WOHD still going?

[mannjon]

Hey all.

Miss the races, miss the adrenaline, got a PS4, wife has now taken over the PS3 :(

Still organized races going on? Any newcomers need a challenge?

Just how is online these days?

[J.666]

The fridays are still kicking. Starts at 9pm gmt +0

[stin]

Yes still going strong and got a special link for you ;)

http://www.wipeoutzone.com/forum/showthread.php?10144-The-Legends!&p=247079#post247079

stevie :)

[nu9get]

yea fridays are cool but i'm online right now waiting 2 hours for someone, in mid-week afternoon servers are empty :)

[blackwiggle]

Who to blame?
SONY ?
Probably

[Xpand]

At least two things are to blame:
Wipeout is a niche game played in average by older people than games like CoD or Battlefield, which means those people have less free time available to play the game everyday.
The PS3 is a very old console, ie not many new players are expected to pick up an almost 10 year old game for a 10 year old console.

Sony's actually being sort of benevolent by keeping the servers up.

[mannjon]

What Xpand said EXACTLY. For a game nearly a decade old, I'm actually surprised the servers are still up. Especially given the apparently low participation rate these days. For all we know, Friday nights may be the ONLY reason it is still going at all. Just glad I got Bling Brigade trophy on all 4 of my racing accounts while I could.

Not that I hold a particular grudge against any COD fans out there, but to me personally it just shows how wrong the gaming industry has gone since PS2 days. Hell even WOHD fell victim to a patch that made things easier for newcomers at the expense of the core demographic (I think we all know the patch). Games used to require skill, and used to not have worthless trophies attached to them. Nintendo Hard doesn't mean a thing to modern gamers because they never knew a time without quicksaves. I can honestly say I fully BEAT Kid Chameleon on the Genesis without a single save last week (played on the OUYA with an emulator).

I even miss the thrill of playing Guitar Hero 2 and 3 on Expert mode while others just stared in amazement. Cheap thrills makes me put a game down, but unfortunately, so many modern games rely on multiplayer modes, easy difficulty and use graphics as an enticement to get more money instead of rely on depth via difficulty and actually LEARNING a game. Any veteran here can INSTANTLY tell the difference in handling between WOHD crafts. I like that. I like knowing that my achievements are skill based. I remember the first time I beat certain pilots here in this forum. I felt as though I had finally reached some sort of Wipeout Nirvana knowing I could hold my own against the best of the best. I just don't get that sense of awesome from trophies or quicksaves. Then I got really into wipeoutrankings.com and it took it to another level altogether.

Point is, I miss the days of being good at something because of practice and commitment. It is just sad to see so many drawn to a quick fix. My Sega Genesis is now over 2 decades old. Guess what? IT STILL WORKS. It also provides much more of a challenge. Kids these days would probably throw it at a wall by the 2nd level of Comix Zone.

All of us here probably remember finally mastering WOXL while listening to the Chemical Brothers and Prodigy in the background. If you haven't, you owe it to yourself to get that same experience. Enough rant. mannjon out.