Journals
Eleven-year-old mapper. I am impressed. He must be precocious.
Single player version of "Justice" is released. This Half-Life 2 map should take approximately thirty minutes to finish. Enjoy.
I'm back (briefly) at TWHL to check in with my old buddies. All the forum threads are almost as I left them. 
I've posted a new map "Justice". It's a HL2DM for 8-10 players. It's still in its beta form, and I am planning to add more details and play around with weapon placements.
This will be my first Source map, so I would appreciate some input (especially on the gameplay aspect).
P.S. If anyone remembers that far back, I posted the very beginning of this map before HL2 was released in the "Unfinished" section of the vault. Now it's almost complete, and I am pretty happy the idea has come to life.
I've posted a new map "Justice". It's a HL2DM for 8-10 players. It's still in its beta form, and I am planning to add more details and play around with weapon placements.
This will be my first Source map, so I would appreciate some input (especially on the gameplay aspect).
P.S. If anyone remembers that far back, I posted the very beginning of this map before HL2 was released in the "Unfinished" section of the vault. Now it's almost complete, and I am pretty happy the idea has come to life.
Congratulations, RabidMonkey! Good luck on your application.
I'll send positive vibes your way this entire week.
I'll send positive vibes your way this entire week.
From The Los Angeles Times; November 27th, 2004 (Saturday)
How about a group thug?
*Friends and strangers gather to 'kill' each other in a friendly game of Halo 2. For players, it's a matter of thinking inside the Xbox.
By Deborah Netburn, Special to The Times
At 9 on a Friday night in a sparsely furnished office bungalow in Hollywood, a group of 14 television writers, screenwriters, comedians and assorted tangential friends have gathered around a few television screens. The premiere of someone's new show? Actually, they've come together to play Halo 2, the stunningly successful video game for Xbox.
Most of them have been playing the original Halo on a weekly basis as a group for a couple years. But as this session got started, it became clear that there was going to be some disparity among their skill levels. For some, this was their first time playing the sequel, which was released earlier this month.
"I played for three minutes before I got here, but it clearly wasn't enough," said Ken Little (a.k.a. "Weapon-X"), a self-described computer nerd. "I have a job, a wife and two kids, so it's been kind of hard to fit it in."
But John Travis, a 40-year-old stand-up comic who plays the game under the name "Dr. Takahashi" had spent at least 15 hours over the past week familiarizing himself with the game to make sure he'd be comfortable with all the "maps" ? the complicated and intricate environments where the action takes place.
Halo 2, like the first Halo, which was released in 2001, is a first-person shooter game, so the player never sees his character's corporal body, only the guns, swords, rockets and grenades that he uses to blow up and otherwise destroy his enemies. In single-player mode, Halo and Halo 2 tell an elaborate story that involves battling a confederation of aliens, but when played in the more popular multiplayer mode, both Halos become about nothing more than trying to annihilate your friends.
The original is one of the 10 bestselling videogames of all time, with an estimated 5 million copies sold. Halo 2 shows promise of reaching similar numbers with 1.5 million copies pre-sold and $125 million in sales its first day in stores.
Each Xbox can support four controllers, and if there are enough TVs and enough Xboxes, they can be linked to play the game with up to 16 people at once. "It's kind of like a softball game without moving around," said Jay Johnston, the tall gravely voiced actor who started the weekly games. "Or like a poker night with blood," said Jeff Walton, a screenwriter.
During its glory days, the weekly Halo game was played on a large-screen TV at the spacious home of Johnston's girlfriend and would draw up to 25 participants. But the game has been roving ever since the two broke up about a year ago. This particular Friday it was held at the production offices of three Halo regulars who are working on a pilot for Comedy Central about nerd culture (which explains the "Star Trek" uniform hanging in the hallway). They had already filmed a segment on the Halo crew earlier that month.
