Star Trek Online just went free-to-play a few weeks ago and I jumped in to see what was new. It was FREE afterall. Yet, I won’t be playing it long. Really. I swore off MMOs years ago as horrible time sinks with little true reward, and I still believe them to be. In fact STO was the last one I really played, about a year and a half ago.
I do love the idea of a game that is dynamic and expansive with updating quests with groups of people and, in theory, many of the top MMOs seem fantastic. In practice, I’ll love it for a month or so then just start to hate myself for being stupid enough to play it for this long.
Now here is a caveat: I love Star trek.
From watching reruns of the original 1960s series at my Grandparents on Sunday evenings to the movies and newer tv shows, I have been a life long fan. This is where they get you. This is how the MMO digs into your subconscious and says “Come live out your childhood fantasies”. These games are truly insidious. From Lord of the Rings Online and the newly released Star Wars: The Old Republic MMOs, I feel the pull of those expansive online worlds. Experience has taught me otherwise however. Yet I jumped back in Star Trek Online went it moved to ‘free to play’. Why? Wasting time at no cost makes me feel better I think. Instead of paying a monthly fee, many of these games have moved to a model of free play with expanded content locked behind micro transactions and for the dedicated, full subscriptions. So far I played around for a few hours, and Ill probably mess with it a bit this weekend… then I’m done. Really. Having played a bunch of great non-MMO, games during the holiday, each of them offered a more robust experience, with a less extreme time investment. And I have other interests, and playing an MMO means all of those are marginalized. So I’ll play some of this online star trek a bit, but not for long. Really.
Promise.
But man, check out my awesome Starship!
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