[Lucika]

Dear fellow FreeSpace fans, lovers and likers! I have an important question for you all.

While the community is still having major plans with dozens of major campaign ideas spanning every year, multiple year-long projects being in the works for a long time now, with constant improvements in the source code accompanying them, I do have to ask the question: how long can this go? I express the highest concern about the future of the FreeSpace saga and all of its extensions, and I am afraid that a decade after release, we might be running out of the most precious resources: gamers and time.

Let's face it, ladies and gentlemen, even this game has a limited lifespan. The obvious factor is time, which brings us new technologies, growing importance of consoles (what would HLP do with the death of the PC gaming?), and, ultimately, a new generation. This last entry might sound like a bit of exaggeration, but consider that FreeSpace 2 was released ten years ago. Time is running quickly. While it would be a really nice sight to see people who were introduced to the FreeSpace universe as younglings showing the game to their children, it probably won't happen.

Dedication (and for some people, the lack thereof) really shows after a decade. I have joined HLP a year ago and I would have never imagined to see my thread with a two week-old post in the middle of the General FreeSpace Discussion Board's first page. I'm afraid to say but we seem to be dwindling seriously. Will the community live long enough to actually see the release of BWO? Or will Ransom Arceihn's interest live up long enough to make the continuation(s) to Sync? Will my campaign finish before this game gets abandoned again, waiting for another phoenix?

How far can HLP go, how far can the legacy of FreeSpace go? Who can imagine where gaming will be in, say, 2015? Thought control, et cetera? Let's face it: there are hard-coded things in the FreeSpace games, some of them made them what they are, what we love them for. On the other hand, some of them create gameplay limitations and technological ones as well. I think that the survival of FreeSpace is no longer about the newer and newer improvements of the source code. We're running out of people, time is running away next to us.

In my honest opinion, the size of the HLP community reached its peak a long time ago (way before my arrival) and it is slowly descending. Which is a sad necessity considering the age of the game. How could we get new people, the ever growing new generation into this wonderful universe?
In my opinion, that job is beyond our possibilities. The HLP team extended and still extends these games lifespan to an astounding length. However, this cannot keep on like that forever. I mean, we need people to play our creations.

When I've said that the continuation of the legacy is beneath us, I did mean . While this doesn't mean anything good, I still have hopes in Secret Project X. I am not sure what we can do hear, but I fear a slow extinction. How much time do we have left? It might take another decade for Ransom Arceihn to finish the Sync saga. Who says that we will have followers to wait for it?

So, what are your plans for the future? Time is against us. And while some of you might give me a verbal kick for that, I still express hope for FreeSpace 3, because it would help. Not a little bit.

[General Battuta]

Actually if you check the forum stats HLP active size and post activity is at an all-time high.

So, uh, cancel panic?

[Dark Hunter]

As long as we love the game, it will not die.

And, you talk of all those old projects that have been stuck in Development Hell. Have you forgotten Silent Threat: Reborn, released after six years and one of the best things this community has ever produced? Have you forgotten Blue Planet, a relatively young mod that's being counted among the greats?

Old stuff may die off/get stuck, but new life is being breathed into things too. I've seen a number of people on various VG boards picking up Freespace and loving it despite its age. It's still gaining fans. I don't think it'll ever be a mainstream success, but it's certainly not dead or dying. I've seen dying fan communities, and Freespace is far from that point.

[Thaeris]

Also, I think the growing number of TC projects in the works, as well as the ever-improving code-base (or, at least we'll hope is ever-imporving) will power FSO well, well beyond the lifespan Volition ever intended for the game/sim. Although FreeSpace itself may look less appealing to newcomers, again, TCs, which are by virtue of the release of the source code free, will keep this community alive at the least should interest in FreeSpace itself ever begin to drop. I can say personally that if not for BtRL, I would have never become involved with this awesome game/sim, and more so, community.

 

[Scourge of Ages]

I would say that the total conversions such as SoL, FotG, and Diaspora/BtRL are continuously bringing in new blood, and will do so much more when they're actually released. We got a new guy on the SoL forums just today in fact. If all these new folks play the mods, they might start to look for more, similar games and see that they're based on FS2O, get interested, get involved and become huge fans and members of the community (ideally).

Yes, Thaeris said it first, but I had to second it 

[The E]

Going by the number of people who keep showing up with questions like "how do I set up FS?" or "How do I install mods?" it's my belief that FS2, and by extension HLP, are as vibrant and lifely as ever. As long as there's a core of people who keep this community alive, it won't die. As long as there are still people who discover or rediscover FS2 through Goodoldgames, or the occasional bit of publicity, or through one of the big, FSO-based total conversions like Diaspora, this community will survive.

Also, what Dark Hunter said. The "big" projects that have been stuck in dev hell for years are frankly not where it's at. It's the small to middle-sized campaigns, like BP, or the one-man shows like Vassago's Dirge, Wings, Wings of Dawn that make this game great.