The game was spread out over two rooms, each with two TVs and two Xboxes. In the back room, Sarah Altman, an aspiring comedy writer with dark makeup and bulbous black shoes who plays the game as "Sicky," was getting slaughtered repeatedly by a player named "Cracken" who was in the front room. Altman is one of the few women who regularly attends Halo nights and prides herself on being just as good, if not better, than the guys. But this night, she was not at her best, having played Halo 2 only twice before.
"What? Who's Cracken?" she asked. "Why are there strangers here?"
"Yeah, I don't know those guys in the front room," mumbled Little, who was looking at the screen with marked confusion.
Altman pressed a few buttons and there was a splatter from her section of the split screen. "Ahh ? I just killed Cracken and it felt good," she said, leaning back in her chair and smirking with satisfaction.
In the front room, Ian Rutherford, Jeff Walton, his brother Ed, and Kevin Jarzynsky sat in a row of office chairs in front of the television, their fingers moving rapidly over the bulky black controllers. Ed Walton, who plays as "PrimaNotra" and works for Jerry Bruckheimer, looked pretty serious in his black wrist guards. These were the four strangers, brought to the game by Travis, and they were killing everybody.
In the back of the room a short, gentle-looking guy in a knit cap who asked to be identified only by his Halo name, "Spooky," sat with his legs up on the desk, the controller sitting limply in his hands. "Sicky, stop it Sicky," he said quietly, looking despondent as the words "You have been splattered by Sicky" popped up on the screen.
After the first round the group decided to play in team mode, so Gerry Duggan, a clean-cut television producer, moved into the back room to join Altman, Little and a scruffy producer named Ken Daly against the strangers in the front.
Duggan has chosen the player name "A Cute Baby" because whenever his character is killed, the screen will flash his assailant the words 'You killed A Cute Baby." Duggan said he was still getting his Halo 2 legs, but he seemed to be doing better than Daly, Altman and Little, so he took the lead.
"OK, they are all at the top," he said. "Everybody take the elevator up."
"Are you taking the elevator up, Sicky?" asked Little, looking confused.
"I don't know where the elevator is," Altman said.
"Stay together," Duggan commanded.
"Copy that," Daly said.
Altman and Little looked bewildered.
The front room took that round.
Spooky, who sat out that match, walked into the back room looking anxious and said he was taking a cigarette break. "I'm getting depressed," Little said. "Like an out-of-my-league thing." Altman agreed and within the next 10 minutes all three of them had packed up their controllers and called it a night.
Some new players arrived, some more players left, but by 11 there were still eight people hanging around, so the group shifted to capture-the-flag mode. Travis, Daly, Duggan and the recently arrived Johnston, who plays as "Captain Oopsie," took the back room and the four strangers stayed rooted to their seats in the front.
As soon as the game got underway, the back room became frantic with cursing and yelling commands and lots of joking, but in the front room it was all business with Jarzynsky, a heavy-set redhead, leading the crew.
"They are coming in, boys!" he would say authoritatively. "I just need some offense!" Or "A Cute Baby is coming this way! Front door, Rusty!"
The front room beat the back room two games to one. Closing in on midnight, the back room was still getting slaughtered. Needing a change of pace, they switched the battle to all-sword combat. Finally, the front room players began to lose their cool.
"Boy, they really know how to use those swords," said Ed Walton, sounding young and frightened.
"Let's huddle up boys," Jarzynsky said.
"I wish there was a way to hold hands," Jeff Walton said.
How about a group thug?
*Friends and strangers gather to 'kill' each other in a friendly game of Halo 2. For players, it's a matter of thinking inside the Xbox.
By Deborah Netburn, Special to The Times
At 9 on a Friday night in a sparsely furnished office bungalow in Hollywood, a group of 14 television writers, screenwriters, comedians and assorted tangential friends have gathered around a few television screens. The premiere of someone's new show? Actually, they've come together to play Halo 2, the stunningly successful video game for Xbox.
