Dopass.com

Rumour: Perpetual out as Star Trek MMO
developer - P2 Entertainment, formerly known as
PerpetualEntertainment, has ceased development on Star Trek
Online accordingto multiple sources [GamesIndustry.biz news]

Well, that just sort of sucks, doesn't it? One more nail in the coffin for sci-fi mmos?

On a, only vaguely, related note - I ran across this blog recently. It's an interesting observation, though my personal experience differs somewhat - and I worked on one of those games he mentions. Still, his observations are an interesting read (And it's short).

Anyway, back to the point: The one thing he brings up in that blog is that maybe publishers and devs just don't know how to make a sci-fi MMO, yet. I have to agree, but I think I put the blame, in this case, chiefly in the laps of those that shape policy at publishers and studios. Auto Assault was a great example of that: Damned near every designer on the team had at least one solid idea on how to do the car-MMO right that was flat out ignored without ever giving the idea a chance to prove itself.

I think even pure sci-fi MMO RPGs are the same way. Have you ever heard of Neocron? Did you ever play it when there was a largish base of players? If you did, there's a good chance you're aware of how it fell just short of greatness, a greatness it could have achieved had it not been for the fact that it was made by a tiny team, literally in the dining room of someone's house. Do you know that, in the MMO development community I've interacted with so far, only about 1 in 10 (and that's being generous) have even heard of that game? Fewer than that, far fewer than that, have ever actually played the game.

To put it in a slightly more hyperbolic phrase: If I had a dollar for every time some MMO luminary told me they had just created some totally innovative and unheard of system - that Neocron had already done, almost a decade ago - I'd be able to afford a PS3, or simultaneous subscriptions to WoW and EQ2 for at least a year.

How sad is that? I mean, isn't that a sign that the problem isn't the people who want to work on the genre or the genre itself, but rather the people who are in control of the studios and publishers in the MMO space? How do you fight that?

I mean, what does it take, for a sci-fi MMO that isn't some licensed IP, to get going? Hell, for that matter, now that STO is changing hands, what's it going to take to make any sci-fi MMO and be taken seriously?

OK, so I'm talking extremes here, sure, but still. As a developer who would rather spend the rest of his career working in the server based gaming sphere, it really does feel like the only way you can actually finish a sci-fi MMO is to be a tiny studio working in obscurity... and that road leads to crappy quality or such a limited scope that you're not making a real MMO any more, but some sort of scaled up X-wing vs. Tie fighter or unreal tournament, instead.

Ah well, with the job I do, I rarely get the chance to decide specifically what project I'll be working on next anyway, so it's not like I can do anything about it... but man, I'd sure like to. I've played Neocron; I know these games can be made and be more fun than literally any other type of MMO I've played. Hopefully, some day, the rest of the industry will figure that out, too.

As a player, I'm dying to play a good 1st person sci-fi MMO RPG. While I toast what appears to be the death of STO, I'll start preparing the wake for Stargate. I mean, it's next in the list, right?

- Snipehunter