by komododod
Low-profile
18:54 in Column, War§ow by komododod
Warsow is a non-commercial (the whole package. adverts and stuff are another issue), free, indie ego shooter. Whether we like it or not, the community is not huge. We’ve had numerous ‘unsuccessful’ leagues and cups due to lack of players. On the same hand, we’ve had some great moments. Some great cups, some great tourneys, some great feedback and tens of thousands (probably : p) of downloads. Bamboocha style tournaments ‘feel’ local. You’re playing against people you know and play with regularly. Thats great.
I think that with 0.1 and 0.2 we had too much hype. Sure, the game got downloaded by a LOT of people thanks to hype generated from the team, on esreality and other gaming related websites and word of mouth. However the people who downloaded the game during this hyped up, early(-ish) stage in warsow’s development did not stay. They got disappointed. How often do things live up to the hype? How often to games that are still heavily WIP and have major bugs (as 0.1/0.2 did) live up to the hype? You see where i’m going – the hype.. and attempting to punch above our weight damaged warsow.
I want warsow to be a success as much as you do. I’m all for us being present at lan tourneys, cash prize tournaments and having a regular spot in clanbase eurocups. Just not right now.
A lot of great community work gets done and that has helped to create a small, stable, competitive and fun community. I fear that we are attempting to punch above our weight once again and that the prospect of 0.3 is leading people to think that it will cause the huge boom in stable player numbers that much of the community dearly want. In all liklihood, this won’t happen. I think that the key to warsow’s success for the time being is keeping a low-profile. Look at it this way: You’ve found a real gem of a game. It’s still heavily in development, it still has a lot of changes to go through. It has a small but dedicated community. Do you want the great mass of other people to download it now.. and cause the community to grow for a few weeks or a month and then leave dissatisfied that the game didnt live up to their expectations? Or do you want to keep it to yourselves, enjoy the game, let it mature and THEN let the outside world know how great it is. When it is in a fit state to deserve the positive comments that you know it deserves from those outside of the ‘core’.
It was the slk, the founder of wsw, who commented recently that we should keep a low profile. I can’t help but agree more. Lets keep this gem to ourselves for the time being. I think WRT tourneys, WRT appearing in the ‘public’ eye, WRT multi-gaming clans.. we need to keep a low profile. For the time being.
Digg/popurls/slashdot are all waiting for us in the future. For now, let the game mature.
One of the things that I love about WSW and it’s community is the DIY (do-it-yourself) feel of it.
When a lot of the big multi-gaming clans started getting into the NA community I felt the community change a bit, not a big change, but it got a bit more hostel (we’re still better than a lot of other communities). Since .12 we’ve gotten way more assholes than I’d like to see.
TBH, money and sponsorships have ruined gaming. I want WSW and it’s community to put the fun back into gaming.
some good points chas, i have a feeling i know what fuelled the column.
i totally agree with NUTS tho, not so much the assholes thing, but the fun in gaming part. if we manage to show that we dont need CPL/WSVG/WCG to run tournaments for warsow to have a dedicated and competitive community (unlike q3/q4…) , show that the players came and stayed for the game, not simply because it was selected on reputation for a series of tournaments.
Nice post chas, I totally agree. It’s the danger of attracting alot of people with sweettalking to lose them when the changes happen. I’ve stated my opinion before, but summarizing: People who get lured in, stop because of a disappointing change (a change they disagree on). These same people would have given this change a shot if it would be delivered to them initially (and thus not being a change for them
). That doesn’t even include the shitload of people that boot up the game, get disappointed because of its visual/audal unpolishedness, and with it’s quirks and bugs, and dump it. We need not to worry about community’s dying or going smaller, as long as you like the game, play the game, and let it mature/progress. Pushing too hard for things we aren’t ready for is never a good idea ofcourse, things should come naturally (or be enforced when the time is right ;D).
Nice post Chas.
I’m ok with everything, but imo, things are even simpler. This is not our job to decide if wsw is ready for big events or not. Neither the job of organizers. This is the job of gamers. Nobody should decide for them what game to play in majors events. So, a big part of warsow’s future isn’t in our hands.
Doing our job of making a good esport oriented game, doing our best in everything which is under our control, our responsability, that’s ok.
