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Hello ladies and gentlemen,
I thought I would get on here and just dissect what seems to be a growing problem in communities everywhere (Not Starcraft though). This problem is the dieing out of people wanting competition, people wanting to be challenged to the full extent of their abilities. It's like a plague that has taken over some gaming communities. There's the obvious ones like MMOs, now catered mostly to those that want it easy, then there's the ones you think you would have competition everywhere, the First Person Shooters (FPS).
Why do I say that competition is dieing in the First Person Shooter community? Well let me give you a quick example. Every Tuesday, my dad, my brother, my uncle, and a friend or two log onto our PCs, and start up any of two or three FPS games. The game we play most is Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Cause my brother can run that game). This past Tuesday was pretty interesting because it started out pretty normal. I had recently been playing Brink so it took me a round or two to get fully into the style of Battlefield BC2 (From now on it's BC2).
Finally we join a server (Name to be withheld) and start playing. The games are going great, they are alot of fun, and I was a sniper for awhile. Finally the clan the runs the server decides they are going to jump in. Eventually I get tired of being a sniper and switch to an assualt class guy cause we have alot of engineers on tank maps. Here's where the fun really begins.
I basically dominate a few games in a row. It's obvious I'm the best player on the server cause no one is getting close to touching my status as the ace player (Or my K/D ratio, I was on fire last night). And suddenly I find that I am killing members or the admin's clan..... a lot. Not only am I doing it when they aren't looking, I am getting in a gunfight with several of their members in open fields and winning. Their aim was terrible cause the couldn't hit me when 2 or 3 of the were shooting at me. After awhile, I had just gotten on a streak of around 11 kills (my kills to deaths was at 28:7 at this point) and most of this streak involved killing the admin's clan, I was suddenly and rudely kicked and banned from the server for "suspected hacks". Then after that my dad, my brother, my uncle, and my friend (we all had the same Tag infront of our name) were kicked because they were associated with me (Even though their scores weren't nearly as good as mine).
So here's where we come to the point. Competition is dieing in the FPS genre. I can tell you that the example i have provided is not the only time this has happened to me. Infact, it has happened every Tuesday for many years. I don't know how many servers I'm banned from for suspected hacking when I don't even do it (I hate cheaters). Same occurance in the Call of Duty series and I am sure would be the same thing if I ever got good at Brink (It's a different monster). The sad thing is this death of competition in the PC World of FPS games is mostly because of the few who use hacks. The good players, the ones who can truely play FPS with any amount of skill on a pc, are promptly accused of hacking and kicked from many servers without any evidence. I've seen it happen to more than just me (SOmehow I avoided the banhammer in some servers when I was doing better than the guy who was kicked). But it's a sad state when good servers that have good players and know what skill looks like are hard to find. I miss the 502nd server from Call of Duty (They shut down their BC2 one). Cause at least they knew that I was just good and not hacking (Believe me, they checked dozens of times to make sure too).
Anyway, there's my rant. Remember, everything in this blog is purely opinionated. You might feel differently and that's okay, I don't mind people who don't believe the same things I do.
AtlasCF
 
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I think you're just associating the wrong cause/effect.
I certainly don't feel like competition is dying, but I think people are just now more prone to random pubs with hacks - I'm an admin on a TF2 server and we have both members of the community as well as pubs and regulars that join and are immediately accused of hacking. We had a sniper who could hit just about anyone. I've clocked like 900 hours as sniper in that game and if I headshot him ONCE I was cheering - usually running 20+ : 1 KPD, so I'm not just some crap sniper who can't play, I'm pretty damn good.
Anyways, veering off-topic (and bragging about my pro-ness cause you did. :p) he was CONSTANTLY being accused of hacks, but we (the admins) knew this guy for months, we'd all gone through our "okay what the hell..." and spectated him, but he's just quick.
