Concerns About Star Trek Online
Yesterday, the scuttlebutt on the ‘Net was that the creator of Babylon 5 wanted to reinvent Star Trek. To the relief of many Trekkers, Paramount rejected the proposal, (and the movie franchise is now in the hands of Lost creator J.J. Abrams who is set to direct the next installment) but the issue raised concerns about whether or not the owners of the wildly successful franchise wasn’t being a bit over-protective of its “golden goose.”
An example given was a situation several years ago, in which game publisher Interplay was required to submit all ideas to a “canon” person at Paramount – one whose function it was to ensure that game elements were consistent with the ST universe. One writer submitted an idea based on ST:TOS episode entitled “The Ultimate Computer.” In this writer’s scenario, Dr. Daystrom had been rehabilitated, and was again working with the M-Series computer (which nearly destroyed the Enterprise NCC 1701 during the war-game simulation).
The canon person’s response: “What is this M5 computer @#%? This isn’t canon; get rid of it.”
Later, it was discovered that the the “canoneer” was a secretary who had worked for a departed executive. When the new one came in, he decided it was cheaper to keep her on, sticking her with all the work, than to hire a new lawyer to look over all the material. What was significant is that the woman had never seen a single episode of any Star Trek TV episode nor feature film.
So…what are the implications for upcoming MMORPG, ST Online? Only that something like this will happen again. In the never-ending cry of “Cost-Cutting!,” Paramount will “overload the warp core,” and the Star Trek universe will go up like a supernova – without an Archer, Kirk, Picard, Sisco or Janeway to save it.
It’s happened before. Take Star Wars: Galaxies, for example. Who got it into their head that there could be thousands of Jedi buzzing around the Empire at any one time…?
Star Trek: Online is currently in development by Perpetual Entertainment, and is scheduled to go live later this year.
Via WarCry Network
Yesterday, the scuttlebutt on the ‘Net was that the creator of Babylon 5 wanted to reinvent Star Trek. To the relief of many Trekkers, Paramount rejected the proposal, (and the movie franchise is now in the hands of Lost creator J.J. Abrams who is set to direct the next installment) but the issue raised concerns about whether or not the owners of the wildly successful franchise wasn’t being a bit over-protective of its “golden goose.”
An example given was a situation several years ago, in which game publisher Interplay was required to submit all ideas to a “canon” person at Paramount – one whose function it was to ensure that game elements were consistent with the ST universe. One writer submitted an idea based on ST:TOS episode entitled “The Ultimate Computer.” In this writer’s scenario, Dr. Daystrom had been rehabilitated, and was again working with the M-Series computer (which nearly destroyed the Enterprise NCC 1701 during the war-game simulation).
The canon person’s response: “What is this M5 computer @#%? This isn’t canon; get rid of it.”
Later, it was discovered that the the “canoneer” was a secretary who had worked for a departed executive. When the new one came in, he decided it was cheaper to keep her on, sticking her with all the work, than to hire a new lawyer to look over all the material. What was significant is that the woman had never seen a single episode of any Star Trek TV episode nor feature film.
So…what are the implications for upcoming MMORPG, ST Online? Only that something like this will happen again. In the never-ending cry of “Cost-Cutting!,” Paramount will “overload the warp core,” and the Star Trek universe will go up like a supernova – without an Archer, Kirk, Picard, Sisco or Janeway to save it.
It’s happened before. Take Star Wars: Galaxies, for example. Who got it into their head that there could be thousands of Jedi buzzing around the Empire at any one time…?
Star Trek: Online is currently in development by Perpetual Entertainment, and is scheduled to go live later this year.
Via WarCry Network
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