So, you know, there was another school-shooting thing here. In this case, it would seem we have stepped into a 1990's timewarp, as all the old politician douchebag types who grew up in a golden pre-video-game age are now discussing the serious issue of video-games. Before a motive has even been established, much like the shooter, they found someone to blame for their misery, and took aim at the easiest possible target.

It is a fact, that Hitler forced Nazi's to play video-games, and it is the singular reason why they committed such violent acts. Every act of violence throughout history, in fact, is the retroactive result of video-games. Nevermind that millions upon millions of people, of all ages, genders, cultures and races (many of whom are mentally ill), enjoy violent video-games and movies on a regular basis, and yet never commit any act of real violence. In fact, violent video-games are such a normal part of everyone's modern life, that everything anyone ever does could be blamed on video-games... that is, if you're enough of a douchebag to do such a thing.

The real reason why these things happen... is obviously unknown to the various dickheads now blaming video-games. If they knew why these things happened, the things wouldn't happen. Instead of randomly destroying whatever you old motherfuckers didn't grow up with, maybe you should try to figure out the real causes, and that way, you can eliminate the actual effects.

I get that the whole shooting thing is real screwed up, but compounding the problem by targeting innocent video-game players (such as those of us here on esr), is only a solution in your warped fantasy world. In fact, it parallels the stupidity of invading Iraq after 9/11. One might think that America had learned from that mistake, but today, even the 'liberals' who so despised Bush and Republicans for said catastrophe, are prepared to do it all over again.

I don't know if you guys heard, but here in Washington state, we just legalized weed. It's all the more reason to hold LAN events in Seattle.

I'm telling you, it's a great location. It rains all the time, so people have an excuse to stay inside and do LAN stuff. Plus, there are tons of geeks here. This is Microsoft headquarters. The entire town of Redmond is basically Microsoft.

It's good for Washington too. LAN events bring lots of money into the area. There is no reason why the state would reject a healthy addition to the economy.

'Twas the night before Christmas, and not mouses were silently... but Santa was clad all in black leather, with assless chaps, and his favorite whip. This year, it wasn't just Rudolph's nose that would be red.

For all the naughty kids... spankings and handcuffs. For all the nice kids... giant, two-sided dildos in their stockings. And by stockings, I mean the one's that 'hang' over their 'mantlepieces'.

As a special treat, for all the kids who leave out milk and cookies, Santa will shove the baby-jesus doll down their chimneys. "Who knew Jesus could fit in there?", asked one lucky recipient.

And after a long-night of sadistic-Santa and submissive-Susie, all the kids could wake up and be forever traumatized.

The end.

I've seen two recent, impressive performances. One by Golovkin, and one by Ward. The two are close in weight and age, and could probably work out a deal for a fight. Both seem willing to fight anyone.

Can we make it happen, and if so, who would win?

What if there was a plugin, for QL, on ESR? What I mean is, it was on the side, with all the latest threads and live streams and betting and that stuff, but it allowed us to find other QL players. We could, right here, from ESR, find an opponent and server, and launch the game.

If there's one thing I dislike about Nintendo, it's their consistent failure to integrate the internet with their systems. Their resistance to integration almost seems to imply that they believe the internet is just a trend. When looking at the 3ds software-updating system, I have to assume their internet department is run by 70 year-olds. It's so bad, you have to manually update each individual piece of software, which, regardless of your connection speed or the size of the file, seems to download at a dial-up pace. Have they never heard of an update system, whereby you would download all updates with one button? It's a simple button, they could call it 'Download All', and it would do exactly that. Furthermore, they seem to have never used a computer, otherwise they might be familiar with something called 'automatic updates'. It's a system that's been in place since at least Windows XP... Windows Update, ever heard of it Nintendo?

Well, the internet is not a trend. Maybe if Nintendo can get with the times, they can manage to compete with Microsoft and Sony. I hope they do, because other than their fossilized internet architecture, most of what Nintendo offers is preferable to the competition. Let me give you a clue, Nintendo... it's called 'streamlining'.

Anyone know of a company that will build a partial PC for you? All I want is a case and a motherboard. If they could put those two together and sell me only that with nothing else, it would be nice.

Here I am, reporting live from death-central. I'm snowed in, and the power is supposed to be out for a whole week. I'm writing this from my cell-phone - the only civilization left. I've already been forced to eat my neighbors. They weren't bad, with a little tabasco sauce. I'm a very picky eater.

Once again, I was almost killed by a falling tree. It destroyed part of my house, but failed miserably to get me with it. Stupid trees, they have no accuracy.

I suppose I will play some Mario Kart on the 3ds. What else is there to do when you're living on candlelight like in the 18th century?

Shit and fuck and cunts. Now that i've got your attention, why don't we once again go over why PC's are the future and consoles are quickly becoming the past.

Point 1: Consoles are gay.

Point 2: PC's can play any game a console can (and play them better than consoles), while consoles cannot do the same.

Point 3: New technology, such as found in the new Nintendo console, allows one to play video-games on their televisions that come from their PC's. Such wireless streaming technology renders consoles utterly and completely useless. Their only viability left, comes from the fact they maintain exclusive deals with game-makers. If Microsoft and Apple cared to do so, they could put their enormous fortunes to work at breaking those deals and bringing the developers to PC's.

Point 4: PC's, while being able to play any game better than a console, can also accomplish a myriad of other tasks found to be impossible on consoles, or so unreasonably difficult as to make them virtually impossible, thus further diminishing the value of consoles. For example, modding.

Point 5: Pro-gaming is shit on consoles. Any dipshit who thinks otherwise should be sent to a concentration camp... I mean, a re-education camp. Granted, when I have a broken leg, I love playing soccer, but, should professional soccer be played with broken legs? No. Now fuck off console people.

Point 6: The only real appeal of consoles is the fact they are casual: you can sit on your little couch with your little friends, and group-masturbate with your little controllers. But, Point 3 makes it so you can do the same with PC gaming. If you're into group-masturbation, that's your business and whatever.

Point 7: Piracy on PC's can be dealt with, and regardless, the games are profitable even with piracy. To use piracy as an excuse for consoles is about the same as using car-jackings as an excuse for buses.

Point 8: That should be enough points, but you're than welcome to add more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=276Yij2IJk8&feature=related

Who do you like better, Glenn Beck or Wesley Willis?

Part of the problem with QL's success, is that so many of us are individualistic. That means, we might prefer being outside of the mainstream. It's difficult to make something a 'business success', when it isn't in the mainstream. Being individuals, naturally, we prefer duel.

The solution though, is simple: team-games. In something like TDM, you have exact opposite of individuality. And that's what it takes to be part of the mainstream. A game like SC works, because even though individuals are playing, it creates the illusion that it is actually a team-game.

And just because team-games are what we need for Qx to be business-successful, it doesn't mean we have to sacrifice duel. This isn't the Bible. One of the great aspects of Quake, in its many incarnations, is that we can choose many different gametypes.

Keep duel, but possibly make TDM (or some other kind of team-game), the main attraction. That way, we have a mainstream appeal, and we can retain our individuality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXO-jKksQkM

That's just surreal. It seems like special effects.

Games like CS, dota2, and LoL are doing so well. It's at times like these, in the life of Quake, we must all remember the fundamental truth brought to us by the greatness of David Worthington:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF8wLg5Asgo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTXO7KGHtjI

See, all Japan needs to do now, is create a humanoid robot, put the Vocaloid software into the bot, and use a speaker to project the sound out of its mouth. Taylor Swift was an early prototype, as anyone can tell. As soon as Japan figures it out, they'll take over the world of music, creating a level of perfection impossible with humans, and at that point, there will be no human performers left. Yep, Japan will create a virtual monopoly in the entertainment world.

Honestly, who wants to see Britney Spears getting fat and sloppy on stage, when they could have super-babe anime chick singing perfectly no matter how old she gets? People don't care if it's real... it's all illusion anyway, and they'll get as close to a robot as they will a real singer. Plus, they experience no guilt for fantasizing about her boobies. Then again, a robot's boobs are probably as real as Britney Spears'.

Yes, those crazy Japs... crazy, but brilliant.

I don't know if I missed the thread, but has anyone tried Rage yet?

Yes, the game you've all been waiting for: RapeLay. It's the game that finally lets dird act out his fantasies (sorry dird). Check it out, it's real high-quality stuff, brought to you, once again, from Japan.

A small preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j77XXvjNJr4

Some years ago, a psychological study was conducted in Texas, to discover precisely why everything in Texas is 'bigger'. What was found is that, not everything is bigger. In fact. the average size of a Texas penis is in fact 14 inches smaller than the average size of the human penis. It was discerned, that everything else is bigger in Texas, for the exact reason that Texas penises are so small.

The aforementioned report was kept diligently out of the public forum, as people were somewhat afraid to 'mess with Texas'. In secret though, the researchers and informants were simply laughing too hard to embarrass a bunch of cowboys from the 16th-century.

Recently, the documents became officially unclassified, thus revealing to the world the true reason behind Texas. As esreality encompasses people from around the world, my mission is to learn your opinions on Texas, both predating the release of said classified documents, as well as your responses to the post-dated information. Any Texas-related comments are appreciated. Thank you.

Hank Williams Jr. talking about Obama and Netanyahu is like Timmy talking about astrophysics. I realize it's an extreme analogy, but i'm trying to make a point - that... wait, it isn't extreme at all. He really is that dumb.

