There is a better system than reserved slots. And that is to have a queue for joining a server and letting donators move to the front of the queue. This avoids the annoyance of being kicked for a reserved slot and having to repeatedly "auto-join" a server.
Unfortunately this requires support by Valve on the client side. You can simulate a queue on the server side easily enough, but clients will timeout fast on a connection that stalls. On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 4:40 PM, E. Olsen <[email protected]> wrote: > There are pro and cons to running member-supported communities. While I > agree that getting kicked for a reserved slot (which, btw, your two year old > example of No Heroes was the old system, prior to using two "hidden" slots > to allow supporters to direct connect to a full server, making reserved slot > kicks of public players much less necessary) is not ideal, the other side of > that coin is asking the people to stand in line to play on the hardware > they're paying for, which I also think is a bad idea. It's a debate we've > had back and forth for years, but there's no real elegant solution that will > satisfy both community supporters and public players. Hiding a couple of > slots that only supporters can directly join is a happy medium for us. > > At any rate, without getting the thread too far off track, community > building is a long, slow process that requires consistency and a lot of > like-minded people. Regardless of your personal feelings about this or that > community, if they have consistently full servers without the use of the > nefarious things we've talked about here (fake clients, redirects, hidden > bots, false sv_tags, etc.), then they are obviously doing something right. > > The issue, I think, is that some people attempt to start a gaming community > thinking that if they can fill a game server - using whatever means > necessary - then that will equate to a thriving/successful community, and > that's simply not the case. I remember 4 years ago playing on our (at the > time) one TF2 server for hours with 3-4 other people, just trying to get > people to join and stick around. It took 4-6 months of doing that every > single day before we had a decent group of "regulars". Most folks, > unfortunately, don't have that kind of perseverance, and prefer to try any > shortcut they can to get traffic (which is usually short-lived anyway). > > There is a lot you can do to build the kind of value into a community that > will attract long-term supporters (and, believe it or not, it has very > little to do with reserved slots). Special events, competitions, unique > tools that help your supporters maintain clean servers...the list goes on > and on. Reserved slots are a dime a dozen - players want more value out of a > community these days than that. > > > On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 7:22 PM, Cc2iscooL <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> When I ran a community it was mainly funded by donations with myself >> making up any remainder that hadn't been donated. The only 'perk' anyone got >> for donating was a little tag next to their name in the community forums >> that said Donor, and more often than not people chose to donate anonymously >> so they didn't get the tag. It's really one of those things that if people >> really do enjoy what is offered they will help out. I've personally donated >> myself to communities in other games (even small amounts) with no 'reward' >> for donating besides the fact that the server stays up. People value a good >> place to play and even though at the time I made enough to support the >> servers myself, donations helped lessen the burden, and we had little >> tournaments every once in a while if we had donations that surpassed what >> was required per month to keep the servers up with gaming-type prizes. Was >> pretty fun and our community seemed to enjoy it. >> >> On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 6:50 PM, Gavin Langdon <[email protected]> >> wrote: >>> >>> That's not really true, IMO. For example, donations to WWF (the World >>> Wildlife Fund) or PBS give you perks such as tote bags, DVDs, and plenty of >>> other gifts. Certainly, the value of the gifts is much lower than they would >>> be--they're more incentives rather than actual products--but the fact >>> remains, there are still perks for donating. >>> >>> Now certainly TF2 community donations are not anywhere near the same as >>> actual nonprofit organizations, but I think it's fair to call them >>> donations. Many of the people who donate to CSn do it more because they >>> enjoy their community rather than because they want round-end immunity. >>> >>> Since you mentioned reserved slots, yes we do have them, but we do not >>> have the kicking feature enabled, so our servers appear full (24/24) instead >>> of 23/24. We too dislike the kicking reserved slots. >>> >>> --Gavin "Benny Hill" L from the Crit Sandvich Network >>> >>> On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 6:41 PM, Invalid Protocol >>> <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> As far as I know, when you donate (money or goods) you don’t expect >>>> something back. Very few communities use donations to support the servers. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Most of them simply sell something (access to reserved slot, immunity >>>> during humiliation round etc…) for real money and call this a donation. >>>> Also, as far as I know, No Heroes servers can kick a player to free a slot >>>> for a “donator” >>>> (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1531500), so in >>>> their case is “pay to play” instead “pay to win”. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> From: [email protected] >>>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of E. Olsen >>>> Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2012 12:59 AM >>>> >>>> >>>> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list >>>> Subject: Re: [hlds] Policy of Truth?? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Yeah - let's not paint communities whose members donate to support their >>>> servers as something negative. Community supported servers are as old as pc >>>> gaming itself. Not all communities that are member-supported are "pay to >>>> win". We sure as hell aren't. >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >>>> please visit: >>>> https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds >>>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >>> please visit: >>> https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >> please visit: >> https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds >> > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
