[cod] IS COD and other FPS's DEAD? On topic and off topic unfortunately!

|PxR| TazAnimal tazanimal at rifleteam.com
Wed May 25 22:37:29 EDT 2005


Mark:
  In my personal experience, the FPS "Genre" has never gotten it right.  The
discrepancy between
players systems and internet connections causes lag which makes the game
hard to play on
an even level.  However, I would still be playing COD and / or COD:UO even
with the "lag" issues
IF the cheating community was not ruining the experience for me.  No matter
what PunkBuster has done
in COD and UO, there are still cheats that can get around PB.  And for me,
playing games cheat free is the only way I enjoy playing.

TazAnimal
Brett Stinson
tazanimal at rifleteam.com

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Mark J. DeFilippis [mailto:defilm at acm.org]
  Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 9:00 PM
  To: cod at icculus.org
  Subject: [cod] IS COD and other FPS's DEAD? On topic and off topic
unfortunately!



  As much as I have seen the traffic on this list drop, I am also seeing the
ladders at leagues
  drop as well. At it's peak, the COD HQ 4x4 ladder had 235 clans, of which
probably 150+ were active.
  Now, it has 30, perhaps 12 are active.  Similar drop in TDM.

  The COD:UO ladders are not doing much better.  It also does not seem to be
limited to COD.
  Noticed the same for UT2004, and even Counter Strike has been impacted.

  Friends are closing up clans left and right, and people I know that own
server leasing companies
  are consolidating as they lose people.  Even one of the cheapest guys out
there, like ET.

  Supply and Demand?  I don't think there is much.  There are diehards that
are excited about
  BF2 and COD2 coming out.  I am.  SO that should bring back life again!

  I don't think so.  I think, and have predicted that the FPS Genre is going
the way of
  the Combat Flight Sim.  If UBI had released LOMAC (Lock-on) had come out
when that
  genre was hot, that small Russian team would have been wealthy.  Instead,
it is a great
  sim, the best I have seen to date IMHO (A FX5950 would get down to 9fps at
times), and
  the newer 6800 during the same demo code run still only hits 43fps!  But
it would have been
  huge, had the video card technology been what it is.

  Where are all the clans going? Why are their members leaving?  Look at the
ranks
  of World of WarCraft, Final Fantasy, Matrix On-line.... Massive On-line
Gaming.

  If COD2 was going to be a MMO game, with Borgs, Trolls, and Flying Faeries
  we could put lead in to, it might have a chance. ;-)  I wrote some pretty
  recent editorials to PCGamer, and submitted this observation as an article
to
  them for publication. They have contacted me back, and I am still talking
with
  their people.  It is clear I am not the only one to notice the trend.  My
communications
  with TWL's admins, and competition managers I have come to know I don't
think
  want to see it, but they notice the dips in ranks.

  I became friendly with many clan founders over the past 2 years while
running {TRv},
  and several were multi-gaming. COD, COD:UO, BF1942, BFDC, UT2004, SOF2,
with
  25 active players, and over 100 on their rosters that were active on their
servers
  and played via rotation via sign-up.  Shut down last week.  Large healthy
clans
  here one day. WOW comes out, and a month later, gone.

  Matrix was a DOA. WOW seems to have brought it back to life.

  I can take the death of gaming perhaps, but not the Genre.  At 43, I grew
up in the Atari
  era as a 18+teenager, my early years were Mainframes, PDP11, Byte mag was
12 pages long
  and carried the ads for Imsai 8080, and Altair systems. 8KB Ram.  First
multiplayer game
  was StarTrek on a Dec Vax at work. SO the Atari era was great.

  I would hate to see the death of the Genre.  I didn't like "Scott Adams"
text adventures
  back in the Era of TRS-80's and Atari, and I don't like the current Genre,
which is where
  I feel WOW, and Matrix-On-line.

  If somewhere COD:UO, and BF2 became RPG's and FPS's, where did WOW become
  a MMO RPG Adventure and 3rd person shooter.

  I know there are many on this list that have gaming server companies.  I
sure would like someone elses' view of what we are seeing.  The calm is
eerie, and I hear that "Death rattle", that once you hear it
  they say you never forget it....

  Over the years through COD, and UO, I have come to know and respect many
of you for many
  reasons, some of which includes knowledge and opinions. Please take a
moment if you have some thoughts, to share them.

  PCGamer did not turn my article down, they said they would get back to me
with commentary
  on content, and I provided some "food for thought"...

  I sure would love to be wrong.


  Best Regards

  Mark D



  S1,-----------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
  Mark J. DeFilippis, Ph. D EE          defilm at acm.org
                                        defilm at ieee.org



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