BASH

Euphoria.

Activision has finally recognized PC gamer requests that CoD TV is a “must have” requirement for the continued viability of the Call of Duty franchise into the future.

Do they really see it that way? Well…that’s my optimistic take on it. For all I know, Treyarch and Activision may not look upon this modification in the dramatic light I do. But right now, I don’t care. The CoDTV code-hook appears to be in the upcoming v1.5 revision of CoD:WW and that’s all that matters.

On this edition of BASH (…yes, we’re doing these casts somewhat infrequently now), I interviewed Garetjax - the heart and the brains behind CoD TV - literally minutes after CoDTV support was announced.

Listen to the cast to find out his immediate reactions to what should be a dramatic turn for CoD competitive gaming. It’s a new day in CoD.

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This week we introduce you to the two gentlemen behind TheCompanyhub.com: Buster and Jag-Five-O.  They are on to talk about their own community and the phenomenon they have been noticing lately…the disinterest in modded versions of Call of Duty.

Modded servers are being found deserted in our community of late. It is a trend that started just after CoD2. We have noticed it. Buster and Jag have noticed it. And we’re sure you have too.

Why is this happening? Is it a generational thing? What can be done to reverse the trend?

Listen in for almost an hour of challenging thought and discussion about the relevance of modding in today’s Call of Duty community.

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For some like myself, the thought of a professional NA CoD season without Nabore at the helm of the perennial favorites Team Pandemic is unthinkable.

Yet here we are.

When Nabore took me aside the other day to let me know he officially was turning in his M16, it was not unexpected but still a shock.

In today’s podcast Nabore tells us the reasons behind his decision.

Another shell-shocker in this podcast is that, not only is Joe leaving, he let’s it out that his Pandemic-teammate and good friend Justin DeMara, aka prank`, arguably the best sniper to have ever played any CoD game, is also calling it quits.

We asked Nabore all the obvious questions regarding his career and threw in some curves as well. The podcast is compelling and emotional.

If you love CoD competitive play, chances are you have seen Nabore in action. Have a listen and bid this champion adieu.

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New Zealand, a land where up is down and left is right - assuming you are looking at it from North America and stuck behind the wheel of a semi, pardon me, “lorry”. It is no surprise therefore that when kiwi-native Craig Nimmo, aka Arseynimz of the competitive CoD SE Asian podcast Vaultcast called me the other day to interview “me“.

That’s back to front! I’m usually the one asking the questions. But it certainly fits my “down is up” theory.

Craig is a very popular shoutcaster for Gamestah and I was very honored he would ask me to do his show.

We talk mostly about competitive CoD and its gradual descent here in NA the past few years. Though CoD4 has begun to run out of steam, we both hope for great things from MW2. In fact, the future of competitive CoD depends on it!

Craig is a consummate broadcast professional and the program moves along at a breakneck pace.

The cool thing about this cast is that it will be simulcast both on BASHandSlash.com and on Craig’s gamevault.co.nz podcast site. If you love listening to podcasts…check out Vaultcast!

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The topic of Zombies just won’t seem to die. We keep hitting it. Knifing and beating it down. Shooting it up with automatic rifle fire.

Nothing.

It just picks itself up and keeps on coming.

Well, we’ve had enough here at BASH, so we thought we would ask three bona-fide Zombie experts to help us understand what makes the Zombie gametype in Call of Duty: World at War popular.

Jomamaz, the site director of TotalCoD (fast becoming the nexus for Zombie map info), JoeCool4433 player, author, contributor to Fritzmods.com and Zombie afficionado and the Zombie mapping legend jacmac of Dead Sand tell us what their fascination is with the living dead.

We explore the Zombie genre, the maps and the gameplay in what will be an episode to die over.

Keep an eye on your brain and have a listen!

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This week, we explore the Call of Duty gametype, Capture the Flag.

The history, the strats, the tactics the maps, Jock gives a detailed summary of this once-popular game which has fallen on hard times.

