Phasers Set to Hype

I haven’t been playing much of anything over this holiday season in the lead-up to Star Trek Online starting Open Beta in January. For me, half the fun of starting a new MMO is getting immersed in the lore, the community, the sites and podcasts and blogs that I’m going to visit for the duration, and this time is no different.

Most of my time these days is spent at the following:

Jupiter Colony: This is the forum for the Jupiter Frequency crew, who put out the STOked! podcast, of which I am also a fan. The people on this board are funny, friendly, and on top of their STO news, posting links with lightning reflexes. Most importantly, they are positive folks, which seems harder to find in a forum community these days.

The Older Gamers: This forum is less active, but I am sticking around because I guilded with TOG for Warhammer Online and I intend to guild with them again for STO. This is another nice, friendly crew and I look forward to being able to see some familiar faces/names when STO gets started.

Youtube: This has been an excellent source of leaked beta footage (spoilers ahoy!) in recent days, especially with user adarons (may his closed beta account rest in peace) who has done more to get me frothing about STO than even the official trailers.

MMORPG.com: The crew at MMORPG.com recently had their NDA lifted, so they have been doing a number of articles and features about STO that have opened the floodgates for even more curiosity and excitement. I enjoy camping out here, as long as I stay away from the forums….

…Which brings me to my main concern about STO: the community.

I am no longer worried about space or ground combat, or exploration content, or which pre-order gives which bonus or where I’ll fit into the holy trinity of ship design. I’m worried about the sheer levels of negativity that cloud the official forums, MMORPG.com forums, and Massively’s comment pages. I probably shouldn’t, because it’s not as though the comments have swayed my view of the game. I suppose I have a fear that the negativity will drive other people away, and I want to play with those people! The un-driven-away people, that is.

I’m just tired of the overuse of the word “fail” and the most dire predictions at the drop of a hat (or subscription). By no means do I think one can get a balanced view when surrounded by yes-wo/men and fangirls/boys all the time, but the dooming and glooming is too far over the top. It happens with such regularity now that I wonder if some of the people commenting even like any MMOs at all.

So I will be here, snug in friendly supportive communities who actually have hopes for a product to do well (and why wouldn’t I? Why would I want a product to fail just because I personally don’t enjoy it? Other people have families to feed, too, even Blizzard employees), and in the end keep my fingers crossed that there are simply more of Us than Them in the end.

Advertisement