Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

MMOs, the Final Frontier: These are the voyages of Captain Sardu. His continuing mission, to explore strange new virtual worlds. To seek out new sci-fi MMOs and new mittens for his robotic kittens. To boldly go where no one gone before!

Craig Zinkievich was on hand to answer fan questions for our weekly Loading... Live Vooncast.

OK, so I’m no Jean-Luc Picard, but I couldn’t resist opening with a monologue for the newest episode of The Final Frontier in light of our recent Loading… Live Vooncast that featured a guest appearance by Craig Zinkievich, Executive Producer for Star Trek Online. While Ten Ton Hammer was able to snag an excellent interview with Craig from the show floor at the New York Comic-Con ‘09, our panel discussion with Cryptic Studios unfortunately didn’t leave time for STO questions from the audience. Thankfully, Craig was able to make a guest appearance for our weekly Vooncast on somewhat short notice, as the BioWare discussion on combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic I mentioned a few weeks ago was cancelled under mysterious circumstances involving a five pound salt lick and two rubber penguins.

*waits for the rumors to start flying*

Seriously though, it was awesome that Mr. Zinkievich was able to make it, as it gave us the opportunity to let listeners ask questions about the upcoming sci-fi beast otherwise known as Star Trek Online. This is the point where I’d normally point and laugh at everyone who wasn’t able to attend, but I realize that would just be mean (or get me stunned by a few thousand phasers). So instead I just wanted to let everyone know that we’ll be posting the full Vooncast for your listening enjoyment later this week, and for those of you who prefer giving your shiny new ocular implants a work out, we also have a full transcript of the discussion available. How awesome is that?

In the meantime I wanted to touch on a few key points that came up during the discussion, and hopefully provide some further insight into what makes STO tick for both long-time Star Trek fans as well as those of you who may be less familiar with the franchise. I was just kidding about the pointing and laughing by the way. I’d only do that if someone caught you with two rubber penguins and a five pound salt lick!

Star Trek is different things to different people.

“Star Trek is different things to different people”
C. Zinkievich – Stardate 2190.9

Although a dizzying array of topics was discussed last week, the above quote from Mr. Zinkievich really stood out for me. Having been a part of pop culture for decades, the Star Trek IP is easily one of the most recognizable in all of sci-fi. Yet each of us may have a unique point of entry into the Star Trek universe that ultimately helps shape our perspectives on what makes the IP so fascinating, and what the name evokes when thinking about it in MMO form.

For example, I could have only been 3 or 4 when I saw the original series for the first time. Even if the Next Generation had never come into existence, Star Trek had already left a permanent mark on me. To this day I can’t read a sci-fi novel and picture anything other than bright, solid tones and sleek lines unless a setting is explicitly described as being otherwise. Blade Runner still looks horribly wrong to me, as my initial imaginings when reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? have a very distinct Star Trek vibe. Or more recently, I think last year’s World of Warcraft TV spots backfired in a way, because the moment I see William Shatner on screen all I can think is, “That’s no shaman, that’s James T. Kirk!”