Gearsopedia FAQ

Gearsopedia Frequently Asked Questions

The following are sets of questions that are asked by people on a somewhat regular basis, directed at anything involving Gearsopedia. If you would like a question to be answered or added, LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS BLOG. I will happily edit it into the questions.

All questions are answered by Doom

Q - Who are the staff members on Gearsopedia?

A - The staff is "headed" by Doom (Person writing this blog). Wheelz, Raafe, and BootyWhop all help with anything they can at any time, but have no "specific" responsibilities. DR Torquenstein is the Owner and Head Administrator of our official website (www.Gearsopedia.net). The x Advocate runs the Top Plays series. Wagman and Subkultured are looked to for opinions and general discussion of some involvements within Gearsopedia.

Q - What does Doom do?

A - Post montages/videos, check the Inbox, respond to questions, create a schedule for posting videos that never gets followed due to laziness, and other random stuff. Basically, I have the final decision on pretty much everything and can control anything that goes on with Gearsopedia. I obviously try to get as many second opinions on anything as possible, and my opinion can change pretty easily based on other people.

Q - What about Kareem? Does he have anything to do with Gearsopedia anymore?

A - No. Kareem has not been involved with the website, youtube channel, or anything else involving Gearsopedia for quite some time. He left the staff for his own personal reasons a long time ago.

Q - Who are the current Top Plays commentators? How come you didn't list them with the "staff".

A - Currently, we have no commentators "set in stone" you could say. In most cases, commentators are contacted randomly when needed.

Q - How do I submit a montage/video to Gearsopedia?

A - To submit a video/montage to our channel, send us a Youtube PM with a download and youtube link. We almost never respond to messages, and montages USUALLY take about a week of sitting in the inbox before they're uploaded, so be patient. Do NOT send us the same video every day, we will block you.

Q - How do I submit a clip for the Top Plays series?

A - Refer to the following video. Make sure to follow ALL directions - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rLo1-gd7EY

Q - How would I create an affiliation/partnership for my channel with Gearsopedia?

A - Unless you feel your channel is a very popular channel, and is a channel hosting videos that are relative to our videos (Gaming, for the most part), don't bother. If you would like to see if your channel meets what we're asking for as an affiliate, send us a Personal Message on Youtube about it. If we feel your channel offers a viewer base and video selection that could mutually help both channels grow, it should be a simple decision.

Q - Does Gearsopedia sponsor any players?

A - No. I'm going to be very blunt when I say this; That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

Q - Does Gearsopedia sponsor any competitive teams?

A - No. While I would personally like to sponsor a professional Team, I feel that, as a sponsor, our resources would be very limited and we would ultimately be able to bring very little to the table for a team advertising our name. Perhaps at some point in the future, but for now, no.

Q - How come MLGearsopedia is such an inactive channel now?

A - To make this answer short, the competitive community just doesn't have enough players/teams that are interested in, or have the ability, to record their gameplay. Unfortunately, this is likely to be the case in GoW, unless Epic adds a theater/replay system within the game. The original idea for the channel was to post gameplays and tip videos from Pro and Semi-Pro players, with the occasional Teamtage from them when possible. Unfortunately, this idea fell through as most players that agreed to help out lost interest.

Q - How come you guys don't start up top plays for other games? Or post videos of other games?

A - We are GEARSopedia.

Q - GoW1 is old, the montages are stale, why do you still post GoW1 Montages?

A - We are GEARSopedia. As long as people still continue to make them, we will post them.

Q - GoW2 sucks, Epic sucks. why do you post GoW2 montages?

A - We are GEARSopedia. As long as people still continue to make them, we will post them.

Q - Why do you still bother posting GoW videos? The games are dead!

A - GoW/GoW2 definitely aren't "dead". Are they as popular as they used to be? Of course not. In fact, you can make a case for the franchise not even being a Triple-A 360 title anymore. But that doesn't mean "nobody" plays the games anymore. Regardless of how many people are playing the game, if we still have entertaining videos to post for the people that DO play the game, we will post them.

Q - How would I contact Gearsopedia?

A - A Personal Message on Youtube. We will not be making an AIM/MSN contact list, as it gets annoying to put up with. Sorry.

Q - Do you have to be "known" to have your montage posted on Gearsopedia?

A - No. Look at the names of the people we've posted for. Over half of them, I personally had never heard of until they sent it to the channel. If the video is good, it will be posted.

Q - Does Gearsopedia accept trailers?

A - This is where I'm going to sort of contradict myself. Yes, we will post trailers. However, for a trailer to be posted, there has to be some kind of "hype" generated about it. This goes a little beyond the trailer just being good, and depends somewhat on a successful past history of well recieved projects from either the player or the editor. In the end, the Trailer must be extremely well done to be posted, and it helps a lot if it's some kind of "sequel" to a past montage.

