Wing Commander affected our lives

TheFraix

Vice Admiral
Guys. Undoubtly anybody who's viewing this message board must have an interest towards Wing Commander. Either curiousity or wanting to be among Wing Commander fans.

But I also know people who's been debating furiously about Wing Commander. Take the game and the movie issues. Look at the posting 'WC Movie Opinions' for example.

That's proof there are those are deeply affected by Wing Commander? Why?

I'm doing a little research about gamers and how computer games affected their lives and I like to hear some opinions about this.

How did Wing Commander, either the game or movie, affected you?

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Arvin Nathanael Chandra
(if you need to know, I'm majoring in psychology)
 
"I have a life. It revolves around Wing Commander." -- or so quotes the Book. :) Everyone has to have a hobby, and Wing Commander is mine...

WC is a heck of a lot of fun, and it's lead me on a lot of interesting adventures -- and it's always been there when I needed something. I remember having Pilgrim Stars read to me when I was completely blind.

Being a Wing Commander fan online has started a lot of my very best friendships... and it's let me meet some of my heroes <G> (Some kids memorized baseball card information -- I read the little Playtester profiles at the back of the Privateer PG over and over:)).

Wing Commander is something to get excited about, it's something to love, it's something to talk about... it's something to share with people... it's something to put effort into keeping alive.
 
Originally posted by TheFraix
Guys. Undoubtly anybody who's viewing this message board must have an interest towards Wing Commander. Either curiousity or wanting to be among Wing Commander fans.

But I also know people who's been debating furiously about Wing Commander. Take the game and the movie issues. Look at the posting 'WC Movie Opinions' for example.

That's proof there are those are deeply affected by Wing Commander? Why?

I'm doing a little research about gamers and how computer games affected their lives and I like to hear some opinions about this.

How did Wing Commander, either the game or movie, affected you?

-----
Arvin Nathanael Chandra
(if you need to know, I'm majoring in psychology)

Well for me it is somehow like Star Wars or Star Trek. These (in the beginning movies/series, which I also like BTW) SciFi Universes have a great in depth story, a lot of fans and so on. I think it is the great atmosphere, the combination of Science Fiction, dreams and reality, that makes it so funny.

What differs Wing Commander from any other games? I think it is the great story, and, especially in Wing Commander 1, the way you could identify yourself with Blair. I sometimes think that my own character is close to what I see on the computer screen, and the way the complete story evolves around you, the way you get your medals, the way all other people are respecting you and talking to you, all these things make it so real. I just think about the first WC1 mission. After completing it, I talked to Shotglass. He said "I just heard you flew with Spirit today..." If she got killed in that mission, Shotglass says "Damn shame she didn't make it back"

These incredible details make the game so special. I personally like WC1/2/Privateer most, as these are more charming IMO.

What means WC to me today? Well I think it is fun, it is a great way to relax, you feel "important", it is nice being a "hero" when playing it.
I even think that most of the people who play Wing Commander have a different approach towards Computergames than the average Doom, Diablo or Counterstrike player (no offense intended, I like these games too)
While these games are fun, they do not have a great story and are just very simple, and mostly multiplayer games (I really would like an online variant of WC, but with a good story... my greatest wish would be Privateer online)

I think that Wing Commander was made for the intelligent computer player, not because it is difficult to play (it is not), but as it tells a story, it has a complete universe. Just look at the people here at the forum. They are very different, but it is possible to have intelligent discussions with them, that go far beyond the normal things, and I think that we have had a lot of very interesting, intelligent threads(I have not been here so long yet, but I think at the discussions about WC Physics and many other threads)




[Edited by Sonntag on 04-14-2001 at 13:16]
 
It's a good computergame. Not more not less. I didn't see very many which were better (just 1 or 2 on which I spent more hours)...
I am not one of the real hard (sorry Bandit, or others, but spending my life on it is too much) fans...I like the people here and I also like to talk with them about other themes....some people I'd also like to get to know better...maybe one day. It's an Internet-community here to which I like to come back, if my parents let me. Of course it is also a little hobby of mine (under many others, many even more important!). I like to play the games, I like the scenes in the games and I thank WC to have found a job which I'd like to reach (Bundeswehr)...I always have to know for what I work at school (if I don't have a concrete job-aim I don't work)...and so I indirectly thank WC better marks at school, because I had the idea to join Bundeswehr.:) Sounds little strange, I know...
 
For me Wing Commander just has that great universe to accompany the game. It is not shallow like other games that give you a blurb and that's it. Even with WC1, we had a universe set out for us through stories and information in Claw Marks. It was immersive, especially with the advent of the Privateer games.

Also, WC3 and WC4, need I say more? The best games of all time, and I'd wager to say they were some of the best MOVIES, yes thats right, movies of all time! Epic space operas! A grand assortment of high drama, action and depth that can only come with an 'established' setting.

Finally, it allows us to play our alter ego. I wanted to be a pilot, but moreso, after Wing Commander, I wanted to be a STARFIGHTER pilot. Star Wars didn't make me want to be a pilot. I thought it was trash (no offence to SW people). It gave me a chance to live the best elements of Babylon 5, Star Trek, Space Above and Beyond and various other SciFi shows. It lets us escape from the real world for a few hours (ok, for most of us, a few days, weeks, years...er, you mean, the Tiger's Claw DIDN'T get destroyed off K'Tithrak Mang??? What??? Theres no Thrakhath???) and be the hero...

Its a great game. A game that will have a lasting impact on me.
 
Yeah! And I want to join Navy or Army...*LOL* for the test I learn a lot at school now...to be able to make my examination. Thank WC.
 
