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Topic: Ten Forward - The Star Trek Topic

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FullbringIchigo

@KALofKRYPTON that's pretty much what i said

would be awesome if it's true

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!

FullbringIchigo

SO if your playing Star Trek Online on P.C then you will now have access to the 10th Anniversary content including the new Episode Legacy (new episode coming to consoles later)

Untitled

is stars Seven and Burnham (because of course it has to have Discovery content in it, CBS just can't let it go can they and on a side note apparently the Discovery character is the "canon" start to the game now)

anyway according to the official site this is "a brand new, two part episode, The Measure of Morality. This episode returns Captains to Excalbia, from the Original Series episode “The Savage Curtain.” The Excalbians have decided to put on another test of Good and Evil, and your characters will play a major part in it. But you won’t be alone. Returning to the game for the first time since Delta Rising, Jeri Ryan portrays a Seven of Nine that’s different from any we’ve seen before. And for the first time ever, Sonequa Martin-Green joins the cast to bring Michael Burnham to life! These episodes are a love letter to the past and future of Star Trek Online, and we think you’ll love this jaunt down memory lane"

https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detai...

now the only real issue i see is Seven, she looks like she did in Picard BUT she has already been in STO and she looked like she did in Voyager but STO takes place AFTER Picard of course Data is alive in STO where as Picard disregards that comic story so that's another issue, of course they could just update the game a bit to reflect the current changes, they did it before

Edited on by FullbringIchigo

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!

RogerRoger

@FullbringIchigo The amount of timelines carved up and reassembled across Star Trek Online always confused the heck out of me, so I'm sure they can find a way to answer having multiple Sevens.

I haven't been on in what feels like forever, considering I used to pop back to Spacedock every other week.

And isn't the third season of Discovery due soon, anyway?

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

FullbringIchigo

RogerRoger wrote:

And isn't the third season of Discovery due soon, anyway?

no idea, bar announcing that Season 3 was being made last April the official Netflix Twitter account has been dead since

taking that and given that we still don't have any of the Short Treks and no news from ViacomCBS about it, even IF a 3rd season launched right now then we might not even get it here

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!

KALofKRYPTON

@FullbringIchigo Apparently filing on the 3rd season has wrapped.

PSN: KALofKRYPTON (so you can see how often I don't play anything!)

Twitter: @KALofKRYPTON (at your own risk, I don't care if you're offended)

"Fate: Protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise." - Cmdr William T. Riker

FullbringIchigo

@KALofKRYPTON thing is it doesn't matter if the Netflix distribution is still up in the air

it's no use to me if it's never broadcast outside of America

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!

KALofKRYPTON

@FullbringIchigo
Tried to strike through the "never broadcast outside of America' bit but it didn't work...

Perhaps E4 will carry it?

PSN: KALofKRYPTON (so you can see how often I don't play anything!)

Twitter: @KALofKRYPTON (at your own risk, I don't care if you're offended)

"Fate: Protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise." - Cmdr William T. Riker

FullbringIchigo

@KALofKRYPTON possible BUT as they are still on season 1 that could be years before they show it

and what would be the point by then

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!

SteveKaye

Hey guys, I know that this is shameless self promotion, but in the hope that I've actually written something good and worth discussing here, I ask that you allow it

I've written a (quite substantial) piece for EGMNOW.com looking back at the period in which Activision published Star Trek video games, often considered by many to be a golden era of Trek games, and what eventually led to their deal with Viacom falling apart.

I interviewed multiple developers for the piece, and I myself have extensive knowledge of that time period, as I used to co-run the biggest fan-site for some of their games back in the day.

I'd love if you guys could give it a read and hopefully it will spark some discussion here about what I consider some of the best Trek games ever made! I wrote this piece with the mentality that if I, as a huge fan of both Star Trek and video games would find it interesting, that surely others would too.

Please let me know what you think and thanks for taking the time to read it!

Here's the link: https://egmnow.com/five-year-mission-looking-back-on-the-gold...

Steve

SteveKaye

KALofKRYPTON

@SteveKaye
Steve, that's a great piece - thanks for sharing!

Like many, I have a relatively checkered past with Star Trek games. I have favourites and guilty pleasures (here's looking at you Encounters) but I mostly missed the PC output from Activision.

PSN: KALofKRYPTON (so you can see how often I don't play anything!)

Twitter: @KALofKRYPTON (at your own risk, I don't care if you're offended)

"Fate: Protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise." - Cmdr William T. Riker

SteveKaye

@KALofKRYPTON

Thank you, I'm really glad you liked it!

