Look at how well the Zotac tournaments work. They're online, they're once a week, and they offer a mere $100 for the winner. Even so, they attract all kinds of quality talent. What if we emulate that system, around the world (as suggested by moi, in another thread), and also offer for free-accounts the same kind of tournaments, but instead of money, premium or pro accounts are offered? Id software should, of course, be they to organize and fund the operation. They can certainly afford it. With all the extra players it would bring to Quake Live, not only will it be affordable, it will be profitable. Using this method, we can build a playerbase and an audience all around the world. If the best players are willing to do it, certainly a bunch of third-worlders will. $100 and free pay-accounts are like a million dollars to those people. QL doesn't require a brand new super-computer, so even third-world computers can play it perfectly well. I'm not insensitive.

CS players are such losers, they think by having a few extra thousand players and 'fans' (all of whom are also players), they're somehow special. But a rerun of Urkel will net 5,000x as many viewers as even the best CS match. The reality is, no pro-gaming thing (outside of Korea), has achieved any real large-scale success. And I can assure you, it won't be CS achieving it first. We have the ingenuity and class that CS players lack. That's what will make the difference (aside from the fact CS itself, while it has more players, is a miserably worse game; and it takes 5 people per-team to play CS, 5x the amount of QL-duel), and catapult us into prime position.

What you should all do immediately, is get a bunch of heroin and cocaine, mix it together, and inject it into your eyeballs. Hopefully, I don't need to give people good advice, for them to know the difference between what they should and shouldn't do. If I tell you to eat soup from a can, by eating through the can itself, I hope I don't need to tell you that you shouldn't really do it. What you should do though, without me having to say anything, is put together this excellent system Zotac has laid the ground-work for. They have shown us how regular, online, small-money tournaments can be more successful and supportive than just about anything else we've come up with. By expanding on their structure, we can expand on the success of their structure.

Alright, peeps, i'm going to teach you how to party at Mardi Gras. What you have to understand, is that Mardi Gras lasts about 3 weeks. You don't want to start partying too hard, too soon. In preparation, make sure you save enough money and you have the right connections. What you want to do is, get some meth (don't need too much, just enough to keep you awake), and get a bunch of coke (gonna need enough to keep you good and high during the meth-trip), and then you'll want to get some weed and alcohol (make sure you get hard-alcohol, and something to mix it with... don't want to get dehydrated or anything). When you've got all the ingredients, you just have to wait for the right time. You want to start somewhere early in the night, when there's a good parade. Take a couple bumps of meth (this will keep you up for two days or so), and then snort coke, smoke weed, and drink alcohol at your pleasure. Over the course of two days, there should be many more parties and parades for you to frequent. When the meth finally wears off, make sure you have some kind of sleeping-aid, and you can get as much quality out of your sleep as possible. There are multiple reasons for this, including the fact that you will be doing the whole thing over again, as soon as you awake. This process is meant to be continued throughout the entirety of Mardi Gras, and you should make sure, that for the last two days of Mardi Gras, you are awake and fucked up the whole time.

Now, at times throughout, you may opt to switch out coke/meth/weed/alcohol for ecstacy and coke or something of that kind. That works too, but ecstacy leaves you a little bit hungover for about two weeks, so you might want to save that one for Mardi Gras day itself.

And that's it. You're good to go. Saving a bit of extra money for hookers is also a good idea, whether or not you actually want them. Who knows.

I don't do drugs myself (as you know, drugs are illegal). But, because freedom of speech gives me the right to teach and encourage others to do drugs, I can't help myself to a little exercise.

Just to keep you safe, make sure you don't do too much meth... it's not like coke, you really only need a couple bumps every few days or something of that kind. Coke, alcohol and weed, on the other hand, go fucking nuts. When Mardi Gras ends though, on Ash Wednesday, that's when you quit the shit and get back to work. It takes several months to recover from a coke-meth-weed-alcohol-ecstacy-Mardi-Gras binge, and that's the period we call 'lent'.

I'm almost off to Mardi Gras. For those who don't know what Mardi Gras is, basically... it's when stupid fucking whores (I mean, nice, generous women), expose themselves for beads. What they do with those beads, I can imagine. Aside from that, it's mostly people taking hard-drugs and getting in fights. Aside from that, it's the period before lent, and the purpose is to gorge yourself, so when lent hits, you're square for the whole period. For those of us who do not officially practice lent, we get so fucked up, the recovery time is almost the same as practicing lent. New Orleans is very family-friendly, as you might imagine.

I'm glad IEM5 is happening before I descend into the depths of New Orleans and Mardi Gras (the depths to which you cannot comprehend unless you are from New Orleans). My personal picks for IEM5 are as follows: The overall winner will be whoever finishes 1st. The second-place finisher will be someone else. I know you wonder how someone could have such skill at picking winners. You wouldn't wonder that though, if you were with me at Mardi Gras ('cause you'd be too fucked up to care). Good luck to all the competitors. No need to wish me luck. I don't need luck in New Orleans.

What this site needs, is more journalism. Look at every news post. It's barely even news, it's just a list of upcoming tournaments. Where are the in-depth reports on the condition of Quake Live? Where are the interviews with id software representatives and developers? Where are the prostitutes? Why isn't there an investigation into the allegations about the President? What's the body-count in Afghanistan? When will aliens end their fetish with anal-sex? These are the kinds of questions we need to answer, and we need to answer them now.

A list of upcoming tournaments is not journalism, people, it's a fucking schedule.

Maybe 3D is just what Quake needs? If people had 3D televisions, or at least, computer monitors, they could watch QL-GTV games in 3D. Being that the game is played from the first-person perspective, it might be really cool seeing a rocket seemingly shoot out of the screen. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if 3D technology is better suited for video-games, than it is for regular television or movies.

If Nintendo's presumably patented technology is sold to television and monitor makers, it is not inconceivable people (especially gamers), would buy them. If QL is better in 3D than other games (especially other FPS's), it would have the 3D edge. Putting Quake in 3D would also renew interest among older Quake players, many of which have become somewhat tired of the game. Additionally, because QL is, at least, partially free, and because initially there wouldn't be many other 3D games period (excluding portables), and possibly no other partially-free 3D games, it would give people reason to play it. If they play it enough, and they watch enough pro-matches, it might be enough to keep them around and possibly keep them playing as long as many of us have been playing.

Goofy glasses, no one wants to wear. Some people are willing to make the compromise. If there is no compromise, everyone is more willing to use 3D. With that, we can expect a rise in 3D tv/monitor sales. We might just come to find, this 3D thing is exactly what Quake needs, and when it needs it.

It's coming out soon, you guys looking forward to it? Personally, I can't wait for Leisure Suit Larry 3d.

You think the technology they use could be applied to televisions? Does anyone really want to wear those goofy glasses?

People of the world, I come to you with grave news. We are all now facing the greatest challenge yet to human survival. It is so severe, I have personally devoted all of my focus to solving the crisis. I implore everyone, in your countries, in the U.N., to immediately pass the bill I have written. I call it the 'No Fatties' bill. Essentially, this bill will raise taxes by 300,000% on all foods that make women fat. If we do not correct this 'fatties' problem, I have no doubt, the world will only continue seeing a rise in alcoholism and a decline in reproduction which will eventually plunge us into total extinction. Please, petition your senators and representatives without delay. I only fear it won't be enough...

I'm doing a report on the worship of talent. Any opinions would be welcomed.

Do you think the worshiping of talent is contemptible? Do you think any society who worships talent excessively, or condones the worship of talent, will have any future? If not, do you think the worshiping of talent should be considered a crime and punished as such?

If you do worship talent, or support the worshiping of talent, can you tell me why?

Not to be Biblical, but isn't the worshiping of talent the same as worshiping false-idols? Not that by doing it, you'll go to hell in the after-life, but will you go to hell in this life?

Is it justifiable to punish those without talent? Would you consider it punishment, that by worshiping those with talent, you neglect those without it?

Is the persecution of those you consider untalented (but are really not), a harmful byproduct of talent-worship, and/or a cause of or for condemning talent-worship?

Is there anything you'd like to say about talent-worship, that I have not asked or addressed?

This game-world is a psychologists dream. What you find in the 'world', is a bunch of teenagers, rednecks and cowards, who do everything they can to protect themselves from reality.

Teenagers, at least, have an excuse. They were recently children, and children are almost exclusively living in fantasy. They are almost always overprotected, and therefore, underexposed to reality. This is the very reason teen-suicide is so prevalent. When the children are finally exposed to reality, which is usually forced upon them, they are often unprepared.

Rednecks and cowards, on the other hand, are probably doing little more than escaping the constant depression that is their lives. Through the world of warcraft, you can imagine that you're not surrounded by trash, and that your life is not completely worthless. After all, catching 100 fish in the World of Warcraft is a great success. In addition, through the World of Warcraft, you can safely touch reality, without anyone actually beating the fucking cunt of you for being a little pathetic piece of shit.

When I find these awful excuses for humans, in the World of Warcraft, I have to pity them. I know their lives are terrible, and their futures will only be worse. The World of Warcraft, and more-even, the people who play it, make me more appreciate Quake and its players. Thank all of you for not giving The World of Warcraft any more attention than it deserves. Quake is the harsh reality far too many people are unable to face.

I'm looking for opinions on two prospective new television shows:

1. The Redneck Hunter

- This show is exactly like The Crocodile Hunter, except with rednecks.

2. Unrealistic Teenagers

- This show is all about mediocre teenagers who are vastly overconfident (in other words, almost every teenager in existence). While every teen is inherently naive, some teens seem to think they know everything. This show would focus on the worst jackasses in the teen community. You know the kind, whose greatest achievement in life was getting an A on a high-school quiz, yet they think they're better than everyone. And, of course, once they grow up, they learn that they're really just douchebags.

Which do you think would be the most entertaining? Which would most the make money? Which would do the most good? Also, who would you cast in the position of Steve Irwin?

What if we had a game, where the entire point was to make money? I don't mean, the point of the game is to make money, I mean the point in the game is to make money. Not in a boring way though, like a slave in the fields, but in a fun way. Not in a Mario way either, where you jump around and collect floating coins, but in a realistic way. Money = points; the more money you make, the more points you get.

A making-money game could be great, if done right, because it could teach people how to make money in real life. It could also teach people how to enjoy making money, and how to make real money in a way they enjoy. No one wants to work away their lives like a slave, just for minimum wage trash. But if the money is worthwhile, and the work is decent, people are perfectly willing to put in the time.

