help me please...?

[Ghengis Jim]

Yes this is a basic question and I am very new, but I will ask... All of you guys who have been around the block, and know what your doing in terms of "being fans"; how have you been this dedicated when battlefront has just recently become a big thing? I do not doubt your assumed dedication to this company, because of how unbelievable their new game is. I am not calling you hard core fans fair weather fans or anything, but how are there so many hard core fans?

I have been reading some posts, and there are a number of people who, to me, seem to have aided in the process of designing either Combat mission, or battlefront's webpage. Maybe these people are just really hard core, and really dedicated; so much so that I cannot tell the difference.

But anyway thanks for putting up with me, I would appreciate any input.

[Guest KwazyDog]

Jim, I think a big part of the reason CM already has such a large base of followers is actually a combination of this forum and Steves and Charles willingness to talk to the game players here about CM and listen to their requests.

This forum has been up and running for well over a year now (maybe closer to 2?), and there are many people still here from when it first was constructed (and were interested in CM from even before then I imagine). Over this time Steve and Charles have answered questions and listened to users on countless occasions and have put a lot of feedback from the forum into CM itself. CM is a different product becuase of this, an even better on Im sure

[This message has been edited by KwazyDog (edited 08-25-2000).]

[DEF BUNGIS]

Well, I am a relative newbie myself compared to the real dinasours around here. But, the first time I visited the forum, I actually seen intelligent discussion and input from the fans that was being directly applied to the making of the game. I was impressed.

I'm not talking about..."hey, make this shoot that" and "Tanks are cool"......

I'm talking about real world physics and data that was discussed and input into the game.

All of this I know little about, but I know enough that it seemed BTS wanted the most realistic war game ever made.

So I kinda got hooked, and preorderd a game for the first time ever.

I think that says alot about the forum and the people on it.

------------------

Better to make the wrong decision than be the sorry son of a bitch to scared to make one at all

[Guest Michael emrys]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KwazyDog:

This forum has been up and running for well over a year now (maybe closer to 2?)...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually, longer than that. BTS had their own BBS that predated Battlefront by quite a bit. It had been up and running for a while when I first logged on, and *that* was well over two years ago. It was on that board that discussions of the game that was eventually to become Combat Mission began.

Michael

[Guest KwazyDog]

I actually remember when I first found CM I did some searching and found some posts from the old BTS forum now you mention it Now there is some history, I wonder if Charles kept it archived somewhere, hehe.

[Ghengis Jim]

Thanks for input so far, but, Michael emrys, did you help design the game? Or is that the Steve and Charles that KwazyDog was talking about? Did they help make the game?

And also, how do you graduate from the rank of junior member to regular member? I want to graduate!

And what is the BTS and BBS achronyms that are being used? I think I also saw a CTS, somewhere or another...

I am sorry to be annoying as I can imagine myself being right now, but one more question: Does Battlefront trade in any markets (like Nasdaq, NYSE, S&P 500, etc...)?

If so, whats the ticker symbol because I am buying all the stock.

[Seanachai]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ghengis Jim:

Yes this is a basic question and I am very new, but I will ask... All of you guys who have been around the block, and know what your doing in terms of "being fans"; how have you been this dedicated when battlefront has just recently become a big thing? I do not doubt your assumed dedication to this company, because of how unbelievable their new game is. I am not calling you hard core fans fair weather fans or anything, but how are there so many hard core fans?

I have been reading some posts, and there are a number of people who, to me, seem to have aided in the process of designing either Combat mission, or battlefront's webpage. Maybe these people are just really hard core, and really dedicated; so much so that I cannot tell the difference.

But anyway thanks for putting up with me, I would appreciate any input.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Never been there, don't know that. But I heard tell from the old ones, the ones that came before. 'Bout BTS. 'Bout the Combat Mission. 'Bout the people who came and found the Game. These were the first people, and they were there before there was a Game, you know?

