Archive for September, 2008

Jack Thompson Disbarred: “Now the Fun Begins”

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

The inevitable has happened.

Jack Thompson has been permanently disbarred. He’s got 30 days to get his affairs in order, and then he’s out. Oh, and he’s also got a fine of over $43,000.

The Florida Supreme Court supported the accusations against Jack Thompson including that he:

* Made false statements of material fact to courts and repeatedly violated a court order
* Communicated the subject of representation directly with clients of opposing counsel
* Engaged in prohibited ex parte communications
* Publicized and sent hundreds of pages of vitriolic and disparaging missives, letters, faxes, and press releases, to the affected individuals
* Targeted an individual who was not involved with respondent in any way, merely due to “the position [the individual] holds in state and national politics”
* Falsely, recklessly, and publicly accused a judge as being amenable to the “fixing” of cases
* Sent courts inappropriate and offensive sexual materials
* Falsely and publicly accused various attorneys and their clients of engaging in a conspiracy/enterprise involving “the criminal distribution of sexual materials to minors” and attempted to get prosecuting authorities to charge these attorneys and their clients for racketeering and extortion
* Harassed the former client of an attorney in an effort to get the client to use its influence to persuade the attorney to withdraw a defamation suit filed by the attorney against respondent
* Retaliated against attorneys who filed Bar complaints against him for his unethical conduct by asserting to their clients, government officials, politicians, the media, female lawyers in their law firm, employees, personal friends, acquaintances, and their wives, that the attorneys were criminal pornographers who objectify women.

[source: gamepolitics.com]

His response was his standard threat: he sent an email to www.gamepolitics.com entitled “Now the fun begins”. I remember a similar scenario when he threatened to “deconstruct the Florida Bar”.

For a timeline of Jack Thompson’s demise click here.

- JForce

Posted in John, Random thoughts | 3 Comments »

TNA iMPACT stands up to a brutal clothesline…

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

TNA iMPACT! (x360)

A wrestling game may seem like a strange choice. Cancel that, a wrestling game must seem like a strange choice: they’re traditionally very slow and robotic, difficult to handle, and very repetitive. They also don’t stand up to the same level of scrutiny in terms of variety and depth of gameplay that the Tekken and DoA legions demand.

TNA iMPACT! by Midway games has breathed new life into the genre and has changed my opinion of wrestling games for the better, although I’m not entirely sure why. The same combinations of buttons lead to the same moves that almost all wrestlers have in common, and after the first match you will have heard all of the commentry that the game has to offer. The handling is fairly intuitive (and very quick to learn) but still feels robotic in places, and there’s still no strategy other than to chip away at the enemy’s health bar and then try to pin him, regardless of the wrestler that you’re using and the wrestler that you’re fighting. The lack of strategy can be observed by watching the AI: sometimes they’ll block a punch, sometimes they won’t. Sometimes they’ll reverse a hold that you’ve put them in, and other times they won’t.

Given how little they could get away with it’s impressive to see the lengths that Midway have gone to polish the game. They clearly tried to make this game the best ever wrestling game and leave it in a position to hold the title for a while: there’s a story mode with an actually interesting and well-written story, with lots of colourful characters and good cutscenes. There’s a create your own player mode, and there’s four player multiplayer at one console. New characters, new moves for the create a player mode, and new arenas can all be unlocked (for the fans of collectibles). This isn’t a game for the hardcore beat ‘em up genre fans, in the same way that WWF isn’t for hardcore martial arts fans. This is a game for people who want a shallow but fun way to kill a weekend with a friend, or who enjoy the showmanship style of fighting. TNA iMPACT! is to DoA what Earth Defence Force 2017 is to Gears of War: simpler, brighter, but much easier to pick up and play. It’s also more addictive than any of them.

john@inx-gaming.co.uk
Laying the smackdown since 2007

Posted in Game Reviews, John | 1 Comment »

Cheap as chips game servers

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

If a bloke with too much of the old fake sun tan and with more gold than a Swiss vault, tried to sell you a cheap as chips game server, you’d wonder whether it’s hosted on an antique server. Never mind hosted from an amiga, you’d expect the gameserver to be powered by a Spectrum. Or maybe a BBC micro? Any suggestions for a worse case scenario? Antique-host. Now there’s a business idea!

