Its been a hectic month for me gaming wise, the hassles of sorting out a 1.3 server, getting screwed over by one of the EDDEC admins, trying to stabalise a lineup, for what must be 1.3's most under performing clan, reforming sans the leader and on top of this I've taken on source!

Thats modern gaming for you though! Its all of these things that make up "gaming" for me. My past few weeks gaming brings me back to my first article on zpgaming.net back in november. Day of Debate was arguably one of the more fiery features in recent times and provoked criticism from the mostly hardened 1.3 men! I think, that seeing as I'm now fully active in Source with elptha it's worth comparing where the DoD community is, three months down the line.

Firstly I'd like to address the 1.3 CPL situation.

With the recent announcement of a BYOC 1.3 CPL event, most people found a renewed interest in Day of Defeat, especially in the states, with Pandemic and compLexity releasing this season's lineups. Brandon "Bewton" Newton and Jeroen "4nkor" David Richard hard efforts in persuing the 1.3 CPL dream, though unfinished, seems to be bearing fruit. This surely has had a positive effect on Euro DoD? I'm not certain if it has to be honest, there hasn't seemed to have been any new competitions announced in the lead up to CPL, and any interest in cups like Clanbase was there long before CPL announcement. The impending new CB Season after ESL's NC should be a gauge as to how serious us euro based players are to pursuing the CPL dream. Maybe its just me, but are people taking this announcement for granted? Are we just saying that this is good for the community and not acting upon it?

I know my arguments often feel disjointed and random, but I type as I speak! Maybe I'm out of touch with the community or I'm seeing things in the wrong light, but is there a sense that while the tireless efforts of few are being neglected by most? Maybe its just me being naive, but I did hope that the CPL announcement would renew the euro scene, give us something to strive for. Yes, of course attending CPL is beyond the reaches of but a select few (I estimate only 10/12 players could realistically so well) and I realize this, but shouldn't there be more support shown, by more competitions and events being set up, because you can never play enough competitive Day of Defeat!

There's no doubt in my mind that there is still a major divide between the two Day of Defeat codes, and this rift has been further deepened by CoD2 (which will have similiar status at CPL if things stay as they are). I'm not criticizing zeroPoint! or SolarStorm or any clans with such a standing in the community, but to go for CoD2 when you push for 1.3 at CPL seems a bit odd, especially when its a case of either or!

Recently I've given the impression I prefer Source to 1.3 which is false, I still adore the terrible sound and graphics of old school Day of Defeat! I am however more impressed by Source gameplay than I was a few months ago. The updates have been welcome, but surely more to come from the dev. team? Playing around with things like HDR should be secondary to the gameplay but hopefully once they've realised a game can only look so good on few people's machines, the penny will drop!

Re-developing maps that low skilled clans liked is insane, the arguement that dod_kalt is good on public is laughable! Sure maybe its fun for the odd pcw, but there's only so much MG camping a poor bloke can put up with! For instance I recall reading on the official DoD forums about how some guys thought of the new Kalt: "I wish I could knife the lights in the sewers" and "I hate the sewer pipe, they should have square braces". I mean come on, these are the people the devs are pleasing and not the hard core gamers! I tell you what there, will be a wave of pigs flying outside your window the day Source developers realise they could adapt the damn game for competitive play!

Speaking of which for those of you disappointed by DoD:C / ProMod, here's the situation as regards the future of DoD: Source's main mod:

Original Gotfrag Post:

"To be brief, the DoD:C team has decided to move the game's further stages of development into a closed beta until the completion of this summer's CPL BYOC tournament. Until then, #prodod will be used as a DoD@CPL channel."

This is probably a good thing, giving the developers of this mod an oppurtunity to get on top of the game and really get to grips with the physics of the game. DoD: Competition smacked of "quick fix" so hopefully the prolonged down time will reap rewards.

As usual I think its only fair I get other people's views on the issues. Here's what Carlstad-Wapen's Linus "ZioZ" Dahlgren had to say with regards to the recent CPL announcements and where 1.3 should lead to.

"Well, I think the most important thing is to set up more competitions, so clans can play and show their skill. If you're going to CPL you need very good sponsors that can get you there, but you can't just ask for a sponsor. I think people understand how good the community are in 1.3 after the announcement that 1.3 got to CPL. Everyone supported it to 100 % and thanks to great work from 4nkor and Bewton, it become reality. I hope this will be the start of more tournaments and that 1.3 will grow bigger"

Standing our Ground member Koen "Acer" Duym had this to say with regards to Source and its future.

"My first thought of source was, man this is better then 1.3. But after playing it for a while I noticed that it was hard for my computer. But after buying me a new one it went smoother by the minute. And yes its true what people say. Skill doesn’t matter in source anymore. Everyone is equally good. WRONG

That is what bothers me the most. The majority of people still plays 1.3 cause they think that there getting asswooped in source. The thing that is was scared the most about was the gameplay. Is it going to be fast enough? After several clanwars I got an answer. And i was in love with source. The next thing i want to see in source is some really good warmaps. Not for public use but for clans only. I have still some 1.0 in my blood and I would like to see some oldschool maps back in source like: Heateau, zafod etc. The sound has improved during the updates but its still not up to date. In 1.3 you could here very good where the opponent was and where he was coming from. That would save me 5 deaths in 15 minutes. That’s the only thing i would like to see tweaked."

Where are we now? Well not unlike previously we're at one of my famous crossroads! It seems things have taken a turn for the better for DoD 1.3, the CPL announcement must spell good for the game, in the near future, but the fact so many clans are taking up Call of Duty 2, it doesn't bode too well for the distant future.

For Source, well that's a strange one. Not so long a go I could find a mountain of faults with the game, now I would say there's just a big list of faults! The game has more bugs than a british spy in Russia, the list of maps is terrible and its also fighting numerous games for player numbers! That said I do see a bright future for Source, I think when the dev. team pull the finger out they could get something good going, but only time will tell.

What I would say is however, both games seem to be a lot better off now than before. Now 1.3 has a future until the summer at least, and Source, due to it still being a new game (beta?) can surely only continue to improve!

Hopefully come early July I'll be writing an article from Dallas, reporting on an awesome Day of Defeat tournament and wrapping up what seems to have been a successful euro Source season.