It never fails to surprise me how many people seem to have missed out on Activision's Trek games, considering they are now one of the biggest publishers in the world, and how diverse the games were, but that's part of the reason I wanted to write the piece. They really did make some gems!

SteveKaye

FullbringIchigo

@SteveKaye personally i have no issue with you sharing that and it's certainly a good read and Activision put out some really fun Star Trek games back in the past, better than most of what we have been getting over the past years anyway and like @KALofKRYPTON i have a few guilty pleasure Trek games Like Crossroads of Time back on the Mega Drive and even Star Trek (the 3rd person Kelvin-verse one on PS3) but this whole forum is to talk about all things Trek (and few other sci-fi franchises too) so if you wanna start up a discussion just give us a tag (along with @RogerRoger @nessisonett @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy and @LN78 )

now the forum mods on the other hand might take issue with it but i think it should be OK

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!

SteveKaye

@FullbringIchigo Thank you, I appreciate that

The Mega Drive game was also a guilty pleasure of mine lol, especially with it being set on DS9!

I really do hope that a major video games publisher decides to take another chance with Star Trek again soon, like Activision did. It was so cool to have a collection of games that felt almost like their own little Trek series, tying into one another etc. Titles of recent years have felt rather disjointed in comparison, and kind of half-hearted (with some exceptions of course).

SteveKaye

FullbringIchigo

@SteveKaye i think Ubisoft currently has the rights, at least they did last time i looked but yeah i would love a new set of games

but i think ViacomCBS are far to happy fleecing people with lootboxes on Star Trek Online to care at the moment (as much as i enjoy the game the lootbox system on there is downright predatory)

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!

SteveKaye

@FullbringIchigo It's hard to find exact information, but from what I gathered during my research for the piece, is that the Star Trek license is extremely convoluted lol. Even during Activision's time with it, they really only had the license to base games on things seen in the TNG shows/movies, and Voyager, as Interplay held the license for the Original Series games, and Simon & Schuster held the DS9 license. There were, if I remember correctly, loopholes however. So for example, the Defiant was seen in First Contact, so Activision could use that, and also any MENTION of things within license parameters meant that they could be used etc... Activision eventually got the TOS and DS9 rights towards the end of their time with the license I believe.

And today, I don't think it's much less convoluted. I believe that Cryptic has the license specifically for an MMORPG Star Trek title (ST Online), and Ubisoft has the license for specially a VR title (ST: Bridge Crew), also the various JJ movies carry their own "Kelvin Timeline" license... it's pretty crazy.

SteveKaye

FullbringIchigo

@SteveKaye that was probably because the licences were held by 2 different companies, Viacom and CBS but now they have remerged into ViacomCBS it could mean that the licences need to be renegotiated

"I pity you. You just don't get it at all...there's not a thing I don't cherish!"

"Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!

KALofKRYPTON

@SteveKaye If you haven't had the pleasure of Bridge Crew, I would recommend it. It isn't the best game out there, but it is good - and very fun with like minds online.

PSN: KALofKRYPTON (so you can see how often I don't play anything!)

Twitter: @KALofKRYPTON (at your own risk, I don't care if you're offended)

"Fate: Protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise." - Cmdr William T. Riker

SteveKaye

@FullbringIchigo Yeah, I hope so! Although obviously the games haven't all been the best, but EA & Star Wars have the right idea, bringing it all under one umbrella.

@KALofKRYPTON Oh I loved Bridge Crew. Almost certainly inspired by Activision's/Totally Games's Bridge Commander by the way! Was really happy when it got the TNG DLC as well. Great game!

SteveKaye

RogerRoger

@SteveKaye Your point about the convoluted licencing is spot-on. Your article mentions Star Trek: Invasion, so you'll remember the mission involving "a Cardassian space station" which looks a bit like DS9, only without the lower docking struts, a smoother hull... oh, and it's green. They could get away with that because the Enterprise-D had visited DS9 in "Birthright, Part 1" (TNG). Quite how they managed to include a Cardassian freighter, Cardassian fighters and Jem'Hadar fighters (albeit flying backwards, and piloted by Naussicans) is beyond me, as they were designs exclusive to Deep Space Nine. All I know is that one of the Red Squad ships available to fly in the splitscreen multiplayer looked remarkably like the Defiant. Confused the heck out of me as a kid when it turned out to be a single-seat fighter.

Excellent article, by the way! Thanks for sharing! Plenty of nostalgia in there for me. I wasn't a PC gamer back in the day, so games like Invasion and then the PS2's offerings (a wonky port of Voyager: Elite Force, the try-really-hard-to-love-it Shattered Universe and ultimately the Bethesda games) were more precious to me than they kinda deserved to be. I'd have killed for games like A Final Unity, or Generations with all of its unique voice acting from the core cast.

