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soapbox post - a plea to server admins


beetlebz

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ok i posted about this yesterday, and after playing today im so worked up i feel the need to take the soap box for a moment.

 

the 3 rules i learned when i began playing jedi outcast online, were 1)always begin each fight with a bow, end each fight with a "good fight" 2) never attack someone without their saber up, and 3) always give someone a chance to get up when youve knocked them down.

 

in outcast's golden age, gameplay was fun. people obeyed the rules, and actually cared about the other people in the server. now after being absent for some time, 2 things are happening in EVERY SINGLE SERVER I HAVE BEEN TO. first, i get attacked from behind while spectating another fight, without my light saber up. and secondly, when people engage in a duel, they attack with a red DFA (or any cheap move) while im bowing.

 

the game itself has remained unchanged since ive been away, and thats refreshing. i really enjoy outcast as it is. the problem is with the quality of players that have overrun the game. maybe they got bored with quake, i dont know. but whats very evident is that server admins either dont monitor their servers appropriately or they just dont care.

 

today for instance i was hanging out on the IP clan server, just watching the battle, seeing who i thought would be an interesting match to duel with. while spectating one of IPs own members attacked me from behind, then made it his personal mission to ruin the gaming experience for me. on their own server! its sickening that even the clans dont care about their own image anymore, and think so highly of themselves that honor has flown right out the window. to overuse a cliche, they have turned to the dark side.

 

maybe im just upset and ranting, but maybe i actually care bout my gaming experience and that of others. im disgusted with the process of switching to different multiplayer games because lemmings have over run the one i currently enjoy. its happened in the past, Battlezone, then Tribes, then Counter Strike, then Fire Arms, then Day of Defeat, and now even BF1942 and BFV are getting over run. im completely sick of these honorless lemmings taking over and forcing out the majority of the honorable people in the game. those that are there for the fun and challenge rather than to see their name on a rank board.

 

with this i ask admins of outcast servers to do one of two things.

 

first, assign reliable admins to the server so they can moderate this type of behavior and game play.

 

secondly, if you just dont care, then either shut down the server or lable it as such a lemming server.

 

its not fair to the gaming community to have to stop playing a game because people dont care, or just dont properly monitor the servers. its an insult to the community as a whole, and downright disgusting to those of us who have been gaming since the first generation of 3dfx cards, and even before that.

 

if you dont care, let everyone know you dont care so they dont go to your server expecting a decent gaming experience with decent people.

 

thank you.

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Originally posted by beetlebz

 

the 3 rules i learned when i began playing jedi outcast online, were 1)always begin each fight with a bow, end each fight with a "good fight" 2) never attack someone without their saber up, and 3) always give someone a chance to get up when youve knocked them down.

 

 

that's your problem right there. you assume those rules are universal.

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Originally posted by beetlebz

in outcast's golden age, gameplay was fun. people obeyed the rules, and actually cared about the other people in the server. now after being absent for some time, 2 things are happening in EVERY SINGLE SERVER I HAVE BEEN TO. first, i get attacked from behind while spectating another fight, without my light saber up. and secondly, when people engage in a duel, they attack with a red DFA (or any cheap move) while im bowing.

 

im disgusted with the process of switching to different multiplayer games because lemmings have over run the one i currently enjoy. its happened in the past, Battlezone, then Tribes, then Counter Strike, then Fire Arms, then Day of Defeat, and now even BF1942 and BFV are getting over run. im completely sick of these honorless lemmings taking over and forcing out the majority of the honorable people in the game. those that are there for the fun and challenge rather than to see their name on a rank board.

 

 

If want to spectate without being attacked, there is this mode called.....hmmm, what is it called again......wait, give me a minute.....oh, yeah, SPECTATOR, that lets you fly around the map or follow any player playing on the server, without being attacked, imagine that.

 

"But I lose all my points if I spectate!" you might say. Well, if you are standing around watching other people play instead of playing, you clearly don't care about getting the top score (the point of all other FPS games), so why do you care about losing your points?

 

Don't like getting hit when you "bow"? Then don't "bow". Who told you it was "mandatory" anyway, a real live Jedi, or some nerdy teen with false ideas about "honor". I don't remember Luke, Vader, Obi-wan, Qui-gon, Maul, etc. "bowing" before a duel. Even those who like to "bow" before a duel have said they don't mind if their opponent doesn't, as long as the opponent gives them time to perform their virtual ritual.

 

The other games you mentioned aren't being "overrun with lamers", they are just playing games the way 99% of the gaming community plays them, the way they were designed to be played (some clues: programmers putting guns, explosives, and other weapons into the game, and points being awarded for kills or flags captured, not for how well you bow, chat, or role-play). It's the "honor" players in Jedi Knight games who are the oddballs, not the other way around.

