TenTonHammer’s Q&A with Amy Skopik and Craig Zinkievich about the User Interface for Star Trek Online

TenTonHammer recently sat down with Amy Skopik, UI Designer for Star Trek Online and Craig Zinkievich Executive Producer and got there thoughts on how the games was going.

This Q&A is all about UI for Star Trek Online:

” A fundamental key to making a good MMOG is its User Interface. A poorly fashioned interface will make it hard to enjoy a game, no matter what its other assets, and a good UI will be almost transparent as users start up the game for the first time and begin taking control, almost without thinking about it. We spoke this week to Amy Skopik, UI Designer for Star Trek Online and Craig Zinkievich, Executive Producer to unveil some of the challenges and innovation of STO’s interface. ”

That sounds like a pretty good statement, nothing kills the mood faster than a poor UI. The best games I played started with my Avatar doing what it was supposed to without me thinking to hard about it and for me the best solution would be a PC using a 360 gamepad and there is encouraging news on that front:

In a Q&A with Strategy Informer Craig was asked:  ” You’ve mentioned before that you might like to take STO onto the Home Console – provided you do, it would be the most serious attempt since FFXI – what are your thoughts about this genre and consoles “

Craig Zinkievich:” We definitely would like to see Star Trek Online on the console. We think that games being on multiple platforms including MMO’s are the future of gaming”

Champions also made this claim and it still has not happened but the good news is that Champions seems to work quit well with the 360 gamepad on a PC according  articles I have reed. Forums seem to agree It’s as if the game was designed for a later release on the Xbox 360. Check out  Tobold’s MMORPG Blog he has an interesting article on it. Star Trek Online will use the same engine as Champions and if you go by Craig’s statement to strategy Informer then one has reason for hope. Just to put things in prospective no MMO of Star Trek’s scope has actually made it to the console since FFXI, and many have tried non have succeeded.  Square Enix has recently announced a release date for  FFXIII of March 9, 2010 and it will be PS3 exclusive, but it’s FFXIV the will be Sony’s MMO contender on the PS3 that I’m waiting to see. To Read the Full interview go to TenTonHammer.



February 2nd confirmed and Box art revealed for Star Trek Online

Atari and Cryiptic Studios have confirmed that February 2nd 2010 will be the launch date for Star Trek Online for the PC in North America  and February 5 it will launch in Europe. that’s only 2 and a half months away wow when they said that It would be out sooner than you expected at their press conference in Las Vagus they weren’t kidding, will it actually be ready?. Bio Break has a few words to say about the subject and I have to largely agree with him, It does seem all a bit rushed. This game is going to draw large numbers and give Cryptic Studios a much larger presence in the gaming world if it succeeds over the long-term. Thay have one shot. so do it right because the fans will never forgive you if its bad and they feel It’s because of a beta that seems way to short or a studio that just wanted to cash in. I could be completely wrong here and the game is indeed ready for launch in that case  my worrying is for nothing and I will be the first in line at midnight to get my grumpy little hands on a copy. We now know what that copy will look like thanks to MMORPG with our first peek at the box art for STO which looks very combat oriented and fits in with the rest of their promotional campaign and some people have found fault with that pointing out that                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    “Star Trek has always been more about finding the ideal solution rather than just setting phasers to kill. Sure it has to be done from time to time but the best Captains always try to find a way around the fight”     Ardue.  Nov 11, comment                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        That my be true but most people play MMO’s to kill things not to collect rocks all thought I’m sure we will be all doing a lot of that to, if I’m going to captain my own ship then battle with other ships is at the top of my list of things to do I’m not saying Star Trek should be a kill fest that would be a disservice to the whole idea of Star Trek but for the purposes of marketing a MMO  it’s what works the best.

12 new Screenshots for STO

Cryptic has released 12 new screenshots for STO and if this is how the game looks you can beam me up right now. Our good friends at KOTAKU who have played the game when it was at PAX WEST have a more measured approach  and  a leery eye doesn’t hurt in these matters but you can still beam me up I drank the Kool-Aid long ago when I first heard Cryptic’s announcement ( they even had Leonard Nimoy on hand)  that they were bringing out STO, of course back then I and probably everyone else was thinking it would be years down the road before  this one saw the light of day yet here we are in Closed Beta with a Q1 2010 release date If you like your screenshots extra-large and who doesn’t ZAM has 5 of them fore you  :)

STO to be at Eurogamer Expo

The second annual Eurogamer Expo will be held in Leeds (Oct 27/28) and London (Oct 30/31)  this year and tickets are probably gone by the time you read this, the lucky ones who did get a ticket will be able to sit themselves down on one of eight gaming PCs running Gene Roddenberry’s storied universe …..[more] Source: Eurogamer