Research? Bah! (August 21, 2007)

Status
Not open for further replies.
No it isn't, it's very clearly an attempt to be a history - including dates, people, titles and events.
 
There were just little things that felt...unfinished about it. For example, having to quit out of the game in between missions to read the fiction and find out what was happening in the story, as opposed to having even something as simple as a fiction viewer in the game

Yeah, I might expect something like that in 2007, but they went above and beyond for 1998. The whole concept of posting fiction online at regular intervals in step with an episodic release was a new thing that was being experimented with for the first time. Of course they could have just bundled a few pages of text with the episodes themselves, but Secret Ops was more than that. In 1998, the entire act of opening up Netscape and browsing over to a web page that was an in-universe news article was an exciting and novel thing for most people to do.

Or the fact that all of the "new" fighters and weapons seemed to be essentially re-skins of the Prophecy ones, with tweaked stats. It just felt like, if the game had been one that they were going to release in stores and charge money for, a quality company like Origin would have polished it up better (either that, or Origin was slipping).

The fact that no ships were simply just dropped back in and reused was amazing. If this were just an addon, you might expect maybe one new ship to fly and one to fly against or with, and everything else would be the same. Not only did Secret Ops set you on a cool new strike cruiser, it changed up every existing design with fancy things like cloudbursts, dust cannons, pulse particles, mosquitos and so on. The Plunkett is an awesome ship, and it's nice to see something like a Cruise Liner in a warzone game. Plus, they remodeled and added back in classic stuff like the Thunderbolt, Excalibur and Vesuvius. I don't see how someone could think Secret Ops cheaped out on new stuff like this.

And maybe that was part of the issue, too. Part of the reason it might have felt like less of a game to me (and apparently to others) may have been because it was free...we have a habit of innately judging free things to be less than things we have to pay for.

Maybe they should have charge $60 for Arena.
 
As the undisputed #1 Wing Commander history buff of the universe, I can understand LOAF's outrage at the inaccuracies of the article; this is something the man feels more passionate for than I dare say I've felt towards anything in my life to date!

Additionally, the article may be written in a kind of "fondly reminiscing" way, but I think it's fair that we need to take it as an intended authentic source for information (click on the link above the article to go to the site's home page or click the link provided by LOAF at the top of this thread)...the site fancies itself a game-reviewer and retrospect site for better or worse. So despite the tone of the article, I share the others' appreciation that better care should have been taken to get facts straight.

That all being said, there's a few other things worth mentioning in its defense. Aside from the previously mentioned glaring oversights, I personally felt the review to yet remain a fairly decent account of most of Wing Commander's history. I know everyone has their opinions about the follow-up to Prophecy (SO? Man, I suck with acronyms!). For my own part, it felt like an idea that never got completely hashed out (to draw a parallel, I'd liken it to the current online episodic releases of Sam & Max) - there's too much there to not receive some praise for what it is, but I can understand why some think it shouldn't count as the next game in the series as well (for my own part, it reminds me of the follow-ups to WC1 & WC2 - we don't give them their own roman numerals because they're just additions to ideas, concepts, storylines, all within the same graphics engine of the roman numeral it followed; generally speaking, there are never as shocking moments in these as the original games they piggyback so that if you miss them and just jump to the next game in the series, you're only missing miscellaneous background stuff that doesn't really matter). It seemed like SO was a hold-over till we got a full-fledged sequel to Prophecy from Origin (and weren't there rumors as to what those sequels would be entitled?) That being the case, can we rightly call it the next big push forward in the series to consider it a new Wing Commander game the same way that Prophecy was? I don't feel so, but I won't lose any sleep over it if my argument is altogether wrong as I'm not any kind of acclaimed critic by any stretch of the imagination! :)

Was SO something worth mentioning in this article? Absolutely, and for those even more obsessed with getting things right, it might be worthwhile to pin the author down and ask why things weren't addressed or presented in such a way as to put the cart before the horse (specifically the timetable regarding Chris Roberts leaving Origin).

