Best Explanation

ELTEE

ELTEE

Vice Admiral
I was in a computer game store the other day when I was asked by a young boy just what the Wing Commander universe was all about.

Sure, I was 6.5 years old when I played WC1 for the first time with my best friend in the neighborhood. But you know what? It was a brand new copy, and we were playing the game in "real time" with everyone else in the world. Sure, we were young...we had difficulty getting past the scimitar missions as we had trouble understanding how afterburners worked. We couldn't get those scimitars to outmaneuver the badguys! When we finally figured it out, it was like Christmas all over again. We took turns handing it to the Kilrathi, and saving the day as well as our beloved carrier.

Then, I couldn't wait to get WC2. The process repeated for each game in succession.

How do you explain the excitement and the anticipation that the series created more than 15 years ago to a young child struggling to understand what the WC universe is all about? How do you communicate how important Arena is to the franchise as a whole? How do you begin to explain the history and the characters that played such pivotal roles in making the WC universe as important as it is to fans of Wing Commander today?

I know that at the time I coudn't do it justice. I wouldn't have been able to articulate what the games mean to me in a manner that would be meaningful to this kid. I was filled with exitement and emotion for even being asked a question on the series. Perhaps the best thing I could think of at the time was giving the young boy and his friend the CIC url - and letting the experts do the talking! That is just what I did, and I hope that young boy is on the site now, brushing up on WC history and getting ready to face the best of the best in Arena!
 
"It's about space ships blowing eachother up and stuff."

That's how my brother explained it to me back in 1995, and as you can all see, it got me quite interested.
 
Sadly many children buy into the idea that graphics make the game, given that they have little exposure to anything before the PS2/GCN console generation, so in introducing older games to them, one has to overcome the preconception of "old game = stuff for old people"
 
Ijuin said:
Sadly many children buy into the idea that graphics make the game, given that they have little exposure to anything before the PS2/GCN console generation, so in introducing older games to them, one has to overcome the preconception of "old game = stuff for old people"
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Wing Commander's amazing graphics are part of the reason that so many people were interested in the series in the 90s. People need to also be aware that impressive modern visuals don't imply a game is all flash and no substance, as Wing Commander demonstrated years ago. The point to get across to people is that WC's graphics were incredible for their time.

ELTEE said:
I was filled with exitement and emotion for even being asked a question on the series. Perhaps the best thing I could think of at the time was giving the young boy and his friend the CIC url - and letting the experts do the talking! That is just what I did, and I hope that young boy is on the site now, brushing up on WC history and getting ready to face the best of the best in Arena!
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We expect that there'll be more and more situations like this over the next few months, so we have a section that briefly summarizes some of the series highlights: https://www.wcnews.com/background/
 
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Well, WC actually sold a good deal of Sound Blaster, AdLib and Roland sound hardware, because of all that aural goodness it offered when most games and gamers were happy with bleeps and bloops from the PC SPKR.

WC always pushed the technology forward, in every single main game. WC3 made me get a "Multimedia Kit" (i.e., a sound board + cd-rom drive + speakers kit), WC4 needed a Pentium, Prophecy was a lot better with a 3D Graphic Accelerator extra board, WCSO needed Internets... (and privateer turned anyone into a memory config wizard with that god damned JEMM).

Arena is quite pretty, it's riding the whole awesome online console gaming and digital distribution thing, and I'm sure that any future WC offering WILL employ technology and graphics to the most.

Edit: My point is that we shouldn't worry about "Them kids" not liking WC because it's not hi tech or pretty enough.
 
I twisted my father's arm for quite a while to get our PC up to WC standards, repeatedly, and for almost each new game. My ultimate WC machine was destroyed when lightening struck the house when I was away at college. What I remember most was how long it took to convince him to get a 3dfx card...the model name eludes me but it was one of the most popular among fellow wingnuts.
 
ChrisReid said:
Wing Commander's amazing graphics are part of the reason that so many people were interested in the series in the 90s. People need to also be aware that impressive modern visuals don't imply a game is all flash and no substance, as Wing Commander demonstrated years ago. The point to get across to people is that WC's graphics were incredible for their time.
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Amazing graphics by the early 1990s standards, yes. Compared against games from three console generations later, no. I know kids who expect every game to have graphics as good as, say, Final Fantasy X. They might think Arena looks good, but if you show them WC1, they will mentally file it next to Pac-Man.
 
I would show a modern gamer Claw Marks - you can fall in love with Wing Commander before you even see the game itself... I certainly did!
 
Or if you have a copy of the KS manual as well, I'm sure that would make some quick converts...
 
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