Star Trek Online Interview
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MTV Multiplayer: Who came up with the story?
Zinkievich: We were working really close with CBS, which owns the license. With their licensing team, they know the universe really well. A lot our team is just crazy fans. When we got the license, people just came out of the woodwork saying, (I've got to work on this project! I have a uniform at home. Look, here's my 3D chess set!) So, we have a lot of people who are really familiar, and it's a universe and a franchise that the fans have provided so much history and so much input for us. I think the resources from the internet alone can get anybody up to speed on what's going on.
It takes place in 2409, 30 years after the last movie, (Star Trek: Nemesis.) We picked that for a couple of reasons. We think deep-down that people want to play in that universe. People want to be a part of that universe, but they don't want to replay stories they already know. They may be a part of it, but they want to change the story and they want to participate in the story, it's not just, (Okay, I'm going to go play that episode.) Setting it in the future allowed us to provide that new and yet familiar experience to people. And at the same time, at the end of (Nemesis) everyone was kind of happy, peace was there but peace never stays long in any place. Even in the Star Trek universe. The Khitomer Accords has broken down, the Klingons are at the Federation's throat, and they're on the verge of all-out war. The universe is a much more dangerous place with a lot more conflict 30 years in the future.
MTV Multiplayer: Is the story in (Star Trek Online) part of the official canon?
Zinkievich: What is the official canon is really an argument that anyone can have. For us all the shows and movies are canon. But you can get in an argument with any of the fans about how even some of the shows may have small contradictions in them. We want to make sure that we follow that timeline, and we're true to that timeline. We see the shows and movies as canon. We're reading the novels now; the novels are considered soft canon with a lot of more conflicts in there. You can never call yourself (canon,) but we can't take a 90-degree angle and go it's all totally different.