Besides, what is a great game, if not a metaphor for real-life? If not something that mirrors reality? While it is certainly true, all the greatest things ever made have come from those who had no money (Einstein, Galileo, Van Gogh... no money among them), it is also true, most people spend their lives fighting over money. Like squirrels over sunflower seeds, accruing money is what consumes their lives. Wouldn't a game, reflecting the game most people play for money, be an excellent practice?

I'm interested in hearing solutions to immigration problems from socialists and communists. If you were the United States, what would you do about all the illegal immigration? Would you make Mexico the 51st state? Would you try building a great wall of not-China? Would you create a program by which Mexicans can gain citizenship? Do you know anything about Mexico?

The South here would say, "What would Jesus do?". I'm sure their answer would be, "Head the NRA, be the editor-in-chief of Guns 'n Ammo, and carry multiple weapons, including concealed weapons, at all times.". But, i'd like to hear ideas that aren't completely insane. Anyone? Anything to contribute here?

It's almost that time. I'll be honest, I think the Saints have a good chance of winning this year. All they have to do is murder all the other teams. Let's just say, hypothetically, all the other teams (except the team they'd be playing), 'mysteriously' died. Would the Saints then get to play?

The thing I like the most about football, is it's played on sunday. The reason I like it, is because, according to Christianity, you're not supposed to work on sunday. All these devout Christians are sitting there cheering on people who are doing exactly that. Good job football. Keep up the good work.

I just wanted to tell everyone... I don't believe in gravity. What's really happening, is that God is channeling His great powers to keep us on the ground, so we don't float up into the sky and die and stuff.

I bet all these 'i don't believe in evolution' dipshits are no different from the 'i don't believe the world is round' assholes from hundreds of years ago. Yep, the exact same level of moronic discussion took place then, as is taking place now... 'the Bible says the world is flat, and that's why I believe the world is flat'. Of course, today we know just how stupid all those dicklicks were (and we also know just how stupid all the current dicklicks are).

The game of WoW is filled with physics that make the game, in many ways, similar to the real-world. One thing it's missing though, is evolution. Wouldn't it be more interesting, if the creatures were capable of migrating and mutating, based on their environments? Just think about all the bizarre creatures it could spawn.

It shouldn't be too difficult technically. The possible mutations are all built in - things like the development of claws or flippers. The mutations occur after the creature spends enough time in a given environment. In other words, just a simple timer mechanism. The only other part would be implementing a system by which they would migrate. There must be a reason for the migration. Like if they had needs. If players keep killing them, that would be a reason... they want to move somewhere they don't get killed as often.

The idea of a game-world such as one found in WoW is interesting to me, in the sense creating it is almost like playing God. If God did create all this stuff (in the real-world), and you think that's so difficult and it requires a 'God', we can see by a game like WoW, that it really isn't so difficult. The creators of WoW are, essentially, the God's of the world of warcraft. If evolution was in place, the only thing differentiating the 'real' world (that we live in), and the game world, would be the consciousness of the creatures. Maybe some day, Maybe eventually, the creatures in the game can develop a sort of consciousness, and an ability to speak to the players. Would it really be so difficult to tell a scorpion, "Go to the red building."? I can already tell a minion to attack something, or move to a location. Is there really so much of a difference between pushing a button and issuing the command verbally? Aren't the letters I type in just a bunch of 1's and 0's anyway? The computer can interpret them the same way it interprets the pushing of a button, isn't that correct?

Maybe talking to the creatures, and them having something that resembles consciousness, or is consciousness, is a little further down the road. The evolution thing should be easily achievable though. As the creatures get killed more and more, they move further away from where they got killed. Once they spend enough time in a different environment, their features change. If they're going from something like water to land, they also have to first spend time in a transitional environment. And because it is a video-game, filled with things that are not possible in the real-world, the evolutionary changes could be as mythological and magical as the rest of the game. Yes, i'm talking about things like mermaid-ogre's. With gills and shark-teeth. Ultimately though, it would be the game-world making them what they become. The variations would be limited by the amount of possibilities installed by the creators.

In conclusion, yeah, you guys should do it.

Ok, people, we need more ideas. The idea beast is hungry. If we don't feed it, it will kill everyone (including us).

How about a visual-mod that forces fullbright 1 and picmip 10, and redoes the map and player-model textures, so they look good with those settings?

The real-time ladder idea was pretty good. That's the kind of stuff we need. It's different from other sporting systems, and it's difficult, if not impossible, to do in non-video-game sports.

We can't just clone other sports and pro-sports models. We need to 'do our own thing'. So stop looking at porn for a second and put those brains to use. Ideas people, who has them and what are they?

Many of the people who play World of Dorkcraft, are the truest of dipshits. I know their type, they come packaged at your local grocery. They're the type of people who, even when you're trying to help them, because they're so internally pathetic (insecure, one might say), interpret your attempts to help them as some kind of attack. They will often attack you in return, even though you were just trying to help.

There are many people who are filled with suppositions, and those suppositions are completely and utterly false. Those people though, are convinced of the truthfulness of their own perceptions. Yeah, it's pretty shit, when you try to help people and they in return attack you. You might think they're completely insane, and you wouldn't be far off. What propels them to attack you, when you only mean to help them? It's not a matter of being feral, obviously, or they wouldn't be playing World of Dorkcraft. What could it possibly be then?

It makes for an interesting psychological study. Maybe one of you characters can determine the exact mental phenomenon causing the mental deficiency found in so many people... at least, I would consider it a mental deficiency to attack those who only want to help you.

Maybe there's one good thing we can learn from World of Warcraft. People often complain about QL being too elitist... it's too difficult for new players. In a game like WoW, you start out with only about 3 skills. Over time, you develop new skills. Imagine if you started out with all the skills a level 85 player had. You would be lost. That's how it is in Quake. What if, in Quake, there was a system allowing players to gain 'experience', learning one Quake skill at a time? Once you've reached the highest level, and learned therefore, all the skills needed in Quake, you start playing against other players (meaning, you start out with only a machinegun, fighting enemies in an effort to learn the pro's and con's of the machinegun; then you move on to the shotgun, etc., and etc., after that).

Also, WoW would be better if the Horde used a communist economic system.

There are two distinct groups in the United States: the union and the confederacy. It all dates back to the civil war. Today, you would see these groups as Democratic and Republican. You can always tell the real difference between them, because Democratics always say 'we the people', as it is found in the constitution, while Republicans always say, 'I the individual'. You can see, 'I the individual' is the direct opposite, and therefore, direct opponent of 'we the people'. It is a constant state of subversive insurrection we face here.

For example, they (confederates), maintain that a 'well regulated militia' means there is basically no regulation whatsoever, and instead, any random, individual person may keep and bear arms. You might wonder why there are so many gun-deaths here. Well, it is precisely because the civil war never ended. The wild perversions of the 2nd-amendment only show how gross the misrepresentations have gone.

Insecurity makes people do awful things. They live their lives belittling others and enlarging themselves with money and power. The more rich and powerful they get, the more they belittle others. They're never quite content though, because the problem is their own insecurity.

Selfish people are even worse. The anti-drug people are not against drugs because they care for the well-being of drug-users, they are against drugs because they care for their own well-being. Drugs aren't the answer, they say, (repression is). Just say no to drugs, (and yes to war). To suggest persecution is healthier for drug-users than drug-use itself (or even most drug-abuse), is outright insane. Are they insane? Maybe some of them, but most of them are just so selfish they'd rather persecute drug-users than be 'persecuted' by drug-users.

In some ways, the insecure and selfish are evil. Mostly, they're troubled and scared. The way these problems manifest themselves here, in the world of pro-gaming (Quake gaming, anyway), is that the people never strive to make this thing more than a recess playground, or a temporary means of winning a few extra bucks. Yes, instead of having self-confidence and thinking, "We can make this thing the greatest sporting empire the world has ever known.", people think, "Oh, it's just a hobby, and sometimes I get to fly around the world, and i'm not a nerd, really.".

I don't know why people are insecure and selfish. Something about their upbringing, i'd imagine? Myself, for example, never went to the same high-school two years in a row. Every new high school you go to, you have to start over meeting people and building up popularity. You quickly realize how stupid it all is, and stop participating. If you went to the same high-school every year, today, you would likely still care about popularity, at least among your own little high-schoolish group. It's probably a question best posed to a psychologist. A better question may be, what do we do about it?

The selfishness and insecurity of people, mostly the latter in this community, has always been a problem. If you have no confidence in yourself, or in what we're doing here, and you care so much about what other people think (you're a nerd, and video-games are for dorks and they're not sports and every other negative, belittling, demeaning attack on your self-esteem you've ever heard), it will continue being a difficult uphill battle where we hurt ourselves more than we are hurt by others. You could say, there's merit in changing our games and ourselves based on what detractors say. But I don't agree. I think our video-games will become better, if we change them based on what we actually like about them. If we all love video-games, then what's the problem? If we change them to be what others want them to be, maybe the games will become something we don't like. If we make our games so we don't like them anymore, than what the fuck is the point of even playing video-games?

So i've heard that American English is really rough on the ears. Is it true, you non-Americans think of American English the same as 'dogs barking'? Rougher even than German?

So I was watching NFL playoff football a second ago, the Jets/Patriots game, and they showed Tom Brady huffing something out of like a dixie cup. I'm just wondering, what exactly was he huffing, and is it illegal?

As some of you may know, i'm from the south. All of us from the south are well aware of our history... you know, slavery of blacks, hating blacks, that sort of thing. Of course, i'm not exactly part of that clique, but, I am aware of several black jokes and black songs.

Q: How do you stop 5 black guys from raping a white woman?
A: Throw them a basketball.

Q: Why do black people always have sex on their minds?
A: Because they have pubes on their heads.

While many of you around the world might listen to Skrewdriver regularly, i'm just curious as to whether you have your own black jokes worth contributing. I'd really to like to hear them. Free-speech, even when that speech is racist or offensive, should be promoted.

People always talk about how important it is to wear headphones and use sound. Other people say we should get rid of footstep sounds. I'm just wondering, isn't Quake a lot more fun when you can listen to music?

Check it out, next time you're playing, even if it hurts your result, listen to some awesome music. Herbie Hancock... great Quake music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo5GcYeh7XA&feature=related

Because music does make Quake so much better, I tend to agree with the people who want to eliminate the advantage gained through sound. With video games, you basically have sound and vision. Isn't music a better sound than nothingness and the occasional grunt?

The Saints season was a perfect example of what happens when you try to defend the past instead of win the future.

Good luck to the Seahawks. I hope you win this year's super-bowl.

