The forgotten silent majority

[Victor1st]

After reading a post made in the www.dynaverse.net boards from an old time player talking about Star Trek: Online i started thinking, have the major fan sites (including this one) along with paramount been going about this whole ST:O project the wrong way?


The post itself is here, http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163354108.0.html its a good read, and features myself and the main SFC 3 guru Pestalence agreeing on something, its worth the read just for that itself.

The poster dates back to a golden time in Trek gaming history, the days of MPlayer, this was LONG before Gamespy Arcade and not many people can remember those days, i can though. Pestalence is like me in a way, he doesnt agree on the whole pay for play aspect, however people like pestalence and me are in a minority. You'll notice that Harry Lang doesnt really visit dynaversenet that much, he knows that the folks in d.net are old time gamers who enjoy SFC 2 OP. He doesnt visit this place anymore cause STGD made its stance clear on the new online game...we are against it, and now it seems that the news is starting to give people who have not played these older games a false sence of security into thinking that this MMORPG is gonna be out soon.

Victoria said it herself in the first post at the top of the thread. "It's not 1998 anymore".

She's right, it isnt. You will not see anything else on the other older sites but mostly ST:O news. Hardly any of themn are even bothering to report anything about the older games, and no matter how much they say they do, the really dont. The only 2 sites left that concentrae on the older games the way we used to pre ST:O anouncement is d.net and this place...STGD.

The redesign of the sites menu was done for a reason...search engines. STGD is now guarunteed to get at least 600 to 800 hits per DAY from google and other major search engines, being the oldest trek game site around makes you google freindly. It's about time a major trek game fan site held up the banner for the older games instead of throwing out whitewash stories about an MMORPG whos interviews with the developers contradict everything they announced and sicussed at the beginning. The game is shapeing up to be FPS in space, and people are too in awe to see it.

Victoria made a post that made me think, what if this site managed to get a base of the old time gamers back? They dont care, or want to play this MMORPG which is why they aint visiting any of the other trek game sites, the old time fleets dont want to either which is one of the major reasons Paramount wanted this site, and me, on board with the failed STAB project. They needed someone to talk to the clans and the silent majority of people that this site brings into the main site. Other places may have a good forum and a fair site, however its the STGD's site itself, and not the forum which has made this place what it is today.

Well, now its time i think i did start engaging the old time players and fleets, NOT for the benefit of ST:O however, oooohhhhh no, i made that mistake before. There are fleets out there making viable fan based games who are being completely ignored by other game sites, that will not be happening here, after easter we will be opening a section to showcase these fan made games, making us the FIRST trek game fan site to actually take notice of these games. After that we will of course run with that news post we made a while ago, the showcaseing of the lder games through the network to get these old games back online.

The point of all this is to let people like Victoria see that there is still life in the older games, and also to let people see that some sites in the world of trek gaming havent completely given up on the older games.

[DisRuptor]

Interesting post, thanks for the link Vic. I think gamers break down into two groups - those who are always chasing the next game and those who keep coming back to the older games that they used to enjoy. I have a second machine running 98 for some games that won't play in XP. I even dug out a 286 box a while back to play some old 5 1/4 disk games (some text only) to check if my memories were correct. Some were still fun. I think the OP/3 communities will survive because they are that - communities. Look at the age range on this board - it survives because you give us a home in which to meet. Even if only about 10% choose to post anything. All the games on this board are by gaming standards "old", it doesn't mean they are dead, or that they will die while there are those willing to play and mod them. Keep up the good work and ignore the nay-sayers.

[Age]

Good point BFG Disruptor "there are those that are willing to play and mod them"if they all stopped the modding would die off and that about half the fun of gaming and there a great modders in this community.

[Spectre]

I'm sorry Vic, I still don't see it, what have you done or reported in the last year for ST:Armada?

