INX game servers blog

Here at INX-Towers, we’ve got a bet going.

We all know Enemy Territory Quake Wars is going to be big this summer. Without getting too carried away, I’ve got a few games I think will pip it to the post of Summer king. It takes me back to A-Level history. 14th-16th century history, no less. Think of Counterstrike Source as Louis XII of France. A true warrior king. And France, the long living giant, set for the gallows as the proletariat hang the game dry. Is Counterstrike a game that will live for ever more, but ultimately doomed to disappear.

Then there’s Battlfield 2. Let’s not include Battlefield 2142. Battlefield 2 the Charles of Burgundy. The queer shaped chin on the face of online gaming. The fantastic game with amazing reaching power, but limited from growing to its full potential by the ranked farce.

Quake Wars, the Henry VIII. Glamorous, revolutionary. Pushing back the boundaries. We hope not ridden with syphallis. This will be a big game no doubt, but what else is there to challenge the big three.

Roll up the first online-gaming equivalent of Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the throne. Team Fortress Forever. Reviving an old, oldie (a kind of Henry VII). Will it be enough to challenge at the top? Will the game fill servers and fill the coffers of the game server providers coffers?

Call of Duty IV, a different direction. A revolution in the tradition of COD based war games. It has to big. Will the dedicated server files be released on time, and without restrictions? Not like the problems with Medal of Honour Airbourne. One member on INX-Forums claims that a week long delay on server files is going to kill the game. It’ll never take off. Are they wrong?

Which is going to be the biggest game this autumn? And what will be the biggest surprise outsider?

Let me know.

And Mrs Lee, 7 years on and I still remember my A-Level history. Impressed?!

Unfortunately I don’t bring any good news in this blog post. In fact, it’s the news I was expecting, and dreading bringing you for a while. For this moment in time on release, we won’t be able to offer you Enemy Territory Quake Wars servers. I had a hint this would happen when we weren’t chosen to host the beta servers.

It’s a huge shame because we were going to offer you, our thousands of game server players, the chance to switch instantly to the new game on release via our custom control panel. We will however, be offering the unranked version hopefully on release. So it’s not all that bad…I guess.

So why weren’t we chosen? We tried to work with the developers from the start, but we feel it was quite apparant that two other GSP’s had already got in. I think we were too late, although this isn’t really confirmed or know.

From what I’ve seen so far, there are two definite providers, although I can’t confirm this. You can probably guess the first provider. We’ve a lot of respect for them. They are a large gaming community and deserve the reward of hosting the game. The other provider host Battlefield ranked servers (shock). Other than that they are relatively small. They must have had something special

So for now guys, we’ll keep working on this, and work on what we need to bring these to you. In the meantime, please support the games we’ve been hosting for the last 5 years. The games such as Counterstrike that don’t seem to have these unfortunate limits.

We think we should be able to host Quake Wars ranked servers:

1. Lets look at Counterstrike Source. Look how many branded servers we host. Try a search on game-montitor.com. Type the other competitors in. It’s tiny in comparison. Counterstrike Source is the biggest and most popular FPS around. We must be doing something right? We are literally huge in terms of how many game servers we host. According to game-monitor, twice as big as one of those that we believe has been chosen to host Quake Wars ranked.
2. A custom control panel. Not something rented, or bought off the shelf. Our own, customisable and made for our customers every whim.
3. Friendly and active community that’s growing rapidly.
4. Top ranking for gaming search engine phrases.
5. A proper business. So many providers are run from bedrooms. We’re a fully audited and long established UK LTD company. We’ve been doing this shizzle for five years now.

I’ve spent those 5 years working my arse off to grow INX from our own personal funding. No daddy-loans. Everything we have is paid for. Long hours, blood and sweat. We’ve got to such a huge size now that it’s quite shocking at times when I consider. So I do find the fact we’re not hosting Quake Wars servers a bit of a shock, and moreso a big big disappointment.
We would really make a go of hosting this game.

Unfortunately it is Battlefield ranked servers all over again and it is a shame the publishers do not seem to have fully listened to the gaming community.

I am biased, I know! However, I think it’s of huge detriment to not allow a gaming community and provider of our size not to host this game. Thousands would have switched on release. They won’t now. All those potential gamers lost.

We all wish the developers and the game in general the best of luck. I’ll certainly be playing it this autumn. I just hope they’ll rethink their policy and let INX host ranked servers. So we can see the game grow as big as it deserves. And not go the same way Battlefield has.

Would you like to see INX host Quake Wars servers? Please leave your comments below.

Is your clan looking for sponsorship? A free server?

Are you pro? A bunch of commited lads who’ve been playing CSS since it beta’d on the BBC micro?

Will you put our name on your T-shirts at the LAN’s you attend? Girls already do that for me anyway, woof.

Maybe you’ll tattoo INX-Gaming on your arse, because you’ve only come to INX-Gaming because we’re the biggest and best around.

You’ll try and sell as MANY servers for as possible? Making INX-Gaming a huge game server provider?

GREAT! Where do we sign up?

