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I'm trying to use STO for drawing references, so I commissioned a new bridge officer. And. Well

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There are rumors that STO is going to move publishers again, this time to one that focuses on maintaining old games… it feels like SUCH a long shot, but I kinda hope it happens and that the new publisher takes it back to its roots i.e. focusing more on original stuff rather than celebrity cameos every ten seconds

I would start playing again if it ended up being more like OG STO and less. Well. Whatever the hell is going on over there right now

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Trying to sell a Lower Decks uniform box that's been rotting in my account bank for ages, so naturally I picked the most thematically appropriate sales price I could think of (while also taking the average price on the exchange into account)

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Happy Star Trek Day! Here's my monster project from 2021 to celebrate 55 years of Star Trek... a screenshot of every hero ship that was available in Star Trek Online at that point in time, representing the various shows and movies in the franchise.

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Happy Star Trek Day!!

Two years ago, ZEFilms and I collaborated on a video celebrating 55 years of Star Trek. This video is still very near and dear to both of our hearts, so I want to share it with you all again ❤️🖖🏼

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I wanted to give editing a shot on my new system (and I had to re-learn a lot of things in paint.net because I lost my old university Creative Cloud subscription)

Pleased with the result!

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This is one factor that contributed to my burnout on ship art. I’d get random strangers crawling out of the woodwork on a semi-regular basis attempting to make it my problem that I made art of starships they hate.

I got attacked for posting the Kelvin timeline Enterprise on several occasions. I had to talk a guy down on Deviantart in the comments of my Janeway-class art because he hated Captain Janeway, which made him hate the ship and therefore my art. Obligatory Discovery hate, obligatory Discovery refit/floating nacelles hate… there was literally no getting out of it, even after I shifted towards making art of more ships that were commonly liked.

Fanartists aren’t your personal content farms. Take what you like and leave the rest alone, that’s what normal people do. Don’t harass an artist because a fictional starship they like makes you viscerally angry — I’d instead recommend a serious re-evaluation of your priorities and maybe (just maybe) touching some damned grass.

Friendly reminder that fan-made content (fanart, fanfic, fanvids, etc) are:

extremely time consuming. Remember someone actually took time out of their life to create that, time they could’ve used to, idk, sleep, for example

entertainment you’re consuming for free. I can’t stress this enough: you’re enjoying someone else’s craft for free. You paid exactly zero money to look at/read/watch it.

S H A R E D  with you, not made for you. This is the most important point: someone created that, put it online and you found it. No one forced you to consume that fanwork, you C H O S E  to do it. 

Whenever you feel like leaving a mean comment, anonymous hate or make a ~clever post about how ‘lol look at all of these overused tropes every fic writer crams into their fics’ remember you’re being a dick to someone who shared their work with you. You’re not being funny, you’re not being edgy, you’re not being brave for calling something out - you’re being a dick.

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The captain and crew of the USS Pallantias: here to do science, but in a melodramatic, space opera kind of way

Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/rurinnfane/art/Omnia-Mutantur-Nihil-Interit-950140740

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[WIP] ask me about my little star trek (online) blorbos

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I think you ended up seeing the writing on the wall a long time before I did... or I was in denial over it, I can't really remember. Still, it sucks. I'm sorry you went through this too :(

I feel like I'm ready to talk at greater length about my experiences with STO and how I've reached this point of burnout/alienation with it after all these years.

The biggest reason? It's not the same game I became obsessed with in 2014. That's actually normal and to be expected of most MMOs and people (you should check out this video about the phenomenon!), but let me explain what that means for me here. Quick disclaimer, you are allowed to disagree with me on this -- I'm discussing my subjective point of view, not any objective fact.

Putting this under a readmore because it's long - please click "keep reading" below :)

What captured my heart was STO's storytelling and how it was formatted to be super duper friendly to making OCs. I could make an OC that got inserted into the STO (and overall Trek) universe with pretty minimal effort on my part! It had enough callbacks to canon to be satisfying to me as a Trekkie, but it also had enough new stuff that it was exciting and fresh. My first two years in college were spent imagining up my OC's takes on different mission arcs more often than uh.. college. Long-time friends and followers will recall my obsession with the Dyson Sphere and the Iconian War.

But that's when things started to change, right after the Iconian War. The war itself felt like the great culmination of all the past mission arcs, like we built up to the conflict and it exploded into this terrible intergalactic event. Since then, no new missions have felt the same to me.

STO seemed to evolve further into a super segmented Star Trek theme park after that. We already had Voyager Land (the Delta Quadrant) before the war, and it played a relatively satisfying role in the war; however, it became especially clear with the Gamma Quadrant arc that we were getting a new expansion into Deep Space 9 Land after the short burst of original stuff like the Lukari and the Tzenkethi (I know that the Tzenkethi existed in canon before, but STO took them and ran with them).

