South Carolina Video Games & PC Enthusiasts

[Okra]

Weird that Jag was talking about AoC, I just ended my subscription after 18 months, was a great game at first, but then it fell really short after completing it in a couple months. Its a nice idea that you have Onomas about the $15 dollars a month price, but I disagree. All in all I spent $270 and really only had fun for a couple months when me and Chaos played it, almost nightly at one point.

I still have AoE 2 and use to really like playing that as well. I was into Empire Earth years ago, an oldie but a goodie heh. I bought Empire Total War not long ago and that is some okay fun that I think some of yawl would enjoy, I know Onomas would.

But as far as mmorpg's its rare I log onto Guild Wars, I did over New Years to win free stuff and afk'd for 3 days lol, I did this on both of my accounts. I would enjoy playing that game if anyone has it and gets bored. I know that yawl are referring to me in (mmorpg's) Guild Wars leveling up so fast, but hey, Deathsman I still have them low level characters we started long ago.

As far as consoles go, I went out and bought an Xbox 360 to add to my arsenal, I don't have it on line yet, didn't know I would have to spend about a hundred bucks extra just for that, but I do really get into still to this day GTA multiplayer on PS3.

Oh well, up for playing just about anything at this point, I miss the competitive nature of gaming and have hated the weather lately. I do like some of the driving games on PS3, those are fun and indeed some great deals on a few. I have bought around 20 plus games for the console systems in the last 4 months, so anyone hit me up!

[Okra]

Oh and I forgot to add lmao, I have TF2 for the PC and the first Left for Dead as well.

[Jagou]

It really seems like just about everyone plays TF2. We know it's not 'my' game.... but since almost everyone plays it, how come you guys don't get together and play it as FZ clan, just like we did BF2 back in the day.

The forum is here to use as you guys wish, We have Vent and TS ready to roll all the time... all the resources needed to play together as a group are here... You don't need me to spearhead the group to play together.

I'll do whatever you need to make sure the TS server is available etc... All you have to do is let me know... You don't need a 'leader' as such, but someone has to decide to kind of take the reigns, and get the ball rolling.

Again.... whatever you need, I'm there for you from the admin' stand point.

I'll even play the game once in a while...
_________________
Jagou

"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price." -- Richard M.

Stallman
Windows is easier than Linux, just like crapping your pants is easier than going to the

bathroom. —Anonymous
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler

Yeats
"God help aliens if we find 'em. Especially if they taste good." — SA

lose [looz] ,lost, los·ing. 1. to come to be without (something) through accident, theft, etc., so that

there is little or no prospect of recovery.
loose /lus/ [loos] adjective, loos·er, loos·est, adverb, verb loosed, loos·ing. –adjective 1. free or

released from fastening.
their [thair; unstressed ther] –pronoun 1. a form of the possessive case of they used as an attributive

adjective, before a noun: their home; their rights as citizens.
there [thair; unstressed ther] –adverb 1. in or at that place (opposed to here).
they're; Contraction of they are.

Please don't complain about things that are easy to ignore.

[Kysersosa]

Forgive me if I over simplify this, and keep in mind, a wordsmith, I am not. I've been lurking these forums for a good while now, I've even posted a few times, here and there, and I feel that you all are a good bunch of guys, so if I offend you, its not my intention, I'm a bit of a straight shooter.

I see that most of you are frustrated abit to see that an organization that was (I read) once so much more "powerful" is now dwindling in numbers.

Coming from a bigger gamer market up north, I've seen this happen to groups before, its the natural process of things.

The way I see it, this group is comprised of an older gamer generation, we have more to worry about than whats the newest game comming out, we have wives, mortgages and other economic issues that come first. I don't know about you, but no way in hell I can go back to my families basement and play games all day like the old days.

My proposal is this, if you want to build that bond that goes along with gaming, start out slow again. Honestly, QUACK! the games for right now, lets get together and have a BEER, talk about whats going on face to face, then the gaming will come later.

I know some of you are worried about stuff like "X member doesn't like this genre, so Y member might not have anything in common", I gotta tell you, when gamers get together under one accord, that shits not a problem. A true gamer will go, give it a try, get his/her butt kicked, and laugh it off, because its about the fellowship, not the scores you put up in Madden...

Bottomline - Don't think to hard about this, lets have fun. Fun is addictive, if people see you having fun, it attracts more people and before you know it, FractureZone will be THE premier gamer spot for SC.

Ill go back to my corner now...

[Deathsman]

[Jagou]

Certainly some good points.. but let me make a point too.

I've been to too many lan events where we all sat around wondering what to do next ?

Things break down to where two people in the room are playing two different MMO's, a third is watching a video with his headphones on, and the rest are broken into groups trying to have fun playing games for which the sides are uneven.

This is NOT a good time... for anyone.

The cohesiveness of having a singular game to play is important.

If we want to get together and just cook some burgers and have a beer, well, I'm fine with that too... but the difference between a lan event and a get-together is a big deal.

