Disappointed at player turn out

[~kev~]

Last night, a couple of players were talking about how few people are playing FF.

To say I am disappointed is an under statement. This is an awesome mod, just about everything I had hoped for. After the first patch or two, and a little fine tuning, FF is going to be even greater.

Why are so few people playing? There are several reason for this.

1. Bad timing.

A. Halo 3 was just released. A lot of the console gamers are playing this instead of PC games.

B. tf2, that piece of C***P was released.

So FF is having to compete for people in the gaming community.

Now the disturbing thought. The mod has not been well received by the TFC community. Most of the TFC servers that were full before the release of FF, are still full. This is a big change from previous game releases.

When Quake 2 (Q2) was released, Quakeworld (QW) servers were almost empty within a week. Not because everyone thought Quake 2 was better, but because it was new. Some of the people that tried Q2 went back to QW a few weeks / months later.

The same goes for Quake 2 and half-life 1. Q2 was the "in" game until half-life 1 was released. Within a few weeks after the release of H1, the Q2 servers were almost empty.

Quake 3 however barely put a dent in the Half-life community. This may have been in part because counter-strike and TFC had been released.

The old school TFC players might not be ready for a change just yet. A lot of them are older in age and just want to stay with what they know. A lot of them will have to upgrade their computers to play FF. As an example, one guy playing FF last night had 384 megs of memory and a 900 MHZ P3 processor. His frame rates were about 30 - 33 fps.

One community has held true - the Fortress community. A lot of the quake world team fortress players moved to TFC and have been there ever since. The hard core fortress fan has stayed true to the community through the release of dozens of games and now sadly through the release of FF.

Now for the humor:
To get more TFC players into FF I suggest a microsoft battle plan.

A. Tell everyone TFC is full of theoretical (it could happen) security holes when in fact there are none at the present time. The only way to get around these security holes that will be exploited in the future is to upgrade to FF.

B. Get these fake security holes and their theoretical effects published on several highly visible websites. Every website then should direct the TFC fan to update to FF.

C. Get into the steam forums and criticize everyone for playing a 10 year old game (TFC). Then tell them they should "upgrade to FF."

Hey, microsofts plan works on mac and linux, why not TFC?

[Nuk3m]

Now for the humor:
To get more TFC players into FF I suggest a microsoft battle plan.

A. Tell everyone TFC is full of theoretical (it could happen) security holes when in fact there are none at the present time. The only way to get around these security holes that will be exploited in the future is to upgrade to FF.

B. Get these fake security holes and their theoretical effects published on several highly visible websites. Every website then should direct the TFC fan to update to FF.

C. Get into the steam forums and criticize everyone for playing a 10 year old game (TFC). Then tell them they should "upgrade to FF."

Hey, microsofts plan works on mac and linux, why not TFC?[/QUOTE]

lol

[GhostBuster]

roflmao

Yes a lot of those things are true but then its just a matter of time they realize how limited is tf2 and how cool is FF, for the halo 3 well.. i dont know.

My guess is lots of players stayed in tfc because the hardware that it requires, think that many people like me in the past could only play tfc (not cs or any other mod because my onboard 32mb video card) and the hardware that FF requires well.. its just a little too much if you ask me, more than hl2, css, etc. and not all of us can upgrade our pcs.

[SoBe Green]

Its the same problem CS Source has. I'm part of a CS community and we would love to switch to Source but its hard to get people to switch from a game they have played for so long.

[GhOsT]

I'm willing to bet all the money I have in this world that Halo 3 had extremely little to no impact on the number of people playing FF. Evidence of this? Look at all the people playing TF2. On the other hand, TF2 is probably the major factor on why you feel the need to make this post.

Also, a lot of the QWTF community hated TFC and still hates it to this day. They moved on to Q3F or stuck with playing QWTF.

Originally Posted by GhOsT

... On the other hand, TF2 is probably the major factor on why you feel the need to make this post.
...

Now please don't get mad at me, but I'll definitely agree and corroborate this. I'm a big TFC fan for the sheer fun of the game. I'm definitely not competitive(couldn't bunny hop to save my life), and in all my gaming years, TFC was actually the only one in which I was in a clan for any period of time. Well, I had a tag in my name for a while(and will admit, I've totally forgotten which one it was, just that it was a Belgian-based one). I just frequented some server and caught some people's eyes so they 'took me in' so to speak.

In any case, I'd been still playing TFC on and off(the odd 24-hour dustbowl 32player madness. lots of pole humping) and keeping a sideways glance at the FF site every now and then, just to see how it was faring, and any news of its release(watching videos and the like). When I heard of its release date I was really very excited and couldn't wait. Then when I heard that TF2 was going to have the same beta start date, I winced as I knew it would sway me(I love cartoony stuff, Monkey Island games, et al).

Anyway, the 'surprise' early FF release was awesome and I played that every chance I got for the week it was out before the 17th. I grew very attached to the Pyro(really really really love it), with its burn levels and all, checked this forum a lot during that week, etc.(the "no humping" sign was a lovely touch, haha). I checked the steam stats and like the "6th place" post showed, it had quite the number of players.

But ever since that fateful day, I haven't even loaded it up once, which I really regret because it's so great. But TF2 has just kept me that little bit more enthralled(personal opinion! please don't shoot). I also noticed that drastic drop to ~200 players from its previous +1000 or so.
Hopefully though, I see myself settling in to TF2 and finally getting past its novelty, then going back to FF like I did with TFC, when I crave for its different and more familiar style of gameplay.

So yeah, I'm definitely not surprised at the sudden drop in players, and I lament it. But ya'll seem dedicated enough to keep it alive and definitely keep the hope that people will slowly but surely trickle back into it. Maybe once those TFC players upgrade their PC's or something, heh(speaking of which, I definitely couldn't imagine myself playing TFC again with those graphics after running around in the FF world).

