Why does it matter if your server is popular though? Is there money to be made? Can your friends not join whatever server you're in? Do you not want to play on other people's servers? There is already a GLUT of TF2 servers out there, there is no reasonable expectation that Valve has to make the server landscape a perfectly flat playing field for every brand-new community who wants to join the party half a decade late.
You want to make a new community and try to get big and popular? Join the club, some of us have been here for YEARS doing that - just because it's harder to get popular now doesn't mean anything. This move might go "against server operators", but at the same time it simplifies life for the hundreds of thousands of people who DON'T run a server, and would rather push one button and be playing a video game, without worrying about whatever server they'll be redirected to, or some admin that will ban you for "Insubordination", or for wearing the wrong clan tag (seriously go read the rules for some of these servers: https://firepoweredgaming.com/forums/page/rules and try not to laugh). Server operators are not the only people in the TF2 community, and shockingly enough, may not even be the most important people in the community anymore, especially post F2P. Shoot the messenger if you want, continue to insult me if that helps your arguments, but this is a lot of anger that stems from the fact our servers may not be as full (of people who won't return) as we like. It's a pretty selfish sounding complaint. On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 3:31 PM, Valentin G. <nextra...@gmail.com> wrote: > Then explain how should people remedy this situation? > > Not every community can retroactively join the master race and > suddenly be around for 6 years and have a great playerbase out of thin > air. Yes, there are servers that currently rely on quickplay. So what > if 50% is QP traffic. That's still 50% of players that are returning. > In order to increase that percentage of returning players we still > *need* to have the other 50%. If people don't even come to your server > in the first place (by being in the 50% QP population) there is not > even the *chance* of them staying around. > > This is the model when you use QP. Use the system, deliver an > experience that continuously moves the split towards a healthy, > returning player base. Of course it would be great if players still > went around the server browser and naturally found out about new > servers and stayed there. Since that doesn't happen anymore, newer > communities have to rely on quickplay. That's simply how it works. > It's really great for all the people here that have a long history in > their community and a stable and returning playerbase already. Not > everyone can enjoy that, and you are trying to prevent them from even > having the ability to achieve that. > > I really hope one day people get that into their thick heads. There > are start-ups that haven't been around since the TF2 beta. They *can > not* have as healthy of a playerbase as you already have. Don't talk > them down because of that, and even applaud Valve when every chance of > building up their community is ripped from their hands. > > On Sat, Jan 25, 2014 at 12:14 AM, Gordon Reynolds > <thisisgordonsem...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Maybe there is a point to take from this. > > > > Maybe the kind of people who played TF2 pre-F2P era, aren't the same > people > > who want to play TF2 now? > > > > Demographics change, if you think the same type of people pick up TF2 > today > > as the ones who paid money to pick it up pre-F2P, you might be in for a > bit > > of a shock. Or not, look at your numbers, 50% of your population is just > > there because that's where they ended up, they didn't choose to be on > your > > server. > > > > > > On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 3:10 PM, Doctor McKay <mc...@doctormckay.com> > wrote: > > > >> Find me a vanilla server that remains populated without the help of > >> Quickplay. They don't exist. > >> > >> > >> Dr. McKay > >> www.doctormckay.com > >> > >> > >> On Fri, Jan 24, 2014 at 6:07 PM, Gordon Reynolds < > >> thisisgordonsem...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >> > So if you've had a server for a few years and you still get 47% > quickplay > >> > traffic doesn't that tell you that you're running a server that might > be > >> > twice as large as it needs to be? I mean if you pulled regulars from > >> > quickplay players wouldn't that number slowly drop (during peak), > because > >> > of all your regulars? > >> > > >> > Or do quickplayer honestly, literally, -not care what server they are > >> on-, > >> > and will never add your server to favorites as is? > >> > > >> > > >> > On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 8:11 PM, Doctor McKay <mc...@doctormckay.com> > >> > wrote: > >> > > >> > > The cvar was actually added at the request of myself and several > >> others. > >> > > > >> > > I took the liberty to make a chart showing exactly what percent of > my > >> > > players come from Quickplay. The result was disappointingly high: > >> > > http://i.imgur.com/91xNnU1.png > >> > > > >> > > I don't expect any more than 20% of Quickplay users to uncheck the > >> > > "Official servers only" box. That means that I have lost around 40% > of > >> my > >> > > traffic. My community is relatively popular, too. Smaller > communities > >> or > >> > > communities that are just starting up will lose a lot more traffic > >> than I > >> > > will. > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > Dr. McKay > >> > > www.doctormckay.com > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 10:48 PM, Robert Paulson < > >> thepauls...