Quote:
Originally Posted by Tegyrius
Something I don't think many members of this forum have ever acknowledged or understood is that most of the so-called Young Turks started out as, and remain, fans of GDW's original game. Keith and the freelance talent he assembled under 93GS' banner were, without any exception of which I'm aware, long-time players or GMs of the first and second editions. I've been playing since I picked up the boxed set sometime in the late eighties. Did I miss the meeting where someone decided that a DD-214 with a 1991 or prior ETS date was a requirement for valid Twilight: 2000 fandom?
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No, not at all. My Young Turks label was not meant as an insult at all. By the same token, not all of us "old school T2K'ers" are reactionaries or dinosaurs stuck back in the Cold War, which I felt your post implied.
The game could definitely use a "re-imagining" for the new milenium. I agree whole-heartedly. You and the other 93GS folks put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into doing just that. For that I must once again commend you. I sympathise with you and the rest of the 93GS team. You've taken a lot of grief here and elsewhere (though, I am not aware of the threats to which you allude) and that's not cool. For my part, I've always tried to keep my criticism of T2013 fair, level headed, constructive, and impersonal. I wasn't aware that it was such a labor of love until quite recently, when the lease expired. Up until that point, I thought that a larger, more "corporate" entity was responsible for the development of T2013.
That said, I was not a fan of T2103. I think it's OK to say that. Honestly, I was turned off right from the beginning when the game was under development and 93GS was soliciting fan/guest contributor input, but limiting said input exclusively to that provided by folks who could prove former military service and/or prior RPG-writing experience. Although I understand that ya'll didn't want unsolicited material from well intentioned teenaged munchkins, wannabe, chairborne rangers, or miopic, hardcore T2K fanboys, to me it smacked of elitism. Especially since a lot of folks in the T2K community- not all of whom are ex-military- have been spending years creating their own websites, databases, fan fiction, etc. It just seemed like 93GS was overlooking such a rich vein of amazing fan-created material, much of which could be easily tweaked to fit into the T2013 vision, to go it alone. 93GS was also writing off a good portion of a built-in market by not being more receptive to this community. I believe that it was stated several times by 93GS folks that T2K had to be updated for a couple of new generations of PnP gamers who knew little, and could care less, about the Cold War milieu. That's fine, but that's not to say that us folks who grew up during the Cold War (i.e. the 50s-80s) don't have valuable input or want a new, updated setting for the basic game concept.
When the T2013 alternate future came out, I was not impressed and a lot of other original T2K fans felt the same. Our argument wasn't "This isn't a retread of the original 1983 version so it's not cool!" but that, based on current geopolitics and recent military history, the T2103 campaign backstory did not ring true. Other much more viable hotspots were suggested by members of this forum and others as being possible tinderboxes for a "new" WWIII scenario: East Asia (Korea-China-Russia-Japan-U.S.) and the Middle East (Iran, Israel, Iraq, U.S.) were then, and still are, likely candidates. That input too was ignored. Once again, the public response from 93GS to "old school" fan reaction smacked of elitism. The message some of us received was, "We don't care what you bitter T2K fans think; this is our baby and this is the way we're going to do it. If you don't like it, don't buy it." Fine. It's your creation, you're in charge. But, I'm not sure it's fair to get upset when some people use this public forum to express their dislike for the end product.
So yeah, some of us old-schoolers also have a bad taste in our mouth and not because T2013 wasn't just a simple update of the original T2K v1.0. Through it all, I've tried my best to be cordial and to couch my constructive criticism with praise for the T2013 team's hard work. I have no beef with any of you 93GS guys. I was genuinely sad to hear that the plug was being pulled on your version. I thought that some of the stuff you guys was putting out was pretty darn cool. I am sorry that some folks here got nasty in their criticism of your product. That was uncalled for. If the main offender is who I think it is, he was banned from this forum for similar behavior towards other forum members. I just sort of resent the implication that us orginal T2K apologists are just a bunch of old, narrow minded, bitter, reactionary neysayers who take great pleasure in cutting down 93GS and T2013. For the most part, I really don't think that is the case at all.