It has become increasingly clear in recent years that the priority has shifted towards incorporating as many cameos as possible to run the stories, not the other way around. I LOVE Tilly and Mary Wiseman, don't get me wrong, but the way they finagled a way to get Tilly to still be alive in the STO era (having her literal fascist Mirror Universe counterpart travel into the future) felt ingenuine as hell to me. The way I see it, it's less about the story and more about capitalizing on the #SillyForTilly craze to draw new players in. Same goes for all the other canon characters, but Tilly's has felt the most egregious to me personally.

Yes, it IS cool as hell that STO has these actors willing to come in to record cameo voiceovers. It IS cool as hell that we recently got to fight alongside both Tilly and Janeway at the SAME TIME! But it's important to remember that they're not "our" Tilly and Janeway; they're their Mirror counterparts, and one of them is only there as a result of temporal shenanigans. Temporal shenanigans totally happen in canon Trek and are part of the charm, but in the case of STO, they feel excessive to me.

The way I see it, STO is putting the cameos themselves over the characters over the stories. The cameos drive engagement, which drives the ruthless monetization that has also been strangling the life out of the game. It's Star Ship Online and hey omg look over there it's Tilly and Janeway and Wesley omg wow look aaaaaaaah!!!!1!!! I understand that capitalism is gonna capitalism, the game will do what it feels it must do to survive, but it has lost all charm to me.

I came for the sense that I was being included in the universe (via my OCs, because let's face it, OCs are always self-inserts to varying degrees), now I feel like I'm watching an extremely, painfully slow interactive new Trek series that also feels like an advertisement for merch targeted at a super specific audience.

When it comes to the screenshot thing I got myself so entrenched in... I felt like I was an unpaid advertiser for the "new" game, especially when it came to lockbox and promo box ships that people will spend hundreds of dollars to obtain. 99% of the time my art of those ships came from the tribble test server or sniping screenshots of somebody else's ship, all because of the pressure to continually Create Content™. I felt emboldened to continue Creating Content™ when it became "ship art" and not just "rurinn's silly little pictures," and that's when I became Known On The Internet -- a goal of mine for a long time that turned out to be more thorns than rose petals.

We also have to acknowledge the behavior of the community at large when it comes to that monetization and how creators such as myself get caught in the crossfire. The hate I got over this recreation of a cutscene from A Measure of Morality -- not-so-subtly advertising a 300 USD ship bundle -- was unbelievable, and it still wasn't nearly as bad as the utterly soulless behavior that my partner faces to this day for his videos.

I could go on. For days, probably. Subjects such as the extreme monetization + the rampant unmoderated hate in chat that seeps into the adjacent social media communities come to mind. I felt like my soul had been siphoned away for a time because of it all -- the pain of outgrowing something I loved dearly, watching it change into something unrecognizable, and being berated and harassed by other players and community members drowning in their own toxicity and hate.

I am grateful for STO. I met so many friends because of it. It helped me through some unimaginably difficult times in my life. I met my partner through it and even collaborated with him to create some stunning art. I have been hurting over this for a long time, but I think I'm finally at a stage where I can accept what happened, move on, and heal.

[aen-lliash]

I feel like I'm ready to talk at greater length about my experiences with STO and how I've reached this point of burnout/alienation with it after all these years.

The biggest reason? It's not the same game I became obsessed with in 2014. That's actually normal and to be expected of most MMOs and people (you should check out this video about the phenomenon!), but let me explain what that means for me here. Quick disclaimer, you are allowed to disagree with me on this -- I'm discussing my subjective point of view, not any objective fact.

Putting this under a readmore because it's long - please click "keep reading" below :)

What captured my heart was STO's storytelling and how it was formatted to be super duper friendly to making OCs. I could make an OC that got inserted into the STO (and overall Trek) universe with pretty minimal effort on my part! It had enough callbacks to canon to be satisfying to me as a Trekkie, but it also had enough new stuff that it was exciting and fresh. My first two years in college were spent imagining up my OC's takes on different mission arcs more often than uh.. college. Long-time friends and followers will recall my obsession with the Dyson Sphere and the Iconian War.

But that's when things started to change, right after the Iconian War. The war itself felt like the great culmination of all the past mission arcs, like we built up to the conflict and it exploded into this terrible intergalactic event. Since then, no new missions have felt the same to me.

STO seemed to evolve further into a super segmented Star Trek theme park after that. We already had Voyager Land (the Delta Quadrant) before the war, and it played a relatively satisfying role in the war; however, it became especially clear with the Gamma Quadrant arc that we were getting a new expansion into Deep Space 9 Land after the short burst of original stuff like the Lukari and the Tzenkethi (I know that the Tzenkethi existed in canon before, but STO took them and ran with them).

It has become increasingly clear in recent years that the priority has shifted towards incorporating as many cameos as possible to run the stories, not the other way around. I LOVE Tilly and Mary Wiseman, don't get me wrong, but the way they finagled a way to get Tilly to still be alive in the STO era (having her literal fascist Mirror Universe counterpart travel into the future) felt ingenuine as hell to me. The way I see it, it's less about the story and more about capitalizing on the #SillyForTilly craze to draw new players in. Same goes for all the other canon characters, but Tilly's has felt the most egregious to me personally.

