Ranked and Unranked servers.

[Criminal]

http://www.quakewars.net

"
Planetquakewars interviewed Stephen ‘Malarky’ Gaffney about ranked servers for quake wars, highlights:

Ranked servers limited to authorized gameserverproviders
Ranked servers for the "pure" version only (so no custom maps or mods), they might work on ways to get popular maps or mods ranked in the future
You get unlocks on ranked and  unranked servers (remember: the unlocks only last during one campaign, you have to earn them every new campaign !)
Well... these are the answers to questions we had for a long time, personally I can't say I like the answers a lot (bad experience with BF2). I posted my concerns earlier on the SD-forum here. The future will tell ....

1) it sucks when you have to choose from a small minority of gameserverproviders to get a decent server (the big ones get a bigger monopoly)
2) if there are only a few providers @ the start... the price can be nasty !!!!
3) players are statwhores.... so it is bullshit to say that unranked servers will be as popular as the nonranked (same bullshit EA came up with when they released BF2). " So you can have thousands and thousands of servers out there " ?! Sure... and they will be 80% more empty then the ranked ones
4) so hope they will do a decent job for the community when they come up with things like ranked servers... we need freedom, not limitations !!! "


Full interview here http://www.planetquakewars.net/content.php?article.56


You can read the complete interview @ planet quakewars.net

[AoP]

I'm sorry to say, but I seriously hope all those id software/SD/activision groupies out there become aware of this.
That's a major drawback, I didn't think they would do it this way. The loser will definitely be the community.

[Criminal]

I will definetly have to agree with you.

[Freelancer_]

Geez 

The whole ranked server bull that EA pulled was one of the bigger factors in making me look forward to QW:ET, besides the bugs and piss poor patches and total lack of pollish on the game. Server costs are just stupid, but there's no point at all in an unranked server unless you like playing by yourself.

Damn this is dissapointing. I also expect that this news will make a sizeable segment of the comunity just sit and wait to see what happens.

BF already had a history of doing it, and delivered the news with tons of hype and marketting to make it seem like the best thing since sliced bread. I can't speak for the whole comunity, but seeing the news come out like this gives me a very uneasy feeling the copmanies plans for this game.

[AoP]

Yeah, I personally feel like they're massively rushing towards that point of no return, which one could dramatically consider the one between good and evil.
- There's still nothing playable for the vast majority, no public beta (that has been announced by FP in and for mid April) and no demo.
- there's no word from them about current development status, no sign of life except for that fansite kit in weeks

And now - this.

To me, the parallels to DICE and BF2/2142 are becoming almost overwhelming.

Both companies started out as creators of a very popular mod for a major gaming title. Both created mods did or will result in a commercial product of its own, distributed by a major company. The release of BF2 and 2142 was a plain disaster and the signs for the release of ET:QW are far from enthusing (see above), too.
EA fapped up the server contracts for their ranked servers, which is why they changed the ranked server situation as soon as it has been possible.
Activision/id are creating the same situation for ranked servers that EA did for BF2.

Well, my focus is shifting to Crysis and Frontlines.

[Keys]

Well for qw i dont really feel like being at the top of the list in lacerator kills will be my ball game. Maybe most hog rammings .

[xKamikazex]

This quote taken directly from the interview.

However the door is not closed: we’re keen that the community create new mods and maps, and we’re looking at ways we can include popular mods and custom maps on Ranked servers.

Splash damage isn't blind to mod communities out there and I don't think this'll hurt our mod too too much. We're highly popular as it is and we're very well known in the QW community. Apon initial release of our release I think we'll be able to convince ID and SD for a whole other Stats Ladder for our Mod.

I do see Crims point though. Any other mods trying to make it and even some other mods that have super high potential will just fall flat on their ass cause of the stats bullshit. There will just never be any players on those servers because lets face it - STATS ARE LIFE!!

Not to make fun of our ClanWarz sponsors, but the paying for servers is ridiculous. You promote a community that segregates itself into small communities all hogging their own server. And who ever's the admin of that server has the rights to be a pompous asshole that can say something like this...