Q - Does Gearsopedia post Scrimtages/Teamtages?

A - Yes, but due to the general youtube community not understanding the difference between clips gathered in Ranked/Public and clips gathered from GB/Tournaments/Scrims, we still hold the gameplay to a high regard similar to other montages. That doesn't mean there needs to be blindfire headshots and lucky supermans, but it means that singles are discouraged and clips should be good multikills. Editing is also necessary, in pretty much any case. Also, as a note, making a teamtage/scrimtage from playing on non-MLG settings is looked down upon.

Q - Does Gearsopedia post videos with no editing?

A - Not anymore. If the gameplay was absolutely ridiculous, we used to consider it, but now it's tough to sit there and call any gameplay "ridiculous" with how long both games have been out (Specifically with GoW1). With ranked/public gameplay, it's a definite "no". For competitive gameplay, we may make some exceptions, but only if the gameplay is especially amazing.

Q - Does Gearsopedia post community montages/Dualtages/Tritages?

A - Yes. The reason you don't see too many posted by us is because they aren't made very frequently, and when they are, they tend to suck. Especially in the case of Dualtages. As a tip for anyone editing a project like this, make sure to mix up the clips. Don't make a "Section" for each player. it makes the video more like a compilation of montages rather than its own singular video. Editing is key in these type of montages as well; projects like this with no editing will instantly be declined, unless a completely new concept of gameplay is being used.

Q - How do I know if Gearsopedia will post my video?

A - You don't. It's pretty rare that anybody is just straight up told their video will go on the channel. If you want to get an idea of how other people see your montage/video, post it in the Montages/Gameplay section on our forums. In general, if your video is very well recieved on the forums, there's a good chance it will be posted. Even if Doom doesn't particularly like it (I post frequently on the forums, and try to give advice/criticism on as many non-awful montages as possible). For a link to that forum section - http://www.gearsopedia.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=10

Q - How come some video descriptions on Gearsopedia videos are extremely long, and others are only a few lines? And how come the video is criticized sometimes in the description?

A - More or less, it's all just up to what I feel when posting the video. Sometimes I feel like writing, other times I don't, and sometimes I feel it's necessary for the editor and other editors to know a subtle mistake the editor made.

Q - Why didn't my montage go on Gearsopedia? It's way better than (insert random montage here)!

A - That's your opinion. Just like how everything posted is posted in my opinion. In most cases, I look for multiple second opinions on montages I don't like, so it's almost never just my opinion, unless I really feel the video is absolutely pointless to watch.

Q - (Insert staff member here) doesn't like me. That's why my montage wasn't posted!

A - Wrong. I've posted tons of montages of kids who I've argued with, not liked, or genuinely couldn't stand. If the video's good, it will get posted.

Q - (Insert montager here) is friends with (insert staff member here). That's the only reason that montage was posted!

A - Again, wrong. If anything, I hold people who I'm friends with to a higher standard for making videos, because I know they're intelligent enough to know what people like and what they don't. Some people who I considered a friend have stopped talking to me entirely after I told them I wasn't posting a video of their's.

Q - How can I get on Gearsopedia Staff?

A - You can't. If I think someone can help with something we're trying to do, they would be contacted.

Q - Will you post a sniper match/1v1/2v2/Sniper Match montage?

A - No.

Q - Will Gearsopedia post a montage using Annex/Guardian/KotH/Etc gameplay?

A - Yes, but the standard for gameplay is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than it would be for Execution type montages. For full details on that, refer to the following Blog Post - http://gearsopediainfo.blogspot.com/2009/08/objective-gameplay-in-gow2-montages.html

Q - Why don't you guys post the music used in your videos in the description?

A - 90% of the time, I'm as clueless as you. Instead of asking us this question, go ask the people making montages why they don't credit the artists in their video's credits.

Q - "How hard is it to run Gearsopedia, and do you usually have a routine/plan to fit the needs of Gearsopedia in your life?" Asked by Parcour101/Armorhype

A - It's not difficult at all to run GoP. Honestly, anybody with an open mind and half a brain could do it. And no, it doesn't really affect any part of my life, it just gives something to mess around with in free time. It's a great way to pass time though, you'd never guess how fast you can make 10-15 minutes go by deleting messages from the inbox or reading recent comments on videos lol. In general I'd say I spend anywhere between 20-40 minutes a day actually logged into the GoP account doing things related to the channel.

