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<DIV><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><FONT face=Verdana
color=#000080>Mark:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><FONT face=Verdana color=#000080> In
my personal experience, the FPS "Genre" has never gotten it right. The
discrepancy between</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><FONT face=Verdana color=#000080>players
systems and internet connections causes lag which makes the game hard to play
on</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><FONT face=Verdana color=#000080>an even
level. However, I would still be playing COD and / or COD:UO even with the
"lag" issues</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><FONT face=Verdana color=#000080>IF the
cheating community was not ruining the experience for me. No matter what
PunkBuster has done</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><FONT face=Verdana color=#000080>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.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><FONT face=Verdana
color=#000080></FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><FONT face=Verdana
color=#000080></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#000080><SPAN
class=473192902-26052005>TazAnimal</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#000080><SPAN class=473192902-26052005>Brett
Stinson</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana><FONT color=#000080><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><A
href="mailto:tazanimal@rifleteam.com">tazanimal@rifleteam.com</A></SPAN><SPAN
class=473192902-26052005><FONT> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=473192902-26052005><FONT face=Verdana color=#000080>
</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma
size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Mark J. DeFilippis
[mailto:defilm@acm.org]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, May 25, 2005 9:00
PM<BR><B>To:</B> cod@icculus.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> [cod] IS COD and other
FPS's DEAD? On topic and off topic unfortunately!<BR><BR></FONT></DIV><BR>As
much as I have seen the traffic on this list drop, I am also seeing the
ladders at leagues<BR>drop as well. At it's peak, the COD HQ 4x4 ladder had
235 clans, of which probably 150+ were active.<BR>Now, it has 30, perhaps 12
are active. Similar drop in TDM.<BR><BR>The COD:UO ladders are not doing
much better. It also does not seem to be limited to COD.<BR>Noticed the
same for UT2004, and even Counter Strike has been impacted.<BR><BR>Friends are
closing up clans left and right, and people I know that own server leasing
companies<BR>are consolidating as they lose people. Even one of the
cheapest guys out there, like ET.<BR><BR>Supply and Demand? I don't
think there is much. There are diehards that are excited about<BR>BF2
and COD2 coming out. I am. SO that should bring back life
again!<BR><BR>I don't think so. I think, and have predicted that the FPS
Genre is going the way of<BR>the Combat Flight Sim. If UBI had released
LOMAC (Lock-on) had come out when that<BR>genre was hot, that small Russian
team would have been wealthy. Instead, it is a great<BR>sim, the best I
have seen to date IMHO (A FX5950 would get down to 9fps at times), and<BR>the
newer 6800 during the same demo code run still only hits 43fps! But it
would have been<BR>huge, had the video card technology been what it
is.<BR><BR>Where are all the clans going? Why are their members leaving?
Look at the ranks<BR>of World of WarCraft, Final Fantasy, Matrix On-line....
Massive On-line Gaming.<BR><BR>If COD2 was going to be a MMO game, with Borgs,
Trolls, and Flying Faeries<BR>we could put lead in to, it might have a chance.
;-) I wrote some pretty<BR>recent editorials to PCGamer, and submitted
this observation as an article to<BR>them for publication. They have contacted
me back, and I am still talking with<BR>their people. It is clear I am
not the only one to notice the trend. My communications<BR>with TWL's
admins, and competition managers I have come to know I don't think<BR>want to
see it, but they notice the dips in ranks.<BR><BR>I became friendly with many
clan founders over the past 2 years while running {TRv},<BR>and several were
multi-gaming. COD, COD:UO, BF1942, BFDC, UT2004, SOF2, with<BR>25 active
players, and over 100 on their rosters that were active on their
servers<BR>and played via rotation via sign-up. Shut down last
week. Large healthy clans<BR>here one day. WOW comes out, and a month
later, gone.<BR><BR>Matrix was a DOA. WOW seems to have brought it back to
life. <BR><BR>I can take the death of gaming perhaps, but not the Genre.
At 43, I grew up in the Atari<BR>era as a 18+teenager, my early years were
Mainframes, PDP11, Byte mag was 12 pages long<BR>and carried the ads for Imsai
8080, and Altair systems. 8KB Ram. First multiplayer game<BR>was
StarTrek on a Dec Vax at work. SO the Atari era was great. <BR><BR>I
would hate to see the death of the Genre. I didn't like "Scott Adams"
text adventures<BR>back in the Era of TRS-80's and Atari, and I don't like the
current Genre, which is where<BR>I feel WOW, and Matrix-On-line.<BR><BR>If
somewhere COD:UO, and BF2 became RPG's and FPS's, where did WOW become<BR>a
MMO RPG Adventure and 3rd person shooter.<BR><BR>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<BR>they say you never forget it....<BR><BR>Over
the years through COD, and UO, I have come to know and respect many of you for
many<BR>reasons, some of which includes knowledge and opinions. Please take a
moment if you have some thoughts, to share them.<BR><BR>PCGamer did not turn
my article down, they said they would get back to me with commentary<BR>on
content, and I provided some "food for thought"...<BR><BR>I sure would love to
be wrong.<BR><BR><BR>Best Regards<BR><BR>Mark D<BR><BR><BR><X-SIGSEP>
<P></X-SIGSEP><TT>S1,-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR>Mark
J. DeFilippis, Ph. D EE
defilm@acm.org<BR>
defilm@ieee.org<BR><BR><BR></TT></P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>