Still Here, Just Kinda Busy With RL Right Now

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but it's been a particularly busy spring for me in RL, and so I've had very little time for STO and for gaming in general. I have done a few of the Foundry missions and I'll be doing more, and I've begun the Delta Flyer missions...I want one.

This too shall pass, and I'll be back in the saddle soon. One thing I have been doing when I have some time is replaying Mass Effect 1 and 2. Why that and not devote more time to STO? Well because the ME series is probably my all-time favorite sci-fi game series of all time and I've managed to acquire the books as well, but I'm waiting until I finish both games again before I read them (I'm in the middle of David Weber's Honor Harrington series right now anyway). I tend to read a lot more than I game because my e-reader is far more portable than my PC (I don't own a laptop and probably wouldn't game on one even if I did).

So anyway, that's the reason why you haven't seen anything here recently, but don't worry I'll be back, and pretty soon too.

What Do Ya Do When There’s Nothing To Do?

So, I’ve now played through just about everything in STO that doesn’t involve teaming at least once. That being the case, I decided to see what else I could do in-game that would be interesting, productive, and as non-repetitive as possible.

I realized that since coming back to STO and really since the beginning, I hadn’t given much attention to crafting at all. I decided to do a little research and see if I could make it worth my time. In this I was successful, but crafting itself really kept me entertained for about two days. The results, however, I expect will keep me entertained a lot longer.

After spending most of yesterday maxing out my crafting skill, I decided that my next project would be getting my assault cruiser outfitted with Aegis gear. This actually took longer than I expected it would as it required me to spend most of my day in the Zenas Expanse chasing down Tachyon Wave Signatures and Exobiological Samples. Once I had what I needed, I headed to Memory Alpha and outfitted my ship. Then it was off to try my new gear out in some combat.

What I came to realize as I was testing out my new gear is that I think it’s time for me start playing the next tougher mode. I’d intentionally left the slider at “Normal” when I’d returned because I felt I needed some time get back into the game before I increased the difficulty. Now with my newly upgraded ship, areas that were a lot more challenging before are suddenly a lot easier to deal with.

So I think starting tomorrow or whenever I next find myself in-game I’m going to move the slider to the next level and see how it goes. I can always go back if I find it too tough. There is one possible exception, though.

At one point, I decided to try a PvP arena and totally got my ass kicked. The problem was that I was probably the best-equipped ship in the arena so all the Klingons immediately ganged up on me first and ignored everyone else.

I probably could have done better if I was on a team with similarly equipped ships, but there was no way for me to survive for any length of time when the second I’d enter the combat zone all the Klingons would turn away from the ships they were fighting and pound me into dust. After a few attempts and repeated poundings, it got boring really fast, and I decided it was time to go try out my new gear somewhere else, in a PvE situation.

It was a lot more fun, but that got boring after a while too because my new gear made it so much easier to get through battles that had been a lot harder before.

So next time out, we move up the slider and see how it goes. should be…interesting.

 

Star Trek Online: Disconnected From Server

(As annoying as it is and continues to be, I decided to have a little fun with it -B.)

"I don't understand it, Captain."

"Don't understand what, Ensign?"

"I've been trying to contact Star Fleet Command to confirm our next mission as per your orders, but I can't seem to get through. It seems I make contact initially but then I lose the connection and have to reenter our authorization codes again. I must have tried twenty times in the last twenty minutes."

"Could it be a problem on our end or something external disrupting our communications?"

"No Ma'am. I've run a full diagnostic on our communications array. Telltales are all green and there's nothing out there our sensors can detect which should interfere with communications."

"Damn it, Starfleet Command has been promising to upgrade their main array since before I took command of the Invincible, even before Fleet Admiral Zinkievich left the service. I see Star Fleet Command is apparently still far too busy recruiting and training new personnel under Fleet Admiral Stahl to get its own house in order."

"In fairness, Captain," Commander Tolek said quietly, in that earnest Vulcan tone of his Captain Bekka Jai enjoyed on an aesthetic level but had also privately come to loathe when he used it at times when she found it inappropriate to the situation, "The number of ships patrolling the Alpha Quadrant has increased dramatically recently. It could simply be a matter of the system being overloaded beyond its capacity."

"I'm sure that's exactly what it is, Number One. The problem is that we've heard of this promised communications upgrade in dispatch after dispatch, yet it never seems to materialize while the size of the fleet continues to grow rapidly. It makes you wonder exactly what the Starfleet Corps of Engineers is actually working on, because it certainly doesn't seem that making sure that the ships already out here are able to get our own jobs done is a high priority for them."

Commander Tolek took a position just behind the Captain's chair and clasped his hands behind his back as they both watched Ensign Pretobere and Lt. Commander Ezib huddled around the communications station reentering authorization codes and trying anything they could think of to try to get a solid connection with Star Fleet Command. "If I see 'Disconnected from Server' just one more time, I swear I'll..." "Belay that, Commander. Just do the best you can." Captain Jai said sharply. "If anyone on this ship is going to give Starfleet Command hell about this, it'll be me." Chastened, Commander Ezib blushed, as much as it was possible for the Andorian to blush. "Sorry Ma'am."

Bekka Jai looked over her shoulder toward the communications station and her expression softened. "I know it's frustrating, Ezib. It is for all of us. We can't proceed until we get confirmation, which means we're stuck out here in the Hromi Cluster until we can get a solid connection. Believe me, I'm as annoyed as anyone." "I know that Ma'am. I just wish..." Ezib thought better of finishing the thought and instead said "Have you tried contacting the Starfleet Corp of Engineers directly, instead of going through command?"

The Captain's expression was one of wry amusement. "No. There's really no point. We know what the problem is and so do they. Until Starfleet Command pulls its head out of its...gets its act together and upgrades their communications hardware, this is the way it's going to be, I'm afraid." Captain Jai turned and looked over at the communications station again. "Oh and Commander, as a cadet I studied under Academy Commandant Janeway. Like her, I prefer to be addressed as 'Captain' rather than 'Ma'am'." "Yes, Ma...Captain." "Very good. Now help Ensign Pretobere get Starfleet on the line. We're done with our mission here, and I want to get..."