@gmail.com > >> > > >wrote: > >> > > > >> > > > It's quite obvious really. Valve only makes features to benefit > >> > > themselves > >> > > > or players, and cl_connectmethod was at face value did not do > either > >> > one. > >> > > > > >> > > > They don't care about server owners having this knowledge unless > it > >> > > > benefits them and didn't even bother to protect the convar from > >> > spoofing > >> > > by > >> > > > a using 1 convar flag. > >> > > > > >> > > > Its main purpose was to stop server owners from complaining about > all > >> > the > >> > > > restrictions placed on quickplay on the flawed assumption that > >> > quickplay > >> > > is > >> > > > a tiny and unimportant part of your player base. > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 7:20 PM, Doctor McKay < > mc...@doctormckay.com > >> > > >> > > > wrote: > >> > > > > >> > > > > While I agree with what you are saying, what does > cl_connectmethod > >> > have > >> > > > to > >> > > > > do with any of this? > >> > > > > On Jan 23, 2014 9:12 PM, "Robert Paulson" < > thepauls...@gmail.com> > >> > > wrote: > >> > > > > > >> > > > > > First they came for the custom attachments, and I did not > speak > >> > out. > >> > > > > > Because I did not use it. > >> > > > > > Then they came for fast respawn, and I did not speak out. > >> Because I > >> > > did > >> > > > > not > >> > > > > > use it. > >> > > > > > Then they came for increased slots, and I did not speak out. > >> > Because > >> > > I > >> > > > > did > >> > > > > > not use it. > >> > > > > > Then they came for the MOTD, and I did not speak out. Because > it > >> > > would > >> > > > > hurt > >> > > > > > others more than me. > >> > > > > > Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for > me. > >> > > > > > > >> > > > > > This is a repeat of the "Custom Tabs" fiasco. Except Valve > >> probably > >> > > > won't > >> > > > > > remove it this time because they can wave the evidence that a > >> > > minority > >> > > > of > >> > > > > > players use quickplay, despite the fact that quickplay has a > >> > monopoly > >> > > > on > >> > > > > > new players and without them your server is dead. Your current > >> > > players > >> > > > > > won't play TF2 forever. > >> > > > > > > >> > > > > > I saw this coming a mile away when Valve released the > >> > > cl_connectmethod > >> > > > > > convar. As I have said time and time again, Valve has > obligations > >> > to > >> > > > > server > >> > > > > > owners as well as players. We, or at least I, bought TF2 > >> expecting > >> > > not > >> > > > > to > >> > > > > > have our hosting abilities crippled so much. > >> > > > > > > >> > > > > > On Thu, Jan 23, 2014 at 5:11 PM, Doctor McKay < > >> > mc...@doctormckay.com > >> > > > > >> > > > > > wrote: > >> > > > > > > >> > > > > > > Why? > >> > > > > > > > >> > > > > > > Adding a "Valve servers only" checkbox (that's checked by > >> > default) > >> > > is > >> > > > > > going > >> > > > > > > to hurt enough (and only those communities that are playing > by > >> > the > >> > > > > rules; > >> > > > > > > cheating communities will just steal *more* traffic from the > >> > > > legitimate > >> > > > > > > communities). > >> > > > > > > > >> > > > > > > It's now all but impossible to try to retain a client who > >> joined > >> > > via > >> > > > > > > Quickplay (and those are the clients we *need* to retain). > We > >> > can't > >> > > > > show > >> > > > > > > them our website. We can't even allow them to use a menu to > >> jump > >> > to > >> > > > > > another > >> > > > > > > one of our servers anymore. > >> > > > > > > > >> > > > > > > Please think about what you're doing. If your intention is > to > >> > harm > >> > > > the > >> > > > > > good > >> > > > > > > communities, you're doing a fine job at it. > >> > > > > > > > >> > > > > > > Dr. McKay > >> > > > > > > www.doctormckay.com > >> > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > >> > > > > > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list > >> > > > archives, > >> > > > > > > please visit: > >> > > > > > > > >> > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > >> > > > > > > > >> > > > > > _______________________________________________ > >> > > > > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list > >> > > archives, > >> > > > > > please visit: > >> > > > > > > >> https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > >> > > > > > > >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > >> > > > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list > >> > archives, > >> > > > > please visit: > >> > > > > > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > >> > > > > > >> > > > _______________________________________________ > >> > > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list > >> archives, > >> > > > please visit: > >> > > > > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > >> > > > > >> > > _______________________________________________ > >> > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list > archives, > >> > > please visit: > >> > > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > >> > > > >> > _______________________________________________ > >> > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > >> > please visit: > >> > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > >> > > >> _______________________________________________ > >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > >> please visit: > >> https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > >> > > _______________________________________________ > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
