There is no community outcry, because this is the outcry. You're
expecting an outcry from people who are barely able to adjust their
game's settings, let alone disable the motd in their configs to get rid
of annoying ads.
I also don't know why you're bringing up Slag's servers. I've heard a
few stories about him. I know some model designers who he ripped off, he
stole their content without giving two fucks. It is also not quite
white-knighty of a community to sell unmutes and unbans. I wouldn't pick
him as the poster boy for well-run community servers or better phrased
"friendly".
If you're questioning the talent that is left in the modding community,
feel free to ask this question again in the next two months.
Honestly, I think you're trying to troll on a high level here. "One of
those vegan types", yeah sure. "Funny"
On 18.12.2015 12:35, Cats From Above wrote:
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 5^th 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
<mailto: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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