[Ferret]

Publishers have a lot more influence than you think.

[Getter Robo G]

Only the people truly involved with the title and who care about the game quality/experience are what make a game great.

99% of the time that means the productin staff (blacktide, Origin, ect)..

Schmucks like Interplay only have to bankroll the publishing for people like me to Brun and ship the disks out to you people. (I AM in the industry in that capacity, we even burned 500 more copies of FS2 in NOV of 2003   )

Klingon Academy was one of the most awesome Trek games ever created, and I seriously doubt Interplay had anything to do with it aside from their garish splash page as the publisher.. 14 Degrees East were the minds and talent behind that game.

In fact being with Interplay was actually a detriment to them. There definately could have been a sequel (now like Romulan Dawn made by fans) and more support but Interplay but they abandoned the title.

In some small way I an glad I no longer get paperwork to crank out disks that have Interplay header at the top. Instead the bulk of my work is $50k-$100k of EGAMES titles daily...

[Ferret]

Originally posted by Getter Robo G
Only the people truly involved with the title and who care about the game quality/experience are what make a game great.

Which is why there hasn't been a great game in about a year. Because the people who are "involved" don't give two ****s.

[Getter Robo G]

On that I can agree...

[Charismatic]

Seconded.

[Flipside]

That's why Indy gaming is slowly gaining a larger and larger following. Making a full sized game these days is such a massive investment, it's like the movies, producers would rather play safe and draw even than be innovative and risk losing a fortune. Indy games do not have the same level of expectation pressuring them, which gives them a lot more room to be creative.

You would have thought that more money with add freedom to the game market, but in reality, it's cripples it.

[NGTM-1R]

Originally posted by StratComm
Actually (and no offense to the Inferno team) there's too much overdone stuff in Inferno for it to be "the best".  I personally think BWO has the best shot of making the best continuation out there of the projects still alive.

Overdone stuff like, you know, the Colossus, the Sathanas (all 80+ of them)...

BWO makes a better continuation of FS1. That's what it most feels like. Inferno makes a better continuation of FS2.

[Nuclear1]

This is why I don't like to do post-FS2 campaigns. There's too much of a standard to live up to. Everyone seems to understand the idea that the GTVA is probably going to be in economic depression after the war, and is probably going to be susceptible to pirates, while much of the money that is being spent is going towards the restoration of the Delta Serpentis-Sol node.

I like campaigns where the campaign simply plays with the history of the game (Fall of Epsilon Pegasi, Rogue Intentions), or doing a section in FS history that hasn't been done before, or badly the first time (GTI Rebellion, Silent Threat: Reborn, Divided Terrans).

Creativity + no bandwagons = The win for a FS2 campaign.