In some hindsight retrospect, one might even be able to connect the dots in the ebb and flow of the Wing Commander franchise. It started out with 2D sprites and graphics, moved speech in there for a sequel with a more intricate storyline, made the push to 3D graphics and real life actors on computer-generated backdrops, then moved onto a full-scale large FMV production...then it feels like the two ideas separated at some point where the Chris Roberts' idea blossomed into an actual non-interactive full-length movie and the ongoing franchise put more into the action and build of the the next game and downscaled the movie production to an extent...then with SO, we get the elimination of movie elements altogether with something downloadable online...then all these years later, we get a downloadable XBox Live! game with an online manual as the only story backdrop with no in-game storyline at all.

Even with all its errors, however, I feel this article is still important for two big reasons. The first: we live in a world where any news - no matter how right or wrong, good or bad - is great for publicity; having an opinion creates some level of controversy, it creates a buzz which gradually gets more people asking around "what's this all about?" In the case of Wing Commander, this is a good thing because it shines at most a spotlight (and at the very least a flashlight) on the aged Wing Commander franchise, and gets people of the right vintage remembering fondly the days of old and wanting to see how things progress in the future with the series. The second thing this does: it finishes with the idea that Arena is nowhere near enough for some fans of this series. That may have the long-term benefit of forcing EA to either spill more time, energy, and monies into future projects, or cause them to abandon the franchise which another company may pluck up and do something more with.

At any rate, I say if this kind of article irks ya, get in touch with the author and (in so many words) ask him politely to update his article with more accurate information for the viewing public. Beyond that, hey - it's an article that for all its flaws still talks about Wing Commander and (at some point) liking the series, and as much as we may want to nitpick, I fail to comprehend how the overall additional WC impulse that this injects into the world could be a bad thing for any fan. As is, I think it's a good jumping-off point for potential newbies to the series who don't care about the history of the game world a decade ago; eventually they'll find their way here and all of us tired old farts can straighten out their facts (yippy!!). ;)
 
That may have the long-term benefit of forcing EA to either spill more time, energy, and monies into future projects, or cause them to abandon the franchise which another company may pluck up and do something more with.

I don't see that as being too plausible. While EA can and has stopped making games for particular franchises in their library, it's a lot more complicated than some other company just popping in doing something with it. Even for its unused franchises, EA does not license out its properties cheap. For primary platforms, it takes a lot of money up front and a share of the sales, plus EA retains oversight. The companies in a financial position to take the lead on this will wonder why EA isn't already making a WC game if it was a worthwhile investment. With the space sim market already being so marginalized, they're better off just making up their own franchise.
 
To be fair Secret Ops wasn't commercially available as a seperate package, when bundled with Prophecy it didn't even enter into the naming, it just became the "Gold" edition.
I'm going to take the cowards way out and not offer a personal opinion (other than I considered Secret Ops to be a highly important relase), but will say I wouldn't pounce on the author for overlooking it.

The Starlancer image can be explained away given that Starlancer is mentioned in the article.
 
To be fair Secret Ops wasn't commercially available as a seperate package, when bundled with Prophecy it didn't even enter into the naming, it just became the "Gold" edition.

It did actually get sold complete with some magazines as just Secret Ops.

I'm going to take the cowards way out and not offer a personal opinion (other than I considered Secret Ops to be a highly important relase), but will say I wouldn't pounce on the author for overlooking it.

Where's LeHah when you need him?

The Starlancer image can be explained away given that Starlancer is mentioned in the article.

That's pretty lame.
 
ChrisReid said:
I don't see that as being too plausible. While EA can and has stopped making games for particular franchises in their library, it's a lot more complicated than some other company just popping in doing something with it. Even for its unused franchises, EA does not license out its properties cheap. For primary platforms, it takes a lot of money up front and a share of the sales, plus EA retains oversight. The companies in a financial position to take the lead on this will wonder why EA isn't already making a WC game if it was a worthwhile investment. With the space sim market already being so marginalized, they're better off just making up their own franchise.

