WarCry: You've always held that you would let fun decide how much time people spent in avatar vs. space form. What is it telling you now?
Daron Stinnett: That's right. We're not going to force players to spend a certain amount of time in either environment. Instead, we're creating a rich and diverse galaxy and let every player choose what path to weave though the ground and space experience. That's been our goal from the beginning and it hasn't changed.
WarCry: When Gods and Heroes was cancelled, many people left the company and others joined the development team. What has the entire Gods and Heroes project and its eventual demise contributed to STO's development?
Daron Stinnett: The Gods and Heroes team built a great server technology platform that we've been using since the beginning which gave us the ability to focus on gameplay systems, tools, and client technology. Anyone who's followed the business knows that making an MMO is our industry's moon shot; they are incredibly complex developments in every respect. I think Gods and Heroes is a very good game that will one day come to market, in the meantime I'm grateful to add team members who's experience is invaluable to our effort to build a great Star Trek game.
WarCry: Obviously, fan confidence is shaken when they hear news of cancellations and layoffs within a company. Why should people believe that STO is healthy and on track?
Daron Stinnett: There are a lot of development teams that can be very convincing that they are doing great - right up to the point when their product tanks in the market. And while I won't say it hasn't been a challenge to be a small developer taking on one of the greatest potential MMO franchises with a rabid fan following, the team is resolute in sticking to our plan to make quiet progress and release new information only when we're sure we can deliver on our promises. In the end, the most important criteria for success is the quality of the game we deliver and we're not going to get distracted from that objective.
WarCry: The Star Trek universe is huge, and realistically there is no way you can faithfully build it all for launch. The decision of how much to include and in what detail is likely one of the biggest and most controversial design and production questions you'll face. Where have you settled in terms of scope?
Daron Stinnett: MMOs and Star Trek share a core value: that people of different races, capabilities, and backgrounds can work together to solve problems. That concept is more important to us than any other aspect of Star Trek. It is with that idea in mind that we are focused building, testing, and tuning our core gameplay experience. And when we're satisfied with our gameplay, we will figure out where we draw the line between launch and post launch content with the knowledge that we'll never be wanting for interesting new planets to create and explore.
