HardTalk Special
An interview with ChessMess

STG]: First of all, incase someone has had there head buried in the sands
of mars for the past 4 years, can you tell the people out there who you are,
and what you do?

Sure, my name is ChessMess and I am one of several talented
individuals who help run a website called Star Trek Gaming Universe,
or STGU for short. I guess my distinction comes from being the site's
founder.

[STG]: STGU as a site isn't the first of the series of sites you've ran.
Like the current STG (under a revamp...again) your site has had a long
history in the Star Trek gaming world having been started soon after the
public release of the original STG site, the Armada Clan Directory. Let the
folks know the history of STGU, but try to do it in less than 10,000 words
if you can....rofl!

Once upon a time in an Information Superhighway far far away… :)

It all begin in late 1999 with a site called Spatial Anomaly, which
was dedicated to a game called Star Trek: Armada. I teamed up with a
friend by the name of Rishanko to create the site and we put it out on
one of those free hosting services that were so plentiful during the
late 90's. Very soon after we made the site, a new FPS game hit the
scene called Unreal Tournament. I was hooked and like most awestruck
fans of the game everything else fell by the wayside… including the
site.

During the final months of that year and into early 2000 I had my fill
of UT and returned to playing Star Trek: Armada. I wanted to follow up
on the website we had made and really give Spatial Anomaly a good
effort. No sooner had I started down the road when Armada II was
announced. This was like pouring gas on an open fire! A friend was
kind enough to give me free hosting so I reworked the site and
relaunched under the auspices of PlanetSTArmada. Rishenko had become
enthralled with a game called O.R.B. and thus I went it alone. The
site did quite well and I seemed to really excel at finding news and
information about the game.

At that time there was another site that was also covering the game
called Fleet Operations, ran by a gentleman named Steve (I can't
recall his last name). Even though I had the more trafficked site, I
approached Steve and asked him if he'd like to merge our sites so that
we could work together and help each other on our common goals. He
agreed so we threw out our existing sites and created a new site
called Armada Universe.

You know this really could take 10,000 words… I'll speed it up a bit…

Armada Universe became the premier website for Star Trek: Armada II
and had a thriving community. After the release of the game, and the
subsequent fall off of players, we started to create a new Star Trek
gaming effort call Trek Universe Network (TUN).

TUN was a noble effort to create infrastructure and features for not
only the player community but also the various Star Trek gaming
websites that existed. The hope was to bring all the websites into a
close synergistic relationship where we could all help each other and
together do great things for the community.

It succeeded in that endeavor to an extent, and we did things such as
being the first to provide other websites a centralized news
management system, which made managing the news much easier for them..
It was also the birth of the Star Trek gaming news portal.

However as good as the TUN initiative was , it couldn't break through
the massive cloud that soon consumed all of Star Trek gaming. It's
dimension and ferocity was much the same as Vger, but it's actual name
was Activision. If Activision was the small probe at the center, then
the Lawsuit was the massive black cloud that surrounded it and
vaporized all in its path.

Doh.. I'm doing it again…

Anyway with sites dropping out of sight the community folded back in
on itself and we choose to drop the TUN moniker since there was only a
small number of sites that remained and even fewer that bothered to
try to keep new and fresh content going.

Thus in 2003 we renamed ourselves as Star Trek Gaming Universe! We've
been chugging along doing our best to provide content, features, and a
place to call home for Star Trek gamers ever since.


[STG]: When you started your original Armada 1 site, did you think that in 5
years time you would be covering the amount of games you are covering now?

Nope. I was pretty singular in focus and the idea of doing multiple
games never crossed my mind. All I could envision at the time was the
glorious battles that would unfold when Star Trek:Armada II was
released.


[STG]: What are the best aspects of the community you have seen to date?

The best aspects of the community are the people within it! The desire
to help and be involved and share common interests in a positive
environment is a wonderful thing and there are those out there who do
just that. They make doing all this worthwhile!

[STG]: ...and what's the worst?

