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Browser-Based Deep Space Nine MMO Coming In 2011
A publisher based in Germany has announced Star Trek: Infinite Space, a browser MMO based on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The game will be free-to-play, and it's planned for sometime in 2011. "Gameforge also contracted Michael Okuda, who served as scenic art supervisor for every live-action Star Trek series except for the original program, as a consultant. His wife Denise Okuda, who was a video supervisor and scenic artist for several of the sci-fi series' films and shows, will serve as a consultant, too."
It can't possibly be worse than Star Trek: Online.
Will i be able to play this in chrome on linux, or will this be some windows only plugin for IE/FF job?
and yeah, DS9, not my choice... (despite the copious involvement of romulans in the later seasons)
People, what a bunch of bastards
There's also an upcoming MMO for Battlestar Galactica.
Don't phase me bro!
Will you have the fastest ship in the delta quadrant, be trying to go straight home as quickly as you can, and yet still keep running into the same enemies each time you make a stop?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
They're making a Star Trek: Enterprise game?
From my experience with trying a lot of MMOs... yes it can. You don't even need to try hard to end up with something that sucks more ass than the toilets on the space station.
Add one of those "free to play" (but you need to pay a few hundred bucks just to get the same you'd get in the first month on WoW, and generally we'll try hard to make your character suck if you don't) setups, and it can really really suck.
And generally, don't underestimate how much room downwards there is in any domain. Just about any time I said "it can't be worse than that" or "nobody can be even more clueless", some altruistic soul promptly came along and showed him-/her-self as proof that I'm wrong. Be it MMOs or programming a simple web site or just about anything at all.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
go pick the worst star trek and make a game of it
yippy
Actually, at first I didn't like DS9 either. That was in '93. Lately I've gone back and watched the whole series and found that I really liked it, perhaps even as much as TNG or Voyager. DS9 really explores that whole personal side of ST well and exploits the "Its the 24th century and we're still having the same old problems" factor.
...or is this going to suck? DS9 was the worst Star Trek tangent ever.
Tired of my customary (Score:1)
DS9 really explores that whole personal side of ST well and exploits the "Its the 24th century and we're still having the same old problems" factor.
And it forgets the sci-fi in the process. At least with TNG we got a glimpse of some sci-fi.
Rather than tell stories like a real RPG, MMORPGs keep people playing by grinding. In the DS9 universe, what could they grind?
A situation with replicators in every cafeteria is going to make grinding pretty difficult.
Quest - "Go to the replicator and fetch me ten cups of racktageno."
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
[Disclaimer: I work at Gameforge]
Ok, so hear me out.
1.) Approximately 70% of our company is comprised of Nerds and Geeks, most of which are your Type A RPG, Comic, Star Wars and Star Trek fan. I can go on babbling all day about *anything* that interests me and I'll never get a stupid look, since nearly everybody knows what I'm talking about all of the time. Be it obscure Monty Python references or anything computer and software related. Or, as the case might be, SciFi stuff.
And since a lot of us are Trekkies, nobody here wants to screw this up. Every inhouse title goes through thorough inhouse play-testing, so the Trekkies will be all over the Product Team like a pile of bricks if they screw around with the StarTrek universe. It's convenient for this sort of thing that we *all* are in the same complex, 300 meters appart at most. From Alex (our CEO) and the upper Board across development and marketing all the way to Community Management.
2.) We actually know how to do Browsergames. We've raked in quite a few prestigious rewards and gained a solid reputation with our inhouse titles like Ikariam, Europe 1400, Wildfire and OGame and judging from the numbers they are *very* successful - and for good reasons too. I've been playing OGame and Wild Guns and both are solid fun right up to flat out addictive. We do have some not-so-spectacular acquired & redone B titles to fluff up the Portfolio, but even most of those astonishingly fun to play, although I really couldn't say why (play a round of Tanoth to see what I mean :-) )
Bottom line: We have a hoard of Trekkies right here on our team and we know how to make a fun game. IMHO that's a good foundation for building a neat DSN MMO.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I'm a Niner and am waiting to see what comes of this. Should be interesting... I hated ST:O. Good luck.
P.S. It's DS9 not DSN :)
This is a sig. It is like every other sig in the world, except that it is mine, and it is different.
