DevLog 4.0

ntry 4.0 - "olling the Crew"
Stardate 61330.6 (November 12th, 2007)

Welcome back to the STO DevLog, our regular look into the development of Star Trek Online, the only game that dares to reveal what happens when good tribbles go bad!

This month we thought it would be fun to peer into the minds of the STO team, to find out what they think about Star Trek. Surveys were sent out, and answers were sent in... by the crate load. Here´s just a small sampling of we like to call:

olling the Crew: Selected Reponses from the STO Team Survey

Which of Star Trek´s alien races do you most identify with?

We got a wide variety of responses to this question:

"Those creatures in TN that only speak in binary."

"ntedeans. Fish-like, that´s me."

"Cardassians. I totally dig potentially redeemable villains."

"The Romulans. They´re mysterious, politically-driven, mischievous and cunning. Of course, as they appear on TN, they´re mostly militant jerks, but the fact that the series has focused on brewing internal debates shows they have redeeming characteristics."

"I like the ndorians. They´re blue, they´re cool, and they have fricking antenna on their heads."

Our favorite warrior race got a lot of love, of course:

"Klingons, they´re ruff and gruff and their women have the most amazing pair of assets."

"Klingon. I´ve always found the open machismo of their culture interesting."

"Klingons. Sometimes I get a little out of control, too."

In the end, however, there was a clear favorite:

"Vulcans. Because I´m so logical "

"Vulcans. Because of the conflict between the rational mind and the emotional mind."

"Vulcans, for their love of truth and logic."

"Vulcans. It´s perfectly logical why."

We think this bodes well for the eventual logical consistency of Star Trek Online... but not, perhaps, for our collective mating prospects.

Who is Star Trek´s Sexiest Character?

lthough this question came down to a somewhat predictable horse race between the ever-popular Seven of Nine and T´ol (with at least one respondent giving the nod to T´ol because "she was more naked", we did receive a number of responses that remind us all that Star Trek is a very sexy show (and that the gaming industry remains overwhelmingly male):

"Those green gals."

"Mudd´s women, Natira High riestess of Yonada, the Borg Queen, Vash, Yeoman Rand"

"I´m going to go old school for this one and say Yeoman Janice Rand from TOS. There was something about that basket weave hairdo. RRWWWW!"

"fter T´ol, I´d say the Borg Queen that entices Data in Contact. Then Beverly. Then Deanna (on account of the empathy)..." "Uhura."

"Ilia, T´ol, Jadzia, B´lanna"

"If I had to pick a female recurring character, well - there´s not many to choose from. I suppose Dr. Crusher. She´s intelligent, driven, firm in her beliefs, yet still feminine. But she reminds me too much of my mother."

"I´m somewhat torn between icard and Dukat, but only before Dukat got all loopy while hanging out with Kai Winn."

If you had your druthers, which Star Trek character would you like to get into STO?

We got a lot of requests for Q, Data, and Khan. That explosion you just heard was the design team´s brains trying to figure out how to integrate two dead guys and an omnipotent space god into the game.

"I´d like to see where Worf ends up. Did he stay with Starfleet and move up to admiral? Or has he gone back Q´onos to become a political/spiritual figure in the mpire?"

"The Borg Queen."

"Q! Morn would be a close second."

"Q. I hope he shows up and causes some general mayhem."

"...I almost feel like a minor character, like a Barclay or Moriarty or something would be the right one, just because they´re close enough to simple archetypes that it be fairly easy to pull off."

"Barclay! nd Harcourt Fenton Mudd."

What is your fondest memory of Star Trek?

pair of dominant themes emerged in response to this question:

"My best friends in college got together every Sunday night to watch the Next eneration - every Sunday. We would pack the house with like 20 people. It was a ritual and a celebration. Silence during the show was mandatory and we would talk about the episode for like another hour after it was over."

"During college I checked out all of season 7 of TN from our school´s media library one weekend when I didn´t have cable set up yet. The librarian gave me a funny look and asked if I knew that they were due back in 3 days."

"Watching re-runs of TN for hours on SpikeTV while programming and doing physics homework in college."

"Staying up every night to watch TOS at midnight freshman year in college, and THN starting homework."

"Hanging out with friends every night at 11:30 in college to watch TN re-runs. nd eat entirely too many plates of nachos."

"Helping my Dad install a new TV antenna just ahead of a lightning storm so we could watch TN with a clear picture. We almost died, but it was worth it."

"Watching the original series with my grandfather."

"I grew up with my father who had a heart condition. So I wasn´t a stranger to hospitals and I had to face a lot of fears every time he went in for surgery. I saw the 4th movie with my father on our TV at home after one of our scares. When McCoy gives the woman on the kidney dialysis machine a pill and she miraculously cured! Him and I joked and repeated her "Doctor gave me a new kidney!" Looking back at that now, I realize the hope that implanted in us both about the future."

"oing to a convention with my dad at the laza Hotel in NYC when I was 7."

In ten words or less, what makes Star Trek so cool?

"Heghlu´meH QaQ jajvam"

"The use of a Theremin in the TOS theme song."

"It´s the future, and the humans aren´t losing!"

" relentless optimism towards the human spirit, despite contrary evidence."

"Optimism about the human condition. ndless possibilities. Universally appealing themes."

"Celebrating the diversity of peoples and ideas."

"Star Trek presents a positive and uplifting outlook for the future! Oops, that might be 11 words."

"Boldly going where no one has gone before."

Well said.

Our survey covered several other Trek-centric questions (including the contentious "What is your favorite Trek episode?" and "Quien es mas macho, James Kirk o Han Solo?" tussles), but we´ve decided to save those for a later DevLog, when we´re running short on copy looking to spice it up with something special.

lease drop by the STO DevLog for next month, when we´ll be bringing you another intriguing look at the Star Trek Online development process.

But WIT! Before you going warping off to parts unknown, here´s this month´s "Star Trek Online Image of the Moment," courtesy of concept artist Ocala Bellows:

Creepy. I can almost FL the neural energy being sucked out of me.

Dif-tor heh smusma,
Mike Stemmle

S: Huge thanks to the STO team for their thoughtful, amusing, and only occasionally disturbing responses to the survey, and to reg and Binky for the art and assemblage.