The custom map servers we had also dried up pretty much after quickplay
came around. First the other and then the other too. Sitting empty
mostly while the quickplay ones (valve maps that eglible for it) were
full almost 24/7 and some dats over week the night too. I had to change.
Now it's not as fun as before because i never get to see most of the
custom maps i used to like to play but i change some of them on weekly
to rotation and some off from the rotation. Kind of rotate the custom
map list so it's a compromise. Yes it's true that custom maps are not so
much wanted and you can really see that when players quit. They are
afraid of the new. Too bad.
This also affects for the players who make those maps. If no servers run
them, what ambition is there to make one? To get Valve pick their map
up? That's a dream by anyone, but after doing couple, maybe three
without that happening, the ambition dies or interests change.
-ics
17.12.2011 13:35, Eli Witt kirjoitti:
We've shut two servers of ours down since quickplay for that exact reason.
There's been a marked drop in players (80% of our rotation were customs on
those two servers) and even with a squad of 8-12 regulars trying to seed on
badwater, goldrush or dustbowl, we could be in there for an hour with zero
new players joining.
Donations dried up completely so we simply stopped renting them. Our
quickplay server is still fairing slightly better, but only a little, and
we're forced to have the same crappy stock quickplay map rotation as every
other server in the world now because the instant you try to go to a custom
map or even a vastly underplayed stock map, you can watch 70% of the
players disconnect on HLSW during the mapchange.
It's frustrating, because it really does seem this quickplay button is
training these players to be lazy, and even more importantly it's showing
them there's only 4-6 maps in TF2, and I lost track of how many quality
custom maps we *used* to get to play.
On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 4:28 AM, Robert Paulson<[email protected]>wrote:
I will have to agree with Dan. I believe even the quickplay system is
having a negative effect on TF2. Quickplay is good for getting into a
game quickly, but it is featured prominently as the first button on
the screen so everyone clicks on it and never learns there are unique
servers that aren't on there.
Most people probably never stop using it because they probably assume
the browser is just a manual way to pick the same servers available in
quickplay. I am seeing swaths of 24 slot servers with default maps and
respawn times filled all the time while some of my favorite servers
that don't fit the quickplay standard (maps, slightly faster respawn
times, larger slots) that used to be full at midnight now empty out 4
hours earlier. Some of them are shutting down, and I find myself
playing less and less TF2.
It becomes very difficult to find servers that aren't a cookie cutter
quickplay build because:
1. Players who have been weaned on quickplay probably never figure out
alternative settings exist.
2. If they search through the browser, not only are there 4,000+
servers to choose from, but these custom servers have to compete with
the quickplay servers that are filled with even more players already.
3. More and more cookie-cutter quickplay servers are popping up
because they are the only ones getting filled like before. No players
= no donations.
It is my humble opinion that quickplay is creating an unhealthy
homogeneous selection of servers and players. The average player can
only be entertained so much by the standard settings before they get
bored of them, and instead of finding a customized server that suits
their tastes, they quit the game without knowing about the
alternatives. I believe this is why the number of TF2 players have
dropped below CS:S and continued to decline until this recent update
and impending winter break.
On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 10:45 PM, dan<[email protected]> wrote:
On 15/12/2011 23:51, Fletcher Dunn wrote:
We are working on something like this. The ability to "level" your game
server account. Certain benefits would only be given to servers with
level>= N, etc. Show the level in the server browser and give
preferential
treatment, etc. Get caught breaking the rules, and you lose your level,
etc.
With respect. Even without details, this sounds like a really, really bad
idea tm.
(Although I suppose if you collect 500 genius game polymaths in a
building
they'll soon see the solution to every problem is to create a game. You
probably can't get a coke from your canteen without solving a puzzle? :)
)
You only have to read the angst in the threads that the current server
reputation causes to see that.
--
Dan.
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