season one...seems great! I hope the game can goes well as time goes on

As expected the Klingons now appear to be allowed into some of the other areas of the game, but is it still worth playing a Klingon? Cryptic certainly seem to still be rolling out many mission changes - but is it all just for Admirals?

To those that have questioned the ability of the interviewer, please keep in mind Alltern8 is a fan site and questions are asked by people who have stepped forward with an interest in asking them. We dont pander to the "must be positive or must be negative press" most other publications favour and our questions are always genuine as opposed to "put together for the press"

Cryptic knew very well from having worked with us since closed BETA, we would ask honest questions good or bad and had the respect to give us time to answer them even if they didnt like them.

STO has had good press and bad.. only time will tell if it has a longer lifespan than the time it takes you to level cap.

My suggesion to anyone who'd like to get the chance to ask questions in the future would be to get in touch with us via the contact form, we are always happy to work with people who have a genuine interest.

"The questions were posed very adversarialy. Rather than ask how Cryptic went about its design decisions he asks if they did it despite what some fans wanted. Very amateur interviewer. I have to admit that Zinc was very patient with him though. I'd have gotten up and walked out."

WRONG. The vast majority of interviews have been fanboy slob-fests, and this is the first interview I've seen where the interviewer, 1) Is knowledgeable about the game AND the IP, 2) Is knowledgeable about the biggest fan/player complaints, and 3) Is willing to pose those questions to the developers instead of being buddy-buddy with them.

The problem with people like you is that you think the purpose of journalism is to fellate the subjects or interviewees. It's not, and if that were the case no one would subscribe to a newspaper or magazine.

Yet in GAMES journalism, most writers *are* fanboys, and so we rarely if ever get to see an interview where they hold a developer's feet to the fire.

The fact is that, while space combat is great, customization is awesome and the ships are fantastic, STO does show many signs of being done on the cheap with a very finite development cycle. Since many of us Trek fans have suffered through decades of cringe-worthy, unplayable games based on this intellectual property, the fact that STO lacked so much polish was a big disappointment, if not exactly a surprise.

Right now, ground combat is pretty bad, the Exchange system is a massive lagfest, the game world is overly instanced (ever see more than 10 players on a map?), the UI is missing basic information about currencies and items, there are regular errors in quest text and tooltips, there are numerous bugs in missions and encounters, PvP space combat is horrendously imbalanced, and the grid-like instanced "sectors" ruin the feel of explorable, vast space.

I say all the above not as a huge critic, but as a person who bought the game and is currently subscribing to it.

Don't get me wrong -- I want this game to succeed and I want to continue enjoying it, but it needs a LOT of work, and based on Cryptic's prior history with MMOs, there are serious questions about whether the company is committed to applying that polish over the long-term, or whether they'll take the money and run.

So I am very appreciative of this interview, because the interviewer asked many of the same questions I would have asked if I had 20 minutes to sit down with one of Cryptic's lead developers. And as a newspaper reporter who has worked for Gannett and the Associated Press (read: real journalism) I especially appreciate the fact that a games journalist went against the trend and asked important questions, even if some of them may seem adversarial. This was a good read.

Wow! Are game produsers class "A" BS artists or what? Seriously, they should run for office LOL. I have never heard a more enticing veneer of doubletalk to sell the fact that they did what they wanted to do, barely skirting the idiom of Trek to make a crap load of cash by selling lifetime subs. Sound like Rick Berman all over again. To Hell with what happened before, this is "MY" Trek. So what if it's barely recognizable, I am making millions!

The questions were posed very adversarialy. Rather than ask how Cryptic went about its design decisions he asks if they did it despite what some fans wanted. Very amateur interviewer. I have to admit that Zinc was very patient with him though. I'd have gotten up and walked out.

Most definitely written by Mike -- I see a lot of his concerns here as questions. ;-)

Let's be honest, if the game had been 70% diplomacy and running errands/building faction ratings, people would have whined about that. They decided to start out with an adventure/combat game with Exploration and some diplomacy. Makes sense. I've been on plenty of non-combat missions, the stories of which are pretty interesting. And the combat missions have stories that develop "along with the combat." The problem is probably more that people don't bother to read b/c they're lazy, so all they remember is combat...

Roger the Cardassian? Roger is not a Cardassian name! Epic fail :-)!

