Christophe Jaureguiberry
Posts: 113
Joined: 10/6/2000 From: Jakarta, Indonesia Status: offline
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Dear Matrix Team,
I would like to adress a concern which has been lurking in my mind for a while now, and which is steadily growing as I read more and more posts in this forum:
Are you going to abandon SPWAW?
I am aware of the quandary you are in now. Everybody has to live and to devote major resources of a company to keep a free product updated is simply not commercially viable. To solve this problem, (I think) you are creating a new game, Combat Leader, that would be your intellectual property and that could be sold, thereby continuing your passion for wargaming and enabling you to prosper (or at least survive) financially.
The problem is: I am not interested in Combat Leader. I am not interested in it not because I think that CL is a bad product, but simply because SPWAW is an outstanding product that I enjoy playing very much, and which has been getting better and better thanks to your efforts. I do not feel like I am throwing a tantrum here (and if I am, please forgive me) but Steel Panthers has been around for more than 6 years, which for a computer game is an outstanding longevity. This resilience is due to the fact that players have always felt the enormous potential of this program, so much so that an impressive amount of people has been willing to pour an incredible amount of effort, FOR FREE, just to get it to perform as they (and we, the users) dreamed.
The game has also grown thanks to the labor of many "amateurs"(for want of a better word) who, with one scenario here, one campaign there, a few graphics, a website, have added to SPWAW a body of work which makes the game much greater than the program itself. Many of these amateurs started out with their own enthusiasm and ended up being "pros" at the game (I am thinking of people like Mr Wilder, for example). Should we switch to another game, such as CL, this body of work would disappear, creating a sense of loss not only for the people who have contributed to it, but also for all of us who have enjoyed their efforts.
I think I am not the only one who is uneasy. I think you (the Matrix Team) also feel it in the public, through remarks like: "I know you guys hate it when I say that!" when referring to a feature which cannot be included in SPWAW but would appear in CL. I believe that there is a certain passive resistance in the community to the concept of CL vs. SPWAW, mainly due to the reasons I have mentioned above.
The direction you are taking now with Mega-Campaigns that will be sold, thereby finally earning you a financial reward for all your hard work, is to be commended. It is my hope that the monetary gain you get from these campaigns will keep you interested in SPWAW and will enable you to keep adding to the seemingly endless list of features we all clamour for everytime someone posts a "Wish List" on the forum.
Barring that, if you really have to abandon SPWAW, you will have to transfer all the good things that made SPWAW work to CL, as well as eliminating its (few) weaknesses. A difficult proposition indeed, I sincerely hope it will not come to that.
Best Regards,
Christophe
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