"Captain!" Ensign Pretobere's voice was so excited she nearly squeaked. "I'm in! Mission orders confirmed!"

Bekka Jai visibly relaxed, sank back into her command chair, and looked at the viewscreen. Finally. They have just got to get that damned array upgraded, she thought, or they're going to end up losing a lot of good officers. "Alright, Vwydek. We're headed for the Delta Volanis Cluster, followed by a stopover at Memory Alpha. Set a course, engage the Quantum Slipstream Drive, and get us the hell out of here."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

A few posts and slightly less than a year ago, I was bitching that the players I’d teamed with to do STF missions were unreliable. In one of my recent posts, I said I’d joined a fleet but didn’t remember doing it. Not surprisingly, given my lack of STO playtime over the last year, I’d never even made contact with any of my supposed fleetmates. It wasn’t a matter of animosity or being antisocial, it was just that I had neither the time to nor the interest in getting involved with a fleet at that point. A couple of days ago, I decided that it was time that changed.

When I was still playing Eve-Online, I’d teamed up with another player, Nick, and we created a corporation called Stonewall Interstellar. We were basically a manufacturing corp, and we were rather tiny, perhaps eight or ten members max. What was pretty unique about our corp was that we were openly LGBT-friendly and welcoming. We lasted a few months, but then I had to leave the game for a while. When I returned, I found that Nick had left the game for good and transferred control of the corp and its assets to me.

There was no way I was going to try to run our corp by myself, so after a few days I ended up draining all the assets into my personal accounts, disbanding the corp, and eventually joining a different one, this time in 0.0 (unsecure) space. This lasted a few months until I came to the conclusion that my RL schedule wasn’t going to allow me to play with any regularity in concert with my corpmates. The problem was that in 0.0 space there’s really not very much to do as a solo player, so it was at that point when I decided it was time to say goodbye to Eve.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago. While reading the STO forums in search of an STO fleet with similar values, I ran across a thread promoting an LGBT-welcoming fleet called, interestingly enough, Stonewall Fleet. Needless to say, I had to check it out.

I went to their website, poked around, and noticed that the username of the Fleet Admiral looked awfully familiar. It had been a while and I wasn’t certain, so I dropped him a note in-game and asked if he was the same person I’d gamed with in Eve. Nick responded soon afterward and confirmed that he was, That settled it for me. I knew right then that Stonewall Fleet was exactly what I’d been looking for. I jumped into the in-game fleet chat, found Nick there, and it wasn’t very long before I was one of Stonewall Fleet’s newest recruits.

My new fleetmates who I’ve met and interacted with so far are great, but the most interesting part of all this is discovering just how much I really didn’t and still don’t know about the social aspects of STO. I’m slowly learning the chat functions, many of which are different from Eve, and I’ve downloaded and installed Ventrilo on my PC for probably the first time in about two years. I had it on my old machine, but I’ve never really had any need for it since I left Eve so I hadn’t bothered to install it on my new one until now.

And, on top of all that, I’m slowly getting used to gaming as part of a group again, but it’s a much better situation for me than Eve was at the end. Sure, there are fleet events and plenty of things to do with other players, but I don’t feel obligated to be in-game at certain times unless I want to be. I expect to be participating in a lot of fleet-related events and other programs, but many of these don’t require me to be in-game at certain times. I can pick and choose those I want to join and those I can make, and that works for me. When Nick and I were running our Eve corp we were very loose in those kinds of things, and he’s clearly carried that administrative attitude on to Stonewall Fleet. I like that. I like it a lot. STO is a completely different game than Eve, yet somehow joining Stonewall Fleet feels like coming home.

I have a feeling that this is the start of a whole new dimension of fun for me in this game and I’m very excited about it.

*****

In the Piss Me Off Department: Earlier tonight I fired up STO and went to try to do some of the missions I hadn’t done yet or hadn’t done in a while. I decided to go back to one I’d do all the time when I first started playing, exploring the B’Tran Cluster. That was the plan, anyway.

It took me something like ten minutes of trying to log in to finally get into the game. I accepted the mission and went to beam up to my ship. Suddenly, I found myself staring at the login screen again. After several more login attempts I made it back in and got myself to the Gamma Orionis transwarp gate, where I was booted out again.

Several more minutes of logins until I finally was able to get back in and make it actually into the B’Tran Cluster. When I went to explore a planet, I was booted again only this time it was even worse. Once I finally managed to successfully log in I made it to the planet, found out that I didn’t have enough of the terraforming systems they needed in my personal inventory and so I headed back out of the system to get more. Booted again. When I tried to log in again it still took as long as it had previously to get in but then once I’d successfully made it back into the game I discovered a new issue.

I’d hit the “PLAY” button on the login screen only to have it partially load and then I’d get a “Server Not Responding” notice. I’d sit there as the game would struggle along loading tiny bits, then go to “Server Not Responding”, then load a little bit more, then the notice again, until finally after the notice stayed up for about 45 seconds it would just give up and boot me again…over and over and over.

Finally, I’d had enough. I’d spent the better part of an hour trying to do run across a couple of sectors to get some commodities that should have probably taken me no more than five minutes or so even without using my Quantum Slipstream Drive. When I logged out, the game began downloading a new patch, very slowly.

I suspect (hope) that lots of players downloading the patch was why the servers were so terrible tonight, but even with that I think this is far below the level of service players should be able to expect from any MMO that has been live (read: charging people money to play) for over a year now. I’ve also experienced rubberbanding on missions and in station areas, sometimes to the point of major annoyance.

In a few minutes, I’m going to try to log in again. I’ve spent a while writing this post, so now I’ve only got about a little more than an hour before I have to bag it for the night, so I’m hoping to at least get my commodities and get back to the B’Tran Cluster before then. We’ll see, but right now, I am so not a happy camper.

See ya out there…I hope.

Warp Speed

That’s what it seems like anyway. I’ve been back in STO a little over a week and I’ve already run through all of the Featured Episodes, so now I’m pretty much doing stuff at random.

I’ve checked out a couple of the dailies. I need to do more before I can pass judgment, but my first impression is that they’ve been improved from when I was doing them previous to my near-year-long break. Back then it seemed like they were just the same five or six missions and themes combined in different ways to make them appear to be different missions, but in reality they were almost exactly the same every time, and it got pretty boring pretty quickly.

