Community Spotlight: BF2S.com and Jeff Minard
BF2S.com is an amazing web site that tracks all of your Battlefield 2 game statistics on a global level. Keeping his fingers on the pulse of the Battlefield community, The Battlefield Community Team (CT) got a chance to chat it up with site administrator Jeff Minard to discuss BF2S.com as well as his recent trip to the EA Studio to take a peak at the upcoming game, Battlefield 2142&3153;.
Community Team: Give the community some background on BF2S.com. What is it and What prompted you to create such a site?
Jeff Minard: I've been doing web development for several years and tend to do lots of little "hey that's neat" projects during my spare time. When I saw the in-game stats I thought, "dang, global stats, awesome!" As a member of PlanetBattlefield (at the time), there was this thread where someone mentioned that the stats data was all being sent via HTTP. The light bulb went off, 'a website for showing bf2 stats!'
About a week later the beta was rolling, and two weeks later I was searching for a new host after being shut down for the first of several times.
CT: How long has the site been active and what type of feedback have you received from the community regarding it?
JM: The site is actually coming quite close to it's 1 year old birthday (coming up in July) -- which is jolting for myself for two reasons: 1) the sites done well and 2) it's still around
The community has been nothing but amazing. I've had the opportunity to meet a great number amazing people (several of whom are in my staff now ;D) and I'm always amazed at how much people are putting into this game, and it's tangents. As an example, there is a self-started set of 5 or 6 guys who do nothing but make forum signature images for people and their stats. That blows my mind.
CT: How long have you been involved in the Battlefield franchise?
JM: I got involved for Desert Combat. A roommate of mine (tf-afrojap) was seriously in 1942, but I only started playing when it was modernized through DC. Naturally, as BF2 was announced to be set in the modern day there was now way I could resist. We had it on release day.
CT: Of all the current Battlefield titles, which is your favorite and why?
JM: Right now BF2: Vanilla (as it's called) is my favorite. I spent some time in both SF and EF and they were fun for a few rounds, but I always came back to the regular version. I just play better in BF2 and feel the maps have a better balance.
CT: You recently had an opportunity to visit the EA Studio and play Battlefield 2142™ during the week of E3. What are some of your thoughts on this upcoming game?
JM: I'm most taken by the contrast that players are going to go through in play styles during a single round.
For starters, rounds are going to be longer in Titan mode (all that I got to play) simply because there's more to do and the process is a little more involved. That aside, the real difference is that you're going to start out the map in this ruff-and-tumble, wide-open, mech walking, tank rolling, jet flying battle, and eventually it's going to boil down to a intense close quarter combat situation on the loosing teams Titan.
Having played a days worth of the rounds like this, I can honestly say it's going to be a game worth purchasing.
CT: Having had the chance to play, what are you looking forward to the most when the game releases this fall?
JM: While I have my concerns about the balance between RPG and FPS that the BF2 series is currently teetering on, I'm quite excited by the upgrade and armament options I see happening in 2142. That's exciting for me.
I also can't wait to watch all the other people pod launch into - and off of - the bottom of enemy Titans
CT: Awesome! Thanks for your time, Jeff. And we'll see you on BF2S.com!
__________________________________________________________________________________________
source: http://www.ea.com/official/battlefield/ … ght_june06
BF2S.com is an amazing web site that tracks all of your Battlefield 2 game statistics on a global level. Keeping his fingers on the pulse of the Battlefield community, The Battlefield Community Team (CT) got a chance to chat it up with site administrator Jeff Minard to discuss BF2S.com as well as his recent trip to the EA Studio to take a peak at the upcoming game, Battlefield 2142&3153;.
Community Team: Give the community some background on BF2S.com. What is it and What prompted you to create such a site?
Jeff Minard: I've been doing web development for several years and tend to do lots of little "hey that's neat" projects during my spare time. When I saw the in-game stats I thought, "dang, global stats, awesome!" As a member of PlanetBattlefield (at the time), there was this thread where someone mentioned that the stats data was all being sent via HTTP. The light bulb went off, 'a website for showing bf2 stats!'
About a week later the beta was rolling, and two weeks later I was searching for a new host after being shut down for the first of several times.
CT: How long has the site been active and what type of feedback have you received from the community regarding it?
JM: The site is actually coming quite close to it's 1 year old birthday (coming up in July) -- which is jolting for myself for two reasons: 1) the sites done well and 2) it's still around
The community has been nothing but amazing. I've had the opportunity to meet a great number amazing people (several of whom are in my staff now ;D) and I'm always amazed at how much people are putting into this game, and it's tangents. As an example, there is a self-started set of 5 or 6 guys who do nothing but make forum signature images for people and their stats. That blows my mind.
CT: How long have you been involved in the Battlefield franchise?
JM: I got involved for Desert Combat. A roommate of mine (tf-afrojap) was seriously in 1942, but I only started playing when it was modernized through DC. Naturally, as BF2 was announced to be set in the modern day there was now way I could resist. We had it on release day.
CT: Of all the current Battlefield titles, which is your favorite and why?
JM: Right now BF2: Vanilla (as it's called) is my favorite. I spent some time in both SF and EF and they were fun for a few rounds, but I always came back to the regular version. I just play better in BF2 and feel the maps have a better balance.
CT: You recently had an opportunity to visit the EA Studio and play Battlefield 2142™ during the week of E3. What are some of your thoughts on this upcoming game?
JM: I'm most taken by the contrast that players are going to go through in play styles during a single round.
For starters, rounds are going to be longer in Titan mode (all that I got to play) simply because there's more to do and the process is a little more involved. That aside, the real difference is that you're going to start out the map in this ruff-and-tumble, wide-open, mech walking, tank rolling, jet flying battle, and eventually it's going to boil down to a intense close quarter combat situation on the loosing teams Titan.
Having played a days worth of the rounds like this, I can honestly say it's going to be a game worth purchasing.
CT: Having had the chance to play, what are you looking forward to the most when the game releases this fall?
JM: While I have my concerns about the balance between RPG and FPS that the BF2 series is currently teetering on, I'm quite excited by the upgrade and armament options I see happening in 2142. That's exciting for me.
I also can't wait to watch all the other people pod launch into - and off of - the bottom of enemy Titans
CT: Awesome! Thanks for your time, Jeff. And we'll see you on BF2S.com!
__________________________________________________________________________________________
source: http://www.ea.com/official/battlefield/ … ght_june06
