Trekkies rejoice, a new Star Trek web series called Star Trek: Reunion released their first wepisode, The Gathering Storm.  The series is created by Cerberus Films, headed by Oliver Smith, and was recorder entirely within Star Trek Online.

The first episode is about 25 mins long and takes place about 30 years after the end of The Dominion War. The cast is made up of five Starfleet Academy officers that get back together for a ‘reunion’ and talk about some of their previous adventures which are told in a flashback format.

Check out the first episode of Star Trek: Reunion – The Gathering Storm by continuing below.

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During an investor Q&A session, Perfect World Entertainment’s CEO Michael Chi and CFO Kelvin Lau revealed that Star Trek Online would be going free-to-play by the end of 2011.

Star Trek Online, after the acquisition, in fact Cryptic is working on the free-to-play model for Star Trek Online. This is going to be launched by the end of this year as well. So I think free-to-play model we have a bigger potential in US market and also in China market.

Not a big surprise, but certainly a major announcement. Since Perfect World Entertainment bought Cryptic Studios earlier this year, everyone assumed eventually Cryptic’s MMORPGs would move over to the F2P business model, and shortly after the acquisition, Champions Online did make the switch. Star Trek Online took a little longer, but not it is officially a F2P MMORPG.

In this months Ask Cryptic, executive producer Dan Stahl, laid out Cryptic’s schedule of new content heading to Star Trek Online with the first one being released in about 2 weeks. Keep in mind this is not everything, just some of the main pieces.

• Borg Sector Space Invasions (Aug 25)
• Borg Ground Invasion Repeatable Event (Sep 22)
• Borg STF Updates (new loot, new group finder tool) (Sep 22)
• New Event Calendar and Daily Event Schedule (Sep 22)
• New Lore Quests (Sep 22)
• Klingon Academy Zone (Sep 22)
• Episode Progression update (re-leveling nearly all episodes + new Mission Journal UI) (Sep 22)
• Duty Officer System and Assignments (Oct 20)
• Feature Episode Series 4 ready to start (Oct 22)

Stahl also commented that there will be no level cap increase until enough new content is created for it, so it looks like it will be some time before players see that. The QA is massive, so if you want to checkout all the questions that were answered, head over the the official STO site.

Cryptic has teamed up with Alienware for a massive giveaway of Star Trek Online. The STO giveaway is for full access to the game plus 60 days for free game time with no restrictions except you have to create a new account, so current players are out of luck.

The full package is outlined below,

• Access to the retail game of Star Trek Online
• 60 days of subscription time
• The Enterprise Era Bundle
• Tribble Pet
• 8 Hour XP Boost

So Champions Online and City of Heroes both went Free2Play within the last few months and now Cryptic is giving away STO for free with two months of free time to thousands of new players .  Hmm, I wonder if they are planing on making STO F2P? (sarcasm off) I know, lets play the when will Cryptic announce STO will be going Free-to-Play? I bet it will be announced by mid October, the 15th.

The next major content update to Star Trek Online, Season Four: Crossfire, is now live on servers.  Season four brings with it many new and improved features including ground combat enhancements and a reconstructed Klingon base called Qo’noS.

The biggest change comes with ground combat and the introduction of the new shooter mode, which does away with tab-targeting.  Now players can just point and shoot at their targets as you would find in any FPS shooter.

The Klingon faction now has a new place to call home with the reconstructed Qo’noS, which allows players to navigate more easily through the Klingon First City hub via ID markers and a more intuitive layout.

Season Four also adds more sectors and missions for Klingons, introduces Vivox Voice Chat for easier communications and brings improvements to the Fleet Action Queue.

Throughout the summer more content for Crossfire will be released including an Active Duty Officer Roster, Mission Assignment system, more Ground Fleet actions, Special Taks Force Enhancements and more.

Below we have the trailer for the new shooter mode.

Cryptic Studios has temporarily slashed almost $60 on the Lifetime subscription prices for Star Trek Online and Champions Online, as both MMOs prepare for pretty important milestones.

Star Trek Online turns a year old on February 2, and the discount should nudge devoted fans to plunk down $240 for Lifetime access to the space MMO. It helps Star Trek Online’s cause that its recent content additions like the Weekly Episodes have been a hit with current players, as our own Tim Williams attests. But newer recruits who may be biding their time until Star Wars: The Old Republic arrives may let the discount pass.