I also did one of the player-created missions. It wasn’t as good as the ones created by Cryptic, but I will say it was entertaining enough and held my interest all the way through. This is one of those things that I fully expect will improve over time, as those who enjoy creating these missions get better at making them and the Foundry software improves. I’ll probably take a look at the other two that are already up, and I look forward to more.

There are still many missions I haven’t tried, particularly those which require a team. Frankly, based on my experience last time I did one of these, I’ve been avoiding them. Nothing, and I mean nothing, pisses me off more than spending two hours getting most of the way through a multiplayer mission only to have my teammates bail out and find myself with no way to finish it.

Oh yeah, and also in the Pissed Off Department: For some reason Blogger’s post editor has suddenly decided to take a shit on me and refuse to load properly, so I’m now using Windows Live Writer to post. Normally I’m not a big fan of these kinds of free Microsoft tools since they’re often buggy, poorly designed, and usually tied into their crappy online services, but I will admit this one works well enough for my purposes. I just prefer the Blogger editor because I’m used to it.

One thing I was especially pleased to see in the latest feature episodes was the voice acting. It wasn’t perfect (it seemed to me that Admiral T’Nae had just a little too much emotion in her voice for a Vulcan), but it was a very welcome addition which helps to increase the immersion level.

One thing they haven’t done yet that I’d like to see is create voices for all of the primary NPCs in a featured episode series, including those drawn from the canon. Yes, I know DeForrest Kelley  and James Doohan are no longer with us, but that doesn’t mean Cryptic couldn’t find living actors to voice McCoy and Scotty in STO.

The same goes for any other characters original actors who have passed on or are unable to appear due to price or availability. My understanding is that Cryptic is licensed to use any and all of the Star Trek characters and canon in STO, so this should be a no-brainer and a logical next step in making the game more immersive and attractive to serious Trekkies especially, but also just for players in general, and make the STO experience more like participating in a real Star Trek storyline.

Another thing I really liked was the cutscenes. I only wish these could be a bit longer and flesh out the story a little more. The best thing about Star Trek, what has kept fans coming back for more for over forty years has always been the writing, the stories. In Star Trek, the action and the technology have always served to support the stories, not the other way around. I’d like to see that aspect played up more than it has been until now, and I know I’m not the only who feels that way.

Anyway, that’s about it for now. See ya out there.

Hello Old Friend

Yeah, I know it's a Babylon 5 quote, but what the hell, it fits.

Those of you who read back in this blog will know that it's been almost a year since I posted here. It wasn't intentional or desired, just the reality of life taking precedence over gaming. In a way, it's a good thing. I hadn't logged in much over the last several months, and so, I really didn't have much if anything to say here.

Things are different now though. RL is now allowing me far more free time in front of my computer, and so I'm back in STO catching up on what I've missed while I've been gone. Quite an improvement from what I remember in some ways, not so much in others. Being a lifer makes things so much easier. If I were still having to pay monthly subscription fees I'm not sure STO would fit into my budget now.

And so, having returned to the fold after so long, here are some immediate impressions after about a week back:

One of the biggest problems I had when I began playing STO was that it launched with what I considered to be an unacceptably small amount of playable content. Sure, the content that was available was very good, and in fact that's what inspired me to take the plunge on a lifetime sub, but I all too soon reached a point in the game when it seemed that all there was left for me to do in the game was explore the B'Tran Cluster and similar areas over and over.

That, combined with some real life issues that had to take precedence over entertainment time, were key reasons why I ended up not playing STO with any regularity  for several months. Not only was my attention focused on other things, but I had no incentive to return. Frankly, had I been on an ongoing subscription plan, I probably would have just canceled my subscription and never looked back, just as I have with other games when I felt they were no longer worth the time and money I was spending on them.

As an STO lifer, however, having already spent around $300 on an STO Collector's Edition and a lifetime subscription, I also knew that whenever I found the time I could always return to the game when it recaptured my interest. I kept up with the game news and knew they were introducing more content and addressing some of the gameplay issues players had. I did log in a few times over the year just to see what changes, if any, I could see for myself, but RL kept me from making any serious attempt from getting really involved again. Then, a little more than a week ago, my schedule changed to one that allowed considerably more free time at home, so I decided it was time to see how the ol' Final Frontier had changed while I was gone.

The first thing I noticed was the most obvious: The content. Simply put, there was just a lot more to do in the game than there had been when I'd taken a break. The new episodic missions have kept me busy and I find them to be a lot of fun to play. While it seems that I somehow managed to join a fleet during my off-time (though I can't for the life of me remember when I did this), I'm mainly a solo player.

Even now, my schedule and available playtime, despite having more of it, are wonky and inconsistent. I play when I have time to play and I'm pretty unreliable in terms of being able to participate in scheduled events. In fact, that's the single biggest reason why I left Eve-Online. Once you reach a certain point in that game there's really not much you can do that's not done in concert with other players, and usually finding myself unable to coordinate my RL schedule with my corporation's scheduled events led to my eventually deciding that it just wasn't worth the $15 a month for a game I could barely play.

While I may catch up and find myself in the same place a while down the road, I've got plenty of content to keep me busy in STO for the moment, but there's one issue that's really bugging me about this game: Server stability.

It seems like the most common thing I do in STO these days is reentering my password. Just getting in is like breaking into Fort Knox. While that's a common and acceptable issue for an MMO still in beta, I don't think that should be the case for a game that launched over a year ago. It seems like almost every time I want to log in, leave or enter a system, take a lift, beam myself somewhere, or pretty much do anything that requires a map or instance change, I find myself kicked out and dealing with the login screen.

In addition, loading times can be slow to the point of ridiculousness. All too often, I find myself having to stop and rerun the game in order to get into the area I'm headed for in a reasonable amount of time. Again, while this kind of thing is acceptable in a game still in beta and perhaps even in the first few months, the fact that this is still an issue for STO over a year into it is not what I consider an acceptable level of quality or customer service. As enjoyable as the new content is to play, the STO experience can be all but ruined by having to spend several minutes at minimum having to enter and reenter my password over and over just to get into the game or continue playing.