Most of them have been playing the original Halo on a weekly basis as a group for a couple years. But as this session got started, it became clear that there was going to be some disparity among their skill levels. For some, this was their first time playing the sequel, which was released earlier this month.
"I played for three minutes before I got here, but it clearly wasn't enough," said Ken Little (a.k.a. "Weapon-X"), a self-described computer nerd. "I have a job, a wife and two kids, so it's been kind of hard to fit it in."
But John Travis, a 40-year-old stand-up comic who plays the game under the name "Dr. Takahashi" had spent at least 15 hours over the past week familiarizing himself with the game to make sure he'd be comfortable with all the "maps" ? the complicated and intricate environments where the action takes place.
Halo 2, like the first Halo, which was released in 2001, is a first-person shooter game, so the player never sees his character's corporal body, only the guns, swords, rockets and grenades that he uses to blow up and otherwise destroy his enemies. In single-player mode, Halo and Halo 2 tell an elaborate story that involves battling a confederation of aliens, but when played in the more popular multiplayer mode, both Halos become about nothing more than trying to annihilate your friends.
The original is one of the 10 bestselling videogames of all time, with an estimated 5 million copies sold. Halo 2 shows promise of reaching similar numbers with 1.5 million copies pre-sold and $125 million in sales its first day in stores.
Each Xbox can support four controllers, and if there are enough TVs and enough Xboxes, they can be linked to play the game with up to 16 people at once. "It's kind of like a softball game without moving around," said Jay Johnston, the tall gravely voiced actor who started the weekly games. "Or like a poker night with blood," said Jeff Walton, a screenwriter.
During its glory days, the weekly Halo game was played on a large-screen TV at the spacious home of Johnston's girlfriend and would draw up to 25 participants. But the game has been roving ever since the two broke up about a year ago. This particular Friday it was held at the production offices of three Halo regulars who are working on a pilot for Comedy Central about nerd culture (which explains the "Star Trek" uniform hanging in the hallway). They had already filmed a segment on the Halo crew earlier that month.
The game was spread out over two rooms, each with two TVs and two Xboxes. In the back room, Sarah Altman, an aspiring comedy writer with dark makeup and bulbous black shoes who plays the game as "Sicky," was getting slaughtered repeatedly by a player named "Cracken" who was in the front room. Altman is one of the few women who regularly attends Halo nights and prides herself on being just as good, if not better, than the guys. But this night, she was not at her best, having played Halo 2 only twice before.
"What? Who's Cracken?" she asked. "Why are there strangers here?"
"Yeah, I don't know those guys in the front room," mumbled Little, who was looking at the screen with marked confusion.
Altman pressed a few buttons and there was a splatter from her section of the split screen. "Ahh ? I just killed Cracken and it felt good," she said, leaning back in her chair and smirking with satisfaction.
In the front room, Ian Rutherford, Jeff Walton, his brother Ed, and Kevin Jarzynsky sat in a row of office chairs in front of the television, their fingers moving rapidly over the bulky black controllers. Ed Walton, who plays as "PrimaNotra" and works for Jerry Bruckheimer, looked pretty serious in his black wrist guards. These were the four strangers, brought to the game by Travis, and they were killing everybody.
In the back of the room a short, gentle-looking guy in a knit cap who asked to be identified only by his Halo name, "Spooky," sat with his legs up on the desk, the controller sitting limply in his hands. "Sicky, stop it Sicky," he said quietly, looking despondent as the words "You have been splattered by Sicky" popped up on the screen.
After the first round the group decided to play in team mode, so Gerry Duggan, a clean-cut television producer, moved into the back room to join Altman, Little and a scruffy producer named Ken Daly against the strangers in the front.
Duggan has chosen the player name "A Cute Baby" because whenever his character is killed, the screen will flash his assailant the words 'You killed A Cute Baby." Duggan said he was still getting his Halo 2 legs, but he seemed to be doing better than Daly, Altman and Little, so he took the lead.
