Is there collaboration between STO and Novelverse?

[Tzenkethi1]

STO just announced the Tzenkethi are coming to the game and they are very different from Typhon Pact novel design and portrayal. I am actually excited because the game designers went with the original design concept that their creator Robert Hewitt Wolfe had in mind when creating them for DS9. They never felt right to me in the books, maybe because I was aware of their original concept, so I am glad to see it used.

This leads me to believe there is no central figure look at expanded universe continuity. Is that generally correct?

 

[Dayton Ward]

STO has never been in sync with the novels. They've borrowed a few bits here and there, but otherwise they're doing their own thing while also maintaining a consistency with screen canon.

Which makes perfect sense, as their audience doesn't necessarily have a large degree of overlap with the fans who follow all of the happenings in the various books.

 

[Markonian]

There's no bar against cross-pollination, though. We have the novels' Vesta- and Luna-classes in-game, and TTN: Sight Unseen calls the solanagen/solanogen-based aliens 'Solanae'.
The more the merrier! *winkwink*

 

[Idran]

I do have to admit, I'm a little surprised that the game writers never even chat with the authors. Not because there should be a consistency or anything like that, just because the game writers are obviously fans of the Litverse considering the inclusions of Litverse aspects in STO, so I'm surprised that they don't have any desire to chat with the authors just as fans.

...and TTN: Sight Unseen calls the solanagen/solanogen-based aliens 'Solanae'.
The more the merrier! *winkwink*

I think this actually came down from above, if I remember right? I think this was a rare instance of a time when the higher-ups did try to make something consistent cross-tie-in.

 

[Tzenkethi1]

STO has never been in sync with the novels. They've borrowed a few bits here and there, but otherwise they're doing their own thing while also maintaining a consistency with screen canon.

Which makes perfect sense, as their audience doesn't necessarily have a large degree of overlap with the fans who follow all of the happenings in the various books.

That's an interesting point. Is there any data on how much the Trek fan base overlaps in the different medium? I am a fan of screen, novel, and gaming and thought in something as distinctive as Trek, a lot of the fans would indulge in all three.

 

[Idran]

I know it's been often quoted here on the board that less than 1% of the Trek audience reads the novels, but I don't know if that means less than 1% of the Trek fandom in particular (i.e., people actively involved or engaged with the franchise that go out of their way to pursue it, the core fan base) or less than 1% of the overall audience as a whole (i.e., everyone that's ever seen any Star Trek). I'd assume the former, though, since the latter would still be huge.

As for STO, Cryptic announced in an infographic on the five-year anniversary that 2.5 million people have logged in at least once, and while it's only one of the available platforms, Steam shows between 750 and 2000 people logged into STO concurrently depending on time of day, which based on usual MMO patterns suggests around 100,000 unique active players per year on Steam alone (meaning someone that actively played at all over the course of the year, not necessarily someone that played regularly throughout that year).

Edit: Oh, wait, you specifically said overlap. No, I don't think anyone's ever looked into that. Though that's an interesting question, yeah. That might actually be worth a fan survey, I'm curious about that too now that you mention it.

 

[Tzenkethi1]

I know it's been often quoted here on the board that less than 1% of the Trek audience reads the novels, but I don't know if that means less than 1% of the Trek fandom in particular (i.e., people actively involved or engaged with the franchise that go out of their way to pursue it, the core fan base) or less than 1% of the overall audience as a whole (i.e., everyone that's ever seen any Star Trek). I'd assume the former, though, since the latter would still be huge.

As for STO, Cryptic announced in an infographic on the five-year anniversary that 2.5 million people have logged in at least once, and while it's only one of the available platforms, Steam shows between 750 and 2000 people logged into STO concurrently depending on time of day, which based on usual MMO patterns suggests around 100,000 unique active players per year on Steam alone (meaning someone that actively played at all over the course of the year, not necessarily someone that played regularly throughout that year).

Edit: Oh, wait, you specifically said overlap. No, I don't think anyone's ever looked into that. Though that's an interesting question, yeah. That might actually be worth a fan survey, I'm curious about that too now that you mention it.

Anecdotally, it seems a lot of the people I chat with in-game are Trek die-hards i.e., tv, movies, books, and game. There are so many MMO's that the players of STO are there for setting, and not there for game mechanics, graphics, etc.

 

[Dayton Ward]

I've spoken with several of the people involved (or previously involved) with STO, and we follow each other on social media here and there, occasionally run into each other at conventions, and so on. We've even discussed notions on how to do some sort of cross-platform project (mostly in the "wouldn't it be fun if we....." sense, but still). Their storytelling needs are different than those of the novels, and so drive their decisions accordingly.

Imagine not having the Borg as a possible adversary in the game, for example. That's a huge chunk of Trek lore that's well-known to the larger Trek fan community, and hamstringing the game because of something the books opted to do - and which are read by a small percentage of that community, to boot - seems unfair.

 

[DS9forever]

The Tzenkethi in the novels wouldn't work well with a combat driven game like STO.

I really like the Novelverse Tzenkethi. Their wide variety of skin tones; the luminescent skin which can also give off an electric charge; their fluidic movement.

 

[Jinn]

The Tzenkethi in the novels wouldn't work well with a combat driven game like STO.

I really like the Novelverse Tzenkethi. Their wide variety of skin tones; the luminescent skin which can also give off an electric charge; their fluidic movement.

Thoug it looks like they did do the luminescent skin.