Thanks, Seattle, for beating the Rams. Now if only I can get tickets, I can go to the Saints playoff game. I'll be sure to support the Seahawks from now on, provided they aren't playing the Saints, of course.

In a time when the United States is more or less dead (as evidenced by a lack of New Year's fireworks), China comes to save the day. Their burgeoning robotics program will catapult their communist/socialist society into a new, far superior social system than has ever before been created.

China, we thank you for your great contributions to humanity and life as we know it.

Ever since I left New Orleans (about 10 years ago, unintentionally), I haven't done much for New Year's. There's just nothing to do in small-towns. This year though, is particularly bizarre. Normally, there are fireworks everywhere. This year, there is practically nothing. What is the significance of such a change of fashion?

While the rest of douchebag-land is celebrating, allow us to plan our next move.

Now, it is plainly clear, we can activate the long-standing permanent coup of humanity. Perhaps, while the mongrels feed, we can enact such measures?

While they 'party', we plot. That is our success.

Why, if you understand the Bible to be mythology, and something therefore to learn from, do you not also learn from the Qu'Ran?

If you could only choose one, which would it be? Sex is fun, but are drugs funner? Drugs are dangerous, but sex is more dangerous. Sure, with drugs, there is o.d. and addiction, but both are easily avoided and neither are typically fatal or permanent. With sex, there is pregnancy and STD's, some of which are deadly or permanent. There's more variety with drugs, and you can do them while doing other things. During sex, there's little else you can do. Drugs you can do alone, while with sex you need a partner and consent.

Currently, sex is legal and drugs are illegal (despite the fact sex is more dangerous and causes more harm). One might argue, sex out of wedlock should be illegal and sex in wedlock should first require an STD test. If either partner tests positive for an STD, the marriage-license is denied. Now, if the same thinking applied to sex, as you find around the issue of drugs, sex out of wedlock would be illegal. Why then are drugs illegal? I've never heard anyone but a few religious nuts suggest we outlaw premarital sex (even though by doing so, we would save many unwanted/aborted pregnancies and also lives lost through something like aids).

I don't know why people understand, that if you outlaw sex, people will do it anyway (so it's pointless and better to provide things like condoms to help protect them from STD's and unwanted pregancies), but they don't understand the same thing about drugs. Whether or not drugs are legal, people will do them, so it's better to provide them with the equivalent of condoms.

The war on drugs doesn't make sense. The government is doing more harm than the drugs. And adding harm to harm only amounts to more harm.

People say we shouldn't be able to mod QL, because a monopoly is better than competition. Obviously, the QL community isn't especially happy with id's version of QL. It is like living in a dictatorship... sure, there is unity, but no one is particularly happy except the people in power.

What about the practical application of modding, in terms of id software/zenimax business interests? With the ad-system, wouldn't more mods/more players be better for id? If people voluntarily, on their own coin, create QL mods, which then id profits from, why not allow them to do so? There wouldn't be any legal issues, as any modder would have to sign a contract foregoing all financial or legal rights to the content they create (or, some kind of profit-dividing system could be used; where modders receive a portion of the profits gained through their mods).

When considering the last point, wouldn't a system like the QL system, be perfect for a modding scene? It gives modders the ability to work from the point of a quality engine (so most of the work is already done). It gives them a portal, from which people can easily access their mods. It gives id/zenimax a share of the profits (they don't even have to do any work beyond the engine and website system), and gives modders the means of acquiring profits (so their work isn't purely pro-bono).

Lastly, wouldn't competition be good for QL competition? As strange as that sounds, competition means each participant must be better than their opponents. That means, ultimately, we get a better game. You see how awful baseq3 is compared to osp or cpma. And when it comes to dividing the community between dm and non-dm mods, well I just don't see the validity of that argument. People don't play qldm because they don't have a ql-alternative, they play it because they like dm. There are hundreds of alternatives to dm outside of ql (which they already play).

The best thing about QL is the system. The difference in gameplay and map-design from QL to Q3 is negligible, and people could argue in favor of either one. For some reason, id software is exceptional at designing engines and systems, but limited when it comes to gameplay. Modding solves that, especially when the modders have something to work for other than kudos. It is that combination of id's engines/systems and the community's modifications, that made the Quake community great. To keep the community great, and make it even greater, modding should be allowed, and in fact, further encouraged.

So if the Seahawks beat the Rams, and the Falcons beat the Panthers, does that mean the Saints will be playing the Seahawks? In Seattle?

Seahawks, have I ever told you how much I like you, as a team? And how good you are? And how completely capable of beating the Rams you are?

From the beginning, we've had ladders. They're always been in some third-party capacity though, and you have to schedule things ahead of time. What if we had a QL ladder built directly into the game, and, that ladder was always functional... meaning, you don't schedule anything ahead of time?

The way it could work is simple - you take something like the duel detective, and when you press 'play a game', the game searches for someone within your ladder ranking range. If you're 100th on the ladder, it will find anyone within 10 places of you (either up or down on the ladder). Other than that, it works exactly the same as a regular ladder. If you beat someone ahead of you, you move into their spot and they move a spot back. If you beat someone behind you, you keep your position and they move backwards.

It could all be very official and easily built into the QL system. It could even be arranged so you can practice on one server while awaiting a ladder opponent. When the system finds an opponent, it then gives you an F1/F2 option to switch to a private server for the official match.

If people refuse to play anyone, like if they're #1 on the ladder and they simply don't participate so they can keep their #1 rank, you can kick them off the ladder by using a simple system of stagnation. Meaning, they have to play at least 1 game a week. Tokens could be used, in times of holiday's or things of that sort, to occasionally allow people more than 1 week between games. And to prevent top players from being dethroned through a conspiracy of lower-ranked players (by basically all agreeing not to play the person), you could make it so players don't know who they're playing, until they're both on the server together. And once they're both on the server, a quit counts as a forfeit.

If GTV is implemented alongside, using some kind of instant notification system (through e-mail, cell-phones, whatever), fans could be alerted to spontaneous GTV matches. And if there is money to be made through playing in GTV matches (which should be easily arranged, given the built-in ad system), the players would want to play as much as possible (meaning, they wouldn't want to sit idle at the top of the ladder, as the less they play, the less money they make). Naturally, methods of increasingly profitability in addition to or alongside the ad-system could also be implemented.

Unfortunately, the Christmas season is almost over. What more magical time is there, when kkk members slither out of their dungeons to proclaim their dislike for Jews and liberals? The kkk members often complain, 'Jews and liberals always try to ruin Christmas'. Did it occur to these KKK members, that they're in the KKK?

I don't see how anyone could have a problem with Christmas, knowing the KKK loves it so much. As a general rule, if the KKK supports it, it's probably shit.

The great thing is though, that Muslims are also against Christmas. And the KKK and all their nazi'ish Christian allies will not find Muslims so easy to oppress. Sure, when you have one billion people, it's easy to oppress 10 million. But when they also have 1 billion, you'll have to be more than tyrannical. Good luck, and have fun. Assholes. Oh yeah, and Christmas will die like all other temporary Earthly things. Only a douchebag would latch onto something temporary. You're welcome, for the wisdom I have given you. Dickheads. Suck more Santa cock... 'cause under that pretty wrapper comes a surprise.

My genuine apologies to everyone else. I understand the coarse language of free-speech is difficult for pussies.

Do you think the U.S. government is trying to label people 'terrorists' so they can circumvent the 1st-amendment? Terrorists have the same constitutionally-protected rights as anyone else. It doesn't say, "Congress shall not abridge the freedom of speech, unless you're a terrorist.".

For any Republican dumb enough to read this, i'd just like to let you know... aliens think Christmas is shit. They say 'Christmas comes out of a horse's ass', only they don't say 'horse', but your limited mind cannot comprehend the horrors which abound out of the ass of the universe.

I'd just like to say, to all you Christmas-celebrators.... fuck you. The end.

Well, it's that time of year again... where people put tree's in their houses and condition their children to find the virtue in deception. During this special time of year, like many people, I have traditions. What I do every year, is strive bring to as many children as possible, the gift of truth.

Basically, I go around to as many preschools and kindergartens as possible, and tell all the kids that Santa is fake and their parents are liars. This year, i've managed to convert 43 children to a life of cynicism and distrust.

One person can only do much though. That's why i'm here - to give everyone the opportunity of charity. Tell the truth to as many children as you can. Together, we can change the world. Thank you.

I know you guys are weird and all, but is there any way to change your QL name? Seems pretty lame some goon can take the name 'jonesy', thus depriving a legitimate Jonesy of using the name.

I have recently been informed by some of my Muslim friends, that Christianity is in fact Satanism, and the Pope sits on a chair bearing an inverted-cross. It is because of their convictions, not because I personally have or have ever had anything against Christianity, that I have formed the Muslims Against Christianity coalition. If you want to contribute, you can go to the nearest Christian church, steal all the money from their collection plates (and everything else of value you can find), and donate your bounty to the nearest mosque.

Together, we can rid the world of the Satanism that is Christianity. Thank you for your support.

P.S.: Christmas was designed by Pagans to corrupt the birth of Jesus with polytheistic, anti-Christian ideals.

In reading these leaked cables, the word 'revelation' is used often. Wasn't it in the book of revelations, the end times were discussed? Do you think they deliberately use the word revelation as a reference to the Bible?

The internet is an experiment in globalization and decentralization. As we more and more see, a decentralized system can be more effective and secure than a centralized. As cities continue growing in population, they may develop enough power to declare independence from their nation-states, thus effectively beginning the move to a decentralized world. Tokyo is the prime example, having an enormous amount of voting power, to the point it basically already controls the entire country of Japan.

So do you think the end is near? And by the end, I mean, do you think the time of nation-states is almost over? Do you think nation-states will be replaced by city-states, and if so, how will that work with nuclear weapons still in the world? Will the biggest cities have the nukes? Will city-unions arise, to enable free-trade between different cities? Would you be fine living in a city-state, rather than the current structure? I would imagine, most internet people would prefer the city-state structure.

What does everyone here think about the issue? Seems to me, what was done is entirely protected by the United States constitution, under the 1st-amendment. Stupid whoreface Republicans, in true Bush-insanity form, attempt to label the actions 'treasonous' (despite the main character being Australian), just as they attempted to label anti-Bush free-speech, free-press and general dissent in the very same manner. What is that famous quote? 'Dissent is the highest form of patriotism'? Well, not when Nazi's are in charge.

People here always say our military is 'protecting our freedom'. But isn't that just a huge lie? How are soldiers protecting our freedom, if no one is trying to take our freedom? What would Americans think, if Germany had military bases in 175 countries, and were constantly engaged in foreign wars? What if it was France, or how about Japan? Would Americans simply think, those countries are trying to 'protect their freedom'?

