Had a pretty good reception for my talk at Sandbox 2008 today. It was a tough crowd; trying to convince ACM people that the collaborative construction of stories can be considered “design” was a bit of a task, but I think it worked out pretty well. I chatted with a few folks I’m happy to have met, and got to hear some interesting talks. Flying back to Madison tomorrow!

Also, over the last few days, it seems that Cryptic has finally unveiled a little about Star Trek Online, their new Trek MMO. Cryptic makes City of Villains and City of Heroes (neither of which I’ve played), and they’re shooting for releasing the Trek MMO within the “next 3 years,” which sounds unsurprising. But, of course, I’m gonna have to try this thing out… whenever it arrives.

They’re making a few odd design choices, which I’m curious about — each player starts off by commanding their own ship in the game (either Federation or Klingon, the initial first two factions, with Romulans and Dominion to come in expansions or patches, presumably). One’s bridge crew are then, basically, pets in the game. How this will work, I have no clue, but it’s certainly an inventive way to simplify the third-person MMO style of player development (you develop your own character through his or her command), while also allowing for ship battles. I’m not sold on the idea, but I’m at least a smidgen receptive to it.

Here’s an introduction of the game at the big Trekkie convention in Las Vegas this weekend:

I’ve already registered on the site (my username’s “scd” there), and will soon probably start recruiting a Klingon guild on their forums, just for kicks. (Yes, they really do have a guild/fleet recruitment forum already). I mean, if I’ve got three years before this thing comes out, I might as well try to get the best, smelliest, ugliest group of Klingons I can possibly get, right?

What should I name my fleet? Fleet “Targ Breath”? “Bumpy Heads”? “Sto’vo’kor”? “No Kill I”?