Warning: this post is generally positive.

As someone who plays STO fairly regularly and sometimes peeks at the forums, I've been somewhat discouraged by the generally negative tone that seems to permeate many posts. While I think that the majority of these posts represent a minority of users, I know that I find it intimidating to post here because of the general climate of negativity that seems to exist.

All that being said, I am posting here to offer a heartfelt thanks to Cryptic and to the majority of STO players who have made my experience of the game wonderful.

First off, a little background about me. I have been playing games a long time and started my online gaming with MUDs on local BBSes in the city where I live, eventually graduating to Everquest and from there to WoW, CoX, EQ2 and now to STO.

STO is certainly not a perfect game, though I've yet to find a game that is perfect (except maybe Jupiter Lander which was awesome), but I wanted to thank the development team for a number of things:

• their commitment to continually improving the game; given that the game is only 6 months old the number of improvements and tweaks are unbelievable; if the game continues to grow at even half this rate it will be as polished as many games twice its age in half the time
• willingness to accept feedback and suggestions from the customer base; I think that Cryptic, more than any other developer I've seen in the mainstream MMO market, is willing to listen to and incorporate user feedback into the game in a timely manner
• communication with the community; I've played many MMOs and only in the Cryptic games I've played (CoH, CO, STO) have I been made to feel that the developers were also part of the gamer community, and I think that's a huge boon to the game and the community itself

I also wanted to say that while I recognize that micro-transactions (ie, the C-Store) are an issue for a number of people (based on forum posts), I don't see the concern. Micro-transactions are not terribly new to MMOs and are not new to consumers in general. Anyone who has children who collected Barbie or Beyblades or Littlest Petshop toys knows that micro-transactions are a normal part of the consumer landscape. I find it hard to fault Cryptic or Atari, both businesses, for trying to make money.

Beyond that, I'd like to thank the other players I've encountered in the game who, for the most part, have been among the most mature and social MMO players I've had the pleasure to play with. I think that Star Trek tends to bring out the hopeful, positive side of people, and in-game I've been pleasantly surprised at the general level of civility amongst players.

Overall, I think that STO is headed in a great direction and while there is room for improvement, I think we need to recognize that change is incremental. We also need to realize that given its lifespan, STO has already made amazing progress in nearly all aspects. I can't wait to see where the game is in two years!

Thanks Cryptic! Can't wait for Season 2!

That post was way too thought out and civil for these forums.

I agree. Cryptic seems to really listen to their customers, and take suggestions on how to make the game better. People need to chill out and realize it's just a game, and not the end of the world if it doesn't behave exactly the way you want it to.

The game's fun, and it's only getting better.

Yeah how dare you say you like the game you play a lot? Don't you realize to be cool you have to claim to hate a game that you play several hours a day?

I'm generally very happy with this game and the way Cryptic handled it. Could things have been done differently? sure. Better? maybe, better is subjective in a lot of cases and there is always the spectre of the fact that it is an MMO that prevents doing some things and the engine that prevents others.

Cryptic has proven that they listen. Just because they don't implement every change requested, nor immediately, doesn't mean they don't listen. They have to balance the change request against a lot of factors, and any developer knows you don't take changes to the codebase lightly.

Anyway, OOP: very positive and thoughtful post. Stop that right now or you'll be banned from the interwebz.

As someone who has at one time or another played every MMO out there I can honestly say that even for this game's flaws what matters the most is this team's desire to make their product better and better.

It just keeps growing more interesting. I don't regret playing this game, and I look forward to see what the devs bring into being.

Thank you for listening to your player base. Thank you for the time and effort you put into creating this entertainment.

Keep up the good work.

Just to add one more thing to the discussion,

I see a lot of people saying STO is not a 'real' mmo, it's not this, it's not that, etc.. but you know what? Whatever it is, it's FUN! I have a blast everytime I play, either solo or with fleet members.

And, since I tried out the new changes on tribble, it's getting MORE fun.

That's all that matters to me.