I realize this might be a bit bias because it is a trek forum, but what are your opinions of Star Trek Online. Is it still popular? Is it a good game? I have never played it, I see Amazon is selling it for ten bucks and thought it might be worth a shot.
The game is now free to download and free-to-play. You can download it here: http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online As for how it plays, I enjoy it. You get your own command, your own ship, your own crew, and you set out to complete missions for Starfleet. Some of it can be tedious, but that's just the nature of MMORPGs. The voice acting is solid, the missions are mostly fun, and there's lots to see and do, at least until you reach end-game, at which point it gets a bit repetitive.
We have had ongoing threads about the game for years, the most recent obe stickied to the top if the forum. We also have a TrekBBS based fleet/guild in the game with it's own thread also pinned at the top. You can check those out to get many answers to your questions.
I'll add that there is now a very extensive, galaxy-spanding storyline that has been developing over the past few years.
Star Trek Online is free to play, so you can just download the program from the site and you're off. Is it still popular? No where near as much as some other MMO's. Once you've completed all the story missions all your left with is over repetitive grind content. The story itself is rather generic, with little personality to it.
I just played all the single story versions in the free game. I enjoyed it. You can complete all the missions without paying any real world cash for it, so that's good. What I didn't like was the grinding aspect if you wanted to do some upgrades, so as you don't really have to do that, ignore it and just do the story. Luckily, the MMO aspects can be ignored and you can play the game anyway.
Since it's free, it is totally worth checking out. But, as for being enjoyable, I think it completely misses the mark on being a Trek game, and at its core I think it is mindless make-work.
I like it, but I feel like it is missing a social element. The fleets are.... okay.... I guess, but I think I would trade having my own ship (and EVERYONE having their own ship, many of which with stupid names) for serving on a crew of actual players and building up to maybe having my own ship that other actual players serve on. Roleplaying cleaning Jeffries tubes as an ensign with other players to talk to has to be at least as fun as some of the grinding missions you end up with as Vice Admiral!