Games-World demands apology

Chris Incledon of Intensive Networks LTD is a mite irritated by Kieren's Games-World.net scoffs over Barrysworld demise. Chris is also technical manager of Games-World:

Hello There,

I think your write up about the press releases is way out of line and I would like you to print an instant retraction. Originally we had a good relationship with Barrysworld for a Long time and it was a shock that they went into receivership. But this happened it was a bit of a shock to say the least. We are not scoffing at their demise at all but just stating that life has to go on even though they broke up.

What may even happen is that Games-World may be throwing them a lifeline to keep them in business. So where does the scoffing come from and where does it warrant a news item like that???

As I said I would like you to print an instant apology/rebuttal about this article.

Very pissed off

Equally irritated is Games-World's director John Baker. John is also the technical manager of Intensive Networks Ltd:

Your article makes Games-World appear petty, and appearing to profit from Barrysworld's position. Our comments about the current state of the ISP/GISP industry were to correct, in our opinion, the erroneous statements made by Barrysworld in their press release of 22-1-01

I would suggest that you publish our full press release, so the statementscan be taken in their full and correct context.

Games-World have posted a reply to our piece on their site. Make up your own minds here.

So what do our readers think? Take it away Tim Hoult:

GW who? To be honest I've never heard of them since today, and that press release is quite hysterically funny. How can they compare themselves to BarrysWorld? BarrysWorld is online gaming in UK, and quite a fair bit of Europe as well. Over 500 games servers for more games than most people knew existed, the most advanced server booking system in use right now, a dedicated team of staff intent on furthering gaming, not their salaries...the list goes on. Without BarrysWorld, the gaming communities are dying off quicker than before.

Take me for an example. I am an admin and council member for the BWAQSL an Action Quake 2 league. AQ2 is almost dead, after 3 years of existence. It has come to the point where we have 3 BW public servers, a few Fury (http://www.fury.net) servers and a Global Internet server which has seen better days. However, the brightest points were the 3 BW league servers, and the Q2 booking system. It is almost exclusively used by AQ2 clans for clan matches and practices. Without BW, our league has no servers, no prizes, or any impetus to carry on. Our options appear to be Jolt (http://www.jolt.co.uk) and NetGamesUK (although I say that name in distaste, after the beta of their 24/7 service). We've even had a few offers from some Italian companies, proving the point that the BWAQSL covers more than just the UK scene. We have clans from Denmark, Norway, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy...the list goes on.

I'm sure you could understand why so many people are devastated by the loss of such an integral part of the community. To be fair, many of the hardcore element, grizzled, veteran players of QWTF et al, were disenchanted with the 'regime' due to increased commercialisation. But in all truth we didn't really care about how profit driven BW were, so long as we still had gaming. Now it seems that the former has caught up with them, and the latter is, sadly, no more...

It seems that Mr Hoult's views are pretty much shared by Simon Frankau:

I was most intrigued by Games-World's press release, especially since I've been a Barrysworld user for years, and had never heard of Games-World.net. Not knowing anything about them, the only errors I could point out in *their* press release are those of a grammatical nature.

Anyway, I think I've sussed the way their business model differs from Barrysworld's. They've tightened their belts by not updating their website (apparently Quake 3 is due out this Christmas - and they're not talking about Team Arena), and reduced their bandwidth costs by not being popular. When I looked at the 4 Quake 3 servers they have available, 2 were offline, and the other 2 empty.

I really didn't want Games-World.net to be dire. They might have scoffed at Barrysworld, but I'm desperately looking for some other decent servers. If they really are 'The Premiere Games ISP' things are even more bleak than I first realised.

Hmmmm. Originally I had some form of point, but this has just turned into a big moan. I'll shut up now.

Yes, thank you.