Yeah, you have a good point there. Hypothetically, EA would just sit on it till someone bought the franchise for top dollar. I do hate how some of these well-known older series got gobbled up by some corporate machine. Kind of makes you wonder if they'll ever consider dropping a buck to return Wing Commander to the bravado of old, or if they'll just try to milk it occasionally by throwing the fan base some breadcrumbs. I still wonder if Arena was/is an intent to find a niche to mainstream future WC titles, or if it was just one of these such breadcrumbs (still, on reading Star*Soldier, one has to consider that a rather exorbitant amount of consideration and care went into the project behind-the-scenes...heck, I'm still hoping there will be a sequel to the online booklet at some point that more clearly outlines the Nephilim War!).

ser lev said:
bring on yet another need for speed

*sigh* Yeah...perish the thought. Although, call me crazy, but I actually did enjoy Most Wanted on the 360...well, until the speedometer burned an image into my plasma TV (fortunately, it disappeared over time)...

ChrisReid said:
(Regarding Pedro's earlier post:) Where's LeHah when you need him?

Heh ouch. :) Wishing the will of LeHah on someone? That's not right! ;) I believe LeHah actually commented earlier in response to the things I said at any rate. Considering the fact that Pedro took a similar stance, I assume it's guilt by association. ;) *drapes his arm over Pedro's head* Welcome to the club, man! :D

LeHah said:
You have an incredible talent for passive-aggressive comments that refuse to take a stand on anything.

A skill only surpassed by your own remarkable adherence to candid bluntness and shoot-from-the-hip delivery, LeHah. :D Seriously, I never cease to be entertained by your responses, guy; keep it up! :)

But to perhaps better clarify: my own stance on this subject (the topic in question as presented by LOAF) is that I don't think it ultimately matters. If someone bugs this guy to rewrite his article, I think the only people it'll make a difference to are the ones who were upset with it originally; the rest of the people (myself included) aren't going to remember that article nor the things in it when we wake up tomorrow morning.

As for me being hopelessly passive-aggressive, we can chalk that up to a skill honed in corporate America, baby. ;) But still LeHah, you are right - on these forums, I've done far little in any of these discussions to spur an argument with my own opinionated shenanigans. I'm just saving up for the things that matter rather than shouting at the heavens for all the trivial stuff in-between here and there.

I love Wing Commander. We all love Wing Commander. And when it comes to finding out the gritty details behind every little morsel of anything ever done, we all know to come right here to WCNews, and Lord knows LOAF is always standing by to set us straight whenever we're seriously barking up the wrong tree.

It's unfortunate that the guy who wrote this article didn't put enough time in and stop by this site to make sure he had a clear understanding of everything before charging forward. For what he had there, I'd probably give him a solid B-; even with the mistakes, he got a point across and (I feel) a valid one that he substantiated with enough pieces of the puzzle. If people want to quibble over that, go right ahead. But at the end of the day, after all our devoted fandom and painstaking laboriously accumulated knowledge of history and WC lore, we are still talking about a video game, and it's one that hasn't been taken as seriously as it should be by corporate powers or the majority of gamers in the past ten years at this point (in my estimation).

I haven't been here as long as most of you die-hard Wing Commander lovers. I'm just trying to do my part to stop some of you from beating your heads over the wall every time some ill-advised dude flaps his head about stuff he doesn't know everything about (and hey, at the risk of sounding selfish, it has the side-benefit of having you guys being better able to tolerate me as we move forward too, darn it!). ;)

Lastly, from a philosophical standpoint, I think it's important as a community to let go and let some things slide. Otherwise in our zealotry, we tend to act as catalysts for making some events repeat themselves over and over again (like the current ongoing argument of "is Prophecy WC:V and SO WC:VI?"). The truth of all things Wing Commander is right here for those like us who crave it; it probably will not go far to endearing WC fans to the rest of the world if we took it upon ourselves to go out and actively lecture the rest of the world on how it's hopelessly got Wing Commander pegged all wrong.
 
Ok... well I guess I should hold my hands up at this point and say 'It was me!'

I'm the (bad) writer wrote the original play.tm article and despite all the criticism (a lot of which I’ve not read to sorry if I don’t comment on every point) it's nice to see some people managed to understand what I was aiming for...

The article was never intended (or allowed to be come to that) an in-depth 20,000 word essay on all thing WC it was instead aimed to be an affectionate look back at a series of games I'd really enjoyed back in my younger years. In fact, the editorial brief given to me was pretty much that, it was supposed to be a personal memory rather than a serious critique. The factual inaccuracies, like the time of Chris Roberts departure I apologise for, errors are errors and in the age of the internet shouldn’t be made, and that fact in particular was one I should have checked. The image used at the top of the page has nothing to do me however, site design being way outside the remit of a mere wordsmith.

