A brighter day in COD2

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March BASHIE nominations

While I picked February's best COD multimedia, I'm going to let BASH readers and listeners pick March's winners.

Please send in your nominees NOW. Deadline for entries is next Saturday, the 3rd of March.

Here are the current categories and entrants.

If you want to add an entry, or vote for one of the finalists please make a comment on this blog or email me it to me at jockyitch@devil-dogz.com :

I. Best Avatar.

Entry #1 {FKR}KillerKlown

Entry #2 {FKR}chevyguy

Entry #3 {FKR}ahab

Entry #4 Plt. Sgt. Baker


Found on http://www.ww2incolor.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3502&page=3


Entry #6 Fragger


From: http://codmods.de/

Best Forum Banner:

Entry #1

tatersalad:

Best Motto:

Entry #1

VULCANO

It's better a bullet in the head that in tha ASS

Vulcano is from Clanbase - Maledetti Italiani Bastardi
http://www.clanbase.com/claninfo.php?cid=1019731


Best COD related video:

Entry #1
COD3 trailer from IW (you will note that the video looks pre-rendered and looks much better than in the game - great video though).


You will need an updated Flash player for this and there is an advert before the video starts:

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/705/705212p1.html



Related posts:

COD Multimedia awards: February edition

We're at the Breaking Point

For those alternate-history buffs and COD2 players out there, you're going to get another chance at liberating Western Europe. Then again, maybe you'll opt to fight for the right to goose-step under the Arc de Triomphe.

The imaginative folks at Breaking Point: A Call of Duty 2 Tournament have launched their 5th Campaign, Tour 2.

The battles being fought in Tour 2 are being documented in their journal, "Through The Wire". Evilpants has penned the first article, here is a snippet:

"Today was a horrible day for the 3rd Armored Division in Paris.


Charging into the small suburb of St. Gatien, German resistance brought heavy fire down among the anxious American recruits. "

"Reports from the front say that many American troops refused to move ahead into the slaughter and cowardly holed themselves up in small French farmhouses. The conflict in Paris was quickly unfolding into an American massacre, which convinced the officers at the Allied High Command to send their troops east and flank the well-dug in troops at Paris. Another huge mistake. "

Stirring stuff.

If you want to try and change history this is all you need do:

Easy Step by Step instructions to registration for Tour 2:

1. Register on the Forums at:

https://st117.startlogic.com:8087/webmail4/parse.pl?redirect=http://www.bpcod2.com%2Fforum

2. Register for a division here:

http://www.bpcod2.com/forum.php

3. Sign in to your newly aquired divisional forums

You will find EVERYTHING you need to know about getting ready for battles in your divisional forums, including teamspeak and server information!!

Also dont forget to download Breaking Point's many custom maps here:

http://www.bpcod2.com/downloads.php

There are 16 map packs.

Related posts:

• Breaking Point
• Madskillz (Breaking Point) wins BASHIE for best COD related video

Clan Psychology

On this week's BASH: Episode 11, we talk about Call of Duty clans. And we ask the following questions:

What are they?

Why do we want to belong to them?

How do you create one that will not only attract fun players but will stay together for some time?

On line gamers tend to organize themselves into groups of like-minded individuals to play their chosen game and more importantly to socialize. Typically, these groups start suddenly and end just as fast. These groups are known as clans.

Popular opinion seems to dictate that computer gaming is an anti-social behavior conducted by lonely people madly tapping commands on their keyboard all the while sitting in a darkened room in front of a glowing screen; however, human beings are social animals by nature and playing in massively multiplayer games with other individuals is a very human thing to do. Wanting to play with other players is therefore a natural impulse and it should not be a surprise that people would want to join a clan.

As I mentioned, clans form suddenly and don't last very long. There are many reasons for this short life span, not the least of which is the fact that some of these clans are single-game clans and people get bored of the game.

The key is to discover the secret that some of the more successful longer-lived gaming clans have found.

Clan members typically meet either in their own specialized game servers and use text chat or voice communications to socialize or through forum postings on clan websites. Both servers and the websites can be considered what are called third places. A third place is a special term used by sociologists.

Let's take your home, for example. It can be described as a first place. A first place is a location where you can relax and be comfortable.

