Star Trek

Created by Gene Rodenberry, this space sci-fi franchise got started in the 1960s as a TV series.  It only ran for three seasons, but made a lasting impression with audiences.  Eventually, this led to a variety of spin-off media including films, novels, a cartoon and (of course) video games.  One of the things that made Star Trek stand out was its rather utopian vision of the future.  In particular, characters tend to get along surprisingly well with one another.  Professionalism and maturity seem to be the ideals that humanity strives for the most in the 24th century.  Telling compelling stories in this sort of setting though, can be a real headache.

Ask anyone who has studied the art of script writing and they'll inform you that plotlines thrive on conflict.  In fact, if you sit down and watch most sitcoms, soap operas or "reality" TV programs that have come out over the last couple decades you'll notice that pretty much all of them revolve around rivalries and in-fighting between main characters.  The simple reason for this being, it's not easy to come up with interesting storylines if they lack interpersonal tensions.  On the plus side though, this difference helped Star Trek standout.  Here was a show wherein the challenge was more about putting heads together to solve a problem, avoid a crisis, or unravel a mystery.  Science fiction concepts were traded in and out from one episode to the next.  A lot of the stories were duds, but sometimes they could be thought provoking or at least memorable.  So...what does all this have to do with video games?

Well, as I briefly mentioned, there have been quite a few Star Trek video game released over the years.  They run the gamut from point-and-click adventure games to first-person shooters and space combat simulators.  Recently, there haven't been any notable new entries in the franchise.  This is partly because the Star Trek Online MMORPG has been keeping fans satiated, and also partially because games like Mass Effect stole Star Trek's thunder.  Even so, that franchise is just as interested in its third-person shooting and RPG mechanics as anything Star Trek related.   Hence, I find myself returning again and again to the question, "what kind of current day game would capture the essence of Star Trek?"  I'm not entirely sure, but to express it in a single word - talking.

Because of budget constraints, any given episode predominantly consists of conversations between characters.  Even on the rare occasions that action takes center stage there still tends to be a lot of discussions going on; punctuated by commands like "Engauge!", "Energize!" or "Make it so."  Assuming that the player takes the role of a starship captain or some kind of commanding officer, they should be spending the majority of their time doing the following:

• Soliciting Advice
• Giving Orders
• Accumulating Information

That's not to say they can't go places and do things.  Exploration is, after all, baked into the IP's DNA.  It's just that I can't really see a Star Trek game being any other way and still be true to it's roots.  The player shouldn't be flying a starship, firing weapons, or repairing a non-functional warp nacelle.  They should be telling other people to do those things, while they make the big decisions that decide the fate of their crew and possibly the course humanity.