The Tremor in Texas [Archive] - Quarter To Three Forums

Tom Chick

08-22-2005, 08:58 PM

To be honest, I had no idea it was spelled with a 1. But if I had known, I'd still refuse to use it. I can't even bring myself to write the name of the movie as Seinsert-numeral-7-instead-of-letter-Ven.

Besides, I really loathe these stupid internet/deathmatch nicknames. My thinking is that unless you're a celebrity, you don't get to choose your own nickname in life. Online, yeah, fine, whatever. You look pretty stupid playing a videogame. But in real life, you either use what your mother gave you or what your friends gave you. It's not up to you what you get called.

-T. Wesley Chick II

Kevin Grey

08-22-2005, 09:08 PM

But in real life, you either use what your mother gave you or what your friends gave you.

Heh, tell that to Puff Daddy, excuse me I mean P. Diddy, oh wait I forgot he announced it's just Diddy now.

Ephraim

08-22-2005, 09:20 PM

But in real life, you either use what your mother gave you or what your friends gave you.

Heh, tell that to Puff Daddy, excuse me I mean P. Diddy, oh wait I forgot he announced it's just Diddy now.

Because the P and the period were getting between he and his fans.

andrew_fm

08-22-2005, 09:24 PM

It's official, Tom Chick is a grumpy old man.

Tom Chick

08-22-2005, 09:27 PM

Heh, tell that to Puff Daddy,

You missed the part where I said 'unless you're a celebrity'. They have Special Rules because they're not Real People.

Hollywood anecdote: I met Queen Latifah once many years ago on a TV show. I asked her what I was supposed to call her and she laughed and told me to call her 'Dana'. Which I presume is her real name.

I wonder what people call Fatality when they meet him. Because I can't imagine anyone saying that out loud to someone's face without giggling.

-Tom

mono

08-22-2005, 09:34 PM

ET: Quake Wars is my most anticipated game for '06. Carmack should just ditch id and move to Splash Damage; they seem to have a better vision than id for his tech these days.

Brad Grenz

08-22-2005, 09:48 PM

Uh oh, wait til Tom finds out Abit and Creative Labs paid to use his name to market their hardware...

andrew_fm

08-22-2005, 11:59 PM

Uh oh, wait til Tom finds out Abit and Creative Labs paid to use his name to market their hardware...
Tom Chick has his own branded hardware?!

Kalle

08-23-2005, 12:39 AM

Uh oh, wait til Tom finds out Abit and Creative Labs paid to use his name to market their hardware...
Tom Chick has his own branded hardware?!

I know I'd pay extra for a beret-styled motherboard.

sluggo

08-23-2005, 01:18 AM

Tom: Fatality was playing people in Quake 4 DM at the Creative booth, not Quake 3.

Stroker Ace

08-23-2005, 04:53 AM

SAW holds up much better than I expected and the button at the very conclusion worked just fine for me. It's low budget and derivative. You can almost hear the director in the background shouting 'Make it like Se7en!' while they're building chintzy sets worthy of a Halloween haunted house in a church basement.

ElGuapo

08-23-2005, 06:21 AM

Besides, I really loathe these stupid internet/deathmatch nicknames. My thinking is that unless you're a celebrity, you don't get to choose your own nickname in life. Online, yeah, fine, whatever. You look pretty stupid playing a videogame. But in real life, you either use what your mother gave you or what your friends gave you. It's not up to you what you get called.

I can totally understand this, but I think most of us started with the online "moniker" to retain anonymity on the internet, and kept it when we play any games. It's easy to me to have one profile/name for everything, instead of remember what my Gamespy/ASE/BF2/Diablo/etc. login name is. All my games where I have profiles or save games (i.e. all of them) have the name ElGuapo. I picked it years ago for some reason or another. Oh, now I remember, it's because I'm so GOOD LOOKING.

No wait, it was from Three Amigos.

I would laugh my ass off if someone introduced themselves as other than their real name. In fact, the one time I've met people off the internet that knew me by this moniker (A Combat Mission group), I was embarrassed as hell when they called me "ElGuapo".

/As an aside, my friend Sean always says that there will simply never be an truly immersive online game. As soon as you start losing yourself in the world and getting into it, you'll be killed and a message will pop up, ruining your immersion:

"You have been teamkilled by PenisSaurusRex."

