Lack of competative atmosphere

[Dangerous Dan]

tonight i was reminicing the "good old days" in my pre-MERC months and i came about seeing a difference in the general attitude of sam players. back when merc was still the most active clan in the servers and forums there would be a nightly public braging about their vitories. Now a days, if someone was to post a thread called "the prey was weak tonight!" there would be a flocking of members to the post saying "you htink you're so great eh?", and "thats poor sportsmanship". Where as back in the day, Dark Psi ( ;) ) and Salvation would post ownage victories over ppl like Tip, Shogun, and myself for example and no one would really care or even complain! But this is a competative game, and i see no harm in friendly competition, as long as everyone realizes its all in the name of fun.

I just want to know what ppl's opinions are now a days. I know that when i was in MERC i'd always try to win to prevent a humiliating screenshot apearing in the screenies section. This motivation is all but gone.

[SALvation]

There are a ton of reasons why there is no competitive spirit left in Sam. The biggest reason is that there are only a handful of people playing anymore. It's only natural. The game is over 1 year old and the creators have abandoned it for their sequel. When Sam 2 comes out I'm sure things will pick back up.

Second, I think most of the talent has left the game. Think of the life cycle as an upside down U. At the beginning, there were mostly noobs who lacked talent. In the middle, a ton of players got good and the big clans emerged. Now at the end we are back to mostly noobs and people that load the game up once a month.

Third, a ton of people that I respected and had rivalries with are gone. (Don't worry, some of your are left). People like Hammer, DarkTime, Bones, Hades...and others. These were people I played with on a nightly basis, had wars with, and at the time we were all pretty much equal in talent.

Also, posting screens was a great recruitment tool. I posted most wins so that people could see MERC in action and they would join us instead of other clans. Since there are no great clanless people left (that I can think of) there is no reason to post wins. We're not recruiting until Sam 2.

Those are the reasons I can think of.

[OUTLAWS Tip]

I personally don't care. I have good and bad days, but I just play for fun.

[V98ci]

I can't comment on the way things were as I am a relative noob. But I will say the difference in skill level from people like Dr. Phrenic, Machine, Eph, Bigg and so on is so great that when I win a game I know that no matter how well I did, they would have done alot better.

I am as competitive as anyone here, but I also know that my skill level may never be equal to those mentioned above. I feel sorry for anyone that buys this game at Sam's for 9.00 and discovers the online side of it. They get SLAUGHTERED! "Fish in a barrell" comes to mind. You guys that I mentioned above, when you enter a game you know that unless you are playing each other that you are going to win. I am the same way to a lesser extent. I know who and where I stand the greatest chances of winning are.

Just my .02

[MR. SLiK]

SAL got it. Got it right on the spot. It was fun a while ago, got a little annoying, then just got plain frustrating and it wasnt fun to play anymore.

[Ra\/en]

man i miss the old ownage screenies..


"the prey was weak tonight" :devil:

hehhehe

[JIMINATOR]

Well, the way I see it, there are 5 tiers of players.
Noobs,
familiar with the maps,
win some, decent in most others
win most
lethal, can easily win from far behind

i am about in the middle.
you, de, hr and a few others are in the last group.
I rarely see many of you play at one time.
frankly, if I was that good, i would probably
get bored with the game because of lack
of competition. It's kind of funny, because
it looks like a fish in the bucket type of thing.
if you want to brag about wins against the
top tier players, that is cool. we would enjoy
seeing that, and that would be some good
sprited competition. there is no real honor or
glory in bragging about the rest of us tho -
until we get better anyway.

[FASTway]

Hey DD,
I think things will go back to how you were reminiscing when SS2 is released.
SSSE I think is suffering a lot because it is not supported by any decent mods, or patches, or new (quality) maps.

I wish I had SSSE when it first came out because like you say there was a lot of great competition and rivalry back in the early days, especially compared to now.

[MR. SLiK]

Originally posted by FASTway@May 4 2003, 09:22 PM
Hey DD,
I think things will go back to how you were reminiscing when SS2 is released.
SSSE I think is suffering a lot because it is not supported by any decent mods, or patches, or new (quality) maps.

