ventrilo posts

Earlier this year Valve announced that they would add what kinds of PC software are installed on the users of its Steam client via its voluntary hardware survey form. Today the first results from the software survey have been posted showing the top 50 programs Steam users who participated in the survey have on their hard drives. The results are just for PC users for now; Mac owners will have its own results posted later.

Not surprisingly, over 96 percent of Steam PC users have Adobe's Flash Player installed in their hard drives with over 73 percent using Adobe's Acrobat software. The Firefox web browser is in over 63 percent of Steam user's PC, followed by Microsoft Office with 57 percent and Microsoft Silverlight with 53 percent.

Other interesting tidbits from the survey include two popular game voice chat programs, TeamSpeak and Ventrilo, installed on about the same amount of PCs (17.99 percent and 17.38 percent, respectively). The game oriented messenger program Xfire is installed on 10.5 percent of Steam user's PCs. Not surprisingly a number of BitTorrent software programs are in the top 50. Finally Microsoft Games For Windows client is installed in over 36 percent of Steam user's PC.

For the past couple of years, people who have attended the free QuakeCon event in Dallas have had a chance to win a new Ford Mustang valued at over $50,000 in a lottery sponsored by voice chat software maker Ventrilo. For this year's QuakeCon on August 12-15 in Dallas, Texas, Ventrilo has decided not to offer its attendees a chance to win a Ford Mustang.

Instead Ventrilo is giving away two 2011 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupes (one painted Race Red, the other Kona Blue) each valued at $51,930. 100 tickets for the drawing will be given away in various QuakeCon activities during the show with the final drawing for the Mustangs to be held on August 14 as part of the QuakeCon 2010 tournament finals.

In related news, yesterday's reveal of the "Quake Done Quick" premium tickets were apparently popular. It looks like the 500 $20 tickets for a number of extra privileges at QuakeCon 2010 are now sold out.

This year's QuakeCon event will have the usual stuff from id Software's free gaming event. A big Quake Live LAN tournament, a massive BYOC area, exhibits, sneak peaks of id's upcoming projects . . . but there's also a chance for someone to walk away from QuakeCon with a new car.

Yep, that custom 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupe pictured above could be yours if you attend the event from August 13-16 at the Gaylord Hotel in Grapevine, Texas. The car, valued at $52,000, is being given away by the gaming oriented communications program Ventrilo. 100 tickets will be given out during QuakeCon and folks can win a ticket in various ways during the show, including random drawnings. Of course just one of the tickets will be picked at the end of QuakeCon to win the Mustang.

For you gearheads, the version being given away at QuakeCon has a "six speed transmission mated to a supercharged 5.4 liter V-8 pumping out a brutal 540 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of pavement destroying torque." Anyway you size it, this is a true muscle car.

We are just a week away from the start of E3 but we are also just a few weeks away from the start of Quakecon 2008, the the 13th annual free LAN party-gaming convention sponsored by Doom and Quake developers id Software. Today the event's organizers announced that one lucky attendee of Quakecon 2008 will win a rather sweet prize; a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe valued at $55,000.

The Jetstream Blue painted Corvette will be given out thanks to Ventrilo, the well-know voice communication software that's used in a number of LAN tournaments and multiplayer matches. 250 Corvette lottery tickets will be given out during QuakeCon to attendees who win various events and contests as well as random drawings. Quakecon 2008 will be held in Dallas, Texas from July 31-August 3.