IanLP Sits Down With D1ablo

So after the conclusion of a hectic day of bracket play, I was sitting here chatting with Tom "D1ablo" Newman about what is happening in the CoD community today, its problems and a few suggestions.

- Hi D1ablo, thanks for taking a moment out of your schedule. How about you introduce yourself, who are you and what are your credentials?

D1ablo: Hello most people recognise me online as D1ablo. I'm a former call of duty 4 player thats taken a back seat as of late in an attempt to sort out problems this community is facing.

- In your opinion, what are those problems that the community is facing right now?

D1ablo: Right now the biggest problem this community is facing is a media famine. There is no news and through that there is no excitement, no interest and therefore no sponsorships. Other than that, restrictions that the game itself pose are also an issue that needs to be addressed during this game's ressurection.

- We have sites like Cadred.org and tek-9. Are they not doing enough right now?

D1ablo: They're doing their piece, but right now a piece is a small part of the jigsaw. In previous years we would see Tek-9, cadred, SK-Gaming, Crossfire.nu and gotfrag all competing for Call of Duty coverage. Right now we have one and that isnt even being done correctly. Not to sound ungrateful but bocerbo is a one man army at the moment and its a shame that he's taking this responsibility on his own. Things need to change massively and I and a few others are hoping to lead the forefront of this change in an effort to rejuvinate news within cod4. Because there is news. Loads of it.

- So how do you and these other figures plan to change that?

D1ablo: First and foremost get news on the website at is happens. Lineup changes, new lineups forming and then something that I'd like to be starting is a rumour report, similair to how rakaka.se operates. Alongside that, we need more EXSTENSIVE interviews. None of the half arsed horse shit thats being produced as of late. LAN coverage and online match reports too.

- How much news is there actually out there right now to cover?

D1ablo: There's so much to talk about that isn't known to the public simply because there's only two people involved with tek-9's news at the moment and unfortunately neither of them are directly linked to top end community. Examples would be, kAMMYz back playing with zenith? Old speedlink now 5k? The return of Knaller? Blackmane in a swedish party? CIC8 on the horizon? A group of people go big with CoDTV and so much more. Other than that, we have your very own CEVO league beginning and some first day upsets to mention too. Its a busy time for Call of Duty, just no one hears about.

- What do you think has caused this lack of news coverage?

D1ablo: In all honesty most people who are involved in the business/media side of gaming, whether that be news writers, tournament admins, organisation managers, all are ex-players. It is just the natural transition that a player makes when he no longer has the time/interest to play but still wants to be connected with something he's been a part of for so long. From here people then make the full transition to say bye to gaming. Thats where most of our ex-news writers and media activists have gone. They've simply made that transition and moved on. Which is how it should be. Unfortunately, through a lack of advertisement and general care from the HeavenMedia crew tek-9 has been left to rot.

- I personally think it takes a special type of person to volunteer and put in all the work that you and a select few others do, however I remember back in the cod2 days there were loads of people eager to step up and volunteer. Is there just a lack of interest in volunteering to help?

D1ablo: Its not that there is a lack of interest, I just feel there is a lack of response. As I said, tek-9's a one man show at the moment. Previously you had dfb, JETSET, Volcano and loads of other head members all doing their piece. If you wanted to get involved, you simply had to contact one and gave it a go. The good thing about the past was that you would get a response fairly quickly and you were almost always given a shot. Now it seems that if you dont have a voice your not given a shot and even when you do put yourself forward, it just takes forever to get anything solidified. I guess Tek-9's admin team needs a larger member count. Hopefully that will change too.

- What are some of the ideas you'd like to put into place to get everything rolling on media coverage? Can you give examples?

D1ablo: Well firstly get the news out in a timely manner. This means that if a shocking result happens in any tournament scenario, a match report is up within the hour of what happened and why it happened. No ones wants to wait a week to hear why their favourite team just lost to a bunch of newcomers. The same goes for lineup changes. I want the news to be out there as its happening, who is leaving what team and why. Lets put the saying "get it while its hot" back into news. Other than that, Leo's going to be doing a series of exstensive interviews on new and old players to give readers an insight into what happens post gaming. In addition, as a newly appointed babysitter at vitanova, I'm going to be writing news with regards to mod changes and progress in maps. Finally I'll be centralizing news for all areas of the call of duty community. Australian, North America, European and even South African news will all be held on this portal. This will be the news website for call of duty.

- Lets talk about mod changes. You mentioned earlier that people have actually done codtv. Which has been on the cod community wish list for a while. Is it actually a working version of codtv? Will it be incorporated into promod? Do you think it'll be good for the community?

D1ablo: Right now it's in its early days. From what has been shown it is pretty much a fully functioning version of hltv translated into the quake engine. I have no idea how they've done it but they did.. It allows for free cam, visuals of each player including a shoutcaster if he is watching (this means that you could listen to the audio of your favourite caster but watch the visuals through your own game giving perfect quality). At the moment the program is standalone and hasn't been integrated into promod. Right now it works in a way that a player who wishes to watch a game will download the codtv software, paste in the IP of the match they wish to view. The program will boot up the game and launch the IP address as if it was hosting a server on your computer. Your then given the ability to do exactly as you wish. Fly around, watch all the players, etc. It even allows for demo recording which can be directly sent to the master server and then to a hosting address. So who knows, maybe codtv demos on tek-9 in the near future? However, it's not all sunshine and roses, it has its faults too. Right now the problem facing the coding team is the restriction of packets causing players to lag if watched. According to the team it's easily resolvable and should be fixed within the following weeks. If embraced by server companies and packaged alongside their original server hosting offers then this could well and truely be an almost exact copy of what Counterstrike has at the moment and could do wonders for the current state of the games media.

