| State of JKA -Augusta_Mintaka - Apr 06 10:02pm | |
|
Hello everybody! This is AmiK_Mintaka reporting in from capitalist media. I thought I would start off with a general article based on a game we all know and love (or hate if you happen to be a JKO oldbie), that game is none other than Star Wars: Jedi Academy (lovingly referred to as just JKA/JK3). How is this six year old relic doing? What’s in and what’s out? Is JKA a communist or capitalist society? I’ll briefly go over these things and predict where I believe this game is going!
While JKA is no longer in its glory days where it was difficult to find a good server that was not full, there is still an extremely loyal base of players who regularly play. This activity is most dominant in non-base servers that host mods such as Lugormod or JA+. In contrast, base (the default modification of JKA) has only a fraction of players that modified servers enjoy. Although the base community seems to be dying, many who are part of this community fully understand how loyal everybody is to the game. As a base player myself, I couldn’t imagine playing a modded version of this game with joy. Many have predicted that JKA would be far gone by now or predict that it will completely evaporate in the next few years, but I ask this: Why do you still play? (Assuming you would have to still be playing if you believe the game is dying) Moving on! What’s popular and what’s not? Looking at the current server list, I find that FFA ranks as the most popular game type. But does this mean that people actually prefer to play FFA? By visiting a number of servers, I have found that the vast majority of FFA players will socialize rather than randomly saber each other. This adds to the running joke that many JKA servers are turning into interactive chat rooms, rather than competitive arenas where Jedi must slay each other for a second of satisfaction! What of other game types? Well they are not quite as popular, but still have varying degrees of activity. TFFA remains a popular game type and is often exclusively structured in PUG (Pick Up Game) fashion. This means that a captain from each team (designated by first come first serve or top score) will alternate in picking a player from spectator to join his/her team until an even number is reached (often 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4). It is common for team/clan matches to occur in these servers and players often use rivalries to enhance the experience. Another semi-active game type would be dueling where players fight on a more personal level. Dueling suffers from dwindling activity, but remains popular to those who value 1v1 saber skill. There are typically one to two duel servers with at least 3 players at any given time. Yet another game type that I should briefly mention is Power Dueling which is 1v2 dueling. Although some servers might have passed my radar, Power Dueling activity has completely fallen with a few brief exceptions that surface here and there. CTF, on the other hand, carries an extremely loyal community. Also modeled after the PUG structure, CTF is a game type that praises speed and precision. The community is small, but regularly active with well over a dozen players and several active servers. Last, but not least, is Siege. Siege is objective based and demands organization in order to be successful when player numbers grow. While there are active Siege servers, a modded version of the game type called Movie Battles has grown to be extremely popular. Movie battles accounts for a large portion of activity in JKA and requires a massive (~1gb + additional maps) download to play. Movie Battles appears to be a cross between Siege game play and that of CounterStrike. The mod has classes, weapons and abilities completely unique from JKA and has its own mod base which constantly introduces new flavors into the game play. Movie Battles is a prime example of how JKA survives through the efforts of hundreds of modders who work on increasing the diversity in this game. Now that I rambled on enough about how this game is doing in different areas, I would like to ask this question to readers: Where will JKA be in five more years? I believe that it will remain active and continue to garner loyalty through competitive play, modifications and just the uniqueness of the game. I honestly do not see this game dying unless we were to see a JK4 in our lifetime. I hope you all enjoyed this! I’ll try to think of something more interesting to babble about next time! |
| Login and add your comment! |
| Comments |
|
Vortex - Student 
|
Three of my best friends have quit JKA in the past year. And at least that many the year before. However I am loyal to the good attitudes of JKA. Decent skill never hurts either. I think the average base player is so much better now than last year. I hope to see the same people around next year. _______________ Pfft. |
|
Va'kion - Student 
|
Very nice article!  Hope to see more like it in the future.
~Va'kion _______________ I'm a resident Ashlan Philosopher |
|
Augusta_Mintaka - Student 
|
I'll have to push that next article back a day or two, kinda busy.
