This is relevant to ur interests

[gulliver-trans]

"Getting Newbies and Hard-Core Gamers to Play Nice Together "

Electronic Games that Work for Both Novices and Pros - WSJ.com

(I haven't actually read it yet)

[Baker]

Yes it is.

But the article doesn't really off any ideas.

The "old" idea was the public server with over-zealous admins that banned on a whim. To a large extent that worked well, except that you had bad judgment calls. I would say the problem with that is that it requires a lot of human attention.

Another idea is the concept of unique ids and "semi-non-public" servers using the theory that 5% of people are 90% of the problem.

Another idea is the concept of "chat-free" anonymous practice server. Hard for their to be conflict when no one can talk or knows who is playing

And yet another school of thought is with a larger player base, diversity sorts things out. You'll have newbie oriented mods and expert oriented mods.

No easy answers, that's for sure.

I personally like the idea of the "shut-up and play" server. Maybe each player can speak 10 times max, only after playing for 5 minutes can they talk (prevents reconnecting and being a nuisance).

Then there is the idea of white-listed servers. People that have a track record of not being annoying have their ip on a whitelist and get full "privileges" and everyone else gets very limited chat ability.

Personally, I think the white-list idea and the "shut-up and play" ideas are good ones. At least it would be nice to have on a few servers.

[MasterSplinter]

Let’s see…

How do you apply this to Quake and its active population on today’s servers? It’s not like our favorite Quake servers are just oozing with players and you can select your clique. We have to count our blessings that there is still a community and thank every player (regardless of their shortcomings) for being present and able to participate. Legacy, returning, and short-term (curious) players have varying degrees of game skills, social differences, perspectives, and thresholds that make their experience enjoyable.

What was the objective?: Getting Newbies and Hard-Core Gamers to Play Nice Together.

This is the end all answer:

You have to demonstrate good behavior, language, camaraderie, and sportsmanship. If you are able to help another player with difficulties, do it. Your positive and negative actions will affect other people and encourage that same behavior. Humble yourself and be grateful to have a like-minded network of people who enjoy playing Quake.

With all that in mind, you can then consider how to level the playing field. In my opinion, there should be a system to advantage lower skilled players &or handicap advance players.

Off the top of my head: give lower skilled players (by discursion of moderator) auto-aim capabilities (much like the default Quake single player mode). Give lower skilled players the appropriate (profile based) advantage on health, armor, and ammo. Advanced players might have less ammo, health, etc.

It is responsibility of everyone to keep up moral. If it is not found here, they will find it elsewhere.

What good is multi-player, if your just ‘playing with yourself’?.

[Baker]

Off the top of my head: give lower skilled players (by discursion of moderator) auto-aim capabilities (much like the default Quake single player mode).

I've always thought one only auto-aim server would be a great idea.

Newbies would like it, low skill players and keyboarders would have a better chance and the idea of someone cheating with a bot would be absurd.

[MasterSplinter]

I've always thought one only auto-aim server would be a great idea.

Let's do it! It would be the experimental gateway drug back into Quake. Training wheels for the aspiring Pros.

If there was somehow this crowd of people who were intimidated by the skill level of players on the current servers... they could warm up there with with their peers, and work their way into the more advanced-player servers.

Does that sound ridiculous? I mean....this IS the internet after all... there is an ENTIRE WOULD of people out there...and a handful of people out there have to be Quake One enthusiasts... Maybe I'm just fooling myself, but Quake One is an arguably classic game with a history of achievements and things modeled after it.

I bet you what... Once the internet becomes one giant LAN...and ping times averaging what we consider to be LPBs apply to everyone (i.e: Europe)... people will be looking for that element of game play experience.

[rev]

No one would ever progress if the most difficult aspects of the game are executed for them.

[Baker]

No one would ever progress if the most difficult aspects of the game are executed for them.

Everyone has to start somewhere, though. Most of the game is map control and understanding the flow of a map. The rest of the game is aim and reflexes.

I don't think anyone would really want the server to aim for them once they got the hang of it. Would you?

