Design Discussion: Barriers to New Player Entry for T2k

[Raellus]

Perhaps the biggest barrier to new player entry for T2k is simply not knowing about T2k. Consider the age of the game. T2k v1 was released in 1984 or thereabouts. v2.2 in 1993. IIRC, the last new printed material for v2.2 was released in '95 or '96. So, Twilight 2000 was essentially a dead game for about 15 years or so, until T2013 came out in 2009. That version had a tragically short run (I don't know this, but my impression is that the printing was relatively small as well), so its impact was pretty minimal. After that, T2k was essentially a dead game again, for another decade or so. This all means that potential players born after the end of the Cold War would have no reason to even know that T2k existed unless they were into Cold War military history and happened upon some obscure internet forum dedicated to an essentially dead game (i.e. T2k).

That's why the release of v4- regardless of how O.G. fans feel about it- is an important event. It might draw folks who've never heard of T2k into the fold.

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