Yes, it IS cool as hell that STO has these actors willing to come in to record cameo voiceovers. It IS cool as hell that we recently got to fight alongside both Tilly and Janeway at the SAME TIME! But it's important to remember that they're not "our" Tilly and Janeway; they're their Mirror counterparts, and one of them is only there as a result of temporal shenanigans. Temporal shenanigans totally happen in canon Trek and are part of the charm, but in the case of STO, they feel excessive to me.

The way I see it, STO is putting the cameos themselves over the characters over the stories. The cameos drive engagement, which drives the ruthless monetization that has also been strangling the life out of the game. It's Star Ship Online and hey omg look over there it's Tilly and Janeway and Wesley omg wow look aaaaaaaah!!!!1!!! I understand that capitalism is gonna capitalism, the game will do what it feels it must do to survive, but it has lost all charm to me.

I came for the sense that I was being included in the universe (via my OCs, because let's face it, OCs are always self-inserts to varying degrees), now I feel like I'm watching an extremely, painfully slow interactive new Trek series that also feels like an advertisement for merch targeted at a super specific audience.

When it comes to the screenshot thing I got myself so entrenched in... I felt like I was an unpaid advertiser for the "new" game, especially when it came to lockbox and promo box ships that people will spend hundreds of dollars to obtain. 99% of the time my art of those ships came from the tribble test server or sniping screenshots of somebody else's ship, all because of the pressure to continually Create Content™. I felt emboldened to continue Creating Content™ when it became "ship art" and not just "rurinn's silly little pictures," and that's when I became Known On The Internet -- a goal of mine for a long time that turned out to be more thorns than rose petals.

We also have to acknowledge the behavior of the community at large when it comes to that monetization and how creators such as myself get caught in the crossfire. The hate I got over this recreation of a cutscene from A Measure of Morality -- not-so-subtly advertising a 300 USD ship bundle -- was unbelievable, and it still wasn't nearly as bad as the utterly soulless behavior that my partner faces to this day for his videos.

I could go on. For days, probably. Subjects such as the extreme monetization + the rampant unmoderated hate in chat that seeps into the adjacent social media communities come to mind. I felt like my soul had been siphoned away for a time because of it all -- the pain of outgrowing something I loved dearly, watching it change into something unrecognizable, and being berated and harassed by other players and community members drowning in their own toxicity and hate.

I am grateful for STO. I met so many friends because of it. It helped me through some unimaginably difficult times in my life. I met my partner through it and even collaborated with him to create some stunning art. I have been hurting over this for a long time, but I think I'm finally at a stage where I can accept what happened, move on, and heal.

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Hey folks, I (@rurinnfane) am kinda sorta back on tumblr!

I've kind of reached a breaking point with STO and ship art. I probably have a decent backlog of things I could post here, and I might do that eventually. But for now, I thought I'd at least point you to where there's slightly more action lmao.

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It’s (roughly) my 8th anniversary playing STO! I’ve included all the anniversary pictures I remember making (and that I can find), but I don’t think I’ve celebrated each year with a new screenshot.

(In order, it’s my first day, then first, third, fifth, and eighth anniversaries)

This one is particularly special to me because of how serendipitous it feels. In that first screenshot, I was just a day away from my high school graduation ceremony. In the last one, taken today... it’s my latest alt, created a day away from my Master of Public Policy convocation!

I had no idea where I was going in life when I first started to play. I got a bachelor’s in political science, then an associate’s in paralegal studies, and now I’m here getting my master’s. I’ve had the fortune of working in a great internship that’s opened the doors to a lot of opportunities, including a great full-time job. I’ll start that job... after I get back from Canada, where I’ll be visiting my boyfriend... whom I first befriended because of STO.

Like??? What even. What the heck. I don’t know how this is my life now but I’m so grateful. I don’t fully credit STO for everything that I’ve experienced since 2014, but a lot of good things have happened as a result of joining the community. It’s really wild to look back on this and realize everything that’s happened, especially given my huge STO-related burnout right now.

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The senior officers of the USS Pallantias having a chat (but make it in the style of Lower Decks)... I wonder what the CMO is thinking.

Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/rurinnfane/art/Officer-Hours-906095811

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A reference sheet for my OC Nithis, a Romulan Liberated Borg/xB captain from STO!

Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/rurinnfane/art/Nithis-Reference-Sheet-904655982

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Una from Star Trek Discovery/Strange New Worlds 💛🖖

Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/rurinnfane/art/Number-One-902188726

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Hey folks! I will be on this roundtable this weekend representing ShipTalkingPod, as well as just being ✨myself✨ in terms of creating content in the Star Trek and Star Trek Online communities.

We'll be chatting about the impact these communities have had during tough times, especially throughout this ongoing pandemic, through the lens of content creation (namely livestreamers, podcasters, and shipporn connoisseurs such as myself and ZEFilms). If you can't make it this weekend, I believe it will be recorded in some fashion, so please keep an eye out!