There's a ton of games, that we could all force ourselves to play just for a lan party... in fact I know most of us have played games we didn't really care for, just to make the lan worthwhile, but the damned things are expensive, and it's not really feasible to shuck out $50 for a game you're only going to play one time.

I have a slew of them... games I only played once. I'm committed to not buying games I don't play anymore than one time.

I tried (very hard) to get people to play some of the free games... there's a ton of really good ones. There's a nice group of very cheap games too.

We've had a lot of fun with them, but folks won't continue to play those games outside of the lan event, and when I bring up the names of those same titles for the 'next' lan they boo hoo and whine.

I thought the best way to do a lan was to play a variety, so that we could all get some time in for the genre we like... Two FPS (read Q3 and a source game) games, a racing title, an RTS, and maybe an RPG of some sort.

Instead of seeing this idea as an opportunity, folks were only able to see that there was a type of game in the list THEY didn't want to play... and so they didn't show up or they showed up but didn't get the games we had listed to play and had agreed to weeks before. *boggle*

OK, so let me make another point... lan party aside. We used to have a regular game night here. Many of us bent over backwards to accommodate schedules to be around at game time. It's realistically difficult for us to all be playing a game at the same time one night a week. We have families and jobs and pets and cars that need an oil change... I get all that but still we couldn't agree on a single game to play.

Not even that... we couldn't get anyone to even really GD try ! The last effort was a complete wash.

Last point I'll make... no one has ever really wanted to help out with FZ in the manner that I've described time and time again as the solution to membership. We had 225 or so members at one time... a number that was reached within about 6 months of me creating the site. I know the formula for increased membership... it's not that difficult but I won't blow it up again without folks willing to dedicate themselves to helping. I'm not going to do it alone again.

With the number of members we had it wasn't difficult to have a game night back then, with plenty of people, where there was a title we were excited about...BF2 at the time.

I got burnt out. If I as the leader, didn't show up for game night... folks wouldn't practice, they wouldn't work together as a team, hell they wouldn't even get on Teamspeak if I didn't bug them about it. It all fell apart. NO ONE would take up the reigns as leader when I wasn't around. It was pathetic in the extreme.

No one wants responsibility. They are scared of it.

I hate to be a naysayer, but I see these as facts that are difficult to overcome... if there's a good response to this, I'd like to hear it.
_________________
Jagou

"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price." -- Richard M.

Stallman
Windows is easier than Linux, just like crapping your pants is easier than going to the

bathroom. —Anonymous
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler

Yeats
"God help aliens if we find 'em. Especially if they taste good." — SA

lose [looz] ,lost, los·ing. 1. to come to be without (something) through accident, theft, etc., so that

there is little or no prospect of recovery.
loose /lus/ [loos] adjective, loos·er, loos·est, adverb, verb loosed, loos·ing. –adjective 1. free or

released from fastening.
their [thair; unstressed ther] –pronoun 1. a form of the possessive case of they used as an attributive

adjective, before a noun: their home; their rights as citizens.
there [thair; unstressed ther] –adverb 1. in or at that place (opposed to here).
they're; Contraction of they are.

Please don't complain about things that are easy to ignore.

[Jagou]

I guess I can take it from the tumbleweeds that this thread is as I suspected it would be, dead from a truth that no one really likes to talk about.

Non-participation, which was the problem from the get-go. No one 'wants' to do any gaming as an organized group. What they want is to show up casually at their leisure with no responsibility on their part.
_________________
Jagou

"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price." -- Richard M.

Stallman
Windows is easier than Linux, just like crapping your pants is easier than going to the

bathroom. —Anonymous
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler

Yeats
"God help aliens if we find 'em. Especially if they taste good." — SA

lose [looz] ,lost, los·ing. 1. to come to be without (something) through accident, theft, etc., so that

there is little or no prospect of recovery.
loose /lus/ [loos] adjective, loos·er, loos·est, adverb, verb loosed, loos·ing. –adjective 1. free or

released from fastening.
their [thair; unstressed ther] –pronoun 1. a form of the possessive case of they used as an attributive

adjective, before a noun: their home; their rights as citizens.
there [thair; unstressed ther] –adverb 1. in or at that place (opposed to here).
they're; Contraction of they are.

Please don't complain about things that are easy to ignore.

[Okra]

[Jagou]

I've mentioned over and over and over again that we should reinstitute game night... but only a couple of people will respond. I appreciate that you want to play Okra... but where's everyone else ?

I'm not beating myself up over it... I did that a while back... I'm over it.

I'll keep my eyes on the new Battlefield game, but the truth is, I probably won't get it. I don't believe in buying games from companies like EA.

They've treated me like crap time and time again, and I'm done supporting them.

If everyone else was as discerning as I am it would raise the bar significantly but folks don't get that and so they're destined to slide into the mold made for them.
_________________
Jagou

"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price." -- Richard M.