It's good that people have the freedom of speech, but they also must be intelligent enough to use that freedom. Even Poland is smarter than the U.S., obviously, we're doing something wrong. A democracy cannot be both ignorant and free. - Thomas Jefferson; If a nation expects to be ignorant and free ... it expects what never was and never will be. - Thomas Jefferson

No offense Hank Williams Jr., but I liked your father's music better. Reminds me of H.W. and W. What's most remarkable, is that Republicans are on average 30 IQ points lower than Democrats, and yet are wholeheartedly convinced that they're right and Democrats are wrong. They also think the Bible is real. And Santa Claus isn't fictional, neither is the Easter Bunny, Harry Potter, the alien from 'Alien', the 50-foot woman, Bugs Bunny, self-respecting right-wing Jews, Leonardo DiCaprio's character in 'Critters 3', the legitimacy of Republican policies, the world ending earlier this year, trickle-down economics, country music being good music (stupid Mozart, what did he know), gay-marriage destroying society, Top-Gun being a good movie (far better than Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Patton, The Killing Fields, The Deer Hunter, or a plethora of other clearly inferior war-films), Barack Obama not being born in the U.S., Fox News being 'fair and balanced', and last but not least, that the world has any respect or care for a bunch of dumb, redneck Americans.

Why don't you play Kaw Liga (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FY7RWJAtJQ&feature=related)? That's a good song. He's a lonely Indian. He's made out of wood.

I'm not in the CIA, even though I look like I am. We are good friends, so you shouldn't screw with either of us. But, this is not about the CIA or me, it's about the best boxer who ever lived. I'm just curious as to your opinions. Most amateur boxing fans would say 'Mike Tyson', so don't bother with that one. As much as I like Floyd Mayweather, i'd personally have to say Sugar Ray Robinson was the best. What about you? Cassius Clay? Joe Louis? Who do you think is the best?

At times here, people have accused me of being fat. I just wanted to show everyone, that I really am fat. Actually, I never post recent pictures of myself, so I thought i'd change things up a bit. These pics are from a few weeks ago. You can see I have my doggies in lifejackets. In one picture, i'm actually holding onto the strap of one and trying to get the other. When you have both together, it makes your kayak like a motorboat. Anyway, here are the pics: http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj193/naf1981/P1010547.jpg; http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj193/naf1981/P1010562.jpg

I realize i'm the stereotypically, morbidly obese American in these pictures, but I hope you'll forgive me. Oh yes, the pictures are taken from Puget Sound. In the one on the water, Mount Rainier is just to the left.

So a long time ago, I noticed some strange tendencies in my cat. He started speaking German. He began amassing an army. He would often make derogatory comments about Jews. It got me thinking... should I send his picture to www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com? You tell me: http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj193/naf1981/0926110953.jpg

Damn... do I know how to call 'em, or what?

Ortiz seems like a likeable fellow. Don't know where the headbutt came from.

I guess all that's left for Mayweather is Pacquiao. For that one, I can't call it. It's too close. Could go either way. Floyd will just have to accept that. Pacquiao doesn't care, he already has losses. We'll see if Mayweather is willing to risk his perfect record for overall greater glory, or take the easy way out.

I've been studying personality profiles, and what i've learned is that there are basically two types of people: introverts and extroverts. Now, everyone knows that already, but I came to the realization that video-games are ideal for introverts and have little appeal to their counterparts. So what I was thinking, is that if we could develop an esport that appealed to the full range of introverts, we could achieve the same success in professional esports that extroverts have achieved in physical sports.

I don't know all the percentages, like if half of humanity is introverted and the other half extra, but there should be enough introverts to achieve the success we've been looking for.

The foundation of the arena is the arcade. The arena should be as large as it can be. Admission is free, as the money comes from people playing arcade games and from companies sponsoring players, as well as money generated through broadcasting competitions. The competitions take place on a stage, which is as visible as possible from every part of the arcade. A very large HD screen could be installed above the main stage, to provide the adequate visibility. With a structure like this, there is no need to rent arcade games, move them around, rent venue's, or have so few competitions.

The arcade games being there all the time, and accessible whether or not competitions are happening, enable the arena to generate revenue at all times. In addition to keeping the place afloat, the revenue can be used to embellish competition prizes. Smaller-prize competitions could be done on the weekdays, with a larger-prize competition on Saturday. The competitions attract people to the arena, where they compete, play arcade games, watch the competitions, or all three. The more people who show up for the competitions, the more money will go into the arcade games.

This structure is also good for game companies whose games are featured in competitions. If QL was used, for example, more people would play QL.

If this arena structure was financially successful, eSports would finally have a solid base from which to build. So far, eSports has been nomadic, living on the buffalo herds they manage to find. At best, it's a meager living and requires its people to live in teepee's. If we want to live in houses, mansions or skyscrapers, we need a concrete foundation.

Let's say zenimax was to purchase the MLG, blizzard and capcom. That way, they own QL, SC2, and SSF4 (plus they have a functional competition company). All of the MLG competitions then only feature those three games. Id, blizzard and capcom are redirected to improving their existing eSports titles and eventually making new, competition-worthy eSports.

I realize an eSports company will not be purchasing blizzard (or probably capcom either). But, with a couple companies that could be purchased, and can make viable eSports, I would imagine the corporate structure in question would be a highly successful business model.

It's the new novel by Leo Tolstoy. It involves 20000055y93983 stereotypical characters. Half of them come from the movie, 'Independence Day'. The other half come from your mom's basement, and by basement, I mean, your mom's vagina. I'd say asshole, but I think that might be going a little too far... even for Leo Tolstoy. Yes, it is a new classic of ancient literature. Aliens decide the United States is too fatheaded, and so decide to visit China. They enjoy the food, but are quickly raped by the ravenous Chinese sex-ring. Immediately, they understand why China has such a large population. They next try Japan, but find all the girl-on-dog action a bit to their distaste. After that, they go to Africa. Upon arriving, they realize they forgot to bring their jive translators, and so they alien apologize to the African people and make their way elsewhere.

I don't know why no one has spoofed Independence Day. It's such a stupid movie. All the characters are pathetically shallow. It's perfect for spoofing.

How about a game where you fly airplanes into buildings? You get extra points if the building collapses. Maybe a game like that would stop Americans from acting like victims, when they are clearly not. They say 'never forget', as if we're supposed to allow 9/11 to shape our lives from now until eternity. 300 million years from now, those crazy nazi fucks will still be celebrating the anniversary of their marriage to 9/11. They'll give 9/11 flowers, and chocolates, and possibly a diamond necklace or bracelet. Not me though. I'm not going to sit here and exploit the burning of the Reichstagg.

If only Al-Qaeda was in the video-game business, they could make a game like this and sell millions of copies just as an insult to America.

It's that time again, when we all watch horrible commercials and other horseshit from every dipshit and cunt on tv and radio. I mean, it's that time when we remember Pearl Harbor... when a bunch of completely unprovoked crazy Jappers with planes randomly kamikazed the United States (unlike in some other cases where crazy people with planes suicide-bombed the United States). Yes, it's the time when people who live in the past and cannot move on with their lives feel right at home. For the rest of us, it's just nauseating. I'm trying to watch a fucking football game and all this cocksucker 9/11 nazi propaganda shit comes on. Really fucking annoying.

And yes, I realize that you TV personalities are required to say all that crap, but fuck, that sucks. It's like you're a slave who will be beaten if you don't do what your master says.

So what's the call on ESR? I'll put it quickly: Pretty Boy Floyd likes to call himself Money Mayweather now, but he'll always be gangsta. 'Nuff said.

At the beginning, they carried on where they left off with the Seahawks... basically no defense whatsoever. As the game went on, they showed what they will be this season.

Only complaint I have is with the last play. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Run the fucking option, give yourself some possibilities. Other than that, the season looks good.

I'm deeply offended by the fact there are no black kickers. Honestly, the NFL must be excessively racist to deny black people positions as kickers. They try to act like they are racially integrated, but then you look at the kicker position, and you see the truth.

Seriously though, how come there aren't any black kickers?

If you could ask them one question, what would it be? Personally, i'd ask what they think about the President being mocha. It's amazing how much the world can change in 18 years. Do you think Damien Echols already has an iPad and a 4g smartphone?

I just finished my draft. I got Brees, Colston, Ingram, Thomas, Graham, a waiver for Ivory... Saints make up half my team.

It would cool though, if ESR ran a fantasy league for QL. Do you think we could do something like that, in the event QL had a functional league?

So cancer has finally been cured. If you have cancer, all you need to do is get aids. They cancel each other out. If you don't believe me, try it. Give yourself cancer, and then give yourself aids. Would I lie to you in such a way it would kill you? Of course I would... I mean, wouldn't.

It's really dull around here when there are no tournaments going on. Couldn't you guys add some games or something to the site? The only real game we have here is the betting game, and it is almost never used.

You are all gamers... you are all against cheating (as demonstrated by your many vehement anti-cheater posts). It is safe to say then, that if you made the laws of society, you would prefer a society of fairness to one of freedom?

