um shoes = shows :) steve grout wrote: > quote | > > But at the same time, I can see why others would do it. They are > simply doing one thing - trying to attract players in this extremely > difficult market. |/quote > > yes they are trying to attract people but in a dishonest and VERY lazy > way.. it shoes that they are not prepared to put the work in to > populate the servers... i know for one that i have sat alone many an > hour on a server to get people in. Fake slot = lazy imho > > > Karl Weckstrom wrote: >> I've been meaning to post about the whole subject of Server Scoring, >> but I wanted to read everything you guys posted, let it sink in and >> all that. >> >> I'm glad you've been putting some thought into this - but I hope you >> take a step back and look at the bigger picture. I hope you'll read >> this and also let it soak in, even if it's just one man's opinion. >> >> Now - I own and partially run the Trashedgamers.com community. We're >> quite new, only around about 6 months. But in the golden days of old, >> I ran another gaming community called "Railbait" (www.railbait.com, >> now defunct). >> >> 10 years ago, things were a lot different. Running a gameserver means >> you were actually spent some money on bandwidth and hardware as >> opposed to today. If you ran a server and it was fairly decently >> policed, you were pretty much guaranteed it would be popular. At the >> height of Railbait's times, we had nearly 200 player slots filled >> 24x7 and it was nearly effortless to accomplish. We never had to work >> to fill servers, people would voluntarily pug some people and do it >> themselves. People were just HAPPY that they had a new place to play! >> >> Times are much different now. Bandwidth is cheap, and anyone with >> mommy or daddy's cable connection can potentially run a server, or >> they can pay a few bucks a month and rent one. Webhosting costs next >> to nothing. Symmetric fiber lines are $70/mo for 20/20 in certain >> areas, etc. >> >> So it's time you realized something, Valve - and take this to heart: >> There's such a huge surplus of servers out there now, it practically >> takes an act of God to actually make any given one popular. Players >> now have SO many choices (dare I say, TOO many choices) that they >> have become extremely jaded. A tight-knit community is so incredibly >> hard to form today, many server owners simply don't bother with the >> extra work that comes along with community building. >> >> The problem (and solution) you discuss on the Teamfortress blog is an >> interesting read and is absolutely a step in the right direction. >> However I think what you're seeing with these "Bad" servers is a >> SYMPTOM of the real problem - NOT the problem itself. >> >> Now, don't get me wrong - if I were to join a server advertising >> 30/32 players only to find it was empty or close to it, I would be >> annoyed personally - and we certainly don't use this particular >> tactic at TrashedGamers. But at the same time, I can see why others >> would do it. They are simply doing one thing - trying to attract >> players in this extremely difficult market. They WANT people to play >> there because they have put forth the time and effort to put up these >> servers, websites and what not in an attempt to run a successful, >> thriving community. While I might disagree with the method, I don't >> find any malice in its intent. I'm not trying to justify their >> actions, I'm simply good at playing Devil's Advocate. >> >> Now - you might argue that you made this SteamCommunity.com >> infrastructure to help build communities, but this is also flawed in >> a sense. I assume that you built this infrastructure so members who >> frequent certain servers, have similar interests (like cookies) and >> what not will have a common meeting place. Personally, we use it as a >> userbase for filling our servers. >> >> Toss up an event, and the server will be full in under 5 minutes, and >> for us - stay that way sometimes for several days. But this too has a >> dark side as I'm SURE you're aware. Man, we invite everybody. Since >> everyone's community ID is out there in the open for anyone to grab, >> inviting massive amounts of people in a fairly short time is trivial. >> We do it. That Kifferstupidwhatever group does it. I would argue that >> ALL the top 10-20 groups have done it or are still actively doing it. >> But is the SteamCommunity site really serving its intended purpose? I >> doubt it :) >> >> So - before you consider a mass delisting of servers that are using >> whatever trickery to keep them active, consider the actual root of >> the problem - NOT just the symptoms. Before doing anything crass, >> please consider that we server operators and community owners need >> the proper tools to make both your titles and our communities popular. >> >> In order for any solution to work, you must ensure that one thing >> remains paramount - the symbiotic relationship between Valve and the >> people who host your servers. >> >> I've said my piece, I won't say anything else about it :) >> >> _______________________________________________ >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list >> archives, please visit: >> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds >> >> >
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