'Protecting our freedom' is nothing but an Orwellian meaningless political phrase. People are titillated by the concept of protection and freedom, but have no realistic understanding of what our military is actually doing. If Germany had the military presence and activity of the United States, everyone would think, "Those fucking world-domination nazi's need to be stopped.".

You're all socialists and communists here. Maybe you can tell me, if the vast majority of a democracy is comprised of the impoverished, why do they not simply vote themselves out of poverty?

What people think of as religious freedom is really just the separation of church and state. In reality, the 1st-amendment protects our right to discriminate against religious people. If we choose, as employers, we can refuse to hire religious people and we can fire religious people simply for being religious. Congress is prohibited from creating any anti-discrimination law involving religion. On the other side, congress can create anti-discrimination laws for the non-religious. The 1st-amendment says nothing about prohibiting congress from respecting non-religious entities.

Yes, it's very different from what religious people, through their skewed view, choose to believe. The truth is, the founders despised religion (in particular, Christianity). They separated the church from the state, thus severing the main power-line of the church, and they additionally gave the people all the tools necessary to expose and destroy religion. There are few places religion can be more damaged, than in the work-place. The other main places are government (to which all religiousness is by constitutional decree, essentially outlawed), and school (in all public schools, religion is forbidden).

Yes, the 1st-amendment is quite a clever piece of legislation. Most people think 'escaping religious persecution' means being able to choose any religion you want, but really what it means, is to not be persecuted by any religion, which means, every religion must be destroyed. The religious are all oppressed, only they don't consider themselves oppressed, because in their minds, the oppressions are choices. Yes, they 'serve' their religion willingly, by living under its oppression. So because they consider it a choice, they don't consider it oppression.

Religion is a tricky bastard, and that's why it enslaves so many weak-minded. We have reached the age though, where religion is dying out in mass-quantities. Once this last generation of old-people is dead, religion will be decimated. Young people of today are exponentially less religious than their predecessors. That trend is moderately unique to our time. In the old days, young people were as religious, if not more religious than their parents. So when you see religious people, wearing their symbols of slavery around their necks, you can feel sorry for them, and also know, their kind is almost gone.

Does anyone think England is arrogant for calling itself 'Great Britain'?

The stock market was created to give people the means of supporting things they believed in, and not through charity, but by mutual reward. For example, if you believed a new medical procedure could be helpful, you would invest. If it succeeded, not only would it make the world better, it would also make you wealthier. In that way, you help yourself and the world simultaneously. Unfortunately, like with all noble things, humanity has managed to deteriorate the stock market into something deplorable - another get-rich-quick casino scheme. People no longer invest because they believe in the product, but because they hope the investment will make them rich.

Sometimes, when you're watching the NFL, you think football people are not so stupid. Then, you watch a game of college football. Why does the NFL keep doing these dumb booth review things? Why not just send every play up to a booth of replay officials, and have them review every single play whatsoever as quickly as it can possibly be done, with one official per camera-angle, to ensure every single play is 100% accurate, and the determination is made as quickly as it can? Really, the reason instant replay takes so long, is because the teams have to watch the replay, decide if they want to challenge, throw the red flag, talk to the officials, then the official has to individually watch the replays from every little angle, and finally make a determination. Throughout the entire course of the game, not that many plays are questionable. If every case went upstairs to a hyper-efficient replay group, it would ensure every down is accurately officiated, and almost no game delays ever occur.

I'm here to officially reveal the new line of Dodge trucks. It's called, the 'Ass'. It's modeled after the Ram, but more honest... because really, trucks aren't designed to ram into things, they're designed to haul shit around. The only reason the ram is called the ram, is because truck drivers are a bunch of dumb idiots who don't want to think of themselves as a bunch of dumb asses. Would you rather think of yourself as a cool, tough ram, or a lowly donkey? We realize though, the subterfuge cannot be maintained forever, and truckers will someday come to terms with what they really are.

Personally, I take great comfort in knowing, both Christianity and country music will one day be retired to the anals of history. And no, that isn't a misprint.

Alright Pretty Boy, maybe it's about time to arrange this fight? Or maybe Pac-man should fight Paul Williams. That could be interesting, since there would be a 3-foot height difference.

The one thing about Pacquiao, that makes him so vulnerable, is that he's terrified of fighting black people. Out of his last 10 fights, all the one's that made him the 'superstar' he is today, how many were against black fighters? None of them? Asians do many things well, but they can't sing and they can't deal with blacks.

In all seriousness though, Mayweather has to beat Pacquiao before he retires. There's really no one else, since Williams lost to Martinez (the latter of which would easily be destroyed by Mayweather).

Would it improve the game to make the gauntlet instagib? It would allow people in shit situations the difficult opportunity to get back in the game. Like a knock-down punch in boxing.

How about giving the maps the same mood as the match? Like, if there were pretty flowers all over the map in the beginning, but when someone gets fragged, they explode and cover the flowers with blood. The more kills, the bloodier the map gets. And instead of having a clock, the map could change to reflect how much time is left and/or how well you're doing. Like, the more you're losing by and the closer to the end, the darker the map gets.

Oh yeah, and the problem you're having with players throwing matches... why not make it so in the next round, the person who won the group only has to win 2 maps, while the 2nd place qualifier has to win 3?

I'm deeply offended by the lack of Mexican involvement with this winter's Dreamhack. I realize Europe has no understanding of the Mexican people, but that doesn't mean Mexicans should be subjected to European repression. I went to Mexico once, and what I found there were the greatest tortilla's i've ever had.

Mexican's can't afford computers. Do Europeans think of Mexico as a poorer version of Spain?

Would the tiered plans be good for gaming? I have no doubt, prioritizing traffic would be terrible for democracy, but maybe it would provide gamers with lower and stabler pings? And as we all know, gaming is more important than democracy!! HAHAH!! Satan fucks George W. Bush nightly.

Republicans always talk about low-taxes, but when someone mentions cutting taxes on military-spending, Republicans are exactly the opposite. How can there be such a double-standard? Are Republicans in favor of 100% taxation on everyone, if every tax-penny goes to the military? I'm guessing, the answer is no. So I have to wonder, where does it stop? What amount of military-spending is acceptable? 99% taxation? 88%? What do you all think? What could Republicans be thinking, when they absolutely and unequivocally revoke any effort to cut taxes by reducing military-spending? Are they secretly planning a military takeover of the entire world? That sure would be difficult, considering all the nukes not in U.S. or allied possession. Where does the 900billion$ a year go, anyway? Is it really making anything safer for the United States? Isn't it true, if we cut military-spending in half, in only two years we could pay back our huge debt to China? Wouldn't that make us safer than wasting money on pointless foreign-bases, illegitimate foreign-wars, and the development of impractical new weaponry?

So I ask, Republicans, what tax-rate do you consider too high for military spending? You don't really think we should all simply work for the military, giving them 100% of what we make? Does society work for the military, or does the military work for society? If you think a 100% tax-rate is too high, clearly you are in favor of cutting 'defense' spending. Shouldn't military-spending directly correlate to what is necessary? You seem to have this notion that more money = safer, which if true would mean, by not imposing a 100% tax-rate on everyone, we are endangering the United States. So what is it, do you want to raise taxes or lower taxes?

Like a typical coward, George W. Bush only crawls out of his hole when he thinks it's safe.

We always hear, no one is braver than Americans... if that's true, why are the people here so scared of everything? Is that the definition of bravery? To be scared?

It'd be great if I could hook up my television receiver to my pc, then hook my pc to my tv. That way, I can run everything through the pc, including dvds/blu-rays, regular television, dvr recordings (i'm sure I have a bigger hd on my computer than in the dvr machine, plus computer hd's are easy to upgrade), stereo-arrangements and whatever else. Think about it, with modern TV's, it's the easiest thing in the world to hook up your pc (all it takes is one hdmi cable). In the computer system itself, you have everything you normally have - which is about 10000000,0000x more than what you have with regular tv. If there was a 'tv' application too, which is basically like the tv guide we're all accustomed to (but a lot faster and in many other ways easier and better), the pc-centric setup would be in every way better.

By setting it up in this fashion, it enables people to play PC games on their big flat-screen HDTV's, while also enabling them to use the entirety of internet-functionality through the same television where they watch tv. It also allows people to use a mouse and keyboard to play those games, instead of only using TV's with shitty console controllers. Why this is relevant to Quake Live, is because, if this kind of system becomes the norm (which it should), that means a system like Quake Live, with GTV/Demo's/Leagues/Ladders/Allthatgoodstuff, would be easily accessible to anyone. Who would rather watch a game of Quake on their little 19'' monitor, while sitting at a computer desk, when they could watch the same game on a 50'' hd flatscreen, and while sitting on their couch? Using a mouse/keyboard while sitting on a couch is not a big deal... which is besides the fact, unless you're gaming, you don't need to use a full mouse and keyboard, and if you are gaming, you still don't need to use a full mouse and keyboard (there are plenty of PC joysticks, including regular xbox controllers); if you had some kind of table-top that swings around the side of your couch, like a little desk thingie, it could easily provide quick, stable access to a mouse and keyboard, while also easily swinging back around the couch when not in use.

I would have to imagine, all the various things will eventually (and by eventually, I mean in the fairly near future), run through computers. There is no reason to keep these things separate, and they certainly all work better when integrated together (no rhyme intended). The PC should be the central system, where all other home entertainment equipment is run through. For lesser computer uses - like e-mail - everyone can just use their laptops and netbooks. Home PC's have reached the point where their main functionality is entertainment. That means: gaming, streaming-video, music, and what should be television. And ya know what? I think it's great.

Is it possible, the main problem with this community (as far as bringing about legitimate pro-gaming goes), is that the community is so young? At 29, i'm one of the oldest people here.

The development cycle is as follows:

Children are almost wholly concerned with play.
Adolescents are less concerned with play and more concerned with business.
Adults are almost wholly concerned with business.

I can understand the community, but am still confounded by id. Presumably, id is run by adults, yet they act more like adolescents. Maybe because their business is to provide play, they don't understand how to provide business?

Pro-gaming is the adult version of gaming. Without it, gaming is at best fit for adolescents. While that's fine for younger people, older audiences will be lost.

Oh yes, and Republicans, could you please stop intruding in everyone's lives and trying to control everyone's lives? Thank you.

For pro-gaming to succeed, we need a few basic things:

1. GTV
2. Demo's
3. Leagues/Ladders/Tournaments
4. Ease of use
5. Commentary

Show me a single pro-sport that does not have commentary. Why is it then, there is no commentary in demo's or GTV?

