Star Trek Online : NX-91001 = Epic

Despite the fact I've really not touched upon Star Trek Online, don't assume I'm not looking forward toward this sci-fi MMO. I'm personally eager and ready to go, get in a sleek vessel and say over voice chat "Engage". However my little tangents here have been going in different directions. Why am I suddenly shifting then toward the other part of Sci-fi nerd nirvana?*Note- The other part is Star Wars: The Old Republic. End of Note.*


This is why. Meet the NX-91001. It's the first ship to have descriptions and details. While it is not positive to be in the final release of the game, chances are good as this teaser is Star Trek Online's present to it's fans. So here is the sexy stats, straight from StarTrek Online...

NX-91001

Specifications

Dimensions: Overall Length: 692 meters Overall Draft: 92 meters Overall Beam: 253 meters Displacement: 3,200,000 metric tons Propulsion Systems: Class 10 Warp Drive Hyper Impulse Drive Defensive Systems: Ablative Tetraburnium Alloy Hull Regenerative Shielding Embarked Craft (Typical): 3 Shuttle Bays 10 Shuttlecraft (various classes) 10 Shuttlepods (various classes)

Velocity: Cruising: Warp Factor 8 Maximum: Warp Factor 9.985 Computer Systems: Holoemitter Trans-Deck Array System Holographic Consoles and Astrometric Laboratories Bioneural Circuitry Offensive Systems: 16 Type XIV Phaser Arrays 4 Forward and 4 Aft Torpedo Launchers (Payloads Classified) Additional Weapons Classified

Exploration vessel; Commissioned: 2409

A starship designed to carry Federation influence throughout the Alpha Quadrant and beyond, the NX-91001 is one of the first multi-role starship designs since the Sovereign class was commissioned in the early 2370s. Able to function as a deep-space explorer with extensive sensors and laboratory facilities for scientific research, the NX-91001 also is outfitted as a heavy cruiser armed with some of the latest in Starfleet weapons technology for deployment in hostile areas.

The NX-91001 contains the best of the new technologies developed in the past 40 years. Bioneural circuitry mimics organic neurons, speeding data functions and improving computer performance. An advanced sensor pod can be operated from the bridge or manned directly for intense sweeps, and includes telemetric observation VISOR technology to allow a science officer to interface directly with data transmitted by a robotic exo-probe.

A holoemitter array system allows Emergency Medical and Emergency Command Holograms to operate throughout the ship when needed, and the ship is equipped with a Class 10 warp drive for normal operation and an advanced hyper impulse drive for sublight operation. The Class 10 warp drive is equipped with an advanced quantum sublimating theta-matrix compositor which recrystalizes the ship’s dilithium into a much more stable form than earlier models. This allows the NX-91001 to go much longer distances at high warp velocities before needing to replace the crystals.

Defensive systems of this starship are based on significant advances in Federation technology. The starship features an ablative tetraburnium alloy hull, which allows it to withstand greater amounts of heat and pressure than any previous design, and regenerative shields on the NX-91001 can adapt to enemy weapons fire during a battle. The ship also carries a full suite of offensive weapons, including 16 Type XIV phaser arrays, eight torpedo launchers and several other weapons. Note: Because of the recent conflicts, the complete weapons configuration of the NX-91001 is classified.

While I truly hope Star Trek doesn't focus on combat, but has equal parts social interaction and NPC interaction, these details have me really wanting to find some Borg and show them *forgive me..*

"Resistance is futile."

If you would like to see some in-game videos, click here!

What got you into MMORPGs?

Since I'm still winding down from the great rush of the holidays, and trying to figure out how to make time for Metal Gear Solid 4(I'm a big fan of the series), I thought to simply throw out a simple discussion for today. What got you into MMORPGs? What game in particular hooked you in to the social phenomenon that has escalated so much in recent years*Cough cough World of Warcraft cough cough*.

For myself it was EverQuest. I was a young lad, filled with promised as I tried playing this strange "multi-player" RPG. Now back in the days when Ruins of Kunark was first released the game was a lot harder than it is now. It was tough just getting enough money for a few spells let alone decent equipment. Yet I was transfixed by the game play and how massive the world was. It was really hard to put down. I missed many hours of sleep due to EverQuest*Or EverCrack, as it was called then*

So what got YOU into MMORPGs? Leave a comment telling what hooked you into this addicting hobby. Also you may notice on the lower right I'm now part of MassiveBlips. If you think a particular post is good go over there and vote it up to show your support. You'll get a free cookie!*



*You may not get a free cookie.

