If you honestly think "advertising is no longer and issue", than you don't read reddit, or the steam user forums. While Valve may have blocked advertising in the engine for players who connect via quickplay (and thanks for that - those of us who've never used that junk got to see our MOTD functionality removed because of people that did), it didn't stop it from severely sullying the image of community server operators.
It may not be a "functionality" problem now, but it IS certainly an "image" problem. As long as server operators have the ability to monetize the very act of a player connecting to a server, it will always invite abuse, and will present players with the image that all server operators are just trying to make a buck from the game, etc. Right or wrong, that's the perception, and if you don't think that community servers have a perception problem, you haven't been reading what players have been saying for the last couple of years (or even this weekend for that matter). It might not be welcome to hear for some folks, but I will never be convinced allowing Pinion-type ads was a good thing for the game, for the players, of for community servers as a whole. Even if the argument is made that "valve partnered with Pinion in the past", that doesn't negate the fact that it's done more harm than anything else to the *perception* of the quality and intent of community servers. If nothing else, MOTD advertising has painted us all with the same negative brush in the eyes of players (even those communities that, to this day, have never used those ads). The best way to alleviate that perception, would be to simply alleviate that ability for those ads to run as all. Would that be completely fair? Certainly not, but neither is the damage to the reputation of ALL community servers in the eyes of new players that it has caused. On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 6:07 AM, Paul <ubyu....@gmail.com> wrote: > I hate to correct some people here, but advertising is no longer an issue > so I don't see why it has been brought up when it's no longer a problem. > HTML MOTD is not possible when the client joins via matchmaking or > quickplay, Valve changed that a long time ago. Sure, there are a few rogue > servers which physically force you to re-enable HTML MOTD cvar if you > disabled it, but even then if you join via matchmaking or quickplay you > still can't see it, so it's moot. Thanks :). > > On 5 July 2015 at 05:28, Alexander Corn <mc...@doctormckay.com> wrote: > >> The entire point of Quickplay from the get-go was to help people to >> easily find servers offering vanilla-ish gameplay. That is, major game >> settings are set to their defaults, no custom gamemodes, no game-breaking >> donor perks, etc. >> >> It's a decent idea, the only problem is that Valve added it and then *ignored >> it*. Then people started realizing that they can register for Quickplay >> and pretend to be vanilla and nothing bad would happen to them for months, >> if ever. >> >> To this date, I'm not quite sure that anyone at Valve even looks at >> reports submitted with the in-game report tool (or the bug reporter either, >> for that matter). >> >> On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 12:07 AM, Cats From Above < >> spotsfromab...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Your version of events borders on white-knighting, in my honest opinion. >>> Valve has a share of blame for allowing an environment where unscrupulous >>> operators were rewarded financially simply by getting people to join thier >>> servers. The rise of Pinion and the like was attractive to individuals who >>> wanted to cash-in on advertising. And what better way to boost your profits >>> then by tricking players into joining your servers thinking that they were >>> fuller than what they were or that they had real people on them. MOTD >>> Advertising is what made that deception attractive - it was the reward >>> behind it all. Yes, the players would disconnect the second they realised >>> that the server was empty or that they were playing against bots, but the >>> operator still got to cash in on an impression. >>> >>> So did Quickplay solve the problem? No. Why? Because it didn't remove >>> the sugar from the table. Rather it just meant that instead of deceiving >>> the player (Who would have likely remembered the name of a bad community) >>> the unscrupulous operators were now deceiving Quickplay instead - How grand >>> it must have been for operators intending to run cash-cow servers to have >>> Quickplay steering unsuspecting traffic to them. In my view that made the >>> situation worse and in a manner that was reasonably foreseeable. Yet >>> somehow it escaped Valve. What they should have done was killed the notion >>> of MOTD advertising from the onset so that a business model built on >>> deception wasn't financially lucrative. Instead they had a knee-jerk >>> reaction and banished all community servers (good and bad) from the primary >>> Quickplay pool. Some people would say this response is a colossal >>> non-sequitur and they'd be right. >>> >>> I wrote a 1400 word response on this topic but I decided that I could >>> make my point with the summary above and that such would probably be more >>> appreciated than a giant wall of text. Let me know if I'm mistaken. >>> >>> On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 9:58 AM, Phillip Vector <t...@mostdeadlygame.com> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> >What you just said implies that *every *community server provides a >>>> modified game-play experience, which is not only a dubious claim but one >>>> that almost certainly stems from a distinct level of benightedness. >>>> >>>> A modified game-play experience, yes. Even if it's just placing a text >>>> ad every 5 mins., it is a difference experience than stock. I did not mean >>>> to imply that all community servers modify game play. But I would be >>>> interested in seeing one community server that operates like the default >>>> Valve servers do. >>>> >>>> >There are community servers out there, many of them, which offer a >>>> vanilla experience in aspects of game-play. My question to you is why >>>> should those servers be treated as second-class citizens to Valve servers >>>> by "default". >>>> >>>> They shouldn't. However, I don't know how long you have been part of >>>> this, but I recall when community servers weren't treated differently. Some >>>> were terrible and cheated the system to trick players joining their >>>> servers. When Valve tried to stop them, they cheated the system more. Even >>>> after Valve constantly tried to help those community servers who played by >>>> the rules, the community kept calling foul. >>>> >>>> So eventually, Valve (rightly so IMHO) said "Fuck it" and made all >>>> community servers suspect. >>>> >>>> Valve is on the right track giving community servers who play by the >>>> rules equal standing for valve servers. But I'm pretty sure that some >>>> community is going to start gaming the system and Valve will have to say, >>>> "Fuck it" again. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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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