Some of the PC games were a tad too technical / tactical for me, though. Despite being a huge Trekkie nerd (who wrote his own fan fiction and everything), my introduction to gaming came via Star Wars and James Bond 007, two franchises aiming for more of a mass market appeal. I was used to playing slick, cinematic chunks of immersion, so asking me to get strategic with some digital starships was never gonna work; my spare brain power was reserved for writing. Having just got a more-than-capable PC this past year, I went back and relished the "proper" version of Voyager: Elite Force (and experienced its expansions for the first time, an extra treat considering Voyager is my favourite show) but I haven't felt the same desire to pick up its sequel. I do have a copy of Hidden Evil sitting on my desk (mostly because, same as above, Insurrection is my favourite movie) but I've struggled to get it working on my modern machine. I'll keep trying, not least because your interviews revealed that it was specifically designed for more casual players, like me!

The era featured in your article was a golden age for all gaming, I'd argue. The aforementioned Bond adventures, for example, were much braver and more diverse during the PSone and PS2 eras, before the PS3 generation saw them die out completely (on Activision's watch, funnily enough)... and how long have EA held the Star Wars licence, with only three major releases to show for it? Nowadays, a project like Voyager: Elite Force simply wouldn't get out of drydock. We're left with cute mobile wallet-drainers like Trexels and the almighty Star Trek Online, which will run forever thanks to fanboy whales like me (because of course the Universe-Class was only unlockable via randomised loot boxes, gosh darn it).

Which is a shame, as you say. Paramount probably loved the idea of a Voyager FPS because the series gradually embraced more action-centric storylines as it went along, needing to boost ratings as UPN's flagship show an' all. Today, action has reached even more spectacular heights (that last episode of Discovery was just a flurry of nonsense) so it's less important to emphasise, even though it would perfectly suit a "mainstream" gaming adaptation without the need to compromise its source material. Instead, we're left to play Mass Effect and just pretend that we're aboard the USS Normandy, that the Systems Alliance is really called Starfleet and that the Reapers are just a new type of Borg.

So whilst I love the optimism of your conclusion, and your hope to see some kind of Triple-A return to the final frontier, the pessimistic realist I keep locked up inside me just broke loose. I can imagine the perfect Star Trek game (I think we all can) but I think it becomes less and less likely as gaming itself continues to evolve year by year, console by console.

After all, if they haven't dragged Bond back into an FPS by now... well, I don't think Ensign Munroe should call up his holodeck training program anytime soon.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

SteveKaye

@RogerRoger

RogerRoger wrote:

@SteveKaye Your point about the convoluted licencing is spot-on. Your article mentions Star Trek: Invasion, so you'll remember the mission involving "a Cardassian space station" which looks a bit like DS9, only without the lower docking struts, a smoother hull... oh, and it's green. They could get away with that because the Enterprise-D had visited DS9 in "Birthright, Part 1" (TNG). Quite how they managed to include a Cardassian freighter, Cardassian fighters and Jem'Hadar fighters (albeit flying backwards, and piloted by Naussicans) is beyond me, as they were designs exclusive to Deep Space Nine. All I know is that one of the Red Squad ships available to fly in the splitscreen multiplayer looked remarkably like the Defiant. Confused the heck out of me as a kid when it turned out to be a single-seat fighter.

Oh I remember it well! I was in quite a lot of contact with the Activision marketing team back then because of my work on the fan-site, and I vaguely remember asking about the licensing terms, like you said, if there was even a brief overlap between shows (Enterprise docked at DS9) then it gave them the green light to use something, but on top of that, and I'm not 100% certain of this, but I think that there were certain things that Activision could use if they could show that they were crucial/integral to the game. Activision far and away was Star Trek's best shot at the time for breaking through to the mainstream with their titles, and as Interplay and Simon and Schuster were nearing the end of their licensing agreements, I can imagine Viacom/Paramount giving Activision a bit of special treatment.

RogerRoger wrote:

Excellent article, by the way! Thanks for sharing! Plenty of nostalgia in there for me. I wasn't a PC gamer back in the day, so games like Invasion and then the PS2's offerings (a wonky port of Voyager: Elite Force, the try-really-hard-to-love-it Shattered Universe and ultimately the Bethesda games) were more precious to me than they kinda deserved to be. I'd have killed for games like A Final Unity, or Generations with all of its unique voice acting from the core cast.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read it, and for such a detailed response! PC definitely got the better Star Trek games back then, but with console gaming bigger than it's ever been, and a new generation (no pun intended...) of consoles on the horizon, I'd love to see that change now with new Trek games.

