The Diaspora of Internet Gaming

[Joruus]

It used to be that there was Quake. And its sub communities Deathmatch, CTF and soon after, Team Fortress. These were the games everyone played online, Quake 2 came out, and soon after, the subcommunities developed there, you had Deathmatch, CTF, and eventually Weapons Factory to cover the hole that Team Fortress left, and any number of other mods, but all of them fell under the categories of DM or CTF, WF was the exception to the CTF variant as it was the only class based TF style mod for Q2.

 

Then Half Life came out. I remember checking out the game and thinking it had some potential. But I didn't really realize at the beginning the potential it had. Within 2 years, the Half Life community rivaled the Quake/Quake 2 community in player numbers, mods and general server statistics.

 

And then there were two distinct gaming communities on the internet. Each with their own game (though Half Life was merely the Quake engine on steroids), their own mods, and their own devoted player base. This lasted for a couple years. And then the Q3ADemotest hit the internet.

 

The Half Life community stayed strong during the development of Q3A, still two distinct communities were gaming on the internet. And right about as Q3A released, another, forgotten contender hit the market under the name of Epic Games.

 

The simultaeneous release of Quake 3 Arena, and Unreal Tournament split the internet gaming communities again. Mostly out of the Quake dynasty came the players that populated this new "planet" in the internet gaming universe.

 

And then there were three.

 

After a few false starts, the Q3A engine's licensing eventually produced yet three new communities of internet multiplayer gaming. All developed by different companies. RTCW, MOH:AA and JK:O.

 

And now there are 6.

 

With other major games in the pipe line from Id, Epic and other independant development companies, such as Quake 4, SoF 2 (Raven), Unreal Tournament 2 (Epic), Doom 3 (Id Software), Half Life 2(Valve) where will the internet gaming community be this time next year. How many times can the mass of internet gaming hobbiests split like amoebae before the strength of multiplayer development is so watered down that you'll have to cross game platforms just to find the people you need to help develop a mod?

 

Eventually, all gaming communitites will be just like the Quake deathmatch community that still hangs on, I believe. Small islands of strange people that enjoy the same game. Clans made up of the same people from clans of older name and glory, leagues that are almost static in their competition because of the lack of new talent and or changes in old talent.

 

Maybe I'll get lucky and eventually bots will be better than human players. Who knows.

 

Thanks for your time, just something I chewed on over lunch.

[Jokis]

Honoured to be the first one to reply...very insightful post, I very much agree to what you said and enjoyed reading every bit of it.

[CupO'Coffee]

and i'm proud to be the secondone to reply, and all i have to say is: hail to you Joruus

 

i agree to every word spoken, but i think that some of the communities gonna die because the players enjoy other games and gonna stick to them. so i think that after some months there will be, maybe 3 or 4 communities (i mean real communities).

[RoyalGuard]

Interesting points,

 

Hopefully the growth of people with internet access and an interest in multiplayer games, combined with the poor performance of one or two games will sustain large enough gaming communities for each game. If not they should all be playing JKO anyway!

[The Truthful Liar]

That point also can enforce why some clans are good... Since they generally stick together - and it isn't nescessarily easy to loose people inside clans. (Of course some clans split up, die, etc... but besides that...)

 

Interesting post. Yet that's life.

[Star ReaVeR]

yeah my first Multiplayer game was Unreal Tournament but it got crap after a year so I changed to this game instead and damn it rocks!! Quake 3 engine is a blessing.

[Joruus]

I am sad.

 

25,000 registered members and 5 people enjoy intelligent discourse.

[JK_Wakefield]

Is it bad that I have Half-Life: Counter-Strike, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and cough cough This weekend Jedi Knight Outcast. (The first of the series that i will play - This Air Force Brat thing sux the first game i got was 2 years old cuz when i lived in Italy that's all we had. Didn't even know what Star Wars was till the base theater played it.) What should i do? Play all 4 and kick minor butt or pick one and kick major butt? It's all too much for me!

[PolarWind]

Well, the first multiplayer online fragging game I got was Q3A, and the computer we (my brother and I) had couldn't handle it. Frankly, I really don't much like to compete, and I don't like FPSs for the most part either. I hated the first five or so levels of JKII because I got the game for the Force and the lightsaber.

 

I'll note you all didn't mention MMORPGs... is that because you consider that a different type on online game player?

 

BTW I'm no stranger to games, it's just I've been a console gamer for the most part (RPGs and platformers being my favs).

 

 

One more thing. Nothing compares to EarthBound.

