Saturday, January 16, 2010

Star Trek Online wants to assimilate your wallet

So Atari is uping the anty with Star Trek Online, seeing exactly how dedicated the game-playing fans of the sci-fi legend really are. Anyone who pre-orders a copy of STO will be eligible to sign up for either a $240 lifetime subscription or a $120 per year annual subscription.

And theres more!

Not only will players who plan to stick around for the long haul save money, but they'll have the chance to play as the borg.

The Liberated Borg begins with the following two traits:
  • Borg Nanites: +10% Health RegenerationDescription: Ground Trait. Constantly regenerates shields and health.

  • Efficient: +5 Starship Shield Efficiency, +5 Starship Engine Efficiency, +5 Starship Energy Weapon Efficiency, +5 Starship Auxiliary Systems Efficiency Description: Space Trait. Provides a bonus to efficiency stats, improving the effectiveness of many of your power management abilities.

The Liberated Borg also has a unique optional trait.

  • Neural Blast: 30 second debuff. Drastically reduces run speed. Every 4 seconds, Neural Blast has a 40% chance to hold the target for 3 seconds. Description: Activatable Ground Trait. Inject the target with neural toxins, which continually attempt to hold the target for the duration. Also reduces the target's movement speed.
Just whipping out the calculator here, if the online game and players manage to stick it out past 16 months, anyone who took advantage of the lifetime subscription will be ahead of the game, excuse the pun.

Similarly, annual subscribers save about $60 a year based on the month to month fee of $15. Annual and lifetime subscribers also get two additional character slots.

Although not a MMORPG, I ended up playing Planetside, (one of the more successful if not the only MMOFPS) for over six years. While certainly not consistent in the last two of those years, I ended up paying Sony nearly $700. Even when I hadn't logged in for over twelve months, I was bummed to find old credit card information had led to non-payment, cancellation of my account and most importantly, loss of my character with all his ranks and priviliges.

The last point is the one to ponder for potential STOL fans.

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