I asked
Hanif what he thought about the ladder and the OGL, to see if
his experience had been the same as mine. I found that it had,
“Yeah I have had fun on the ladder, even though there is
a serious lack of player involvement and most of my matches have
been forfeit, etc. I think the OGL is more about meeting new people
and coming together to play the game than a real ladder. In that
sense it has been very fun, however the OGL has its faults too,
and they begin with the obvious Internet play and distribution
of players across the world. In addition, the OGL seems to lack
the involvement of the tried and true professional gamers, etc.
the list can continue for each side forever.”
Hanif sums it up
pretty well. The OGL is fun, and you do meet people (when they
show up/respond to e-mails), but it’s not exactly the place
for premiere online competition. There is a major problem with
people sitting on the ladders and not playing or responding
to e-mails. However, when I looked at the website, I could not
find a place to leave a ladder. I assume that e-mailing the
ladder admin would do that, but...is a button on the user panel
too much to ask? Might make it much easier for that guy who
joined the Quake III ladder on a whim (when he’s
really an OGL member for the Magic: The Gathering ladder)
to get off.
Six months after
joining the OGL, I sit at number 70 on the ladder, and have
played 3 matches, one I won by a landslide, and two where I
had my ass handed to me on a plate. I did meet people, albeit
not many (I think irc would be more productive if you’re
looking to meet people), and I did learn a few valuable lessons
about playing really good gamers. But all in all? I’ll
sit on the ladder for a while, play if I’m challenged,
but I’ll probably be e-mailing the ladder admin as soon
as the retail version of Quake III hits the shelves and
tournaments start up.
______________________________________________________
To follow up on (and
debug) last week’s article a bit, I received e-mail from
both Angel Munoz from the CPL and Frank Cabanski from i2e2 pointing
out that their organizations do not exist to make money off
of gamers. That said, I would like to point out neither organization
is classified as non-profit. :) Angel Munoz also wanted to point
out that Frank Cabanski was not a founder of the CPL, as I said
in the last column (i2e2 press releases list him as former Commissioner
of the CPL, I apologize for the error). Rix (of “Gollum
and Rix”! First professional level Quake match I
saw in person was Gollum vs. Rix. It sounds corny, but I really
never have forgotten it...it was amazing) also wrote in, making
sure that I pointed out that although the CPL may not have gone
by that exact name at the time the PGL started, it was very
much the organization it currently is today at that time.
Future columns will
feature interviews with Angel Munoz, Frank Cabanski, Rix, and
more covering these and other issues.
‘till then,
“PMS-Bobbi on D!”...I’m off to find a TWCTF
server. With the release of Quake III around the corner,
it looks like I may be saying goodbye to QuakeWorld soon.
But...we’ll see...