 

Please, don't tell me you tried to follow JK2 "honor" rules in those other games you mentioned.

 

What you consider the "golden age" some of us consider to be the Dark Ages. If what you say is true, that there is real, true FFA taking place "in EVERY SINGLE SERVER I HAVE BEEN TO", then THIS is the "golden age" of JK2.

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Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop

a real live Jedi,

 

thats a sickness. you need professional help.

 

 

 

and yes, we did follow rules of honor in EVERY one of those games, and successfully i might add. its not about following "rules", its about not being a hack.

 

i joined a "clan" WAY back around 95 or so, called the 911 squadron. we played based purely on honor and paved the way for a whole new style of game play. this existed right up until the end of the tribes era, and all hell broke loose, and "hacks" like the people i mentioned, plus most of the people that repllied to this thread, stopped caring about the gaming experience of others. there were no cheap shots, no back stabbing attacks, and certainly no bad attitudes. it was just a game, and the goal was to keep it fun. reexamining this thread, i seriously doubt most people would understand that.

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Originally posted by beetlebz

there were no cheap shots, no back stabbing attacks

I don't care if someone kills me while I have the chat box up, I honestly don't. In FFA, I use all weapons (Repeater, Rockets and Disruptor are my most used), all force powers I have, on anyone. It's fun. What was the worst thing I've ever typed into the chat when I died? ns, rofl, or XD. After all....

 

Originally posted by beetlebz

it was just a game, and the goal was to keep it fun.

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Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop

Who told you it was "mandatory" anyway, a real live Jedi, or some nerdy teen with false ideas about "honor"?

 

Originally posted by beetlebz

thats a sickness. you need professional help.

 

:rolleyes:

 

sar·casm ( P ) Pronunciation Key (särkzm)

n.

1. A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound.

2. A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.

 

You didn't answer my question, by the way, but we all know the answer. And you didn't have any good responses to my points about spectating and not bowing, but that's OK. It's much easier to take the "cheap shot" that you claim to hate.

 

*sigh* we've gone over this topic five million times, but since you are new here, I'll give you the summary:

 

1. The game is one of many (beginning with the original DOOM) that feature a gametype called "Free For All" or, originally, "deathmatch". The one "rule" is (as stated on the loading screen) "Defeat your opponents to score points". Period. Nothing about bowing, "chatkilling", "saber down = peace", "no-whatever-I-consider-to-be-a-cheap-shot-or-I'll-get-upset-and-call-you-names", etc.

 

2. Some people in JK2 decided to add on a bunch of made-up, phony, artificial, contrary-to-the-nature-of-the-game "rules" and "honor codes", thinking somehow it made them more "honorable"\"chivalrous"\"Jedi-like"\whatever than the "lamers" they disdain. In many cases, the additional "rules" to restrict combat to very limited circumstances helped to hide their incompetence and lack of skill at true "deathmatch" or "Free For All". They can't handle the pace and complexity of unrestricted, full-weapon, full-Force combat, so they hid behind saber-only (no guns\explosives), no Force dueling and "honor codes". It's much easier to learn to bow and whine about laming than learn to strafe-jump and shoot accurately. You might be an exception, but it's true for many others (they come to my servers and whine "guns suck", "rocket whore, use a saber", and of course "lamer" after being repeatedly killed).

 

"But it takes no skill to kill a 'defenseless' player" you whine. On real FFA servers, people don't spend much time standing around, doing nothing, or chatting. They are too busy playing and having fun. And they don't get upset when they are "killed" while typing, it's no big deal. I know "honor" players just can't grasp the concept, but what's the big deal? You click your mouse and are instantly "reborn" with 125 health and 25 shields. In fact, in CTF (Capture The Flag), experienced players are frequently killing themselves as a useful tactic. So you "die" in a video game, so what, who cares? Quit making such a big deal out of it.

 

Only in Jedi Knight games are some players so shocked, upset, and offended when what is supposed to happen (players "killing" other players) happens.

 

3. Well, it's no use having "rules" and "honor codes" without some means of enforcing them, right? That lead to the "admin mods" with their abuse-prone commands. Instead of simply playing the game with their queer (in its original meaning of strange) "codes" and "rules", they coerced, brainwashed, and humiliated players (many of whom were simply trying to play the game the way they played the single-player game or the way they had always played other FPS games) by amslapping\ampunishing\amsleeping them and berating them (often with very vulgar and profane language) that they are "noobs" and "lamers" and "cheap". All because the "lamers" didn't know about or didn't agree with the false, phony, added-on rules. But the coercion, humiliation, brainwashing, peer-pressure, and abuse were brutally effective, creating hoards of players who were unskilled at the game but good at bowing and hitting their "lamer" chat binds.

