Star Trek Simulation Forum - History

History

Originally a splinter group of an organization called Spacefleet Online (SFOL), the former official Star Trek role-playing game of America Online, the Star Trek Simulation Forum provides an extensive range of online chat-based role-playing games to those who are interested in the genre. Functioning with at least half a dozen games that have been in operation for over a decade, it was established on July 31, 2002. Games open to the public started to take place on the official Star Trek website thirteen days later. The original 5 games in STSF were the U.S.S. Manticore, U.S.S. Hood, U.S.S. Arcadia, U.S.S. Reaent, and the Sky Harbor Aegis (formerly known as Starbase Aegis). Several of these games had formerly been in other sites, but were moved to STSF.

In October 2002, STSF became the simming organization recognized and approved by the official Star Trek website, www.startrek.com. It remains the only forum to hold such standing since Paramount Pictures discontinued its sponsorship of Star Trek: A Call To Duty in 2000 after discontinuing service contracts with MSN.

From an initial launch with five sims, the organization has grown and now boasts membership of several hundred. With an extensive training and educational program in place to assist new players, it remains one of the few simming organizations online to provide such a system. In February 2003, due to extensive growth, the official Star Trek website added a separate chat room solely for the use of the forum. In the Summer of 2008, the organization became an adjective in discussions about the release of Star Trek Online with posters referring to individuals preferring the role-playing techniques similar to the Star Trek Simulation Forum as "STSFers".

Currently the Star Trek Simulation Forum runs seven general public and twelve graduates only games.