So it does amaze me the amount of people that are obsessed with the word ‘cheap’. We as a nation, and as individual consumers, are obsessed with it. Where it’s arguably valid is when you are shopping around for the best price on a product. As an avid amateur mucisian and wannabe rock-star, I recently treated myself to a Microkorg, which I must say is a rather cool little synthesiser. Apparantly the lead singer of the Killers uses one. How cool!

Narrowing down the best

What was the first thing I did? I went onto Google shopping. And then you guessed it, I sorted by price. So here sits the biggest hypocrite writing this post like an old woman. Now, the average price was around £250, and I had tabbed in Firefox around a dozen possible companies to order from. I wasn’t going to pay £275 for it, when I could get it for £250 or less. So out went those companies charging an arm and a leg. Windows closed.

I was then left with around half a dozen sites. And after that I started doing a little homework. I asked the following questions

  • Do they have a full contact address listed?
  • Can I get hold of them easily if there’s a problem?
  • Does their website look nice, or is it a horrible template. Something a Turner Prize wannabe has shat on my monitor?
  • Do they have what I want in stock?

And from that I was left with three websites.

Choosing the winner

I then contacted all three by phone. Two of them didn’t answer. Funny enough, I was left with the one I liked at the beginning. It was a bit more expensive, but firstly they really knew their stuff, and secondly they were going to put my keyboard straight in the post after I ordered. Which they did, to their credit.

So why didn’t I go for the very cheapest one?

Pricing is a very thin line. If you price too high, you don’t get any customers. If you price too low, while you’ll get the hordes of customers, you don’t make enough money to sustain growth and offer a good service. I chose the one that was going to be least hassle. I wanted my synth for the weekend. I didn’t want to be let down. I wanted to be able to get hold of the company I’d paid £250 to if there was a problem. For the £5 extra I paid over the cheapest one, it was completely worth it.

The relevance to gaming servers

Very simple. The same people that wouldn’t listen to this advice, will have stopped reading this post after the second line.

It amazes me how people will choose a game server provider, a couple of quid less over INX-Gaming (and other reputable hosts) even though:

  • No contact details are on their site
  • The grammatical and spelling errors, are quite frankly embarrasing. Stinking of kiddie-host
  • They only appear to host a couple of game servers
  • Yet they lie, and promise 24/7 support
  • Because they get something free they don’t actually need

My dad taught me something when I was younger. When buying something, think, what profit that provider is making? Can they sustain service at that pricing?

I’m well aware that INX aren’t any longer the ‘cheapest’ (we were once!). But I can tell you that the pricing is based on sustaining top support, and excellent server quality.

If a competitor drops their prices to compete with us, something has to give somewhere.

If we halved our prices we’d double our bills for:

  • bandwidth
  • rack space
  • power
  • hardware
  • networking equipment

And with that, twice as much as support. And at the end of it, we’re making the same “profit”. But we’re not.

It’s not my job to tell people what to charge, but we have been around coming up to 6 years now, and we’ve not gone bust like so many with silly pricing.

While some game server hosts might want to charge 75p a slot, we know their support sucks. We know they aren’t making the profit. We know it’s not sustainable.

So we’ll be sticking to our guns, and we’ll stick to offering the superior service we do. And really, at the end of the day, all for another 25p. Even Mars Bars cost more than that now!

-Olly

Posted in Random thoughts | 4 Comments »

Fortress Forever 2.1 hotfix released

Monday, September 15th, 2008

Last night a new patch for Fortress Forever 2.1 was released. Nothing major seems to have been released. Just a few hot fixes for bugs.

Quoting from the official forums:

”

The regular server packages are being made right now and will be released within a couple of hours (or sooner if possible), but any of you linux server admins can definitely get a head start if you want.

The differences between the *_WindowsServer.zip files, and the generic *_Server.zip and .tar.gz files will be 3 files:

bin/server_i486.so
maps/ff_dropdown.lua
maps/includes/base_ad.lua

”

We’ve updated all our system game server files, so all you need do to issue the update is reboot your game server, and the update gaming server files should be updated automatically.

Should you have any problems, please contact support.

Posted in Fortress Forever news | No Comments »

5 ways to avoid being ripped off by a gameserver provider

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Bit of an odd blog post, I’m sure you’ll agree. However all I’ve heard this week are new customers on Live Sales Chat or by email, sharing their gameserver provider woes. And I really feel for them.

