Isn't quake 3 the superior game? Isn't Open Arena even more superior than Q3? (i've been able to get CPMA etc working on open arena just fine).

From what I can see, Quake live is basically the same game as Quake 3 except QL is a 'closed' game and Q3 is 'open'. As in, you can easily upload a map or mod to your Q3 server, but you can't do that in QL because ID hosts all the servers on their computers.

Altho it may seem like a minor difference, isn't this difference in fact a huge deal? If Quake is an 'open' game, then there's really no problem that the community can not themselves fix. And they have historically and would continue to fix 'problems', given the motivation + adequate community size was there. But with a setup like quake live, we are dependent on ID/whoever to fix whatever we complain about, and from what i read that's a highly unlikely prospect.

This isn't a 'blame the developer' post. I'm just saying, why did the quake community ever decide to start playing QL instead of Q3? Wasn't this a mistake? Shouldn't people go back to playing the more open game (OA>Q3>QL?)? If so, is there any practical way to transition the community?