The opposite of what I just said in the previous question. Sometimes I
think the Internet has connections to the mirror universe through
which individuals of questionable motives and dark plans conspire to
make what we do as difficult and as unrewarding as possible.

[STG]: What's your favorite game and your least favorite game in Star
Trek and why?

My favorite game has to be Star Trek Armada. It had a great storyline
and great gameplay. Hmmmm my least favorite… I think that would be
Star Trek: New Worlds. I found the control interface poorly designed
and the setting uninspiring. I think the concept of New Worlds was
good and I'd love to see another attempt at such a game say using the
Ground Control II engine.

[STG]: Before the Harry Lang interview of 2004 which STGD (STG's
predecessor) and TUN (STGU's predecessor) both took part in, Star Trek
gaming was at it's lowest point. The 2 major communities of the modding and
clan worlds was slowly stagnating and at that point Paramount's silence was
deafening. Was there a time when you thought to yourself "Is this really
all worth it anymore?"

Heck, I've had that thought a few times *this* year. There is nothing
worse then working really hard on your site, creating new content and
features, only to see a trickle of people bother to stop in and say
anything positive about it. I happen to value an active forum as a
sign of a sites success… and its painful to surf the Internet and come across a forum about a type of truck having over 600 logged in
users, and then to go to our forum and see only myself. Its tough to
work hard on creating something really great that users can get
involved in and contribute to… and watch as no one does. I've had that
thought cross my mind many times, but for whatever reason I seem to be able to keep going


[STG]: In 2002/3 and then going into the first half of 2004 before the
revamp and reorganization into STGU, TUN, the site which ultimately replaced
the old Armada Universe forum, had a close knit family of posters from
people like Yorktown, Assim and all the "old gang". When TUN was launched
you lost a fair bit of those old posters and well known names from the old
days of the AU boards. If you had the chance to do it all again, would you
still go ahead with the TUN launch?

Yes, because without TUN there could have never been an STGU. I
certainly miss those days when we were just AU, mainly because the
community was so much more active back then. You can catch some of
those old members at the STGU forum still… but as people grow their
desires and interests change and even if we hadn't changed there is no
guarantee they would have remained interested in Armada or the forums
for all these years.

[STG]: The swap of PHPBBFM to vB...WHY?! LMAO

At the time PHPBBFM was undergoing issues in terms of whether or not
the person who was doing the work creating the mod was going to
continue. We liked the mod but didn't like the uncertainty regarding
its ongoing support. Hence the move to VB.

[STG]: Other sites (and no, we ain't talking about mine here) have looked at
the current STGU and been confused and bewildered by the portal. Is there a
plan to launch a full out HTML site in the future which would tie things
together and not give STGU the feeling of "it's only a forum?"

Yes, when it comes to the entry point for STGU the portal has both
been a good thing and a bad thing. Its good because its easy for us to
post our news and easy for people to get that news. However because we
have done a poor job in providing links and draws into our other
content many people miss the depth of content that STGU offers. We've
been our own worst enemy in that regard and we are working to address
this.

[STG]: Going into the world of Trek Gaming itself. What got you first
involved in the trek game franchise and why did you decide in 2000 to make a
site for Acti - Lack Of - Vision's Star Trek: Armada?

Well I have always been a Star Trek fan, and I've always been a gamer.
Star Trek Armada was the key for me to put 'two great things that go great together'. The community was thriving, you had wonderful people in it
like Trickster and Diern Shaw, and being an online kind of guy since I
was a kid it was just natural for me to be drawn into doing it.

[STG]: Looking back to the "good old days" of trek gaming which people like
you and me have played and lived through, do you think that the future of
trek gaming is looking bright? (reference
http://www.startrek-gamers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=763 on what STG knows so far)

I think its looking more active for sure, the quality of the games
that get released will be the true measure of how bright it is. The
announcement of Star Trek Online and the awareness that other games
are coming are definitely a nice change from the shroud of secrecy
that enveloped us when the Activision lawsuit 'cone of silence' was in
place.

