My understanding is that Slag servers are dying due to issues at an administrative level, chiefly I suspect, that the key people behind that community have other things in their agenda (A hat in time anyone?). Quickplay has little to do with it I suspect, especially as nearly all of Slag’s servers were ineligible for Quickplay in the first place due to their modded nature. Further, I would argue that the stagnation and lack of creation of game modes is due to the fact that private server operators are no longer co-operating with one another or sharing content for the benefit of the broader community – That and a lot of talent has drained out of an 8 year old game. It also seems as if it is more common for private operators to keep things to themselves now a days instead of letting new game modes proliferate into something bigger and more well known.
The Microsoft vs Apple analogy is perfectly on cue, only a benighted individual with no understanding of business would suggest otherwise. I’m guessing Robert is one of those Vegan types who believes that everyone is their friend and that the phrase “zero sum game” doesn’t apply to game servers and their audiences. Dr McKay (I think? Might be misattributing, someone said it on this mailing list a while ago) had it right when he suggested that the only reason some private server operators hate on Pinion and Motdgd so much is because they think that the death of private servers reliant on that revenue model would somehow help their own servers. Sounds like a pretty competitive environment to me. In response to Robert’s suggestion that community servers have done so much in the past, again, that’s not a point I’m arguing against – Rather I agree with him, in the past privately run servers did a lot of good. My position is that the deafening silence from the broader Team Fortress community is indicative of how they feel about the current state of affairs – And despite whatever clever features Robert might think he’s added and done in the past, they don’t care right here and now. In response to Robert’s 5th Paragraph: He seems to suggest that by releasing a game Valve somehow owes something to private server operators? That they have no right to say, “We’ve had enough of players being affected by shenanigans on private-servers!” – You’re wrong, and it is that self-entitlement which will no doubt win private operators zero favours from the folks at Valve. And I can tell Robert what private server operator wouldn’t care a great deal about Quickplay: One that was smart enough to see what was coming and had the intellect to get out of hosting stock servers early, instead focussing their efforts on custom experiences that Valve doesn’t offer at this point in time. Those who did this are probably doing quite well compared to those still hosting stock rotation servers and the like. And yet Robert would seem to suggest that these Quickplay independent operators are the "stupid" ones. Funny. On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 9:28 PM, Robert Paulson <thepauls...@gmail.com> wrote: > Custom game-mode servers are all suffering. They do well compared to every > other community server but they used to be 10x more populated. Since > official server quickplay happened, a lot of players don't even know that > community servers exist. All you have to do is look at how dead Slag > servers are. Where are the fortwars servers? Why has there not been any new > popular mods like Saxton Hale anymore? > > I also find it strange that it is ok for Valve to lock mods behind a > paywall that used to be free on gamebanana while it is as offensive as > Hitler to let Skyrim do the same.or as someone here whined, making as > little as a cup of coffee through ads. > > This Microsoft vs Apple analogy is also way off base. We are not Valve's > competitors. We do not host TF2 servers because we want to be billionaires > and want to take 100% of Valve's profit. They allow people to host servers > because we bring in additional value, which was proven by the fact that the > majority of players were on community servers prior to the quickplay > change. A more apt analogy would be if Apple decided to clone the most > popular apps and stop new users from seeing any others in the app store > unless they click a tiny button hidden at the bottom of the page. > > We pay for the servers, moderate them, and even improve them by fixing > bugs they haven't fixed for years or add features such as intelligent > autobalance. We have a reasonable expectation that Valve will not to take > advantage of us by throwing all our servers in a ghetto and keeping all the > new players to themselves... as was the case for every game they've > released between tf2 and half-life. > > We should not have to resort to paying for ads on Facebook just to get any > players at all. The game was released with the capability to host "vanilla" > servers and now you are suggesting that only total mods should be able to > exist? Only the next CS or Dota are allowed to host TF2 servers? If this > was the case then Valve should've said so from the beginning. Most of us > wouldn't be here if we knew this would happen. When you tell people you can > host a server for the game, it doesn't include being shoved into a ghetto > where the new players have a hard time finding. > > Maybe this is not true for you, but we are a "community" not a "private" > organization. We are funded by players. Players become admins, and these > admin make major decisions. And I believe most of the major communities > still around are also run in this manner. Not that this lessens Valve's > obligations not to screw us over. Which "private" server owner is stupid > enough to not want quickplay back? Probably someone who doesn't actually > have a server. >
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