This Blog has a theme, of course. The theme, is based on Star Trek Online, it’s specifically about the ‘style’ of the KDF, our players, our community.
Not so much our fleets-most of the big fleets have their own sites, blogs, forums…and most of the time, those are pretty empty.
The KDF as a faction, isn’t for everyone. Certainly it’s not for everyone that, say, Al Rivera (aka “Captaingeko”, Cryptic’s lead developer) wants to see in the game. In a way, that’s kind of become the point, even if it shouldn’t be.
We come to Star Trek online, because we’re gamers, and because we’re STAR TREK fans. People choose KDF, because they’re STAR TREK fans, who like the KDF. You don’t find many generic gamers who like Klingons, (they’re usually aware of them, thank you, media saturation culture), so it’s fairly safe to say, that if someone is playing a Klingon in STO, they are, in fact, a fairly hard-core fan of TREK.
A “Trekker” or “Trekkie” (Depending on generation and location, local fandom subculture, etc.) and because of that, we tend to endure more defects in our Trek-themed things, than people who’re just there for some generic online multiplayer game.
Well, things have kind of hit a new crest-the game’s had the basic factional conflict “Resolved” with the specific intent of ending development on the KDF (which has suffered a consistent shunning from Crytpic for the previous four years with only short, often unpublicized breaks from that).
Delta Rising has introduced the most alt-unfriendly environment the game’s ever had, while simultaneously pushing Federation superiority (and rubbing our collective faces in it) through everything from ship design to new game mechanics. (I’ll be going into that more in another article)
The message from Al “Captain Geko” Rivera and Cryptic is clear…
“We don’t want you.”
Well…so what. we’re here, we’re not leaving, dying out, laying down, surrendering to the inevitable, giving up, or suffering silently.
Many of us bought long-term subs, or have been subbed to the game for YEARS…and there’s really no other options out there-no other “STAR TREK” mmo’s are even on the horizon.
We play KDF, because it’s closer to the feeling of Star Trek than the Federation side of things-the game mechanics and mission designs are far, far, closer to Klingon, than they are to Starfleet. The few missions we GOT to ourselves, are better written, better designed, for Klingons, than the Federation or ‘Starfleet’ missions are for the Star Trek that this whole game is based on.
Going “Fed” is basically surrendering to “Play generic space-theme single-faction, single-PLAYER Online Multiplayer-capable themepark game”.
With an extra side of mindless grinding.
Whether your toon is Gorn, Orion, Nausicaan, Klingon, Lethean or Alien, if you’re KDF, it means you have a higher standard. You’re willing to endure years of neglect, open scorn from game developers, hostile forum posts, being flamed in instances, having mechanics slanted directly against you…
We’re not going anywhere, we’re not leaving, we’re not giving up on the game, we’re not going to let Al drain the fun away and debase the flavour.
We’re here. We’re here, and we play, and we spend our time and our money.
Given Cryptic’s bungee-boss treatment of their executive staff, eventually, we’re going to win-we’re going to win in that we’ll get someone in charge over there, who actually wants to make money, and can actually do math, and has actually understood, not just passed, their business classes, someone who has an actual background in gaming that didn’t come from trading card games, someone who wants to run a STAR TREK MMo, not someone (Like Al) who’s more or less a Star Warsie doing it for a paycheque.
In the meantime, we’ll make our own fun…
Qa’plah!