Yep, since 2005, we reached a certain success, and therefore, this increased quite much pressure, this increase the will of perfection. But, overall, as you said, wsw is a free project, based on freetime. So how to ask us perfection ? How to ask you perfection ? Don’t worry, as founder, I’ll never ask it to you. And I’ll defend wsw to the death, I’ll simply love wsw as it is : a marvelous free game project, developped by a wonderful team and supported by a great community. For the rest, I don’t want to really care =)
And finally, I’m convinced too that
lol I can’t edit :p
nvm, just forget the uncomplete sentence at the end, I should have delete it =)
Amen brother!
Well, chas you got a point but I think the dedicated hardcode community, warsow can relay on, will stay. No matter if there will be 500 new players jumping on every new release and leave after some weeks playing.
And it’s the smaller, the dedicated community we do all the work for, isn’t it? Sure, I would love to see Warsow on bigger LANs. LANs on which I dont need to convince a handful of people playing the tournament.
The better the game gets, the more people will come – or not. The only thing I can do is trying to do my best to have fun in competition with the game we all love so much.
Re: the hype. Maybe some feel ashamed if there are big posts on major sites from time and people can easily jump on the “this is from cpm, this is from ut, this is from blablabla” and critize graphics and sounds. I won’t gonna discuss with them over and over again. Warsow should be about the players who love to play it and if those people are nice and have fun, more people will play Warsow. I don’t like a game because someone on a site says it rocks, I like a game because I play it.
I totally disagree with the low profile approach. I think that the “small steps” age for wsw is gone and it was successful.
Dont get me wrong i do believe that its not good to fly higher than we can and burn our wings! Î’ut What wsw has to offer now? A tiny but hardcore community with friendly ppl and its “local” feeling tournaments/cups . This stable community is a very good starting point. Hopefully the new wsw version (0.25/0.3 what ever) will have some new maps and a more balanced gameplay + a nub friendly gametype. My point is dont wait until wsw is perfect. It will never be , because the perfect game doesnt exist! If players play wsw for a while and then they stop its not because the game isnt good enough. Maybe in the past with the previous wsw versions that was the reason…but not now! Its because of its small community and its “local” cups ( dodnt get me wrong again) . Do u know how many ppl want something bigger? How many ppl play a game because it has a big community? or because it is well advertised or because the “big” names play the game? I considered quiting wsw many times the last 2 months. Not because i dodnt like the game or the community but because i couldnt get the maximum “competitive fun” out of it. Why to spend countless hours searching for a tdm practice or waiting for a pickup to start and not going out with my friends and my gf?
Warsow is ready for bigger steps in my opinion.Low profile approach cant offer something more than what wsw is now . And as i said it is not bad at all . Its a gr8 starting point.
Lets say that 10 new players start wsw this week. After some time will only stay 2 of them. After some spamming / advertising / frag movies / clanbase or other big cups 15 players will start the game. 3-4 will stay. My point is more ppl know about the game –> more ppl try the game –> more chαnces to make our community bigger –> bigger community –> bigger cups + competitive fun. And as the community gets bigger the more ppl will try and play the game. It is in human nature to follow what other ppl are doing.
i think with every hype warsow gets maybe 300 people will try the game and maybe 50-100 will stay playing it, its defenitly not something big. i dont wanne wright a big text cause i dont know what to say or whatever. but just said what i wanted to say. though nice wrighting dodo:)
something else i also want to say, when i first started this game i got so pissed everytime cause i just didnt know how to strafejump or do everything. I think its the more dedicated gamer who will start playing warsow, though i think most people even the cs’rs will love to see a kickass warsow fragmovie just for the love of airrockets
please post this as a column on esr chas
That’s not a crazy idea, it’d be good to show the other side of things on ESR. I think most ESR users are a bit fed up with all the warsow fanboys (there are many, its not bad per se, but there’s no need to say WSW rox in Q4 threads etc :E).
i made a response to this post, check my webpage…
I made a response to this, check my website
Just link it http://bolted.nu/specials/29/
ONLINE – DRUGSTORE!
PRICES of ALL MEDICINES!
FIND THAT NECESSARY…
VIAGRA, CIALIS, PHENTERMINE, SOMA… and other pills!
Welcome please: pills-prices.blogspot.com
NEW INFORMATION ABOUT PAYDAY LOANS!
Welcome please: payday-d-loans.blogspot.com
GOOD LUCK!