When QuakeCON Forgets to Include Quake

By Joe Haygood | August 13, 2008

While reading up on this year’s QuakeCON, I found that it was unlike any other in years past.  That may sound good, but judging from the above video, it is probably a turn for the worse.  If you watch the video, you will see the top two Quake players at QuakeCON setting up their rigs to have a showdown in the finals.  Only the showdown did not happen the way you thought it would.

via sk-gaming.com

It seems that the guys from id felt it more important to have gyrating women come up on stage to sell raffle tickets, an hour long Guitar Hero Aerosmith tourney, and even giving out more raffle tickets after that, including giving a ticket away in trade for a woman’s bra.

During this time, one of the players on stage asked when they would be able to start the tournament, and he seemed to get the brush off by Todd Hollenshead, which really sucked.  As a matter of fact they even had the closing credits, thanking everyone involved before the final festivities started.  Still no gameplay between the two finalists that had now been up on stage waiting to play for a couple of hours.

When it came time to start the finals,Todd Hollenshead told the two finalists that there would not be enough time to finish the finals and to try and find a way to shorten the event, which neither contestant would agree on.  It was negotiated that they would play the finals and move the two contestants over to the “Bring Your Own Rig” section of the event.

Nice job guys.  It seems that Todd Hollenshead and crew forgot that this event is called QuakeCON for a reason – because it celebrates all things Quake and id, not Guitar Hero and silicone boobs.  Well, maybe silicone boobs, but they should come second to Quake.  One hour to Guitar Hero?  Begging the women in the crowd for a bra for raffle ticket trade?  It just all reeks of commercialism gone wrong and the ones who get ripped off the most are the true Quake fans that have gone to QuakeCON religiously for many, many years.  I have always wanted to go, but after seeing this, I don’t need to as I can see it is no longer about Quake, but about who provides the most dollars to the event.