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Star Trek Online Executive Producer Leaves Cryptic
by Eric Caoili [PC, Console/PC]
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July 5, 2010
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Star Trek Online's executive producer Craig Zinkievich announced that he's leaving Cryptic Studios after working at the developer for more seven years, and on the MMO for two and a half years.
"I’ve decided to take a break from Cryptic Studios for a bit and focus on other things, like hanging out with my kids over the summer, walking my goat more and taking care of my bees," said Zinkievich in an open letter posted on the game's official site. He didn't specify when he might return to Cryptic or if he plans to rejoin the studio at all.
His departure comes five months after Cryptic Studios launched Star Trek Online for PC. Based on Paramount Pictures' popular science fiction franchise, the game received a cool reception from reviewers upon its release, with some calling the MMORPG unpolished and unfinished.
Daniel Stahl, who's served as a producer on the project and on Cryptic's Champions Online, will take over Zinkievich's role and will help Star Trek Online through "the next phases of its life". Prior to joining the developer, he was a program manager at Microsoft and served as a web producer for Wizards of the Coast.
"The Star Trek Online development team is the most amazing, passionate, dedicated and hardest working team that I’ve ever had the honor of working with," said Zinkievich. "They constantly amaze me with the work that they put in, the care and reverence in which they approach the universe, and the sheer love for the game and its players."
He added, "When it comes to Season Two, Season Three and the future of STO, there is no end to the episodes, systems and species that they want to desperately see put in the game. With Dan in the Captain’s chair, I’m confident that this team will be true to Star Trek’s vision and continue to expand STO to its fullest potential."
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Quitting a paying gig in a down economy is one thing... being silly about it is just stupid.
And so starts the collapse of another once-promising MMO.
This became something of an in-joke among regular contributors on the pre-launch STO forums, not unlike the Order of the Holy Floating Shrub from pre-launch Star Wars Galaxies. So presumably mentioning the goat was just a nice call-back for all the friendly fans who supported Zinkievich and Cryptic as STO was being developed.