Why isnt ofp popular as hl or bf?

[Ixian 0]

I have been asked this question a lot. If OFP kicks ass so much why isn't it as popular as games such as Battlefield 1942 or HL and its mods like Day of Defeat and Counter Strike? And well to be frank I have no answer for this. So perhaps one of you hundres can give a good reason.

[red oct 2]

depends on ware you go, its popular in Europe, but since there isn't any advertising in the states, not to many people know about it. also counsles are more popular in the states than PCs or Macs because not to many people wana spend over $2100 to get a hardcore PC gaming Rig when they can spend a couple hundred on a counsle ware you get about as much bang for the buck w/out the worry of OS failures, compatibility issues, sound problems, ect..

edit: also OFP is a aging game, there are new games that are coming out that make people loose interest.

[acidcrash 0]

there are several reasons, but i think the fact it is much more complicated and patience testing, that drives people away...they just want a fast paced, frag fest. Ive seen people in the board who think codemasters didnt do a good enough job with advertising and so many people didnt know about it, which i agree with as i only found out about it by chance

[red oct 2]

i first heard about OFP in a preview article in my Gamepro mags and Gamespot

[FSPilot 0]

Not enough advertising.

Sacrifices SOME fun for realism.

Other than that it'd catch on if it were popular. A Canadian friend told me about it.

[mr. Duck 0]

Like acid says. It rocks if it's you're taste. This is like falcon4. It is a very good game but it's not for everybody. Most people aren't really interested in a military simulation I think. Too complicated for them I guess.

[Ixian 0]

I don't remember how I first heard about OFP here in the states. I think I either was told about it, found website by mistake, or saw it at store. I just remembered buying it asap.

[der bastler 0]

Why's OFP less popular?

[cynicism]

Because you need brains to play it?

[/cynicism]

[red oct 2]

ofp is not that complicated at all, the game was made so that you don't have to read a 10 inch thick book on how to operated all the vehicles. the hard parts of the game really require skill and practice.

[Warin 0]

I think it's a combination of VERY poor promotion by Codemasters and a much higher learning curve than most run and gun frag fests. The average '1337 d00d' doesnt want to spend 10-15 minutes of a game sneaking around, or getting into position. When I played OFP MP (I've been hellishly busy the last few months and havent played a single online game! I noticed that on public servers, the small CTF maps with respawning vehicles were the most popular... why? Because it was quick and easy.

OFP is a vastly superior game if what you want is realism and a challenging environment. What it isnt is instant gratification. And that's why it isnt as popular as BF1942 or CS/HL

[ralphwiggum 6]

OFP is an infantry sim(or closest), and that means, you don't have to read 10 inch thick manual, but you have to do basic survival decision making. i was playing with some ppl last night around that place where you start 'Pathfinder' mission(north of Chapoi, Malden), and as vets know there are two hills on east and west around town. what i did was i got a binoc and one M16 with 10 mags and crouched near a bush in one of the hills and started shooting at other team who were coming to town for the flag.

then someone cried "someone is using M21!". well, not exactly. but they were trying to flank my team a lottle bit south and was moving acroos an OPEN field. for someone with binoc and plenty of ammo, that's almost a sitting duck.

being popular doesn't neccessarily mean it's good. OFP is good(realistic), but that does not mean many ppl are willing to play. as someone noted earlier, most ppl want mindless fragfest, not tactical reasoning and patients like OFP.

and speaking of advertisement, CM did not do the best job. i found about OFP in store, and decided to get it, and didn't hear about it much even after. most of my friends don't know about it too. but then again, judging by the maturity of the forum members/regulars, it's not that bad  

hopefully, CM can do better ad tactics. instead of game magazines, they should divert some to magazines read by real soldiers.

edit:

and of course, age does matter. OFP has been around for nearly 1 yr and 9 months now. any game that's been around that long is something. HL has various mods, and we have OFPR, but then again, HL is about fragfest, and OFP requires some thinking, so there is a difference.

[USMC Sniper 0]

Obviously, as said before, from lack of advertisement. I read about it in PC Gamer, but I forgot about it shortly after, and then one day when I had 60 bucks to spare I saw that OFP looked good, so I took it. I think that CM should resort to commercials on tv, most people watch tv and that would get many people to play OFP. HL actually had terrible multiplayer when it came out, and many people abandoned it after they played thru the sp. If it wasn't for the extraordinarily easy to mod engine, HL would have been about as popular as Global Operations.

[der bastler 0]

I read about OFP in gaming magazines, I played the good ol' demo and thought: Great! That's what you were lookin' for since "Midwinter" (think that was it's name?)!

But after review? Nothing in the magazines, no articles about OFP-add-ons or user missions, no word about the community and the guys disemboweling OFP's engine for more degrees of gaming freedom (e.g. WrpEdit, OFPAnim, OFRA).