I've spent some time reading the forums and so I know they're working on these issues. I just don't think they should still be this much of a problem this long after launch. Surely by now the devs have a pretty good idea of the size of their player base and what's needed on the back end to provide reliable service to their customers. The obvious question I have is why it seems things have actually gotten worse, not better, in this regard after all this time.

Despite these issues, I'm now enjoying myself with this game more than ever before, and remembering why I took the risk of shelling out for a lifetime subscription even before I knew if this game was going to be a long-term success or just a flash in the pan.

In my next post (and yes, there will be a next post, and another and another...), I'll talk about what I've been doing in-game and my thoughts on some of the new missions I've been playing. After that, who knows? I'm someone who enjoys writing about the games I play, especially MMO's, almost as much as I enjoy playing them, so stick around, there's lots more to come.

So, I won't say "Live long and prosper.". That seems a little too formal and a bit too final. Instead, I'll wind down this first post back with a different Vulcanism I find far more applicable to my own life (and maybe one day I'll tell you why). "Infinite diversity in infinite combinations".

And now, I've still got the better part of a free Sunday afternoon in front of me so it's time to post a quick note on the forums to let people know this blog is back, and then fire up STO so I can go destroy a dangerous comet and disable some 23rd century Klingons.

See ya next time.

It's About Time, Not Space

So I tried Infected for the first time today. First spent a few minutes getting a group together, then we went in. We had one of our five bail on us just as we entered the system, but we managed to take down the gateway and beam down with just the four of us.

After about an hour or so of battling Borg in the station, team members began to bail one by one until I was finally the only one left and had to quit the mission because there was no way to finish on my own.

Oh yeah, that's right, the reason why I liked STO over EvE was because I didn't have to worry about finding teammates. Apparently in STO, finding teammates to take on a mission isn't the problem, it's finding teammates you can count on not to bail out before the end. Hmm.

I'll try again, of course, maybe even later today. In the meantime though, I'm kind of annoyed at blowing nearly two hours on a mission I'll now have to start from the beginning next time.

Fuck it, I think I'm gonna go play some Bioshock 2.

Gaming In The Real World

It would be great if we had the time to game as much as we want whenever we want, but that's just not realistic for most of us. I've given up MMOs because they were just too demanding of my time or demanded I be in-game at set times it just wasn't possible for me to guarantee. EvE in particular I left because I just couldn't make it work logistically. Now that I'm playing STO, however, I've noticed a marked difference in the way the game is structured that allows me to play when I have time, not only when it's also convenient for others.

Normally, I'm not a big fan of instancing. I come from the EvE school of thought that it's a better game when all of the players are in the same play space. At the same time, though, I must say it's used to best effect here. Instancing allows players like me who log on at weird hours to still be able to find teammates to take on some enemies, and for me, that makes it a significantly better game than one where I have to make sure I'm on in a certain time range in order to ensure that I have something to do.

Right now, I'm taking a couple of days break from STO. There's just too much to do in RL right now. I did log in for a few minutes earlier today, but I doubt I'll have time until tomorrow, when the next winter storm hits. I've been playing so much since I've had it that I think I may have damaged the left button on my trackball mouse. It doesn't trigger reliably anymore, meaning I may have no choice but to replace it if I want to play STO, or really pretty much any PC game. What sucks is that it works well enough just for web surfing and other mundane tasks, but I can't see how I'll manage to survive a decent STO firefight with this thing.

Given that here in New Jersey we're looking at several inches of snow over the next few days, I have a feeling that I may find myself with the time to discover the answer to that burning question.

Running On Empty

Yeah, it looks like I've reached it, too.

There apparently comes a point in STO, at least currently, where you actually begin running out of new things to do in the game. At the same time, however, it's also important to remember that just because you've been somewhere in-game previously it doesn't necessarily follow that you're done with that area.

For example, after I'd appeared to hit a wall in the game yesterday, I checked my mission logs and realized that I hadn't finished the mirror universe mission. I'd tried it and failed repeatedly when I was still a Commander and flying a less powerful ship, so I'd just put that mission aside in the hopes of beating it once I had better skills and hardware. I went back to that mission and was able to finish it this time, but the experience of doing so pointed up for me one of the problems I have with this game in general: The lack of a sense of continuity within the STO universe.

Here's what I mean: When I'd originally gotten the mirror universe mission, I went to the indicated system and started the mission. I got far enough into it to be stuck on the other side of the portal, in the mirror universe, and had to defeat three docked Terran Empire ships before they could activate. This was where I failed repeatedly, and eventually gave up on the mission for a while.

The next time I logged in, I was placed in sector space and offered a button to press that would take me back to where I was in the mirror universe mission. I chose to ignore that and go do some other things to gain more skill points and a higher rank before taking on that mission again.

Now, here's my nitpicky continuity question: If I'm in a mission where I'm stuck on the other side of a portal but I haven't yet made it through and back to my own universe, how is it possible for me to continue doing missions in my own universe while this mission remains unresolved? A good writer could and should have closed this loophole in the mission story text.

For me, that's the biggest problem with STO. It feels unfinished, like there's a very solid foundation and a well-built core structure, but many of the finer details and amenities haven't been installed yet. There's still sawdust on the floor, bits of loose wiring that await connections, windows and doors to be installed and balanced...you get the idea.

Even after participating in several betas, I still don't possess the arrogance to call myself a gaming expert, but I know what I like and what I expect when a game comes out of beta, officially opens its doors, and begins charging players to participate. STO comes close to that, but it's become clear to me that this game should have launched with significantly more playable content than it did, or the content that was released should have been made to be more difficult and time-consuming to get through.. What's available is good, some is even truly great, but it seems like right now for me it's all about my daily visits to the B'Tran Cluster and chasing down enemy signal contacts to finish tweaking the fitting of my assault cruiser.  

As a player who was there at the very beginning, it's becoming harder and harder for me to find new things to do in STO. I'm not saying that's totally the case as yet, but I can see that time rapidly approaching. If Cryptic's got more content ready to go, I hope they release it soon.

