Now Open Beta Is Really Over...

...and damn that was a hell of a finale!

I have to admit, even though I knew there was some sort of surprise in store, I didn't expect a Borg invasion. That was a lot of fun, but only as long as there were a decent amount of ships in the same area. Trying to take on a Borg ship solo is basically insta-death, and once enough Federation ships had left the area, there was really no point in sticking around. Still, it was a pretty awesome fleet battle while it lasted, and best of all I didn't have to take months to get myself into 0.0 space and heavily armed in order to participate, as you do in EvE. I made it out to 0.0 in EvE, but I never got a chance to participate in a major fleet battle. In STO, I've already been in a pretty decent one, and I'm betting there will be plenty more after launch.

Funny how I love both games but I've already done more varied stuff in STO in terms of space combat than I did in all the time I played EvE. Not that combat in EvE isn't good, but it's just a different kind of combat and one PvE mission is much like another except in terms of strength of the forces you go up against. There's a heck of a lot more variety in STO, and that's not even counting the ground combat, which EvE doesn't have so it's not fair to compare.

One thing that tells me that this game is going to be huge, bigger than EvE, bigger than probably most MMOs, is the forums. It's not unusual to see comment threads going on for a hundred pages or more, and that level of participation tells you something. If there are that many people motivated to participate in the forums, can you imagine how many are participating in the game?

It's no surprise to me that STO is this popular. Each mission I did was at least somewhat unique unto itself, with it's own storyline, graphics, goals, obstacles, giving it the flavor of an episode of Star Trek. One thing I would like to see is a bit more story on some of these missions, a bit more than "Help us! We need you to _______". There are some notable exceptions I discovered that were terrific such as the Guardian of Forever mission, but I'd still like to see more.

Now we really wait a few days. I'm hoping I'll be able to log in Friday and spend some time in-game. After a pretty awesome open beta and finale, I can't wait to see how they try to top it.

Well, at least now I have three full days to get some work done. Chances are, I wouldn't have had much time to play until Friday or Saturday anyway. Works for me.