[JCrowe]

Oh, I think a few more of us are waiting in the wings for something to take flight. It just might be a good while more before they have the next installment to run. The low fruit's been picked. Everything on the table now requires (more-or-less) a complete overhaul of the game.

Coding a decent AI in an environment with lots of moving pieces is probably very difficult. And why many companies either default to pre-programmed "idiot" routines or spend mad resources to build a 'smart' AI that can be easily ported from one game to another. For example, most one-person shooters are fundamentally alike, and it probably doesn't take much tweaking to convert an AI for "Halo" to use in "Medal of Honor". Or for the company that makes the Medal of Honor series to use that same core of AI programming for each new edition, making tweaks along the way. So all you're really left with to program are graphics, backgrounds, and new scenarios. "Old wine in a new bottle", so to speak.

But strategy games ... dude, tweak one statistic and you can fundamentally alter the entire thing and totally blow the AI. Tiger to pussycat in two seconds. And think of the options in a multi-faceted platform like WS. There are so many thousands of possibilities to pursue. In a shooter, well, attack head-on, sneak attack from behind, or draw player's attention from the front while other dude sneaks to hit player from the side. Advanced degree in quantitative thermonuclear fractal economics not required.

Naturally, then, this just makes you wonder what Malf was thinking. WS was way far from baked when they dropped it on the table. This thing was raw; not just "jeez-its-so-red-it's-still-bleeding" raw, but "still-nursing-mom-and-mooing" raw. They should not have released it in such an incomplete state. Worse, they seem to communicate with the public about as openly as Kim Jong Il does about his private life. Responsive enough to tech requests, but Public Relations? They act like such a thing doesn't exist.

Maybe they're afraid it shows them in a bad light to be working so extensively on a released product. Scares potential customers away & etc. But this is not the 8th Century, and assuming the Oath of Silence is seriously counterproductive. They could use the situation as an opportunity to connect with customers and highlight the positives. That's what good PR is all about. Lemons to lemonade.

Anyway, I'll keep scanning and hoping, and maybe - just maybe - somewhere over that electric rainbow, our dreams really will come true!