The fate of OFP: it's the same as with good old graphic adventures -nobody seems interested in it (what's wrong), so the editors don't see the need of a report.

(btw: Runaway -our hope! buyitbuyitbuyit! )

Other thesis: gamers today are a little bit dull. "killkillkill! fragfragfrag!" But I don't think that's true -not yet...

[Assault (CAN) 1]

Global Operations?

I think Warin hit the nail on the head with this issue.

I have seen lots of TV advertisments for console games and some PC ones, but none for OFP. If I saw my favorite game on a TV commercial, I would plotz. Besides, with it's difficulty and infantry realism, OFP has picked up more of a mature audience, not the typical pimply faced teen-agers of other popular games like HL and MOH:AA.

Tyler

[Tex -USMC- 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Ixian @ Dec. 29 2002,22:15)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I have been asked this question a lot.   If OFP kicks ass so much why isn't it as popular as  games such as Battlefield 1942  or   HL and its mods like Day of Defeat and Counter Strike?     And well to be frank I have no answer for this.   So perhaps one of you hundres can give a good reason.<span id='postcolor'>

Popularity does not equate quality. Just look at any number of the recently cloned boy-band abortions over here in the States, or reality-TV shows

[red oct 2]

problem w/ advertisement is that its not cheap, to get a 10 second commercial about OFP would cost about 1 Meeeeeeellion dollars to make and probaly a additional 20 g's to for every airing of it. having adds in magazines isn't real cheap either Bis and Codemasters are not as big as other gaming companies such as EA games, Blizzard Entertainment, and Rockstar. though i would figure w/ the realation between Bis and the U.S. marine corps that they would have a heavty sum of cash that they could have spared for some advertisement. since the game has came out, i haven't seen a single form of advertisement(other than adds on the web). was there any in Europe?

[peanuckle_00 0]

I had a few kids from the hood come over to my house and i invited them in to see what they think of ofp. The kids kept saying its too real. They didn't like the realism. They wanted more of a run and gun scenario and weren't into simulations. They didn't like how they felt like they were really at war. That was during the steal the car single player mission. I'm talking high school/junior high kids from the neighborhood.

[USMC Sniper 0]

Well I gave Global Ops as an example because it's popularity lasted about a month.

[LaserGuidedBunnyRabbit 0]

Most people are fairly lazy, its what keeps TV alive, I sometimes like to sit down at a TV and see how much I can turn off my brain without falling asleep. Get on Counter-Strike and its a notch up, you run in, get some kills, and it all takes 1 minute, with that its just point and click. You might get a little bit more thought into BF1942, but not much. Most people dont have the mindset for making a plan and carrying it out. Take your average gamer, put him infront of a computer, and he's got a bad case of ADD. Two or three minute attention span.

[OxPecker 0]

Because idiotic, bunny-hopping rocket-launching "L337" underage dweebs dominate the computer game marktet, and they can't appreciate the subtleties of a great game like OFP.

[red oct 2]

not all frag fests are bad, UT had a rather good multli player frag fest that didn't have the "1337" chatter and more mature players and basicly you didn't have the time to type during game play other wise somebody would plug ya in the back.

[Frizbee 0]

There is one simple answer to why OFP isn't as popular as Half-life.

OFP actually requires thought. You can't simply run around guns blazing on your own if you hope to live more than 10 seconds into a battle.

Thus, people who have no ability to form coherant thoughts - beside their rather idiotic abilities to type "You SUXORZ CUZ I AM L33T" followed by a string of profanities even a sailor wouldn't utter - can't enjoy Operation Flashpoint.

[Itchy 0]

I think Counterstrike is a weird case. Halflife was just so huge as a single player game. Almost everyone owns a copy. So almost anyone can get Counterstrike for free. It reached a certain level of popularity, and because of this, you are guarenteed a game on a server in your country, at any time of day or night, which makes it a good choice to get. Wait two minutes and you are fragging happily, or you can play it at very high levels, with tactics and some very impressive players. (Trust me, I know, but couldn't keep up the practice that requires).

Battlefield is less popular than people think, but it is a very good online game to play. It has a really fast feel to it, but the games can last a long time. You also have a large number of roles to take, so it attracts people from a lot of different games. I have players from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Action Quake 2, Counterstrike, Halflife:Firearms, and several other game, in the clan I play Battlefield with.

Operation Flashpoint just didn't have enough servers online when it was taking off. A lot of people I know have played Flashpoint single player, but never tried it online. Once I drag them to the servers for a good few coop missions with comms and a hint of tactics, they do get into it. But there isn't really a place to start unless you already know a player.

I had hoped that GOTY edition might pick things up a little, introduce some fresh blood. Maybe once the Christmas holidays are over and the students get back. It'd be nice.

[cybrid 0]

Excuese my non-multiplayer ignorance, but whats 1337?

[OxPecker 0]

L337 is geek-speak abbreviation for LEET, or "elite".

Used mainly by younger gaming types.