ESR is the main problem with Quake. It's ancient, it never receives major updates or changes, most of its users are European, it is insular and isolated, its community is poor at business, it increasingly becomes totalitarian, it suffers from delusions of perfection, and its administrators ban contributors who follow the rules. If you can't tell whether i'm talking about Quake or ESR, it's because there is no difference between them. What we need is an alternative.

If someone could build a Quake site that is attractive to people outside of Europe, it could help bring the kind of diversity missing from the world of Quake. It could represent something new, progressive, inviting, and encouraging of participation from all people. Pretty much the exact opposite of ESR.

You might think other websites died off because Quake died off, but maybe that isn't really true. Regardless, the convergence of people from other Quake sites to ESR did mark the beginning of a major shift from progress to stagnation. Maybe though, those sites died for other reasons, and a competing Quake site could be perfectly functional. Breaking apart the critical-mass monopoly that is ESR, given the regressive effect it has on Quake, would potentially serve as the solution this game needs.

I don't know if i'll be able to continue supporting ESR. I know you're a bunch of ungrateful cocksuckers, but guess what... I don't get paid to contribute content here. I've never liked ESR, and without large-scale changes to the system, I never will. I only come here to support Quake, and i've come to the conclusion that by supporting ESR, I am destroying Quake.

Maybe this song will more clearly express my views of ESR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4sW3MgdJLo

One thing people do not understand about marijuana, is that it cures boredom.

Some people think that's a bad thing. For gifted people though, it makes all the difference. If you are gifted, you get bored very easily, and with practically everything. You tend to become unproductive in school, work, sports, human relationships, etc. The more gifted you are, the more easily bored you become. By legalizing weed, the gifted people in your culture actually become more productive.

Unless you want your gifted people to become bored, and therefore get into a lot of trouble, legalizing weed is exactly the thing to do.

Notorious gangster 'El Chapo' was recently arrested in Mexico. He ran the largest of the drug-cartels. But the real story here is not about how he's such a villain and government is such a hero.

After decades of massive failure, do people still not understand how the 'war on drugs' program works? It's very simple... government creates villains through prohibition, and then government rides in on their white horses and plays the hero. At that point, all the clueless citizens praise them for slaying the dragon.

The whole thing is a giant scam. The government is the real villain. A villain who intentionally creates villains just to make themselves appear heroic. The 'war on drugs' needs to end, and people need to dislodge their heads from their asses. Ass-in-head syndrome is a serious disease, otherwise known as AIH, and we need to raise awareness so people can get the treatment they need.

It would seem that the new date for the shops to open here in WA is June-something. This is the second delay, and if there is any way to reverse it and immediately open the shops, that's what they should do. The lesson to learn, for people crafting legalization laws, is that bureaucrats should be castrated.

If you provide bureaucrats any power, they will install as much red-tape as possible. That means, as much delay as possible. In the laws themselves, you need to specify a deadline, and make it impossible to change that deadline.

There are a number of cost-effective solutions to the problem of carbon-emissions. Here are two, which could be done in a short time-frame:

1. Switch to electric vehicles.

With the battery-switching system developed by Tesla Motors, infrastructure could be quickly and inexpensively built to enable all land-based vehicles (including 18-wheelers), to run exclusively on electricity.

If necessary, government could offer subsidies to help people purchase electric vehicles.

2. Replace coal and natural gas with nuclear.

I realize nuclear has its own problems, but it produces the smallest amount of Co2, which is, of course, the main priority.

With these two simple measures, both of which are technologically and financially achievable (and would create many new jobs), oil, coal and natural gas would be effectively eliminated as commonly used sources of energy.

Yu-Na did not win the gold medal, but, Yu-Na, you're welcome to hang out here and get high as much as you want. The shops won't be open for another month or so, but, that is going to be some fire ass motherfucking weed.

I'm just saying... you're invited. That goes for the rest of you as well.

Call me Peter Tosh, but if you legalize it, i'll advertise it.

Using a 15 year-old game is like using a 15 year-old computer. The kind of shit we used back then was Windows 98, Pentium 450's, and Geforce 2's. Can you imagine that computer trying to compete with today's computers? Well that's what we're doing with QL. It's like hpb's vs. lpb's.

Id software, we need some updated tech. We can't work with this old bullshit. It's a fucking miracle we've managed to survive this long.

In case you haven't heard, N. Korea is committing what are called 'crimes against humanity'. The consensus is that something needs to be done, but, N. Korea has nuclear weapons. Do you think military action is a non-option, and if so, what action could realistically be done to end the atrocity?

As evolution is the process of adapting living organisms to their environments, what changes could be realistically expected as the result of a prison environment? Shouldn't the purpose of prison be to change criminals into suitable members of society? If so, then prison is doing the exact opposite.

While in prison, a person develops evolutionary changes enabling them to survive in the bizarre prison society. Think of it as the Galapagos. When they are returned to normal society, of what use are the changes that occurred? If prison, or the rough equivalent, were redesigned based on evolution, it would more closely resemble a non-prison environment. It would provide the subject with the tools necessary to function in a non-prison environment. In fact, it would as much as possible mimic the normal environment, but with the proper mechanisms in place to ensure that appropriate evolution does occur.

If criminals can reasonably be considered people who failed to adapt to their environments, then certainly, the current prison environment does not correct their failed adaptations. If anything, it exacerbates the failures, and adds new adaptations that will inevitably fail upon release of the prisoner. If a person truly is incapable of adapting to the normal environment, then it would be a fascinating scientific fact that in some individuals, evolution is effectively disabled.

In the United States, there are neighborhoods which are basically third-world countries. In those neighborhoods, the people receive what is essentially a third-world education. In viewing the U.S. as a microcosm of the entire world, it would be perfectly doable to provide the poor with a higher quality of education.

Within the internal structure of the United States, to accomplish such a thing would be as simple as spreading out the funding equally among all school-districts. Either that, or possibly providing more funding for poorer districts. Congress could vote on it tomorrow, and by Tuesday, the poor would be on their way to education-equality. In many industrialized nations today, that solution is already the common thinking. So what if the thinking were applied globally? Meaning, rich countries help the poor to provide a first-world education to everyone?

While it would require international relations that are more complicated than what people have within their own countries, it can be done. As a cost-benefit analysis, any honest person would conclude that the benefit outweighs the cost.

Everyone hates religion, but most people do not know how to destroy it. I've come up with a simple guide anyone can use to starve the beast.

Step 1: Never talk about religion.

Any publicity is good publicity, and therefore, anything said about religion - good or bad - is good for religion.

Step 2: Provide knowledge where there is ignorance.

Religion is based on people being complete idiots. They used to believe tsunami's were caused by Poseidon being angry. Many people today have beliefs equally insane. Your job is to teach them the truth about tsunami's (or whatever).

Step 3: Provide preferable alternatives.

American football does a great job of this. It takes place on Sunday, and church takes place on Sunday. Most people would rather watch football than go to church. Other things people prefer to religious activities include: watching movies/television, listening to the radio, using computers/internet, video-games. Activities or entertainment specifically designated to occur during normal church times are the most successful, but anything people prefer to reading their religious book or engaging in religious activities is another meal not going to the beast.

The youth of today have so many alternatives to religion, and a far better knowledge/ignorance ratio, that religion is getting thinner. Some religions have been supplementing their fat-stores with the souls of raped children, while others are resisting any progress into the industrialized age. Regardless, science and technology will not be denied. People in the third-world are continually gaining access to information-age technologies. Once the third-world has begun abandoning religion, there will be no critical-mass remaining.

If you want to accelerate the process, you can follow steps 1-3. You are not powerless against religion. You can make a difference, and together, we can end the disease that is religion.

Aside from QL being essentially a 15 year-old game, there are other issues with Quake itself. Most of these issues are the result of the 'reality-tv' revolution of the late 90's and early 00's.

To Quake players, strafe-jumping is a skill element and it makes the game faster. To other people, it makes no sense that jumping would make people move faster. In reality, sure, it doesn't make sense... physically, how could jumping make anything go faster? As a result of such 'realistic' thinking, games have opted for a sprint function. Obviously, pressing a sprint button to go faster requires no skill, and is therefore unfit for esports.

So... how do we retain the skill element, while on the surface, having it make some degree of realistic sense? Shooting a gun, even if it's an unrealistic gun, is still realistic enough for people to reconcile inside of their puny, unimaginative minds. But jumping as a means of acceleration is beyond the comprehension of their feeble brains.

In this year of 2014, the Quake community is still wasting its free time sitting in queues. It's no wonder people don't play the game... they can't - they're sitting in a fucking queue.

Maybe it's a reality shock to some of you, but most people don't have the free time to sit in a fucking queue all day long. Even if they did, they wouldn't want to. Then again, maybe someone should make a video-game where all you do is sit in queue's. Oh wait, they already did... it's called Quake 3.

This problem was mostly solved in Quake 4, and then, of course, everyone went back to the shitty, antiquated, time-wasting Quake 3 system. This is not an arcade. There is absolutely no need for queues, unless there are an odd number of players. Quake 4 proved that queues can be eliminated, even in duel, so why the fuck do we still have them?

Everyone knows that Q3 is 15 years old. Most of the people who play moba's were probably not even born when Q3 was released. Maybe those people enjoy slow games that require no skill whatsoever, or maybe they just don't want to play a game that's older than themselves... whatever the case, we need a new version of Quake.

When I say a new version of Quake, id software should be aware of what that means. The so-called 'Quake' community is not really a Quake community. If you've noticed, the Quake community only wants to play one version of Quake: Quake 3. There was a Quake 4, and say what you will, but it was newer and in some ways better. Didn't matter though, because it wasn't Quake 3. What a new version of Quake means, therefore, is a new version of Quake 3. Don't make a new version of Quake 2. Don't make a new version of Quake 1. Don't make a new version of Quake where you hybridize different versions. Maybe it shouldn't even be called Quake anymore, and instead be an entirely different series of games based on Quake 3.

A new version of Quake 3, including an 'esports' system appropriate for the modern age, is what the community wants and probably the only thing it will accept. QL might be a new system, but the system is widely insufficient, and the game is still the same old thing with a few minor game-play tweaks that almost no one would even recognize.

There is this person named 'Marco Rubio', who is a Republican from Florida (you've been warned), who does not understand why people would be in favor of marijuana but against tobacco. For people like him, I will explain:

Tobacco causes cancer. Marijuana does not.

I'm not sure why that's so hard for people to understand... maybe they're superficial, and they think that smoking is smoking? Like smoking crack is no different from smoking cigarettes? Smoking is not the issue, besides which, you don't have to smoke marijuana. You can eat it in brownies or cookies or all kinds of stuff (Iron Chef... next secret ingredient should be weed). There is also a method now, where they extract the chemical itself and put it inside of a pill. Personally, I prefer the pill method. It's the most precise way to do it, it doesn't fuck up your lungs, and the smell of weed smoke doesn't bother anyone.

Regardless, you would have to be pretty fucking nuts to compare something that kills people to something that doesn't. Whatever health-problems might be associated with weed, at least the people are not dead. Then again, Republicans probably prefer it if people are dead.

For the record, I am not against cigarettes... and I oppose the crazy liberals who try to force their cigarette views on everyone.

Since I know how much everyone outside the U.S. can't get enough of American Football, I came up with an idea to have American Football all year long. Now, I know what you're thinking... all year long is impossible. The players cannot physically handle that kind of schedule. That's why, there would be a replicate league in South America (so there is no timezone problem for American fans), which would be identical to the NFL, except it would be in S. America and it would take place in the other half of the year. An NFL season is close to six months, so with only one other version, the two combined would be roughly twelve months or 1 year. Even better, the weather would be identical, as S. America is in the southern hemisphere, and N. America in the northern. Funny how the names work out that way.

