Tough Days
I haven't been posting much lately because the last few days have been a bit busy on the home front. Sunday I did manage to play hockey (we won, go us) but the juggling to do so became difficult on many, many fronts. Yesterday and today have been a series of juggling all of the demands of our family and home, not always successful. All in all, the past few days have been hard and left both Melanie and I exhausted.
However, I can say that I'm working on posting some items up in the next few days. Of those, here's what I know that I'll do in the week:
- More Audrey pictures coming up. Perhaps a funny anecdote here or there as well. I've had people asking and I hear ya, brother do I hear ya. Should happen soon-ish.
- Final post on Star Trek Online. It's officially a month old, I've played through a good chunk of it and the major reviews are out. I don't think this is going to be a surprise if you've read my previous stuff on it.
- Some notes on coffee and lattes. I've been really reading about this lately and the education continues.
Those are the three things that pop into my head right now. Of course, there are some other things going on as well. My fiction writing is starting to get going again. Funny what a deadline or two will do for you.
Hang tight, everyone. I'm sure I'll have something of moderate interest in the next week.
Get Off Your Ass!
Umm, that's my motivational inner self yelling at my exterior self who does things like control my body. It's all very metaphysical right now, hoping the motivation does the trick. Why, you ask?
Yesterday I discovered there is an open fiction workshop at CONvergence this year which really piqued my interest. Thing is, as like most workshops, they require a writing sample to see if you make the cut...more or less. They want a writing sample from you to make sure that the time they are investing is not going to waste. Perfectly reasonable.
What it means is that I'm more motivated to get a good writing sample (short story most likely) in order to take advantage of this opportunity and hopefully be good enough to get in the workshop. If not, then I learned my lesson and I should start looking at other workshops to get my writing back up to snuff. I'm sure it won't be like when I was in college where I did a bunch of writing on a fairly regular basis which kept my chops up.
Here's hoping.
The Post Pile
Occasionally I'll look through the posts on my site and I'll see the ones I've abandoned. It's usually for different reasons. A couple of them are actually story ideas that I needed to jot down, so I threw a post about them in a permanent draft, never to see the light of day on the Interwebz. A couple more of the limbo posts were specific to the time they were first written and if I had posted them way-back-then, it might have made sense at the time. Now they're dated and only make sense to me.
Still, the others are usually posts that I reconsider, step back from to take a breath (rants, generally), or some are just some free thinking on a couple of topics I found interesting. The last example is a lot like my writing compost pile I have in a drawer--a physical manifestation of brainstorming jotted down on legal pads, scraps of paper, old receipts. Ideas, jammed together, given room and time to see if they will bear any fruit. Some times it smells.
No, not really. Just kidding about that last one. But some of the goofy writing I've got in that pile will make you scrunch your nose up as if you had just stepped in something foul.
There are a couple of posts I've started where I find out a couple of sentences into the piece that I don't know how to write about that particular topic. Take for example a draft I had titled Impending Fatherhood; This was before Audrey was born and I wanted to write down how I was feeling. Thing was, Audrey was here before I finished it and I'm glad it worked out that way. I look at it now, a post not even three weeks old and the single line I did manage to put down is wrong. The wrong angle, the wrong feeling and a general sense of self-importance where it really wasn't appropriate. Every single word was wrong and the title itself took on a Hindenburg-like quality; looks good at the beginning, but in the end, a huge problem. In the moments after Audrey's birth, the motivation to describe my feelings before it no longer had any weight, no longer seemed important to share or even explore. The post died on the vine.
I had a similar thought when I wanted to talk about friendship. You might remember in a somewhat recent post that I mentioned that I was lonely. Shortly after the post, I began to get phone calls and emails on friends "just checking up" on me. Either it was serendipity, or people thought it might be nice to drop a line. Regardless, I was deeply touched. I wanted to write about it, but I found I was getting too sentimental. What I should have done is just post thank you in big, bold letters to everyone and left it at that because there wasn't much else to say. I left it as another unfinished draft. Thinking about it, how can you really put into words in a blog post about what your friends and family mean to you? Much more appropriate for a book (maybe) or poetry.
Over time, I'm sure the number of posts will grow and maybe I'll use a snippet here or an idea there, but a good writing compost is a good idea. If nothing else, it's nice to see ideas grow and evolve.
