i made a qw mod lol

[woodpecker from mars]

this
woodpecker from mars mod for Quake - Mod DB

spam lolol

[R00k]

You're right, I dont think I'll play it.

[MadGypsy]

Maybe I'm just stupid or not "Quaketastic" enough to understand what is wrong with this.

What exactly did you do to it? Why isn't anyone going to want to play it? If you are so positive that no one is going to play it - why did you make it and post it? The screen shots of the game don't give any indication as to what it is exactly that you modded.

Maybe some clarification as to what it is exactly that you added would be a good start. If it's sole conclusion is for "educational purposes" maybe you should write a tutorial and give people the education that you claim is contained within.

You could sum all of this up to - why would you release your work in a way that cancels itself out, and what can you do to correct that dilemma? It's like stabbing yourself in the stomach to prove your knife is sharp and then telling people that you bet they will never test your knife this way. In the end you slowly and very painfully die and everyone is like "what the hell was that all about?" ::changes channel::

your pal,
Gypsy

[woodpecker from mars]

It's a Quakeworld mod and this is the year 2012; it could dispense blowjobs that cure cancer and enlarge your penis by 30' and nobody would give a shit. Yeah it'd be great if people would play it, which is why I'm releasing it and spamming lolol. But I know its prospects, and I'm being honest about them. Maybe, just maybe, somebody's gonna be curious about why they'll "never play" my mod and try it. That's the only angle I've got and imma milk it.

Ya want more info? Sure, okay: I increased the axe's power and made backstabs instant death, rockets ricochet off floors and ceilings, the grenade launcher tosses tf-style grenades(you can prime them for 3 seconds) and it has a super shotgun blast as a secondary attack(+attack2), and the lightning gun has been converted into a railgun that can either semi-rapidfire for low damage or be charged up for high damage, also, it has kick so you can rail-jump. All other weapons have been removed. You randomly start with either the rl, gl, or rg each time you spawn. There's a power-up that increases your speed, a power-up that gives you the abbility to jump off walls, and the Pentagram no longer makes you invincible - it just makes you really tough, switches your weapon to the axe, makes you move really fast, and gives you the power of flight so you can chase people around and hack them to death for your dark master Satan. Oh and armor completely absorbs damage now, but you don't get much of it.

There you go.

[MadGypsy]

So, why would nobody want to play that? I think you have your "sales pitch" backwards. If I made that mod I would throw it on a server and post almost your entire last paragraph as its description under the server info. Then when a few people joined (and they would), I would edit my post and add something like:

(ex) "Come play now, games are going on as you read this and servers are filling up quick"

You market a product by describing it in an appealing way and then creating a sense of urgency. The method that you are "milking" will never work. It's like if Mountain Dew marketed itself by showing you that it is so acidic that it can disintegrate an entire frog. Who wants that in their guts? However, people drink it cause Mountain Dew tells you that their drink is great. They lie to you and add a flavor that people like, topped off with commercials that express freedom and excitement. All the while though, people are consuming something so acidic that it can disintegrate an entire frog.

You should drop out for a couple of weeks, get your server up and come back as seemingly someone else with a positive message about your product. Maybe spend that week or 2 getting some custom action shots of your game in play that look interesting. Make a couple of custom maps that punctuate the new abilities that you have modded into the game. Build an area thats fun to fight in while flying, ricochet areas that have cool ricochet patterns...etc. "Sell" it as something that "other" people know about and love and you are just getting around to letting all these "clueless" people in on it.

Using your brain is far more profitable and carries much more potential than expecting other people to use theirs.

Gypsy

[woodpecker from mars]

Well, I'd like to put it up on a server too but you tell that to my dial-up...

Anyway, I was involved with another QW mod years ago(it's actually where the railgun comes from) and trust me, you couldn't make people urgently feel the need to play your orgasmically awesome QW mod if you held a gun to their heads. It's like trying to get a room full of Modern Warfare kiddies interested in your badass new ColecoVision game. Been there, done that.

Plus, the remaining Quake players still play Quake because they love the gameplay. So when a mod comes along that takes the gameplay they love, chucks it out the window, and replaces it with something really different.... It doesn't go over too well. So my atitude is, eh, I'll just release this mod and then whatever. Spam a few forums with a link to it and that's it. Maybe it'll find success someday, somehow, but probably not.

I appreciate that you're trying to help, though.

[MadGypsy]

I'm about to build an entire game based on the core of Quake, but will essentially not be Quake at all. If no one here plays it - I will find people that will. I can't be bothered with the concept that some people have secluded themself so intently to one little box that they wont be bothered with "my box". Fuck those people - there are a lot of people in the world and I doubt the "quake original or nothing" people make up 1%.

There is some guy on here that believed in Future vs fantasy so much that he shopped it around like he was selling vacuums door to door. Never stopping, never giving up - til he got his game on a server and people playing it. If I remember right he even lost a server or two on the way to the server he is on now.

I think your game sounds pretty cool and it can be as much as you dream it to be. I am not a "die-hard Quaker". Telling me Quake vs Quake World blah blah blah BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (lol) means nothing to me. If you want something to happen - make it so - PERIOD. Only you can make it impossible, based on the measure that you have decided to defeat yourself.

Turn that shit into a PSP game and include the word "hack" somewhere in the description - BAM you just got 1000 people playing your game.

Don't even tell people it's QuakeWorld (if that is some big deal). Package the whole damn thing up, rename everything and put it on a fileserver. Then promote it by whatever you call your game and let people figure out once they have it open with the start screen in front of them that it is QuakeWorld.

Gypsy

[Baker]

Anyway, I was involved with another QW mod years ago(it's actually where the railgun comes from) and trust me, you couldn't make people urgently feel the need to play your orgasmically awesome QW mod if you held a gun to their heads. It's like trying to get a room full of Modern Warfare kiddies interested in your badass new ColecoVision game. Been there, done that.

Pretty observant and knowledgable comments there.

Developing new multiplayer mods is a swim upstream. Single player mods usually offer new maps to explore, but multiplayer has to compete against player habits and what they already know they like.

Very challenging to pull off.

[Spike]

you can't really expect to release a quakeworld mod without saying that it only works in certain engines, so its kinda hard to not mention the fact that its a qw mod.

[golden_boy]

It's not so much about qw or not. It's just as hard to pull off a netquake mod that people actually play, as evidenced by the fact that no one plays RMQ multiplayer for example, to the point where I'm considering to drop the multiplayer.

There aren't enough new players flexible enough to play different mods. Quake as it is, is already niche. A new multiplayer mod for Quake is as niche as you can get. And then you have an ultraconservative community - it's the Iran of game making.

TBH if I wanted to make a multiplayer game that people play, I probably wouldn't use Quake as a base. Maybe Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament or anything like that, but Quake just isn't getting enough players to "sell" a new product.

IMHO the only decent chance to get players for a Quake mod is for it to provide something new and different, while keeping the speed and simplicity. Something like a new (for Quake) game mode.

Coop is another way to get players for your mod, because this benefits from any singleplayer content you might already have.

A server (US for Netquake, European for QW) is a must, otherwise no one will try it. And autodownloading IMO is also a must, no one wants to download pak files to play online. It needs to be idiot-proof.

This is just what I'm thinking, since I'm technically also making a multiplayer mod for Quake but not enjoying it. Nowadays I think it's a pretty foolish thing to waste your time on.