Captains Log: Stardate 65208.1

I get far too excited everytime I log into Star Trek Online (STO) and load the U.S.S. Stiletto-B for a new mission. Yes, I know. It is super super nerdy, but whatever.

This excitement is for a multitude of reasons.

First, I will be the first to admit that I am already (after a mere week of gameplay) more invested in the STO world than I ever was in World of Warcraft, in part because of my love for the Star Trek television shows and movies. It feels awesome to be in control of my own ship, to explore the systems in the galaxy that I remember from specific episodes (or have only heard about through hearsay in other episodes). I get a lot of satisfaction from successfully destroying a Borg Cube, or fending off a Klingon invasion force or making First Contact with an alien species in a distant part of the galaxy. While my grad student work (homework, thesis proposal work, etcetera etcetera) doesn't allow me to play the game as much as I want to (and, trust me, a few times in the past week I have sacrificed my sleep schedule to complete just one more mission), reopening the window is like reentering a familiar world and has come as a greater respite than WoW ever did.

I love this game because it is much more complex than your run of the mill MMORPG (not necessarily in mechanics, but we'll get to that later). After completing a long and complex space battle, and looting the dropped items from the mobs, I am forced to figure out which modifiers, if any, my ship actually needs from the new gear. Is the Tachyon Deflector Array Mark II really that much better than my regular Deflector Array Mark II? Is the drop of 2.5 points from my Emmitter modifier going to make that much of a difference? Are disruptors going to be more effective in this mission, or should I arm my away team with phasers?

As I progress through the gameplay, I find myself tempted to rely upon meta-game resources (such as the many forums discussing PC build strategies, the releases from bloggers and game producers discussing the various benefits of each weapon type, the charts that show what modifiers benefit what systems), yet, when it comes down to it, I find it much more exhilirating to rely upon my own Star Trek knowledge to try and piece together what will or wont be relevant.

Like WoW, there are multiple forms of currency to keep track of (Energy Credits, Starfleet Merit, and Exploration Badges), but in STO, each of these three forms of currency is more important from the beginning of the game. [Should I buy this ship upgrade with my Merits, or should I use Energy Credits for a less-awesome version?]

As introduced in my first post, my current Captain's name is Lt. Commander Laquifa Jaran of Betazed (yes, I got a promotion!). First, I almost always play female characters in RPGs and MMORPGs when possible (the easiest explanation for this is that it's like being in drag, only without the pain and the work). As such, the the U.S.S. Stiletto/U.S.S. Stiletto-B (the two ships currently in my possesion) are, at least in my head, ridiculous queer paradises.

Imagine my surprise when I selected a new bridge officer (a Klingon Female!) and her name was Sass.

Now, I added the eye-patch and the skirt uniform, but really. Lieutenant Sass from the U.S.S. Stiletto-B? Such a perfect fit.

To diverge, yet again, I have currently primarily been exploring the game world as a solo player. While I have been moved into instances with other players occasionally (and had to coordinate away teams or space battles with another ship or two), I have completed the majority of the missions on my own thus far. There is a certain anxiety involved in playing an MMORPG (at least for me there is), and this is most definitely left over from my WoW experiences. For the most part, even if one is in a supportive Guild/Fleet, there are always the assholes who will throw a tantrum if, even as a noob, you don't perform your role in the group action perfectly (or you are not properly spec'd for the role you are playing). Too many times was I enlisted as the Tank for a dungeon crawl, and too many times I decided to drop out rather than deal with the harrassment for my less-than-perfect gear and tank abilities. This anxiety has, in all honesty, prevented me from seeking out the PvP areas of STO and has also, in many ways, spread to anxiety about joining a Fleet (STO's version of WoW Guilds). Yesterday, I declined three fleet offers. Today, I declined seven.

There is another reason why I have declined fleet offers (rather than just the left-over MMORPG anxiety). I've decided to be a little bit vain about my fleet choice. In my WoW time, I joined the first guild that invited me and, while it proved to be a great experience overall, it wasn't until I was talking to other WoW-gaming friends and my brothers that I realized how much my guild choice colored my integration into the WoW world. If one joins a raiding guild, for example, one has the resources (both guild-wise, player-wise, and meta-game wise) to become an expert at going through dungeons. If one joins one of the free-spirited "We're Gaming! YAY!" guilds (like mine was), the social experience of the guild becomes emphasized but at the expense, in some cases, of developing strong game skills. For example, I was one of the few people in my WoW guild that participated in PvP combat on my server; as such, when I had a question about specs or gearing, I was forced to troll through millions of websites of information and then try to piece it all together on my own.

So, yes, the Stiletto is being picky about deciding what fleet to join. Maybe by this time next week, I'll have made a decision.