As opposed to the extreme version of liberalism, would it be better to employ as much liberalism as possible, within the boundaries of honor? In a completely liberal society, sometimes what happens is you get more oppression than you would in a fair society. Drugs are a primary example of exactly that. There is nothing legitimate about the persecution of drug-users... the crime against such people is so severe, it is sometimes called 'the worst policy since slavery'. In a fair society, drug-users would not be so persecuted. It is through absolute liberalism, whereby the brainwashing of stupid people is allowed, and as such, causes such terrible repression to exist. So... is it possible, more liberty can actually be achieved through a system of fairness, as opposed to a system of pure liberty?

In the U.S., we have something called 'freedom of peaceable assembly'. What that means, is that foreigners, such as Russia and China, could come into the United States and legally form political parties. Those parties could promote whatever they want, including pro-Russian and pro-Chinese policies. As long as the assembly (the political party), remains peaceable, it has the right to exist as protected by the constitution.

I just thought i'd let you guys know, in case you wanted to form some new political parties in the United States.

Some of you may be familiar with the American Republican party. They are the right-wing party of the United States. Their core message (aside from what they call 'conservatism'), is self-reliance. Another term for self-reliance is masturbation. That's why they got so pissed at Bill Clinton. He could have had some ribs removed and given himself blowjobs, but no, he relied on someone else.

Yes, the Republican party should change their name to the Masturbation party. It would be less confusing that way for stupid people.

What is liberalism? A lot of really dumb right-wingers contend that liberalism is communism. Truth is, the two things couldn't be more different. A liberal communist is an oxymoron. Liberalism is the state of freedom. The very prefix used to form the word, 'liber', means free. It is the same prefix found in the words liberate and liberty. If conservatism means to conserve, liberalism means to liberate.

A truly free society is a liberal society. Repression is the enemy of liberalism, and it has no other enemy. In a truly free society, there is almost no room for conservatism, and certainly not enough room for an entire political party. The only times conservatism should be used in a free society, is when conserving is necessary.

Some parts of liberalism are not good. Obviously, murder should not be free. Despite that, the most extreme of liberals would say that even murder should be free. And that's what a true liberal is - someone who always advocates liberty and liberation.

Personally, I advocate the liberation of almost all things. Only things like murder, rape and robbery I oppose. That makes me a liberal in the true meaning of the word, but certainly not an extremist.

And now that you have a proper political education, maybe you can more capably discern the motives of politicians and political parties. If they advocate repression, they're not liberals. If they advocate liberation, they are liberals. If they advocate repression in the form of conservation, they are not liberals, but they may be correct as sometimes conservation is necessary. A conservative political party has no place in a free society. Liberals are more than capable of ascertaining the few cases where things should not be free. In a free society, the amount of things that should be repressed make up about 1% of the total amount of things (repressed for the purpose of conservation is an even smaller percentage). With such a small percentage, what is the need for an entire, major, political party?

The greatest detriment to lan tournaments is byoc. If you replaced the byoc area with arcade games, lan tournaments would immediately gain in profit.

A lan tournament should consist of three to four things: the tournament (which includes seating), arcade machines (if people are at a gaming tournament for four days, they will inevitably play those games - which means money), and food. The fourth thing could be merchandise/hardware/software.

BYOC achieves no profit, as the people bring their own computers (as opposed to renting them at the event), and the games on their computers they already own. Instead of that crap, people would be forced to either watch the tournament, or play arcade games (which, of course, they pay to play).

By exchanging the byoc for arcade machines, the tournament becomes more interesting (as people can't simply play minecraft the whole time), and when they're not watching the tournament, they're likely either eating or playing arcade games (both of which are earning the event money).

I haven't played arcade games in a while, but i'm sure they're still good. Since consoles, portables, cell-phones, computers and the internet came around, arcades have taken a business hit. It would, in every possible way, be in their best interests to partner with lan tournaments. If the money from the machines is split between the lan organization and the arcade providing the machines, the arcade may even be willing to provide the machines at 'no cost'. Meaning, you don't have to rent the machines, you just have to split their profits.

I suppose, you could compromise and keep half the byoc area, and use the other half for arcade games. That could be more profitable than going all or nothing, and might keep people at the event longer (doing nothing but playing arcade games and watching the tournament could get a bit boring after 4 days). If they can go back and forth between the tournament, the byoc, and the arcade games, they will probably stick around longer and ultimately put more money into the arcade machines. I still think the byoc takes away from the tournament, as people would rather play a game than watch one. Arcade games are different though, because you do not play them for extended periods of time. However the case, the byoc should be greatly scaled back, if not eliminated, in favor of arcade machines.

Where do the costs of running tournaments come from?

Renting a venue
Travel/hotel
Computer hardware/internet
Prizes

If we held localized tournaments, where people didn't need to travel or pay for lodging, a big part of the cost is eliminated.

If computer hardware/internet is sponsored (which it usually is), or is simply byoc, those costs are eliminated.

If prizes are provided by sponsors, those costs are eliminated.

The only thing left is the venue (which is arguably the most expensive part). Is there a way to eliminate the cost of venues? There could be. Let's say there was a venue that was the host to many different events. They could have rave's one day, Quake tournaments the next. If that was the case, they would profit from providing space for free. It's kind of a self-promotion. Quake players go there to compete, and they see the other events being held there, causing them to potentially go to them. Likewise, people who go to the venue for something other than Quake, might see the Quake tournament, and go back to the venue for it. There are also other ways of turning a free event into a profitable event, such as providing food services. People at an all-day tournament tend to get hungry and thirsty. They wouldn't want to leave either, because then they would miss the action. There could also be special sales on things like hardware, merchandise, and tickets to the other events they host.

If the tournaments are small and local, it gives players a reason to compete - the fact they actually have a chance of winning and don't have to spend thousands of dollars just to get there. It also gives the venue a reason to host the tournaments (for 'free'), because the majority of attendee's could actually go back for the other events. At that point, practically all of the costs of running a tournament are eliminated, while the profits are increased. The overall number of players is also increased, since more players have the chance to win prizes. When you're competing against the best in the world, you have practically no shot. When it's just random, local people, you have a pretty decent shot.

Maybe these local tournaments wouldn't have much appeal to audiences, but they would appeal to players. With more players, the audiences for the big tournaments will be bigger. If we could set up a system like this, where tournaments of this kind were held regularly in every major city on Earth, QL would be enormously successful. I mean shit, the tournaments could be run in arcades. There are arcades everywhere, and certainly, the people who go to arcades would be interested in competing in and watching tournaments. Once the tournament is done, they stick around to pump some quarters into machines. Once they go home, maybe they install QL (it is free, after all), for the enjoyment of it, and in hopes that when the next tournament happens, they can win some prizes. That's what we need - small, local, regular tournaments. If the venue and everything else is free, we can achieve exactly that.

So the rating has been downgraded. I'm just wondering, are there any countries out there (Australia, or somewhere in Europe), where one might find favorable policies on immigration?

This place is going to shit quickly. Republicans are winning the Civil War, and will soon accomplish their goal of destroying the United States. I just need to get out of this cesspool before it happens.

Instead of only putting money into player competitions, why not put some into modding? With QL doing so poorly, maybe some quality mods are exactly what we need. I don't mean major mods, only modifications of duel. The winner could be determined by the popularity of their mod. The mods could be made available for a set amount of time, and when the time expires, the mod played the most wins.

At this point, it would probably be more valuable to run mod tournaments than player tournaments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:National_IQ...uality.png

When you consider the average human IQ is around 100, and your IQ is 160, what do you do with yourself? Do you spend your life exploiting 'stupid' people? Do you try to help them? Do you try to segregate yourself from them? Is there really a way to change their stupidity, or is it simply genetic?

It is funny though, that Poland is considered fairly high in IQ.

If the United States split into individual states, do you think the world would be better off? Which states would be the most successful as independent entities, and which would suffer the most or cause the most conflict?

What if you could score more than one frag per kill? Like, in the first two minutes, each kill is worth 1 frag. During minutes 2-5, kills are worth 2 frags. During the final 5 minutes, kills are worth 3. This way, comebacks would be more achievable, +back would be more vulnerable, and getting a bad initial spawn wouldn't mean game-over.

Instead of having one ladder for everyone, the ladder could be split into divisions. If there were 5 divisions, we could use a system like I was talking about in the czm thread (where there are beginner, intermediate and expert settings). Division 5 would be played with beginner settings (and could possibly be free to play), division 4 with intermediate, and divisions 3-1 with expert. Your rank on the ladder also determines your 'skill-level' on pubs, and your exact division and rank could be displayed in-game.

A system like this would give people ample time to learn how to play the game. They wouldn't have to immediately play against the best players, or at the most difficult level. They could enjoy working their way up the ladders and through the divisions.

When there are only pubs, the only thing to play for is pub-glory. Most people are unaware of the various third-party leagues, ladders and tournaments. Even if the QL page provided information and links to those applications, it still means players need to take extra steps (to jump through hoops, as the expression goes). Every extra account they have to make, and every additional website they need to use, effectively deters them from participation.

Take a game like Mario Kart 64... you don't start out at 150cc and you don't start racing on the Rainbow Road. And you certainly don't need to visit a third-party to work your way through the divisions. Why should multiplayer games be any different?

And let's say, the ladders do not have to be structured like... you're ranked 100 and then you beat 95 and are then ranked 95. It could be a point-system, where anyone you play gives you points. If you lose, you get 1 point, if you win, you get 3 points. And if you play against people in higher-divisions, you get more points for both winning and losing.

