I have a full Dindrenzi fleet for Firestorm Armada, including two Battleships, six Cruisers, twelve Frigates, six Escorts, a Carrier, three Heavy Cruisers and three Gunships. At least one full squad of everything available for Dindrenzi.
I love the game. I think it has its flaws (I don't believe the fighters mechanic works right, I have specific issues with the Dindrenzi carrier, I think it works better with missions which are not provided by the company), but overall I think the game is solid and it fills a niche in my collection. It's my sci-fi fleet-sized game, and I love it for that.
But more and more I feel like the company that puts the game together, Spartan Games, is dropping the ball. They have too many games they're trying to support, and in the end, the only one that gets any love is the game that's out most recently. In this case, Distopian Wars.
Spartan Games promised the Firestorm Armada players that they would not be left behind in 2011. They promised updates to the website (the disorganization of which is another issue) in January, pdfs of the new "Alliances" in February, etc. Here we are in March and we're still holding our breath for the scenarios they promised in January. Word on the pdfs is that "It's not ready." No clue when it will be, or what we'll be seeing.
In the meantime, they continue to push Distopian Wars and essentially neglect anything else.
I've taken a look at Distopian Wars. It looks like a good game. It looks like the next evolution of the mechanics that have gone from Uncharted Seas through Firestorm on to Distopian Wars. If Distopian Wars came out before Firestorm Armada, I would probably have a fleet of them instead. But the thing is that now I've spent enough money on Firestorm to build the fleet I want, and I won't start that all over again.
In our playgroup, we have a few players with Distopian Wars fleets and a few with Firestorm Armada. Neither wants to play the other game. Those with Distopian Wars feel it's the superior game (and I can't really disagree - it looks like the rules are more refined). Those with Firestorm Armada don't want to abandon this fleet only to jump to DW and have that game stall and stop when Spartan Games comes out with their next big game. As such, Spartan Games just doesn't really get played.
I love the game Firestorm. I want to play it more. But I'm faced with a company that does not support it to the level that I would want, and constantly slips with release dates and promises. That's not how I want my game of choice to be treated. I wish Spartan Games would stick with Firestorm Armada, but even if they picked it back up again, I would be hard pressed to jump back in with both feet. Been burned enough by it.
You left out Uncharted Seas, and the fact that Dystopian Wars has not had any new releases since November. I think Spartan Games is struggling as a whole, as currently it is it's own chief competitor for games.
ReplyDeleteI think they should pick a game and stick to that, probably either Dystopian Wars as that is the newest game with the most potential or Uncharted Seas which has the largest following of players. Firestorm Armada seems to me like a flash in the pan game that while conceptually cool just doesn't stand up to either of the other two.
I agree that they should focus their attentions. But having played FSA and US, I can say for certain that FSA more than stands up to US. It surpases it in almost every catagory.
ReplyDeleteBut thats not the issue. A Company determined to compete with itself is problematic at best. Disfunctional and doomed at worst. The lack of releases and communications could lead to the company going under. They just need to stop making new games and focus on the games they already have released. PP waited years before expanding like this. And they don't compete with themsleves. (hordes and WM are the same game!)
Yeah, I had a section on Uncharted Seas but ditched it when I decided to focus more on my own experiences with Spartan Games than a general view on them. But it's a valid point - US is left behind too.
ReplyDeleteOverall, if they go with anything other than Firestorm Armada, I'm done with the company. Of course, I'm probably done with them anyway, so it's not like they'd be losing much either way. I agree that for the company's sake, they should probably concentrate on Distopian Wars. It seems like it's a more complete game. But I won't be picking it up. Another year down the road they'll come out with another game that's the same, only entirely underwater, using very similar mechanics, and they'll drop Distopian Wars too.
As an aside, Huzzah Hobbies put all Spartan Games up at 25% off through the end of the month.
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