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The History of Star Trek CCG: 2002

April 5, 2004

The year 2002 got off to a quiet start (Holodeck Adventures had just released in December), with the first release of the year, The Motion Pictures, arriving in April. It was also, alas, to be the last "regular" release for First Edition – though we didn't know it at the time.

On May 1, CEO Warren Holland extended a "Star Trek Invitation" to the gaming community:a unique opportunity to explore, with Decipher, the potential for creating a new trading card game based on Star Trek. "Project Trek," as it was unofficially dubbed, wasn't Second Edition – it would be a completely new game with new mechanics, and incompatible with the Star Trek CCG. An extensive poll of player opinions and comments on Star Trek, Star Trek CCG, and TCGs/CCGs in general; a fly-in playtest; a series of Design Logs from Major Rakal; and downloadable decks and rules for at-home testing all occurred over the next couple of months. But in the end, "Project Trek" was not to be, and the Second Edition of our old faithful Star Trek CCG was announced in July.

By the time Second Edition launched in December (with the designers making good use of various lessons learned during Project Trek as well as from First Edition as a whole), it had been demoed at DecipherCon and Spiel (Essen) to rave reviews, and Worlds Apart had relaunched a "face-lifted" Star Trek Online CCG which would eventually incorporate the Second Edition cards.

Halloween and early November brought the final "free-standing" DecipherCon, held in Chesapeake, Virginia (not far from Decipher's Norfolk headquarters) and the final full-scale World Championships with First Edition play. Franklin Kenter became the 5th Star Trek CCG World Champion, winning the final confrontation over John Corbett. (For more photos from DecipherCon 2002, visit the Photo Gallery.)

Decipjher CEO Warren Holland greets the crowd at DecipherCon 2002 Awards Ceremony.

(Left) Matt Kirk, as the first Bith in Starfleet, wins the Halloween prize for best Star Trek-related costume.
(Right) 2002 World Champion Franklin Kenter.

A new feature of DecipherCon in 2002 was the Decipher Hall of Fame. Inductees included players, product champions, and retailers who were considered major contributors to the popularity of Decipher games, high-level competitors exhibiting good sportsmanship, or who had made a consistently positive impact on the gaming community over a period of time. Seven of the seventeen players and product champions named to the Hall of Fame received their award in whole or in part for contributions to Star Trek CCG: Chris Heard, David Bowling, Jim Colson, Kathy McCracken, Kim Logie, Mike Harrington, and Thorsten Wanek. In addition, retailer inductee Hyperlight Enterprises was run by long-time Trek player and supporter Roxanne Barbour.

Have more 2002 highlights? Send them in to me at webmaster@decipher.com for consideration.

Kathy (Major Rakal) McCracken
Star Trek CCG Intelligence Officer and Tal Shiar Agent