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There was something bugging me about the game, though. Not quite Q3, somehow. Then I realised - no gibbage! I just tried it and got position 17 in the queue, definitely a massive improvement on the 30,000+ I had last week :) Yesterday the queue was around 50 for me. That was maybe two minutes. No excuse now. Impressions, CVG?! Although I do think it's great that id are offering up a browser based version of Quake III Arena for free I really don't understand why they didn't just offer up the original game for free instead.
That way there's a whole back catalogue of maps and mods, and no queues. Plus the original game will run on any PC made in the last 12 years which could make it popular with netbook users (I'm not sure of the sysreqs for Quake Live, I'm assuming they're greater than P2 450). They still could have included in-game advertising, perhaps not in the maps themselves but definitely within menus or some kind of ticker. Q3 (original) does not run well on my netbook. Everything about it is a lot more accessible than the original game. Installing it is a lot easier. Launching games is a lot easier. Finding games is a lot easier. The skill matchmaking. Making friends and finding games with them in is a lot easier (one big bucket of games rather than various portals and servers). I could go on.
The whole idea is to get a whole new range of people playing who wouldn't normally play. This is as well as fans of the original. Longest queue i been in over 10000 and it was about a half an hour wait, still a lot of fun to play and compensates for the wait. Longest queue i had was 70k lol. That was night of release Presumably running it from a browser makes it harder to simply mod the ads out, and releasing it under the guise of something new rather than a 9 year old game will presumably draw more interest from players and hence advertisers. 50!!! the queue i was in last week was over 30,000 i gave up after noticeing what place in the line i was. It makes it easier to play when you don't get your view obscured by red every time someone is killed. | 