INX-Gaming do not sponsor clans!!!1111shiftone

If you have just MSN’d us, or messaged us on livechat, and have been linked to this blog post, please don’t take offence.

Take it as just me being very honest, and telling you how it is. No bullsh*t!

Let me explain, and detail, why we don’t sponsor clans, point by point:

It says clearly on our contact page we don’t sponsor

Go on, have a look at http://www.inx-gaming.co.uk/support/. It’s likely you have found our MSN / Windows Live Messenger, or Xfire address on there. in haste you didn’t read the writing next to it:

» Live / MSN Messenger – sales@inx-gaming.co.uk. For sales enquiries only. We do NOT provide technical support via msn. Please also note we do not offer sponsorship to clans, so please don’t ask.

Oops! Missed that bit. Maybe we should tattoo it to our head. And I concede, we don’t state it for Xfire, we tell you to look above:

» XFire – inxgaming. As above!

Clearly it says on the contact page we don’t sponsor. Don’t worry, I don’t read all the crap on webpages either. We all skim read. It happens. In fact only this morning I skim read an entire edition of Nuts Magazine.

Although those few that think “Yes, I did read that but we’re an exception”.

Yes you quite clearly are. Very rarely do I walk down the street to see pro-CSS players with their head shoved up their own arse. There are no exceptions. None, no thank you!

What about our paying customers?

If I bought a kebab from Chilli Masters in Spalding (my favourite local takeway), and then saw Chaz and Jon come out with free kebabs, I’d start a fast food dual. No, really I wouldn’t stand for it.

If you went into the off license and bought some beer, only for the people to come along side you and take a free case (hey, on the house lads, you are pro underage drinkers), you’d not be happy.

So how does one of our customers feel, let’s call him Andrew, when he / she has shed out £30 for a big public Counterstrike server? He loves it, cos we are great. He’s happy to pay the money monthly. He’s been with us 6 months now.

And then, then little dlibert in da txtspeak vuice sez a forum post.

HEAR ME NOW!!1 WE IZ GOT A FREE, SRY SPONSORD SVR FROM DA BOYZ @ INX. COME JOIN. AYE N BUY A SVR.

Point made clear? Andrew’s going to go apesh*t. And likely so.

While we are charging for a service (yes we are a business, and there to make money….SHOCK HORROR), we will not give something free to a clan while other customers are paying their hard earned cash.

It aint worth it, love

Contrary to what the templates you can copy and paste your clan name, and the GSP name into, it aint worth it for us GSP’s.

I’ve spent 4 years in marketing and business development. With the best due respect, I find it a lil irritating when I’m told how we should be advertising ourselves.

Putting your banner on our website, it aint going to work.

Really, you could get the red devils to explode our name across the air.

I am not bovved.

Again, don’t take offence if you’ve been linked to this. I’m telling it as it is, and having a little gest at the same time.

But for Pete’s sake (or Andrew’s), have a look at our affiliates system – www.inx-gaming.co.uk/affiliates.

If you are a brilliant clan, well done. You’ll never be as pro as me at CS, but PLEASE keep on trying.

Seriously, if you are a respected clan, and you like our services, earn yourself £5 for referring us. Then you can get a proper server. A proper custom control panel. All the works.

And you won’t have to tattoo Olly on your arse.

Have a good weekend all!

At last, after rigorous testing, we are happy to announce that you can now safely switch your game servers to and from Insurgency! We are also accepting Insurgency orders which will be setup instantly via our automated system.

If you already have an account with us, here’s the quickest way to install the game:
1.  Log into the Server Control Panel
2. Click on ‘switch game’ next to the game you are currently running.
3. Select ‘Half-Life 2: Insurgency’ from the list. Do not tick the ‘install game’ box, just click Switch!
4. Back on the main page you will see an ‘Update’ button. Click this then restart your game server.

Please note that although we have tested the game thoroughly, Insurgency may not work perfectly for all customers. The game itself is still in beta so do not expect it to be bug free for at least several weeks. May I remind you that the game takes a good 30 seconds to load after you click the Start/Restart button; there is nothing we can do about this, it is the game itself causing the delay!

Happy gaming

There’s been quite a lot of discussion on the forums about this recently. Basically, Electronic Arts are refusing to allow us to sell ranked BF2 game servers (because to do so you must be a member of EA’s trusted partner scheme). Every time we try to make contact, they either ignore us (and believe me, we’ve tried everything, even leaving people voicemails and inviting them out to lunch!) or they reply with a pre-written response along the lines of “the scheme is full”.

Battlefield 2 is going down the toilet. When ET Quakewars comes out, the toilet will be well and truly flushed. The only way to restore the game to its former glory is to have more stable (and cheaper) game servers online. Cheaper game servers = more people buying game servers, therefore the game becomes more popular; simple! And we hope to charge 99p per slot for a BF2 ranked game server, just like all our other games.

Please sign our petition by adding your name in a comment below. The more signatures, the better. We will then send it to EA, as a final hope that they will allow us (UK’s Biggest GSP, without BF2 servers!) to host ranked servers of their game.

