Found a letter to BluesNews I sent in 1999

[~kev~]

While searching for some quakeworld stuff, I found a letter that I sent to bluesnews back in 1999.

http://www.bluesnews.com/mailbag/081899.shtml

From: kev
Subject: Quakecon and GCON

I went to Quakecon this year, and I went to Qaukecon last year. This years event was lame. I signed up the night that the signups started. I was number 1084, after the culling a month ago I went to number 634, on friday when I showed up I was told that so many people did not show up that there were open spots in the tourney. I asked if I could bring in my machine, the answer was "NO, you can not bring in your machine" I walked around for about 45 minutes. Only a little more then 1/2 the tables where being used. If someone with the 512 number did not show up, no one was allowed to take his place on the network, but could take his place in the tourney. The people that were over Quakecon let a bunch of no - shows ruin it for the rest of us. If you look at the numbers, I went from 1084 to somewhere within the 512 number. Theat means that around 600 people droped or did not show up.

Gcon, next month in Beaumont Texas. There is going to be a Q2 - Q3 tourney, the grand prize is a new loaded machine. Door prizeses will be given away also like new joysticks. Unlike Qaukecon, if you signup you can bring your machine. The event will be held in the Beaumont civic center.
http://www.pernet.net/~revy/gcon

When I wrote the letter I was rather pissed off. I made the 5+ hour drive to quakecon, only to find out that they were not letting people move up within the 500 limit. I was around 512 on the list. When I signed up I was around number 1084. So during the cull period, over 500 people had been dropped out. What the cull period was - between the time you signed up and before quakecon you would receive an email You had to reply to that email saying you still wanted to attend.

I was not very impressed by the people running quakecon holding seats for no-shows. They were accepting people in the tournaments, but they were not letting non-tournament people bring their computers.

This was almost 9 years ago. You never know what you will find on the internet.

[Etzell]

Now that your "Kev waits for TF2" page is worthless, consider changing it to "Kev lives in the past"?

[~kev~]

Originally Posted by Etzell

Now that your "Kev waits for TF2" page is worthless, consider changing it to "Kev lives in the past"?

How old are you? The older you get, the worse it gets.

Todays online multiplayer games are crap compared to what quakeworld was. Since Quake 2 came out in December of 1997, the gaming community was never the same. The community split, and split again, over and over until only small fragments existed of what used to be.

From the middle of 1996 - late 1997 / early 1998 the quakeworld community was the place to be. Using gamespy you could find 20,000+ servers with tens of thousands of players. When you joined a server, it was an all out fragfest of non-stop action.

For almost 10 years I have been looking for a game that could fill the "rush" void left by quakeworld.

Its also interesting how the internet has forgotten about quakeworld. The fan sites that had been put up have long since disappeared. The map sites, bot sites, mostly gone.

It seems strange that in real life we have news papers, letters, and magazines we can go read. But on the internet, when its gone, its gone.

[Etzell]

And you'll never get that feeling back. There'll never be a game that I play like I played Diablo 2. It'll just never happen. Probably because I'm overinflating the experience a bit. It's not that games now suck, it's that back then, everything was new. Now you're used to stuff like that happening, it's not as big a deal.

[~kev~]

Maybe we cherish our memories more then we realize how important right now is?

In 10 years we might look back and say how good it really was then (meaning right now).

[Etzell]

Oh, I don't think that's a "maybe" at all. The past always looks better than it was.

[Credge]

Originally Posted by Etzell

Oh, I don't think that's a "maybe" at all. The past always looks better than it was.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

[פֿяαιп βαмαgεפ]

I hate the past...


Fuckin' caveman...

[~kev~]

Well spoken, very well spoken indeed.

Originally Posted by Etzell

Oh, I don't think that's a "maybe" at all. The past always looks better than it was.

[Innoc]

Didn't TFC and CS, prior to steam, dwarf the size of the QW server and player community?