Jazar

08-23-2005, 08:37 AM

"I'm a grown ass man. I ain't callin no 'nother dude 'DELICIOUS'".

Nathan Phoenix

08-23-2005, 08:52 AM

I knocked fatal1ty out of the running at the mplayer AVP tourney that was at E3 in 2000. He was kinda hostile toward me. I went on to win that event. It's my understanding that the fruits of my labor from that tourney are still at gamespy's office.

anyway...

A couple years later when the CPL was doing their big AVP2 tourney with a kitted out ford focus as the grand prize, I signed up. When the brackets were posted for the start of the CPL AVP2 tourney, I wasn't on them. All of my emails to the CPL went unanswered. Coincidence? Maybe. I was pretty pissed about it at the time though. Not saying I would have won or anything but would have been nice to have been able to at least try. Thus, I don't consider the CPL to have even the slightest amount of credibility.

Stroker Ace

08-23-2005, 09:03 AM

I knocked fatal1ty out of the running at the mplayer AVP tourney that was at E3 in 2000.
http://www.quartertothree.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=106220#106220

Marcus

08-23-2005, 09:42 AM

People dont like him because he is a prick.

AttAdude

08-23-2005, 10:07 AM

I went to quake con 2 years ago. Fatal1ty was there. They had him set up on his own mini LAN in the dealer room. There where 9 computers with monitors and then a 10th one that had a monitor with its display mirrored on a giant wall screen. For the whole 3 day affair the man took all comers anyone that thought they where the shit could come sit down and get schooled.

The first thin you must know is the guy is a freaking machine. He never moved from his computer. Not that i saw at least. While the dealers where switching out shifts fatal1ty kept his seat for the whole 3 day event. I never even saw the guy go take a piss. Secondly i have never played anyone this good at any game bar none. Now let me tell you guys, im a damn good quake player. In general i can take anyone that feels froggie. I tell you this not to brag, but as a way of comparison between Fatal1ty and I. It was like playing a game of quake with Mrs Cleo... well if Mrs Cleo could actualy see the future. You would hear a fight some where in the distance and move to go get into it. Right as you turn a corner a rocket slams into your feet and you are gibbed. It was like playing a game of quake with a person who was playing the same game, except he was 7 second ahead of you at any one time. It was truly a humbling experience. If you where to see this kind of performance on the Internet you would be screaming cheater with in seconds. He is actually that good. I would esitmate that i spent 4 hours in multiple sessions trying to kill this guy. I was able to do it 4 times. Mind you he must have killed me 100s of times. All in all i remember him getting killed maybe 15 times total but he would end these hour matches scoring 250+. He is with out a doubt the best quake player i have ever seen. After watching the final match that year (won by some Russian guy) i can assure you that if Fatal1ty was still allowed to compete he would have won with out even trying.

At a later quakecon i also played another ID celeb named B3nt. He was not as good, but still a own-a-matic machine wrapped in a nerds body.

Hans Lauring

08-23-2005, 11:16 AM

08-23-2005, 12:24 PM

Thus, I don't consider the CPL to have even the slightest amount of credibility.

They don't. There are lots of stories like yours. Alone they could be just coincidences but there are so many of them that most are probably true. I know from my experience with the CPL they are not a nice organization. For example in the past clan KM got banned from the CPL because one of their members was questioning lots of things. KM is like 50-100 players.

Secondly i have never played anyone this good at any game bar none. If you where to see this kind of performance on the Internet you would be screaming cheater with in seconds. He is actually that good. I would esitmate that i spent 4 hours in multiple sessions trying to kill this guy. I was able to do it 4 times. Mind you he must have killed me 100s of times. All in all i remember him getting killed maybe 15 times total but he would end these hour matches scoring 250+. He is with out a doubt the best quake player i have ever seen.

There are lots of people this good at various FPS games playing on the internet you just have to known where to find them.

After watching the final match that year (won by some Russian guy) i can assure you that if Fatal1ty was still allowed to compete he would have won with out even trying.

Still allowed, WTF? IIRC, fatality retired beause he lost his edge and was losing quite a bit. I doubt he would have won.

