>I noticed that this had also gone free-to-play shortly after I made
>that discovery about DC Universe Online, so I decided to give
>it a go as well. I enjoy it, though I have to say I don't see why it
>needs to be an MMO. I haven't encountered anything in it that
>wouldn't be just as good in a standalone game, plus there would be
>fewer ships roaming around sector space with misspelled, ridiculous,
>and/or inappropriate names.*

Having played older Trek games, like Starfleet Academy and Starfleet Command, I've found a lot of similarities. Main difference is that those games never felt a need to shoehorn an FPS/RPG scenario into every mission.

>I'm particularly amused that the tutorial presents your character
>acquiring command in basically the same way UF-G did it in Split
>Infinitive, except unlike him, you actually just get to
>keep the Challenger after the battle because what the
>hell, there's a war on. It doesn't go down this way because of the
>way the gameplay works, but I like to imagine that when Lt. Charles E.
>"Cosmonaut" Buchanan came out of Admiral Quinn's office that day, he
>and his newly acquired first officer, Ensign Tallasa, gave each other
>identical You Gotta Fuggin' Be Kidding Me looks for a couple of
>seconds, then went up to Club 47 and ordered very, very strong
>beverages. After the day they'd had, they needed them. :)

Only thing I could guess at is that Quinn decided that putting a rookie in command of what amounts to a cutter or frigate during a time of war was an acceptable risk, since it meant he could move more experienced officers into ships vital to the war effort. Probably never figured that the rookie would end up becoming the center of the universe (figuratively speaking).

>* Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the
>starship Spankmonkey.** Its five-year mission..
>** Actual example

Oh, if only that were the worst of it. After the fifth Normandy, the marvel of unique ship names and registry numbers lost its appeal.