I wish I had SSSE when it first came out because like you say there was a lot of great competition and rivalry back in the early days, especially compared to now.
Man the early days, the first game i actually got working corectly i hated merc with a vengeance then later joined. Man they were assholes :) And when the outlaws clan was about 4 people. I was actually gonna join if i didnt get it merc. Now theres 209348902384 outlaws haha. I think tomorrow will be exactly 1 year since i registered at seriously.

Acutally it was yesterday May3rd ;P

[Ra\/en]

Originally posted by MR. SLiK+May 5 2003, 05:27 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (MR. SLiK @ May 5 2003, 05:27 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--FASTway@May 4 2003, 09:22 PM
Hey DD,
I think things will go back to how you were reminiscing when SS2 is released.
SSSE I think is suffering a lot because it is not supported by any decent mods, or patches, or new (quality) maps.

I wish I had SSSE when it first came out because like you say there was a lot of great competition and rivalry back in the early days, especially compared to now.
Man the early days, the first game i actually got working corectly i hated merc with a vengeance then later joined. Man they were assholes :) And when the outlaws clan was about 4 people. I was actually gonna join if i didnt get it merc. Now theres 209348902384 outlaws haha. I think tomorrow will be exactly 1 year since i registered at seriously. [/b][/quote]
awww the memories. lol actually itll be one year exactly for me pretty soon too, i think i joined at the end of may,


dang even beating a merc back then was an accomplishment for me.

i think if anybody did it, it was always posted .

[MR. SLiK]

Originally posted by Ra&#092;/en+May 4 2003, 09:30 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Ra&#092;/en @ May 4 2003, 09:30 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
Originally posted by -MR. SLiK@May 5 2003, 05:27 AM
<!--QuoteBegin--FASTway@May 4 2003, 09:22 PM
Hey DD,
I think things will go back to how you were reminiscing when SS2 is released.
SSSE I think is suffering a lot because it is not supported by any decent mods, or patches, or new (quality) maps.

I wish I had SSSE when it first came out because like you say there was a lot of great competition and rivalry back in the early days, especially compared to now.
Man the early days, the first game i actually got working corectly i hated merc with a vengeance then later joined. Man they were assholes :) And when the outlaws clan was about 4 people. I was actually gonna join if i didnt get it merc. Now theres 209348902384 outlaws haha. I think tomorrow will be exactly 1 year since i registered at seriously.
awww the memories. lol actually itll be one year exactly for me pretty soon too, i think i joined at the end of may,


dang even beating a merc back then was an accomplishment for me.

i think if anybody did it, it was always posted . [/b][/quote]
You know whats weird, watching old demos. I watched one when i was in MIT and Hammer was still in MERC, boy did it bring back my hated memories of my modem

[Ra\/en]

Originally posted by MR. SLiK+May 5 2003, 05:34 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (MR. SLiK @ May 5 2003, 05:34 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
Originally posted by -Ra&#092;/en@May 4 2003, 09:30 PM

Originally posted by -MR. SLiK@May 5 2003, 05:27 AM
<!--QuoteBegin--FASTway@May 4 2003, 09:22 PM
Hey DD,
I think things will go back to how you were reminiscing when SS2 is released.
SSSE I think is suffering a lot because it is not supported by any decent mods, or patches, or new (quality) maps.

I wish I had SSSE when it first came out because like you say there was a lot of great competition and rivalry back in the early days, especially compared to now.
Man the early days, the first game i actually got working corectly i hated merc with a vengeance then later joined. Man they were assholes :) And when the outlaws clan was about 4 people. I was actually gonna join if i didnt get it merc. Now theres 209348902384 outlaws haha. I think tomorrow will be exactly 1 year since i registered at seriously.
awww the memories. lol actually itll be one year exactly for me pretty soon too, i think i joined at the end of may,


dang even beating a merc back then was an accomplishment for me.

i think if anybody did it, it was always posted .
You know whats weird, watching old demos. I watched one when i was in MIT and Hammer was still in MERC, boy did it bring back my hated memories of my modem [/b][/quote]
haha you were always whining about that...