For the longest time, CTF was a strong third behind S&D and TDM back in the CoD2 days. When CoD4 entered the picture, CTF was relegated to the bench and was not included in Modern Warfare.

For CoD:WW, CTF is back…but where are the players?

Did CoD4 kill off the interest to this venerable objective gametype?

Is it possible that CoD:WW players that were introduced to Call of Duty by Modern Warfare have not tried CTF because they were not exposed to it in MW?

To help us understand and appreciate the theory of Capture the Flag I have asked known players and modders to help out with the preparation of this ‘cast.

I would like to thank them for their time and effort:

Professor from FragXperts.com

Mats from Openwarfaremod.com

Buster from The Company

and of course PST*Joker from mycallofduty.com

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This week, we are very fortunate to have on the guys from MODSonair: Foyleman, Stryder, Welshy and Jynx!

On today’s cast we find out about the boys behind one of the best gaming casts there is.

In addition to celebrating the four years that MODSonline has been on the internet, we bring up the topic of the media’s role in gaming.

How does the commercial gaming media shape the debate on games?

What is the difference between a game “review” and “critique”. Why can’t we find the latter in the gaming media? Is the lack of critique killing game originality?

Are commercial gaming sites in bed with game producers?

Are the gaming media’s standards and practices ethical? Do they purchase the news they report?

What media sites do you listen to? Can they be trusted?

Do community sites act as watchdogs against biased reporting or do we simply contribute to the hype?

These are just some of the topics we discuss on today’s show. Have a listen!

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This week we have another installment of our BASH FTW competition CoD specials where we discuss the goings-on in the upper tier of CoD’s competitive gaming scene.

Today, we are honored to have on Jaymie Clifford aka “Carlisle”, the modder of Promod Live, which just last week was voted by the exalted elite of Europe’s “The Cod Alliance” as the mod of choice for any and all CoD4 competitions in Europe.

Jaymie, a gamer and modder from the UK, has been termed Promod’s second-generation-coder. This is a nod to Ryan (Raf1), no stranger to BASH listeners, who initially dreamt up the original unified ruleset for CoD4.

On this program we ask Jaymie what was wrong with Promod 3? Why was a Promod Live required? Was it’s need an urgent reaction to the encroaching DAMN mod, which had been gaining popularity in North American CoD circles?

In addition to him telling us all about Promod Live (and Promod 4.0, which preceded it), we delve into the changes in strats that might have come up about with its introduction.

There was alot of e-drama that went on in Europe regarding this mod and we also touch on this topic as well.

Jaymie’s a very thoughtful gamer indeed and this is a good listen! Find out more about the mod you’ll be playing soon, right here on BASH.

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The post-”BASH 100″ celebrations are over and done with and we get back to business this week.

Guillermo (aka T3chn0r) and Mats (Space Pig) are two of the most sincerest individuals we have interviewed since the podcast began. Not only do they understand the art and science of scripting — they are both passionate enthusiasts and crusaders.

They have a clear sense of the ethos that modders should follow and are openly critical when they see that ethos ignored by some of their colleagues.  That criticism vanishes in a heartbeat though when you bring up CoD modding.  The term “enthusiast” is too weak a term to describe someone whose day job is programming and whose hobby is as well.  These two programmers do not just show enthusiasm, they are optimists. And that optimism about CoD and the modding community was both refreshing as it was educational.

The educational part came in discovering what the Open Warfare Project, their brainchild, was all about.

Concept and philosophy meet in this mod.

Guillermo came up with the idea for Open Warfare after competitive-play PAM support in CoD4 fell away. He vowed that no community mod should depend on the availability of just one person. Like-minded Mats came along just a bit later, looking to spread the burden of supporting the Tactical Realism Mod.  Competition mod blended with the world of Tactical Realism and another great multi-purpose mod was born.

Listen to the cast to find out how to enhance your CoD4 and CoD:WW experience with Open Warfare!

This week, I again indulge myself (that’s twice in two weeks). I have included a little ditty at the end of the podcast mourning the loss of those whose opinions I disagreed with in the last episode.  I know not to give up my day job.

