Hello there!

[namikaze]

I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself.  I go by the handle Namikaze, which often people abbreviate to Nami or Nam.  I currently have two characters in STO, one of them is a Romulan named Galan, who is a tactical officer and uses a Pilot Escort Warbird.  That thing is a beast by the way.  The second character, which I'm currently playing a LOT more frequently is named Bradley, and he's a Liberated Borg Human science officer, using a Scryer Intel Vessel.

I'm having a lot of fun with both of these characters as they feel very different from one another.  The Romulan tears things to bits with his plasma cannons, while my Borg decimates foes with his gravity wells and other scientific phenomena.

I'm really into trying to capture the fun of STO while merging it with as much canonical content as I can.  So I don't go in for crazy appearances and such, and I would rather have a ship and character that look good than ones that are amazing at killing everything.  Unless I'm in a STF, I try to just relax and have fun.  When I'm in an STF, it's all business - get the job done ASAP so everyone can get on with their day.

My daughter takes up a good sized chunk of my time, as I am a stay-at-home parent.  So often I can be found online in the evenings, while she's sleeping for a bit.  My background is in government work and IT, so I sometimes get bogged down in technical details.  I think that's about it as far as who I am and what I bring to the fleet.

I'm really excited to be a member of STO Academy - I've been using the site for a LONG time to optimize my builds and such, and I've seen several members flying around and they all seemed very friendly and helpful.  I'd like to expand on that and give some of that assistance back, so I'm really glad to be here.

[TacPaddy]

Welcome aboard.

[aaaict]

Nice to have you and welcome to STOA... 

Just make sure that you join the official STOA chat in game, that way you can interact with the fleet properly and set up missions.

[Arrow]

I'm kind of inclined to agree that it's better to fly your favourite ship than one that kicks ass.

[namikaze]

I think the important thing is to have fun with the game, and for some people that's going to be comparing DPS, fretting like crazy over little details, etc. For others it's going to be exploration and storylines. There's a really nifty concept that I'm fairly certain everyone has seen by now, but in case someone hasn't seen it yet, here are some interesting papers on the subject of personality type and gamer typology.

First is a paper that is more scientific in nature: link
Second is a dissertation by a woman who helped organize the whole concept into neat groups: link
And finally is a test that is derived from the combined work of both: link

Note that there is certainly always the possibility of bias when generalizing people in categories like this. However, it should be noted that this test is more geared toward determining where you place value than telling you how to play.

For what it's worth, I'm 45% Self, 35% Role, and 20% Mastery. Which fits very closely to how I play games and why. I get value out of the character, I play to escape, and I don't really care about scores.