Those customers that hadn’t heard of us took some convicing we weren’t like some unscrupulous gameserver hosts. Sad really, that after nearly 6 years in business.

The BBC would have a field day. Never mind Rogue Traders. How about Rogue Gameserver Hosts? Unfortunately there are too many!

So even if you don’t rent your gameservers with INX, and you look for another host, I hope these five things to check that will help you avoid being scammed.

1. How long has the host been in business?

Don’t get me wrong, there are many gameserver companies that have only been around for years that are far worse than those only 6 months. However, with a game server company that hasn’t been around long, you’ll struggle to find reviews, so it’s very difficult to know just how good they are. Also, consider a large percentage of businesses fail in the first 6 months. Everyone starts a game server provider believing they will be the next big thing. They’ll offer MSN support and their personal mobile. Wow! But it’s not scaleable. One person cannot continue to look after gameservers if the company is to grow. We’ve always seen it as the biggest failing point for any gameserver host.

2. How easy is it to contact the server host?

We believe any company whether it be game server host or Florist, should be easily contactable. And they should state clearly, their opening hours. That’s what we do. We’re honest about it. And at the time of writing we don’t offer 24/7 support, so we don’t lie about it. Beware, lots do. A host that gives you his / her msn sounds fantastic. But what if he / she is taken ill.

Can you see an address to write to on their website? Any company failing to list an address is breaking distance selling regulations. It seems to be the norm, rather than the exception new hosts do this. Do you really trust a company that breaks such clear trading rules?

3. What’s their Eglish loike?

Ho ho :)

Seriously, can you trust a gameserver host to look after your clan / communities servers, if there are hordes of spelling mistakes on their front page? It doesn’t take five minutes to spell-check a page. Loads of grammatical and spelling errors, for me, suggest someone that can’t be bothered. How bothered will they be when your servers are down through no fault of your own?

4. Who’s shizzle are they reselling?

I’ve written about this on our about page. No doubt some gameserver hosters are going to be calling me a range of colourful names ranging from dispstick to…er…can’t print that on here ;)

No doubt they won’t agree with me, because they are resellers of resellers of resellers.

Check the about page for a full explanation. But in short, too many middle men, nothing gets done. A simple server reboot can take take days. Do you really want to wait that long?

5. Have they got a clue?

My next blog post will be on how easy it is to setup a game server provider. It’s very easy. :)

But doing it right, is another thing. I could setup a Chiropodist clinic if I wanted.

I’d get Daddy to give me a loan, I’d get myself a shop…buy all my equipment and wait for the customers to flock in. Ok, without thinking about marketing and advertising I’d not get many customers. But before long, there would be one mug walk in.

Eesha, INX company secretary calls me Propellar Arms. It’s not because I can fly. I believe it’s a lovely reference to my nimble hands. So trust me, you would not want me near your feet with a razor blade.

Similarly with game server companies, it’s so easy to setup. But when it comes to knowing the games, the operating system, the mods. It’s not something you can buy. It’s taken us 5 years + to get where we are knowledge wise.

While what I’ve written is perhaps lighthearted, it should be taken seriously.

When one big name GSP went bust last summer, so many customers were left hundreds, even thousands of pounds out of pocket. With no refunds. Clans died as a result.

I hope my modest nuggets of game server hosting wisdom help you avoid being ripped off.

- Olly :)

Posted in Game Servers | 2 Comments »

Cod 4 weekend no, no!

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Many of you may have wondered why settling down with a beer this weekend, that when you went to join your favourite Call of Duty 4 server, you were being foiled!

INX-Gaming Call of Duty 4  server owners reported a variety of issues error messages ranging from INVALID CD KEY, to finding their achievements and perks history profile….being wiped and corrupted. EEK!

I learnt via the Call of Duty 4 Linux mailing list that this was due to routing issues. Others claimed it may have been a man in the middle attack.

Either way we’re not sure. But coupled with America’s Labour Day, and a long weekend, this issue raged on from Friday through to Monday.

Personally, I am discusted. A whole weekend without playing on Call of Duty 4 servers. I actually had to go out and socialise!

- Olly

Posted in Call of Duty 4 News | No Comments »