I'm considering starting a new toon, but I'd really rather keep working on this one. On the other hand, I just downloaded Bioshock 2, so maybe that's how I'll spend this afternoon...right after I log into STO and see if there's anything that actually does need my attention and piques my interest. First things first, after all.

Y'know, it's funny.  A while back, I said that waiting for STO to go live was like being a little girl who knows what she's getting for her birthday but doesn't know exactly what it will look like when she finally gets it. I still feel the same way, almost a month afterward, that I know and like this game but I still haven't had a chance to see it in its full glory.

By now, you might think I'm questioning my decision to get the lifetime subscription. The truth is that I'm not, at least, not yet. In my opinion, there's plenty of time for Cryptic to finish the job and make this game what it should be. I understand the business realities that may have lead to this game being released before it realistically should have been, and while I'm not thrilled with the less-than-optimal amount of content, the game itself is entertaining enough and holds enough promise that I'm willing to give Cryptic a little more time to catch up.

There's also one other thing I really like about STO, something that helped me become comfortable with the idea of getting the lifetime sub because it helps to ensure that STO will be a part of my gaming life for a long time to come. I'll talk about that next time.

You and Me in the Admirality

Yep, I'm an Admiral now, Grade 4 to be precise. I've entered the Gamma Orionis sector and my first set of missions there last night went pretty well. I now see that there's enough I haven't done in this sector to keep me busy for at least a while, but I'm interested to see how this all plays out over time.

I'm flying an Assault Cruiser now, and I'm having a pretty good time with it. I'm probably not the most lethal captain in the Federation, but I've become a pretty decent PvE warrior and I've got the hardware to back to it up. As far as PvP goes, I haven't seen much of that as yet, but I suspect I'll get good at that over time as I do more of it.

I find I have to keep reminding myself that this is still the very beginning, that STO has still been open to the general public for less than a month. That reality excites me and concerns me at the same time. On the one hand, I've had a great time with this game so far and I'm looking forward to a lot more. On the other hand, I'm concerned that if I'm able to burn through STO's early content so quickly that I'm already just a grade below max in just about three weeks of play, what's going to happen down the road? Will Cryptic keep up with those of us who are already entering the endgame less than a month in, or will we find ourselves waiting for Cryptic to catch up with us?

It's an interesting position for me to be in. With the single exception of Fallen Earth, I've never gotten seriously involved with any other MMO I've been in beta for. As with other MMO's, even in a new game like FE I found myself outclassed by a growing group of players who were already moving into endgame content early on while I was still far behind. In that case, while I enjoyed the game, it just didn't do it for me long term and I eventually left to re-enter EvE for a while, where I was similarly far behind a certain level of player. This time, I'm not only there at the very beginning, but I've set myself up with a collector's edition copy of the game and a lifetime subscription. Instead of feeling like I had to catch up to where others already were in the game, in this case I'm one of those out in front leading the way.

I know Cryptic has some pretty cool plans and so I'm not worried that suddenly there will be nothing for me to do in STO. For me, it's more about wondering if there'll be enough for me to do on an ongoing basis. My life goes through phases where I have more or less free time generally available for gaming, and so I tend to play a lot when I find myself with the time. Besides what I've written about in past posts, one of the big reasons I got a lifetime subscription to STO is that chances are it saves me money in the long run over paying on a continuous plan for a game that I may or may not play a lot at any given time of year. With the lifetime sub, I play whenever I have time and I don't have to worry about spending money on server time I don't use. Yes, I know the logic is a bit convoluted, but it works well enough for me.

What I think will be most interesting to see is how many STO players actually make it to Admiral and join the endgame play. Depending on the time you have to devote to it, getting there isn't really all that difficult. Still, the fact that I was able to put in a couple of eight-hour sessions toward achieving that goal didn't hurt either. I usually don't have the time to do anything like that even once, much less twice, but thanks to a quirk in scheduling I was able to pull it off.

I've barely scratched the surface of endgame play so far, but it's looking good, really good. There's still one question I can't help but ask, though: Why was it so easy for me to get there? And along those lines: Shouldn't it be at least a little tougher to rank up in STO just in general?

Risk vs reward, people. If you make the reward too easy to obtain, it doesn't carry the kind of value it should.

Just one captain's opinion.

Speeding

I dunno, it just seems like it's going a little too fast. I mean, it's just over two weeks since the beginning of head start and I'm almost through Captain and into Admiral. If this is really as long as it's going to take to max out in terms of level, why even bother having levels at all? It just seems to me like a lot more effort should have to be expended to make the higher ranks than required right now.

I am having a pretty good time with this game, but it just seems like what some people are saying is true: It's a bit lighter on content than it should be. That's not to say I'm not still encountering new missions, but also a lot of re-hashes of the same missions with different environments or with or without bad guys to fight.

I'm just hoping that when I max out on Admiral there's still lots of stuff to do. After all, it seems that anyone who plays this game for even a short amount of time is going to be one. Funny how it's so early along in the life of the game, and yet right now it feels like I've almost played it through.

I definitely think they rushed this game out when they should have taken a little more time creating missions and other content. Still, I'll be just as happy if they deliver the content in future patches. The way I look at it is that the MMO and Trekkie communities have embraced this game to the tune of a million registered accounts, and so we should have the right to expect a level of content and updating worthy of a top-ranked MMO. I don't expect miracles two weeks in, but at the same time my expectations are high, higher than they were before we knew for certain that this game would be a hit.

It'll be interesting to see how it goes...

Onward

So, I'm a Commander, Grade 5, now. Obviously, I've been spending a bit of time in-game. It's funny how with a new game like STO you sometimes run into things that aren't really bugs per se, but nonetheless are really annoying and need to be fixed.

For example, at one point you get an exploration mission to the Afehirr Nebula. You're told by the NPC who gives you the mission where it is (off the Psi Velorum sector block), but when you go to your map it's not there. You can't set a course there, you have to manually fly your ship to the end of the Psi Velorum sector block where you'll find the border and be able to warp in as normal. It's all there, it's just not listed or shown on your map.