56k is brutal :drink:

[TNT Tonic]

I am not that old...I have been around to see them come and go too though. I really loved playing at first, then I got good and got bored and left and now I suck again, but it&#39;s just not as fun&#33; I have lag all the time now, where as in the beginning, it was hardly there&#33; SS2 should be awesome and bring back some damn good players&#33;

[MR. SLiK]

Originally posted by Ra&#092;/en+May 4 2003, 09:38 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Ra&#092;/en @ May 4 2003, 09:38 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
Originally posted by -MR. SLiK@May 5 2003, 05:34 AM

Originally posted by -Ra&#092;/en@May 4 2003, 09:30 PM

Originally posted by -MR. SLiK@May 5 2003, 05:27 AM
<!--QuoteBegin--FASTway@May 4 2003, 09:22 PM
Hey DD,
I think things will go back to how you were reminiscing when SS2 is released.
SSSE I think is suffering a lot because it is not supported by any decent mods, or patches, or new (quality) maps.

I wish I had SSSE when it first came out because like you say there was a lot of great competition and rivalry back in the early days, especially compared to now.
Man the early days, the first game i actually got working corectly i hated merc with a vengeance then later joined. Man they were assholes :) And when the outlaws clan was about 4 people. I was actually gonna join if i didnt get it merc. Now theres 209348902384 outlaws haha. I think tomorrow will be exactly 1 year since i registered at seriously.
awww the memories. lol actually itll be one year exactly for me pretty soon too, i think i joined at the end of may,


dang even beating a merc back then was an accomplishment for me.

i think if anybody did it, it was always posted .
You know whats weird, watching old demos. I watched one when i was in MIT and Hammer was still in MERC, boy did it bring back my hated memories of my modem
haha you were always whining about that...

56k is brutal :drink: [/b][/quote]
:angel:

[Grimmy]

Well I have been on sam for over a year now. I played at school (college) and then hit the serious forums, joined up with Gods as first clan, and well a long story short, the same maps, the same people, sam just isn&#39;t fun anymore. How many times can you play with the relative same thing? and still have fun?? Sam was a learning experience for me and it opened may doors, but due to the lack of Croteam and there famous patch that was to come out soon (remember that last year, they said soon :rofl: ) well it has been several months later, and there lack of support to keep sammers strong has lost my support. When the next sam comes out, well sorry, but I won&#39;t pay for it. If I did pay for it, they&#39;d probably have a netcode similiar to 1.50 and totally suck ass to where 1.07 is way better like it is now.

Sam had it&#39;s days. I remember when all you saw was Mercs and you ran from them. Where has that gone? To me Mercs are on the same level, personally, yea they are still better then me, but all others are getting better that the same maps. A lot of good it does for the net people getting owned left and right.

Me personally, Q3 is where it is at. Yea it is a little slower then sam is, but playing the freeze tag mod and teaming up with some one is way better then beening on your own in sam. You can ask any player of freeze tag, compared to sam, and 80% of them will say that Q3 is better. There is more fun, more maps, and more mods that people enjoy. I paid &#036;20 for sam. Now, what a waste it was to see how it developed. I paid &#036;30 for Q3, hell I would have paid &#036;100 for it. Mods come out left and right, maps the same, and the fun, well you can&#39;t put a price on it. If you don&#39;t like one mod, then load another. What does sam have, warped?? :rolleyes: lame&#33;&#33;

Until sam can get a netcode the works, I won&#39;t ever think about buying it. It can&#39;t compare to the fun of other games. Sam makes Warcraft II look fun to me. Anyone can own anyone in sam now days. Nothing like bad in the day of fearing Mercs and the birth of Outlaws and Gods, and I am sure there are others, but I can&#39;t think of them, I wasn&#39;t around then.

