Hm. This looks very ambitious. Too ambitious maybe. It seems like the kind of thing I'd love to design and program, but wouldn't really want to play. The whole idea of an MMO seems cool, but it's just not something I actually enjoy or have time for. Nor do I really like the open-world style of Privateer. I just want to fly missions and experience a good story with good characters. I didn't even really care about the branching mission structure in the original Wing Commander, as cool as it was in concept. I know a lot of people do like these things, though, so that's all probably exciting for them. Some things he mentioned just never seem to work out, though. For example, has any game ever made it fun to man a turret unless the sequence was specifically tailored to be playable and fun? It's good that it seems there is a standalone single player aspect to it, and if it's really well done, at the level of quality of the Wing Commander games, it could really be something I am interested in. I might even actually get a new computer for it, something I have not done in a long, long time.
Anyway, the level of detail was amazing, but I wonder if it is really worth it. A lot of that stuff creates an immersive experience once, but it's stuff you also stop noticing later or just skip over (like climbing into your fighter). Especially in an MMO-type game, getting places and doing things quickly tends to be more important than the immersiveness of the experience. I remember complaints about this from the Old Republic MMO. Maybe it can work in this different kind of game, though. Even if it turns out not to matter much, you have to appreciate that kind of attention to detail; at the very least, it gives you an idea of the care going into the game, and that's always a good feeling to have when you're playing.
It seems that this is not a Wing Commander game or set in the Wing Commander universe, and I think that's a good thing. I would have been really interested in a continuation of Wing Commander Prophecy, but obviously that wasn't something that was going to happen for several reasons. I also would have liked a new story that takes place after the original games and more or less ignores Prophecy. But a remake seemed like the more likely thing, and I'm really not interested in that. So a new universe with different locations, people, events, and tech, a kind of blank slate, offers some very interesting possibilities. Though for people interested in an MMO, being able to play around in the Wing Commander universe would be fun too.
Also, it was nice to hear him optimistic about the PC platform and the space sim genre.
By the way, I had never heard Chris Roberts' voice before (except for his quick cameo in Wing Commander IV), and it sounded to me like he has a bit of an English or Australian accent. But the Internet tells me he is American and was born in California. Was I hearing things?