DS9 was failing and then along came babylon 5... DS9 copied that genius of a show and invented the incredibly derivative 'arc' of the dominion war (whatever). The DS9 universe is so far from the STNG universe that it is almost in another dimension.
And thank the prophets it isn't on Facebook. I wonder if it will follow the show, and - if so - will it wade into the unmitigated awesome of the Relaunch series? (Disclaimer: Switch awesome to failure if you didn't like DS9:Relaunch. I thought it was very well done, but that was me.)
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
For one there's just the problem with browser based MMOs seeming to universally suck. However also the fact that there's a lot of Trekkies is not a good thing IMO. Trekkies, or really anyone over devoted to a given universe/philosophy/whatever have a tendency to get a little dogmatic. Things have to be "right" above all else. Well in a game, that isn't how it should be. Things have to be fun above all else. That can mean some major changes to franchises sometimes. This is something people like Trekkies (ESPECIALLY Trekkies) don't like.
We'll see what happens, but I remain skeptical till I see the product.
Also I would direct your attention to Plinkett's review of Star Trek http://www.redlettermedia.com/star_trek_09.html for a comment on screwing with the Star Trek universe. Namely, that is screwed with itself extensively even before the new reboot. While there are various iconic things (such as how the ships look and the general idea of exploration) it is very much an "anything goes" universe.
DSN == Deep Space NEIN!!!!
A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
Well, a the Sci-Fi talk (not your main point, I know) is what I like about DS9. In TNG, LaForge with his technobabble was getting unbearable for me. On the other hand, O'Brien and Dax in DS9 are talking about much more realistic things, like EM fields and quantum phenomena.
What I don't like about it is that is places too much importance on the central characters and their interaction between themselves. Star Trek is supposed to be about things new to humanity, and our reactions to them.
PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
You start as DS9 Janitor, cleaning the bulkheads... then work your way up to waiter in Quarks bar. Eventually you earn enough experience to start crafting, such as becoming a seamstress in that cardassian tailor sweatshop. You can then work your way up in the tailoring guild to earn enough to purchase a bachelor suite on the officers deck (no more slumming around in the lower quarter with the pirates and refugees! [p]From there you will be able to purchase credits to use the replicators and make furniture for your new babe-magnet of an apartment (complete with million dollar view of the wormhole!)... the women will be all over you. Of course, all the female card dealers from Quarks will actually be basement dwelling 30 something white guys (buyer beware!)[p] Other promising careers will include, security attendant, cook, cargo bay inventory officer assistant, and of course, plumber - all jobs include full Federation pension and partial dental. As you can see, life on virtual DS9 will be nothing like real life, not at all!
Just remember that Nemesis was directed by a trekkie and we all know how craptastic that turned out
Sci-fi in Star Trek? Puh-leeeeeeze~
Talking about reversing the polarity fields of quantum subspace tachyon particles or modulating the chronoton flux with the deflector array... that's not sci-fi. It's just bullshitting.
DS9, of course, has that but also does a remarkable job exploring the cultures of other races. The intrigue of lives of Cardassians is particularly well done. Check out episodes with Garak.
Is this dangerous?
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
GOD DAMN YOU.
I just didn't the joke.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
You seriously liked Voyager? Okay it had Jeri Ryan but the writing was terrible, plots were often resolved with deus ex machina and there wasn't a single good actor. The philosophical and moral issues dealt with in TOS, TNG and DS9 were almost completely lacking.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Oh lord, does this mean we're going to start out on a space station near a single luxury resource and have to make more space stations in other solar systems if we want more than one luxury resource?
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
...what could possibly go wrong....
[Disclaimer: I work for Gameforge]
Gameforge games are all flash based
Wrong. You're talking nonsense.
I've always stopped playing for the same reason, too much advantage for the paying gamers (I can't stand it even as a paying customer myself).
Which is up to you. A fact is that 80% of our players don't pay anything at all and they seem to enjoy themselves just fine. As for the pay-advantages: Yes there are some. But most of them are of the meta-advantage type, like additional slots in building-queues, better overviews and such which means you don't have to check your status as often as without them.
