• 21Jun 11

  Quake 1 Blog Revised

  Updating this blog as I no longer need answers to the general Quake game night questions.

  I'm still on the hunt for this old school map called Rage Arena (made by Nacho|rage) that was often played on kitty1.stanford.edu and kitt2.stanford.edu west coast Quake servera. If you know of anyone who happened to know this person or can find it, please let me know. I can describe what it was like if that helps.

  Now, on to some moments I recall from Game Night this last Wednesday.

  ------

  We found this 1 on 1 server called I am 12 's Jungle Gym, which had an arena style map. Oddly enough, when you joined the server, it had you select a side: Windows or Linux. Well, that's a team red and blue thing, so if you were using a PC with Windows or Linux, that didnt matter! That was confusing at first. Then, you had to select the class you were going to play, which was the Team Fortress mod classes! I know.... we thought it was crazy too.

  After playing with scalper and realizing that the timer wasn't leading to a winner, and neither was the frags, we decided to change over to observe mode to let two other people play the map. So, Xenolair and visi0nz began playing one on one, and the game was pretty close too! Not long after that, deershadow started plarying and continued to play at least 4-5 other GameSpotters, almost like a marathon! We thought he was going to get worn out from playing so long, and he didnt. I finally joined to play him, and then we had an axe duel to the finish.

  Aside from this 1 on 1 map excitement, we also played the TF mod on 2fort5, and DM3 FFA. The TF matches were entertaining 'cause, well, all I ever did in the day, and did this night, was frag the snipers on top. Catching the snipers by surprise has always been my evil delight, that I rarely ever paid attention to the objective at hand.

  We also had some good 'ole times on DM3, but then scalper and I met this guy on the server and he asked if we were Quake newbs because this server had the game warped almost like a fish eye lens, so much that it changed the perception to look like we were super speed running around the map. Giancarlo was another staff member that had played that night and described the same concern with me. I asked this guy if he knew where we could play Slipgate complex, and being the old school Quake dude he was, he went and found us one. See, that's how my experiences were in Quake's community back in the day. It was like there were so many good moments and meeting other gamers that enjoyed playing, that the trolling was often wasn't like what you see in games today. Maybe it's the voice chat that changed people to be different? Who knows.

  Aside from this guy being helpful, he asked if I used to play back in 1999, and I told him I did. Funny enough, he recalls my alias on the servers back then. So, some of us jumped on that server this guy recommended to find that the warped gameplay that made us feel like we were speed running wasn't on this server. We were on a traditional Quake server, that felt like NetQuake.

  That night I started playing around 3ish and ended at almost 9pm. So, it was hours of awesome times in my opinion! SnakeBytes, SQUALL20XX, Serbine, Jerell_rast, Dan_Lero, -DaNuTz-, PvtCaboose23, Nerissa, Dirk13, and Darthkaiser also seemed to enjoy playing the game, depending on the servers they could get on as well. I was reminded of how rich this community was. I kind of want to get back into playing the game again.

  We did try to find the X-Men: Ravages of Apocalypse demo, since not everyone had the full retail Quake version to install the Total Conversion, but the demo links found on numerous websites didn't work.a

  -----

  id Software also provided some Quake Live tokens to hand out to the top players that night. I already pm'd the rest of you who had showed good sportsmanship or skillz that night, and have 3 more tokens to hand out. The remainder tokens will be granted to the people who stand out in the Machinima activity we having. So, if you didn't get a chance to play during that game night for the Quake cake emblem, we are also having this video trivia activity.

  I'd love to have another game night for Quake again, if we can get more people to get nQuake freeware (ezquake) working. I enjoyed the ingame browser a great deal. Let me know if you'd be interested in playing Quake 1 in another game night later this year!

  • Posted Jun 21, 2011 3:06 pm GMT
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• 20Jun 11

  GameSpot E3 BackStory and 2011 Experience

  My E3 experience this year was much different than the years before with GameSpot, but it wasn't too far from my pre-GameSpot days as a journalist for 4 network gaming sites. As you might recall, my history with E3 pre-dates my days working at GameSpot. But, if I focus on what I've done to help out with GameSpot for E3 alone, I'd say I'm a Jill of all trade with titles like liaison, journalism, host, co-host, producer, producer's assistant, and tournament coordinator.
  

  - In 2005, nearly a month prior to working at GameSpot, a GS staff member randomly contacted me asking if knew of any UT2k4 female pro players. I normally received interesting requests for dealing with a lady gamer fansite that focused on Strategy and Action titles, but never from the big shots at GameSpot, I thought to myself back in the day. Not long after his email, I introduced him to a female gamer that was skilled at the game. The GS staff member decided to have her and her professional UT2k4 boyfriend fly out from New Zealand to attend E3 that year to be a type of strongman. People won t-shirts if they beat the pro-player, but that year I attended the event while working as a contractor for Madcatz.
  

  - In 2006, I ran the Baseball game tournament at our booth We already had Tournament TV happening by then, which you might recall me being the admin for the tournaments that lead up to the live show. I was considered to run this tournament at the event. Plus, I ran tournaments at Quakecon 3 years in a row prior to this date, so I knew the process quite well, although the Baseball crowd is much different than shooter fanatics.
  

  - In 2007, the video team wanted me to help them with asking questions, so that was the first year where people really started making fun of me for not being able to pronounce people's last names and foreign countries. But, many of you loved my hat on the last day, so much, that you made GameSpot Sync have hat Friday. To wish you all a great weekend on the last day of the week.
  