BTS made the Board. I said they made the Board, but they wanted to make more, more than the Board. They wanted to make the Game, that all the People could play. But they didn't make it with a hammer, nor a saw, they made the Game with thought. In those days there was only the Thought of the Game. But there was no place for the people to play, no Game for them to be playing on. There was just the thought of the Game. There was nothin' to see, no graphics, no trees, nothin' but the thought of the Game.

But BTS thinks there should be more. There should be some place for the people to play the Game. So they began to code. And they started asking the people, what should be in the Game? And the people are all different, and they want all differrent things, and there's a lot going on, on the Board before there was the Game. And BTS talks to the people, and it hears them all, and it thinks about the Game, and what the people want, and what the people need. And BTS says to itself "It's no good that there is no Game around, that the people should be without the Game. The people want so many things, but all the things are the Game." So they decide to make the Game. And they begin coding even more. And the people are coming and saying what the Game should have. And what the Game should not have. And all the time BTS is hearing, and they're doing the coding, and they want the people to have the Game. Because they know the people need the Game, or everything is just empty.

So the people say: we want the MG

and the people say: we want artillery

and they say: we want infantry

and the people say: we want the infantry AT

and they say: we want the tanks most of all, because they will be the battle.

and they say: we want BTS to make all these things, because then we will have the Game.

So BTS checks all the things the people want, and then they begin to make the Game. And they code, and then they have something that could be the Game. So they take it to the people, and they tell them, we have this thing here, and it's what the people want, and we think it's the Game. But we're gonna call it the Demo, and you tell us if it's the Game, and we'll see.

So the people took the Demo, and they had a place to play, then, and they had the infantry, and the AT, and the MG, and the infantry AT, and especially, they had the AFV, and the people thought it was pretty good. They thought it was pretty good, and they told BTS, 'this is pretty good, this is a lot like the Game. But we're not sure it is the Game, there's things we're not sure of, and it isn't the Game right now.'

So BTS took the Demo, and they dove in deep, and they came up with AFVs, and they asked the people: Ha, Is this the Game?

And the people said: Ha, it's good, that is like the Game.

And BTS went back and found more things about infantry, and MGs, and ATs, and they came to the people and said: Ha, is this the Game?

And the people said: Ha, that is even better, it is more like the Game.

And BTS went back and did all they could with the things the people had said about what the Game should be, and what the Game should not, and they said: Ha, is this the Game then?

And the people played, and they played more, and they played even more, and they came to BTS and said, This is what we wanted, and it is the Game, and now we have somewhere to play, and so will our children.

And that, as it was passed on to me, is how Combat Mission came into being.

------------------

After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

[Ghengis Jim]

lol, he he thank you man!

but P.S., I am not in kindergarden.

[Seanachai]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ghengis Jim:

lol, he he thank you man!

but P.S., I am not in kindergarden.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

hehe, neither am I nor were the people who's storytelling style this is a rip-off of.

I guess the answer, however obscurely expressed, is that the difference between most game companies and BTS is that the Mainstream Publishers stand on high, casting down thunberbolts and delivering games like commandments on what thou shalt play, whereas BTS, who understood the people, and were the people, asked the people how to make a good game. And the people responded. And BTS made the game. Complex explanations aren't actually all that satisfying, that's why industry pundits have to make them.

------------------

After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

[This message has been edited by Seanachai (edited 08-25-2000).]

[chrisl]

I've been a CM addict for about 9 months now (wow, that went fast). I discovered CM around the first of the year while looking for a game to kill some time in the evenings at a conference. I was hoping for something "kind of Squad Leader like" and poked around a bit. I was almost ready to order CC, but it said Micro$oft on the box, and I was squeamish.

Then I found a pointer to the demo (I don't remember where exactly, but I searched under "mac games" on yahoo, and found some index sites and managed to go through "wargames" and I think "simulations". There it was. The game I've been waiting years for. I downloaded the demo, played at the conference, then decided "Hey, this is a pretty good game, and even if all they release is the beta demo code with a few more scenarios it's easily worth what they're asking". The game came out a little late, but is well worth it. I actually caught a bug or two in the gold demo, but that's the extent of my contribution (beyond some $$).

