PC Magazine

All things BZFlag - no [OT] here please
User avatar
bzflaginator
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 275
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 1:50 am
Location: Upstate, New York, USA
Contact:

PC Magazine

Post by bzflaginator »

Today after practice I was waiting for my car to warm up and so I decided to read through my latest issue of PC Mag. Their featured article was on "Best Free Software for 2007" so of course I flipped right to that page. After reading through their categories, I fell upon a section denoted "Fun and Games". Guess what was second on the list....yes of course BZFlag. The game has been noted in other magazines and websites (to which I can not remember the names). So as it may seem, BZFlag has become quite the freeware scene for gaming on SourceForge. Now this is the crowd we would like to attract...the older gamers that are more mature than the featured teens of this era :roll: .

P.S. They do somewhat of a meager job of description. Oh well. :?
Image
Image
"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."
Image
Image
User avatar
WarPig
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 116
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2005 5:54 pm
Location: Earth

Post by WarPig »

wow!! thats amazing, i never knew it was that popular! i might get a copy of it!
User avatar
biggeruniverse
Sergeant
Sergeant
Posts: 30
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:59 am
Contact:

Post by biggeruniverse »

I will say it before, and I will probably say it again: the only game to top bzflag on sourceforge is tux racer. It's been that way since at least 2000.
User avatar
Saturos
Art Master General
Art Master General
Posts: 1111
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2004 2:48 pm
Location: Berlin/Germany
Contact:

Post by Saturos »

Could you upload a scan of that PC Magazine page? Or at least quote what they wrote about BZ?
User avatar
joevano
General
General
Posts: 1863
Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2005 1:08 pm
Location: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Post by joevano »

Better yet, here is the actual article and a link to the page that mentions BZFlag

Entire Article: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2090787,00.asp
BZFlag: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2090815,00.asp
User avatar
the_j0k3r
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 91
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:56 am
Location: australia

Post by the_j0k3r »

wow, there is some publicity for you.
its nice to know that its not just the games that have companies to pay a lot of money for them that get mentions in magazines, etc
i guess its a pat on the back to the people who made the game
Image
User avatar
Grace F
Sergeant
Sergeant
Posts: 978
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 12:29 pm
Location: Adelaide, AUSTRALIA

Re: PC Magazine

Post by Grace F »

bzflaginator wrote:So as it may seem, BZFlag has become quite the freeware scene for gaming on SourceForge. Now this is the crowd we would like to attract...the older gamers that are more mature than the featured teens of this era :roll:
Im a teen of this era :D

BE AFRAID!! :twisted:



And yea it would be good to attract more older gamers.
User avatar
jack
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 89
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2005 8:24 pm
Location: Raleigh, NC
Contact:

Post by jack »

WarPig wrote:wow!! thats amazing, i never knew it was that popular! i might get a copy of it!
do you mean the mag or bzflag cause you dont need to buy bzflag
Image
Now, an army is a team - it lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap. - Patton
asciimonster
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:52 am

Post by asciimonster »

biggeruniverse wrote:(...) the only game to top bzflag on sourceforge is tux racer.
I agree, but tuxracer (as well as sunspire) is dead for a long time now. :cry:

It was reinstated as PlanetPenguin Racer. Amongst the big plans was adding a doubleplayer mode (Boo-Yeah! :!: ). But the website is offline for so long now I fear the worst. :cry:

So: Keep on developing BZFlag and you'll grab the #1 position soon! :D
User avatar
bzflaginator
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 275
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 1:50 am
Location: Upstate, New York, USA
Contact:

Post by bzflaginator »

biggeruniverse wrote:I will say it before, and I will probably say it again: the only game to top bzflag on sourceforge is tux racer. It's been that way since at least 2000.
Yeah, tux racer was actually 8th listed on the page.
Satu wrote:Could you upload a scan of that PC Magazine page? Or at least quote what they wrote about BZ?
Yeah sure. Ill probably do that later today, I have pre-game prep with the team at the campus center then the rest of the day until my game.
Image
Image
"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."
Image
Image
Longhair
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 330
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:06 pm
Location: Lancaster, PA
Contact:

Post by Longhair »

I found it interesting that they only used the word "free" to mean "you don't pay for it". The article says nothing of the license that each piece of software has.

According to the first page of the article, they got a trojan on their computer in the course of looking for "no pay" software. Many of us know that if you search for and use GPL software, you'll most likely not get in this sort of trouble. It's just too hard to foist a trojan on people through GPL software, because too many people can read your code and spot the malware.

When I look for "cost free" programs for Windows computers, I usually include the term GPL in my google search.

