Having been in the community for countless years, I can see this trend happening. It’s a bit sad really. There is no such thing as a small mod anymore; nothing like Combat Zone or Covert Forces could survive in this world. Everyone feels this need to create something that has to push the loving crap out of the envelope with flashy graphics, GUIs, etc.
Now don’t get me wrong, these things are great. They add to the mods themselves, but along with these advances in graphics and the industry’s ever growing focus on realistic graphics, gaming has seemingly lost its original vision. What was the original vision of gaming? An escape from the real, something fun, enjoyable and exciting. Games like Gears of War which pushed the graphic envelope are awesome but, in reality, Gears turned into “Hide behind thing, pop out, shoot, and repeat” except for a few parts (like the Berserker chase). It’s not really groundbreaking in any way aside from graphics. Why are we putting so much emphasis on graphics? Don’t worry; this all will tie in to the state of the community in the end.
Going back to the original Unreal Tournament, the small advances in graphical technology during its run really kept it ahead and kept it fresh and new. Modifications for the original UT and even for Unreal are still coming out, yet UT2004 can’t seem to support a community. What’s going on here? Some of the blame lies in self-proclaimed “pro” gamers in some respects, some of the blame lies in the mod community and some of it lies within the community itself. As the quote I posted earlier said, people didn’t really seem to play Ut2004 per se. They may play it every now and then and decide they don’t like the placement of a mesh somewhere on DM-1on1-Albatross. After voicing their hatred of said mesh on the server, they get on BeyondUnreal and bitch about it. It is here that other people who don’t seem to actually try having fun agree with them and then it turns into some big deal where everyone cries and whines about some stupid mesh until someone releases DM-1on1-Albatross(*KQX*ProEdition). Then the process continues until the pro guys are happy. But honestly, who is thinking of the “noobs”? Also, do we really need a bunch of slightly modified versions of stock maps clogging up places like NaliCity? Who wants to wade through about 20 different versions of the same map that has a changed texture, maybe a weapon that is placed differently, or hey, that mesh is gone! Who cares; keep it in your own little pro gaming world.
New people are what keep a community alive. Currently, I hardly see many new people joining up on the forums to discuss current games. Most of them are joining in anticipation of the new Unreal Tournament 3 and keep themselves in the UT3 forum speculating with other hopefuls. Why are people not joining the community to talk about and play current releases? Have you tried playing online recently? The servers are basically desolate aside from maybe one or two of the official servers. Who wants to purchase their brand new copy of UT2004, come home, install it and find a desolate master server? It’s a bit discouraging for that person. We need to start treating these new people well; they’re the lifeblood, and as much as the “pro” guys think they are, they aren’t. We need new, fresh people with new, fresh ideas to keep this community alive! Newbies are always looked down upon for lacking “SKILLZ” and whatever. But lest we forget our humble beginnings, I’m sure that Mr. ProGamer didn’t start out flying around the map wall jumping and popping heads with a lightning gun left and right every five seconds.
We need to encourage new people, encourage new modifications, just basically encourage! I’m sick of this community being dead; it’s actually affected my mapping or lack thereof. Who wants to build a map for about 5 people? Let’s start being nice. Let’s start encouraging small mods again. These are the things that kept UT alive and I’d hate to see a good game like UT2004 suffer a terrible fate at the hands of a dying community that doesn’t want anyone or anything to bother their little pro world.
Take action! That’s all for now.