Q - "Are you going to still upload the above average videos on the back up channel/funtage channel Vysteriuh?" Asked by Evh523

A - We were going to, but then I realized how much of a waste of time it would be. not to mention we get significantly less videos now than we used to, so really having an alt channel for worse videos would just encourage people to make worse montages.

The state of GoW2/GoW in general

I'm not sure why I'm writing this. It's like 8 AM and I'm bored, so sorry for any grammar/spelling deficiencies.

As you all know, MW2 dropped about a month ago. Like pretty much everyone expected, this "hurt" the numbers playing GoW2, as less people are playing it now. However, I don't think anyone but someone who really hated the game would've guessed that the game would fall out of the top 10 played XBL titles; But it did. Despite Epic adding extra XP permanently, and changing some key factors in the game, GoW2 was passed by games such GTA 4, Fifa, and even 1v100.

To put this in perspective, 2 years ago when GoW1 was in the same timeframe, it took its first dip out of the top2 in games played, dropping to 5th, behind Halo3 and the newly released CoD4. As anyone can probably remember who played GoW1 at that time, ranked matches suddenly went bare. Most of the time, you'd be lucky to find 4-5 matches at a time. While this was due to a number of reasons, the main one was; EVERYONE was playing Halo and CoD, and that's EXACTLY what's happening now. Just to throw some numbers out there; At a random time during the day I went on to check, MW2 had 700K+ people playing. Halo3 had 140K people playing. Call of Duty 4, the game that was 3rd on the last "Live Activity" week, had 23K layers. In my opinion, within a month or two the MW2 "craze" will die down a lot compared to that number.

I am NOT saying the game will "Die", or even that it will fall out of the #1 played spot anytime soon. I'm saying 700K people is a lot. Assuming 700K is the "average" people on at any given time, I think it will level out to around 200-250K by February. Like all games when they're new, people play them, and most of those people are casual players who will go to the "next" big game, which is what leads me to my actual point of this blog (Only took 3 paragraphs to get there!);

The reason GoW2 "died off" so quickly was because it has no chance of a casual fanbase. What I mean by that is, there aren't people who play for fun who do just that; play for fun. In general, you have 3 types of "gamers" within a high-scale game (like GoW, Halo, and CoD); The Casual Gamehopper, who goes from one game to the next because it's the "new" game out there, and tends to have a preference on 1 older game or series to go to when no new games are available. The Competitive Player, who plays the game on a "win first" basis, and loves to prove they are a better player than the other player (This is where your MLG/Gamebattles community kicks in). And then you have the Casual Fan, someone who plays the game for fun, but likes one specific game so much more than other games that they ALWAYS come back to it.

That's the problem with GoW2, it doesn't have that last fanbase. Putting aside all the in-game BS and all the problems with the game, the main reason people seem to have hopped onto other games from GoW2 is the ridiculously small skill gap. What I mean by that is that someone who never touched GoW/GoW2 could go pick up the game, join a public match, and get kills on people who have been playing the game since release. While there is certainly a large skill gap from a "Good" player to an "Amazing" player, there is an extremely small gap between the "new/average" player and the "good" player, which leads to the average-good player eventually getting bored with the game (These players make of the majority of "Casual Fan" section).

If you aren't completely with me still, what I'm trying to say is that about 90% of the GoW2 fanbase that it would be "expected" to have, has left. Between new games and the game just not having that kind of "fun" the first one had, it was bound to happen. It will probably reappear in the top10 played games soon, but hopefully it serves as a message to Epic and they can finally find something their fans like. Unfortunately, they seem confused on what direction they want to take GoW2 with (Gameplay wise). Hopefully this teaches them to refine GoW3 much more before it's released.

I'll probably revisit this because I completely forgot half the stuff I wanted to say, but I think the point gets itself across.

Our "Backup/Alt" channel - Vysteriuh

If you're reading this, you probably follow us close enough to already know, but we've made Vysteriuh our "backup" channel for posting GoW videos, specifically montages. The reason for this is because we have a ton of montages to post, especially GoW1, but some don't necessarily meet the standards of others. So rather than mix in the good with the great, we decided to separate them.

Vysteriuh will STILL BE THE SAME CHANNEL IT WAS BEFORE. Please understand that first. They are, first and foremost, a channel for posting funny console gaming videos. However, due to either a lack of popularity, a lack of interest, and a general lack of submitted clips, the channel was slowly fading into nothingness. The point of doing this is to get rid of some videos for Gearsopedia, and to post videos on Vysteriuh so the channel stays active.

The grade of montages you see on Vysteriuh aren't going to be amazing, but they will usually be pretty enjoyable. They, at least at the moment, will almost exclusively be GoW1 as most good or better GoW2 montages tend to get posted on GoP as less people make them and the standards are lower. You're probably not going to like EVERY montage posted on Vysteriuh, but you never know what you will and won't like. just don't expect the Vysteriuh uploads to be the next Fr4g V1d.

