Quake was one of my earliest online gaming experiences. I still remember the first server I joined. It was the starting map of the single player campaign modified into a Capture The Flag map. The melee axe was also a grappling hook, people where zipping around, shooting and exploding into gibs. The chaos was instantly addicting.
I ended up spending many hours on quake and it’s mods. I played a lot of CTF and deathmatches before finding Team Fortress. Then it was a whole new world of maps and mods for TF.
Each class had two grenades and abilities that added a lot of depth compared to the modern TF2 game. Maps sometimes came with destructible areas for the demonan’s detonation pack. Scouts had caltrops for slowing people down. Spies had hallucination grenades that bounced you around as your view filled with random explosions and noises. Medics and scouts had concussion grenades that could be used on themselves to fly around the map (custom maps were also made around this). Rocket/pipe grenade/hand grenade jumping was also quite common with maps made around those too.
There were maps with 4 teams with 4 bases. Maps where you must protect the civilian VIP that’s armed with only a crowbar. Or my favourite variation which was a “cross the border” map. One team were all civilians, another who protected half the map trying to prevent the civilians from reaching the safe point, and the last team had access to the whole map trying to escort all the civilians.
The whole modding scene was such a huge draw for me because it kept the game fresh and unique. It’s why I ended up spending so much more time on Half-Life and all it’s mods. In a way, I feel game mods have heavily influenced the way I view and use open source software today. There’s freedom in that sort of creativity.
I also spent a lot of time in World of Warcraft. In the beginning when you had to work to get around, it made finding friends a fun experience. You struggled to move around the world and that struggle made the random encounters with people that much better of a bonding experience. As time went on and MMO’s aimed to connect people as quickly as possible that bonding experience kind of diminished. People can come and go so quickly on online games now that I can’t seem to form a decent connection with people these days. The games I play today are all fun but I do miss the type of community I felt in my past gaming days.
Quake was one of my earliest online gaming experiences. I still remember the first server I joined. It was the starting map of the single player campaign modified into a Capture The Flag map. The melee axe was also a grappling hook, people where zipping around, shooting and exploding into gibs. The chaos was instantly addicting.
I ended up spending many hours on quake and it’s mods. I played a lot of CTF and deathmatches before finding Team Fortress. Then it was a whole new world of maps and mods for TF.
Each class had two grenades and abilities that added a lot of depth compared to the modern TF2 game. Maps sometimes came with destructible areas for the demonan’s detonation pack. Scouts had caltrops for slowing people down. Spies had hallucination grenades that bounced you around as your view filled with random explosions and noises. Medics and scouts had concussion grenades that could be used on themselves to fly around the map (custom maps were also made around this). Rocket/pipe grenade/hand grenade jumping was also quite common with maps made around those too.
There were maps with 4 teams with 4 bases. Maps where you must protect the civilian VIP that’s armed with only a crowbar. Or my favourite variation which was a “cross the border” map. One team were all civilians, another who protected half the map trying to prevent the civilians from reaching the safe point, and the last team had access to the whole map trying to escort all the civilians.
The whole modding scene was such a huge draw for me because it kept the game fresh and unique. It’s why I ended up spending so much more time on Half-Life and all it’s mods. In a way, I feel game mods have heavily influenced the way I view and use open source software today. There’s freedom in that sort of creativity.
I also spent a lot of time in World of Warcraft. In the beginning when you had to work to get around, it made finding friends a fun experience. You struggled to move around the world and that struggle made the random encounters with people that much better of a bonding experience. As time went on and MMO’s aimed to connect people as quickly as possible that bonding experience kind of diminished. People can come and go so quickly on online games now that I can’t seem to form a decent connection with people these days. The games I play today are all fun but I do miss the type of community I felt in my past gaming days.