@Mastersplinter:

The servers are independently run by various server operators, just fyi. Someone would have persuade one of them to switch it and someone would have to administer it that has time to do that and set it up and maintain it.

And another option is, like speaknow, just buying server hosting.

http://www.fatpipeserver.com/

[MasterSplinter]

@Mastersplinter:

The servers are independently run by various server operators, just fyi. Someone would have persuade one of them to switch it and someone would have to administer it that has time to do that and set it up and maintain it.

And another option is, like speaknow, just buying server hosting.

FatPipe Servers

Prices seem reasonable. What would you go with? Chicago, Dallas, New York, Atlanta, or Virginia? Chatting with people, seems most are Northeast.

[rev]

Most of the game is map control and understanding the flow of a map. The rest of the game is aim and reflexes.

If that were true the first person/team to the best weapons/armor would win every game. A major part of strategy is directly dependent upon where your aim/reflexes are strongest.

I don't think anyone would really want the server to aim for them once they got the hang of it. Would you?

I don't think there's a large percentage of people who are avoiding Quake because they lack the aim. At the very least, there aren't many that are going to stick around long enough to "move-up" to the unassisted-aim servers. If they don't care enough or aren't competitive enough to give the game a few weeks without aim-assist to get used to it, they certainly won't have the drive to try graduating from the "newb" servers. But I'm all for helping to grow the Quake community, newbs and olds alike. I'll help in any way, I always answer questions (usually in game) if I can.

[rev]

Just as an aside, think of the dedicated keyboarders. Logic would make you think, "people wouldn't use only the keyboard once they find out how much better gameplay is with a mouse." But those people exist. I remember years ago on the gaming networks, there were people dedicated to the "E1M1 AA NFF". Played the same map, same mod, same settings for years.

That sounds familiar... heh.. I do love my CA dm3.

[=peg=]

I kinda like the idea of so called "death streaks" which could be implemented in quake mods along the lines of:

- make x number of kills without dieing yourself -> all armor you pick up will be downgraded to green armor.
- get killed x times without making a kill yourself -> all armor you pick up will be upgraded to red armor.

The penalty/bonus could be something else, but the idea of leveling the playing field like this, could work well for FFA servers with a player-base of mixed skill levels (like EuroQuake).

[Mindf!3ldzX]

This is a good subject,but when you leave the area of discussing making newbs capable to 'hang' with the seasoned players with as little effort for learning curve as possible,and enter the area of how administrator's operate their server's,its gonna quickly go downhill into a pissing contest of quaker players who always know better than the admin,and the one admin that makes a bad judgement call never hears the end of it,due to the more vocal players in the community not being able to realize they are merely a player,playing on a provided server for the entire community,not any one individual like some people like to believe they are "entitled" to play quake any way they please,with any attitude they please,and continue thinking that connecting to a quake server is some sort of RIGHT and less of a PRIVLEDGE,which isnt the case. It's nice to think this community has moved on from the "My Server,My Rules" mentality,but the assholes and idiot's of Quake make sure that old methods of administration stay intact,due to some Quakers never grew up,and continue to act like the same idiots they did 5-10 years ago,back when there was a reason to talk shit in quake or there was such a large community,pissing in a few peoples cheerios typically went un-noticed until it became a continuing problem.

Now days, the community is so small, the people who have a rather large orafice between the cracks of their asses tend to stick out more like a sore thumb,especially when a bad apple turns what was once pretty cool cat's into utter douche bags.

But, on the plus side of things, the drama lovin newbs typically dont stick around long,even if its just another hiatus that is short lived,and us good spirited quaker's will always be around to put the assholes in check.

[ninjamonkeyz]

The answer to this is Rune Quake... You don't have to be an expert to enjoy it most people even play using keyboard only, nobody usually has a problem with novice - advanced players when the server is almost full... the only time they have a problem is when there are only a hand full of people playing then skill differences are noticed and many people rage quit

[ninjamonkeyz]

another answer would be to have a vote option for server bots to join the game including a skill selection, when servers are empty so people can practice, and have bots leave as people join.. sorta like q3 servers did.

[metchsteekle]

i think frikbot might do that