State of the Union address (what really went wrong with competition)
Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 9:48 pm
My fellow Zandronians, I write this letter formally to lay rumours and misconceptions to rest. With all the buzz floating about in these recent days, I see fit to really shed some light on whats actually happening rather than others simply pointing and placing blame on one another when it is not needed and or excessive. However I myself will be put in the same place as I tackle through each subject in the following thread, just bare with me and hopefully we can reflect better on ourselves and perhaps establish a better foothold to which we can begin groundwork on making this community seem less bleak and hopeless.
For our first topic I'd like to discuss the recent issue of clans:
First and foremost, these almost non-existent clans that continuously crop up from nowhere with separate motives and take away players whom wish to play competitively as well as fall within the goals of these other clans. Only to be blind sided as this new clan of theirs was created spontaneously for a short time and has completely become inactive as it fails to update frequently with players and or scrims.
This needs to stop, clans and clan leaders need to have a steady and at least somewhat active playerbase if it is to ever be taken seriously in it's development and establishment as a serious clan. Without forums, an irc channel or the blatant disregard for attempting to search for new players, this has really alienated recent clans to any new players wanting a piece of the action they so desire. An active leader and strong leadership system is what most clans today are lacking, and not adding linearity to these clans that are not competitive just adds salt to the wound when you limit yourself to something that has no need for clans.
I of course am talking about these ZDW, zombie horde, gvh and whatever mod specific clans that are being created around this time with a harmless goal of enjoying a fun mod with friends. Thats fine I have no issue with that, but at the same time I look at these clans as they are pointless because lets be honest, there is nothing you can do inside these clans that you can't do outside of them as well, scrims on mods aren't even very useful seeing as how they were created with new rules and ideals in mind. It's a mod and there to have a few fun games on, not to spark completely alienated competition which there is already too much of today.
While on the subject of clans let's talk about clan leaders
I've only been in this Skulltag/Zandronum community for at least a short 2 years and never have I seen such a decline in clan leader(s) activity, it's really shameful as a matter of fact. The majority of clans today have at the most 2 to 3 players active every week while the leader(s) sits around and mopes about or is into other things not doom related without expending effort into the clan that they themselves promised to help upkeep. Sure I understand, real life issues come into play, natural interest in doom can become smaller and smaller but thats no excuse to drag around your current list of clan members simply because you yourself do not wish to play. Take the necessary steps and enlist a co-leader or 2, someone who can take charge while the leader is away and keep the clan content and satisfied with themselves, if this is of course difficult for some then you should consider disbanding the clan as there is no point in keeping it up and waiting for it to dwindle out of existence. This goes double for the clan player list as well, if the leader is showing no interest whatsoever to the clan and it's goals, then more than likely it's time for a change of scenery.
A clan leader that does nothing but sits in their channel and complains about the 'good old days' is a strong sign of a weak leader as they have no faith in themselves or for their own clan. It's pitiful and entirely dumbfounding to be kited around by someone whom clearly has no place to be in this community anymore and would rather stick to downing the current generation of doomers.
Oh yes, time to discuss current doomers to the old, be prepared as I am not going to hold back on how I feel about this
Guess what, players come and go, good ones and bad ones as well as unforgettable ones but thats just life. If you're the kind of person who finds this as an excuse to not play doom because it doesn't have the playerbase it once had, get over your fucking self, you're weak and currently a waste of bandwidth if you seriously want to stick around on IRC just for the kicks.
Let me tell you guys something, the days of [DX], Chewy, Bazooka and even Jkist are gone. But that was so long ago, and you want to know what happened after all of them relocated? A brand new set of players stepped forth to take their roles and continue to strive to be better than their predecessors and counterparts, thats real fucking dedication. Sure these players do still remanence about those days but they are also proud of where they have gone and become today. It's called hope, hope that others will be immortalized just as great players before have been through hard work and knowledge that they gain from these relics. Instead of idolizing the players that used to frequent doom, what really should be done is trying to surpass them in every way and becoming the next generation of professional players that the following players to come will remember and say "yeah they were a really good player, but I bet I could do just as well".
It's this kind of attitude that makes me sick. How about instead of following other players around and kissing the ground they walk on, you instead challenge their position of power and spark a rivalry and work towards the goal of being better than them? The best method of becoming a better player is to set the standard for yourself, working towards that skill level, and then branching out once you have achieved what you set out to do. There is no such thing as an unbeatable player, everyone has lost a game, no one player is entirely overpowered because everyone has a weakness and it's just a matter of exploiting it to the best of one's abilities.
How do we help strengthen our playerbase then?
I feel like you might ask
Well as many players before have stated, give these new bloods a chance, if you feel they might be a hacker/aliaser then ask an admin to do a background check for you. No one will call you stupid for having suspicions as we all know it is rather difficult to believe someone new coming in and handing everyone's ass over to them on a silver platter. Guess what, we live in a whole new version of skulltag called zandronum, and as far as I can tell we now have a plethora of players just sitting around doing nothing infact IDE tells me that zandronum keeps a consistent proximity of at least 130 players a day! wow! Granted most of these players are infact mm8bdm players, they are players nonetheless that have expressed interest into online and (even perhaps) online doom competition.