Red 5 Interview

If the company " Red 5 " is unfamiliar to you'll want to get to know them real quick. Red 5 is a company formed of mostly ex-Blizzard employees. (Random Nerd Fact - It is also the X-wing Luke Skywalker pilots in "A New Hope".) The founders are Mark Kern(Team Lead), William Petras(Art Director), and Taewon Yun(Part of the Korean Operations that oversaw WoW's release in Asia). And they are making an MMORPG.

Got your attention yet?

Gamasutra got an interview with some of the high ups over at Red 5, talking about potential focus of their upcoming MMORPG, Micro-Transactions vs Subscription, game addiction, and other such subjects. You can read the full interview here. However don't expect any release dates, pictures, or even the name of the stealthy MMORPG. Red 5 is keeping their lips sealed until a future date*Which is hinted to be approaching in a few months!*

With a company consisting of mostly ex-Blizzard employees, I can only drool over what they could possibly be making over there. I'll keep you posted as soon as any information is made official.

Author's Note - I said I wouldn't be posting anything until later tonight..well. I can't help it, I love doing this ;).

Happy Holidays, may your loots be many and overpowered

There will be no updates to The MMO Experience until sometime late tonight, when I'll post something to celebrate the coming of the new year. Until then I just want to wish everyone a happy holiday, no matter what particular holiday you celebrate.

For some MMO fun however, I have a question. What do you do to set up your MMO playtime? By that I mean do you listen to a particular type of music when you're about to fight a really hard fight, do you generally have the same type of drink/snack, or do you put a movie on the background and just listen to the dialogue.

Myself, I've been known to "watch" Braveheart, Lord of the Rings, and other movies while I raid. It just seems to help ease the repetition and the sluggish aspects that go along with raiding. I don't really have a set snack or drink however. If I'm just playing solo or grouping however, I generally like to listen to rock/metal*Especially for my rogue*.

So, what do you do when you game? Let me know.

Oh, I'm banned from MMORPG.com for talking about Jumpgate Evolutions holiday contest and posting a link to it. Ain't that swell? Hehe.

Holy Dual Contests! Free World of Warcraft

I've spoken about a possible World of Warcraft + Expansions contest. However I'm going to up the ante here. I will have TWO contests, with possibly both prizes being The Complete WoW package. I have already decided on a format too. Is this contest IN STONE? No.

Not until I get enough interest to make it worth going out and buying 2 copies of WoW, TBC, and Wrath. It may sound evil*I am pretty evil*, but it just has to be done this way. I would love to do this however, I'm practically itching to do it. Why? It just sounds fun to give out some holiday presents to fellow gamers.

So here are the rules. I again state this contest will NOT happen unless I get some public interest. So slap your friends, make them interested, and repeat as needed. However I will go into the two contests.

1st one: A basic raffle. I will either use a computer program or literally take a name out of a hat to pick the winner here. Everyone that signs up gets only one entry*Though donations MAY get you additional tickets...Just kidding ;)*. I will put out a huge post regarding the rules once this becomes reality.

2nd one: A true contest. I've always wanted to get people to post up MMO stories/fanfics, so I'm gonna have to force it to happen. You'll have to write some type of story based on your character in whatever MMO you play or would like to play. I'll try to get some multiple judges for this one, and the best one wins. The winner, and those that didn't win*losers*, will get their fanfics/stories posted up on the webpage to show off their writing "skillz".

I've already decided that I will allow people to participate in both contests, so you are not limited to one or the other*Though you ARE limited to one entry per contest*. For the last time I will say this contest is not in stone, these are NOT the official rules. If you want this to happen, let people know about it, have them show they are interested either by leaving a comment here or by emailing me at ThaShirow@gmail.com

That is all.

Star Wars, JumpGate Evolution, and World of Warcraft

A few updates in the whole news department for some MMORPGs today. Some of it neat, some of it not, and the rest is just filler so you'll read more. OK that last bit was a lie. There has been some interesting news so lets get started shall we?

SWTOR(Star Wars The Old Republic) : Gamespy had an interesting interview with Bioware a few days ago about SWTOR. Since it's a rather lengthy interview I'll just post a link about it here, however it IS worth a read if your curious about the title. You can read it here.

JumpGate Evolution : A neat little challenge to celebrate the holidays is going on over at JumpGate's website. It's open to everyone, with an unlimited amount of entries, and can score you a beta invite if you win.

Jumpgate Evolution Christmas Challenge

To celebrate the festivities of the holidays we’ve got a new challenge for you, the members of the community! The challenge is to generate the best caption for one (or both) of the screenshots we’ve provided, (below). But we don’t want you to provide any old caption (that would be too easy); we want it to be associated with a festive winter or New Year’s theme!