[Guest Germanboy]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seanachai:

And that, as it was passed on to me, is how Combat Mission came into being.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That was {sniff} beautiful. Not as beautiful as the Haida creation myth ('The Raven and the first humans', as told by Bill Reid, that is the one that led to the beautiful carving in the UBC Museum of Anthropology), mind you, but not bad for a creation myth. Carry on mything. Sneaky though to just repost this in the Thread to increase your count...

------------------

Andreas

[von Lucke]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seanachai:

And that, as it was passed on to me, is how Combat Mission came into being.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Testify it Brother! Can I get an Amen?

[Seanachai]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Germanboy:

Sneaky though to just repost this in the Thread to increase your count...

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

hehe, not to mention my count by weighted-post method.

Amen.

------------------

After witnessing exceptional bravery from his Celtic mercenaries, Alexander the Great called them to him and asked if there was anything they feared. They told him nothing, except that the sky might fall on their heads.

[This message has been edited by Seanachai (edited 08-25-2000).]

[KiloIndiaAlpha]

BTS have also turned the software engineering world on its head by developing the 'Listen to What the User Wants' paridigm.

Jeeez, I might even try it myself at work.

[Noba]

Another facet of 'The Game' and it's development I have noticed is how new ideas and changes have been incorporated into it's design. It seems the original game has stayed true to the wishes of all who have contributed to making it 'better' or closer to a vision. It seems that the core ideas of this game were put together by people who knew what they wanted and saw other attempts to produce a wargame failing.That idea is based on solid information with no compromises in placing that info into code. This game avoids traps for example, by using solid Gun/Armour relationships that only need tweaking i.e.( Tiger turret armour) as against games that have used simplified ideas such as ..that gun is bigger than this one so it must have a bigger kill number.It has a solid AI that contributes to the experience. This sort of dedication to a different way to produce a computer game is a great credit to BTS and those others that contributed.

I feel that to have avoided the formulae approach of other publishers and importantly

to not compromise is what has attracted me to this game and forum.

[Philistine]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ghengis Jim:

Thanks for input so far, but, Michael emrys, did you help design the game? Or is that the Steve and Charles that KwazyDog was talking about? Did they help make the game? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Steve and Charles are the makers of the game. For a good explanation of who did what & how the whole thing got started, here's a nice explantion from Charles:

http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/features/pc/postgame_wrapup/

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>And also, how do you graduate from the rank of junior member to regular member? I want to graduate! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Just make 30 posts. You have 17 more to go. Just click on the little icon of a face next to a question mark, that'll show your profile including your current # of posts.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>And what is the BTS and BBS achronyms that are being used? I think I also saw a CTS, somewhere or another...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

BTS=Big Time Software, the Developer (company that made the game) As opposed to Battlefront.Com, which is the company that is the publisher for the game. Check out Battlefront's Manifesto for a good discussion of how developers and publishers work & what Battlefront's philosophy is:

http://www.battlefront.com/about/about_festo.html

BBS=Bulletin Board [system?]. Basically, an earlier [or generic] form of this forum.

CTS--Not ringing any bells...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>I am sorry to be annoying as I can imagine myself being right now, but one more question: Does Battlefront trade in any markets (like Nasdaq, NYSE, S&P 500, etc...)?

If so, whats the ticker symbol because I am buying all the stock.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not traded. It's a small, privately held company. IIRC, BTS and Battlefront are seperate private corps owned by (essentially) the same few people.

--Philistine

[This message has been edited by Philistine (edited 08-25-2000).]

[jgdpzr]

Hey Philistine,

Man, I love the "prost" smilies! I think even Mr. Peng might be willing to tip his hat(or mug) to those little fellows. HMMM, gettin' thirsty here.

So let me be the first to ask, how'd you do that?

[G4A]

jgdpzr, check out http://smilecwm.tripod.com