I'm starting to become more strict about what I bank and what I sell to make an attempt to keep my inventory at a manageable level. I'm trying to hang onto stuff that will be useful to my crew once I make Captain and can promote them to Commanders, but I also like to keep a stock of hypos, shield boosts and power cells for ground combat. I have a lot of RL retail industry experience, and I decided that my biggest user of "shelf space" with the lowest amount of benefit (profit) was commodities. I'd accumulated a lot of these, but with the exception of just two missions where I'd had to deliver medical supplies and astro-something-or-others, I'd found no practical use for them other than to sell for energy credits. So, that's what I did. I sold off just about my entire stock of commodities, though I kept the medical supplies, just in case. Not only do I have a nice cushion of energy credits now, but also a lot more space in my inventory for other things.

Another thing I find interesting about this game is how the storyline missions have slowed to a trickle now that I've made Commander, instead of the virtual smorgasbord players were offered at the lower levels. In short, once you get to a certain point they start making you work for it. Storyline missions are now offered to me one or two at a time, usually after I've done some other higher-level mission or area exploration.

While some may have a problem with this style of play, I happen to like it. It encourages the player to stop and smell the roses, not to rush through. While I'm as motivated to rank up as any player, I'm not playing STO to get the highest rank as quickly as possible, I'm playing to have fun. For me, ranking up is a consequence of having fun (and playing the game well), not the other way around.

I mean, damn, we're in freaking Star Trek! That's the great part about this game, not how high of a rank you can manage. At least, that's what it's about for me, anyway.

Warp Speed

Yeah, that's the reason why I haven't written here in  few days. I've been playing STO. Once my collector's edition arrived and I finally figured out how to claim my bonuses, I started playing, a lot. It's pretty much what I've been doing for the last couple of days. I'm currently a Lt. Commander, Grade 6, about to be Grade 7.

I've gotten pretty good at space and ground combat, too. I don't die all that often (at least at the moment), and I've got myself a nice bank of energy credits for if and when I need them.

There are a few little things that annoy me though. For example, there's a mission where you have to destroy Rubindium asteriods. When you target these things, your ship suddenly announces that you're under attack and declares red alert. Why is a Red Alert declared for targeting a piece of rock that doesn't shoot back? The same thing happens when you destroy B'Vat's empty ship at the end of the Guardian of Forever mission. What exactly is my ship supposed to be under attack from?

There are also many missions that could be explained more clearly, such as ones that take you to the Sierra-39 starbase, rather than the Sierra-9 Outpost (or something like that). Very confusing. I'm hoping stuff like this will be resolved in future patches.

According to MMORPG.com, STO already has over a million subscribers, just two days after it's official launch. That's great, and I think it validates what I've been saying all along: This game is gonna be a huge hit.

So, I'll keep checking in. I never get so lost in a game that I don't surface and write about it. Still, I have to admit that it's been a long time since I've taken up this much of my free time with any single game. Right now, though, it's time for dinner. Maybe after that I'll do a few more missions. I want to make Grade 7 before bed tonight.

Timing Is Everything

It's funny how sometimes when you order something from an online company that features package tracking, it'll tell you the package is in transit until you actually have it in your hands. When you buy from a retailer who ships with the US Postal Service, like Amazon, you can find your package marked as already delivered in their tracking system even as you're still waiting for that day's mail to arrive.

In my neighborhood, the mail would arrive around 10:30-11:00am every weekday, with Saturdays perhaps a bit later around noon or 12:30. It was like this without fail from the time I was a kid. Now we're lucky if the mailman shows up by 4pm. Today, it matters. The tracking page says my Star Trek Online Collector's Edition has already been delivered.

*****

The mail is here, but my package from Amazon is nowhere to be seen. Technically, it's supposed to be delivered tomorrow, so I'm not allowing myself to become upset yet. Still, if it's not here tomorrow I am so not going to be a happy camper.

*****

Even though at times it seems like the servers are down as often as they're up, I'm having a great time so far with this game. I'm still building up my main. She's a Lt. Commander now, captain of a pretty nicely turned out Constitution Class cruiser.

I took a look at the Liberated Borg in the character creator, but decided against creating one right now. I'm thinking perhaps when/if I need a break from playing my main for a while, I'll create one then. We'll see. In the meantime, I think I'll go log in and play some more.

Do I Really Want To Be A Borg?

The truth is, I dunno. I mean sure, as a lifetimer I can create a liberated Borg character, I'm just still not sure I want to play one.

For me, part of the fun of this game (and other MMO's) is recreating myself within its universe. Right now, my main (and so far only) character is Lt. Bekka Jai, a Bajoran tactical specialist. I like her, even though critics may complain that they've never seen a red-haired Bajoran before (at least, not my color...Kira's hair was a bit darker). Hey, there are always new discoveries to be made in the Star Trek Universe, and I would venture to guess that any species with spacefaring capabilities has already long since mastered the art of hair coloring. Male Klingons often wear more crap in their hair than human females, so perhaps it's even a necessary cultural step on the road toward interstellar travel.

Despite myself, I'm already invested in my Bekka Jai character. On the one hand, I do have an interest in creating a liberated Borg character to try out, I'm just not sure I want to focus on one for any ongoing length of time. I expect that sooner or later I'll create a liberated Borg just to see how it is, but I'll admit to a fair amount of ambivalence about it, despite the buff advantages of doing so.

STO, more than any other MMO I've ever played, fills me with a motivation to put as much of myself inside this universe as possible, as opposed to other MMOs where I've usually tried to escape into another persona and bury the real world completely rather than bring some of it with me.

Maybe it's that it's Star Trek, a universe that's been a part of my life for a very long time. I remember watching TOS in reruns on Channel 11 after school as a kid, I read Star Trek comics, I played with Star Trek toys, and when I was older I started reading Star Trek novels, watching new Star Trek movies and shows as they appeared, and generally being as much of an active part of the fanbase as someone who doesn't go to conventions and such usually is.

It's like I feel a desire to roleplay myself as much as possible within the context of the STO universe. A liberated Borg doesn't really fit my physical self-image, but in an odd sort of way the history of such a character does synch with my own. So, there are pros and cons for me in creating and using a libeated Borg in STO, and I haven't worked out my solution as yet.