You could suggest we don't need demo's or GTV, but if you compare the cost and quality of those with the cost and quality of streaming-video or standard television broadcasting, any business person in the world (and any fan), would choose GTV and demo's. Every penny saved with GTV and demo's is a penny to be invested elsewhere. That includes player salaries, game development and marketing.

One of the greatest advantages to leagues/ladders/andsuch, is that they allow the game to develop a following. It is also helpful when the entire professional aspect is not condensed into a single weekend, wherein people must set aside an entire weekend of their lives to watch a sporting engagement. Most people don't have the time, and if they do, they don't want to spend it with sports. People have time at night, after they're done with work or school, and on the weekends... but with the weekends, they might prefer doing something else, being that they have enough extra time. On the weekdays, they can't really go out and party, because they have to work the next day. For these reasons, weeknights and Sunday are the ideal times for sports. Certainly, holding the typical tournaments we're accustomed to on weeknights or Sundays is not going to be especially functional.

Quake Live has any number of good qualities. But, without the above mentioned, it has no chance of becoming what we need.

I wrote a new song, it's called, "Kill everyone, but don't say fuck". It goes a little something like this:

Kill everyone
nuke them
stab them
rip their eyes out of their ass

Red, white black and pink
Democratic, Republican
kill them all,
every single one
but make sure you don't say fuck

Free-speech protects our right
to say anything we want
so tell everyone to kill everyone
but make sure you don't say fuck

What you guys think? Should we make it into a full-length motion-picture?

What aspects of QL are legitimately better than Q3? Only the auto-installer and the interface. Almost everything else is worse. The installer is not some great, genius, original work of id software. Look at Wizard 101. It's got the same kind of installer, and it's a game for children.

Why not merge the Polish Q3 installer with cpma, adding an improved interface? You could even possibly convince something like clanbase to mod a league or ladder directly into the cpma system. That way, excluding maybe a few of the QL maps, we'd already have something better than QL. We would have GTV, easy-to-load demo's, and all the other freedom's we enjoy in Q3 but not in QL (including the ability to further mod the game and develop new maps better than QL maps). Is it really so difficult to build a new interface? Because other than that, it's just a simple matter of merging the Polish installer with the cpma game files. Even without a built-in ladder, we'd still have better than QL because QL also has no built-in ladder.

The unfortunate reality is, the QL team has shown no evidence of provide the things we need, or even the things we want. As a person of no faith, I need evidence, and with id, there is none.

For people who don't understand the United States, i'll explain: Representational government has always been the rule here. Since so much money and power has come, an aristocracy or plutocracy has emerged. The Republican/Tea party is the champion of that movement. They trick stupid, poor people into thinking an aristocracy/plutocracy is somehow good for the unwealthy. They never tell their 'supporters' that they intend to replace representational rule with aristocratic or plutocratic, but if you actually watch what they do, it's perfectly clear that is their intention. This latest election is a good example of their agenda, as the Supreme Court (who is clearly working for them), allowed secret funding. Aside from the secret funding, enormous amounts of money came from the plutocracy, in an effort to enforce plutocratic rule. For the most part, they failed miserably. Several key candidates poured enormous sums of money into their campaigns, and still lost.

Now, this kind of thing is not new. It has been happening for a long time, but, it is getting worse. Over the past decade or so, they've made every effort to destroy the middle-class, which they privately call 'War on the Middle-Class'. They also push the notion of 'small government', which really means making the government so ineffective it can be usurped or plutocratically-controlled.

The election yesterday showed though, that plutocratic rule is not yet fully established, although it does achieve victory here or there. What all this means is, unless the Republican/Tea party is stopped, the United States will reach a revolution to restore representational government, or it will plunge into a full two-class plutocratic/aristocratic government (like a monarchy or dictatorship).

Ever notice how people try so much to control behavior? In the NFL, they're always fining and suspending people for their 'bad' behavior. It just seems odd to me, first of all, that people care so much to control behavior, but also, that behavior-control seems to be stuck in the old-world - like we're in the 1950's, where children were punished by beatings. Hasn't the NFL heard of something called 'positive reinforcement'? Maybe people should try giving players bonuses for good behavior? Or they could just stop punishing players for behavior; after all, people are not playing in a professional behavior league, they're playing in a professional sports league.

Which would work better? See, I was thinking we could use both. The ladder could be open for anyone to join. If you make your way to the top of the ladder, you get to join the league. At the end of each season, parties last in the league are sent back to the ladder in exchange for the top ladder parties. There's no money in the ladder, but there is in the league.

When I was at the MNF game a few weeks ago, people tried to relate to me by saying 'Who Dat'. I didn't want to reply to them, so I just quietly said 'Who Dat' in return. To me, it doesn't make any sense. First of all, 'who dat' is illiterate. Secondly, everyone has been beating the Saints for 40 years. Who dat gonna beat them Saints? Everyone, clearly. And they don't just say it, they do it. It's always the same story... the Saints get fucked by officials, they turn the ball over (and usually stupidly or in the worst possible scenarios), and they commit penalties (always in the worst possible scenarios). Today, they added a new vulnerability - trick plays.

In the past, you could say the Saints were awful because they didn't have good players, good coaches or the necessary team structure. This year though, they have almost the same team they won the super-bowl with last year, and yet they are playing like the same Saints we've all been either suffering through or laughing about for 40 years (minus last year). So I wonder, what could be the real cause of the perpetual comedy of errors that is the Saints.

One theory, is that they're called the Saints. What are Saints, really? They're religious fuckheads who only show up when there is tragedy. That means, without tragedy, they're completely worthless. So sure, when a terrible hurricane catastrophe occurs, the Saints show up and help out. Once the tragedy has passed, they revert back to their roles of sucking collection-plate dick. Yeah, that must be it... the Saints should change their name... to the Aliens.

Hopefully id won't continue being as bad as the Saints. Look: millions of people watch football. How many of those people actually play football? How many of those millions watch preseason football? A tiny fraction of people watch preseason because the games are meaningless. And that's the main reason for a league or a ladder, especially one that leads into some kind of championship. The Super-Bowl gets like 100 million viewers, while preseason gets about 300. And out of all those millions of viewers, almost none play football, or have ever played organized football. So yes, Quake has a small player-base, but it doesn't matter, because the audience-base is what matters. Unfortunately, because id is so incredibly preoccupied concocting devpick servers no one cares about, they don't provide what audiences need - namely GTV, easy-to-load demos, and leagues/ladders.

Didn't John Romero used to work at id? Maybe that's what happened... he quit and Carmack lost interest.

You fools really think 9/11 was about terrorism? I find the idea disparaging to Osama Bin Laden. If he really wanted terrorism, he'd go to Disneyworld. All those people, crammed into long lines... there's no security, you could explode all those deluded little children without any resistance. Or how about airports? All those ignorantly-blissful goons standing in security lines... they just can't wait to get through security... all of them crammed into those lines. You could easily blow them up before any security checking occurs. How many people, waiting in those security lines to throw away their toothpaste, do you think could be blown up? 50, at least, per-airport, per-operation. Or how about a sporting event? All those poon-heads, waiting to get in the gates... past the ultra-effective security which basically does absolutely nothing, could all be blown up too.

No, you see, 9/11 had nothing to do with terrorism. If you want to accept the 'official' story, you would say Al-Qaeda flew planes into buildings. Let's say, at the very least, that part is true. Now, why would they choose those buildings, instead of all these other targets i've mentioned? Because, in case none of you noticed, those buildings were the World Trade Center buildings... key world being trade. The point, was to destroy the economy. And, as you can all see, it must have worked, since the world (WORLD Trade CENTER), is now suffering an economic recession. You think OBL is just a terrorist in a cave, but you've all been fooled. And fooled by who? Not Osama Bin Laden. You can't fight wars without economic backing.

Al-Qaeda is a military installation. It attacks military targets, which include economic targets. It uses bizarre, 'terrorist' methods, because it has no conventional means. I just don't see how Al-Qaeda attacking the United States is different from the United States attacking Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine (through Israel), or anyone else in the Middle-East or anywhere else.... aside from the fact Al-Qaeda is both more efficient and more effective. Two planes in two buildings, as opposed to a 700 billion annual military-fee.

I can't figure out which is the bigger failure. The community just loves their private-server, irc-arranged matches. Do you dumb fucks not realize, when new people come into QL, and they look at the server browser, and they find 0 people playing, they think the game is dead and go somewhere else? Why do I have to explain this? Are you all completely retarded or just mostly retarded? And id... I mean, it's just one failure after another with them. They seem to be designing the game as if millions of people play it... the only problem is, there are only about 1,000 players. Did any of you fucks ever think, we should figure out how to get more people into the game?

The cable company continues insisting they cannot install cable at my house, because it would cost too much. They say, if I lived on the main road, they would install cable. They say, down a private road, it costs $18 a foot... which, because my house is 1/4mile away, is like $30,000. What i'm saying though, is why do they need to run a wire all the way to my house? Why not install the modem at the beginning of the road, where they already said they would be willing to (if my house was there), and then get the connection the rest of the way using directional antenna's and routers? They could plant a lockbox, with electricity, right by where the private road begins. In the lockbox goes the modem and one of the routers. The other router is located at my house. They both use directional antenna's, pointed at each other. I've found directional antenna's, when pointed at each other, capable of 14 miles. I've seen other's capable of 1.5 miles. We're only talking about a distance of 1/4mile. To set this whole thing up... would only cost about $300. Routers are cheap, the directional antenna's are cheap, an electrician is cheap, and certainly, a lockbox is cheap.

Are they crooks, attempting to extort money from people who live down private roads, are they incompetent, or do they just not care about the small amount of profit to be gained from the rare cases such as my own? Meanwhile, satellite internet seems to be getting worse by the day.

What is Quake Live, but a repackaged version of Quake III? And that was fine, because it was free, and the packaging was improved. But now, they're charging people for what they call 'premium' content, which is basically old Quake III content recycled for Quake Live. So what are we really paying for, if not a second copy of Quake III? A second copy of Quake III, I might add, without GTV, Seismovision or any kind of decent league/ladder support.

I'm just wondering, why has id become so unoriginal, and uninventive? Why do they merely recycle old maps, and trick people into thinking these maps are new... and premium? It seems like the entire idea behind Quake Live, was to merely recycle Quake III in hopes of selling the recycled version. Meanwhile, the community continues suffering without any kind of decent or necessary facilities... facilities which would actually help the community grow in ways of specific interest. Is it safe to say, id cares only for the potential net profit, and nothing for the concerns or needs of the community? Is GTV really so difficult to make? No... it's a simple programming job. How about a demo repository, that allows easy watching of demo's? Of course it's not difficult. And leagues and ladders, especially web-based versions, have been around since Netscape 0.9.

