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

[Chris Adams]

I can't really speak for anywhere else, but the mainstream arrival of
broadband here in the UK has had both positive and negative effects. As
I say I can only speak for the UK but these days most serious online
gamers have 2mb broadband or as high up to that as their line can
support, meaning you see much fewer people these days over 50ms,
eradicating lag issues pretty much. However while people used to turn to
the PC and get playing online with 56k modems or ISDN, people are now
just plugging up their broadband-enabled consoles - not good for the PC
market, especially when it's generally cheaper and easier to do with a
console.
---------------------------------------
Chris Adams
GameSwitch Ltd.
www.gameswitch.co.uk
(0871) 218 GAME
+44 (0)871 218 4263
-----Original Message-----
From: |PxR| TazAnimal [mailto:tazanimal at rifleteam.com] 
Sent: 26 May 2005 03:37
To: cod at icculus.org
Subject: RE: [cod] IS COD and other FPS's DEAD? On topic and off topic
unfortunately!
 
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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