Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online (STO) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the popular Star Trek series. Developed by Cryptic Studios, the makers of Champions Online, the game launched to a lot of criticism in 2010 before Cryptic steadied the ship and moved the game to a F2P (free-to-play) format.

I will admit the Star Trek IP meant nothing to me and I avoided the game at launch due to the bad press. However since the game is now on Steam, I thought I gave it a try. It was a good decision as I found the game to be highly enjoyable.

The game is set in the 25th century and the player plays as the captain of their own ship. Players are able to pilot their ship in space, and can also beam down to planets and spaceports as a player character in an “away team” like in the Star Trek series. There are many missions/quests in the game which are very varied. I especially liked the way Cryptic separated the missions storywise. Diplomatic missions are missions that do not require any fighting, exploration missions are missions that require you to go into uncharted sectors, episode missions are missions that require fighting and are part of a larger story-arc. The decision to separate the missions this way make a lot of sense storywise and it's good to see the developers nodding at the way Star Trek should be.

One thing different about STO is that the design of the game offer players 2 different combat systems. During the space combat portion of the game, players need to position their ships to fully utilize their shields while during the away team portion, players lead an away team during ground combat. Personally I find the game's space combat to be very entertaining while the away team combat to be a little hit-and-miss. However both are fun in their own sort of way which is a good thing as most missions I had played through so far (especially the episode missions) required you to use both combat systems as the missions have both a space and away portion.

Star Trek fans would like this game as Cryptic stayed mostly true to the IP. Star Trek actors Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy provided voiceovers in the game while most missions were filled with long logs that provide background stories to the game. The game also wasn’t shy about name-dropping. Kirk, Spock, Jean-Luc Picard, Wolf, Deep Space Nine; the game was filled with references to them.

I also enjoyed the Duty Officer System. The Duty Officer System allows players to assign NPC characters, called duty officers, to tasks both on and off the player's ship. Once the duty officer is assigned to a task, no further input is needed from the player to ensure its completion. This means that I could send the Duty Officer to a task and logout of the game. Once I am back in, if enough time has passed, the officer would return and I would gain in-game rewards for the completion.

Of course the game is not prefect. The mapping system is strange. A lot of times I have to re-read the mission text to find out exactly where I have to go and even then sometimes I can’t be sure as the name of the sectors and systems are slightly different at times. The leveling of the game also seem a little strange. I won’t say it’s a slow crawl like Global Agenda but the xp you gain on missions is a little off. Episode missions give you a lot of xp upon completion but other missions like exploration missions gave you almost nothing.

Still I have to say STO is a fun game that stayed true to its IP. It doesn’t do anything great but there’s enough uniqueness in the game to let it stand out from the other F2P MMOs out there. Definitely worth a play!

Comics this week

Green Lantern #7- Of all the corps in the DCU, the enigmatic Indigo Tribe is by far the least well-known. So I was intrigued when I read that the latest arc would have the Tribe in it. However writer Geoff Johns has a problem he needs to deal with first. That’s the problem of what to do with Hal Jordan. The current series has Sinestro as its main character and if that’s what Johns want, then he needs to run with it. There’s no need for him to shoehorn Hal into the story like he did in this issue. I mean Sinestro had to go across the galaxy to pick up Hal so that they can partner up again. That’s just ridiculous! It’s good that Doug Mahnke is back doing the art but Johns need to step it up.

Demon Knights #7- After 7 issues, the first arc of Demon Knights comes to an end. As usual, writer Paul Cornell and artist Diogenes Neves put together a good issue on one of the best series in the New 52. Everyone got a moment to shine including our favorite DC barbarian, Vandal Savage. As good as Paul Cornell's script is, to me Neves is once again the star of the show. His artwork give energy to the desperate fight by the Knights but also showed the dirty, heartbreaking aftermath of war. The only complaint I have on his work is that at times there was too much going on but that is minor compare to the overall work he put in. An excellent finish to a great opening arc!

Don’t do it!

Don’t do it! That’s my reaction when I read that a group of South Korean and Russian scientists are planning to bring the woolly mammoth back to life via cloning.

10,000 years after the species went extinct, there now seem to be a race to see who can bring back the mammoth first. Outside this group of scientists, a researcher from Kyoto University, Japan, also has a plan to resurrect the species.

Now I’m not sure if they can actually do it; my question is why would they want to? The mammoth has been extinct for over 10,000 years, is there any environmental or even scientific reason why they want to do this?

Outside the need to play god, to see if they can do this, there’s no valid reason to bring back the mammoth. The woolly mammoths may have once roamed the Earth but they are now part of history. Leave them there!

It's Simple

Here in Singapore, there has been a big outcry from employers over a recent government rule to allow maids in Singapore a day break once per week. Singaporeans are saying they can’t do without their maids.

This has led to some questions on how and why maids have become so indispensable in Singapore. I personally don’t understand the question because to me the answer to that is so obvious it’s a non-question. Maids are indispensable in Singapore because young Singaporeans don’t do housework. It's that simple! No one likes doing housework but in Singapore, the problem is extreme. Most can’t cook to save their lives and laundry means the washing machine.

That’s why maids are indispensable. Singaporeans need them because they do stuff we can’t do ourselves.

“John Carter,” The Non-Flop

When a movie is said to have bombed, you would expect that the gross of the movie to be terrible right? Not so in Hollywood!

In another show of how Hollywood is on another planet, they have pronounced that “John Carter,” Disney's US$250 million sci-fi movie to be a flop because it made…US$100 million in its opening weekend? Man, talk about crazy.

“John Carter” made US$30.6 million in the U.S and US$70.6 million outside of North America. How in the world can anyone called a movie that made US$100 million in its opening weekend? What’s even funnier was that the movie opened in line with Disney's projection and surveys showed that people who saw it, liked it! And this is a flop?

“John Carter” is a movie about a Confederate soldier who found himself transported to Mars, where he becomes involved in a battle among alien races. Obviously, he went too far. All he needed to do was to go to Hollywood to be among aliens!

Comics this week

DC Universe Online: Legends #25- I said last week that the story in DCU Online now has nothing to do with the story of the online game anymore, and this issue prove it once again. Writer Marv Wolfman and artist Mike Miller has diverted from the story written for the online game and in some ways the series is better for it. I won’t be sad when the series finally end caused the finish looks like it will be a fun ride.

Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time #22- The early books of the Wheel of Time series could be called adventure books. The books have Rand, Mat and Perrin on a journey across dangerous lands and it was fun. This issue shows how well Robert Jordan did his job as the fun and danger of the journey was shown in full by writer Chuck Dixon and artist Andie Tong. Andie Tong was especially solid this issue as her work with colorist Nicolas Chapuis made the issue full of life. An excellent issue.

Villains For Hire #4- I just knew it. The Purple Man got taken down way too easily by Misty Knight. No surprise also on Paladin returning as well as the agreement between Misty and Puppet Master. For a series called Villains For Hire, this series became as expected Heroes For Hire. Too bad caused a real Villains For Hire series would have been fun.

$120,000 Bonus

I will admit. I don’t get Minecraft. I don’t understand why it’s such a hit. To me, Minecraft is a game with no real story, bad graphics and silly gameplay.

However I have to admire Minecraft developer Markus "Notch" Persson. In celebration of 5 million sales of Minecraft, Persson gave $3 million to all his employees in his company, Mojang. The thing is; Mojang is a small company with only 25 employees. That means each person gets $120,000 a person!

Talk about a bonus!