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25 Years Online

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Anniversaries have a tendency to creep up on one. It's a big one this time - this very site is 25 years online, maintaining its position as oldest English-speaking (and second-oldest in general, behind only the French CnCSaga) Command & Conquer fansite still up.

Times have definitely changed for the franchise in these 25 years. Not just from the perspective of the games themselves, but the dynamics in the community as well. Since the games have been out from the zeitgeist of gaming culture for a good while, there's not a lot going on anymore - it's basically just running through the motions of several mods still being developed and community multiplayer servers still maintaining life support, but that's about it. Only a few content creators still give it the time of day, like Sybert's frequent commentaries or Direct & Dominate episodes and shorts. Sadly, gone are the days of frequent discussions on the gameplay, lore, balancing, new ideas for the series, or just general fan enthusiasm and buzz. Even as discussions have moved from forums to services like Discord and Guilded, actual C&C discussion is getting more scarce compared to what it used to be, and most of us "older" people in the community have gradually but surely moved on to other, more rewarding projects online and AFK, with few new members to pick up where we left off. Every time someone tries to wipe the dust off our projects and mutual connections, all momentum very quickly disappears as other things get in the way and they eventually realize the effort outweighs the outcome (but bless you for trying, you know who you are if you're reading this).

While this site will stay online, I would really, for once, like to hear some thoughts and feedback from the few of you who are still around - is there a future at all for C&C fansites that are not focused on a single project/purpose like the community servers, is there a point to adding anything to it, and do you still browse it from time to time? On a more lighter note, how have these 25 years been for you regarding CNCNZ.com and Command & Conquer in general, are there some particular memories you'd like to share? Let us know in the forums and our Discord.

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I think the future of C&C fansites is ultimately tied to the future of C&C, and I don't see much future in that, unfortunately.

While some people still care, you can't keep a community alive with a number of people that can be counted on your fingers.

I think fansites like this one will just become archives of information for modders and an occasional troubleshooting inquiry. Unless EA does something worthwhile with the franchise - which is not likely, the days of a thriving community and active discussions is over and there is nothing any of us who remain can do about that.

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I have a different opinion than yours, Nmenth. I don't think it is tied to the future of C&C, although it would certainly affect it. I think it is mostly tied to the popularity of the existing games and the content created for them. If you look at C&C Remastered Collection, for instance, you'll notice that this game sold a lot of copies, yet it doesn't generate much news or visitors to the old fan sites. It is not easy to find tournaments for it. It is easier to find Generals: Zero Hour tournaments on the web. Some of the old games still have a lot of content being created almost daily, such as Generals: Zero Hour and Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge. From modding to tournaments, events, streams, and videos.

However, I agree that the tendency is that fan sites will eventually become archives and a spot for rare troubleshooting inquiries. Even if EA does something about future C&C games, most discussions will end up being placed on Reddit, Discord, and a few selected places. But definitely not on fan sites. I'm trying to deviate from this fate from PPM, but it demands a lot of effort. So far, I'm doing my best.

 

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The fact is the online climate has changed to be more centralized at more general all-purpose hubs like Discord and Reddit due to sheer convenience of those services. This is a natural evolution, so individual fan sites must now change to be more landing pages to find timeless information at a glance, as well as archives than interactive hotspots. Just the way of things these days.

The C&C community however is still alive and well, just not on its own platforms. And community efforts to cross-connect everything are always ongoing and making great progress. We don't need to consider C&C as a big deal any more or spend hours of our days with it, but just trust that all of us are still around coming back to C&C when able - it's the people, not the games, that make up the wider community.

We've done a lot to adapt over at W3D Hub for example, and the fact that we're people oriented as a community and staff roster, regardless of EA or the games, keeps us highly motivated and very much connected. Let your relationship with C&C evolve beyond the games themselves, to anyone reading, and use it as a launch platform as well as a social bridge if you need to. C&C won't go anywhere, but understand that things evolve.

Happy 25th CNCNZ and everyone around these parts!

Edited by AZ-Stalker
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I wouldn't think even to this day, that all or most C&C fansites are on life support. Right now Tempest Rising might be key on reviving the C&C series, and only if EA wants to revive the series. If the series were to be revived, a new generation of devs will take over.

Even if I still love CNCNZ, we still missed the people who started it all.... Sonic, plus the others involving Luk3us and Zee Hypnotist (aka Rabbit), to name a few.

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At least we've got some interesting RTSes coming up relatively soon. It's not like the old days, but I honestly expected RTS to slowly die off.

 

Even though I'm barely here, i do lurk these forums sometimes. This is the oldest community im part of. You guys will always be in my heart, even if the site dies.

 

Inferno 

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Everything is on socials now. W3D Hub discord is quite active. 

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Congratulations guys, amazing.

 

I remember internet forums!

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