So what do you guys think? More American Football... I mean, S. America is America, so you should have no problem with calling it American.

The super-bowl is tomorrow. No matter who wins, I think we can all agree that weed is the real winner. So whatever you're doing tomorrow, don't forget to spark up a super bowl for the super-bowl.

Uruguay for Weed Cup 2014.

One could objectively say that game A is better than game B, and that might be accurate. The problem is, it doesn't matter, because things need to be designed not just to be good or legitimate, but rather, to match the level of douchebaggyness in the current world.

Anyone would say that chess is better than checkers, but checkers is more popular. Anyone would say that Mozart is better than Justin Bieber, but... well, I don't even want to say it. And that's the real world. It's no different with video-games, whether they be esports or otherwise.

What that means, is that if all the gamers are douchebags, then the games themselves have to be suitably douchebaggy (hence things like moba's). Now, it might be possible for a legitimate game to be modified to change with the people. If the people become more full of shit, some aspect of the game needs to match that level of shit. Likewise, if the people become less full of trash, the game needs to become less trashy.

I say 'some aspect of the game', because I see no reason why the game's purity must be corrupted. A section of the game can always be maintained, while the various other aspects are modified. It's not like random dickwads are playing at the pro-level anyway. If, therefore, the pro-level is kept uncorrupted by the changing times/douchebags, and the rest of the game adapts to the overall level of fuckheadedness among the current gaming population, a game could conceivably keep its legitimacy while also achieving profitability. Or, in short, selling-out may not be necessary.

Some of you seem to be daft about the recent legal weed laws. You think that weed is now legal in Colorado, but not yet in Washington. That's incorrect. Weed has been legal in Washington since December of 2012. It just hasn't been legal to grow it or sell it. It's been perfectly legal though to buy it (up to an ounce), to possess it (up to an ounce), and to use it privately. In other words, on the buyer/user/possessor end, it has been legal for over a year now.

Growing it and selling it is almost also legal, with the right licensing, and the shops should be open in about two months. But to be clear, you're wrong about weed not being legal in Washington. On the user's end, there has been no legal liability since 2012.

Moba's, a.k.a. 'rts for retards', cannot be considered actual sports. Maybe what mobas have shown us, is that geeks don't care about human achievement at all. They are happier with computer achievement. Let's be honest... in a moba, the player barely does anything. The computer does almost everything. Some might call that socialism, while others might just call it stupid and pathetic, and entirely anathema of sports, gaming or anything of the kind... but, with the success of things like saltybet, maybe people don't really care about human achievement (a.k.a. sports), and are more interested in pretty colors and flashing lights?

Things have gotten so bad, that people who actually practice are considered losers. Apparently, any dumbass should be able to pick up a baseball bat and hit home-runs in the majors. It should not require a lifetime of practice, even though, in something called reality, a lifetime of practice is exactly what it requires. Yes... some video-game types have become so detached from reality, due to an excessive amount of time spent within the video-game fantasy, that they want the real world to function the same way things do within the virtual world. I suppose it's only natural that moba's would come along, and through the magic of computer assistance, permit any moron the ability to pick up a bat and hit home-runs in the majors.

All of that makes sense to me. What does not make sense, is why you motherfuckers who know better, would support such utter trash. Are we trying to do a legitimate sports thing here, or are you all just a bunch of pathetic sell-outs? Do you know the point of real sports? It's about human achievement. It's about incredible feats of humanity. When you take the human out of the game, it defeats the entire fucking purpose. When incredible feats are impossible, because the game is too shallow, it also defeats the entire fucking purpose. When any moron can pick up a fucking baseball bat and hit a home-run in the majors, then clearly, it's nothing but shit.

I'm sure this 'moba' thing is just a phase. Teenagers typically do go through many stupid phases. And someday, the dumbasses who actually supported the moba horseshit train will look back and realize how fucking stupid they were. In the meantime, while we're waiting for all these confused teenagers to grow up, we should continue working on legitimate esports, and therefore, actual human achievement.

There are many reasons why people enjoy watching or playing sports. Mostly, it's because they're drunk. Beyond that, there are things like big plays and big scoring plays.

In American football, the two main scoring plays are touchdowns and field-goals. The former awards 7 points (with the PAT), and the latter 3. Touchdowns can be scored at any time (which can be similar to scoring a knockdown in boxing).

In boxing, the big plays are knockdowns and knockouts.

In baseball, the big plays are home-runs (which vary between 1-4 points).

In basketball, there are no big plays.

In soccer or hockey, every score is a big play.

In Quake, there are no big plays in the sense of scoring more than 1 point per frag or in the sense of every frag necessarily being of great significance. There are big plays, but, most people would not recognize them. A big play in Quake would be something like killing a 200/200 opponent when you only have 100/0.

The reason to have big-play potential in a sport, is to make it more interesting or exciting. To make it so, no matter how dire the outcome appears, there is still some hope that the losing player/team can still win. While it would be difficult to add big-play potential in Quake, the same basic thing can be achieved through the map system I recently went over. By putting the low-scoring maps first, and the high-scoring maps last, a player could conceivably lose the first 4 maps by a total of 20 points, and then win the 5th game by 21 points, thereby winning the game. Big-map potential is essentially the same as big-play potential, plus it is simple enough for anyone to understand and requires no programming expenses.

Without big-play potential, a game fails to bring out the best in its players and fails to entertain a broad base of fans.

The problem with the form of betting you find at saltybet, is that it can be easily manipulated.

Let's say, I were to rip the entire saltybet version of mugen + all the updated, current characters. At that point, I could devise a statistical system that would rate character vs. character in percentage, rather than overall percentage vs. any and all characters. From there, I could increase the speed of matches by 100,000,000,000,000% (provided my computing power could handle it). That would mean, for any character vs. character matchup (no matter what players or tiers), I would have an extensive, predictive model for how to bet (such as 10,000 matches, 90%-10%). None of this would require 'illuminati' status, or any other form of payment/donation.

Saltybet is great, especially if you're completely stoned, drunk or potentially many other things I haven't tried. The music alone is worth the donation. What i'm talking about is merely game-theory. With real people, as opposed to A.I., these things would not be possible. You cannot accelerate the pace at which real matches occur, for if you could, you would be in a science-fiction film from the 80's.

The super-bowl is coming up soon, and now the final two teams have been decided. For those who don't know, the super-bowl is the grand-finals.

I just wanted to point out, that the two teams going to the super-bowl come from the two states that just legalized weed. Legal weed power in full effect. Uruguay for WC2014.

Ok, well as an alternative to the other idea, there is a simpler way to achieve a similar result:

Still, they would play all the maps. In this version, the winner is determined by overall score... meaning, you add up the score from each map, combine them, and whichever score is higher is the winner. So, for example, if the score is 3-1 (blood run), 7-2 (lost world), and 3-9 (furious heights), the end result would be 13-12 and player 1 would be the winner. To keep things interesting, you could always put the low-scoring maps in the beginning and the high-scoring maps at the end.

With this system, people have a reason to watch throughout the entire course of the game or vod. There is almost always a chance for the losing player to make a comeback (especially by placing high-scoring maps at the end). Furthermore, the typical system of group-stages, quarterfinals, semifinals, grandfinals, etc. would remain intact.

The 'best of' system should be replaced. If it's best of five, and each map is 10 minutes long, and the vod is only 30 minutes long, then it's pointless to watch past the first map. A solution is as follows:

There is a set number of maps that are played no matter who wins or loses, or by how much, or in what order. So let's say they play 5 maps. One player could win the first three, and the other player could win the last two. Or, one player could win the first one and the last three, while the other player wins the second. All that matters is that they play all five maps.

Secondly, each map win provides points. For the fuck of it, let's say... 3 points. So if you win 3 maps out of 5, you get 9 points (the other player getting 6 points). The points add up over the course of a season or tournament. The winner of the season or tournament would be the person with the highest overall number of points. That means, you could only win two maps out of five every time you play, but still be the overall winner.

With a system like this, the vod would still be worth watching even after the first map.

Over the eons, mice have gained dpi, and they have also gained buttons. Most people use mouse1 for fire, and mouse2 for alternate fire. The question is, should mice have more buttons, and should people use the buttons on a mouse to fire, or should the buttons even exist?

There is a school of thought suggesting that the best way to aim is to not use or have buttons on a mouse. The hypothesis is that if pressing or holding one of the mouse buttons leads to improved aim, regardless of whether the button has any actual function, the person would still press or hold it. Therefore, the way to achieve highest aim, is to unbind all buttons from the mouse, or to simply have no buttons whatsoever.

To my knowledge, there is no mouse without buttons. If one were to be created, it is possible the mouse would be more effective for aiming or other precision functions than the typical mouse of today. The shape, weight and sensor would be the focus, as opposed to the number or positioning of buttons.

Of course, it's hard to bind all the things you need without mouse-buttons, but that's a separate issue.

1. If legal weed is more expensive than illegal, there will still be a black-market.

2. If legal weed supply fails to meet demand, there will still be a black-market.

3. Lap-band surgery does not work for everyone.

Thanks to Colorado and New Jersey, we know how to properly set up a legal marijuana industry.

For all you noobs or people looking for a better graphics cfg, i've come up with a basic, effective model that you can easily customize:

cg_fov "105"

cg_drawGun "0"
cg_drawCrosshair "2"
cg_crosshaircolor "9"
cg_crosshairsize "30"
cg_crosshairHitStyle "2"
cg_crosshairHitTime "250"
cg_crosshairHitColor "9"
cg_crosshairBrightness "0.6"
cg_crosshairPulse "0"

color1 "9"
color2 "9"
r_railwidth "1"
cg_railStyle "1"
r_railcorewidth "2"
cg_railtrailtime "500"
r_railsegmentlength "2"
cg_predictlocalrailshots "1"

r_aspectRatio "1"
r_mode "14"
r_picmip "10"
r_gamma "1"
r_mapoverbrightbits "1"
r_overbrightbits "1"
r_intensity "1.5"
r_ignorehwgamma "0"
r_dynamiclight "0"
r_lightmap "0"
r_vertexlight "1"
r_fullbright "0"
r_smp "0"
r_subdivisions "80"
r_fastsky "1"
r_fullscreen "1"
r_lodbias "4"
r_swapinterval "0"
r_stencilbits "0"
r_drawsun "0"
r_ambientScale "100"
r_enablepostprocess "0"
r_displayrefresh "0"

cg_drawRewards "0"
cg_drawFragMessages "1"
cg_drawHitFriendTime "1500"
cg_drawDeadFriendTime "3000"

cg_truelightning "1"
cg_lightningStyle "5"
cg_rocketStyle "1"
cg_plasmaStyle "1"
cg_lightningImpact "1"
cg_smoke_SG "0"
cg_smokeRadius_GL "0"
cg_smokeRadius_RL "0"
cg_bubbleTrail "0"

model "sarge"
cg_forceteammodel "sarge/bright"
cg_forceenemymodel "keel/bright"
cg_enemyHeadcolor "0x00ff00ff"
cg_enemyUppercolor "0x00ff00ff"
cg_enemyLowercolor "0x00ff00ff"
cg_deadBodyColor "0x101010FF"
cg_teamHeadColor "0004FF"
cg_teamLowerColor "0004FF"
cg_teamUpperColor "0004FF"
cg_weaponColor_grenade "0xFFFFFFFF"

cg_impactSparksVelocity "128"
cg_impactSparksSize "8"
cg_impactSparksLifetime "250"
cg_impactSparks "0"
cg_zoomOutOnDeath "1"
cg_zoomToggle "0"
cg_zoomScaling "1"

cg_bob "0"
cg_kickscale "0"
cg_leveltimerdirection "1"
cg_muzzleFlash "0"
cg_waterWarp "0"
cg_screenDamage "0"
cg_allowTaunt "0"
cg_enableRespawnTimer "1"
cg_deadBodyDarken "1"
cg_viewsize "100"
cg_filter_Angles "0"
cg_drawItemPickups "0"
cg_gibs "0"
cg_simpleitems "1"
cg_marks "0"
cg_scorePlums "0"
cg_brasstime "0"

Enjoy. And smoke weed.

