Star Trek Online at Ten Ton Hammer

There’s certainly been a wealth of recent information detailing the ins and outs of race creation in Star Trek Online, which has the potential to shatter the confines of more traditional character creation tools featured in many current MMOs. In an exclusive interview with executive producer Craig Zinkievich, we learned not only that customization extends far beyond character creation, but some interesting new details on how character advancement will be linked to various other aspects of gameplay, from the ships you fly to the bridge crews you opt to use.  In the latest episode of MMOs, the Final Frontier, Reuben “Sardu” Waters explores the potential impact of this type of ‘functional’ customization in STO:

Designing an MMO with meaningful character advancement throughout the leveling experience has been one of the biggest challenges developers face. In many cases the concept of casual gameplay is synonymous with a title light on mid-level details meant to simply steer a critical mass of players towards ‘endgame’ content. While this approach has obviously proven successful in the past, there are many of us currently drifting through MMO space in hopes of touching down in a game that offers an intriguing, immersive experience straight out of the gates.

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