Also, I think the growing number of TC projects in the works, as well as the ever-improving code-base (or, at least we'll hope is ever-imporving) will power FSO well, well beyond the lifespan Volition ever intended for the game/sim. Although FreeSpace itself may look less appealing to newcomers, again, TCs, which are by virtue of the release of the source code free, will keep this community alive at the least should interest in FreeSpace itself ever begin to drop. I can say personally that if not for BtRL, I would have never become involved with this awesome game/sim, and more so, community.

 

Same here, actually.

[Rodo]

No worries, the world will end in 2012.

Untill then, IT'S FREESPACE TIME!!!

[Mobius]

Actually if you check the forum stats HLP active size and post activity is at an all-time high.

What he said. I don't see any worrying trends... who knows, maybe more attention is being focused on General Discussion, which is totally unrelated to FS modding, and that may lead to skepticism on the presumed "immortality" of this community.

If you posted this thread because of the number of dead/dying boards HLP has, I kind of understand the panic but don't justify it. I think it's a shame that progress on many projects has significantly slowed down, and I hope more efforts will be redirected to them.

I would say that the total conversions such as SoL, FotG, and Diaspora/BtRL are continuously bringing in new blood, and will do so much more when they're actually released. We got a new guy on the SoL forums just today in fact. If all these new folks play the mods, they might start to look for more, similar games and see that they're based on FS2O, get interested, get involved and become huge fans and members of the community (ideally).

Yes, Thaeris said it first, but I had to second it  

I'm a bit skeptic about this: I don't think TCs based on popular sci-fi shows and games have that much of a potential at bringing new people.

It is true that many valuable community members have joined HLP thanks to BtRL, TBP and WCS, but I have the impression that the gross majority of the traffic TCs bring with them is a bit... unreliable. I mean, most of those fanboys don't even try to play FreeSpace 2, or we would have had a flood of new members and modders following the release of TBP, WCS and BtRL.

[General Battuta]

We did. Those TCs have brought some of the biggest features and most talented members we have in the community today. 3.6.12 would not exist without Diaspora.

[Mobius]

I know, I know, but those TCs have been downloaded many hundred thousand times and the gross majority of their fanboys chose not to become FreeSpace fans.

[NGTM-1R]

I would say that the total conversions such as SoL, FotG, and Diaspora/BtRL are continuously bringing in new blood, and will do so much more when they're actually released.

I do feel constrained to point out these projects have almost all been built around a group of community veterans and those who come for them alone rarely branch out into active, productive members of the community at large. So far the only such person who comes to mind is Orpheus.

At least judging by forum posts. So while they may actually drive development, I don't see a good case for them driving community growth.

[Spoon]

Let's face it, ladies and gentlemen, even this game has a limited lifespan. The obvious factor is time, which brings us new technologies, growing importance of consoles (what would HLP do with the death of the PC gaming?)

Are people still saying this?

Got nothing else to say, I'm with the people that posted above me 

[Lucika]

Again, no one seem to have said anything about your plans for 2015. I am obviously not worried about tomorrow's nonexistent Epic Shutdown. I just wonder how long do you think we will be around.

[General Battuta]

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it (in the post-singularity world!)

[The E]

As long as we will be around.

Seriously, noone here will know whether they'll still be here in a few years, working on and enjoying FS. Noone has that kind of foresight.

[Spoon]

I'm sorry but I don't usually think 5 years ahead in the future and I doubt anyone else here does that either.
What's the point of it anyway? What do you hope to hear?
We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Edit: Damnit batman!

[Galemp]

I don't see FreeSpace expiring until something else in the genre can scratch that itch we all have.

I would suggest that the once-thriving Quake III Arena mod community is dead, because there's just so many FPS games that modders will migrate to later versions of the iD Tech engine, or to the Unreal or Source engines, which are simultaneously more powerful, more popular, more versatile, and better looking.

FreeSpace doesn't have that advantage. We've seen a few mods for Homeworld, and occasionally a crossover will pop up for FreeLancer or something, but essentially the genre is dead. That means if we want to play games in our genre with new content, we have to work with what we have... which, I'm glad to say, is growing to be as powerful, as popular, as versatile, and as good looking as any professional studio today.

Until we get a space-shooter with an editor as powerful as FRED, a structure as simple as ships.tbl and weapons.tbl, and modding tools as good as VPView and PCS, FreeSpace will continue to draw talent.

[Lucika]

Seriously, noone here will know whether they'll still be here in a few years, working on and enjoying FS. Noone has that kind of foresight.

Yet still, we have campaign plans (or heck, strings of campaigns in motion) which would definitely take at least that amount time to create. Just for quick examples, I point to Sync 2-3, my campaign and BWO. Not to talk about NTV, Scroll of Anatalabalababa, etc.

You see, I would not bring far dates up if we would not need that amount of time to fulfill our present plans - not to talk about our future ideas.
That is my main concern.

[General Battuta]

BWO has been 'done' for four years and if it hadn't got hung on models and VA would be out by now.

The other campaigns you cited there simply haven't been worked on (except yours, I'm guessing.)

[NGTM-1R]

BWO has been 'done' for four years and if it hadn't got hung on models and VA would be out by now.

To be honest, this probably isn't true. When testing more or less stopped BWO still hadn't tested two or three missions, and the one we were on was in need of a complete rebuild.