"OK, they are all at the top," he said. "Everybody take the elevator up."
"Are you taking the elevator up, Sicky?" asked Little, looking confused.
"I don't know where the elevator is," Altman said.
"Stay together," Duggan commanded.
"Copy that," Daly said.
Altman and Little looked bewildered.
The front room took that round.
Spooky, who sat out that match, walked into the back room looking anxious and said he was taking a cigarette break. "I'm getting depressed," Little said. "Like an out-of-my-league thing." Altman agreed and within the next 10 minutes all three of them had packed up their controllers and called it a night.
Some new players arrived, some more players left, but by 11 there were still eight people hanging around, so the group shifted to capture-the-flag mode. Travis, Daly, Duggan and the recently arrived Johnston, who plays as "Captain Oopsie," took the back room and the four strangers stayed rooted to their seats in the front.
As soon as the game got underway, the back room became frantic with cursing and yelling commands and lots of joking, but in the front room it was all business with Jarzynsky, a heavy-set redhead, leading the crew.
"They are coming in, boys!" he would say authoritatively. "I just need some offense!" Or "A Cute Baby is coming this way! Front door, Rusty!"
The front room beat the back room two games to one. Closing in on midnight, the back room was still getting slaughtered. Needing a change of pace, they switched the battle to all-sword combat. Finally, the front room players began to lose their cool.
"Boy, they really know how to use those swords," said Ed Walton, sounding young and frightened.
"Let's huddle up boys," Jarzynsky said.
"I wish there was a way to hold hands," Jeff Walton said.
This is got to be one of the most entertaining discussion I've come across for a long time (not just at TWHL, but any forum).
http://cariad.co.za/twhl/forums.php?action=viewthread&page=last&id=5778&pg=1
I can't wait for the conclusion of the thread (or perhaps there wouldn't be one?).
http://cariad.co.za/twhl/forums.php?action=viewthread&page=last&id=5778&pg=1
I can't wait for the conclusion of the thread (or perhaps there wouldn't be one?).
See you guys at the SnarkPit!
The ugly side of gaming...
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/
A thread on HL Fallout was commenting about a program on Goodmorning America (morning talkshow in the States). It's regarding violence in the media and video games. Among the worst offenders (i.e. most violent videogames) were Doom3, Grand Theft Auto 3, and Half-Life 2!
I've always thought the sort of argument proposed by the conservatives (damn Bush supporters) that violent video games influence the behavior of young people is a dangerous road down the slippery slope. It's one step away from censorship. Gamers are as likely as priests and nuns to carry out violent acts. In fact, from the sleuth of sexual molestation accusations lately, gamers are less likely to committ deplorable acts.
I am a pediatrician, and I have many colleagues in the hospital who are also fans of first-person-shooter games. In fact, that's one of our favorite passtimes after we've spent days saving lives in the hospital. The rush of excitement while spurting out bullets from an assault rifle provides a great outlet for the stress and frustration encountered daily in the lives of a medical resident. In fact, some of the best doctors I know are formidable opponents in a deathmatch arena.
People are not made violent by video games. Those who perform violent acts already have the seed of violence within them before they started playing these games. There are so many other social ills which need to be addressed before paranoid conservatives invent fears among harmless hobbies.
Stop censorship. Stop conservatives from taking over the world. Stop G. W. Bush.
I've always thought the sort of argument proposed by the conservatives (damn Bush supporters) that violent video games influence the behavior of young people is a dangerous road down the slippery slope. It's one step away from censorship. Gamers are as likely as priests and nuns to carry out violent acts. In fact, from the sleuth of sexual molestation accusations lately, gamers are less likely to committ deplorable acts.
I am a pediatrician, and I have many colleagues in the hospital who are also fans of first-person-shooter games. In fact, that's one of our favorite passtimes after we've spent days saving lives in the hospital. The rush of excitement while spurting out bullets from an assault rifle provides a great outlet for the stress and frustration encountered daily in the lives of a medical resident. In fact, some of the best doctors I know are formidable opponents in a deathmatch arena.