  - In 2008 I helped again with the stage show to share your questions on the stage show. That was the year I was pestered by The Miz. Some of you were very sweet on yelling in the chatroom for him to leave me alone. I try to crush others with kindness, and well, he was a guest on the show so there's no way I was going to bully him back!

  - In 2009 and 2010, I started to help with the stage show check-ins with the guests. I really liked being behind scenes because well, I didn't have to practice countries or last names. I just asked about the game and ran them to get de-shined, for the most part. Synthia did the stage show assistant role this year, and she seemed to enjoy herself, even if that meant she didnt have time to walk away the booth.

  --
  

  So, now we're down to E3 2011. While I was a journalist prior to working at Gamespot, I haven't done rushed script writing before. It was quite the challenge having to know EVERYTHING that there is needed to figure out what would be on the show that day. Homer's my boss for Sync, and you might recall he was doing floor check-ins so it was impossible for him to help with Sync as much as he would have liked. I had to determine what was hot, and what didnt need to be mentioned. Double checking my stories on Sync with staff was also important as they were the ones out the field writing or video recording content. You know, when you try to write something in your own words, you don't realize that you might be changing the actual meaning. So, I have some amazing people I work with, if you haven't been able to tell already, who were always so willing to help even when they were under pressure, trying to get you the latest on the games you're anticipating. A big thanks to them, once again, for all of their hard work, and sleepless nights to make it as wonderful as it is every year.

  As for the games I'm digging, I've made a music video with the games I can't wait to play here soon, as in.. when they are released.

  Also, if you didnt get a moment to catch up on the GameSpot Sync episodes, here's the rundown pre-E3 to the wrap-up.

  June 2 Episode: It's the week prior to E3, The lovely Jane Douglas was at the San Francisco office, and I lock her up in a cube. Inspired by Superman, but of course.

  June 3 Episode: Jane gets her revenge..... tries to take over my show, and gets all UK gangsta!

  June 6 Episode: There was no way I'd let you all go without your daily Sync, so, Monday, the day when press conferences happened, I watched them to give you highlights.

  June 7 Episode: The mob tried to step on my toes when the E3 doors opened, but thanks to Wernher and Homer's barade to keep me safe, I made it through. LOL

  June 8 and June 9 Episodes:Was quite fun to contionue the adventure, trying to figure out what you'd all need to know in under 3 minutes, was tough. There was SOOOOO many cool things happening. Maxwell was funny on the last day because he wanted to make sure I mentioned XCom. I told him XCOM!!! I've played those games years ago, are you serious? He was pretty certain that it was one of the top underdogs of the show. After checking the trailer, it looks quite interesting.

  June 10 episode didnt happen because we were traveling on Friday morning. And, well, 4 staff members got stranded at LAX airport when our flight cancel;led. After 2 standby flights we went to the Burbank airport to try to fly out there, and well, it was a mess really.

  June 13 Episode: This was a super fun thing to do every night, but on Thursday night we had to tear the booth down so we didnt get a chance to do it. Homer wanted to have some kind of daily check-ins, and well, we were probably tired in this episodes, but I'm sure you don't mind the real factor of what E3 does to us when we're picking every portion of our brain to get the stories out to you.

  • Posted Jun 20, 2011 2:29 pm GMT
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• 3Jun 11

  My Ten E3 Expectations!

  I expect....

  ... to see some amazing games that will make me laugh, take my breath away, and maybe cry. We'll see if SW: The Old Republic, Rage, Mass Effect 3, Twisted Metal, Alice: Madness Returns, Batman: Arkham City, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, or Space Marine will meet at least one of those three emotions!

  ... you to tell us if you like or dislike something! We have gotten better over the years because of your honest feedback. Let us know what makes you happy or what's not working.

  ... you to share your favorite games or thoughts about them in your blogs, Facebook, Twitter or fuse.gamespot.com's status updates! Yes, if you share your thoughts on our videos on Youtube, staff read those too! And, I actually respond to peeps when I get time.

  ... you to watch the live shows, watch the videos, read the content, and view the screenshots and photos! If you cannot watch them live, watch the replay! We plan on having some daily wrap-ups as well, so be sure to check around for those. And, this year's chatroom is said to be the best we've had yet, so take a peek, even if you lurk! Sometimes it's neat to see everyone's reactions real time! Don't forget, we also have a live cam, so be sure to steer him where you'd like via Twitter again this year.

  .... if you like what you read or see about a game, I expect you to follow that game. You have to love love it though, right? So, make you'd love to see more about it! Plus, there's an achievement related to this.

  .... try for all eight E3 2011 achievements! This year we're trying to make it even easier than ever, so even if you can't be there for some of the live stuff, do visit that video later. The How To E3 guide should explain more about this as well, or you can drop by Synthia's How to E3 video for general tips.

  ... follow the editors that you like! Fuse.gamespot.com has a nifty list of some of the editors, or you can follow them on this Twitter list www.twitter.com/gamespot/staff.

  ... you to wave or say hi if I see you at E3! I am a busy person every E3, but if I'm not literally running frantically, at least say hi. I like meeting GameSpotters in person, well, I like meeting gamers in general, even if things will be quite chaotic the first 2 days of the show. That reminds me, I do expect to see some old friends!

  ... to get enough sleep, and to eat (both rarely happens during E3!), even if I know it'll be a struggle!

  ... to take photos and homemade videos to share my experiences on Twitter, Facebook, or my blog!

  ... to know that you're in safe hands, GameSpotters. You're at one place that will fulfull everything you need to know about this year's E3. And, I cant wait to see your excitement about what we have in store for this year's coverage!

  See you then!

  • Posted Jun 3, 2011 10:25 pm GMT
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