The Frame of War

The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do. – Jack Sparrow

I’ve been playing a MMO called Warframe of late. The game is named after a secret World War II era plan by Boeing to build Exoskeletons for the military. Since soldiers aren’t wearing suits of armor, it can be deduced that the technology simply wasn’t there. Besides the movies, no one has figured out a way to get through the various barriers of software, hardware, and power. It’s ironic but Iron Man is a fairly good thesis on how hard it would be to get a suit of armor working.

Warframe is the brain child of Digital Extremes, the makers of a concept video for Xbox 360 that went on to become Dark Sector. The concept video was the first Xbox 360 game announced. However, with the launch and then success of the Call of Duty franchise, plans were changed. A decade later, that little remembered concept video has been born anew into an entirely new game. Part Mass Effect, part Halo, part Splinter Cell; Warframe is a little game punching way above its weight class.

I can’t say what the future holds, perhaps Warframe fails miserably or perhaps it succeeds past the companies wildest dreams. But whatever the future holds, Warframe is proof of a far simpler idea. Digital Extremes had a dream. Life caused that dream to have to be put on hold for a while, but here they are again. Bit by bit, they are building it anew from the ashes of an old memory. It’s a lesson to take to heart.