Enjoy Our Biggest Year Yet (June 13, 2005)

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
Over the last weekend we surpassed the traffic tallies from both 2001 and 2002. Earlier this year we beat out 1998 and 2000, and we should pass the 1999 total before the year is half over. We're happy that you're visiting to share our busiest year yet. The dedicated Wing Commander fan community is growing, and we're lucky to have so many people to share our appreciation of the series with. Hopefully you can join us in celebration for our seventh birthday in eight weeks.

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Original update published on June 13, 2005
 
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I know it's yesterday's news but I'd like to pull this up for appreciation: Since a couple of years (not counting GBA WCP), no major game has been released in the series. The titles themselves weren't initially designed for modding. The genre isn't all that hot anymore.
But the fan community still grows? It's amazing. In times when many companies need to dish out at least two releases in a series per year to get their fan base focussed, WC slowly gains momentum again, thanks only to - what indeed?

I know this may be stepping on a lot of people's toes, but I'd place a large bet on the release of Privateer:Remake, despite all the debate around it. Don't get me wrong here, I'm all for continuity, and I really appreciate all the creative and technological work of other projects to a high degree - but a free remake of a once-popular game gets the attention of a lot of people, no matter how high the quality of the release is.
But even then Priv:R would have been a niche project if it would have been perfect - no discussion, just happy fans downloading and playing to kingdom come. So my second bet on the growth factor is the striving for (and struggle with) continuity in this community. People get interested in the games again, but feel that something isn't right - so they come to discuss; then discover more of the depth and breadth of the available material.

I do hope that this continuous growth doesn't pass unnoticed. We all talk a lot about EA's policies and strategies, and what they will or will not do with the WC license - so maybe this is another pebble against their window.
 
criticalmass said:
But the fan community still grows? It's amazing. In times when many companies need to dish out at least two releases in a series per year to get their fan base focussed, WC slowly gains momentum again, thanks only to - what indeed?

I know this may be stepping on a lot of people's toes, but I'd place a large bet on the release of Privateer:Remake, despite all the debate around it.

That's a pretty short term theory describing a very long term trend. Here's a bar chart demonstrating our own traffic for the last eighty months. The low points coincide with the cancellation of the in-production Wing Commander games and disbanding of the Origin Maverick Team.
https://www.wcnews.com/statistics/monthly_hits.shtml

The Privateer Remake came out three months ago. Our growth has been a slow and gradual hard-earned process over the last sixty months. Notice the spike in traffic from the new people who visitied after the remake came out, and then the drop off as casual fans finished with it. If you draw a mathematical trend line of our traffic for the last five years, there is no substantial deviation because of the release of Prophecy Advance, Standoff, Flight Commander or any other project. There are certainly spikes in traffic for each of these events, but none of these things cause growth in and of themselves. In many ways, projects like Fleet Action, WC Invasion, Holding the Line, Unknown Enemy, the WC Zone, the Heart of the T and other projects are what made things like Standoff or the Priv Remake possible today.

The growth comes in aggregate when you take into account all the things Wing Commander fans have done for the last half decade. Someone saw Prophecy Advance, told their friends, they searched online and found their way here. And that got them online to play Flight Commander and Standoff, and that kept them interested long enough to play the Priv Remake and some of those people will stick around for WC Saga. At each step more people become aware of our community and join us because they know there is more to come. The privateer remake certainly made thousands of people aware of the Wing Commander community, but no one aspect of our universe can begin to take credit for overall growth. With each new project, we gain back a few more of the millions of Wing Commander fans that existed in the 1990s. Every wallpaper, video, article, clay model and adventure that fans go on each day keeps people interested. As more and more old fans learn of our community and see our continuous activity, they add to it and the population accumulates and snowballs. If we are dedicated to the community, it's up to each of us to be creative and find new ways to appreciate Wing Commander and share that with eachother. That is what we can credit our momentum with.
 
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criticalmass said:
I know this may be stepping on a lot of people's toes, but I'd place a large bet on the release of Privateer:Remake, despite all the debate around it.
If it wasn't for PR, I wouldn't have discovered these fine forums.
 
Personally I'm just glad that the community is growing...regardless of the reasons. You can sit and analyze things so much but let's face it, this isn't a business and no one's getting paid to gather requirements so just enjoy the goodness. :) But truly I do want to say thanks to all the moderators here at wcnews because you've provided an absolutely terrific place for us to discuss WC to our heart's content not to mention all the other extras that we get as a bonus. Thanks again.
 
The steady growth this long after an official game is astounding. The slashdotting following privr's release helped make that the busiest month ever, but that will only hold true until the continued growth of CIC results in a yet busier month sometime in the future. It was a big spike, but it sits on top of an upward curve caused by many other things. CIC is to be commended.
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if Norway had a mascot
 
I like CIC cause of the "quality" of the people here.The Forums are clean and interesting I dont even compare them to other ones ,full of idiots.

Hope it wont change ever.

Love CIC :cool: :p :D
 
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