Star Trek Online Goes Free-To-Play

I enjoyed playing Star Trek Online and think giving a Free-To-Play option is a good move.  Along with many fans, Eric and I played Star trek Online when it first came out.  It's huge fun for fans of Star Trek and those who like getting into the story of the game.  They did a great job with ongoing story and an evolving galaxy.

As an MMO player my hardest choice is picking which MMO to pay a monthly subscription for to play.  I find with more offering free play options I can go back and forth between them and then paying for the one that I am mainly playing at that point in time.  After all there are those times when one wants to swing a sword and cast spells and other times when the mood strikes and piloting a Prometheus class ship into combat against a Klingon bird of prey sounds like a blast.  This option also allows those unsure about getting into the game a way to try it out and make an informed choice, aka get hooked.

Cryptic will not restrict the play for the free-to-play options which is smart.  In other words both options will get to level up to maximum level, explore the whole galaxy, join fleets (aka guilds), enter into pvp which is a lot of fun in STO, and have access to all of the classes. 

The main difference between the free-to-play option and the subscribers is the conviences and perks that does not have main game play impact.  For instance subscribers will get more storage slots for items and credits, create fleets, have more character slots and additional bridge officer slots, and vet rewards.

I hope this move will allow Star Trek Online to continue and to bring back some of those players who had to make the hard choice and left.