You gave this reply and they replied you back with some solid points, but you apparently ignored their replies or simply didn't care..
I did get one reply back from the person I replied to. And I did not feel that anything this person said was wrong really. But just because I did not outright say "your right" or "I see your point" or what ever, does not mean that I somehow ignored or did not care about the persons opinion. I did of course write another reply to the person, an unnecessary one really since it was left over stuff I had wanted to say in the first one but did not since I tried to scale it down as best as I could (the post you replied to would have been 50% bigger if I had included the other half of the particular youtube comment I write whereI talked about tech at the end).
It's a flaw I have, where I write to much, write completely unnecessary things, and even things that does not matter at all to the current topic (but that can to me matter a lot for the topic, details tend to be very important to me, on top of that I have a problem with sifting out the unnecessary things)... it is a flaw I do try to do something about, like spend a lot of time trying to make my posts smaller and what not... I can spend hours on one single post (this particular one has taken me over 5.5 hours to write XD ), and when I am done it is usually MUCH smaller, but still usually to big.
So trying to claim that I do not care, or ignore what people say, is false.
I might forget that someone said a certain thing do... just due to the amount of stuff I write. XD
If I did not care I would never put the amount of time I do on my posts, spend all this time trying to make them smaller, make them more on topic and on point, and what not... because I do it for the benefit of all of "you" (as in anybody who is not me). Because... if I did not... and never went into
"must make post somewhat readable for others"-mode... and just posted my original raw versions of my posts, the way I would really want them to be... Nuffle help you all... I would probably accidentally summon some ancient horror or something... and you would all probably flee in terror... instead of just avoiding reading many of my current posts due to size.
"Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and um, screaming." comes to mind... XD
The size of the posts you have seen from me so far are relatively small compared what you would get. Most would probably be about 50% bigger, but it would not be unusual for you to encounter posts that would be double or triple the size of the biggest posts you have seen from me on this forum... you all have not seen nothing yet when it comes to my ability to text-walling the hell out of things. What your seeing is me restrained. XD
I am aware of that reading one of my posts can be... daunting, but I have already done what I can to get it somehow manageable. And as much as it might be a chore for people here (as in online) to read my stuff due to the size... by the time any else can read it I have already read through every single thing at least 2-3 times, but it is not uncommon that I have re-read everything 4-5 times befor I finally post it (due reading it all again after editing it)... and then usually another time after I posted it as well. So if it is any kind of a consolation, I put my self through the wringer as well. XD
So trust me... I care.
First of all, it doesn't matter if some players lost the game.. First version was buggy, anyway.. Also, it is insulting to the most of the players for two reasons, we lost the first game by default and first game didn't matter at all. I won my first game without losing a single soldier like Suhiira, what about that?
They could have made it so that we had options on the start.. We could pick that if we won or lost the first game. They could have made in game references to this like "we chop off one head and two more arrived". Also tech problem could be easily fixed. (I will answer that below.)
"Some players"? I would not call ~73% of players
"some players"... that right there is the majority of players on Steam, almost 3/4th of all players on Steam. You would put someone in power of a nation with those kinds of numbers.
And blaming it on the bugs? Really? I mean sure... bugs can effect games, on various levels... but most do not make games unplayable, or unwinnable (and the ones that do do get patched out of a game... usually at least)... and I did not feel I found any in XCOM that made the game somehow unplayable or unwinnable or what ever. I do tend to find it a bit funny when people say things like "It's the bugs faults", and then later on say "But I still managed to win!"... because if that is the case, then clearly the claimed bugs was not standing in that particular persons way.
For a game like XCOM I really do not feel that you have to stick with the best possible story scenario at the end, as the starting point for another game. Winning is just one way to go in that game... "Failure is always an option" to quote a certain Mythbuster. And in a lot of sense as I have said previously, I do think the story is somewhat secondary to everything else in XCOM. The struggle and fighting the odds etc is the more important one. It's nice that it is there (the story), but in the long run it does not matter to much, in my mind at least. And even though I can see the problems with making such a choice as Firaxis has done about the story between XCOM 1 and 2, I don't think it is something that is so important that it actually matters in the end. And if anything, it is a story choice that does interest me more at this point in time then the other option of "they sent a lot more ships after that". They are games, and games do not always have to make sense after all.
I mean I do understand your concern about it. That there can becomes a pretty large disconnect between XCOM 1 and 2 due to it. But does that really diminish your previous enjoyment of XCOM 1? Does that, in any way shape or form, somehow make the fact that you might have liked the previous game, null and void? Does the fact that you have to start over from the start of mankind in Civilization games, for example, somehow diminish the enjoyment of the previous games in that series? Will you from now on look back at your enjoyment of XCOM 1 and go
"You know what... even though I was really enjoying my self when I played it back then, bugs withstanding... I now see that I was not... no it is clear to me now, since XCOM 2 came about, that I was having a really bad time playing XCOM 1 actually!"? I would assume not.
And so what that you managed to win your first game? Does that make your opinion more valid then anybody else's opinion on the matter? No matter if they won or not? I also managed to win my first game (do not recall if I lost any of my soldiers though, since it was such a long time ago... I would not be surprised if I did though, because sometimes I get a bit impulsive and do some stupid move to put my self in unnecessary risk... like run'and'gunning an assault to far to ensure I flank and kill an alien, which might then of course open up more alien squads leaving my assault in a vulnerable position). Of course, since I do feel that no ones opinion is really more valid then anyone else's (it does of course depend on the situation, and the importance and nature of the thing spoken about)... this also means that I do feel that my opinion is no more valid then anybody else's. With that said, I do still feel it is important to speak ones opinions.
