A Boloers apology to Grandfather Hellscream; Father Kaos

Dear Boloers,

I have decided to say farewell to Bolo. I don't know if I have written this before in the nether regions of my mind, but I need to release myself from the attachment I have for this game. For me, it is like a drug. One that you know will fuck you up, but you take it all the same.

Bolo frustrates me for so many reasons. When I want to find a game during a suitable time, what I find ranges from an open where someone has built a mega-base surrounded by a 5 square moat, to an empty open where I take all the pills and then quit. Catosa rarely plays when I have time, but when I decide to play, he will take three pills and plant them next to my bases, knowing full well that I couldn't snipe an LGM the size of a pillbox crossing rubble. I need to improve my sniping, but honestly, I can never be sure if my shots are going to be successful or not, because of a combination of experience, skill, and lag.

On the weekend, when I am usually busy, I still try to find some time to play the team stricts. These games are the best, and worst, of Bolo. I find that I can play two games pretty much exactly the same and my feelings could vary from satisfaction and content to irritation, disturbance, annoyance and frustration. I have become accustomed to being berated by the "vets", but the thing that bothers me in these games is the lack of assistance. I know it must be frustrating playing with me, and I do receive guidance at times, but most of the time the feedback is totally non-constructive. (Admittedly, Kaos (obviously), Lance, UD, Azz, Knucks, Indio, HS, Fubes and others have sometimes found the time to give me some constructive feedback)

This leads me to Hellscream, who is my Bolo Grandfather, since he taught Kaos, who was my teacher. I believe that I pissed HS off to the point where no-one (on our team) was having fun. I can see the frustration in HS and I guess we Boloers are all frustrated; is that why we play? I am guessing that Boloers as a demographic have a similar profile. Do we have greater dreams for our lives? Dreams greater than sitting in front of a computer blasting away at angry little red circles? Dreams greater than what was promised us in our youth? Is that what is frustrating? Asking ourselves what we have achieved?

To HS, I was wrong to make and judgement about your intelligence. I have no idea who you are. I have seen you range from being racist, which is disturbing, to being eloquent and thoughtful; and you even know about cricket. I don't exist to frustrate you, I was trying to get better, otherwise what is the point? But I can't devote all of my time to this game. Remember why I am called ErYan?

To Kaos, I know I've said this before, but I really need to let go and take a step in a more healthy direction.

To everyone else, thanks for the games. You can build up bad feelings from losing in this game, I know, but I hope that is all in the past.

I hope Bolo becomes huge again. Huge enough for everyone to be able to find lag-free games at any time of the day. Where it can be enjoyable for all and sundry. Bolo without the frustration.

All the best,
ErYan

You definitely need to have a emotional shield to play winbolo when you're a noob. ErYan, you've improved a great deal and you still have great potential yet to be unveiled. Getting good is a great challenge that takes copious amounts of time and tolerance of verbal abuse. Think of it like military bootcamp, only the ones with the proper fortitude will prevail.

My view of bolo is entertainment, and I only play when I have free time. Bolo for me takes the place of many other forms of entertainment including TV/movies and stuff like that. I don't consider Bolo a waste of time, because entertainment is a critical part every person's life. It is not stopping me from achieving my personal life goals.

You just need to relax a and stop letting yourself become so frustrated. Don't let others affect you so much. Bolo just is a game with people you don't even know. Once you do that Bolo will become fun and entertaining.

wow that was deep eryan!
you shouldnt take comments to heart so much. i know hellscream slayed you in that 2x2 today as you were his ally but verbal abuse is something you must put up with! hell ive been ripped to shit for the last 2 or 3 years playing this game by all kinds of people. yeah it bothered me at first but then i realised... who gives a fuck!? it doesnt matter how long you play bolo. there will always be someone who critisizes you. people still tell me i sux and call me worse than shit when i fuck up but i dont let it bother me at all. critisism is part of normal life. my boss calls me a wanker when i fuck something up and i tell him to go fuck himself and we all have a little laugh about it but its not the end of the world. i dont say to him ' if you say im useless one more time im leaving'.
take it onboard and listen to what people are saying because you will find as you get better at this game you yourself will also be saying these things to noobs who annoy you. unfortunatley all this is part of the game and its upto the player how he /she deals with it. no way would i let it affect me to the point where i could leave forever!
shit... take a break for a few weeks/months if its getting you down but i bet you cant totally cancel this game outa you life lol! we have all got fed up at some point and said fuck this but we all come back :)

i just cannot understand how it can get to someone this bad? at times its frustrating yes. i get frustrated, hellscream gets frustrated everyone gets frustrated. u gotta just enjoy it man and get on with it. have a laugh coz thats what a game is all about right?
ill tell you... if i get to the point where i wanna put my fist through my computer screen i just quit quietly and go do something more constructive...
theres no point in getting all het up and depressed about it all. when uve had enough...leave it for a while :/
i dunno what else to say on the matter.
whatever you decide is up to you.
take care and goodluck in the future matey

lol@stimpy...

hey eryan im sorry if you take offense to what i say....like kaos said....i can come off as rude....thats just how i am.....in real life im as far from racist and a prick as one can be.....i guess i have quite an internet alter ego.

That's just how I am regarding bolo.....I wouldn't take this game THAT seriously...I mean you haven't had a pint of beer with me or know who I am....and I don't know who you are either....and I don't make personal judgements on people just based on the internet (exceptions are rare and include people like ling, gb and diabolo).

I'm sure you're a good sort in real life....and I wish you only success for the future.