Stallman
Windows is easier than Linux, just like crapping your pants is easier than going to the

bathroom. —Anonymous
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler

Yeats
"God help aliens if we find 'em. Especially if they taste good." — SA

lose [looz] ,lost, los·ing. 1. to come to be without (something) through accident, theft, etc., so that

there is little or no prospect of recovery.
loose /lus/ [loos] adjective, loos·er, loos·est, adverb, verb loosed, loos·ing. –adjective 1. free or

released from fastening.
their [thair; unstressed ther] –pronoun 1. a form of the possessive case of they used as an attributive

adjective, before a noun: their home; their rights as citizens.
there [thair; unstressed ther] –adverb 1. in or at that place (opposed to here).
they're; Contraction of they are.

Please don't complain about things that are easy to ignore.

[Deathsman]

[Okra]

I think that Jag is like me in a way, maybe good or bad, he is meticulous and that is a great trait imo. Where we failed short is he should have run the site like we did in my guild on Guild Wars, made everyone an officer, boosted moral, everyone liked that except a few, so I turned it back over to the original peeps, aint saying nothing bad about them and only good things to say as well. Deathsman and I had the maximum peeps you can have as well as being maxed on our alliance and then some. So my buddy Jason took that formula and created EZE and holds true to this day. I have 2 accounts a member with them as well, didn't like the talking of drugs and alcohol alot, but wtf, the pot calling the kelt black eh?

I am not saying make everyone an admin, but give peeps a task maybe, I am old school, I like home work! Motivate people instead telling them how much ya hate EA, some folks like them games. When Warhammer came out with all them add ons, I was pissed as well, having to buy extra stuff, but I did this last go around and to find out no one is interested in playing the first game anymore. I would donate to this site as I have told you before through pay pal or actually drop off some money, maybe earn a prize.

Have some get togethers and a cook out where you can talk some smack and it not being a LAN. Have just the gamers over and not every skate boarder in the south, ease some tentions as well, put up a Clemson and a Carolina banner. I agree with just about everything if not all that Kysersosa said. He is on the outside looking in, lol, no I am not singing heh. You know how to whip your crew into shape, so do it! I would rather for you to have a few dedicated players then numbers in the forums is all. You got me, Onomas, Chaos, Sling, Deathsman, Bald and and a few others. If you go tell me to go out and buy pin the tail on the donkey I would, tell peeps is all.

[Okra]

And on a side note to Deathsman, no one let that man down, we all here for him! Thats what we do!

[Jagou]

Not everyone let me down. Plenty of the fault is own my own shoulders as well.
But yes... I had some anger...more resentment at this point. Its too late for anger really.

The fact remains that many of the people here were not willing to put forth the effort. They didn't have the drive to make it work.

Maybe it was my inability as a leader....honestly I think I was terribly whimpy about the leadership role. I didn't want to piss folks off so I kept a lot of things to myself and spent a lot of time putting out fires when I should have simply shut those people down.

There's plenty more I could say about this.... but my internet is out and posting with my phone becomes tedious. I'll chime in again tomorrow.
_________________
Jagou

"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price." -- Richard M.

Stallman
Windows is easier than Linux, just like crapping your pants is easier than going to the

bathroom. —Anonymous
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler

Yeats
"God help aliens if we find 'em. Especially if they taste good." — SA

lose [looz] ,lost, los·ing. 1. to come to be without (something) through accident, theft, etc., so that

there is little or no prospect of recovery.
loose /lus/ [loos] adjective, loos·er, loos·est, adverb, verb loosed, loos·ing. –adjective 1. free or

released from fastening.
their [thair; unstressed ther] –pronoun 1. a form of the possessive case of they used as an attributive

adjective, before a noun: their home; their rights as citizens.
there [thair; unstressed ther] –adverb 1. in or at that place (opposed to here).
they're; Contraction of they are.

Please don't complain about things that are easy to ignore.

[Okra]

I am with ya again, we may have to do this 3 or 4 times, but with ya again! No one knocked ya down you were ( and are) an awesome leader, lets drop the dice again and go bro! I am looking forward to March and my pay day, I only get paid once a month is all. I would follow you through thick and thin is all, its true!

[Jagou]

Thanks for the support Okra.
_________________
Jagou

"When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price." -- Richard M.

Stallman
Windows is easier than Linux, just like crapping your pants is easier than going to the

bathroom. —Anonymous
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — William Butler

Yeats
"God help aliens if we find 'em. Especially if they taste good." — SA

lose [looz] ,lost, los·ing. 1. to come to be without (something) through accident, theft, etc., so that

there is little or no prospect of recovery.
loose /lus/ [loos] adjective, loos·er, loos·est, adverb, verb loosed, loos·ing. –adjective 1. free or

released from fastening.
their [thair; unstressed ther] –pronoun 1. a form of the possessive case of they used as an attributive

adjective, before a noun: their home; their rights as citizens.
there [thair; unstressed ther] –adverb 1. in or at that place (opposed to here).
they're; Contraction of they are.

Please don't complain about things that are easy to ignore.