Time To Kick Off Annual Community Awards

It's time to start our annual contest to award some of the most exciting aspects of the Wing Commander community. We've broken down the event into two categories: Wing Commander Fan Projects of the Year and Web Sites of the Year. Each nominee was selected based on submissions from fans, activity over the last twelve months and prospects for future contributions to the community. We're trying something new this time. Voting will be conducted through the two official threads at our Crius.net Forums. Registered users can simply point and click to log in their choice. Only one vote in each category is allowed per Wing Commander fan.

Fan Project of the Year Nominees
• Armada Online - A major Wing Commander milestone was reached this year when HCl's breakthrough patches allowed Wing Commander fans to fly together online for the first time. A wide variety of arena, deathmatch, cooperative and strategic multiplayer modes can now be played online in Wing Commander Armada and Proving Grounds.
• Flight Commander - The FC engine was created from scratch to allow a new generation of fans to create their own new adventures in the Wing Commander universe. It is regularly updated with more robust features, and developer eddieb is always on hand to walk new modders through the process.
• Holding the Line - HTL is the Wing Commander Aces Club's (and the Wing Commander community at large) longest running fan fiction arc. It has endured for over 200 chapters written continuously for more than six years. The writers are also devoted to promoting and archiving stories written by other Aces authors dating back more than ten years.
• PiArmada - This project utilizes the Pi4X strategy engine to recreate the look and feel of the original Armada. Announced on January 2, 2005, it is one of the year's promising new projects. Future versions may be expanded with integrated space flight for instellar clashes.
• Privateer Gemini Gold - This spin off of the open-source Privateer Remake continues to polish its look and strive for greater symmetry with the original Privateer. Part of its popularity can be attributed to its new graphical effects and broad support for Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms.
• Standoff - Secret Ops editing was taken to new heights with the release of the Standoff mod. Utilizing the team's many years of Wing Commander modding experience, the makers of Standoff have added numerous features to the authentic Wing Commander Vision Engine. While creating a rich new story in the WC2 era, the team attentively works to stay within the framework of the established universe.
• Wing Commander 4 DVD Patch - gulikoza's impressive efforts to overcome the inherent hardware limitation of the WC4 DVD edition has allowed Wing Commander fans to experience Wing Commander's highest quality video productions for the first time. The game originally required a special Creative Labs decoder card, but anyone with Windows XP can now play the game with the WC4 DVD dxmci patch.
• Wing Commander Pioneer - WC Pioneer was one of the most ambitious new projects announced in 2005. The game they are creating with use an all new engine with high quality graphics and game mechanics. It will play out in Privateer style during the WC1 timeframe in the Landreich territories.
• Wing Commander Saga - Fans of the Freespace engine are in for a treat with the upcoming release of this project's Prologue Chapter. WC Saga takes advantage of new effects and abilities available in the Freespace 2 engine as it explores a gritty chapter near the end of the Kilrathi War.

Web Site of the Year Nominees
• Fleet Tactics - This influential site attracts many users because of its serious in-universe atmosphere and presentation. It's jam packed with the sort of technical information and propaganda that might be available at a major Confed installation in 2669.
• Origin Museum - Many of the world's most exotic and one-of-a-kind Wing Commander, Ultima and miscellaneous Origin collectibles are housed at the Origin Museum. Curators Joe and Paula Garrity go to great lengths to network with former Origin personnel to acquire and preserve important parts of our history in a central location.
• HCl's Wing Commander Editing Site - One of the undisputed masters at Wing Commander editing has a simple site that offers his vast collection of tools, tweaks and patches to the internet. The efforts represented there are used in a variety of other fan projects and can help enhance the experience of almost any Wing Commander fan.
• Wedge's Wing Commander - Wedge's site has been a major information repository for many years. Fan projects of all kinds call on it to provide quick access to detailed story scripts and centralized resources for individual games in the Wing Commander series.
• WingCenter - The "Center for all Wingmen" was one of the original community hubs that sprouted in the late 1990s. They now cater to the large German audience of Wing Commander fans and occasionally highlight other up and coming space combat sims.
• Wing Commander 3D - WC3D has long been a resource for both new and experienced Wing Commander 3d artists, modelers and texturers. Many different people's works have been collected and are made available here for general fan use.
• Wing Commander Against All Odds - AAO is another representative of the hip new 2005 breed of Wing Commander sites and projects. They have an active forum where players focus on fleet and capital ship role play. The group also supports other upstart RPG attempts.
• Wing Commander RPG - The Edge of Chaos RPG has its earliest origins in the AOL chatrooms way back in 1994, and many of its members have been an active part of the Wing Commander community for an entire decade. It continues to host regular role play sessions on IRC and its message boards.
• Wing Commander Saga - To coincide with renewed efforts to complete the Saga game, the new Saga website was unveiled with tons of information and a stylish new look. It's been an important portal for releasing the project's impressive CGI trailer and whetting fans' eager appetites.

And those are the nominees! Visit here to vote for the Web Site of the Year and here to vote for Fan Project of the Year.