watch Officer. You're just not going to see that much variation as you would from a fantasy game with fighter's, Magic User, Thieves. Even today when a Naval Officer graduates from the Academy they have an Engineering Degree no matter if they'll be a pilot, ship driver or construction corp.
Something from the MMORPG Closed Beta review that bothered me at the time was when he talked about spamming his phaser attacks over and over and over again. Well now that I've played some and thought about it - duh, what other weapons are there? Granted Klingons get the B'atlah (sp?) for HtH, but other than that it's disrupters. Fed gets phasers, even the civilians had a form of phaser in a few shows. Would be nice to see other weapons but there just weren't that many out there so it does all come down to spamming your phaser attack over and over and over again. I think how they 'helped' this with flank shots etc... is nice, gives you some variety.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter