STO Guidelines

Questions about the new Star Trek Online Advisory Council? Look no further. We’ll be updating this page with more of your questions in the near future.

Q: What is the STO Advisory Council?
A: It’s a group of individuals from various positions within the Star Trek and Star Trek Online community designed to provide feedback we wouldn’t otherwise receive. The Committee is designed to complement the other feedback collection tools we use, which include the forums, our users polls, in-game data mining and so on.

Q: What is the motivation behind the STO Advisory Committee Program?
A: We’re not hearing all of our current audience nor are we hearing all of our target audience. How do we hear more? We have well over a 100,000 players that never post on the forums. To be a responsible developer, we must approach these people and listen to their feedback too. Polls, direct emails, newsletters and the Advisory Council are some ways we can better tap this segment of our player base.

Q: How were the original members chosen?
A: The first batch of participants was a starting place decided upon by a social networking firm that works with Atari and Cryptic. They gauged interest, received responses and settled on the current members to initiate the effort.

Q: I would like to apply to join the council. Can I?
A: We are looking at growing the Advisory Committee to include people who are active on our forums. Stay tuned for more information on how you can apply to become a member of the STO Advisory Committee.

Q: Will we see more details on the program in the near future?
A: You want more details and we’ll certainly provide more. Like many endeavors, it will grow, change and ultimately take a shape almost entirely governed by Star Trek and STO fans. In other words, it’s malleable. We didn’t formulate a specific terms of service or code of conduct, etc.

Q: Can members be “impeached” if the players feel that certain members are trying to push their ideas rather than what players want?
A: There will be a system in place for the community to vote in new participants and for participants to exit the Advisory Council.

Q: So people who don’t give feedback in the forums are going to talk to one of four strangers about it?
A: Star Trek fans who feel overwhelmed by the forums and disinclined to post there may prefer speaking with other Star Trek fans in different venues, yes.

Q: If you really want to get in touch with your player base, put something in the game that they can’t miss, but won’t be a pest. Something like a single yes/no/unsure/don’t care question every once in a while.
A: Oh, of course! We’ve done polls for our entire user base in the past and we’ll do many, many more in the future. We also have regular community reporting designed to provide us with an accurate gauge of our forums and an early assessment of what our players want.

This Advisory Council is just another way of getting valuable opinions and data from people who may not be inclined to post on the forums or submit feedback to us directly.

Q: If the devs want to know what their fan base is thinking and calling for, all they need to do is read the forums.
A: But what if we want to know more from people who don’t use the forums? What if we want to hear from Star Trek fans who haven’t played STO or don’t like STO? What if we want to hear from editorial? The forums are just part of the universe of feedback that’s out there, and we want to get as much of it as possible.

Q: I’m leery of giving specific people power over the game that effectively silences portions of the player base they personally disagree with. How do you intend to combat this?
A: There’s nothing to combat. We’re not giving specific people power over the game that silences a different portion of the player base. We’re just trying to listen to more people. It’s not one or the other. It’s both.