| In the last six months, the demise of sims has been | | | | manual and waved it off. He assumed he would need |
| pronounced in abundance. Print mags and sim | | | | to learn all the material to play competitive. The |
| webzines have been telling you sims are being | | | | blessing and the curse of a good sim is its complexity. |
| cancelled left and right Jane's A-10: Cancelled. | | | | You want to command a battle fleet or do TMA on |
| Wolfpack II: Cancelled. Silent Steel II: MIA. M1Tank | | | | a Los Angeles class submarine? You need to learn |
| Platoon 3: Cancelled. Fighting Steel Deluxe: Cancelled. | | | | skills and study. And this restricts the popularity of |
| Jane's Attack Squadron: MIA. Thunder Over Europe: | | | | the sim. Mass market games generally do not carry |
| MIA. The list goes on.We all know that this is a down | | | | the steep learning curve a sim does. So while we |
| cycle for sims and we believe there is hope that in a | | | | hard core sim players are delighting in the minutia of |
| couple of years, things will turn around and sims will | | | | seven different stations and all their controls, casual |
| be hot stuff again. Hey, I remember in 1973 when | | | | gamers are passing up the sim at a 20 to 1 ratio. |
| the EPA and OPEC throttled the life out of the | | | | Sims truly are a niche market.Niche market games |
| muscle car scene. I had a 1970 Cobra Torino that had | | | | have limited budgets. This mean a small number of |
| 450 hp and ran the quarter in the high 13s. In less | | | | programmers and artists must concentrate on the |
| than three years every car out of Detroit was a | | | | basics. Don't expect to see everything you want and |
| smog controlled, gas economizing slug. They even | | | | imagine in a sim. Oh yeah, I'm with you--I wish a |
| started making them as ugly as they were slow! It | | | | subsim could have full motion crews and other fun |
| was heartbreaking.But over time, things change. Now | | | | stuff. But as one producer told me, "We don't have |
| you can get a high performance machine that handles | | | | the money to design and integrate these features |
| and has luxuries like front/rear AC. My '99 Riviera has | | | | into the product. I wish we could, too."We should be |
| a supercharged V-6 that would make my old Torino | | | | finding out the status of Silent Hunter II soon. Either |
| proud.So, keep the faith. Things will improve, even if | | | | Mattel Interactive is going to sign someone to |
| no one knows when. Silent Hunter II and Destroyer | | | | complete it or it will be canned. I went through the |
| Command are showing signs of life. Harpoon 4 is still | | | | "we are planning to do this" stage with the fabled |
| under development. There are stirrings from the | | | | Jane's Ice Pack add-on for 688(I), Crusader Studios' |
| Sonalysts camp.When a new subsim does hit the | | | | Akula: Red Hunter, Silent Steel 2, and the |
| shore, try to remember, the developers and game | | | | interoperability between Jane's Fleet Command and |
| producers are our friends. They make the kind of | | | | 688(I). I'm not passing judgment here, just stating |
| games we like because they like them too. Why | | | | that when the momentum dies, so does the |
| would they labor over armor thickness tables, ship | | | | objective. For whatever reasons, the product |
| model physics, and torpedo trajectories for a niche | | | | champions behind those sims were unable to secure |
| market? I know a few developers and they all love | | | | the financing to start work. To get a better feel for |
| the genre.Try to keep your criticism balanced. Should | | | | the whole process, read my friend John Sponauer's |
| you blast a sim you had trouble with or didn't enjoy | | | | analysis of the life and death of a sim, M1 Tank |
| with all the invective and animosity you would | | | | Platoon 2, from its early development as an upgrade |
| normally reserve for someone who stole your car or | | | | all the way through its last couple of weeks.Despite |
| used your toothbrush? I was told by one producer | | | | my previous experiences with other sim companies, I |
| that high-level executives frequently ask him about | | | | am optimistic that Carl Norman and Rick Martinez |
| hard-core negative postings on newsgroups and | | | | mean what they say and SSI will continue to raise |
| forums. The industry sees us as demanding, | | | | the banner of the Digital Combat Series while the |
| unappreciative, and impossible to satisfy. It's much | | | | Jane's, NovaLogics, and Microproses around them fall |
| easier and more lucrative to crank out Deer Hunter | | | | like unfortunate tin soldiers. This is not to say SH2 is |
| and Barbie games and their users rarely flame the | | | | a done deal--that moment will come when you hold |
| game company to a crisp.I work with a CPA | | | | the box in your hand. We look to the next rumored |
| accountant who likes computer games and is pretty | | | | subsim as our best hope for advanced underwater |
| good at them. He can play a mean Age of Empires | | | | warfare. All we can do is stay positive, supportive, |
| warrior. I tried to interest him in learning Jane's 688(I) | | | | and if it's decent, buy four copies when it comes out. |
| for some multiplay. He took one look at the hefty | | | | |