This might turn a little bit dramatic, but I want to be blunt when I say this shit. I thought I would just throw out a few opinions on why Quake is really dead, and how it might be revived.

I would say that there are just a few reasons why Quake is about dead now. The first reason is the professional scene, the second reason is the consumer base, and the third is the community. I'll explain where each go wrong.

The professional scene, it feels like the Quake Community is entirely driven by the top players while the top players are entirely driven by Tournaments. Tournaments only exist for games that are blatantly active and fun. The Quake Community just follows the pros everywhere, from Quake to OW and back. They even followed them from Q3A OSP to Quake 4 even after Q4 was already a mess, and Q3A OSP was literally blowing up. What if I were to say that this leads everyone off a cliff? This not only destroys an active community, but it also drags them down to a newer game that gives no incentive to stick around for, as well as no incentive for new people to buy.

The consumer base, the people buying Quake today think that they're playing a new Quake game. But they didn't realize that it has changed so much on a technical and metaflow basis. Apart from the bare basics, the game doesn't play the same at all. Ergo, it wont last nearly as long. This will drive newcomers away I think, especially veterans. There is nothing to gain from playing a competitive game with a lack of direction.

The community, the community doesn't play if the pros don't play. This is the most idle community on the face of the planet. Let me let you in on a secret, games don't become famous in a day. It takes a community first, and sometimes a community is built FAST like in Fortnite. But without the community, there is no reason to even give tournaments. CS 1.6 was still active as a community, and it turned into big tournaments really late in it's life time. If not for people staying behind in CS 1.6 instead of playing CS:S, Counter Strike would be dead. Then CS:GO comes out, and it becomes a SUCCESSFUL transition from potato gaming to sexy gaming.

To me, if people would stop worrying about eSports and all of that bullshit, everything would have been fine. Instead, people carelessly follow the 1% everywhere they go. What if they're leading you off a cliff? Do you just follow them?

That is what is wrong with this community, no offense. If you think about it, if people never left Q3A OSP for Q4, it could have exploded like CS 1.6. Then it might have had a chance to blossom into a new potato.


How do we fix this? Well, it is harder to get something started after it dies. But, we make a discord, and we start playing the last best Quake game, and we play the game for the SHEER value of what it gives us. Then one day if it grows enough, hell... it might turn into something bigger. I think there is no amount of money or tournaments that can revive Quake, only the amount of people playing and whether the game is shit or good. As long as the community remains inconsistent on what game to play, the ship will continue to sink until everyone quits.