Star Trek Online Free-to-play early access as of today!

 Computer Games  No Responses »
Jan 052012
 
Star_Trek_Online_cover

For all people who have previously played STO either through a paid account or just the 1 month trial can now gain early access to the Free-to-play experience of Star Trek Online. These people wont have to wait until January 17th!

Here is the full press release…

We are pleased to announce that the doors are opening a little early for Star Trek Online free-to-play for a limited set of people.

Starting tomorrow (Thursday, January 5th), anyone with a lapsed subscription to Star Trek Online will be able to log into the game and play as a Silver member.  This means that any account that has in the past subscribed to the game, even if only for the initial month, can come back and play for free!

For those of you not familiar with the difference between Gold (subscriber) and Silver (non-subscriber) membership, you can refer to the features matrix.  The most important fact is that previous subscribers can jump right in and play their existing characters with no extra steps and no loss of anything they previously gained for their characters.

Early access is our way of thanking the many loyal customers who sat in the Captain’s chair during the past two years.  Free-to-play opens for the general public in less than two weeks, on 17-01 (January 17th).

Welcome back!

Stephen D’Angelo Executive Producer Star Trek Online

As of this moment I am downloading the game and should be able to verify that it is playable in F2P mode.

Star Trek Online Free To Play Intro!

 Computer Games  No Responses »
Dec 102011
 

On january 17th of next year the long wait will finally be over. Star Trek Online will finally accept the free 2 play model to boost user numbers. The premise for this model is two tiered. Players can opt to keep their monthly payments and receive every benefit or ‘play for free’ but make micro transactions to get upgrades.

On the website for the free 2 play model we have two cut scenes of the game in action. The voice-over is by Leonard Nimoy.

For more information on the ‘Free 2 Play’ model click on the following link.

http://startrekonline.com/f2p_features

Star Trek Online to become ‘Free to Play’!

 Computer Games  No Responses »
Sep 072011
 

Finally, after more than a year of rumors it is official…. Star trek Online will follow in the footsteps ‘Champions Online’ and “Lord of the Rings Online’ by becoming free to play. This means that players won’t be charged a monthly rate nor will they have to pay for the game in the shops, it is thought that just like many other F2P online games there will be microtransactions with which players can purchase upgrades and such. No such scheme has of yet been announced but they are becoming pretty standard.

Though the original producer of STO is Cryptic Studios the rights to the game were earlier this year bought by Perfect World, perhaps the buy out signalled a change of direction.

STO certainly isn’t a bad game, like most MMO it couldn’t live up to expectations which were high during its short development time. With scores from anywhere between 6.5 and 7.5 it was a mediocre player mostly relying on the Star trek label. However, over time the game has been tweaked and altered and with a constent stream of new content is has become a player in the MMO market. Things like the shuddy ground combat are even now being addressed and so the game keeps on changing to woe new players. The question that remains is how good the Star trek experience is in this game, nobody seems to have a clear answer and so it is up to you to find out…….

Another Free to play Star trek MMO is also in the works, the browser based Star Trek Infinite Space may not have the graphical caliber of STO but it does rely on a well known story arc (the dominion war) that could help to keep players away from STO.