The so called second place is where you normally are when you aren't home. For example, work. Unless you are self employed and work from your home-office, a great deal of social interaction can happen at work, but usually these spaces don't allow you to relax and be comfortable.

A third place is somewhere other than work or home where you can both relax and socialize. A bar, a coffeeshop, Community Centers, General Stores, hangouts, sports clubs... you get the idea. It's a place where the best of both work and home come together.

There is an excellent description of what the main characteristics are for a so called "third place" in an article called "Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name:Online Games as "Third Places", by Constance Steinkuehler:

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/steinkuehler.html

The article suggests that the most successful clans create these "third places". I will read you the characteristics of these third places from this article and then I'll try to give suggestions on how to apply them to your clan.

Here are the characteristics:

1. Neutral Ground

Third places are neutral grounds where individuals are
free to come and go as they please with little obligation or entanglements with
other participants.

The key here is the phrase "little obligation or entanglements with other participants". Put another way. People who come to play on your server don't want to play head games or get hassled. The no B.S. rule must apply.

How many clans disintegrate because members forget this rule.

People come on line to forget the hassles they have in real life. The last thing
most of us want is to deal with headcases.

2. Leveler

Third places are spaces in which an individuals rank and status in the workplace or society at large are of no import. Acceptance and participation is not contingent on any prerequisites, requirements, roles, duties, or proof of membership. This statement suggests that people who want to socialize, and that's what gaming online is all about, want an environment without the importance of status. This is really interesting because there are quite a few clans that take organization to a very high level and even emulate both the structure and name of military units with ranks and positions.

I should also point out that most of these clans have not celebrated their second anniversary, which suggests that clans organized to stress rank and importance don't last very long. Why would rank and status cause problems in a clan? One word. Jealousy. It's human nature. Give someone seniority or power over someone else and you will not find the place a nice place to come to and relax. It sounds like what most people's workplace is like, doesn't it?

In the Devil-Dogz clan, we do not raise any one's stature above anyone else and interestingly that fact is cited by many of our new members as one of the reasons why they join. There are many examples of defunct clans on the Internet that blew up because their membership started to splinter into separate elitist groups and it split their clan. Sometimes it's inevitable that the better players in a clan will want to group together to form a sub-group or an elite team for the purpose of say, playing in competitive scrimmages.

These players will find it irresistible to add an elite tag to their gaming names.
I can tell you that as soon as you see these elitist symbols next to their names...you can start the countdown clock to that clan's destruction. It will implode because of jealousy and it is very important for any clan leader to stamp out any attempt at clan segregation.

3. Conversation is the Main Activity

In so called third places, conversation is a main focus of activity in which playfulness and wit are collectively valued. Again, we are talking about playfulness here and humor.

Wit is not about harassing players or calling people hurtful names. The best wit is humble. It pokes fun at yourself not other players. Humility will allow your teammates to be encouraging and create a family atmosphere. When you populate a clan with Type A personalities who all consider themselves uberowners you will find that there will be very little playfulness. Ego gets in the way. The successful clan will
try to defuse conflict due to ego.

Ways to encourage playfulness is by having a very large humor section on your webpage. The clan leader should lend a hand here by fostering a playful atmosphere. De-emphasize scoring in normal clan gameplay. Emphasize teamplay instead.
Try not to create competition between clan members. Competitive juices should be applied to clan on clan scrimmages not to recreational intraclan battles.

4. Accessibility & Accommodation

Third places must be easy to access and are accommodating to those who frequent them. Servers should allow players to log on and off at will and activity should be allowed 24 hours - seven.occurs throughout all hours of the day. I have seen some admins actually shutting their servers down during the day. This makes access limited and you compromise the reliability your server should provide.

The server should be free. Support to the administrator should be provided voluntarily and passwords should be avoided.

5. The Regulars

Third places include a cadre of regulars who attract newcomers and give the space its characteristic mood. Hopefully you will have a group of fun, mature and responsible clan regulars who hang out on your server and provide this mood throughout the day and the week.

The last thing a clan leader would want are irritating or irresponsible regulars because those are the people a new player will most likely meet when they come to the server.

In essence you want regulars who are a cross between traffic cops, WalMart greeters and teachers.