The omission of the SO missions however was a conscious choice, the article was supposed to be my own personal look back at the series and as I'd never played them and my word count was already limited it felt a little unfair to comment on them (same applies to games like Armada and Academy). As for my dislike of Arena, I'm sorry but it was my article and my opinion. I'm not saying everyone else will feel the same, but as an extension to the WC universe it just didn't hit any buttons for me. Sorry, but it didn't. I'm glad you guys love it, I really am, but I didn't.

I've played an every growing list of games across all platforms over many years and when given the chance to muse about a much loved series on a mainstream gaming site I chose the WC series as it meant a lot to me at the time and I'd love to see a true continuation of the franchise given today’s technology. Considering the intended readership (people who may well be getting their first taste of WC with the release of Arena) I think a little slack needs to be given by the hardcore when it comes to lack of detail and such like. It was aimed at gamers who had either never heard of the series or those who would have fond memories awakened by my brief look back.

I'm sorry if the hardcore WC fans felt my article to be demeaning and its (few) inaccuracies offensive, but I’ve never set myself up as a WC expert, simply a casual fan who loved the series 10+ years ago and used those fond memories as the basis for what was supposed to be an affectionate look back into history. I'm still glad I wrote it and Wing Commander still remains a favourite part of my gaming history.

P.S. if it makes you feel better, it was almost not going to be about WC at all, I was actually intending to write a piece about Tie Fighter but a few hundred words in realised I really wanted to be talking about WC so I scrapped what I'd done and started again...
 
...oh, and I wasn't saying I didn't like Arena because it lacked FMV, I was trying to make the point that it was just a multiplayer shooter and lacked the involving single player story the WC series was famous for... The lack of FMV was just a quick and easy reference to make my point... perhaps it didn't work...
 
Welcome to the board, Paul...and thanks for the engagement!

For what it's worth:

I think the biggest problem was the way your article seemed to have glaring factual errors paired with sweeping statements. It does change a bit when viewed as a nostalgic recollection...but the critiques about needing to fact check still stand on their own two legs.

If you wanted to put together an expose' on the evolution of the WC franchise over its 17+ year run and needed backup material, this is the place! Here you can find all kinds of experts, lifelong fans, industry members, original Origin developers(!), etc. The online resources referencing everything from ship classes to mission walkthroughs to background of characters is really impressive. In fact, you could write one HELL of an article about the series based on what can be gleaned from the past 8 months of front page postings! Feel free to drop questions about Wing Commander on this board in the future, I guarantee you will be impressed with the wealth of info...

Again, thanks for (I'm making a big presumption here) following the link I dropped into the comments area and poking your head in! Don't be shy...the board is feisty, but we don't bite...hard.... ;)
 
...oh, and I wasn't saying I didn't like Arena because it lacked FMV, I was trying to make the point that it was just a multiplayer shooter and lacked the involving single player story the WC series was famous for... The lack of FMV was just a quick and easy reference to make my point... perhaps it didn't work...

Well it's certainly nice of you to come by and explain your reasoning behind the article. It's always great to see WC get some press time, we just happen to be very dedicated to making sure what is written is correct.

Even with the errors and such, it was nice to see large article reflecting on WC. Now if we could only get the 1UP Retronauts to cover WC as well, instead of the crappy games they have been doing lately.
 
Well yeah, I was wondering that... Other than the silly Chris Roberts error the main gripe seems to be my dislike of Arena (a view shared by a lot of far more widely read mainstream reviews so I'm not alone...) which was a personal off the cuff opinion and not expressed in the context of a full review (anyone who wants to send me some MS points so I can give it the full review treatment and have my opinion changed is more than welcome ~~~).

Talk about blowing things out of proportion. Personal memory or dry history lesson, does it actually matter either way? The fact remains that I spent a large part of my youth playing WC games and wanted to jog a few memories or let people know there was more to the WC universe than just Arena while expressing my hope that at some point the powers that be see fit to properly revive the series, something we can surely all agree on...