RogerRoger wrote:

Some of the PC games were a tad too technical / tactical for me, though. Despite being a huge Trekkie nerd (who wrote his own fan fiction and everything), my introduction to gaming came via Star Wars and James Bond 007, two franchises aiming for more of a mass market appeal. I was used to playing slick, cinematic chunks of immersion, so asking me to get strategic with some digital starships was never gonna work; my spare brain power was reserved for writing. Having just got a more-than-capable PC this past year, I went back and relished the "proper" version of Voyager: Elite Force (and experienced its expansions for the first time, an extra treat considering Voyager is my favourite show) but I haven't felt the same desire to pick up its sequel. I do have a copy of Hidden Evil sitting on my desk (mostly because, same as above, Insurrection is my favourite movie) but I've struggled to get it working on my modern machine. I'll keep trying, not least because your interviews revealed that it was specifically designed for more casual players, like me!

Elite Force's expansion was so amazing. I remember the day I bought it, literally running home to install it! They did it so well, being able to wander around pretty much the whole ship, scanning things, interacting with consoles, talking to the crew etc... I was also really glad they eventually patched in Jeri Ryan voice work for 7 of 9 as it was originally a different actress voicing her in the game which was... odd lol. Those were the days where I was still building my Voyager VHS collection each month or so! I do recommend Elite Force II also, though. Was equally as awesome being on the Enterprise-E and they really refined the gameplay! Hidden Evil, while it had its flaws, is enjoyable, especially if you're a fan of Insurrection! (you, sir, have good taste by the way. I love that movie as well, and it has, in my opinion, one of the best musical scores). Hidden Evil is kind of like a more modern version of A Final Unity... not as good, but it's in the same spirit.

RogerRoger wrote:

The era featured in your article was a golden age for all gaming, I'd argue. The aforementioned Bond adventures, for example, were much braver and more diverse during the PSone and PS2 eras, before the PS3 generation saw them die out completely (on Activision's watch, funnily enough)... and how long have EA held the Star Wars licence, with only three major releases to show for it? Nowadays, a project like Voyager: Elite Force simply wouldn't get out of drydock. We're left with cute mobile wallet-drainers like Trexels and the almighty Star Trek Online, which will run forever thanks to fanboy whales like me (because of course the Universe-Class was only unlockable via randomised loot boxes, gosh darn it).

Which is a shame, as you say. Paramount probably loved the idea of a Voyager FPS because the series gradually embraced more action-centric storylines as it went along, needing to boost ratings as UPN's flagship show an' all. Today, action has reached even more spectacular heights (that last episode of Discovery was just a flurry of nonsense) so it's less important to emphasise, even though it would perfectly suit a "mainstream" gaming adaptation without the need to compromise its source material. Instead, we're left to play Mass Effect and just pretend that we're aboard the USS Normandy, that the Systems Alliance is really called Starfleet and that the Reapers are just a new type of Borg.

So whilst I love the optimism of your conclusion, and your hope to see some kind of Triple-A return to the final frontier, the pessimistic realist I keep locked up inside me just broke loose. I can imagine the perfect Star Trek game (I think we all can) but I think it becomes less and less likely as gaming itself continues to evolve year by year, console by console.
After all, if they haven't dragged Bond back into an FPS by now... well, I don't think Ensign Munroe should call up his holodeck training program anytime soon.

Oh Mass Effect... What a series. My closest friend is also a big fan of ME, but hasn't seen much Star Trek, and I was constantly explaining to him how inspired (understatement?) by Star Trek it is, and how if he loves ME, he should definitely check out some Trek.

I remain optimistic, just because of the huge push Viacom/CBS are making with Star Trek at the moment. They clearly want to create a universe, similar to Marvel, with multiple different styles of Star Trek to appeal to a wider audience, and with the games industry being as big as it is, I live in hope that they have some people on their team pushing them to go there. There's just so much potential I feel... but they would really need to sort the licensing situation out first. EA might have absolutely mishandled the Star Wars license at the start, but their recent game (Jedi Fallen Order) was a big step in the right direction. A publisher/developer needs to have no restrictions placed on them, in terms of what they can or can't use. Cryptic have got a good deal in regards to that. They can include anything from any shows/movies in ST: Online, however their game MUST be an MMO. If the same freedom can be afforded to developers for single player games too, I believe we could see some great stuff... I know I may well end up being disappointed, but I remain optimistic... in the sprit of Trek lol.

SteveKaye

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