6. A Low Profile

Third places are characteristically homely and without pretension. Any clan that tries to project a superior attitude will simply attract people with the same attitude.

Please note that this does not in any way suggest that the people you will attract ARE superior. Just the opposite. These people simple CONSIDER themselves superior. Deep down they are probably very insecure and are attracted to a clan that puts on airs in order to compensate for their own lack of confidence. You definitely do not want to attract a large number of insecure players. These folks typically have fragile egos and will create a great deal of emotional disturbance.

7. The Mood is Playful

The general mood in third places is playful and marked by frivolity, verbal word play, and wit. You want to encourage players to crack jokes during heated battles, perform goofy actions and lighten the mood when things get tense. Try to get people to have funny avatars that mock their appearance. Players should not be too serious
about their gaming.

8. A Home Away from Home

Third places are home-like that is they give you a sense that you are rooted in something that will last, you have a feeling of possession, it gives you a feeling of spiritual rebirth, and you develop feelings of being at ease, and warmth. If they atmosphere in the clan changes from this home-like feeling to one that is very serious and puts a great deal of emphasis on competition you deviate from the concept of the clan and server as a third place. It becomes more and more like work. The end result is that while this may be desirable amongst a few of the members, you will find that the clan will not grow. New members will be difficult to find because the clan is not a home away from home. It is simply a place to come and compete.

Hold the Flag: Tactics

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Why do you play?

Brooke Savage
BASH Videotainment Reporter
(c) BASH 2007

Why do you play Call of Duty Multiplayer?

BASH asked that question to five celebrities recently and here are their answers:

Roseann (Rosie) O'Donnell (COD Nickname: "A tuff chick"):

As you know, I'm trying to keep my kids away from all that pointless viol... Hey! Is that a ham sandwich you've got there? I'm starved. Do you mind?

Dick Cheney, Vice-President (COD Nickname: "Vice-noobtard"):

Since I had to stop hunting, you know, that dumb court-order over the shot-gun thing, it has been good outlet for my violent urges. I used to suck at COD2, but I just downloaded an aimbot and now I so totally "pent" ... sorry, I mean "pwn".

Paris Hilton (COD Nickname: "213-253-8358 Call me!"):

Are you kidding? There are ten, blonde hunky Nazi's chasing me around all game with their loaded guns trying to score. Now, that's hot!

Britney Spears (COD Nickname: "I so pwn Federline's ass"):

Totally! I'm a hardcore gamer. I enjoy playing because I play a really cool drinking game when I'm online. I take a shot everytime someone uses the word "noob" and two shots if anyone uses the word "the".

Tim Hardaway (COD Nickname: "High Post Back Door Play"):

I play CTF. I just love capping fags. The action's awesome. What? "flag"? With an "l"? Are you sure. Damn, am I embarassed.

CTF Tactics and the CHAIN formation

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COD Multimedia awards: February edition

We thought we would start providing people with some really cool multimedia we have seen that is COD related. There are some really talented artists in the COD universe so here's a few to start off with:

All winners get a BASH cookie (an internet cookie that is).

1. Best Clan Logo for February 2007:

Marine bulldog from the Devil-Dogz Clan.

Graphic artist: Hoof Harted

Site: http://devil-dogz.com

2. Best Player Forum Banner for February 2007

This month, the banner takes the form of a video. And we have a tie!
Artist: KK video from husband and wife =KK=Hellfish and =KK=Fakename.
Site: http://www.kkclan.net

The family that kills together...If these videos don't want to make you play Call of Duty, you're dead.

http://kkclan.net/Site/pics/hellfish.wmv

http://kkclan.net/Site/pics/fake_0001.wmv

3. Best Player Avatar for February 2007:

Player: {FKR} The Shoveller.

Site: http: www.fkmod.com

4. Best COD related video for February 2007:

Producer: Madskillz
Site: http://www.bpcod2.com/

http://www.56kdisaster.net/madskillz/hold_the_line.zip

5. Best COD related site for February 2007:

Clean, efficient, well laid out and the folks at RotR put this up in days! Awesome job folks.

http://www.cod2-expansion.com/

If you have a choice for next month, please leave a comment.

Bandwidth costs

In the soon to be released Episode 10 of BASH I go on a RAMPAGE! over the high cost of bandwidth and how it affects gamers.

