The MSUC, how does it really help Unreal?

[hypno]

Whether or not these issues get resolved is not the overall reasoning for people shying away from UT3. Most of the issues you mentioned are not necessarily deal breakers, as many comp games don't have a form of online TV built into the game. Mainly it is systems specs and again, effort needed to get to a decent skill level. The original UT did not have all the luxuries it has now in regards to comp play, yet it grew and grew because there was little competition as far as the number of games on the market. Nowadays, you have very few clans who in general stick to one game or game genre as compared to even five years ago. Most that do have been around for a very long time and are content where they are.

Right now the game is "ok" but still not as good as it should be. The main problem was how the game was put in the market, I mean for months I had to use a notepad and alt+enter and manually copy ip's because the game came with no copy-paste function, the expected in built community manager was supposed to be good but it was actually the worst ever in the UT series, the GUI was totally console'ized and way worse than UT99(a game with 10 years now), there is no weapon drop function(in menu), spectator mode was totally messed up, the game came out with no ping on scoreboard either players deaths and I could go on for hours. I mean we were in 2007, we had UT2004 fully functional and with all those great features, UT3 was expected to be the future of FPS for many people (even quakers) and it just came out as beta state. The demo was extremely popular because the gameplay was awesome and people didnt pay attention to those "small" features cuz it would obviously been fixed in the final release, guess what, it didn't and the community that in the beginning was massive, began to fade away, till now.

[Cr4zy]

There is a ton of small features missing. To some thats not a problem, some might not even know what they havent got. However those that do sure have let Epic know, ifEpic haven't noticed it then god help UT4. However, i hope that it's a new page, and brings the best chapters yet.

As for MSUC. I believe Epic like to get the community involved because a lot of Epic's staff started off in such places, they are starting those people that want to go that far off, giving them a noticable and rewarding way to do it. Does it help the competitive scene? Yes. Lets be honest out of all the stock maps a very select amount are liked by skilled players, the mappers change that, either they make something new thats a huge hit and an instant classic, or they port the classics over. Without mappers a competitive community would be very lost.
Epic aim towards the casual player, who inevitably can't stop playing and gets good. Thats where everyone starts.

What I think Epic should do, is cater for everyone, the casual, the skilled and the mapp/modders. Maybe not giving away $2M, but supplying atleast some money to companies that run large LANs just for their game. Something to show those competitve players, that although the maps aren't always awesome for their tastes, you still know they exist and support that fact. The casual player wont be bothered by the maps, but money going to the pros will, they'd spend longer playing the game to get their hands on the money. The same goes for mappers. If they don't have a huge creative side, but mght he awesome at something mod related, they can grab a chance at some cash too.

Implement ways to make the community get together easily, *cough*BuiltIn IRC*cough* so they can get to know the community outside of the game too. You've ben doing this long enough to know what people want don't leave them hanging on hope. Im sure most would wait an extra 6months then have a broken game that scarss people off and never sees them.back.

Surley all the people that make unreal what it is deserve the same amount of respect?

[Benfica]

Intel LAN Fest Sacramento 2009: http://lanfest.intel.com/?page=event&eventid=1296

Update (06/28): The BYOC area is full. There is a waiting list in case seats become available. To be added to the list create a support ticket and mention that you'd like to be added to the waiting list. Another option for some is to buy a console area ticket. While it doesn't provide access to the BYOC or any of its activities, the console area has its own fun tournaments and contests.

Rules have been posted for most BYOCC events. Rules for UT3 and L4D will be posted soon.


The biggest LAN in the Sacramento area is here again. The fifth Intel LAN Fest Sacramento returns to Folsom from July 24th to 26th 2009 for 48 hours of action packed tournaments, contests, games and camaraderie. The BYOC area has been expanded to 205 seats and the much requested high power seats have been added. In addition, all attendees are entered in a drawing to win our best prizes provided by Intel®, Razer™, Monster Engery®, ASUS®, NVIDIA®, Crucial™ and many others.

[gargorias]

Somteimes one could be forgiven for thinking that some of you believe the online gamers are the only ones that Epic should support.
You are so wrong, the largest percentage of people who purchased this game more then likely play offline, or not at all.
As for having servers that host all the community mods and maps out there, I doubt if it's possible!
The offline community is the ones mods and mappers should be catering for.
As for the MSUC it's not all Epic Games AFAIK given that it is supported by Intel.