Once the huge queue of montages we have currently gets cleared out for Vysteriuh, we'll probably find other ways to post videos other than montages. Keep in mind to still SUBMIT YOUR FUNNY/FAIL CLIPS TO VYSTERIUH. It's what the channel was made for, and it should continue, but every other video can't be from Doom or Cr1tikal, it just won't work that well.

Also, keep in mind, do NOT submit your montages to Vysteriuh. Submit MONTAGES and general GoW media to Gearsopedia. Submit funny/fail clips on any game to Vysteriuh. Montages sent to Vysteriuh will likely be deleted as the montages posted will be coming from the Gearsopedia Inbox.

The Gearsopedia Minute - Week 1 recap

Probably not going to do one of these every week, but seeing as how it's the first week, I might as well condense everything and answer some questions.

If you're curious as to what the "Gearsopedia Minute" is, all the info regarding how to make one or be a part of one can be found by clicking here. Check the stickied threads to get all the info you'll need.

Now to answer some questions;

Q - How long should a "minute" video be?

A - NOT counting the intro, 50-90 seconds. This includes the outro. The absolute longest a "minute" is allowed to be is 1:47, as the "long" intro is 17 seconds long.

Q - Can I shorten the intro?

A - Yes, in fact we encourage it. As long as you get the last bit with the text and animated Dom, you're free to do whatever with it.

Q - What exactly is the point of these?

A - To show creativity within the community, to entertain the community, and to spark new interest in editing.

Q - Why does everyone use DnB/Dubstep

A - I have no clue lol.

Q - Why are you bombing my sub box?

A - Unsub if you don't like it. They're 1-2 minute videos, if you don't want to watch them, click the video and go back.

Q - How often will you guys be doing this?

A - Every Saturday. This gives editors at least a week to come up with something nice.

Q - How many "minutes" will be posted each Saturday?

A - As many as we get that are enjoyable. Obviously, there are "standards", but basically, if someone on the staff likes it, it has a pretty good chance of going up.

Q - Why are so many people involved in each minute (For gameplay)?

A - That's one of the main focuses behind this; To get people involved. There must be a MINIMUM of 4 people used for each video's gameplay. If you can't find people with good gameplay, check this thread.

Q - How can my gameplay be in one of these videos?

A - Contact an editor, edit one yourself and include some clips by you, or contribute clips in the thread linked to in the answer of the last question.

Q - Why do all these videos have so many effects? Just show the gameplay!

A - That ISN'T what this is about. This is about editing. You want to see raw clips, find those kind of montages yourself as it's rare we'll post them ever, or just watch older montages.

Q - How do we know who won each week?

A - There is no winner/loser. there may be a "best", but it's not a competition in any way.

Q - Who picks what "minutes" to upload?

A - Raafe, Marxmen, and Anthony. Everybody on our staff and the feedback videos get on our forums are taken into consideration as well.

Q - Can GoW2 minutes be made?

A - Yes, the only reason we didn't post one in the first week was because nobody made one. We would be more than happy to post GoW2 minutes.

Q - Can GoW1 and GoW2 gameplay be mixed?

A - No. If a lack of GoW2 minutes continues, we may allow it in the future, but for now all minutes must be 1 game themed.

Q - Can we make multiple minutes within one week?

A - You CAN, but if you do make more than 1 and submit it, we'll likely only post the best one you sent. They would all have to be amazing for us to post multiple minutes from the same person.

Q - Why didn't my Minute get posted?

A - There can be a lot of different reasons for this, but in all likelihood it either wasn't enjoyable, or wasn't AS enjoyable as the ones we posted. Don't be discouraged if we didn't post your's, if anything use it as motivation to keep trying. There's also the chance that you forgot to include a download link.

Q - If my Minute doesn't make it one week, can I resubmit it the next week?

A - No, but you can refine your submission from one week and submit a similar video.

Q - If my Minute makes it one week, can I submit again next week?

A - Of course, but please use different gameplay, or different gameplay for the most part. Doesn't have to be different people, just don't recycle the same clips you've used.

Q - Can we use clips other people have used in their Minute?

A - Yes.

Objective gameplay in GoW2 Montages

First and foremost, before I explain my reasoning behind everything, keep in mind that I have solid and detailed explanations behind each and every thing I am about to type. If you disagree with me, that's fine, but the chances of you somehow swaying my opinion are very, very low. Also, keep in mind while reading that I am basing some of my opinions off of Gear61's opinion on Social gameplay in Halo montages. While the two obviously aren't the same, a lot of what he brings up are the same as with Objective gameplay for GoW2.

