Deathmatch Gaming Site Idea

[Greenwood]

I've been looking around for some servers to play some old games online (Quake 2/ UT2004), but they often seem to be empty. However I'm sure there must be plenty of people around who want to play them.

So I have this idea for a gaming site, that would help people find other players who are looking to play online games. Basically you go there, and you enter in your email address, what games you want to play online, your location, and the days/ times you will be available to play them.

Then, on the days that you have entered in as you being available to play, the site sends you an email that basically includes the details of whoever is going to be available to play at the same time that you will be available to play. Once you've got the email, if you reply indicating that you want to play tonight, based on whoever else replied, then the site will automatically find a suitable server, based on the location details entered by everyone. It will then send out an automated email to everyone who wants to play, telling them where to go at what time for the game.

What do you guys think? I think something like this would only need a few players to register for it to work.

 

[DreamThrall]

Can't you use steam to do pretty much exactly that already?

 

[Pesmerga]

Why don't you join a Steam group or IRC network that affiliates itself with the games you're looking to play?

 

[Greenwood]

Can't you use steam to do pretty much exactly that already?

Thanks for the tip, but I don't think you can. There are groups on there, but don't think there's a system like the one I suggested. Actually I joined a Quake group on Steam, but I'm having trouble sending a message to anyone.

 

[DreamThrall]

All you have to do is get a server set up and post an event in the group. You might have to be a group admin or something though, so you might need to contact someone to get permission to do so - honestly, I don't really use the groups that much, so I'm not entirely clear on how they work. If you've already got a group of people, it might even be worth creating your own group.

I'm not trying to bash your idea, but the problem is that there are already so many gaming communities out there, and Steam, for example, pretty much has all the functionality you need. It would be a waste of energy to effectively re-invent the wheel, and even if you ended up finishing your website, it isn't very likely that you'd be able to break in to the mass of other communities that already attract millions of people, especially if you've got no commercial backing.

 

[Greenwood]

All you have to do is get a server set up and post an event in the group. You might have to be a group admin or something though, so you might need to contact someone to get permission to do so - honestly, I don't really use the groups that much, so I'm not entirely clear on how they work. If you've already got a group of people, it might even be worth creating your own group.

No-one else has posted any events in the Quake groups, and even if I did that, how would anyone know if anyone else would be there for the game?

I'm not trying to bash your idea, but the problem is that there are already so many gaming communities out there, and Steam, for example, pretty much has all the functionality you need. It would be a waste of energy to effectively re-invent the wheel, and even if you ended up finishing your website, it isn't very likely that you'd be able to break in to the mass of other communities that already attract millions of people, especially if you've got no commercial backing.

Don't worry about bashing my idea, I'm all up for discussing things.

By the way, I'm not saying I could make this myself. I'm just wondering what other people would think to it. Also the idea isn't to compete with other communities. If there were even 50 people signed up to something like I suggested, that would probably be enough to get some DM games going with around 10 people in, at a regular time.

 

[Hellrider]

Well, YOU can start a steam group, and a server.
Tell all the details and stuff in the description and get it going, will be much more simple.


And I'll join to the site\group if you'll make it, I have both games and I like them.

 

[Greenwood]

Well, YOU can start a steam group, and a server.
Tell all the details and stuff in the description and get it going, will be much more simple.


And I'll join to the site\group if you'll make it, I have both games and I like them.

I could do. The only problem is, I was screwing around trying to get Steam to work, and it wouldn't let me send messages to anyone last night. I also screwed around with it today and it still won't bloody work.

I would join some of the existing UT/ Quake groups if I could. They'd probably be up for staging some weekly games if I could actually get Steam to work, and suggested it to them. The thing is, we need more than just 2 players. I used to play Quake 2 with like 10 dudes in the server back in 98/99, that was awesome.

I definitely do want to start playing some UT2004 games on a weekly basis. I like practising against bots, but it'd be good to see how good I am against humans, too. Maybe some Quake 3, too.

 

[Stigmata]

Steam Groups are wholly unsuitable for the kind of thing you want to do, Greenwood. This is more of a halfway point between forum and database. A website is probably the best way to go about creating this kind of service, then if it becomes really popular you can create a client application and phase out the website.