You're guests on our box and because we pay for it, if and admin tells you to open your squad to let him in, you'd better damn well do it!

Just because you fork over the money for paying for the "ranked" part of the server doesn't mean you have to quench you superiority complex and take it out on good players that beat your team. You Lost! Get over it! Doesn't excuse "Kicking for suspected cheating".

[death_grin]

One phrase- f u c k i n g   r e t a r d e d

And I completly agree with everything thats been said here.  As most of you are aware I am a veteran modder of battlefield and this can be a major thing to mods. It will propobly even push many to other engines such as crysis.

Its retarded that they would hurt the mod community in any way at all, many valuable people in the game development community have their roots in modding and its hard to come by people with better experience, besides of course the industry veterans that have been in awhile anyways.  Its like the difference between a new lawyer straight out of school and a lawyer who has been a intern for several years.

[Keys]

Though battlefield did have that longevity of playing for 1000 hours to get a ribbon, it still brought people back who wanted to play a game to get a reward. Though personally my reward is playing as a team with my friends, but I am weird like that .

[AoP]

I personally have, summing up all accounts and MP and SP including various mods, played more than 2000 hours in BF2. Leaving the shiny pixel-gathering aside, I wouldn't have played that much time if it hadn't been fun, at least most of the time.
I haven't yet played ET:QW and considering various signals from various directions, I won't be doing so until at least July, but I definitely don't see myself playing this game that much.
The fact that they seem to be repeating the various distributional and marketing mistakes that EA and DICE made, isn't helping either.

[xKamikazex]

Let's face it, every game is eventually going to be a pay to play type of game, regardless of it being an MMO or not...

[Hulk]

For sure Kami   it is all about $$.    But you guys been playing the beta right so  what is the impact of the ranks into the game?  i mean since we can all have weapons and upgrades in each map is it really necessary to have ranks since maps will determine the vehicules and the stuff?   Cause for me  i wouldn't care about stats if we all start equally. 

I was more thinking about making your own community as MWLL LEAGUE.   You remember BZ? Planet Assault?   This mod would BLAST if we could set up a League using this mod and getting units to register and then accessing unranked servers running the mod with different maps for multiple assault etc.  Getting results like we did back in BZ with SS, confirmation etc.   Imagine  MWLL League, the battletech Universe never been that close to bring you into the most advanced, exciting, thrilling and complete battles you ever been playing.  Not even the Mechwarrior's series had been that close..     I m drolling...... Stop me...

[Pat Dry]

I'm probably missing the point(s), but wouldn't a total conversion be indipendent of the whole ranked-unranked mess?
If not, the MWLL league like Hulk envisages would be the way to go, imo.

[AoP]

Sure, a mod like this one won't be affected by the stats and ranking system of the main game.
But personally, I wouldn't buy a game just to play a mod, especially not considering the hype that's been built around ET:QW.

[Criminal]

I'm probably missing the point(s), but wouldn't a total conversion be indipendent of the whole ranked-unranked mess?
If not, the MWLL league like Hulk envisages would be the way to go, imo.

Hey Krahken,
The whole point i guess is the general acceptance and popularity of mods in games using the ranked/unranked server sortof scheme. The problem becomes that alot of people don't even try any mods for these games since playing the mod doesnt earn them any global "ranks". Honestly IMO it's freakin ridicoulous that people care so very much about a 15X15 pixel little rank beside your name but its odd because some players compeletly obsess about it.

As far as leagues go I would rather not run a league, but rather have the leagues that are already in place and that do a DAMN good job with running them like MWL or the like adopt the mod rather than us "step on their toes" and run our own league. It would also be good for these leagues since we'd bring alot of new players in addition to them being in a unique position of them bing able to work directly with the developement team and to let us know what exactly they need. What i really like to see them do is setup with us, very similar to bf2, a stat tracking and ranking system that people can log onto (like bf2s.com) and see their public stats and awards. I truly hope to get into contact upon the beta of the mod to set this up and god willing splash damage may be willing to help us.