Star Trek Online Announces a Free Trial Weekend

April 30^th, 2010 - Fans of Star Trek Online (STO) who have previously subscribed to the official newsletter received an announcement in their inboxes this morning: a Free Trial weekend for STO. While a "free trial" is normally reserved for potential players who want to test a game before purchasing it, STO's "Welcome Back Weekend" is actually intended only for former players. Further information on STO official the site adds: "Have you taken a break from Star Trek Online, but are interested to see what you may have missed? To celebrate the release of Season One, Update One, we're inviting former Star Trek Online players to spend a weekend with us, free of charge."

Also included in the newsletter were details about a new Refer-A-Friend program, Veteran Awards, and the announcement of a new Demo. Unlike "Welcome Back Weekend," the Demo program will allow potential players to take a test-drive of STO before committing to the purchase of the game software. The Demo will be available on May 7^th, according to the newsletter.

MMORPG, a highly popular website about mmorpgs-massively multiplayer online role-playing games-rates STO as a 6.4, considerably below rival mmorpgs such as World of Warcraft and Aion. In fact, a 6.4 on MMORPG.com is one of the lowest scores featured for games with the hype level STO has generated; STO, which released on February 2^nd, 2010, has generated a high amount of publicity especially after an extensive "beta code" campaign in which different retailers had unique in-game rewards for players purchasing pre-launch copies of STO.

STO is available for purchase for at numerous retailers; a $27.63 listing is available on Amazon, which is listed at the top of the game retailers list on the official site. A subscription to STO runs $14.99 USD per month on a month-to-month plan, and STO is one of the new mmorpgs to offer a "Lifetime" membership for $299.99 USD. Prices differ for Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Denmark, and are listed here. STO offers an extensive game community, including website-hosted forums, an IRC channel, and a Facebook fan page. Players can subscribe to the email-based newsletter on the homepage of the official website.

Sources:

Star Trek Online, "Star Trek Online Official Site"
MMORPG, "Your Headquarters for Online Multiplayer Games"
Amazon, "Online Shopping"