Happy April Fools! (April 2, 2008)

[Bandit LOAF]

As long-time readers know, we weren't really trying to fool anybody - it's just a good excuse to do something stupid for a day. So, in case anyone missed it: it is not really 1991 again (I know, I know - too bad.) Our concept this year was to try to be a little nicer and generally make fun of ourselves instead of anyone else... but apparently that still managed to anger the FreeSpace crowd. Damned if you do...

The 'Point of Origin' memo is, in fact, real -- we'll do a serious update covering it in the very near future! The wwwboard that replaced the Chat Zone for the day (... and a half) was a replica of the one where some of us first joined the Wing Commander community: Origin's Official Wing Commander Chat Zone (1995-97.) We'll leave it up separately for a while as an 'anarchy park' until it breaks permanently. You can access it here.

All the behind-the-screens work was courtesy of Kris, who put together the wwwboard with only a moment's notice. The terrifying CIC-1991 logo was from Frosty:

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Original update published on April 2, 2008

 

[JasonRocZ]

I wasn't mad just like..."Hey man who framed WCNEWS!!!" It took me a few to gather that it was an april fools only because people at the office here did a few other april fools jokes and then i figured it out

 

[Dundradal]

Glad to be Back to the Future.

 

[Vinman]

That was fun. Those old boards really make me feel happy that we've progressed since then.

 

[Jason_Ryock]

That was fun. Those old boards really make me feel happy that we've progressed since then.

I'm not sure I agree.

I remember when I first got DSL, everyone was raving about how pages 'blinked into existence' instead of 'crawling onto my screen'.

Now with Dynamic Applications and Widgets everywhere, not to mention the proliferation of you-tube videos posted on everyone and their mothers website, websites are starting to crawl again, and I'm not sure the solution is to build a faster internet as much as it is to build better websites.

That's one reason I like the CIC. There are never videos on the front page - just links to them. The graphics they post are actually thumbnail size, and the overall look and feel of the site - while very modern - doesn't slow my browser to a crawl loading pieces of high quality renders that have been sliced to death to make a layout.

 

[Kevin Caccamo]

Oh man, am I ever glad the 2008 forums came back!! I was a bit worried about my Landreich campaign thread... Thinking it would be gone forever.

 

[Max Gene]

I remember having a good laugh, then realizing I couldn't gain access to the forums.

I swore to myself that if I needed tech help with my newly arrived copy of WC4, that I would send an angry fax.

Then I forgot about that, as I proceeded to get myself blown to bits IN wc4...

 

[LeHah]

I'm not sure I agree.

Didn't you have an embarassing custom avatar for a time? You're making me wish it never went away.

 

[maltinator]

I knew it! Hahahaha! I knew it! But first I was really shocked. Did you run a system recovery which sets the machine back to the last working state because of a heavy problem? Have you made a backup before you did it? I have even written a comment to the "new Origin project 'Strike Commander'" which is EXTREMELY overtaking any development time in the games' history! Hehehehe! But then I thought: "Hey, we have April 1st! Might be a joke!" And then I loughed.