Sam died, but it 6 feet under and move on this the Croats can atleast some up with something that they might be able to call a netcode. If they can&#39;t do it, then maybe they should sell out to a gaming company that can, like the makers of UT03 or something&#33;

[OUTLAWS CHICO]

Well I for one all along have been sick of people playing under aliases. I first started playing man it was a big deal to actually get a frag on a merc. Now you are doing good to find a player with his tags on and so on. The Lagg is brutal ,the f-9 sucks ,The maps well we need more of them .I would like to get a bunch of SS players and go back to Sam 1. I and the original OUTLAWS ,and Tip had so much fun in Sam 1 .the maps seemed neverending and I can&#39;t recall ever being lagged down.
Now I play Quake 3 and it is a Challenge Sal is a challenge to beat there also. But he has played with his name everytime I have seen him. :thumbs:

[OUTLAWS Ada]

I haven&#39;t found a game yet that I find as fun to play as Sam. Just when I think it is dead for me, something new happens..... change of clans, gold maps, family gets a copy, lan party etc. I have other games but as long as we are on a 64K connection, there will always be a challenge for us to win. The screenies I post of me winning are few and far between but I am proud of them&#33;

The bottom line is, the friendships at GM are what makes the forums and what ever games we go on to play, we can always come back and be proud of our wins.

Encourage each other. A pat on the back costs nothing&#33;


Just my humble opinion

[ME BIGGD01]

i love the game even with all its faults. i have played almost everyone and been around awhile. met some cool friends and made some nice enemies :P . all in all i will continue to play the game until next version is available. i am bored of it but yet i am addicted. :thumbs:

i also hate the aliases&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33;

[Slash]

I&#39;m ready for Sam2, but I still am having a lot of fun playing the same old maps. BTW, I heard from Alen Ladavac that they really are still working on the patch. :wacko: He just said that it is extremely slow going because almost all of their resources are devoted to Sam2.

[Static]

I play quake 3, UT.. just started playing battlefield 1942 and a few others.

But i honestly can&#39;t say i&#39;ve enjoyed any other game as much as i&#39;ve enjoyed sam.... sure games like quake 3 have millions of mods and patches which make it cool.... but if quake 3 was like sam with no patches and the same netcode and no new maps but the original ones i doubt it would of held so many people&#39;s interest even for this long.

Personally i can&#39;t wait for sam2.. hopefully the netcode will be better and more ppl will play.... if not then i&#39;m still gonna be playing se anyway :w00t: :jammin:

[Sirc]

Back in the glory days of Sam it was a lot easier to get away with bragging because there weren&#39;t that many of us on the forums or in clans. There were a handleful of MERCs, Outlaws, UTW, but the majority of the players were just names in a player list. You could come back to the forums and get away with posting your wins and claiming ownage and bragging. You didn&#39;t really know who anyone was, and the "prey" didn&#39;t know the screenshots were even being posted.

I very cleary remember owning those mysterious players called Sasquatch, Dangerous Dan, BIGGD01, etc. :P

Now most of the SS players are in clans and posting on the forums. They stopped being prey and became real people. You can&#39;t brag anymore because you&#39;ll have your opponent and the rest of his/her clan on your back in a second. Besides the fact that everyone is friends now (mostly). :thumbs:

And now everyone has a better computer than I do too&#33; :bawling:

[Casanova]

There is competition.... in version 1.05&#33;&#33;&#33;&#33; :jammin: :jammin: :jammin: :jammin: :jammin:

[SALvation]

I think another reason I lost interest is because I accomplished what I set out to do when I started playing. I wanted MERC to be a memorable clan and get a reputation. Looking how everyone says they hated us, or were proud when they fragged us, I think we definitely accomplished that.

Since the game isn&#39;t that much fun for me anymore, there are no reliable stats, and the competitive nature is gone, I don&#39;t see a reason to load it up again.

But if anyone still wants to be prey, load up Quake 3 and come join the fun. I will guarantee you will be MERC fodder there. :devil:

[Nick]

Well, you guys really seem depressed...YES there are still clanless wonders &#33;
no pun intended....I dont know about the rest of relatively new players, but I have no golden age to remember....f9 sucks...netcode sucks....but ive tried the other 1st person shooters...and man...no way near as fun or fast...The big problem 4 me is not alias&#39; or picture posts...it&#39;s the people who leave a game in the middle because they are being beaten....how do you people think you get better at this game ??? playing noobs ??? swallow your pill and finish the ******** game....the only valid reason to leave is ridiculous lagg..and that is usually apparent at the start &#33; BTW when is SS2 "realistically" supposed to come out ????????? :WTF:

[SALvation]

SS2 should be out late this year or early next.