Memories for George Broussard/DuvalMagic and SteveB

[INTillerMaN]

Hi George and others,

With the release of Duke3D for XBox Live I have been awakened into posting here. You may not remember me but I think there is a decent chance you will have vague recollections since I don't think it was often that you played Modem to Modem Dukematches to Scotland George.

Some history then some thoughts/suggestions.

My nickname on the compuserve chat rooms was Phoenix and was the handle I used back then when I competed furiously in your amazing game. Duke3D was the first game I played highly competitively and to a high standard, one of the reasons why yourself, Duvalmagic(forget his real name) and SteveB(map designer of Hollywood Holocaust amongst others) all played me in hugely expensive international phone call dukematches! Fun times and addictive ones. Duke3D eventually became too expensive for me to play, per minute billing in the UK at that time made me switch to Kali and Warcraft 2 which ran very well as compared to Duke3D which unfortunately suffered from ping issues back in the day unless you played modem to modem or on lan. I eventually went onto be a full blown pro gamer competing to a very high standard in all Blizzards RTS Titles, Warcraft 2/ Starcraft/ Broodwar / Warcraft 3 travelling all over the world to compete in Tournaments where I had a lot of success. I then 5 years ago took up poker professionally and have done extremely well at that also. It also pays better than pro gaming even though some of the top Starcraft/Warcraft players are on $100k a year salaries.

My gaming addiction all started off with Duke3D so thank you for that! Duke is my first love so it was with some excitement that I saw it was being released on Xbox even though I would have to use the controller ugh.

Anyway, I played furiously to start there and got as high as #12 with 700-800 wins and 200 losses. But I have lost motivation to play because the lack of competitive emphasis for the game is missing unforunately on Xbox and I reference the following problems in my opinion that maybe can be remedied because I really would like to feel like I am achieving something when I play aka my ranking in the ladder actually means something.

Problems/Suggestions

1. Number one on the ladder is achieved simply by having the most kills thus it will soon only be populated by people who play FFA and spam pistol kills non stop. I can't keep up with their kill rate. This wouldn't be solved just by putting them in separate ladders because even if it showed only DukeMatch 1v1's it would still eventually be dominated by the people who play the most. Obvious solution would be to have it ordered by Kill/Death ratio. This is my absolute problem with the game right now and makes me feel unrewarded for being good at your game.

2. If it was ordered in some skill based meaningful way then it would be great if it tried to match you up with people also high on the ladder. I realize this would be hard to implement since people can always leave. Keep getting games even as high as 12th on the ladder vs people who are playing their first game.

3. The map choice is missing at least TWO key maps that were played amongst the best Duke players in the world - Launch Facility and Fahrenheit. I would prefer to also see Duke Burger removed as it is weak imo.

4. Auto Run should be activated by default. Not turned off (I didn't even realize I had to turn it on for about my first 100 deaths, and because I was still winning nearly all my matches it didn't become obvious for a while although it didn't feel as fast as 13 years ago =)). I'm fed up of playing people who don't realize they can move much faster. There is no reason for walking in Dukematches.

5. Support for pro/top gamers. Thinking more ahead to Duke Forever here as this is the number one reason why Blizzard have always ruled the nest as far as RTS goes as well as their absolute attention to detail and aiming for perfection(something that 3D realms clearly shares in common). They have made it mass market friendly but have also given great support to the top tier players. Supporting a tiny fraction of the community may not seem that important but it trickles down via fan pages and replay watching of the top players as well as competition in events such as the World Cyber Games for instance. Would be nice to see Duke Forever selected as a key game there in the future as the FPS scene has mostly been dominated by ID as far as competitive 1v1 FPS gaming goes and a little bit of Unreal Tournament.

Can't wait for Duke Nukem Forever and Starcraft 2. They are the two titles I am salivating over. I would really love to play Duke3D in the mean time but the ladder/ranking system is really demotivating. Hopefully you agree and can get it fixed(?) changed!

Best wishes
Iain Girdwood

http://www.tillerman.net
XBox Live ID : INTillerMaN

[JobivanHiob]

DuvalMagic is Randy Pitchford CEO of Gearbox Software.

[KareBear]

Originally Posted by INTillerMaN

5. Support for pro/top gamers. Thinking more ahead to Duke Forever here as this is the number one reason why Blizzard have always ruled the nest as far as RTS goes as well as their absolute attention to detail and aiming for perfection(something that 3D realms clearly shares in common). They have made it mass market friendly but have also given great support to the top tier players. Supporting a tiny fraction of the community may not seem that important but it trickles down via fan pages and replay watching of the top players as well as competition in events such as the World Cyber Games for instance. Would be nice to see Duke Forever selected as a key game there in the future as the FPS scene has mostly been dominated by ID as far as competitive gaming goes and a little bit of Unreal Tournament.

In a old dnf interview george said he wanted to compete with unreal tournament and quake in multiplayer.Hopefully the current version of dnfs multiplayer will be more substantial than preys.

[peoplessi]

Well, the point 5 doesn't really involve Duke Nukem 3D that much, but I agree

[Nacho]

I LOVE the pistol. I use it on everybody and mainly hunt down whoever is already in a gunfight to steal the kills than pick off the original attacker.

That and I love the pipe bomb.

I think its fine as using the kill death ratio won't work as the game is so chaotic you WILL die, many times regardless of skill.

[INTillerMaN]

That is just not true Nacho It is especially not true in Dukematch where a top player will regularly win 10-0 and 15-0 even on maps like Stadium.

[Syph]

I think with the accessibility of Xbox live that kind of playing environment is unavoidable. You'll have to set up smaller matches with people you know to play a game like in the old days