Yeah, the best of us have all been there. 3v3 Dustbowl in a 32 man server for weeks. Eventually you find enough like-minded people and add enough people to your friends list and spam the hell out of the best feature that has ever been created, Invite To Game, that you hit a critical mass and can stand up on your own.
On Sat, 2009-03-14 at 02:25 +0000, 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 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please > visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds
