Would you play a PUG match if you knew where to find them?

[MonsOlympus]

Nice colour!

Well yeah we dont all live in Europe so well players good players can be hard to come by in asia/pacific, I have played against alot of clan level players even though I mostly pub. Infact the level of the pubs here is a step below the clan server although I have played a few players which dominate.

I just found most of the time in PUG's there is a heap of team switching or there is none and the team is stacked against you so either way you never really win.

That doesnt mean I didnt enjoy it but I would have enjoyed it more if I knew who was who as I was holding fire because I thought people were on my team by name just to see them shoot at me then realise they had swapped team "again".

This isnt the whole experience people will have with pug's though and I think they are probably one of the better ways to play instead of just some random PUBing. If you want to be serious then sure go clan on clan but if clans host a PUG it would be nice to have alittle fun and not just get completely dominated by 1 player. See I knew 4 guys who were decent players where 1 was like great and we had alittle PUG on this clan server, if it wasnt for this 1 player the teams could have been even so yeah I ended up quitting after I got spawn killed from the lgun to near the bio on rankin (seems someone turned the spawn protection off in TDM :\)

Still just because I have had acouple of bad experiences here and there doesnt mean every one will. So yeah I would like to see more PUGing less clanning hey, Im in it for the fun at a semi competitive level I dont want to play against those people who break keyboards when they loose. Its just not a game then its a sport!

[pixelpusher]

I agree with you Boksha... but only from the perspective of traditional PUGing (ie: IRC). IRC is very archaic... and the newer generation of gamers often don't know about it.... or find it too complicated. As a result, you have the same 40-50 people idling in #2k4tdm or #2k4ctf of which even fewer actually participate in the pick-up games...

I've been using IRC since the 90's and I'm pretty much over it. If it wasn't for my new job, I probably would not use IRC at all.

You should try a few pickup games on PurePressure.com... it's entirely automated in the sense that there are no team captains or servers to deal with. Also, the location of the server is dynamic based on who's participating in the PUGs in relation to your personal preference. Assuming the participants of a pick-up game on PurePressure have an accurate power-rating (the more an individual plays on the site, the more accurate their PR becomes)... then the game play is very balanced. In fact, it's so much more enjoyable that many of the gamers helping us test the system have told us we're now their #1 place to find a game before going to either the IRC or conventional server browser.

Now that we have GinaBot which works with Xfire, it's very easy to get the best of both worlds. For example, join a pick-up queue on PurePressure through GinaBot... and hop in a public server until you get an in-game message from Gina that you need to check-in. Wala.

IMO, there's nothing more frustrating than playing in a public server and being on the loosing end of an off-balance match. Or, playing against someone FAR past your skillset... we're able to control both of these mechanics to ensure a quality game experience for both the noob and pro alike.

Who said noobs and pros can't co-exist? With over 1,400 members and more than 1,000 pickup games in the last 2 months (~20+ pickups a day) -- UT2k4 is far from dead..

If you do check out our site, I'm eager to hear your feedback.

[Boksha]

I've PUGged quite a bit, but in the end it's no different from playing on pubs. Just because less people know about them, the average skill tends to be a bit higher, and you encounter the same people more often. If everybody played PUGs there would be no difference between PUGs and pubs besides the extra wait and hassle in case of the former.

(btw, I voted "I've played a couple PUGs and thought it sucked." but what I really wanted to vote was "I've played a couple of PUGs and thought it was sort of OKish-ish.")

[Da Spadger]

PUGs sounds fun, but i would prefer it without having to use teamspeak.

[Ender]

For those of you that like the gg's you can get from pugging but not necessarily all the waiting, you should try out www.purepressure.com as has been mentioned in this thread a few times. Here are some good reasons why:

1.) Web-based pugging...if IRC isn't your thing we've made pugging happen on the web so you just click to sign up, then open another tab in your browser and surf the net while you wait. You will be notified with a sound when your pug is ready to go. The site also tracks stats and data to make the teams more fair - the more you play the better the data to sample and the more fair the teams will be. We also have a large public Ventrilo server for those gametypes where voice comms are a much (ons, ctf).
2.) We're not strictly web-based either, our new GINAbot (GINA = Gamers Interactive Network Assistant) can be used to sign up for pugs within irc, or through AIM, MSN, Xfire etc. Simply login and use it to sign up for pugs on the site and then go do your thing and when the pug's ready, GINAbot will message you through your IM program to tell you your game is ready.
3.) Both of these solutions work wonderful if you want to sign up for a pug and then go warmup on a pub server somewhere - the website plays a noise, Xfire shows up in game with it's message etc.

