Daron Stinnett, the executive producer of Star Trek Online, called massively multiplayer games "the new frontier for both game players and developers" and talked about his plans for the Star Trek MMORPG.

"The characters, themes, and stories of Star Trek are loved around the world. And it is our goal to make a MMORPG based on Star Trek that will appeal to everyone with an affinity to the series," Stinnett told MMORPG.COM. "At the same time, we feel a responsibility to the trekkers out there who have very detailed expectations. So the greatest challenge that the team and I face is meeting the expectations of the hard-core Star Trek fans while also delivering a MMORPG that is appealing and approachable to the millions of more casual fans."

Stinnett described himself as a professional gamer for the past 25 years, beginning on small games in high school and eventually working for Spectrum HoloByte on Falcon 3.0 and later LucasArts on several projects. "I enjoy so many things about the games industry," he explained. "One of the more rewarding aspects is the diversity of skills and knowledge that one can bring to bear in this field...just about any subject has relevance to games development." He added that continuing his education in order to make games "has been a consistent source of personal satisfaction."

After several years working on console games, Stninett decided to switch to MMO development by joining Perpetual Entertainment. "For the last few years I've been working mostly on console games where there tends to be less contact with the gaming community," he noted. "Now that I'm making an MMORPG, I've had a chance to reconnect with gamers in a way I haven’t experienced since my time working on Falcon."

Stinnett said that Star Trek Online is in pre-production, "which means we're doing a lot of planning and prototyping." The engineering team has begun work on a gameplay prototype for starship combat while the design and art teams begin to create environments.

The original article is here.

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