Now, to get to what the topic is about;

I'm sure you've all seen it. The cluttered mess of random numbers and symbols spread out across the Youtube screen, indicating things like score, flag, hill, weapon, and all that other junk. That is what I like to call "Objective" gameplay in GoW (If you aren't following anymore, please close the window). Anyway, there have been a ton of discussions on Youtube comments, PMs, and on our forums about how "Objective" gameplay should/shouldn't be used in GOW2 montages. This was never a real problem with GoW1, as there was only 1 "objective" gametype, that being Annex. However, with GOW a majority of the gametypes are objective. So this of course will eventually lead to the question;

Should we use Objective clips in montages?

Most people will either give a straight forward yes or no. I'm here to hopefully change that. The answer is currently no, in the state that GoW2 is in with how people aquire clips. The inevitable answer is "yes", they can be used in montages. Let me quote something I posted on our forums;

"The reason Doubles/Some triples are seen as "good" clips for GoW montages are because you have a very limited chance to hit them. If you're playing a RESPAWN gametype, that stereotype is thrown out the window. How often do you see DOUBLES or bad triples in a HALO or COD montage? Almost never, and when you do it obviously isn't a bad triple and the double is incredible. The SAME rubric should be used for GoW. Honestly, the reason our montages are so "boring" compared to other games in terms of multikill gameplay is because of how restrictive the most played game modes are. If you're going to play a game mode with MORE chances to get a kill streak going (As in, people/you/weapons respawn), your clips have to be of higher quality than they would be in Exec/Warzone."

To sum that all up essentially, "clips" are easier to get in objective gametypes. Why? Mainly because of respawns. The reason quads and 5 kill rounds in GoW2 are such good clips is because it's the CAP on what you can get. You can't get more than 5 kills in a round in Exec/Warzone. there's a certain ceiling you can hit on how many people can die in a single video cut. In objective, the ceiling is blown off. And that isn't necessarily a bad thing, people just don't seem to realize it yet. I wouldn't think about the gametype for a second if I saw someone put in a 7 kill back to back snipe clip from Annex. Instead of thinking "Wow why Annex?" I would think "Holy shit, that kid just got a Jaro in fucking Gears?".

What this leads me to is my next point with respawn gametypes; If you're getting a "clip" in an objective gametype, the chances of you actually attempting to COMPLETE the given objective is slim to none. That triple snipe that you got in Execution isn't going to be the same if it was Annex. that Quad torque kill you got in Warzone may have been a good clip, but in KotH it's practically meaningless. Here are some examples of what an "ideal" clip from each objective gametype would look like;

Annex - Your team is on the verge of losing, the score's tight, the enemy has the point. You take out all the enemies in the point in some way, capture the point, and defend it from more waves of enemies. THIS is an annex clip. You sniping people out of spawn on Jacinto, or sitting on top mid on Ruins torqueing people randomly walking around the map is not very impressive at all. All it really shows is you aren't paying attention to the objective.

King of the Hill - VERY similar to Annex, only with more of the "Defending" after you capture a point. Let's say the enemy has the hill. You take it over in a 3v1, capture the hill. Then you take another 2v1. Then, the entire team rushes you while you're in the hill. You take out a considerable amount of the enemies coming towards the hill, successfully defending it. THAT is one hell of a clip. Not only are you killing a ton of people, you're completing the objective, while being an open target.

Submission - Submission it's pretty tough to describe, but any time you're preventing the other team from scoring or helping your team score under pressure, the clip should be decent. For example, skip to 2:45 of this montage. Danny gets a quad snipe, all back to back, almost entirely on screen, while defending from the other team capturing the flag. He takes out the flag carrier (twice), helps a teammate, saves a teammate, and prevents the last enemy from doing anything while his teammates grab the flag. What makes the clip a good clip is that he got a quick and impressive multikill, while assisting in the objective. In Halo terms, Danny took over the role of a Slayer and executed it as perfect as could be done in a CTF game.

Guardian - Guardian is, of the objective gametypes, the closest in actual gameplay to and Execution/Warzone match. The main difference here is respawns. In my opinion, Guardian clips should either be VERY nice clips (Such as an on screen triple snipe, all moving targets, on screen b2b torque headshot, quad shotgun clip in 10 seconds, etc) OR there should be some form of action involved with the leader. Killing the leader is like a +1 to the clip, while defending yourself as leader is the same. In my opinion, a clip where you are the leader and you kill the enemy leader does NOT need to be spectacular, depsite the fact that you're playing Guardian. It does still need to be a "good" clip, but it doesn't have to be anything you would consider a "high point" in a montage.

