Is Wolfgaming finally done?

T

Tissueman

Casual
Mentat told me about this thread. Glad to have a chance to read it and understand a bit more of what went on. I thank all those who gave me so many great hours playing FH1 and a bit of FH2 in spite of the background drama. I'm playing guitar more than gaming these days. That and traveling to see the grandkids. Life is good. Hope all is well with all of you.

Tissue
 
S

Solo4114

Core
wellwellwell-1.jpg

Ain't this a blast from the past?!

So, it's good to see you folks again, many of whom I know, some of whom were at WOLF after my time there.

I came to WOLF around...2001? 2002? Right around BF1942's release. I loved the place because it was one of the few actively adminned servers out there. This was a welcome respite from the anarchy you found on the EA servers.

Eventually, I got involved in adminning, specifically for FH and later Red Orchestra (which, sadly, never REALLY took off at WOLF). From my perspective, a big part of what ultimately doomed WOLF was....BF2.

When I was there, WOLF really had become populated by folks who loved BF1942 and later transferred -- almost en masse -- to FH (I think 0.7 or 0.8). Both games had their flaws (which I'll get to in a sec), but the community was basically united around this one game.

When BF2 came out, there was a real desire to switch over the whole community....except that didn't happen. The game required too much by way of system resources for a number of us (it was unplayable for me on the 64 player server), and there was that whole push to actively admin all the, like, 7 or 8 servers we were running to try to build the community. To me, that was the start of the downhill slope. It took a while, but I saw the community really first split with BF2.

Meanwhile, many folks went back to FH, but many of the rules that had been perfectly sensible and easy to manage in BF1942 required a LOT of tweaking for FH. Anyone remember the stuff about uncapturable flags in that mode where you had to attack certain flags in a certain order before another one would become capturable? Jeez what a pain that was to admin... FH in its attempts to innovate really introduced a LOT of headaches due to map design. Maps were frequently pretty one-sided, which made them a drag to play. I remember always wanting to just skip to the next map once we'd hit the inevitable "Fish in a barrel" situation where it was just a question of running out the tickets. That's why I loved Breakthrough so much as a map -- it was one of the best balanced ones out there.

There were other adminning issues, as I recall, as well. Our rules on profanity were alternatingly rigid and lax. At this point, looking back, I think they were kinda goofy and it really should've been a question of whether someone was being rude to someone else. Just saying "Shit, sorry" when you shot someone could get you warned, though. I also recall some big controversy about some player whom we'd given, like, 27 billion "second chances" to, and he kept screwing around. Don't remember the guy's name, though, or the specifics. We'd ban other people, but for this guy we needed, like, a special dispensation from the Pope to get rid of him. :lol:

Anyway, after a while I just grew tired of FH and switched over to RO, but even that grew stale and it was hard to keep the server populated. After that, I vaguely remember trying out Soldner, the game sucking, and having an AWFUL evening playing on the site of some guys we were trying to partner with, resulting in one of them coming on our forums and getting into a pissing contest with me about...something. Probably that his guys kept basically baseraping the other side all night, which made for a rather boring experience.


I still retain the attitudes that brought me to WOLF in the first place. Gaming should be fun and casual, not about "dominance." Folks should be friendly towards each other (some ribbing aside). Maps/gamemodes should be balanced so that both sides have a fair shot the whole way through, rather than being prone to boxing one team in and creating the "fish in a barrel" situation. Pub-friendly rather than designed for competition play. All that, I found at WOLF and took with me after I basically just stopped posting.


But if you ask me, the really key issue that made WOLF's days numbered wasn't the behind the scenes stuff (although that didn't help). It was that the community itself couldn't unite around a single game. I wonder, sometimes, if that'll ever happen again -- where a single game brings in EVERYONE from a gaming community. There's so many games now, with so many different flavors that it just doesn't seem possible to find one that appeals so broadly as BF1942 did. But for that time, back in the early 2000s....WOLF was where it was at.

