Rerelease Q4 for free with ET:QW, help keep the community alive!

To the employees of id Software,

This petition has been written in regards to what we feel are the efforts that must be taken to ensure the survival of the recently dwindling community of the well-reputed and long-running Quake series. As you well know, one of your company's greatest and most famous series started out as one of the most popular PC games and helped create a new, competitive environment for videogaming -- look where e-sports are today! -- but its growth in popularity, from Quake to Quake II and from Quake II to Quake III: Arena, began to decline a number of years after Q3A's release, its patrons gradually turning to other games such as the Half-Life mod Counter-Strike and the many realistically set WWII/modern shooters. It's doubtful that anyone can pinpoint where exactly things started to go downhill, but when the high anticipation of Quake 4 was met only with disappointment at what was, overall, a slow, buggy, resource-demanding, and arguably boring game, it seemed that Quake as its hardcore fans knew it was nearing the point of no return -- it failed to bring a cluster of new players the size of what its predecessors had in the past. Not even by a long shot.

However, today, the community is aware that you, id Software, still care about bringing this community back to its feet. Quake 4 has been smoothed out into a very fine game. It's become much faster-paced, previously overpowered weapons have been balanced to reasonable levels, and many bugs have been fixed. There's still room for improvement, but it looks like it will end up finally being a worthy successor. But, as the saying goes, it may be too little, too late: how will we be able to convince people to play this game now that they've experienced the bitter taste of the game's original state and the game has been out for 18 months?

This is where you, id Software, come in. We are asking you to consider the idea of bundling your final version of Quake 4 1.4 with your latest upcoming and highly anticipated title, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, which is due on shelves come June 6th, 2006. Allow us to list why we believe this will work for both you and us:

1) As aforementioned, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is highly anticipated, especially by countless PC gamers. We feel that, if 100,000 copies of ETQW are sold within a short time span, that's 100,000 people that would have access to Q4 in its current, enjoyable, and (at the very least decently) functional state.

2) Enemy Territory: Quake Wars shares a common theme with Quake 4, so why wouldn't those who'd enjoy ETQW also enjoy playing Q4?

3) If Quake 4 is bundled with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars for free, that gives undecisive consumers a reason to lean towards purchasing the game.

4) Quake 4's recent sales figures are likely slim to none (I say likely because, for all we know, it could be producing fairly decent sales as of writing this; feel free to correct us on this if need be).

5) There are a boatload of servers for anyone to play on, whether they be public or private with an advertised/easy password (including Q4MAX would also expand that access). Not only would that give people places to play in, but that would also give current players more people to play with.

To summarize, assuming Q4 sales aren't a major source of id's profit right now, even in the case that this move is implemented and it does not result in even a big cluster of new players, let alone a revival of the community, neither party has anything to lose. We know the people at id Software care about their roots and the well-being of admirers, fans, and hardcore players of the Quake series. Please carefully consider this proposition as we, the community, are more than willing to work hard alongside you to get Quake climbing back up the mountain of PC gaming and gaming in general. And hey: perhaps with enough effort, strategy, and elbow grease, it could return to the summit.