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Les_the_Sarge_9_1 -> (8/4/2002 8:18:35 PM)
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Anyone remember the Arcade game Galaga?
I play it on my computer alot. Its a perfect example of the KISS theory. Keep it simple stupid.
It's mindlessly simple, you sit at bottom of screen and shoot everything in as fast a manner as possible while doing nothing more than go left or right on bottom of screen while avoiding being shot.
I will play Galaga when others will want to play ANY First Person Shooter. The reason being, if I just want to mindlessly shoot things, why make it more complicated than it has to be.
I like ASL which is admittedly seemingly the exact opposite. But the manual has a daunting challenge. Accomodate virtually every possible situation, and then write a ruling how to deal with it.
The most important thing to tell a new player to ASL, is you won't use every rule in playing the game, nor will you use every unit type. The board remains small if you wish. Big boarded games are a trap to be avoided, or else you get what you deserve.
The first significant computer game to make me go ewwwww wow was I think possibly Wargame Construction Set II : Tanks. It was basically playing a board game with the assistance of a computer. The board looked like a wargame board and the counters look just like wargame counters. It was all I was looking for.
It's no surprise that every board game wargame that is made, both in the past as well as even right now today, uses the exact same visual level of game unit counter (mainly sillouette, or Nato based icon). It's because that is all you need.
Those games still sell too. I have spent 100s of dollars on board wargames where as I have spent 10s of dollars on computer wargames. The board games are often worth more too.
It's just as easy to find a board game opponent as it is to find an online opponent (just to explode that myth).
With online options you go to a gamer friendly online source for opponents.
With board games you can go to a highschool, a veterans location like in the case of Canada the Legion, any bookstore that sells military fiction, and true gaming stores of course, you can post your interest in colleges or universities, even leave posted messages in your local supermarket. Only the gamer limits their choices.
Getting a wargame opponent is like getting a job or finding a mate.
If you don't try hard and think about it (the wargame opponent eh), you get to sit alone pushing the counters around for both sides.
With the exception of persons living in the middle of nowhere, in a community obsessed with something like an Amish lifestyle, or in a country that still looks like the early 20th century, you shouldn't be unable to find opponents.
I have Steel Panthers because it suits me. I have ASL because it suits me.
I have only just yesterday begun to play by email a game of Steel Panthers (and it is my first ever email game too).
I have an opponent that found me through MMP's web site that will drive 30 minutes to play face to face ASL.
I don't get in much gaming otherwise. it is my own doing currently.
But there is a reason why in some cases some games never change and yet continue to sell ie Monoploy. Sometimes a game can only go so far, before it's as done as it is required to go.
I have no desire to see the battlefield where I have to see every individual soldier in explicit detail. I do not wish to be able to "see" the actual damage dealt to my tank.
If the soldier is wounded I can except a text message saying it happened. If the main gun is destroyed on my tank, I can believe it without actually seeing it. Maybe it's just me, but there is nothing better than my imagination. It's why when I want a perfect experience, I read a book.
In time, it is possible to foresee that we will "run out" of WW2 subjects to portray. It was after all a finite span of time.
I occasionally buy a new book on WW2, but I won't buy yet another book on a subject I already have well covered, merely because the book is "newer".
The event if correctly reported/portrayed doesn't change.
A game or a book, eventually you run out of ways to make it different. This is primarily the reason why given a choice of play Operational Art of War, or spend money on yet another operational level game, I will keep playing Operational Art of War.
Assuming the game is accurate, there is no reason to get a new one. I won't spend money just for some eye candy.
New games are often about selling a new product to a new consumer, that missed the old product. And those people won't be a problem to sell to.
It's always going to be a task though, getting the consumer to purchase what they don't need.
And no matter how you dress it up, if the material is still at it's core the same, then you haven't offered anything new.
Combat Leader, why would I buy it?
Not because the graphics are better, not because the sounds are better. Not as many suspect, because I want to put money in Matrix's pocket out of gratitude for Steel Panthers ( I am thankful naturally, but they made the decision to do all they did).
No my only interest in Combat Leader is solely based on my belief it will be as good as Steel Panthers, but will have software that is purpose made to address a lot of the hassles that couldn't be fixed with Steel Panther's older code.
If Combat Leader isn't substantially better at doing what Steel Panthers already does well (in spite of isolated grumblings), then Combat Leader will have trouble selling.
60 bucks will be a major hurdle to surpass, when you can get Steel Panthers for free.
The graphics, as we speak, might actually keep me from buying it. If I don't acquire a video card able to play the prettier graphics, I won't be playing it at all.
I am also currently keeping track of Strategic Command over at Battlefront. The game looks like Advanced Third Reich in the same way Steel Panthers looks like ASL.
The game doesn't come with flashy eye candy. It is plain feature looking counters on a plain featured map. I would not hesitate to purchase it.
And the perk is it is both cheap, and willing to play on a modest computer. And being a "new" game, it is not going to be some DOS dinosaur.
I don't know what sort of sales it will generate, but I have seen the impatience of those waitng for it. Gamers don't always want eye candy. And this by the way is the home of Combat Mission (eye candy land). You CAN sell a non eye candy game.
Wel this post has to end somewhere heheh:D Guess this is as good a spot eh:)
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