Wobbo

08-23-2005, 12:55 PM

Quake 3 is a fun game, Quake 2 is an even better Deathmatch game and QW still has thousands of players. I know fun is a four letter word to you, and I understand your reasons, but really thats the end of the story.

Not everyone moves on to what supposed to be the next greatest thing, just because they can. Gaming is a hobby, not an industry for consumption where you move on to the next product (ie music movies etc.).

I still play Q3 practically every other day, I know the Unreal series is better but im not bored with it yet.

AttAdude

08-23-2005, 01:30 PM

Thus, I don't consider the CPL to have even the slightest amount of credibility.

Secondly i have never played anyone this good at any game bar none. If you where to see this kind of performance on the Internet you would be screaming cheater with in seconds. He is actually that good. I would esitmate that i spent 4 hours in multiple sessions trying to kill this guy. I was able to do it 4 times. Mind you he must have killed me 100s of times. All in all i remember him getting killed maybe 15 times total but he would end these hour matches scoring 250+. He is with out a doubt the best quake player i have ever seen.

There are lots of people this good at various FPS games playing on the internet you just have to known where to find them.

Thats very easy to say from behind your keyboard. Trust me i have been playing these thigns we call FPSs since the days of quakespy and quakeworld. I know a good player, and i know how to find them. Fatal1ty goes far far beyond anything i have seen in 20 years of gaming.

Lastly when i asked him why he could not play for the money he said, and i quote. "they wont let me, they know i would win every year, so insteed they demo me here in the vendor room". Besides that it makes sense when you think about it since people on the ID payroll are not allowed to play.

Rywill

08-23-2005, 01:34 PM

I love this thread. How long will it possibly be until someone gets challenged to a duel to the death? If only the Quake avatars had measurable penises, this would all be so much easier.

Stroker Ace

08-23-2005, 01:35 PM

get 'em, ar-kansas!

sluggo

08-23-2005, 01:54 PM

At the QCon awards ceremony, I asked Fatal1ty why he didn't play in the DOOM 3 tourney this year, after winning last year. Simply put, he liked Painkiller more, which was the CPL tourney this year (and he won, I believe). If he wanted to play in the QuakeCon tourney, I'm sure they would have let him.

The FPS tourney situation is a bit of a mess right now. It was nice when we had Quake 3 for a few years, but then everything fractured as Q3 aged -- there were big 1v1 tourneys with UT, Painkiller, DOOM 3 and others. Many of the pro players I've talked to are looking forward to Quake 4, not only because it's so similar to Quake 3, but because they expect it'll become the standard 1v1 game for a while. These players would rather play one game for a few years than have to switch games every year.

AttAdude

08-24-2005, 07:04 AM

i dont understand how people do that. The only game i have ever played for more than a year is America's Army, ive played it off and on since release. I like seeing new things too much i suppose.

*Edit* Now that i think about it i played TeamFortress pretty constantly for a couple of years, back when it actualy a quake mod.

ElGuapo

08-24-2005, 07:26 AM

AttAdude

08-24-2005, 08:40 AM

I played Counterstrike for probably 2-3 years straight, since I think Beta 0.2. I still play X-COM: UFO occasionally. I still fire up randomly generated mission in SOF2 (I think that's the ONLY FPS with randomly generated maps).

What I won't do, probably, is go back and replay a FPS a second time through. As good as Deus Ex was, I didn't have the time to play it trhough again. I probably won't go back and play a game in a series that has a superior sequel with added features I'd miss (GTA3, for instance, as opposed to GTA: SA, or Jagged Alliance as compared to JA2).

Games for me at least have a very logn shelf life. I have probably 20 games on my hard drive right now.

There was another FPS with random maps recently. It was some kind of horror game buget title thing that i thought was really niffty. Damn it all i cant remember the name, but i do remember they put this really cool filter over the image to make it look more like a 1920s horror movie. Anyway every time you played the game the mansion was randomly generated.

Rywill

08-24-2005, 09:13 AM

That would be Nosferatu: Wrath of Malachi.

AttAdude

08-24-2005, 10:08 AM

That would be Nosferatu: Wrath of Malachi.Yup thats the one, thank you for jogging my memory.

mystery

08-24-2005, 10:32 AM

Uh oh, wait til Tom finds out Abit and Creative Labs paid to use his name to market their hardware...
Tom Chick has his own branded hardware?!

