STO - Star Trek Offline

Beta is over. It's headstart time, but it seems Cryptic just simply aren't prepared. At first I wasn't that bothered about the fact they did a server maintenance in the middle of the day at the weekend, it's a US game so their timezones will get preference, 'tis the nature of things. However since the server also goes down without any warning for hours all the bloody time, it's a tad annoying. If your decision to pre-order was influenced by getting a headstart code, it would be nice if it was actually possible to play the game with any reliability during said headstart .

Of course the MMO veteran in me says "Oh what shock horror! A MMO having shitty server stability at launch". But seriously, we've been cutting developers slack because it's an MMO for years now. It's wearing a bit thin.

• Will any MMO developer ever learn from the past?
• Did Cryptic really not understand how popular an MMO with the Star Trek IP would be?
• Do they not actually know how many headstart codes they created?
• We've had queues to log in, many server crashes, restarts and emergency maintenances just during the headstart. Do Cryptic really think they can sort this out before this week's launch?

Which leads me to ask...
Q) Is there any chance of a smooth retail launch?
A) None what so ever. Which is a shame considering it's a pretty solid game.

 However, when the game is actually online, it's been a generally enjoyable experience. Improving dramatically as you get your first proper ship choice. I've gone with a Science ship, sorta debuff/healy/buff/funky thing.

Oh... and I heard millions of Role Players suddenly cry out in terror. Only to be suddenly silenced by uberness. Doh wrong IP... Anyway, the chap below amused me. You could almost hear the intake of breath from the RPers (of which STO has many).