Why Bother?
When issues arise in the TF community, why are some people so outspoken about it?
— Rincewind
In response to a lot of editorials, news bits, mails etc. I thought I'd
climb into my keyboard (roughly translated Dutch expression) and give you
an opinion about it. Not because I consider myself to be "The Holder Of
Eternal Truth And Wisdom" (although, it has a nice ring to it), but because
I was annoyed. No, not at the x-th cheater, lamer or "have you seen what
they have done?". No, I am annoyed with the TF community..
I'm a relative newcomer to the TF community in that I have played it since
the beginning under various names, but only recently decided to devote some
serious time to it. This has resulted in my strategy pages, and being a bit
more outspoken on issues dealing with TF. Why? I have no idea, other that I
like it and I am one of the people that hasn't played regular DM anymore
since, pff, beginning '98.
I was playing one evening and that I got irritated at so many team members
playing death matches out there trying to raise their own frag-average, and
how difficult it had become for me. This last statement lets itself be
explained by the fact that I had been absent from TF for a couple of
months: my girlfriend had some serious objections on me trying to pull
peoples intestines out while she was snuggled up on the couch with some
wine waiting for me. I do admit, I see her point (Okay, so I'm weird,
right). Anyway, I came back, and at first it was like being in a different
world. A lot more of those idiot-children where running around trying to
make my game seriously irritating. I must say, I like a good kill as much
as the next guy, so if I get killed in some new and inventive way I usually
applaud the guy who did it. Strange statement, but true. Now suddenly I was
confronted with people grenading their own spawnrooms. Enemies hanging
around in there, and engineers building sentries in the weirdest places. My
first thought was: kill, kill, kill.
My second thought was: shrug. Yes,
shrug: I shrugged my shoulders and went on to play. Every game has its
difficulties, and I found out it worked for me when I just ignored these
things. I mean, a lot of people seem to be upset about this, but I would
say: devote your time to constructive matters. Complaining doesn't really
help. Most of us are grown up, and my guess is that most of the cheaters,
lamers, etc. will consist of acne-ridden, mentally unstable, unable to get
s.x adolescents out there. And well, I cannot be bothered devoting any
attention to them. However, I did find out that it sometimes works to
inform the opposing team: I noticed that some "Old Guard" players will
immediately assist you in getting rid of the "fungus" on your team.
So, I look around for news, and what do I find: scores of pages devoted to
ramblings on cheating, lamers, etc. I mean, I do my "professional
literature" everyday (my boss thinks I'm reading obscure american
newspapers), and honestly, I am much more interested in screenshots or
discussions on TF, TFC, and TF2 then I am in rambling on and on and on
about cheaters, lamers, etc. Every society has its downside, well,
congratulations, we have ours, only ours is not criminals, we get stuck
with biologically impaired bastard outcomes of genetic experiments gone
horribly wrong. So what?.
And then, if this is not enough, we start to get "Gender Wars" I mean, come
on! If women want to play among themselves, let them! There's nothing in
any "normal" law which might forbid them to do this. Okay, granted,
chauvinists care about this, but I am happy not to count myself among those
ranks. Let's not try to take our analog hang-ups to the digital world. If
you have an idea, it should get room and resources, not immediately get
blown up and forbidden, we had a system like that in the real world up till
'89, we all know why it didn't work. Go get them girls!
It seems that lately you get people who start to moan about everything: I
mean, am I in the right game here? I thought this wasn't an old-folks
hangout. Complain, complain, complain. As my mother would say: You sound
like my mother! Don't complain, be creative (and try to keep it legal).
Cheaters? if they use software cheats: email id games or Valve or whoever,
but don't bother me with it.
Gender racial, ethnic issues? shouldn't be an issue on the Net and
certainly not in TF. For is it not in TF that we are all red? Yes, red.
Don't believe me? Here, let me just take a shot at you and you'll see what
I mean:))
The TF-community has a lot of people in there whose names resound now and
in years to come, names that will make you shudder even in 50 years time
when your trying to hotwire your own wheelchair, and start you of at
stories "I was playing on that server, and I just RL-ed the guy
when...."(They will never get finished, because the nurses will think
you've gone wacko, and immediately put you on thorazine, or some other
sleepy-bye-bye-medicine). I know that a lot of new TF players look up to
these people, visiting pages and trying to find out where and when they
play. There's nothing wrong with that, its just that the "lill' uns" will
become old guard one day, and you do want to set an example.
So Little Time
The gaming community has grown so big in such a short time.
