Fellow Splinter Cell fans, let's write together an open letter to Ubisoft
As many people said recently here on this forum and elsewhere on the internet, we should express our wishes and hopes about Splinter Cell right now to Ubisoft and not wait until an official reveal from them. And even more if the recent rumor of a new game in preparation is true. The sooner we will be involved in the development cycle, the better it will be because that's when the most important decisions for the game appear. Because if what will be shown in that reveal doesn't suit the fans, it will be too late to ask for fundamental changes.
Therefore SCAgent95 and I talked and we had the same idea : we suggest that we fans here on this forum gather and write an open letter to Ubisoft.
The goal would be to show that we fans are not negative people making development teams anxious to work on Splinter Cell as their CEO claims, that we are available for constructive and positive discussions around the franchise, that we have many ideas and concepts to share about how to make SC evolve in the right direction, and how we want the best for this franchise because it still has a huge creative potential and if the next game is a commercial failure then the risks of seeing this franchise being burried by Ubisoft once and for all would be very high.
We would first discuss the few main important elements that the incoming game should have or not have according to us. We would then participate together to the writing of the letter and since we're not that many here on this forum, I suggest that we then submit it to the Splinter Cell subreddit to get more support since there is way more people there. I'm quite confident about this because I'm also active there and I've seen many people having similar opinions about how Ubisoft handles the SC franchise. And alongside we'll find a way for people to show their support to this open letter through a poll, signatures or anything else.
So here's a first draft of how this open letter would go (ofc it's not definitive and you can suggest modifications):
EDIT: To read the final version of the letter, go here: https://forums.ubisoft.com/showthrea...1#post15519837
Quote:
Originally Posted by Draft for the open letter
Introduction. Reminding them what Splinter Cell means to us fans, why we are so attached to Splinter Cell and what made this franchise so unique : that Splinter Cell was originally built around stealth gameplay in a realistic setting where detection and action must be avoided as much as possible. And not only because Sam is alone, vulnerable and can easily be killed or captured. But also because it makes sense in the context of the game, the necessity of avoiding dramatic geopolitical consequences and the responsibility of keeping the Splinter Cell program as much secret as possible are also strong motivations to remain silent and unseen.
Therefore stealth must be the best way to survive and get the job done and players must be encouraged to move slowly and with precision, to be patient and methodical in their progression and to use all the tools, gadgets, the light and shadow system and their intelligence to overcome all the different type of tense situations they encounter because each little mistake can be deadly or put the mission in jeopardy.
As Irving Lambert said once : "Your gun should always be your last resort. Invisibility is your best weapon." And it is that spirit we fans miss and want to see return.
1. expressing our concerns : that we've seen many people on the whole internet being very worried and highly sceptical after the announcement of this rumor. And we could also mention the fact that current Ubisoft projects are taking a worrying direction for many players and especially for SC fans because they don't want to see that free-to-play/open-world/RPG/MTX formula applied to their beloved franchise.
2. explaining why we're doing this letter : see the goal paragraph above
3. showing which direction we want the next game to take without seeming too directive of course. And most importantly expressing the fact that we want to be more involved in the development process like IO Interactive did back then in 2016 when they started releasing the first Hitman missions and working hand in hand with players, a method that has ended up being successful both in terms of critics and sales.
4. expressing our suggestions for the next game : a true come back to the roots, a gameplay focused first and foremost on stealth and slow pace, the ability to precisely control Sam and his movement speed, a Hitman-style sandbox level design, a stimulating AI bringing real tension, a credible and realistic Tom Clancy plot with some player choices affecting gameplay, possibly Michael Ironside, the return of Sam's dry humor,... (that list is non definitive, things could be added or removed)
5. expressing what we would NOT want to see in the game : an open-world, Sarah as a Splinter Cell agent, a free-to-play or multiplayer only game, a focus on action gameplay, fast-paced parkour animations, the "mark & execute" mechanic, light RPG mechanics, silly or unrealistic things like ridiculous & flashy skins, invisibility, aliens, mind-controlled army drone, permanent wallhack,... (that list is non definitive, things could be added or removed)
Conclusion : expressing our strong desire and our availability to be proactively involved in the game development because Splinter Cell has been a dormant franchise for so long and a lot of things have changed in the industry since then. Therefore we think it would be the best thing to do right now for the franchise so it can regain that original spirit described in the introduction of this letter and also potentially become successful and appealing for many players who are demanding for more real stealth games.
Of course I'm just giving an example of the letter here and things can change or be reformulated. Maybe it could be a shorter letter without showing our suggestions and just asking that players have more involvement in the development process or can participate to that vertical slice demo they supposedly used as a tutorial section during a playtest and give useful feedback in return. Anyway let's discuss it and tell what according to you would be the best strategy to adopt.
By the way you may ask what would happen if that letter doesn't get enough support ? Or if Ubisoft doesn't care about it and continue to ignore us ?
Answer: we don't care. I think many of us long fans are fed up of continuing to post on this forum and not being listened and on top of that being falsely accused of making the development teams anxious. And I have hard time trusting the current Ubisoft into making positive changes and showing that they're listening and understanding us. So let's at least try something. And if that letter leads nowhere then we will be able to say that we tried, and we will have a proof of our good will if the next game ends up being disappointing for many fans and players and/or if Ubisoft continue to blame us.
And even if that rumor isn't true and there's no game in development, that could be useful and show Ubisoft that we care a lot about the franchise and that we're ready to participate positively in its future.
So tell me if you agree with the idea and are willing to participate in the writing of this open letter, if you would be ready to sign it or if you think the idea is dumb. Let's talk about it.
Thanks for reading !