Sectorgame

Ahhh, glorious F2S. The very thought of thee can instill in me a passionate nostalgia. Aye, my absence has been a bit too long - about a year since my last post (!!!!) - but I have now returned in a time of urgency. So, you ask, what calls this wayward son home?

Well....it seems that the Freespace community has simultaneously endured a renaissance and a meltdown, with the announcement of a potential Freespace 3. Since I'm an avid gamer and I never let a day pass without taking in the latest news, I heard about the latest on the issue very quickly. Someone named Derek Smart is pursuing the rights to Freespace 3, and suddenly the entire FS commune is lined up outside of his doorstep, toting picket signs, eggs, and plenty of toilet paper. And I'm left to wonder: what the hell just happened????

From what I've read, he took some flak for the obvious reasons: 1) He isn't in any way associated with [V] 2) he's a narcissistic jackass, constantly proclaiming his own greatness, and 3) the SCP geeks feel threatened by his advances. He, in turn, has responded to all of these in a generally vitriolic manner.

Me? Yeah, i'm concerned that Volition is not developing it. But why all this tension? Why is HLP and the rest of the FS community so intent on flaming him as thoroughly as possible? Really, I don't understand what you guys are so bloody mad about.

Could you try to fill me in on all the details of the ongoing Derek-Smart Saga? I don't have time to sift through all the pages of text to find out everything.

Please, spare me your flames. I decided to post here rather than HLP because I feel...safer.....here .

- Cerebral

Cerebral!!! Welcome Back dude!

The reason we're all so pissed is fairly simple. You've got one of the reasons already - he's a moron, who's openly stated he doesn't care about the opinions of fans, gone out of his way to flame individuals and the community as a whole, threatened the SCP and Ferrium with legal action and basically made a tard of himself. But the main reason everyone's so pissed is that this guys history with gaming is, frankly, pathetic. He's consistently created poor games with average review scores around or below 50-60%, and yet he claims that the creation of a third freespace installment (for $500,000 and in eighteen months) would be beneath his skill level. In simple terms, we don't want this guy anywhere near the Freespace name. There're relevant links all over the community (and just about every other major message board on the net at the moment too).

I woke up yesterday morning with a sudden sence that the community was fightng the most important battle it would ever face... I got to HLP, and 155 other people were there with the same thought... Tis a pitty i missed it on Thursday though, but somehow I knew something big was going on... So now we begin a struggle for survival. There isn't much he can do to stop us from modding FS2 and such, but he'll do everything he can to lable us as 'Lamespace fanbois', even if that means he'll make a clause to void any FS3 liscence if someone visits hlp...

I saw it. In fact I was the one who started The Big Thread

It was amazing seeing how quickly that thread grew. I posted. Went back to edit something and when I looked back there were already five posts!

LOL I know, I was accused of being the one who started it, and Derek did some 'creative' editing of my posts. I wonder if I should sue actually

would you want to waste money...

We can compare FS to the Descent series.

D1: Amazing
D2: Amazing x2
D3: Ummm... What is this crap?

FS1: Amazing
FS2: Amazing x2
FS3: What does history have to say?

no, more like this:

Descent 1: new idea, great graphics (with command lines) for its time, fantastic gameplay, etc.
Descent 2: great! (the bes one, IMHO) wiht even better graphics for its time, fantastic gameplay X2, etc
Descent 3: fun, but it isnt descent. its a completly different game, with only the title as a comparison. not the greatest engine, too...

FS: Easily the best game in the world (any dissagreements get a complimentary knuckly sandwich, this is 1000X bettar than halo) with not great graphics for its time, but FANTASTIC gameplay.
FS2: rotten (well, incomplete, more like) storyline, but fantastic X 100 gameplay, and very good graphics. thx to the FS-port, its gameplay ios X10000000, and thx to the SCP, its gameplay is 100 X 100000000 X 100000000000000.
FS3: unrelated to FS, prolly a complete, but not very good storyline, and some totally random things about FS that dont even make sence. prolly will have great graphics, on the plus side, but FS2 has the SCP!

D3 is a great game, i jsut dont veiw it as descent. i veiw it as a completely different game.

[edit] get me Smart's email addy. i dont have any intention to flame him, but i DO have to talk to him...

>.0 i never actually played desecnt 3...i own it and it's expansion but i could never get it to worrk properly onmy computer...

Descent 2 is evil...no it's great ...

too bad. so long as you dont think of D3 as a descent, rather, a completely new game, its great.

Yikes....there is cause for concern indeed. Those bastards at Interplay, who have interfered with the success of the Freespace franchise in the past, had BETTER make an educated decision on to whom they should sell the rights.

Prior to a day ago, I was totally unaware that Derek Smart had produced such filth-ridden games as Battlecruiser (I downloaded the "complete" version of the first entry in the series about 2 years ago, so I have first hand experience *shudders*.) If FS3 resembles BC in ANY way...well, I'm sure that you've all discussed this many times already.

I still don't understand, though, why you all have received him in such an acerbic way. Yes, he has put out some third-rate games in the past, and yes, he may be a narcissistic, elitist asshole, but those two reasons alone don't warrant such behavior...at least not in MY mind. Don't get me wrong: I am scared for the Freespace series and its community as well, and my confidence in Mr. Smart is next to non-existent. But I think everyone is overreacting - there isn't any reason why we should let this burst into flames.

Just think of it this way: at worst, Derek Smart will buy the rights and develop a game that sucks major ass. And WE, the devoted fans, can choose to ignore it, since we all originally thought that it would never come out anyways. At best, the rights for the game will go to someone else...OR by some inconceivable fluke of luck, Smart will actually produce a game that is worthy of the Freespace legacy. And if NOTHING happens, then we'll still have all the mods and new fan-made campaigns to play around with .

One more question: is it true that Smart threatened to sue HLP and shut down the community's projects? And if that's true, could he possibly even DO that??

sue HLP? what the hell for???

and he CANT shut down projects! besides being not within his power, its impossible. people would just get together with other people and continue making more campaigns and MODs.

[edit] and cerebral is right, the worst he can do is kill FS3. its like hte D3 paradox. well, its kind of a paradox. ok, fine, it ISNT a paradox, but you know what i mean so long as you visualize D3 as a seperate game and series from the rest of descent, its fine. thats what i do.

He's now claiming that saying he has a Speed-Dial to lawyers and that saying 'I don't piss around when it comes to IP properties' isn't a threat to sue, in other words, theres a hell of a lot of backpedalling going on right now.

you know what? i think im just going to sit back and watch this play out. i give up, no more watching carefully. its a waste of my time. sooo, good luck, everybody.