With a system like that, where points are counted for every game you play, the game would still be very free. Meaning, instead of having to schedule ladder-matches, points are tabulated on every pub game or game of any kind you play.

That's how the game should be, instead of random, chaotic, pointless pub matches. The game should be to work your way up to the Star Cup and to 150cc. Imagine if Mario Kart was like Quake... you just played random maps against random opponents. The game would suck.

The problem with pro-gaming, is that it has always been built from the top-down. You cannot construct a building that way. From the PGL to modern-day IEM, esports organizations continue throwing money at the roof of a game, even though there is nothing between it and the ground-level. No matter how much money is thrown at constructing the top of the building, without support from below, it will never result in completion of the structure. Instead, it will only cause one collapse after another, as a top-floor without lower-level support will prove too heavy.

Esport's can be great, in that they fuse together the best elements of video-games and sports. If there is something from sports we should absolutely fuse with video-games, it is the bottom-up approach.

It's my understanding you can change the timelimit and fraglimit (using /timelimit and /fraglimit). If we want 15 minutes, can't we just vote it into servers? Or does that only work against bots?

It would be interesting to give fraglimits a test. Maybe a small online tournament? You know what they say... insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Well, fraglimits would certainly be doing something different.

Maybe it's kind of minor, but it would be nice to have more useable player-models. We've been looking at keel for years now. More variety would be welcomed.

We only use keel because the hitbox is most accurate, and keel makes the most noise. As long as other player-models fit those criteria, we could have all kinds of different models.

Lots of people are shit pissed about outsourcing. They always whine about not having jobs anymore, but really, they have no one to blame but themselves.

If the job can be outsourced at a profit, do it. Fuck the people who lose their jobs. Their jobs are obviously not worth a cunt. How do I know? Because, the fact is, some jobs cannot be outsourced. That's right... you cannot outsource the job of Muhammad Ali. You cannot outsource the job of Robert De Niro. You cannot outsource the job of Barack Obama. You cannot outsource the job of CEO, because you, the CEO, decide not to outsource yourself. Yes, if you are truly worth a damn, your job in humanity cannot be outsourced.

I sincerely hope game developers begin outsourcing as much as possible. Imagine the progress we could make, if we outsourced game development. Even if the game has a meager budget, like QL, the game could still receive adequate developmental progress. Outsourcing has been little utilized in gaming, but perhaps that should and will change.

So the new princess of England or whatever, met with a cancer patient. The princess looked lovely in her silk dress. The cancer patient looked like shit. She was dressed like a 3 year-old baby. The fact she is a 3 year-old baby is no excuse. It's no wonder she has cancer, she obviously deserves it for having such poor fashion sense.

What's this world coming to, when little baby cancer patients aren't dressed for camera? It's bad enough when a celebrity commits a fashion faux-pas, but shit, when a baby cancer patient does it... the apocalypse must be looming. Maybe if she spent more money on clothing and her appearance, rather than on cancer treatments, she'd be more popular.

To qualify as a fully-fledged esports title, what components must a game have?

1. The game itself must be good enough, and of a particular kind.

2. There must be 'bleachers', such as GTV, streaming-video and demo's (in physical sports, watching games happens even at the lowest of little-league levels).

3. New players need coaching, which can be done through video-tutorials, demo's (with audio or text assistance), and through in-game practice (with audio or text-assistance, and additionally through visual pointers, which may literally be arrows). Giving new player's proper direction is vital to the success of any sport.

4. Practice facilities (for every level of player), should be easily available and accessible. No sport would survive if beginning-level players were required to fly half-way around the world just to play one, meaningless, little-league scrimmage.

5. Leagues, ladders and tournaments (for every level of player), must also be available and easily accessible, for the same reason as #4.

Quake Live is missing almost all of these things. Where they exist, they exist through third-parties. Most players will either fail to understand the components exist elsewhere, or will simply not bother trying to find and use them.

Anyone who has played organized sports can tell you exactly how they are structured. I myself played baseball and soccer, starting at the age of 5, and continuing until 13. The basic structure is no different in esports. To create a proper esports title, you can simply imagine going through the system of a normal sport, and apply it to esports (making improvements where the technology allows). If you've never gone through a regular sports model, this process will be more difficult for you.

The ad-system of QL is ideal for esports mechanisms. If people are spending more time in the QL system, clicking through the various pages of ladders, tournament schedules, VOD's/demo's and whatever else is part of the esports aspects, it means more money is generated through the ads. In fact, much of the QL system is ideal for esports, but for some reason, the core components are missing.

Can southern Europeans ping well to northern African countries (and vice-versa)? Cause if so, you guys could pull a Hitler and invade those African countries. You could also spread east from south-eastern Europe, and from north-eastern Africa (once the area is secured), into the middle-east. If from Japan, Korea and China, the scene spreads west, we could have almost all of Asia, plus Europe and large parts of Africa.

With the geography of Europe, Asia and Africa, if you build a stronghold in one region, you should be able to spread from there to the other regions. It's all about developing areas based on ping. If you ping well enough to a nearby region, you can invite that region into the community, without the need for them to build a community from scratch.

Instead of changing the timelimit, let's revolutionize the game by scrapping the timelimit completely in favor of a fraglimit.

With all this talk of QL dying, maybe what we need is a revolution? Why do people say QL is dead? Because the timelimit makes it so once you're far enough behind, it's impossible to come-back. That mentality pervades throughout every Quake player. They'd rather forfeit the game then make an effort to win. With a fraglimit though, the game never gives an excuse to forfeit.

Maybe some of you forget, the game is called 'deathmatch'. With a fraglimit, deathmatch is once again the game. And isn't deathmatch a more exciting style of Quake than timing items or playing the clock? In any quality game, the losing player is still capable of winning. Even if they're down 14-0, with a fraglimit of 15, they can still win. I don't know who would prefer watching a 10 minute game, where the score is 10-0 at the 5 minute mark, knowing the game is already over. It's just 5 minutes of worthlessness, or a forfeit. With a fraglimit, the entire game, from start to finish, is meaningful and suspenseful.

We all know, if you get behind early in a game, with a timelimit, it basically means you're screwed. With a fraglimit though, you can afford to lose a few frags, even go on a kamikaze run to regain control, and yet you can still win the game. A fraglimit opens the game to a broader range of strategies, and requires the winning player to finish the game fighting.

With all these lockouts in the NBA and NFL, the time is never better for esports. We like to disparage a game like LoL, but if you look at the numbers, LoL is showing how esports can definitely be successful. More people watch Nascar than chess, but it doesn't have to be so dire in esports. We can have a great game and a substantial audience. Considering the monotony of recent QL tournaments (same players winning all the time, using the same tactics), maybe a massive change is just what we need? Let's put the death back in deathmatch.

Let's say we made a website that was like HBO, but for esports? It would show a constant stream of esports stuff, including live tournaments. It would be free from commercials. It would not be on-demand, but rather, would have scheduled programming. One hour, you would have CS... the next, QL, after that, SC2 (so on and such).

It would be cheap to do, using both streaming video and GTV (depending on what's available). As we've seen with QL, the gaming faculties needed for GTV can be done through a website.

It would be purely for spectating, and would provide no means of playing the games. Would you be willing to pay around $10 a month for something like that?

Here are my Quake Live mock-IGN ratings:

Presentation: 8.5

Easy to install and play.

Sound: 8.0

Some sounds could be improved. Overall, the sounds work well to assist gameplay.

Graphics: 8.0

Old but good.

Gameplay: 9.0

Could be 9.5 with 15 minute duels.

Media: 1.0

Excluding the Quakecon stream, which barely worked, there are no first-party streams, video's, demo's, GTV's, or even links to any of these things.

New player facilities: 1.0

There is a skill-matching system, which doesn't really work without lots of players (who do not exist). There are a few tutorials, which are probably almost never used and have limited use even when. Other than bot-games (which are arguably considered new player facilities), that's all there is.

Competition: 1.0

Excluding Quakecon, there are no first-party leagues, ladders or tournaments, and there are no links to the third-party variants. By having nothing but pubs, only Quakecon and third-party support warrants even a 1 rating.

Developer support: 1.0

There is practically none, aside from almost completely useless devpicks (which don't happen anymore), and Santa Claus player-models. There is even less when you have a free account. Maps are about the only substantial developer support, and the maps aren't even made 1st-party.

Overall, the game gets a pro-rating of 4.7 (rounded to the nearest decimal). Third-party support is the only thing that could justify a higher rating. But because the 1st-party does not support third-parties, in any fashion other than allowing their distanced involvement, and rarely purchasing their maps or scoreboards, it is impossible to give Quake Live itself a higher rating. To give the Quake Live community a higher rating would be easy, but this is a Quake Live review. It's really no surprise Quake fails to grow or maintain a competitive model over newer games. If not for the community, which is exceptional, Quake Live would have been aborted.

See how helpful it is to critically review games based on their professional gaming qualities?

Every game has its dominant game-type. For most games though, there is only one viable game-type. In CS, it's 5v5, in RTS it's 1v1, in LoL, it's whatever they have. In Quake though, there are 3 viable game-types (Duel, TDM, CTF). To give Quake a different experience, and one also more difficult, why don't we turn Quake into a triathlon?

