StarQuest Online was a massively multiplayer online role playing game taking place in a large universe. It was created by Castle Thorn Software. In 2009 NeXeon Technologies partnered with Castle Thorn to support development of the game, but in mid-2014 NeXeon announced they would shut down the game server due to severe population decline. The game created a tight-knit gaming community of around 50 people aged between 12 and 60 which continues today. Description The game was set in the 23rd century whereby the players undertake the one of several roles across four playable factions. The player is set on a ship on their own, or with several other real players from around the world, and take the role aboard a starship such as the Helmsman, Tactical Officer or even the Captain of the ship. The player can walk around the ship as one of five races depending on their faction and customize the ship to their liking. The ships can then partake in combat with the NPC Pirate faction, or in PvP with other factions or player pirates. The game itself is an online persistent sandbox where there anything can happen at any time. A hostile player ship can sneak up on another player and attack at any time, in any solar system. Typically combat takes place in the vast endless plane of 'Hyperspace' the method used to travel between star systems. When the player logs off, the world still develops, civilians will still have their colonies growing, ships will still fly towards a destination while offline, and players can still be attacked if their ship is moving. There are over 17,000 star systems in StarQuest Online, and approximately 100,000 individual planets. Star positions were taken from Hipparcos satellite data for positional accuracy . Each planet was then created using a stellar dust accretion program based on the mass of each star. There are over 150 non-player character (NPC) races, and many other alien creatures inhabiting these worlds. Players can choose from three unique races when creating their characters. Several different classes of starships are available for players to command, explore, and battle with . StarQuest Online went live on September 21, 2007, after more than two years of beta testing. After a free thirty-day trial period, players are required to pay a fee of $9.99 per month. Gameplay and game dynamics Players were able to do things like