Articles & Editorials: C&C Online…. In Decline

Never have I seen previous C&C games online so dead! Clan games are few and far between, and the general attendance in all but RA2’s gaming rooms are non-existent.. These are low points in C&C’s life. And it always seems to happen about a month or 2 before the release of a new C&C.

No doubt they’ll pick up a little once Generals is released..But I walked into the Tiberian Sun rooms and the only attempt to make conversation would be with the room bots!

Renegade is somewhat better, but not much really, there are only a few hardcore gamers who think that the game is still as strong as when it was released almost a year ago, but even though there are loads of servers about, nobody seems to be on them….

At least when I stroll into a RA2/YR WWOnline community room I see a good few people about begging for games, and in each case there’s a good 12 or so games running and it is here that you are glad the online gaming community is not in hibernation… it’s the same accross other countries servers, a good few games going on.

Now in the case of my Generals Confederacy X clan site, I can expect it to last a good 6 – 9 months before I have the last member walk out… but I’m not trying to create a clan as such, but an online Generals community site, with a select few who could be the army representing the people… i do hate the word clan. Clan is a word to describe a team that’ll last as long as the hype for it’s online capabilities can go on for…. this is more like a club… but selling it would be hard, because at the end of the day people will still see it as a clan.

I just hope Generals is much, much bigger than RA2 so that there’s a wealthy cause for Westwood when they release their C&C title… then picking the fruits of future gamers, of the Online C&C community can be achieved. Maybe then we can see C&C Online gaming lasting in big numbers even after many new C&C titles!!

Maybe in the future we will see bigger audiences due to a larger embrace towards computer peripherals… the humble microphone may become more widely used as a command tool to move units, like some games have tried in the past… Touch screens interface with PC strategy games, which will allow for a more user friendly gameplay, and open up a whole new universe of how games are made and played… but the future and popularity of such tools and peripherals are suspect…

Maybe clans can become more like the Generals Confederacy X in which I’ve attempted to create more of a community of fans as well as players that can be allowed to play if they wish under the name of the site…. Clans have a tendency to pressurise their players into playing, which in some cases can kill off the passion for playing a game online competitively as well as for pleasure.

My Generals Confederacy X site is aiming for this future of online gaming, but I won’t be recognised for attempting it. Maybe many more webmasters of Clans have tried to go the way I am attempting, but have failed…. I am just aiming to embrace every member of the community to play in a clan type atmosphere, but without the pressure, and not just for the elite.

I want everybody, even Mr John Smith who is trying C&C for the first time, (after hearing from his best mate that C&C: Generals rocks!) to be welcome into the Generals Confederacy X. In some ways I want to make people more aware that there is a bigger and brighter community out there other than what is played online, people like Sonic and The Lion amany who make superb C&C fansites… Many online C&C fans don’t even realise that sites like CNCNZ.com & C&C Den exist!

That’s why the Generals Confederacy X is aiming to not only embrace every C&C fan in it’s path, but to ensure that online C&C gaming goes on for much more longer than the hype that surrounds the title.

So in the end I believe that it is not only the duty of the games mags, the developers, or even the fan-sites, but also the Clans, (who perhaps take the game playing 250% more seriously than the average C&C fan…) to make future C&C titles last increasingly longer online, as well as offline…

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