Many, I suppose, will read this and ask "Why give a shit? It's all about having the best, most powerful character you can to better pwn everyone else!". I guess that's true for some people, but for me it has to be about more than just being an uber-leet (or whatever the hell the term of the moment is) player, it's also about the experience.

I want to immerse myself in this game when I play, and so I did what I did when I was involved with Second Life, I literally recreated myself within that universe as closely as possible, but an idealized, not realisitic, version of myself. It is, after all, a fantasy universe and there's nothing wrong with taking advantage of that reality to refine the personal image you want to present to others by making it more in keeping with the way you see yourself. In other words, it's a transsexual's best friend (and before you ask, the answer is yes, I am).

And so, for now it's Lt. Bekka Jai who will captain her starship, the USS Blackheart, across the vast reaches of the STO universe. Is there a liberated Borg in my future? Maybe. I've got some nifty stuff coming with the STO collector's edition, so I think I'll wait until at least then before I make any decisions. Either way though, I'm still happy with my main and I think she's going to stay my main. I just like her.

Damn, I'm having a great time with this game.

Did This Piss Off Anyone Else?

I preordered my Collector's Edition of STO from Amazon back in December. A few days ago, I get an email from Amazon telling me that for an extra six bucks shipping I can get it delivered on the release date. I'm thinking that I preordered this thing over a month ago, why shouldn't I have it on the release date anyway? Why should I have to pay extra for that?

Of course, I paid it. I want it in my hot little hands as soon as possible, and the alternative looked to be about another week. Still, it kind of feels like my package was being held hostage for an extra week by Amazon for six bucks ransom and that's pretty annoying. One thing's for sure, I'll think twice before I preorder anything else from Amazon in the future. They're fine for books and and stuff that's already in stock, but I'm not happy with this all.

What do you think? Am I being unreasonable here?

Meanwhile...

...as we wait for that magic moment tomorrow when we find out just how stable Cryptic's servers really are, I've been doing a little reading on the forums.

Now before I go any further, I should point out that I have a lot of experience with blogs and discussion forums. I have extensive experience an active forum participant as well as a forum moderator and administrator. So that's the perspective I bring to this.

For me, and I expect for many, MMO gaming is about a lot more than just the game itself. I left EverQuest, my first MMO, mainly because all the smacktalk in chat made it unpleasant after a while. The social aspects of an MMO are important to me. After all, without a good social experience you might as well just go out and buy yourself a one-player game.

I'm not going to name names or link threads, but there have been several posts I've seen On the STO forums that make valid or at least semi-valid points or criticisms but do so in a way that's unpleasant, impolite, and and often just rude. Frankly, I've always believed Star Trek fans were better than that just in general.

I mean sure, we'll fight each other tooth and nail over who was the best Captain or Chief Engineer, but we all come together in our love of the ST universe and it's stories. That's not to say that there's not a good amount of criticism and discussion about that universe, but it's generally presented and discussed in a civil (if often spirited and enthusiastic) manner.

Personally, I think the STO forum has huge potential, some of which is already showing itself. Two things need to happen in order to ensure it's the best it can be. The first one is an easy one for Cryptic: They need to listen to their players and evolve the forums as the game and conversations around it grow and change. Second, there needs to be swift, effective, but most importantly fair, moderation. Those who moderate the STO forums must understand that the diversity reflected in Star Trek is also reflected in its audience, and they must keep that in mind when determining what rises to the level of something requiring their intervention and what does not.

First and foremost, even before the game, it's all about Star Trek, about that universe we all love. If STO is to be a reflection of that universe, let's at least make it as positive as the one we've come to know and love over the years.

Personally, I don't know about you, but I'm having more fun with this game than I have in an MMO in a while, maybe even ever. I mean, it's a pain in the ass trying to follow some topics on the forums when they get into the multi-hundred page range, but it's something I'm willing to deal with (when I have time) because it's a symptom of a large and active player base, which is a great thing all the way around.

The bigger this game gets though, the more likely it is that we'll get more trolls at the STO forums. Here's the thing, though: Not just anyone can post on the STO forums, only registered users with active accounts. That limits the potential problem substantially. No idiots making multiple accounts to post from, no flame-and-runs, no one except paying customers. Now, of course that's a pretty big group and getting bigger, but at least it's one account, one person, for the most part anyway.

The point is that even though the player base of STO is big and getting bigger, the user base of the STO forums is at a manageable level if those who want civil and quality discussion about ST and STO insist on exactly that. In my experience, one thing remains true of discussion forums no matter what the topic or the user base: Moderators can enforce the rules, but ultimately it's the site's users who will determine a forum's tone and its level of civil discussion and hospitality.

Right now, even though it's been around for a while, the STO forum is really still in it's infancy. In fact, I'd bet that most of the participants have started paying attention only recently. Even though I joined the forum back in mid-'08, I've only just begun reading and posting there on a regular basis, mainly because once I was in the beta it suddenly mattered.

The point is that the STO forum isn't a public accommodation, it's a members-only club. If you want to hang out there, you're expected to behave yourself. Being a member gives you access to the exclusive space, but it doesn't give you the right to spoil everyone else's experience.

STO is cool. The STO forums should be just as cool, as cool as the fanbase. And if we truly want it that way, we will make it so.

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.

And So Now We Wait...

...for four very long days.

They finally pulled the plug on STO Open Beta just a few minutes ago as I write this. I can't complain. Despite the server going up and down like a yo-yo during most of it, I got plenty of play time, more than enough to explore and get a pretty good idea of what this game is about, or at least, where it's starting from. I've fought Klingons, Nausicans, and Gorn, I've rescued ships and planets in distress...in fact I've done a hell of a lot.

A pity I never got my promotion to Lt. Commander. I'd earned it, I just didn't get to Earth Spacedock in time to make it official. Oh well, it doesn't really matter, anyway. With what I learned in beta, I'll be promoted quickly enough, especially with the head start.

