The Apathy Curve Gaming Club
I'm done with public multiplayer servers. No more. Finito. The End. Too many assholes, gankers, exploiters and children. Life is far too short for that sort of crap. Unfortunately, many games are only at their best when played against a fellow homo sapiens sapien -- which category disqualifies 95% of the drones on any given public server. So, I think it's time we here at the Curve take matters into our own grubby little paws. To that end, I have created the Apathy Curve Gaming Club on Steam. The idea is to build a pool of mature adults available for online matches in various PC games. (N.B. - the mature bit is semi-negotiable, otherwise I couldn't be a member.)
I have chosen to use Steam because it will tell members of the club when someone logs in, when they go "in game", and what game they're playing. (I also chose Steam because it was so easy to set up a new group, even my drunken ass could do it on the first try). The Steam client overlays any game which you start from within it, (shift-tab is the default toggle for the interface). This makes it simpler to send other players a pop-up request to see if they'd like to have a go at massacring you. Some games even support multiplayer "on-the-fly" integration, but that depends on which matchmaking service the individual game utilizes. In any event, it's a lot easier than pre-scheduling matches, especially since most of the readers of this site have families and are at the height of their business careers. Sometimes you can only snatch a few minutes or an hour, so pre-arranging matches isn't an option. Steam has gone a long way to solving that problem with their monitoring system and universal interface.
Additionally, remember that you can register any game with Steam, even if you didn't purchase it through the site. Thus members of the club can see other members' "games owned" list and request matches, even if they are currently offline. I understand this may make some people uncomfortable. Frankly, I don't care if everyone in the club knows what I'm playing, but some folks are a bit more private than that. The idea is not to spy on people, but to create a group of players whom everyone knows, at the very least through this blog. Most regular readers here know at least one of the administrators of Apathy Curve personally. That removes the "asshole factor" of public servers.
Churt and MadBuilder are already in the club, and I'm opening it up to anyone here who wants to join. Just send a friend request via Steam to Popcorn Colonel (that's me), and I'll sign you up if I recognize your name or handle from here. If you normally play under something else, you might drop me a note via email or Steam to help me make the connection.
Finally, if you're still living in the Gaming Dark Ages and don't yet have a Steam account, get ye here and sell your soul to Valve.
I have chosen to use Steam because it will tell members of the club when someone logs in, when they go "in game", and what game they're playing. (I also chose Steam because it was so easy to set up a new group, even my drunken ass could do it on the first try). The Steam client overlays any game which you start from within it, (shift-tab is the default toggle for the interface). This makes it simpler to send other players a pop-up request to see if they'd like to have a go at massacring you. Some games even support multiplayer "on-the-fly" integration, but that depends on which matchmaking service the individual game utilizes. In any event, it's a lot easier than pre-scheduling matches, especially since most of the readers of this site have families and are at the height of their business careers. Sometimes you can only snatch a few minutes or an hour, so pre-arranging matches isn't an option. Steam has gone a long way to solving that problem with their monitoring system and universal interface.
Additionally, remember that you can register any game with Steam, even if you didn't purchase it through the site. Thus members of the club can see other members' "games owned" list and request matches, even if they are currently offline. I understand this may make some people uncomfortable. Frankly, I don't care if everyone in the club knows what I'm playing, but some folks are a bit more private than that. The idea is not to spy on people, but to create a group of players whom everyone knows, at the very least through this blog. Most regular readers here know at least one of the administrators of Apathy Curve personally. That removes the "asshole factor" of public servers.
Churt and MadBuilder are already in the club, and I'm opening it up to anyone here who wants to join. Just send a friend request via Steam to Popcorn Colonel (that's me), and I'll sign you up if I recognize your name or handle from here. If you normally play under something else, you might drop me a note via email or Steam to help me make the connection.
Finally, if you're still living in the Gaming Dark Ages and don't yet have a Steam account, get ye here and sell your soul to Valve.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 13:01
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