How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (Full Version)

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KG Erwin -> How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/5/2006 12:23:47 AM)

I look over the Matrix Forums, and SPWaW ranks second in topics. War in the Pacific ranks number one. This of itself makes me feel good, as I fully believe that the PTO offers so much more than the ETO in terms of the diversity of naval/air/ground combat.

As far as SPWaW is concerned, though, we are firmly on the ground. Air power is represented, however abstractedly.

Having communicated with programmer Mike Wood in the past, he held high expectations for this game. His objective was to design the best tactical WWII game ever. A tall order, but, now considering the age of the code he had to work with, I think he largely succeeded. The magnitude of his efforts are still not fully recognized.

Some of you might not remember, but Mike decided to revisit this game a while back. This in turn encouraged third-party developers to offer independent enhancements. Mike was supportive of these efforts, and this directly led to the unofficial definitive versions of the OOBs we now have.

This collaborative effort goes a long way in explaining why SPWaW maintains its popularity. I'm prejudiced because I've been involved either directly or indirectly in a few SPWaW projects over the last few years, so keep that in mind.

However, I CAN say firsthand that this game, despite its quirks, is an all-time classic, and it will stay on my hard-drive for years to come.



Alby -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/5/2006 12:30:19 AM)

SPWAW will always be the greatest!!
Now if we could get Mike to fix those last few items...
SP mortars firing unlimited smoke and the artillery adjustment.
Personally I would enjoy increasing to USA and USMC arty response to 03 or something.
The 00-02 delay has always been a sticking point with numerous players
[;)]
Still best game out there!



azraelck -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/5/2006 5:33:11 AM)

I explain it as this. The strategy/wargames genre attracts a much different fold of gamer than RPGs or FPS or what have you. A 'good' RPG is good for one or two playthroughs at best, save for rabid fans. A 'good' strategy game is good until it no longer works on current operating systems, and there's no ways to emulate the older OSes to get it working. A great strategy game will have third parties trying to develope a modernized engine that works with the newer OSes, on their own and for free.

That said, what differentiates a good and great strategy game is the community behind it. It is the community that keeps it fresh, with tactics discussions, helping newcomers to the genre, and creating new maps and campaigns for the community. It's the community, ultimately, that determines how long a strategy game will last.

SPWaW has an excellent community, ready to help any newcomers get into the game, making new maps and showing off favorite old ones, and keeping the engine itself fresh with revisions to the OoBs. I fully expect it to last until Windows Vista won't let it work anymore (which probably won't be too long), and then further when some enterprising soul comes up with an emulator or managed to talk Mike Wood and Matrix into updating the engine to work with the latest trash-heap that is Microsoft' rip off of competently designed technology.

So long as there's community support, bringing everyone new OoBs and new maps and campaigns, SPWaW will survive and thrive. If Matrix decides to update it some, then it will be even better off. At it's base it is a well designed, relatively bug-free engine; that can be used for anything from section to battalion sized campaigns. As it stands now, there are two major mods, and a horde of well made maps and campaigns for the new players to hack, blast, and fry their way through. I don't look for it to be going the way of the C64 anytime soon. 

As to the quirks, every game, regardless of what it is, without fail, will have issues. SPWaW's happen to be strange spotting, leading to spinning StuG's of death; infinite smoke rounds, and a limit of OoB space. Every other game has just as many , usually more issues. While playing Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, I was killed by bullets traveling through walls, explosions not even in my  area, and survived grenades point blank. Everything was inconsistent; I could  dump a Thompson's clip into a head, with blood visibly spurting everywhere, and yet get killed by the other player's bolt action Arisaka.  I could watch another player do the same to me, and manage to drop him regardless.  So be thankful, for whatever SPWaW problems are, it's not an EA game!



Titanwarrior89 -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/5/2006 6:22:56 AM)

Well said! I think you hit the nail on the head.[;)]
quote:

ORIGINAL: azraelck

I explain it as this. The strategy/wargames genre attracts a much different fold of gamer than RPGs or FPS or what have you. A 'good' RPG is good for one or two playthroughs at best, save for rabid fans. A 'good' strategy game is good until it no longer works on current operating systems, and there's no ways to emulate the older OSes to get it working. A great strategy game will have third parties trying to develope a modernized engine that works with the newer OSes, on their own and for free.

That said, what differentiates a good and great strategy game is the community behind it. It is the community that keeps it fresh, with tactics discussions, helping newcomers to the genre, and creating new maps and campaigns for the community. It's the community, ultimately, that determines how long a strategy game will last.

SPWaW has an excellent community, ready to help any newcomers get into the game, making new maps and showing off favorite old ones, and keeping the engine itself fresh with revisions to the OoBs. I fully expect it to last until Windows Vista won't let it work anymore (which probably won't be too long), and then further when some enterprising soul comes up with an emulator or managed to talk Mike Wood and Matrix into updating the engine to work with the latest trash-heap that is Microsoft' rip off of competently designed technology.

