Hi, my name ich Christian Keichel, I am currently writing an article on open source games for a german games magazine, so I have some questions to the players of Nexuiz about the game.
I would be very happy, if you can post you're views, so that I can give the reader a good picture of the Nexuiz Community.
1) Compared to an commercial online shooter, where are the advantages of Nexuiz, and where are the disadvantages?
2) Do you always find enough skilled opponents in the net?
3) Is Nexuiz played on Lanpartys?
4) For how long do you play Nexuiz?
5) Do you think the developers are listening do you, the gamers?
6) What other games do you play, and are you generally preferring Open Source games and software?
Ok this are my questions, I hope you all can help me.

hi, i'll try to answer your questions :

1) the main advantages ,imho, are unusual friendly community, that it's free and in a constant developing stage where everyone can participate

2) yes. by now there are enough skilled ppl on the servers (for me, at least)

3) on the one's i visit, yes

4) for over a year now

5) definitely a yes. although it might take some time,but your concerns are always listened to

6) well, atm i'm only playing nexuiz, but i've been playing a lot of first person shooters. i prefer 'free software', but it doesn't have to be free necessarily

thats it. a bit short, but i'm in a hurry

would you care to tell us the name of the german magazine you're referring to ?

CKeichel wrote:Hi, my name ich Christian Keichel, I am currently writing an article on open source games for a german games magazine, so I have some questions to the players of Nexuiz about the game.

How cool

CKeichel wrote:1) Compared to an commercial online shooter, where are the advantages of Nexuiz, and where are the disadvantages?

The main advantages is the community and the closeness between the developers and the users. The main disadvntage is the limited possibilities for development due to the limited recources, and that nexuiz strives to keep all code _and_ content free and open.

CKeichel wrote:2) Do you always find enough skilled opponents in the net?

Not really. If i play on off hours, it can be hard to find players on neraby servers, This I find a bit unfair, as the game deserves more players, but then again, there is no budget for advertising in this project.

CKeichel wrote:3) Is Nexuiz played on Lanpartys?

Yes. At least here in Norway its been played on several occations. I remember when the community made a scorelogger on request in very short notice when this started.

CKeichel wrote:4) For how long do you play Nexuiz?

I've played since 1.0, and I play quite often.

CKeichel wrote:5) Do you think the developers are listening do you, the gamers?

Very much so. Several examples of this might be found in this forum.

CKeichel wrote:6) What other games do you play, and are you generally preferring Open Source games and software?

I dont play too many games except oldies and nexuiz


Hope this is helpful

1)
advantages:

• Its pure fun! I just like the style.
• Its free (you can get if for free and ALSO free the floss sense as its gpl)
• The community is the best i know compared to other games.
• It works on windows, mac, linux out of the box.
• Its highly configurable.

disadvantages:

• It has a player base big enough that one can always find someone playing but even more players would be great. Its not as widly known as commercial games and imo quite often badly bashed in reviews..

2) Yes i find enough skilled opponents in the net but as said even more would be great.
3) Yes Nexuiz is played on Lanpartys but i have not been to one in years
4) If you mean since when then since the day version 1.0 was out. First of June 2005.
If you mean per day.. on average 1hour . Have to work, its summer. But besides playing there is also other stuff i do for nexuiz..
5) Well that one is a bit unfair as i'm listed in the credits as Programmer for Nexuiz.. But in general yes the developers try to listen to what people want and are glad to help with anything.
Popular examples include the falling damage and the damge-through floor changes..
6) I prefer shooter type games and games that i can play on linux. So i have a lot of id software games installed but i also like free and opensource games. I do not really prefer opensource games but why buy a game if there is a EQUALY good free game?
Though i even play for free games now and then..

Indeed it would be nice what magazine you refer too and it would be cool to get a copy of that article when its out

1)
+ The player community is much more familiar and friendly than others. You can get in contact with many of them very fast. Playable on almost every OS.

