Another year of blatant rick rolling and half-assed joke posts out of the way.
I think everyone saw through the lame ass ubercharged attempt at an April Fools joke in about 2 seconds.
The really impressive one though, was the one pulled by Control Point, uh I mean “Oober Control”. Which has been several weeks in the making, and I am proud to say I had a helping hand in. Congrats to Doubtful. The only one who picked it was an Ubercharged.net/Control Point combined hoax.
And who was that dashing and handsome sounding New Zealander doing the voiceover in one of the ads in the podcast? 
BTW - If any big company DOES actually want to shower me with cash to put their name on this blog… BRING IT ON! I have no morals.
Here’s how it went down:
Never tell your password to anyone.
madlep: Yep, I’m good now
Nailhead [CP]: oh ok
madlep: oh man, now the tele entrance went down… anyway
madlep: and a spy got me :/
madlep: Anyway, I’m out of game and good to talk now
Nailhead [CP]: first off, I wanted to let you know that ooberservers.com is buying the podcast and will make lots of changes to it (unfortunately for the worse). It is a REALLY good offer though. :/
madlep: congrats. All that name spamming paid off 
Nailhead [CP]: I guess so.
Nailhead [CP]: Secondly, I wanted to see how believable that claim was. The truth is, I lied.
madlep: Yeah, its plausable
Nailhead [CP]: We’re planning on a crazy April Fool’s Day episode and we’re going with the “sell out” idea.
madlep: Got me
madlep: haha, I like it
Nailhead [CP]: To make it a bit more believable, we’re going to mention it here and there on the show leading up to April 1st. That will be our “first” episode under a new management.
Nailhead [CP]: The reason I’m telling you about it is because you run a popular TF2 blog and could maybe help spread this rumor.
Nailhead [CP]: 
madlep: This is a nicely thought out plan. I love a decent april fools bit. I’m in. What do you need?
Nailhead [CP]: and maybe you could get in on some of the fun too.
Nailhead [CP]: I was thinking that somehow you could get “leaked” information about the purchase. I’m not sure exactly how though.
madlep: “anonymous source” is always good
Nailhead [CP]: It would be cool if the community first hears about this from you and not from us. We could, in turn, be somewhat annoyed that the word got out too early, before we could properly tell the public.
madlep: I’m liking this. I’m lazy, and I usually only remember its april fools the day before, and replace the front page with a splash page saying “OMG HAXED BY 1337KIDS” on april first.
Nailhead [CP]: hehe
madlep: I could say that a game server rental company approached ubercharged about advertising on the site, and they mentioned buying control point
Nailhead [CP]: We’ve been plotting for a few weeks now
Nailhead [CP]: ah nice!
Nailhead [CP]: I lke that.
madlep: Of course, I was “morally repulsed” by the idea and had to let the community know
Nailhead [CP]: most excellent
madlep: So when do you want to kick this whole thing off?
Nailhead [CP]: I was thinking before the next podcast maybe?
Nailhead [CP]: before next Wednesday
Nailhead [CP]: perhaps over the weekend?
madlep: yup. no probs
Nailhead [CP]: haha nice, this is gonna too cool.
madlep: hah. Yeah, looking forward to a bit of mayhem 
Nailhead [CP]: We’ve been trying to think of the kinds of restrictions that ooberservers.com would put on the show.
Nailhead [CP]: One would be to make it a 30 min show.
madlep: You’d have to roll the same annoying ad every 5 minutes
Nailhead [CP]: ooh yeah
madlep: Contractually bound to have at least 15% of the air time devoted to ooberservers.com
Nailhead [CP]: haha
Nailhead [CP]: I’m going to redo the whole intro and outro too.
madlep: Forbidden to mention any site that isn’t on the “ooberservers.com game network”
Nailhead [CP]: Control Point, brought to you by ooberservers.com
Nailhead [CP]: ah yeah
madlep: ooberservers.com is a professional organisation as well. No “game handles” are to be used at all - even when referring to community members. All people must be addressed by first and last names
Nailhead [CP]: maybe we announce that there will be a flood of new servers too.
Nailhead [CP]: lol
madlep: and you guys have to wear a tie while recording
Nailhead [CP]: too funny
madlep: 20 new servers
madlep: all with in game ads
Nailhead [CP]: yeah, people are gonna hate the saturation of servers.
Nailhead [CP]: we could announce that our forums will be closing and new forums on ooberservers.com will be up and ready.
madlep: haha yeah, and all sigs must have a reference to ooberservers.com
Nailhead [CP]: also, video episodes are forbidden as well as streaming.
Nailhead [CP]: hehe
madlep: all episodes must be purchased over iTunes - and are ladden with DRM
Nailhead [CP]: ooh yeah, moving over to a pay per episode model.
Nailhead [CP]: Good stuff!
madlep: Yeah, this is gonna rock. Anyway, late here. I’m gonna crash
madlep: Good luck with it
Nailhead [CP]: cool thanks!
The lovable rednecks from Deadworkers Party have popped out another gem of a podcast.
They’re even nice enough to address the reports that they’re selling out (spoiler : CONFIRMED).
March 26th, 2008
And you Thought we were out of content to talk about! In this episode we discuss one of the more popular CTF custom maps, Mach 4.
Here just a few more tidbits you can expect:
Download - Episode 23 (96:04)
Update 2nd April 2008
Yup. This was all part of the setup for the CP guys elaborate April Fools gag. Nice work by the Dead Workers guys :D.
