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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."
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
They're making a Star Trek: Enterprise game?
wrong series...
ST:O was a solid game. It had fun moments, and I found it to be quite entertaining. Mainly the space combat though, the ground combat was horrific mainly due to the dumb as shit AI.
Apart from the dumb AI it suffered mainly from lack of variety. Once you'd hit max level (which you would do after about a month of casual play) there was bugger all to do. I hear it's changed a bit now and there is actual end-game content, but I've not gone back to play it since then.
So yes, it is possible to be worse than Star Trek Online.
You could have been APB. (Note: I played that and had fun with it too, but it only had the basic game mechanics and sod all else, asking us to pay a fee for what is essentially counter strike with cars was what caused it's failure imo)
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
DS9 was Space Station, Wormhole, Cardassians, Gamma Quadrant, Dominion, Jem'Hadar, USS Defiant.
Wrong! Deep Space Nine was about a balding commander coming to terms with his lack of facial hair. By sheer willpower alone the hair on his head moved around his mouth and formed a formidable beard and mustache that would make the most hairy of Klingons envious. It was about the epic struggle of this commander against all those who defied his magnificent facial hair. The Bajoran religious caste feared that his manly beard would stand between them and their prophets. The Cardassians formed an alliance with the Jem'Hadar and the Dominion vouching they would bring order in the universe by building a giant space razor that would make faces as smooth as a babies bottom. There were even envious Ferengi running a bar to discover the secrets of the beard so they could sell them for a profit (Rule of Acquisition #485: Every beard has it's price). At some point in time even the Romulans got involved, with some ambassador yelling at him "It's a FAKE!". But then Garrack made sure his ship exploded and the Romulans finally understood the power of facial hair.
It was a magnificent 7 season tale of hairiness, manliness and the struggle of a man against the universe.
Well, it was nearly ten years ago since I saw the series, so the details are a bit vague. But man, BEST STAR TREK SHOW EVER!
DS9 was the worst Star Trek tangent ever.
Nah, Voyager was far-and-away the worst of the Trek series.
STTOS > STTNG > STDS9 > Enterprise > Voyager
The thing about DS9 that made it great (IMHO) were the very long story arcs. Epic wars, lots going on, stuff from earlier seasons becoming important later. Kind of Babylon 5-ish.
I am aware TOS and TNG were the opposite of long-story-arc, but the casts kicked so much ass I don't care.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
[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
Similarities, yes, copy? No. It was Paramount at the time, before CBS bought them. Trek was always syndicated until the last one "Enterprise". The guy who created B5 is also the guy who created the hit series Murder She Wrote, and B5 was very much along the lines of a 5 year whodunit. Not that that is a bad thing, but DS9 was more about the characters themselves and how the Federation wasn't so 'perfect' as it was portrayed in previous series. Part of the enjoyment I got from the series was how it pissed off all the Trek Nazis, er faithful who felt it betrayed Roddenberry's vision of an atheist Utopian gift based economy. I enjoyed both series. I think the mid to late 90's was sort of the golden age of episodic sci fi. But just like westerns in the 60s, it all got over done, over exposed and the general public got tired of the genre. The low budget crap the gets on the scifi network not with standing. (with the exception of Warehouse 13).
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.
The very beginning of DS9 was almost directly copied from JMS' early scripts that he had pitched to Paramount. There's some old Usenet posts from JMS where, shortly some DS9 trailers come out, he noticed that the "goo-man" (Odo) was ripped directly from one of his early drafts from back then.
DS9's story arcs went a different direction eventually, and is better for it.
Not a typewriter
No way! It was TNG > VOY > TOS > DS9 > Whatever else you can find > A mash-up of Hannah Montanna, Justin Bieber and the Olson Twins > Enterprise
/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