From: Tom "Epstein" McLeod
Subject: Just feedback

I wanted to say that as far as I'm concerned, Loonyboi is now 100% a part of Blue's. The first few weeks were a little odd; "oh, it's the loonygames guy updating Blue's page." But now, he is, to me, a bona fide member of the Blue team. The Tiny Print™ had set him well on his way, but the defining moment for me is when he referred to Messiah as "Shiny's eschatological third person game." And I had thought his college education wouldn't be useful to him in his new job.

Of course, there's also the "we kid because we love guys, honest" update, which you just might never live down, Loony.

It would be cool to have MrCoffee do a guest mailbag compilation sometime, though. I miss that guy, and I don't even know if he really exists, or is just some alternate personality of Blue's. Be sure and tell Gramma Blue I say hi, too.

By the way, this article as nothing to do with the site, but the headline is "Bighearted Big Blue," and of course, it made me think of you, Blue. It's really about IBM and new custom chip manufacturing processes, but who even cares about that:

http://www.wired.com/news/news/news/technology/story/20662.html

Great work as usual guys...
Tom "Epstein" McLeod

You're right, I'll never live that "we love guys" thing as long as I live...if not from you merciless readers, then certainly from my girlfriend who was amused to no end by that. :)

As for Mr. Coffee, I assure you that he is indeed a tangible human being. To the best of my knowledge, the only alternate personalities of Blue's are Vladimir Humbert (who's responsible for the shameless puns, and occaisional pop culture references) and Alex Turgidson (who's responsible for the odd typo, or outlandish outburst). Oh, and then there's Jack Torrence - but we don't like to talk about that one.

From: Benjamin Black
Subject: RE: OOTB

If the power does go out, I'm sure you can find something to do. After all, you do have a wife.
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Benjamin Black Per ardua ad alta

Right you are, Benjamin. He does have a wife, and from what I've heard she's a smart one: they keep a deck of cards on hand in case the lights go out.

From: Jonathan C. Forster
Subject: smug

(I really hate to picture either Jason or myself trying to find amusement in a power-free environment).

Yeah, I feel pretty smug having learnt how to play the flute. Now during thunderstorms (a pretty regular occurance in July and August around here) I can rest assured I won't get bored. Frustrated maybe, but bored, never.

-jonathan

From: Wray Sparling
Subject: id problems?

Hey Blue,

Is it just me, or is it kind of alarming how often people are leaving id Software? Is the work just too intense or what?

I believe the first departure I was around to see (just got Internet in '97) was American McGee. Then Barrett Alexander, Brian Hook, and now Brandon James (pardon me if I've missed someone). I guess what's puzzling is that, to most of us (us being the gamers), a job at id Software is a dream. It's obviously hard for us to understand why someone would want to quit a dream.

Maybe we're just putting too much pressure on id to release THE best game time and time again...and it's starting to hurt them. Maybe with the release of Q3A, id should hold some sort of Q&A so that hopefully the problem could be found and, with any luck, solved.

-Wray

P.S. If you're ever talkin to Carmack, I'm sure I could learn how to make levels with some training...oh wait, there I go dreaming again...

From: lappy
Subject: Leaving id

Hey Blue,

What's with people leaving id? 2 major personalitys in the last month! Is this somehow due to John's my way or the highway attitude (when it's done) or are we seeing a major force in the pc gaming ind. begining to crumble?

Lap.

Your guess is as good as ours.

From: Peter Bogh
Subject: Watchmen

btw,

BOTH of you are complete freakin STUDS for Watchmen and Moore references. Pimping that book and author on your page directly contributes to the promoting of All Things Worthwhile in The World. You've heard that Terry Gilliam toyed with the idea of a Watchmen movie, haven't yeh? I think it fell through...

Just wanted to let you in on my pain.

Try V for Vendetta!

PB
Hatchet

I don't know if we're studs per se, but we definitely know our geek literature. ;)

Regarding the ill-fated Watchmen movie: Gilliam and Moore sat down with the intent of squeezing it into a reasonably sized movie, and the conclusion they came to is that it simply wasn't possible. They toyed with the idea of doing it as a massive mini-series on HBO, but it never materialized (the budget for such a project would have to be massive...Titanic massive).

As for V for Vendetta, it's quite possibly the single best graphic novel ever written. It also stands a much better chance of being made into a film, as the Watchowski brothers (who brought you Bound and the Matrix) are currently working on a treatment for it. Of course, if you ask me it'd make a much better play than a movie...but hey, that's just me.

From: Peter Lomax
Subject: I worked on Generations - Please read

Hi,

My name is Hawkmoon and I was a mapper for the Quake2 conversion "Generations." I know you're a very busy man so I`ll be as brief as I can.

You inferred in your news item (Re: SOG [Blue-4:20 AM EDT] ) that Generations was illegal.

Please understand my position of now being labelled a party to illegal activity.

I have tremendous respect for both your unbiased news reporting skills and id Softwares' ability to consistently provide excellent open-ended 3d game engines. But just because id Software says something is illegal doesn't make it so!

My understanding of Lee'Mons position in removing Generations was more one of buckling under id's pressure and also not leaving himself exposed to malicious (if misguided) treatment from people who believe id can do no wrong.

This decision was taken unilaterely by Lee'Mon and had no bearing on how the rest of the team felt. We didn't let the genie out of the bottle (I refer to SOG`s open letter). It was released a long time ago and has furthered id's kudos ever since. It is also unfortunate that only a few people have grasped the true effect of id Software demanding the removal of Generations. I now disbelieve id's light-hearted rebuttal of their own restrictive EULA (in respect of calming peoples' fears about property issues).

Very,very few maps,conversions,enhancements etc fit the tight parameters that id has suddenly decided to declare. The old Quake "community" has now definately gone, never to return, and I will miss it tremendously.

Thank you for your time

Peter 'Hawkmoon' Lomax

From: Geoff Gasior
Subject: CLASSic deathmatch

From last week's mailbag in reference to classes in Q3A.

"Funny how id says that it isn't workable in a deathmatch environment. That's funny, last time I checked it works pretty freekin good in Team Fortress Classic Half Life."

Funny how Team Fortress Classic is almost exclusively a team and objective based muiltiplayer mod. I believe what id is referring to when it defines deathmatch would be a free for all or one on one setting where there are no teams or objectives other than scoring frags. Ever try playing Team Fortress or any other class-based mods in vanilla deathmatch? It really isn't all that workable, there isn't much balance. Sure player classes work great for a mod like team fortress where teamplay is encouraged and there are objectives beyond killing everything in sight, but how much fun would it be to pit a Scout against a Heavy Weapons Guy on Q3Test2??

Quite simply, for pure deathmatch, player classes don't work out all that well. The only way I see id coming up with a workable solution to the player class issue is perhaps them including classes only for teamplay or
ctf rather than for pure deathmatch.

Geoff Gasior