Tribes: Ascend

[NeonLight]

Originally Posted by CaptainAhab

Where do you think you will go after TA? I'm not trying to be a doomsayer, but I've heard from many sources, including this one, that the community is slowly declining in size.

Shootmania? Fortress Forever? (heh) Quake Live? The next "big thing?"

I hope Spider Crossings is going well.

Very good question. I'll probably just let my life go to waste and play Guild Wars 2 until Quake 5 comes out and hope it's mp is actually good.

[CaptainAhab]

I have given up hope on another decent Quake game. Quake 4 was just bleh, and Quake Live has so many problems after years of being released, it's unfathomable, not to mention the ridiculous addition of a premium/pro subscription model.

[NeonLight]

Yeah I've lost faith in id software since q4 mp, but I'm just hoping they'll do it right this one last time.

[FDA_Approved]

id didn't do q4 though. It was developed by raven software and published by activision.

[CaptainAhab]

True...

Also, if there was going to be another iteration of Quake, I doubt it'd be a pretty close copy of Q3A/QL, which is what many consider to be the golden triumph of arena shooters concerning gameplay. It'd be too hard and wouldn't sell well, so it'll probably have a bunch of crap to make it easier and more accessible so it'll sell more to newcomers, but inevitably alienate the current Quake crowd even more. I doubt it'll be a good game that pays proper homage to its predecessors, and what made them so great in the first place. Hell, I play QL in spite of its many glaring issues because, well, the gameplay is just so damn good. Unparalleled these days, in my opinion.

[Raynian]

I dunno. Tribes 1 (and even 2, even though Dynamix fucked tribes 2 up so much that classic was its only redeeming feature) was huge at the time, and even though the peak for TA was larger, that's largely because there's a much larger amount of people playing games now. The retention rate seems piss poor - but then again, almost no games released these days have good retention rates.

I dunno what game I'm gonna be playing next. DayZ has been fun so far, but still too many CoDkiddies playing it. NS2 was good until around patch 198, now there's no fucking hope for it from what I see. No other FPSes have caught my eye. Maybe I'll go back to T2 for a bit, but I have shit for ping (110-130 pinging from ohio to texas, what in the fuck) and the community certainly isn't going anywhere for that.

[FDA_Approved]

I think more games should go the pro-mod route. Dumb your shit game down all you want so that people can jump in and have fun. But have like the equivalent to cpma for q3, where it's a high end level of gameplay that's mainly skill based and targeted at comp players.

Couple that with a one time fee I can pay to own the entire game, rather than this freemium/subscription bullshit, I think a game would be a substantial hit. I would easily have paid 50 bucks for a game like QL where I had access to all game content. But I am no where near stupid enough to shell out a fucking subscription just to get to the stuff I want in a game. Honestly how does that even play into a developers hands? Gamers are for the most part younger dudes. And us younger dudes don't have the most stable of incomes, a lot of us are way more willing to make a one time impulse buy, than sustain a sub.

And with a promode, I think you'd see more people all around playing it, and a higher turn over into comp play. You can start of playing the regular game, and once you get to like it and feel comfortable, you can start taking on the advanced techniques and play your promode stuff.

[CaptainAhab]

Originally Posted by Raynian

I dunno. Tribes 1 (and even 2, even though Dynamix fucked tribes 2 up so much that classic was its only redeeming feature) was huge at the time, and even though the peak for TA was larger, that's largely because there's a much larger amount of people playing games now. The retention rate seems piss poor - but then again, almost no games released these days have good retention rates.

I dunno what game I'm gonna be playing next. DayZ has been fun so far, but still too many CoDkiddies playing it. NS2 was good until around patch 198, now there's no fucking hope for it from what I see. No other FPSes have caught my eye. Maybe I'll go back to T2 for a bit, but I have shit for ping (110-130 pinging from ohio to texas, what in the fuck) and the community certainly isn't going anywhere for that.

At one time I hoped that TA would help make Starsiege or T2 more popular... too bad that didn't happen. I've thought about trying to get some sort of a "reddit brigade" together through the Tribes subreddit, but I doubt that'll happen. However, there has been some renewed interest in Starsiege from what I have gathered now that people are getting fed up with Hi-Rez and such. Who knows.

I've heard NS2 is going down the toilet from other places as well (friends, forums, etc.)

