The hidden art of Star Trek Online
There is much buzz in the MMOG universe this morning about the upcoming title Star Trek Online. Being absolute fanboys and fangirls of Star Trek ourselves (much like our friends at STO Zone who had the same idea) we wanted to show you a couple of nuggets of interesting art that we've extracted. These two images were taken from the backgrounds of the Cryptic Star Trek Online site that was unveiled last night.
The top image shows an Andorian female in the foreground of what appears to be an away team. Some of the staff think that may be either a Bolian, Benzite or an Orion male to her left, but it's very hard to make out. (Not that many people remember the Orion males anyway.) Below that is a Klingon at the helm of what appears to be a Bird of Prey with a Human, Ferengi, Cardassian and Vulcan manning the controls, dressed in Federation uniform, or wearing Federation insignia. Speculation from some blog sites suggest that Cryptic is likely looking at a period of time post-DS9, tied to the Officer Exchange Program that started in the episode "A Matter of Honor" during the TNG series. It seems like an excellent spot in the continuity to place an MMO, we think.
The curious thing about this is that the top piece at least appears to be part of the original Perpetual Entertainment concept art. While we knew that Cryptic had hired several developers from the now-defunct Perpetual team, we're curious to see how this plays out in terms of influence on the look and feel of the game.
In any case, we're all very excited to see what is coming in Star Trek Online -- and we're especially glad to see this epic IP saved from a vaporware fate. As noted in this morning's Daily Grind feature, it's an exciting time to be an MMO player with all the many different choices opening up in the months and years to come. Now the real question is what races we'll get to play -- this blogger can't wait to roll a Klingon. Qa'pla!