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Three years in the making.

Costing the lives of scores of audio engineers.

Considered a hypnotic drug by the FDA, if the previous 99 episodes are any indication, this edition of BASH should put just as many CoD gamers into a sound and deep sleep.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we present the 100th episode of BASH!

Getting to episode 100 has been a tough but rewarding challenge - quite honestly it’s surprise to me that I have gotten this far with this program and of course I would like to thank all of you for helping me get to this point.

It’s a lot of effort putting these shows together and hopefully some of you out there have enjoyed listening.

Back in 2006, I was hosting the podcast all by myself. Writing and speaking all the dialog for a half-hour show ain’t easy and I soon realized that interviewing people was far far easier…so quickly I changed format. In this podcast I return to those roots and I’m going to host this show all by myself.

Keeping some of form of hubris in mind, I’m going to celebrate this milestone to indulge myself and give you my thoughts on the status of the CoD community. I’ve held my tongue a lot on this show, preferring to hear expert opinions on the subject. But secretly I am a fan of “If I wanted your opinion I’ll give it to you”, philosophy. So on this episode…I’ll let my tongue wag a bit.

We are fortunate to have special appearances by JDogg and BritishBulldog1 who graciously took time out of their busy schedules to provide us with their audio opinions.

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Jock welcomes noted competitive CoD blogger Ted Ottey (aka Sang) onto the program. Ted walks us through the major events in the CoD4 comp scene during the first quarter of 2009.

A great deal has happened since we last checked out CoD eSports! Some of it good and some of it not so good.  We explore it all on this program as we try to play catch-up.

Some of the issues we discuss are:

- Ted’s foray into eSports journalism through his new site: div3rse.com

- The great player revolt against CoD:WW and the decision to stick it out with CoD4. Was this the right decision? Have we missed a huge opportunity to watch our CoD comp heroes fragging each other with bolts instead of automatic weapons?

- The NERV LAN cancellation fiasco. Who are what is to blame?

- Was EG’s departure from CoD4 competition the death knell for CoD eSports? What other major CoD4 team has folded?

- Who won the GotFrag.com tourney?

- What’s been happening over at CEVO and why did their ruleset change mid-season? Promod is back? What the…?

…and much more.

Note, from now on we are dubbing all competitive CoD editions of BASH, like this program, “BASH FTW”. We have added the “FTW” to allow you to tell the competitive casts from the regular BASH editions.

We also bid good-bye to the two-digit episode format. From now on…we’re into three figures baby.

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RCON’s are programs that allow the remote control of a gaming server and they are a great tool for making the life of the average admin easier and less stressful.

However, many gamers are a bit confused as to how RCONs work so I thought today we would talk about the technology behind these programs.

To help me do that, I have Josh Olin from aggregame.com to come on and explain his late RCON program: AGRCON.

Rcon stands for remote console which sounds pretty self-explanatory but we look into the whole client-server relationship and get into the explicit details of how these Rcon programs communicate with the game server.

If you are a server admin, or you are interested in what goes on behind the scenes of your fave server, have a listen to this program.

Thanks to Josh for explaining it all to us.

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Tonight’s theme skews towards the admin in CoD.

We speak to Frag (Mike) and Blackhawk (Michael) from Admin Request Networks who will introduce us to their Parental Control System (PCS).

PCS software helps parents monitor their children online, specifically it attempts to prevent kids from downloading online hacks.

In addition to learning about Admin Request, we also delve into all the great scripting work that PST*Joker has been up to.

He speaks to us about the innovative “pre-BAN” technology, gCOPS.

Here at BASH we broke the story of gCOPS and we continue delving into this really unique anti-cheat technology in this webcast.

PST*Joker follows up with information on CoD4’s PAMX that he’s working on for competitive tournaments. As well, we announce the new X5 v1.0 for CoD:WW(released tonite!).

Taco (Oliver) from the 420th (fritzmods.com) is here to represent Server Admins as we discuss the aftermath of the CoD:WW v1.2 patch.