Glad to see the spirit lives on today. Give a yell if you folks want to game together some time. Many of you I'm friends with on Origin, and some on Steam, but I've been playing BF3 a lot less (AK was disappointing to me). I'm up for other stuff, though. Maybe even some BF1942 some night (just not RTR or SW).
 
Kitlope

Kitlope

Hardcore
Good to see you Solo, I see you still like writing novels :)

I know you mentioned "behind the scenes" was an issue and fragmention of the community and I'll agree that both didn't help matters. In all honesty though it was simple Greed and pressuring the mods/admins to do various time consuming things that in the end was only to potentially line those two moron's pockets and quite frankly I personally resented that, as many others did. This is what our beloved Wolf turned into (was already an issue in 2004) and when BF2 came out in June 2005 nothing was ever the same and many got very turned off.

I'm a part of an extremely fragmented clan at the moment and at one time I would have thought it was a nail in the coffin but I realize now that if you have a strong community with members respecting each other and their wishes (TLB has an elected council which keeps things fair & democratic) and at least a few buddies to play with on any given game the clan/community can still thrive. Shit, TLB only has about 50 members, down from 100 a few years ago. Fragmentation doesn't need to mean the end (although in Wolf's case the whole FH thing was a nightmare as most of us know) but it takes the people to make it work.

In my personal case I got burnt out of adminning and playing BF2 about 6 months after release and for shits and giggles started to play 1942 again in late 2005. I remember and had forgotten how much fun it was and without the bullshit pressure from Rob & Joe, babysitting the BF2 server & teamspeak and because nobody at Wolf played 1942 anymore I started playing somewhere else and eventually joined TLB as 1942 was still very very popular. Good times. I also realize I never want to be apart of a community thats been disneyfied... if people wanna swear than go at it. Not ever going to micromanage bullshit like that ever again - not worth my time. It also helps to have a min. age for members (somewhere around 20) to keep the kiddies out as I don't need to listen to some prepubescent child screaming into the mic all evening as what was happening at Wolf, especially once BF2 was released. And then there was the pissing contest between some admins that I got dragged into and that was the end of it for me. I still came around but had threw in the admin towel as it just wasn't fun anymore. I never ever thought it would have come to that but so much was annoying me. The face of Wolf had changed and I'll agree some of it can't be blamed solely on Rob or Joe although the drive to become bigger & bigger made it uncontrollable on all fronts. And this was all before Anubis's "heads are gonna role" in late April 2007.

Not sure if you know but BF1942 was released on Origin for free a couple weeks ago and some of us at Fragtard and many of us at TLB have been playing it. You should bookmark both teamspeaks if you get a hankering to play as origin/battlelog doesn't let you follow a player into a server probably due to the old technology. See you out there!

Smack (Kitlope)
 
S

Solo4114

Core
Smacktardius said:
Good to see you Solo, I see you still like writing novels :)
Click to expand...
Some things never change. ;)

I know you mentioned "behind the scenes" was an issue and fragmention of the community and I'll agree that both didn't help matters. In all honesty though it was simple Greed and pressuring the mods/admins to do various time consuming things that in the end was only to potentially line those two moron's pockets and quite frankly I personally resented that, as many others did. This is what our beloved Wolf turned into (was already an issue in 2004) and when BF2 came out in June 2005 nothing was ever the same and many got very turned off.
Click to expand...
I was an admin then, but I was never a mod. That may have gone on at the mod level. I don't really remember it much at the time, although that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I recall some of that, but I don't recall getting a ton of pressure, myself.