- maybe the game doesnt look very up-to-date, and the menue is more like stoneage

2) Not really always. But most of the time.

3) I heard about it, yeah. I've never been interested in those however.

4) For about one year.

5) Yes, and how they do! I never experienced developers who are that open and friendly.

6) For years now I haven't seen stuff which was worth the money, or playable enough on my hardware. In former times I played games like Doom, UT, Duke Nukem and stuff. [/quote]

Hi Christian Keichel. How nice of you to take the time to listen to what the community has to say before writing you article!

1
Cons
* More hardware intensive (naturally..) them commercial games with similar effects
* Not enough ppl on servers at times. That’s getting better tho.
Pros
* Strong, very friendly community. Best one I seen to date.
* It’s free. Even content is free. This means anyone can pick up and mod / bug fix / start their own game based on any part(s) of Nexuiz
* Constant evolution of the game. Commercial games have patches, but these are in 99% of the time just bug fixes and maybe some small new feature. Nexuiz is constantly getting new interesting features.

2
No, not always. Sometimes I find myself on a server with no resistance but that’s rare. It’s worth a note that I probably find myself on a server with a more skilled player(s) then the other way around.

3
Yes

4
If you mean each time its anything in-between one map and 30+ matches. I first started playing Nexuiz sometime in the summer 2005, if memory serves me right.

5
Very mutch, that’s another one of those awesome things about Nexuiz. Naturally not every idea and request gets accepted but you will always get an answer to you request.

6
Well I do try some new titles every now and then, but the only other game I play regularly is diablo2:lod. I would prefer OpenSource games if I could, but threes simply not enough OpenSource games for that to be an option. However to choose from two similar games one commercial is a no-brainer for me, and its not because one of them costs me cash, ill go for the OpenSource one any day.

CKeichel wrote:1) Compared to an commercial online shooter, where are the advantages of Nexuiz, and where are the disadvantages?

Advantages: OPEN SOURCE, FREE SOFTWARE. Have at least one legal gam on your hd This means cross platform too, there's support for Windows, Linux, and Mac too (Mac is a bit behind, but that's only couse the dev team could use more Mac developers, not becouse they don't want to support Mac.)
But this is more then just free. You're free to modify, to develope further, you can do ANYTHING you want with it.
But the biggest one: the community is very good, we're all friends here.


Disadvantages: developement is slower, then commercial games, patches come out not so often. Bugs can occour, and those that were discovered are fixed slower (there are hotfixes, but can be different from ppl to people.

2) Do you always find enough skilled opponents in the net?

I'm living in mid-east europe, and I can find servers with good pings all the time loaded with players matched to my skills, yes.

3) Is Nexuiz played on Lanpartys?

Afaik yes, there was a Japan tournament where there was a ladder in Nexuiz too.

4) For how long do you play Nexuiz?

Nowadays not so much (real life), but when I was realy active, I was playing 4-5 hours pro day.

5) Do you think the developers are listening do you, the gamers?

Absolutely! And they are very helpful too. I remember times, when I had a bug with flares back in 1.5, and divVerent made me a hotfix in 5 minutes , so I could test my wip map.

6) What other games do you play, and are you generally preferring Open Source games and software?

I prefer playing games, that can entertain me, wether it's an FPS, an RTS, a bord-game, or an arcade one. But mostly I prefer "unrealistic" FPS games like the allmighty Quake ( ) and the Unreal series.[/quote]

1) Compared to an commercial online shooter, where are the advantages of Nexuiz, and where are the disadvantages?
- advantage: it's for free and it's a very fast game
- disadvantage: many people don't like free games, they think they aren't as good as commercial products

2) Do you always find enough skilled opponents in the net?
- yes

3) Is Nexuiz played on Lanpartys?
- of course

4) For how long do you play Nexuiz?
- 2 weeks

5) Do you think the developers are listening do you, the gamers?
- yes. and.. *psshh* they talk with me!

