Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
As someone who is neither a server owner, nor a member of any custom community I fully support this as well. Many of my favorite servers died when the quickplay update hit, and I would adore being able to find close fuck around servers such as those again. Y'all are doing god's work. On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 2:58 AM, Paul ubyu@gmail.com wrote: I fully support this, and I also speak on behalf of MOTDgd when I say that MOTDgd also fully supports this. Hopefully Valve will take notice of this eventually and come to an acceptable solution for both themselves and the community as a whole to make the newcomer's experience a much better one. On 3 March 2015 at 02:43, Gamemann gamem...@gflclan.com wrote: I already said this on the Reddit post, but I'll share it here as well. I fully support this. The solutions/suggestions on the Reddit post would make a majority of the TF2 players and server owners much more happy. Thanks. On 3/2/2015 6:03 PM, Ahmed Kandeel wrote: So I felt I ought to update you guys as to the progress of the group, (Fix Quickplay Now!), that I launched. Currently it is at 483 members and I have had help and advice from several people read this mailing list. They'll be acknowledged shortly if they so wish. But by request of one, I've been asked to update you guys and also link you to this: Firstly for those that don't know and don't want to click the link: Tl:DR - Through main menu updates Valve have made Quickplay appear to be the only way to play TF2. The Jan/Feb 2014 update made only Quickplay match Valve servers by default. While this can be changed, the setting is hidden behind menus that few players investigate. This bias unfairly cuts out all the communities that have supported TF2 for years and removes variety, custom content and choice from the user. The majority of players don’t know this and many new players don’t know community servers even exist! And for a more detailed response that I spent a great deal of time writing, click below. It contains a list of pros and cons of QP (from the perspective of players) and plenty of nicely formatted suggestions: some of which are new and arose from discussion with initial group members, many from the mailing list. http://redd.it/2xkyad If you guys in the mailing list want to feedback about your experiences to the community, this reddit post would be a great place to do so. I'm also in discussions with one of the mods of the subreddit to get this thing pinned. Kind regards, Dax ___ 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
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
Just a fyi, that employee no longer works at Valve either. -ics Saint K. kirjoitti: Thats where VALVe went wrong. His response says it all. Once upon a time VALVes customers were important to them. Now theyre just a complaining bunch of necessary annoyance in order to earn money. *From:*hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] *On Behalf Of *Robert Paulson *Sent:* Tuesday, March 03, 2015 9:46 PM *To:* Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list *Subject:* Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions I thought this post by a Valve employee might be relevant to the discussion. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=22337462postcount=10 Unfortunately I don't think we're ever going to get the sheer numbers needed to force Valve's hand because the average player doesn't understand the problem. Most players remaining joined after the change, and they have no concept of how things could be better. Most of the veterans that quit assumed that their favorites servers naturally died instead of being killed by Valve. As you can see, that reddit post only has around 40 votes total. I tried to warn everyone that the continued removal of server owner rights would lead to problems for everyone, but many people here thought that it wouldn't affect them as much as the bad servers, and all the players from the bad server would end up on their servers. Every removal was praised not only by trolls that didn't even play the game anymore for years, but also quite a few community owners. It is probably only up to Valve (or Eric, since I heard he was the only one working on TF2 now) to realize they made a mistake by looking at how the player counts are faring and seeing the drop in retention rates. On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 6:04 AM, Rowedahelicon theoneando...@rowedahelicon.com mailto:theoneando...@rowedahelicon.com wrote: http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2xkyad/fix_quickplay_now_an_appeal/cp2wdir I've posted my take on the whole situation here, after seeing some comments in the thread I am very worried this will turn into a giant argument of what should be done instead, and ultimately will have the issue collapse on itself. ___ 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
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
