Quake's Waning Popularity

Recently, IEM and ESWC, two of Quake Live's most prominent international tournaments, did not include Quake Live in their competition announcement. It is by no means a disaster or the end of Quake on an international level but it is a sobering reminder of Quake's decline in popularity. It's worth noting that in the case of the IEM, QL was replaced this year by League of Legends, a game which attracted far more viewers of streams and is clearly much more popular than Quake at the moment.

This is perfectly understandable from a business perspective, particularly given the gigantic costs involved with organising LANs and tournaments, as well as the current economic climate in the world. If it's not popular and you can't profit from it, then why bother hosting it, right?

I'm not writing this to compare games or to say one deserves more attention than the other, but I am trying to draw attention to what I feel is a disappointing loss for esports in general. This hasn't been caused by the esports community not recognising Quake as a great game to play and watch, it's really that, as I've said, it lacks in popularity and not enough people know about it.

Why don't people play Quake? It is certainly in part due to the game's severe lack of a casual side. People who play QL know that it's fundamentally a browser-plugin port of Quake 3 Arena, which meant veterans from Q3 could and can pick it up almost immediately, hence making it more difficult for new players to pick it up. There's a big skill gap online right now and I know this from experience.

Also, objectively, Quake is more complicated than the majority of multiplayer games today, which again makes it not so easily caught onto. Hours and hours of practice are required to gain a grasp on the movement system, the timing of items and weapon choice among many other things. The current games market is saturated with games that are by design easily accessible to players (not a bad thing necessarily) and reward players more so than in previously. I think new players come to expect these traits in older games such as this. It can be stressful and often requires as much perseverance as any other sport.

StarCraft for example, a game with (if such a thing could be measured) arguably the same depth of skill as Quake, as of recently has had many millions poured into its refinement and marketing, whereas Quake has not. This logically explains StarCraft's huge popularity and Quake's lack thereof. Id Software hasn't promoted QL to a great extent or started a ladder integrated with the game (for example) and this is of course due to perfectly understandable financial reasons. This is why it is currently up to communities to promote Quake – to let new players understand the intensity of a duel match, the satisfaction of a mid-air rocket or the intricacies of map control.

If CS, LoL, SC2 and Fifa 11 deserve the attention they get in the world of esports, then Quake, whether it be QW, Q2, CPMA, Q4 or QL, deserves the same, and if you watched a few matches then you'd probably come to understand my point.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiolB5OCyeU

Discussion?

Quake is too ****ing hard. The skill level of the average player in Quake Live blows my mind. And this is coming from a player who normally maintains a 4:1 ratio with ease in Counter-Strike.KHAndAnime

Pretty much this. I suck as well compaired to vets. Its just not a game for everyone, and its community has slowly died as time progressed due to skill celing and closed communities.

Still fun to watch, but to play? My skills (or whatever skills I had) diminished.

I never got the appeal of watching FPS esports. Sure, it takes a lot of skill, but it is nothing compared to RTSes. Of course, this is coming from a guy who watches on average 3 hours of Starcraft II a day.

It boils down to this: Quake is too hard for the average gamer.

Starcraft 2 has a newb-friendly matchmaking system that makes it easy for anyone to find a server that fits their skill level. In Quake, if you suck, you'll get annihilated. Every single time.

It's a shame, but arena FPS is now a dead genre. What it would need to regain some life is a new, high-quality balanced game that makes it easy for newbs to play newbs AND that gets backed by a relatively big marketing campaign. But noone is going to make that game :(. ID sucks now, Epic is making slow chest-high wall shooters, People Can Fly didn't get it right with Painkiller and is now making console FPS, and everyone else is making "flavor of the day" shooters and wouldn't know how to balance an online FPS in the first place.

Most of people like more to play shooters in which they gain ranks and unlock stuff in order to progress, to gain some sense of achievement, and due Quake and UT both demand high level of skill, most of players will take the easy route here and will choose more casual shooters.

And Starcraft II isn't as huge in success as was Starcraft and Brood War. Due the migration from part of the gaming population from PC desktops to consoles, the base of players is nowhere near as was in the past, and in consoles the games trend to be less complex, and the clans and tournaments are almost non -existant.

Honestly, seing that Diablo III will drop the ball from 8 to 4 players, I can understand that the old good times of Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament are gone forever. id Software or Epic will never release a game as popular or influential as their past games, and the same goes with almost all PC developers. But at least we have games as SC II, LoL and some others in which competitive gaming is still popular. The console market of fighting games suffered the same problems due the pupularity of the fps genre in recent years.

It boils down to this: Quake is too hard for the average gamer.

