I miss it
Jarod | February 21, 2006Over at fatalshadows.de we started a new project – or well, I started it, since I just cannot leave any great idea alone and always push everything to a higher level, make everything a project. Call me weak, stupid, hyperactive or simply “Great organizer” (Thanks). Anyhuh, it’s all about the guild this time.
The FS Legacy Project aims to collect as much data about FS and their members as possible. The history of games, big events, laughs and pure ownage. While searching for info on my hard drive – and I have a lot of stuff – I found old chatlogs, screenshots and names I had already forgotten. Thinking about the good ol’ time back in Jumpgate makes me all sentimental – and I am not the only one. Never before I got so much positive feedback from a newsletter or a new project.
I miss it. The point of this post is to speak about Jumpgate. I always want to reinstall, get a trial account and just practise dueling in the sim like back then. However, first of all I don’t have the time at the moment, and I know, yes I know how crappy the graphics look nowadays and how much it would drag me down.
So is it all just sentimental crap, the wish for old times to return, to again experience the feeling I had when flying into battle with a fleet of friends on my side? Something that will never return, never be the same again? Or is it my own fault, and it’s all there still, and I’m just too lazy or busy to find out?
Is there any alternative to Jumpgate? Not in the sense of skill-driven “first person” space game, there isn’t. There’s EVE, a game that I beta-tested ages ago and found boring. It might be worth giving another shot, a lot must have changed since then, but are there still Shadows around? I doubt it.
Planetside, now there might be hope. With the one-year-free program they announced some weeks ago, it could set the spark and get FS back together in a game of skill and squadron-based mayhem. It could. Fingers crossed, that I can once again experience the unity, the friendship and the fun I had in the beginning. Right now, I can at least create a record of that time, and preserve it, so I won’t forget.
I miss it too. It was never really about the game though which actually became quite dull after a short period, but it did provide an environment where friends could fly and fight together. Excuse me a minute, I think I have something in my eye.
Unfortunately, I have not seen a game since that could provide the same sort of environment. Planetside is a good laugh, but it’s not an open environment like Jumpgate, there’s nothing else to do other than fight battles.
We all miss it. I think the fact that it was due to the very real feeling that you were actually flying (unlike EVE) is what made it different and brought you closer to the ‘other guy’ in his ship. Progression in the game was linked to high good a pilot you were as opposed to how many kobalds you could whack per hour. Looking back on it there were many features which were unique and although coming in for critisicsm at the time I now believe that the ‘Honour Guard’/'Unreg’ idea for PvP was one of the best features I have seen in a game, also the Joshh database which allowed pilots to see there stats and medals, and also other pilots, thus gaining a sense of achievement not seen in an MMORPG since .However strange though it may seem, I believe the small community was also a positive, everyone knew who OV/QS/TBH/SL were and exactly what they stood for. There was a closeness both among the squad and throughout the game which I have yet to find elsewhere.
There are songs I have, good songs, that I simlpy can’t listen too anymore because they just set me off. I know, I know, I’m going all girly in my old age but these are the songs I played during the long flights. They just remind me of times that are now gone. Good times.
I think that the thing that made Jumpgate so unique was that it wasn’t your level that made you good, it was your personal ability (how many times were we all killed by Hittman in a lvl0 ship whilst in a nix/tensy? Or was that just me?). This is what made it sucha community based game, as everyone could contribute in some way.
I don’t think that a game like that will emerge until MMO’s move away from level based progression and that is unlikely to happen for the foreseeable future
Maybe we should try Guild Wars again.
- It’s free (no monthly charges)
- It can be played as an RP game
- It can be played in PvP mode
- You can start at the highest level if you wish (PvP arenas)
… so, it’s based on skill and gaming experience and not on grinding.
Unfortunatly it’s fantasy and not sci-fi.
And I play it.
Fantasy games always put me off, no part of me ever identifies with the game world which doesnt help RP at all.