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Captain's Log: Dining with the devs
Captain's Log, Stardate 65075.4... Hello, computer (and players)! Ahhh, the good 'ol developers! You follow them on twitter, you read every one of their forum posts, and you even stalk them in-game. But you know what? Developers are just like us, a fellow human being, right? Wrong! Developers are the key to the future, the hands that create our dreams, the molders that shape our gameplay. Okay, okay -- I'm going a bit overboard, but you have to admit, they are pretty dang cool! Luckily for us Star Trek Online players, the devs that are working on the game, as well as all of the other projects in development at Cryptic, are very transparent. More often that not, they let us know what they are working on and look to the community to see what we think about particular ideas -- we truly get to help influence what makes it into the game. Aside from posting in the forums, many of them also participate with the community by guest starring on podcasts and meeting up with players when they can. As I broke the news to you all last week, I was privileged to host a Dine with the Devs event that coincided with a visit of some of the STO devs to this year's San Diego Comic-Con. While this was not associated with Massively, I figured all of you would like to know what happened and what was said. So, without further ado, it's time to recap the event and fill you all in on the super-secret meeting minutes! Ensign, warp 10! Let's boldly go where most of you were not able to go...
Captain's Log: Missed dev transmissions
Captain's Log, Stardate 64940.2... Hello, computer (and players)! As we have explored in past logs, the developers working on Star Trek Online are extremely transparent with the community, and this, surprising to some, is actually by design. Since Dan Stahl took over as Executive Producer a year ago come July, he made it his personal mission to make sure that fans of the game knew where the game was heading at all times and what was currently being developed. Due to the success of this open communication, Cryptic as a whole has made a shift to this philosophy for its other announced projects. New details often emerge through several different official sources: the monthly Ask Cryptic and Engineering Report as well as a plethora of interviews. While the previously listed outlets are often marketed and widely known about, there are several channels that I would like to bring to light, ones that seem to fall under the radar. As Twitter is one of the biggest social media crazes, developers are using it to get information and work-in-progress screenshots out to the public. Also, some devs seem to be sacrificing sleep, as we will often wake up to posts in the STO forums that were posted near the midnight hour of Cryptic's time zone. Many feel that the most interesting and drool-worthy information is found in these "leaks," so I would like to share some of them with you. Ensign, warp 10! You might want to grab a towel to wipe up your mouth...
Captain's Log: Back to the future
Captain's Log, Stardate 64884.1... Hello, computer (and players)! Guess what's back? That's right! Hailing frequencies are now reopened -- Captain's Log is no longer on hiatus. Over the past few weeks, there has been some great news released about the Star Trek Online universe: the winner of the Design the Next Enterprise Contest was announced, the May Ask Cryptic was released, the dev team revealed the 500-day veteran rewards, and the Featured Episode reruns began. While everyone has had his or her own opinions on these stories, there is one piece of news that everyone can agree on: the awesomesauceness of the latest Engineering Report. As first announced earlier this week, Executive Producer Dan Stahl dropped his latest report, which describes the updates to the game coming in Season Four. As usual, aside from the imminent new content, Dan foreshadows the future for us. Captain's Log is no stranger to talking about the future of the game, so I am excited to share some more details about the upcoming updates with you. Since Season Four is right around the corner and I believe it will be the "game changing update this game has needed since launch," let's get on to this week's Log entry. Ensign, warp 10! Let's talk about Season 4 and beyond...
