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The Future of Submarine Games
In the last six months, the demise of sims has been pronounced in abundance. Print mags and sim webzines have been telling you sims are being cancelled left and right Jane's A-10: Cancelled. Wolfpack II: Cancelled. Silent Steel II: MIA. M1Tank Platoon 3: Cancelled. Fighting Steel Deluxe: Cancelled. Jane's Attack Squadron: MIA. Thunder Over Europe: MIA. The list goes on. We all know that this is a down cycle for sims and we believe there is hope that in a couple of years, things will turn around and sims will be hot stuff again. Hey, I remember in 1973 when the EPA and OPEC throttled the life out of the muscle car scene. I had a 1970 Cobra Torino that had 450 hp and ran the quarter in the high 13s. In less than three years every car out of Detroit was a smog controlled, gas economizing slug. They even started making them as ugly as they were slow! It was heartbreaking. But over time, things change. Now you can get a high performance machine that handles and has luxuries like front/rear AC. My '99 Riviera has a supercharged V-6 that would make my old Torino proud. So, keep the faith. Things will improve, even if no one knows when. Silent Hunter II and Destroyer Command are showing signs of life. Harpoon 4 is still under development. There are stirrings from the Sonalysts camp. When a new subsim does hit the shore, try to remember, the developers and game producers are our friends. They make the kind of games we like because they like them too. Why would they labor over armor thickness tables, ship model physics, and torpedo trajectories for a niche market? I know a few developers and they all love the genre. Try to keep your criticism balanced. Should you blast a sim you had trouble with or didn't enjoy with all the invective and animosity you would normally reserve for someone who stole your car or used your toothbrush? I was told by one producer that high-level executives frequently ask him about hard-core negative postings on newsgroups and forums. The industry sees us as demanding, unappreciative, and impossible to satisfy. It's much easier and more lucrative to crank out Deer Hunter and Barbie games and their users rarely flame the game company to a crisp. I work with a CPA accountant who likes computer games and is pretty good at them. He can play a mean Age of Empires warrior. I tried to interest him in learning Jane's 688(I) for some multiplay. He took one look at the hefty manual and waved it off. He assumed he would need to learn all the material to play competitive. The blessing and the curse of a good sim is its complexity. You want to command a battle fleet or do TMA on a Los Angeles class submarine? You need to learn skills and study. And this restricts the popularity of the sim. Mass market games generally do not carry the steep learning curve a sim does. So while we hard core sim players are delighting in the minutia of seven different stations and all their controls, casual gamers are passing up the sim at a 20 to 1 ratio. Sims truly are a niche market. Niche market games have limited budgets. This mean a small number of programmers and artists must concentrate on the basics. Don't expect to see everything you want and imagine in a sim. Oh yeah, I'm with you--I wish a subsim could have full motion crews and other fun stuff. But as one producer told me, "We don't have the money to design and integrate these features into the product. I wish we could, too." We should be finding out the status of Silent Hunter II soon. Either Mattel Interactive is going to sign someone to complete it or it will be canned. I went through the "we are planning to do this" stage with the fabled Jane's Ice Pack add-on for 688(I), Crusader Studios' Akula: Red Hunter, Silent Steel 2, and the interoperability between Jane's Fleet Command and 688(I). I'm not passing judgment here, just stating that when the momentum dies, so does the objective. For whatever reasons, the product champions behind those sims were unable to secure the financing to start work. To get a better feel for the whole process, read my friend John Sponauer's analysis of the life and death of a sim, M1 Tank Platoon 2, from its early development as an upgrade all the way through its last couple of weeks. Despite my previous experiences with other sim companies, I am optimistic that Carl Norman and Rick Martinez mean what they say and SSI will continue to raise the banner of the Digital Combat Series while the Jane's, NovaLogics, and Microproses around them fall like unfortunate tin soldiers. This is not to say SH2 is a done deal--that moment will come when you hold the box in your hand. We look to the next rumored subsim as our best hope for advanced underwater warfare. All we can do is stay positive, supportive, and if it's decent, buy four copies when it comes out. About The Author Neal Stevens is the editor of Subsim.com and contributing author of the coffee table book United States Submarines.
