[Nico]

That's a question that has been running in my head for a few months already...

First, just take a quick pick at the hosted sections.
bare a couple campaigns, everything is dead ( yeah, that includes OTT of course ). lack of motivation, of time or anything, many reasons can be summoned, but the fact is there.

checking at the BWO forum at the VWBB kindda confirms what I believe. Even if the guys there say it's done soon, where is the enthousiasm people were showing at the begining?

which leads me to:

do people still care? there's been a few releases for the last few months ( lightning marshall, the second tBP demo, the FSport, etc ). where's the feedback, where's the proof that more than 10 people played those ( I don't ask for a count, even if it's 20 or 30 people, the point isn't there )?

the SCP: said to give a new life to FS2... people ask for stuff, and more stuff, the SCP people won't/can't listen to every request, of course. anyway where's the benefits? who uses it? probably many of those "dormant" projects? out of the SCP forum, does it have any impact?

I will probably sound like a bloody pessimistic guy to most of you, but that's how I feel about the whole FS2 story right now. Nobody wants that to be true, but... have you never asked yourself that question... isn't FS2 dead already, but nobody even noticed?

[Ashrak]

i still play it online as much as i dare

[01010]

Originally posted by Venom
That's a question that has been running in my head for a few months already...

First, just take a quick pick at the hosted sections.
bare a couple campaigns, everything is dead ( yeah, that includes OTT of course ). lack of motivation, of time or anything, many reasons can be summoned, but the fact is there.

checking at the BWO forum at the VWBB kindda confirms what I believe. Even if the guys there say it's done soon, where is the enthousiasm people were showing at the begining?

which leads me to:

do people still care? there's been a few releases for the last few months ( lightning marshall, the second tBP demo, the FSport ). where's the feedback, where's the proof that more than 10 people played those ( I don't ask for a count, even if it's 20 or 30 people, the point isn't there )?

the SCP: said to give a new life to FS2... people ask for stuff, and more stuff, the SCP people won't/can't listen to every request, of course. anyway where's the benefits? who uses it? probably many of those "dormant" projects? out of the SCP forum, does it have any impact?

I will probably sound like a bloody pessimistic guy to most of you, but that's how I feel about the whole FS2 story right now. Nobody wants that to be true, but... have you never asked yourself that question... isn't FS2 dead already, but nobody even noticed?

I personally feel that it's been dead for a while but I know I'll be re-installing when the SCP is finished and possibly for BWO. I come here more for the community anyway.

[Stryke 9]

Does it matter?

Oh, wow, Venom, it never occurred to me that FreeSpace might have declined in popularity since five years ago! Well, guess that means I'm not coming around here anymore! Or playing it!

[walks off whistling]



[ducks back in]

See what I mean? "Dead" isn't an applicable term, nor would it be relevant even if it was. Yeah, a lot of the campaign designers are lazy and bit off more than they could chew, only to lose interest as soon as the novelty wore off and stuff actually became hard to do, but that's nothing special. Yeah, the community's small, but this game was never ****in' Quake. So?

Me, I've always been a fan of officially dropping the really dead campaigns and making the staffers work on some of the ones that are still alive (if only so that some of my stuff eventually sees the light), but whatever. A few will probably make it through.

[Petrarch of the VBB]

Originally posted by 01010
I come here more for the community anyway.

Indeed. We don't much care about FS anymore, we just come here to talk about, well, stuff.

[Grey Wolf]

I'm working on mine... slowly...

[aldo_14]

To be blunt, i'd say so.  The only reason I'm still working on Reci is because of the time I've already invested in it - in all honesty, I'd much rather be modding something else (or not atall - probably the more tempting option), and in a few months I probably will be.

[Hunter]

Considering Descent 3 sold 60,000 copies worldwide (which is pretty dead), and Freespace 2 sold less than 30,000, I'm surprised there is anything going on here at all. In all truth, I would say this is FAR from dead when you look at the statistics !

[diamondgeezer]

Originally posted by aldo_14
To be blunt, i'd say so.  The only reason I'm still working on Reci is because of the time I've already invested in it - in all honesty, I'd much rather be modding something else (or not atall - probably the more tempting option), and in a few months I probably will be.

Well do you want to decide whether or not it's going ahead? You're never going to do it if you're not enjoying it, and I'd hate to think we were keeping you working on something you didn't want to work on

Anyway, FS2 isn't dead - lookit!

