Tribal Instinct

Mark Rein not interested in tam support for ut3. Shocker.

What a strange turn of circumstances to speak directly to Michael Capps, Mark Rein, and Jeff Morris, only to be flat out rejected (and even spat upon). We even offered to provide up to a couple hundred game servers to help support the launch of UT3. Complete dismissal. It's not that they evaluated and rejected, it's that they didn't even evaluate. No interest, whatsoever

http://www.gaimtheory.com/blogs/2007/11 ... ure_of_tam

Reading the entire article....the mod build-off could be a VERY good thing. think about it...having the source code(supposedly) revealed so the community could create their own mods. i think that's great. i also believe.....

it's terrible. it tells me that epic has all but abandoned the UT franchise. it tells me they've prioritized to other projects where they believe they can make more money. the big whigs at epic are the only ones who know the answer to that question. however, no tam mod, a revealed source code, low server count, poor sales, could that the writing be on the wall?

Will you guys please try COD 4 now so we can hang again!

Houdini wrote:Will you guys please try COD 4 now so we can hang again!

nope
You know where we are every night and how to get there.

Gah... I just don't know about Epic anymore. For a company that is supposedly so "mod friendly", they have done more to not only ignore mods/muts that they don't like, but actively change or eliminate them completely: i.e. blacklisting servers, and the TTM/UTcomp battle (Anyone who remembers how that went going from 2k3 to UT2k4, knows what I am talking about).

I guess in the end, it doesn't matter... TAM was successful as an unofficial mutator and if it provides an enjoyable gameplay experience, then a community-accepted version will be popular again.

On a more interesting note, I've been scanning through the threads on Epics forums and a LOT of 2k4 TAM players don't seem to like the way that the TAM mods play in UT3...
The gameplay differences in movement, maps, and weaponswitch speed (for whatever reason), make 2k4 TAM a better gametype... and thus where most of the TAM players have remained.

Houdini wrote:Will you guys please try COD 4 now so we can hang again!

Are you and Ace in the same servers?

Well, in the end, it doesn't matter if Epic is interested or not in TAM. As long as Epic provides the tools for create custom content in their games and people willing to create such content, the community will be just fine. The only thing Epic is obligated to do for UT3 is to service, (rudimentary) support and patch the game so it can be the best game it can be.

Sadly, I will not go anywhere near games like COD4. I rather play Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. I like my shooters where the realism is low and the mayhem is high.

nonstop wrote:Are you and Ace in the same servers?

We see Houdini as well as a bunch of other people we used to game with. Xfire is really the way to go to track down buddies. It lets you know who is online, who is playing what game, and what server they are in.

yeah I have played a bit with both of them but there is so many servers to choose from you can pick one close to your house with no problem. Pork I think you would like the game but seeing your apparently the head of the UT union I can see there is a conflict of interest. There was almost 20,000 populated servers on the other night. I dont mean all together either because without the filter on that hides the empty ones its more like 25,000. I dont think I ever remember UT with 19,000+ occupied servers.

Houdini wrote:yeah I have played a bit with both of them but there is so many servers to choose from you can pick one close to your house with no problem. Pork I think you would like the game but seeing your apparently the head of the UT union I can see there is a conflict of interest. There was almost 20,000 populated servers on the other night. I dont mean all together either because without the filter on that hides the empty ones its more like 25,000. I dont think I ever remember UT with 19,000+ occupied servers.

20,000 servers.....

I really don't care how many servers are full, half empty or have pink poka dots on them.
I think the reason that COD4 is so popular is that there are a lot of Counter Strike converts on there which is all fine and well with me.
I am on UT because my friends are on UT . Despite the abuse I get from Sid, Clown, Nyte
and everyone in the servers I still enjoy getting on Team Speak and playing TAM with my friends (with friends like this who needs enemies or another anal opening ?) so that is where I am happy and not looking for another game. I think UT3 may be the net step when it gets to point that it is patched and there is a TAM mod for it. If not then there is always UT2004 which I think made a lot of people appreciate it more after UT3. A lot of people that haven't played in a while are coming back . So if you like COD4 or any other game then by all means enjoy it but I think you are not going to see a mass exodus to any other game soon.