- Are you advocating any other changes to promod that are in the works? Will we see any updates coming there soon?

D1ablo: Well I personally feel that if a new version of promod is coming out to cater for this new CoDTV anyway then why shouldn't we also resolve some predominately obvious issues that this game has. I've already evoked my views on the issues of including red dots on the radar, it takes away a competitive aspect in a team based shooter and promotes reckless play. Other than that it seems I'm also running as president for the "Nerf the Deagle" campaign. It's an overpowered weapon that cannot be listed as a secondary weapon in its current state. Discussions have been passed through a list of experienced players and the same response seems to be repeated. "I agree, but I'm not sure if the people will embrace the change." Well I propose this one to the readers and players of this game: Logically, the deagles overpowered and eliminates the point of having classes specific to close (SMG), medium (ASSAULT) and Long range (SCOPE), would you stop playing the game if the skill gap was raised on that particular weapon? Anyway, other than those two proposed gameplay changes there are also bug fixes such as the shoutcaster bug fix that has been resolved and other minor things such as problems with corpses etc.

- What's your opinion on custom maps? Do you feel they could ever be competitively viable?

D1ablo: Yes I do. Maps are maps, doesn't matter if they're created by an IW modeling designer or a community member just giving it a go. Right now I've seen one map thats really caught my attention, mp_cluster. I gave it a go in a cup finals scenario, so everyone was playing it on a moderately serious level and I found it brought back some brilliant aspects that the Call of Duty franchise had lost in the current maps we play. The burgundy cross for instance was emulated in this map, it was great to see that again. So on that note I urge people to begin playing it. Get a head start over the top teams and start searching wars on mp_cluster. I'm sure Ian can provide a download link with the map at the end of the interview.(Note: I can do one better, click here to go to the tek 9 thread and d/l about it.) The more people play it now, the quicker it can get into the lan map pool and more importantly the quicker the map maker can fix any bugs or issues that are present.

- You said to me earlier tonight that it should be mandatory to upload demos for finals matches. Why do you think this is important? Is it promoting competition? Will teams not complain about releasing strats?

D1ablo: As stated previously media is a major problem within this game. When new tactics are found out in any sport or form of competition. It is commonly used in a special situation that is televisized or shown somehow to the amazed public. Replays allow for that public showing in starcraft, hltv in counterstrike. Unfortunately, until something substantial and working is released, there is no way of doing this in Call of Duty unless the game is streamed (which even then doesnt show the entire picture of a new idea expressed). For the competition to keep pumping people need to be forced to show new things and think of new things. It's how the game keeps itself alive. This is why I believe that in a tournament environment it should be mandatory for every player to upload their demo to a public domain post match. Competition within CoD will then become how it should have always been, "reveal your new trick or idea and win the game, or keep it locked away and lose." Not how it is at present, "hide away your new idea from the public and keep winning forever." It's counter productive for both the community and its competition. It takes minimal amount of time and I believe it should be enforced in the same manner that anti-cheats are enforced. Then if looked at a different angle, the uploading of demos after every match in a competitive tournament allows access to a public media source. Lan event movies, match reports with short frag clips incorporated into the news post to emphasise how the game progressed. The opportunities are vast and holding demos or "information" ridiculously hinders the growth of competition.

- We talk about what admins and figureheads can do, but what can individual players, who don't have the time, experience and resources do to make the cod community a better place?

D1ablo: The individual player can just keep on playing with his/her team and keep on raising the bar on competition. Other than that if the person has any skills or attributes that he thinks can help in any part of esports media then just make yourself known. If you're a web designer then it's needed. If you're good with words and want to start writing news tell someone about it. If map creation is a hobby go for it. Keep doing what you enjoy and what you're good at. If it can somehow help the Call of Duty scene then make it known and people will try and help.

- I think thats about it on my questions, In summarization, can you give us 5 one sentences things that the community can and needs to do to keep CoD4 alive or regrow it (a tl;dr for those of you who are lazy :S)

D1ablo: - 1. Be open for change, the game isnt perfect at the moment and change needs to occur in order for us to progress. 2. If change is talked about, remove yourself from the equation as self beneficial decisions will get this game nowhere. 3. Keep training and stick to playing with friends. 4. Make media OPEN! The more demos, screenshots, movies the better (If you have a good demo, share it around) 5. Keep an eye out on news and spread the word!

- In closing, any comments you'd like to add or ideas you'd like to play advocate for?

D1ablo: Just a little disclaimer as community members like to make assumptions, All ideas I've been proposing are in no way going to benefit me. These are ideas that back in 2008 all the past top scene wish we had changed when we could, but we didn't, we were young and naive and ranting and raving about tournaments with 20k prize pots. Stuff I'd like to advocate are competitively hindering aspects such as the presense of red dots. The easy use of the deagle and it currently not playing the role of secondary weapon. Hand and foot damage should not be equal to arm and leg damage. The bomb should be assigned to a player at the start of every round at random (just like CS you can still drop the bomb, but this will remove confusion at the start and allow for a more tactical communication during strat time). Then there's stuff that should be standardized so that competition is on a level playing field for everyone such as the current fov command should be locked. Personally (and honestly) looking at these changes from an outsider's perspective I see nothing here that wont help the current game in becoming a better and more enjoyable game for everyone.

- Alright, well thank you for sitting down and taking the time to do this interview

D1ablo: No problem.