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bmodified -> RE: livin in a dream world (4/20/2005 6:15:08 AM)
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I don't know if GGWaW has that touch that will make an emotional connection with gamers that often defies explanation. There is an element of "good old days" nostalgia that creeps in when comparing the computer games of today with yesteryear's cardboard and paper sims, or even early computerized efforts. For many, I suspect, there are certain games that have a little emotive hook that catches the imagination, and it when it does it can be a powerful effect, and that can't all be explained away by nostalgia.
There is no chestnut more tired than "graphics do not a good game make", and it remains a cliché because it is true. Eye-popping graphics and dramatic cut scenes can't turn a sow's ear in to a silk purse, but they can enhance a solid design.
Even back in the dark ages of board wargames, the "pink panzers" of the first AH "Battle of the Bulge" were held up as good examples of bad graphics. I think GGWaW is free of such clunkers, but does it have a graphic style that suits the subject, and adds to the feel of the game? Highly subjective, for sure, but here I would say the game is merely solid, not sensational.
The Hero card and commissar execution rules of UpFront! were historically questionable at best, but they added spice without detracting greatly from the game. There are few among us UpFront! veterans who can't fondly recall Sgt Steiner saving the day with double firepower from his machinepistol.
To me, GGWaW is at its best when something happens that makes historical sense in dramatic fashion: My pure surface fleet should suffer when enemy carriers are at hand. It is at its most questionable when something dramatic happens that doesn't translate well in the game: Berlin falls, but the game shrugs its shoulders and West Germany fights on.
I think that GGWaW could have included some elements to make it more likely to hook a player in an emotional sense. Leaders, unit icons that change with tech levels, unit names, perhaps some optional rules for Kamikaze attacks or the like all could add to the feel of the game, hopefully adding spice without overpowering the main simulative course.
For me, GGWaW does a good job of giving the sense of managing the economy and strategic direction of a combatant nation during WWII. Perhaps it is asking too much of a somewhat simple game of global proportions to have little touches of operational flavor. There is an irrational side of me that would like to send Ike ashore at D-Day rather than a nameless assortment of infantry icons.
Now that GGWaW is really here, it might be easy to forget that the mere idea of a global level WWII game with some meat to it that is really playable in a long evening is a not one that has been done often, if at all. If every little extra that each gamer desired was added, the basic concept would sink under the load of "wouldn't this be cool?' features.
There is a good chance that mods and patches might change things around, but as it stands I think that GGW is perhaps a tad too conservative when it comes to such chrome. I am sure that others will point to the combat animations and say that too much attention was given to "meaningless" features already.
Time to unearth another hoary old chestnut and declare "to each, his own".
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