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Want To Play The Multiplayer FPS Games You Bought?
Thanks to GamerDad for its editorial discussing why it's sometimes impossible to play multiplayer FPS titles as the developers intended it. The author argues: "I certainly don't think that every mod I've ever run across is better than the core game that ships in the box but yet there's often no one running the boxed game", before noting that most game publishers "...do not run their own servers for these games so you can't count on them supporting the boxed game either. There are exceptions to this rule but for the most part when it comes to PC games, you're at the whims of the many fan owned and operated servers... [which may] limit the maps to a select few in a deathmatch game or change the settings of the game to make it play very differently from what you expect."
What it shows is that, if you have a situation like CounterStrike where the modded game servers way outnumber Half-Life game servers, the customer is really showing the publishers what they want.
It's rare nowadays to see market forces so easily detectable and free from the controls of the publishing monstrosities.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
...run your own server. Then you can play the way you want instead of crying about people who run their own server to play the way they want.
I REALLY hate instagib, but who am I to tell them how to run their own server? Sheesh.
You almost NEVER have a problem finding a server that's fun to play on. The real server problems arise with the new mods that MIGHT have good potential, but unfortunately only a few servers......and only a few good ones out of those. Forgotten Hope is a good example, as is Pirates.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
..and the fan made servers run usually what people want to play.
what good are few servers running some maps nobody is willing to play with you?
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
any idea how much bandwidth you need for running servers ?
I don't think it's gonna be much fun on my 128k upstream
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I've read the same argument on Penny Arcade, that mods and mutators ruined Unreal Tournament 2003. Being the author of one of the larger mutator packs for UT2k3, I thought this was a bit suprising.
... you don't want them playing vanilla Q3 - they'll likely rocket jump your ass out the door ;) )
#1) Mods and mutators are actually fairly hard to proliferate online, they aren't some kind of virus that seeps into servers - they get put on and stay on because the people enjoy playing them. If people didn't enjoy playing them, they wouldn't be there.
#2) If people preferred to play vanilla games, people would run vanilla servers. For those people who prefer to play vanilla games they should run vanilla servers.
#3) If you can't afford renting a server by yourself, find some like minded people and share the cost. Or, just up your broadband and run a very low-end server (most decent connects can run at least 4-6 player games, and yes - those can be fun too with the right players).
#4) If you can't afford a server, don't have any online friends, and are still running off a 56k modem, then, well, tough. Sorry, the internet gaming world isn't a democracy and never has been (you don't think the term Low Ping Bastard came from nowhere did you?).
Now - the part where I do give this complaint sympathy is in -finding- vanilla online games. Here is where UT2004 really shines, giving much better filters for mutators or no mutators or custom maps or no custom maps and comes with a complete voting package right out of the box so that people on your server can choose to play what they want.
(and btw, the reason Quake III is so tweaked is that many people mastered this game years and years ago
I liked Tribes 2. One of the nice things was that the game browser was good at filtering mods, so unlike some other games, you could find exactly what you were looking for. Personally, I played vanilla for a while, but soon became a fan of the shifter mod. (more vehicles, more weapon modes, more classes, and not usually too unbalanced) It was almost like getting a whole new game without having to buy anything. Mods can be fun, but maybe what the online community needs is something more like the UT voting systems where the server can be tailored to the tastes of the users who are currently playing, not always the tastes of the one admin who is only online for an hour every few days. I agree that those admins who really want their own setup can pay for and run their own server, but why waste resources? I see lots of game servers online that are empty and unplayed simply because they are not running what the players currently online feel like playing. Of course if the server admin comes online and his server is running a mod he hates, he can simply override it and play his version, but that's no reason he needs to keep his server running that version when he is gone and it would go unused anyway.