I'm a part of an extremely fragmented clan at the moment and at one time I would have thought it was a nail in the coffin but I realize now that if you have a strong community with members respecting each other and their wishes (TLB has an elected council which keeps things fair & democratic) and at least a few buddies to play with on any given game the clan/community can still thrive. Shit, TLB only has about 50 members, down from 100 a few years ago. Fragmentation doesn't need to mean the end (although in Wolf's case the whole FH thing was a nightmare as most of us know) but it takes the people to make it work.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it can still work, but I personally had the most fun at WOLF when we used to have a full 64P server with all WOLF members. Those were the best times, to my memory. I don't think it's a nail in the coffin, but I think it really helps if most people have settled on a game. I just remember after BF2's failure to really catch fire and FH refusing to die, that WOLF seemed to constantly be looking for a "next big thing" and nothing caught on with the whole community. ETQW, RO, Soldner, etc. Nothing did it. Then FH2 came out, and you saw even the FH community fragment.

Like you say, it's not impossible to have a community survive, but I think the community does better when it's a bit more united.

In my personal case I got burnt out of adminning and playing BF2 about 6 months after release and for shits and giggles started to play 1942 again in late 2005. I remember and had forgotten how much fun it was and without the bullshit pressure from Rob & Joe, babysitting the BF2 server & teamspeak and because nobody at Wolf played 1942 anymore I started playing somewhere else and eventually joined TLB as 1942 was still very very popular. Good times. I also realize I never want to be apart of a community thats been disneyfied... if people wanna swear than go at it. Not ever going to micromanage bullshit like that ever again - not worth my time. It also helps to have a min. age for members (somewhere around 20) to keep the kiddies out as I don't need to listen to some prepubescent child screaming into the mic all evening as what was happening at Wolf, especially once BF2 was released. And then there was the pissing contest between some admins that I got dragged into and that was the end of it for me. I still came around but had threw in the admin towel as it just wasn't fun anymore. I never ever thought it would have come to that but so much was annoying me. The face of Wolf had changed and I'll agree some of it can't be blamed solely on Rob or Joe although the drive to become bigger & bigger made it uncontrollable on all fronts. And this was all before Anubis's "heads are gonna role" in late April 2007.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the heads rolling thing was after I was basically done. I do remember this sense of "We've gotta fill the servers" which really, to me, kinda sucked. That was when you'd find yourself just...sitting on an empty server, bored out of your mind. Growth for growth's sake is, in my opinion, a sure-fire path to fizzling out.

I find the profanity rules now to just be...over the top. Particularly in a game like BF3 where the fucking AVATARS curse. I went on a server a while back and got kicked because I typed something like "What dumbass dev designed XYZ gun?" Meanwhile, my avatar is shouting "IT'S A FUCKING GRENADE!!!" or "Imma light that fucker up!" or whathaveyou. I told 'em to ban me so that I wouldn't accidentally log back in.

Anyway, rules need to be common-sense-based. If the concern is "But what about the children?!" well, (A) don't let children join, and (B) put on headphones. Your 5-year old, meanwhile, will not be able to read the stream of obscenities that someone just typed into chat and which scrolled out of view quickly. Be cool to each other (mostly) and otherwise don't sweat it in a GAME WHERE WE ARE TRYING TO KILL ONE ANOTHER.

Not sure if you know but BF1942 was released on Origin for free a couple weeks ago and some of us at Fragtard and many of us at TLB have been playing it. You should bookmark both teamspeaks if you get a hankering to play as origin/battlelog doesn't let you follow a player into a server probably due to the old technology. See you out there!

Smack (Kitlope)
Click to expand...
I saw that just the other day! I'm gonna have to grab myself a copy (once I figure out how). I'll definitely team up with you guys if I get a chance. I've also been playing Tribes Ascend lately, which is fun, too (although I still hate unlocks and that game's full of 'em...).
 
godsgift

godsgift

Core
Hiya Solo, good to see you here.
I don't play any games at the moment since i am having some issues with the PC but used to play FH1 quite frequently, still looking for a game that can catch and keep my attention besides FH1.
Didn't you use to play BF2142 as well ? Or at least a mod for it (i think it was called first strike) ?
 
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