As for retention rates, I agree, most big-budget multiplayer games seem to explode after they launch, then for about 6 months they have a stable amount of players -- then the next "big thing" comes out and they immediately start to die off in favor of the next game, be it Battlefield, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, or what have you. I feel like CoD has the best retention rates (I mean look at the sales from year to year), as a series. But as for each game? Once the new CoD iteration launches, the previous one immediately dies off, I mean practically within a week. By "die off" I mean the majority of the community jumps ship, leaving a small percentage remaining. I guess this is different on PC (I hear COD4 and MW2 have the largest communities outside of the latest, MW3).

I guess it's a shame that the majority of gamers these days don't favor shooters like Starsiege Tribes (which, from what little I played, blew my mind), Fortress Forever (still blowing my mind), and Quake Live. They want flash, bang, boom, headshot, nutshot, 2600 points flashing all over the screen, blood spraying everywhere. Winning a hard-ass duel on Aerowalk doesn't seem to have the same appeal as getting an achievement and blood splattering all over the screen for many people.

And shooters, outside of a few games like BF and CoD, aren't even as popular as I'm assuming they used to be in the pre-MOBA/RTS era. E-sports and popular gaming in general is being dominated by SC2 and LoL, which is a shame for those of us who live and breathe in tough-as-nails, most-skilled-always-wins shooters. Oh well, they're fun with friends... I guess.

[CaptainAhab]

Originally Posted by FDA_Approved

I think more games should go the pro-mod route. Dumb your shit game down all you want so that people can jump in and have fun. But have like the equivalent to cpma for q3, where it's a high end level of gameplay that's mainly skill based and targeted at comp players.

Couple that with a one time fee I can pay to own the entire game, rather than this freemium/subscription bullshit, I think a game would be a substantial hit. I would easily have paid 50 bucks for a game like QL where I had access to all game content. But I am no where near stupid enough to shell out a fucking subscription just to get to the stuff I want in a game. Honestly how does that even play into a developers hands? Gamers are for the most part younger dudes. And us younger dudes don't have the most stable of incomes, a lot of us are way more willing to make a one time impulse buy, than sustain a sub.

And with a promode, I think you'd see more people all around playing it, and a higher turn over into comp play. You can start of playing the regular game, and once you get to like it and feel comfortable, you can start taking on the advanced techniques and play your promode stuff.

If id Software opened up QL to mapping and modding, even with a subscription they'd start raking in the cash. Too bad the game is practically beyond saving at this point.

It's ironic how the only game I've seen do something like CPMA is Q3A, which was already ridiculously insanely bafflingly amazingly hard to begin with. I'd be down for a game like that, though I don't think it'll happen. Fans of those types of shooters are far and few between. I was hoping Nexuiz might bring in a lot of new fans and help restart the genre, but that utterly failed. And now you have spinoff projects like Xonotic and Warsow with their own miniscule communities, further dividing the arena shooter fan base into God knows how many communities -- QuakeWorld, Quake 2, Quake 3 Arena, CPMA, Quake 4 (believe it or not...), Quake Live, Xonotic, Warsow, Open Arena, Unreal Tournament '99, Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal Tournament 3, Alien Arena, Team Fortress Classic, Fortress Forever, QWTF (I guess?)... the list goes on and on for fast-paced, skill-based shooters. An already pretty small community that is still a fan of these types of games that require dedication, practice, skill, patience, and time to succeed at is split up amongst about 12 games, and I didn't even include any Tribes titles. Xonotic and Warsow I highly, highly doubt are going anywhere with Quake Live still alive, even if it's on life support comparatively speaking (though Xonotic is awesome, just freaking awesome).

Oh well, sometimes smaller communities are better (not the case for Quake though, sadly). I just hate not being able to convey why I love Fortress Forever and Quake so much because I can't show people killstreaks, perks, flashy graphics, and military-torn environments on a console.

[moosh]

Guys... Check this out, not all hope is lost!!!

YouTube

YouTube

those fucking graphics, I wonder what the multiplayer portion is like?

[CaptainAhab]

Originally Posted by moosh

Guys... Check this out, not all hope is lost!!!

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

those fucking graphics, I wonder what the multiplayer portion is like?

[NeonLight]

I'll be updating this playlist with various scrims and matches:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA37B9AC2134CA1C0&feature=mh_lolz

[CaptainAhab]

I'm digging the Quake logo.