🚀 go-pugleaf

Koralt wrote

> I have played UFO and TFTD all these years.  I didn't know there would
> be any more sequels, and I didn't care.  I was happy with those games,
> and it is those games (namely UFO) which gave me my appreciation for X-
> Com, as is the case (I believe) with most of the people here.

As a rough guide, I'd say it works; UFO, Apoc, TFTD, Interceptor.  Most
definitely people are not solely concerned with UFO here - agx is concerned
with the whole shebang, the concept that is X-COM, more than anything else.
It's getting to the stage where the games are so old, and been talked about
so many times, the faq could deal with any questions asked here.  We tend to
conceptualise and use 'what if' debates as our source of amusement now.
We've been pretty much abandoned, bar Alliance, after all.  Even as we
speak, further redundancies are taking place within the collective, with the
ultimate effect that practically all people who were involved in the series
are now gone - I'd like to see that quantified though.  Personally, I reckon
it's cursed...

> Late last year I finally got connected to the internet.  I learned
> about Genesis, and the demise of the same.  I learned about Apocalypse,
> and about Dreamland.  And you know what?  I DON'T CARE!!!  I play X-Com
> for X-Com, and IMHO the first one is the only one which lives up to the
> name.  I didn't know Genesis was going to happen, and I now don't mind
> that it's not going to.  I would've been *really* happy if it had
> succeeded, but it didn't.  Tough.

You should be careful about Genesis, we had a lot of time and energy
invested in it.  It's still a sore subject, and if you were here when it was
still a live project then perhaps you'd understand while it gets our backs
up.

> So why should we care that Hasborg has screwed the series?  It's UFO
> that gave the series its reputation, and it's UFO that got me hooked.
> It's UFO that I still play today.  And it's UFO that this news group,
> and all the forums and sites out there are really devoted to-- or
> should be.  I don't think it's fair to call the original game dead
> because a different game by a different company was cancelled...

Can you imagine a world where the only game, the only distraction is
solitaire?  Kinda gets like that; fun, but you need other diversions.

And as Shaun rightly pointed out, the distinction for this newsgroup is
alt.games.x-com.

If I have to get all new age and hippified about it, it's the concept of
X-COM which drives it, while secondary is the fact that the initial game(s)
were set in a familiar time and setting - it made it all the more personal.
And the idea of X-COM is deemed by some as being worth pursuing, hence the
titles which followed - irrespective of how good or bad we may feel about
them personally.  Hasbro is the one who's shutting it and dumbing it down,
not the designers and people who believe it will sell.  And we care, cos
well, I guess we're sad. :-)

> In short, we must regain focus.  There may be little hope for the
> future of the series, but there's still the game that made the series
> great, and the game which I think we all agree will never be beat.  And
> I, for one, am no worse off for having a game I never would've missed
> if no one had ever brought it up canceled.  As sorry as I am for Dave
> and the team, and as unhappy and even angry as I am at Hasbro, I still
> play X-Com.

Define focus.  As for the other comments, well Tom Dussenberry has made it
corporate policy to make things available to all (read that as meaning
dumbing down).  He slated the 'elitist' gamers - those who've supported
games prior to Hasbro's emergence on the scene with their wads of money and
shit for brains ideas on what constitutes a definitive computer gaming
division.

Pah, I fucking hate Hasbro, irrespective of what bollocks Tom or Alan
spouts.  Their actions speak much, much louder, as well as their piss poor
attempts to regain credibility.  They can go screw themselves.  Once bitten,
twice shy.

Oh, and I still play TFTD, and UFO and Apoc and Interceptor....