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The Daily Grind: Are you a devotee of the endgame?
"The game begins at the level cap." That's the mantra of many an endgame player, with the ironclad belief that all of the leveling and learning and gearing you did along the way to the highest level was nothing but a warm-up. Whether the cap is at 99 or even just 9, or if indeed there's even a hard cap of levels, what ultimately matters is that you've reached the state of power from which you will only grow laterally, not vertically. And from every corner of MMOs comes the less-catchy but equally frequent mantra of the non-endgame player: "Screw that." For every player who sees the leveling game as a race to the end, there is one who believes that the important thing is enjoying the journey. Maybe you dislike the endgame because you don't like the content available, or maybe you like it because that's the one part of the game where content isn't outgrown in a short matter of time. Whatever your reasons, do you consider the endgame the "real" game or just a fragment of the overall game? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's The Daily Grind!
Our interview with Star Trek Online's executive producer Dan Stahl
There's a lot going on with Star Trek Online at the moment. Not only does the game have a major update fast approaching and the occasional microtransaction controversy popping up, but it's also recently been given a new executive producer. Daniel Stahl has had the reins for a little under a month, but that's still enough time to have a notable influence on both the direction of the upcoming update and the overall direction of the game. We recently had a chance to sit down and talk with the new executive producer about his work on Star Trek Online, the game's strengths and weaknesses, and where development is headed for the future. There's a new direction in store for the game, or perhaps it'd be more apt to say a new focus. If you're interested in the game's past and future, or even just in the various rumors that started flying about the game going free-to-play, take a look past the break for the full interview.