To make that all a little shorter, if you're putting objective gameplay in a montage the gameplay either needs to be;

1) Focused around completing the objective at hand, while racking up a nice multikill.

2) An incredible, spectacular multikill. Something you would never, or almost never, see in Execution or Warzone. This could mean 7 straight sniper headshots, 8 kills with 3 boomshot rockets, a 5 on 1 shotgun clip under 15 seconds, a quad torque headshot clip, etc. The possibilities with respawn gameplay are ENDLESS.

I've kind of forgotten the other points that I wanted to make so I may re-edit this blog in the future, but I think I delivered my point, and hopefully cleared up some confusion. If you're confused, put it this way; Watch a Halo montage with Social gameplay. That's what I think GoW can do with Objective clips. They're fine to put in montages; They just need to be very, very good clips.

Epic, MLG, TU4, and my thoughts

Hey guys, this is Anthony. I promised I'd give more info on what happened between Epic and MLG regarding the recent "problems" Title Update 4 caused for Competitive GoW2. If you aren't sure of what I'm talking about, watch this video for a little forward; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAX9DRWaE7Q

The Problem

As you should know (Assuming you follow/play GoW2), Title Update 4 (TU4 for short) dropped fairly recently. This update was supposed to change and fix multiple issues within the game, as well as change a few key gameplay factors. Unfortunately, not everything that was promised with the update actually came in the downloadable Title update. In the update, it was explained that "Server side" updating would become strengthened. One of the key gameplay mechanics that was changed in the "update" was the way smoke grenades worked.

As anyone who plays knows, the game went from having Ragdoll smokes to having a smoke grenade that rarely could do anything post TU3. This was a GREAT step forward for the game, as it made the game more balanced and skill based, as well as more fun in general to anyone who played the original game. When TU4 was brought out, they decided to do an "in-between" smoke grenade change to the game; Smokes would always "cringe" you when near (Stun such as ragdoll), but you would no longer go flying around meaninglessly. While many people objected to the grenades being changed back to a similar smoke as ragdoll, the problem doesn't lie there.

The problem is that, rather than these "new smokes" being part of the title update that came out, they are instead simply a "server side update".

What's a "Server Side Update"?

A server side update, to put it simply, is a non-downloadable update that is applied to Xbox-live. In order to use these updates, the hosting Xbox of any given room MUST be connected to XboxLive. This is where the problem with MLG comes in. At MLG events, the matches are played on LAN (System-Link). To connect every single Xbox (Or 1 of 4) to the internet at an event would not only be a major hassle, it would cost an insane amount of money and could be a massive danger with the extra wires and modems. Not only that, but if somehow the main modem got knocked out, no Xboxes would have internet access.

What does this mean for MLG?

At events, MLG will not be playing the same game as you see and play online. Online, you have a smoke that cringes. On LAN, you have a smoke that ragdolls. That isn't even the end of the list though. Online you have a somewhat nerfed melee stun time, on LAN it's GoW1-esque with the stun time. There are other things applied through server updates as well, such as Annex having Execution rules, and Ink/Frag grenades having longer spawn times.

To put it short, Online and on LAN are two totally different games from each other now. Don't believe me? Turn on your xbox without the ethernet cord in, play a local match against a bot. You will get ragdolled by a smoke grenade.

Can Epic fix this?

Yes, as a matter of fact, they can. However, they won't. For more info on "why", refer to posts 1302 and 1306 on the following topic; http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=689351

Basically, Joe Graf (Main netcode developer for GoW and GoW2 online) repeated what we all knew, then said that it will not be fixed.

Does this mean GoW2 will be dropped from the MLG circuit?

Maybe, maybe not. As it is, there is a way to "glitch" server side updates to not happen while connected to live. For more information, read the following topic (credits to Skyllus for finding this out a long time ago) - http://www.mlgpro.com/forum/showthread.php?t=249390

Here's the simple verdict on it; It depends on if MLG wants to keep a game that needs to be "babied" online to practice for events. If Epic were to "fix" the online problems to make it play like it would on LAN, there would be no question that GoW2 will stay. As it is, GoW2 will stay on the circuit for the remainder of the season. The future of competitive GoW is most certainly in question though. It's possible that Epic comes out with a 5th title update, which would truly be a make-or-break for GoW MLG. They could fix the LAN problems, or they could make them worse.

A more complicated verdict lies within MLG however. As any avid Xbox gamer knows, Modern Warfare 2 comes out this November. This game is expected to be highly competitive, and the game designers seem bent on making the game as MLG-friendly as possible. This is great news for MLG, as it can bolster another game on its circuit. While adding MWF2 to the circuit doesn't mean GoW2 HAS to go, if GoW2 continues to have problems, while MWF2 prospers, you can expect a lot of GoW2 players to switch to the MWF2 circuit for competitive play. If GoW2 loses enough players/teams, it will most certainly be removed from the circuit.