On the other side of the spectrum, we had a heavy that was playing on our server for almost a year before we finally got confirmation that he was wallhacking / spyhacking. He could pick cloaked spies out from around corners and he would NEVER get backstabbed if he wasn't already shooting at someone in front of him.
Kudos if you read through that, I just am wasting time at work and ended up typing a freaking book when I could have just said...I don't think that it has anything to do with competition exactly, I think it's more to do with how easy it is to get hacks nowadays, as well as how mature of an admin / community you are playing on. Our admin policy on our server is that we need a minimum of two recorded videos while spectating + a full admin vote - unless it's super obvious of couse, like a speedhack.
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So because you and a couple other people getting kicked from servers means that, clearly, every single FPS is gonna have no competition.
I mean, what?
Surely, getting kicked means that these people are extraordinarily competitive to the point of childishness? How the hell did you come to the opposite conclusion?
wait wait wait, no competition, so like, what you're predicting is that in FPSes no one actually fights, but insteads RPs a tea party or something?
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I'm not sure how getting kicked from pubs in BC2 and call of duty signifies that competition in fps games is dying. If you're interested in playing competitively find some pugs or join a team that competes regularly. Its silly to expect to find good competition playing pubs in games like bc2 or cod.
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While I agree, sometimes I have found that it does seem to be that if you are better than the clan that is running the server, you get kicked. I've got some funny kick messages before such as "You're abusing our players too much". It's actually quite funny sometimes like "You don't want to be challenged" type of deal. I dunno, I feel like the good people are punished too much for the actions of other people in this world. I can even tell this in the group of people I play with. They'll say "He's got to be hacking cause he just knew where I was" or "He killed me way to quick" and I just kinda tell them "I'm having no trouble dealing with that guy so he must be a terrible hacker".
(Gratz on the goodness at TF2)
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Uhh yeah, this sort of stuff has been happening since CS was launched and probably before that too.
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Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that the way it has always been? They kicked you becasue you were kicking their asses, not becasue they feared competition.
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That stuff also happened 10 years ago.
Competition is not dieing, you propably just shouldn't look for it on a BC2 pub. That's crazy 
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On May 26 2011 02:04 DoomGuy wrote:
So because you and a couple other people getting kicked from servers means that, clearly, every single FPS is gonna have no competition.
I mean, what?
wait wait wait, no competition, so like, what you're predicting is that in FPSes no one actually fights, but insteads RPs a tea party or something?
*sigh*, let me explain something to you people that think "pubs are terrible places to find competition". I've been playing shooters a very very long time. There used to be a time where there wasn't much banning of anyone except by the system used to do this (Punkbuster, that steam security thing, etc).
My point is that this is becoming a very common occurance, so yes, competition, the willingness to challenge yourself again players of a higher skill, is dying. You might not like how that's put because I've been kicked from "a few servers". Honestly, I've been kicked from well over 20+ in less then a year, you can do the math on how many that has been in the last 4 or 5 (it's a pretty steady average).
What you, the person I have quoted, don't seem to understand is that people don't actually like fights anymore. They like to be better than everyone else, so when someone comes into the game that is better than them and they "can't explain it", they'll hit the kick button or accuse people of cheating (Another rampant problem found in even the best servers that I've played on). This isn't fighting, this isn't competing, this is just them getting satisfaction from beating on players of lesser skill. God forbid someone is actually better than them.
But I don't know, maybe you don't see it from my perspective because you aren't in it. When good/skilled players become the target of kicks and hack accusations, it is a sign that the people are very afraid of people that are better than them. Sadly, stuff like this will drive the good players away, thus creating the dying of competition.
Don't like it if you want, but it's the stuff I witness every single time I play. (I was accused of hacking many times on the 502nd server I was talking about, luckily the admins knew me well enough and enjoyed playing with and against me cause they knew they would get some competition from it).
