If you attended the panel entitled "You Are What You Launch," hosted by Cryptic’s Chief Creative Officer Jack Emmert this past February at the Game Developers Conference, you may remember what he was wearing: a satisfied smile, and a Starfleet Academy sweatshirt. It was just one of the not-so-subtle hints he dropped throughout his speaking tour of the show, pointing at one thing: his company was picking up the "Star Trek" IP from the now-defunct but then merely ailing studio Perpetual Entertainment. Call it the MMO scene’s worst kept secret -- one that, to be frank, Cryptic didn’t seem too interested in keeping dark.
The cat came out of the bag officially on July 28th, when the mysterious countdown timer on Cryptic’s site expired, and startrekonline.com launched. Scant details were provided: in a letter to the community, Emmert made it clear that he loves him some "Trek," while the site’s "About" page hinted at crucial game elements (every player will be a captain!), and name dropped some serious "Trek" arcana, like the Fire Caves of Bajor, and the Mutara Nebula. An Associated Press article posted today confirmed many of the hinted-at elements. According to the story, players will choose between flying the colors of the Federation or the Klingon Empire, and pick from amongst a variety of different species to represent their captains -- the article mentions the Klingons, and the lizard-like Gorn. And in a move that plays to one of Cryptic’s proven strengths, players will also be able to create custom alien races.
We spoke to Emmert yesterday, in anticipation of the game’s big reveal this Sunday at the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas. Leonard Nimoy himself will be in attendance, and Emmert promises no BS in regards to what will be shown -- he told the Associated Press that the contents of the reveal will reflect Star Trek Online in its current, playable state.
(To watch the reveal via a live webcast, visit http://www.startrekonline.com at 1:30pm PDT this Sunday, August 10th.)
So where does Perpetual’s vision of Star Trek Online end, and Cryptic’s begin? At the concept stage, evidently. According to Emmert, Cryptic hasn’t done much in the way of salvaging Perpetual’s wreckage. "We got a handful of 3D objects that they had created, but we aren’t using them. We got a whole lot of concept art... we’re going to use at least some of it," Emmert told us. "But pretty much, we’re not using anything that Perpetual gave us outside of the concept art. No engine, no tech, no art, outside of the concept." It wasn’t an issue of quality, Emmert assured us, but rather, one of compatibility. In terms of real assets, what Perpetual had created simply amounted to "...a handful of 3D objects, and they were not done for our engine," Emmert said. "So we might as well just make new ones."
So Perpetual’s game wasn’t very far along, apart from in conceptual terms. But according to Emmert, Cryptic won’t be implementing any of the ambitious ideas that Perpetual was hoping to build its version of Star Trek Online around, at least not immediately. "I haven’t actually read any of their design docs, so I really have no idea," he said. "I talked with them in general, and I read through a few things -- overviews -- so I can’t really judge specifically what the game was."
Among the most novel ideas posited by Perpetual was the notion of player-manned starship crews -- imagine different players occupying different stations aboard a ship, working in concert to operate its myriad systems. In contrast, Emmert describes Cryptic’s approach as "definitely far more autonomous." One player, one captain, one ship. But he admits that Perpetual’s collaborative approach to space exploration continues to intrigue his team. "We had talked early on about the possibility of players fulfilling different positions in the ship," he stated. "Though there’s interesting gameplay there potentially, I think it’s certainly more engaging if everyone has their own ship. It may be a direction we go in the future; we certainly haven’t ruled it out."
He does seem mindful of the challenges. Compared to the immediacy of captaining a starship and all the explosive potential it entails, designing gameplay around the distinct, iconic roles we remember from "Star Trek" requires a bit of deliberation. "The difficulty is that you have to find moment-to-moment gameplay for your security station, for your tactical station, for your science station, that is as interesting and compelling as flying the ship and shooting things and blowing things up," Emmert said. "We had discussed a number of ways of doing it, but then there’s also technical hurdles, like getting everyone in the ship, and [determining] what view, what they’re seeing."