Playing with friends is always more fun. I think that's why Houdini and I are always posting about COD4; trying to drum up some more interest from the Ti crew. If anyone from here were to want to get into COD4 there are already friends playing and the same kind of TS banter and fun can be had in COD4 as well as UT2K4. I figure one of these days I might even be drawn to UT3 because of friends playing it. For now I spend more time in COD4 because it is newer and I have many things I still want to accomplish. But, I find myself in UT2K4 because of the people I don't get to play with in COD4, and because I still enjoy that game too.

Porkinator wrote: a mass exodus to any other game soon.

I hope when you say that, you mean the regulars that show up on any given night, because if you mean people in general, that exodus happened a long time ago. My favorites list literally has 3 servers left that report pings and probably 8 that come up as N/A because they are gone.

Epic can't do anything right. They have already killed the game, there is no magical patch that is going to make people play the game at this point. They missed their window. UT2k4 was popular from the start. When the game started to lose popularity, TAM gave another reason to play. UT3 having TAM or not having TAM doesn't make an ounce of difference when it never had a following to begin with.

TAM really is a gimmick and a crutch. It adds variation to the game which is good and I enjoy it for that reason, but I completely understand why Beer hates it. One of many flaws with UT3 was leveling the playing field with game play, that's all TAM is. From Epic's POV, the probably felt like they incorporated TAM already.

There is definitely value in playing with people you know. I can see both sides though. Prior to UT2k4, besides Trin, I didn't know any of you. The closest was probably Beer and that was only name recognition based on him posting all the time in the UT forums (and I don't remember him around when I first started jumping on the servers), the only reason I stumbled on Ti's servers was because the ping was good. I don't think for a second that there aren't other groups out that are friendly and are fun to play with. Had I only wanted to play with people I knew, I'd would have been playing with my local clan guys. Ti as a clan didn't work out for me and I still have mixed feelings about the whole experience, but I still admit it was really pretty cool to drive over and meet Sid in person. That alone probably out weights the bad, but I'm also not afraid playing with new people to possibly find another bond.

COD4 is a totally different game. They really can't be compared, but there's value in knowing that I can join a full game anytime I want to play. It's not a contest between them though. UT3 is such an Epic (pun) fail, it's humorous to me. But I'm also carrying a huge grudge from the TWL days where I'm pissed that the cheating was so bad, yet they turned the other direction to work on UT3. They abandoned me, so I'm abandoning them. I'd probably forgive them had they made a great product, but instead they released that piece of garbage that has to be patched not to fix bugs, but patched to make it playable. Logic, history, and simple business sense tells me you can't release a crap product, fix it 6 months later, and expect it to be great. Games start out fast and slowly die out, hope all you want, Epic can't fix the game to even earn a fraction of the playing time UT2k4 generated. If you are going to hope for anything, hope they get their act together and do it right the next time they release something.

I posted this awhile ago and now I have my proof. I think that the whole UT3 game for the PC was just to show off the UT3 engine to use in other games. To me no other reason for the game being released so shitty made sense. So I rented Turok for the Xbox 360 the other day and while it was loading up guess what flashed on the screen? Powered by the UT3 engine! How ironic is it that I can enjoy playing games made using the new UT engine and one of those games is not UT. Makes little sense to me but I am not seeing the stream of money they are for companies using the engine to drive there games.

Ace wrote:
TAM really is a gimmick and a crutch. It adds variation to the game which is good and I enjoy it for that reason, but I completely understand why Beer hates it. One of many flaws with UT3 was leveling the playing field with game play, that's all TAM is. From Epic's POV, the probably felt like they incorporated TAM already.

Only now, at the end... do you understand