INX game servers blog

I’m very fussy with my choice of games, and it takes a good game to capture my imagination, and moreso to get me hooked. Since Left 4 Dead was released some 9 months ago, there have been times where instead of sleeping and indulging in normal activities (useful, healthy pursuits like eating and going to the gym), I’ve been on my Left 4 Dead server (another sure sign I really like a game is when I go to the effort to run my own server!). It’s safe to say I’m a big fan of the game.

And then, at the beginning of May, Killing Floor stumbled along. Killing Floor, The budget priced pretender, perhaps even usurper to the zombie-style gameserver crown.

And while Killing Floor didn’t perhaps have the polish round the edges that Left 4 Dead did (and a multi-million dollar budget to suit), it’s certainly sent shockwaves in the direct of Valve, rich from the successes of a game many considered to the best of 2008.

Going head to head, Killing Floor is pretty much akin to Left 4 Dead, in the newly formed versus mode. Wave after wave of Zombies, with achivements for simply staying alive. Left 4 Dead certainly has the depth and longeitivity of an impressive release; but there’s just something about Killing Floor, and a reason why I’m playing on my Killing Floor server at the weekends, and not on my permanently full Left 4 Dead game servers.

Killing floor servers- the bad bits

• Some have likened the game to an old version of Quake (wrong really, because its based on the UT2004 / RO:OS engine). Overall, I feel this is a little harsh. The graphics aren’t the best, but in-game, and through the menus, they do reflect their price tag.
• Bugs, and more bugs. While the development team appear to be frantically ironing out problems, glitches in the server browser and in-game (Stalkers getting stuck, and being invisible to find!) haven’t helped the mixed reviews.
• Although I’ve not found myself too bored yet (gaming hours are testament to this), I do wonder how long it’ll be before I and the community grow bored of the same old game play (although it’s said new gametypes will be introduced over time).

It’s fair perhaps to say in reflection, the ‘weaknesses’ in Killing Floor, aren’t plenty, but they are glaring in places.

Left 4 Dead game servers- the sucky

• Fans of the game will wonder why L4D2 is being touted for release in November. Still no proper SDK support, so you can automatically download custom maps. And thus a real lack of support for custom map, bar through plugins such as Sourcemod. They really should have sorted that out before plotting the sale of the sequel.
• The scare factor. My hypothesis is that Left 4 Dead is more ‘cartooney’ to appeal to a younger market. It’s ok to headshot zombies if they look like they are out of a comic book. But with this, Left 4 Dead just isn’t as scary as Killing Floor, which looks far more raw, and despite the inferior graphics, more real.
• In light of the above flaw in Killing Floor, perhaps not a fair observation. But for the extra money we paid for this game, the campaigns seems a little on the light side. I can’t be the only one that was expecting more gameplay for my £?

Killing Floor- the juicy

• The Max Payne style slow-mos are fantastic. Particularly when you have a fully loaded pistol. Nothing more satisfying than blowing Zombie brains to pieces, with extreme precision.
• Map support. Where Left 4 Dead fails in this department, full custom map support has been met enthusiasm from the gaming community. More customisation = more longevity.
• The crappy characters. The cockney cries of “Money, money money”. And “Stand still, I’m not trying to shag you”. While others might point to this being another unpolished part of the game. It’s a light relief from being attacked by a half-human arachnid.

Left 4 Dead – why its a Zombie classic

• Wide choice of gameplay. Campaign, versus and survival give way more scope and variation that Killing Floor just doesn’t.
• While Killing Floor seems more of a shooting frenzy, Left 4 Dead is far more tactical and offers a superior sophistication of coop. You can’t afford to run off Rambo-style on this game. You’ll get eaten.
• It would be unfair to criticise the cartoony style characters on Left 4 Dead, without complimenting the smooth and aesthetically pleasing environment the source engine gives you with Left 4 Dead. The levels are polished, and the bugs and glitches are fewer.

Shall I buy a Left 4 Dead server or Killing Floor game server?

The obvious answer is both, because What Left 4 Dead servers offer, Killing Floor gameservers make up. And vice versa.

If you were to pick one, the big deciding factor as always is the price. Killing Floor costing a tad over £10, which is excellent value for money.

