JJnet's forum

Nah, it's just a little bit inactive. It's still better than in 2004 when there weren't any dedicated servers, so you had to not only find people on msn but also one of them had to have a workable router

Typical summer inactivity causing self-judgmentalism in people. If anything, other gamemodes are being played on jj2 as according to gip non-cd servers had players today. However the point of some players will never play jj2 again is still true as well, maybe an over-emotionalist argument but really, there's no inescapable consequence of that. Determining whether the game will gain or lose popularity depends mostly on technological innovation and deletriousness, granted also the significance of that is generally somewhat misleading.

People may not be playing in CD much at the moment, but the game is far from dead. Besides, historically JJ2 has always had some periods of lower activity - I can recall several times in the past where hardly any games were being played and everyone was claiming JJ2 was dead.

I think it's more concerning that ctf players get a job after hs than it is to finish the ladder season over the summer. More importantly some ppl need to concentrate and make it to college instead of missing everything during the semester. This is why more responsible players have already made time to play jj2 over summer while they are on break instead of having to cram summer reading which could have been done as soon as they got the book list. Others have book reports to write and quite honestly, ladder and 2v2 would be somewhat a distraction in that scenario. All clans traditionally prioritized reading and homework assignments over laddering. This is the way it is and the way it ought to be. If you think no ladders for a whole summer is a devastating punishment, just try and set one up now that spammers aren't in every cd. It could be more of an opportunity than what it seems.

While of course few people on JJ2 have time to play constantly, even with other commitments there's still no reason why they couldn't play the occasional ladder match from time to time. I highly doubt [i]everyone[/i] took a mutual decision to give up competitive JJ2 to focus more on studying/careers. No doubt this may have been the case for some people, but not all players are so academically minded. There's still a lot of people interested in playing, but as they perceive JJ2 as "dead" at the moment, they just sit around waiting for activity to increase instead of doing anything about it. My guess is that whenever JDC 24 starts, people will feel like they have a reason to play again, and simultaneously the ladder will increase in popularity as more people will make themselves available for playing. Also on a slightly unrelated topic, but I wish people would stop thinking that there's nothing more to JJ2 than the clan ladder. JJ2 itself is not dead - in recent months the game just shifted to a more casual focus, centred around tests and public server Battle.

I've noticed the inactivity, but people have more things on their minds than JJ2, no doubt. I'll just continue being around, and see when the servers start attracting more players again :D. And I've released a new test, and hoped that I would start working on Part II of that test soon after. That's a bit delayed though, due to a severe lack of inspiration. Makes me want to try my luck at another gamemode, such as CTF. I have ideas, but now I need to find a way to realize them.

Two years ago in July, Puke Nuk3m Tests (which was known as "Zæl Relaxer" back then) had 32/32 players a few times for some weeks. Those were the summer times. But yes, it's not the first time that JJ2 seems empty for a while. However, there used to be more crowded servers around 2007 - 2010. Lately, I've only seen one or two servers with 10+ players at peek hours.

Actually, I think the internet as a whole is going through a decline in popularity. I see less and less people using social media sites frequently, and more people simply use their computer to get something done, and use the internet to share their work. It's good that people are moving on from simply just using Myspace/Facebook/Xanga/etc. and realizing the internet has more potential, but it shouldn't be overly consuming if you're being unproductive at the same time. Less people wasting time on the internet with pointless stuff like Farmville / Top 8 means that there are fewer distractions and you may be able to have insightful topics worth discussing. So, from my perspective, it's not so much that CD and clan ladder are inactive, but seemingly the internet as a whole has gone the way of the telephone and television and radio: useful/practical at times, but no longer worth spending all day and all night on, as eventually some more advanced technology will be able to compliment it naturally.

Managed to play both 2v2s and 3v3s this week without much waiting time. Skype helps!

There's mainly/mostly also the difference between players who are bored or a clan/group of people who don't feel the need to play often year-round, and also versus players who just aren't capable of playing at times due to travel, commitments/obligations like school or work, family time, social endeavours, etc. So we can take that into account as well. I think a lot of countries have already adopted the internet and computer networking model. This isn't 2000 when having access to a computer at all was rare. Nowadays people are aware of the technology, which at the same time seemingly works but needs regular upgrades (of computer operating power) and is also relatively affordable. Compare that to 2000, when internet speed was basically a joke (JJ2 wasn't even smooth and streaming video was practically never done before) and also more people had a lot better stuff to do than get a computer.

tldr

Streetfight is gaining popularity again! Screenshot from some days ago: [img]http://www.pukenukem.com/puke/images/Jazz2-nf04-000.png[/img] Screenshot from yesterday: [img]http://www.pukenukem.com/puke/images/Jazz2-nf10-001.png[/img] This doesn't really seem dead anymore. But I secretly wish that there were a few more servers filled like this one.