 

4. And to enforce these "rules", you need "admins" constantly patrolling the server. Ever go to a store and have employees follow you around because they just knew you were probably going to steal something? Ever see those prison movies with the shotgun-toting guards high up in their towers and on the prison walls, scanning the prisoners down the prison exercise yard, just waiting for something to happen? I visited an "honor" server to see how the "other side" lived, and I swear, it reminded me of a prison exercise yard. The "admins" had teleported themselves high up in the map where they were unreachable (and to make them feel "superior" to the poor peons who couldn't teleport themselves). They stood around up there like prison guards, until they saw some "lamer" accidentally or purposely kill someone who was standing around, saber-off, doing nothing. They amslept him and started tediously lecturing him about what a "noob" and "lamer" he was, yadda yadda. The other players had the typical timid, tentative, "Oh God I hope I don't get falsely accused of laming someone" playing style so common on those servers.

 

Wow, what a fun place to play. :rolleyes:

 

The net effect of these idiotic rules, and the admin mods and admins necessary to enforce them, is to turn off and drive away players, both new and veteran, keeping the game from being as popular as it should have been, and ultimately dooming the game to a premature death.

 

Anyway, I have gone on and on and could go on and on. I know you have been playing the game your way so long you just can't conceive of any other way to play, and I don't expect to "convert" you. I just wanted you to understand that the people who responded to your thread aren't "honorless noobs" and barbarians, but are actually experienced gamers who have seen the evils that come with "honor" rules and who still know the joy and thrills of playing the game the way it was designed to be played.

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The player/team who has the highest score at the end (or completes his objectives successfully first), wins.

 

"h0n0r" is made-up and it doesn't matter if you follow it or not. If you want to follow it fine, but don't expect others to do so. Lighten up and you'll have more fun...

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Actually, I don't see any tongue-in-cheek at all, I think he is dead serious (unfortunately).

 

I think the clan name "911 Squadron" gives a hint: I bet it was a Falcon 3.0 "clan".

 

I don't know how "honor" would work in a flight sim. "Landing gear down = peace" perhaps? He seems pretty upset about being attacked from behind, so maybe "Squadron 911" only made head-on passes and never attacked from six o'clock. Hard to be a good fighter pilot that way.

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Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop

I don't know how "honor" would work in a flight sim. "Landing gear down = peace" perhaps? He seems pretty upset about being attacked from behind, so maybe "Squadron 911" only made head-on passes and never attacked from six o'clock. Hard to be a good fighter pilot that way.

 

Amidala you're one of the reasons I still browse these forums, your posts crack me up, good points above too ;).

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  • 1 month later...
I don't know how "honor" would work in a flight sim.

 

"Landing gear down = peace" perhaps?

 

He seems pretty upset about being attacked from behind, so maybe "Squadron 911" only made head-on passes and never attacked from six o'clock. Hard to be a good fighter pilot that way. [/b]

 

 

My father always said, "it's better to be a smart ass than a dumb ass."

 

Lame Master Video

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Hi,

 

Personally, I think you both make really good arguments. Everyone has a different idea of what's "fair". However everyone believes SOMETHING is fair. (I DON'T believe that "truth is relative". I DO believe in absolute truth, but "fairness" I find kind of vague.) In this thread one person believes that the only way fairness is an issue is if cheat mods are used. The other has a more strict view.

 

I've only ever played multi with friends on my local network, but we have a kind of in-between view. We all like things to be a little more orderly, so if someone has their lightsaber off, then you don't attack them. That was about the only rule, and how it was "enforced" was if someon DID break this "untyped rule" then it made the rest of us mad, and the game quikly became "all against one"!

 

I kind of like the idea of labels just a little, because I can see good to both sides. The strict side is orderly and is more relaxing. The other side is fast paced and exciting. I don't see anything "wimpy" or "under-handed" about either, as long as people entering the game understand what the local agreement is on what's "fair". What's wrong about having both types?

 

Thanks for listening,

The Saxman

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Originally posted by The Saxman

What's wrong about having both types?

 

 

Well, if you read my post again, I explain why adding on rules might seem harmless but is actually bad for the game. Servers with added-on rules have admin mods and admins to enforce them, players get abused by admins "enforcing rules" and "maintaining order" (like prison guards), players get turned off by abuse and stop playing, the game dies.

 

fear leads to anger... anger leads to hate.. hate leads to suffering.

 

Honor leads to admin mods...admin mods lead to abuse...abuse leads to suffering...suffering leads to death of the game.

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