Ranting About Custom Shit by Spin

So. I’m sitting around on my arse waiting for a duel. Sort of an unwritten rule I feel that, whoever is already in the server has the pick of map. In my case, I’m already sitting there on Ultraviolence, one of the great custom maps and my choice of map. So as soon as someone pops in, they switch it to DM6. I’m thinking “What gives? Oh well, I’ll play this map, then I’ll duel him on Ultrav.”

So we play, he wins (due to my lack of quaking ability) and we say gg, shake hands, and say we’ll have another. I switch over to Ultrav again. Well well, he changes it STRAIGHT back to DM4.

It is this “narrow mindedness” that I’m ranting about. When questioned WHY he wouldn’t play on it, he simply replied “I’m no good at it and I don’t know it at all”. That’s how I feel about DM6, but I don’t complain and flatly refuse to play it. Why won’t people give custom maps a go? Huh? Is it purely because they might lose?

Is the threat of losing SO horrifically incomprehensible for these people? So what, you get “owned” on a map you’ve got no fucking idea how to play. Big deal. I get a good ass whipping on maps that I know how to play. But why avoid playing custom maps? The same 4 ID maps have been played over and over for the last 4 or whatever years…don’t people actually agree with me (and lots of other people) when it is said that “It’s time for something new”?

Come on. Net Quake 1 is dying (in Australia at least anyway) and it’s due to these people flatly refusing to play something different for the sake of losing. Sure, the game IS fairly old and there are other games available anyway but come on. Time does kill everything but Net Quake’s life span could’ve been increased if a few people sacrificed a grain or two of pride for something different.

Refresh a few of your local duel servers. Not many will have custom maps on them.

You may think…well, why would competitions refuse to put custom maps in as part of the whole thing? ID maps in competitions are fine, I’m not saying they should be banished forever, and most people would argue : If ID maps were played less often, the standard of competition would be lower, and competitions would be completely pointless.

Say wha? POINTLESS? HAH!!! The very thought makes me laugh. The point of competition (unless I’m mistaking the quaking world to be a bunch of people who don’t give a shit about anything except quake, which I know they are not) is to HAVE FUN. And don’t get me wrong, I find team games are the most fun thing ever. But people say that winning is the fun.

People who think that aggravate me a LOT. Winning is enjoyable, but it is not the sole reason you play it. Me and a mate of mine (CosmiC) really enjoy duelling each other on custom maps. Because we love custom maps, we find it so much more fun, because it’s different.

We jump in on an in progress FFA on a custom map server, and we get our arse kicked (or at least I do, CosmiC tends to be a bit of an owner) but we enjoy ourselves but having an all out rampage on a map that looks, feels and is different. Have many of you tried a 12 player FFA on Rapture1? Not many I can bet. But I can guarantee you 100%, if you get the RL, turn fraglimits off, you can have the time of your life. I know I did.

My current clan (clan Zero in Australia) have lans regularly, and what do they play? ID non-stop? Nah…they have all in rumbles on maps like ZTNDM3, DEAD, EFDM7-8…and they enjoy themselves thoroughly.

I was recently talking to another clan mate about the whole issue, and he says he plays ID maps because he likes to play them. Fair enough, but why does he like them? Because he can beat people on them was his response. Argh. Look at Boris Yeltsin (what HE has to do with this is beyond me). He runs a country, he dances, gets shitfaced on vodka and he fires his whole cabinet cos they tried to impeach him. This guy is having fun!

One brilliant move I’ve seen is when Gibcon 98 switched the finals to Aerowalk. Fantastic move if ever I saw one. But…as Fribbles mentioned, do they realise “Now hang on, this map is bloody cool, it’s not an ID map, it’s fun…so why don’t I go find more”? Of course they don’t. When I jumped in on Bulletproof a long time ago (I had absolutely nfi how to play the game let alone realise I was downloading a so called ‘custom’ map) and started having a go on Webbydm1, I saw the light. Now basically all I play is custom maps.

I’m not meaning to say everyone should abandon ID maps (hell they are the originals, and DM3 is awesome for clan games) I’m just saying that it would appear that the Quaking world has forgotten one very important thing in the game and in life.

Have fun god dammit!

Cheers,

Spin [Z]

https://web.archive.org/web/20000309113710fw_/http://www.planetquake.com:80/frib/custom.html