Starcraft 2 has a newb-friendly matchmaking system that makes it easy for anyone to find a server that fits their skill level. In Quake, if you suck, you'll get annihilated. Every single time.

It's a shame, but arena FPS is now a dead genre. What it would need to regain some life is a new, high-quality balanced game that makes it easy for newbs to play newbs AND that gets backed by a relatively big marketing campaign. But noone is going to make that game :(. ID sucks now, Epic is making slow chest-high wall shooters, People Can Fly didn't get it right with Painkiller and is now making console FPS, and everyone else is making "flavor of the day" shooters and wouldn't know how to balance an online FPS in the first place.

ReddestSkies

Quake is too ****ing hard. The skill level of the average player in Quake Live blows my mind. And this is coming from a player who normally maintains a 4:1 ratio with ease in Counter-Strike.KHAndAnime

I wouldn't say its too hard IMO.. I would just say that there is less and less incentive to play Quake/UT. Especially with all these games coming out now, less and less players on the older ones. It all kind of adds up!

Arena Shooters are not dead.. They are in scarcity right now... If some one brought out a nice optimized and balanced one right now, that didn't focus on Graphics but instead on Gameplay.. It could be huge!

I am waiting on a new Quake...

A new game is the ideal solution, but even so: Changes in the games market are not irreversible and certainly don't mean that deathmatch games have to disappear completely, which they aren't going to in the near future. Groups of players can do a lot to create popularity for a game. That's partly why Brood War is so popular still in South Korea, 13 years after release. Saying it's 'dead forever, what a shame' and looking fondly back on it is like you're saying 'this old game is completely and utterly incompatible with current systems but yeah, those were good times.' It annoys me greatly that most gamers have this idea drilled into their mind that each game has a lifespan of about 5 years and then it vanishes into thin after when it's time is up. It's true that once a game stops being supported its popularity usually dries up, but the people who play the game are the ones who keep it alive and I've seen a number of games make comebacks.

Why does extra time and effort stop one from enjoying a game? Who said you absolutely have to put in extra time and effort? The game is as casual as it is competitive. It really isn't that difficult to find other players at your own skill level, especially with QL's stats, tier and buddy system. You'll get far better at Quake far faster if you play to enjoy it, especially with similarly skilled players. It is as fun a game as any. Don't let people tell you otherwise.

There are people online who will actually take the time teach you how to play if ask nicely enough. There are countless guides and tutorials on the internet. Learning doesn't have to be boring...

Quake wont play on Windows 7. That may be the reason right there. At least it doesn't play on mine. I miss it. It was fast and interesting. If they bring out a new Quake it will without a doubt be playable in Windows 7. Then look out!Malphal

As someone who plays Quake Live everyday I have to agree with what everyone said. The skill required to play is insane when compared to other shooter games. With that being said, Quake Live does have a decent skill tier system meaning new players aren't going to be playing with veterans. The way its setup now is there are 4 tiers for each gametype. ID software has done absolutely nothing to promote the game, and they haven't listened/communicated with the community once even though its an online game. Quake Live has so much potential because its fast, fun, and most importantly: Free. I love the game and can't play other fps games because they are too slow and you take forever to respawn. If you're new to quake and are getting owned, I highly reccomend you just stick to the game. You will progress. There are so many ways to improve your game. Once you get better the game gets so much more fun. If anything, take the time to learn the maps and how Duel works, that way you can enjoy and understand whats going on in streams. It would be a shame if such a great FPS game were to die.

Quake Live is one of my favorite shooters. Ever.

I just wish more people played it, and knew about it. :(

people still play quake?

quake live isnt too bad. I can always get a couple kills lol.

As much as I argue style and graphics shouldn't be a factor in game development, Quake Live is way out of it's time. Even on it's release the graphics were dated. The gameplay is solid but everyone who knows about it has played it, everyone who doesn't know about it won't since theirs no marketing. A new major release (that doesn't suck!) would be the best option to revive the game, Unreal Tournament 3 seemed to do it's best to kill arena fps games with the horrible release and waiting far too long to address the issues.

Yeah I don't see it growing at all... at the same time, I'm not really seeing it dying anytime soon due to the diehard playerbase that it has gathered over the years.

Too bad, though -- all the world plays is TF2, CS/Source, and COD anymore.

The arena shooter is gasping for air, and is about to sink under the surface.

I never got the appeal of watching FPS esports. Sure, it takes a lot of skill, but it is nothing compared to RTSes. Of course, this is coming from a guy who watches on average 3 hours of Starcraft II a day.

Grodus5

lol :) gamespot is full o noobs Tier4 guys with big e-penesis assemble here.

quake live isnt too bad. I can always get a couple kills lol.

tutt3r