Free to play Star Trek online

[ashmie]

I might not be as up to date on the video games front as I used to be. What's this I see on Steam today. Star Trek online rpg (free to play). Ian Livingstone was talking about these free to play games being the future for gaming on hand held devices and tablets at Dragonmeet last year. How do they make money if they are free to play? Is it all contact details revenue for advertising and site hits?
Anyone shed any light on these new free to play games?

[Colonel Voss]

Basically, you get access free. But certain extra options you have to buy first. Also with Star Trek, they do have a gold member that gives you access to a variety of different optional things like a scenario creator.

[ashmie]

Thanks Voss, much appreciated. I will perhaps boldly go sometime when I have a spare 50 hours of online gameplay to hand. Perhaps in the waiting room when my wife is expecting

[The Other Dave]

The nice thing about Star Trek Online is that you really can play the full game for free. The cash shop has stuff like XP boosts (which you really don't need), new uniform designs (if you want the exact uniform that featured in Star Trek Show or Movie X you have to pay for it), and different ship skins mostly - lots of cosmetic options, very little in the way of actual character-performance-boosting stuff. That's how they make money, by the way - a small percentage of their users are willing to pay a lot of money for snazzy-looking ships and the uniforms from Wrath of Khan or whatever, and they basically subsidize all the free-to-play people. When you figure a single cash-shop ship will run you something like $20 US (although you can use it with every character you create after you unlock it) and there are a good dozen or so ships to buy, and some people will Pokemon it up and have to buy all of them... Well, there's your business model right there.

It's super casual-friendly, too. It's easy to hop on for a half an hour or so and finish up a mission or two.

[Konrad]

Star TREK?!!!! Don't tell me I've been hanging out with a bunch of GEEKS all this time!!!!
Sorry, I mean "Trekkers", not geeks..........

[ashmie]

Captains log stardate December 26th every year.
It was a hefty one today. (Oh sorry, bad joke.)

I'll have to give the game a look, sounds quite peaceful.

[ashmie]

Started playing this today. Bit disappointed with the graphics but other than that it is quite engaging and I can see where they make their money now as my starship uniform is awful.

[The Other Dave]

Started playing this today. Bit disappointed with the graphics but other than that it is quite engaging and I can see where they make their money now as my starship uniform is awful.

The uniform, at least, is almost infinitely customizable even straight out of the box. (I admit it, though, the only thing in the game I've shelled out real-world dollas for is the original series uniform pack.)

But yeah, MMOs tend to have less-good graphics than single-player games. 'Tis a pity.

[Spevna]

Us Mac users are shit out if luck

[ashmie]

Mus, that's too bad. Perhaps they will have it on mac later.

I had a good play of it last night. Beaming up and down from planets, fighting starships, shooting the Borg. It was very busy. I thought it would be similar to the old space sim games where you travel for days in the nothingness of orbit. Like the old amiga game Epic. I think that's what it was called. Anyway Star Trek online is very good for a free game and I was delighted to get this e mail in my 'realworld' gmail inbox this morning.

Congratulations, Gloy!

We couldn't have saved the U.S.S. Khitomer without you!

Starfleet has informed us that you have taken command of your own ship and are currently docked at Earth Spacedock. After you have reported to Admiral Quinn's Office, please speak with Commander Balt, who is stationed outside of Sickbay - he will discuss your Skills Training with you. While you are there, please also speak with Elsa Mora to learn about requisitioning new Bridge Officers.

Once you have learned about your Skills Training and Bridge Officers, report to Malcolm Sissel in the Shipyard for a briefing on your first mission. At any time, you can press "J" to bring up your mission journal; this database contains your current episodes, today's events, a monthly calendar of events, the PvE and PvP queues, and much more.

While you can continue flying in your starter ship until your next promotion, you can also upgrade and fly an original Constitution class, Oberth class, or Enterprise NX Replica class ship right now through the C-Store.

Lastly, if you are interested in becoming a Gold Member, please visit this page.

Engage!

-The Star Trek Online Team