At the end of the day it matters not if you hated it, my skin is far thicker than that and I’m finding all this quite entertaining. I don't get paid to write these things I do it because I enjoy it and I still think (aside from one factual error) the article serves as a nice easy introduction/reminder for anyone not quite as fanatical as some of the keyboard warriors on here.
 
Nothing like being consistant...

Bandit LOAF : "As a basic timeline it's fairly well done"
Bandit LOAF : "it's still a terrible article"

See, this criticism lark is easy.... ~~~ ;)
 
Why does everyone who dislikes Arena complain that 1.) It doesn't have a detailed story like the past WC games, and 2) It doesn't have FMV?

It is an X-box live game that costs $10 to download. It takes up less than 50MB on your hard drive. It is not a game that you have to pay $50+ dollars to buy in the store.

If you are going to compare it to other games, you should compare it to other X-box live games, not WC3 or contemporary games that run off a CD or DVD. Do other X-box live games have a detailed story? NO not unless it is a port of an old nintendo game. Do other x-box live games have FMV? NO.

If you are going to judge Arena, judge it for what it is, an-online multiplayer space shooter available on X-box live.
 
The issue here goes well beyond Arena, though, and pretending that that's the only problem people have is pointless. I certainly think your opinion about Arena is worthless, some small attempt to curry favor with the blog-and-podcast crowd... but that's not something that can be objectively debated (beyond the level to which LeHah and company already have, anyway). Completely irrelevant to Arena is the fact that there's a research issue here - you chose a StarLancer screenshot as the header for your Wing Commander article! That's bad work.
 
My biggest issue with this article and others like it, and this is probably way late, is that here we have a brand new Wing Commander game. The first in many, many years. It was well established from the get go that it is an arcade game, cool, no big deal. So, instead of embracing it for what it is, instead folks who are angry that it doesn't have a single player story (hello, arcade game?), and because it's an arcade game and not a flight sim, well hell lets give it horrible reviews and thus ensure that EA doesn't release a full blown game. All these horrible 'nostalgia' trip articles need to go away. Play the game for what it is, read star*soldier and know that it adds a whole crapload of new backstory, and enjoy the game.

Brad
 
Yikes my second passion in video games after wing commander is Resident Evil, whilst I may be passionate enough about WC to buy anything baring the name, I do not own any of the light gun titles in the RE franchise, nor Outbreak, the gameplay doesn't greatly appeal to me personally, and they are not critical to the plotline of the series so I happilly ignore them. I can see many people overlooking Arena using similar reasoning.

Well, most of the Resident Evil sidestory games are not canon to Resident Evil, kind of like how the Metal Gear AC!D and Ghost Babel games are not canon to Metal Gear. However, Wing Commander is a more complete universe in that every official media publication can be fit into the canon, whether it's retelling part of an older story or telling a new story. Wing Commander Arena's additions to the canon are *amazing.* It's not just a multiplayer shooting game, it is an authentic addition to the Wing Commander universe. Overlooking Arena is kind of ignorant... you can't just ignore something and say it's not important just because it's not exactly what you thought it would be.

Though I am reminded of LOAF's constant reminders before Arena came out that once a new Wing Commander game comes out, the naysaying usually focusing on the movie would move to the game and leave the movie largely accepted.
 
Brad, that is the same point I've been trying to make to the critics of Arena. Its a 50MB Xbox Live game, but yet people criticize it like its a fully developed CD or DVD based game. I don't think it was ever advertized that way, none of the press releases I read about Arena said anything to lead me to think it was something other than it is. I read several reviews about the game as well as the summary of it before I downloaded Arena so I knew what I was getting, and I am happy with it.

I'm getting sick of people who act like they thought Arena was going to be something else, because they wanted it to be something else. Judge Arena for what it is, not what you wished it would be.
 
I didn't actually read the guys article, so I've probably missed something, but if he wrote about his memories about WC, I don't see why you complain him not doing enough research...

I mean, if I wanted to write about the time I got lost in the forest I would write it as I remembered it, I sure wouldn't bother go back to dig out every fact about it like what kinds of trees were there or the name of the road i eventually found... A kinda crappy example, I know, but I hope you see what i mean. :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top