It would be easy, we make it so all competing players have to play all three game-types. The team that attains the highest overall point-value wins. Points are tallied from each game-type, and added together to form the overall winners. Let's say the points were 30 for 1st-place, 25 for second. If your players won 1st and 2nd in duel, you would have 55 points. If your team got 1st in TDM, you would have 85 points. Prizes are not given for any individual event, only the overall. As each game-type determines the overall winners, each game-type adds to the value and interest of the others.

The fact is, Quake needs to do something to separate it from the pack. As good as Quake might be, it's still lacking in popularity. By changing our format to something no other game is capable of, we can create a unique platform and secure Quake as the most challenging, and most truly legitimate of professional video-games. The other games, by comparison, would not only appear shallow, they would be shallow. The stable, yet dynamic gameplay of Quake is what allows us to use it as a triathlon gametype. No other game can boast such accolades, and if they tried, they would only make fools of themselves. As such, we should use this strength to our advantage, and reap the rewards while the rewards are still reapable.

This Anthony Weiner thing is absolutely hilarious. Never have so many (un)intentional dick jokes been top-headlines.

So, there used to be a media-war. It's still ongoing, to an extent. The internet is a perfect module for anonymously spreading propaganda. Many people though, have become accustomed to the methods, and are now immune to them. What then, is next? I'll tell you - hacker wars.

That's right... when hackers become militant, that's when we will see the next iteration of the computer/internet age. The only thing hackers are currently missing is organization (and its subsequent purpose). It won't be long though, before they have both. Groups like anonymous have already begun the era.

Personally, i've done my time with SoftIce dating back to '96, but I think the hacker war will be more interesting from the outside.

What about you guys? Any interest in waging a hacker war? What hypothetical side would you be on?

So the U.S. has some economic problems or something. Luckily, i'm here to save the day. I have a plan that can turn this whole thing around. All we have to do is auction the White House. It's the one piece of real-estate not in the shithouse. The President and his or her family can move into a tower, built right in the central area of the Pentagon... there's nothing valuable there now anyway. What's more, we can make the tower out of gold, with a giant diamond dildo on top. That way, it will be funny, and no one will want to destroy it. Plus, the exterior of the tower could be interwoven with nano-tech solar-panels, so any future President dickwads like Reagan won't be able to take them down.

I bet Saudi Arabia would pay like 10 trillion dollars for the White House.

You're welcome.

Apparently, the controller for the new wii can be used to play the game itself (through some kind of wireless streaming method). Couldn't the same technology be applied to PC's, thus allowing you to play PC games on your TV without hooking them up with wires? Maybe that technology is just what PC gaming needs to draw people away from consoles.

Think about it... your PC is wherever it is, but you can still play PC games on your TV (from wherever your TV is, within reasonable distance of course). What point would there then be to buy consoles when you can simply use a PC you already own?

The main gripe people have with PC gaming, is that they can't sit on their couches and play on their HD flatscreens. If the PC is hooked up to the TV wirelessly, and by using whatever control peripheral one prefers, the primary obstacle is eliminated and the secondary is irrelevant. Of course, people can already hook their PC's up to their TV's, but that would limit the conventional usage of a PC or require the purchase of multiple PC's. The wireless mechanism in the Wii U would completely solve those problems.

Why people continue with this console madness, I do not know. The console cycle goes like this: new console comes out, all the console people measure the specs, the price and the launch-titles. Those are the factors that go into their approval or disappointment. With PC's, there is no 'new PC', the specs are basically whatever you make them, and there are no launch-titles. In addition, with PC-gaming, you can use any peripherals (console controllers, arcade controllers, mice and keyboards, and motion-sensing tech could easily be produced, if anyone cared). In further addition, internet-functionality on the PC is as good as it can possibly be, and there is also the possibility of modding. So why do console players fail to move to a superior platform?

It can't possibly be, that game companies are afraid of pirating. Whether or not people pirate, companies still profit from PC games. That is besides the fact, if there were no consoles, or consoles weren't popular enough, they would have no choice.

Casualness: Well, it's somewhat surprising to me that gamers still game together in person. Even though multiplayer in-person gaming is less anti-social than single-player gaming in-person, gaming in-person is still much less social than having a drink and talking about a bunch of shit (or having an orgy, or whatever pre-technology social-activity there is). And if there's no one else around (which is often the case), who cares if you're gaming on a PC?

Size of monitor: I don't know how any real gamer could think the size of the monitor is that important. When you're into a game, you tend to forget about the size of the screen. Even on a little portable, the size quickly becomes irrelevant as you become immersed in the game. All of that is besides the fact you can easily hook your PC up to your 50'' HD flatscreen.

I have to wonder why gamers continue using consoles. Could it really be nothing but the comfort of sitting on a couch and holding a joystick like you hold your dick? Is it just a form of masturbation? If people stopped buying consoles and console games, PC gaming would boom. Maybe that's what it will take for pro-gaming to succeed? All this talk of 'well, everyone uses the same thing on a console, so console pro-gaming is legit', is just another lame console argument. If you increase the size of a soccer goal by 10x, yes, everyone uses the same thing, but the game is still far from professional or anywhere near as good as with a goal the size it is now.

What will it take, to get console players to stop jerking and circle-jerking? I mean, maybe you're not holding your friend's penis, but it's still pretty gay to sit there and masturbate next to each other. And no matter how many people are playing the game with you, gaming is still anti-social. At least with PC gaming, you're playing with other lonely people who are probably hundreds of miles away. Everyone has some alone time... to fill it by playing games with other people is better than being completely alone.

Console-gaming is like golf - you barely exert any effort, and it allows you to safely semi-socialize. Your performance in the game is often more important than your social performance. In a PC game, socializing is almost completely cut out of the equation. PC gamers make no illusions about what they're doing. Gaming, in fact, is best done when alone (at least, physically alone). When other people are around, and you are playing a game (especially if those other people are not playing it too), is not only anti-social, it is incredibly rude and disrespectful. Gaming is the type of thing that should only be done alone, and the best way to game alone, is to game with other people (through the internet). While consoles are making progress in online gaming, they are still far behind PC's, and will never actually catch up. For gaming to be its very best, consoles need to become an official part of the past. When that time comes, all the game developers will either make mini-games for cell-phones, or they'll make great games for PC's. And then, everyone will be part of the same PC system, the same internet system, and the best possible system for gaming.

Why do some people think the 3DS was such a disappointment? Because people are bored with the same old gaming platform. Because people consider all these new things, like 3D and motion-sensor wii-like gaming, to be nothing more than novelties and gimmicks. And you know what that means? It means, the broad-spectrum of gamers are ready to graduate from regular gaming to pro-gaming.

Yes, we all played regular games at some point, but then, after they became so repetitive and 'lonely', we moved on to something better. Pro-gaming is the only kind of gaming that is truly distinctive. Regular games are the same old games, with better graphics and maybe a few changes like going from a side-screen platformer to a Mario-64 type platformer. It's still the same old thing though. It's nothing like being part of an ongoing community, where there is a regular playerbase you can get to know, and a competitive model where you can continue improving and continue to achieve higher goals. Once you beat those old games, there's nothing more for you but to beat new games. And each new game is really not much different from the previous game. Slightly different puzzles, and slightly different enemies... all of which are nothing but computer-AI almost identical to the AI found in previous games. To play against real people, in ever-changing and growing challenges, presents an entirely different type of gaming.

What does this mean for us? First of all, it means we're ahead of everyone else. Secondly, it means when the world of bored gamers finally discover pro-gaming, they'll be very tempted to learn how to use a mouse and keyboard for gaming, and they'll start pouring into pro-gaming communities.

The fact is, the 3DS is an excellent system. Aside from the lack of web-video, which does devalue the system as a whole, for purely gaming purposes, there's nothing wrong with it. The only people who would find something wrong with something there's nothing wrong with, are people so tired of what's regular, that to achieve satisfaction, they need something truly different.

Some of us got bored with regular gaming ages ago. I haven't purchased a console since the N64. I only have a 3DS because it's portable, and because I was interested in seeing how 3D functions in gaming (and without glasses). Having shit internet was also a factor, but mostly it was the other two. Naturally, it would only be a matter of time before other people also get bored with regular gaming. There are few things more rewarding than getting great at something. With regular gaming, there is no real 'getting great', there is just beating the fairly meager - and often annoying - tasks the game presents. When the tasks are always changing - because the players are always changing - the game offers an endless series of challenges and opportunities to reach new levels.

Why do people continue playing consoles, when PC's offer a unified platform (one vastly superior to each and every console)? Because they like sitting on their couches, playing against their friends sitting on the same couches, with their little console joystick. It's casual, semi-social, and it doesn't seem to them quite as 'nerdy'. For those of us who don't care about appearances or superficial labels, console-gaming is mostly a shallow and dull enterprise. The games must be designed to either correspond to the type of console controller, or they must use computer-assistance to compensate for the lack of adequate controls. The level of precision and depth capable with a mouse and keyboard will always be superior to a console controller. I'm perfectly aware of that, because i've used both types of controls for over 25 years now. In any competitive setting, one would have to be a fool to prefer the dull console controller over the sharpness of a mouse and keyboard. And in any professional setting, well... you simply cannot have dull controls to qualify as professional. Only through the most precise of controls can any real professionalism come out of gaming, or anything else.

