After a horrible formatting session I came across the first article I ever wrote, way back in May of 2008 Obviously a lot has happened since then but I think I will publish it as nostalgia

I should also mention that this was published on the BOTC website which I unfortunately cannot link due to it currently being down.

A Brief History of Online COD4 in South Africa – Part 1

Since its release late last year, the Call of Duty 4 online scene has grown vastly in popularity. Activision once again hit the spot by breathing fresh, new life into the somewhat tired FPS Genre by introducing customisable abilities, rewards (such as airstrikes and helicopters) for killing streaks, exciting new modes and even weapon rewards and skins for completing challenges.

Initially SGS only provided a few servers, with the majority of players being former Call of Duty 2 players (Call of Duty 2, the online predecessor to COD4 had a very small yet very dedicated SA community). However many online gamers soon began to discover the FPS gaming revolution that would be COD4.

Bugs were soon identified in Sniping and the ACOG scope – both of which were fixed in patches released by Activision. Fierce Competition amongst players over who was to receive Gold Weapon Camouflage was rife, and for a while players were happy to play and explore COD4 in its simplest state. Active players soon began to want more, either choosing to join clans to compete in the clan scene to enjoy a higher standard of play, or to explore interesting new modes such as Hardcore (No HUD, Radar and increased weapon damage) and Old School (Less weapon damage, Weapons are picked up Quake-Style). To this day, SGS hosts 3 dedicated Hardcore servers which are easily filled on a busy night by players eager for a more “realistic” style of play.

In any case, COD4 fever spread like wildfire across the country, resulting in the +- 240 online gamers that can be expected on an active weekday night across the South African COD4 Servers. Due to its overwhelming popularity, SGS introduced new batches of servers three times before they could cater to the sheer size of the SA COD4 community. Also noted are servers hosted by iBurst (iGame), Internet Solutions And Bitfarm – all exceedingly popular amongst the SA Online Community.

Cliché as it sounds, the COD4 online scene has continued to grow from strength to strength, with the vision of an exciting future ahead. Well on its way to standing in the same league as Multiplayer FPS giants such as Counter-Strike and Quake (if not already there), it seems Call Of Duty in South Africa will continue to be enjoyable to gamers for a while to come.

THE END

Anyway, I can remember writing this and wow was in a completely different place. I can remember thinking Neworder and nBk were godlike!!! I also remember hating Takbok! haha always funny to see how things turn out