--- In , "Roger Malmstein" <starwolf@...> wrote:
>
> For many the Virus was a unneccesary way to end the rebellion. However, GDW with a little help of DGP had written themselves into a corner and did not have a plan on how to end the rebellion in a proper manner.
>
When the Rebellion plotline was started, the proposed end was a fractured and exhausted Imperial States. That was abandoned at some unknown point. DGP did much of the driving through the first half to two-thirds of the Rebellion. Then GDW started to reclaim it, resulting in Hard Times.
The Virus was intended to have two results: It ended the Rebellion *immediately*; and it paved the way for true lower-tech AI.
> personally I liked it the way things ended in MT/Hard Times.
Hard Times is a great setting except for its placement in a continuing downward spiral. While the New Era allows for PCs to be significant just doing what PCs do, to have a major effect during HT you had to be a superhero.
>
> I don't think the virus was the main reason for the upheaval. Remember TNE was GDW's best selling game. The main reason for the upheaval was the end of the empire. had you ended it in any other way with more or less the same result it would still be flame wars.
Yes and no. I was witness to the TML's screaming fits. The TNE specific fits were almost entirely about the technical impossibility of Virus. Without it, whatever other cause or result GDW used to bring the Rebellion to a close would have seen complaints, but would probably not have been anywhere near as loud, angry, or divisive as Virus proved to be.
>
> T4 was a catastrophy for Traveller. Hadn't it been for resourceful fans, we might not have seen the current edition of Traveller.
No argument there. Virus haters notwithstanding, T4 was Traveller's darkest hour.