FAQ

1. What is a typical Far Cry Friday like?
2. The room’s full, can you get me in?
3. The room’s full. When do you think there will be an opening?
4. Why didn’t you answer my XBL text message?
5. Why didn’t you answer my XBL voice message?
6. Did you even listen to my XBL voice message?
7. You’ve got voting turned on, but told me “we don’t allow that here” when I proposed a vote. Why?
8. Hey, you banned me from your room! What kind of a jerk are you?
9. Do you enjoy banning people?
10. Why is your room so laggy?
11. Why do you talk so much?
12. I submitted my map – Why haven’t you looked at it yet?
13. Do you, like, have no life and just play Far Cry all the time?
14. Hey, I sent you a game/party invite during the week and you ignored/denied it, why?
15. Is Cold Justice gay?

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1. What is a typical Far Cry Friday like?
   It’s like an online party – at least, that’s how we like to think of it. You come in the room, we play a bunch of maps and we have a lot of fun. People are encouraged to talk, banter and otherwise interact with each other.
   
   We try to maintain an attitude in the room that is edgy, but still respectful, and that contributes to the fun.
   
   It is a mature environment – we expect people to behave themselves (for the most part) and act like adults. Children and adolescents are generally not welcome unless they can comport themselves as adults.
   
   I try to be as prepared as possible. The map list is always set before we start (and is usually published here on the blog.) We play each map for about a half hour. This gives people a chance to get a feel for the map before a new one is switched in.
   
   Our hosts try to get a 2-3 minute bathroom break in at the top of each hour. It irritates random people who join the room, but our regulars seem to really appreciate it.
   
   Unlike a lot of Far Cry servers out there, we are totally focused on team play. We play Uprising and Capture the Diamond more than we do Team Deathmatch. And while we do play some straight-up Deathmatch, it is by far the least played game mode. You will find that most of our players are good communicators during team play because that is the environment that our hosts have encouraged.
   
   We shuffle teams often (usually after every match) to connect as many people with each other as possible (kind of like a cocktail party.) That also helps keep the room from becoming lopsided or cliquish.
   
   We do leave a few open slots in the room, both to fill it out and to attract new people, but for the most part, we expect to fill the room with people we know who want to play on user-created maps, and have fun in a shifting team environment.
   
2. The room’s full, can you get me in?
3. The room’s full. When do you think there will be an opening?
   Most nights, we run a pretty full room. The Small Map Session, which runs from 7PM-9PM CT and is limited to eight players, usually fills up by 7:15. So pretty much the only way to make it in for that session is to show up on time. I know that can be difficult for those of you with jobs on the U.S. West Coast, since we start at 5 PM PT.
   
   So, for the Small Map Session, if you don’t make it in, you are probably out until we start the Large Map Session. People occasionally do drop from the SMS, but it is rare.
   
   For the Large Map Session, which runs from 9PM-Midnight CT at 16 players, we usually have open slots up until about 10PM CT, when we start seeing the public slots filling up. The room normally stays full after that (with random public slots dropping in and out) until Midnight. We often play past Midnight, so that’s a good time to get in the room if you weren’t able to get in earlier.
   
   I do not kick people from the room to make spots for a friend – that’s no way to make new friends for sure. I do kick people from the room for violations of the Code of Conduct, though, and that happens three or four times a night (usually for not having a headset plugged in.) I also have been known to kick borderline annoying adolescents from the room if I know a friend is blocked. When that happens, I immediately send out a game invite to that friend. So, it never hurts to send me a text message indicating that you are locked out and would like to get in. Note that because of hosting duties (I have a room full of people to think about) I normally will not send a reply other than an invite.
   
   Bottom line: Get in early. It’s the best way to guarantee a seat in the room and to garner the most diamonds.
   
4. Why didn’t you answer my XBL text message?
5. Why didn’t you answer my XBL voice message?
   
   As host, my duty is to the people that are in the room, and I firmly believe that my first responsibility is to them. Any distraction from those people does them a disservice and takes away from the Far Cry Friday experience.
   
   My policy is that I read text messages when I have a free moment (when the room is engaged in conversation in the lobby, usually) or when I am sitting in the Death Room, waiting for a re-spawn. I rarely have time to make a response in those situations, other than to send out an invite. Text responses will not be sent until after the evening’s party is over.
   
   For voice messages, the answer is simple: I do not listen to any voice messages during a Far Cry Friday party – period. Voice messages remove me from the room’s voice chat, eat up bandwidth, and can interfere with gameplay. If you send me a voice message, I will not listen to it until after the night’s party is over. If it is a message that I feel requires a response, you will receive one.
   
   The same goes for photo messages.
   
   Note that messages that are overtly profane or abusive DO get reported to Xbox Live Support. I have no tolerance for that kind of hotheaded, infantile behavior.
   