If a saltybet-esque betting system were implemented with real players, it could be an effective way for players to make money, and an effective way to bring more people into the game. The way it could work, is by instituting a profit-sharing program.

That means, players would have to sign up for the program, which would make the entire thing legal. The more a player is featured on stream, the more money they make. The higher their win%, the more they are featured on stream. The idea there, is to motivate players to win. The more you win, the more money you make. Since all the betting money is not real, there is no incentive for players to intentionally lose.

With a system like QL, the entire betting structure could be built directly in, even going as far as to utilize GTV (as opposed to streaming video), as a means of reducing data costs.

The betting system would run at all times, provided there are people signed up for the program who are playing the game. There could also be tournaments, which would occur sometimes, and would feature the casters/other stuff we have come to expect from such events.

We've had the ESR betting system in place for a long time. What i'm talking about is really just a more advanced version of the same thing, with all the legal and motivational processes in place.

The key to any successful pro-sport is to be family-friendly. That means, Quake needs to add as much sex and violence as possible. I'm talking about, if a child even looks at a game of Quake, he or she will be permanently ruined.

To start, all the female characters should be naked, and constantly on their periods. Maybe you could add a new weapon, which is basically just menstrual blood that the female characters shoot out of their snatch's. Another weapon could be an aborted fetus gun. Like, the male characters could have a rape-gun. If they shoot a female character with the rape-gun, she gets impregnated. She can then abort the fetus into a weapon, and shoot the fetus at the rapist (or someone else, if so inclined).

For the males, they should all have rape-guns. The rape-guns work on everyone, but if they hit a female character, it will impregnate her, and then she can use the aforementioned aborted-fetus gun as retaliation.

That's all I have for now, but definitely more sex and violence. Pro-sports need to be family-friendly.

Why not get rid of the phone part of phones? I don't remember the last time I made or received a phone call. Everyone txt's now. If you get rid of the microphone (which has become a useless device in a cell-phone), it would save a lot of money in hardware costs.

For those who haven't seen it, there is a thing called 'saltybets'. Has anyone considered doing something like that with the qlranks bot? Maybe it could be CA 1v1 to speed things up, but regardless of gametype, it would help people be more invested in the game.

You all know Uruguay. It's in South America. Well i've got some good news.. they just legalized weed. It isn't just a city or state, it's the whole country.

On this side of the world, we are getting things done.

To get more players, id needs to restructure the system. Whoever designed it must have never played any kind of sports, and also never studied or heard of sports psychology. Let me explain it simply for the id software engineers:

Players do not like to lose reputation. If they lose games under an alias, they don't lose reputation. That means, if players can be anonymous, they are more likely to play. Forcing people to have a static identity is one of the most game-killing things you could possibly do. We have never, in the history of Quake, Doom, Wolfenstein or anything else, had a problem with people using aliases or playing anonymously. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The solution is easy: separate match-stats from practice-stats, and let people play anonymously. The latter of these things means, statistics are not kept and aliases can be used freely.

Many of you are fans of the NFL. For those who are not, I will inform you of some interesting statistics:

Firstly, the top two teams in the entire league are the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks. Secondly, both Colorado and Washington recently legalized marijuana. Coincidence? I think not.

Recently, the New Orleans Saints (my home team), lost very heavily to the Seattle Seahawks (where I now live near - Olympia to be specific). While I always am unhappy with the Saints losing (not really, because i'm 32, and the Saints used to be absurd), I think the point is very clear - New Orleans needs to legalize weed. I was just in New Orleans a month and a half ago, and while the city was doing well, the weed was still illegal.

I guess the point i'm trying to make, is that weed should be legalized. And only when it is legal, can any teams possibly manage to compete with the Seahawks and the Broncos. So if you guys want to have winning football teams... legalize weed. Case closed.

The primary problem with QL, is that there is too much emphasis placed on winning and losing. The best thing you can do, is get on a server and play. Whether you lose 50-0, or win 50-0, what matters is that you are on the servers. All this 'skill-matching' and elo rating and useless statistics crap is completely ruining the game. Players are not rewarded for playing, they are only rewarded for winning. The only possible result of such a horrendous system, is a steady decline of players on servers.

Ignore the stupidly conceived QL system, and just get the fuck on the servers. More time on servers = good. Anything else = bad. It wouldn't be a terrible idea for id to pay people minimum wage to do nothing more than sit on servers and play whoever is looking for a game. Empty servers with no one to play against is the worst possible thing for profit and in general. Even a matter of uncertainty decreases the amount of subscriptions. If it was assured, that there would be someone to play against, people would be more likely to purchase subscriptions. If id pays less in player/employee costs than they make from additional subscription/advertisement revenue, the model would be financially effective.

Until id software learns how to design a suitable system, the community will simply have to compensate for their shortcomings... as has traditionally been the case.

It was mostly well-run. A few things could possibly be done better:

1. Put commercials on after each map (instead of each game), and make them only 10-30 seconds (instead of 5 minutes or w/etf).

2. Instead of interviews/breaks, do analysis/highlights (like they do at halftime in regular pro-sports).

3. Play better music or get rid of the music, that way no one is alienated.

4. Don't show camera shots of empty seats. Nobody wants to ride a dying horse.

There are some people who do not understand what esports is. For those people, I will explain it.

Esports just means video-games played in an organized, competitive fashion. If played for money, it can usually be called professional esports or professional gaming.

Esports has nothing to do with douchebag commentating or wearing sponsors on your clothing. Obviously, the New York Yankees do not wear sponsors on their uniforms, but you would all agree, that baseball is a sport? Take the same thing, apply it to video-games, and you have esports.

Any video-game played in the fashion of sports, is an esport. That means, you practice, you compete in official matches, leagues, ladders, tournaments, etc., and there may even be a team involved. Everything else associated with esports has to do with the specific organizations or communities responsible for the production.

I wanted to do some research, so I made a poll: http://strawpoll.me/757826

Basically, i'm just trying to know in what proportions to grow types of weed... in the event I get a grower's license.

There are all these new, high-rated games like CoD: Ghosts and GTAV, and while I like the GTA series, I have noticed that GTAIV and V have something in common with other newer games like CoD: they're slow and they don't handle well. It's like driving a truck instead of a race-car. Older games were fast, and the controls were tight. That's true for older GTA games, and older games in general. Maybe the problem is that video-games are so popular now?

When I was growing up, video-games were not popular. Those of us who played them were considered outcasts, nerds, dorks, geeks... whichever you prefer. That meant, most of the players were completely hardcore and could give a fuck about casual gaming. Today, most players are casual, and that means, they like slow games with shitty controls. These games are more like movies. You barely play them. You just watch them on your giant screen tv, while you fondle the gamepad like you're fucking masturbating.

A game like Quake is good for me, because it handles like a race-car. That's what I want. I want to drive a fucking F1 car. It needs to be fast, the handling needs to be solid and in my control, not the fucking computer's. I don't know if these newer games can be fixed by increasing the speed, because the handling still sucks, and with shitty handling, you can't handle faster speeds, but maybe a game like Quake could provide a slower version of itself, for all the people who are still using training wheels, and should not be anywhere near a professional race-track?

There are types of people who need positive reinforcement. They will actively avoid any and all people, places and things that fail to provide it. Furthermore, some of these types are highly successful at attracting every type of person that exists. That means, if we can get the positive reinforcement types, through them, we can get every type.

Without ruining professional competition, an effective positive reinforcement model can be created. A simple difference between competitive and casual rulesets, implemented through a mere callvote or administrator command, effectively enables positive reinforcement while still maintaining the integrity of competitive play.

Part of the problem with Quake is that it has no appeal for many types of people. In fact, it has become so Europe-centric, that it is now a little bit too gay. And by gay, I mean homosexual. Let's face it - Europe is the gayest continent. Most Quake players are European. That means, the game is gradually becoming more and more gay. Now, I think we can all agree, that there are acceptable levels of gayness, and there are also excessive levels. The concept of something being 'too gay', while not new, could certainly be re-examined within the Quake model. If we are to bring gayness levels to an acceptable place, we need to reach more types of people... and the best way to do that, is to secure the positive reinforcement types.

Active, populated communities in every region of the world, where no one continent or area is more favored or powerful than another, should be our ultimate goal. If we do it any other way, the primary power structure will bend the game in their direction, thus ruining it for everyone else.

I've got the inside information on the super secret, Ultra Street Fighter IV V'th character. As many of you might have guessed, the character is Luke Skywalker.

Since the 70's, Capcom has wanted to add Star Wars characters to their games. Finally, now that Disney owns Star Wars, they are able to do so. Luke Skywalker will precede the newest Capcom fighting game to be named 'Capcom & Marvel vs. Lucas & Disney'. Playable characters will include Darth Vader, Ewoks (which are just one character), Chewbacca, a Stormtrooper, a Mandalorian, and, of course, Yoda.

It should be enjoyable for all fighting game/star wars enthusiasts. Although, most fgc peeps who are super-cool are waiting for the Mickey Mouse character, 'cause Mickey Mouse is straight out da ghetto. Word.

The cyclical nature of democracy means that right now, the influential senior vote is controlled by people from the 50's. That particular decade was marked by McCarthyism and an entire nation in denial. It was also the decade that directly preceded integration. As everyone can see by following current U.S. politics, much of the exact same 50's crap is happening today.

The good news is, that the 1950's people are almost dead. Once they are dead, the final remnants of segregated America will be dead with them. The following senior vote will be controlled by flower-power hippies, women's liberation feminists, and racial integrationists. It's somewhat of a tragic coincidence that the first non-white President was elected during a repeat of 1950's trash, but the end result will be an acceleration of the values that have shaped the United States since integration.

No amount of political support should be provided to the 50's people. Their politics, like their lives, will soon be at an end. It would be wise to shut them down in the following several elections, as a means of minimizing the damage their segregationist minds can still do.

On the new map 'Railyard', watching the game from the overhead perspective works perfectly well. On normal Quake maps, you kind of need to watch the games from the first-person perspective, due, of course, to the typical three-dimensional, multiple-story structure. What if, in 1fctf, all the maps were designed to be observed from the overhead perspective?

The perspective in question has a lot of benefits. Many people find watching games from the first-person perspective to be nauseating. If you watch sports on television, they are frequently viewed from overhead. Even if we could watch a sport from inside a player's eyeballs, we probably would not do so.

In spite of what might seem like a simplistic map-design, if every aspect of the game were designed to be good from overhead, it would likely be better than the arguably compartmentalized standard structure. If you go into a 1fctf game, and you watch it from overhead, it works well, and you get a good idea of what's going on in the game, and why one team is winning. Designers and developers could take what they learn from watching Railyard in 1fctf, and from there, rework the models, colors, shapes, and pretty much everything else to make the perspective more enjoyable than it is now. From a map-makers perspective, it should be fairly quick and easy to exhaust every possible variation of a one-story map that has no ceilings.