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/2077/19ja.png

Kalle

08-24-2005, 10:55 AM

Not enough beret.

Funkman

08-24-2005, 11:49 AM

Besides, I really loathe these stupid internet/deathmatch nicknames. My thinking is that unless you're a celebrity, you don't get to choose your own nickname in life.

"Oh, sure, Leonard Bernstein gets to be called Maestro just because he conducts the New York Philharmonic....".

Sorry to just jump in this thread... but come on, Seinfeld gold and no one says anything?

"It's not Pavarotti, or Domingo.. its the other guy."

Hans Lauring

08-24-2005, 12:58 PM

It saddens me too...

Gladguy

08-24-2005, 01:51 PM

It's gold, Jerry! GOLD!

:lol:

In all seriousness, I got pretty deeply involved in the Pro Gaming circuit when I was lobbying the CPL to get Painkiller in as the World Tour game for 2005. I came to learn a lot about the "e-sports" community, and it's really different -- even different from the "hardcore" community that is pretty well represented here on Qt3.

For these guys, Fatal1ty is a god. When he gets beat (a guy nicked "v00" beat him in a couple intense PK matches) it's big news for that community. The elite players make big big dollars, much of it in sponsorships, and play more than 8 hours a day. And they are, as AttAdude points out, spooky good.

For example, when I debuted PK at the Winter CPL two years ago, I played a couple deathmatches with the attendees. I'm no FPS god, but I'm not bad, and remember -- at that time, I had been playing the game pretty solidly for months while none of these guys had even seen the game in action before. I got owned. OWNED. So I logged off and watched how these guys disect a map, timing out the weapon/armor spawns. They figured out the ballistics models almost instantly. It was quite an eye-opener.

When the game was confirmed as the CPL title game, and Wendel confirmed he was going to devote his year to Painkiller, it was big news in the community. I was elated, because I felt like I had landed the big fish.
The thing is, outside of the incredibly insular esports community, nobody really knows (or cares) who Jonathan Wendel is. Let alone Fatal1ty.

The guy has the personality of a wet sponge, and comes of as the most arrogant individual I've ever met, but he will continue to milk his sponsors for $$, and he'll continue to earn a decent buck winning tournaments. Angel Munoz (head of the CPL) is totally determined to bring esports out of the backrooms and into the mainstream, or at least out of the niche and into the hardcore. It's interesting to watch, but I don't know if we hardcore gamers will ever embrace the esports guys.

Caryn Law

08-25-2005, 10:17 AM

I met Wendel back in '99 at the first QuakeCon I worked. He seemed like a nice enough guy, he came up and introduced himself to me. Has he really changed that much since then?

They had all these Fatal1ty cardboard cutouts strewn all over QuakeCon. It was a little disconcerting to turn around every so often only to have him standing there in cardboard form. (I'm sure that was their intention, of course.)

The whole pro-gamer-as-celebrity-icon thing is still weird to me. He has trainers and managers. They're trying to fashion him into the Michael Jordan of pro gaming, but is that really possible? I guess you can buy motherboards with Fatal1ty's name on them, which I find funny since no one can see into my PC case and see my l33tness if I owned one.

With Jordan, you can watch him physically take a ball down the court and slam dunk it and see how much physical work it takes for him to do it. While I'm not a sports fan and I don't consider sports players heroes for being good at their job, I can recognize that what they do takes extreme effort, refinement, skill, and determination. But it's easy to see in physical form. It's not so easy to translate that ready-made cult of personality into pro gaming when you look at a screen and see games so ratched down in the graphics that they're virtually unrecognizable (since the pro gamers do that to make them run the fastest), and see a guy sitting at a keyboard stock still except for his mouse and hands. I dunno, it just doesn't translate directly to me.

Shadari

08-25-2005, 10:28 AM

I guess you can buy motherboards with Fatal1ty's name on them, which I find funny since no one can see into my PC case and see my l33tness if I owned one.
Obviously, you're already not very l33t if your case doesn't have a transparent window that allows people to see your l33t components.

