Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban
On 06/02/2015 00:07, Gordon Reynolds wrote: I'd hate to see this thread de-railed from it's original topic of Quickplay and how it relates to Community Servers. While the change to trading is a big one, it was more of a change to bring TF2 in line with all other Steam trading-supported games. I think they're linked. Trading, F2P, the introduction of "scratch card" like gambling games and all these "economy" things changed TF2 from a team-based, objective based FPS to what it is now. This has changed the player base too. Simply put, the people who used to play on your servers are not throwing money at Valve for a conga taunt or for a key to open a box. Valve does what their customers will pay for. Their customers for TF2 are the people scamming each other, buying keys and items and so on. TF2 is probably the greatest game never played. As I said recently, TF2 is like playing chess against people who stick the pieces in their ears, strip down to their underpants and run around the room shouting "GAAEE" who would say "It's only a game, I play for fun" if anyone questioned this behaviour. If you bought the game in 2007 and have played 7000 hours without spending another dime Valve aren't that interested in you. Even if you play comp Walker has said that's boring. Watching 20 people conga that's like the super bowl or the Tour de France right? Well, it is if you watch the screen Robin does that shows the money rolling in. That gets his boss excited and smiling. They want people who will buy taunts and dance around the maps - or buy a gun that tells them what their killstreak is - you did that for free? Ah, suckers. You charged for some of these ideas? Well they took your idea and changed it so instead of you getting the money, they did. See how much better that is now? No? Let's try it one more time, you have a feature and people pay you. Now they have the same feature and people pay Valve. See the improvement yet? Maybe you've gotta be working at Valve. They saw it straight away when someone put the idea to them. "So, we'd get the money?...hmm, yeah...let's do that" They want to introduce young kids to the joys of gambling too. So thanks for that Valve. Steam's trading cards and levelling changed Steam from a service that was a bit flaky but nevertheless a warm and cuddly idea that sold popular multiplayer games and updated them over and over into a service designed to attracts buffoons who want to collect badges and increase their level in a web store. If you're a gamer, valve don't care. There are probably 100 idiots out there throwing money at valve for every gamer they have. The level of programming skill and effort valve need to do to get at their money is something a bright school kid could manage. Look at the features steam has added recently. That music player? The guy that wrote that must be a hell of a trombonist. Can you imagine his interview "I mostly play the trombone" "Do you think you could write code?" "Sure...I could add a music player" "What features would it have?" "Well, I've used a lot of music players and using my vast knowledge of existing players I wouldn't have any" "How long do you think it will take you to create a music player without any features?" "About a year. Most of that could be a 'beta' though. In case some of the features it doesn't have don't work" In many cases they can just bundle indie or old publisher titles on steam, say "75% off" every so often and watch as thousands of people buy them just to get a bigger number of "games owned" or a few trading cards - and when gamers kick up a fuss they just change the steam interface to make it look like it's still something to do with buying and playing games. There are even people who collect and pay hundreds of dollars for games that were on steam but have been removed and then if you have enough of these removed games you can join a group. Can you believe that? Given these people exist what would you do? Spend millions on improving mental health care, or change Steam to accommodate them and free them from the burden of owning money? For Valve the answer was easy and you can't really blame them for chasing some easy money. Compare that with the 9 years TF2 took to create and the amount of money and talent you'd need to create a game which the guy who buys it, plays it for five or ten years without giving you another penny. Which one are you going to pick? If you're into playing games then you're going to have a bad time with Steam. -- Dan ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban
Ohh it isn't a way to derail but is pretty spot on to how they are changing or refusing to change what is good for community servers as a whole. Don't take my previous email as one to derail but more so to stack another load of nonsense into their already snubbed faces about issues that hurt the very same ones that help line their pockets with cash. -Original Message- From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Gordon Reynolds Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 7:07 PM To: Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban I'd hate to see this thread de-railed from it's original topic of Quickplay and how it relates to Community Servers. While the change to trading is a big one, it was more of a change to bring TF2 in line with all other Steam trading-supported games. I don't think that has had any real impact on servers who want to play the actual game (as opposed to servers that want to sit around trading cosmetics). ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban
I'd hate to see this thread de-railed from it's original topic of Quickplay and how it relates to Community Servers. While the change to trading is a big one, it was more of a change to bring TF2 in line with all other Steam trading-supported games. I don't think that has had any real impact on servers who want to play the actual game (as opposed to servers that want to sit around trading cosmetics). On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 4:02 PM, HD wrote: > Well the issue here is Valve gets more money and more support from the > community and the community servers than their own. This to me is a no > brainer in how to react and to at least fix quickplay to help community > servers from the start. You can then spend a little effort to punish those > that are abusing certain things to go against how a Vanilla or near Vanilla > server should run. > > Now my biggest concern right now is trading. We all know that trading is > huge with TF2 and other games. A few years ago they removed the ability to > trade within the game itself to be only replaced by using the steam > overlay. > Now we have issues where people can't trade because someone needs to verify > who they