The winning entry will receive a Beta key, a custom forum title, custom forum avatar and a goodie bag and will be known as the caption contest king/ queen, until we run another challenge!

Check here if you wanna grab yourself some goodies. I have a few ideas for my own entry but as I believe I am lacking in wit, I can only hope one of you win instead of those that don't view my website*Blast them!*.

World of Warcraft : Also in the news today is the legendary giant, WoW. With a bit of both good and bad news however. The good news is that 4 million copies of the new expansion were sold in the first month of release. So Wrath of the Lich King is selling pretty well.*I'm not Captain Obvious, I'm King Obvious*. In another milestone event, WoW subscribers has now grown to more than 11.5 million. People are constantly throwing around the term " WoW Killer ", referring to the next possible MMO that will topple WoW. However I think at this point the only possible cause of death for this titan is some infection.

With that in mind, the recent attacks on EVE players(Read here) is happening to WoW players as well! While Blizzard didn't release any official information, they did state that a number of game accounts have been compromised. They also give several options to help protect accounts from piracy,hacking, and other "social" engineering. Be careful not just in Azeroth, but outside it as well. Else you may not even respawn at all.*Bad joke...*

At this point World of Warcraft can only be killed from the inside*IE Blizzard*. There are plenty of solid MMORPGs coming out in the near future. However I foresee them more fighting over the population of gamers that have become disenchanted with WoW instead of fighting for Blizzard's fan base. Until then however it's just guesswork and speculation.

Also, a little update. I'm getting VERY little feedback except from an excited Cownose about a possible future World of Warcraft + both expansions giveaway. If I don't hear anything from at least a good chunk of people then I will have to put this on the back burner for the future. So if you ARE interested, please leave a comment to this post, Free copy of WoW.

Aion - The Tower of Eternity

For a game that looks this good and with a ton of interesting twists to the MMORPG genre, I sure took a long time to talk about it. Aion: The Tower of Eternity is made by NCSoft, which you may know from City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Tabula Rasa. However unlike those entries, Aion is one of the many triple A titles that will "supposedly" topple World of Warcraft. While that lofty title is up to debate, the quality of Aion looks to make it a solid contender.


One of Aions biggest bragging rights is probably one of the most in-depth character customization in an MMORPG. Instead of using a few preset selections like World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online, you'll be given complete control of your character's appearance. I was pretty impressed by the video of the editor in use. I think the best way to describe it is to compare it to The Sims 2's editor with better graphics.


The biggest "innovation" is aerial combat. Characters are limited to the ground, especially when it comes to combat. This isn't just "ground fighting but in the air" either. Of course you should be in the air, you're immortal. Your character has ascended from mortality to a more divine nature. Of course there just happens to be a celestial war going on. Which brings up the subject of the two factions in the game. You'll be given the choice to fight for radiant, luminous Elyos or the grim, foreboding Asmodians.

A powerful avatar editor, aerial combat, and being a divine being sounds like...some type of concoction that should be fun. However a few people are put off by the anime style to the graphics. How NCsoft will win these folk over, and those that fear this is just another "grind" fest remains to seen. A lot of American gamers are quite skeptical, if not outright hostile, to Eastern MMORPGs. Time will tell if Aion actually live up to the hype surrounding the game. If you would like to see some very shiny videos of the game in action, as well as a glimpse of the character editor, check it out here.

Want a free copy of WoW?

I've been thinking for a few weeks to hold some type of contest for my readers. While nothing is set in stone yet, I would like to get some feedback. Part of what I wanted The MMO Experience to be was a place for people to post their own game experiences, such as comedic stories, and fanfics.

So, I've considered to give away a free copy of World of Warcraft + The Burning Crusade + Wrath of the Lich King. But before I go out and buy this, I would like to hear if you would be interested in this or rather just have a huge raffle.

So...let me know ;).

Paragon of Humanity*Please Look up the word Satire*

You just wouldn't understand.

I constantly read about these "gamers" talking like they're "leet" and they will "pwn" anyone that challenges them. You read about them in forums, in their little blogs where they can puff up their chests and feel like one of the big dogs.

They are so mistaken. Their tiny little brains cannot even comprehend what it means to be a gamer, let alone a "raider". That's what I am. I COULD enlighten them to their own inferior skills, show them the despair one only knows in a situation where they would no thread to grasp onto as I destroy them..