If I do seem... I don't know... overbearing, or like I am trying to convince you or anyone else that what I say is the only true one, then I apologize, that is not my intention. It sometimes comes across that way in my walls of text, and I try to get rid of it when I tamper with my text, but I don't always catch all of it.
Are you kidding me? What is the point then? If possibility of winning is unrealistic with all of the world supporting the XCOM, what chance does a bunch of rebels have in XCOM 2? It is not only unrealistic, but impossible to win then.. Don't even launch the game.. Why bother?
It's a game. And I play games to have fun, enjoy my self, and have interesting challenges and experiences... and it is also where I can focus on just that one thing, playing the game, and not everything else that might be going on. It does not matter to me what canon in the game and/or game series might or might not be.
My brain can be very over active, going full tilt on what ever is going on around me. Where if there is something bothering me, or something really important I have to do, or maybe due to that I did or did not do a certain thing, or what ever... then my brain tends to go in overdrive, a constant loop of going over that one thing, or several things to for that matter since it can jump topic pretty easily to. It can very easily get to such a point where I can just not shut it of very easily. Imagine your own inner voice, the one you use to think about things etc, but that it just refuses to shut up so you can just let your mind rest, that's what can happen with me at times for various amounts of time as well. There are numerous times where I have laid in bed awake the entire night just mulling over something, where I might be working through exactly what I am going to say and talk about during the next day at some meeting or something (often I don't even use it either for that matter), or what ever else my mind might get stuck on mulling over.
So playing games for me (amongst other stuff, like reading books and comics, or watching tv-series movies or youtube, reading and writing on forums like this one, etc), is not just about having fun and enjoying my self and what not... it's a way for me to "shut my brain off". Now of course my brain does not shut off, instead that hyper focused laser, that is my brain and focus, shifts target from "stuff I don't feel like dealing with right now" towards the game or what ever I am using to spend my free time on.
As for what the point is for you? Why you should bother? Those are questions I unfortunately can not answer for you. I can suggest to just play games to have fun and enjoy your self, and enjoy the games for what they are... and not let the small and unimportant stuff, about a certain game or game/series, effect you. But I don't know if that will help you in any way. Unfortunately you your self will be the one who have to figure that one out. I do think it would be a shame if you somehow feel that your experience with XCOM:EU/EW is now somehow diminished due to what XCOM 2 and Firaxis consider to be the canon ending of it.
Thats easy, we had only ONE base, right? You could have had hangars anywhere in the world, but you had only a single base. I also don't remember having any options for stashing high grade weapons anywhere.. You didn't really share the tech with the rest of the world either.. When you think about it, if more alien ships arrived, where would they attack first? Your base of course! (If I remember it correctly, they did try to do that in the first game but failed, so aliens know the location of your base already.) Almost any tech you had would have been gone. Whatever that is left would be dust in 20 years of occupation.. Any Psionic soldiers and tech you had would be hunted down to extinction by aliens. Anyone who would survive that, would go into hiding and wouldn't appear until the middle of the game.. (I even imagine we would have a "Find Allies" mission or something like that. To find soldiers from the previous game.) So, what would you do if everything, every single advantage, resource and tech you had was gone? You would go into hiding.. It just makes sense. Having options on the beginning would work. Just a few references here and there..
That is a good option yes. I am not saying that you, or anyone else saying similar things, or different things either for that matter, are wrong... you are not. Everything you have said (even the things outside of the tech stuff) is all a valid point to one degree or another after all.
I guess in the end it comes down to how much one can take... ones tolerance for certain things, and ones patience with what ever it is. I tend to have a lot of all of that with a lot of things. And the things I am not fine with will usually and eventually fade away to, because in the end what really mattered to me with a game, or a tv-series or book or what ever, was never really that one thing that went against the previous thing or what ever. So the fact that we lost in the previous game according to XCOM 2, or that there might have been other, possibly better (which can be debated) ways to deal with the story line or the tech or what ever... does not really matter in the end.
I can tolerate what they have decided with their story line in XCOM, partly because it does in no way change any of the things that where actually important to me about the previous game, but also because I don't always need things to make perfect sense or that it has to follow a direct line or what ever in a story. Others are clearly not as tolerant about it as I can be.
It did use to show up on similar things like this back in the day though. Where inconsistencies between games, or between source material and stuff made from it and what not, could get me worked up... but I have always been a really calm and layed back type of a person, so somewhere in my late teens to early 20's that "It has to be just this exact way, or else it's not good!"-thing mostly went away from me. I guess that side of me only shows up on rare occasions these days, and for very short periods of time as well before I get over it. The ones where it sticks around these days are usually only on "actually impotent things" instead (as in humanity things and what not).
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Boaff. TB is far from my favorite genre for the reason you mentionned -- busywork.
Ah... well... I am very well aware of that turn based games is not for everyone. It does take a certain type of mindset, and patience, etc, to play that kind of game.
I have always liked turn based, and always will... so to me it does not matter if it takes "long" for an action or entire turn to happen. Then I am also used to certain kinds of rpg's where some things take a really long time... like summons in Final Fantasy games for example. XD