Ofp is dead?

[Antichrist 0]

Well I never actually wanted to start this topic, cause I believe that OFP is the best game ever and will always be the best game ever for me, but lately trends started to appear that indicate that people are getting sick of OFP and moving on to other games. For example:

- WKK Gimbal left the community and never finsihed most of his addons

- Fliper is going to stop producing addons for OFP after he finishes his current one

- My old squad NZG moved on to Battlefield 1942, in fact many squads now are moving away from OFP, mostly to play BF1942

- Just yesterday Acutus announced that OFP.de is going to be closed and he is going to work on BF1942 web-site.

- Not many people visit forums anymore or if they do they mostly write in OFFTOPIC and haven't played OFP for ages.

So what do u reckon? And don't start shouting that OFP is gonna live forever and shit like that, you know it is not true, and no matter how much I love OFP you just cannot hide from those obvious facts.

[PHY_Hawkeye 0]

I think, while it's popularity will drop, OFP will keep a core fanbase. It's already lasted longer than most games do; and if BIS continue to produce excellent expansions like Resistance, and similar simulations like Independance Lost (lets hope) it'll stay alive for a fairley long time.

Keep up the great work BIS.

[ralphwiggum 6]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">- WKK Gimbal left the community and never finsihed most of his addons

- Fliper is going to stop producing addons for OFP after he finishes his current one

- My old squad NZG moved on to Battlefield 1942, in fact many squads now are moving away from OFP, mostly to play BF1942

- Just yesterday Acutus announced that OFP.de is going to be closed and he is going to work on BF1942 web-site.

- Not many people visit forums anymore or if they do they mostly write in OFFTOPIC and haven't played OFP for ages.<span id='postcolor'>

Gimbal left early on cause he said it took too much of his time.

i play OFP every day. and I spa.... i mean i post in many forums too. but your observation is somewhat correct. after nearly 1yr and half, there's not much game that stands out. take a look at GR(*shivers) and other games. they don't last that long.

considering that OFP is not a shoot and blow arcade, it's no surprise that there are ppl moving to arcadish ones like BF1942. everytime i play OFP, being a soldier in wide area is extremly strenuous to some extent. and when i finish. i feel exhausted.

Game is for entertainment. and as you do it more and more, the value of it diminishes. and since OFP is one, it's value will diminish for a lot of ppl, unless you are a big devotee.

it's no surprise that OFP is loosing its steam. but i think sequels(IL,OFP2) will reignite the fire. Generally, FPS market is now heading down hills. remember when SC/WC came  out? it was just about the only thing everyone played. then it moved to FPS, now its moving to whatever(can't point the current absolute favorite) genre.

but considering that other FPSs diminished in shorter time, i say OFP is having a great run still.

no other game has this kind of realism incorporated, and Raven Shield will definitely take toll on OFP in terms of CQB area. but i say there's nothing like OFP, and will be so for a long time

[Jester983 0]

Yea, most people are going to BF 1942. But I have a feeling when IL does come out the ex OFP players will come crawling back.

I doubt OFP will die right away. I think itll be quite some time before it happends.

Where did you see flipper was going to quit making addons after his current one?

[Antichrist 0]

2 Jester983

Fliper said it himself in one of the topics in A&M and

WKK Gimbal told me that after almost a year he started to get sick of OFP.

[NAA_Us_Marine 0]

I dont even know why you would put a topic up like this all it does is tick me off. So Its just a bunch of jibborish.

[advocatexxx 0]

If all those people left for Battlefield 1942 then they weren't true Flashpoint fans in the first place.

[Antichrist 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (advocatexxx @ Sep. 09 2002,02:32)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">If all those people left for Battlefield 1942 then they weren't true Flashpoint fans in the first place.<span id='postcolor'>

That's exactly what I said, bunch of traitors!!

[bn880 5]

I don't know, it looks like there are quite a few new misison makers coming in. Meaning the game market is actually still growing. You can tell by the questions asked...

[SFG 1]

Not for me, ... just getting started. Oxygen release soon, meaning more mods can finish there work faster. Campaigns etc.. on there way to the public. It's only getting better not worse.

