The Quick Drill-Down for the impatient types: Join and support The StarPort.
Now read Why and How below..
My friends we do love this game or we would not have endured its gradual growth and seasonal busy and slow swings for this long. The Mod community took a moderate to weak game and made it into one that sits as number nine on the
10 Games that Won't Die! - a
Plugged In topic by Joel Durham Jr of ExtremeTech. This is one of the many accolades our game that just turned six years of age in March maintains, this is indeed a rare thing in the PC game industry. Others worthy of real mention: To this day it maintains a
85 Metacritic Rating. Also worth watching is
StrategyInformer as it rates currently at
8.8 and rising daily in popularity. A selection of Mods are linked and Showcased at
StrategyInformer as well.
If you look at Freelancer honestly as a single one time purchase with no monthly fee, basically not comparing it to the subscription services that constantly update their software, building gimmicks into the product to keep one hooked like a nicotine laced lollipop. Only then things become even more surprising. For example, consider how many other PC games can you honestly find older than twelve months with even one server with forty connected players? I know that was a trick question, 95% of the games on the market call a server something that supports up to thirty two players. Truthfully of these, most can't handle even ten clients if they are on the same local LAN! Even now we all know you can find a Freelancer Server on the other side of the planet via internet with sixty to one hundred and twenty clients logged in at any given moment, and you will get a better game play response than most other games with that ten client LAN game!
However, we as Freelancer Players are a traditionally fickle group. A certain percentage are nomads, wondering from Mod to Mod, lured in by seeing the latest release, then in turn moving on when the next Mod announces a new version. Others have a almost stoic indifference to the rise and fall of population on their particular server and Mod, sitting and awaiting the crowd and a new wave of targets or friends to arrive. Some are best described as a form or mix of the above, but we all have the same thing in common. We fail to say "Thanks" enough to the ones that keep a free game fun and exciting. It is not just enough to sit on your local server forum and say "Thank You" to that Mod Maker. Remember Freelancer is a big vibrant community and even if you don't think what another Mod Maker is doing in a separate Mod you don't play may effect you, it likely does.
Mod Makers gather together ideas and learn from each other by example. Modding Freelancer has only one true pay off, as a source of pride. It is this pride that drives the innovations in each latest and greatest Mod. There is a couple "Nexus" sites where the Mod makers come together and announce the newest releases, as well as help each other with issues and ideas. Of these, one has grown brightly over the last year and has proven invaluable to the Freelancer community. This is more than my opinion, it's name has been spoken, typed, and linked in many large media venues. Be it Magazines, Tech and Game Television Broadcasts, as well as many other online sites. But, this site is maintained and developed by Freelancer Mod makers, Modelers, Graphic Artists as well as Players. There true reward is not mention of TV or Magazine, it is visits from Mod makers and Players. The site is
The Starport..
Recently as the numbers of visits have declined so has the since of pride and drive to continue. There is a post
here dated April 20th that sums this up far better than I can. I feel this would be a terrible loss to everyone who has played Freelancer, will continue to play or even remember Freelancer as it is today if
The StarPort was to close. Take a moment to join The Starport today and post a Hello. Then add it to your regular visits, you will find something interesting there even if your just a player. Don't forget to tell them all you appreciate the work they do when you see something interesting. It keeps everyone coming back..