So long as there's community support, bringing everyone new OoBs and new maps and campaigns, SPWaW will survive and thrive. If Matrix decides to update it some, then it will be even better off. At it's base it is a well designed, relatively bug-free engine; that can be used for anything from section to battalion sized campaigns. As it stands now, there are two major mods, and a horde of well made maps and campaigns for the new players to hack, blast, and fry their way through. I don't look for it to be going the way of the C64 anytime soon. 

As to the quirks, every game, regardless of what it is, without fail, will have issues. SPWaW's happen to be strange spotting, leading to spinning StuG's of death; infinite smoke rounds, and a limit of OoB space. Every other game has just as many , usually more issues. While playing Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, I was killed by bullets traveling through walls, explosions not even in my  area, and survived grenades point blank. Everything was inconsistent; I could  dump a Thompson's clip into a head, with blood visibly spurting everywhere, and yet get killed by the other player's bolt action Arisaka.  I could watch another player do the same to me, and manage to drop him regardless.  So be thankful, for whatever SPWaW problems are, it's not an EA game!





spwaw -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/6/2006 7:30:23 PM)

It is THE BEST War Strategy game yet.Thats why ! . I play it 10years for now and didint find better than spwaw [&o]



parusski -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/10/2006 9:10:48 PM)

The incredible re-playbility. No other game compares to SPWAW. I love, and still play CIV IV and AOE. But I have not tired of SPWAW after 10 years. One thing that keeps me addicted is the campaign feature. I have played every possible combination of nation against nation.



Krec -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/11/2006 2:09:24 AM)

my 2 cents is this: 

1)  its Turn Based  (this is the biggest reason imo)
2) its a top down easy to view game
3) has darn near all the ww2 units
4) you can play email ,solo or tcp
5) editor and mods
6) great forum and commuity   (ive been playin with the same guys online 2-5 times a week for years now)
7) its the classic easy to learn hard to master game
8) random generator   (this is a biggy too)  never play the same game twice!!
9) always being tweaked for better game play ....mods (#5)
10) the sound is great .........

basically the game is ww2 chess on a computer with FOW
great gameplay ,  good clean  graphics,  great  sound and a great following of players and hobbiest aways tryin to make it better.

what more do you need?

its simply the best period.

Krec



11Bravo -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/11/2006 4:50:00 PM)

Its a darn good game made great by the tremendous support of its fans and caretakers.

David Heath, Mike Wood, Paul Vebber, Wild Bill, Alby, and many, many others will never have to buy a beer when they're drinking at my favorite bar. Here's to hoping I never meet any of them. [sm=00000436.gif]



DROregon -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/12/2006 1:41:36 AM)

I would add

11) all theaters
12) classic combined arms armor-artillery-infantry (rock-paper-scissors)

It was the crisp graphics that grabbed me years ago (SP I), but learning effective combined arms keeps me here (& the great community that is willing to help idiots like me). I'm a big believer in simulation tools as a learning aid and this delivers.



Riun T -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/12/2006 8:06:58 PM)

THe most impressive point that everyone else so far has kinda missed is that U get to pick your own units!!!!!and set their streangths,utilization,and STANCE,, that was the biggest differance of most other military games in general,and u can have control of each individual wepeons slot,,,have gotten Combat mission for X-mas 4 years ago and only played throu it for 8 or so battles in a camp, after diligently reading the small novel of their instructions,,, and continually compared it to SPWAW,,, but only "Knockingly" { really didn't like how CM's units differant wepeons couldn't be upgraded or "turned off"}and how u get no choice in altering any of your CORE or get to purchase it with your own Ideas of how big u wanted it or capitalizing on specific unit types to maximize "YOUR task forces makeup.



Gunter_Viezenz -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/22/2006 2:54:31 AM)

I personally think it is mainly because 2 things.


1. You can download it for free
2. It is the best most updated game in this  genre for WWII

I could go on but those are the main 2 reasons why I got into the game, my interest in WWII helped a lot lol.



Goblin -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/22/2006 3:57:11 AM)

quote:

How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity?



Because I play it.[8D]





Goblin



dje -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/22/2006 12:00:02 PM)

My reason is this: Where can you find a game that covers all theatres of ww2 in a "tactical" game?

People often complain against the AI in games and I have heard the same about ours. As a solo gamer please explain to me how the AI is crappy playing against the Japanese. They stay put in their prepared defenses(as they usually did in late war). I love it, I love every minute of it!

Until lucifer skates on ice in hell, make mine SPWAW



Wuotan -> RE: How Do You Explain SPWAW's Popularity? (11/22/2006 12:05:30 PM)

It´s a little bit like being a youngster again and playing "soldiers"... with tons of wonderful tools and an amazing enviroment.

Greetings,

TL.



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