[Cloney 0]

I Agree with SFG. I think its the Golden Era for OFP. There tons of new Addons coming out that get sweeter every day. New Mods (Invasion 1944). More Islands, More Units, I don't think OFP is gonna die anytime soon.

BF 1942 is fun for like 10 mins, it doesn't have the atmosphere that OFP does. Ghost Recon is okay but only if you play with a true team of guys. I think that this community will stay alive because of the Dedicated cadre of forum regulars that we have. I mean, the influx of newbies helps also.

[Jester983 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (NAA_Us_Marine @ Sep. 09 2002,02:31)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I dont even know why you would put a topic up like this all it does is tick me off. So Its just a bunch of jibborish.<span id='postcolor'>

It is actually a good debate. No one said you have to read it.

[Kamko 0]

I don't think OFP is dead (WE JUST HAVE TO WAIT FOR OFP2 !!! ) but it's true less and less people play it every day, example: INTERNET; at first there were liek thousands people playing it now, the number lowered to hundreds or tenths (like in example of resistance) . Oh well what we need is a very good mod or campaign and it should refresh OFP!

[Tex -USMC- 0]

Well, I never saw more than like 400 people online at once ever, so I cant say that OFP is substantially less popular than it used to be. But I do think that BIS releasing 1.75 in the buggy state it was in hurt the online community. Hell, twice as many people are playing 1.46 on any given night as 1.75, and the wierd thing is, Im one of them. 1.46 runs smoother, and so long as you have a good server, you can have a much better experience than in 1.75.

Now, I love BIS. They made my favorite game of all time when they made OFP. But they have consistently shown that when they do something new, they will be buggy, even if they are good. And thats why 1.46 is more popular than 1.75. 1.75 is a complete rework, and, predictably, BIS releases a buggy netcode. Conversely, 1.46 represented a finely polished product. It was just about as good as DirectPlay netcode could be. But BIS had time to polish it (almost an entire year from 1.0 to 1.46), and they probably thought they would have time to polish 1.75. But they dont. The game is showing its age, players are starting to move on, and other developers are releasing products that could possibly be defined as OFP-killers. They will undoubtedly get 1.75 polished up and it will be a substantial improvement on 1.46- but there may be only about 100 OFP players worldwide still playing to enjoy it.

[kegetys 2]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Tex [uSMC] @ Sep. 09 2002,04:22)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">1.75 is a complete rework, and, predictably, BIS releases a buggy netcode.<span id='postcolor'>

1.75 still has DirectPlay too, which works as well as with 1.46... Thats what we are doing with our server and it runs very well. OFP Certainly isnt dead for me, we still have very good games on our server. Some people have left OFP, but theres still people coming in all the time too.

[Holy Smoke 0]

Actually I got OPF because of the mission editor: it rocks and fulfills the expectations I had on this game.

Anyway, measuring the popularity of a game, I do it in terms of how many addon makers (and mission makers in this case) are out there releasing stuff. There's quite a bunch of people in the OPF comunity. OPF is still alive and in the long run I think it will have a hardcore fan base as European Air War has today.

Just think about it: EAW, a WWII sim released in 1998 is still alive with a solid comunity creating addons and campaigns. Maybe they're no longer playing it on-line, but I think it is significative that so many pleople are still enjoying that sim when so many "EAW killers" have reached the stores, not to mention that Microprose refused to support the game and later ceased to exist as a company.

There will be better games than Operation Flashpoint in the future, that's for sure, but OPF was a revolution just one year ago, still has support from BIS and implements a relative open architechture to make the life of the addon maker not so difficult. I don't think OPF is going to die in the next future.

Regards.

[Tex -USMC- 0]

There are many problems that are going to combine to eventually kill OFP:

1. The current game culture is all about going as fast as you can from one game to another. Better graphics, bigger guns, easy gameplay. Gamers think its just a shift to more lighthearted games for the hell of it, but the real reason is that its cheaper and easier to release a Quake 3 than a Falcon 4, it will sell more copies, and you can have a sequel or a spinoff ready in 6 months to a year. Simpler games=more profits for game publishers. Unless you are an idiot, you can see how this will hurt OFP.

