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