Going back a week or two, just before the release of Ra2 v2.220 I had this god-awful argument with [K]Rocket and Strawb that I thought I`d mention here. Not because I`m still railed at either of them as they both argued their points well, but because it touches on a fundamental idea that underlies Clan competition. Give me a sec to explain… That night I`d been on Ra2 playing one on one`s with some hpb`s, when a fellow lpb, who`s name I won`t mention, turned up to join in. Things started going a bit pear-shaped and I found myself lagging out and getting choppy frame updates. And those on modems started weeping out loud cos things were suddenly so bad. So I asked this lpb what fps he was capping it, and back comes the reply of 90. I`m like; "you get 90fps then?" To which I`m told "yeah, I`ve run a lot of optimizations to get that high." I pointed out that his fps was making life kinda nasty for me and the hpbs (I capped at 40 odd still at the time) and asked politely or him to lower it. He said no, and I made my excuses and left. So I get back to IRC and mention it to those present, when this god-awful row begins…

Rocket it seems, isn`t impressed. "You bloody UNR moan too much." Which in my case is prolly true, tho I can`t speak for the others, and it did get us rate capping on BW for the league matches. I point this out and am greeted with "then why didn`t you drop rez, cap higher and lag him out too?"

And this is where the question lies. My personal view had always been that clan games and clannie behavior online (which for anyone who comes into contact with that player, leaves a lasting impression of the clan he/she/it represents) was based around fair play, and skill and style above all else. So when I find this other player is dropping renderer complexity to benefit from Q2`s maxfps problem, I'm left wondering how many other clannies play by those standards. Is it wrong to use Quake 2`s flaw and exploit a powerful machine to gain advantage over others (Qw caps everyone permanently at 30 odd maxfps so inequalities aren`t an issue, and even the average lame quaker with his rectangular P60 chip and his 2Mb Cirrus Logic`s 2D card can get 30fps in Qw…J) and it is any better using the same flaw to out-wit those that already use it? (Similar to camping a camper…)

Strawb, Rocket and I argued over this for quite a while, joined by Fr1, Sephy and the others around at the time, but none of us really came up with any earth shattering reasons why either mentality is better or more `just` than the other. And as it is, being as fickle about my morals as I am about my current wardrobe, I seem to remember giving up and returning to Ra2, but out of interest, was I just being idealist that morality and honor should be part of the game, or is it right to use what some see as extremely unfair advantages to gain a head start? It is, after all, a game of mass homicide, and how moral is that? J

Rant over, and returning to recent happenings, Pooperman`s rather worrying split from RSC only goes to fuel thoughts that the Corps are fast falling to internal strife, but as we've all been there before I`m sure they`ll recover just as UKF and other casualties have. I did however, find it a bit worrying seeing someone who had persevered so long for RSC jump ship and head for the glitz and tinsel that is "I`ve joined King." Okay, I know I`ve no right to sit on this moral high ground and judge Poops, but as many would point out, they`re putting together a UK Quake 2 team to represent us, we don`t really need another super clan…

(Carla now gets off her moral high ground before she slips and falls.)

A quick, but no less important (lol, like anything I write here is actually important! J) shout now to [UKF] who lost Cham lately. Gutted for you guys, and a big wave goodbye to Cham. You`ll be missed hon.

Thought for the day:

(It would be week, but I'm suffering from feverish bouts of column writing at the moment, I'm sure it'll return to week once the novelty wears off, or someone mails me telling me to shut the f**k up… J)

Turkish Delight Mini Rolls. Just, like, Mmmmmmmm J