Without being a simulation, Railyard in 1fctf - from the overhead perspective - is the closest i've seen to a video-game being like a normal sport. If we can continue along those lines, we could have something that regular people would recognize as a sport. When they see the game from the overhead perspective, to them, it would be reminiscent of watching something like soccer. Soccer with explosions... what's not to like?

The new map 'Railyard' solves a lot of the problems with the 1fctf system. The two main problems involve team-killer type players. They either bring the flag back to their own base, making it easier for the opposing team to capture it; or, if the opposing team is in the lead, they get the flag and try to hold it for as long as possible, making it more challenging for the supporting team to capture it. Either way, they're helping the opposing team.

Having no weapons to damage yourself is helpful to eliminate the first of the two problems. Having a small map with no hiding places is helpful for solving the second problem.

As a broader solution, which eliminates the two problems and permits the usage of a wider variety of weapons, items, and map-designs, a perimeter or boundary could be created around each capture-point. If a player carries the flag back to their own capture-point, when they cross the boundary, the flag automatically resets to midfield.

The size of the boundary should be large enough to eliminate tk type behavior, but, small enough to allow legitimate defensive strategies: such as, if your team is in the lead, it can be effective to hold the flag closer to your own base, as a sort of keep-away tactic.

I do like the new map. It definitely shows what kind of potential the gametype has.

What do you guys think about this Canadian stool-pigeon coming into the U.S. and shutting down its government? What is Canada up to, and how little should they be trusted?

Since the 90's, every time Democrats get into office, Republicans try to shut down the government and impeach the President. In other words, they're trying to tell everyone that the only government people can have is a Republican government... a.k.a. Republicans have become totalitarians.

Would any of you prefer it if the United States became a dictatorship?

The problem with Quake, is that it is old-school. That means, there is no system of positive reinforcement. Modern games are the most pussy shit you have ever seen. They hold your fucking hand the entire time you play them. They reward you even if you lose. And that's exactly how we need to make Quake.

A section of Quake can be reserved for professional - no pussies allowed - gameplay. The entire rest of the game should take every step to eliminate negative reinforcement, and add positive.

It used to be, if your kid acted up, you'd beat the shit out of him. Today, you're just supposed to have a talk. That sort of change is the same in video-games as it is throughout regular culture. So while we are mostly a bunch of old-school, hardened motherfuckers, the vast majority of modern gamers are total fucking pussies. To them, Quake is like corporal punishment. They can't take it. They don't want to take it. And that's ok, because we can change the game to make it pussy-friendly.

The skill-matching system is a good example of what i'm talking about. If you lose, it punishes you by ranking you down. Being ranked down is negative reinforcement. It basically amounts to corporal punishment. Quake people think it's a good mechanism, because it helps make the game more even and fair, but in reality, new-school players interpret the system as corporal punishment or negative reinforcement. If you can only rank up, and never down, no matter what, then you successfully eliminate the negative reinforcement while retaining the positive.

I'm not going to go over every aspect of the game or system, but hopefully, I don't need to do id software's job for them. Even on a team, each player has their own job to do, and when they fail to do that job, the entire team suffers. The less other player's have to compensate for the failing players, the better the team does. So go do that.

As a solution to the console problem of lousy FPS controls, I have devised a new type of controller. It should be fully capable of emulating a regular console gamepad, while also providing a higher level of control.

Here's a drawing, where I once again showcase my incredible, highly-professional drawing abilities: http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj193/naf1...d85bb6.png

In the drawing, you see the basic structure of the controller. The top part consists of two joysticks (which are like the types of joysticks you would find in a jet-fighter game), and the select, start and home buttons found on every console controller. The joysticks each have two buttons: one set for the index fingers, and one for the thumbs.

The bottom part consists of the rest of the buttons, each one being a foot-pedal. Obviously, to press them, you use your feet.

That's about it. The idea is that the joysticks emulate the left and right thumb-sticks, but instead of using your thumbs, you use your hands, which gives you greater control.

A d-pad could be added somewhere, possibly as additional foot-pedals.

I don't know how you motherfuckers have been doing this for decades, and yet you don't know the primary demographic - nerds.

Nerds are people who are dedicated to a non-social pursuit. The QL system of prohibited aliasing, keeping stats on everything, a friends list, and a skill-matching apparatus, achieve one singular goal: to force nerds into being social.

I don't know how you motherfuckers have been doing this for decades, and yet you don't know why nerds are against being social.

Regardless of id software's absolute failings to bring in, with all of the aforementioned system apparatuses, absolutely 0 new players, they should ensure that no person is forced to be social.

There is a simple solution: make a special kind of account, in which the player is allowed to be completely non-social. That means: they can use as many aliases as they want, no stats are kept or shown publicly (with the possible exclusion of official-match stats), and the friends and skill-matching systems are disabled. It would be easy to arrange that kind of thing... you just put ?'s in place of the usual things. If you played a game with this type of player, and then you go into your profile and check out the match details, instead of a name, it would just be one or more ?'s. If you look at their account, you will only find ?'s. It would also be impossible to add the player to your friends list; and if you attempted to see their elo or skill-rating, you would again, only find ?'s.

Temporarily excusing the massive invasion of privacy that is the QL system, there is no sound argument for creating an environment in which nerds are uncomfortable. Guess what? I don't want to be your friend. I don't want to get to know you. I don't want to say, "Hi dude, it's great to see you.", every time we end up on the same server. And do you know why? It's because i'm a nerd, and I therefore have no interest in social pursuits.

Being a professional esport does not mean everyone has to become a stereotypical jock asshole. Video-games have always been the domain of nerds, and that is one thing that should always be respected.

Cross compatibility is not a new subject, but maybe there can be new progress in the area.

Microsoft owns xbox. Microsoft also owns windows. If they made the xbox x compatible with windows, and not with any other OS, it would give additional reason to own both an xbox and a windows OS. Apple does not have a gaming system. Sony and Nintendo do not have OS's. With segregated servers keeping all the aim-assist passengers away from people who actually want to play games, there is no reason for Microsoft to separate PC from console.

In conclusion, by making the two systems x compatible, gaming would reach new levels of success, flexibility, and accessibility. In addition, it would lead to greater profits for Microsoft, which, as i'm sure you all care about, would help the Washington state economy. It would also reverse climate change to sustainable levels. And, last but not least, it would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bring peace to Syria.

For those who don't know, the scientific method consists of trial and error. That means, you try something, and if it doesn't work, you try something else. If it does work, you keep doing it.

The scientific method has nothing to do with ego, pride, alpha dogs, or for that matter, beta cats. It does have to do with making real progress, as opposed to sitting around endlessly repeating your errors like some kind of hellish nightmare.

For example... the skill-matching system was tried, and it erred. Therefore, we should try something else.

If there is any downside to trial and error, it involves the overall expense. If you develop an expensive system, and it fails, then you lose a lot of money. Regardless, it's still better to scrap or salvage the thing, then to continue bleeding. The solution though, of course, is to not develop elaborate, revolutionary systems, unless you are certain they will work.

Trial and error can be done in an inexpensive, efficient manner. When done properly, step-by-step, and little-by-little, the scientific method can lead to elaborate, revolutionary systems that do actually function. You test one part, and if it works, you keep it. After you've got enough working parts, you can combine them into a working machine.

Obviously, the main problem in QL is that there are no players. So... using the scientific method, how can we work towards getting more players?

One very real problem in QL is that people do not draw a distinction between practices and matches.

In practices, you play to learn.

In matches, you play to win.

When in practice, if you to play win, then you fail to learn anything, and you accomplish nothing towards any real goal, and if other people are there, you are not only wasting your own time, you are wasting theirs as well. As such, the more distinctions drawn between practices and matches, the better. That includes not wearing your official uniform/alias during practice, and not keeping statistics on practices.

It is unclear why the QL system was so tragically designed to erase the line between practices and matches, but it is something that can be fixed. People playing for elo or skill rating, outside of matches, is about as useful as a second asshole.

In sports, every player and every team has a unique uniform. In esports, aliasing fulfills the same role. In either, it's important that uniforms only be worn in matches.

When you're practicing, or at home, or hanging out at your favorite underground sex dungeon, do you wear your sports uniform? The answer is no, except for possibly at the sex dungeon. The fact is, that when you are practicing, you don't wear your uniform, you wear whatever clothes you want + the gear you need.

There are many reasons why you reserve your uniform for matches, and I hope that you all learn every one of them.

To translate: we should be able to use whatever aliases we want outside of matches, and have a singular alias for matches. To not do it that way is like forcing us to wear our uniforms everywhere we fucking go.

How many of you did not grow up playing sports? There is no real school for sports, so growing up playing sports tends to fill that role. If you did not go to school, today, you probably cannot read, write or perform basic arithmetic. It's not exactly a crime to be illiterate, but it certainly makes professional writing somewhat of a challenge.

I don't know if there is some kind of sports book you could read to catch up a bit, but if so, it would certainly help. The fact we keep stats on practices goes to show how sports illiterate some people in esports must truly be.

Personally, I grew up playing soccer and baseball. In soccer, I was on three teams every year; in three different leagues. Two of the three were for all-stars. Around the same time, I was also in arcades playing Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Back then, there were no real PC's, and there was no internet, and there were no FPS games (yes, i'm that old). So while I was very successful playing sports, I also played video-games, and honestly, i've always preferred video-games.

The difference between me and many of the other people in esports, is that I did go to sports school, and I can distinguish between a professional sport and a bunch of kids pretending to play a professional sport. Teaching sports to the sports illiterate is like teaching Helen Keller how to say water... it takes forever, it's frustrating, and even when she finally says it, she doesn't pronounce it correctly.

It's my interest to have legitimate professional esports. If you have the same interest, but you do not understand sports well enough to make it happen, there are two options: learn more about sports, or listen to someone who knows what they're talking about. This thing can work. We have proof that it can work. The LoL and FGC streams pull in like 150k viewers. If we can keep that sort of thing going, and simultaneously make the games legitimate, then professional esports will be a reality. Worthington's Law does not make a sport professional, and perhaps after enough sports school, you will understand what that means.

The classic Orwellian method of endless, fake warfare is ever present here in the world of Quake. By that, I mean the conflict between graphics and gameplay. Some fuck says graphics > gameplay, and then all the stooges say, gameplay > graphics... but when you look behind the curtain, you realize that the best possible method is gameplay + graphics.

By what estimation is it impossible to have both such things? Big brother's? The communists who seek to sap our bodily fluids? Joke's aside, there is no reason we cannot have both graphics and gameplay, and if we did, our potential market would grow by multiplications.

Would it be possible to alter the statistics system so that it only keeps stats on official matches? The way it is now, it makes the game seem like a bunch of kids pretending to be playing a professional sport. In a pro-sports broadcast, you see and hear lots of statistics, and none of them are from practices.

Also, could you please enable the usage of unlimited aliases? The combination of the stats system and the anti-alias campaign is like something out of 1984. We don't need tracking microchips installed in our skulls. What the fuck is the point of this big-brother bullshit? It's creepy.

Stats should only be kept on matches, and we do not need big-brother following our every move.

As a simple, effective solution to the skill-gap, which would function regardless of the skill-matching system, a handicapping system can be employed.

