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July
2003
Diffuze
- Gamer Interview
Conducted by CLIMaX
What
does a 34 year old Swede who likes Bette Davis movies do to kill time
when she's not involved in a Linux project? Play Quake 3 Arena, of course.
But you won't find Diffuze on European Quake servers. She prefers fragging
at Burial-Grounds in North America. And, despite a transatlantic ping,
she can definitely hang with the locals. LadyGamers managed to catch
Diffuze during a short break from the action to get the inside scoop,
the nitty-gritty and the down and dirty on this Quaker from Gothenburg.
So, without further adieu, we present Diffuze, July Gamer of the Month.
[LadyGamers]: Diffuze,
you've been fragging me at Burial-Grounds
for at least six months but you've been playing Quake longer than
that, obviously. When did you start? What are your favorite Quake
3 mods and maps? And, do you play other games, too?
[Diffuze]:
I started playing
Quake
sometime in late 1997. I played the Quake1 single player missions
and then I moved on to Quake2. First I played through the SP missions,
then I started to play online.I have been a hardcore FFA fan since
day one basically, since the first time I played an online game. That
mod really appeals to me, I like the hectic shoot and run style of
game. Trying to get better eff percentage, trying to get more frags.I
have played some Teamplay as well over the years, but due to the fact
that I'm based in Europe and play in the US, I've always had problems
keeping practice sessions and so on... the time difference is 6+ hours.
Nowadays, Q3 OSP FFA is by far my favourite style of game.
My
favourite Quake3 maps at the moment are: charon3dm3, mksteel, mkexp,
charon3dm1v2, jaxdm8. My favourite Quake2 maps were ztn2dm1, ztn2dm3
and ztn2dm5. ;)
I
have recently started to look into Q3 OSP CTF, and so far I like what
I see. The only thing you won't get me into playing is 1v1's. That
is - in my opinion - the most boring type of game ever invented.
I
do like some other games than Quake too, like The Sims, Sim City and
Rollercoaster Tycoon. ;)
[LadyGamers]:
We live in an age where video games are finally being taken seriously
as a sophisticated form of entertainmant and as a competitive sport.
Who and what in the gaming world really inspires you?
[Diffuze]: Doom, Quake and Quake2
has inspired me alot in the past and Quake3 is inspiring me now. The
concept of walking around in a 3D world is captivating to say the
least.
I
have met many players over the years and some of them has stood out
more than others. B0L0 is one of the players in the past who has inspired
me most I think. He has helped me alot in the past to become a better
player. He and all his clanmates in DpG
(quake2 tdm) were idols to me back then and they all were very helpful!
=)
CapnJackal
from Brurial-Grounds has helped me ALOT when it comes to Quake3. Early
on I noticed that my Q2 knowledge was of little use for me in Q3. The
physics of the game is so much different. He helped me out alot and
I owe him one! =)
One person that
I also have to mention is Flossie. She is one of a kind. We've been
tight ever since we first started to chat on the Gameboy Quake2 FFA
server. She has mad skills, I can never beat her other than if her dialup
connection is acting up on her. My hopes are that she will start playing
Quake3. =)
[LadyGamers]: You're
a regular at Burial-Grounds
in North America and a frequent contributor to the Linux Support and
Level Editing Forums there. Why did you pitch your tent at Burial-Grounds?
Do you ever play locally on European servers? And what about you involvment
with Linux programming? Tell us about that and your other life interests.
[Diffuze]:
When I first had the opportunity to play online I didn't
know anything about where to find servers. I found the Sheridan Quake2
server (map City1 on all the time, no fraglimit) and then the gameboy.enter.net
server from the Gameaholic
website. I didn't know that much about what impact the ping had, and
when I learned about that I had already gotten used to play with a high
ping, and started to know some players. I've tried to play on European
servers, but the low ping doesn't work for me .. and I missed my buddies
that I was used to playing with.. ;) Besides, for me the community in
which I'm involved is more important than the ping I have when I play.
I do get "pingraped" alot, but the community itself is more
important to me than my ping. As long as I'm surrounded by a great bunch
of people I'm happy.
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Finko,
who also had been playing Quake2 at gameboy, introduced me to Burial-Grounds.
I was hooked after my first visit! The people there are extremely helpful
to newcomers. The website is awsome. Lot of things to read about and
the message boards are very active. I really feel at home there. =)
I've been using
linux for many years now (dualbooting) and I was very pleased to notice
that Burial-Grounds has a few linux gamers, and an active linux
forum. The thing about linux that I really love is that you can
customize it to whatever you want. The tweaking is what interests me.
Making things look better, making them work smoother.
My "real life"
interests are art, design, architecture and computers. That is probably
why I was so blown off my feet by Quake in the first place. You can
build your own places and make them look exactly as in your fantasies.
Just download a level editor and start mapping. I map occationally,
and have just released one called Black Celebration. It's still
a beta, but can be downloaded from my webpage.
=) I also love webdesign. I change my webpage
so much that I probably have scared away my regulars by now. When I
want to try some new concept I always do it "live" on my site.
Some people call that idiotic, I call it Artistic Freedom! =p
[LadyGamers]:
What kind of gaming rig do you use and how do you set up Quake 3 Arena
for the best performance. Can you give us any tips on playing better?
[Diffuze]:
My gaming rig (I built it last summer):
Cpu: AMD Athlon
XP 1700+
Ram: 512 mb DDR cas2
Vid: PointOfView Geforce3 ti200 - 128 mb DDR edition
Hdd: 20 gigs, 7200rpm, dualboot Win2k pro and Mandrake 9.1
Monitor: Viewsonic G90f+, 19", black (bought this one last week)
Standard keyboard, standard ps2 scroll mouse
4 year old RedHat mousepad (I cant play without it)
My Q3 config dosen't
really contain anything strange...some maps are more graphical intense
than others, so I change the texture detail level by hand from map to
map. Generally I have it on the next-to best setting. Q3 is much smoother
and I get higher framerates in Linux than in Windows, so that might
be a tip for people to try out.
If the connection
to the server feels laggier than in "should", you might want
to check the "cl_timeNudge", "com_maxpackets", "snaps"
and "rate" settings. Optimal settings depend on your connection
and on your ping to the server though so you will have to test different
settings to find one that feels good for you. Oh and I have "simple
items" on. It makes life so much easier. =)
The best thing to
improve your techniques though, is to chase a good player and study
how he/she plays. One common thing that new players forget is to keep
track on health and armor. Armor up first or you'll die first. =)
[LadyGamers]:
If you were trapped inside an ice cave above the artic circle, but had
electricity and a PC, what three games or programs would you want to
keep yourself busy while the Statens
Raddningsverk team was searching for you?
[Diffuze]:
Quake III Arena, QuArK
(level editor) and Mozilla, so I could map and design webpages. =)
[Back to FotM]
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