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        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
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<p><a href="../2.4/gsm/index.html">&lt;&lt; Back to Normal View</a></p>
<p>URL: <a href="../2.4/gsm/index.html">http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.4/gsm/</a><br>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 4<br>
                December 1, 1999<br>
                </b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              
                <b><i>Game, 

                  Set, Match!</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  Six Months in the Life of the OGL</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Stephanie &quot;Bobbi&quot; 
                  Bergman</p>
              
              

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               In 
                early May of this year, I was one of the many who eagerly downloaded 
                the first release of the<b> Quake III Test</b>. I had played <b>QuakeWorld</b> 
                competitively, and although I kind of hated <b>Quake 2</b>, I 
                still participated in clan matches. Now <b>Quake III </b>was out...a 
                game that looked to be exactly what I had been hoping for. I played 
                a few matches on random servers, but soon found that being on 
                a T-1 made for extremely unfair competition, and I was winning 
                matches more often from ping than from skill. As any competitive 
                gamer knows, it&#146;s not half as much fun when you don&#146;t 
                fight for your win. The best games, the most exciting matches, 
                are the hard ones...where you fight for every frag, and jump in 
                fear when you see your opponent. I set out to find some good matches, 
                some tough opponents. </p>
              </p>
              I decided 
                to try the Online Gaming League. 
                I&#146;d met a lot of the people behind the OGL at QuakeCon&#146;99, 
                I knew a lot of other people who played on their ladders and it 
                seemed like a good place to get some decent games going. I entered 
                the <b>Quake III</b> Open ladder at 250 and immediately challenged 
                an opponent higher on the ladder. Call me silly, but I was really 
                excited! I was going to work my way up the ladder, dammit, and 
                be the best! (ok, I&#146;m not delusional about how good I really 
                am, but it sounds good) A few days went by, and I got an e-mail 
                from the OGL...I&#146;d gotten a forfeit. Oookie, so I get to 
                jump up the ladder a few slots. Cool!</p>
              </p>
              I immediately 
                challenged someone else. This time they replied within a few hours, 
                and we quickly scheduled a match. I was hoping for a really good 
                game, honestly, I didn&#146;t care who won, I just wanted a good, 
                fair match. The time for the match came...and went, without the 
                person I was to play coming online. Another forfeit.</p>
              </p>
              I challenged 
                someone else. Another forfeit. </p>
              </p>
              I challenged 
                someone else...and they showed up for the match! I have to say, 
                this guy, my god. I learned a really good lesson...never play 
                Q3test2 with a rail monkey. I&#146;d spawn...I&#146;d die. Spawn...die. 
                I don&#146;t think I ever made it fully across the map with one 
                life, he was amazing. So, I lost pretty hideously. But I learned 
                that I&#146;d better get the hang of the rail gun.</p>
              </p>
              And then 
                it was my turn to be the putz...I challenged someone, and forgot 
                about the match we scheduled. I went to the website and e-mailed 
                the ladder admin, telling him I forfeit, and I didn&#146;t want 
                to hang up the person I was to play any longer (as you cannot 
                schedule another match until your current one comes to some kind 
                of end, be that win/loss/forfeit). The ladder admin replied, saying 
                thanks, and that nobody had ever done that before. I was kind 
                of amazed, it only seemed like common sense, I mean, at some point, 
                you&#146;re bound to realize you missed a match. But I guess not. 
                </p>
              </p>
              Challenged 
                someone else, got a match, showed up this time, and won. Really 
                nice guy too, but it wasn&#146;t a fair match, I won by some gross 
                margin. Which just isn&#146;t fun.</p>
              </p>
              I went 
                on challenging a few more times, got a few more forfeits, until 
                I got sick of that. I sat in the 70&#146;s for a while on the 
                ladder, and got my first challenge, that being from Hanif. Now, 
                Hanif, dammit, knew full well he could beat me, as he did exactly 
                that at QuakeCon, and he did beat me when we finally played a 
                match. </p>
              </p>
              <br> </p>
              I asked 
                Hanif what he thought about the ladder and the OGL, to see if 
                his experience had been the same as mine. I found that it had, 
                &#147;Yeah I have had fun on the ladder, even though there is 
                a serious lack of player involvement and most of my matches have 
                been forfeit, etc. I think the OGL is more about meeting new people 
                and coming together to play the game than a real ladder. In that 
                sense it has been very fun, however the OGL has its faults too, 
                and they begin with the obvious Internet play and distribution 
                of players across the world. In addition, the OGL seems to lack 
                the involvement of the tried and true professional gamers, etc. 
                the list can continue for each side forever.&#148; 
                <p></p>
                <p>Hanif sums it up 
                  pretty well. The OGL is fun, and you do meet people (when they 
                  show up/respond to e-mails), but it&#146;s not exactly the place 
                  for premiere online competition. There is a major problem with 
                  people sitting on the ladders and not playing or responding 
                  to e-mails. However, when I looked at the website, I could not 
                  find a place to leave a ladder. I assume that e-mailing the 
                  ladder admin would do that, but...is a button on the user panel 
                  too much to ask? Might make it much easier for that guy who 
                  joined the<b> Quake III</b> ladder on a whim (when he&#146;s 
                  really an OGL member for the <b>Magic: The Gathering</b> ladder) 
                  to get off. </p>
                <p></p>
                <p>Six months after 
                  joining the OGL, I sit at number 70 on the ladder, and have 
                  played 3 matches, one I won by a landslide, and two where I 
                  had my ass handed to me on a plate. I did meet people, albeit 
                  not many (I think irc would be more productive if you&#146;re 
                  looking to meet people), and I did learn a few valuable lessons 
                  about playing really good gamers. But all in all? I&#146;ll 
                  sit on the ladder for a while, play if I&#146;m challenged, 
                  but I&#146;ll probably be e-mailing the ladder admin as soon 
                  as the retail version of <b>Quake III </b>hits the shelves and 
                  tournaments start up.</p>
                </p>
                ______________________________________________________</p>
                <p></p>
                <p>To follow up on (and 
                  debug) last week&#146;s article a bit, I received e-mail from 
                  both Angel Munoz from the CPL and Frank Cabanski from i2e2 pointing 
                  out that their organizations do not exist to make money off 
                  of gamers. That said, I would like to point out neither organization 
                  is classified as non-profit. :) Angel Munoz also wanted to point 
                  out that Frank Cabanski was not a founder of the CPL, as I said 
                  in the last column (i2e2 press releases list him as former Commissioner 
                  of the CPL, I apologize for the error). Rix (of &#147;Gollum 
                  and Rix&#148;! First professional level <b>Quake</b> match I 
                  saw in person was Gollum vs. Rix. It sounds corny, but I really 
                  never have forgotten it...it was amazing) also wrote in, making 
                  sure that I pointed out that although the CPL may not have gone 
                  by that exact name at the time the PGL started, it was very 
                  much the organization it currently is today at that time. </p>
                <p>Future columns will 
                  feature interviews with Angel Munoz, Frank Cabanski, Rix, and 
                  more covering these and other issues.</p>
                <p></p>
                <p>&#145;till then, 
                  &#147;PMS-Bobbi on D!&#148;...I&#146;m off to find a <b>TWCTF</b> 
                  server. With the release of <b>Quake III</b> around the corner, 
                  it looks like I may be saying goodbye to <b>QuakeWorld</b> soon. 
                  But...we&#146;ll see...</p>
              
              
              <i>- 
                Stephanie &quot;Bobbi&quot; Bergman needs to come up with better 
                taglines.</i></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 