An Open Letter to Snowmobilers in My Area
Greetings snowmobilers! As you can tell by the frequency of the sun shining in the area and the temps pushing forty degrees, it's probably getting close to wrapping it up and storing those noise belching machines away. I hope you had a fun season running around on the massive tracked crotch-rockets with the abundance of snow this year. I would, however, like to request a couple of things for next year.
See those things on the side there. No, not that side. Those are trees. The other side. Those building-like things. Those are houses. People live in them. You're driving through what is known to be a "residential area". While there are some of you who actually see the 10 mph sign posted at both ends and pretty closely honor that speed, I'm afraid a great many of you aren't even looking. You see, occasionally we venture over to the edge of the wood. It could be a couple of kids, or maybe people walking their dog...something. I have to say, it is a bit unnerving to know that where I was just walking, a couple of guys blew through there with barely looking. Probably wanted to catch happy hour and the free drink at the bar, which I can understand, but I'd rather not have to worry that much.
Also, I have a problem with those of you who see a stretch of open space and open up the throttle to see how fast you can go in that time, which is usually faster than the actual speed limit on the road you're parallel to. Cars can only go 25mph and your 45mph-plus sprints are a bit worrisome.
Another thing; you see that little sign that says "Caution: Driveway"? There's a driveway there. People use it occasionally. Perhaps a bit of awareness would help as when I'm walking along with my daughter in a carrier, I would prefer not having to be constantly on-guard in case someone blows past there without even looking.
Last thing I'd like to mention I actually took a picture. Observe:
Ugliness encapsulated in snow
That is an empty bottle of Smirnoff Ice deposited just off the trail. I refused to take a picture of a discarded empty can of Natural Light, as my delicate sensibilities cannot comprehend people drinking the stuff. My advice to you, besides simple things like "don't litter" and "don't drink while driving a huge motorized vehicle on snow" and other such pedestrian ideas, is if you are going to drink, please pick something worthy. Even a Leinie's would have earned some respect with me, but this only has me thinking about a sad little person who thought they were drinking something "fancy".
Enjoy the off-season and I'm sure I'll see you again next year!
Note From the Trenches
I would like to start off saying this; all of you parents out there, anyone who has had to be responsible for the welfare of a child, I salute you. Being the type of person who often reads about any new endeavor before actually doing it, I can honestly say that I wasn't completely prepared. A lot of the reading I did beforehand was extremely valuable as I've used nearly every piece of information I've come across, but it wasn't going to cover everything. Hat tip to you parents out there.
But spending this time with Audrey has been a complete joy. I've been busier than I've ever been in my life. Not that I'm rushing, but that there's always something that needs to be done and I'm compelled to keep going, keep positive and work through whatever it is that comes up.
I don't have any great insights, especially not to those who are already parents, just personal revelations about myself. Honestly, I've learned so much about myself in the little-over-a-week stint of being a father.
Things lately have calmed down a bit, so I want to get back to my regular blogging schedule. Don't expect to see long, rambling screeds like I've done in the past (not for awhile anyway). No, posts will be more bite-sized, more snapshot in form, rather than crazy rambling old man yelling from his porch to get off his lawn and then mumbling about how things just aren't the way they used to be and how much he misses the taste of Tang. Occasional tangential sentences still will be in vogue though, as you can see from the previous sentence.
Some family updates will still appear on the main page, but most will be shuffled off to the newly created Family page, which you should see a link at the top pointing you towards that portion of the website.
Until the next time, I have to sign off. Only so much writing can be done between diapers.
A Letter to Audrey
Happy birthday!
Audrey Ann Kleiss Boerger
You don't know me yet...not really anyway. You might recognize some of the weird speech patterns I have from the moments I talked to you while you were growing and developing. But the voice probably sounds different. Certainly different seeing that you're no longer swimming in a small bath of amniotic fluid and safely snuggled in your mother's womb.
You will get to know me as I'll be spending my time trying to guide you through life and answer the questions you'll have. Hopefully you won't find me dull. For my part, I want to be a good father to you and a good husband to your mother. I'm far from perfect, but I want to do the best I can for you. I can guarantee there will be a time where you find your father either old, dumb or hopelessly outdated. Beyond those times, I will do my very best so you will find your father kind, loving, generous and understanding.
