Our Place in the History of Gaming

[JawBreaker]

..

As the years go by, it's sometimes easy to forget the importance of certain things.

Battlfield 1942 is one of those things.

When I decided to leave the golf magazine I invented and join the West Coast Internet circus during the dot.com boom, it was explained to me that:

Games make more money than all movies combined

This is SIGNIFICANT revenue.

Then you think .. the entire Battlefield franchise. BF2, BF3, BF 4, BF Bad Company on and on and on until the latest, Battlefield 1. All those games and all of that money through the years.

Then, Call of Duty and that entire franchise. Call of Duty was Activision's answer to Battlefield. There would be no Call of Duty without Battlefield.

And you play the game that started *ALL* of this. The original. This game is not a watered down copy or a sequel. This is .. The Real Deal.

And this is the last real server left.

What we do here is a little bit historic. We are keeping culture alive .. a culture that has generated HUNDREDS of millions of dollars .. if not more .. of profit. It started with our game.

Because Call of Duty is so closely intertwined with Battlefield .. I decided to go look at the new CoD. It's WWII based.

But, it is basically Unreal Tournament. See .. for us old timers .. it's just Doom .. Castle Wolfenstein .. and then the end of all that .. Unreal Tournament. It's the same friggin' game.

Battlefield is so radically different. And Battlefield 1942 is .. the absolute bleeding edge when it comes to this difference.

You guys that play here .. unfortunately .. never get to experience this .. because somebody modded it out of this server's map ..



That's a submarine at Midway. That's the only place in the entire Battlefield or Call of Duty canon that you can pilot a submarine and capture an objective. It points to what I am trying to say.

This game, our game, is so radically advanced past the new Call of Duty .. because those games .. man, it's just Unreal Tournament.

We play Battlefield

Not a copy.

Not a sequel.

The Granddaddy of 'em All.

JB

..

[TheVicar]

You've done it justice there. It was the game changer that had to happen, unrestricted movement on a large map with full access to vehicles.

I was busy working in a university IT job at the time, busy playing Half Life 1's variants. There was an internet game server hosted at that place so the latency at my desk was 3, I banned myself from sniper class as it was like shooting rats in a bucket.

Then came the demo download of bf1942. Tobruk, axis side, spawn, tank. Addiction occurred.

The rest, apart from a couple of years of bfVietnam, is still being held up by this game.

[shidenkai]

I agree with JB.

It was 2005 and I was in Navy. My cameraten said me: Istall BF1942 and we will play wit the office's server! It's an order!

So, I did my drug.

Where is possible to find a game so complete? A lot of veichles, weapons, interactions and a game chat L or K for strategic stuff. And FUN! How much times I laugh to die watching people ecploding away or doing acrobatic things with veichles? Damn, thi is the real game

Last but very important, the people: I like to call all of us "friends", because ok, sometimes we insult eachother and do teamkill and go angru or drunk, but this game is respect and collaboration.

Ok, thanks for reading XD

Shidenkai - by the side of Axis Always

[Bad Actor]

Well said JB.

This is quite simply the best game ever made, period.
Downloaded the demo back in 2002, think the demo map was El Alamein and it blew me away.
15 years on, pushing a powerful pc and a £500 graphics card because I wanted to play the latest BF1, PUBG etc yet still return to BF1942. It's like a comfortable pair of slippers or armchair.
The strategy, tactics, camaraderie, it has it all. Doesn't need fancy graphics, it's all about the game-play.
I'll still be playing it in 10 years time assuming there is a decent server still hosting it.

[Whoopz]

Exactly why I started streaming this as well JB, well said.

[JawBreaker]

..

Another intensely crucial issue .. one that Vic points out and made me more aware of is:

Pay to Win

Throughout computer gaming, going back to it's infancy of Atari in the seventies, the golden hymen that was never broken was .. it's fair. It's fair to me and it's fair to you .. because .. we are equal. A level playing field makes it more fun for everyone.

Battlefield 1942 may be one of the last games to uphold this most sacred rule.

In all the newer games, including most every game in the Battlefield franchise .. and even more acute in the Call of Duty franchise .. if you have the cash, your weapon is better than mine. Now, game developers kinda know this .. so they keep the actual advantage to a minimum. A slightly increased rate of fire .. a tiny bit more damage .. if .. you enter your credit card number here.

But the perception .. that is forever changed. The perception of the players of the game .. fair play is sacrificed .. in the name of profit.

They broke the golden rule of computer gaming: Fair play for all .. no matter how much money you have.

Battlefield 1942 is one of the very last games to uphold this basic rule of computer gaming before all the games that came after it were tainted, spoiled, in the name of Profit.

You can even take this one step farther to in-game currency .. such as, leveling up. In newer games .. you get killed by somebody .. it shows you: LEVEL 38 FIRST SERGEANT as the guy who killed you. So, your ego is soothed a bit because you say: "Well, of course that guy beat me. He's level 38 and he has this and this and that and that. I don't have those things. I'm only Level 17."

Absolutely none of that silly shit is in Battlefield 1942.

If Whoopz guns my ass down by the windmill at Bocage .. we are equal on the playing field. He is not a higher level of character and he did not pay for a better gun than mine. He just smoked me. Period.

And that is .. valid .. authentic .. gaming.

A completely fair playing field in the arena.

No levels.

No pay-to-win.

Battlefield 1942 is far more advanced .. because .. it is not broken by the corporate chase of pure greed.

JB

..

[TheVicar]

Absolute agreement. I try to explain this to some people. The skill is in your hands, game by game, mouse, keyboard, joystick, wand. Once you know all the maps everybody becomes an equal (ping excluded).

The newish gaming world design is also to keep that player online as much as possible, on one game, to guarantee future profits. I've never owned a console, but someone once said that they got better on an online version of COD by just being logged into a game, no killing required.....???

The credit card part of gaming is a F'in disgrace.

The new games are designed to make players just want medals to show off with. Whilst in the background we do the real unspoken online war work, with a quiet smile.


Good news: The sun does shine on a dogs arse every now and then. A neighbour gave me an old PC yesterday, I was going through and removing un-needed software and what's there?

An old licenced install of BF1942. I'm now future protected. And it runs BFVietnam smoothly.

Happy times

[iCQ]

I'd like to thank Vicar and JawBreaker and all others for giving me such good sporty gg's and a wonderful read here on the forums!

BF1942 = best arcade multiplayer FPS war simulation game ever!

[TheVicar]

I've been guilty in the past of saying within chat that you can enter your credit card details into the in game weapons menu, by pressing alt-f4.

Buy yourself better players have done it,


those grey disconnect names....

[chief_HEMP]

Good read Mr. JB,

next move from the game industry:

http://archive.is/N8wdV#25%


terribel