Thanks Sonntag:)

WC was the first game I played when my family first got a computer (well technically we had a Commodore 64 but i dont count that) and it was so different than anything i had played on a console that i loved it. Total freedom of movement, not a rail where you have no control of where you fly. Gave me new expectations for games. I've loved playing every game after that. In high school there were certain games me and my friends all played. Started with Doom and Duke Nukem on modem, but then we started playing other games like X-Com, Starcraft and Wing Commander. IT was a lot of fun playing against each other or talking tactics or other stuff.

Then I started to learn more and more about WC as a universe and thats when i became a huge fan of the whole enchilada. You get me started in a conversation about it and we can go for hours. But it also has inspired me artistically. I have half a dozen story ideas rattling around in my head that i want to get down on paper and every day i feel like grabbing a pencil and doodling something, whether its just a little thing or a full blown picture of either the ships or the characters. It has allowed me to flex that creative muscle. THen there is all the fun i get coming here and talking about it.
 
i played wing commander because it made me feel like i am really there, i mean in the future fighting against the furballs with my wingmen. its incredible how they could give that game such a good gameplay and that feeling. i mean the feeling of a second world for me with a lot of action and fun. its hard to describe but that makes wing commander special, and no other space-combat-sim can give that to me, its impossible... its the world that was made by origin, and only they can make that again. thats why their slogan was "we create worlds".
 
Well, Wing Commander is just great, simple as that. It's one of the few things that have kept my interest for as long as it has (going on 4 years now).

The games are fun, the movie's awesome, I've read the books numerous times, and I just never get sick of it.

A lot of people think WC is dead. Well, screw 'em. I'm sticking around, even if we don't get anything new for a while.

It's also nice to be part of the whole WC fan community, seein' as how there aren't that many of us left (there may be more than I think, though). Sure, we have our arguments in this community, but it's a lot more welcoming here than, say, the Star Wars fan community. SW fans are a bunch of whiners. Look at all they have: Hundreds of books, dozens of games, four movies with two more on the way, and they still complain about things like Christopher Lee being too old to play a Sith. Come on! Anyway, despite it all, WC fans hold together pretty well, and that's pretty damn cool.

Anyway, I'm babbling, so there's my answer, TheFraix.
 
Well to cut a long story short I was tricked into moving to a school I didn't want to be at and to make up for this (and I really was upset by this) all I got was a game off my parents, I chose Wing Commander IV and it really helped me forget all my troubles, it was unlike any game I'd ever played before and I loved every second of it. Ever since then when I've been depressed I've always found comfort in Wing Commander, its like my own version of chocolate ice cream :)
Computer games are great for escaping reality and Wing Commander has been made in such a way that you can just fall right into this other world. Perfect.
 
Wing Commander has affected me in the following way: It has given me something enjoyable to do in my free time. It has also given me something that I can talk to people about and allow me to meet people online and do something that is fun. Plus it gave me an initiative to learn how to mod programs such as HW and ST:A.
 
HM, ya you can let yourself fall into another world. But not too much...this isn't good....you maybe forget to face reality!
 
yeah, like manjana said you sould watch yourself there Pedro. Wing commander is a nice way to comfort yourself, but you could easily find yourself spending more and more time in the wc reality until it starts to become your only reality, and trust me whatever you find depressing isn't as depressing as realizing your life is starting to slip away.
As fun as it as much depth as it has for a game, it still pales in comparison to real life.
 
I disagree -- that never actually happens. I mean, I've got a perfectly normal real-life, and I'm about as WC-crazy as you can get.
 
I think WC is more like a movie series (like Star Wars) than a computer game. Let's face it, nobody played WC4 for the new and exciting flight engine.

When WC3 was released I read a bunch of snide comments about "tedious" FMV getting in the way of the action. But for me that was just the attraction...there was a story, people to know and care about. A cause to truly believe in. Far preferable to killing for its own sake.

WC involves me like no other game. When the WC4 tunes appeared on Napster recently I downloaded and played them...I had to stop what I was doing and listen as I remembered everything I had done in that game. I played WC4 right after I'd finished 3 and I knew nothing about what to expect.

I defected right away with Eisen, not because I knew I had to but because Bill Eisen and Todd Marshall (pain in the ass as he may be) were my friends and I trusted them.

I bought Tolwyn's line on the Intrepid and let him go...I was as shocked as Blair was to see him in charge of the Black Lance, and I got the same shivers just hearing the music of his trial as I did when I first heard the evidence being given against him.

There are lots of good games out there but WC is a class apart.
 
I didn't defect with Eisen right away...because if something was rotten with Confed, I figured I'd want to be on the side with the gun when the shooting started (yeah, I'm cold...I did amazingly well with Privateer 2). I didn't defect the second time, either...and lost, so I went back and defected the first time. I loved the underdog nature of the Border Worlds. Once you have dreams involving you torpedoing the Vesuvius, you're hooked.

Now, I have to rationalize it whenever I use Invul (I think of it as my latent psychokinetic Pilgrim powers deflecting the energy shots). I try to act like Blair in the games, and I usually play the games the way the "official" history goes (actually, I kept agreeing with Hawk in WC4, and ended up with the Admiral Blair ending).

Yeah, I'm crazy.
 
For my money, Wing Commander and certain SF shows (that shall remain nameless so as to avoid an A vs B thread) have universes that strike the perfect balance between ideals and reality. The heroes and villains were REAL heroes and villains. It wasn't as simple as "these are the bad guys becuase... they're bad." Come to think of it, that was more or less the case with WC1-3 and Prophecy - but I'm thinking specifically of Tolwyn in WC4. But I think the heroes were spot on too. Reluctant warriors, etc. I think a lot of what I know about honour and decency came from watching characters like Blair and that's what I like to think I take away from the Wing Commander Experience. And as long as I can look back in years to come and think I lived true to those ideals then I'll die a happy man.
 
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