I've been playing STO since the open beta period, and I've already seen a large number of improvements, refinements and fixes in just 6 weeks. True, the game felt (and to some extent still feels) rather "unfinished," but honestly, I'd rather be playing what IS completed NOW than waiting another 2-4 months (or more) for the "full package." Conversely, I'm quite sure Cryptari would rather be receiving subscription income during this same period. Perpetual (the previous STO devs) made the classic mistake of being underfunded and overdeveloped, leading to their own dismal fate.

STO is fun! That's the best, most succinct summary I can provide at present. Space combat is quite thrilling at times and continues to become more and more of a challenge the more levels through which I progress. Last night I just barely survived a space encounter with about 2% shields and 0% hull strength! Literally one more disruptor shot would have sent me back to the spawn point, but it was him or me, and I was able to cruise away and begin repairs. He ended up as a ball of orange, glowing space dust, which was rather fulfilling, at least as much as a PC game can be.

Ground combat, while enjoyable, still feels awkward and "clunky." I have a difficult time switching to a new target before the current one is finished off (there are tactical reasons for doing so,) if I try to "tab" cycle through them the tactical advantage is usually lost, or I try to mouseclick the new (often moving) target multiple times with the same result. One thing STO could REALLY use, especially during ground combat, is a "fixed cursor" (i.e., a reticle permanently centered in front of the player/character,) that would allow interaction/targeting simply by looking at an object, NOT requiring a separate, free-movement mouse cursor to select targets/objects. This could still remain an option for players who desire this type of interface, but it would go a long way, a HUGE way, toward making ground combat MUCH more intuitive and "targeting friendly." You look, you l-click to select and fire away. You look at another target, l-click and fire away. No muss, no fuss! Since weapons are triggered via the keyboard, not mouse buttons, you would only select targets with the mouse. This type of targeting/interaction system is used with a GREAT many MMO's, and for very good reason... it works, and it works well.

As far as storylines go, if you take the time to actually READ the dialogue, most of them sound very much "Trekish" and along the lines of what you remember from the various series and movies. The episodes vary somewhat in the sequence, but they obviously progress through the 3 main elements of the game; space combat, ground combat and exploration. Take those 3, mix them up a bit, sprinkle in some story lines, and you have your basic Episode. This isn't a criticism, only an observation. I actually enjoy the Episodes for the most part, the stories can be quite good. There are also patrol and exploration missions added into the mix, which again still utilize the same 3 basic elements, but are shorter and less story-driven.

Crafting, if you can call it that, borders on the abysmal and, IMHO, is (hopefully) only a place-holder for a REAL crafting system. For anyone who says "crafting is not ST canon!" (and I've seen it said on the STO forums several times,) go back and WATCH some ST! There was always modifications of ship systems, upgrades, tweaks and refinements. Phasers, both ship and personal, modified against the Borg, the Delta Flyer was crafted from scratch on Voyager, even Bones helped mod a torpedo in "Undiscovered Country." There IS crafting in ST, people! So should there be crafting in STO, and it needs to be much better than it is now.

Alright, I've spoken my peace, and I'm already looking forward to playing tonight.

I would have bought this game straight away but the subscription fee is way to expensive especially after paying £40+ for the game

The fact that the interviewer isn't afraid to annoy the interviewee is slightly refreshing, but the questions are just too loaded and amateurish. I do agree that more choice within missions would be great though.

Geez for a second I thought I was looking at Tom Arnold. I was like "What's he got to do with STO?"

Atarigate this, Atarigate that. Atari sales have NOTHING to do with the game. Don't blame to developer, for what the distributor did.

It doesn't matter anyway, who the hell cares. It was a sale, if you buy something before a sale goes on, your not entitled to complain until you get your way about it. It was simply people complaining over a sale that they missed out on, big whoop.

None of those seem cut and paste. He went into detail about things he knew about, and was snarky when the interviewer seem to ask trick questions. How is that any different from other interviews?

Grow up, life goes on. Stop acting like a spoiled child.

I take it this interview was done prior to Atarigate

Cryptic/Atari has released this game way before it was ready and have been attempting to "cash in" as much as possible on the Star Trek IP since launch

Personally I find alot of the answers given to be cut and paste answers that shows the lack of respect Cryptic/Atari has for the IP