As far as the past looking better...I recently reinstalled BF42 to give it a spin...it neither looks nor plays like I remember...not even close...

[~kev~]

Originally Posted by Innoc

Didn't TFC and CS, prior to steam, dwarf the size of the QW server and player community?

I would go as far as to say "Dwarf." After quake 2 came out, most of the quakeworld players went to Q2 - at least for a little while.

Right before half-life was released, some of the quakeworld players were leaving Q2 and going back to quakeworld.

When half-life was released, the gaming FPS community was divided into 1/3 - quake1 / quakeworld, quake 2 and half-life.

Quake 1 - released June 1996
Quakeworld - released December 1996 (improved net play for quake)
Quake 2 - released December 1997
Half-life - released November 1998
TFC - released April 1999
Counter-stike - released June 1999
Quake 3 - released December 1999

So by the time TFC came along in April of 1999, the players that had been in quakeworld had been at least 4 times. Ever after half-life 1 was released there was still a community of QW players. I remember going to quakecon in 1999 and Quakeworld still being one of the more popular games. Even in 1998 QW was the dominate game, as Q2 was turning out to be a flop.

It was not really one game that killed off quakeworld DM, it was the number of games that split the fan base.

[Innoc]

What I meant to say is that I think that TFC and CS, prior to steam and at their apex had much larger server pools and player communities than did QW. Significantly larger.

[Suite307]

Quake was the first competitive shooter. Half-Life brought the mod scene into crazyness, spawned hits and totally took a bit in the community of quake.

[Ihmhi]

Originally Posted by ~kev~

Quake 1 - released June 1996
Quakeworld - released December 1996 (improved net play for quake)
Quake 2 - released December 1997
Half-life - released November 1998
TFC - released April 1999
Counter-stike - released June 1999
Quake 3 - released December 1999

TRIBES should be very prominent on that list. To this stay it still has upwards of 10,000 people playing it.

[~kev~]

Originally Posted by Suite307

Quake was the first competitive shooter. Half-Life brought the mod scene into crazyness, spawned hits and totally took a bit in the community of quake.

Hate to spoil all your fun, but quake had a LOT of mods. Team fortress started in Quakeworld, as did Capture the Flag.

CTF
QWTF
Painkeep
Runes
Rocket Arena

Just to name a few.

But yes, half-life and all of its mods was the nail in quakeworlds coffin. Quake2 dug the hole, Half-life and its mods, along with Quake3 finished it off.

Originally Posted by Ihmhi

TRIBES should be very prominent on that list. To this stay it still has upwards of 10,000 people playing it.

Good call, I forgot all about tribes. There were a bunch of players that left quakeworld to go play Tribes. I even tried it for a little while.

[leilei]

Originally Posted by ~kev~

For almost 10 years I have been looking for a game that could fill the "rush" void left by quakeworld.

i'm trying i'm trying >_<

Originally Posted by ~kev~

Team fortress started in Quakeworld, as did Capture the Flag.

Actually, those two started in Quake v1.01. Quakeworld didn't exist in their respective initial inceptions.

Too many people here are 'underage b&' to appreciate Quake and Quakeworld and their mod's significant importance to online multiplayer.

[פֿяαιп βαмαgεפ]

Originally Posted by leilei

Too many people here are 'underage b&' to appreciate Quake and Quakeworld and their mod's significant importance to online multiplayer.

I'm from 1986, so I was a tad to young to appreciate it to it's fullest.

What a shame.

[Suite307]

85 here, but i started playing Quake at 11.

[פֿяαιп βαмαgεפ]

Originally Posted by Suite307

85 here, but i started playing Quake at 11.

My dad din't haven any money for a pc so I got stuck with a commodre till I was 13 or so. And the only game I had were the free ones off the apogee cd's that came with pc magazine.

[FrenchToast]

'91 hyar, raised on brew and poker and a dollar here and there.

But srsly, I'm a Commander Keen/Cosmo child.

...blackjack hand, dealer man you better pay off that last bet....