Before you start reading this document, I would strongly suggest you have the intent of finishing it. It is only meaningful in it's entirety, so again, please read it from the start to the finish.

I’d like to thank the NS team for creating a game that takes more intelligence to play than a normal first person shooter. Rather than just mindless shooting and jumping around, it actually includes a little strategy and timing. That’s right, it actually takes a bit of intelligence to play NS. It might be somewhat shocking for many of the people who make up the greater NS community, but it’s true. That may be the reason I don’t get pissed off too much while playing this game; when there is a huge moron playing alongside me, he or she is not playing better than myself.

I, too, get tired of kids bitching about community and whatnot, but the fact remains, the community really makes the difference. Any game or mod that has lasted was supported by some sort of community that actually played the game and liked to be involved with it. That’s probably the weakest part in NS; the community.

            The community is the root of the problem when it comes to this would-be great game, if only NS was supported by a great community. If I were in the position to create a beautiful mod such as NS, I would create the community, as well. Apparently the developers failed in appointing an effective community leader(s). There is no real structure to the environment here. Every time you turn around you see a new community leader. Either this greater NS Community is so incredibly weak that anyone who has a post count of 40 or more on the crummy NS Forums can become a community leader for a while, or there is a complete lack of structure here which would probably lead one back to the weak community theory once again. I’m not about to start throwing out suggestions to repair the entirety of it, either. The only people that really care about NS right now are the competitive players, and there are only a handful of them anyway, which leads us to the next problem.
 
The greater NS community no longer accepts new players.

The general lack of humility and the abundance of elitists, I would have to say, are two of the larger problems. The community leaders consist of the “top” clans, which is a laughable title in the first place. The competitive scene leaves one with nothing to talk about. It’s as dry as something like… say the “Vampire Slayer” competitive scene… or even better; The “Boxwar” clan scene is just as riveting. I really don’t want to get into any anecdotal references here, but I think I must to illustrate and really drive home the point about the lack of acceptance for new players. You take a look at the top clans and I have seen them turn away scrim requests based on the fact that the clan that is requesting the scrim is a smaller and newer clan that hasn’t had any experience as of yet. That’s just one example.

I’d like to point out one of the community “leaders” who really demonstrates this point well. You can find his article here. He wrote this article concerning the state of public servers and all of the “newbies” that play in them. He not only painted the prettiest picture of the real NS community, but also proved himself to be one of the least accepting community leader-types out there… of course, not to say that any of the other community guys are any more accepting, either.

 Sure, he tried to play it cool in the conclusion of his little editorial comment saying something to the nature of ‘we must maintain a mature level when dealing with the newbies' and ‘I can’t write a conclusion worth beans,' keep in mind I'm only paraphrasing here. The conclusion really doesn’t at all reflect the rest of his article that was clearly written to vent a little anger and frustration, and it really betrays the feeling behind it all. Of course he was pissed off, but as a “veteran” I’m not sure if that’s how he should be acting towards newbies. Rather than sit there and berate your team, vote people out of command chairs, contact server admins and ridicule these fresh players, why not offer some much needed guidance? Perhaps one could learn a thing or two from just talking to them.

The competitive scene leaves one with nothing to talk about.

Yes, this is true. Close to undeniably true, but “top” clans will argue that they are in a resting state until the next release is due out. That may also be true, which would make a lot of sense, considering that the game play doesn’t leave for much replay ability, especially since the mod was hyped so much, everyone played their fill by about 1.03.

Another reason for the dry competitive scene is due to the crummy clans that make it up. Yes, that may also be true. The clans that make up the coveted “top” clan status aren’t that great.

There is one nearly sure-fire way to win a clan match from the marine’s point of view, which would be, of course, the jetpack rush. Why does this strategy even exist? Why is it so widely accepted? Well, a combination of reasons. The first one is probably the more obvious of the two. The general lack of creativity and the lack of good tacticians among the clans is one.

 The creativity problem among the clans could probably be easily remedied by fresh new players arriving in the community… but I don’t see that happening until we see the acceptance of new players.

 The second reason this tactic, the jetpack rush, exists, because the testing that went into this game never projected the jetpacks to be so popular. If that isn’t the reason, then the testing programs are failures…which is probably closer to the truth.

The testing programs are failures.

