Besides improvements in the site itself, I'd really like to develop a game that harkens back to trad simming but with improvements, and establish that as "the game" that is played on this forum. That means developing a solid rule set that folks with no experience with trad simming could read and understand. It means having the site set up in a way that makes information about the game, factions, folks running the game, rules, etc, discoverable. Basically, being mindful and approaching this with intention and planning, with the goal of finding new players who are interested to join us. I have no doubt there are hundreds of potential players out there, folks who enjoy writing, role playing, and star wars, and who would enjoy doing it asynchronously on a web forum like ours.
The old trad sim games all had some rather large flaws, but there was something about the game that was engaging and loads of fun, even with those flaws. I think we should stay inspired by those original games, find ways to modify fix some of the flaws without totally reinventing how gameplay worked, and try to build for a better future and hope folks come back and new blood comes in to join us.
Is anyone else interested in pursuing this? There is plenty of work to do! Besides ironing out a rule set that will actually work, there's the initial story world to create, and figure out the best way we might share that so new folks arriving to the site could find it, read it, and it will draw them in to joining one of the factions.
As for timeline, I think starting just After Endor is the best way to go, stick to the original star wars, side step the new movies and also most of the Legends expanded universe content. We should be free to bring our creativity to the table in terms of which factions will exist. Maybe its just GI and RA to start, to be reasonable, and once we start building critical mass, allowing proposals for the GI to split up, or what have you.
Anyway, I'm tired of puttering around, just making games designed for 2 or 3 players. I want to be more ambitious and use our brains and talents to try to build an evolved version of the forums and games we loved back in the day. The format is such a great one (online forums, free to play, community-powered, focused on writing and role playing as well as other tactical game play).
What do you think?