If you are a server administrator here in Canada or in the U.S., it is not uncommon to be paying close to $66.00 per month rent for a 24 player server and even that amount can be low if you exceed your bandwidth for the month.

Assuming that you have 24 players in your clan that comes to about $33/person per year! Assume that of the 24 only 1 in 4 are actively playing or financially supporting your clan that means the administrators will be footing almost 75% of the bill for everyone else's enjoyment. To come to a sustainable financial situation, again assuming that only 1 in 4 of your clan actually pays to play, you will need about 100 players in your clan!

Given that most clans have more than one server, the costs can be quite high. While being sympathetic to the average player who has incurred the high costs of even getting online - after all they have typically paid close to a thousand dollars for a computer, 30 to 50 bucks for the game and then about 40 to 50 bucks a month for high speed internet access, I must point out that the cost of their bandwidth seems more and more shouldered by the server administrators.

If you are a player, please help the administrators or your clan leaders with a donation. Nothing is too small. Using the example I gave, a $30 donation a year is about right in a large clan. But do the math yourself.

Factor the massive amount of time and effort it takes to run a website, coordinate all the players and keep everyone happy in a clan and you can factor that number easily by 10.

If you are in a clan, make some sort of contribution. Either through a donation or giving your time to ensure that the clan is a success. Remember one of the goals is to make the clan self-sustaining financially. Spread the word around and get more people into your clan who *will* support it financially. If it's self-supporting then it will be around for a long time.

Here at BASH we pay big bucks for bandwidth as well. In an attempt to lessen these very high bandwidth costs, we have had to institute AdSense which consists of fairly unobtrusive Google ads that appear on the right hand side of the screen when you log into our webcast server or our Blog.

We ask our readers and listeners to please help us out and it is very simple to do. Please just click on the ads posted on our webcast site at:

Or here on our blog (using the Google search engine also brings in revenue for us).

If you like the show or if we have in any way helped you out or entertained you please come to the blog or to the webcast site and simply click on the ads, or you can use the google search engine posted on our Blog site.

Clicking on the ads will contribute to keeping BASH on the internet.

It won't take you very much time and it makes a big difference to our bottom line every month. Please click and click often.

Everyone here at BASH thanks you very very much!

Breaking Point

This week we have come across a really great idea. It's a Tour of Duty Tournament for COD2.

It's called BREAKING POINT and it is an interesting alternative for players who do not want to join clans but love team play.

The COD2 player can join the Axis or Allied powers and fight in a Western Europe, Eastern Europe and African front. You can re-live history with the Allies or rewrite it with the Axis!

Tim (Wally) Walters and Andy (Alt+F4) Jensen, college students, have organized this tournament. They came up with the idea in October of 2005, and they announced the tournament to the public in December of the same year.

Five tournament admininstrators and four advisors help Tim and Andy keep tabs on this mammoth undertaking.

The two organizers had played in somewhat similiar tournaments before (Axis vs. Allies) but the tour of duty concept is unique and was specifically created for them by their admins. Their really slick website was designed and created by their Graphic Team leader Madskillz, and Alt+F4

The gameplay is fairly simply. The Axis and Allies square off in battles that are played on Thursday and Sundays. Each battle is 6 hours and 9 hours respectively. These battles decide on who gains control over terrain in specific territories.

The Axis and Allies are grouped into divisions. Officers and NCO's are picked to command the troops. You can effectively move up through the ranks as the Tour of Duties move on. Troops are rewarded medals for a variety of actions performed in and out of battles.

Commanders-in-Chief for the Axis and Allies bid on which city to attack and are assigned a good mix of custom and stock maps to fight on: S&D, CTF, HQ (rifles only) and the newly added HTF and last team standing.

The tournament has about 250 registered players who have participated in this tour of duty, with many logging over 3 days of time played. It costs about $3 for 12 weeks play if you pick a side. If you select a random side it's free to play.

The campaign lasts about 10 weeks.

Breaking point is down to its last couple of weeks for Tour of Duty 1, with the Germans now in the lead.

Check out their website on www.bpcod2.com. Their servers are located in New Jersey.

