Despite its reputation as a science fiction franchise committed to hope, peace, and equity in an enlightened future, playing Star Trek still involves quite a bit of pew-pew-pew shootouts. Yes, The Original Series was groundbreaking for both its serious science fiction storytelling and various representational achievements, but it was also an action-adventure show grounded in the traditions of naval adventures like C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower novels, and westerns like Have Gun — Will Travel. The point is, that action, space battle, and conflict are a huge part of Star Trek’s various narratives, so it makes sense that not all Star Trek games would be solely focused on exploration and space diplomacy.
But fifteen years ago, one massively online game tried to do the impossible: Create an immersive Star Trek game that satisfied the action-adventure part of the equation, but also gave players the ability to feel like the galaxy was a big enough place to explore, without constantly firing off their phasers. The result was Star Trek Online, a game that launched on February 2, 2010, and is still going strong to this day. The ripple effects of the game carried out to Trek canon, too.