Rin you will just get sabered before entering the room as is tradition. _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." This comment was edited by Augusta_Mintaka on Apr 12 2009 07:41pm. |
|
Siren_Mintaka - Student 
|
Quote: And I'll be there to push you into a pit.
I'll extend the same courtesy to you  .
- Rin _______________ Former padawan of RoseRed, and cofounder of the Wii! Triumvirate! Quote: In the words of Old Ben, "Not as retarded or as stupid as a public, but an elegant community for a more civilized age." - Jedi_Pimp
|
|
Augusta_Mintaka - Student
|
And I'll be there to push you into a pit. _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." |
|
Pink_Mintaka - Student 
|
Great job Ami!
I really enjoyed the article. One of these days I really need to reinstall.... |
|
Augusta_Mintaka - Student
|
I have not played during Euro peak hours so I have no way to compare. I believe dueling is more popular with European players, but I think they do make up a larger player base than USA/Canada. As far as Base is concerned, of course. _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." |
|
SaZ - Student 
|
hmmm so you say JKA is less popular in US? _______________ playing jk3 since 30th of january (2005), member since 1st of february. [Unofficial Master to Vision and Z�diac ] If you can make a fool of yourself infront of 300 people you can do anything - Jaiko D'kana |
|
Laziana - Jedi Instructor 
|
Great work, Amik. Very nice article _______________ Proud owner of Buster Senatu's 200th & 300th, Muro's 370th, Maher's 2100th, Henkes' 1639th, Johauna's 400th, 666th and 900th, Sho Koon's 2000th and Kain Sol's 600th comment Download Laziana's lightsaber here! Glory to Arstozka! |
|
Augusta_Mintaka - Student 
|
Quote:
Quote:
There are typically one to two duel servers with at least 3 players at any given time.
now that i started checking those servers out, i can say that there are way more players in duel servers than that. actually there are loads of european servers with more than enough european players early in the morning... as for what will become of your beloved game... i dont know... there will always be someone who will play 
i gladly install games like diablo 1 or quake 1, nfs3 and so on... and they are way older than JKA.. so.. : ) "at least" Wording covers lack of reporting due to GMT constraints! Thanks for the responses everybody! My next article should be coming before or during Saturday. _______________ "Deos fortioribus adesse." This comment was edited by Augusta_Mintaka on Apr 09 2009 05:40pm. |
|
Dash Starlight - Jedi Instructor 
|
Good job on your article, Amik.
_______________ The name is Bond. James Bond. |
|
SaZ - Student
|
Quote: There are typically one to two duel servers with at least 3 players at any given time.
now that i started checking those servers out, i can say that there are way more players in duel servers than that. actually there are loads of european servers with more than enough european players early in the morning... as for what will become of your beloved game... i dont know... there will always be someone who will play
i gladly install games like diablo 1 or quake 1, nfs3 and so on... and they are way older than JKA.. so.. : ) _______________ playing jk3 since 30th of january (2005), member since 1st of february. [Unofficial Master to Vision and Z�diac ] If you can make a fool of yourself infront of 300 people you can do anything - Jaiko D'kana This comment was edited by SaZ on Apr 09 2009 10:13am. |
|
Cuthalion - Padawan 
|
Good Article, Congrats! _______________ <MaherSenatu> guh... you are just... I'll keep sure that your kind of people will never be knights... <MaherSenatu> That's my mission... Master to Kain Sol |
|
Degor - Padawan 
|
Congrats on your first article.
I don't know where the ja will be in 5 years but I'll probably keep playing from time to time. _______________ May the force be with you. And may the academy stand forever! This comment was edited by Degor on Apr 07 2009 01:23pm. |
|
Sauce - =^.^= 
|
meh. |
|
Masta - Jedi Council 
|
Good article!
Quote: Where will JKA be in five more years?
Probably where JK2 is right now. _______________ Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here! Married to Kain. |
| Login and add your comment! |