Rock, Paper, Shotgun

You might just recollect my rantings about my favourite Quake III map, Q3WCP9, back in the mists of time. I had sort of resigned myself to the idea that it would never appear on Quake Live. Until now! The Quake Live Christmas premium update has it! Depressingly this means that the maps were only available to free players for a week, a week which ends today. I am sad. It is, however, just enough to push me into taking out a premium account for the hols. Man, I hope I can get some decent CP9 games. I’ll report back.

Id bossman Todd Hollenshead has explained to VG247 what the “failure” of the in-game advertising model means for Quake Live. He stated that the closure of ad firm Massive – which MS shut down earlier this year – has caused Id to rethink: “I mean, smarter people than me were making these estimations. Look at Microsoft. They spent, like, $200 million on the Massive acquisition, and they basically shuttered that division in February. So that had ramifications for us, because we used Massive. And if that was more successful, that’d have had a significant impact on what Quake Live is.”

It’s not over for the reborn Quake III, however, as Id are now experimenting with subscriptions and video-ads: “The game is an entertainment success, so now we have to figure out how to make the business model work.” And with no hats, how’s a company to make a profit? Eh?

Bethesda Blog announces a bunch of updates for Quake Live, the most important of which includes new maps for their premium service. Good news for those premium subscribers, I suppose, but I can’t help wondering how successful Quake Live has actually been for Id. I play games on there every couple of weeks, and there’s almost always a decent EU capture the flag game to be had. That’s great, because it means the community is ticking over, but even as a semi-regular user I don’t see much reason to pay for a premium account. The competition for this relaunched classic must be particularly tough when the range of free shooters is now so enormous, from the hardcore precision of Warsow, to the Facebooked ease of Uberstrike, to the more mature corporately packaged experience of BFP4F. It can’t be easy out there.

It makes me wonder whether any of you lot play a free shooter? More to the point, do any of you lot pay for a free shooter?

Oops, I almost forgot to post about this: Quake Live are doing a push on their paid-for premium service, which is apparently free for a month if you sign up before the 26th. But what good is that unless you have enough people to shoot? That is the question I have been asking myself. Shall we meet up for a game then, RPS people who like a bit of Quake? (You can still play for free on the default maps, even without signing up for this trial thing.) Say next Sunday night? I’ll probably be on the CTF servers UK evening time, for that is where I lurk with railgun and rocket launcher.

In other questions: any of you lot still Quake regulars? I’ve been popping in about once a month for a blast. I could do with some Rocket Arena, though.

After eighteen months or so of beta, Quake Live has finally announced its subscription plans. You can still play for free, but you can also sign up for $1.99 a month, or $3.99 a month options (although these are “billed annually”), which give different levels of access the clan management systems, freeze tag, match stats, and so on. The full details are below the cut. In some ways I wish I still had enough time for Quake III for this to be attractive to me, but my monthly hour with the railgun doesn’t really justify it. And, while it’s interesting to see such an old game repackaged and sold like this, much of what made the original so attractive to me – IRC pickup games, specific maps (Spider Crossings!) and mods – hasn’t made an appearance here.
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Quake Live is one year old. Officially, anyway, because it had a big old beta before then. And years and years of being a commercially released game before that. So it’s really very old, but sporting a new haircut and trendy jeans. Anyway, Id are celebrating that anniversary with some kind of event, and with a new map. Still no Spider Crossings on the CTF roster though, which is the only birthday present I care about. I still play on here fairly regularly too, those red and blue flags are in my blood. Sigh.

Id’s free Quake III service, Quake Live, has today launched a temporary holiday update. The QL team say:

For two weeks starting December 22nd, enjoy “Silent Night”, a holiday-themed remake of the popular arena “Distant Screams” from Team Arena. During this time Santa himself along with his festive helper Vixen, will be playable character models across all game types.

I guess I might see you in there.

Ten years. Ten piggin’ years. And still no-one’s topped Quake III: Arena in terms of raw, pure deathmatch FPS solidity and grace. Id’s last great game turned a full decade old yesterday – even though it was born into an era of Voodoo 2s and 15″ CRT monitors, it’s fearsomely alive to this day. Frankly, it’s not going anywhere any time soon – it lives on both in its original form and as the free-to-play, browser-based Quake Live. And also in an endless legion of mods, modders, maps and lifelong gamers, all inspired by the precise majesty of its high-speed bloodshed. Gentlethings and ladycreatures, yesterday was our Thanksgiving.
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Could it be a premium service with the capacity to create private matches? Id’s Marty Stratton talks about the possibilities in this extensive interview on Bethesda Blog.

We’re toying with a number of ideas for features, functionality, and even content that will translate well and represent a real value for players wanting an affordably-priced premium service. One of the most requested features in QUAKE LIVE and something that I think would be at the core of any premium service, would be the ability to very easily and quickly start a private match (that only you and the players you invite can join). Right now, all of our matches are open to the public and started by our back end systems. So, what we’re looking at creating is a totally integrated and very easy to use method for starting and running a personalized private match.

And that is basically what I want from Quake Live, as well as some kind of pickup team functionality, and Rocket Arena 3. I used to live for that and CTF pickup games back in the day, and if Quake Live offered a similar service I would be all over it. They’d need to add Spider Crossings, too, obviously.

But which maps? And will they ultimately disappoint? The first isn’t too inspiring, it’s Hidden Fortress from the Dreamcast version of Quake III. Not a bad map, it seems, but still not one of the classics. Will one of the new maps be my ultimate CTF dream date, Spider Crossings? What would you choose, readers? (Link ‘em for classic Q3 download if you can be bothered.)

Playing Quake Live is a troubling experience. It feels like a kind of monetised nostalgia. A browser-based themepark, or a visit to a mummified stately home. It’s wonderful to find servers heaving with people again after all this time – even though finding a game was seldom a problem – at least for a quick and dirty free-for-all. I still adore Quake 3, and my install has not left my hard-drive in a decade. But playing it like this made me realise what a mutant creature I actually fell in love with in the earliest years of this decade. What’s missing, particularly for an obsessed capture-the-flagite like me, is one particular map: Spider Crossings, or Q3WCP9. Without it, Quake Live cannot earn my love.
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