where to now?

many of you i'm sure know of the genius that is john carmack. for those who don't know, he made our beloved game. is it possible that john carmack created an inferior product when he started work on quakeworld, a later work? some would say yes, they would argue that carmack created an 'internet testing ground' to experiment with new ideas. were these ideas a success? although the answer depends largely on opinion, there are certain facts that speak resoundingly for quakeworld.

assuming just for a second that maybe all those heteros who went quakeworld were right, i mean i know and you know nq is better, but what do we do now? how about an endless discussion on an over crowded message board or playing the same exact game (the same exact map?) all the time. (i sure would like to see nq jail break)

loc is a decent attempt at organization, certainly without loc, the 'mainstream nq community' (oxymoron of the month) would have gone to other things, and the scattered remnants left behind would be few and pitiful. but even with loc, how far do we want to stretch our technologically aging game? do i want to tell my children about the good ol' days of nq ctf, when gaming wasn't quite main stream yet, or do i actually want to still be playing it?

gamers are supposed to be the hippest and most defining factor of the internet, pushing the limits of bandwidth and processing power, but is it possible the we, the nq players who remain are the backwards thinkers of the gaming world?

look at blues news, its all q2 now, and what isnt q2, is quake world... the nq community is small enough that when a large nq event like the release of a map pak from a main official organization occurs, it gets no mention at all from blue. and wouldn't it be nice to have a powerhouse coder like carmack or zoid updating the version of nq all the time to stay in touch with the changing times? i wonder why he doesn't any more? on to better things? some of us dont think so.

so a few questions remain unanswered, things like can a summer of #loc arguments be as fun as a summer of tmnt games? will a new wave of one thousand dollar computer users join the community because they like nq more than quakeworld? will i keep playing nq myself? will you?

an added bonus...

whoa! as i type this in, i see mentions of the blatant nq elitism that i too believe has ruined our would-be mighty community. i have heard the nq scene being described as 'the soap opera quake scene'. well this soap opera is over, because the good has been filtered out from the bad and not much can change that now. i can't believe so many are in tune to these problems... how did this elitism start? how can we make it stop? i'm sure we are thinking of the same things, so ill leave this subject wide open.

another added bonus...

oh yes, we are a community right? i like to think so, and the key to a community of course is its people... this is something else better left to a message board, but remember, every time someone gets laughed out because they want to join clan loc, and everytime some newbie on a server plays for thirty-five minutes and ends up with a negative score along with the rest of his team, you can be sure that those on the other side of the story have the rocket launcher in their hand that will eventually gib our nq community.

one last bonus... (no more i promise)

my time as an nq player has been great, i have met people who shaped my current character in more than one way, and i learned lessons about life. i really think the people who play nq are the best people on the net, and i'm confident we can save ourselves... when it comes right down to it, even the most immature of us are still good people. thanks for the continuing fun times.