6) What other games do you play, and are you generally preferring Open Source games and software?
- yes, im using many open source products, e.g. OpenOffice.org (Office suite), joomla (ContentManagementSystem), SharpDevelop (IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironment for writing .net applications)... and much more!


EDIT:
I've to ask a question: which game magazin is it?


- bmaker

1) Pros: Free as in beer, so the only thing you pay for is bandwidth. Also, the community is quite friendly and responsive.
Cons: Not enough North American dedicated servers/players on said servers

2) Occasionally on the American servers, but the European servers are usually fairly skilled

3) Nexuiz is good fun, and since its free its easy to set up

4) I generally start up nexuiz and release my stress for about an hour at a time

5) The devs. are really good about changes. They always will at least look at a potential balance issue and see what they can do about it.

6) I am into whatever interests me. Right now that would be an odd mix of RTS's, Mechwarrior 4, and Tribes Vengeance, but as those games get old that'll all change. I don't prefer free software per say, more that if its free and has all the features of something that costs me $1000 *cough* Photoshop *cough* ...

1) pros:
- it's free of charge
- i can mess around with the code
- it runs fine on linux
- has someone mentioned the friendly community yet?

cons:
- it's kinda hard to find artists that are willing to GPL their work

2) yes, most of the time, but i won't complain if there were more ppl playing Nexuiz online...

3) yes, i was managing a small lan about 10 days ago and ppl really enjoyed playing Nexuiz. And as already mentioned someone posted pics from a japanese lan some time ago. But i guess most of these lans are private ones, not the big commercial ones were all the CS kiddies attend

4) I started playing Nexuiz only about an hour after 1.0 had been released, that was over a year ago...

5) Like esteel i'm not really impartial, but we try to listen to the gamers (we want them to play Nexuiz and have fun after all. An online game with no players would be rather useless). However it's sometimes hard to please everybody (e.g. the new physics in 2.0: half of the ppl loved them, the over half hated them )

6) I prefer opensource games/software (i'm linux user), since it's always nice to see what ppl can archieve in their spare time. I really like UT (the first one), but Neverwinter Nights is pretty much the only commercial game i play atm. Some open source games i play: http://www.wesnoth.org/ http://wormsofprey.org/
(however i don't play that much atm, due to real life...)

Wow thanks for the replies, I started this Topic today, and I didn't expect so many replies by now!
Many thanks. I'm trying to get this article published in the GEE magazine, it's a games magazine in germany for gamers, that don't want to read the average games review.
In the past they published articles from me on topics like Kenta Cho (author of some great free japanese Shoot Em Ups) and Jeff Minter.
I'm reading all you're posts and I promise, I will try to implement as much as possible of you're opinions in this article, because I think the community is for Open Source Games as much important, as the game and the developers. I would be happy to read more posts. If the article gets published, I will inform you.

CKeichel wrote:5) Do you think the developers are listening do you, the gamers?

With Nexuiz, the line between gamers and developers isn't clear cut as with commercial games. Many community members have contributed to Nexuiz in small ways. We can post bug reports, test development versions, suggest improvements and other things. This helps to make the game better and therefore make thge community stronger!

Hey really great i didn't have enough time to read the previous posts, so excuse me in advance if i repeat some things

CKeichel wrote:1) Compared to an commercial online shooter, where are the advantages of Nexuiz, and where are the disadvantages?

Advantages, compared to a commercial game :


- Free in the GPL way : You have the source files so you can modify, try to add features. This point is important cause it creates a core community, with people who like to search, learn, create and actually do things, not only critics.
- That community is really friendly i like it sooo much. I would really its 'different' as regular players know each other and answer when they are asked for advises, its really a standard to say 'hi' when entering a game and friendly messages like 'nice shot' are really frequently seen. For sure there are lamers, like everywhere, but the majority is really polite and kind. Compared to competitive games, people are there to enjoy and have fun, not to fight and win (even if we have a ladder)
- If you ask a question on the forum, you'll be answered for sure, even if there seems not to be so much posts on that forum, i would say 'the quality is there '
-Cross platform (linux, macOSX and WndoiS ) Nexuiz runs on my Mac ! That's a good point

- From a gameplay point of view, even if Nexuiz is "omg wow FAAAAST!!! oO" its a really well balanced game (i mean for weapons) with a lotta fun

To conclude the advantages i would say Nexuiz is a 'Mature' game, from all point of view.



