A Brief QuakeWorld Startup Guide

Thanks to Ake Vader for making this tutorial :)

Thinking of starting the journey to become a QW star player but don't know if it's worthwhile? You don't even know where to begin, or where to seek help? I thought i'd just put a little something here to guide potential players to the right place in the Quakeworld community. If you're a totally new player, then you could follow this little guide.

(fQuake) I don't have Quake or Quakeworld, what do i do?
This one is easy. For a couple of years now, there has been a downloadable installer called fQuake that contains everything you need to play Quakeworld. This installer contains the Quake shareware, brightskins, sample configs, loc files (you'll get to know what those are for later on), maps and other stuff. All you need to do is to download it and follow the instructions. There's also a load of information on how to get started with basic commands over on the fQuake site.

[center]Go to the fQuake website and get a Quakeworld installation![/center]

(Servers) So, now i have Quakeworld and i'm ready to play - but on what servers!?
Quakeworld works perfect along with All-Seeing Eye, which is a popular tool among other games, so you might already have that. Just make sure the QW settings in ASE are setup correctly. If you don't got ASE, then there's also Quakeservers.net which lists all Quakeworld servers there are at the moment.

(Community) Wow, that FFA sure was a blast and i met some really friendly people! Where on the Internet can i find them?
In Quakeworld we have one site that is the core of the community, and that one is Quakeworld.nu. A good place to hang out in is the Quakeworld.nu Forum where you can find the latest discussions about anything QW related, ranging from tournaments to retexturing projects to make QW look better.

(IRC) Yeah yeah, but i want to chat with them live!
The place where most of the QW conversations take place is definitely over the IRC and Quakeworld players obviously use the Quakenet IRC network. If you want to take part actively in the QW scene and get to know all the friendly people, then IRC is definitely required for you. It's also easily the best way to find practice games if you're in a clan too!

Channels to hang out in:
#QWRookie - A place for beginners to arrange games against equally skilled players
#QWHelp - Friendly people who help you with your Quakeworld issues
#Quakeworld - Quakeworld.nu IRC channel
#mix.qw - Pickup channel for quick games

(Tournaments) Nice...now i just need a goal in my training. Where do all the QW star players battle it out under official circumstances?
There are a few active tournaments for people to take part in, and everyone are welcome in all of them. Make sure to check out their websites:

(1on1) Ownage
(2on2) Noname Quake League
(4on4) European Quake League
(4on4) Nations Quake Rank

(Demos) Nice, now all i need to do is study the star players as preparation for the tournament...
To do that, just head on over to Challenge-TV and browse the Quakeworld demos for fresh recordings from the latest tournament games as well as fun games. Some of the demos from big games tend to get uploaded here on ESR as well, so keep an eye open.

(4on4) I just tried out 1on1 and i lost by a 100 frag margin on DM4, this game sucks donkey balls!
I kind of share your feelings if that's all the Quakeworld action you've come across. If you ask me, 4on4 is the main game mode in Quakeworld and you haven't really experienced all that QW has to offer before you've played in a clan. Even 2on2 is about 10 times more fun than 1on1. My advise is therefore to find a mate and start playing 1on1 and 2on2 with him against equally skilled opponents, and then move on to the cadillac of QW - 4on4!

Good luck, and have fun!