Glad to see BZFlag is in such a well-read publication. Cool!
User avatar
bzflaginator
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 275
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 1:50 am
Location: Upstate, New York, USA
Contact:

Post by bzflaginator »

Here is the article I scanned.
Attachments
pcmagbzflag.tif
You might need to convert the file.
(963.13 KiB) Downloaded 54 times
Image
Image
"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."
Image
Image
User avatar
blast
General
General
Posts: 4931
Joined: Fri Mar 21, 2003 3:49 pm
Location: playing.cxx
Contact:

Post by blast »

That file seems to be corrupt. Photoshop couldn't read it.
"In addition to knowing the secrets of the Universe, I can assure you that I am also quite potty trained." -Koenma (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Image
User avatar
bzflaginator
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 275
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 1:50 am
Location: Upstate, New York, USA
Contact:

Post by bzflaginator »

Hmm you are right. Im not sure why it is a Tif file :? .
Image
Image
"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."
Image
Image
User avatar
Davy Jones
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 297
Joined: Thu Jan 04, 2007 4:39 am
Location: Davy Jone's Locker

Post by Davy Jones »

Seems BZflag is growing :D

I'm already seeing more than 5 people join a day in the past couple days, maybe because of this magazine? When did you receive this, bzflaginator?
Owner @ The Twin Towers
Admin @ The Two Boxes
Cop @ Army Of One
Image
Image
User avatar
the_j0k3r
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 91
Joined: Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:56 am
Location: australia

Post by the_j0k3r »

whoah. just checked out davy's profile - 5.63 posts a day ;).

is this a popular pc magazine? - sorry i wouldnt know, we have different ones in australia.

another question ( i was thinking about launching it as a topic but it seemed a bit to small a question. or maybe it isnt.. ill say it anyway)

do we want bzflag growing into a ridiculously popular game? i actually like the tight-knit feel bz gives, and would actually prefer it this size to something huge.
Image
User avatar
bzflaginator
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 275
Joined: Sun May 01, 2005 1:50 am
Location: Upstate, New York, USA
Contact:

Post by bzflaginator »

the_j0k3r wrote:is this a popular pc magazine? - sorry i wouldnt know, we have different ones in australia.
Well it seems to be one of the most popular PC magazines and that article could attract a lot of not-as-wealthy people to look for "free" programs.
the_j0k3r wrote:another question ( i was thinking about launching it as a topic but it seemed a bit to small a question. or maybe it isnt.. ill say it anyway)
If it relates to bzflag and is a valid, and a not-spamming question, you should ask it probably in a new topic so you dont get OT. The worst that could happen is Jeff PMS's and deletes it.
Davy Jones wrote:When did you receive this, bzflaginator?
Well I got mine about last Wednesday.
Image
Image
"He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals."
Image
Image
User avatar
Tropican8
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 312
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2005 11:51 pm
Location: As close to the grove as you can get

Post by Tropican8 »

The Tiff file is fine. I converted it into JPEG though for everyone to see:

Image
Longhair
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 330
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:06 pm
Location: Lancaster, PA
Contact:

Post by Longhair »

do we want bzflag growing into a ridiculously popular game? i actually like the tight-knit feel bz gives, and would actually prefer it this size to something huge.
I don't think that getting more people to play BZFlag would in any way be a bad thing. Quite frankly, there are way more people that play BZ than I will ever know anyway. The tight-knit feeling that I get from BZ is probably from being involved in a certain set of circles within the game. Mostly the Pillbox crew, and to an extent, the Ducati players.

Saying that more people coming in is bad seems like xenophobia to me. Just think, some of the people reading PC Magazine might be decent coders (it is a magazine for computer enthusiasts, after all), and they might end up contributing to the game.
CUPCAKE
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 303
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:31 pm

Post by CUPCAKE »

Wahoo! BZFlag is ever growing, and I'm one of the growing community! I'd love for BZFlag to keep growing, too. It's great to have more people joining all the time.
User avatar
Sir Lance-A-Lot
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 503
Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2004 12:49 am
Location: Amongst my Computers
Contact:

Post by Sir Lance-A-Lot »

I would love to know which new users joined as a result of reading that article - A friend promptly called me when he saw it in there, as soon as the mag came.

Lookin good, BZ 8)
Image
User avatar
Grace F
Sergeant
Sergeant
Posts: 978
Joined: Sun Oct 01, 2006 12:29 pm
Location: Adelaide, AUSTRALIA

Post by Grace F »

If BZFlag continues to grow, what kinda impact would this create on the servers?

Its exciting that new people are joining BZ everyday :D im just worried about what may happen in the Future.
CUPCAKE
Private First Class
Private First Class
Posts: 303
Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:31 pm

Post by CUPCAKE »

Well, then, we'll have to get more mapmakers! :D
meeba
Master Sergeant
Master Sergeant
Posts: 507
Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2006 10:49 pm
Location: N. Sanity Beach

Post by meeba »

CUPCAKE wrote:Well, then, we'll have to get more mapmakers! :D
Nah, we'll just have to refine the server list. If a server is full in terms of actual players, maybe it would be good to move those DOWN in the list, that way people who want to play can always see the most active and AVAILABLE servers at the top of the list.

Just a thought.

Because there are, in fact, about 2 billion maps out there. But nobody ever uses them.
User avatar
Winny
Grouchy
Grouchy
Posts: 2381
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:27 am
Location: Ottawa eh?
Contact:

Post by Winny »

Yeah, I have about 2000 different maps stored on my HD.

I would say about only 10% of maps ever get hosted, and maybe 1-3% are ever popular.

No way we need more maps.



And, Back OT:
I like BZFlag just as it is now. Personally, I never really play on public servers, and therefore I don't want to see the GU League get any bigger.
Post Reply