Disadvantages, compared to a commercial game :

- Needs a quite good computer (even if it runs good on older hardware, but with less eye-candy)
- The interface not as much user friendly as it could, but that is being reworked, i've read the developers are doing it
- There is at the moment a lack of a PDF user manual, but i'll work on it as soon as i can if nobody does it before :p )
- Nexuiz lacks a bit of marketing power, but as i think its not the purpose its good we've seen with quake 4 that marketing doesn't give more players on the servers

CKeichel wrote:2) Do you always find enough skilled opponents in the net?

It depends... there are some hours in the day when its hard, but in the european past 12:00 yes you can easily find different players on different servers.
Now if they are skilled... yes there are some really good players that really own the place

CKeichel wrote:3) Is Nexuiz played on Lanpartys?

That one i cant answer, sry, i did not yet go to a lanparty actually.

CKeichel wrote:4) For how long do you play Nexuiz?

about 10 months, it was the first FPS i'd ever played

CKeichel wrote:5) Do you think the developers are listening do you, the gamers?

For sure they do, even if sometimes our suggestions are a bit weird, they always pickup the good thing They also answer when they are asked for questions from people who need help to try to modify or simply understand the game (at least my nOOb's question have always been answered), which is noticeable.

CKeichel wrote:6) What other games do you play, and are you generally preferring Open Source games and software?

I played quake3 1hour in my life, quake4 too.
I tried Warsow but i really dont like the community, which doesn't help me to get the trick and go further in that game.

Yes i prefer openSource games.
For most of things i prefer openSource softwares.
There are 3 software types for which i (really) prefer proprietary softwares :
- image editing
- professionnal offset printing
- video editing

CKeichel wrote:Ok this are my questions, I hope you all can help me.

hope the answers were not too boring and repetitive its late and i'm really tired at the moment...

obi_wan wrote:hope the answers were not too boring and repetitive its late and i'm really tired at the moment...

Meh i can't fall asleep.. and you all know i like to post into this forum
I guess if the friendly community is mentioned one more time everyone will belive the forum mods edited the messages . But its simply the truth, people here are just great and its good to be a part of this!
As KadaverJack mentioned Nexuiz is short on creative people that can come up with good quality stuff like models. Maybe you can mention that we are looking for people willing to do some gpl'd stuff for the game.

1) Advantages: It's available for free and the moddability factor is high.
Disadvantages: Not as many players/servers, framerates aren't as good as commercial games when eyecandy is turned up to the max.
2) Usually. Sometimes it's hard to find other players, though.
3) I brought my computer to a LAN party featuring Half Life 2 Deathmatch and Nexuiz.
4) Since it came out; about a year.
5) Yes. Nexuiz keeps on getting better and better and many ideas from these forums make it into the game.
6) Doom 3, good mods for Doom 3, Starcraft, SimCity, and Tremulous on PC; Metroid and Tetris on Nintendo DS. I don't prefer open-source software or proprietary software in general, though I do prefer certain open-source applications such as Firefox.

Hi Christian Keichel,
i hope my answers will help you for writing your article.