Couldn't MLG just bring back GoW1?

No. To put it simply, the game doesn't have enough of a fanbase any more to support adding a game like GoW1 to the circuit. Despite what many of you who still play GoW1 may think, the game is dead. If it was added back to the circuit, teams would show up, but not enough to have MLG keeping it alive. In my opinion, no more than 20 teams would show up to a GoW1 event. This is what caused games like Shadowrun and RB6V:2 to dissappear from the circuit.

What are your thoughts on the isuue?

If you want my personal opinion, Epic made a horrible decision that's going to turn many of their longtime fans against them. I don't see how they couldn't have just added these GAME CHANGING updates to the title update. I also can't stand how the issue was handled. Rather than give a real answer, or an explanation why, Joe Graf simply brushed it aside, told competitive players to go fuck themselves, and then tried to make light of what happened. He ended up banning the accounts of multiple people, as well as changing some of the posts to "I am a Troll". Then he closed the topic for 'Excessive Trolling" when there was NONE of it going on. Unless you want to deem the somewhat excessive "bumping" of the topic, nothing outside of a simple "please" occured in the thread. All Epic had to do was make the server updates downloadable in some way. I'm sure that, being the 4th most played game on Xbox live at the moment, they could work out some kind of deal with MS to release another update or provide the server updates for download. It is absolutely ridiculous how a community of THOUSANDS get screwed over because the design team decides not to fit major alterations to the game within their updates.

But the problems with the update don't even end there! Epic did FOUR, yes, FOUR, things they said they would in Title Update 4. They balanced Wingman, added XP to horde, fixed an invisible cover glitch, and removed the double ammo glitch. Other than that, they failed on every single last glitch and exploit fix they stated they fixed. This kind of failure should never be seen in the gaming industry, especially from such a prestigious company.

Clearing up some stuff... v2

Been a while since we did one of these (Again), but I guess it's necessary to clear up more rumors and whatnot...

WHOS DA LEEDUR OF GOP?

We stated this in the description of a video recently, and put something in our news section about it, but we still get asked every day. The leader is, and has been since mid february when Kareem left, Anthony (Person writing this blog). the reason it was all done (lying about new leader and such) was honestly, to get you guys in the community off our back for a while. You all assume crap way too much, and it's way too much to put on single people. It's annoying to see things like "Kareem was a better leader", when basically nothing changed since he left. It's the same Gearsopedia, and as long as the community's still sending us stuff to post and people with half a brain are in charge, nothing's going to change.

SO LIEK HOOS DA STAFF DEN

Idk why who's on the staff matters. If you really care that much, the "official" staff is Anthony and BootyWhop. We have 2 people who "help", which is mostly just for Top Plays. those two are Wheelz and DS Snipe. And if it really matters, I talk to Kareem somewhat frequently, so I consider his opinion on things more than most people's. You could say he's a "consultant" if you really get a boner over seeing him helping in some way. That's just the Youtube though. The site is still run by Bart (DR Torque), with a crew of Global and Local mods to help out, and I would consider them just as much of the "gearsopedia staff" as anyone who helps out with the Youtube.

You only accept montages from known people!

Already answered this one. Anyone who thinks this is straight up dumb. The last person we even uploaded a montage for that I would considered "known" is Zero Xcel, and he's "known" for being a pro player, not some Youtube kid. Last time we uploaded anything by someone I know personally, it was when we posted Bootywhop's and Subkultured's trailers. Last time we posted an actual montage of someone I so much as even had on my Live friends list at the time it was posted was Calmosityyy, and he's someone who consistently comes out with great montages. In fact, dating back to late december (When I joined staff), we've posted a total of 21 videos from people I so much as had on my XBL friends list at the time we posted. Considering about half of those are from staff, and most of the others you could consider some of the best montages for GoW, ever, saying I only post videos from people I "know" is about as dumb as it gets. If anything, when if regards "Known" people, I'm expecting MORE from than than from randomxbldude1789. It's honestly much easier to get a montage on GoP if I've never heard from or of you, because I'm not expecting much.

Everything you post is shit now!

Let me change that statement for you.

"Everything the community sends us is shit now".

