There are nice guys in this community... 

Not at all surprising really.

Although, free hosting, well kinda.

You guys make maps -> gamers download and play those maps -> people see what's available in the community -> people buy games and visit more hosting sites -> in theory those people click on banner ads -> bring in revenue for the hosting sites.

That surely what the idea, that your content was bringing traffic and thus in theory $$$ to Gamespy/IGN/Planetwoteverhomie. Of course this is obviously not very lucrative compared to the other revenue options, hence ceasing hosting. 

Hello,

I attempted to crystallize the broader implications of this issue in a post I wrote on our blog at http://www.slowdown.vg/2009/06/04/ign-erases-%e2%80%9cplanet%e2%80%9ds/ and this thread seemed like a good place to direct some reader attention to.

Hopefully the situation will work itself out, and if not, perhaps with some help from the community! 

But I stopped reading on the 2nd line, when the first game mentioned was Halfe-Life. 

Definately an important game on the FPS timeline. 

Well, I kind of see where Fribbles is coming from in that the article implies that modding got into full swing with Half-Life. I disagree. Quake had a TON of mods and many of them were large scale efforts. Why does Half-Life get the nod on this?

And don't get me wrong, I LOVE Half-Life and all of it's incarnations - but I would never credit it with the start of the mod scene. 

I think Fribbles stopped reading at let us take a step back into the year... which is where I stopped reading. 

Me too. 

Hey bler, I grabbed your site. Would you be alright if I changed the download links to point to working mirrors (Quaddicted for dimension domination!)? 

When HL was the first game mentioned, it made me think even the fans have lost sight of what started it all.

He also lost me there simply because Quake is the only game I care about, in terms of preserving the history, hosted sites, mods and maps.

Again, no offence intended, I just recognised very early on that I was not the intended audience for that article. 

For sure, whatever you fancy to keep it as an archive.

I have it all backed up on my PC and on disk too. 

Ok. 

Isnt Half Life just a glorified Quake mod? Quake engine + coloured lighting +16bit pallet for textures + skeletal animation ? 

You forgotto add the playr interaction with its environment... then yes, it is ! 

Oh noes, someone prefers HL to Quake but posted something that affects BOTH HL and Quake fans. How dare he post this at the negative-mofo Quake board.
PS: Quake is just a Doom mod with 3D and stuff!


Sometimes you guys are downright stupid. 

I thought HL was reusing Quake engine... wasn't it the case ?

And the most stupid people is not the one you are thinking about.. :P 

Ignoring Ricky, it is a fair point. If someone displays such complete ignorance / ignoring of modding/mapping origins, then it doesn't really bode well for the rest of his article, does it?? 

Well, it served simply as introduction. Who cares about the introduction. How many active mappers are hosted at Planetquake nowadays? I can't think of any. CocoT used that as introduction and no-one shouted "that is bullshit, get off my lawn" at him.
In both cases the actual content of the post does not vanish if the introduction was bad. And that problem is what the focus should lie on. :(

JPL: HL uses a heavily modified Quake engine. By that logic Mass Effect, BioShock, Mirror's Edge, Gears of War are just Unreal mods. Using an engine that has the same roots does not make a game a mod. 

I expected at least one person to overreact, so thank you for fulfilling my expectations.

When I say "started it all" I am referring to Planet*/GSI and their hosting services. 

Since when is participating in a discussion an overreaction? 

I concur with Mr Fribbles: you overreacted, and should be banned for that :) 

I was just being a smartass. I can't help myself... 

Oh, it was a good practice opportunity not to overreact, so thanks for that. 

Sorry Spirit.

Sometimes I think you take all this stuff far to seriously.

No but seriously, Half Life is just a modified Quake engine with a completely new set of everything like maps models textures scripts etc. But the root of it is still the Quake engine right? Or am I wrong here? 

Isn't Quake the root of all 3D games made after?