Give it a shot sometime (we currently support Q4 and UT2004) - the more traffic that goes through there and the more games that are played, the better the teams are when they get made. www.purepressure.com (requires FireFox or Opera currently - we're working hard on bringing IE support to the site, which should happen soon). For more info on GINAbot: http://www.purepressure.com/support/ginabot.php

Also there is a UT2004 CTF tournament happening there tomorrow, you can see our fully automated tournament system in action. You can bring your own team, bring a partial team and be put on a team together, or come as an individual and be drafted to a team. More info on that in the 2003/2004 forums here at epicgames: http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=565047

[2th]

lots of words...

i <3 you 5th

[Jrubzjeknf]

Why so blue?

[{T5K}5thSymphony]

You missed the point entirely.
Most people who pug happen to also be competetive, not all, just most. I didn't play competetivley for almost a year and a half and still pugged.

+1. Clan members PUG to have fun in a competetive-like environement and non-Clan members PUG for the feel of competetive environement to improve their game play...

Well I think PUG's are a better environment in a way to PUB's but then again it can be worse. Atleast in a PUB theres usually no admin but once you step on a clan server its difficult to get a fair game sometimes.Its just if you have a really good player on one team for some reason the teams always have to be the same number of people so it can be unfair and the best player is usually too big headed and part of the clan who owns the server so they wont leave so a decent match can take place.
Its not always like that though, but Ive had that happen on more then one occasion.

On what server have you played on? And what game type?
PUG if you want to increase your game skills & live a winning moment; PUB if you want to have fun and don't care if you loose or win...

So what your telling me is that I should expect the game to be less fair on a clan server.

On the contrary! Clan members usualy play on their free time on Pub Clan server where they will most find other Clan members,thus increasing the skill level of the match.
So, if you want to find better players you stick to Clan Public Servers...

I knew there was a reason I didnt play comp, so much for balance anyways!~

There may be another reason...

[...] I was stating an opinion and I honestly dont give a **** about yours!

??goal??

If a clan wants a good match and be able to practise [...]

If a Clan want to be serious at what your talking about..... They'll ask another Clan to Scrim, not go ask any nobody from any PUB server...

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i pug on purepressure.com, there is less whinning and the servers are awesome, but it doesnt beat pubing for convenience

I just hope they get that IE7 support yet...

[zeitgeber]

i pug on purepressure.com, there is less whinning and the servers are awesome, but it doesnt beat pubing for convenience

[Wyvern]

#ut994funpug on irc.quakenet.org is the main pug channel for the european UT99 NWCTF community. It is run by the ClanBase (www.clanbase.com) community and has an average of over 200 people in the channel.

The pugs use the standard ClanBase OpenCup settings and maps. http://www.clanbase.com/news_league.php?lid=2705

There are also passworded channels #noobpug and #propug if you find the skill level too high or low. I'm nicely in the middle and they wont let me into either of them ^^

Hopefully we'll see some new faces there

[2th]

So what your telling me is that I should expect the game to be less fair on a clan server. I knew there was a reason I didnt play comp, so much for balance anyways!~

By the way I wasnt ****ing whining, I was stating an opinion and I honestly dont give a **** about yours!

wow another ignorant post. should you expect the game to be less fair if you go into a clan server? no. should you expect the game to be the exact same as if you were going into a random pub? absolutely not. and if you do then you are just naive. You are going into a private server. If you know the password then you probably know the clan members. so why are you saying it is unfair going in there? i mean simply dont go in there if you dont like things. no one makes you join any server.

if you cant get the point then i dont know what to tell you. i suggest you take off the rose colored sunglasses and see the world as it really it.

sounds like a perfect situation these pugs. but i never was able to participate in pugs becuase i only played (and still play) UTGOTY Excessive Overkill Mod. and most pugs play regular weapons regular speed etc. UT2K4's Excessive is not as active either, but When Excessive is modded for UT3, and theres a pug-ness for it lol ill be there!

[UnrealGrrl]

i just found it too much work to get started and im not much of a pc socialite, so hanging around chat rooms was never my thing when i just want to frag something... id always jump on a fave server where i knew there were good players and its game on. no waiting.
if there was a large enough and active enough community it might work better than it did for 2k4... only time will tell. i'd certainly support it because that means, more good games available! the best thing you can do is keep publicizing PUG games and hopefully the community that wants to participate will grow...

[ESR|Nicky]

PUG's are good if you dont want to deal with fake nicking and laming... as admin are at hand to kick ppl ... we used to run a hugely successful PUG channel for 2k4 when it first came out which had matches running all day and night . i also used to be involved with a ut ctf one too (going back a few yrs).

no doubt we will open one for ut3 aswell *cant wait*

[CaFe]

Between #speedpug and #mlut we probably have about 10-15 pugs every night. There are also other pug channels for instagib and sniper. The "pro" players also set up some passworded and invite-only regular weapons pug channels to keep the the average players out (but who cares...plenty of action at #speedpug).

10-15 pugs wow ;]

thats must go on all night or something :X

also, www.purepressure.com has a pug bot for a few different gametypes. Its used somewhat regularly and could really use a bigger user base >:}