Recommended.

Older gamers that didn't know Quake was still played today, rejoice.
Younger gamers that may want to try their hands at something difficult yet fun, welcome. We need you blood; come and quench our thirst. Well, actually, the way Quake Live is made, chances are new players will get to play between themselves and mid-skilled players mostly so I guess I'll have to wait for you to escalate the skill cliff. But please do so!

So what is Quake Live? Some might say this is a Free To Play version of Quake 3 Arena. There is some truth to that and this is how QL was identified since its inception yet there is more to it. Q3A had mods, QL tries to incorporate them into the main game instead. Q3A had a large community running plenty of servers, QL has servers ran exclusively by id software with the option for subscribers to spawn their own customized using this infrastructure. Q3A had a one time payment, QL generates its revenues through a subscription system. It's worth noting that despite being Free To Play, QL is not Pay To Win (and it's a shame that both expressions have almost become synonymous today).

You might still wonder why you should play QL if you have Q3A. Well the main argument is kinda lame but I'm afraid it is true nonetheless : QL is overwhelmingly more populated than any other Quake at the moment. But there are reasons for that! For starters, it's easy to get into. You press the "install" button, you start the game, you create your account then you click on "Play Now" and you're set. You won't be told you don't have the right mod installed or you lack a specific version of a map. It's easy (but you can still spend some time tweaking your config if you want to). The same argument can be made about the default gameplay itself and this is where things get somewhat controversial. Purists say the recent changes made to make the game more welcoming to newcomers are a travesty. While I agree that the new default settings are inferior for us experienced players, I'm still open to the idea that new players will have it easier and have more fun that way. You can be sure I will still be there in the servers running the classic settings, waiting for the courageous survivors who defied the default ruleset and want some more. In any case, QL is still very unforgiving, given your opponents catch on your mistakes. The best thing we can hope for is a larger playerbase which will allow tighter skillmatching and a better experience overall for everyone.

For those who don't know Quake 3 Arena or Quake in general, the above paragraph is probably kinda meaningless. Let me list some important aspects of Q3A/QL which make it a good game :
- Fast paced. Well, I guess if you like taking it slow and camping in bushes with your sniper riffle in other games it's cool for you, but you're missing out on something!
- Simple rules. Anybody can understand the objectives very fast. You know you have to kill more than you die in a duel. It's nothing hard to conceptualize.
- Diversity in the weapons. Yep. It's not all a thousand variations of machine-guns, handguns and rifles. Unreal Tournament is arguably superior to Quake in this field but it's still worth noting.
- Vertical gameplay. It may sound kinda stupid but this axis is a lot more in the typical map design of an Arena Shooter like Quake and it's a lot more fun this way.
- Great movement system. Easy to use (WASD), hard to master (and it's so satisfying to fly around the map at high speed).
- Gameplay depth. This one doesn't necessarily apply to every gametype but it is the most important point in my opinion. The game is old yet there's still room to improve for EVERY player. If you think Quake is all about shooting down enemies without thinking, you couldn't be more wrong. Sure, aim is part of the game, but you need to deal twice as much damage as your enemy if he has twice your health/armor because he controls the map better...

tl;dr It's a good game and with the recent changes everybody should be able to get some kills and fun. Let's just hope you can have fun without winning every match, because we can't all be winners and chances are against newbies in that field.

Recommended. Older gamers that didn't know Quake was still played today, rejoice. Younger gamers that may want to try their hands at something difficult yet fun, welcome. We need you blood; come and quench our thirst. Well, actually, the way Quake Live is made, chances are new players will get to play between themselves and mid-skilled players mostly so I guess I'll have to wait for you to escalate the skill cliff. But please do so! So what is Quake Live? Some might say this is a Free To Play version of Quake 3 Arena. There is some truth to that and this is how QL was identified since its inception yet there is more to it. Q3A had mods, QL tries to incorporate them into the main game instead. Q3A had a large community running plenty of servers, QL has servers ran exclusively by id software with the option for subscribers to spawn their own customized using this infrastructure. Q3A had a one time payment, QL generates its revenues through a subscription system. It's worth noting that despite being Free To Play, QL is not Pay To Win (and it's a shame that both expressions have almost become synonymous today). You might still wonder why you should play QL if you have Q3A. Well the main argument is kinda lame but I'm afraid it is true nonetheless : QL is overwhelmingly more populated than any other Quake at the moment. But there are reasons for that! For starters, it's easy to get into. You press the "install" button, you start the game, you create your account then you click on "Play Now" and you're set. You won't be told you don't have the right mod installed or you lack a specific version of a map. It's easy (but you can still spend some time tweaking your config if you want to). The same argument can be made about the default gameplay itself and this is where things get somewhat controversial. Purists say the recent changes made to make the game more welcoming to newcomers are a travesty. While I agree that the new default settings are inferior for us experienced players, I'm still open to the idea that new players will have it easier and have more fun that way. You can be sure I will still be there in the servers running the classic settings, waiting for the courageous survivors who defied the default ruleset and want some more. In any case, QL is still very unforgiving, given your opponents catch on your mistakes. The best thing we can hope for is a larger playerbase which will allow tighter skillmatching and a better experience overall for everyone. For those who don't know Quake 3 Arena or Quake in general, the above paragraph is probably kinda meaningless. Let me list some important aspects of Q3A/QL which make it a good game : - Fast paced. Well, I guess if you like taking it slow and camping in bushes with your sniper riffle in other games it's cool for you, but you're missing out on something! - Simple rules. Anybody can understand the objectives very fast. You know you have to kill more than you die in a duel. It's nothing hard to conceptualize. - Diversity in the weapons. Yep. It's not all a thousand variations of machine-guns, handguns and rifles. Unreal Tournament is arguably superior to Quake in this field but it's still worth noting. - Vertical gameplay. It may sound kinda stupid but this axis is a lot more in the typical map design of an Arena Shooter like Quake and it's a lot more fun this way. - Great movement system. Easy to use (WASD), hard to master (and it's so satisfying to fly around the map at high speed). - Gameplay depth. This one doesn't necessarily apply to every gametype but it is the most important point in my opinion. The game is old yet there's still room to improve for EVERY player. If you think Quake is all about shooting down enemies without thinking, you couldn't be more wrong. Sure, aim is part of the game, but you need to deal twice as much damage as your enemy if he has twice your health/armor because he controls the map better... tl;dr It's a good game and with the recent changes everybody should be able to get some kills and fun. Let's just hope you can have fun without winning every match, because we can't all be winners and chances are against newbies in that field.