Nope, I'll do it anyway. It's important. I love space and space exploration and space travel. I crave the experience portrayed in shows like Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica. I love the single pilot ships from Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Firefly and I also love the multi-crew ships depicted in those same shows and Star Trek. I like the idea of barking orders at a group of people or having orders barked in my direction. I like the feeling of camaraderie as multiple individuals work towards a common goal.
Now, there have been single-pilot games for decades. The X-wing series from Star Wars, Wing Commander, Freelancer, etc, all help to slake the thirst for that space feel. Some of them even allow for multiplayer co-operative modes, which is pretty fun. However, for a long time there was no game that captured the feel of being an officer on the bridge of a large ship. A year or so ago I found a game called Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator which promised that experience. You and 5 friends all take different roles on the bridge of a starship. Each of you sits at a networked computer depicting a bridge console, so it's a sort of live-action roleplaying game. Someone acts as captain, someone pilots the ship, someone fires the weapons, someone manages the communications, and someone acts as ship's engineer. Proper cooperation between all 6 members of the crew is important to the survival of the ship and the completing of the mission. I played this with my friends several times and always had an enjoyable experience.
Even more impressive than the game itself is the fact that the developer is one man, working alone in his spare time.
The game is a bit...limited, however. Gameplay is done is what is commonly called "submarine 3D", meaning your vessel can only turn left and right and change the "height" above or below the neutral plane of battle. The arena is MUCH shorter than it is wide and long, and the vertical component of the motion feels more like a gimmick than a tactical option. The arena is quite small, being only 100km to a side. It takes a minute or two to cross the arena at full warp, which means that warp speed is around 1200 km/hr, or Mach 1, which is pretty slow in space. The graphics aren't fantastic and the gameplay is limited. Users have the ability to script missions in HTML, but the scripting language is similarly limited and doesn't allow for robust use of variables or complex functions. The main mode of the game is an invasion mode where a certain number of enemies spawn and try and destroy space stations. There are settings for the match that can help to make for different experiences, but in general the game is basically the same each time. That's not necessarily a bad thing and there is a dedicated fanbase that loves the game, but for me it's not quite enough.
Today I found a game that's still in the alpha stage but already looks amazing: Pulsar: Lost Colony. Similarly to Artemis, it's a co-operative spaceship simulator where each player plays a different role on a starship, but it expands on the idea by quite a bit. First and foremost, the game is played from the first-person view. The player maneuvers a player character through the interior of a fully-modeled ship, complete with hallways, doors, crew quarters, lounges, and system rooms. Interacting with command consoles allows the player to control the ship. The ship maneuvers through 3D space with 6 degrees of freedom. Players can teleport down to the surface of planets to explore and gather resources and information. Apparently you can also teleport to an enemy ship, kill the crew, and take control of the ship. This means that you might have enemies teleport aboard your own ship, at which point you'll need to repel the boarders. Character permadeath is a feature. The ship has a system that creates a new body for any crewmember that dies, which I assume means that the player loses any skills or bonuses gained during the course of the game. If the cloning system is destroyed and all player characters die, the game ends and the save files are deleted. On starting a game, a galaxy is randomly generated so each new game is a new experience.
Basically, it sounds fairly fantastic. From the early alpha gameplay videos there are some interface choices that I don't really like, but in general, this game looks amazing. It contains plenty of elements that I wanted Artemis to have, all wrapped in universe that is visually appealing and, at least on the surface, quite compelling. Here: have some screenshots and videos!
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