It would work by basically giving the losing player extra equipment. The further behind the player(s) get, the better equipment they spawn with. When they are only 3 points behind, they might spawn with 100/50 and a RL (in addition to the mg and gauntlet). If they get to 10 points behind (in duel, let's say), they spawn with 200/200, all weapons and ammo, and a quad damage.

Obviously, in a gamemode like CA, the handicapping system would work the opposite: meaning, the winning players would spawn with less. You can't really give the losing players more stuff off the spawn (aside from quad, haste and regeneration). If the losing players spawned normally, and the winning players spawned with 100/50, gauntlet, mg and RL only (and possibly even strafejumping disabled), it would certainly close the gap.

With these sorts of rules, the scores would be closer, and the ruleset could be disabled or enabled through a simple vote or when creating a server. It would give newer players the reason they need to continue playing. And in some ways, it would make the game more difficult for experienced players. Obviously, it's easier to play against 100/0, gauntlet/mg off the spawn than 200/200, everything + quad (and strafejumping disabled for yourself).

In physical professional sports, the business model is based on viewers. More viewers = more profit. In esports, the business model should be the opposite. If we make it based on players, we can achieve success.

Think about the QL system... it has an in-game ad system and a subscription system. If the game had millions of players every day, both of those systems would be generating enormous revenue. Furthermore, it has now become a common empirical fact that the only people who really watch the professional competitions are people who also play the game. That means, not only would the game generate more revenue from having more players, it would also generate more revenue from viewers. Without the players, there are no viewers, and it is therefore imperative to begin with players.

Advertising a game as being both fun and a form of exercise is a good way to bring in more players. Exercise is popular and profitable, and it's also honest. The game is fun (or, can be), and playing it is exercise. That's not a lie, like the enormous farce that exists within the viewer-based professional sports model. Honestly, how could they sell all those products, if they did not convince people that they were watching something truly worthwhile? Imagine the commentators saying things like, "Wow, what a great move that was... but it's not like it cured cancer or anything. Although, the player does endorse shoes that can absolutely not help anyone cure cancer. Really, these players and this game are less important than car mechanics. If all the mechanics disappeared tomorrow, our cars would start breaking and the fabric of society would quickly deteriorate into horses and covered wagons. On the other hand, if the sports and players were gone tomorrow, people would just watch something else on tv.". You see, they have to be dishonest. They need to create a giant illusion, but we do not.

If we can bring in the players, we will have the viewers, and we will have all of the tremendous profit from the player-base itself (some of which can be cycled through the professional competitions). In physical sports, the profit gained from a player-base is almost exclusively found in merchandising... selling balls and shoes and the like. Part of the reason for that, is the fact no one actually owns the games themselves, and therefore cannot buy or sell them. Here, of course, id software owns the game, and every additional player results in greater profit for them. There are certain other reasons for video-games to use a player-based model, such as the fact it is easier to play a video-game than a physical sport - due to the internet, and not having to travel around to fields or courts or whatever.

By going with a player-based model, we can be more honest, more successful, and while it still is unnecessary and ultimately insignificant, it can function as a healthy addition to society.

George Bernard Shaw wrote, "[Chess] is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time.". Maybe it's the case that many Quake players have never heard of megalomania? Certainly, it is in the dictionary.

No matter how good one might be at Quake (or any other game), it is still a game. You're not curing cancer here... you're just fucking around. There's nothing wrong with having a little fun and getting in some exercise at the same time, but when playing a game turns you into a megalomaniacal asshole, you have clearly crossed a dangerous line.

You are not important. Playing a game will never make you important. Do you know who is important? The President of the United States. If the President dies tomorrow, that's a real fucking problem. If you die tomorrow, no one fucking cares.

If you are going to be stupid enough to play games, at least have the decency to understand your own insignificance.

Maybe some of you did not grow up playing sports, and that's understandable, but perhaps it is time to learn about something called sportsmanship.

Basically, whether or not you win or lose the game, you shake hands with your opponent(s) and say 'good game' (or the equivalent). It's a standard practice of all athletic competitions.

It would be healthy for the Quake community to exhibit sportsmanship.

In every single-player video-game, one structural element remains the same: the game is easiest at the beginning, and hardest at the end. In Quake, it is the exact opposite. Other games like CoD and CS have already fixed the problem (to some extent), while Quake has essentially left it untouched.

You might say the skill-matching system was an effort to address and correct the problem, but if so, it clearly failed. How can you match beginners with other beginners, when there are no beginners? The solution is to make a mode where everyone is effectively a beginner, and cannot be anything else.

There are many game modes in Quake, such as FFA, CA and TDM, but there are no beginner, intermediate and expert modes. If we were to make such things, Quake multi-player structure would mirror standard single-player video-game structure. It would also achieve such a goal without ruining the highest level of play.

Where our competition has gained ground, is in how they appeal to beginner and intermediate players. Where they have made no progress, is at the highest-level. As a result, we still have the advantage when it comes to pro-gaming. Their exclusive pro-gaming 'advantage' comes from the number of people who play their games. Those numbers come from beginner and intermediate players. In other words, their success is a farce.

So yes, the game needs to be easiest at the beginning, and hardest at the end. It also must become progressively more difficult as players go from beginning to end. And because each person improves at a different rate, the player must have some personal choice in when they move from one level of difficulty to the next. By ensuring each difficulty level will truly be what it claims, the system must not match people based on people. The game-mode itself must be easier or harder, no matter the skill or experience of the player's involved. Furthermore, each level of difficulty should prepare the players for what they will face in the following levels (e.g.: beginner duel, intermediate duel and expert duel). Each level of duel does not necessarily contain different players, but does contain a different level of difficulty.

In addition, it could be good to have a sort of 'gateway-mode', which has the sole function of bringing people into the world of Quake.

The arguably narcissistic Quake community has the common tendency to alienate enormous groups of people. In some cases, it's good to alienate groups of people. In other cases, it's not. The important thing is to know who to alienate and who to embrace.

An easy target for alienation would be Nazi's. They make up a tiny percentage of the human population, and every single one of them is a total dipshit, douchebag, cocksucking motherfucker. They also cannot coexist peacefully with anyone else. So that means, if we permit Nazi's, we get 50 fuckwads in exchange for the other 7 billion people in the world. It's not a complicated equation... do we want 7 billion people or 50 assheads?

A more challenging case, is between no-life's and their busy counterparts. You might think, there are fewer no-life's than normal people, and that's true, but we also do not need to alienate the no-life's. Fact is, there is a way for no-life's and normal people to coexist peacefully. As a result, while the numbers are in favor of the normal, busy types of people, we should still not alienate no-life's.

One key demographic Quake has ignored, is the no-commitments type. Some types of people seek lifelong relationships, and those people are usually attracted to Quake. The problem is, Quake has developed in such a way, that today, only people willing to make that kind of commitment are interested in the game. The skill-matching system is like a fucking arranged marriage. You can't even play one duel without committing yourself to either 10 minutes or a forfeit loss. By what logic would we alienate the types of people who have no interest in lifelong relationships? I can find none, and they do make up a substantial percentage of the human population.

It's not a challenging process to determine which groups should be alienated and which should not. If they make up a large percentage of the population, they should not be alienated. If they make up a small percentage, they should be alienated, unless they can coexist peacefully with the large percentages. Once you know who to alienate and who not to alienate, it becomes a simple process of ensuring that such things are accounted for on the field itself.

In order to make the game enjoyable for busy types, what about starting players off with the best possible equipment? Like, let's say there was a 'beginners' mode where strafe-jumping was disabled, and the only weapons were the machine-gun and shotgun. When a new player joins the game, they start with 200/200, both weapons, and max-ammo. They also start with quad damage. So instead of having to begin with nothing and compete against players who have everything, they start with everything against players who have probably been depleted. It would give them a taste of blood, which, if they are sharks, is all they need to keep coming back. And as a disincentive to quit and rejoin the server just to get all the beginning stuff back, the system could make it so players cannot rejoin the server within five minutes of leaving.

I suppose the mode would have to be something like FFA, and it may require a kind of setup where the game never ends. Like, it only changes maps every 24 hours, and there is no frag-limit. So basically, people just come and go as they please, and when they show up, they are sort of rewarded with a bunch of easy kills.

You could also periodically grant additional quad-damages... every five minutes or so.

Obviously, there would be no real winning or losing, there would just be tons and tons of fragging.

In my previous column, I went over the scientific effects of practice on the brain. To follow up on that idea, the negative side of practice should also be examined.

The simple fact of practice is, that it is not an achievement. You can be the biggest idiot, jackass, dipshit loser on Earth, and still practice. When a game rewards practice more than personal character, it invites talentless fags (South Park biker type fags), to run rampant and harass unpracticed players. More specifically, it promotes the unhealthy, antisocial, 'no-life' lifestyle. Obviously, unless you are a professional player, the only way to practice excessively, is to have no fucking life whatsoever.

Clearly, if we are to bring in more players, we need to put a cap on how much a practice-gap can affect the outcome or enjoyment of a game. Most people do not have the time to practice excessively, nor do they want to quit their jobs, drop out of school, or otherwise be one of those 'no-lifers' in order to do so. Precisely how to solve the practice-gap, I do not know, but the 'skill-matching' system is not working. The solution needs to be a hard solution, not something that anyone can easily work around or subvert (such as by making new accounts or intentionally losing games). And certainly, I do not agree with the concept of limiting aliases. Contrary to what communists and fascists would have you believe, aliasing is not about hiding your identity to commit crimes. It is, in fact, about self-expression, creativity and originality. And I can assure you, in terms of mental fitness, the person who comes up with 1,000 aliases is exercising more brainpower than someone who only develops 1.

In conclusion, when devising a solution, it should not involve destroying the healthy practice of aliasing. It should also not involve dysfunctional 'skill-matching' systems. A hard solution is something like disabling strafe-jumping and some of the weapons, and that is precisely the type of solution needed.

In physical sports, it is easy to see the effect on the players. All you have to do is look at them. In electronic sports, the differences are not so clear. The reason, is that electronic sports affect the brain. I don't know about you, but the last time I looked in a mirror, I could not see my brain. Maybe if people understood precisely how esports change their bodies, they would be more interested in playing one game over another?

I personally am not qualified to explain such things. The parts I do know involve development of the fight or flight response, as well as acceleration of neural pathways. That means, no matter how good of a video-game player you are, time and practice are the only real ways to compete against experienced players. As a new player, you can lose, and have your pride damaged, and become despondent over how pathetic and stupid you are, or, you can understand that putting in enough time at the gym is the only way to become a competitive bodybuilder. Think of Quake as brainbuilding, but without the mirror.

It may be a good idea to have a scientist completely explain the exact processes taking place. Even if we can't see them, we can still learn about them and know what's going on. Regardless of whether it convinces people to play Quake over some dipshit, piece of crap game turning their minds into mush (i'm not biased or anything), it would still be valuable for us to understand the best possible way to train and practice... and for that matter, to develop new games that could be superior to existing titles. After all, if these games do not provide some great assistance to humanity, of what real value are they?

As Bob Marley once sang, "It's a disgrace, to see the human race, in a rat-race.".

If one were so inclined, they could consider Quake a rat-race. The items do resemble cheese. Being that people race to them, the concept of a 'rat-race' seems entirely appropriate. Honestly, does anyone want to be in a rat-race?

Personally, I enjoy death-match. For me, it's not about cheese. It's about combat. When the race for cheese becomes more prevalent than the combat, it becomes reasonable to consider the game of death-match to be more of a rat-race. Obviously, the items are what may confuse the outsider into thinking 'rat-race' instead of 'combat'. Shouldn't our focus be to make Quake the best first-person combat game?

