Agreed - Battlefield BC2 had that very system, and it worked great. Unfortunately, as you said, it would require some changes to the clients by Valve. I'd love to see a system like that for Source, though.
On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 7:50 PM, bottige...@gmail.com <bottige...@gmail.com>wrote: > 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 <ceo.eol...@gmail.com> 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 <cc2isc...@gmail.com> 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 <puttabu...@gmail.com> > >> 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 > >>> <invalidprotocolvers...@gmail.com> 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: hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com > >>>> [mailto:hlds-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] 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 >
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