Not even an hour old...
There's so much to show you and help you experience. There are some times you won't like me very much. I know that we want to the best for you and sometimes that means that we have to say no and not let you do everything that may come to your mind. The trade-off for this is probably not apparent right away, but we both hope that someday in the future, you might look fondly upon the choices we made with you.
I'm really excited about these years in front of us! I'm considering all of the things I've learned that I can pass on. I can't wait to share music I like, stories I find fascinating, places we love to go to, things we love to do. I can't wait for the times I get to cook you your favorite meal, or going camping in northern Minnesota, or speaking a few words in German, or just kicking back and enjoying a fire in the stove while we both read a book and listen to good music. Even though I know there will be a day where you consider my music to be "old" and will look for opportunity to stretch out and test those boundaries we've set, those moments where you stretch and assert yourself, be your own person with hopes and dreams and desires...those moments will be very precious to us.
Swaddled
I will also try to stay realistic. I will try to temper my own desires for you because I know that you will find your own way. I need to realize that beyond my expectations are things that you will do that will amaze me and make me very proud.
Above all of this, I hope that throughout our lives that we can talk to each other, joke around with each other and stay close. As I've said to you each night as you were not yet born, we love you very much. Our future together is going to be quite the ride.
Audrey and Melanie
Rattling the Cage
Here I am, cruising on Slashdot and I come across this topic talking about the newly announced iPad. Yes, it is the very latest in "new thing that they shout you must own because it will change your life" from Apple. Only this time I can't see a single time I would actually use it. I have looked at e-readers and it might be handy as one, but I prefer e-ink technology that you could actually read in sunlight and has better battery life than the backlit screen the iPad has. For everything else, I already have a tool for the job. Watch a movie? I've got the iMac or my own PC. Music? iMac, PC, iPhone, Sansa player...the list goes on. Web access? iMac, PC, two laptops, iPhone. Exactly why would I need this? In the comments I pretty much said as much and watched the strange case of moderation on Slashdot, watching my posts getting modded up, then down, then back up a bit, then hovering back and forth. Ultimately, the Mac fanboys modded me down on a few posts I thought were more relevant, but my stronger posts were modded up. I actually savored the responses from people who wore their allegiances on their sleeve, say...actually praising mac in your username. Folks, you have around sixteen characters to squeeze that in, so no subtlety there. Still, there was some satisfaction on smacking down fawning users from the Apple cult about their latest, underwhelming offering.
All of this got me thinking that as far as we've gotten with the internet, we've still not worked out the obvious, fatal flaw which is that there's an enormous number of assholes on it. Over at ThinkLynsen, they had a back and forth about the internet and whether the net result is good or bad. I'm not ready to wade into that argument quiet yet, but I can say this; people now can say things without repercussion because it's easy to hide behind an alias online and it's surprisingly easy to find sources that support any side. Never mind those sources themselves are compromised and reek of snake oil, now you can quote someone else whose batshit insane theories are taken as word of God proof. Actual research is worthless because there's some guy in Utah who says that your best friends are fascists.
The most recent example I have of this is when I was playing one of my games and in the group chat window broke out a "discussion" about global warming, basically trotting out every crackpot theory against it and going on about the evil scientist cabal who are only in it for the money and those fat scientific grants. Seems to me that nothing quite stirs up polarization like talking about global warming, so I waded into it and basically called all of those guys ignorant. Here was my problem with their comments. There are a lot of people who talk about global warming, anonymously of course, who claim to know all of the facts. This is without the time or resources invested to make such a judgment. Instead of taking ten-plus years of your life to dedicate learning the sciences, specializing in climate research, finding a field of study, working on a question of science, finding the resources to investigate the question and spending every waking moment of the next decade testing and running the numbers to see if you were right, often building on the work of others who have done the same thing, then turning your work over to the scientific community who will try their damnedest to rip your work to shreds. If it passes the rigor of all of that work, then the research itself slips, often quietly, into the scientific body of knowledge. That, to me, is an expert position. For me, when nearly the entire community of scientists from all over the globe who study climate science say that CO2 is a problem and we should maybe look at fixing it, I tend to trust the people who have that expertise, not the random internet poster who doesn't find capitalization or correct punctuation necessary.