The time for pro-gaming has never been nearer. Even though so far, we haven't had a great deal to show for our commitment and our work, it won't be long now before it will all pay off. As an investor, pro-gaming would be considered a long-term investment, but for people who simply love gaming and pro-gaming, it's just something we will do no matter what. So I say welcome, to the graduating class of regular gamers. It really doesn't take that long to learn how to use a mouse and keyboard for gaming. I know it's difficult at first, and you'd prefer using the console controller... but give it two weeks and you'll never look back.

So apparently the web-browser comes without Flash or HTML5. That means, no web-video. It means the 3DS web-browser is a castrated bull. It's what the internet was like in 1996. It's what the web would be like, if net-neutrality was abolished, or the entire world was Chinese. Yes, it's pretty lame. Nintendo missed out on a big opportunity here, to provide 3DS users with convenient, portable web-video, some of which is even in 3D (which would have made it the only portable device capable of providing 3D streaming-video). That alone could make the 3DS worth purchasing (for some people). With 4G spreading everywhere, portable (3D) streaming video is that much more viable.

Maybe Nintendo will wise up and add HTML5. Flash is probably a bit shitty, although that's debatable. It works fine in regular computers, but has some problems in small-devices. Hard to say why Nintendo made such a seemingly poor decision. Their customers are certainly upset. They all have different speculations on Nintendo's apparent failure: some suggest flash or web-video wouldn't work with the multitasking aspect, but of course, to solve that problem, Nintendo could just use a lite version (with no video and multitasking), and a full version (with video and no multitasking); wouldn't even require two separate versions of the browser, just two different implementations with different rules and different shortcuts. Others suggest it's a porn thing; pictures are enabled though, and yes, you can view porn in photographic form. Whatever reasons they come up with, there are simple explanations to the contrary. One thing is constant though - no one can quite understand or agree with Nintendo's thinking.

Well, we'll see how it goes. Certainly would raise the value of the product, if at least HTML5 was enabled.

Have any of you noticed how easy it is to spread propaganda through the internet? Look, i'll show you: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/18...o/ch01.htm

See, I think facebook is absolutely phenomenal is streamlining the dissemination of propaganda. For no other reason than to piss off the anti-communist crowd, let's all post the communist manifesto everywhere we possibly can (especially on facebook), and laugh while doing so.

Toxic says he doesn't like QL duel because of the maps. But why are the maps so shitty? Because of the timelimit.

With such a short timelimit, it means, if you get behind, you have to either rush (making yourself vulnerable), or play defensive hide-and-seek to build up enough health and armor before you rush. Either way, you're completely screwed. If you rush, you can easily be killed, thus compounding the problem. If you play defensively, precious time is ticking away. That's why, in QL, the most popular maps all have the same armor configuration: 1 ra, 2 YA's (if not more or the equivalent), and a 35 second mega. When there is so much more armor, it means you're only partially screwed.

When you get behind, if the other player manages to play defensively, you simply don't have enough time to mount a comeback. You would think, these high-armor maps would help the player behind, but really, they help the player ahead. It allows the leading player to more easily defend themselves. With such a short time-limit, that's really all they need to do. Just keep the other player weak, while keeping themselves strong. You don't even need to kill them. If they rush you, it makes for an easy frag. If they sit back and try to gather comparable armor, time is ticking away, reducing their potential to make up the frag-difference.

In CPM, a 10 minute timelimit makes sense, being that YA's give 100 armor, RA's give 150 and players can move so quickly around the map. In baseq3, it just doesn't work and instead, ruins the game.

If we restore the 15 minute timelimit, QL duel could actually find itself being a great game. With 10 minutes, you barely even have enough time to warmup, much less figure out your opponent. Lowering the timelimit ruins the depth. Obviously, you don't want the timelimit too high, but a happy medium can easily be achieved, and 15 minutes is that medium. No one ever complained about the 15 minute timelimit. They complained incessantly about the railgun, which was changed... but why was the timelimit changed when the community had no problem with it? What's also strange is that the 10 minute timelimit seems to be forced - servers do not even have the simple ability to set their own timelimits, thus preventing us from testing which one actually works best.

Maybe id could free the timelimit restrictions? I can't imagine it would require expensive coding. Then we, the community, can determine exactly which timelimit makes for the best games.

Why not turn this community into an official clan? There are plenty enough good players. You could add a clan section to the site and some clan-specific sponsors, and potentially sponsor the top ESR players. It only makes sense, given the nature of this site. We're pretty much a clan already, we just need it to be official and organized like a clan. A simple clan-section would do the trick, without completely modifying the main functionality of the site.

It would be cool if the 3DS had a clan feature, and clans had some kind of global ranking. That way, we could make an ESR clan and dominate the charts. Could bring a lot of extra publicity to esreality (and therefore, to QL or whatever we're currently playing).

What do you guys think? Maybe there is some way to petition Nintendo?

With a typical console-type controller, MMO's do not work well. With the 3DS's touch-screen, an MMO can work great. Let's take a specific example of how an MMO can work with the 3DS: Wizard 101. Now, if you've played this game (it is free to play), the game-mechanics are arranged so that in battles, you basically just choose between 6 cards. Each card has a different spell or ability. It is turn-based, and each turn, you have 30 seconds to choose a card. With the touch-screen, all 6 cards could easily fit and be easily accessed. The rest of the game controls could be done with the other parts of the 3ds (d-pad, thumb-pad, r/l/abxy). Even the gyroscope could play a role. With the viability of MMO's, through the utilization of the 3DS controls and touch-screen, Nintendo could make their own MMO and possibly bring in numbers higher than even WoW.

Making an MMO for the 3DS should be easy for Nintendo. They could just take their various game worlds (like the Mario and Zelda worlds), and make those the areas of the game. The different classes and races could be done in similar fashion (like, you could pick a mario-esque type of class/race, or a zelda-based type). The quality of graphics on the 3ds, plus the 3D, and the easily setup internet component (in particular, with 4g), enable Nintendo to create a great portable MMO.

On the business side, the value of a Nintendo 3DS MMO is multiple times higher than the value of a regular game. They initially sell the cartridges, then they also charge a monthly fee, and last, if the game is really that great, it would also increase the amount of 3ds sales.

Environmentally, it would also be helpful. I know this sounds strange, but if people would rather play their 3DS on the way to and from work/school, they would be more likely to use carpools and public transportation.

The future potential for portable MMO's, especially 3DS MMO's (owing particularly to the 3D, and the touch-screen), is promising. 4G is still in its initial roll-out stages, but is available in most metropolitan areas (at least, in the U.S.). If I remember correctly, they estimated over 100 million American's would have access to 4g LTE upon its initial release. Of course, they have already expanded and are in the process of expanding coverage to more areas and more people. It's a good market that will keep getting better.

I'm hoping Nintendo does make a 3DS MMO. I'd like to see them defeat Microsoft and Sony, two mega-corporations with their business hands in many different areas; as opposed to Nintendo, who only do video-games. It's difficult for Nintendo to compete, when they have so much less money to work with. A sort of cash-cow like an MMO might be exactly what they need.

Think about it... you're on a road trip, in a vehicle of some kind, for 8 hours of driving a day. What does one do for such periods? Look out the window? Get truck-drivers to use their horns? Play eye spy or 20 questions? Or maybe, pop out a 3ds, with a 4g lte 30 ping connection and shed the time away?

What if there was an MMO simple enough to be played with the 3ds controls? With the touch-screen, you could actually have a fair amount of abilities. The cartridges only hold 2 gigs, but can't they hold more? If an SD card can hold 50 gigs, couldn't a game cartridge do the same? I realize it would be more expensive, but if the game was good enough, people would pay for it. If the game cartridge can't hold more than 2 gigs, maybe the game could ship with a special SD card to hold the extra data? I can certainly imagine some great multiplayer games possible on a portable device, provided there is enough space.

With the advent of 4g, portable gaming reaches a whole new level (it's not inconceivable future portable gaming devices would have a 4g device built-in). That means, we can play online games, with 30 ping, from practically wherever we are. Sitting in class... (who wants to pay attention to some lame school stuff anyway?), riding the bus, subway or train, in a carpool, on an airplane (eventually), sitting in a park somewhere (better to see animated tree's than the real things), waiting for your mom while she's shopping... yes, portable gaming and 4g cure so many of the ill's boring society. And when society is bored, they start murdering. I hereby move to increase the rate of 4g production, and call upon Nintendo to release some really class multiplayer games. The fate of the world depends on it.

This stuff, 'Absinthe' has a lot of mystique. It has been illegal for a long time. Naturally, I became interested in trying it. A couple months ago, I was in California, and at a normal super-market, they sold La Sorciere (absinthe superieure). Of course, I had to get some and give it a try.

What you do is, put a small amount of absinthe in a glass, slowly poor cold water into the glass (over a sugar cube), then inhale the aroma before drinking the liquid itself.

It's very interesting. I recommend giving it a try. It is unlike drinking normal alcohol.

Do any of you have experience with absinthe?

