"I find it interesting how closely they're marketing this based off the new movie, though, you can see it in the uniform's starfleet symbol and the Constitution Class ship on the cover."

I'll give you the uniform texture, but it looks a bit like a Voyager uniform too. The Connie on the box doesn't look that much like the Enterprise from the movie. The symbol on the captain's uniform is from the TOS.

Wow you really are pessimistic, huh? Try more optimism!

While you could be right, let's hope for the sake of all humanity that you're wrong. Don't knock the game until you've tried it, at least.

However, I will honestly admit, I am extremely worried that this game will flop. I hope it isn't going to be released in an unfinished state like Vanguard (my last pre-order).

I think that these guys have their stuff together on this one. They bought the game in a fairly progressed state from perpetual, had plenty of time to work on it after the fact, they learned from the launch of champions, so I hope they can put it all together and release a solid game.

I agree with UltimateQ. I see a lot of reason for optimism. STO looks promising and fun. LotRO, GW, and WoW have provided a lot of entertainment value (for me, anyway), and I am also greatly looking forward to APB, GW2, and SWTOR. I think the future looks very bright on the MMO front.

As for the STO box cover, I like the fact that this one is very "basic and down to business".

I approve of this message.

I don't. I think as long as you haven't tried it yourself, you can't say for sure if the game is gonna be good or bad. I for one will hold off on a final opinion of the game until I get into the beta, or there's a trial available post-launch.

MASSIVELY
Daily News About STO

Darkthunder, I think it's safe to assume some people who have posted opinions might already be in beta.

Or they are all Trekkies and as excited about this game as I am.

Besides they always post lots of news on up-coming releases. ST:O isn't getting special treatment, it's getting average treatment.

It is *that* bad. It's epic fail Jim!!!

What has the Internet done to this generation? Do you have permanent alzheimers? Massively does this for every high profile MMO. They overdid Vanguard and WAR, too. My what short memories you all have. If Massively is guilty of overexposing games, especially relative to their relevance to the market, it would be EvE and Second Life.

Yeah, Vanguard and WAR got this kind of overhyped treatment too, but other games don't; seems to me it all depends whether the publisher pays for a little extra coverage or not.

I'm not bashing Massively, they're hardly the only "pro" blog/zine out there that sells coverage, hell Gamespy/IGN gives better reviews/ratings if you pay them.

You've answered your own question, I think I managed to get the gist of what you mean.

How do players change the direction of a game, and make it better? Do experienced developers ask the community to direct the game, even after pouring in thousands of hours of development hours already, and having to deal with the restrictions put in place by the people they licensed the IP from?

We've all been through this beta charade enough times to know that players are a sounding board alone, and are not going to make the game better, or to innovate and come up with ideas, proud developers get paid for this, they don't need us to make the game better.

There are market forces in play which largely determine when a game is ready. I don't think Cryptic are waiting for me to get off my fat ass and tell them about an animation or quest text, it's done already, or how shitty it is you can't be a Klingon form the start. Beta is a marketing tool, and in this case, a carrot to buy another game.

There is only one bunch of people who will make this game better buddy, and it ain't people like us.

Finally, Massively actively encourages trolling, it's a fact. They post provocative stories on how good RMT is, and how fantastic the next fatally flawed MMO is, so people like me visit to read all the advertisements.