The internet has allowed people to create their own sound chambers with similar people who all spout off the same information, which in their minds somehow makes it more infallible. Then they turn around and spew their idiot theories on the internet with no one to challenge them on their thought process or sources. And it is because it is all done under aliases and anonymity where we can say the most crazy things without actually facing the people we're trying to convince.
I believe it's because of experiences I've had which pretty much put me in Josh's camp about whether the internet has been a positive force or not. Take some place like the Star Tribune, a newspaper with a baffling comment policy, regularly trolled by the same people spouting off the same nonsense, day in and day out. Comment threads were initially meant to inspire conversation, but it's just often a soap box for those least able to articulate nuanced positions to shout the item of the day presented by their corporate masters from their "rebellious" website. Unfortunately, it puts me off the website. I don't want to go to the website, not because of the content from the newspaper, but from the idiot commenters who will take any story no matter how benign and turn it into a political rant. This is our internet today. Frankly, it needs a bit of work.
Not Dead, Just Resting
I did write up a long post about friendship and how cool it is to have great friends...and I think I'll post something like that later, but the first draft ended up being far too junior high poetry class and maybe a bit too revealing about my own character. Not that I'm against that at all, but it got to be too much for me. I'm not really a mystery, but there are somethings that maybe are better as diary or journal entries rather than posts served up to the world.
Having said that, I know my recent production has been just more or less status updates and that's really how this post is going to be. However, I will start to work on a more regular schedule and as soon as the baby arrives (there's one hint about what I was going to post up), there will be pictures and a little insight on what it's like for me officially being a father. I can't tell you how strange that seems for me to type that right now. Very surreal. Anyway, other little things.
- Dog update! Starla is doing fine. After a minor setback a month ago with house training, we're all doing better. There are the occasional, rare accidents, but that's really okay. We need to work on her off-leash retrieval as that's slipped lately too, but she is a sweet dog, good mannered and seems happy.
- Baby update! Yeah, not yet. Still waiting. Soon...I guess. I have no idea when this is going to kick off, so we'll see what happens.
- Game update: Not really playing Star Trek Online anymore. Honestly, after hitting Commander (level 30) within a week, I got bored. Also, I began to see more and more Rear Admirals wandering about the game. I am going to wrap up my thoughts with the game and pool them together for the benefit of my friends who are interested, but I can't say it's going to be a glowing review. On the other hand, recently started playing Global Agenda and I'm really finding this pretty fun. Good times and hearkens back to the old days when FPS shooters were the online game of choice. But it's better than that and it can be as simple or complex as you want to make it. I'll probably write something about it later. This review will be more positive, guaranteed.
Other than that, I've got some other blog posts coming up that I've been simmering on lately. Partly, I wanted to talk about living in a small town again, this time stressing a bit more of the good that goes with being back in the Midwest. I've also got a couple of rants coming up, strangely enough about how technology may not be a good thing right now and what the level effect is on a great deal of goings on within our country. Good stuff, trust me.
Feb Friday Quick Hits
◊ Any day now. I've mentioned that, haven't I?
◊ I've been off-line for quite some time. There's a few reasons for this. Part of it is getting used to being in a new place and forming a new routine. Part of it is trying to cram in some game time before the baby arrives and part of it is that I'm feeling out of sorts. The most difficult part of being out of sorts is that I need to get used to some of the loneliness which I'm going through. Contrary to what rational people might do when confronted with loneliness, I usually shut in further. I am getting better with the whole thing, so we'll see how the next couple of weeks go. Just to let people know...I am okay. I'm just opening up a little and admitting to some of the feelings I'm going through. No need to worry.
◊ The launch for Star Trek Online went better than expected in terms of game stability and availability. Good for them as I really thought they were going to bite it on launch day. That still does not forgive them in terms of game content and a host of other problems the game is going to have. Case in point, as I predicted, some one has already hit Rear Admiral which is the highest rank in the game. In addition to that, they accomplished this feat during the head start period before the official launch! That's about four days, folks. Even with all of the downtime, someone still played enough to get to the end of the game. And I don't believe this was a matter of simple power leveling, rather that there's just not that much content to pace the game more appropriately.
◊ One question that we get a lot lately? What are the names? I guess we'll all find out soon enough.
