I'm not trying to slam anyone for posting their opinion on the game.

Ok, with that out of the way, the only other MMO I've played is Guild Wars, and I started playing a little less than a year after beta. This is my first MMO I've been in from beta, so my question to all you beta MMO veterans is this:

Is this level of whining, crying, yelling, threatening to quit, etc... normal for the beginning of a MMO?

I have no problem with posting your opinion, and I realize the more you like something, the more agressive you will be when you think something might be ruining what you care about. Honestly though, I'm sure I'd find more positivity at a pessimist convention.

These threads contain so much negativity. So I'm just wondering if this is normal, and if things will calm down 6 - 9 - 12 months into the game?

Yes it is. In fact, it's normal for an MMO's entire lifecycle.

What I learned from my days of being a WoW subscriber (and that's a lot of days), is that you shouldn't consider the forums to be representative of the subscriber base as a whole. People who are enjoying themselves don't really have any reason to visit the forums; by and large, they're too busy playing the game. Therefore one should expect the forums to have a natural negative slant.

Sadly this is typical.

even in UO the first real MMO had its fair share of Complaints.

When WOW frist started it was total Hell the Complaints, the Issues. Honestly this game is running really nice since this is the first month.

p.s.

Vetran of UO, EQ, E&B, Eve, SWG, COH/V, WOW, ASS, Jump Gate, CO...and Now STO.

Yep...some people just need SOMETHING to whine about or they're not happy.

Yarp. Lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth. That's your MMO forum.

But in this case, there are actually things about which to legitimately gripe (the notorious skill cap and lack of end game, for example). The problem is, the vast majority can't gripe wittingly, let alone coherently. So it comes out as the whine.

I actually havent seen this kind of negativity at the start of my MMOing when my BF tricked me into playing SW Galaxies, there the negativity was very select and few (until they screwed with everything that is) in EVE the beta went pretty supportive, even though it was as horrible as here in performance...

LOTRO beta was very smooth, and few people complained from what i had seen
Age of Conan was the first beta i took part in where it was so negative, and still is actually.
WOWs own start was quite horrible, you could hardly play, though i never went over 2 months with that game tbh...

I think the biggest problem is that many people assume a mmo has to be as complete as a singleplayer game or long lived MMO nowadays because of the "advances" and "previous experience"

*shrug* I prefer to avoid the general discussion and gameplay feedback forum.. just too much pain to go through all those threads.

actually...the whinning in this games launch is not as bad as most games lol

i've played EVERY major MMO to date since launch...or beta...
and by far WoW, and SWG has terrible launches, with nothing but whinners.

the reason it seems so prevalent... is that the people who play the game and love it...are busy playing

I personally haven't seen quite this much whining on the games I've played, but some level of it is always there.

You should ask yourself if the amount of discontent is representative of any group whose voice can be heard. The answer is no. We have a very good, realist crowd.
Most people coming here come from other MMORPGs. The worst case is recent joiners in long established games. Games polished to a very sparkly shine by years of trial and errors (and errors, and then some more). They come in STO thinking they will encounter the same level of content and software quality as in a 5 years old game that released 2~3 expansions.
STO is a new game. The content hasn't even evolved since release (headstart was only 2 weeks ago). It will grow into an amazing game and already is a great one.

meh.
Lord British is still a touchy subject with me.