E. Olsen’s suggestions are all fine and dandy, except for the following remaining questions:
1. How do you propose that Valve deal with operators who split their servers into different Steam IDs and regularly replace the Steam ID of their widely blacklisted server with a new one? Given that Valve can’t/won’t stop 10 year olds creating hundreds of Steam Accounts from the same computer and then using them to run LMAOBox on servers, I’m sceptical that they’d have the fortitude to deal with this issue either. And no, IP/IP:Port bans are not the answer (Too easy to change/Shared hosting considerations) nor is creating a barrier to entry for new server operators. 2. How do you propose competitive matchmaking / lobbies etc fit into this new UI? It’s looking rather over-crowded as it is. 3. Why do you believe that privately-run servers should be given equal preference, when on any other Valve game official is the default option? 4. How does any of what has been suggested negate the rising trend of official server exclusive content, such as contracts etc, that would naturally bias a new player toward Valve servers? 5. Do you believe competitive / matchmaking games will be matched to official servers only to ensure a stock experience and to negate cheating the match/economy? If so, what’s the point of discussing any of this if the biggest player drain from private servers is yet to come and this addresses none of it? Sorry to be the one to ask the tough questions (not really), but someone needed to play devil’s advocate. On Sat, Dec 19, 2015 at 12:10 AM, E. Olsen <[email protected]> wrote: > Just FYI, the whole "if players found community servers valuable, they > would be playing on them", isn't even remotely valid. If you owned a > popular restaurant, and the government came in and built an expressway that > bypassed that restaurant completely (and only your existing customers even > knew there was an off ramp somewhere to get to you), eventually you would > close your doors, and through no fault of your own. > > Any and all perceived "problems" Valve might have had with community > server could be easily and quickplay fixed, simply by doing the following: > > 1. Make the client server-blacklisting system work across the board with > both the server browser AND quickplay. > > 2. Allow players to blacklist individual servers and/or whole groups of > servers that belong to a particular Steam ID (which would prevent them from > ever being re-connected to those servers/groups of servers). > > 3. After doing the above, default quickplay to "all" when using the "play > multiplayer" button (if they choose to continue to use that horrible design > choice) OR even better - break the buttons up as suggested in THIS > <http://i.imgur.com/tAmWXj6.png> UI design proposal. > > That's it - that's all it would take. > > Do that, and community servers would be self-policing (bad servers would > naturally be blacklisted over time), and players would be exposed again to > all options they have in terms of diversity and choice (something which is > slowly, but surely, being stamped out of the game). > > There can be no question that the game experience is better in the > long-term on good community servers. Skill levels are higher, communication > is better, and teamwork actually exists on a regular basis. Members of the > TF2 team have admitted that themselves on this very mailing list. It > doesn't need to be an "us against them" scenario, as again - all the TF2 > team need do is expand existing tools available to the players to police > their own experience to once again allow equitable treatment to community > servers. > > ...but again, this has all been said time and again via this list, and I > doubt anyone on the TF2 team even reads it anymore. I think if they planned > to carry though on "supporting communities passionate about the game" as > they once again mentioned just 5 months ago, then they would have done so > by now. >
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