I found the selection of Distant Guns as "best strategy game" totally bizarre, given my experience with the game demos. That is, until I realized that Jim Cobb was involved in the selection process.
Before playing the demo, I didn't know Jim Cobb from a hole in the ground. However, after downloading the original version of the demo, only to find it TOTALLY unstable on my computer, I posted to a thread on the AG forums looking for some help with DG, having googled the game and been directed to here:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/s ... ht=ivanmoe
Were you to peruse the above thread, you'd see that my comments about Distant Guns were essentially of a technical nature, being a computer gaming enthusiast. It was at that point that Cobb inserted himself into my dilemna, insisting that my problems with the game were a product of "overheating," which of course I knew was not the case. Notice also, if you've got the time or energy that I responded to Cobb and others with detailed system specifications and what I had done to resolve the problem on my own.
Now, lets move forward a few weeks to another forum, again one which I googled up having tried an updated demo, the SZO forums:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/s ... ht=ivanmoe
To summarize the discussion above, I posted there and complained about the lack of support for the game and the problems that I was having with the second demo. Once again, it was Cobb to the developer's rescue, calling me a TROLL when I failed to cite my system specs, which btw, I had already done in our previous encounter.
Am I troll? Was I just trying to cause trouble for the game developers? Were there no stability issues with DG?
Well ladies and gentlemen, the fact of the matter is that there was no formal technical support for DG when I posted to those two threads, nada, zip, zero, zilch. If you had a problem with the game, you were supposed to upload the fail-game file to the developer, a procedure that I'm very much familiar with, having been a beta-tester for the last decade. It's also worth noting that at the time that I posted to the second thread above DG was on patch #15. It's currently on patch #43. No problems with this game, nope, solid as a rock.
And what about Jim Cobb? Well, here's a thread over at SZO-Distant Guns in which he trumpets the marvelous news for the developers, that theirs is "strategy game" of the year, HIMSELF, having delivered the goods:
http://www.xtreme-gamer.com/forums/dist ... -year.html
I realize that at the end of the day, none of this really matters. The game will succeed or fail on it's merits or lack thereof, although I did notice that there were only four members in the forum when I copied that last link, above. Still, Cobb's role in all this is preposterous, being nothing more than a schill for the developers, in my honest opinion. And there's not a hell of a lot that I or anyone else can do about it, other than break ties with the several entities that carry his drivel, and that I promise to do, subscriptions and all.
Happy gaming, everyone.
ivanmoe
That I have chosen to quote myself could be considered immodest. That I've done so without reservation or regard, whatsover, for Mr. Cobb's repute is sign of my utter disdain for the man and his ilk. He is no friend of wargamers and he should not be regarded as a source of legitimate discourse on wargaming.
PoE (aka ivanmoe)
Edit: I repaired the links above so that anyone interested in what transpired between Jim Cobb and myself could view the text in question. I do so with considerable hesitation, as was the case with the original, unedited post. Still, when you're called to task, denigrated and demeaned, by a supposedly "independent, web-journalist," on an "independent, web-forum," who seeks to undermine you credibility in regard to a highly-suspect product, it's impossible to shrink from the challenge, your assailant's "good-old-boy" status, notwithstanding.
For more information on SES, Distant Guns game:
http://www.wargamer.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=208
You'll have to filter back a ways, btw. No one's posted there in a while, but the last thread topic is worthy of note, "A Swarm of Bugs."
'Moe
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