To eliminate the rat-race and exemplify the combat, the items must be removed, or changed so they play a different role. The reason it's such a rat-race, is because the pieces of cheese are so central to the gameplay. Throughout almost the entire game, the rats, or 'players', are racing towards them. If there were only two races in the game, and the rest of the time people were slaughtering each other, the idea of rat-race would be inoperable. After-all, a rat-race is not something where the rats fight for five minutes, and then race for a piece of cheese, and then fight for another five minutes.

I have nothing personally against rats. They're smart, friendly creatures. Aside from their short life-spans, they make some of the best house-pets. Regardless, there is a reason why no professional rat-racing league exists.

After the redneck-fest around the Quakecon grand finals, it has become abundantly clear that id has a white-trash problem. As everyone knows, Nazi's are the naturally-occurring result of too much white-trash. Similar to nuclear fusion, when atoms/white-trash begin merging together, you get Nazi's.

Id has displayed an absolute lack of ability or concern with the overwhelmingly white-trash, redneck nature of their Quakecon/other audiences. In their current and proven state, it would be impossible for me or any responsible individual, to recommend them or their products to investors. If I were to do so, the investors would grow cautious over heeding my counsel on future investments.

Fortunately, there is still one solution available: a merger. There are a number of existing FPS companies who are interested in esports, and who do not have the white-trash epidemic. They also have considerably more money than id does or, going the way they are, ever will. That means, in addition to buying id software and merging its components with their own existing infrastructure, they could also afford to put more than two people on the QL project, and additionally, could invest in professional tournaments. The result would be an elimination of every problem plaguing this community.

Aside from buying and owning the Quake brand, what the potential company (such as Valve or the CoD corporation), would be gaining, is primarily this community. The value of all our players, casters, modders, and everyone else with years, if not longer, of experience and dedication in esports and pro-gaming is far greater than the Quake brand itself. Provided the new company maintains the basic integrity of Quake gameplay, it should have no problem gaining community support.

The combination of this community, the Quake brand, and the new company, is fully capable of achieving success. With a new company at the helm, investors would regain confidence, thus giving Quake a new chance.

Hopefully, it is now clear to everyone that id software and Quakecon have nothing whatsoever to do with esports or pro-gaming. The random Texas inbred(s) made more money on car raffles than the professional players did from practicing for 10 years.

If anyone watched the later parts of Quakecon, thinking it was an esports event, they would decide to never have anything to do with esports or video-games ever again. It is precisely the type of scene that drives away investors, as well as anyone with a shred of dignity. Perhaps the lowest moment, was when they convinced some of the missing-chromosome audience members to literally suck balls for prizes. One of them was something like a 12 year-old girl, which is borderline statutory rape. Regardless, it exposes the degrading mentality of id software, that they treat their audience as people who basically suck testicles for prizes.

Once again, it is made clear, that if esports and pro-gaming will work, id software is not the company to make it happen. The players did well, the faceit team did well, but as usual since 1999, id software did shit and left all the quality work to the community. It is perhaps overdue, that the community ceases to volunteer its superior services to id software, and demands either a share in the profits, or a split from participating with id software activities and products.

P.S.: If you're a Nazi, fuck you. You should be banned from this community. If anyone here honestly thinks that permitting Nazi's and their anti-semitic murder speech is helping esports, pro-gaming or this specific community, then you must be mentally challenged.

There are two distinct ways to approach the problem with a game: 1. change the players 2. change the game (or system). The second is always the correct choice.

In a game like QL, choosing the 1st is like pouring fish-blood all over toddlers and then throwing them into a shark-tank. People are literally afraid to play QL. A game should not scare away players, whether they are potential players or otherwise.

Instead of having one, big shark-tank for everyone, and a 'matching' system that attempts to pit sharks against other sharks of equal skill, there should be a kiddie-pool, a swimming pool with a gradual decline from shallow to deep, and the open ocean - where the sharks live. By making it that way, the players have no need to fear the game... only some parts of the game. And that's fine, because if there are a million kiddie-pool players, and only 1,000 open-ocean players, everyone gets what they want.

Fact is, QL currently only consists of the open-ocean. Occasionally, the sharks who play QL sometimes recreate scenes from the movie 'Jaws'. This is otherwise called 'tier-slumming'. Just like in Jaws, every time it happens, people are afraid to go swimming. Plus, the old lady slaps the police chief... which makes him upset. Honestly, how can anyone blame the little kids for trying to swim and play around on their blow-up rafts?

Well, if you could follow that many metaphors, then congratulations. Hopefully, the point is clear.

P.S.: Would the skill-matching system work better if your rank depreciated through lack of play-time? I mean, if you're not playing, you are getting worse, so it would make sense for your calculated skill to decline apportionately.

Is there a reason why there are no bots on empty servers? A lot of people would prefer playing against a bot while they're waiting for a human opponent. And once one person is on the server, more typically do join.

Not that every empty server should contain one or more bots, but maybe some of them should?

There are many reasons why people prefer lame shit, shallow piece of crap games. One reason, is that they are fucking stupid. The average IQ of a cod player is about 40 points less than a Quake player. There isn't much we can do to change people's IQ's, but we can change certain aspects of the game to make it appealing for a wider variety of IQ levels. The key, is to ensure that we do not - while in the process of making the game more accessible to idiots - sacrifice any degree of intellectual integrity.

Put simply: tier slumming could be effectively eliminated by disabling strafe-jumping at low-tier. The fact is, no experienced player could live without strafe-jumping. Most new players probably don't know how to strafe-jump. By disabling such a vital function, the lowest of tiers would be unplayable for experienced players.

To continue the process of bringing in new players gradually, the next lowest tier could enable strafe-jumping, but disable some of the weapons and/or maps. Again, experienced players find little value in playing without a proper weapon and map selection. For new players though, it would make the game considerably easier and more fun. Plus, they could learn how to strafe-jump in a relatively safe environment.

With these types of changes, continuing up the chain until everything is enabled, we can adjust the depth of the pool while still maintaining a deep-end. Other than that, I suppose we could just tell everyone how stupid they are, and point to their IQ scores as proof.

Maybe some people find DM boring to watch, due to all of the item gathering. Is there anything enjoyable about watching people run around a map and collect items? The fighting and killing is what people want to see.

As a solution, the item-gathering system could be replaced by a regeneration system. Health, armor, weapons and ammo could all generate and regenerate. For example, the game could cap your rocket ammo at three. Rockets regenerate at 1 per 2 seconds. That means, you would be unable to really spam them, and depending on the health and armor of your opponent, you may need to use more than just rockets to get a kill. Additionally, you could make it so that some weapons are not available throughout the entire game. Like, the railgun could only be active for the last five minutes.

With the (re)generation system, the game becomes about managing your items as opposed to running around collecting them.

For the purpose of multiplying the number of players on servers, QL should have 4 major tournaments per year: one every 3 months. The active effect of tournaments on players, is that it stimulates them to play more. Whether or not they are practicing for a tournament, the tournament environment generates a desire to play the game. Combined with those who are practicing for an upcoming tournament, the number of players on servers increases that much further. The number also increases beyond that point, due to other players having easier access to games. Most players, when they go to the server browser and find no players, they leave and go to another game. If there are players on the servers, they will join and play QL instead.

Having tournaments more frequently than 3 months would probably have no positive effect on the number of players on servers. A tournament every 3 months is just enough to give people a break - so they can rest - while also maintaining the highest number of practicing players.

Presuming that id software profits from having players on servers, and in the server-browser, they themselves could fund all four tournaments, and find that doing so is profitable. Depending on the cost of the tournaments, and the profit gained through the increased numbers of players on servers, a successful model could be achieved.

Thank you for your time. Your horse is an asshole. Buy war bonds.

Is there any chance id would be willing to change the default graphics? Personally, I can't enjoy the game with the graphics that way, and I assume plenty of others cannot either. I don't think most people would enjoy it the way I set it up, but maybe there is some visual artist out there who could devise a quality default scheme that is appealing to the general public. Most people do not know either how or that they can change the graphics in any meaningful way. For them, default is pretty much everything. First impressions and all that.

cg_fov "105"
cg_simpleitems "1"
cg_noProjectileTrail "1"
cg_drawGun "0"
cg_marks "0"
cg_scorePlums "0"
cg_drawCrosshair "2"
cg_crosshaircolor "9"
cg_crosshairsize "30"
cg_crosshairHitStyle "2"
cg_crosshairHitTime "250"
cg_crosshairHitColor "9"
cg_crosshairBrightness "0.6"
cg_crosshairPulse "0"
cg_brasstime "0"
color1 "14"
color2 "14"

cg_railtrailtime "1500"
r_railcorewidth "0"
r_railsegmentlength "8"
r_railwidth "8"

seta r_aspectRatio "1"

cg_truelightning 1

r_mode 23
r_picmip 10
r_gamma 1
r_mapoverbrightbits 1
r_intensity 1.2
r_ignorehwgamma 1
r_dynamiclight 0
r_lightmap 0
r_vertexlight 0
r_fullbright 1
r_smp 0
r_subdivisions "80"
r_fastsky 1
r_fullscreen 1

r_displayrefresh 0

cg_bob 0
cg_bobroll "0"
cg_bobpitch "0"
cg_bob "0"
cg_kickscale 0
cg_leveltimerdirection 1
cg_muzzleFlash "0"
cg_waterWarp "0"
cg_screenDamage 0
cg_weaponColorstyle "1"
cg_weaponColor "0xRRGGBBAA"
cl_allowConsoleChat 1

cg_noprojectiletrail 1
cg_lightningStyle "5"
cg_railStyle "1"
cg_rocketStyle "1"
cg_plasmaStyle "1"
cg_enableRespawnTimer "1"
cg_lightningImpact "1"
cg_smoke_SG "0"
cg_smokeRadius_GL "0"
cg_smokeRadius_RL "0"
cg_switchToEmpty "1"
cg_deadBodyDarken "1"
cg_bubbleTrail "0"
cg_viewsize "100"
cg_filter_Angles "0"
cg_drawItemPickups "0"
cg_playershadows 0

cg_forcemodel 0
model "visor/bright"
cg_forceteammodel "visor/bright"
cg_forceenemymodel "keel/bright"
seta cg_weaponColor_grenade "0xFFFFFFFF"
seta cg_enemyLowerColor "0x800000ff"
seta cg_enemyUpperColor "0x800000ff"
seta cg_enemyHeadColor "0x800000ff"
seta cg_deadBodyColor "0x101010FF"
seta cg_teamHeadColor "0004FF"
seta cg_teamLowerColor "0004FF"
seta cg_teamUpperColor "0004FF"

seta cg_impactSparksVelocity "128"
seta cg_impactSparksSize "8"
seta cg_impactSparksLifetime "250"
seta cg_impactSparks "0"
seta cg_zoomOutOnDeath "1"
seta cg_zoomToggle "0"
seta cg_zoomScaling "1"

Why would someone bother changing all of the above settings, unless the default were really not that great? And if you're wondering, those are my settings.

Listen up, scrubs, 'cause this shit's 'bout to get hype.

The fighting game community, or 'fgc' as they call themselves, is having their big tournament right now. I watched some of the stream earlier today. Certainly were lots of people in the audience. Despite their subterranean appearances and constant administration of cliche's and catch-phrases, they seem to be doing well. They're a very ambitious group. Fortunately for them, they have companies that continue producing new games.

