Comments on: Games That Never Were: Twilyt Productions

By: Troy Goodfellow

Troy Goodfellow — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 18:56:00 +0000

You want to keep me happy, stop beating me at UFO2000.

I don’t see why a WWI shooter would have to be any more realistic than Medal of Honor, which has you winning D-Day all on your lonesome. You could run across no-man’s land, hide in shell craters, toss grenades. Be Sgt. York.

Otherwise it would just be Nethack with a gun – waiting for the inevitable stupid death.

By: Jim9137

Jim9137 — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 18:37:00 +0000

Paul is such an Red Baron.

Most of the WWI games focus on the air, probably because the land was so confused mess but those planes in the air, exploring a totally new dimension like they did when they found America or India, are so beautiful and romantic! But sadly, I can’t name a single recent WWI airplane simulator.

On the other news, IL-2 is the rules.

P.S: No, I had nothing useful to contribute. Just to keep Goodfellow happy.

By: Paul "Gamegeek" Stephanouk

Paul "Gamegeek" Stephanouk — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 16:08:00 +0000

“I often wonder why there are so many first-person shooter and action games about WWII and virtually none about World War I”

It turns out there ARE a lot of games about WWI. I’ve been playing them for over two decades. They mostly involve words like “Fokker” and “Immelman”.

I’ll give the Xbox Live-enabled trench warefare simulator a pass, thanks.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 03:31:00 +0000

I don’t understand why small developers still try to get publishers for their niche games. Why not self-publish? There’s a huge online community for strategy/wargames, and most of them are comfortable buying products online (who hasn’t, nowadays?).

Oh, and add me to the list of folks who’d like to see a historically accurate first-person WWI game (although it would probably be quite depressing).

–Sparky

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 02:25:00 +0000

You bring up an interesting point about certain wars being ignored in video games. I’m no strategy game expert, but I often wonder why there are so many first-person shooter and action games about WWII and virtually none about World War I.

Granted, WWI was a far uglier war based on political posturing rather than the actions of one clear-cut villain, remembered for things like mustard gas, soldiers being mowed down in the mud by artillery, etc.

But it had its heroes too…

By: roboczar

roboczar — Sun, 05 Jun 2005 23:55:00 +0000

A lot of the problem with the supposed ‘niche’ nature of the wargaming industry is that the people who make them are ‘hobbyists’, and not ‘designers’. You may think otherwise, but there is quite a lot to be desired in many wargames when it comes to ease of use and trying to flatten the learning curve. The Operational Art of War, and especially Shrapnel Games’ series of Armored Task Force scenarios are completely and utter incomprehensible to less dedicated gamers, even those in Shrapnel’s (or anyone else’s) target market.

Part of the lack of design talent may just be a funding issue, and I think that those companies with more money can afford to hire a design team to iron out all the extras that would serve to confuse new users and reduce the market penetration of a title.

That said, South Africa is not a good place to do business, unless your business is offshore finances and tourism. Not surprised that people in a country where more than half of the population is illiterate and unemployed (non of them white, mind you) would have trouble with entreprenurial businesses.