[~kev~]

Originally Posted by GhOsT

I'm willing to bet all the money I have in this world that Halo 3 had extremely little to no impact on the number of people playing FF. Evidence of this?

Its a theory, so I do not know where to look for data. Its a notion that tens of thousands of teen agers, who would be playing PC games, bought Halo 3. Instead of playing in front of a computer screen, they are sitting in front of a TV. Halo 3 broke all kinds of sales records, those people had to come from somewhere.

So now we all know the point of view from everybody on this subject. But i think nobody heard the pov from a TFC-player who isn't playing FF.

I can speak for half the TFC-players (now playing) if I say: YEAH! We want to play FF! However the reason we don't is pretty simple, our PC's can't handle it OR we are to lazy to buy HL2 specially for this game; THEN we better stick to TFC.

I know this sounds stupid but TF2 doesn't really has to do something with the little players playing FF.

Everybody who ever played TFC in his whole life, knows TF2 sucks. So why should we play that one instead of FF?

I think FF is not released at the wrong time this year because of Halo 3 and TF2, but I think it's released a few years to late. Because everybody is getting sick of TFC and DON'T want to play another version of it.

I hope everybody understands my point, because I can't type and explain very good in English.

[Credge]

This is the issue with almost all games when a sequel/upgrade comes out. The issue, though, is almost non-existant. Most TFC players are sporting 10k FPS and can easily play HL2. You also don't need to buy HL2 to play FF. You can pay some $15 to be able to play.

It's $15.

Out of 12 members of my clan since FF was launched, 3 have bought new PC's, 2 have upgraded ram/gfx cards and one is still trying to decide which pc to buy.

I think this is a massive issue really

[Credge]

Originally Posted by Coolit

Out of 12 members of my clan since FF was launched, 3 have bought new PC's, 2 have upgraded ram/gfx cards and one is still trying to decide which pc to buy.

I think this is a massive issue really

This happens with all games. People will stick around the old game because they don't want to upgrade while others upgrade and move on. Eventually, because of a lack of players, the people who don't upgrade either quit or upgrade.

This happens with almost all games, especially ones with sequels.

well FF, in my opinion is more like the original TFC. This is great for the oldschool TFC players that want to upgrade and play the source games and mods.

There are lots of games that push you to upgrade, try out some of the latest releases

[DarkieJ]

Originally Posted by PurpleHz

So now we all know the point of view from everybody on this subject. But i think nobody heard the pov from a TFC-player who isn't playing FF.

I can speak for half the TFC-players (now playing) if I say: YEAH! We want to play FF! However the reason we don't is pretty simple, our PC's can't handle it OR we are to lazy to buy HL2 specially for this game; THEN we better stick to TFC.

I know this sounds stupid but TF2 doesn't really has to do something with the little players playing FF.

Everybody who ever played TFC in his whole life, knows TF2 sucks. So why should we play that one instead of FF?I think FF is not released at the wrong time this year because of Halo 3 and TF2, but I think it's released a few years to late. Because everybody is getting sick of TFC and DON'T want to play another version of it.

I hope everybody understands my point, because I can't type and explain very good in English.

I disagree because i know alot old tfc players, and they stopped long time before FF was out the main reason whas spamming on servers and because valve messed tfc up with teleport's.
The people who now play tfc in pubs arent (Some will be) the old tfc players who played from the start.

And there will be players coming back for FF i know that for sure but alot people dont know it yet that FF is out.
I dint try TF2 yet but meaby is that nice too i dont know but for me it will be a real Team Fortress aka FortressForever/Team Fortress Classic.

I dont understand why people say FF is better TF2 is better:P if i hear people like that i must think at the time TFC players found CS . Youre for it: Fast based game play, With no dead wait time or Against it

Grtz

as long as the same 3 US servers stay constantly full (like they always are) i will be a happy fragger

[SmellyCat]

I miss the TFC bhop.


There, I finally admitted it.
<- elitist.

Originally Posted by SmellyCat

I miss the TFC bhop.


There, I finally admitted it.
<- elitist.

Don't worry, just because you like to bunnyhop, it doesn't make you elitist. You can rest easy

[-=bingo-bango=-]

Originally Posted by ~kev~

1. Bad timing.

A. Halo 3 was just released. A lot of the console gamers are playing this instead of PC games.

B. tf2, that piece of C***P was released.

So FF is having to compete for people in the gaming community.

u only put down one reason

Just a thought on this. Yes, the release of other majorly hyped titles may be pulling players away, however you are designing this game for the compeition community, the 1% of the gamers that are the big conc jumping bhop experts.

I don't know if many of you remember ETF, designed for the hardcore by the hardcore, it had its small following from Q3F (being basically its another Q3 engine game, they took what was left after q3f packed up and left) that could already bhop through the maps backwards and were designing the game with that in mind.

So when the game was released there was an initial rush of new players and almost immediatly the forums were up with complaints about bunnyhopping as those that had mastered it designed the maps to make it easier (basically enlarged all the maps) making the game for them a long slow walk to the enemy base where you'd get a rocket nade combo as soon as you entered and when players asked for bhop to be removed/limited/server variable they were by and large insulted and dismissed by the hardcore crowd saying that the game was built around it.

Unsurprisingly, the newbie hordes collectively up and walked away and the game died out with no influx of new blood (at least any that stayed around longer than a few days.)

[Credge]

BHopping isn't hard in FF. At all. In fact, BHopping isn't even required to play FF. The difference though, is that BHopping (and conc jumping) give you an edge. If a play doesn't want to learn a skill, chances are they weren't going to stick around anyway.