With Jordan, you can watch him physically take a ball down the court and slam dunk it and see how much physical work it takes for him to do it. While I'm not a sports fan and I don't consider sports players heroes for being good at their job, I can recognize that what they do takes extreme effort, refinement, skill, and determination. But it's easy to see in physical form. It's not so easy to translate that ready-made cult of personality into pro gaming when you look at a screen and see games so ratched down in the graphics that they're virtually unrecognizable (since the pro gamers do that to make them run the fastest), and see a guy sitting at a keyboard stock still except for his mouse and hands. I dunno, it just doesn't translate directly to me.
Then again, there are chess players that have achieved a sort of celebrityhood, and watching people play chess doesn't readily display a great degree of skill nor any degree of excitement to the average person.

08-25-2005, 11:22 AM

The FPS tourney situation is a bit of a mess right now. It was nice when we had Quake 3 for a few years, but then everything fractured as Q3 aged -- there were big 1v1 tourneys with UT, Painkiller, DOOM 3 and others.

Part of the problem is these games are not really designed for competition. I'm sure hardware and software companies want pro-gaming to use the latest stuff which is requires people to buy the latest too(and most expensive by far). When you think about it there is a tug of war going on between what the competitors want, and what the sponsors want. I'm hoping someday a game comes out which is totally made for competition. I don't want to rail on PK but when you compare it's netcode, system requirements, and lack of things like QTV it's pretty obvious many other FPS are better suited to be used by the CPL. The ideal competition game would be fast, very deep learning curve, run at high FPS on even old PCs, and offer many pro-gaming features(QTV, better netcode than we have now, proxies like qizmo, etc).

These players would rather play one game for a few years than have to switch games every year.

I know I wouldn't mind playing one game for basically forever if the competition, community and game are good. If you look back and compare old demos in any active FPS to new demos you will see a huge difference in ability. The longer you let players play one game the higher the skill level is going to be. Another divide between competitors and the sponsors here.

"Personally, I probably would have never left Quake III if CPL and all the leagues didn’t change to other games." - fatality quote taken from here
http://www.ggl.com/news.php?NewsId=1018

With Jordan, you can watch him physically take a ball down the court and slam dunk it and see how much physical work it takes for him to do it. But it's easy to see in physical form.

Ideally the best pro-game would be a free download so anyone wanting to try it could. This would allow anyone to relate to the skill level they would be seeing.

see games so ratched down in the graphics that they're virtually unrecognizable (since the pro gamers do that to make them run the fastest)

Lots of people seem to give us flak for this but it's not our fault. Game companies generally don't make FPS independent physics so that means if you don't get a stable FPS at whatever the standard cap is you are basically going to be handicapped. For example in Q3 if you don't get solid 125FPS you won't be able to do certain jumps and will generally be slower moving around the level. I personally play with pretty nice looking graphics settings if my FPS are ok. Indeed, I feel good graphics allow you to aim better as there is more detail on the screen letting you triangulate better. You can't do that as well if all the walls are one color with little shading.

AttAdude

08-25-2005, 11:37 AM

As a side note i dont think either Fatal1ty or B3nt had their grafix turned down much when they showed me how bad i suck.

Tim

08-28-2005, 11:09 AM

Computer gaming equipment endorsements are not going to take this league or its celebrities very far, IMO. As a rule, pro athlete endorsement deals are for consumer products unrelated to the tools they use in the league. It's sports drinks, sodas, underwear, local car dealerships. Products that are primarily commodities and have a great value in emotional appeal and brand loyalty.

That's not there for the game equipment. No one really cares what brand of glove Derek Jeter endorses or helmet Tom Brady uses. For one thing, the market for people needing pro level equipment is tiny (and I'm afraid that's the case for computer gaming equipment too). And for those who are in the market for it, they're likely to be much less influenced by brand or endorsement. They will compare specs and try the stuff out.

The big exception for pro athletes of course is in shoes. But even that is a little different since the companies that make the pro equipment also offer consumer level products that do benefit from brand marketing.

It might happen, but you probably need a star gamer with some strong charisma. And that seems like it will be a little harder to find than among pro athletes.

Shadari

08-28-2005, 11:35 AM

While we're on the subject of pro gamers, does anyone know what Thresh is up to these days?

Derek Meister

08-28-2005, 01:19 PM

Not enough beret.

http://meisterplanet.com/images/quartertothree/qt3-beret.jpg

Troy S Goodfellow

08-28-2005, 01:27 PM

Not enough beret.

http://meisterplanet.com/images/quartertothree/qt3-beret.jpg

OK. Now I want one.