[STG]: STGU as a site is now covering almost all aspects of gaming, from
RPG, to card games etc...don't you think that the spread of STGU has diluted
it's impact in the area's you originally covered...the PC games?

Would one say that Shacknews.com would be better off if they only
covered PC games and dropped all their console coverage? Certainly it
has an impact, and my hope had been that in including more coverage
into more areas we'd attract people to help in those areas. Sadly
though that hasn't been the case and as such we haven't been able to
do the things we wanted to do in those areas.

[STG]: What do you say to the other leaders of the community (notably
leading members in the SFC Series community) who have said that STGU hasn't
done enough in the world of Star Trek PC gaming and who have then not been
seen in the STGU forum's since there feeling of the site was made public in
2004/5?

I'm not aware of any such remarks. However if someone were to say such
to me I'd try to get details on what they would like to see and then
try to make it happen.

[STG]: What do YOU personally think a fan site should do in the community
and do you think that STGU has done it?

Fansites are ran by fans. What they want to do and accomplish with
their fansite and the manner in which they do it is different for
every person. So to them I say do what interests you and what you find
fun and enjoyable, and before long you'll find your enthusiasm and
efforts will have attracted a following. I think we've followed this
philosophy at STGU pretty well.

[STG]: Older site's like STGU and STG which has been part and parcel of the
Star Trek gaming community (at one point both sites was the community) are
now seeing a slow decline in the amount of visitors coming to see them. The
spread out and opening of new "niche" sites blanket covering one single game
and NOT interacting with the other sites the way we used to do so has now
put the old sites like STG and STGU between a rock and a hard place. Do you
believe there is still a place for the old "authority sites" in the new
world of trek gaming coming in 2006/7?

I think there is, the challenge is figuring out how best to present
your site and content for people who are interested in just a
particular game, as well as for those who are interested in anything
Trek gaming related.


[STG]: Some people (including me) have spoken out against STGU in 2003/4 for
being too neutral in the community and not pressing Paramount for more
information. Do you believe STGU/TUN at that point should have kept quiet?

The biggest issue at the time was the lawsuit and it's a given that
when lawyers get involved nobody can say anything about anything.
Hence nothing we would have said or done would have changed anything
in that regard.

[STG]: If you had the chance to turn the clock back to just before
Activision gained the licenses in 1999, and you had the chance to take over
the Star Trek gaming franchise...what would you do to change the timeline?

I would find the 1999 version of ChessMess and make sure he never
started down the path of running a fansite. ;)

[STG]: The MMORPG...(yeah I had to breach this subject)...everyone has a
fair idea what i think about this MMORPG and what is lacking in Perpetual's
attempt to gain interest from the trek gamer's. Do you think Perpetual is
doing enough to interact with the majority of the current player base who
are out there playing the older games in GameSpy Arcade and
Won.net/Dynaverse?

I think the best approach to community interaction is via a
dedicated site with a means to facilitate such interaction. Part of
that is a dedicated forum hosted at the games official site.

[STG]: If you had a whole hour with Harry Lang and his bosses, and YOU had
the chance to alter the FUTURE of trek gaming from this point in time
onwards, what changes would you propose to Mr Lang and the suit's over in
Viacom/CBS/Paramount (or whoever is going to take over in 2006)?

One of the biggest items I'd strive for is emphasis on quality of any
new titles delivered and subsequent support of the title after
release. Ensuring that the games are as bug free as possible, and
that they are not abandoned after release would go a long way in
improving the perception of Star Trek games.


[STG]: As always, the last part is a chance for the interviewee to
advertise, but since almost everyone has heard of STGU in one of it's forms
there basically is no point to the advert bit. So, instead, here is your
chance to tell the folks reading this interview what STGU has planned for
the coming year of 2006...a year in which the entire landscape of the Star
Trek gaming franchise will change.

Oh we have some really cool things planned for 2006! You'll just have
to make STGU.com your homepage and visit often to find out what they
are! :)
 

Interview took place via email, added to site on 17/12/2005

Victor1st

We would like to thank chessmess for his time