Before quickplay there used to be 20+ custom game mode servers filled 24/7 and now you think it is acceptable that only 4 of them can be popular now? And most of them succeeding only by ripping models from gmod and changing a few numbers on a plugin? Most good custom servers are dead and the ones left are appealing to 10 years olds who only entertained by a new skin on the same Freak Fortress bosses.
Slag servers did not die from "administration" issues. If it was ever an issue then they would never have been full 24/7. They are a prime example of even non-quickplay full conversion mods that were overwhelmingly successful before the quickplay change and are now practically dead. > Firstly, Robert, you seem to be confusing the application of zero sum game and the way it was intended. I refer to it in the context of, “Someone who prefers and frequents Valve servers, probably won’t play on privately run servers that often.” And the opposite is also true, “Someone who prefers and frequents privately run servers, won’t usually go near Valve servers, though obviously there are incentives for them to do so from time to time.” And also “If someone has found a community they like, they rarely venture outside of that community providing the community hosts the types of things they’re interested in.” The zero-sum-game argument is about where people play, that is all, and it is reflective of the fact that we are all creatures of habit. I didn't confuse anything. Your arguments are all logically flawed and rather nonsensical. I don't know why you are even bringing up that playtime is "zero-sum" (which it isn't, players can be stimulated to play 1 hour on community servers and 1 hour on official ones). If Valve thought it was a zero-sum game and didn't get anything out of it, then why would they have let people host servers? Therefore whatever you have to say about this is irrelevant. > Thirdly, it would behove of Robert not to guestimate the experience of other contributors to this mailing list when he does not know to whom he speaks. My experience is that custom game modes are doing just fine and I’m not alone in this regard. Perhaps some introspection might reveal why Robert has a different experience? It is very easy to tell that you have no experience hosting servers. The only person who can support your argument is Fearts, who is the only person who could make such a claim. And even his servers have fewer players than the historical norm. > Fifthly, I don’t recall Valve ever marketing Team Fortress 2 as a game where private server operators were guaranteed a “level” environment or that private servers were guaranteed. Dedicated servers, maybe. Privately-managed servers, no. The fact that it had the latter feature at release is, in my view, incidental. Furthermore, I would note that Valve’s EULA reserves it the right to make changes to the product however they wish. So perhaps it would be prudent for Robert to take out the emotive entitlement argument. It wasn't ever written in stone, but it is an implicit understanding. Many of us probably wouldn't be here if Valve said they planned to eventually kill off all community servers in the future once they started making more money that way. Valve could make TF2 pay-to-win if they wanted to, but they don't. And people buy their stuff because there is an implicit understanding that Valve would never do something like that. But for some reason they have no qualms about screwing over their communities. There is also an clause in the EULA that allows them to terminate your account for any reason. Yet there is an implicit understanding that Valve would never close it for a "dumb" reason such as allowing them to make more money at your expense. Yet this is exactly what they are doing to TF2 community servers. I don't know anything about overkill, and I don't care about the Mannconomy or attachments. It is irrelevant much like most of your arguments.
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