For once, I'm gonna do what I have never done before I think. Involve myself in "a political discussion around Outpost 2 and the community around it".
- So, the question some will be asking I guess, why I have never done that before ?
- The answer is simple. All I want to do, is to play Outpost 2, nothing more nothing less. I care little for who is sceming against who, which server the IRC and forums are located on and who are admins.. you name the rest of whats going on here of politics.
(I know this will probably piss off quite a few people, but this is the truth. This is the same with most the older players/WON players aswell. Most of them were older than me back then, which means they are 25+ now. We don't care about the things I mentioned before. All we want is a "Nice/Good/Comfortable" place to play OP2.. I'll get back to this later)
Before I continue this post, I'll say a few things which can help you understand my point of view:
Ever since I got OP2 back in 97, I have loved it from first sight(or first try if you want). Early 98, I started playing online on WON, and continued to play there until it was finally shut down. I started out as a complete n00b, but slowly mastered the build orders/research orders and games played at mark 300-500.
After about 1 year or so, I started my training under Falcon (Later <PÅ>Falcon, which some of you might know). Now focusing on micro rushes and quick games (mostly Pie Chart) I spent a long time practicing this for endless amounts of games, getting the timing just so, both buildings and research, until I finally mastered this aswell. Having beaten Falcon a couple games in a row, there wasn't much more to learn about rushes, and I moved on again.
I continued to play the best players for some time, until I was the best player on WON myself, staying on top for about half a year or so. As I started to play a bit less, I also shifted focus from the fast rushes, to a more laid back style of playing, dragging the games out.
- Basicly what I'm saying is: I know I don't have the hand-eye coordination now that I did back then, but my head is still full of knowledge of OP2, lots which seemingly have been forgotten in this community. Having played this game more extensively than most players currently here, my point of view or comments are mostly based on hard learned facts, rather than being the rambling of the average n00b(my opinion of a n00b at least).
Now, I'll move on to adress the topic discussed here:
As Horus states in his initial post, I also share the view that this community is slowly declining. For my part, I feel this has been happening over a long time rather than being a new found fenomena.
The biggest problem in my view, is the community's everlasting problem of keeping new members, and getting the old players back. (Talking on a more permanent basis here) Newcomers are coming in almost every day, post a short introduction, post a couple of questions and after recieving their answers, disappear forever. As a community, we need another way of getting them involved, getting them to play. (The regular "Hi, Welcome. Please come IRC to play" method hasn't worked for years.. perhaps time to work on another way to attract people to this game)
From other games I've played over long periods of time, experience shows me most of them stay alive because of a core of longtime experts who has played the game for years and refuse to stop playing it. With the exception of myself, this community has failed to attract even 1 single of the old, respected players from WON. We were at least 20-50 regular players(Who had played OP2 for years) when WON shut down, and quite a few has dropped by here, but none of the has stayed for a longer amount of time. (Exception here might be Pablo ?)
To be honest, this community is simply not very attractive to the old players:
- BM/AM's are frequently broken
- Players frequently quits games
In addition the IRC is a very "closed" community. With this I mean (very) little is done to make newcomers feel welcome. Be that old players or n00bs. The "regulars" often dominate the chat, with internal jokes (often taken from young or foreign players on the forums..), otherwise just replying they don't want to play a game because they are not in the mood, don't want to play with hamachi or just don't reply at all (alternatively answer questions with irrelevant remarks). Drop in 4-5 times and always experiencing this isn't gonna motivate people.
Concerning old WON players, they were often used to play this game quite differently from how OP2 is played nowadays, in addition to being rusty. Using Riledo as an example here, the answer isn't always to gang up on IRC and call down the old player who might have come onto IRC full of new found enthusiasm for the game, and told people he used to be good.
(Some of those old players are the reason OP2 didn't die off before WON was finally shut down. This is of course another story I'll let rest now)
If you are on IRC,
- Be polite (Even though others might be rude/act silly)
- If someone ask a question, answer it properly, without any silly remarks
- If a newcomer enters, make an effort of trying to make them feel welcomed
Just my opinion at least..
As for the community itself, I think we share alot of great ideas, and many of the ongoing projects are great. However as many have mentioned, our efforts go in way too many directions. The answer to increasing this community isn't to get a OP3 ready in 2-5 years, we have to focus on the small things that can enhance our gaming experience here an now.. or as soon as possible.
- Get the game-client project going (Won copy or whatever it is called)
- Make a few more colony games
Make the game interesting here and now, and worry about the big projects later. (Saying this without ever involving myself, but it's just how I feel about this)
Someone mentioned how well the community was working over at KevinAr18's site.
In my opinion this was because:
- The community had 1-2 main projects going. The OP3 storyline everyone agreed to, and were working with improving.
- The community there were led by players who had played OP2 for years. Something I believe led to members of that community respecting the admins more. (Since admins were already highly respected/well known members in the WON community)
To round of this long post, I'll add in my greatest concern.
Like I explained earlier, I have played this game extensively. I believe I can make use of a wide array of strategies in this game, and of course counteract most of them. However, this is not the case with (many?) players today.
Many players post proposed changes to the game when they run into difficulties. To mention a few: Thors being overpowered, panther speed and mass missiles.
My prayer to those that can change this game. Please don't tamper any more with it. The solutions to these things are already located within the game, there is no need to manipulate the game.
- Thors are not overpowered. (Acid > Thors) <-- please stop arguing on this point
- Panthers are good for early defense. If need speed go for lynx, if you need firepower, use Tigers. Panthers fill their designed role perfectly. And if your pointing a finger to the Tiger Speed upgrade.. Congrats, this is what I mean tampering with the game has unseen effects. Any map with Tiger speed upgrade research, or added wreckages has rendered the Panther useless. Blame yourself!
- Mass missiling is not a problem in the original game itself. If you fight your opponent on equal footing, how on earth do you provide him the time/ore to build 10-15 spaceports.. ? Again if your manipulating the game to suit yourself, be on the lookout for unknown consequences. (Be that AM setting or changing the Ore settings on a map)
