Latest News «
Submit News «


Articles «
Comics «
Journal Entries «
Squad Reviews «
Rat Profiles «


Infantry Bootcamp «
Creating A Squad «
Maps & Radio «
FAQ «
Dictionary «


Official Forums «
Chat Room «


Previews «
Screenshots «
Book Listing «
Equipment Specs «
Links «


Feedback «
Site Info «
Link to Us «

But That's Just Me
by Runamuck

I noticed the other day that I've become much more an observer than participant recently in the goings-on of WWII Online. Then I realized how funny that sounded.

When I found out about this new phenomenon (I hesitate to call it a game, at this point) in December of last year, I was out-and-out blown away by the whole idea. So, I read all of the official stuff and started perusing the forums. By January, I felt confident enough in my knowledge of things that I began to participate in the forums.

I asked some questions, answered a few easy ones that Sixxo hadn't seen, yet (a bit of a one-sided game for me), and I generally tried to read and comment on everything I could make a halfway intelligent post on. This went on for several hundred posts.

Then baseball season started, and nothing changed.

My hunger, however, did grow. I needed more information, more facts, more screenshots, more movies, more anything. I'd check a couple of times at work, again when I got home, once before bed. If nothing else, I wanted acknowledgement that progress was, indeed, being made. That's all.

Amongst this, there were pleas for some particular sniper scope, requests for an "F" version of a supply truck, questions about reality versus playability, rumors and speculation, and flame wars started over non-game issues. Comparisons of WWIIOL with Hidden and Dangerous, Close Combat, Warbirds, mods for other games, etc. began to flood the forums, and people became quite passionate in their defense of WWIIOL.

They were defending a game that none of us had played, seen played, or that even was developed enough to play.

Numerous squads formed. Web sites sprang up (some pretty darn cool ones, I might add). All the things associated with a game these days is now in place. There is only one piece of this proverbial puzzle that is MIA at this point: the game.

But, in some sort of strange, Audubon-painted way, the game has come to life before being born.

We have a few screenshots fueling our imagination from which we are creating our own version of a game that we will never play. It's like a vision of the ocean deep that we've assembled from the few dozen species we've catalogued so far that promises a new perspective on the origins of life (or the future of gaming). We know it's wonderful, it's just a matter of time before we get to see it.

So, I'm around; watching, waiting, wanting like the rest of you. And while I can't actually play the game, I can somehow (oddly) participate in it until it starts…but that's just me.