6. Did you even listen to my XBL voice message?
   Not if you sent it while I was hosting the room. See above.
   
7. You’ve got voting turned on, but told me “we don’t allow that here” when I proposed a vote. Why?
   I’ve got some specific things I’m trying to accomplish with Far Cry Friday, and the top three are:
   
   
   • Provide a fun party atmosphere with lively, team-oriented people;
   • To test out, critique and enjoy user-created maps;
   • To provide an organized session, because that engenders trust and helps keep the party fun.
     
   So there are a few things I don’t allow in terms of voting. The main one is that I don’t allow voting to switch maps. The reason for this is that we follow a set schedule of maps each week that is pre-planned. Every map gets a half-hour of play (normally two matches) so that players can feel like they had a chance to learn the map a bit. We play a lot of new maps and it makes it difficult, especially for team-based play, when the map is constantly changing. Also, a single play through is usually not enough to evaluate a new map. So, out of fairness, every map gets its half hour.
   
   There is an exception, but it calls for a different kind of vote: If a map is not working and not fun, anyone is welcome to call for an “End Match” vote. If it goes through, we will discuss in the lobby why the map didn’t work and then decide whether it is worth trying it in a different game mode or should be skipped altogether.
   
   The key is that we discuss the map. A vote to skip doesn’t allow that. I want people to talk during our sessions – if you have mic fright, you don’t belong in Far Cry Friday. It’s that simple.
   
8. Hey, you banned me from your room! What kind of a jerk are you?
   A pretty big jerk who hosts a popular weekly gaming session.
   
   If you were banned from the room the reason can be found in the Far Cry Friday Code of Conduct.
   
   My first statement was meant partially in jest, but has a lot of truth behind it. I think much of the reason why FCF is so much fun and has such good a following is because our hosts make the hard decisions and follow through.
   
9. Do you enjoy banning people?
   
   No. But it’s a duty that I know I must fulfill in order to best serve the room.
   
10. Why is your room so laggy?
    
    What room are you playing in?!? It certainly wasn’t one of ours!
    
    Honestly, I’ve only heard complaints of lag when:
    
    
    • The map has too many destructible objects on it, which actually causes processor lag on each player’s system, not network lag;
    • The map has too many objects in view, either because the area is too busy and/or the map author did not make proper use of occlusion blocks. This again causes processor lag on each player’s machine, not network lag.
      
    While none of our hosts have the latest in Fiber Optic Internet connections, we all strive to have the best connection we can get in order to properly host Far Cry Friday.
    
    Cold Justice, the primary host, has a connection that uses a 20Mb/s downlink/2Mb/s uplink. That’s equivalent to the bandwidth of almost 15 T1 lines and is more than sufficient to host a 16 player room.
    
11. Why do you talk so much?
    Because I’m the host of the party. It’s my job to keep you, my guests, happy and entertained. So I talk both to keep the room lively and to encourage my guests to participate.
    
    During a match, if it’s a team game, I talk because communication is one of the keys to winning. I talk and I want everyone else on my team to do the same.
    
    In Deathmatch, I talk for the same reasons as I do when hosting the Lobby – to keep things lively and fun.
    
12. I submitted my map – Why haven’t you looked at it yet?
    
    My normal schedule is to review maps on Thursdays, after the Wednesday cut-off.  I intentionally do not look at any maps before then for a variety of reasons.  Probably the most important is that I do play other games than Far Cry 2.  A LOT of other games.  If I reviewed every map as soon as it was submitted, I would end up playing Far Cry 2 all the time, and that’s just not the way I roll.
    
    So be patient.  Some time Thursday I’ll get to your map and will let you know if it will be included in the current week’s lineup.
    
13. Do you, like, have no life and just play Far Cry all the time?
    
    Whether or not I “have a life” is certainly debatable.  But I can clearly state that I do not play Far Cry all the time.  I am a forty-something year-old gamer, and I play a LOT of games on all systems, but mainly on the Xbox 360.  I created Far Cry Friday because I saw early on the potential to have a regular gaming session that wouldn’t get stale provided by having a solid map editor.  I’d seen attempts to do regular gaming where the game changed every week and also saw how fragmented the group playing it would become. 
    
    I’m not a Far Cry freak by any means – I just think the game provides a multiplayer experience through it’s map editor that can be leveraged into a special weekly event.  And so far, that’s exactly what it has given me.  (Now if they’d only fix the voice problems and start releasing more detail pieces for the editor…)
14. Hey, I sent you a game/party invite during the week and you ignored/denied it, why?
    
    As I said in #12 and #13, I play a LOT of games.  Many of them are single-player games and it’s often not easy to save and get out.  Or I may just not be in the mood to be in a multi-player game.
    
    But please, don’t let that stop you from inviting me to play – I do like to play multiplayer games outside of Far Cry Friday.  Just be aware that I do play games other than Far Cry and I’m not always ready to jump out of them.
    
    Also, note that I tend to prefer private chat requests over party invites.  You are almost always going to get an immediate answer from me to a chat request, whereas I generally avoid party chats that aren’t organized ahead of time.
    
15. Is Cold Justice gay?
    
    No.  Please stop asking.