In case you're incredibly thick and haven't noticed, 95% of what we post comes from YOU guys in the community. We can't control what other people come up with, so if the "standard" lowers suddenly, we have to adapt to it. It's a lose-lose situation basically, because if we post every day we'll be posting some "good" montages along with the "great" ones. if we only post the "great" montages, we'll have weeks where we don't post a single montage. Instead of complaining, do something about it. Saying things like "Gearsopedia's going downhill!!!1!!!!11111!!" only makes me laugh, because it's not something Gearsopedia can control. if "Gearsopedia" is failing, that means the COMMUNITY is failing. instead of blaming the people doing it all for free, blame yourselves.

Why are you always criticizing people's montages in the description?

So they get BETTER and understand what they did WRONG. I swear to god, some of you act like us saying something isn't perfect is like us saying it sucks. Obviously it's a good montage if we bothered to post it you dolts. It's like, you people always say things like "This montage sucks", and when we try to help make people make better ones, we get jumped on. Let us do our thing, what we put in a description should be NONE of your concern. It's insight into the montage + our thoughts.

Whatever happened to the "gearsopedia ladders" you guys talked about in your last blog?

the GoW ladders are almost done. We had a problem where the matchfinder system wasn't working. Dr Torque fixed the problem, now it's just waiting on me to finish up some rules, put together a support staff, and make some tutorials on the interface. It'll be done soon, with some nice surprises.

Why are the Top Plays always delayed?

Multitude of reasons. For one, I'm lazy (Dumbest reason ever, but it definitely hurts). Two, there's like, 4 people involved with any given week that stuff needs to be relayed to. Three, my internet randomly cuts off communication, especially on AIM and MSN, with people who i need to talk to on AIM. And fourth, I don't always have access to a mic (Commentary). However, 5th and final, lately the clips we've been recieving have been lower standards than we'd like to see. It's just kinda depressing, if that's even the right word, to see something that can be so great ruined because people don't want to showcase their clips :\

Just to throw this one out there, there is no designated "day" for Top plays. We try to get them out on the weekend, but it doesn't always work out, which is why there are occasionally Monday/Tuesday releases. Also, since some of you can't grasp this simple fact yet, we ALTERNATE between weeks. Saying "X top plays never comes out every week", obviously just shows you didn't pay attention to what we're doing. There's one top plays every week, alternating between each games. It will continue to be like this until GoW1 dies off to the point where we can't get decent clips for it.

I heard GoW1 Live service is ending!

Dumbest. Thing. I've. Ever. Heard.

Let me give you guys who somehow believe that rumor a little insight into GoW1; there are no dedicated servers. There are no restrictions or harm it causes to the Live service. It is a COMPLETELY peer-to-peer (Player-host in otherwords) based game. For it to lose its ability to be played on Xbox Live, it would LITERALLY require a patch disabling the multiplayer online functions.

Even then, you would still be able to play through services like XBConnect.

Stop posting GoW1 Montages. The game is dead!

We get more GoW1 montages on a daily basis than we do GOW2. As it is we (try to) alternate each day on a GoW1 and GoW2 tage. Until either A, GoW1 montages stop getting sent in, or B, GoW2 montages reach a level we feel is higher than GoW1 montages (Which can definitely happen), we will be posting montages of both games.

Stop posting GoW2 montages. Nobody plays it anymore!

If "nobody" plays GoW2, then GoW1 has a population in the negatives. According to Majornelson (One of Live's head workers), GoW2 has been 4th or higher on every week for "Games most played" since it came out. Since GoW2 came out, GoW1 has not made an appearance in the Top 10 games per week, save the week of November 10th. GoW1 was 10th that week, GoW2 was 1st. Keep this in mind when saying things like "nobody plays GoW2"; More people play games like GTA4 and Left 4 Dead, and sometimes even DEMOS on live, than people that play GoW1. Just because your F/L still is somewhat active in GoW1 doesn't mean the game is more popular than X game, especially GoW2. If you want my honest opinion, if someone told me there are more than 1000 UU's on GoW1 daily, I would be extremely surprised.

The new channel layout suckss! Go back to the old one!

All YT channels will be automatically changed to this layout by July 15th. the new layout is infinitely better than the old one anyway. You never have to actually leave our channel to watch a video, meaning less browser loading times, and an easier way to find videos. Also, everything's a little more compact, getting rid of the need for a "Supir kewl!" background.

Gearsopedia is pathetic! They have people that pay them money for their website!

You're pathetic for caring. Everything we make off of "premium members" (10$ USD from each, per month) goes back into the site. We currently have 21, out of 9,442 members (In other words, 0.002% of our members go premium...). Regardless, most of our premiums are absolutely loaded with cash, or they make their own flow of money while still having some kind of support from their parents or other people. In other words, Most premium members are premium because they can afford it. 10$ isn't even gas money to some of our premiums. Either way, who are you to judge what they do with their money?