Re: PC SWOS online (++ beta)

My 2 cent:

Having an inferior version available for online play will only dwindle down further the already plummeting number of players willing to partake into Amiga SWOS competitions (besides generating confusion), because the ones who get easily frustrated by the steep learning curve and ferocious competition will drop it in a heartbeat and flock in droves onto PC SWOS, under the assumption that they d have it easier on that version (and also because it s new and likely, easier to set-up).

Food for thoughts.

This version is not inferior, Retri!
The online mode and the way you can start it (in the game itself) is already superior to Winuae+kaillera, and that still in an alpha/beta phase.

That s exactly what I meant.

It s more user-friendly than WinUAE, that alone will discourage newcomers from playing the Amiga version (which is also harder to play).

It IS inferior gameplay-wise though. It s basically poor-man s Amiga SWOS, if you catch my drift. No doubt it can be played at insanely competitive levels (see Sensidays) but then again, so can Space Invaders or Pong or Donkey Kong. That s besides the point.

If this catches on it ll be the demise of Online Amiga SWOS, mark my words.

People don t give a shit about gameplay the way us hardcore retrogamers do, they ll just be frolicking toward wichever version is easier to set up and play and that s it.

Case in point: Haxball is a shit game but it s so easy to play and jump into it s managed to pile up 10000x the userbase of online SWOS in a fraction of the time and it s still going strong to these days.

Don t get me wrong, I m happy yet another SWOS version will be available for everyone to play online in a reasonably easy-to-use package (becaus ethat s the kinda stuff that truly preserves a videogame), I m just worried the Amiga SWOS community might suffer from it as a result.

Only time will tell I guess.

Been there, saw that... Copple of years before we had easy for setup and playing Sega Version and still developing, unstable Amiga version. And people wanted to play Amiga, because of its gameplay, inspite of other issues (configurations etc).

I thinking also that PC online is huge opportunity to bring to the community plenty of PC players that never enjoyed much of playing Amiga version. I see here really big chanse ;D

This sounds interesting, I ll give it a look this weekend.