It has become apparent, id does not give a shit about the community. And that's fine, who says they need to? But they should at least have the decency to tell everyone, they don't give a shit, and they're never going to provide GTV or any of the other things we so desperately need. As they string people along, with false hopes, the people continue investing their valuable lives into something that will never come to fruition for anyone but id (and even that's uncertain). Certainly though, they either don't care about pro-gaming, or they are so grossly inept, it's probably worse than not caring.

Id continues disappointing me more and more, and I would be amazed if that trend changed. What have they done, since Q3? Aside from the degree of improvements in Quake Live, nothing. They still have yet to put GTV in any of their games (all versions of GTV found in Quake games have been made by the community). They have yet to provide better demo management (things like Seismovision were all made by the community). They have yet to provide a single league or ladder of their own design, and own management. Most of the good maps have also been made by the community. And have you ever tried baseq3? It's complete shit compared to osp and cpma (both made by the community). It's clear, the community needs to face reality - id does not care shit about the community, pro-gaming or esports, and it's possible they never will. You can try to change id, or you can just look elsewhere for people who do care about these things, and are willing to invest towards them. Certainly, Q3 has many of these things already in place, and with a little more modding, we could get Q3 to a point further along than QL might ever reach, and definitely as far as we need it to be. If we simply took the improvements of QL, and modded them into Q3, the latter would already be further along than QL (and the QL improvements are almost exclusively the interface and the ease of downloading/installing files).

Then again, maybe i'm wrong about id, and they're just hopelessly incompetent? Is that really any better than being hopelessly apathetic?

Everyone always says, 'id do this, or id we want this', but why not help id create these things? Do you remember way back, when I wrote 'Community Volunteer's', part I? Well, in that post, the idea was merely to allow some degree of 'modding'. Here, the idea is to end this bizarre, disconnected relationship between the community and the developers, which, as anyone can see, no longer makes any sense.

What's good for the scene, is good for those in the scene. There are many people, with skills and desire, willing to work merely for the betterment of the scene. Why not create a system, where id can allow pro-bono volunteer's to work more directly with them, for the very purpose of sharing the workload? Honestly, let's be as communist as we can be... I mean, as Democratic.

I was wondering, is there a reason id doesn't let the community make parts of the game? As we can see from the past, the community will often voluntarily make things like GTV or leagues and ladders. Why not let them make these things, and then incorporate them into the official Quake Live system? It could all be under some kind of contract, to ensure everything is legal.

So I was at the Saints game a couple weeks ago, and I have to say, Candlestick Park should be demolished. I've never had such an appreciation for the Seattle facilities, since I went to Candlestick. The designer must have been an asshole... to design a stadium for 60,000 people, most of whom are drinking beer, with bathroom's literally the size of McDonald's bathrooms. And where are the beer vendors? What shit, that you have to leave your seat and miss 20 minutes of the game, just to get a beer. In Seattle, the beer vendors are always walking around... you never have to leave your seat for beer. And what about food? Aside from cotton-candy people walking around, I saw practically no food whatsoever... not a single restaurant in the incredibly narrow corridors. In Seattle, there are great places all over, and you can still see the game while you're walking around, and the lines are so short, you don't miss much while you're waiting (which is besides the fact plenty of food vendors will also go to where you sitting).

San Francisco is a great place, but they could learn a lot from Seattle about stadiums and how to run them. I've only been to the Superdome once or twice, and I don't remember what it was like, so my pre-Candlestick experience with stadiums came exclusively from Seattle. If I knew how bad stadiums were elsewhere, all my time watching the Mariners would have been more greatly appreciated. In fact, i'm very tempted to visit Seattle again, and go to another game, just to wash the filth of Candlestick from my memory.

Quake Live has been subject to numerous improvements. As you can see though, the improvements haven't worked.

Plenty of problems and solutions have already been identified, if not implemented. One key problem still remains, with the only solution being used in Q4, and abandoned for QL. That problem is waiting to play. Do you think gamers come home from a hard day of being virgin's, and say to themselves, "There's nothing i'd like more than to wait in line for 30 minutes, just so I can lose a 10 minute game of Quake."? We come to play, not to wait. With the lack of key progress, you'd think id was stuck in 1993. Waiting in line is resistance. With so much self-sabotage, it's a wonder anyone still plays Quake.

The solution, in Q4, was to use an ra3-style of server - where there was one team game, and multiple duel games, all taking place at the same time on the same server. For q4 duel, there was no team game, just a bunch of duel games. That system solved the waiting in line problem, except for servers crashing in q4max (which is bad British treasonous programming, mostly), and the stupid tournament model. If a ladder model was used, you wouldn't have to yet again wait in line after you lose. The tournament model was almost worse than the standard model, because if you lost the first game, and 4 games were left to play, you'd have to wait in line the equivalent of waiting behind four players on a regular server. Players would usually restart the map, after each game, so no one had to wait in line. Unfortunately, because of the poor structure of the system, that meant everyone played the same person over and over, and generally, it was a total mismatch. Simple solution - avoid British programmers, and use the same system, but with a ladder system instead of a tournament, that way you have the best possible match-making with the least amount of waiting.

The demo issue shows everyone wrong with Quake, and therefore with id. They have no concept of reality... of what people are willing to do. Almost no one is willing to spend the time and frustration necessary to watch a Quake demo. How long does it take a regular person to find the hidden folder, figure out how to unhide the hidden folder, find a Quake demo, extract it into that hidden folder, figure out they need to open www.quakelive.com and go into a game, then in the console, issue an msdos/linux-like command plus the ridiculous name of the Quake demo itself (and yes, if they're smart enough, they'll rename it to something easier, or copy and paste the name)?

It's the same with the game itself. Almost no one is willing to spend two months dueling, before winning a single duel. The problem is not with the skill-matching system. That system will always be shit. An experienced player can just make new accounts all the time, and put themselves at beginner skill-level, just to ruin the system. Wouldn't you expect competitors to deliberately sabotage such a system?

With demo's, yet again, it's very simple... make a demo repository, on the Quake Live site. A person merely needs to then, go to www.quakelive.com, go to the demo's section, and click on the demo they want to watch. Why such a simple thing is so difficult for id to come up with on their own, I have no idea.

Why doesn't id propose changes publicly before making them? If they make them, and everyone rejects them, isn't it a waste?

Seriously, the changes id makes can be good, but they could be better. It's like some kind of fantasy, to get such simple things as GTV and leagues/ladders.

Gamers can be funny... they might enjoy watching a game but not playing it. With GTV, the ads are in the game, and all those people who don't enjoy playing the game might enjoy watching it. I don't see how, in any way, id profits from streaming-video. The ads don't get hits except from the streaming-video people. Instead of 1,000 hits, they get 2. And the leagues/ladders... they make the games worth watching. Nobody wants to watch a random, meaningless pub game. If the match decides who goes to Quakecon, to play in the finals, and who gets the top seed, it becomes that much more watchable.

Map-changes are nice, but they are minor compared to things like GTV and leagues/ladders. It still seems like, game developers are latched to the old-world type of gaming - where there were no spectators. Do the devs have any concept of how to provide for an audience?

After the Bush administration, and 2 years of congressional inactivity, do Republicans deserve to be rewarded with an November election victory? Compared to the Bush administration, have Democratics really done so much to deserve punishment?

Is it true, if you have a pay account, you cannot play against standard users, or on standard servers? If so, that would explain why there's practically no one ever playing. I didn't read in the premium features, that the playerbase would be subtracted by 95%. Why not just make it so if there are standard users, you can't callvote premium maps/othercontent? The playerbase is small enough already, it doesn't need to be divided.

Here, i'll give id software a lesson in prioritizing:

Things people will definitely use;

GTV
A built-in ladder and/or league (especially if it feeds into some kind of lan/money finals)
Graphics presets (which apparently do exist, but are tucked away in a vague, obscure corner)
Better netcode
Better servers
Servers in more appropriate locations
New maps (that are worthwhile)
A petitioning system, to get names from dead or disputed accounts

Things people will definitely not use;

Roughly 95% of maps
Settings or servers which harm their playing/watching abilities
Streaming-video, if they have the option of GTV (in particular, if shoutcast is included with GTV)
Third-party organizations, if 1st-party exists and third-party is prevented from using the game commercially

Things people might use;

About 95% of player-models (really, people only need keel/bright and one other model)
Freeze-tag (or probably any other new gametype)
New weapons or other items

This seems like a good list to start with. What you should do, with such a list, is first build all the stuff people will definitely use. Once that list has been exhausted, you should consider building things in the list of stuff people might use.

Does anyone here play freeze-tag? Seems to me, casual players (people unwilling to pay for Quake Live), enjoy and are fully willing to play freeze-tag, but more experienced players (those willing to pay), have no interest. Wouldn't freeze-tag make more sense as a free-gametype? Wouldn't that bring in more casual types, and therefore, more players? Eventually, casual types may become competitive types, and if nothing else, may enjoy watching competitive types.

I would say, it is definitely the case, casual gametypes should be free, and competitive types should be free/pay or only pay.

Being that the Saints just won their first super-bowl in 40+ years of existence, I think I am the utmost expert on how to win super-bowls.

Just joking, but, I was thinking about a bizarre aspect of pro-football that has existed since the salary-cap. As anyone can see, pro-players try to make as much money as possible. But with a salary-cap, one must question the wisdom behind such motivations. If you want a great player, you have to pay a great sum. That means, because of the salary-cap, your team consists of something like a few great players and a bunch of not-so-greats, or possibly a team of exclusively mediocre players.

Most people would say, the problem is with the salary-cap, but I would say, the problem is with the players. They are so insatiably greedy, they would rather $20million a year and last place than $15mil and a super-bowl. I mean, why don't the players accept less money (they're all super-rich anyway), so they can play on a better team?

Maybe the point is now moot, in the sense the salary-cap might be lifted soon, but the point still stands, because even without a salary-cap, teams are limited in financial resources. What i'm talking about is what some might call 'sacrifice'. The players and managers sacrifice some of their paychecks in favor of a championship.

Through the use of parabolic antenna's, ISP's have the means to enlarge their customer-bases, and for wireless ISP's, to also strengthen their signals. It is a simple matter of attaching the antenna to the roof of a house, and pointing it precisely towards the transmitter. I found a parabolic directional which costs $60, and by using two of them, with a clear line of sight, can reach 14 miles.