 

[Idran]

I've spoken with several of the people involved (or previously involved) with STO, and we follow each other on social media here and there, occasionally run into each other at conventions, and so on. We've even discussed notions on how to do some sort of cross-platform project (mostly in the "wouldn't it be fun if we....." sense, but still). Their storytelling needs are different than those of the novels, and so drive their decisions accordingly.

Imagine not having the Borg as a possible adversary in the game, for example. That's a huge chunk of Trek lore that's well-known to the larger Trek fan community, and hamstringing the game because of something the books opted to do - and which are read by a small percentage of that community, to boot - seems unfair.

Oh, I had no idea! Apologies for the assumption, then; that's awesome to hear, though. And yeah, any such project would be extremely tough to do with the freedom both have. It works in some games, but only when there's a lot more top-down tie-in control.

 

[Markonian]

When I used to be on the STO forums, there was backlash against the novels. I found it ironic to encounter the vice-Verda reaction on TrekBBS. And then there's the people on Facebook with strong opinions on canonicity...

In-game, I felt like a novelty for enjoying both game and books, and it's similar in the TrekBBS Literature forum.

 

[Dayton Ward]

When I used to be on the STO forums, there was backlash against the novels.

All those words and stuff? Ew.

 

[Jinn]

All those words and stuff? Ew.

My "favorite" example for the opposite of words in STO are some of the Nukara missions where you just go around and kill Tholians until you looted enough item X. The only text is a like one paragraph introduction text that basically says "Kill Tholians get us their science reports!" Though there are also some really good missions. I liked the final Iconian War mission. It was great.

 

[Tzenkethi1]

When I used to be on the STO forums, there was backlash against the novels. I found it ironic to encounter the vice-Verda reaction on TrekBBS. And then there's the people on Facebook with strong opinions on canonicity...

In-game, I felt like a novelty for enjoying both game and books, and it's similar in the TrekBBS Literature forum.

It's hard to imagine that someone who likes one or the other doesn't like both. There are elements in each I prefer, as the aforementioned Tzenkethi. I like the concept that was created for the game as it mirrors what was intended for DS9 and they have the foreboding aura that Sisko alluded to when he mentioned the Federation-Tzenkethi war. But there are a lot I love about the novels, which create a depth of reality that the Movies, TV, or games can't recreate it. I loved the Typhon pact novels and the general story line, loved the Vanguard series, etc.. Since I love the setting and I enjoy it all, I guess I wrongly assumed if a person liked the games the would enjoy reading the novels as well.

I might be in the minority in that I liked the control of continuity that Lucas Film placed over the SW expanded universe but I can enjoy divergent continuity as well.

 

[Idran]

When I used to be on the STO forums, there was backlash against the novels. I found it ironic to encounter the vice-Verda reaction on TrekBBS. And then there's the people on Facebook with strong opinions on canonicity...

In-game, I felt like a novelty for enjoying both game and books, and it's similar in the TrekBBS Literature forum.

TrekBBS view sure, that's been echoed, but coming from WoW as my main MMO experience that's surprising from there too. Was it the plot divergences that bothered them? Because WoW-side, most of the big lore-caring players loved the (non-Knaak) novels over there. I can't remember a single bad word about Arthas from the WoW player base. But they are a lot more heavily tied together, so that might've been part of it.

 

[Dayton Ward]

I don't play the game, and neither am I well-informed as to its finer points. At best, I have a rudimentary grasp of the setting and a few of the higher-profile missions/add-ons/etc. The "Agents of Yesterday" expansion was one that caught my attention last summer at the Vegas con, and it was one of the things we talked about so far as possible opportunities to pitch cross-platform collaboration. It didn't hurt that their booth was directly across from the booth Kevin and I were calling our "home base" during the con.

Again, that was more of "Wow, this would kick so much ass....." type talk.

 

[Tuskin38]

It didn't hurt that their booth was directly across from the booth Kevin and I were calling our "home base" during the con.

Whaaat. How did I miss that?

When I used to be on the STO forums, there was backlash against the novels. I found it ironic to encounter the vice-Verda reaction on TrekBBS. And then there's the people on Facebook with strong opinions on canonicity...

In-game, I felt like a novelty for enjoying both game and books, and it's similar in the TrekBBS Literature forum.

I know there has been some (small) backlash on the various social media sites about the fact that STO's Tzenkethi are not based on the novels.

And yeah, STO's Tzenkethi do have some bio-luminescence, I believe that was on purpose as a reference to the novel Tzenkethi.

The Dev blog on the Tzenkethi says they did consider a 'femme fatale' version early on, I wonder if that was meant to be the novel ones.

 

[ryan123450]

It's hard to imagine that someone who likes one or the other doesn't like both.

I've never played STO, I have no interest in doing so, and what little I know about its' storyline and its' take on Trek, I don't like the sound of.

 

[The Wormhole]

Since I love the setting and I enjoy it all, I guess I wrongly assumed if a person liked the games the would enjoy reading the novels as well.

The thing is, not everyone is into every form of media. For example, as much of a Trek-nerd I am, I'm really not a gamer at all, so I've never felt compelled to bother with STO (though I did read the novel based on it a few years back). Likewise, there are those who are into STO who likely don't read novels.

I might be in the minority in that I liked the control of continuity that Lucas Film placed over the SW expanded universe

I'll admit, the whole "story group" thing hasn't turned out to be the restrictive disaster I was expecting when first announced, it's not an approach that would work with anything. And besides, unilateral conformity among the tie-ins wouldn't work with Trek, IMO