[Sandwich]

We've been quite aware of the declining interest in Freespace, and have our eyes open for other things we can expand into, within the GS limits imposed upon us. Artwork there will always be, but as for a game? I honestly don't know. Remember that the SCP will never be truly "completed", since people will always be adding things to it.

I hold the Battlezone community in the utmost respect for their single (that I know of - not that I've looked for any more, really) completed project, the Battlezone II Community Project. IMHO they did an outstanding job on the administration and coordination of that project, with great PR and everything. It seemed like a project that the whole community was behind, as opposed to the dozens of campaign ideas that have cropped up for FS2.

Which is kinda ironic, don'tcha think?

Anyway, if I had my way, the community would all jump behind one or two projects with potential to draw the most attention from the outside world, such as the B5 and Star Wars TCs. Add to that a concentrated effort by SCP coders to capitulate to the needs of those MODs, such as cycling lasers for SW, or whatever for B5 (never saw it, really), and you'd have the best engine for SW gaming, and the only (?) engine for B5 gaming.

Just think about it: Gamespy, Gamespot, and Games Domain doing complete reviews of a completed and comprehensive Star Wars Total conversion to the now-freely available FS2 engine. They undoubtable point out the thriving, active community here, all surrounding a game that is 4 years old - unheard of! Add on perhaps a few good banner ads in the GS banner network, and various other beneficial stuff (like a truly pro website), and things would really take off.

[diamondgeezer]

Originally posted by Sandwich
Add to that a concentrated effort by SCP coders to capitulate to the needs of those MODs, such as cycling lasers for SW, or whatever for B5 (never saw it, really), and you'd have the best engine for SW gaming, and the only (?) engine for B5 gaming.

Don't forget the ejectior pods for S:AAB  

BTW, Sarnie, could you poke Windrunner for me? I asked him earlier this afternoon to pimp me website in the news, but seems to have better things to do

[Unknown Target]

FS is very much close to being dead. It's not there yet, but it's close.

Of course, many other communities made "community projects" that really boosted interest in the game, most notably Falcon 4.0.

If we could do that, and do some advertising on Gs, the FS community might have a chance. Eventually, though, the HLP forum and the HLP art forum will be the only ones that are at least semi-active.

Me? I've moved on to modding other games. FS just doesn't have that flare anymore. I mean, dumb AI, a canned campaign, dumb AI, dumb AI, dumb AI, and some mroe dumb AI. There are other space-combat games out there (older, granted) that have more to offer in terms of gameplay.

[Bri_Dog]

OTT is dead? I thought Venom brought it back to finish a few missions and then release it.

That sucks

[Nico]

Originally posted by Bri_Dog
OTT is dead? I thought Venom brought it back to finish a few missions and then release it.

That sucks

no, not dead, I handed it over to Woomeister

[Unknown Target]

It's hard to do anything anymore. I know, I've been trying to release whatever we had in the RT mod, but with barely any community interest, it's hard to work on it and give it a reason.

[Nico]

I think the real future of the community would be something like vegastrike. a free, clean, new engine, with which we could do whatever we want.

[TrashMan]

Wow...a lot of pesimism here...

I intend to finish my campaign even if it kills me.
And I allo intend to help those whom I promised to finish their campaigns..
DEAD!? A game is not dead as long as a single human beeing plays it.

FS lives forever!:D

[Unknown Target]

only problem is, a lot of people don't want to leave FS2 and go to a different game, because FS is probably the easiest game to mod.

[Unknown Target]

FS2 is simply not interseting to play anymore.
For instance, right now, I'm going to play a game. It will be a space combat game. However, rather than going to play FS2, I'm going to go play Macross VFX-2 on my Playstation emulator (srry if that stuff isn't allowed around here). Why? Because VFX2 offers something interesting. You get to transform, do ground missions, against AI that is at least somewhat of a challenge (even if you yourself is hampered by the game). FS2 is simply shoot, shoot, shoot, no actual skill required. All you have to do is aim at the lead reticle. There's no fancy manuevering, besides simply rotating on a dime so you can put your guns on target.

[Bri_Dog]

Originally posted by Venom


no, not dead, I handed it over to Woomeister

Ah, I see now. Thanks.