Unless we do implement that, I'm not sure anything really feels like a traditional grind in STO. Because we alternate space and ground combat and include things like noncombat exploration and diplomatic missions, there's not ever a specific situation where a conventional grind becomes apparent. I think we've done a great job with pacing and keeping our action and progression diverse and compelling.Â

JG: Cryptic's games focus on personalization and customization. Is this a focus for Star Trek Online?

CZ: Without a doubt. Customization is hugely important to us. Always has been. City of Heroes, City of Villians, and Champions Online should prove Cryptic does not joke about giving users a customizable experience. We applied that very same customization-centric design philosophy to Star Trek Online, but we did impose logical limits.

JG: Does the game allow players to design their own ships? If so, how flexible is the system? Is it possible to create ships such as the Millennium Falcon or Serenity?Â

CZ: This is where the logical limits come into play. For instance, a player cannot ever un-Star Trek a vessel. Customization is not so important that we'll let a user tarnish the IP by making an oversized carrot into his flagship. It's also important to understand that while we allow users to configure and alter a staggering amount of things, even going so far as encouraging users to create their own unique alien species, we do not allow a user to design a starship from scratch.

There are categories of starships and types within a category and variants of types.... Users can customize individual components on each starship -- nacelles, saucer, secondary hull, color, deflector, registry, patterning, et cetera -- but users cannot commandeer the shipyards at Utopia Planitia and start the construction process with a slab of unprocessed ore and some laborers.Â

JG: Why make each player the captain of their own ship? Did Cryptic try to let players take on the roles of science officers and engineers on the bridge?Â

CZ: That is a design decision we made right at the beginning. Being in command of a vessel and an away team -- being Kirk, Picard, Sisko -- that's what's important. We wanted to be that person, not the dude who configures the lateral sensor array to work in a specific type of nebula. [That's] a noble job, surely, but not an envious one, eh? And frankly, [it's] not a particularly exciting one.

Can you even imagine being a comm officer during a guild action? "Yep, the enemy is still calling us a bunch of terrible names, guild leader! Now they've included more expletives!"

Ultimately, we made a design decision that we're proud of. We picked what we wanted to do: space and ground combat. And then we worked like dogs to make that great. We didn't split our attention between designing a lucrative career barbering and a not so lucrative position tending bar at Quark's for a summer. We focused on what a player can do in space and on the ground that's fun and exciting: explore, discover, engage. In other words, we focused on what has made Star Trek such a compelling piece of fiction for so many years.

It is, however, a testament to the quality of the fiction and the power of the IP that people would be happy doing just about anything in a virtual Star Trek world. Can't say that about real life, of course.

You get to monitor a windowless, inactive transporter room on a starship for an 8-hour shift in the off-chance it's needed! Swap "transporter" and "starship" with "elevator" and "warehouse" and tell me how exciting it is.

JG: I've had that job. It gives you time to contemplate how awesome it would be if only you were on a starship instead monitoring a transporter. What were some of the strange designs that got dropped early on that you'd still like to implement?

CZ: I'm not sure there're a lot of "strange" designs we cut that we're keen on developing. Certainly, there's content we intend to add postlaunch -- and good content, too. But that stuff wasn't ever cut. That was simply planned to come later. Understand that we have a finite amount of time to work on STO before launch, and we've yet to hire a mutant capable of bending the space/time continuum to help us out. We are looking, though.

Of course, what we work on postlaunch will be determined by the needs of the community. We're most interested in doing what people want to play, not resurrecting some obscure cut concept that was likely cut for a very darn good reason.Â

JG: Games come with many language options. Is Klingon one of those options for Star Trek Online?

CZ: Nope. Something to note: Localizing a video game in any language is never a fast, cheap, or simple task. Doing it in a fictional language...death.

JG: I suppose that most people would prefer that you finish the game rather than die from Klingon-translation fatigue. What do you feel is the best Star Trek movie?

CZ: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Did you know Ricardo Montalbán's chest was, in fact, not a rubberized prosthetic? He was 62 and still built like some lion-skin-wearing, club-touting champion of ancient gods.Â

JG: Is the game more James T. Kirk or Jean-Luc Picard?Â

CZ: Excellent question! It looks more Picard but feels more Kirk.