In conclusion, I might upset a few by suggesting Killing Floor a marginal winner. And I base this decision on Left 4 Dead seemingly making way for Left 4 Dead 2 in November. And the fact that Killing Floor has only just started with the more open customisation base.

But really, if you like your Zombie Games, I’d definitely be owning a copy of both

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

Hosting a Call of Duty 4 game server with INX? Having to pay out for a costly piece of webspace for your map downloads? Why not get a Call of Duty 4 game server with INX?

We’re putting together a free map repository system, in the lead up to the release of the Download Core 4. Any Call of Duty 4 server customer can get free hosting for their maps by contacting support

The whole fast download thing with Call of Duty is a quite a pain in the arse, so why not move your COD 4 server over to INX so we can take the hassle out for you?

First off, a Happy New Year to everyone! I hope everyone is sufficiently sober to focus on my short blog post; it has been a long while.

Just a very quick note to let you know we’ve added a new game to the panel – Hidden Source: Beta. Hidden Source originally was based on the old hlds engine, but has been ported onto the source engine as of late. It’s a fantastic indie game, and well worth checking out. Existing customers can install Hidden Source via our game server control panel, or if you prefer, you can rent a Hidden Source server.

Call of Duty 4 has even by its own expectations, taken everyone by surprise, let us not forget Team Fortress 2. Such a fantastic game, and amongst COD4, a game I’m thoroughly addicted to. You can buy a Team Fortress 2 game server by clicking the link!

Best of wishes for 2008!

- inx|Olly

Woo hoo!

Hail the conquering hero!

No longer is COD4 point and click monkey only!

Call of Duty 4 has finally been patched to work on Linux. As such INX-Gaming are now offering Call of Duty 4 game servers with instant setup!

Right now I am distributing this to all our servers, and our backend.

All customers should hopefully within the next few hours be able to switch to COD4 via the control panel.

For news and updates, please keep an eye on this forum thread.

I hate to sound like a stuck record on one of those WW2 fps maps, but why do us Linux guys get such a hard deal?

Call of Duty 4 is fantastic. However, it’s in danger of going the same way as Insurgency…ETQW. Those other games that had that potential to live up to something great.

And my gripe in the case of COD4….No sodding linux server files, again.

Did the COD boys not learn from their former ties with Medal of Honour? The Medal of Honour Airbourne farce is covered in such great detail across the net, it really needs no introduction. For those in the dark, picture a recurring nightmare for Linux game server providers.

• Game X gets hyped up beyond belief, pre-release. Wow @ those screenies. OMFG @ those trailors. We cannot wait. I am busting a nut with excitement (really).
• Game X released. It’s as good as the previews suggest! Wahey!
• Erm. WTF. Server files? Linux server files?
• Game dies a death.

IMO, and let it be known in my very humble opinion, games make or break in the first week. It’s that first week the rush of people playing online, and hooked, begins.

What is continously letting publisher (shareholder) profits down is:

• Shoddy initial server files
• WINDOWS only server files

For crying out loud. We don’t all rent Windows licenses, slap on a copy of <insert well known popular windows control panel, which GSP brands as GSP-Name-Panel and passes off as their own>, and pass ourselves off as game server gurus.

Some of us love understanding how things work.

We adore the open source.

We <3 performance.

We aren’t point and click-monkies.

Some of us don’t particularly want to use Windows. Give us a command line any day.

An awful lot of us don’t want to host Windows, we want Linux.

Which, BTW is why COD 4 servers aren’t listed on the website yet.

So now, you know why

- inx|Olly

Autumn’s always great fun for new releases. And wow, we’re spoilt for choice at the moment. Having tested, we’ve added a couple new releases to the website, and to the panel. You can switch to these games immediately on the panel if you are current customer, or add a new order if you want! Go on…

The first game we’ve added is Warsow. Not exactly new, no. Take a look at our Warsow game servers page for some more detailed info on the game itself. We were asked to test this by a customer and it seems to run fine. Very popular it seems for competitions and the likes.

The second game we’ve added is the appetite wetting Team Fortress forever. We’ve added a FF gaming servers page for it, naturally. I’m not sure how Fortress Forever is going to take off, given Team Fortress 2 is out very shortly. Not the best timing, but hey, it’s free. Switchable on the panel, so why not give it a go this weekend?

I’m currently suffering with the flu, so I am going to go and die in the corner with some lemsip and Bioshock on my 360.

Olly

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!