Meanwhile, Champions Online is ready to go free-to-play on January 25 with its Free for All update. While we’re upbeat that some Trekkers will bite the Lifetime discount promo, we’re less upbeat with Champions Online. It’s hard to convince a gamer to shell out the same $240 when he can just as easily be satisfied with paying $0 and still get to play the game, even though it’s only up to level 40 and with limited gameplay options. Couple that with the strong buzz around DC Universe Online these days, and it’s clear Cryptic will lower their Lifetime sub prices a lot more if they want to tie down players to their superhero MMO.

Star date 2-2-2010. It was a very emotional day for Star Trek fans. It saw the release of Star Trek Online. Initial reactions were mixed. Some couldn’t stop complaining about pitiful ground combat, various bugs, and the fact that space looked like a trip to Candyland. Fans were completely dazzled with fact that they had their own little bridge officers to push around. Later, when the populous boldly went to end game, where they found very little content, and even more… horrid ground combat. Still, many of the diehard fans would go on to purchase lifetime subscriptions. We would also see Cryptic laying claim that the game’s 50-80 dollar price tag was perfectly acceptable.

In all fairness, Star Trek Online’s release was not the worst we’ve ever seen and they have done quite a bit to make the game more interesting over the last few months. I would even go as far as to say that Cryptic has done a good job. This, however, was not completed by listening to the community. Nearly 8 months after launch, features requested by the community still go unanswered or half-implemented.

Join me after the warp and I’ll try to take you beyond all this negativity to the point where Star Trek Online is today, and where it continues to fail. I promise not to make too many more bad Star Trek puns.

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We all do it. Sometimes we do it with friends, sometimes we do it with people we just met, sometimes we do it with complete strangers, and sometimes, by ourselves, alone, in front of our computer, while no one is watching. I’m, of course, talking about roleplay. I’ve not yet once met a gamer, MMO or otherwise, that did not roleplay in some fashion.

For most people, the roleplay community is not something they think of themselves as a part of, but everyone who plays an MMORPG is a roleplayer; at least to some extent. Not everyone claims to be a roleplayer, and on the other hand some claim it loud and proud. If you have ever thought how your character feels about a specific quest, pictured your character’s smile while he slew his foes, or became inspired during a quest as the cavalry comes in to save you – you my friend, are a roleplayer. Roleplay comes in so many forms that it’s hard to determine what is “good roleplay”, what is “bad roleplay”, and what’s “just plain inappropriate”. It’s not all a bunch of super-geeks dressing up shouting “thou”, “thee”, and “forsooth!”

Follow me after the jump and I will show you exactly what you’ve been missing all your life.

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After two years of developing games such as Champions Online and Star Trek Online; the MMO giant Bill Roper has decided that he is going to depart Cryptic.  Nobody’s really quite sure why, other then Bill has grown tired and wants to branch out to find new opportunities.  Well that’s all fine an dandy I suppose, and if Bill feels as though he’s needed else where, then we should all support him in his decision.  What does this mean for Champions and Star Trek you ask?  Nothing at all.  Both of your beloved MMOs will continue as normal and life will go on as it should.  Who knows, maybe Bill left because he’s hard at work with Hanbitsoft on the Hellgate London sequel *hahaha*.

Anyways, here is a link to Bill’s final dying breaths from Cryptic Studios.  Oh, and for those of you that are interested in making friends with this man; he has stated that he will continue to play every Cryptic game ever!  So you guys might be able to spot him beating up/ beaming up online.  Good luck Bill, we salute you!

A new “Ask Cryptic” has just been released, this time featuring the Executive Producer of Star Trek Online, Dan Stahl.  For those of you that don’t know what “Ask Cryptic” is, it’s a time when Cryptic’s players can sit down and submit their personal questions to one of the game’s developers.  This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the future plans for games such as Star Trek Online and Champions Online.  This entry is focused solely on Star Trek Online and boy oh boy there are definitely plenty of questions from the game’s community.  This installment of  “Ask Cryptic” centers itself around the future of Star Trek Online, plus additional features like the Bridge Officer.

For the entire Developer Q&A, smack the continue button!

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