There is a must watch trailer for this site (it's about 100 Mb).

http://www.56kdisaster.net/madskillz/hold_the_line.zip

Trends: February

Just a little while ago I was beginning to think that Call of Duty was starting to look tired.

Its biggest threat, the future war game Battlefield 2142, was beginning to outpace it in net sales.

Even members of our Devil-Dogz clan started to leave COD2 and head towards the Battlefield series. I was starting to think that COD was long in the tooth and heading for a slow fade to black.

Well, I may have been a little premature - at least when it comes to comparing COD to Battlefield 2142.

Here are some reasons for being optimistic.

Call of Duty 2 is still 447th on Amazon.com's most popular video game.
Battlefield polled 14,946th, while Call of Duty 3 is selling as the 54th most popular item.

But one of the more telling figures is this one below. The photo shows a side by side comparison of COD2 versus BF2142 in Google's Trend History. Trend History is a total of the searches done on a particular topic on Google, worldwide, over time and is a good indication of popularity.

Well, Trends quite clearly shows that while BF2142 may have had a very good Christmas season, it peaked quickly and has faded just as quickly. Especially worrying for BF2142 players is the narrow spike in popularity, it had just after Christmas. Look at that spike versus the sustained, wide plateau for COD2. What goes up must come down and Battlefield's descent has been quite rapid.

What this means is that we should see the number of users of Battlefield and COD2 even out and possibly, if Battlefield continues to drop in popularity, some users might actually return to COD - especially in the face of the pre-release hype of COD4.

The Office: Call of Duty

Office COD2 tactics.

Collision Point: St. Mere Eglise

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The COLLISION POINT

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A.W.E. is D.E.A.D?

In a stunning announcement on http://forum.milliways.st , technical support to Bell's A.W.E. modification to Call of Duty multiplayer is coming to an end.

Read the text here:

This is a sad moment for all AWE fanatics! It has been great "few" years in the world of AWE modding and it's sad that this day had to come. But still,, the community will continue with the help of Mike_Nomad and his fantastic crew at raidersmerciless. Reason to why we choose to quit is just plain and simple: There's no time to keep up modding, supporting nor the forum. This forum will be locked soon,, just for reading and searching and it will stay so for a while. All new topics will be @ http://forums.raidersmerciless.com Do sign up there for AWE support. We thank you all that have contributed & making AWE mod this popular and especially our fantastic crew here at AWE forum! We also thank allbodies at http://forums.raidersmerciless.com that gladly embrace AWE support at their forums! Thanx Mike_Nomad! Best wishes Bell Rectospander

_________________ Site Admin

Thanks to {PST} Joker, modder extraordinaire, for the heads-up. For those of you playing Extrememod+ COD2 servers, you owe your adrenaline rushes to Bell and this mod which started it all.

Good luck to Bell. And best wishes to Mike_Nomad for picking up the support.

The GRID

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Who is listening to BASH: February 07

Here are the latest maps showing BASH listenership. You're a diverse bunch let me tell you!

Vive la resistance!

I have received a very interesting email from {PST} Joker of extremecod.com, he informs me that he is on a team of prominent community modders and mappers, who are running a Community Expansion project for COD2, called "Rise of the Resistance".

They are hoping to create a game add-on that brings in the story lines of the resistance movement from countries such as France, Italy, and Poland.

For those of you who remember their history, the resistance was a term applied to indigenous guerilla movements fighting the Nazi's in Europe after the Germans had all but wiped the floor with that continent's armies.

The organizer of this project is Tally (extremecod.com support team member) and here his his post on the forums at extremecod.com:

We are looking for the following people to help out with this unofficial, community lead expansion project which has sponsorship from Activision/Infinity Ward. If you are talented enough for these jobs, please come to our site:

http://www.cod2-expansion.com/

And post your interest with the following info:

Name:
Age:
Position wanting to apply for:
Experience in this designated Area:
Any other usefull information relevant to the subject:
Contact Information:

We are looking for:

*Graphic artist to help with promotional Literature.
*2D concept artist.
*3D Modeller
*3D Texture and Skinner (High rez, with spec bump maps)
*New voiceovers for Battlechatter etc.
*Coders for new features and menu modification.

I believe that Anthony Scungile has already applied for doing all the Sicilian "Partigianni" voiceovers.

Good luck Joker on this project!