There are a lot of people who criticize the 3ds. They criticize 3d period. What are they really criticizing though? Are people forcing them to use 3d? No. Are people forcing them to buy the 3ds? No. Seems like, some people are so spoiled, nothing will make them happy. Unfortunately, many of those people have found a voice through the internet. They suggest the 3ds had a failed launch, like it's the fucking space shuttle Challenger. Would people rather have the 3ds, with a limited number of games and features, or have no 3ds, with no games or features? If you'd prefer the latter, you can easily have it, by simply not buying the thing. These short-sighted types have now gone so far as to discount 3d altogether, and begin to promote their naive vision of AR games.

With AR games, the potential can never be beyond a very small degree. People are always jackasses enough when it comes to the wii. Look at how many broken things have happened, because people are too fucking stupid not to break their own shit while using the wii controller. Imagine a bunch of asses, walking around everywhere, looking through some kind of gaming device, attempting to play a game in an 'augmented' real world. They'd be tripping over things, stepping on shit, and hitting people while pivoting around. I don't care to imagine the results of people trying to play AR games while driving cars.

Beyond the dangers of AR gaming, the format is simply limited. Being that you cannot create the entire world around you, the games are stuck being part real-world and part computer-animation or even cartoony stuff. The two things do not mix well. Imagine looking at a street corner, and some cartoon pokemon pops up... it would look completely out of place and really just be silly. Besides which, because the entire world cannot be created to go along with the gameplay, whatever gameplay emerges will be severely restrained. Sure, maybe you could shoot a zombie in front of you... but where does the game go from there? The bushes and streets in front of you are almost exactly the same as they are somewhere else. Are people going to walk around an entire city, just to complete an entire game? Even if they did, each part of the city would still not be much different from the other parts. You can't create exciting, dynamic environments, because all the environments are not created by you. About the only way it could possibly work, is if you cleared out entire cities, so just like one person at a time could reasonably play an AR game. And if I need to explain what's wrong with that scenario, maybe you should return to special-ed.

Another problem with AR gaming is the fact you have to do all sorts of weird shit to use it. You can't just sit comfortably on your couch. With the 3ds AR card games, you have to put the card on a table, and then stand or sit over the table, as you move around the card to do different shit. Some of it is almost contortionist. One of the best things about gaming, is that you don't have to do uncomfortable weird shit to play them. You can sit on an airplane, or on a bus, or in your car, or anywhere... in your lazy-boy if that's what you like. With AR gaming, comfortable seems to be simply impossible

Is there a future for AR gaming? Maybe in some basic sense. Will it ever be more successful than regular gaming, or for that matter, the much-improved 3d-gaming? Absolutely not. It will always be excessively limited, and may end up being nothing but a novelty or a showcase for 3d-technology. AR gaming will likely never grow beyond something like laser-tag or paintball... never going to go beyond basic stuff and some little maze-like arena.

Is there a future for 3d gaming? Absolutely. That's where the future lies. Anyone who can't see that, must be incapable of seeing in 3d (and thinking in 3d). I'd imagine the 3d critics are the same people who decades ago would say, "We don't need film. It doesn't help the story at all... it just makes it look better. We should just keep reading books.". And then, later on, they would say, "We don't need color film. It doesn't help the story at all... it just makes things look better. We should keep using black and white.". And then later on, "We don't need HD. It just makes it look better. It doesn't help the story at all. We should keep using normal definition.". You might call these people 'conservatives' (as in, people always trying to slow progress, or being almost instinctively anti-progress), but whatever they are, they're really fucking stupid, and as it always does, time will prove them wrong.

If there's one real fault of the 3ds so far, it's that they keep remaking 2d games in 3d. That's like adding color to a black and white movie. The movies were designed to be in black and white, and when you add color, it ruins the art. In defense of Nintendo, remaking things is the quickest way to show people what 3d can do, and of course, it takes time for developers to learn how to fully utilize 3d and to design new games specifically engineered to be played in 3d. How long did it take for filmmakers to really take advantage of color? That's just how it is... it takes time, and when developers start working entirely in 3d, the technology will show its true quality.

Too much vodka, or is he serious?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHfZBQyr2Fs&a...r_embedded

To put it simply, the game is too difficult for new players. Did you start playing Guitar Hero on expert level? Did you start playing Zelda at the last boss? A game is too daunting to start at the end. You need to work your way up to that level, learning each part of the game little by little. Look at any single-player FPS... you start with just like one weapon, and you have ample time to learn that weapon. Then you get one more weapon, with enough time between that one and the next to learn that one. In QL though, you start with all the weapons, and you don't know anything about the maps or timing of items, and you just have to deal with it. The players don't help, usually they just insult you, as if a new player should be as advanced as themselves.

Being that QL has no single-player portion (unless you count bots), the method of playing through a single-player campaign is not an option. What other options are there? What can we do to motivate new players to get through those early difficulties? Small prize-purses would probably work. If they can win prizes, they would likely be willing to suffer through those early game frustrations. It's possible, that is the only thing that would work. If you had a ladder, but there were no new players, any new players would still have to play against experienced players. I suppose you could impose some kind of handicap, but would experienced players be willing to play like that?

There's nothing wrong with older games. There's something wrong with games that are too difficult for new players. The skill-matching system has proven itself inadequate. Until we figure out a way to get people past those extremely difficult early games, QL will continue languishing with a small playerbase, and probably a declining playerbase. The playerbase gets small enough, and the game is dead. The only thing currently keeping QL alive is the quality of players. While quality is preferable to quantity, having both is even more preferable.

So, apparently, the 3DS will have a web-browser. That means, with your 3ds, you can view web-content in 3D. Might be part of the update scheduled for later this month. Hopefully you web-types are making 3d content... video, audio (3d audio is really awesome), and 3desreality. There's nothing more fun than reading text in 3d.

You know what could be cool though, if you made a 3d frag movie. I have no idea how stuff like that is made in 3d, but hopefully it's easy enough.

Girl power is quite possibly the worst thing to happen to women since rape. To illustrate my point, I will change the word 'girl' to the word 'white'. Now it makes women seem like nazi's. It doesn't help their case either, that they act like the 'white power' movement is nothing to be taken seriously... just girls being naive and childish.

Maybe women should get back in the kitchen for a while, with their mops, or would they prefer exterminating the Jews first?

http://reinep.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/breaki...could-die/

One billion could die - that means you.

I have a question for you. If I was to open a business where I had sex with women for the purpose of impregnating them (like a sperm donor, but with sex), would that count as prostitution? $50 a pop would be fairly lucrative.

You're all atheists, so stop acting like atheism is evil. If you don't believe in Zeus, you're an atheist.

After using the 3ds for a while, I can better criticize 3d gaming. From what I can tell, it does not hurt your abilities. It either makes no difference, or might help. With 3d, you can better measure distance. I haven't tried any games from the first person persective yet. Maybe a boxing game could be good for testing 1st-person melee depth-perception. It's definitely preferable though, to use 3d. Hopefully, non-glasses monitors will become available and then we can have 3d games on the pc.

As for QL, i'm sure it would be better in 3d. Weapons like the RL or LG would be more accurate and useful in different scenario's. For example, you wouldn't have to rely as much on known positions to achieve an accurate LG range.

It also does look better in 3d. The environment is much more like an actual environment. Moving around corners, or looking at something from a distance is more precise. Instead of only measuring the amount of time it takes to reach an object, you can simply see how far away it is.

3d for gaming is definitely an improvement. Because you move around in the game, 3d is more useful than in video alone. It doesn't take long to become accustomed to playing in 3d. With the 3ds, because you're holding the monitor and pressing buttons, it might move around a bit and disturb the 3d effect. If the monitor was on your desk though, it would be stationary, and there really wouldn't be any interruption. Even with the 3ds, you get used to holding it in such a way the 3d effect doesn't fault.

With the implementation of 3d technology, the world of video-games and pro-gaming only shows more promise. The future for gamers is bright indeed. These first few 3d games are the beginning of a new era. Before you know it, 3d will be the standard and games will be expected to use it, and any that don't, will be shunned. 2d games will become but more nostalgia. It is true, some games may not necessarily benefit from 3d (like rpg's), so what we'll find there is that those games will have a more difficult time competing. Fortunately for us, FPS's will likely benefit the most from 3d. Adding 3d functionality shouldn't be expensive or difficult either. You just have to broadcast two separate frames simultaneously - one to each eye. With an older engine like QL uses, it shouldn't be a problem in terms of computer hardware (meaning, you don't need a $500 video-card). Obviously, if you need to run at a game at 250 fps, that could be difficult depending on the engine.

So yeah, things are looking good. 3d will only help what we're doing. And it will help us more than possibly anyone else.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/russian-church-ditch...08576.html

Do any of you know the state-religion of the Soviet Union? I'll tell you... atheism. Please Russia, crush these damned religious cocksuckers.

In the event of a hurricane or tornado, how much electricity could a wind-turbine produce?

What if there was a government type of youtube? Where you could listen to your representatives and then make comments and thumbs-up or down their positions? If the people spent half the time commenting on youtube video's, as they do on government proceedings, it would improve democracy.

Could it be set up, so when you're watching a demo, you have the option of watching it through the player's config? Like, when the demo is recorded, it also logs the player's config?

The skill matching system is so poorly done, it makes one question the thinking of the QL team. Let's say a pro-player makes a new account (for free), and then beats a whole bunch of high ranked players. Those players are then going to plummet in skill-ranking, messing up the entire system. How difficult is it to enforce a minimum number of games before an account can factor into the system? Does the skill-matching system account for things like frag-difference (how close the game was), or is it really as simple (stupid), as wins and losses only?

