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A warning to all wussies and religious people:
Contains profanity
Wilco's Domain was one of the first major websites on the Internet dedicated to Space Quest (closely following Roger Wilco's Virtual Broomcloset). It grew from a small and ugly repository of information to a big and even uglier repository of information, and in the process managed to rake a nice batch of recognition with it.
And now, this award-winning website is closing. One has to wonder, why?
Recently, I stated that I was "redesigning" the website. And, in truth, I did manage to cobble together something that looked slightly new (although not exactly prettier). This stunt was first suggested by Jess Morrissette (webmaster of the aforementioned Broomcloset), and later backed up by other prominent individuals, such as Tomer Fishman and Kevin Wallace. The idea was to trick other webmasters into updating. Jess's idea was that if they saw the Domain was updating, they would start updating as well.
I'm not sure if the idea worked. My attempt was half-hearted, and it never really got off to a good start. One good thing that came out of it was that I got back in contact with a lot of people that I had lost while I was staying in the United States for a year. But as of now, the only reaction I've seen from other webmasters is...well...zilch.
Another prominent reason for this website's closure is my recent feeling of disgust towards Sierra. Frankly, they annoy me. This feeling does not attribute exclusively to Sierra, but I feel extra strongly towards Sierra because I grew up playing their wonderful games, and to see them fall into the hole of commercialism like the rest of the industry has been a strong blow to my psyche.
I am disgusted and appalled with the current state of gaming development, and shocked that Sierra's management has been mindblown enough to jump on this adolescent bandwagon. Are they really convinced that all computer game players are bucktoothed little 12-year olds? Does marketing research really dictate that 99% of all computer game players are arcade addicts? And what the flying hell is wrong with today's socalled "N64 Generation"?!?
I loathe and despise this "3D wave" we're entering. First it was the interactive movies, which I could tolerate (even though they degraded the playability seriously). Now, it's 3D. And 3D, with all its might and 300fps images, has effectively killed off the adventure game genre.
I hope to be working in the future with organisations such as Adventure Game Review, in the hopes of reviving this long missed genre. But our hopes grow weaker, and we may never have another moment of good quality entertainment left. Soon, everybody will be Mario-ing and Quake-ing themselves 'till they're square, and human intelligence as we know it will be gone out the window. For all I care, the Sierra executives and editors and whatever the fuck they're called, can go shove their "your-input-is-valuable-to-us" and "we-listen-to-our-customers" up their fat overpaid asses...because if it was true, then what the hell is keeping you from doing anything? We've been bugging you for nearly two bloody years now, and there still hasn't been an inkling of progress?! What the fuck more do you want from us?! Blood?
I'm giving up on Space Quest. I still plan to keep a news section going, in the hopes that some positive news about Space Quest VII (which was cancelled last Christmas) make its way to my mailbox.
It's been a wonderful time, guys. I'll cherish the moments we had together, but I'm afraid the Space Quest Community -- or, the World Wide Wilco Web, as we know it -- has finally reached a deadstand.
I'm sorry. I wish you the best of luck in the future.
- Sincerely,
Troels Pleimert