Troy

Kalle

08-28-2005, 01:36 PM

http://meisterplanet.com/images/quartertothree/qt3-beret.jpg

Not enough Chick

08-28-2005, 01:42 PM

While we're on the subject of pro gamers, does anyone know what Thresh is up to these days?

Long ago I think firingsquad promised an interview but I don't think that ever happened. AFAIK he basically quit gaming at the "pro" level around when Q3 came out.

Caryn Law

08-28-2005, 03:41 PM

Thresh started his own company and created Xfire, the gaming IM client, and started the online pay-to-play company Ultimate Arena.

Hump

08-28-2005, 08:17 PM

Competitive gaming is somewhere on par with candlepin bowling in terms of public interest.

Most hardcore gamers I know can't watch it for more than 10 minutes without dozing off which makes me wonder how they expect the puiblic to embrace it to the point where it would be profitable.

-H

Hans Lauring

08-29-2005, 01:43 AM

At CEbit I accidently walked into the Samsung, Shuttle, ATI sponsored World Series of Gaming (or some such nonsense name). 100 guys playing Starcraft. " guys in pods on a stage with big screens above them and a guy commenting... fuck me that was boring.

I don't think this will ever become mainstream. As others have pointed out most gamers don't care, why would anybody else?

sluggo

08-29-2005, 11:57 AM

There's probably no bigger indictment of the 1v1 DM scene at the moment than the upcoming World Cyber Games finals. 6 PC tournaments, no FPS 1v1. How does that happen? There's the Counter-Strike team event and Halo 2 on console, and that's it for shooters.

I've never played Starcraft multiplayer, but I would watch these tourneys if there was a commentator who could properly explain the action and the strategy behind it. I mean, if you can get people to watch poker, there has to be a way to translate competitive video games. We just need a Pete Rozelle-like figure to package it all up in a way that people will watch.

Christien Murawski

08-29-2005, 12:29 PM

I've never played Starcraft multiplayer, but I would watch these tourneys if there was a commentator who could properly explain the action and the strategy behind it. I mean, if you can get people to watch poker, there has to be a way to translate competitive video games.

I'm actually shocked at how addictive watching poker can be. The basic difference in televising poker--as opposed to PC gaming--is that the opponents face off against each other. This tends to create a more interesting dynamic than watching some dude stare down his monitor. It's fun to watch people trying to read each other, and trying to psych each other out.

I'd be afraid if gaming tried this you'd wind up with a lot of wannabe personalities working overly hard to establish quirky and competitive personas. This comes to mind because of a Daily Show segment I saw recently. The segment focused on the competitive bass fishing dude who has this schtick where he yells at the fish after he has caught it. Basically he acts like Tiger Woods after winning a major, pumping his fist and screaming at the fish about how it just got totally pwned.

It would be funny to see somebody do a parody of a gaming competition with that, but watching it actually unfold might be stultifyingly painful.

"Maybe poker's not your game. I know, let's have a spelling contest!"

-Amanpour

Rywill

08-29-2005, 12:34 PM

It would be funny to see somebody do a parody of a gaming competition with that, but watching it actually unfold might be stultifyingly painful.

No way.

"BOOM! HEADSHOT!!"

Derek Meister

08-29-2005, 05:36 PM

I'd be afraid if gaming tried this you'd wind up with a lot of wannabe personalities working overly hard to establish quirky and competitive personas.

Helloooooo G4 TV.

Damien Falgoust

08-29-2005, 09:11 PM

I'm actually shocked at how addictive watching poker can be. The basic difference in televising poker--as opposed to PC gaming--is that the opponents face off against each other. This tends to create a more interesting dynamic than watching some dude stare down his monitor. It's fun to watch people trying to read each other, and trying to psych each other out.
The breakthrough for televised poker was the use of those lipstick cameras to see what everyone's holding. It gives the viewer a kind of omniscience -- you immediately know who's bluffing and who's not, who's playing it safe and who's playing aggressive. TV Poker without those cameras would be death -- since very few hands go all the way to a final showdown, you'd never know if the winner of a hand had great cards or just staged a great pyschological display.

I can't think of anything similar that would liven up PC gaming for spectators.