Do these serve any purpose in the game right now?

nope, just for visual effects for now. Here's a look at what could have been..

http://images.search.yahoo.com/image...sigb=12lb325as

The graphics would be better but you get the idea...

We might get there. But for battle situations I'd much prefer the current 3rd person.

Ah yes Bridge Commander - a fav of mine. Cryptic if your reading this - having the option of doing combat this way would be waaaay cool!

Keep telling them that. The baby that cries gets the milk!

no just a way to rub the fact that players wanted interiors in ourr faces. They gave us bridges with no use except socialization. just like I find the lack of inventory idiotic because a starship would be able to hold more equipment then that.

Except if you want to trade with someone in space, you can both go to the bridge and do it (since you have to trade as officers, not ships).

It's also a good place to try out emotes without bothering everyone nearby.

--NT

It's also a good place to Skill up or hail starfleet without getting pulled into a Sector Space battle instance and so forth. It's a "safe zone" so to speak.

I tend to think of it as my break room. Even if I'm somewhere relatively safe I'll still pop onto my bridge for an AFK. Nothing says, "Hey, ladies, I'm single" better than blasting your apartment building with Star Trek bridge sound effects.

A place to go afk and not worry about enemies jumping you in sector space.