Originally posted by KG Erwin
...in that, it has been shown that the majority of wargamers play their games solitaire (against whatever AI is provided by the game developers), rather than playing PBEM or playing online, despite the best efforts of the publishers (Microsoft being the prime example) of pushing players into online gaming communities. This attempt to force the gaming demographic (whatever that is) to avoid playing against the computer is , to my mind, simple laziness. The issue isn't beauty of presentation or game mechanics--the issue is addressing the players' wants. The players want a competent computer opponent, and in modern gaming design, that is too often the last issue to be considered, simply because it is the most difficult to achieve. I, for one, am sick to death of beautifully presented games that are great to look at but, once you get to know them, are boring and intellectually decrepit (sounds like a few of my old girlfriends.) This is the true reason that wargames may have a tough road in future--my God, the US military has simulations that would put stars in the eyes of the grognards out there. That's the technology that has to be captured for the consumer market--the US Army made a very feeble attempt, but give us a game/sim that recreates the challenges of COMMAND, not just aiming at the baddie and blowing him away.
Excellently put. I believe that, if computer wargame designers were to put more effort into revolutionizing AI design and less into figuring out how to attach cutesy animations and noises to their products, they would go a long way toward solving their survival problem.
Those of us who have taken wargaming as serious fun for a long time are not stupid. We prize competency over cuteness, substance over style, every time. If you need to appeal to a mass market, you lose us. Yet, in doing so, you lose the heart of your own games. Eventually, you lose anyway. You cannot outrun or outgun the kicky cult copiers of realtime crap. We are not many, yet we are loyal. We do have value as keepers of the faith and spreaders of the word.
Much of the malaise (and lack of sales) that beset the fledgling computer wargaming business was due to a gross mis-evaluation of the market leading to a terribly wrong turn in game design. When Grigsby's early designs gave way to the pap of the mid-nineties, the handwriting was on the wall. Matrix/2by3 are the Phoenix hope for the future, yet unsettling signs are beginning to show themselves. Don't lose the hard core. Pretty doesn't always translate into profit. You are never going to command much more than a niche market. Remember where you came from. Build it and they will come ...
By the way, KG, do you still have the phone numbers of some of those girls...
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) are doing things right, and doing a good job. Believe me, I've been board and PC gaming for almost 30 years now & things now are they best they have been in a long, long time. So, quit bringing the rest of us down, Joe.