1)
As i never played another FPS than Nexuiz i cannot compare it. But i can tell you about the dis-/ advantages in general.

advantages:
-Nexuiz is completely free (GPL).
-It runs very well on Linux.
-It runs very well on my quite old PC. (But i am not able to activate most of the eye-candy.)
-I think noone before mentionned the friendly and helpful comunity, right? .
Especially one thing is important for me: The more skilled players give you hints and show you tricks to improve playing .
-Many of the other players are a bit older, just like i am. So Nexuiz is for me even the right place to talk about false teeth and stuff like that .
-You can get help in different places like in-game, in this forum or on irc. I have never seen, that a question stayed unanswered.
Not even my nooby ones .


disadvantages:
-I like the game as is. So nothing to mention here.

2)
Yes, I always find people that can play better than me .

3)
I don´t know. I never played on a lan-party.

4)
Since version 1.5. I think it was released during februrary 2006.

5)
Yes i think so. Just have a look in this forum.

6)
I still like to play Diablo II:LOD with my wife via LAN.
I would prefer not paying money for a good game than paying money for it .

1. One big advantage of Nexuiz is its unique community. We've hardly had any animosities and people are always friendly and willing to help. The open source makes it easy for people to add new stuff like maps and mods. The gameplay is nice and varied and the different gametypes make it hard to get bored.
Disadvantaging is the poor graphics compared to commercial games like Quake or Doom. There arent many good servers to play and many people are lagging which seems to be a constant issue. Getting better tho.

2. I do find enough challenging opponents but I'm just somewhere in the middle of the skill scale. Some do suffer from lack of opponents tho.

3. I myself don't play at lan parties but I've heard of people liking it. The fresh fast-paced style of nexuiz seems to favor.

4. My time on Nexuiz varies from some minutes to several days. It's easy to get into the play just to get some frags but it's also entertaining enough
to play unto exhaustion. Been playing it since 1.0, short after the release in May 2005. (I really thought it started earlier!)

5. Another advantage of Nexuiz is the tight communication between developer and end user. Friends always listen to you.

6. I play the usual stuff on consoles (PS, PS2) but Nexuiz is the only pc game I play. Just enough for some quick entertainment. I don't mind spending some bucks on a mindblowing eyecandy but I do prefer getting it for free. What keeps me with Nexuiz is the fact that the community is constantly contributing (including me) and helping with development. The gameplay of Nexuiz makes up for the loss of mindblowing eyecandy and I strongly believe it will have that eyecandy one day. It's on the way.

And fog! I love fog!

I've just read through this thread and i think the important stuff has been said. I'm very happy that you bothered to ask the forum doing thorough research. some of the past reviewers have put to much weight on "based on quake 1 code" just to give an example.

---- i know its an old therd, but. nexuiz is not open source, its Free Foftware (not freeware).
http://www.fsf.org/

i know i have sayed "open source" to refer to this game. but its cos most ppl know what open sorce is but not FreeSoftware...

'Freeware' isn't open source though. Freeware is of course completely different from free software too. I would describe Nexuiz as Open Source as the Free Software argument is being a bit picky, a bit like insisting upon saying 'GNU/Linux', even Torvalds describes that as being 'just ridiculous'.

Well i definitly see a difference between opensource and freesoftware. But its hard at times not to mix things up. But i also see a point in linux vs gnu/linux..
Its ok to call something opensource so that people get the general idea but ONLY if one also teaches them what (gnu like) freesoftware is..

eggsactly...

OMG!!!!!!!! NOT AGAIN WITH THE EGGGGGSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone, I just want to inform you, that my article on Open Source and Nexuiz was published in the actual issue of the GEE magazine (October, golden Red Steel Cover), it's only a one pager, I didn't found the time to make a longer article and it's about 4 different games, but I tried to cram as much of the suggestions you gave me into the text.
I'm still working on a longer article and will keep you informed.

I bought that issue of the Gee magazine. It's a serious looking (as opposed to the "kids" looks of most gaming magazines) magazine with a very stylish layout.

Nexuiz is featured in an article about open source gaming, which has a look upon 4 games (IIRC) of different genres. Very kind words about Nexuiz (being more balanced than commercial games etc.).

Nice article, nice magazine. Let's see how this develops

Any online pics of the article?