Its been an interesting few days. I’ve been contacted by a company related to the game industry about a commercial arrangement with ubercharged.net. I was tempted by it for a bit, but after thinking it through I decided that the changes they were wanting just weren’t worth it. So from the point of view of this site, there really isn’t much to talk about.
The interesting bit though, is who is selling out:
The guys over at Control Point do a great podcast, and I’m sure they’ve thought it through and all. But if they’ve signed up to the same conditions this company was talking about for ubercharged.net, they should probably rename it to “Control Point TF2 Informercial Podcast”
How do I know this? Here’s a little snippet of a steam chat I had between me, and a representative of the company. Lets call her “Susan” (not her real Steam ID)
Never tell your password to anyone.
Susan: Hi there. Are you able to talk now?
madlep: sure. Whats up?
Susan: Did you get a chance to read over the draft contract I emailed?
madlep: Yup.
Susan: What did you think?
madlep: It seems like I’d have to make a lot of changes if I signed up to this deal. I don’t know if I’m all that comfortable with them.
Susan: Well, its a starting point, and we are open to negotiation.
madlep: I really don’t think I’m all that interested after reading it. Its tempting and all, but I was doing the maths, and I’d need to give up my day job and work on ubercharged full time to reach all the traffic and content targets etc in there. And if I did that, I’d be earning less than I am now with a “real world” job.
Susan: Maybe, but there is room to grow, and you’d be doing what you enjoy.
madlep: I don’t think I’d enjoy it with all the ads and sponsored articles I’d have to do. The whole site would basically be an infomerical for you guys.
Susan: Think of it as being part of a network providing real value to the gaming community. You’d be working to build up the network and help people that way.
Susan: A lot of other sites are on board already. This is going to be quite a big deal.
madlep: Other TF2 sites?
Susan: There are fansites for a whole range of games: Counter Strike, Battlefield series, UT3.
Susan: In the TF2 area, the “Control Point” podcast team has signed up. I think you’ve heard of them.
madlep: CP? Wow.
Susan: Yeah, we’re quite excited about it. Especially with the strong community they bring.
madlep: Good for them I guess. If that works for them, then thats great.
madlep: But I still don’t think I’m interested. It just really doesn’t fit with me.
Susan: OK. We’re still open though. If you are still thinking about it, you know how to get in touch with me.
Susan: I’ll talk to you again in a few days to see if you’ve changed your mind.
madlep: Sure. Whatever. I don’t think I will.
Susan: You never know Thanks for your time
madlep: No probs. Good luck with it all
Update 28th March 2008
The guys have addressed the issue in their latest podcast.
Update 2nd April 2008
Yup. This was all part of the setup for the CP guys elaborate April Fools gag. Nice work by the Dead Workers guys :D.
Another week, another Control Point. This time they’re discussing the map that is the most underrated IMHO - Hydro. A lot of people don’t like playing it, probably due to the complexity and constant changing of sides. I’m kinda a fan, but its hard to find full servers running it due to its lack of popularity, so I don’t actually get to play it that much.
Shoutout to the Control Point guys for referring to ubercharged.net as being better than google, and for referring to me as crazy, insane, and mad.
You can go download it from Control Point. Be warned though, the Spencer impersonation sounds like Pinocchio from Shrek (you’ll know what I mean when you hear it).
This week the podcast is a bit leaky from the breaking of dams in Hydro, and of course Spencer missing in action. But instead of putting the podcast on hiatus, we decided to bring it to you with just the 3 remaining hosts. Click!
Here just a few more tidbits you can expect:
Download - Episode 17 (85:38)
The latest installment from those lovable kids over at the Control Point podcast has hit the intertubes. Haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but you know that the quality is always good. So just go get it.
ABC… easy as 1,2,3… Um. You know, Gravel Pit has 3 capture points. A, B, and C. Yeah. Ok, so not funny. Anyways. In this episode, we’ll give you tips on how to defeat and defend, and we promise to give more strategies than the PC gamer’s ultimate strategy guide!
Here just a few more tidbits you can expect:
Download - Episode 16 (98:24)
Those talkative rednecks over at Control Point have unleashed their weekly TF2 podcast. They’re pondering the finer points of Well this week. We got a few mentions as well
I appreciate these guys making my morning train commute a little more bearable for a couple of trips a week. TF2 talk on my iPod makes ignoring the sweaty guy that didn’t have a shower next to me that much easier (Australian summer is harsh like that).
Well… Well… Well… What do we have here.
Here’s just a tidbit of what you can expect:
Download - Episode 15 (114:11)
The guys from Dead Workers Party have pumped out another episode of the Control Point podcast. They’re talking about 2fort this time.
Even though I’ve sworn off 2fort as a new years resolution, its still a great listen (as always) for the usual tricks and tips.
In belated news (cause I’m a slack ass), their episode from last week on the spy is also out there in intersphereland as well.
Ok, so the guys from the Control Point podcast were saying that they don’t get any love from ubercharged anymore, and yeah, its pretty much like they said. I figured everyone who reads here probably already knows about Control Point anyway, and I’ve been a slack ass and haven’t been posting everything that has been happening in the TF2 world.
I think we got mentioned like 3 times in their last podcast, so you should go listen to it (it’s always great value anyway). It keeps my ipod going for a couple of train commutes each week. I’m sure that people look at me funny at the station when I’m smirking away to myself when they’re goofing off talking about stuff.
Anyway, go check out the latest episode:
Today we talk about the demoma** KA-BOOM!**
Here’s just a tidbit of what you can expect:
Download - Episode 9 (77:04)
