We once believed that some day we might finally see the conclusion to the tale we loved so much--the tale of peace after years of hatred-driven conflict, the tale of unity after ages of distrust and ill-will, the tale of hope after despair and fear of more to come, the tale of acceptance after loss. It is a tale of a nameless hero who lived to save the home of his people, and of the countless others he had to watch die on his way to that final battle. A tale of ruthlessness, necessity, and integrity. Of the eventual end that meets those who thirst for power. Of how even the best of intentions and the noblest of motives can lead to painful consequences far outweighing the expected good. Of the conviction all sides have in war that they are doing what must be done, and of regret for the needless deaths of former friends. And a tale of renewed hope after what was lost seemed irrecoverable.
The remains of that great hope have decomposed and been spread throughout the remaining fan sites, and have fertilized the seedlings of mods, campaigns, total conversions, single missions, features, bugfixes, models, table edits, scripts, spinoffs, artwork, and dreams--and these seedlings in turn have grown, flourished, and sewn yet other new life around them.
There is nothing wrong with saying "Derek Smart" or "FreeSpace 3" (or any abbreviation thereof) in and of itself.
Derek Smart is just some schmuck who develops games, doesn't care what the existing community of a game likes, and happens to make games that are crap. His plans for the FreeSpace franchise were not agreeable to most of the members of the community, and that is probably not going to change. There are still some people who like his games, or at the very least think they have interesting premises (regardless of how well they were implemented (or poorly, as the case may be)). I, like most of the people who have voiced an opinion sufficiently loudly on this forum, am of the belief that a Derek Smart sequel to the game we so much love, FreeSpace 2, would probably be ****, that it would disappoint just about everyone in the community, and that it would likely doom the franchise. Nonetheless, invoking the name of Derek Smart is not quite the same as what would happen if anyone could actually figure out how to pronounce "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" correctly.
As for FS3...
We can't refuse to talk about the future. Whether you believe that future is FreeSpace 3 or not, shushing anyone who dares mention it is not the best way to go about our present.
Don't waste time thinking about what exactly
meant about the snippets they hinted at regarding FS3. It isn't even perfectly clear how well they had a sequel planned out, if at all. If an official sequel ever happens to be made, so be it. If it's good, we can go play it. If it's crap we still have FreeSpace 2 to play around with.
Don't go thinking that anything you make can be FreeSpace 3. You can make the best campaign ever made, use new ships and technologies, and take advantage of lots of new features, but it's not going to be FreeSpace 3.
Do think about what could happen next in the FreeSpace universe. About what you have seen in it. About what was hidden from you, and what happened there before you ever arrived. About what could have happened if things had gone slightly differently.
If someone mentions Derek Smart, it's fine to comment that you think most of his games suck, or that his plans for the FreeSpace franchise were inspired by Satan or some other evil bad guys, but telling the person never to use the dude's name on these forums is an absurd policy (whether official or otherwise). If someone wants to make a FreeSpace 3 or to bug
to hand over the archived plans for it, or simply asks why it doesn't exist, don't tell them to STFU and GTFO, just explain (or provide access to an explanation) what the situation is and provide some sense of just how much the issue has been discussed already.
We don't need more people acting like noobs and arguing over the old issues either, so don't just mention these things frivolously. If you have something new to say that nobody has considered, say it. Otherwise, there's no need to beat a dead horse. And don't troll with FS3/DS comments either. Trolls belong under bridges, not on forums.
I was going to post this in the Inferno board, in the SH Gargant thread (which is not really about the SH Gargant any more), but I figured it would be better here. And then I got carried away making part of it sound poetic. And then I decided to stick a bunch of advice in after the original gripefest. Also I rearranged the various parts of this post several times, so don't throw a fit if you don't like the paragraph order quite as much as I do.