User talk:NightChime

Why does X-COM warrant such a use of our time on this wiki?

Some pessimism- really. Why? It is just a game, after all, right? Is our time worth that little? Life is short! We should go outside and go for a walk, or read a book, or get laid, or sew, or something. Be productive and make something!

Some optimism- Hey, it's a fun game! It's fairly popular, if just in nerd circles that I'm around. I'd have to say it's the most common game that isn't browser-based I see played on laptops, anywhere, not that I see people playing games on laptops much. Anyway, more importantly is that it's such an old game that, coupled with (here I'm not sure, I'm guessing) a lack of in-depth information, strategy guides, etc. from the very start of the game, in its hay-day, combined with the erosion of such information over time; people losing or plum not saving their instruction books or guides, or the increasing percentage of people playing the game "illegally", thus not getting an instruction book in the first place (me being somewhere between, having gotten the game from a friend on an original CD, sans book or box).

In a way, providing in-depth information about a game of which I'd assume most people would otherwise (or at least without the internet) have none other than word of mouth and the software itself, is a sort of creation. It's like we're building an ever stronger foundation for the game itself to stand on; by now most of the concrete has been laid out, but there are still plenty of flaws and bubbles to be resonated out (see Concrete Vibrators for my metaphor to maybe make more sense, I only recently learned about the technique). And with a stronger foundation, or to exit the metaphor, a greater, broader appreciation for this classic, which I suppose you could say has been successfully done with the release on Steam, will mean the game itself will remain in circulation for longer, and maybe even shine brighter through the sands of time as a classic. To mix a billion more metaphors.

And so a random, very negative thought I had gets turned on its head! Smiles, et cetera, NightChime 02:15, 23 October 2008 (CDT)