And remember, even the clan that most players revere today called Renegades began somewhere as well, no clan can just start out and become the most top rated clan in doom competition. However through time and dedication, they can and more than likely will prove to be a tough coming up contender.
Oh yeah here's also a good point, stop fucking aliasing. How is it that most players on Zandronum have this urge to change their nicknames every week? If players really want to get noticed then they should stop dicking around with the nicknames and pick one so that others can better identify a reoccurring player. It's okay to change once every couple of months if one doesn't feel comfortable with their name, but as long as they also identify using their more recognizable name then it's not a problem at all.
On a final note regarding competition; c'mon guys, get on IRC, it's really not that hard to just start IDE up and click the little skull icon. Seriously it's not rocket science, it's the best way to get noticed as more players will be able to reach and speak to players.
Private ctf is almost dead and it's all thanks to the feud that happened!! Oh no!!
No it's not, it's mainly due to League of Legends sucking lives and spitting corpses. If there is an actual issue with priv ctf and players are only picking their friends over others who have not played then theres a word for behaviour like that, it's called being childish. I enjoy priv ctf regardless of what idiot decides to grace us with their presence, because I never let them get to me the way others do as I let my skill do most of the talking.
Private ctf is also getting invaded by these new players who don't know what they're doing
Good, let the password be leaked a few times, sure priv might be held up every so often having to teach players how to play priv on the spot but at least theres now new players that can come and go whenever priv gets started up. As long as it's not an aliaser or hacker, I'm fine with the 5 minute wait time to discuss how to play private ctf with these new players, as long as they're having fun then I'm having fun.
Private ctf gets so bloated, the players that stay are wasting their time and not helping out by starting another priv
Let me bust out my psychology book as to explain why there isn't an abundance of 2 private ctf servers being taken up: When a less than extraordinaire player is waiting to be picked, theres a strong feeling of accomplishment when a more stronger player picks them to play for their team. Players have a secret desire to be better than their peers and getting picked for a team over other stronger choices gives them a reassuring feeling that they are improving and being noticed by players that would otherwise skim over their name to pick someone more known for their skill. Splitting priv at this point would just take all the rejects to another server where they can play with other rejected players, this isn't how I feel but this is how other players would ultimately feel when going to another server.
It's really a no brainer when it comes down to it. It's not a question of who can aim better or who can shoot first, it's more of a question on how well a player can outsmart and out strategize an opposing player.
So to sum this all up, we don't need competition; competition needs you
For our first topic I'd like to discuss the recent issue of clans:
First and foremost, these almost non-existent clans that continuously crop up from nowhere with separate motives and take away players whom wish to play competitively as well as fall within the goals of these other clans. Only to be blind sided as this new clan of theirs was created spontaneously for a short time and has completely become inactive as it fails to update frequently with players and or scrims.
This needs to stop, clans and clan leaders need to have a steady and at least somewhat active playerbase if it is to ever be taken seriously in it's development and establishment as a serious clan. Without forums, an irc channel or the blatant disregard for attempting to search for new players, this has really alienated recent clans to any new players wanting a piece of the action they so desire. An active leader and strong leadership system is what most clans today are lacking, and not adding linearity to these clans that are not competitive just adds salt to the wound when you limit yourself to something that has no need for clans.
I of course am talking about these ZDW, zombie horde, gvh and whatever mod specific clans that are being created around this time with a harmless goal of enjoying a fun mod with friends. Thats fine I have no issue with that, but at the same time I look at these clans as they are pointless because lets be honest, there is nothing you can do inside these clans that you can't do outside of them as well, scrims on mods aren't even very useful seeing as how they were created with new rules and ideals in mind. It's a mod and there to have a few fun games on, not to spark completely alienated competition which there is already too much of today.
While on the subject of clans let's talk about clan leaders
I've only been in this Skulltag/Zandronum community for at least a short 2 years and never have I seen such a decline in clan leader(s) activity, it's really shameful as a matter of fact. The majority of clans today have at the most 2 to 3 players active every week while the leader(s) sits around and mopes about or is into other things not doom related without expending effort into the clan that they themselves promised to help upkeep. Sure I understand, real life issues come into play, natural interest in doom can become smaller and smaller but thats no excuse to drag around your current list of clan members simply because you yourself do not wish to play. Take the necessary steps and enlist a co-leader or 2, someone who can take charge while the leader is away and keep the clan content and satisfied with themselves, if this is of course difficult for some then you should consider disbanding the clan as there is no point in keeping it up and waiting for it to dwindle out of existence. This goes double for the clan player list as well, if the leader is showing no interest whatsoever to the clan and it's goals, then more than likely it's time for a change of scenery.
