Contrary to whatever I may have said while excited and hopeful before, it's now looking unlikely that I'll pay any more money to Cryptic for STO, and I'm even starting to resent the cost of the preorder I put down.

I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt for Champions, although it didn't help that during the tiny window I've got for the STO decision they announced that they're going to release a paid expansion of additional levelling content for Champions. Really though, we understand that the top of an MMO may be sparse at launch, but all the competition fills it in for free and only ask money when adding extra content, not alternative content.

Speaking of the tiny decision window, after I experienced as much of the beta as I could be bothered with, there's a lot resting on the preorder headstart period. As a real person with family and stuff, I rely on being able to get some quality time in game when it suits me, but so far I have only been able to log in for long enough to experience a badly jerky cutscene extravaganza in which many of the ships were flying sideways.

Do I have faith that it'll get better? Maybe a little: probably not $240 worth. Do I want to play? Yes and no: a lifetime subscription appeals to me a great deal exactly because it's less restrictive than paying monthly: I'm likely to skip it completely if it's just another MMO (not like I don't already have at least three accounts going in others).

It did occur to me that perhaps such a huge IP and a game that is clearly potentially a lot of fun might be worth the risk (a larger risk than I normally take, that is). To be honest, that may now be the only thing giving it any chance at all.

I hate to see good opportunities wasted. This is an incredible IP for this kind of game, and I have a feeling sooner or later I'm going to be quite annoyed with Cryptic for not making the most of it.