— BlackKnight
The Development of a Gaming Community (Told through my short life):
I've grown up in the age of computers, and believe it or not, my dad
still owns a Commodore 64 with Logo at that little white turtle. That's
what I found ammusing as a child, a little triangle going around the
screen, by putting in lines of code that you asked it to do
specifically. Years later my brother had introduced me to Doom. A
simply great 3D must-have game! All the kids in school had it, and
everyone was playing it. It was the most fun anyone had since
Wolfenstein 3D. Then Doom 2 and all the others, but what shocked the
gaming "community" was Quake. The 3D likeness, the enriched graphics
and new controls in gameplay. Now you could aim where you shot instead
of shooting straight ahead of you, and the AI had somewhat of an
intelligence. So I scrapped Doom and played Quake for god knows how
many hours at a time. I mean, Doom 2 was very good to me. I played it
hundreds of hours over the modem/phone line with my friend as we
conquered level after level in cooperation mode. But Quake was just
completely different, and there were more styles of gameplay! In awhile
they were having CTF and even a new thing that no-one heard of on the
face of this Earth.
TeamFortress.. What was it? I don't know some mod
for Quake, but it looks pretty good. I thought I'd try it so I did. I
fell in love with it ever since I played my first game of 2fort4. So as
the 2 years went by, Quake 2 came out and I got it... No big deal,
great graphics, gameplay, the whole spiel, but what I thought I was
getting was TeamFortress 2 like so many other mods that were comming out
for Quake, had now started comming out for Quake 2. So I bought Quake 2
downloading new mod after new mod, which I still do, and I eagerly
anticipated the arrival of TeamFortress 2. Then all of the sudden I
asked my friend when it was expected out. He had started laughing and
told me that it wasn't going to be out for the next year or earlier for
a new game called Half-Life. Well I fell on the floor on my knees and
felt all my blood go from my head as I started having a seizure over the
news (Not really). I couldn't believe that I spent about $40 on Quake 2
and now I would have to buy another $40 game to play the mod I've been
waiting for? So, time went by and I bought Half-Life a couple months
after it's release. And today I still anticipate TeamFortress 2.
The making of a great community? Not really, and by moving TF2 to
Valve's Half-Life (Which I have no problem in) is kind of destroying it
in the process. I know some stubborn people that won't by Half-Life
even though that they loved TeamFortress to death. All because they're
more loyal to the Quaking community then to the TeamFortress community,
and that's fine. But you voice your opinion rather then just go over
and play Digital Paint 2 for Quake 2 waiting for Quake III: Arena, you
have to go out, buy Half-Life and get it done with, because you'll feel
alot better if you do. Putting TF2 to Half-Life I thought was probably
the worst things that could happen to Team Fortress, as I watched
(literally) the community drop into shammbles. I can't wait until this
whole entire better multi-player game debate is over and that everyone
just goes back to playing the games they like. Don't try to persuade
people into thinking TeamFortress is a better game... And don't
persuade people into thinking that Quake III: Arena will be the best out
there because there are mods to consider for Quake III: Arena that will
be built and change the game around to make it more fun. But then TF2's
community will build better new enhanced maps that will have new
features and new way's to get points rather shoot'em-up. Tag and Frag
or something will come out for either one. They will both have equal
communities in the end which most of the players will be dedicated to
most games, because TeamFortres originated from Quake, and no-one can
resist a new Quake game after being addicted by ID's hit.
Muzzle Flash in TFC
Muzzle flash, and why we need it!
— Zorak
Due to an ICQ screwup an old incorrect version of my article was posted.
(Its all Hal's fault mwuahahahaha) There were some incorrect facts that I forgot to double check in the article, and I realized that my incorrect article was posted when people started mailing me.
There is muzzle flash in TFC. In a way. The model lights up, but not the area around it. In my opinion this is amazingly lame and bad looking. The flag carrier also no longer glows. The explosions dont light up either.
Why did Valve do this? I think it is an engine limitation, because it isnt in single player either. I dont see why it is there if there is a limitation. The other thought I had was framerate, but why sacrifice light effects for that? I would much rather skip something else.
Having light effects would really add even more to TFC. Seing an explosion with no light just isnt right. Also having the models only light up make it looks bad. We also need the flag glow back. It looks nicer than some soldier carrying a model in his pants.
If its an engine limitation, then there isnt much that can be done about it. But if its just in the code, Valve, PLEASE PUT LIGHT EFFECTS BACK!
Think the author was right on target or completely off the deep end? Let us know -- mail us or post in the forums!
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