◊ I'm at Nina's enjoying a quick latte. It's as good as I remember, even though they don't do the latte art I find appealing. The taste is where it really counts and anything on top of that is gravy. Not literally, because that would be gross.
Star Trek Online Follow-up
I had the intention of taking a positive note about the game and that it did look like it was going to improve over time, that some (not all) of my fears had been addressed.
Of course that was all before this game started to treat the Head Start like another round of beta. First of all, we should set something straight. Many apologist will come forward and say something like "it's going to be this way for the first month" or something along those lines, somehow justifying that extensive downtime should be expected during launch. Their rallying cry will be "even WoW had a horrible launch". Thing is, WoW launched five years ago and in tech terms, that's a lifetime. Point two here is that Cryptic is not a newcomer to the MMO field. This is their third launch and should be well aware of the pitfalls of game development. Again, understanding that there will be issues in the first month is one thing. Multiple server maintenance windows (one lasting five hours) within the first couple days before the official launch is another.
It pretty much reinforces my earlier assessment that the game simply isn't ready. Not only that, Cryptic/Atari aren't ready as well. Surely someone at some point during one of their meetings must have said "this is a 40+ year old franchise that will likely have a lot of interest in the Trek community. My God, they even have conventions that have thousands upon thousands of people attend with frightening regularity. Maybe we should plan to accommodate the influx of people that will storm the server." Obviously, this conversation never happened and I'm guessing they will attempt to grow their way through the server troubles.
The problem is that we've become too accustomed to mediocrity and too patient with developers who put out a shoddy product. We now have Windows 7 because Vista was a disaster and Win 7 just feels like Vista SP2. In that same vein, it's sad to see that MMO games have the type of attitude that they should be able to fix everything on the fly with paying customers as their willing guinea pigs. STO has so many problems, I'm not sure where to start. They still need to deal with missing Klingon content, graphical issues, main game content, player progression issues that will vex possible expansions (how much higher can you go than Admiral?) and many more that I'd address but do not want to get all wound up (again) over a game. But they are not working on those issues now, they are addressing login and database issues. I cannot believe that it bodes well for STO that these particular problems which should have been nailed down during the open beta (or marketing beta) still need to be fixed.
My advice hasn't changed much, just that it has a broader audience now. Even fans, I think, will be disappointed about the state of the game so far. Wait to see how it shakes out and maybe it will improve. But, man...it's got a long way to go.
A Look at Star Trek Online
For those keeping track over the last few months, I've spent a few moments here or there talking about two upcoming games that really piqued my interest. One of them was Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I can safely put down and keep on the fringe of my radar as Bioware just announced that launch wouldn't happen until 2011. Contrary to what people might say, I think this is brilliant. Recently they had just started taking applications for the closed beta which to me means that there will be extensive testing before the game goes live. It's the smart money move for Bioware. The announcement that they are going to release next year is a sign that the developers and producers won't be rushed to market, opting for quality over a quick buck. Kudos.
The other game, of course, was Star Trek Online, which goes live on February 2nd. If that isn't considered an ominous segue, I'm not sure what is. Closed beta started late last year and for people who have pre-ordered through retailers were allowed access to the open beta currently wrappping up. In addition to those who pre-ordered, several gaming websites were offering open beta keys on a first come, first served basis. I understand this was likely done with the thought of load testing the servers, which I'm sure they got some useful information. Load testing, unfortunately wasn't their only issue.
I pre-ordered the game based on the past performance of Cryptic Studios, the game designers behind the MMOs City of Heroes/City of Villains. I enjoyed CoX (the name of the combined games) during the time that I played them, but eventually moved on to other games. For as fun as it was at times, they had issues sustaining my interest. The hope was that they had learned much during their time as a game studio which they could use in the production of a rich universe such as Star Trek.
Much like every MMO game out there, the first thing you do is character creation and STO is no different. However, they want each player to start with the Federation until at least level six where you can split off and start playing Klingons and the like. I messed around with the character creator and came up with an Andorian male with an engineering background.
Check me out!