2. BIS are rookies. Talented rookies, but rookies nonetheless. They arent professional computer geek gods like ID, or crackheads like Blizzard (they have to be, if you think about it). They're upstarts, and they just arent as good at fixing bugs and things like that. Couple this with the revolutionary nature of OFP's engine, this will make for problems. Give them time, funding, and a few more talented coders, modelers, etc, and they will soon be up to speed with the game community's varsity.

3.OFP-killers. Not necessarily because they are better than OFP, but because they take the OFP idea of big areas, vehicles, and freedom of action, and then dumb it down for the CS kiddy, which represents the most valuable demographic in the gaming community today, or at least in the eyes of game makers. That would be why BF1942 is so popular with the gaming community as a whole. If OFP is the Chateau Avignon 1896, BF1942 is the Turning Leaf wine-cooler. Because theyve never tasted OFP (or because they are unrefined bastards who have no class), they will prefer BF1942.

4.OFP is showing its age, at least to some people. As all games do, OFP may be getting a little stale for some gamers. Although I dont agree with them, I see their point. If you dont delve way into OFP to master your tactics and skills (i.e. learning how to be a one man army in an environment where Rambos have sub-one minute lifespans), it wont hold your attention as long. No big deal though, because it happens to all games, and OFP has lasted longer than most *cough*Medal of Honor*cough*.

5.There are no great Total Conversion Mods to refresh the game. If you will remember, HalfLife's multiplayer wasnt all that good, but public mods like TFC and CS and DoD kept it going and gave the developer a reason to continue its support. But we dont have that in OFP. BIS hasnt released an SDK, so their will be no Day of Resistance, or Team Flashpoint Classic. I understand that though. Small company, proprietary engine, licensing concerns, I understand BIS's position. But that doesnt change the fact that it is one of the reasons OFP isnt going to last very much longer.

So, in conclusion, OFP is dying, slowly. It wont be dead and gone for a while, but barring some massive improvements in 1.75 and some major innovations in the mod community (Inasion 44, for example-but they are taking too long), not to mention a miracle or two (like every gamer in the world spontaneously gaining billions more brain cells) OFP wont have a community above 100 or so worldwide come its 2 year anniversary in June of '03. So, BIS, modders, get crackin. I dont want to have to go to BF1942 to get my jollies, because frankly, it sucks. Either that, or start working light speed on OFP 2, whether that be Independence Lost, or something else entirely...

[HellToupee 0]

the reason is it dying is multiplayer, its graphics are not dated no game comes close, to its areas, it single pl;ayer rocks soo much longitivity, but the big market is multiplayer, people want big games lots ppl, but ofp has vry few ppl on at anytime and theres a huge wait for a game which after 30mins drops all the players and have to reassign when its just getting good. OFP blows bf1942 out of the water, but bf1942 1. is easy 2. has join in progress 3. has a sh*t load of players so word of mouth means everyone knows about it, i find it more boring than ofp and its players worse than any other game ive played. OFP looks better than it has better gameplay has more open design more possibilities but all these ppl are going around saying its the most realistic battle game ever i say what about ofp they say of what? If you have join in progress a few very fast servers for 64ppl etc and more players OFP will turn around faster than u can blink.

[Jester983 0]

You know I really think it hits the people who dont have very good systems hard. I know people cant afford the best computers but to play OFP you need a decent comp too really feel the realism.

Second, I think it also hits the 56k people downloading addons and multiplayer wise. Most severs dont allow 56kers because they slow down. Now as for downloading, it hits them pretty hard there too. Like if someone who had a 56k wanted to download the HK pack it would take a seriously long time. So thats why I think people with 56k stop playing OFP than someone with a decent computer and a decent connection.

One thing you have to realize is OFP would've been dead a long time ago if someone hadnt cracked it giving us the ability to make addons. That what has made OFP so great IMO. The addons. Without them OFP wouldnt be as good as it is now. I had a friend point this out to me. I totally agree with him on the subject. If we didnt have those 3rd party addons then I doubt I and alot of people wouldnt be here and wouldnt be posting in this forum.

anyhow, like I said before I believe that once IL does or OFP2 comes out, those who went to different games might get a lil bored of the current game they're playing and come back.

Well, thats my thoughts.  

