Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Well, it *was*, but now that you've added so much to it...
This argument is completely retarded
You were hip deep into it!
Ok ok ok, just for future reference Secret opps is not an add-on, but I think people around here are having a hard time seeing it as a stand alone game. Perhaps "continuation" would work?
I would disagree with the statement that SecretOps added new ships while SM1 didn't... There were some new capships, sure (including the Cerberus), but SM1 had that too (the Sivar, anyone?) The flyable ships were all the same. You can change the color texture slightly and tweak the stats, but it's essentially the same 3D model, and the same basic capabilities, so it's the same ship.
On the other hand, WC2 and WC4, although they used the same basic engine as their predecessors, introduced completely new ships, new elements to the gameplay, new characters, and chronologically represented substantially different chapters of the story. Not so with Secret Ops.
I agree that Secret Ops is a strange, in-between case. It's so much like WCP that it smells like an add on, yet it is a standalone game. We could probably argue semantics till the cows come home, but I think it's far more interesting to argue the issues. It's interesing what you said about Secret Ops starting its development life actually as a non-standalone expansion pack... How was the decision made to instead switch to the free episodic release format? Do you know?
It's also worth mentioning that Secret Ops has only existed as a standalone product for a couple of months when it was first released, and again since late 2008. For nearly ten years it was only available on a disc in Prophecy Gold, with the box labeling it as "Wing Commander Prophecy: Secret Ops." The people whose first exposure was through Gold would likely think of Secret Ops as part of Prophecy.
Game developers themselves call their own products stand-alone expansions. If anyone thinks no such terminology exists within the video game industry, he is wrong.
Catnip said:For nearly ten years it was only available on a disc in Prophecy Gold, with the box labeling it as "Wing Commander Prophecy: Secret Ops." The people whose first exposure was through Gold would likely think of Secret Ops as part of Prophecy.
Catnip said:Game developers themselves call their own products stand-alone expansions. If anyone thinks no such terminology exists within the video game industry, he is wrong.
frostytheplebe said:Dude, just stop.
PopsiclePete said:I don't understand how this stupid argument could have last so long.
The poll was about add-ons. And add-on is something you add on to something else; in the case game of video games, you need to own another product to use it. Period.
Developers may call "expansions" whatever they want they think suits the definition of expansion (universe, related story, whatever)... but ultimately it's irrelevant because Secret Ops neither requires Prophecy to be played, nor was it ever called "expansion" by it's makers. Same for Academy.
I'd say Secret Ops was a Stand-Alone Expansion. That's even what Wikipedia says.