Does anyone else think the page is really lame? The page i'm talking about is when you're not logged in, and you go to www.quakelive.com. It says all that stupid shit like, 'the hottest multiplayer fps'. It's like some cheap crap from the home shopping network.

Instead of all that shit, why don't they put something worth a damn? Something that would actually attract people to play the game? Like making people aware of the fact they can win money by playing, and watch all kinds of pro-tournaments?

Is it possible to hack pay-accounts? If not, video-game companies should use the same kind of system to eliminate piracy. They always say they don't want to make pc games because of piracy, so if you can't pirate QL, they should have no reason not to make pc games.

When I heard the news, I just didn't know what to do. Without Glenn Beck around, what is left for me at Christmas? My only hope, is that, even though he won't be on air anymore, he'll keep reading. That way, when Christmas comes around, I can still ruin it for him.

Christmas is shit. It's so appropriate, Jesus was supposed to be born the same day. A fake evil son of a bitch, watching you at all times... even when you sleep (pervert)... he knows when you're good, he knows when you're bad, and if you ain't good and shit, he'll damn you to hell for all eternity. Fuck both of them, and fuck Christmas.

So, it's all a bunch of shit. The government won't really shut down. So... what exactly will a 'shutdown' do? Raise the debt even higher?

Does QL have a facebook page? If not, why not? Can reach a lot of people through facebook, it's almost like free-advertising.

My whole life, i've been interested in nuclear weapons. I never understood why, but as I got older, I learned about my grandfather working on the very first nuclear bombs. Because the nukes killed him and the Japanese (all before I was born), all I have from him now, is a WWII victory medal (excluding genetics, of course). I have it right here with me, it says on the box, "Medal Campaign & Service Victory World War II; Stock No. 71-M-945 Heckethorn Mfg. & Supply Co. P.O. No. 5396 ... 21 June 1946 Spec. No PQ No. 112D ... Q. M. Purchasing Office, N.Y."; on the medal itself, it reads on the front, 'World War II', and on the back, "United States of America, 1941-1945; Freedom From Fear and Want; Freedom of Speech and Religion'.

My fascination with nuclear weapons (which may well be genetic), has lead me to find a great deal of nuclear explosion video's. Some are DVD's, but, there are lots of great nuke-video's on youtube. Here are a couple good one's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv09zUQ50f0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2WQvtGnBQw and my personal favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWq-_FWqOFU

Why there is so much war now, knowing such weaponry exists in the world, I can only attribute to extreme and excessive recklessness. Like a world of children, unaware of the dangers present. Regardless, if you have any good nuke video's, i'd love to see them.

So I got my 3DS today, and this thing is completely awesome.There aren't many games right now, but tons of great games are on their way. I'm not here to promote the 3DS though, i'm here to promote the possibility of QL in 3D (or, pro-gaming in general).

With the 3DS, you have the option to play the game in 3D or 2D. There's a slider, that allows you to choose exactly how much 3D effect you want. That would be perfect for QL, since playing in 3D may be disadvantageous, but spectating in 3D might be preferable. Disadvantageous only means, you might play worse. At the same time, it might be more fun playing in 3D. For pro-players, the 3D effect may go unused in competition, but for everyone else, and for casual playing, it may be the common choice.

I don't know exactly how the 3D effect is achieved. It seems like a magic-eye effect. But, because it does not require glasses, I can certainly imagine people finding it preferable in monitors/tv's. If so, and it does result in a rise of 3D monitor/tv sales, we may be able to make great use of it. It could bring pro-gaming/e-sports to levels never before achieved.

I also don't know how it would work with streaming-video and GTV, or which would be preferable (although, i'm guessing GTV, partially due to the fact people can choose through GTV exactly how much 3D effect they want), and I have no idea as to when these types of monitors/tv's could become available, but, there's plenty enough time to work it all out in preparation.

There is no real incurred loss through incorporating 3D into QL, as people can, through 3DS-type technology, choose to play in 3D or 2. A small amount of developing, to add the functionality, is the only real cost, and the dividends should easily cover the overhead.

It is definitely the case, in 3D, some games are better than others. I would have to imagine, FPS games would be among the best. In the realm of FPS games, a game like QL would be among the best. It has many colorful, diverse weapons, that would almost without question make it more interesting than a game like CS (or any other 'realism' FPS), being that in CS, there are only bullets which you can barely see anyway (if at all).

In summation, this 3DS technology shows a lot of promise for what we're doing. QL in particular should be an exemplary case of 3D technology, as the game has, in practically every element of the game, exactly the kinds of things 3D effects would enhance.

Let's cut government spending, and increase government selling. Yep, i'm a Republican, and I want to sell. Sell, sell, sell, everything is 100% off. We're selling our children, our wives, our brothers, and our nuclear weapons. If you have money, we'll sell you our souls. What we will not do though, is spend. Government spending is evil, but selling your soul to the devil is the way into heaven.

Id software needs to stop dividing the maps. No one plays the premium maps. If you buy an account, you're paying for nothing. Look at every CA server, they never play anything but the shitty free maps. It's not because the pay maps are worse, it's because most people don't pay for accounts.

If you want the game to be successful and to grow, you don't hedge something as important as maps. If the maps are shit, the game is shit. There must be something other than maps that would make people buy accounts. It's astounding how much id does to kill the game, all in the name of money. I don't understand the logic, that killing the game amounts to profit. The better the maps are, and the more people who can play them, the more people will play the game. More people playing = more profit. That's how it should be anyway, and the fact it isn't, must be the primary reason the playerbase always diminishes. That killing the playerbase amounts to profit could only motivate a business to kill the playerbase.

Id, or the community, needs to find a way to make it so a larger audience, and a larger playerbase (increasingly so, on both counts), is what amounts to profit.

The United States, it's bigger and stronger, so when someone pisses it off, it beats them up.

What do you all think, about the U.S. going after Assange and Manning, but not the Bush administration? Isn't outing Valerie Plame worse than leaking diplomatic cables? Nuclear attack might, maybe possibly be worse than a bit of diplomatic friction, but i'm just speculating..........................................

In the bully-state, while Georgey the cheerleading chimpanzee goes to super-bowls, Manning and Assange suffer in prison.

Ok, i've figured out how to get this fight going. You see, Floyd doesn't really love boxing. He has a hard time getting into it. What his trainers need to do, is get him stoned before he gets in the ring. I'm talking about, during sparring practice, he should be stoned. That way, he'll really get into it and start enjoying it.

Maybe the boxing commission and the world can just not be dicks about a piss-test too. It's just weed. It doesn't enhance performance and it should be legal. If anything, the government should be imprisoned for outlawing it.

Did you guys hear about the hottest new multiplayer FPS? It was just released in Japan.

So I was playing World of Warcraft, and in this guild, there are a few assholes. Most people are cool. One person in particular stood out. Apparently, he was like a high-school kid. We were doing this dungeon run, and everything was cool. I made some joke to the guy while we're sitting there doing nothing, and then afterwards, he started freaking out over every little stupid thing. I figure, I shouldn't say anything, 'cause it would just make things worse. I didn't log on that much, for about a month, 'cause I was out of town and the game gets very repetitive, but when I got back home, I logged on to mess around a bit. This guy is there, and he see's me, and he kind of flips out again. I never did or said anything to this guy, but he kept flipping out ever since I made some random off-hand joke.

I figure the guy is bipolar, and for some unfortunate reason, the joke I made triggered his disorder. It made me think, how many nutjobs are there in the World of Warcraft? Maybe the game is like a haven for nutballs? In a game like Quake, I don't think you'd survive being bipolar or manic depressive. I'm just wondering, do some games attract crazy people and others repulse them?

People always oppose online tournaments solely for the reason of 'cheating'. It seems like a foolish argument, being that cheating doesn't occur much in online tournaments, most of it can be eradicated, and when it does happen, it does not outweigh the added profit incurred through online vs. lan systems.

One way to eradicate so-called 'cheating' is to delay streams/gtv by 30 seconds. Another way is to enable players to know the item timings. This second method wouldn't really change the game much, as at high-levels, all the players know the timings anyway. It actually could be helpful and a superior structure, being that it's better for lower-level players, and this is death-match, not item-timing match. Other ways to combat cheating are visual methods of determining whether the player is aimbotting or wallhacking, or more computerized methods of detecting such irregularities or code-hacks. It's perfectly doable, to almost entirely eliminate cheating. In any kind of upper-scale online tournament, the players are all professionals. They have their careers to worry about. If caught cheating, they're fucked. They have absolutely no motivation to cheat, unless their careers are over otherwise (or to the point where they just don't care anymore).

Online pro-play is the superior method. I still don't understand the obsession people have with this antiquated 'lan' structure. It's more expensive, more difficult logistically, more time-consuming (both in travel terms, and in the length of the tournaments themselves; normal people will never spend 4 days watching a tournament), and overall it is less convenient. Latency is about the only real thing lans have over online play. It's not that big of a deal to play from different timezones. And as the internet continues improving, latency will become a non-issue.

As you should all know, the fastest way between two points is a straight line. If internet-play is the future (which it should be; in fact, it should also be the present), we should go down that path. Taking a side-route to lans might be nice, to refill the gas tank and get some food, but we shouldn't spend too much time partying in some small, temporary town.