jhs wrote:I got hooked on BZ via the Missile Wars 2.0 map and thankfully had good players like Joop, chickenfarmer, FA!!!, War Pig, joker, etc to show me the ropes - not only to the actual controls of the game but also to the strategies. I got geno'd occasionally in my early days and got shot a heckuva lot. And those guys would often explain what happened, how to avoid it and how to turn the tables on the other player/team.
Thanks for the shout out, jhs. I agree with you about the community/team aspect. Each person has their own preference to maps. I always think it's funny when people are getting dominated on a team map and PM me and say, "Come to HIX and I'll own you!" Never have really cared for HIX personally. Great place to learn dodging skills, shooting skills, etc., but I like team play the best. That's why you'll rarely see me on one of the HIX sites -- unless there's just NOBODY playing anywhere else.
I miss the crowd at Missile Wars and whenever I have a foray back into playing, I try to hang out there and drum up a crowd. It's always the same thing: people join, play a while, say, "Man, this was a great map." And I ask them, "Well, why don't YOU hang out here and be the player who draws the crowd?"
Blast even shows up occasionally and (gasp) has played a few times with us. I liked the fact that blast was/is a responsive admin. There have been times cheaters or abusers came on, I reported it, and he would pop in within 5 minutes and take care of the problem.
I wish blast would put about 5 bots in his map so that it would always show up NEAR THE TOP OF THE LIST (hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Maybe people would play there more often if they saw it listed on the first page.
As one of the persons who used geno quite a bit in the old days on MW, I actually am content now to play a game with a team there without having to use it. But then Joop shows up, and that's another story...