STO....

Star Trek Online is my main online game these day's, one that I plink away at. Casual is casual. It's free and full featured, unlike Eve Online which may have a free mode but is one that's very limited. STO is by far the best free to play game I've come across(for Sci-Fi fun). There's a cash shop but it's very much optional. Unless you're really, really hardcore and want to put cash down to get the newest shiny thing, just because. If you do splash cash I wouldn't even count it as a shortcut. I've played STO free to play for years and gained a lot of items and ships from in game activities. I'm a casual player in it for sure; But someone who is 'serious' could get a lot more before even laying cash down.

I bought the game when it was first released. It needed a monthly subscription back then and I stayed with it for a little bit with a friend, 6 months maybe. When it went free to play I hopped back in and saw how it had developed. I kept with it on and off for a few years and it grew on me so much that I felt it would be worth splashing out for the long term benefits of the Lifetime sub. A one off large payment with a load of ongoing benefits across my account. Still no regrets about getting it. The 500 free Zen a month is the key. The longer you have the lifetime sub the more you get from the game, it pays for itself with that Zen stipend. Like a long term return on investment. 

I bought the lifetime sub at a sale for €199 just over a year and a half ago; That in terms of the Zen stipend is 9500 free Zen. Using the €199 direct zen buy from the store means that 500 free zen a month needs 44 months. So the first quarter of next year will see my lump sum benefits equal half the cost of what I paid in terms of zen gained. Convoluted and there are many ways to look at it.
I'm almost halfway to making the sub cost fully equal to bought Zen. Another year and a half and it's equal. After that and it'll start to be profit for me. Cash cost aside I count it all as an investment; The longer I have it the more it repays me.

I've used the free zen I've been 'gifted' to increase ships, slots, extra inventory/bank space and other quality of life improvements on my main and across my account. Kind of wish I'd done it sooner but then again it's only really the last couple of years I've really gotten more fully into STO.... Besides I'd already been burned by CCP for their Mystery code, 10th anniversary "for the next decade" shítshow. I've waffled Here and here on all that before. So a large cash outlay for STO took a little more convincing for me than it really should have.

In a way there is a pay to win system in STO but it's not like other games. It's not really Pay to Win it's more akin to the depiction of  'money' in the Federation. Indeedy the new event campaign allows you to do in game TFO's(dungeons) to gain a free T6 ship from the store(or prize shop on console). I'd rather do that or the daily of the summer/winter (or other)events for a new ship than spend cash. That's me, that's not for everyone; If you have the cash to splash then fair enough; But I think it's a missed opportunity for gameplay.

Some gamers roleplay and go all in, both in character and with their cash for specific ship lines. STO is a game that lets you do that if you want to but it won't force you to. Some of that is freedom of choice, some is marketing. Such as the Jem'Hadar; A high level starting character but ships for your race can only really be bought or have high RNG from lockboxes and as with other games, keys for those boxes also cost. Again it's a players choice. Players choice to focus on a specific faction, players choice to only fly ships 'native' to that specific faction. Players choice. I can see how such a player would look at a lifetime sub that gets extra perks which a non life sub had to pay for and be miffed. A player like that which also had the lifetime sub would be really miffed(essentially paying twice for the same thing - kind of). Price for going all in on multiple angles I suppose. In STO I've found it pays to be more cautious, more long term when looking to 'invest' in STO. I was peeved once when I used my free Zen to buy a uniform set that was then given away in game a few weeks later. Shiz happens. Again players choice. STO does have some quirky marketing at times and you can't predict it nor wait for it to be extra 'quirky' in your favour. *Memo to self to read more dev blog news*

Waffle aside in game on PC I've been pottering away with the T6 ship event daily(second campaign); The admiralty system and parts of the endeavour dailies that interest me and seem more practically doable(or at least seem 'easy enough').

On XBox with the Jem'Hadar available(Gamma Recruitment Event), I took the opportunity to hop on my account and get a higher level character, just because. Might come in handy as some stage. Never say never. Besides my XBox main is a level 24.

That's another good thing about STO, content auto levels to you or you to it. So my level 24 captain can do TFO's(Dungeons) with a random group as if they were all the same level. This helps with the likes of the current Kobayashi Maru event.

Back to my Jem'Hadar. Playing through the starter missions was shorter than I remembered.

Getting to choose the allied faction was predictable for me, Federation.

So after creation, the starter missions and some minor housekeeping I brought him to Earth Spacedock and parked up at the bank; Where he'll no doubt stay for a very long time.

The console version is the same as PC but slightly different in control and ui. XBox graphics makes things a bit 'softer'. Both are versions I enjoy but I'm in no doubt that the PC version is 'my' version of the game. If I miss out of doing a few of the console dailies then I won't be miffed. It's all fun.