Fresh Hits: A Community Waits by: Tech21 | February 21, 2001 Great pc games are games which can provoke and hold the interests of fans long after the initial retail release. This status can be achieved in several way including amateur development tools, add-on packs, and sequels, but one of the best ways to keep fans interested in a game, which happens to cost nothing to the developer, is simply keeping the fans informed on the game's future status. Keep Us Informed! The fans are here. Now what? Hitman: Codename 47 has been on store shelves for a total of 83 days now (not that I'm keeping track), and it's fairly safe to say that the majority of the game's fanbase has already been established. New fans will always come along, but four months have passed, and most of the people who planned on buying Hitman have already purchased it, played through it, and moved on to other endeavors. What does this mean for Hitman fans who aren't content with simply tossing that shiny CD aside? Well, nothing. What does this mean for IO-Interactive? It means that they better stop boozing and playing NOLF all day, and give the public some word on the future of Hitman. Of course I'm not asking for a sequel (from what I hear, those things take several years to develop), nor am I even asking for an expansion pack or even an editor. All I really want right now is some information. IOI: Keep the hype coming! Keeping the community updated on the status of popular titles should be a main focus of game developers, and on a personal note, running a fan site dedicated to a dead game is beginning to become a royal pain in the ass. IO-Interactive has brought us a wonderful gaming experience with Hitman, and if the team is truely working on further projects, then it should make it a priority to keep the Hitman "buzz" alive by releasing periodic information, ideas, screenshots, and the like. So what do we do Now... Well, besides wait (and repeatedly send inquiring e-mails to info@ioi.dk), it wouldn't hurt to start brainstorming on some new ideas for future Hitman releases. Obviously, IO-Interactive has created a game, perhaps even a genre, with endless possibilities. We all have dreams of the "coolest assassination scene ever," so now is the time to put those images into words, and, with a little luck, maybe even into a game. There are a several threads on the HitmanHQ messageboard where fans have expressed their ideas for mods and expansion packs, and on the next page of this article you'll find a summary of some of these posts. I have set up a new forum called "New Mission Ideas," which will be dedicated to entertaining discussions on new Hitman missions. Feel free to post new ideas and comment on the existing ideas.

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