That’s where VALVe went wrong. His response says it all. Once upon a time VALVe’s customers were important to them. Now they’re just a complaining bunch of necessary annoyance in order to earn money. From: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Robert Paulson Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2015 9:46 PM To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions I thought this post by a Valve employee might be relevant to the discussion. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=22337462postcount=10 Unfortunately I don't think we're ever going to get the sheer numbers needed to force Valve's hand because the average player doesn't understand the problem. Most players remaining joined after the change, and they have no concept of how things could be better. Most of the veterans that quit assumed that their favorites servers naturally died instead of being killed by Valve. As you can see, that reddit post only has around 40 votes total. I tried to warn everyone that the continued removal of server owner rights would lead to problems for everyone, but many people here thought that it wouldn't affect them as much as the bad servers, and all the players from the bad server would end up on their servers. Every removal was praised not only by trolls that didn't even play the game anymore for years, but also quite a few community owners. It is probably only up to Valve (or Eric, since I heard he was the only one working on TF2 now) to realize they made a mistake by looking at how the player counts are faring and seeing the drop in retention rates. On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 6:04 AM, Rowedahelicon theoneando...@rowedahelicon.com wrote: http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2xkyad/fix_quickplay_now_an_appeal/cp2wdir I've posted my take on the whole situation here, after seeing some comments in the thread I am very worried this will turn into a giant argument of what should be done instead, and ultimately will have the issue collapse on itself. ___ 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
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
I thought this post by a Valve employee might be relevant to the discussion. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=22337462postcount=10 Unfortunately I don't think we're ever going to get the sheer numbers needed to force Valve's hand because the average player doesn't understand the problem. Most players remaining joined after the change, and they have no concept of how things could be better. Most of the veterans that quit assumed that their favorites servers naturally died instead of being killed by Valve. As you can see, that reddit post only has around 40 votes total. I tried to warn everyone that the continued removal of server owner rights would lead to problems for everyone, but many people here thought that it wouldn't affect them as much as the bad servers, and all the players from the bad server would end up on their servers. Every removal was praised not only by trolls that didn't even play the game anymore for years, but also quite a few community owners. It is probably only up to Valve (or Eric, since I heard he was the only one working on TF2 now) to realize they made a mistake by looking at how the player counts are faring and seeing the drop in retention rates. On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 6:04 AM, Rowedahelicon theoneando...@rowedahelicon.com wrote: http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2xkyad/fix_quickplay_now_an_appeal/cp2wdir I've posted my take on the whole situation here, after seeing some comments in the thread I am very worried this will turn into a giant argument of what should be done instead, and ultimately will have the issue collapse on itself. ___ 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
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
It all comes down to player choice. The current implementation of Quickplay effectively removes almost all (new) player choice due to the default effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_effect_%28psychology%29. Players don;t need to be protected by Valve from bad servers, they simply need to be given effective tools to keep themselves from ever being connected to a server that gives them a negative experience, plain and simple (which is what a TRUE client blaicklisting system - that works with the browser AND quickplay would do). The thing is, diversity is ALWAYS good for the game. I totally get that there are purists out there that think vanilla TF2 is the only way to play, and that's fine - but it's limited thinking to suggest that people shoudl have to Opt-In to all the diversity that TF2 has to offer. You would never go to a restaurant that only had one thing on the menu, and only be shown the rest of what they had to off if you asked for it. New players should be shown the ropes for a few hours in vanilla Valve TF2, and then unlock the button that allows them to connect to community servers - ALL community servers. Quickplay should be turned into the stumble upon of the TF2 browser, with OPTIONS to OPT OUT of the types of game modes/setting/maps the players don't want to be taken to (and yes, that can include Valve servers only). If it's really true that Valve's server provide a superior game environment, then let's put that to a test. If players want Valve only, let them OPT IN to valve only. Anything less, and all Valve is doing is standing by as all variety, diversity, and inventiveness is bled from their own game. On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 6:04 PM, Ahmed Kandeel astrida...