Has Star Trek Online improved at all...?

[allthatisman]

I am a huge Trek fan, and I wanted to play STO when it first came out, but lackluster reviews by both magazines and beta testers pretty much turned me away. The game has been out for some time now, and I am wondering if most or all of the issues with the beta and early relesase have been fixed? Does anyone even play the game? I read on PCGamer's website that they are considering making the online play free for all... just got me thinking...

 

[CVSiN]

that should be an indication... F2P is usually the last ditch effort to turn around a game.

It worked for LOTRO though..

played it in beta.. wasnt very impressed at all.
hoping they can salvage it.

 

[RavenSEAL]

There is a reason it's going F2P

 

[Elcs]

Yes it has improved... But not by any worthwhile amount.

It's still a very fun game until you get to the endgame after playing solo since the tutorial and you find out that there is no endgame content and you really just played an online game of Starfleet Command with some plus points and a few negatives.

More indicative of Cryptic than the core game itself which is pretty solid. It's the content which lets the whole thing down.

Free to play does not spell failure in all cases. DDO and LoTRO as examples.

 

[SunnyD]

that should be an indication... F2P is usually the last ditch effort to turn around a game.

It worked for LOTRO though..

played it in beta.. wasnt very impressed at all.
hoping they can salvage it.

On the contrary...

It worked for LoTRO, and was purposefully designed to happen that way. In fact Turbine got more revenue than they anticipated, and they were anticipating a lot. Reason: DDO. They had I think two years of prior experience with a profitable F2P game.

On the other hand, other companies do hold your model true regarding F2P being a deathknell. Turbine most definitely was not one of those companies, especially with LoTRO.

 

[zinfamous]

Guild Wars has been around for 6? years now, F2P, still rather thriving community as far as I know.

 

[CVSiN]

GW is also not really a true MMO as 99% of the content is instanced its a single player game that allows multiplayer or bots as an alternative.

the PVP arenas and towns/ dungeon hubs are the only areas that actually behave like an MMO should.

 

[zerocool84]

GW is also not really a true MMO as 99% of the content is instanced its a single player game that allows multiplayer or bots as an alternative.

the PVP arenas and towns/ dungeon hubs are the only areas that actually behave like an MMO should.

Yea GW really isn't a real MMO. Even the people who made it don't call it a real MMO.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Guild Wars has been around for 6? years now, F2P, still rather thriving community as far as I know.

you still have to buy the games though....

 

[Nintendesert]

You have to buy every game you play... F2P obviously refers to the lack of a subscription after the box sale.

 

[SZLiao214]

I feel the exact same way that the op feels about STO. I am a huge ST fan but after reading reviews i lost interest.

Normally i would probably had bought it first or second day but aion and warhammer were both too disappointing for me not to wait and look anymore.

Maybe i'll try it when it goes F2P.

 

[simonizor]

GW is also not really a true MMO as 99% of the content is instanced its a single player game that allows multiplayer or bots as an alternative.

the PVP arenas and towns/ dungeon hubs are the only areas that actually behave like an MMO should.

GW is as much of an MMO as DDO and LoTRO. They both act in the same way as GW does. The towns hold X amount of people per server and all of the quests run in separate, instanced worlds that you can only go into with a small party of players.

 

[zerocool84]

GW is as much of an MMO as DDO and LoTRO. They both act in the same way as GW does. The towns hold X amount of people per server and all of the quests run in separate, instanced worlds that you can only go into with a small party of players.

I haven't played DDO or LoTRO but if they are the same then those shouldn't be called MMO's either.

Is Guild Wars an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game)?

Guild Wars has some similarities to existing MMORPGs, but it also has some key differences. Like existing MMOs, Guild Wars is played entirely online in a secure hosted environment. Thousands of players inhabit the same virtual world. Players can meet new friends in gathering places like towns and outposts where they form parties and go questing with them. Unlike many MMOs, when players form a party and embark upon a quest in Guild Wars, they get their own private copy of the area where the quest takes place. This design eliminates some of the frustrating gameplay elements commonly associated with MMOs, such as spawn camping, loot stealing, and standing in a queue in order to complete a quest.

Guild Wars takes place in a large virtual world made up of many different zones, and players can walk from one end of the world to the other. In Guild Wars much of the tedium of traveling through the world has been eliminated. Players can instantly return to any safe area (town or outpost) that they have previously visited just by clicking on it in the world overview map.

Rather than labeling Guild Wars an MMORPG, we prefer to call it a CORPG (Competitive Online Role-Playing Game). Guild Wars was designed from the ground up to create the best possible competitive role-playing experience. Success in Guild Wars is always the result of player skill, not time spent playing or the size of one's guild. As characters progress, they acquire a diverse set of skills and items, enabling them to use new strategies in combat. Players can do battle in open arenas or compete in guild-vs-guild warfare or the international tournament. Engaging in combat is always the player's choice, however; there is no player-killing in cooperative areas of the world.

