Daily Archives: 15/05/2009
Netzwerk Terror LAN: A Look Back
Holy shit, I must be coming down with an illness as I post back-to-back Gaming pieces on T6F. I happened upon our old LAN web site by mistake. I can’t even remember what I was looking for or how I stumbled upon it. But using the “way back machine” I was able to find much of our old LAN news from Netzwerk Terror.
This WAS a time when gaming was enjoyable and the games were still worth a shit, unlike now. Quakeworld, Quake and Quake 2, as well as some wonderful mods for Quake 2 including CTF, Rocket Arena, Action Quake and Chaos-Mod, just to name a few. Who can forget the hours of pre-LAN racing using the latest and greatest pirated software courtesy of dEucE or Dr. Frag.
I see my first LAN event was dated “11.21.98” and took a fourth place finish the next week in the 2nd (monthly) NT Quake II Tournament. Good friends. Good gaming. And good grog! Of course as things go, the LAN eventually moved out of the one bedroom apartment, where we crammed 24 games into the bedroom, living room and kitchen to Tony’s PC Parlor that could hold at least twice as many gamers and a $10 fee was introduced to help offset renting the room for the weekend. Although Mimi and dEucE would always accept donations on a weekly basis.
Things started to go downhill at this point. The gaming had moved on post-Quake 2 and Quake III: Arena was not all it was cracked up to bed. The game mods were not as enjoyable as their predecessors in Quake 2. Not sure why. Maybe it was just bound to change as newer technology and pretty graphics replaced solid game play. Sorry, but the game play for Quake III was shit. Q2 had much better playability.
Why dwell on the past? Oh yeah, that was when games had game play and were not just a fancy box with a hefty price tag and pretty graphics. Guess it was better I moved on and decided to retire from any sort of online gaming. Too many changes. I guess some things are better left unchanged.
The ARG.
It’s rare to have anything to discuss when it comes to computer gaming. In my mind the thrill and excitement of gaming has lost it’s luster. This is not because I have become jaded after retiring from game development and supporting the game community for nearly 10 years. I am still impressed to see new games come to term, unfortunately many companies and distributors today don’t give a shit about the gamer, but the bottom line. I guess that makes sense, get some dumb bastard to spend $60 bucks on a game, take WoW for example and then charge them a money service fee to play. Better yet, charge the end user for new content. Nearly all games use some component of this today. I know I have been taken in by it with Rockband 2 and well as a few other XBox 360 games recently.
Back in the late 90s, the actual year is fuzzy and I have not been able to search and find the exact title of the game, there was a game that was played real time, in real life by gamers. The only way to describe it now is by calling it an alternate reality game or “an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions.”
I happened to stumble upon this game concept when reading a thread on a UFO hoax at ATS yesterday and they mentioned ARG. I found the concept rather perplexing and decided to give it a further look. Currently, I am reading up on a ARG called SF0 of SF Zero. Your character is “You” and You are tasked to complete objectives, submitting proof when you accomplish a task. There are more dynamics involved in the game, but this is the general principal.
I find the concept rather interesting and definitely off the main stream of computer gaming, yet gaming nonetheless. While computers are involved they are not the primary means of interaction. I am continuing to read about SF0 but the concept does interest me. Just like the original text adventures that paved the way for future games to follow.
** EDIT: Majestic produced by EA was the ARG I was thinking of, which debuted in 2001 and was discontinued a year later.