I mostly agree with you on ST:O. I think it's a stupid idea to make it pay-to-play... Many people (like myself) hate that entire concept; they should either make the game free with a monthly fee, or not free without a monthly fee. For that reason alone I will not buy it, and i'm sure many other people won't either. Like you (or someone else) said, why would someone pay-to-play a star trek game when they can play SWG or WoW instead?

--Spectre

[Victor1st]

What have we done for Armada?

Ask Mad Doc and Activision, they deemed it fitting that the name Venra be listed in the ship liat for the release of Armada 2.

Name me someone who runs a trek game site in the past decade who have had the same honor?

STGD has the biggest single collection of armada series maps in any site, we have the biggest single collection of the older mods (mav's armada fleet coomand holds a lot mor than we do, but we hold a lot of old stuff he doesnt have).

Spectre, do you work for STGU?  Before you ask any questions about the status of the STGD i advise you to look at the content before questioning the sites HALF A DECADE online.

[Spectre]

I wasn't talking about Armada 2, and I don't know why you consider it your own honor having the Venra name added to the ship list. Nobody else has had a similar "honor" because they didn't have such a compelling story (the death of Jennifer Venra) to encourage Activision and Mad Doc with.

And I never criticized your databases of Armada maps, nor your database of Armada mods. The only thing I said was what have you done or reported for Armada 1 in the last year. People can get whatever map they want online in WON, and the maps they don't have, well, aren't good ones (otherwise they would be used more often). As for mods, well, they are rarely used (unless there's this underground single player mod cult or something I don't know about). Does just hosting these materials on your site mean that you're "still serving the older community?" I question that.

Like I said before, I haven't seen any influence, or anything done in regards to Armada 1 in years from the STGD: "the only thing i've ever seen from the STGD was Katie logging on once a year or so ago."

Quote:

Spectre, do you work for STGU?  

No, just because I disagree with some of your comments does not mean I work for the STGU. I'm not affiliated with anyone, thank you.

--Spectre

[daNo]

I do the web programming for STGU and from what I can tell the staff over there have been reporting about news from other games ever since STGU's inception.  There is recent news for Armada, Elite Force, SFC, among others (which you could see on our portal).

But I would agree with Vic in saying that the popularity of Trek games has diminished - a simple check of game lobbies can show as much.  With decreasing popularity, some of the games will indeed have less to post about.  Not all, some.  And unless you fabricate news, what a site does to cover that game will be undoubtedly less.  But a community isnt like a human body in that it doesnt 'die', it can be revived.

Im not necessarily a large fan of ST: O (but without a game yet I cant really say that ... I thought I wouldnt like EverQuest, but then I became addicted for a couple months), I would be a RTS / TBS person myself so I would be looking for a BOTF 2 or an Armada 3 to respark my interest.  Until then I will have fun playing StarCraft or the occasional game of BOTF.

[Kansas_Jones]

I broke into on line gaming with EF 2 - I still go back to it for some frag time. Great game.

As for ST-O? I am willing to "pay / play" for this if necessary - unique opportunity, MMORPG, it's Trek, and I know I will enjoy myself.

As for a dividing line btw Trek "old school gamers" and the Trek gamers chasing the "next big thing"? I do believe that being Trek fans actually bring both camps together with a common interest.

As for Trek gaming news - I can always find some discussion out on the net on the fan / game boards - whether its ST:O or another game. We're Trek gamers. Public Forums. It's natural.

And the "no interest in Trek games" - it is really easy to say that with no new Trek games out right now. Star Wars is pretty much cornering the market game wise, everytime u turn around its a new SW game - its the Star Wars "Renaissance" if u will. Trek has ALWAYS gone up and down interest wise, whether its gaming or not. All of of sudden u turn around and BAM a renewal of Trek interest is sweeping along. U never know - we could have 3 games out (for different gaming tastes) for Trek all at once at some point in the future. It all depends on when the Trek "Rennaissance" pops up again.

(This is totally my opinion, and it comes from my own experiences as a Trek fan for 16 years - so I have seen the resurges in Trek popularity. Just thought I'd throw the ideas out there as a gaming angle. )

- Kansas