Did id software stop making games with Q3, or was it Q2? I know, with one of them, they figured out how to make more money selling engines than games. They outsourced Q4. It used the D3 engine. It was a plain experiment in selling engines and having other companies make the games.

That's one thing I like about the 'fgc'. They're playing ultimate marvel vs capcom 3 and super duper ultra mega street fighter 11 turbo, and king of fighters 800/11x73n, and Tekken x Street Fighter Triptotexatrops edition. We're still stuck on a slightly modified version of Q3. And that's because capcom continues making games.

Maybe QL was another of id's business experiments - from game engines to web-engines. They just wanted to test the model of running game systems through browsers. Meanwhile, we're stuck with an inadequate game, and fewer tournaments every year.

Seems like we're just kind of fucked. The probability of id ever making games again is exactly 3.2%. All the other FPS makers can't make a proper esports FPS, or doing so simply isn't within their business interests. Even if we robbed a bank or some rich, crazy person gave us a billion dollars, could we make a game worth playing? There must be some way to make this thing work. The path of least resistance works something like 99% of the time. Why doesn't it work that other 1%? What's going on there, and could we turn that exception into the rule?

Well, I suppose it's all a scrub. I'm not a TLC fan, it's just what the 'fgc' says all the time. I guess they grew up listening to TLC.

As most people now know, weed was recently legalized in Washington state. Next time you're here, you might be interested in trying legal weed. The shops will not be opened until next year, but when the time comes, be sure to look for the legal weed logo. Yes, the state has developed a logo denoting official legal weed.

Every state in the union has a nickname. For example, Tennessee is called 'The Volunteer State', and Texas is called the 'Lone Star State'. Washington just happens to be called 'The Evergreen state'. I suppose, it's because of all the tree's, but now, it has a different meaning.

So that you can familiarize yourself with Washington and it's legal weed commerce, the logo can be found here. When you're driving around or hanging out with a friend who lives here, you may see the logo and wonder what the fuck it is. Now you know.

Thank you for your cooperation.

The only remaining argument the anti-marijuana people seem to have, is that there is a tiny fraction of increased mental illness risk associated with using marijuana during one's developmental years. Needless to say, it is one of the dumbest arguments ever constructed. It's like saying, because cars are dangerous when driven by 10 year-olds, it should be illegal for anyone to drive a car. Not to mention the fact that it is only an increased risk, and a very small increase at that. You could make a counter-argument that if you use marijuana during your developmental years, you will become President of the United States.

It's also bizarre to suggest that because something has the potential to cause illness or injury, it should be illegal. That's like saying sports should be illegal, because so many athletes sustain injuries. Furthermore, imprisonment is also an injury, so how is it an improvement to replace one injury with another? Either you're injured in the sport, or you're injured through imprisonment. It doesn't make sense. If the idea is to reduce illness and injury, then imprisoning and fining has the opposite effect.

The simple fact is that the anti-marijuana people are wrong. This is not a matter of your personal beliefs, this is a matter of the fact that 2+2=4. No matter what bullshit propaganda or nonsense reasoning you devise, 2+2 will always = 4. You're wrong, accept it, change the fucking laws, and let's move on to another issue.

The FPS community is massive. The problem is, most of the players use joysticks. Almost none of them convert to the mouse and keyboard. They give many reasons for why they refuse to switch, but I suspect all of their reasons are subterfuge. The purpose is to cover up the fact they simply don't know how to use a mouse and keyboard.

Unlike in other types of games, using a mouse and keyboard in an FPS is challenging. It is markedly different than using a joystick. It's like chopsticks compared to a fork. These console players are comfortable with their forks. Even though it takes little time to learn how to use chopsticks, they are still reluctant.

There are many remedies to the bottleneck. One, which would be the easiest and fastest, is to create a training program. It teaches the joystick user, step by step, how to use a mouse and keyboard. The first step would be mouse training. Learning how to aim with the mouse is the easiest and most beneficial step in the training. During this stage, the user would not need to use the keyboard. They simply aim and shoot in a 3-dimensional environment.

This particular solution could be employed within QL. The game is free, and any computer today can run it at full speed. If the bottleneck were expanded, and the players poured into QL, we could achieve the progress for which we've been searching.

The other solutions are more complicated, and do not need to be addressed in this column. But, expanding the bottleneck is precisely what needs to be done. To look around here, you'd think FPS's were dying, but really, it's just mouse and keyboard FPS'ing that's having trouble.

The only argument i've heard as to why consoles refuse to permit the use of mice and keyboards, is that it would ruin the game for joystick users. There could not be a simpler solution: segregate the servers. Make it so some servers only permit joystick users, others only permit mouse/keyboard users and you could even get crazy and have an open server... so all those adventurous joystick users could see just what difference professional quality equipment makes.

It's a simple piece of code akin to the difference between public and private servers.

FPS games are still popular. The problem is, they're popular in the form of console, crap bullshit. You'd have to be the most pathetic, lame-ass fuckhead in the world to enjoy console FPS's, and you'd also be an idiot to think they're worth a damn. To get the most out of FPS's and FPS players, you need, at least, a mouse and keyboard (I say, at least, because maybe some better invention will eventually come along).

The reason for this is simple: FPS games happen within a 3-dimensional environment. With a torturous console-controller, you can moderately control things horizontally, and moderately control them vertically, but to control them diagonally becomes an untenable affair. It can be done, but so can sticking your head up a cow's asshole.

The solution is simple: we need to create a new, PC-FPS game which proves just how full of shit console FPS's are. The game must highlight the 3-dimensional aspect of FPS gaming: That you can quickly and accurately operate in all 3-dimensions to a capacity that is functionally impossible with a console controller. I didn't preface 'console controller' with an obscenity, because the term itself is obscene enough. I imagine that many women would enjoy sticking one or more of them up their vagina's, and testing out the rumble feature. But, this is not about how console controllers are more effective as sex-toys than game-controllers, this is about making a new FPS, which can capture the enormous FPS community, while also restoring FPS gaming to its proper place in esports.

We don't need QL, or id software. The truth is, id software does not care about esports or pro-gaming. By disabling any form of modding, and by failing to support pro-gaming themselves, they have effectively killed any means of QL being a functional esport. In their detached minds, we still play Quake because it's just such a great game. It has nothing to do with its esports capacity. This leaves us with little choice but to take matters into our own hands.

By focusing on the aspects of PC-FPS gaming that render console-controller FPS gaming inoperable and inexcusable, we can prove to all the dumb, little kids - who honestly don't know any better - that they should be playing FPS's with proper equipment. We can also prove to the leagues and tournaments that until consoles permit the usage of mice and keyboards, their FPS-games should be disqualified from professional competition. I don't even understand the point. They allow fighting game players to use special joysticks. Why not FPS players? Is it because they pity the inherently ghetto nature of all fighting game participants? Jokes aside, a proper FPS should work to bring out the most in the gametype and in the players. A console controller cannot accomplish that, and a game designed to be played with a console controller will likewise be designed for handicapped play and handicapped players. Console FPS's and all compatible FPS's are the special Olympics of FPS gaming. We can and should prove that.

As a result of the Boston marathon bombing thing, the United States has fully embraced the false security of a police state. Boston is now completely shut down... because, hey, if you go outside, you might trip over your own dick.

Conspiracy theorists are already at work, in suggesting that the entire bombing thing was an inside-job - for the purpose of testing whether the United States was ready to accept a totalitarian dictatorship.

Ironically, politicians and the press, continue saying how the U.S. will continue to have it's freedom... while at the same time, advocating and enforcing an absolute police-state within the major city of Boston.

Btw, it would be nice if people would learn to differentiate between the press and the media. The press is part of the media, but is not the media itself. The media consists of many things, the press being only one of them. Thank you.

I've got two changes to propose: 1. Give people the option to keep their statistics private. 2. Permit premium/pro subscribers to change their alias as much as they motherfucking want.

I still don't understand why QL requires people to only have one alias. If not for the purpose of greater profit/playerbase, why restrict the freedom of players, especially if those players are also paying customers? This is the internet. Anonymity is one of the things people enjoy the most. In this case, as has been the case in every Quake, there is absolutely no reason to force a singular alias on every player. If it's merely a matter of statistics, it is simple to bind statistics to an account, without binding them to an alias.

When it comes to private vs. public statistics, the entire issue is off. There is zero purpose to having any public server statistics, as public servers are merely places for people to fuck around. Statistics are exceptionally valuable when it comes to matches. Anything that isn't an official match, will inevitably ruin either the statistic system or the practice/pub/whatever game. Adding an option to keep your stats private will, at least, deter some of the game-ruining aspects of the statistic system. Preferably, you would entirely eliminate statistics for pub games, but, such a thing would require more coding, and therefore, be more expensive.

It is possible that QL will never achieve a large playerbase. At the very least, only a fool would design a game for a potential reality, rather than a certain reality. As reality changes, so can the game. For that reason, there is no purpose to forcing a single name on every player, or requiring that public server statistics are kept. Is it really so much to ask that I, a paying customer, can change my alias 50 times a day?

So what do you guys think about all this N. Korea business? If they nuke S. Korea and Japan, where can we get decent monitors? Maybe the U.S. should let Japan re-arm itself, and deal with N. Korea in its own way? Those Japs do know how to fight, if we let them.

Check it out. What do you guys think? http://www.cpusa.org/

Why do these video-games have things like iron-sights? A lot of the games with that crappy aiming system are set in modern times. Have gun-makers never learned how to use bluetooth? All you have to do for a better aiming system, is attach a bluetooth aiming device to the gun, which transmits data into a pair of goggles. If you aim the gun to the left, the reticule in your goggles moves to the left. It doesn't take much battery power, and you could have a system where you can recharge the batteries manually. There are simple systems of electricity generation, where you turn a crank to generate electricity and recharge batteries. I've got that kind of thing on a flashlight, which means you could use the same system to recharge a gun/goggles battery.

Well anyway, I don't see how reality is an excuse to impose a crappy aiming system on video-games. If anything, reality should aspire to what video-games prove is preferable. If the best way to aim is by having the highest degree of visibility, then gun-makers should find ways of providing enhanced visibility. If not for the sake of guns, then for the sake of video-games.

A 7 year-old finds out about Quake, learns that it's free, and to a 7 year-old, free is what works. He joins a server, where he is greeted by a bunch of assholes who accuse him of warping (he doesn't even know what warping is - he's 7), call him a cheating cunt, and after abusing him for a while, kick him off the server.

In another case, a 9 year-old goes through a similar routine, except is kicked for being a bad player. After all, according to Quake, if you're not a professional, you should be murdered.

In both cases, the kids go play some other game, where they don't get kicked or abused.

I get that people in the Quake community value the professionalism of the game, but there have to be places where people who are not professionals can actually play the game... free from abuse and ejection. If every kid who decides to play Quake gets kicked off the servers for having a bad internet connection or simply not being up to the standards of professionalism demanded by the many self-appointed, vigilante adjudicators of who and what is acceptable within a public server, then there will be no players left.

In no reasonable game do professional players compete against children. Even if Quake is so dysfunctional that such a thing is required, there should still be mechanisms to protect children from being the subject of abuse. I'd say Quake is worse than Catholicism, except that Quake players don't realize that the people they're abusing are children.

It's simple to create an environment where everyone is welcome. And that is precisely what a public server should be. Any other type of public server can only function to decrease the player-base.

Whatever your opinions of RA3 might be, they did use an excellent server-structure. If you somehow don't know what i'm talking about, they used a setup where there was a team-arena and several duel arenas, all happening at the same time, on the same server. You could switch between the team arena and the duel arenas at your leisure.

