Originally Posted by lethalkungfu:For a number of us (and presumably a number of those who'll try Star Trek Online) those "roleplaying purposes" are equally important forms of gameplay as blasting aliens and leveling up.
in outerspace a spaceship is an entity, a living being perhaps and its actions are dictated by a single will. Why must there be intermediate steps before you "will" your ship other than for roleplaying purposes.
The ability to roleplay the command and operation of a starship with the avatars of other players (which PSIs enable) isn't just some trivial bit of throwaway code. It is "content," just as much as rules-based, numbers-driven gameplay is content, and as much as the visual and sonic and textual environment of the game is content.
Not to implement this social functionality in Star Trek Online's gameplay -- perhaps from a belief that combat efficiency is the overriding goal -- would IMO immediately disconnect a Star Trek MMORPG from a significant percentage of the value of the Star Trek license.
(Note that I'm actually arguing against my own personal interests here. I'm very definitely a solo gamer -- for whatever reason, depending on other people in these games, or feeling like I "have" to be online at a certain time, just isn't fun for me. So I'd personally prefer to be able to operate a nice complex ship in a Star Trek MMORPG all by myself... but I argue against that because I don't think that style of play is the best fit for the Star Trek license.)
This game definitely wants to be different things to different gamers, doesn't it?