@googlemail.com wrote: @Robert That's why my post to reddit and this group has attempted to highlight the benefits to the player of community servers (and by extension the disadvantages of QP). If new players (and I agree with you) don't know the benefits, we have to try and provide the information they need! With regards to numbers, previous campaigns such as the L4D2 one succeeded to an extent with around 10K members. It all depends on coverage. That boycott got covered by Kotaku. On 3 March 2015 at 21:44, ics i...@ics-base.net wrote: Just a fyi, that employee no longer works at Valve either. -ics Saint K. kirjoitti: That’s where VALVe went wrong. His response says it all. Once upon a time VALVe’s customers were important to them. Now they’re just a complaining bunch of necessary annoyance in order to earn money. *From:*hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds-bounces@list. valvesoftware.com] *On Behalf Of *Robert Paulson *Sent:* Tuesday, March 03, 2015 9:46 PM *To:* Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list *Subject:* Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions I thought this post by a Valve employee might be relevant to the discussion. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p= 22337462postcount=10 Unfortunately I don't think we're ever going to get the sheer numbers needed to force Valve's hand because the average player doesn't understand the problem. Most players remaining joined after the change, and they have no concept of how things could be better. Most of the veterans that quit assumed that their favorites servers naturally died instead of being killed by Valve. As you can see, that reddit post only has around 40 votes total. I tried to warn everyone that the continued removal of server owner rights would lead to problems for everyone, but many people here thought that it wouldn't affect them as much as the bad servers, and all the players from the bad server would end up on their servers. Every removal was praised not only by trolls that didn't even play the game anymore for years, but also quite a few community owners. It is probably only up to Valve (or Eric, since I heard he was the only one working on TF2 now) to realize they made a mistake by looking at how the player counts are faring and seeing the drop in retention rates. On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 6:04 AM, Rowedahelicon theoneando...@rowedahelicon.com mailto:theoneando...@rowedahelicon.com wrote: http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2xkyad/fix_quickplay_ now_an_appeal/cp2wdir I've posted my take on the whole situation here, after seeing some comments in the thread I am very worried this will turn into a giant argument of what should be done instead, and ultimately will have the issue collapse on itself. ___ 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
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
@Robert That's why my post to reddit and this group has attempted to highlight the benefits to the player of community servers (and by extension the disadvantages of QP). If new players (and I agree with you) don't know the benefits, we have to try and provide the information they need! With regards to numbers, previous campaigns such as the L4D2 one succeeded to an extent with around 10K members. It all depends on coverage. That boycott got covered by Kotaku. On 3 March 2015 at 21:44, ics i...@ics-base.net wrote: Just a fyi, that employee no longer works at Valve either. -ics Saint K. kirjoitti: That’s where VALVe went wrong. His response says it all. Once upon a time VALVe’s customers were important to them. Now they’re just a complaining bunch of necessary annoyance in order to earn money. *From:*hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds-bounces@list. valvesoftware.com] *On Behalf Of *Robert Paulson *Sent:* Tuesday, March 03, 2015 9:46 PM *To:* Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list *Subject:* Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions I thought this post by a Valve employee might be relevant to the discussion. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p= 22337462postcount=10 Unfortunately I don't think we're ever going to get the sheer numbers needed to force Valve's hand because the average player doesn't understand the problem. Most players remaining joined after the change, and they have no concept of how things could be better. Most of the veterans that quit assumed that their favorites servers naturally died instead of being killed by Valve. As you can see, that reddit post only has around 40 votes total. I tried to warn everyone that the continued removal of server owner rights would lead to problems for everyone, but many people here thought that it wouldn't affect them as much as the bad servers, and all the players from the bad server would end up on their servers. Every removal was praised not only by trolls that didn't even play the game anymore for years, but also quite a few community owners. It is probably only up to Valve (or Eric, since I heard he was the only one working on TF2 now) to realize they made a mistake by looking at how the player counts are faring and seeing the drop in retention rates. On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 6:04 AM, Rowedahelicon theoneando...@rowedahelicon.com mailto:theoneando...@rowedahelicon.com wrote: http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2xkyad/fix_quickplay_ now_an_appeal/cp2wdir I've posted my take on the whole situation here, after seeing some comments in the thread I am very worried this will turn into a giant argument of what should be done instead, and ultimately will have the issue collapse on itself. ___ 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