[FatboyTim]

Its a fair comment that the overall community is fragmented between quite a few games. According to Gamespy, the big-hitters right this moment are:

 

Half-Life: (19997 servers, 52068 players)

Medal of Honor Allied Assault: (707 servers, 4451 players)

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: (1121 servers, 4015 players)

Quake 3: Arena: (2877 servers, 3836 players)

Unreal Tournament: (3374 servers, 3560 players)

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast: (602 servers, 2378 players)

Tribes 2: (606 servers, 2352 players)

 

(Note: I have all of them...)

 

On the other hand if this is such a bad thing, what can be done to change the situation? Shall we ask all the different developers to stop developing new titles? Maybe tell them they should all work on one title together? All unify behind just one popular title to bring the community "together"?

 

I don't think thats going to work...

[StormHammer]

Well, as you said Joruus, the MP community overall is splitting into different cells, and this would only be a bad thing if there was a limited resource of online gamers. However, it's good to see that it appears to be growing all of the time. Some people may leave, but others join. As long as there are more joining than leaving, then hopefully all of these communities will continue to experience growth.

 

In relative terms, the gaming industry as a whole is still quite young, and still expanding and evolving. Who can really say where we will be in five years time? Perhaps with new titles appearing on consoles with online capabilities, we will see an even larger growth in online gaming, as console and PC users go head-to-head - providing, of course, a particular game is released on both platforms.

 

I don't think these growing MP communities really need to have concerns over the quality of people making Mods, etc., either...because there is always someone new waiting in the wings to take centre stage. As long as fresh players, and fresh Modders continue to join in online...then the communities need not die.

 

However, as I said in another post in another thread, I think that to keep these games fresh, and alive, the developers need to consider upgrading and revamping the game engines occasionally, so that the graphics, and feature-set, do not lag too far behind newer titles. In a way, this has been seen with Half-Life...because it has experienced upgrades to rendering, and poly counts, etc., as the new Counter Strike: Condition Zero shows.

 

Looking at it from another perspective, the developers also need to be careful. When you look at Unreal Tournament 2 (I think the new name is daft) they have made changes to some of the base game modes, stripped some out, and put others in. Okay...it brings something fresh and new to the screen...but on the other hand, it drops support for game modes that are still popular within that MP community...such as Assault. To my mind, if a game mode is successful, then the basic rules do not really need to change, as long as the graphics engine driving it undergoes upgrades on a regular basis to improve the look and feel of the game. They want to now sell the Unreal Tournament franchise as a Sports series...but to do that realistically, they should simply be thinking about adding new game modes, rather than totally revamping and omitting older game modes.

 

If you look at it like the Olympic Games...there may be some occasional changes in rules, but the fundamental elements remain the same - you run a certain distance, you throw a javelin, etc. They have kept it fresh over the years by adding other sports into the mix...while retaining the basics. I think the UT series needs to take this approach - if for no other reason that while older players may be tired of DM and CTF...there are still new players coming into the mix who have never experienced these, and will still find enjoyment playing them. The Assault community may be smaller in comparison to the rest...but it is still a community in need of support.

 

The RUNE community also experienced a split...due to some fundamental changes to how the game played. A lot of people complained about certain game mechanics, and net code issues, so these things were addressed in a patch. Except the patch changed some things - like reducing the backwards movement speed, among others. The game played differently after the patch...and so the community split down the middle into pre-patch and post-patch players. This is why I get concerned over some of the This needs changing... threads we've seen in recent weeks...because some people may get what they are asking for, to the detriment of other players who think the game's fine as it stands. Raven needs to step very carefully here, especially when it comes to the basic game mechanics...

 

So for the veteran online players, the games need to constantly evolve, adding new game modes, and sometimes revising others where there have been long-term issues or problems. For new players, they get to experience the basic game modes along with all the new stuff. Everyone wins.

 

There are yet more other MP-biased games in development, such as Battlefield 1942 and New World Order, both of which are due this year. Gore also seems to be blipping occasionally on the gaming radar. No doubt there are more. So potentially there will be a greater split...but as long as new players, as well as veterans, are attracted to these games, the communities need not die.

 

Lastly...the communities really need to try and get a grip on what they represent, and the long-term outlook. If they want their community to stay alive, the last thing you want to do is alienate new players. This is a common problem...and has reared it's ugly head on these forums in recent weeks. Simply telling a new player they are a n00b or lamer, and laughing at them when they do something wrong in a match...is going to put many people off playing altogether. Some of the veterans need to try and make a firmer stand, and offer real assistance and guidance, so that new players can learn the basics more easily without being flamed. I was glad to see some servers being set up specifically for people to learn on. That's a great way of getting more people into the game. If the communities wish to survive, and grow, they need to realise they can only do that while encouraging new players into the fray.

 

Just in my opinion, of course.