Cryptic has always been known for their character tuning. You can twiddle with the controls to come up with something that you'd like if you were so driven to do so. While you can really spend a lot of time with the shape of the face, body and other parts, one thing that I've never quite liked about the character creator is after you get the body type to about what you want, everything else is a variation on a theme. Where I really notice this is with hairstyles and distinguishing marks. Sure, you can say that you can have up to millions of different creations and that's true when you figure in color and size. But you're going to be dealing with the same twenty or twenty five hairstyles. Still, it's much more than what other games give you, so still kudos to Cryptic. My complaint is more of one of the entire genre rather than to single someone out. Having said that though, there are some really creative people out there who came up with some very cool alien species.
That guy is crazy!
It's hard for me to describe the game adequately. There are essentially four parts of the game: space based battle and ground based battles, then choosing between Player vs. Environment (PvE) and Player vs. Player (PvP). Oh sure, there's the occasional diplomatic mission, the odd "investigate this and figure out that" mission and while those are fun, they don't happen very often when compared to combat missions. Space combat missions seem to be outnumbering the ground missions at least two to one, maybe more.
The good thing about the space combat missions taking up a large portion of the game is that it can be pretty fun. For me, it's the most fun part of STO. Even taking on NPCs is a rollicking little romp, especially when you get some slightly better parts to pimp out your ship and take on multiple ships. There's just something about watching the proton torpedoes you just launched slam into an enemy ship and turning it into a ball of fiery plasma in space. PvP against other players playing Klingons is also a lot of fun. Some people might complain about the fact there is no penalty for dying, but let's be realistic. It's more fun to not really care if you lose your ship knowing that you're back in the game relatively quickly, phasers blazing towards your enemies.
Just another day at the office
Space combat can be like EVE online in some ways but very simplified in comparison. You notice the similarity especially when other players are focusing fire and you're their target. You just won't last long as they burn through your shields and start hammering away at your hull. In EVE, you can sometimes warp out to escape losing your ship. No such relief here. You have to wait until the red alert drops and for that to happen, you need to be out of their firing range of ten kilometers...good luck with that. But, it is fun to rotating your shields to cover your weak side, loading up a torpedo salvo and maneuver to bring your weapons to bear. The fun is in the well paced FPS action of space battle.
Ground combat...it's okay. Nothing special really. In fact, I didn't even take any screen shots of it. It's rather dull fare for MMO games and in a lot of ways, rather pedestrian. It's not much to talk about really. You bring in your bridge officers, you shoot things and you try to get on your target's flank for better damage. The thing about the ground game is that it get's you itching to get back into your ship and to have some fun.
Not ground combat. Just chillin' on Risa.
Occasionally, you will have a longer "episode", which is a chain of missions strung together. On the few missions I've been on where there has been a longer episode, they have been the most balanced part of the game and can be pretty enjoyable. There's a sense of purpose here which often links up space combat missions with the ground missions. Along the way, it will tell a story and fleshes out the game, making it a bit richer by giving you a bit of background and occasional foreshadowing. The problem is that there's no impact of these missions to anything else in the game besides getting some skill points and maybe some loot, or progressing the overall story arc. Still, of all of the game experience so far, the longer episodes have the best Trek feel.
Gearing up for serious ass kicking
But there are problems here. First of all, I know this is only beta. I've been in a number of beta tests before, so I am well aware that there are bound to be issues. I know the game is not quite ready and there are things to be worked out, but...I really don't think they're ready. There are a number of reasons that actually had me reconsidering my pre-order and definitely has me considering how or if I will actually subscribe.
The training, while fun and mostly informative, leaves a lot to be desired and is geared towards people new to MMOs in general. There are a lot more things which are missing from the training such as ship devices, what consoles on ships actually do, a lack of information on your bridge officers, etc. When you make a game that has a bit of complexity to it, you have to try to explain part of that complexity and how it fits into the game. Right now, it feels like they are only showing new players how to move, how to shoot and then cutting them loose and letting them twist in the wind. Normally, complexity would build with the character, but with STO, knowing how to equip your bridge officers and your ship seem integral from the beginning.
The parts which will drive some players crazy is the haphazard way that inventory and device slots are used and utilized. Even if you understand that out of the gate, many veteran players will wonder exactly what certain bonuses do. I could spend my time trying to figure out what deflector shield bonuses do for me, but should I have to investigate that so early in the game? Where can I find that information easily if that's the case? It's a lot to outfit in a short amount of time and it just doesn't seem like your character and crew grow organically. There are a number of things you need to know very early in the game and it's just not covered.