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2xkyad/fix_quickplay_now_an_appeal/cp2wdir steam://openurl/http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/2xkyad/fix_quickplay_now_an_appeal/cp2wdir I've posted my take on the whole situation here, after seeing some comments in the thread I am very worried this will turn into a giant argument of what should be done instead, and ultimately will have the issue collapse on itself. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
That's a rather narrow minded opinion if I may say so. You appear to be conveniently forgetting the number of servers which violated the policy of truth, e.g. those which had custom modifications that violated Quickplay's rules, those which lied about the number of players connected, and so on. Quickplay's problem with ads was solved when they initially blocked HTML MOTD from being used on Quickplay, but they went one step further in an unrelated move to *your claim of ads* by then crippling Quickplay's choice to primarily Valve official servers. On 3 March 2015 at 14:12, Hasser Css hasserva...@gmail.com wrote: Except it is you guys with your greedy advertisements which made Valve destroy quick play in the first place. You ad-hosting people are one of the big reasons why we're in this situation now. On Tuesday, March 3, 2015, Paul ubyu@gmail.com wrote: I fully support this, and I also speak on behalf of MOTDgd when I say that MOTDgd also fully supports this. Hopefully Valve will take notice of this eventually and come to an acceptable solution for both themselves and the community as a whole to make the newcomer's experience a much better one. On 3 March 2015 at 02:43, Gamemann gamem...@gflclan.com wrote: I already said this on the Reddit post, but I'll share it here as well. I fully support this. The solutions/suggestions on the Reddit post would make a majority of the TF2 players and server owners much more happy. Thanks. On 3/2/2015 6:03 PM, Ahmed Kandeel wrote: So I felt I ought to update you guys as to the progress of the group, (Fix Quickplay Now!) http://steamcommunity.com/groups/fixquickplay, that I launched. Currently it is at 483 members and I have had help and advice from several people read this mailing list. They'll be acknowledged shortly if they so wish. But by request of one, I've been asked to update you guys and also link you to this: *Firstly for those that don't know and don't want to click the link:* Tl:DR - Through main menu updates Valve have made Quickplay appear to be the only way to play TF2. The Jan/Feb 2014 update made only Quickplay match Valve servers by default. While this can be changed, the setting is hidden behind menus that few players investigate. This bias unfairly cuts out all the communities that have supported TF2 for years and removes variety, custom content and choice from the user. The majority of players don’t know this and many new players don’t know community servers even exist! *And for a more detailed response that I spent a great deal of time writing, click below. It contains **a list of pros and cons of QP (from the perspective of players) and plenty of nicely formatted suggestions: some of which are new and arose from discussion with initial group members, many from the mailing list.* *http://redd.it/2xkyad http://redd.it/2xkyad* If you guys in the mailing list want to feedback about your experiences to the community, this reddit post would be a great place to do so. I'm also in discussions with one of the mods of the subreddit to get this thing pinned. Kind regards, Dax ___ 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
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
Except it is you guys with your greedy advertisements which made Valve destroy quick play in the first place. You ad-hosting people are one of the big reasons why we're in this situation now. On Tuesday, March 3, 2015, Paul ubyu@gmail.com wrote: I fully support this, and I also speak on behalf of MOTDgd when I say that MOTDgd also fully supports this. Hopefully Valve will take notice of this eventually and come to an acceptable solution for both themselves and the community as a whole to make the newcomer's experience a much better one. On 3 March 2015 at 02:43, Gamemann gamem...@gflclan.com javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','gamem...