To start, want to say that I have been pc gaming since 1983/84. The first games I played was on a friends pc and I don't have the foggiest as to what make or model. Tape drive though..think cassette tapes. Another friend had a pc with orange text and floppy disc. I didn't actually own my own pc until 92 or 93. It was given to me by the first tech co I worked for. It was a 286x from Compaq.
First type of pc games I played were text based(briefly), mostly Adventure, then some statregy games and role-playing. I also played a couple of arcade games before seeing or hearing of pc's. Umm, Space Invaders..(cringe now at thought). I enjoyed SSI's Pool of Radiance(Gold Box), Warcraft, Age of Empires(esp when farming became easy instead of having to constantly manage the workers like in the first version), Doom, Unreal Tournemant(and this where I started to notice modding as part of gaming, can't remember what other titles were being modded then), many other shooters, rpg's, rts's, etc.
Initially, we gamed by taking turns in the chair. Whoever was in the chair got to play, when we lost or died it was next person's turn(yea, time in the chair was uneven). Later, we all own our own computers and are playing by ourselves. Then, we starting using BBS's. I enjoyed the Pit, didn't really care for Trade Wars at first but liked it later, etc..Around the time of the BBS's we started lan gaming. That was incredible. Lan gaming just seemed like the ultimate to me. Intitially, it was only 2 or 3 of us then got to be like 6-8 in 2 or 3 rooms and all connected by local hub. No delay. It was fantastic and I will always think of that time as being great. For the last 5-6 years I was doing some MMO gaming, no lans, and some revisiting of games I missed or cherished. I played MoM again on DOSbox. Bought the Boxed sets of many rpg's I loved.
Now to the point of this post. I want this game to succeed in a big way because I love fantasy, fantasy gaming, strategy gaming, gaming in general and I wish Stardock and other developer's continued success in what some would call an oversaturated market. What I remember about pc gaming might not be important to todays gaming or the futures. However, of all the great games that I have enjoyed over time, the ones that have multiple options for gamer's have brought the greatest value to the experience. Some people enjoy single player gaming and single player gaming only. Others like to play only multiplayer games. I enjoy the diversity of gaming options and think that the greatest game that will ever be created(to date) should have all the options. I also don't want the game to die a horrible death because of it. If it is not possible ,due to time requirements, technological hurdles or money; then I would want to see every effort made to make the single player campaign scenario a transcendant experience. I wouldn't want a game to add features it doesn't really support. I haven't played a local lan game in years but I still expect gamers to love that experience. Dial up networking is something I'm currently not doing in gaming but that needs it own real support as well.
I know Stardock is serious about its games. I am sure most of you agree. I would like to know to what level of importance you place on single player vs. multiplayer, local lan vs, wan, and mod scenarios vs. Stardock Campaign Scenario? Why? Where would you place Stardock resources?
