What's your Quakin Story?

[r1]

Hi,

I'm Ruiner, the creator of WOD-X and the administrator of the popular Whale Server. Some of you might know me as the leader of the NIN clan which has been around for over 10 years, and who's members share many great memories together. I'll be your host for this place, but don't be intimidated, I'll keep it free from clan politics. My other alias is Null. I've been sorta playing Quake 2 off and on since it came out in 1997. I say sorta because, since around 2007 I've done a lot of spectating while overlooking the development on the new Weapons mod! Prior to modding, I was a fierce competitor on the El Paso server, which I ended up administrating later. Before Q2, I played Wolf3d, Doom, Duke Nukem 3d (one of my favorites), and single player Q1. When Quake 2 came out, and I found Weapons of Destruction, and its like I found a new online home. Starting with M-Player, Gamespy and then El Paso, I always attributed WOD to be a great way to release some of that excess tension. And if you're an NIN fan: a perfect drug. Over the years I recall endless action packed games on various game servers, and many colorful personalities passing through. Some of you might remember: the likes of Damien the Dest (immortal multi-hooking server crashing ruler of the universe), Pinchibird the cave dwelling lava pulling bat, or Badassdad the gipsy campsite operator and his clone offspring. And who can forget the fierce battles between rival clans: A2W, TBH, HHR, KYAG, NYGANG, LGM, DOG, and NIN. I've even archived some of the ridiculous action and trash talk of those days, and you can check it out here:
http://www.netdoo.com/ninclan/board/YaBB.cgi?board=cat_old

It was all great fun and memorable while it lasted. But when things started to slip on WOD around the end of 2006, and players started leaving Wod 6.08 in scores, I decided to step in and do something about it. It was my favorite Mod back then, and I knew I just couldn't let it die. At that point I had a bit of programming knowledge and I decided to create a fresh new take with all the elements of 6.08, plus a few new features that I thought would be cool to try out. And back then I believed the mod was solid and ingrained enough, that I didn't feel the need to compromise by removing anything. I've recruited the help of QwazyWabbit who at the time was already a well established coder, and maintainer of the Lox code base. He helped me setup my project and compile my first release. Since 6.08 already had the base sweepers, and I always liked snipersweeper and railsweepers, I brought those over from Lox. I then came up with the idea for a variable player load maplist, that QwazyWabbit coded and perfected, and which made its way into both mods. Over time I've kept adding and removing stuff, sometimes going overboard I admit. I had to scale back a few times: especially with over top stuff like Black Holes, but in the end I think I stayed true to Wod 6.08.

It is now 2012! This game is 15 years old, but I'm proud to have stayed committed to WOD and Quake 2 for this long! It's just a solid one of a kind game that keeps on giving. I don't care how old it is, as long as we continue to all have fun, and make our friendships grow in the process! It's unlike some of the newer games out there, which I believe are without a soul or a pulse. They are released and regurgitated solely on figures and statistics. The greedy corporate gaming vampires which are governed by committees and not individual drives, are part of today's dead culture that created massive black holes that swallowed up all the entrepreneurial fun of the 90s. And the cycle hasn't been broken, they just keep growing bigger and bigger, centralizing, and turning out mindless sequel after sequel based on profits and not because they care about players. Personally I kinda though Quake 4 sucked, and ID should have stopped itself at Quake 3. There was a time I saw the decay setting in my favorite gaming company: ID software who probably felt it couldn't compete with the hundred man teams of other developers. In my opinion ID lost the battle not because it couldn't compete, but because it moved away from its core principle, of making fun games. Instead it started focusing solely on flashy graphics, normal maps, and dynamic lighting, while compromising the experience. What were they thinking when they added the flashlight in Doom 3? 
For whatever reason I think Quake 2 was made in its hay day and at the time when ID was at its prime! Because of that Wod has stayed chained to Quake 2. And till this day has been in a sort of cryogenic sleep, awaiting a much needed face lift. When the right environment becomes available, who knows what might happen! But one thing's for sure, it'll never compromise! And will never take the extreme fun out of the equation!

I intend to make Whale THE place to play for many generations of Quakers and for many years to come. Even after all the other places have long shut down, our doors should remain open!

Cheers 
~Ruiner

(P.S. Help our community grow... post your quakin story below)

[adz1La]

I don't remember

[fdrjk]

msn zone represent

[peewee_RotA]

msn zone represent

  (Although they stopped providing the q2 lobby there right about 2004/2005. Weren't you 6 years old when that happened?  )



That was a good read ruiner. Thanks for posting.

[poser]

MSN Zone. LOL That's where I started. Man, that was a long time ago.

poser

[Barton]

Relatively recent (2009) and not as interesting as the OP's story. Basically I was looking for duel matches in Quakelive on youtube, to learn how to play the maps. This match came up in the related videos when I was browsing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_-ychMmEgU

I remember thinking that Q2 just looked weird compared to Q3, but I was looking for something else to play, and QL was the only other game that was holding my attention at the time. I gave the game a whirl, got hooked and haven't stopped playing since.

Prior to watching that video I never knew of the game's existence. I remember briefly playing DOOM II in 1995 (we had it home but it was too difficult to play and scary for me), and playing Castle Wolfenstein and Duke Nukem twice at a friend's house. I rarely played PC games and if I did it was those shitty DOS adventure games like this one: http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/hugo-3-jungle-of-doom/

I didn't really get into shooters and PC gaming till HL (2001). I just wish I heard about this game earlier.

Edit: Oh oops, didn't realize this was the WodX forum. I do remember playing the excessive plus mod in Quake 3. It would kill my computer but it was my favorite mod back then besides RA3.

[LooseNut]

I started playing Quake 1 back in the early 90's. I joined a Q1 clan called [DtA] (Death To All). My alias was [DtA] Retro. It was a blast learning to play the game. The local cable company actually hosted a Q1 server at nycap.rr.com which was cool. Some of our clan mates were coders by trade and started experimenting with the textures etc which made the game more interesting. When Q2 arrived I was somewhat disappointed with the rocket launcher being way too slow and quad being weak so stayed in limbo in Q1 although I was interested in the hook that came with Q2. I am still partial to Hook 1 here in WODX. Although there are some advantages with the new hook it does telegraph you when you deploy it, something I look at in the game all the time while in battle. Hook 1 is slow but it allows you to move at many other angles making you harder to hit (especially when firing and swinging from the ceiling  ) instead of moving in straight lines. One day I stumbled upon NIN clan website while surfing the net. I joined NIN clan in 2004. I guess I kinda missed out on the old WOD days, really didn't know WOD existed at the time. Thanks to Ruiner and everyone who has put the effort into WODX and for making it what it is today.