This is obvious. All of the programs that… let me dig up the quote from the natural-slection.org post… “Together, the playtesters, the veterans, server ops and the NS team will make sure that NS v1.1 plays great in public play, organized play, and everywhere in between.” Now, I’m not sure where the hell “everywhere in between” is but that might be the only place where NS might have a chance of playing well. It’s definitely not going to be a great game for public games nor for competitive play. Let’s just go into this a little bit more…

The “Playtesters” program is a joke. Most of, let me stress that, Most of the people in the Playtesters program are morons. That’s kind of an all inclusive term that suggests not only is their intelligence not of the highest levels but also their “skills” aren’t all that great, either. Why the term “moron” covers both intelligence and skill when referring to ns players can easily be found in the introduction to this document.

How can anyone effectively test a game for balance if they suck at it? How can anyone effectively test a game when they only play the game when they’re testing it? Don’t kid yourself, there are playtesters that never play the game outside of the initial playtesting sessions. I’m not familiar with the process used to select the playtesters but I for one, and I think I speak for a great many people, when I say the playtesters program should either be reformed or abolished.

The “Veterans” program is a little closer to where the game’s beta testing should be, but that program brings up a few issues. If the “Veterans” program is limited to “top” clans, then those “top” clans should be disallowed from competing. Sounds a bit odd, but makes perfect sense. If the betas are released to a closed group of clans, then they can not only get a good feel for the game before any of the other clans, but they can also add and subtract aspects of the game to make it easier to work in their particular style of play, which, as we all know, differs from clan to clan, creating further unbalance throughout the game. The "top" clans shouldn't be allowed to control the game.

 Not to say that this has ever been done, but how can you be absolutely sure that all of the clans participating in the “Veterans” program are forthcoming in all of their findings when it comes to bugs, in hopes they can exploit these unknown bugs in the future? Another strong argument for open beta testing right there.

Going even further, we see that the only things that the "veteran" clans do with their "veteran" clan status, is basically try to sell their clan. Case in point, taking a look at the auctions on eBay, one sees a "veteran" clan participating in an auction to sell away part of their roster.

Numerous bugs, unbalanced game play, and repetitive non-strategic (keep in mind this is a real time strategy game meshed with a first person shooter) game play are another few reasons that support the claim that the testing programs are failures. What other reasons lay out there are unimportant because these arguments are more than enough to sway even the most conservative community member.  

The greater community’s dislike for variety.

            I’d like to point out that all servers should have a slightly different set of rules. It really does add variety and appeals to a broader range of players. Limiting tactics, no matter how cheap they may be, can add a new challenge to the game. I would hope that the community can appreciate and respect rules from server to server, seeing as some of the servers are rented, and they can cost a pretty penny.

Poor timing for the next major release may hinder things.

            What does it matter that NS 1.1 is on the way? It hasn’t been hyped as much as the initial release of NS and the timing certainly could have been better. You see, most other mods and clans depend on bored college kids for servers and rosters. Summer releases for games aren’t going to be the biggest winners. Not only do the server numbers go down for the summer, but also the player count. I assure you, I love NS, but I’m not going to be down in my basement playing for anywhere near as long as I did in the colder months. The way things have been going with the dry community, it’s going to be pretty interesting to see if NS actually remains a game on the up and up, rather than on the way down and out.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

        From point to point, I've spread out most of the greater facts on the table. It's all there, condemning a small few number of people who are in control of a community in great disrepair. Throughout the text, I have put out a few well thought-out suggestions to create a community worthy of the game it is was created to support. Some of the larger problems do reside in the process developers use to test this wonderful mod, so my greatest suggestion would have to be reform in the testing programs - "Veterans" and "Playtesters" programs do create egos among the participants in these two programs, and can lead them to be a little less understanding when it comes to new players to the community; on top of that, the testing program participants do a poor job of testing the mod.

        So, there you have it. I would plea to anyone who reads this text that they not view it as a flame, more of constructive criticism at it's best. I've have made but one somewhat personal attack throughout the text, and I believe it was called for. I, myself, am open to further criticism and encourage it. Thanks be to you, the reader, for enduring such a painfully long text that could have been summed up into the words that make up the title of the first section, "The greater NS community is a pile of shit."

Michael J. Burling

"Mike Billy Ray Earl |x|"

An Edit in 'Post.'

        I'd like to apologize to anyone who is actively participating in the Vampire Slayer or Boxwar competitive community for making light of it. I'm sure the competitive scene is more active than I had thought. I was out of my element assuming it was dead.

        I'm sure there are spelling and grammatical errors found throughout the document, please disregard  them for the message is stronger than the poor grammar I've come to know and use.

        Again, I'm really not trying to troll around the community just looking for a response. I seriously believe there are some problems here, and they are very real. They need to be addressed before anything else happens, otherwise we're probably looking at just another mediocre mod that everyone seems to know, but rarely play any longer.