@gflclan.com'); wrote: I already said this on the Reddit post, but I'll share it here as well. I fully support this. The solutions/suggestions on the Reddit post would make a majority of the TF2 players and server owners much more happy. Thanks. On 3/2/2015 6:03 PM, Ahmed Kandeel wrote: So I felt I ought to update you guys as to the progress of the group, (Fix Quickplay Now!) http://steamcommunity.com/groups/fixquickplay, that I launched. Currently it is at 483 members and I have had help and advice from several people read this mailing list. They'll be acknowledged shortly if they so wish. But by request of one, I've been asked to update you guys and also link you to this: *Firstly for those that don't know and don't want to click the link:* Tl:DR - Through main menu updates Valve have made Quickplay appear to be the only way to play TF2. The Jan/Feb 2014 update made only Quickplay match Valve servers by default. While this can be changed, the setting is hidden behind menus that few players investigate. This bias unfairly cuts out all the communities that have supported TF2 for years and removes variety, custom content and choice from the user. The majority of players don’t know this and many new players don’t know community servers even exist! *And for a more detailed response that I spent a great deal of time writing, click below. It contains **a list of pros and cons of QP (from the perspective of players) and plenty of nicely formatted suggestions: some of which are new and arose from discussion with initial group members, many from the mailing list.* *http://redd.it/2xkyad http://redd.it/2xkyad* If you guys in the mailing list want to feedback about your experiences to the community, this reddit post would be a great place to do so. I'm also in discussions with one of the mods of the subreddit to get this thing pinned. Kind regards, Dax ___ 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
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
I fully support this, and I also speak on behalf of MOTDgd when I say that MOTDgd also fully supports this. Hopefully Valve will take notice of this eventually and come to an acceptable solution for both themselves and the community as a whole to make the newcomer's experience a much better one. On 3 March 2015 at 02:43, Gamemann gamem...@gflclan.com wrote: I already said this on the Reddit post, but I'll share it here as well. I fully support this. The solutions/suggestions on the Reddit post would make a majority of the TF2 players and server owners much more happy. Thanks. On 3/2/2015 6:03 PM, Ahmed Kandeel wrote: So I felt I ought to update you guys as to the progress of the group, (Fix Quickplay Now!) http://steamcommunity.com/groups/fixquickplay, that I launched. Currently it is at 483 members and I have had help and advice from several people read this mailing list. They'll be acknowledged shortly if they so wish. But by request of one, I've been asked to update you guys and also link you to this: *Firstly for those that don't know and don't want to click the link:* Tl:DR - Through main menu updates Valve have made Quickplay appear to be the only way to play TF2. The Jan/Feb 2014 update made only Quickplay match Valve servers by default. While this can be changed, the setting is hidden behind menus that few players investigate. This bias unfairly cuts out all the communities that have supported TF2 for years and removes variety, custom content and choice from the user. The majority of players don’t know this and many new players don’t know community servers even exist! *And for a more detailed response that I spent a great deal of time writing, click below. It contains **a list of pros and cons of QP (from the perspective of players) and plenty of nicely formatted suggestions: some of which are new and arose from discussion with initial group members, many from the mailing list.* *http://redd.it/2xkyad http://redd.it/2xkyad* If you guys in the mailing list want to feedback about your experiences to the community, this reddit post would be a great place to do so. I'm also in discussions with one of the mods of the subreddit to get this thing pinned. Kind regards, Dax ___ 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
Re: [hlds] [TF2] Community Issues/Suggestions
It wasn't because of ad systems why this change took place. A good several months before the changes that ruined QP, Valve made it so that players joining through QP didn't see the motd and it couldn't be forced upon them by a plugin. This change happened BEFORE the Über-update that changed the QP default settings to Valve servers only. Overnight this cut out advertisements. In addition Valve themselves apparently ran servers with Pinion advertisements for a while. The main problem with Pinion is the adverts couldn't be skipped, not that adverts existed. So what you had were servers that would spoof players/player count to get people to join and be forced to watch an advert. This is no longer possible as far as I'm aware. A decent working blacklist and reporting system would help prevent this in the rare cases that anyone ever overcomes it. After all, servers are now tied to your account when you register them for QP. Or rather they started to implement this. Not sure whether they finally did. While you could just keep making accounts to make new servers to dupe players, that would require a small financial outlay each time plus time to set up the accounts. You'd also have to build up your rank again. One of the main reasons for the change was to ensure new players had a stock experience rather than end up on premium servers which made the game pay to win. I'm not going to debate the legitimacy of those servers because I'm sure some like them. However I'll say that numerous options on that Reddit post look to put the player back in control and give them the option to select from a range of servers when using quickplay. Valve servers would still be offered, however they'd be offered along with others. That's the point. We want to redress the bias and give players a choice rather than funnelling them onto Valve servers. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