Why don't we implement the same system in QL, but with TDM and duel? The setup is great, in that it attracts lots of players to the servers, and makes it easy to find games to play (whether duel or team). I don't know how expensive it would be in terms of programming, but it would definitely be an improved and technically doable modification.

There is a philosophy among some people in the community, that we should not implement the path of least resistance. Among the people in question, an unscientific determination has been made that the path should have added resistance, presumably for the purpose of weeding out weak, shallow, instant-gratification players. After all these years of implementing that system, we now have empirical data to show that it is an absolute and utter failure. Over these years, we have seen a decline in tournaments, sponsors and players. At no point has the path of added resistance led to any kind of positive gain.

Reality is what it is, regardless of one's personal ideals. In almost every realistic case, people will choose the path of least resistance. If you change the Quake system to the path of least resistance, it will increase the number of players, sponsors and tournaments. This is not a matter of faith or dogma, it is a matter of scientific fact. It would be unfortunate if the game has been too devastated by the path of added resistance to be adequately resurrected, but we can and should try.

The geniuses behind Quake Live thought there were too many players, so they added an option to vote-kick people out of public servers. They use a sampler system to entice people into buying accounts, which has never worked and still doesn't, and yet, like insane people, they continue using it. The sampler servers are usually populated, but the rest of the time, no one plays the gametypes.

The point i'm getting to, is that instead of designing the system to bring in as many players as possible, Quake Live is designed to kick people off servers. It's completely backwards. There are almost no players, and the players that do exist get kicked off the servers. Do you not see the problem? The 'premium' gametypes attract players, but then, id software essentially kicks those players off the servers. I do not understand the obsession this community has with destroying itself, but maybe it should try adding players instead of subtracting them?

Public server games are not official matches. They're not the championship game of a $50,000 tournament. They're just stupid, meaningless pub games. It's an excessively foolish idea to treat pubs and pub games as if they are official matches. If you limit spec slots and get rid of vote-kicking, public servers would be fine. If, in addition, you replace the sampler system with something functional, accessible and permanent, all the players on sampler servers would remain on the permanent servers. Or, do you honestly think it's a good policy to drive players away from the game?

Is it possible that id software could abolish vote-kicking on pubs? Vote-kicking on pubs is the most arbitrary, useless and abused feature. Crazy idiots will kick you for reasons only a mental institution can understand. How can the community expect to bring in more players, when it vote-kicks everyone who doesn't meet its irrational specifications? It's a fucking pub. That's the whole point - it's public. Vote-kicking on pubs changes a public server to a non-public or semi-public server.

People in the Quake community are too serious about public servers. If you want an ultra-organized game, you play in leagues, ladders and tournaments. I don't want to go so far as to call the Quake community a bunch of Nazi's, but public servers have become extremely and pointlessly strict.

The way it is now, free-users cannot play premium maps or gametypes. Instead, why not provide 1 permanent free-server per-gametype (per-region), which can be fully accessed by all players? On the server, all the premium-maps are playable. That way, if the gametype is worth paying for, the 1 server will always be full, and therefore, will be insufficient for free-players (which can be exacerbated by prioritizing player-slots to paying players over unpaying). At that stage, as their appetites have been whetted, they will purchase a premium account. And if the gametype isn't worth paying for, it will at least attract more players, who will generate more ad-revenue or potentially purchase a premium account for other reasons.

The free/premium/pro system has not been exceptionally successful, but maybe it could be with the right modifications?

A game has to be successful on pubs before it can succeed in leagues. The way the game is now, a player could grab the flag and run it back into their own flagroom, then sit on the flagstand until they get killed by the other team. It's like team-killing. It's not the kind of problem that would happen in an organized league fashion. Maybe there could be different rules for pubs and matches?

The backstory is that the Vice President of the United States did some task force thing to deal with the problem of gun-violence. I saw a long-list of 'invited' parties, but were any of them scientists? If you were to look at the scientific reasons (you know, the actual, real reasons), why gun-violence is so rampant in the United States, you would find that humans are beasts. Like all creatures, humans have something called 'fear'. When said anxiety mechanism is activated, it initiates a process called 'fight or flight'. When guns are easily accessible, the fearful individual will be significantly more likely to choose fight. When the guns are lethal, that means people will die.

Realistically speaking, if you could eliminate fear, you could eliminate gun-violence without eliminating guns.

In examining mass-shootings, you see how each perpetrator was fueled by fear: VA Tech shooter had something called SM (selective mutism), which is an acute anxiety disorder. The Norway shooter was terrified of Muslims or 'multiculturalism' taking over his country. The Newtown shooter, apparently, was afraid of his mother shipping him off to live on his own.

It's a basic biological reality, that fear is the fuel for fighting... and therefore, killing. So, maybe you politician types should work on that problem?

Does it bother any of you that so many QL players are delusional nutjobs? If you are better than someone else, you must be cheating. If you are warping, even if it's completely unintentional and beyond your control, you are a cheater who is worse than a serial killer.

Maybe QL should devise a system to ban people for slander? In normal society, if you go around accusing people of crimes, and attempting to burn them at the stake, you would typically have to prove your claims in a court of law. If you are unable to do so, you are eligible for a slander suit. Why then, in QL, can nutjob after nutjob slander you, and you can't do anything about it? The system should not favor the mentally deranged, or a bunch of spoiled rotten brats (which is actually a different problem, but likewise prevalent). If it does favor those types, it will attract them and turn away everyone else.

When I was able to play Quake before (12 years ago), people would frequently accuse me of cheating. It didn't bother me, and I would always take it as a compliment. But today, i'm more conscious of the company I keep. I have to question whether I want to be associated with a bunch of complete idiots and wackjobs. I know i'm not cheating, and therefore, I know that those people are thoroughly insane. Delusion is not the hallmark of mental health. It is a mental disorder, and either QL is making people delusional, or it is attracting delusional people. Either way, I have no interest in being part of a diseased culture.

One problem with the design... shouldn't it be like CA-style? Meaning, after each cap, both teams reset for the next round. The way it is now, even with changes in the advanced settings (at least, from what I could tell), after a team caps, the best strategy is to have your team kill themselves. There is an option to disable suicide, but you can still kill yourself with self-damage.

Think about it like this... it's 4v4, and your whole team goes on offense. That's how your offense works, and it is effective and you score that way. The problem is that now you have no one on defense, and they can grab the flag and cap without resistance. But if your team kills themselves after they cap, they can use a 4-offense strategy and then go quickly into a 4-defense strategy. It's a lame way to play a game, when suicide is such a regular occurrence.

If the game is played soccer-style, where after each score, both teams reset and the team that just got scored on gets the flag, there would be no need for the suicide-strategy.

I recently got a free new computer. As a result, I needed a new mouse. Normally, I get WMO's, but, as I tragically discovered, the mouse has been discontinued. Some motherfucker on amazon.com was selling one for $150. It's a fuckin' $20 mouse. So after an hour of scouring the depths of the internet for cheaper WMO's, I somehow stumbled upon this thing called a vertical mouse. It was only $10, and it had a decent sensor, so I thought i'd give it a try. So far, it's not bad.

I'm just wondering, have any of you tried vertical mice? If so, how do they fare for gaming?

In the United States, we have a legal system of due process which is otherwise called 'innocent until proven guilty'. If someone accuses you of committing a crime, and they do not go through the legal process, it is considered 'guilty until proven innocent'. On those occasions, you can sue them for slander.

My idea, is to sue every politician (and any other douchebag), who accuses the entertainment-media complex (such as movies, gangster rap/music, and video-games), of committing murder, mass-murder, or any other school-shooting/gun-violence related crime. Those politicians (and other douchebags), are committing the crime of slander. They are treating us as guilty until proven innocent, and, of course, distracting everyone from the real cause of such violence - politicians themselves.

Yes, it's a strange thing that politicians are the most criminal people in all of history: Hitler - politician. Pol Pot - politician. Stalin - politician. But you don't often see politicians imprisoned for neglect, aiding and abetting, war-crimes (Hello, George W. Bush), or the general laws that they either create or fail to create which are obviously responsible for the gun-violence in question. Bad laws and bad politics - these are the real reasons why the United States has the gun-violence epidemic it does. That fact is easily proven by studying the relative laws and cultures around the world: every one on Earth has virtually the same entertainment-media, but not the same gun-violence.

We, in the entertainment-media complex, have an enormous amount of money. Where there is money, there are lawyers. I propose that we get some lawyers, and sue every damned cocksucker who slanders us... especially politicians whose laws are the real culprit. You politician motherfuckers can try to frame entertainment-media for your crimes, but it will not stick, and as a reminder - your horrible attempts are one of the primary reasons we have the 1st-amendment.

In Iraq, during a decade of war, only about 4,000 Americans died. In the United States, during the exact same time-frame, over 100,000 Americans died from guns alone. Which is the real warzone, and who is responsible for inflicting a civil war upon the United States? It sure as shit isn't the entertainment-media complex.

In conclusion, lawyers... how much money can we get out of suing people/politicians for slander?

In QL, almost every played map has the same item configuration: 2 yellows, 1 red and a mega. The maps differing from it only switch out a yellow for a green. I haven't checked it precisely, but I assume those maps also add more shards, thereby equaling 2 yellows anyway.

I don't dislike the now-standard 4-item config, but wouldn't the game be more interesting, and allow for more playstyles, if you didn't play the same config every game? Like, you could limit the 4-item config to one map per three-map series, or go further, and only allow it to be used as a tiebreaker.

I don't why the config is so popular in QL. It wasn't in any of the previous Quakes. Maybe it's a good config, but it seems overused.

There was a recent report about how video-games affect people. The research concluded that FPS's are the best games to play, and they actually make people smarter. Not only do they make people significantly more intelligent, but they do so more than other types of games. In terms of whether they make people more violent, the research showed that they make people mildly more violent for about 30 minutes after playing a game (meaning, your kids are slightly more likely to wrestle around on the ground), but do not make people significantly more violent or more violent at all for more than the 30 minute period. That means, they have absolutely nothing to do with mass-murder such as the Newtown, Aurora or Norway cases.

In other words, Chris Christie is still fat, and now his children will be as dumb as him. I know he's popular at the moment, but that does not excuse his unjustifiable and un-evidenced decision to ban FPS's in his household, or to oppose video-games themselves. He and all other douchebags who oppose violent video-games - based entirely on superficiality and conjecture - can eat the shit out of a dead elephant's asshole, particularly if by elephant we mean a deceased member of the GOP.

In summation, fuck you anti-video-game people, and for the rest of you, i'll see you on the servers where we will be getting smarter while everyone else will be getting dumber.

Since it's that time of year, and I know how much you all love politics, I thought i'd go over the United States tax-code.

Do you think it would be a good idea to reduce federal income-tax rates by 1, 2, and 3 % for lower, middle, and upper brackets respectively, while also adding a new federal sales tax which would run at 1, 2, and 3 % respectively along the same margins? You might think, how could we create a bracketed sales-tax? To skip straight to the point: the answer is simple - computers and the internet. We all have identification cards. If you simply run your card through the machine, it tells it which bracket you are in and auto-calculates your sales-tax %.

The fact is, sales-tax is typically a preferable taxation format. The downside has historically been the inability to differentiate between income-levels, and therefore, it always had a strong tendency to favor the wealthy. With modern technology, that problem is solved, and an effective sales-tax could easily be implemented.

Also, I wanted to congratulate the Mayans, and everyone who misinterpreted their calculations. Good job.