I will miss the cricket talk. I hope this is not goodbye for good....but if it is then good luck in real life....and give my regards to the family.

they always come back...always. and my god you really place so much it effects your life? shit to get good you gotta play so much its insane. when i got decent at this game I had time (was in school) and played 6hours a day with ren. HS plays that much and still sucks... it takes a long time.

btw nemo, what is that site where i can connect to irc via web client and not have to launch mirc or some bs like that... I just got a new computer so long my old addresses

You can go to efnet.org and join #winbolo

one of the reasons this community has stood the test of time is because the members who are held in high regard also do

sorry to see ya leave eryan. but you will be back. they always come back eventually

hmm.on a somwhat related but different subject, i just realized something. a lot of the advise that good players give bad players that i have noticed, and i have been guilty of it myself, are short term solutions on how to be more effective under the assumption that that player sucks. for example, telling a noob to play defensive, or to just back rape them, or worse yet 'never advance pills because you will just lose them'. All these things will make them be less of a detriment and thus more effective to your team for the interim, but do not make them a better player long term. basically, tactical superiority and situational awareness are what they lack, and those things are tedious and difficult to teach. ill be honest with you, ive never been much of a teacher, the only thing i can teach you is to watch me and play like me. the best way for me to do that is by playing against you.

there basically hasnt been a noob that got good at bolo since spintega, and i was wondering why. i think there is also the aspect of being willing to put hours in. but then you look at someone like caat, who hasnt really improved in forever, so time alone is not the deciding factor. i think its a combination of having the will, the time, and being above average intelligence.

ill second that ud. hit it on the head there. also playing against shit players all the time is no good. you will only ever become as good as they are... :wink:
i 1x1ed gb for weeks and didnt really play anything else and i found that id actually gotten worse than i was before...
like ud said if u wana get good u gota put the time in and have a little something upstairs... u can tell without even knowing some people that they are as thick as shit, like wuff for instance because they never improve and never will...
the aim isnt really to get good is it? i thought it was to have fun??
i think ull find that if you dont really give a shit about skill etc you will improve anyways. just by chilling out and having an open mind.

ud: Kaos is well on his way to getting good. Whether he will hit master level remains to be seen...but he is on his way.

jon is one of the few noob players who will take a 1v1 challenge readily instead of shying away from it....so hopefully he will learn something from it.

Noobs should watch replays a lot, there are hidden gems in a lot of them.

This is all of course if getting better is what you want.

I mean sure you can have fun without getting better, but it doesn't hurt (just like earning a lot of money while doing the job you love doesn't hurt either).

ill take your word on that hs. been a while since i played kaos, so my memory is a bit foggy. if my memory serves me right, he was intermediate-high level. for reference, i consider dust to be intermediate-intermediate and you to be high level.

ya jon is cool like that, has he figured out how to use his mouse and drive at the same time yet? that would be a massive improvement right away imo. like 200% improvement minimum.

yes, replays are cool. i find myself watching them sometimes too, usually just the ones that have good players in them, for entertainment. occasionally i watch my own to see what i did wrong or right. i often reflect on my games. reflection is very important, imo. but you can't be results oriented, you need to be as empirical as possible which can be difficult when you don't know what exactly constitutes a perfect play and what isn't. also the logs don't accurately depict lag and you don't see what you see in the log during the game, but you can estimate that stuff.

if you are a weaker player who is trying to be a better player, basically watch logs from the best players only, and copy what they do as much as you can. if you dont understand why they did something, ask them. and ask good players specific questions. don't just say 'how do i play better?' cuz the response will likely be just as simple, like, 'suck less'. ask something like, 'how should i base run this map' or 'which pills should i go for first' or 'how do i counter a vulture' or 'how do i know if i am going to be vultured' or 'how much ammo should i refill to?' etc etc etc

finally, true, playing better at this game might not be so important for some. but i can say that everybody likes feeling important and useful, and people like feeling appreciated, generally speaking, and on the other end, people hate feeling like they are an anchor or useless. if you are playing strict games, then you are accepting the semi official rules that go along with them and recognize you are playing with players of higher caliber than a random open, right?

if you want to get better then 1x1 people who are better from you. that will get you better as a rate of 20-30 a times faster than playing these shit ass team games where your a support player.


When i started playing bolo i wanted to be at the top with UD/zach etc... Ren was better than me but not good. we play all the time...against each other, against other good players. Its how we both got good. 1x1 and 2x2s.


If you want to be good challenge everyone you can to 1x1 that is better than you. Dont challenge ppl who suck. BTW gb will prob beat most the noobs out there so give him a shot at 1x1ing. it will improve you.


The problem is at night we do team games and during the day you can 1x1. Thats the way winbolo always has been (since I played). Think of those night team games as fun and everything else as training. If your not playing 1x1s you will never be that great. Lance would be a shit ton better if he played more 1x1s...but guess what... he use to play 1x1s and thats the reason hes as god as he is now.

if you suck play 1x1 or dont play at all.

exactley! look at lucas.. he was absolute shit then started to 1x1 and got good. i still pawn him tho ;)
thats the way to do it coz then u only have yourself to blame for things. also u will pick up a hell of a lot on strategy.
think to yourself... why'd he do that?, where is he now? whats he doing?
i think the main problem with noobs working this shit out is just how to go about pill placements and juggling bases/resources. if you have a goal in mind you can acheive it. nail pilltakes and always try to be quicker whether that means not fueling all of the way up or planning ahead. watch good players and youll get good. i spent alot of my time watching logs and i still do. sometimes i dont wana play, ill just watch a couple of logs. theres always something to pick up on and intergrate into your game.