[Sven]

Englische Version:

An open letter to EALA developers, marketing guys and the ones who make decisions on top of it.

In the late 1995 I’ve been playing mostly Jump’n’Run games when I saw a game, at a friend’s place, that fascinated me right away. Little soldiers were throwing grenades onto a plateau in order to destroy SAM sites. I think it was the 4th mission.
The name of the game? Command & Conquer.
The very first thing I did the next day was heading to the nearest store and to buy it. And the next thing I did for the upcoming days and weeks was playing it. Each mission a pleasure, sometimes very challenging, sometimes easier ut always fun and fair.
Diversity was in it, sometimes only destroying the enemy base, sometimes missions with the commando only, there were escorting missions and mixed modes. I was challenged but never frustrated. The add on was bought straight away too – and played the same way.
A year passed by, i couldn’t even wait, and I read every single it of news for the upcoming title with highest tension. It was printed media; the internet was far away these days. Then, finally, felt like several years, Red Alert hit the shelves and, after I had the same fun as I had it with the original C&C, the add ons. RA1 featured new stuff, such as marine, more aircraft and, last but not least, the underground missions.
Everything felt like being made of one, one could tell that Westwood put a lot of heart and feeling into the games, that everyone involved had the same fun developing the games as the players had playing them. Dune 2000 was also a favorite, the game mechanics were the same, even though I always treated it as an in between until the upcoming Tiberian Sun. Then, after sheer endless waiting, it was done and available and again I was completely stunned. The story was even better than I had expected, everything had its place and felt right.
About the mid of 2000 I even started playing online after Firestorm was released.

With Red Alert 2 in Stores I became completely addicted to playing online, I spent almost every evening on WOL and played with my clan mates and others. Yuri’s Revenge featured new, good options and I played on and on. For me, being a single player fan, it was a little sad that in the mission design it felt like the missions were only designed to introduce the new units and to be ready for playing online with them. The great story was a little disturbed because of this.
Also the options in the lobby were not as good as we were used to in Tiberian Sun. No more clan support, no more random maps and some more stuff. One could tell that in the meantime the influence of the publisher grew and grew, in order to bury Westwood Studios finally.
Still the highest level of fun, game play wise, was reached with Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge and I say, as well as many other players, that RA2 and YR were the best games of the entire C&C series ever.
For me, Emperor was good in single player too, in multiplayer it had far too many problems to be good – a pain in the arse.
Then something happened that, for the first time, really questioned my loyalty to the C&C series: Generals. A good game, of course. But you shouldn’t have named it a C&C.
Too many elementary aspects of the Command & Conquer typical game play were just missing that always made a difference between itself and other RTSs on the market. No more harvesters, no more build radius, units were produced out of buildings instead of using the sidebar – and the minimap didn’t have its original place. As said it was quite a good game and I had fun playing it – but I felt cheated.

Renegade, as a sub brand of the original series was an absolute top one and for sure a precursor of an entire generation of games that used its mechanics….

Then something completely changed for me. With Tiberium Wars every good mission design was gone, there was no thrill and the missions really became an introduction of new units. Even though, the multiplayer aspect was quite good, thanks to the ‘back to the roots’ idea within the game. It was funny but sadly it couldn’t really tie me to the internet for long because, for me personally, the direction to esports was too strong. I like slower games where I don’t have to learn keyboard shortcuts in order to have chance – but that’s only my problem.

The community was annoyed by problems that were in the game since Tiberian Sun already and were never really solved, such as easy cheating and that it took months to at least fight some symptoms instead of get rid of the reasons. Sadly the add on didn’t change anything and with Red Alert 3 more stuff came up that were not in line with the original principles of Command & Conquer. To eliminate harvesters was in my opinion the worst.
Before I forget about it: balancing always was a huge problem but at least here we’ve seen some improvement.

Now to topic:
With C&C 4 there’s a game upcoming that has absolutely nothing in common with all that written above. Possibly the story, one of the major great things in the beginning, can do a little to contribute but in terms of game play it’s not a Command & Conquer. General elements are completely missing (do I really have to name them? MCVs, harvesters…)
Fans feel like being hit with a baseball bat, straight into their faces. The forums, let it be dedicated ones such as the German United Forum are joking about C&C instead of looking forward to it or let it be the general ones of the gaming magazines, such as GameStar, PC_Games, Krawall, 4Players etc. are empty when it comes to C&C4. If there’s discussion about C&C it’s only because of news – and these comments are not very friendly (to be diplomatic).

Since years the direction of EALA is to adapt from other RTS games instead of having the courage, and that would be the chance, to take care of a series that always was different from others, that always had aspects that were unique in the world of RTS.
Here also would be a chance to make up a fan base that, seen on ist own, could be a marketing strategy that is better ten any other ever could. If consumers are satisfied and have hopes that their expectations will be met they will tell this to each and everybody, in forums, comments and to friends and others.
This could lead to the decision of many others to buy the game – but this isn’t happening at all. It’s the other way round: In fan forums is more discussion about competitors then about the topic the forum is dedicated to: C&C.

But if this is going on, what does it mean for a possible piece of the cake for C&C on the shelves? If even the hardest fans of a game universe say they won’t buy the title and if poll results show a clear majority of votes for the competitors?

EALA: Doesn’t this give you headaches? Do you really think C&C is going to be game with chances against the others?

Still there’s time to change your minds and at least to implement a normal, C&C style, RTS mode…