[OTGamer]

I am an old time gamer. I'll date myself, but my very first game was Avalon Hill's original War at Sea, acquired roughly 30 years ago....I still have it. I graduated to VITP....I still have it. In fact, I have a good number of the old titles, and I moved into the computer genre and grew up parallel to the computer generation. And now here we are TODAY. I occasionally peruse the web looking for something that meets my fancy. I seldom find anything these days. Although I too enjoy some of the glitz and eye candy, my big disappointment over the years has been the atrophy of strategy in computer games. In the old days of computers, when visuals were in the dark ages, the game had to be solid at the strategy level. Now, half the marketing is how pretty it looks. Bah! Virtual cardboard is fine. In fact, in many instances it is preferred, particularly when the meat of the game is true STRATEGY. The day of strategy isn't what it used to be.

In a round about way I found myself on Shrapnel's website, and looking at War Plan Pacific. And yes, I did see the inspiration was VITP. An excellent inspiration if I say so myself. If WPP can deliver what it says, I'll buy it.

The scope appears perfect. I understand some folks want more "stuff" to work with (a la the destroyer thread). But no. Not here. Not in this game. I don't want to micromanage to that level. Destroyers are ubiquitous....capital ships are not. There is already a presumption of their presence....guarding the supply lines...escorting merchants...escorting the big ships...and doing the massively important role assigned to them. I don't want to mess with them. So for me, good decision to leave them out. One of the beauties of WAS and VITP was "cruiser and above". It not only works for cardboard...it works for virtual cardboard as well. There are several other micro-manage titles out right now, but few (if any) of the simpler fare. It's nice to see someone aim for the niche no one else is meeting at the moment. I am one example of the niche player you may catch.

A lot of us old farts now have jobs, family, and a host of other stuff. A fast, engrossing, turn-based affair is great because it can be managed amongst many other priorities.

I'm trying out the demo. Hope it goes well.