Super-spacious, completely useless bridge shot. You don't want to know how long it took me to actually sit and pose for this.
Although the game as a whole seems lacking some content, the Klingon content is severely lacking. I know it's supposed to be the PvP part of the game, but they should at least offer to level the field a bit so there's more of a battle when going up against the Federation. Federation players have had at least six levels to replace their starting consoles which can make a big difference in combat. The Klingons? Clunky ships that regularly get owned by the "good guys" because the starter Klingon ships are underpowered and fight at a disadvantage. Plus, the Federation starts with more balanced Miranda vessel rather than the Bird of Prey, which is a very stripped down escort ship. Weapon punch is focused forward which can be good for alpha strikes, but have big disadvantages in longer combat.
Successful Klingon players will be those who are in a Fleet and who have worked out communication channels and voice chat (which isn't actually a part of the game, mysteriously enough). Pick-up Klingon "fleets" are going to be regularly owned by virtue of the other side sticking together and ganging up on ships who foolishly take on superior numbers. Expect to see numerous changes in the Klingon side of the game shortly after launch.
Whoops! That's my starship and part of my away team. One of the puzzling issues with STO.
Beyond the gameplay issues, I'm really questioning the motives behind the game and their various sell tactics. First of all, the first thing that irritates me is the number of playable character slots which is right now set at three (two until you get to level six where it unlocks a third slot). The game has two factions, three career paths and two specialization routes on each career path. That seems to be up to twelve differing characters, not to mention several different races with different starting stats and abilities. Some people like playing just one character, but a number of people like trying out the game, playing more characters, testing new paths. To have a game that is theoretically on one server and limit how many characters they get? Idiotic at best. When you do not have server shards to experiment with different classes, limiting the number of characters unless you pay for extra slots is needlessly stupid. This point alone has made me reconsider not only my subscription, but the purchase of the game itself.
The second fishy business move they have is the offering of lifetime subscriptions and special one year rates. I would normally have no problem with this as some companies do this well. Turbine with LOTRO does this well and has the content to back it up. STO...I feel like content is already missing. What's the promise for the future? Will there be future content updates? If there are only going to be 80 hours of playtime to get through the end game (as I've heard rumored), why would you ever want to get a lifetime subscription? The silence about this is troublesome for me.
I also have some nit-picky complaints as well. A lot of the forum comments that I see from other beta testers is how much like it is like Cryptic's other game, Champions Online. Hell, I see a lot of similarity to City of Heroes as well. Not just similarity, but functionality that seems almost cut and paste from their other games. Not that this is necessarily bad, but c'mon guys, you've got a whole Star Trek Universe to work with here. You can at least dress it up a bit and make it feel a bit more Trek-ish.
Thank God I can get a latte in space!
I have a few friends who are interested in this game and I thought I'd at least try to provide a balanced look at it. I started playing the beta will the eyes of a fan of the franchise, the mind of an experienced player and good wishes that Cryptic would do well. But the more I play it, the more I think that early adopters are going to have a bumpy ride until the patches come out. And they will, fast and furious in at least the first month. So, should you get it?
Trek fans are going to go one way or the other; they're going to hate the game for not being more like the show or they're going to love it just because it's Trek. MMO game fans might be conflicted from an incomplete game rushed to market to cash in on...something. I mean it's months after the movie, why rush the game out before it's ready? I'm on the fence about this game. There's some potential here. As I said before, the space combat almost makes up for the lack of other compelling content in the game. Is that enough? For me, it's enough for a pre-order and a month of trying it out. I might...might try a longer subscription, but no promises.
For casual gamers though...it's really a bit of a conundrum. The open beta feels as though it was framed as a game just for the fans. It's like the Enterprise-B that still has bugs to work out on it's maiden cruise. The promise is there and who knows what it will look on launch day. Head start begins tomorrow for those who have pre-ordered, so I may add a coda to this later. My best advice right now is that if you are a big Trek fan, get it. You'll appreciate the little touches in the game and will likely overlook some of the headaches with the launch. If you are a MMO gaming fan, I'd wait until the bugs shake out, see how the title matures over the next month or three.