Most of our paying customers get by very fine with 1-3 dollars worth of pay-features per month. For hours and hours of fun in return - a fair deal if you ask me.
As for those publishers taking 300$ from someone to put him at the top of the highscore list - that is shortsighted and stupid and pisses off your userbase beyond repair - which is why we don't do it. OGame has been running for approx. 7 years and still is a successful Browsergame for that very reason.
Maybe you've been mixing up our games with others?
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
To be fair, sci-fi is about a lot more than hard science. I share your love for the hard stuff, however, some of the best sci-fi to be written, televised, or shown on the silver screen has little to none of it to claim.
The Next Generation had a lot of what I'd consider excellent sci-fi over the years, which really is all about asking "What if?" Their habit of activating the "plotyon device" to get out of a jam wasn't part of it.
That deus ex machina in the ST universe has been implemented right through the modern series. I call it the "plotyon device" - whatever they need to do in the last 5 minutes to resolve the issue.
Don't beat yourself up. I'll bet a lot of people didn't the joke.
You are welcome on my lawn.
One day, about six months into the project, there'll be a slashdot story that they lost everything and can't bear to start over again. Instead, they will release it as a MineCraft expansion.
My guess is that they were inspired by the very recent news of large models of the starship enterprise being created by an amateur, impressed by his results (which he later lost, a whole six months of work) and decided it was a lucrative investment. All thanks to slashdot!
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
Hmm. I can't find that one here:
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition
Therefore it might be:
(The unwritten rule) When no appropriate rule applies, make one up.[15] VOY: "False Profits"
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Like me. I feel like I'm the only /.er who's never seen any ST except TOS.
None of these will ever achieve the greatness of text-based RPG MUSH and MUXes like ATS:TrekMUSH (which still exists) and TNG TrekMUSE.
The philosophical and moral issues dealt with in TOS, TNG and DS9 were almost completely lacking.
It's worse than that. The moral issues were there, and the characters we were supposed to identify with reliably made the evil choice.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Because that's all DS9 was. A truck stop on the interstate.
"There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
I just hate it that you guys are german and not dutch (or the other way around, that i am not german), because if you were, my resume would land on your virtual doormat within seconds after reading this post
People, what a bunch of bastards
As in, the game will only use standards such as HTML5, WebGL, Javascript and CSS?
If it requires a plug-in, then why bother making it "browser-based" at all? If I can't play on both my Mac mini and my iPod touch, it's not browser-based.
I had the same experience. I didn't like DS9 initially and didn't make much of an effort to follow it. I don't recall at what point I did start following it but I found myself enjoying it immensely. I'd have to rate it up there with TNG and TOS.
There were two things I recall not liking about DS9 initially. Firstly, It felt a bit too much like a soap opera. Secondly, after having come from The Next Generation with all the exploration and variety of experiences DS9 felt extremely confined; it was almost like being in a prison. I think the writers did a great job of making the characters interesting. Sisko made for an extremely charismatic leader; I'd say as good as Picard or Kirk in his own way. It's quite a feat considering he commanded a space station. But it worked and made his significance very convincing.
The writers also did a great job establishing compelling scenarios. They threw some interesting moral dilemmas at characters and were effective at conveying the challenges that still faced the Federation. It wasn't a perfect utopia, but they managed not to drag everything through the mud in an attempt to make things gritty. Perhaps if the series had been produced today they would have taken that aspect too far.
As a contrast, Voyager, while still quite entertaining, managed to do far less with much more potential. And let's not even mention Enterprise. Although that series got quite good in the last season, when it was far too late to save it.
When DSN came out it was the result of a rush-job(quickest to date in the industry at the time for a major series) by Paramount in an attempt at dealing with Babylon 5 and its perceived threat. As such, it was boring, inane, and the single worst Sci-Fi series by a major studio in the last couple of decades, with the possible exception of Andromeda.(The recent Flash Gordon series would have gotten third place, but it was mercifully killed off). Thankfully almost nobody under *40* remembers it, so for a while there I thought that there was some hope for TV in the U.S.