We, the undersigned, would like INX-Gaming to become an EA trusted partner for the purpose of selling Battlefield 2 Ranked game servers at 99p per slot. EA, we have had enough of this idiocy!

Where to now?

I remember back when sequals were released on my old Commodore Amiga 1200, and before that my 500, and proceeding that, less so my Amstrad 646 CPC. Less so because I would only have been at the most 7 years of age at the time. I was but a gaming young jedi at the time. If I were to print on our company website I was wet at the prospect of some releases, I am sure Del Monte will be dropping me an emailing owning me. ‘DO NOT talk dirty on our company website!’ I’m under strict instructions to remain professional in our game servers blog. And professional I shall remain.

And besides, no-one wants to read about a fat knacker getting moist over computer games. /me runs

Dino Dini’s Goal. Sensible WORLD of Soccer. Yes, I was a big football fan and this was really before any decent FPS could be played. The previews of these games had me positively salivating at the mouth.

Half Life 2, was the biggy for me. Every day I was reading the latest news snippets (often recycled). It was the trailers that had me *omg wowing*.

Remember that preview where Gordon walks across the bridge, with the Zombies coming out at him? It was next-gen. Special. ‘I can’t wait for this to be released’, I’m thinking…

What didn’t do Valve any favours, was that by the time Half Life 2 was released, many of the other developers had got a bit closer. Far Cry was a hugely under-rated game on the PC. I still love defending the house in COD UO. Magical gaming moments. Half Life 2 was a let down.

I am getting at that huge excitement with games. Generally you have about 5 minutes game play of one of those new games, before it all becomes the same.

Given graphics are now at such a level where the hardware is behind the talent of the designers, where can we go next?

John Carmack talks about mobile gaming. Please, pass me the sleeping pills. What I want is 50″ HD gaming. Near perfect graphics. Awesome AI. Seat trembling surround sound (no most jokes please).

What I do not want is gaming on a 4″ screen. The last level on Half Life 3000 being interupted by a txt from ma bezzie m8′s.

R u going up da yuth klub 2nite?

FFS, i was just bout 2 give Alex one innit. Now i is goin 2 shoot yu wit da gravity gunya mum buy me, ai.

Mobile gaming is a disaster waiting to happen. And please, don’t waste it on the txtspeak culture that will not appreciate it. Boring. Next, please.

I want gaming on a big TV, screen. Not fussed. If it’s FPS, it has to be with a mouse. Don’t tell me it works on a joypad. You CANNOT make lightening quick moves on an analog stick. Trust me, I’m pro at CS. Go from CS to Halo. We all said it sucked.

Looking forward ‘scientists’, read corporations, have already developed the notion of 3D TV. TV that explodes in your face. TV that sits in the middle of the screen (like my Nan, ffs!). Amazing stuff. Although not for public release yet, this has to be where it’s going.

Increased AI (they never got it better than Far Cry IMO). Better sound? Doesn’t get much better than DOD Source for sound effects. Cinematic. Amazing.

If I am asked where gaming is going to be, and what game servers we’re going to be hosting in the future. The answer is, ‘who knows’?’

Whatever way, I feel as excited as I did when Sensible World of Soccer was released. Gaming is approaching the movie industry in terms of investment and revenue. With this, increased ‘movie budgets’ for games.

It’s only going to get bigger and better. And that’s fantastic news for us gamers. Enough to get the juices flowing.

We have some good news for all you game server customers out there! The game server control panel has been updated today with a fantastic new feature: a file editor! “What’s so special about that?” I hear you cry… well, this is no ordinary file editor; it features full versioning support, which means every time you update or edit a file, it saves it for you (with a useful name and a date stamp) so you can revert back to any particular version of the file at any time! It gives you control over many core game files for your game server, therefore meaning that you don’t have to use FTP. How handy.

I might well have confused you, so let me clarify: Say, for example, you update your server.cfg file with some new gravity settings, and after testing them on the game server you decide you don’t want super-low gravity, you can jump back onto the game panel and revert back to an older version of your server.cfg! Simple, eh?

Just another reason why INX-Gaming are UK’s Number #1 for game servers.

We are currently in talks with the developers of the up and coming game, Enemy Territory Quake Wars, the sequel to Wolfenstein Enemy Territory. We hope to be one of the first providers to host ranked game servers for the new game, which we predict will rival some of the most popular online games around today, namely Battlefield 2 and even Counter-Strike.

The game, which is to be released in a couple of months, sports stunning visuals and state-of-the-art game play. Check out the following link and track the progress of the game before it’s released!

http://www.splashdamage.com/?p=37

INX-Gaming hope to have some of the first game servers online for this game, and you will be able to too, thanks to our instant setup system, making it possible to have your game server online the minute the game is released!

Our Counter-Strike Source Public GunGame Server is now up!

85.234.148.30:27015

Feel free to come join us on the game server in the evenings for some GunGame fun on one of the most popular GunGame map rotations. We’ve got GunGame deathmatch running, so it’s constant action all night long. You never know, you might even see an INX staff member playing!