What's cool about STO:
- Customizable ships and uniforms for you creative types (at least for the Federation).
- Fun space based action.
- Engaging episodes linked together (pun not intended).
- Nice effects in space battles.
What's not good about STO:
- Buggy. Infuriating when you defeat an enemy and can't move when your bridge officer pops in to say something, graphical glitches, instance transfers are not smooth, etc.
- Less than engrossing ground battles.
- Questionable business tactics (silence on pricing for extra slots, the slot limitation at all, the C-store "extras", motivation behind special pricing).
- Instanced areas that take massive out of Massively Multiplayer.
And, just because I can, here's some final screenshots to leave you with.
A rough battle, but I survived!
Close up of my starter ship.
A nice view of my ship approaching a planet.
My second command, a Constitution class cruiser. Saaaweet!
Setting course for Risa! Not as exciting as you would think, though.
We Are At Term
Yup. Any day now. Last week Thursday, if the birth had started, it wouldn't have been stopped but still would have been considered early. Now, we are officially in the "wheelhouse of birth", to coin a phrase.
The Enterprise Curse
I've been writing a bit about Star Trek Online (post coming soon, honest) and recently I had a post about if Scotty were an IT guy today. I think it's fair to say that Star Trek itself has been on my mind lately. I like the fact that the venerable franchise seems to be in resurgence with a successful movie out last year. Thinking back on the movie though gives me a headache as there are so many logical fallacies in the movie (red matter, time travel, Romulans who wait in vengeance for twenty years, the Federation who never seems to investigate a destroyed ship, etc.), it finally dawned on me that the Enterprise wasn't really that good for the command crew.
Take Kirk. Legendary captain who is torn out of time by the "ribbon" and never seen again except by Picard...who convinces him to go on one more adventure where he dies. Must have been out of practice. Bye bye, Kirk.
The latest movie has Spock sucked into a singularity (yeah, right) and into another time line. Again, we have to assume that Spock never returns to his original time line and is gone for good. Just as a side note, how interesting would it have been if they had gone back to the Mirror universe instead? A brutal and vicious Kirk paired with the cold, calculating evil Spock. I digress.
Two down...who's next? Ah yes, my favorite. The third in command of the Enterprise, Montgomery Scott. Gets to the point where he was going into retirement and his ship runs into a Dyson Sphere. He sets up some sort of transporter loop and is able to save himself until he can get rescued by Geordi LaForge and the Enterprise-D. After that he shuffles off (get it?) to never be heard from again.
Who's left? Bones lived to be a doddering old man, so there's that. Sulu got his own ship eventually and didn't disappear. There's surprisingly little to be said though of Chekov, Uhura or nurse Chapel. More tragedy perhaps? Given time, I'm sure the writers will certainly do some time travel thingy and mess things up with at least one of them dying. A noble death, of course, but still dead. Could be worse though. They could end up drumming for Spinal Tap.
Late Night Goodness
My late night recommendation and on my viewing, I had to stifle a potentially loud laugh so I wouldn't wake my wife. I've been a fan of the series "How It Should Have Ended" but this latest one about the Wizard of Oz was pretty funny. Enjoy!
Quick Update
I'm working on the Star Trek Online piece I promised. Should be up tomorrow or Monday at the latest. Busy until then. Till then...TTFN.
Cool Stuff
- Boing Boing
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Twitteriffic
- What's with the remakes playing today. I am perplexed.
- Remake of "Love Hurts" on Current with steel guitar sucks as much as the original.
- @gracecunning Hey are you thinking about going to CONvergence still?
- Goal for this week: straighten out wrist shot/one timer. I'm tired of shooting wide of the net. :-(
- Should've used more alliteration in last tweet.
Now Reading
Planned books:
- Unseen Academicals (Discworld) by Terry Pratchett
- And Another Thing… by Eoin Colfer
- American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman
- Sundiver (The Uplift Saga, Book 1) by David Brin
- Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, Book 2) by David Brin
Current books:
-
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
-
Eternity’s End (Star Rigger) by Jeffrey A. Carver
-
All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Recent books:
- The Last Colony by John Scalzi
- House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
- Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics By Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Richard P. Feynman
- The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty by K. C. Cole
- Starship: Mutiny (Starship, Book 1) (Bk. 1) by Mike Resnick