Latest News:Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for news News Corp says Mark Williams interim Premiere CEO (Reuters via Yahoo! News) News Corp. executive Mark Williams has taken over as chief executive of German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere in an interim capacity, News Corp. said after the move led to renewed takeover speculation. News Corp. says Mark Williams interim Premiere CEO (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Mark Williams, a News Corp. executive named late on Wednesday as chief executive of German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere, has taken over in an interim capacity, a News Corp. spokeswoman said on Thursday. Column: Palin's Nomination Good News Even For Democrats In Alaska (CBS News) So, John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Let me just say, wow. That's not exactly what I repeatedly shouted out when I first heard the news, but it's close enough for publication. Like everyone else, my astonished reaction wasn't due to the event itself being inconceivable - I've heard pundits debating the likelihood of a McCain / Palin ticket for months. Premiere CEO Is Replaced by News Corp.'s Williams (Update2) (Bloomberg.com) Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Premiere AG , the German pay- television company partly owned by News Corp., said Chief Executive Officer Michael Boernicke is being replaced by a senior News Corp. executive. News Corp exec becomes chief of Germany's Premiere (Reuters via Yahoo! News) News Corp's chief financial officer for Europe and Asia has been named chief executive of German pay television group Premiere, following the resignation of Michael Boernicke, Premiere said on Wednesday. Phila. mayor to announce grim budget news (Philly.com) The Nutter administration is expected to announce grim budget news today, which is all but certain to lead to significant spending cuts - perhaps as high as 10 percent - in some city departments, according to three sources familiar with the budget. News Corporation to redevelop London Wapping site (Reuters via Yahoo! News) Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is to redevelop its Wapping site in London, moving all its UK businesses, including News International, Harper Collins, MySpace and Dow Jones, under one roof. Tribune blames Google for damaging news story (Market Watch) SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tribune Co. said Wednesday that the mistaken online publishing of an old news story that cratered UAL Corp.'s stock price earlier this week was because of a repeated technology failure at Google Inc. DeJesus, Royals sad at Sweeney news (MLB.com) DeJesus, Royals sad at Sweeney news Six-year-old story pops up on Google News, triggering United Airlines share price collapse (Tech Digest via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News) Three cheers for automated technology! The Google News "Googlebot" search routine decided last weekend that a six-year-old story regarding United Airlines filing for bankruptcy was new and exciting. Site: news - Google News Ballmer touts Windows 7 beta, new deals - CNET News
MORE RESOURCES: Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for games Cubs-Astros games postponed because of Ike (AP via Yahoo! News) The first two games of this weekend's series between the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros have been postponed because of the potential impact of Hurricane Ike. Video games sales rise 9 pct in August: NPD (Reuters via Yahoo! News) U.S. video games sales rose 9 percent in August from a year earlier, marking the smallest monthly sales increase in more than two years, according to data from research firm NPD on Thursday. Models reveal 'geology of Games' (BBC News) Decades of data are turned into 3D graphics of what lies beneath the 2014 Commonwealth Games host city. Cubs-Astros games postponed due to hurricane (Fox Sports) The first two games of this weekend's series between the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros have been postponed because of the potential impact of Hurricane Ike. Baseball officials also were anticipating that Sunday's series finale also might be postponed. One of the scenarios under consideration was to play a doubleheader Monday, and make up the third game on Sept. 29 if it's needed to decide a ... Verizon Wireless Releases Dozens Of Games From 10 Publishers (paidContent.org via Yahoo! Finance) It's all about games today for Verizon Wireless . The carrier released dozens of mobile games from 10 publishers. Gameloft , Glu Mobile , Konami Digital Entertainment, Mobitween, Namco Networks, RealNetworks , SkyZone Entertainment, Smashing Ideas, Capcom Interactive and Sony Pictures Television all teamed up with the carrier to launch games such as The Dark Knight and Sally's Salon. Cubs-Astros Games Postponed Because of Ike (ABC News) Cubs-Astros games Friday and Saturday postponed because of Hurricane Ike Ike threat postpones first 2 games of Cubs-'Stros (CBS Sportsline) The first two games of this weekend's series between the Cubs and Astros have been postponed because of the potential impact of Hurricane Ike. Cubs-Astros games postponed because of Ike (Chicago Tribune) Houston owner Drayton McLane is holding out hope the two Cubs-Astros games postponed because of Hurricane Ike can be played Sunday and Monday at Minute Maid Park. But Lou Piniella? "Unless this thing totally bypasses the Houston area, I don't know how you can get into Houston, or if they had to get out, how they would get out." Central update: Brewers at Phillies on Thursday RosenBlog: Cubs' ... Ike postpones two Cubs-Astros games (MLB.com) Two Cubs-Astros games postponed Can the Games Usher in New Era for China's Disabled? (Time.com via Yahoo! News) As the host nation's athletes continue to gather golds at the 2008 Paralympics, many in Beijing hope the Games will open doors for China's other 83 million disabled citizens Site: games - Google News Will OU's video-game offensive numbers add up to 1? - Dallas Morning News
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