A clan leader that does nothing but sits in their channel and complains about the 'good old days' is a strong sign of a weak leader as they have no faith in themselves or for their own clan. It's pitiful and entirely dumbfounding to be kited around by someone whom clearly has no place to be in this community anymore and would rather stick to downing the current generation of doomers.
Oh yes, time to discuss current doomers to the old, be prepared as I am not going to hold back on how I feel about this
Guess what, players come and go, good ones and bad ones as well as unforgettable ones but thats just life. If you're the kind of person who finds this as an excuse to not play doom because it doesn't have the playerbase it once had, get over your fucking self, you're weak and currently a waste of bandwidth if you seriously want to stick around on IRC just for the kicks.
Let me tell you guys something, the days of [DX], Chewy, Bazooka and even Jkist are gone. But that was so long ago, and you want to know what happened after all of them relocated? A brand new set of players stepped forth to take their roles and continue to strive to be better than their predecessors and counterparts, thats real fucking dedication. Sure these players do still remanence about those days but they are also proud of where they have gone and become today. It's called hope, hope that others will be immortalized just as great players before have been through hard work and knowledge that they gain from these relics. Instead of idolizing the players that used to frequent doom, what really should be done is trying to surpass them in every way and becoming the next generation of professional players that the following players to come will remember and say "yeah they were a really good player, but I bet I could do just as well".
It's this kind of attitude that makes me sick. How about instead of following other players around and kissing the ground they walk on, you instead challenge their position of power and spark a rivalry and work towards the goal of being better than them? The best method of becoming a better player is to set the standard for yourself, working towards that skill level, and then branching out once you have achieved what you set out to do. There is no such thing as an unbeatable player, everyone has lost a game, no one player is entirely overpowered because everyone has a weakness and it's just a matter of exploiting it to the best of one's abilities.
How do we help strengthen our playerbase then?
I feel like you might ask
Well as many players before have stated, give these new bloods a chance, if you feel they might be a hacker/aliaser then ask an admin to do a background check for you. No one will call you stupid for having suspicions as we all know it is rather difficult to believe someone new coming in and handing everyone's ass over to them on a silver platter. Guess what, we live in a whole new version of skulltag called zandronum, and as far as I can tell we now have a plethora of players just sitting around doing nothing infact IDE tells me that zandronum keeps a consistent proximity of at least 130 players a day! wow! Granted most of these players are infact mm8bdm players, they are players nonetheless that have expressed interest into online and (even perhaps) online doom competition.
And remember, even the clan that most players revere today called Renegades began somewhere as well, no clan can just start out and become the most top rated clan in doom competition. However through time and dedication, they can and more than likely will prove to be a tough coming up contender.
Oh yeah here's also a good point, stop fucking aliasing. How is it that most players on Zandronum have this urge to change their nicknames every week? If players really want to get noticed then they should stop dicking around with the nicknames and pick one so that others can better identify a reoccurring player. It's okay to change once every couple of months if one doesn't feel comfortable with their name, but as long as they also identify using their more recognizable name then it's not a problem at all.
On a final note regarding competition; c'mon guys, get on IRC, it's really not that hard to just start IDE up and click the little skull icon. Seriously it's not rocket science, it's the best way to get noticed as more players will be able to reach and speak to players.
Private ctf is almost dead and it's all thanks to the feud that happened!! Oh no!!
No it's not, it's mainly due to League of Legends sucking lives and spitting corpses. If there is an actual issue with priv ctf and players are only picking their friends over others who have not played then theres a word for behaviour like that, it's called being childish. I enjoy priv ctf regardless of what idiot decides to grace us with their presence, because I never let them get to me the way others do as I let my skill do most of the talking.
Private ctf is also getting invaded by these new players who don't know what they're doing
Good, let the password be leaked a few times, sure priv might be held up every so often having to teach players how to play priv on the spot but at least theres now new players that can come and go whenever priv gets started up. As long as it's not an aliaser or hacker, I'm fine with the 5 minute wait time to discuss how to play private ctf with these new players, as long as they're having fun then I'm having fun.
Private ctf gets so bloated, the players that stay are wasting their time and not helping out by starting another priv
Let me bust out my psychology book as to explain why there isn't an abundance of 2 private ctf servers being taken up: When a less than extraordinaire player is waiting to be picked, theres a strong feeling of accomplishment when a more stronger player picks them to play for their team. Players have a secret desire to be better than their peers and getting picked for a team over other stronger choices gives them a reassuring feeling that they are improving and being noticed by players that would otherwise skim over their name to pick someone more known for their skill. Splitting priv at this point would just take all the rejects to another server where they can play with other rejected players, this isn't how I feel but this is how other players would ultimately feel when going to another server.
It's really a no brainer when it comes down to it. It's not a question of who can aim better or who can shoot first, it's more of a question on how well a player can outsmart and out strategize an opposing player.
So to sum this all up, we don't need competition; competition needs you
