"Homeworld: Thoughts - a view through the last year"

Written by Thundra, HW:N webmaster

Introduction

Homeworld is the 1999 Best Strategy Game of the Year that introduced a new concept in RTS games: 3D. The classic RTS games had a side scroller in a 2D map, where you always moved on a flat background, Homeworld gave us 3D maps with 3D movements. The result is a work of art, a mark in the RTS games history. Homeworld was the pioneer and many, without a doubt, will follow in it's footsteps. It's typical: a company (Sierra) innovated, now others will use that to try and make something similar. Shortly, other games will appear that are obvious copies, trying to profit through others ideas. But in some years, how many I don't know, someone will, perhaps using the same technic, develop a game that's a mark, a point to stand out in the RTS games history. This game, that I call "THE ONE", does not have a temporal mark because when we reach him, another "THE ONE" will unveil in the future. Gee... this sounds like a prophecy...

Evolution

When Homeworld came out it was a real boom. Nobody had ever done anything like it. People where "shocked" with the beauty, story and the dramatic side of the game. Homeworld is a dramatic game, a game for us to live, for us to guide a nation to their home planet. An enormous community raised, revealing thousands of players that had their souls in that Mothership, and spared no efforts to reach Hiigara. Thousands of pages about Homeworld appeared gathering in a huge Webring. >From best games magazines in the world came infinite compliments, proving something that was already proved: Homeworld is indeed a great game.

Current Situation

All games have their time. Wolfenstein had his time, now it's Q3 time. Homeworld, after the great boom of his release, continued to be a game at top of the buyers' list. It's amazing the way this game touches people, and how it keeps being played at home, online or not. The online community of Homeworld is huge and is still growing. And now with HW:Cataclysm coming this community of players have been excited for the past few months, trying to know everything about the new game, expecting the unexpected...

HW:C is arriving. Is HW leaving?

No way! With the HW:C announcement HW became stronger because, in spite of Sierra saying HW:Cataclysm won't be a sequel, and will have its own storyline, there will always be a connection. That's because the people of HW:C are those who we guided home. Even with a new game coming I don't believe anyone will forget HW. Does not forgetting HW means keep playing it even when the new game comes out? Definitely!

Conclusions

There's a simple conclusion to extract from the evolution of HW, from the release date to this day: I love it, we love it, you love it, everyone loves it! I really believe that at this very moment, at this very second, someone, somewhere, is buying HW and joining the family. And what do we say? WELCOME!!