But I got better things to do, the rest of you "gamers" are beneath my feet. However I will, occasionally, post in these forums you love so dearly. Why? It's like a random occurrence in life that reminds you of a higher power, I remind you that you're not the best, you're just a newb.
I'm not the only one though, I'm surrounded by people nearly as good as myself. You probably haven't heard of us, we never gather where fellow players can see us in-game. However our guild is what all those other guilds you read about aspire to be.

We are the "Aristocrats ". Only the best are allowed to even be considered for our ranks. But enough of something you're too stupid to understand. I'm a hero after all, and I don't have the time to spend explaining such things to morons.

I've seen things you cannot even begin to imagine, no matter what you think of your little "accomplishments". In almost every game I play I've sailed far beyond what any mere player here can comprehend...

So you know what? I'm gonna leave you right there, as you struggle to catch up to me and my achievements. You can have your friends, your social life, your integrity, your morality, and all those other worthless things.

I got +10 more str than you.

Author's Note - This is a satire. For those that DON'T know what this means...

1.	the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

2.	a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.

But where did this satire come from? Here. I've always hated people with these type of elitist attitudes, especially concerning any type of virtual achievement. I wanna hear from you however about players of this caliber, so leave a message.

Do it ;).

EVE Players beware!

As if the huge starbase exploit wasn't enough.

CCP Navigator just released the following statement, warning EVE players...

There is currently a phishing email circulating that claims to be sent from EVE Customer Support. This email claims that we had a database issue and lost some customer information and it asks you to login to make sure your information is still there. They conveniently provide their very own login link. This is of course not true; we have not lost any account information.

We'd also like to add that our knowledge when it comes to English grammar and spelling is far better than what is in the phishing email.

So if you play EVE, be careful when you check your email. While these sort of piracy attempts are used against many MMO players, it seems like EVE is being attacked over and over recently. You can read the original post here at MyEVE. Also something worthy of note, almost ALL developers will NEVER ask for your password or for you to login into the game due to "database" issues.

Even if you get a message that seems legitimate, verify your sources. Go to the game's homepage and make sure this is the case.

2009 Hopefully Good Games..

With another year fast approaching, and the current one slowly fading out of our memories, it's time to start drooling over some MMOs that are still baking in the oven..or however they make games. They DO bake right? Anyway, a quick glimpse of some games that may (or may not) grace us in the next year.

JumpGate Evolution - A space MMOG*Massive Multiplayer Online Game* that looks entertaining. Jumpgate Evolution uses a "twitch" based combat system, so you have full control of your ship. With shiny graphics and doing away with turn-based combat, I really except this game to be a success. Release Date: Q2 of 2009*Not set in stone*

MegaTen - An MMORPG set in the world of Shin Megami Tensei, this game is quite fun. With a combat system that is more interactive than most MMORPGs, a unique pet system, and a dark atmosphere I think this game will be one of Aeria Games biggest successes. And probably one of the few good MT/F2P MMORPGs. Release date: Unknown*I suspect Q2-Q3 2009*

Aion - I want to play Aion. With that said, the game is visually stunning, and features some unique features*Such as flying for all characters, and aerial combat*. However there are many people worried it will be a "grind" fest. Only time will tell. Release Date:Unknown*The stars say Q3-Q4 2009*

Earthrise - An MMORPG set in a post-apocalyptic world. Earthrise looks pretty and is a nice trend away from the fantasy backdrop most MMORPGs use. You can read a detailed preview of it here. Release Date: Unknown

Guild Wars 2 - Following the previous entry, the sequel will still support no subscription fees, which I think is an excellent idea ;). Considering how much fun the first Guild Wars was, I can't wait to see this one in action.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Bioware's latest creation is last on this list because it's the one I'm most excited about. With the promise of the fourth "pillar" known as story to be included, I'm drooling. Add in the Star Wars IP to the mix of Bioware's record for quality video games, this seems to be a perfect union. One COULD say they have joined forces and became more powerful than you can possibly imagine.*Bad Joke..sorry. I had to*

So that's my list of hopefully good games that will hopefully be released in 2009. While there are other non-MMORPGs I'm looking forward to, I gotta stay on task. Now I must go. I just purchased Resistance: Fall of Man for my spanking new PS3. If you must know why I got it instead of brand new sequel, I wanted to know the storyline first...

And it was cheaper! Oh, in case you too own a Playstation 3, my PSN is Danshir. You are more than free to add me and we can get some gaming on.

We are now Live!

Title says it all. Except for adding some more additions to the forum, our new format is live and done. While I may add more things to it, it is now an armed and fully operational battle station..

Or something like that.

Anyway, leave comments if you like/dislike. Post on the forums, force others to visit.

My minions get great benefits, such as 401k, dental, matching uniform,a refer-a-friend get metal teeth program.