I'm a talkative guy. To the point where most of the time my friends are telling me to shut the hell up, but even I am at a loss of words to describe how bland, useless, and thing will be. Even I can't explain how bad it will be except to say that I could write a Thesis on the badness of it and still not have covered a tenth of it all. I honestly feel for the poor people. From the developers and programmers to the artists to the actors and everyone else. Paramount has this pathological desire to milk this dead rotting carcass for every last drop of blood that it can. There's a reason none of the characters want to go to any of the conventions - it's career suicide and most of them would rather do their taxes or get a root canal at this point. But enough ranting, let's get down to just a little of why it will suck:
1 - The big problem with the TV series was that like my title says, "To Boldly Go... Nowhere" It's a series about a bunch of guys on a station in the middle of nowhere and that's it. Paramount really did cobble this turd together in 3-4 months in order to beat the competition to the punch. And then refused to let it die until Babylon 5 had died off(mission accomplished!). Now think about translating all of that into a MMOG. It's like playing EVE online with only ONE STATION. One giant area with basically nothing to do but walk around and do... nothing. And this stems from the fact that the original had nothing to do other than maybe deal with keeping the station from falling apart. There is no real plot or action behind it all. Maybe this would work as a cute web-driven single player resource management game, but as a MMOG? What in the world is Paramount thinking?
2 - The setting is ancient and played out. Literally nobody under 40 watched this show(maybe 35 if they caught the reruns), so it utterly fails to even come with a DECADE of the core MMOG demographic. "Hey - let's make a MMOG of stuff only OLD PEOPLE will understand!".
3 - The series was not about combat or anything fun. DDO, as perhaps one of the worst currently running examples of MMORPG gaming, still has a basic "kill the monsters get the loot" concept which works. There's something a little fun there for the fan of grinding. And even stuff like the typical crap out of Korea appeals to the collect everything and chat on your cell phone at the same time crowd.
4 - Free to play. Now, this seems like a bonus at first, but free to play means three things for the players. Advertising, spending money to obtain even a reasonable character, and a budget for support and upgrades that is microscopic. DDO is a great example, again, of this idiocy in action. New Update! Now the same exact 5 monster templates... underwater! Good games make you pay and deliver huge content for your hard earned money. Free games usually get a few cookie-cutter ad-ons thrown in and you're done.
5 - Perhaps the saddest thing of all is how many kids will try this and be turned off of MMOGs or go back to stuff like WoW. It's truly amazing that after five years, nobody has come up with a decent replacement for EVE. Consider that seriously for a moment. Five years and it's still alive and the best outer-space MMOG that is available. That really makes me want to cry. Nobody is stepping up to the plate. Nobody is offering an alternative. And when something like this comes along, it just makes the situation that much worse. Paramount could have done a space-based exploration MMOG based upon the NEW SERIES, and perhaps been a little bit fun, but this is just utter failure waiting to happen.
go pick the worst star trek and make a game of it
We already have Elite Force. Now we can get an MMO of the best Star Trek series.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
To be fair, sci-fi is about a lot more than hard science. I share your love for the hard stuff, however, some of the best sci-fi to be written, televised, or shown on the silver screen has little to none of it to claim.
The Next Generation had a lot of what I'd consider excellent sci-fi over the years, which really is all about asking "What if?" Their habit of activating the "plotyon device" to get out of a jam wasn't part of it.
...and how many times those plotyon devices became real?
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"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Sisko made for an extremely charismatic leader; I'd say as good as Picard or Kirk in his own way.
Bullshit. Sisko was the most annoying ST captain ever, even moreso than Janeway. He started out just fine and then turned into a religious icon and nutjob. He reminds me of John Sheridan from Babylon 5 -- the messiah complex made both of them unbearable, IMHO. There were also plot holes in his character big enough to drive a Galaxy Class Starship through, like Captain Sisko being in command of a fleet of 600+ ships during the most pivotal battle in Federation history. Apparently all the Admirals were too busy doing paperwork to make it to the front lines.
Don't get me wrong, DS9 had some great characters. Garak is my favorite ST character out of all the series. Miles O'Brian is the quintessential "everyman" character. Kira's struggles with her past and evolution over the years were compelling writing. Even Quark was good in his own way as an outside perspective on humanity and the Federation. But Sisko? Sorry, I just can't get past the messiah complex.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
"Captain Sisko being in command of a fleet of 600+ ships during the most pivotal battle in Federation history."
