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First of all, many of you know my reputation, and I'm not the most knowledgeable person on this forum whatsoever. I am not a columnist by any means but I'd just like to poke some fun at id Software and to give my opinion. While the lot of you in ESR-Land and Quake-Land were busy arguing when times were much more unstable and unpredictable for this beloved game we call Quake Live, I think it's time for all of us to take a reality check, and it's time for me to join the parade, now that many of you are done arguing and grumbling, and are more inclined to close the mouths, and open the ears, and maybe the eyes to the truth of our horrid pathetic situation.
First, let me stress, Quake Live is a business. id Software doesn't giving a flying fuck about many of you, unless you are lining their wallets with money. And if you aren't then they can hardly give a fuck about you at all. Their primary source of income was off of advertisements, and no effort was put into marketing whatsoever. To make this game mainstream. To get new players. To boost community moral and to drive a wedge between the "public" community and the "elitist" community. To sort of create a middle class; there was none of that. id Software's strategy of promoting this game was of course doomed to fail and so was their advertising method. Let's face it, deathmatch has become a total niche and cult, a quite mystery that will probably die, and no one will know in the world of today, at what hour, the old man died, because no one was busy looking after him.
So what did id Software do? They threw in a premium account and a pro account, with features that weren't "free." This wasn't the worst thing that could happen. But no one could really see where this was going. Now we have seen. I have seen. And honestly I regret that we didn't all just not buy anything. Not fall into that trap. Forced id Software to either chuck the whole project (unlikely) or to make everything free or more reasonable. Who can even justify spending a years worth when they might only want to stick around in this ungodly community for a month or two. No Paypal support. This was just a mess that was getting bigger and bigger.
I fell for the trap. Many people did. Some resolute people can smile with glee, having not wasted a chip on id Software. I bought a pro account. Worst investment I could've made. Then I bought a premium. The worst investment I could've made. Yet again.
There are people who can argue that what is done is done. And I agree. We could've never predicted all of the features that were given to us, were not only useless because half the user base felt alienated and either quit or never bought it. We could've never predicted such a rip off and a methodical way of luring a customer in. And each time they made new features, you'd kind of think to yourself, "WOW! Quake Live has promode. Quake Live has FREEZE TAG?!" And I can see many of you falling for the trap the next time they pull the, "CAPTURE STRIKE! HOLY SHIT QUAKE LIVE DEFRAG!" card. But I'm writing this column for a reason. There's a message behind all of this madness.
Now, before I continue, some people might argue, "WE NEED TO SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY, WE NEED TO SUPPORT THE GAME."
Which I for one, think is a load of horseshit. What community?
This has to be the most segregated community I've ever seen in my life. Vast amounts of people have quit, some people still hold onto their precious Quake III or even move onto other games, maybe even other Quakes. Regular users are alienated by this premium/pro bullshit. The community is gone. Whatever sense of community we had at the beginning, it isn't the same. It feels like this game is more popular than a lot of games, but the community itself feels so small because of the attitudes and the amount of disheartened people. It also doesn't help that the majority of people don't even want to help what little new blood is still playing this lifeless thing. And supporting this game? Id Software has been running at a loss since the start of this business, if they wanted to chuck this thing the best thing they could've done was chuck it a year ago. No, there's nothing for you to support. Pay or not pay, the game will still stay on as long as it would have.
In fact, if we all didn't pay. If not a single person bought a pro or premium, I guarantee a compromise would have been reached. We would have been in a better place. If we kept littering complaints. If we kept bitching. If we kept reacting. Revolution would occur. $2.99 Quake Passes. Who the **** knows? Now, we will never know.
It's really late for a rebellion. In fact, even if we did anything it would go unnoticed or die down within a week.
But it isn't too late to prevent stupidity. Life is about making choices. We've all made mistakes. Don't let someone else fall into the same trap. Especially after seeing the recent poll and Memento's thread, it almost made me want to vomit from the optimism and the undying amount of support we have for Id Software. Do yourself a favor, and your friends a favor, don't buy this bullshit. If the game will die so be it, people not buying premium/pros wouldn't have been the death of it anyways.
First, let me stress, Quake Live is a business. id Software doesn't giving a flying fuck about many of you, unless you are lining their wallets with money. And if you aren't then they can hardly give a fuck about you at all. Their primary source of income was off of advertisements, and no effort was put into marketing whatsoever. To make this game mainstream. To get new players. To boost community moral and to drive a wedge between the "public" community and the "elitist" community. To sort of create a middle class; there was none of that. id Software's strategy of promoting this game was of course doomed to fail and so was their advertising method. Let's face it, deathmatch has become a total niche and cult, a quite mystery that will probably die, and no one will know in the world of today, at what hour, the old man died, because no one was busy looking after him.
So what did id Software do? They threw in a premium account and a pro account, with features that weren't "free." This wasn't the worst thing that could happen. But no one could really see where this was going. Now we have seen. I have seen. And honestly I regret that we didn't all just not buy anything. Not fall into that trap. Forced id Software to either chuck the whole project (unlikely) or to make everything free or more reasonable. Who can even justify spending a years worth when they might only want to stick around in this ungodly community for a month or two. No Paypal support. This was just a mess that was getting bigger and bigger.
I fell for the trap. Many people did. Some resolute people can smile with glee, having not wasted a chip on id Software. I bought a pro account. Worst investment I could've made. Then I bought a premium. The worst investment I could've made. Yet again.
There are people who can argue that what is done is done. And I agree. We could've never predicted all of the features that were given to us, were not only useless because half the user base felt alienated and either quit or never bought it. We could've never predicted such a rip off and a methodical way of luring a customer in. And each time they made new features, you'd kind of think to yourself, "WOW! Quake Live has promode. Quake Live has FREEZE TAG?!" And I can see many of you falling for the trap the next time they pull the, "CAPTURE STRIKE! HOLY SHIT QUAKE LIVE DEFRAG!" card. But I'm writing this column for a reason. There's a message behind all of this madness.
Now, before I continue, some people might argue, "WE NEED TO SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY, WE NEED TO SUPPORT THE GAME."
Which I for one, think is a load of horseshit. What community?
This has to be the most segregated community I've ever seen in my life. Vast amounts of people have quit, some people still hold onto their precious Quake III or even move onto other games, maybe even other Quakes. Regular users are alienated by this premium/pro bullshit. The community is gone. Whatever sense of community we had at the beginning, it isn't the same. It feels like this game is more popular than a lot of games, but the community itself feels so small because of the attitudes and the amount of disheartened people. It also doesn't help that the majority of people don't even want to help what little new blood is still playing this lifeless thing. And supporting this game? Id Software has been running at a loss since the start of this business, if they wanted to chuck this thing the best thing they could've done was chuck it a year ago. No, there's nothing for you to support. Pay or not pay, the game will still stay on as long as it would have.
In fact, if we all didn't pay. If not a single person bought a pro or premium, I guarantee a compromise would have been reached. We would have been in a better place. If we kept littering complaints. If we kept bitching. If we kept reacting. Revolution would occur. $2.99 Quake Passes. Who the **** knows? Now, we will never know.
It's really late for a rebellion. In fact, even if we did anything it would go unnoticed or die down within a week.
But it isn't too late to prevent stupidity. Life is about making choices. We've all made mistakes. Don't let someone else fall into the same trap. Especially after seeing the recent poll and Memento's thread, it almost made me want to vomit from the optimism and the undying amount of support we have for Id Software. Do yourself a favor, and your friends a favor, don't buy this bullshit. If the game will die so be it, people not buying premium/pros wouldn't have been the death of it anyways.
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