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On May 26 2011 02:16 strayzor wrote:That stuff also happened 10 years ago. Competition is not dieing, you propably just shouldn't look for it on a BC2 pub. That's crazy
If it happened 10 years ago I want to know how often. I've been playing shooters for longer than that and somehow this has increased dramatically in the past 3-4 years. And frankly, if competition wasn't dieing, you should find it everywhere because I used to be able to find it in any game I joined of any shooter.
Let me put it this way, I used to play shooters alot, as in every day and I would never get kicked. I would post the same type of scores, abuse other players to death cause they couldn't kill me and be left alone. Now, I play shooters once a week, ONCE a week, and I get kicked and accused of hacking more now than I ever was. That is in EVERY shooter that i play now, this occurs. Like I said, it's like a plague that is spreading and the more it spreads the more good players will stop playing.
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I like how you're complaining about the level of competition in public games, yet you have a K:D ratio of 28:1 in these games. Maybe public games aren't for you if you want competition...just a thought.
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On May 26 2011 02:34 Radical wrote:
I like how you're complaining about the level of competition in public games, yet you have a K:D ratio of 28:1 in these games. Maybe public games aren't for you if you want competition...just a thought.
Also true.
While I understand your point - I'm still siding with everyone here in the blog. This has happened in like every FPS I played. I do think it kind of depends on the community in the game as well...
For example, when Call of Duty 2 first came out, the game was rough. It was pretty hard to get good in that game if you were on the right servers. As it got more and more popular, more and more younger kids came into the COD community (man I wish COD2 was still all old-schooly) and then they started doing all sorts of bullshit mods and stupid maps and the game just went downhill. And now look at the COD community - When I'm at my dad's house because he's closer to my work site or whatever, all I hear is my younger brother bitching constantly about aimbots or hacks or his bullets didn't kill him..I don't know it it's an ego thing or not, but I think more people are just full of themselves and can't accept the fact that there are always, ALWAYS going to be a player that is better in some aspect. And instead of accepting that, they'd rather be immature and just ban/kick people so their dicks don't deflate.
Something that everyone should remember: Even Flash loses a game every now and then.
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Too much random factors in FPS.
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You're right, public servers don't want competition. When was that ever the case? People go there to bash noobs and feel like a star (a pubstar to be precise). If someone comes and ruins their fun, they either leave to go to a diff server or kick you. Leagues and tourneys is where the competition is.
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die = dying =/= dieing
Admins to the server have the right to do whatever they want
If you're so good, why don't you get into competitive Counterstrike or something. It sounds like you're so good cause you're not playing at the highest levels
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On May 26 2011 01:54 Atlas_550 wrote:
Hello ladies and gentlemen,
I thought I would get on here and just dissect what seems to be a growing problem in communities everywhere (Not Starcraft though). This problem is the dieing out of people wanting competition, people wanting to be challenged to the full extent of their abilities. It's like a plague that has taken over some gaming communities. There's the obvious ones like MMOs, now catered mostly to those that want it easy, then there's the ones you think you would have competition everywhere, the First Person Shooters (FPS).
Why do I say that competition is dieing in the First Person Shooter community? Well let me give you a quick example. Every Tuesday, my dad, my brother, my uncle, and a friend or two log onto our PCs, and start up any of two or three FPS games. The game we play most is Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Cause my brother can run that game). This past Tuesday was pretty interesting because it started out pretty normal. I had recently been playing Brink so it took me a round or two to get fully into the style of Battlefield BC2 (From now on it's BC2).
Finally we join a server (Name to be withheld) and start playing. The games are going great, they are alot of fun, and I was a sniper for awhile. Finally the clan the runs the server decides they are going to jump in. Eventually I get tired of being a sniper and switch to an assualt class guy cause we have alot of engineers on tank maps. Here's where the fun really begins.