Forget about Admiral Ross? He was there and in command of the Starfleet forces.
We'll apply the famous "Jayne Cobb" bargaining theory to this particular announcement
Will there be shootin? Hmm, didn't really say..
How about brawlin? Hmm, not specific as to how..
Well hell, will it not be gorram dull? Let me do the math here...
Nuthin, plus nuthin, minus nuthin..
I'll be in my bunk.
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
Not in Sacrifice of Angels he wasn't. Sisko was the one calling the shots. Incidentally he was well on his way to getting his ass kicked until Worf and Martok bailed him out....
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Plus one point to DS9 for Garak...minus points for anything else. Where to start from? the ridiculous Ferengi episodes? the love between a changeling and a Cardassian? the endless parade of religion?
At least in TNG we saw some really good philosophical debates.
Sci-fi is not the EM fields and quantum phenomena and not the techno-babble of Laforge. Sci-fi is about philosophy (triggered by imaginary things related to science), and the amount of philosophy in TNG vastly exceeds that in DS9.
I had the same problem with Voyager that I did with Enterprise - the characters I found interesting weren't the ones that were getting screen time. There were some very good episodes hidden in there, but too often it was another Archer/T'Pol or Janeway/Seven extravaganza...
I'll grant the Prophet plotline got a bit wacky at the end (was pretty obvious they didn't really know where they were going with it), but as a Commander/Captain, I liked Sisko. Someone who a little bit wily, a little bit pragmatic, willing to get his hands dirty, but still had the core Starfleet idealism.
If anything, that's what made DS9 interesting - it was the Trek that showed what life was like outside the squeaky clean Starfleet.
Turn in your Star Trek Fan card.
"The future can only affect the present if there is room to write its influence off as a mistake." - Yakir Aharonov
You must of missed that episode where Sisko had to decide if he was going to do something VERY un-Starfleet like to make sure the Federation won the war.
"The future can only affect the present if there is room to write its influence off as a mistake." - Yakir Aharonov
/THIS!
The contrast of being "Starfleet" morally and trying to deal in a part of space where the closest others got to a Federation/Starfleet mind-set is talking about root beer, is part of what made the show great.
Its good to see how people have to deal with their ideals in a part of the galaxy that doesn't share them.
"The future can only affect the present if there is room to write its influence off as a mistake." - Yakir Aharonov
In Soviet Russia, the joke didn't the people.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Director Stuart Baird was a self-claimed Star Trek virgin who had never even watched a single episode of "The Next Generation".
From an interview with Stuart Baird himself:
Q. Did it cause any problems on set that you were such a Star Trek virgin?
A. I'm not an aficionado. There were little hiccups here and there when some people were offended I didn't quite understand the back story. It's incredibly important to them, so some of them would think directing this one, you surely should know it all. But god almighty, I wasn't going to look at 178 episodes. Ultimately, it wasn't a problem. My intention was since I was a virgin to it all, I wanted to make a movie that stands alone and doesn't rest on all the past history.
I don't actually play facebook games, but I'll definitely be signing up for this. DS9 has always been to me the one series most obviously suited to becoming an MMO - I can't wait to see what you guys come up with, and knowing that you guys are genuine fans is unexpected but awesome news.
I only hate that I don't have anything appropriate to put on a resume... *g*
But the point was that Sicko could not do it. That was why Geret(Spelling?? (The Cardasien tailer/spy/??? who live on ds9) in the end did it without telling Sicko about the real plan.
Damm, I watched to much star trek.
Well, he didn't know that Garak would actually kill someone, and then the moral dilemma for him was to decide to turn in Garak, or to let things be, as it would be better for winning the War.
And even before, he did know and 'ok' Garak doing un-Federation type things like forgery, etc. He kept going further and further down that road, all in the name of winning the war.
And yeah, I watch too much Trek too (except for the new movie). Though I don't watch Trek anymore (only so many times you can watch the reruns), and wish something new would come along. In the meanwhile, I read Star Trek Vanguard, which has its DS9 flair but in the 'Kirk' era.
"The future can only affect the present if there is room to write its influence off as a mistake." - Yakir Aharonov