Players in Guild Wars can play with or against players from around the world in the global tournaments and arenas. And while players are initially placed in a region based on their selected language (so that there is a greater likelihood that others will be speaking their language) they can join up in the always-available International District to form parties and to play with anyone from anywhere in the world.

http://www.guildwars.com/products/guildwars/features/default.php

 

[zinfamous]

GW is also not really a true MMO as 99% of the content is instanced its a single player game that allows multiplayer or bots as an alternative.

the PVP arenas and towns/ dungeon hubs are the only areas that actually behave like an MMO should.

Yea GW really isn't a real MMO. Even the people who made it don't call it a real MMO.

...and who gives a shit?

it's an online RPG, with PvP, the same damn shit as all these other games. it's all about the style that people want. Nothing about how it is played changes the fact that it could or could not be a subscription service.

 

[zinfamous]

you still have to buy the games though....

how is that different from LoTR or the Star Trek plan?

I mean, F2P usually means "no subscription," especially for these type of products, right?

 

[child of wonder]

Back when STO was first announced I was so anticipating it. Having been turned off by MMOs, I vowed to give it a try.

Then it got released and sucked massive donkey balls.

FML

 

[Nyati13]

GW is as much of an MMO as DDO and LoTRO. They both act in the same way as GW does. The towns hold X amount of people per server and all of the quests run in separate, instanced worlds that you can only go into with a small party of players.

Don't know about DDO, but that's completely false about LOTRO.

 

[crownjules]

You have to buy every game you play... F2P obviously refers to the lack of a subscription after the box sale.

Not at all. There are several high quality titles in the F2P model that require no upfront purchase. League of Legends, LOTRO, and Company of Heroes Online are a few of these. Just sign up for an account, download the software, and you're able to start playing.

 

[acheron]

GW is as much of an MMO as DDO and LoTRO. They both act in the same way as GW does. The towns hold X amount of people per server and all of the quests run in separate, instanced worlds that you can only go into with a small party of players.

I love how people post like they are so certain, and yet get facts completely wrong. http://bit.ly/9JYlsO

 

[JoshGuru7]

You have to buy every game you play... F2P obviously refers to the lack of a subscription after the box sale.

It might seem obvious to you but it isn't correct. F2P games have no initial or monthly cost but operate via microtransactions. They offer optional items for purchase from an in-game store and try to sell them to players a la carte. For example, in LOTRO you can buy potions off the store for real dollars instead of having to make them yourself. That's how they make their money.

 

[xboxist]

What I don't get is... don't these companies at some point in development know that their product is going to be fairly underwhelming? I love MMOs, and am getting to the point where I feel every company that isn't named Blizzard should just pack it the fuck up and get out of the business.

A big part of the problem is that there have been so many failed/bad MMOs in the past few years, that it's specifically making people pessimistic about every subsequent MMO release. They're not buying them early because they're anticipating their failure.

 

[cronos]

how is that different from LoTR or the Star Trek plan?

I mean, F2P usually means "no subscription," especially for these type of products, right?

No. In LotRO and DDO F2P you don't have to buy anything. You just have to download the client, install it, and play.

 

[zinfamous]

No. In LotRO and DDO F2P you don't have to buy anything. You just have to download the client, install it, and play.

ahhh, didn't realize they went completely free.

Of course, they started as a software purchase and monthly subscription, right? I remember the news that they were moving to F2P not too long ago.

long thread here about it. Still, it's not how they started...

 

[simonizor]

Don't know about DDO, but that's completely false about LOTRO.

You are wrong. It clearly states here that LoTRO uses instanced worlds for pretty much all areas other than the main towns. It does say that LoTRO has some public dungeons that more people can enter, but they are still separate from the regular world.

I love how people post like they are so certain, and yet get facts completely wrong. http://bit.ly/9JYlsO

What are you talking about, buddy? Maybe instead of just trying to bash me, you could have an intelligent conversation? Or would that be too much for you? Do you know anything about GW, LoTRO, and DDO? I've played all of these games and they all work very similarly. They have a main "town" area that holds X amount of people in each server. The majority of the quests, dungeons, etc are instanced, meaning that they are separate from the rest of the world. When you go into these instanced areas, you can only enter them with people who are members of your party. What in my other post was "completely wrong?"


I swear, people post shit like this just to start arguments. If you don't know what you're talking about, at least do some research. If you can't even do that, then do us all a favor and don't post at all.

 

[Blintok]

a recently new f2p that is totally free is Everquest 2 Xtended.

free to download free to play.