This weekend, through some bizarre confluence of spare time and family visits, I spend (what seems to be) a crazy amount of time with Star Trek Online.  I now can appreciate the addiction nature of MMORPGs.  While I have not joined any guilds (or fleets, as they are called in STO), and I have elected to continue to play solo, it is really easy to just go for one more mission, and then realize that several hours have gone by. Luckily my personal limit is 3 or so hours, 4 if I was well rested before starting.  I really don't know how people do this all night.

In any case, I am now at level 30, which gives me the rank of Captain (woohoo!), and of course the pick of one of three Star Trek (TNG, DS9, VOY) ships.  I liked the Galaxy class (TNG) as a kid, but ever since DS9 the Defiant is my ship of choice.  Oddly enough, I decided to go with the Interpid Class ship (VOY) given that it seems like a better balance between Defiant and Galaxy.  Maybe once I make 3 pip Admiral I can go back and get the Defiant as another ship ;-)

Despite being 3/5 leveled up, there are a few "huh?!" and "aha!" moments:

• I keep finding anomalous readings and getting stuff, but they seem useless.  I understand that this is the WoW equivalent of fishing or mining.  Are these things worth keeping? I went to memory alpha but I don't seem to have enough of any raw materials to make anything.
• I realized that I am at the stage that I need to grind (ugh!)  I am half way through the Romulan campaign, but most missions are above my level, so I guess I need to grind to level up to play them.  Not cool!
• I realized that PvE missions can get really really long. Not a very casual thing to undertake. For me, I must have a minimum of 45 minutes for a PvE mission.
• Speaking of PvE, I haven't figured out what the heck to do with the USS Phlox...