This system is ideal for people using 4g from their homes, but it also helps other people. For example, I live 1/4 mile out of cable range. What they could do, if they cared to expand their markets, is put the cable modem 1/4mile from my house, and then cover the additional 1/4 using routers/repeaters and parabolic antenna's. It is inexpensive, easy, and already possible.

I tell everyone this, not out of self-interest. It is entirely because I want the internet to function better for everyone. I'm very selfless, and I believe in it completely. When a gay pimp asked me to hook for him, I said yes, because I thought it would be selfish of me to hurt his prostitution business by saying no. I mean, how else could he successfully run a hooking business, without hookers?

Are graphics > gameplay? No, but what people don't seem to understand, is that graphics are an inextricable part of gameplay. The right video settings can be the difference between loving a game and despising it. It is not about pixel-count or whatever other nonsense people go on about. It's about art. It's about how the game makes you feel, or more accurately, how the game feels.

There are other reasons to modify the base video settings. Brightskins, higher fps, removing of smoke-trails... all of this stuff makes a difference, but it's about more than just that. Depending on the visual aspects of the game, it can feel many different ways to you, as a player and as a spectator. Even if you have perfect 125fps, the game can feel slow, or boxy, or unresponsive, or imprecise. FOV alone can make the game seem faster or slower (raise the fov to make it seem faster). I know from personal experience, the visuals can make or break a game... and the visuals i'm talking about are usually capable of being modified within the existing game structure.

The best example I have, about what i'm talking about, comes from ut2k4. I never liked the game. The movement and weapons didn't feel right, and I didn't care much for the graphics themselves. But then, for some reason, years after I discovered how much the game wasn't for me, I reinstalled it, modified the graphics (with no modding or anything, just the basic tools available), and suddenly, the game became enjoyable. I played it a fair amount after that (with bots), and the movement never bothered me again, and neither did the rest of the game.

I would have to wonder, how many people are like I was with ut2k4? They go into Quake Live, and they so profoundly dislike the game, only because of the video settings, they decide never to play or watch it again. And how many of them, if they could only change the video settings like I did with ut2k4, would then enjoy and play Quake Live like I did with ut? And if simple video-presets were available, for them to sample the different possibilities, how many people would never skip years of playing and watching a game based exclusively on a set of easily changeable video settings?

Is there some way to wrest a name from a dead account? It's pretty shit how we can't use a name we want, because some random person played the game a single time.

It is my opinion, as a professional esreality columnist, that it's really boring around here when there are no games to watch. Look at how much fun it is, when a tournament comes around. That's why we need an online season, with regular, meaningful, and accessible games. People honestly do enjoy the tournaments, but the entire rest of the year is filled with meaningless pub matches.

Alright, how about, the online league is in the form of a ladder? The season consists of basically, a period of time. The top 16 teams or players at the top of the ladder, when the season ends, qualify for the lan championships. In between seasons, the ladder is frozen. When the ladder resumes, everyone starts where they ended, except for those who went to the lan championships, who instead are placed in their lan finishing positions (so if you won the championships, you would start the season at #1 on the ladder).

People would play in the ladder, because it's the only way to win any money at the lan championships. Besides which, there should be money to win during the course of the season (in fact, every game in the top 16 should have some money involved). With all these ads in Quake Live, and the subscriptions fee's, and ads that could be in GTV/streaming-video, paying the high-ranking players should be doable. And, of course, if id really wanted to, they could deny everyone else the right to use Quake Live for their tournaments and leagues, thus ensuring a monopoly on Quake Live competition (and ensuring, if you want to make any money playing Quake Live, you have to go through their system, like it or not).

Maybe lans are not completely worthless. If, they were changed from methods of suckering computer nerds into sponsor-booth funnels, into something people actually enjoyed (like drinking, eating, and watching a game with other people), they might be worth having. Part of the problem though, is the build-up. All you have are qualifiers. What you need is an online league, with a full season. The league could be divided into regions (for ping reasons), and at the end of each season, the top finishers from each region go to the lan (which is basically the championships for the season). That way, audiences have all season long to learn the teams and players, and to watch the games, at their homes, on their 50'' HD flatscreens, with some friends, food and alcohol (or other things of preference). At lan, they should find a similar environment, but instead of sponsor booths and other commercial crap, they could essentially have the same environment as at their house, but with more people, better food, better alcohol (although, not necessarily better other stuff), and larger screens. Of course, the games would also be better, because of lower pings, a more varied player-group, and higher stakes.

With GTV, the cost of 'streaming' an entire online season is almost nothing (even less with torrent-style GTV). It is easy and inexpensive (with Quake Live anyway), to connect a computer to a modern HD flatscreen. Most have VGA ports, if not HDMI, RCA, or component. In that sense, watching the games would be no different from watching any other sports presentation (especially by hybridizing GTV with streaming video). All the necessary evil commercialism can be run through the system, like what Quake Live already does, and/or through a hybridized streaming video system.

By having this type of arrangement, women might actually get involved. Once they're drunk enough, they won't so much notice the 'nerdiness' of their surroundings, and they might even like it... i'm sure they would find it nice, not having to worry about anyone hitting on them, or anyone date-raping them. If there's one thing nerds won't do, it's approach women.

Seriously though, sports should not be about commercial sales and promotion, it should be about having a good time. If they also make people smarter, or healthier in some way, then that's great, but they have to be fun first.

Does anyone notice a recurrent theme at these lans? I've never been to any of the lan events, and i've been on such garbage internet for 10 years, I haven't been able to watch streaming video. And on GTV, your visual data is limited. Recently, i've had the option to watch some of this streaming video... and I have to say, there are way too many dudes.

There must be like 98% dudes, and 1% 'booth-babes' (which for obvious reasons, do not count), and then possibly 1% viable, legitimate women (of potentially questionable sexuality though). If you're a big gay guy, these numbers probably sound great. But if you're a lesbian, or a heterosexual, I can't imagine there is too much appeal.

As some of you may know, i'm in opposition to lans, as I do favor the online vessel. I don't see any real future for lans, and all the future, and a great future, for the alternative. It is also true, I favor GTV over streaming-video. After seeing just how disproportionate the dude/chick ratio actually is, i'm glad, for all these years, i've been deprived of streaming-video and lans. The instant I see a dude-fest emerging, for some reason, it just doesn't appeal to me. I had the same problem in school... when I was younger, I went to all-boys schools. Now, that was fine, until I got just a little older, and at the age of 13, I sprung the all-boys joint in favor of coed.

Why do you suppose video games are so gender-lopsided? Or, more importantly, how do you suppose we can correct such an undesirable variable?

This p2p system does not work well for streaming-video, i'm assuming, because the downloads are higher than the uploads. I mean, if people can only upload at 50K/sec, but they need to download at 100K/sec, it would be difficult to achieve a quality stream. But with GTV, because you only need like 10K/sec down, the upload amount far exceeds the download. Unless you're on dial-up, you can easily provide more than 10K/sec up.

If this technology was adopted for GTV, it could provide perfect quality video, at no server-cost. It certainly wouldn't bother ISP's, or choke their networks, because the overall amount of bandwidth is so small.

Do the people play q3 because they are anti-social, or are they anti-social because they play q3? I remember an interview with Trent Reznor, a long time ago, where he said every time he plays q3, he doesn't want to talk to anyone for like three days.

If the game makes people anti-social, it would be difficult generating a large playerbase and big audiences.

Streaming video is substantially worse than GTV, in every way but two: 1. You don't need the game files to watch streaming video, and 2. With streaming-video, you can do things like conduct video interviews.

Because the game files in Quake Live are free, problem #1 is irrelevant. So what if, to solve the second problem, you built into the Quake Live/GTV system a streaming video/audio player? That way, without the need for multiple programs, you have built-in commentary, and the ability to conduct video interviews (plus, you enjoy the low-cost, high-quality and flexibility of GTV). The negatives from each are eliminated, and the positives enhanced.

Apparently, id and Quake are stuck in 1993, where people would go to arcades and could only play 1v1, and everyone would wait in line and put their quarters up on the screen, and if you got a high-score, you'd put in your initials, and everyone would see them on the high-score page.

It's absolutely incredible how basically no progress has been made from that old arcade-model. People are still playing 1v1 (although, team-games are available). People are still waiting in line. There still isn't much beyond the equivalent of playing a game at an arcade (such as leagues, ladders and tournaments; which do exist, but only from third-parties and are therefore not particularly functional). There is almost no audience-support. Watching a game is usually the equivalent of going to an arcade, and standing behind the players.

I don't know why, developers are incapable of utilizing new technology. Maybe it's just difficult breaking old habits? They make arcade-like games for 15 years, and then the internet comes out, which allows a vastly different model, but they're so used to their typical operating procedures, they fail to implement practically anything worthwhile. The main difference seems to be, you don't actually have to go to the arcade anymore (which is still untrue for lans). Maybe habits make people narrow-minded?

If there's any good news, it's that a wealth of potential still exists for online gaming. Without question, the best is yet to come. We've been wading through crap this whole time, being held back by aging developers the equivalent of old-dogs unable to learn new tricks.

I don't have any problem with paying $24 a year.. I mean, who could possibly have a problem with that amount of money? Homeless Quake players?

I also understand perfectly well, it's either ads or subscriptions (or potentially donations, but how well does that ever work?). And if you only have ads, developers cater more to sponsors than players.

What I don't understand though, is why the esreality community would rather QL than Q3. The latter is better for professional gaming. It already has GTV, and a multitude of other features more suited for professional and lan play. How is QL anything but the amateur version of Q3? Which is something that can be good... a division between amateur and professional could only help, I would think. The amateur game (QL), could feed new players into the professional game. And instead of players starting at the last boss, they could work their way through the amateur ranks, and start playing against professionals when they are ready.

What if we made a new version of Q3, based on the GPL, where there was a better system of acquiring the necessary game files (and whatever else to make things easier for fans, sponsors, and advancing players), and called it something slightly different? Like, it could be called QuakePro. It would only contain useful files... meaning, all those maps and player-models no one ever uses, would be excluded. Honestly, anyone who wants all that wasted data and superficial nonsense obviously belongs in Quake Live.

There is no reason for Formula 1 drivers to use street-cars, just 'cause street-cars are easier for new drivers. What legitimately experienced Quake player could suggest Quake Live is somehow of higher professional caliber than Quake 3? Every pro-sport has differences between amateur and professional ranks. Different sizes of arena's or fields. Different sets of rules. Different equipment... and all for good reason. I don't see why, in Quake, we should divert from that model.

