LOS GATOS — At the offices of video game developer Cryptic Studios in Northern California, certain rooms look like a Trekkie's nirvana: Posters from the television series "Deep Space 9" and movies "Generations" and "Nemesis" line the walls, along with original sketches of the Borg Queen and new designs for Federation ships.
Those who became Trekkies in the past year, however, might not be so dazzled. There are no posters, no sketches, and almost no trace of last year's J.J. Abrams-directed "Star Trek" movie that relaunched the dormant franchise.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, February 12, 2010 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 29 words Type of Material: Correction
Star Trek Online: An article in the Feb. 2 Calendar about the video game Star Trek Online said the game was set in 2049. It is set in 2409.
In Star Trek Online, which Cryptic and publisher Atari will release Tuesday after more than two years of production, there's no evidence of the Abrams film that went back in time to tell the story of youthful Kirk and Spock at Starfleet Academy. Instead, the game is set in 2049, about 20 years after 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis," the final movie starring the "Next Generation" cast.
Like the ultra-successful World of Warcraft, Cryptic's new title is a massive multi-player online (MMO) game, in which players pay $15 a month to interact in a virtual world. For Star Trek Online, that includes flying through space at warp 9 and beaming down to alien planets.
Many video games based on movies and TV shows find their fates decided by the vagaries of Hollywood. Last year's hit Batman: Arkham Asylum benefited from the massive success of "The Dark Knight" in 2008, even though it features a new story. French publisher Ubisoft's plan to produce a "Heroes" video game, however, was scrapped after ratings for the NBC series tanked.
So the pool of fans for Star Trek online is exponentially larger than a year ago thanks to the success of the new movie. But because the new "Star Trek" is so different from the old version on which the game is based, the game may have a tough time appealing to a new generation of Trekkies.
"The timeline's different, but a lot of the elements are iconic stuff that you find in the new movie, the old movies and the TV shows," said John Needham, chief executive of Cryptic.
Among the iconic details found in Star Trek Online: the Enterprise, Klingons, the planet Vulcan, and Borg cubes. There are even nods to Trek's less serious moments, like a mission involving Tribbles, the adorable fuzzballs that once overran the original Enterprise, and "red shirts," anonymous crew members in red uniforms who beam down on missions and inevitably end up dead.There are plenty of familiar elements missing, though. Most notably, Capts. Kirk, Picard and their crews. In the game's time period, most characters would be old or deceased, but in a future when time travel is de rigueur, that's not necessarily an impediment. Needham said the decision was primarily financial. Star Trek Online cost about $15 million to produce and launch and the added expense of hiring William Shatner and Chris Pine (Kirk) or Patrick Stewart (Picard) for a few days or weeks wasn't in the budget.
Instead, Cryptic recruited two generations of Spock to do a few hours of voice work, though not exactly in-character. The original series' Leonard Nimoy performs an introductory narration for the game, while newbie Spock Zachary Quinto portrays a hologram that teaches newcomers how to play.
"My character is definitely influenced by Spock, but I don't think I would have done it if it meant playing the same person I was in the movie," said Quinto, who added that the game will be his only Trek-related project until a big-screen sequel.
Shoot first
On the afternoon of Jan. 26 at Cryptic's office in Los Gatos, it was chaos on Earth spacedock. More than 17,000 people were playing in the final hours of a "beta" testing period for Star Trek Online and as a celebration, the developers had allowed hundreds of Klingons and Borg to attack Earth, leading to a massive phaser fight in the space station orbiting the planet. "This is awesome!" enthused game producer Dan Stahl, whose Klingon character was hiding in a corner blasting Starfleet officers.
All-out firefights are not typical in Star Trek Online. But players' enthusiasm for it illustrates one of the game's primary tensions: The "Star Trek" movies and television shows focused on exploration, diplomacy and questions about what it means to be human, concepts that don't translate easily to interactive media.
"This is a game, so it's overwhelmingly about combat," executive producer Craig Zinkievich said.
Most missions (called "episodes" in Star Trek Online) consist of starship-on-starship battles and phaser fights on alien planets.
Like other MMOs, socialization is also a big theme. Players can join up for episodes and even throw dance parties on the "pleasure planet" Risa.