I basically dominate a few games in a row. It's obvious I'm the best player on the server cause no one is getting close to touching my status as the ace player (Or my K/D ratio, I was on fire last night). And suddenly I find that I am killing members or the admin's clan..... a lot. Not only am I doing it when they aren't looking, I am getting in a gunfight with several of their members in open fields and winning. Their aim was terrible cause the couldn't hit me when 2 or 3 of the were shooting at me. After awhile, I had just gotten on a streak of around 11 kills (my kills to deaths was at 28:7 at this point) and most of this streak involved killing the admin's clan, I was suddenly and rudely kicked and banned from the server for "suspected hacks". Then after that my dad, my brother, my uncle, and my friend (we all had the same Tag infront of our name) were kicked because they were associated with me (Even though their scores weren't nearly as good as mine).
So here's where we come to the point. Competition is dieing in the FPS genre. I can tell you that the example i have provided is not the only time this has happened to me. Infact, it has happened every Tuesday for many years. I don't know how many servers I'm banned from for suspected hacking when I don't even do it (I hate cheaters). Same occurance in the Call of Duty series and I am sure would be the same thing if I ever got good at Brink (It's a different monster). The sad thing is this death of competition in the PC World of FPS games is mostly because of the few who use hacks. The good players, the ones who can truely play FPS with any amount of skill on a pc, are promptly accused of hacking and kicked from many servers without any evidence. I've seen it happen to more than just me (SOmehow I avoided the banhammer in some servers when I was doing better than the guy who was kicked). But it's a sad state when good servers that have good players and know what skill looks like are hard to find. I miss the 502nd server from Call of Duty (They shut down their BC2 one). Cause at least they knew that I was just good and not hacking (Believe me, they checked dozens of times to make sure too).
Anyway, there's my rant. Remember, everything in this blog is purely opinionated. You might feel differently and that's okay, I don't mind people who don't believe the same things I do.
AtlasCF
Your main problem is you are playing shitty games. You should stick with games like TF2, CS 1.6, or even Source if you want competition. If you don't already know about TF2 lobby then you don't know how ridiculous it is to say that competitive spirit is gone. Even then TF2 lobby is like entry level if you really can't find any competition there then you are just insanely good but I kind of doubt that.
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It feels like your conclusion is completely disjointed from your supporting anecdotes...
If you're a Grandmaster in SC2, do you consider it "competition" to repeatedly beat up on bronze and silver leaguers? Based on your story, that's more or less what you've been doing. I think you just need to find better servers.
edit: The idea is to play with people somewhat close to you in skill level. Bashing noobs is only good for an ego boost. Getting repeatedly bashed by someone way out of your league is no fun at all either, on top of being very discouraging. It's essentially why SC2 uses an MMR system...
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you are right, nowadays people want the quick win, if they have to cheat yto do it, they will do it.
css, and many other egoshotoers are infested wit hahcks, zblock and such doesn't help, only in escw and nowadays esl (hello qequitas 2) you have rather good detection, bu thte problem is: serverside hacks.
i can just say let them be, i find it great that you play with your uncle, father,brother etc.
whe ni paly with friends (we didnt paly i nyears , we really should again) there is no such crap as "you hack!" cause we all know nooone of us hacks or would betray each other, it's all cool and chill
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FPS has a major problem in lag. Major.
In today's climate it's just not feasible to have LAN be the only true measure of skill, latency shouldn't matter as much as it does in a standard fps.
Aim down scope/barrel helps a little bit but not enough.
The FPS genre would need to be revamped in the direction of controlling sluggish mechs or something if it was to reach competitive success, or *brr* move entirely to consoles. Sticks enable less latency dependent online play.
The core of a successful ESPORT title is a large userbase, not gonna happen even if we'd see a 'Quake 5' or 'CS 2.0'.
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If there is ever another good Halo like 2 thats a competitive seen right there Reach was horrible and 3 was just OK.
BC2 isn't really a competitive game.
Try playing some Quake/CS/TF2 I know for a fact there is a lot of competitive players/clans.
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EPT
