I won't profess to know all the details about STO or what will be changed in the months to come. I played the beta for a week or so and enjoyed the experience. However, here's my concern, best summarized by this comment from another thread:

"The point of mmos is to gain power to make yourself feel superior to the people around you."

Now the author of the above meant this sarcastically (I think), but it hits my point - are MMOs simply about gaining rank, money and perks while playing a game set in a static, unchanging universe? How long will that keep you entertained?

Now I'm pretty new to MMOs. I dabled with EVE, but found the long space travel too unrealistic for a guy that can only play an hour or so at a time. That said, the big draw to EVE was that the universe was constantly evolving as a consequence of players' actions. Wars were fought and areas could be won, lost and controlled persistently.

The surface level mechanics of STO strike me as at least competent to EVE (combat is def. better), but the whole instanced gameplay in a PVP setting worries me. I've read that the devs are preparing an "open PVP" system, where it allows 20 v. 20 matches before instancing. What happens when the instance is over? Will everything just reset? So, other than "making yourself feel superior to the people around you", and maybe gaining some rank and money, does your victory/loss have any effect on the universe around you? Or is that it?

If the latter, STO is just a static world that we all are pretend to affect.

I see the need for instances in PVE, but, ultimately, the game needs some persistent, open world PVP areas that are affected by the ebb and flow of the players' actions. Battles need to be fought for something greater than our own, individual selves; that's what makes games feel epic, rather than a space-based Unreal Tournament round.

Nope, that's it. Your character will progress, and in comparison to other players you will grow stronger, but any actual effect you have on the game world is gone as soon as you warp back to sector space I'm afraid.

... unless you play EVE...