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Treyarch has let it be known that, one of the most anticipated patches in CoD history, v1.2 for CoD:WW will probably come out sometime in early February.

In this week’s BASH, we talk about the patch and the community reaction to the news.

On to talk about recent events in and around the CoD Community, including the long-awaited patch from Treyarch, are: Rudedog from fpsadmin.com and Garetjax from codtv.tv.

This is the second part of a two-hour show we did last week.

In addition to the patch news, we talk about the status of the CoD modding community in light of the fact that Tally (and possibly Bullet-worm) are heading for the exits.

Finally, we talk about iD’s new Quakelive effort and as usual…all the the things that Valve apparently does right.

In fact, we should make a drinking game out of this episode. Down a beverage every time someone mentions Visioneers or Valve.

Have fun listening!

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This is the first part of a two part mega show we did on the weekend.

In this episode, we invited three shoutcasters from one of eSports’ powerhouse casting companies: e-rev.tv to come on and talk about eSport shoutcasting.

E-Rev will be providing the shoutcast coverage for the CoD4 GotFrag tournament that will be starting up soon and on to talk about that and themselves are:

The lovely and talented Melissa, aka SparkZ, the inimitable Conor, aka jus7addwater and one of my personal fave’s Kevin aka Starbuck!

As well, Ted Ottey from CEVO came on to tell us about the next CEVO season and dropped some hints about the fact that the premiere CoD tournament in the North America may be walking away from the DAMN mod.

In addition to our special guests we have BASH roundtable stalwarts Garetjax codtv.tv and Rudedog from fpsadmin.com.

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The first live show of the year was a biggie!

We had a huge group of folks on BASH this week.  Along with our regular roundtable of CoD modder PST*Joker from mycallofduty.com,  Rudedog who helps out server admins across the gaming spectrum on his site at fpsadmin.com and Garetjax of codtv.tv, we welcomed two more folks on the program.

First on the show was Chris Remo, editor-at-large from Gamasutra. Chris, who stars on his own podcast idlethumbs (idlethumbs.com), has written a satirical spoof of IW’s own fourzerotwo’s rant against Activision producer, Noah Heller. The song is called Stop (Doing Interviews) and is simply hilarious and has gone viral in our community.

You can download the song at idlethumbs.com. It’s pure genius.

Chris tells us why he wrote it and has some insight into whether the Director of Communication for IW may have been disciplined over it. Chris also discusses the politics of the gaming scene in 2008 with our roundtable.

From GotFrag.com, we welcomed Jeff (jeFFY), who is now fully in charge of the CoD section over there. He comes on to tell us about the GotFrag.com CoD4 Tournament (contrary to what we say in the podcasts, late word is that registrations are now extended to Jan. 12 — so you can still apply).

As well, Jeff told us about his tribulations at getting the message out and it seems not everyone in the community wants to listen. Jeff is new in the community but full of energy and we expect great things over at GotFrag.com. In an open and frank discussion with the new section head, we discuss some of the reasons why the huge e-gaming site has upset some of its long time CoD4 patrons - and what he’s doing to turn things around.

If you have a CoD4 team, seriously consider the GotFrag Tournament as it has high visibility in sponsor circles and a high turnout could positively affect our community! The roundtable then gets in the act and we discuss the year 2008.

What was the best community mod in 2008? The  most innovative?

Which CoD4 teams were the best in CoD4? And who was MVP?

What was the event of the year?

The best FPS of 2008?

…all this and more on this mammoth episode!

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For the first webcast of 2009, we have with us to talk about his imminent foray into the rough and tumble world of eSports journalism is Michael Fleming aka peawok, the Owner and Editor in Chief of the brand new esports site:

insideresports.com

insideresports.com will launch on January 3rd, 2009 and will attempt to become the foremost authority in eSports news and entertainment.

Michael tells us all about insideresports: its mission, its scope and its goal.  We also ask him what he thinks of eSports journalism in North America. Is the cynicism we read about day after day hindering the growth of competitive video gaming?

