Classic Video Game "Book Club" -- Who's in?

UPDATE:
The Classic Game Club is GO! Here is a list of the games picked so far.

#1 Imperialism II {Nightgaunt}
#2 Star Wars: Jedi Knight (Dark Forces II) {Spock}
#3 Thief 2: The Metal Age {Rock8man}
#4 Darklands {rezaf}
#5 Ultima Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams {Nightgaunt}
#6 Blood {Pod}
#7 Wing Commander 3 {CraigM}
#8 Command & Conquer: Red Alert {Otagan}
#9 Sacrifice {krayzkrok}
#10 Fallout {Desslock}
#11 Master of Orion {jsnell}
#12 Zeus: Master of Olympus {DireAussie}
#13 Realms of the Haunting {GregB}
#14 Crusader: No Remorse {charmtrap}
#15 Theme Hospital {Kelan}
#16 Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri {MrPinguin}
#17 Cave Story {WarpRattler}
#18 Doom {Tim James}
#19 Divine Divinity {sharaleo}
#20 The Last Express {Nikolaj}
#21 Freespace 2 {CaseyRobinson}
#22 Anachronox {KaoFloppy}
#23 Conquest: Frontier Wars {Brian Rubin}
#24 TRON 2.0 {WarpRattler}
#25 Seven Cities of Gold {Nightgaunt}
#26 TIE Fighter {CraigM}
#27 Colossal Cave {Pogue Mahone}
#28 Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines {Pod}
#29 System Shock 2 {krayzkrok}
#30 Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri {Brian Rubin}
#31 Psychonauts {CaseyRobinson}
#32 Planescape: Torment {Rock8man}
#33 Spycraft: The Great Game {CaseyRobinson}
#34 The Dig {Nightgaunt}
#35 Lode Runner {sharaleo}
#36 Civ IV {CraigM}
#37 Master Of Magic {Jørn Weines}
#38 Startopia {tylertoo}
#39 Shadow Watch {Nightgaunt}
#40 Quest For Glory{legowarrior}
#41 Titan Quest {Jørn Weines}

Is anyone here interested in a kind of video game “book club”? The idea would be we all play the same classic game and then talk about it, what we liked/didn’t like, what is special about it, consider its influence, etc. etc.

My first stab at ground rules (open for modification) would be:

  1. Each game needs to be purchasable from Steam or GOG.com for less than $10, or available as a free download (not pirated!).

  2. About two to three weeks per game seems right; we can revisit this after we get rolling.

  3. “Classic” is of course open to interpretation. I simply think it means games that are more than 10 years old (?) that are well worth playing in someone’s opinion. I’m definitely interested in playing unfamiliar or controversial games, so we don’t have to go with only the obvious widely recognized Great Works.

  4. So nomination process: Simplest would be if each person who joins gets to nominate a game and we play them in the order everyone joins. We could get much fancier, like: Randomly pick two from the list and let the group vote on which to do next. I welcome opinions and ideas.

What else? I’m not inclined to impose a process on the discussion. You can post each play session’s impressions, propose a topic for the group to think about, or, I dunno, stay away from the thread until you’ve finished the game and are ready to absorb everyone’s wisdom about it. I also don’t think we really need to prescribe a pace to play at. Everyone will have a different commitment level; they should be able to contribute no matter what that it is.

Sound like fun to anyone else? If we get critical mass (five or more?) I’ll open up the floor for nominations. Take some time to think about games you think would make for interesting discussions.

Sounds like fun to me!

I’m in so long as we’re playing Sacrifice, Imperialism II, No One Lives Forever, or Shadow Watch. I am NOT playing frickin’ Deus Ex yet again.

-Tom

I think you’re allowed a veto, Tom.

Speaking personally, this would be the perfect excuse for me to finally learn to play Imperialism II.

Sounds fun. I usually end up playing old games more than I do new ones. I’m in.

Cool idea.

About what to play, I think everyone ought to have a game in the drawing at all times - if his pick is drawn, he’d be eligble to nominate a new game - and a random game is picked from the list whenever the deadline arrives.

Also, I feel nobody should have a veto of any kind (sorry, not even you Tom), but of course it should be possible for anybody to opt out playing individual games.

No matter which rules you eventually define, put my name on the list please. :)


rezaf

I like this idea.

Sounds interesting to me! I suspect this would be the excuse I need to clear a few things off the backlog.

I’d like to nominate:

[ul]
[li]Bioforge: 1995 = 19 years old. $5.99 @ GOG. I bought a boxed copy of this many years ago and remember it as one of the better adventure games. I’d like the excuse to play it again.[/li][li]Police Quest whatever: 1987 = 27 years old. $9.99 @ GOG. I have never played this, but always wanted to. I suggest the best one out of the four is chosen, to skip the bad design choices that may be in the others. Maybe wait for the next sale.[/li][/ul]

There is the Vintage Game Club which does something similar but has been dormant for a while.

http://www.vintagegameclub.org

I am in for Imperialism 2. Never played it, read somwhere that it is okay…

Wait, this is NOT about agreeing upon a single old game to play and then buggering off into the sunset, is it?


rezaf

I’m in. My PC gaming experience is severely lacking in the areas this is most likely to cover, so this should be a good way to fix that.

Ha, I was totally joking. If I was to throw my lot in with something like this, I would gladly play Deus Ex. However, I don’t always have the luxury of choosing to spend time with older games, and when I do, I tend to be pretty jealous of that time. :) But I look forward to following whatever you guys are doing, and if it gels, I’d love to tie it to the front page somehow. When we were doing movie club, the way it worked is that one of the participants in the discussion was randomly chosen as the person to pick the next game. It kept things wonderfully unpredictable.

-Tom

You can’t just “Police quest whatever”! 1 and 2 and I think 3 are very similar in their play style. 4 is quite different, it’s some weird first person FMV game. It’s much more like Police Quest Swat 1 than anything else. (Which is of course completely different to 2, which was a cool real time RTS, and 3 and 4 which were Tom Clancy em ups).

I’d suggest 1 or 2. Lots of fun. But if you don’t want to scare people with a text parser, then go for 3. It’s been so long since I’ve played them that I can’t remember. Should we rely on metacritic scores? ;) edit: Actually, I forgot they made a VGA mouse-driven remake of PQ1…

Adventure Gamer says 2 is a real standout game of it’s era, whereas 1 and 3 were no so much.

If this NOLF rerelease happens, I’m totally up for that.

I’m in. Always looking for an opportunity to replay Deus Ex!

No seriously it sounds like fun.

I’d never pick any Police Quest, but this is part of the appeal for me - I hope we’ll have many games that I wouldn’t have (re-)played on my own.
Sadly, the condition that the game must still be purchasable eliminates many good choices. Ah well, what can you do.

I have so many old games lying around, I wonder which will be the first I’ll have to actually purchase. :p


rezaf

This sounds like fun, I’ll give it a crack.

I like this idea, I’m in.