Anyway, if you've read my stuff over the past two weeks you would know that my "Omen Says Lots of Stuff Today" article made a larger splash than usual. After posting the replies, Fuxya replied again. But because we don't have a message board (blame Xtro, I beleive we were meant to have one and lots of other nice things by now) I invited him to write his own article, and here it is. Mail him your replies, this time round it's nothing to do with me, but if you still have something to say to me feel free to send it here anyway.
Ok, Someone really opened a Pandora's box with this one, here are my thoughts on the whole clan topic and some aimless rambles here and there... pardon me if I tend to drift off on tangents ;)
Tribes is a different game to what a lot of people are used to playing, you need- teamwork, without it, the game is less fun, and you're also less likely to win.
Therefore, a clan is a good idea. Why? because you have people you know you can depend on to back you up, and people that you know will help you out when you need it.
When TLA started, there were only 3 of us, (now there's 8? (thereabouts), you'll virtually never see all 8 playing) and the clan was started pretty much for fun.When you think about it, in a game that has a maxumum player load of 32 people, 8 people isn't a lot, but it helps, and I'm happy to say that there's been a game where there were 3 tla members on the one team, out of a total of about 16, and without sounding like an egotist, it was us that won the game. We rallied the troops, tried desperately to get some teamwork happening, and ended up with another 2 ppl working with us, so that made a total of 5/16 people working together, the rest of the team were doing the usual "I don't care what you're doing, I'm just going to shoot the bad guys *grunt*".
Anyways, to cut the story short, our teamwork won the game (1-0).
Now, when I first started playing Tribes, I got fragged, a lot, and I was often on the losing team.
Did I quit?
No.
Did I get upset that the other team was too good?
No.
I endeavoured to become a player that was good enough to hold my own, that is to say, I became a player that could do jobs from grabbing the flag, to defending, mortar, sniping, and general assault. So if my -team- lost, I felt somewhat better knowing that I did my best, and I did darn well (losing 2-1 is better than losing 4-0). I found that the best way to learn was to learn from my mistakes and from the skills of others, quitting never taught me anything.
Sure, there's been times where the teams have been grossly unfair and stacked against me, but if -I- can get just one cap, or destroy their generators just once, I'm happy because I know I've done my bit.
The only time I've been frustrated enough to quit have been times where my framerate drops to 5fps, or when the lag gets too much, or where my so called team, are standing around pulling their puds.
Anyway, back to the clan.
When a clan starts out at the same time a game is released, they're usually not that good (and we weren't) but we practiced -together- so we could learn what good teamwork was.
I still see games where there are experienced players who go against the grain, they don't let the team know what they are doing, and they don't give a damn when you say "guys, we need more defense".. this is what I personally wanted to get away from, it sucks. So tla was formed, I'm not the "leader", but I helped form it.
If you were to play a DM game that had a few clan members, it doesn't really make a difference, all the clan tag says is "I've played enough to join/be asked to join a clan" and chances are anyone could win the DM.
In TEAM based games, a clan means something different, or SHOULD mean something different, it should mean "these guys know how to work as a team" and yes, tla work very well as a team when we want to.
So if a newer, or non-clan player joins a game where there's 1 or 2 clan members on a side, they should work WITH them, trust me, it doesn't happen often.
Back to the story of tla ;)
Initially we tried to play on the same side, to work together, that's what a clan is about.. it took us quite some time to find a niche in the game, our strengths, what we preferred to do etc etc etc.
ALSO, not having that many members, it was only really frequent to see 2 tla members on 1 team.
Anyways, time wen't on, we gathered members slowly, and we've only NOW got enough members to really see good reason to split up.. I don't -like- playing tribes "by myself" ie: on a team of 6 players who don't give a shit what you say or do, they just wanna shoot stuff, I like playing on a TEAM.
What -really- pisses me off is when my "team" loses because they're being dickheads, ignoring you, not caring about defense, not realising that CAPTURE THE FLAG means CAPTURE THE FLAG, not "stand around and shoot stuff" or "admire the scenery". What makes me -happy- is a good game where my team has lost, but lost as a TEAM, they did their BEST they worked TOGETHER.
Of course, what makes me the happiest is a good TEAM game against another TEAM where my team wins.. but that's not very often, there's usually some loser who spoils things by calling you a cheater, or quitting after whinging about something or other.
Ok, next, onto "other" players.
My attitude, and I hope I speak for the rest of tla here, is fairness.
It has been in the past, sure, we kicked a lot of butts, but we've tried to keep things fair, don't get me wrong, 3 tla on one side against a bunch of non-clanners can be a little unfair, but I've always tried to avoid games where there's perhaps.. 4tla + 3 other players vs 5 players on the other team.
If your team has the numbers, and they have an idea of what they're doing, there's no reason they shouldn't give the better players a run for their money.
I think a lot of people have unfair opinions/attitudes toward tla. In fact, I know of a couple of people who have this strange hatred toward any tla player... guys, it's only a game, we're nice people.. it's one of the things we look for in players when we recruit them.. we wan't good sports, people with a sense of humor, not just the better players, it's why after being around for months we still only have 8 members.
There's been many times where I've helped out other players, and I think 99% of the clan has dome the same.. we've taken someone under our wing and taught them the ropes, how to jump, how to repair, deploy, defend, attack, the works.
There's also been many times where people have accused us of cheating. Yes, I have admin access, but I rarely use it.
Yes, you can cheat in Tribes, but to do so, you have to enable it on the server.. and guess what?! if you do that, -everyone- can cheat, it's as simple as accessing the tab menu and doing so (I think). We don't cheat, we just play a lot (some would say too much).
Instead of people getting upset at us, what we'd like to see is people joining a game, seeing some tla players and saying "hey guys, can you help me out?"
Don't be afraid of us, we don't bite.. and we're happy to help out. What we don't like to see is people accusing us of cheating, or being unfair or offensive.
We're nice guys, but don't expect us to sit back and smile if you start namecalling or generally being a jerk.
Bah.. moving right along.
For those of you who haven't played for a while because things have seemed uneven, try again.. tla play against tla now, because we can. It's now possible to have 3tla+team vs 3tla+team games now.. when we had 4 members, it wasn't, because most of the time only 3 of us were online at the same time.
HOWEVER, if there are only 2-3 players in the game at one time, expect to see them on the same side. But, if your team is losing, either way, don't blame the other team for being too good, blame your team for not working together, because I guarentee, 90% of the time, that's the problem.
Ok, rounding things up.
Here's a word for all you Tribes players.
DEFENSE.
Learn it, use it, live it... simple tactics, a wonderful thing. In Tribes, the best defense is not a good offense, especially if the opposing team's offense is better than yours, so you'd better have a good defense.
Ok, I think I'm done here.. hopefully people won't just turn a blind eye to what I've said, maybe I've gotten through to a few people who "hate" tla for some strange reason.
Feel free to flame, share your opinions/arguments etc.. Some good vibes would be good too... I always respond better to happy email ;)
Fux.
:tla:
Author:
[EvEm]_Omen
Created:
May 14, 1999
Modified:
May 14, 1999 - 09:10:18 PM
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