Find out what he has to say about CS and let it be an object lesson to those of us interested in Call of Duty!

Remember to subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t. We’re on iTunes!

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Our pre-Xmas show is a busy episode as we discuss quite a few topics with our assembled roundtable. This week consisting of Garetjax from codtv.tv and PST*Joker from mycallofduty.com.

Here are just some of the topics:

Community Activity:

1. The fallout from BASH 90 being posted on callofduty.com

2. The following mods have been released: CompetitionMod V1.0b Public Release and Fkmod.

BASH Mail:

1.  Pride from Victory Stratagem is upset with Jock. 2.  Gianluca - ita -  from www.codtime.com.ar

Call of Duty Hall of Fame Inductees - for Dec 08

a) The man is Legendary in Australia, his involvement in Competitive eSports and Shoutcasting and in the SE asian community itself is astounding, with 90% of the votes, inducted as a builder, it’s Momo Wang aka Skip Fulton

b) He made the innovative Heat of Battle mod (http://www.heatofbattle.net) in COD1, which featured alot of things that were later incorporated into the expansion pack and even now into CoD4. I have the priveledge of saying that Giovanni has been inducted into the Hall. He did so with 100% of the votes.

c) And also with 100% of the votes is another Modder. Bell. Who was nominated for making the ORIGINAL AWE mod and various others.

d) Fellow Torontonian and member of Team|EG (formerly the Doctors), the latest inductee into the Hall is Ted “w!$eGUy” Geogoudakis in the player category.

e) Inducted as a Builder…CaptCom dedicated his life to the community by providing a huge web site, the biggest in the world for Call of Duty series maps needs. He’s on Codutility more than 12 hours a days, every single day. he also offer online direct help to the community. Codutility advertises and supports mappers and other related web sites such as clan servers. CaptCom doesn’t only provide or advertises others maps, he’s also a great mapper himself.

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In this ‘cast, we explore a new CoD4 competitive mod for the serious e-competitors out there. The mod is called DAMN:MW and we have on its lead modder: MavLP (Stephen Groat).

We are also joined on this episode by BASH competitive guru, Nabore from Team Pandemic.

The CoD competitive community has effectively bailed on World at War and headed back to CoD4. However, they have not been content to stick with CoD4’s Promod - the previous competition ruleset. The Europeans especially were interested in raising the skill bar with CoD4 and the result is DAMN:MW.

Backed in Europe by the renowned former MyM manager Morg, the mod was assured of success in Europe, but it took CEVO to give the nod to DAMN for the next season to ensure that this mod will become the defacto competitive mod for CoD4.

If you will be playing CoD4 competitively in the new year, chances are very good you will be playing on DAMN.

In this cast we spend most of the time picking apart the mod and trying to figure out what you need to do as a player to be successful at gaming this mod.

It is not PAM. It is not Promod.

You will have to learn the differences - and this cast will tell you what those differences are.

Find the secrets to success in DAMN MW from this cast by listening to MavLP, the creator of the mod and from one of the premiere players and best strategist in the game, Nabore.

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Relationships are difficult to maintain without good communication.  Lack of a frank and honest exchange can lead to friction and discontent.

Lately, it seemed to us that the CoD community and Treyarch were heading down a rocky road as the conversation between the two groups was strained. For that reason we thought we would invite both parties to a communication session where both groups would engage in straight talk.

We had the session last Sunday and we are happy to say that it went off amazingly well. Of course we recorded it and are proud to present it here for all to enjoy.

Josh Olin, JD2020 from Treyarch gave us answers to all the questions that my roundtable guests, PST*Joker from mycallofduty.com, Rudedog from fpsadmin and Garetjax from codtv.tv could think up.

If that was not enough, our BASHpit chatroom was filled with folks hungry for answers as well.

To his credit, Josh stayed an hour after the cast was over to answer each of those questions, leaving no one wanting.

It was a great evening and I hope we were able close the gap between Treyarch and our community.

Thanks to everyone involved.

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