People are not made violent by video games. Those who perform violent acts already have the seed of violence within them before they started playing these games. There are so many other social ills which need to be addressed before paranoid conservatives invent fears among harmless hobbies.
Stop censorship. Stop conservatives from taking over the world. Stop G. W. Bush.
I agree with SariBous completely. We are justified to be upset because noobs flood the forum with questions that should be readily answered by the tutorials. If they only bother reading them first.
And why ask others to map for you? If you're that lazy to map, why bother mapping at all? Why don't you just play these commercials games "as is" and leave the creative process to someone with more motivation and intelligence?
Good support only goes to those who deserve them.
And why ask others to map for you? If you're that lazy to map, why bother mapping at all? Why don't you just play these commercials games "as is" and leave the creative process to someone with more motivation and intelligence?
Good support only goes to those who deserve them.
I realized that ever since I started mapping, I appreciate the everyday beauty of the mundane objects around us. I get mesmerized by the subtle way light penetrates the leave of a tree. I am impressed by the reflection of boats in the cobalt-blue water. And at night, I am particularly seduced by the lone street lamp, guarding the silence of the neighborhood.
We live in a wonderful and beautiful world. Never would I expect that virtual reality would make me appreciate the real world better.
What a wonderful world.
We live in a wonderful and beautiful world. Never would I expect that virtual reality would make me appreciate the real world better.
What a wonderful world.
Tonight might as well be Christmas Eve for Half-Life 2 fans. It's only a matter of hours before Heaven descends onto Earth. Just be careful not to bust a hernia from being overjoyed.
And I can't believe that there are still people posting new maps into the vault the night before HL2's debut. It's hard to garner interest to play old HL1 once the new game is out. At least not for a while.
And I can't believe that there are still people posting new maps into the vault the night before HL2's debut. It's hard to garner interest to play old HL1 once the new game is out. At least not for a while.
Some people don't take critiques of their maps very well, even though the comments are meant to be constructive.
I believe I am not nearly as blunt as some people when it comes to making suggestions and comments, but I guess it's still too much for some.
I can tell from the "reactive" low rating I got from my map. But that's okay. We're all entitled to our opinions, and that's why it's so great to have an open forum. Just remember that we shouldn't let emotion cloud our judgement.
I am still grateful for such a mapping community. It allows us nerds to have a communicative outlet besides sitting in front of the computer all day.
I am actually at work now, checking out the map vault in between patients. It's a slow Sunday afternoon at the clinic.
I believe I am not nearly as blunt as some people when it comes to making suggestions and comments, but I guess it's still too much for some.
I can tell from the "reactive" low rating I got from my map. But that's okay. We're all entitled to our opinions, and that's why it's so great to have an open forum. Just remember that we shouldn't let emotion cloud our judgement.
I am still grateful for such a mapping community. It allows us nerds to have a communicative outlet besides sitting in front of the computer all day.
I am actually at work now, checking out the map vault in between patients. It's a slow Sunday afternoon at the clinic.
Seems like there might be a mass exodus of veteran members here. That would be most unfortunate, since TWHL absolutely needs quality members with lots of mapping experience to survive.
Everything goes in cycles (the economy, war/peace, ice age, menstration, etc), so I expect that the rampant spread of immaturity would end too.
Be patient, and give it time. If all the good members leave, what do we have left? Do you really want to see this community that you once cherished perish?
Stick around, and perhaps we can make a difference. If the Middle East is willing to negotiate their differences, so can we.
Everything goes in cycles (the economy, war/peace, ice age, menstration, etc), so I expect that the rampant spread of immaturity would end too.
Be patient, and give it time. If all the good members leave, what do we have left? Do you really want to see this community that you once cherished perish?
Stick around, and perhaps we can make a difference. If the Middle East is willing to negotiate their differences, so can we.