It's funny. The last time I was in beta for a Cryptic game, Champions, I was thoroughly unimpressed. Lots of people apparently love the game, but it just didn't do it for me. I joined the Champions beta thinking I'd love it because I was a huge comics fan as a kid, but for some reason I just didn't find it to be all that great, certainly not enough to invest real money in. Yet, here I am investing piles of money in a different Cryptic game. While certain aspects of the ground battles in STO are very reminiscent of Champions, the rest of it is completely different. I didn't care for the ground combat as it was presented in Champions, but in STO it works, in large part because the style of combat fits the game better than Champions, and I'm slowly becoming pretty good at it. I just wish is that they'd started open beta earlier so I'd had a little more time to practice.

I was talking to a friend tonight and told her that I'd gotten the STO collector's edition and a lifetime subscription to the game. She thought I was crazy for spending that much on a video game, saying for that I could buy myself an XBox for that money. I had to laugh. What could I possibly need an XBox for when I have a nice, fast, relatively brand-new PC? If I want crappy games with substandard graphics, I don't need to buy XBox games, there are plenty of those for the PC, too.

But I digress...

Actually, while I have no interest in owning an XBox and consider it a source of pride that I have never and will never own one, my friend's comment did get me thinking: $300+ is not a bank-breaker but it is a significant amount of money for me, more than I've ever spent on any single game. Even if you totaled up all the subscription time, maps, and other stuff I've bought relevant to playing EvE I doubt it's as much in total as I've already spent on STO, and the frakking game hasn't even launched yet.

I don't know if it's just the fact that I'm a total Trekkie and had to have it all, or something else. I know I'm critical of video games enough just in general and MMOs in particular that if I didn't really like the game there's no way I'd buy a lifetime subscription, Star Trek or not. I did buy a year's subscription to EvE but RL got in the way and I didn't play very much for the second half of that year. These days, I'm kind of skittish about investing in a game I'm not sure of and tend to go with the quarterly plan, as I did when I played Fallen Earth.

This time, I don't know, it just felt right so I went for it. A game I enjoy playing, based on a sci-fi universe I dearly love, and one that looks like it's going to be hugely popular and therefore successful and long-running. STO gives every indication of being a Trekkie's wet dream that only gets even better over time, and that, for me, is worth every penny. Sure there are technical bugs right now, but if the quality of the game itself, the story, the graphics, the gameplay, stays as high as what I've seen (and hopefully gets even better) I believe this game is going to be a serious contender in the MMO wars.

STO offers me something that an XBox will never give me, and I don't have to play with pottymouthed fourteen-year-olds to get it. Thank Goddess most at that age don't really care about Star Trek, and will go off and kill orcs with other foulmouthed children...elsewhere.

Now I feel like a little girl who already knows what she's getting for her birthday but doesn't know exactly what it'll look like when she tears open the wrapping paper. Sure, I have an idea of what to expect on Friday, but I also know there's a lot we haven't seen yet.

In the meantime, I suppose we can speculate, and perhaps I will, but in my next post. It's now 2am local time, and it's time to hit the sack.

Four days is a long time.

UPDATE: Literally seconds after I posted this, Cryptic announced that they are extending Open Beta until Tuesday at 6pm! Woo-hoo!

Downtime

I know it's beta, but doesn't it seem like the servers always pick the most inconvenient time possible to crash? Sigh...so much for my planned Saturday afternoon. I'd finished up some work and was all set for some STO, but about ten minutes into it the server crashed. A quick trip to the STO website shows that the server is down for maintenance, but no details on the customer service page or in the forums. I have to admit I'm now wondering if Cryptic's version of "Down for Maintenance" is actually a beta catch-all for "Something fucked up and we haven't gotten it fixed yet, so deal with it until we can.".

As always, it's beta, and today in particular it's the second to last day of Open Beta before the servers go down for a week. I've gotta figure that's about as good a recipe for server overload as I've ever heard. Every Trekkie with a decent PC and three seconds of free time is jumping in to check out this game before they'll have to start coughing up actual cash in order to play.

Another thing I suspect may be contributing to all the server crashes and slowdowns is that Cryptic didn't take what I call the "Trekkie Factor" into account properly. What I mean is that, as Craig Zinkievich noted in his "State of the Game" post recently, they underestimated the amount of interest and attention this game was going to get. They studied the models, and they based their expectations upon what had come before. Thing is, Cryptic should have known better. This isn't just any MMO, this is a Star Trek MMO, and that makes all the difference.

There's a major difference between STO and every other MMO out there, up to and including even those based on hugely popular books and movies like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. The difference is that Star Trek is by far the sci-fi universe that's the longest running, most detailed, presented in the widest variety of media, most profitable, most honored, and most collected, with a worldwide fanbase so huge that it makes the subscriber list of WoW look like a sparsely-attended tea party.

Where did we all come from, Craig? We've always been here, patiently waiting over the last couple of years for our chance to play this game, this newest iteration of the Star Trek universe we've all heard so much about. The real question I have is how on Earth or any other Federation planet could you and Cryptic not have seen this coming? You make an awesome game based on the most popular sci-fi franchise on the planet and you didn't expect it to get above-average interest and attention? Really?

Given that it's still beta, I discount such issues as expected growing pains, but I also hope that this has served as a lesson to Cryptic: This isn't Champions, it's Star Trek. You can't administer and promote this game in the same way as one which will likely struggle to maintain half of STO's eventual player base and level of player loyalty. While many of us have played MMO's before, we're not your average MMO players. Trekkies are a breed unto ourselves, and Cryptic needs to learn how to effectively market to and cater to that fan base, not the average MMO player.

Their marketing stumble with the incredibly poorly-planned and executed Del Taco promotion also adds to the evidence that Cryptic and their marketing team really need to take the time to understand exactly who they're trying to market this game to and how to do it most effectively. It doesn't matter if you can offer the best game ever if your marketing is so bad that you end up pissing off players who've already made an investment in your game. In my opinion, the smart move for Cryptic here would be to make the Del Taco shuttle pet available through in-game microtransaction as soon as the game launches officially, and I mean immediately. Remember, Cryptic, we're collectors. Don't offer STO collector's items that only some have access to. All you're doing is guaranteeing yourselves more angry complaints in the future, the very last thing this game needs.

Politicians understand that in order to be successful you need to take care of your base. Mediamakers of any stripe need to understand that the same is true for them as well. Cater to your base, make us happy, all of us. Take care of us, Cryptic, and we'll take care of you.