Ultimately, the direct approach won out. But Emmert assured us that this is more a starting point than a hard-and-fast philosophy. "Star Trek in and of itself, if you ask the average person, is all about the captains, and that’s where we wanted to start," he said "Where we grow is another thing altogether. This is just where we’re starting."
An Expanded Universe
One element that has persisted between both studios’ visions of Star Trek Online is the game’s setting: sometime in the 25th century, an exact stardate to be revealed at the Trek con unveiling. It’s a time of expansion for the Federation, enabled by technological advances suggestive of the capabilities of the biggest threat it’s ever faced. Transwarp conduits, once the strict purview of the Borg, are now operated by the Federation, allowing faster, farther travel to previously inaccessible areas of the galaxy. As for it being a period of peace, the fact the game is being designed around two separate factions strongly suggests that they’ll be at odds. But Emmert wasn’t prepared to confirm this.
He did, however, speak volumes on Cryptic’s decision to keep Perpetual’s setting. "Looking to the future allows us to introduce new and interesting things," he told us. "We wanted the future so we could have some open ground." The notion of broadening the IP by coloring inside of previously-blank lines is one that Emmert expects will work out very well for Star Trek Online. "What we can do is take aliens, like the Bolians and the Gorn, and give them a society, give them a background, give them more storyline," he said. "Characters that have been in the background or rarely engaged are going to be a bigger part of the world, and a more present part of what’s happening."
By the same token, Emmert informed us that "Star Trek" games enjoy a uniquely nebulous spot in the series’ canon that, while readily dismissible in the face of diverging places where license holders Paramount or CBS may decide to take it, can prove very liberating for creators interested in staking unique ground within the IP. "I don’t know how much of a Trekker you are, but the video games are treated as ’soft canon’ by the fanbase," he told us. "They pretty much treat all video games just like they would novels, and I’m fine with that, because inevitably, CBS or Paramount are going to advance the storyline and move forward [in ways that] might be different from what we do. And that’s OK. This is our storyline, and we’re doing our best to keep it as faithful as possible and resonate as much as possible with the Star Trek universe that everybody loves."
These days, though, it wouldn’t be too unexpected for an MMO based on a venerable sci-fi series to influence the way it develops in more traditional media. As an example, think of how Cryptic’s own Champions Online is inspiring sourcebooks for the Hero System pen-and-paper RPG on which it’s based -- or how Wizards of the Coast published a sourcebook about the out-of-the-way continent in Eberron where D&D Online is set. Emmert seems hip to this, having himself drawn much inspiration from a variety of "Trek" sources. But when it comes to seeing his work propagated in other media, he’s not trying to force the issue. "Some people have contacted me that are involved in other aspects of the Star Trek IP," he said. "If our ideas happen to cross-pollinate, great. I’m not trying to force it down anybody’s throat. And I’m not so arrogant to think that my ideas will be so good that everyone else will instantly want to pick up on them."
Evidently, Cryptic is poring through the annals of "Trek" to ensure that its game jibes well with the fanbase -- all in the service of authenticity, accroding to Emmert. "I think the fans will be thrilled to know how faithful we are," he told us. "I’m reading through novels, because I read pretty voraciously, and I’m making an encyclopedia of terms, events, people, places. Other members of the team are doing the same with the series. We’re going through the Star Trek Encyclopedia and culling out terms for items, different parts of the ship... [Staying faithful to the IP] isn’t really worrying me at all."
From the sounds of it, we probably shouldn’t worry too much about whether Cryptic will do its due diligence when it comes to all this stuff. The big question, though, is how faithfully the gameplay will transmit "Trek’s" guiding principles. Emmert has been outspoken about the team’s focus on expanding the role of exploration, promising that they’re "...going to be doing something that, at least that I know of, is something that’s never been done before."
If they’re willing to just as boldly tackle "Trek’s" other hallmark elements, then Star Trek Online may turn out to be something truly remarkable. We’ll certainly be watching the live reveal this Sunday. Check back then for more info.
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