First of all, the problem is with the developers. What do you think happens when a player opens the server list, and finds no one playing? They leave. They go to some other game, where people are actually playing. Because of how antiquated and poorly structured the server design is, even if people are on the servers, chances are, the new player will have to wait in line and/or the players on the servers will refuse to play them. Which leads me to the second problem with Quake - the players.

For whatever self-serving, idiotic reason, Quake players refuse to play with practically anyone. If your ping is a little 'too high', they won't play you. If you weren't selected specifically by them, but you join the server in hopes of playing, they will kick you off (despite the fact it is a public server). It's like, they do everything they can to prevent anyone from actually playing the game. How can there be a game if there are no players?

When people go to the server list, they do so because they want to play. If they didn't have to wait (either in line or just for anyone to show up), they would play... otherwise, to reiterate, they wouldn't have even looked at the server list. But, when they join a server and get kicked off by some incredibly idiotic dickhead, or when they have to wait potentially beyond the amount of free-time they have, or would simply rather spend their free-time playing instead of waiting, of course they will go somewhere else.

People think there is no interest in Quake, but really, it's just basic design flaws the developers fail to correct. The whole community is so egotistical, they think the game is perfect in every way, and eventually, everyone else will realize the game is perfect, and will then gladly waste all their time waiting for games, or getting kicked off public servers for no reason other than the players are self-sabotaging jackasses, or waste their efforts attempting to synch shoutcast (or other third-party entities) with Quake and GTV, or scouring the internet looking for the files they are missing. At least, with the last one, things have been fixed... but all the other flaws, which are in most cases more severe, still exist and have not in any way been addressed or corrected (except in Q4, but, with Quake Live, they reverted back to the old, failed system instead of moving forward and correcting the errors of the new system).

Maybe a solution to waiting times, is to have a single master server per game-type, and for everyone to simply join that server and wait for the system to pair them with opponents. If done correctly, waiting times should be virtually eliminated, and since there is only one server displaying everyone currently playing that gametype, the servers would always have activity.

A solution to synching third-party entities, is to have plugins, that anyone can create, in order to perfectly and easily synch their organization with the world of Quake (maybe it's something like having a clanbase tab next to the 'play online' tab). That way, the system is still open to third-parties, which might be superior to first-parties, and the various other advantages of allowing and having third-parties also still exist, but without all the flaws.

As far as players sabotaging themselves, I don't know exactly what the causes are. Maybe they rocket-jump too much? In a game, where the objective is to kill the other players... you'd think the natural result is that the number of players would continue to decline. But obviously, that kind of thing can only lead to one result - the death of the game itself. If all the players are dead, so is the game. Maybe there is only one solution, and that is to change the primary objective of killing into something else... something more creative possibly. If though, people want to continue trying to make deathmatch work, which has been all but killed by the players who are so good at their jobs of killing everything (including themselves), maybe you can just stop the players from kicking people off servers, or doing anything else that might decrease the amount of players (on or off servers)?

Maybe if the very immature 'pro-gaming' community would wake up to reality, and stop playing sports hero, we could actually make some progress. Let's be objective here: How much money can 'pro-gamers' make today, compared to fifteen years ago? The exact same amount? Less? This community epitomizes Einstein's definition of insanity: It keeps doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. As if one day, the world will simply wake up and magically realize what all the Quake and CS players have already realized... and after that day, everyone will just start watching quake-matches and pro-gaming will reach the promised land.

The prize money hasn't changed, the players haven't changed, and the games haven't changed. It's just the next group of kids, with no real responsibilities, and who would have a better future if they were actual garbage-men (try putting 'i was a pro-gamer' on your resume), competing for the same amount of money until like all those preceding them, realize there is no future in what they're doing. The reality is, practically no one actually profits from 'pro-gaming', which is why the prize-money never really changes. The old sponsor becomes the new sponsor, until they realize there's no profit in sponsoring pro-gaming, which leads to another new sponsor, thus perpetuating the cycle.

The community would be more successful if it just tried random stuff until something worked. If the world really loved Quake and CS that much, they would already be playing and watching them on a scale similar to regular sports. Luckily, the problem isn't with all of pro-gaming, just the obsessive parts that refuse to try anything different, or be different from regular sports, or move beyond older games. It doesn't matter how much you attempt to 'professionalize' the game with commentators, recorded matches, federations or whatever else, it will not change the fact nobody actually cares about the game itself.

CS players often criticize Quake, for not having many players... as if that means Quake isn't good, when usually, popular equals mediocre. But really, is any deathmatch game still popular? Halo doesn't count, it may as well be a game for snails, it's so slow and handicapped by poor controls. UT, Quake, HL, Painkiller, where are the DM players? Maybe we just need to face facts and realize deathmatch doesn't necessarily have a future (or even much of a present). It doesn't mean Quake isn't good though. If you made CS in the Q3 engine, how would it compare to CS in the HL engine?

What we need isn't a different engine, or a new engine, what we need is a new game. Maybe it could be a CTF variant, or maybe it could be something completely original (aside from still being an FPS). Whatever it ends up being, it doesn't have to come from professionals.

Would it be profitable to use the NFL Blitz 2000 engine, with Mutant League Football style and play, run through a built-in emulator, complete with multiplayer internet and full mouse/keyboard support?

The graphics on these n64 games, with higher resolutions, aside from a few minor things which could probably be changed easily and inexpensively, are perfectly good. Might as well repackage them, for PC use, and sell them again. And actually, much of the gameplay is of higher quality than current games. It's fast, it's responsive... and the reality of the n64 is, with all these great games, people never had the chance to enjoy them with internet support.

I've got an idea... why not put a Disneyland in Moscow, right next to the Kremlin? Or better yet, make a Disneyland Auschwitz. People could ride a roller-coaster that gives them a true Jewish experience. It could culminate with all the passengers being burned alive in a giant-oven.

Do you think it would be a bad idea to make a video-game where, the more kids you killed, the more points you get? Maybe we'll just make a Christian video-game, where the entire objective is to bring about human-extinction (or, as they call it, 'the rapture').

I wonder about the notion to involve Disney kids in esports. Would it turn things away from 'Anal Cunt; Rape your dog, kill your mother kind of stuff', and more towards puppy dogs and lollipops? I'm not against kids or anything, it's more, i'm against over-protective parents and the politicians who exploit them.

What do you think about open borders with the U.S.? We could form a treaty, I would imagine, that would allow all members of either union to move freely within each others borders. No visa's, no passport's, just freedom.

Anyone here watch this stuff? Do you notice how the Strikeforce fighters tend to dominate Dream fighters? It would interesting though, if Strikeforce could get Shinya Aoki to come to the U.S., and fight their best people.

If there was one problem with my old WF clan, it's that Rajiv was a terrible recruiter. He was good at general administration, dealing with people, and developing strategies, but his recruiting abilities were awful. Wu-Tang recruited me, and i'd imagine him, Knowledge and/or Kola recruited Rajiv and Fuze... after that, I, more or less, recruited D-man (and many of the other class players we had), while Rajiv only recruited... well, I won't into details, but let's just say, Rajiv couldn't recruit for shit.

As any athlete knows, there is no future in athletics. You play your game for a while, and then you must retire, regardless of your choice. It comes to be, for every professional athlete, the point is reached where they must leave what they love. And when they do, the beginning is a depressing time. Anything you live with for enough time, when it is gone, you will miss. If they were there long enough, even prisoners will miss jail. Sports are things of the times, which is probably why they are so preferred by males (being that males are usually left-brained and therefore more interested in timely things). This doesn't mean you shouldn't play sports, or be involved. It's more a matter of, ensuring once you are finished with sports, you have something else ready. Depression in one area can be naturally-countered by growth in another. If you start something new though, the growth will be slower than the depression, which will still make you feel depressed.

Beyond the personal problems though, sports are incredibly conservative. When I say conservative, I mean it in the true sense: sports are aristocratic and authoritative. In sports, exploitation is often the most rewarding thing, and teamwork the least. In other words, selfishness is rewarded and selflessness punished. How can one selflessly give their opponents wins or points, when their careers, the respect of their peers, and their emotional state of being (however temporarily it may last), is so dependent on defeating their opponents? Winning (power), is an addiction. The more you win, the more you need to win and the more tragic losing becomes. Like a heroin-junkie, you rob the elderly, just to win another game.

Sports are the endless conflict you might think Orwell was covering in his famous book 1984. And why exactly do people enjoy sports, or play them? Is it a natural-urge, dating back to the beginning of time? Part of natural-selection? We instinctively compete, because it was once necessary? It brings us back to a time when we were animals, not living in civilization... competing with every squirrel and sparrow we came across?

Whatever the case, I wonder how many people prefer consoles because they are afraid to learn how to use a mouse and keyboard? I remember when I first started playing computer FPS's, I refused to learn how to use the mouse and keyboard. I used a joystick instead. The only reason I switched, is because my joystick broke, I was too impatient to wait for a replacement, and then when my replacement came, it broke after only a week. In between the two joysticks, I got comfortable enough on the keyboard and mouse that buying another joystick was not worth it. Being that i'm talking about me, not some random, casual console player, it says a lot about the state of mind people have, when considering whether to play a computer FPS (or even to simply use a mouse and keyboard on a console), or to stick with what they're used to, what is comfortable enough for them, and, most importantly, what does not require any additional learning.

What about organizing it so there are local lan-tournaments, in all gaming-inclined major-cities? The prizes don't have to be huge, just decent enough and the tournaments regular enough. As interest increases, so would the prizes, and naturally, so would the attendance. And if you limit the events to tournaments only, you don't have to spend extra money on other stuff. To limit the 'pro-gamer' factor (meaning, high-level players absolutely annihilating all hopes of anyone but them winning anything), the tournaments could be run simultaneously. I mean, sure, professionals might compete in their local-lans, but they could only choose one lan, and the prizes would likely be identical anyway (and, in fact, could be deliberately made identical). Whatever exposure the local, non-professionals do have with professionals would only reinforce their interest in Quake and in attending/watching tournaments.

Remember when you were a kid, and you used a magnifying glass to kill bugs or something? I'm just wondering, if a fully-weaponized version of the same thing could be made? Like, on top of an APC, a large 'light-funnel' was directed towards the sun, using mirrors and magnifiers to focus the light in whatever direction you want. If so, it would be an effective weapon (during the day), since you don't need to reload and there's no real ammunition.

How come they have their shoelaces exposed? Wouldn't they have more accuracy if the surface was smooth?