[toadeater 0]

I dunno why people are so hyped up about BF1942. I tried the demo and it kept crashing, and even when it didn't, the gameplay seemed kind of silly. The graphics also aren't that great. Besides that, you can create a BF1942-style clone in OFP with some scripting, so why play something else?

Their is one very important feature BF1942 does have that OFP for some reason doesn't: multiplayer that allows you to join in at any time, rather than waiting for rounds to end. I think this is the one thing that's kept OFP multiplayer from being as popular as some of the other games, it's simply too time consuming to play a simple public game of OFP.

BF1942 isn't the OFP killer, but there are some other games on the horizon which will be if OFP isn't improved. I hope BIS aren't resting on their laurels and are planning to update the engine again soon. Multiplayer without the waiting would bring in more players IMHO.

[HellToupee 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Tex [uSMC] @ Sep. 09 2002,17:29)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">3.OFP-killers. Not necessarily because they are better than OFP, but because they take the OFP idea of big areas, vehicles, and freedom of action, and then dumb it down for the CS kiddy, which represents the most valuable demographic in the gaming community today, or at least in the eyes of game makers. That would be why BF1942 is so popular with the gaming community as a whole. If OFP is the Chateau Avignon 1896, BF1942 is the Turning Leaf wine-cooler. Because theyve never tasted OFP (or because they are unrefined bastards who have no class), they will prefer BF1942.<span id='postcolor'>

bf42 isnt popular cause its easy its popular because it has vechicles, ofp has vechicles but who wants to wait 30mins for a game with 5other ppl at ctf i dont, i want to play lots of ppl, not have to wait but i hate bf42 cause of its kiddieness i want ofp with lots of ppl and no waits. In the sp previews of ofp 1-2 years ago one previewer quoted that if they get the mp right this is a cs killer for sure, and before ofp came out many ppl knew about it, i was told by my friends of 200ppl mulitplayer and playin df2 at the time and seeing that ofp had trees, and vechiles not dfs crappy terrian i was very hopeful. Its mp is good but lacks 2 things- ppl and jip. And 1.46 sux compared to 1.75 u may not notice it with yr 10pings an all but for my adsl i get 100pings local and 300to aplce like stoners and playin on 1.75 stoners i like playin on 100local 1.46.

[Jester983 0]

I wouldnt mind JIP myself but I sure wouldnt want it for CO Op missions because if you get some rambo wannabe and its a black op mission it could ruin the mission. or just slow you down becaue you have to wait for the guy to read the briefing while your target is 1000 meters + and driving away.

Now if it was for TDM, and C&H. I wouldnt mind that.

[HellToupee 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Jester983 @ Sep. 09 2002,18:04)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Second, I think it also hits the 56k people downloading addons and multiplayer wise. Most severs dont allow 56kers because they slow down. Now as for downloading, it hits them pretty hard there too. Like if someone who had a 56k wanted to download the HK pack it would take a seriously long time. So thats why I think people with 56k stop playing OFP than someone with a decent computer and a decent connection.<span id='postcolor'>

i dont see whats wrong with 56kers i could play fine with 56k even in 1.0 days, i got adsl its much smoother but other wise still the same, but now in 1.75 its much better for 56kers servers that boot 56kers have no excuse they do not lag ther server ppl with high speed connections do, and with addons in mp no one users em because if u want even 1 person to play u wont add them, on the gp server we have kegs editor addon we had about 15ppl on the server we reassigned to a map usin it and bam 5ppl gone.

[HellToupee 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Jester983 @ Sep. 09 2002,18:20)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I wouldnt mind JIP myself but I sure wouldnt want it for CO Op missions because if you get some rambo wannabe and its a black op mission it could ruin the mission. or just slow you down becaue you have to wait for the guy to read the briefing while your target is 1000 meters + and driving away.

Now if it was for TDM, and C&H. I wouldnt mind that.<span id='postcolor'>

coop needs no changin at all coops will probly never die, but its the human vs human games that need it theres cft c&h and many other game types u can script thats what would make ofp stand out amoung any other game is the gameplay, u can make what would be considered enitre conversions in other games (cs's buyin system for example) hust in the editor.

[Jester983 0]

Theres nothing wrong with 56kers but IMO i think it isnt as fun for them as it is for DSL players. Not always do they get kicked. I hardly ever have problems with them myself.