The Admiral’s Log: My Journey Through ‘Star Trek Online’ – Part XXXIII

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

The Wonder of the Grind

The longer I’ve played the wondrous MMO/RPG that is Star Trek Online, the more I’ve heard a particular word associated with it, and any other game in that vein and that word is; grind. Because there seems to be quite the consensus that these games will wear you down the more that you dig into them, and for the first time ever, I honestly was wondering if there was truth and gravity to this particular word since the new Personal Endeavor System seemingly would add a heck of a workload to my nerdy Admiral’s plate. Because every single day would bring a variety of new missions, and there was a remote chance that it could potentially overwhelm me or worse, outright bore me.
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But, instead, I’ve come to realize, that the PES has done the opposite of my concerns. Rather than making me feel as though I’ve got impossible tasks in front of me or making me think I can find other and better ways to fill my time, I’m straight up addicted to the proverbial ‘grind’. I honestly cannot wait to log on and see what tasks await me, and if I’m not interested in them well, I feel the need to head out on patrol instead and get a little combat practice in, because who doesn’t like dominating a fight or taking on a flotilla of ships with Anti-Proton beams blazing? But the wonder of the grind goes far beyond merely getting the opportunity to just blow stuff up, this new Personal Endeavor is finding new ways to challenge me.

Because those goals quickly get under your skin. Sure, at first blasting down thirty Borg ships sounds like a daunting task, until you’re in the thick of a Borg themed TFO, and you’ve suddenly brought down twenty and just like that, you’re outright determined to finish the job and achieve that respective goal and by ‘you’, I mean me, because that’s precisely what I was working on right before writing this article, and there was no way in hell that I was going to miss a goal when a few more minutes of play would finish the job. And what’s equally more impressive about this system, is that it goes beyond a mere psychological game of ‘challenge accepted’, I’m also discovering that the Personal Endeavor System motivates you think to outside of the box.

Because now, I ponder upon how to properly prioritize my missions in order to maximize my time and to get a better idea of how I pull that off, let’s examine how I handled the Endeavor set of missions that the game laid out for me before I started jotting down this blog. For I was supposed to defeat 10 Commanders or Captains, drop 5 Tzenkethi ships, deal 10,000 in Phaser damage and destroy the aforementioned 30 Borg ships and I was able to pull most of that off by technically making two trips on the map. A quick jaunt to New Romulus and its combat laden Mountain Pass helped me bring down the commanders in question, while also handling the Phaser goal with ease, and a hop, skip and a jump to the ‘northwest’ corner of the Alpha Quadrant allowed for the Tzenkethi to feel my wrath and since TFO’s can be entered from anywhere in space, two Borg missions helped handle that goal for me and just like that, the list was clear and I was able to Transwarp back to Earth Spacedock for a cup of joe while I poured over my rewards for an hour’s work.

But the bottom line, is that I am loving the game like never before. I can’t get enough of these challenges, and it’s fun to either pick and choose a quick mission to go on or settle in to finish the whole lot and well, I may legitimately have a problem at this point. Because as soon as I’m done with my daily life stuffs, I’m logging on to take the Galactica out for another spin. Which means at this point, the only thing that can likely break me away are new missions, but ‘Rise of Discovery’ won’t be here for some time, which means…it’s back to the most wonderful grind ever, to stock up on riches untold since this system hands out credits and crystals like they’re candy and well, I simply couldn’t be happier to have a new system in the game that is keeping everything fresh and fun and on that note, if you’ll excuse me, I think I hear my Xbox calling, so…I’m off to the bridge to see what’s out there. Until next time. 

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