The future of Battlezone 2

[Ded10c]

- Find people interested in putting the plan into action (you'll need more than a few)
- Persuade Activision to play along (that ain't gonna be easy)
- Get the game onto GOG or Steam to increase awareness (GOG is the best bet cause they'll crusade for the fans if the game gets enough votes)

Community fracturing is a big problem - both games suffer from it - and none of the communities are going to make nice any time soon. There is neutral ground, but it's small and you won't get everybody on it. Then you have the fact that this genre isn't really a heavy hitter to begin with - "FPS players don't want to think, RTS players don't want to die."

As for the year-long plan, or any plan devoted to making these games popular again - battlezone.wikia.com scores well on search results, making it a useful place to stick information. Especially if it can be made to look active.

[Psyringe]

I agree, it's not an overnight ordeal and I just showed up. I don't expect people to be "on board" right way.

I find the issue is in the lack of seeking outside assistance from sites like MODDB, IGN, GameSpot, or even putting simple data on GameFaqs. Plus many many other sites, even consider hosting a torrent for the latest patches and mods - which is legal - the frequent updated patches would hit as "new torrent" on those types of sites, which would be completely legal as long as the game itself isn't packed with it.

I promise - the game rights will never be bought unless active promotion takes place. If necessary, I'll bundle everything up, put them on all the sites myself under the incision name and credit in .txt and download descriptions - of all the authors that I consolidated - between mods, models, modified odfs, tutorials -- everything. It would need to be done to get any coverage.

I think falling back to "Activision owns it and nothing can be done" is a *slight* cop-out. The reason nobody plays is because its a real pain in the ass to get anything cool working in the first place - quote 'pain in the ass'. Restricting to the current BZ websites wont work, you need to expand to websites that have HUGE tag coverage, HUGE SEO, and the ability to see your mods with other games while searching "fps" or "strategy" - on a bigger site - even if a few views - would make all of the difference when mixed in the results.

It would make a difference.

[Psyringe]

And in reference to future mod ideas - I noticed things like Mount And Blade got even more attention when it ported Starwars - huge amounts of attention.

Or other game engines (popular topic today) is Stargate - people want that. People searching for Stargate mods all of the time now.

While I understand "porting" isn't the most creative task, it still brings loads of attention.

[Ded10c]

I think falling back to "Activision owns it and nothing can be done" is a *slight* cop-out. The reason nobody plays is because its a real pain in the ass to get anything cool working in the first place - quote 'pain in the ass'. Restricting to the current BZ websites wont work, you need to expand to websites that have HUGE tag coverage, HUGE SEO, and the ability to see your mods with other games while searching "fps" or "strategy" - on a bigger site - even if a few views - would make all of the difference when mixed in the results.

I agree with nearly all of what you've said, but this paragraph seems a little off. We've tried talking to Activision before and they simply aren't interested; they're a business, they don't do things for free. If we get enough people on-side, we might get somewhere, but we'd need the people on-side first. Yes, the game is a pita to set up, but it was never a popular genre to begin with; both have a cult following, but neither made great market sales; BZ1 was bundled with graphics cards, so it got more exposure and there are more copies out there, but neither sold very well to the consumer market.

I do agree, though, that greater exposure can only help. The reason I suggested the site I did (I'd say it's "mine", but I'm only babysitting it) is because the host - wikia - is big. It's by no means enough on its own, but it's certainly a start.

[Psyringe]

No doubt - but I've got a plan. In a couple of weeks you'll be turning that frown - that's right - upside down.

-Nick

[Ded10c]

Well, if you let us in on it we can help you

[forgottengames]

I think everyone, as a community, should consider finding ways to distribute/promoting as much of this game, "legally", free.
Any attempt to make money on a dying engine such as this only hurts advancement or growth, not that I took it seriously.
Grouping the all patches together (including betas) on a single static page - free - hosted on and available from multiple servers, updated as patches are released. Similarly with mods. Updating imagery and presence - that should be the "plan" for the next year.

Mm, I started a thread a while back (Please Read: A Personal Appeal from all BZ fans) that is a "breeding ground" for such ideas. Feel free to check it out and give it your input..