Name: G.I. Jonesy
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Posts: 2441
I really like Quake Live. The system is a vast improvement. While it is still unfriendly to audiences, it shouldn't be difficult to correct. The real problem though, with Quake Live, is not the system (something highly progressive). The problem is the gameplay. Being that Quake Live, the game, is nearly identical to Quake 3, what we have is another case of conservatism in gaming. Quake Live is a perfect example of regression and stagnation. Q3 is an 11 year-old game, and with Quake Live, was not remade with new graphics or gameplay. The only major liberal aspect of Quake Live happens to be the system. FFA, duel, clan arena, instagib, tdm, ctf... all of these gameplays were practically identical when they were first released - with Wolfestein 3d, 17 years ago.

I'm not talking about a new engine here. The QL engine is perfectly fine. It is smooth, responsive, and can achieve stable 125 on low-end computers. A new gameplay would be something like one-flag CTF. Have you ever played CTF with only one flag? No. Therefore, one-flag is new, and I would say (although, being the originator, maybe i'm biased), is a progression. Two-flags is a bunch of shit, and that criticism is thoughtful and specific. You have two flags, which divide focus (for viewers and players), and creates all these dumb stand-offs and camp-fests, and makes it so the teams are working together more as sub-groups within teams than full-teams. But, reasons aside for why I consider one-flag CTF to be progressive, no one can argue that the gameplay is new. Regression and stagnation are the works of fascists and other conservatives. Those fucks, with their bad-parenting, their destructiveness instead of support, work to ensure the dumb, redneck, white-trash way is permanently preserved. If they have their way, the doors of progress, evolution and improvement will always remain shut.

So, how can we make Quake Live a great game... one which truly attracts and holds new players? A new system, far superior to previous, is definitely a major step in the correct direction. But that door, the one conservatives always want closed, must be broken-through with a battering-ram. The only way to do that, and the only way for anything to become but a festering pool of diseased liquid, is movement. We have to create new kinds of gameplay. And that gameplay cannot be regressive. I would create one-flag CTF myself, but I am right-brained. Programming for me would be like a right-handed MLB pitcher trying to pitch with his left-hand. He would probably find himself all the way back at high-school level ball, even at his best. Left-brained people should, professionally, do left-brained things. In the best case scenario, right and left-brained people work together, sharing their strengths and compensating for their weaknesses. In other words, get to work, mother-fuckers. Come up with some new gameplay ideas, or make single-flag CTF. Progressive gameplay is the key. New games attract new people. If the new games are only new gameplays, which are evolved versions of older gameplays, both older players and newer players are covered.