I agree with this, for the most part. I don't honestly have much of a problem with the fact that Valve wants to prevent Quickplay servers from being able to display advertisements to players. However, it would be great if it could be done in a way that doesn't break ***everything*. As you say, if people truly like a server, they'll favorite it and come back, and that's where you'll get your impressions.
Of course, the server wouldn't make as much money as if it were getting Quickplay ad hits, but I'd wager that a popular server with ads for server browser joins and donors could probably cover its bills without the owner having to pay out of pocket (too much). Unfortunately, with the way Quickplay has impacted TF2, it's very hard for communities to cover their bills on donations alone. You cite FirePowered, but we still haven't reached a break-even point yet, after 6 months of existence. Granted, this number is derived from the total recurring donations that we have active. We have a few generous donors who helped us out in the beginning, and that's been enough to sustain us up until now. Again, to reiterate: preventing Quickplay joins from displaying advertisements is a rather good thing. However, it would be excellent if it were done in a way that didn't disable the HTML MOTD for the majority of players joining the server. However, those who wish to display advertisements to those who join their servers directly should be allowed to continue to do so. Dr. McKay www.doctormckay.com On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 5:02 PM, Lucas Wagner <[email protected]> wrote: > In my opinion, Jason nailed this. Organically growing your community is > the best (and in my opinion) most honest way to pay your bills. Put out a > truly excellent product and people will support it with their money. See > FirePowered gaming for a good example of an organically grown community. > > I think Valve is saying by this update that they agree; Quickplay is not > to be used to farm ad-impressions. If they have a great product the > ad-impressions will come from returning regulars who have added your > servers to their favorites. Finding a loophole and exploiting just puts > yourself at risk, just like people who purchased hundreds of idle > accounts. > > I think this decision was excellent and I'd like to see Valve more > vigorously enforce the policy of truth going forward. > > > On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 3:07 PM, Jason Tango <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Your cite Skial as an example, but what you fail to realize is that those >> large server groups only have those large number of servers because they >> are/were trying to use the quickplay system as a source of profit over and >> above their "expenses", NOT as a response to the natural growth in their >> "communities." >> >> In other words - those kinds of communities did not grow "organically", >> starting with just enough servers to support their current membership, and >> adding servers as their community grew. They threw up those huge numbers of >> servers as nothing more than "quickplay ad farms", turning the playerbase >> into little more than disposable ad impressions. Do you honestly think any >> of those groups have the massive community membership necessary to require >> 80+ servers? Of course not. >> >> Do you see the distinction? >> >> There are server operators who have slowly and consistently grown their >> server "regulars", adding to their server fleets as both their membership >> and funding permitted, and there are those that simply threw up high-volume >> "quickplay honey pot" fleets of ad-farms/servers with the intent of turning >> the players into an easy source of profit. >> >> Now, I'm not looking down my nose at Skial (I don't really know anything >> about them), or any other of these large server fleets, BUT - the fact is >> that most new players first few experiences with the game will be through >> quickplay, and the vast number of these ad-farms (many of which were hosted >> by the hundreds on cheap, under-powered VPS servers) are/were giving these >> players a very negative first impression of the game. >> >> While I don't necessarily agree with HOW Valve has fixed the problem (as >> I think it stinks that ALL server operators have to be made to suffer due >> to the actions of those abusing the system), I'm certainly glad Valve is >> taking steps to at least insure new players don't think that these >> ad-infested servers are the way ALL servers are run. >> >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2013 21:24:00 +0100 >> From: [email protected] >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [hlds] An open letter to Valve about MOTDs >> >> >> Forced in-game ads are evil. >> >> >> >> You’ve already paid for the game, why watch ads? >> >> >> >> There never was such a problem until quickplay and motd allowing video. >> >> >> >> Build a good community and likable servers, and you shall have your money >> through donations. We haven’t done it any differently in the past 15 years >> and we’re still doing so today. >> >> >> >> People are willing to donate bits for a fun community to play at who has >> their own servers up and running. >> >> >> >> The whole problem here is quickplay, you have tons of people roaming >> around random servers without an real good opportunity to bind them to your >> community. Before people would search for likable servers and add them to >> their favorites. These people would then return and start to get familiar >> with other people at the servers. This allowed for great community building. >> >> >> >> Unfortunately I don’t expect VALVe ever to turn off quickplay. That’s why >> I think communities will slowly start to die out. >> >> >> >> I can remember days where 90% of the players in a server had a >> clan/community tag In front of their name, nowadays you barely ever see >> them. >> >> >> >> Saint K. >> >> *From:* [email protected] [mailto: >> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Supreet >> *Sent:* Thursday, November 07, 2013 7:58 PM >> *To:* [email protected] >> *Subject:* [hlds] An open letter to Valve about MOTDs >> >> >> Valve, >> Listen. People make good money off of running their TF2 servers. >> Moreover, it helps them pay for the servers. >> Why don't you just take all our liberty away, pull an EA and cut >> dedicated servers and host them all yourself? >> Quickplay has only been beneficial to free to play players or what I like >> to call "Window Gamers". They try a game because its free then after a >> while they leave the game because they're bored of hopping on random >> servers through quick play and finding ads everywhere. >> The liberty and freedom of browsing through a server list was an amazing >> idea so you should keep to it. >> Your quick play scoring system is pretty stupid and flawed. Why? Because >> its HEAVILY BIASED. >> Over time, there's just been servers that get a behemoth influx of >> players and and the quick play system starts favoring them. Therefore, >> ignoring the possibility of any potentially better servers people might >> like if they ended up on them. >> You should really consider stopping your shenanigans. You can't make up >> your own mind Valve. You released an update months ago with vague release >> notes about the removal of HTML motds then you modified it and now you just >> released another update. >> If you really cared about the game server operators, you would remove >> this bs "tweak" and give server operators the liberty to use methods to >> recovery money to cover costs and pocket money for their efforts. >> OR >> Build a better dedicated server that doesn't eat up so many resources so >> server operators don't have to pay $30 a month for a single server to a >> hosting company. There are communities that run great servers and multiple >> of them. Imagine the frikkin cost of servers Skial has to deal with, with >> their massive 80 something servers. >> These ads help pay for these expensive DDoS protected servers hosted by >> big communities. >> A lot of concerned people have offered their tiny bits of tweaks and >> solutions to your update but it will never stop. >> Either pull an EA and remove MOTDs overall, doom us all so we can get >> some closure and move on LOL or let server operators have the freedom to >> run their server the way they want. >> Why don't you just work with the ad companies and get them to make a >> variable that tells the quickplay system read if the server is ad enabled, >> or maybe through sv_tags and DEDUCT score off of quickplay. >> It'll make all the complaining kids happy. 50% less chance I'll end up on >> an ad enabled server. >> Many thanks and regards. >> Please contribute to this discussion in a professional and cognitively >> inclined manner and refrain from being monkeys yelling at each other on the >> mailing list. >> >> _______________________________________________ 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 > >
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