are or what they are doing by email. This is a failure upon > failure!! To make matters worse I'm hearing reports that users must be > "friends" of those they intend to trade with, I hope this is a major glitch > and will soon stop or else my community and many others that reply on quick > trades to enter events and other in game related features may end up > calling > it quits. > > To make this sorta change default is once again a shadow of how they > developed Quickplay to only punish the communities, the very communities > that are pumping money into a game that is now free for all to use. > > So someone by all means jump in here cause I'm either way off my rocker of > the recent trading changes or Valve has completely and utterly said the > heck > with the community as a whole. > > > -Original Message- > From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com > [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Gordon > Reynolds > Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 4:37 PM > To: Paul Lewis; Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list > Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban > > Yes, I meant to imply that this change was a start to "fixing" abusive > Community Servers without shutting the whole thing down. Not a great start > but at least it's something. > > I don't know how one would ensure that you never end up on one of the > "Premium Features" servers though. For every check you can put in place, > someone would just program around it. > > On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 1:30 PM, Paul wrote: > > > Disabling the HTML MOTD on Quickplay clients is already done. > > > > On 5 February 2015 at 21:26, Gordon Reynolds > > > > > > wrote: > > > > > I believe the change is going to stay in place because TF2 is just > > > not a high priority any longer. By ensuring the vast majority of > > > players end up on Valve servers they don't have to worry about > > > abusive servers mucking > > up > > > the experience (of getting people into the game and hooked into the > > > Mannconomy ASAP) with weird MOTDs, "Premium Plugins", etc. > > > > > > However: there must be some better options than what currently > > > exists now (disabling MOTDs and stuff is a start, sucky, but it's > > > something), but > > I'm > > > not sure Valve has any real financial motivation to care.They don't > > > make money off Community server, UGC highlander teams, or the number > > > of maps being played. From an economic perspective I don't think TF2 > > > as a whole would experience a drastic paradigm shift if ALL > > > community servers were suddenly shut off. > > > > > > I think it might be the intention all along to slowly ween the TF2 > > > community off the importance of community-ran servers, and that's > tragic. > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 1:11 PM, Tim Anderson > > > wrote: > > > > > > > To the TF2 team, > > > > > > > > It has now been over a year since the decision to essentially ban > > > community > > > > servers from quickplay by defaulting to official ones. Here are > > > > some > > > facts > > > > of what has happened since then. > > > > > > > > - Player gain dropped 4% from the year before. > > > > - UGC highlander teams dropped 17% > > > > - Highly reduced map variety from community servers. > > > > - Even top non-quickplay servers have drastically fewer players > > > > than in 2013. > > > > > > > > You may have guaranteed new players a vanilla experience, but this > > > > is ruining the experience for the rest. > > > > > > > > Maybe nothing is being done because you do not see enough > > > > complaints > > > about > > > > this from reddit or spuf. This is because the problem is obvious > > > > when someone connects to a pay to win server while it is not as > > > > obvious > > when a > > > > server is dying over the span of several m
Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban
Well the issue here is Valve gets more money and more support from the community and the community servers than their own. This to me is a no brainer in how to react and to at least fix quickplay to help community servers from the start. You can then spend a little effort to punish those that are abusing certain things to go against how a Vanilla or near Vanilla server should run. Now my biggest concern right now is trading. We all know that trading is huge with TF2 and other games. A few years ago they removed the ability to trade within the game itself to be only replaced by using the steam overlay. Now we have issues where people can't trade because someone needs to verify who they are or what they are doing by email. This is a failure upon failure!! To make matters worse I'm hearing reports that users must be "friends" of those they intend to trade with, I hope this is a major glitch and will soon stop or else my community and many others that reply on quick trades to enter events and other in game related features may end up calling it quits. To make this sorta change default is once again a shadow of how they developed Quickplay to only punish the communities, the very communities that are pumping money into a game that is now free for all to use. So someone by all means jump in here cause I'm either way off my rocker of the recent trading changes or Valve has completely and utterly said the heck with the community as a whole. -Original Message- From: hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com [mailto:hlds_linux-boun...@list.valvesoftware.com] On Behalf Of Gordon Reynolds Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2015 4:37 PM To: Paul Lewis; Half-Life dedicated Linux server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban Yes, I meant to imply that this change was a start to "fixing" abusive Community Servers without shutting the whole thing down. Not a great start but at least it's something. I don't know how one would ensure that you never end up on one of the "Premium Features" servers though. For every check you can put in place, someone would just program around it. On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 1:30 PM, Paul wrote: > Disabling the HTML MOTD on Quickplay clients is already done. > > On 5 February 2015 at 21:26, Gordon Reynolds > > > wrote: > > > I believe the change is going to stay in place because TF2 is just > > not a high priority any longer. By ensuring the vast majority of > > players end up on Valve servers they don't have to worry about > > abusive servers mucking > up > > the experience (of getting people into the game and hooked into the > > Mannconomy ASAP) with weird MOTDs, "Premium Plugins", etc. > > > > However: there must be some better options than what currently > > exists now (disabling MOTDs and stuff is a start, sucky, but it's > > something), but > I'm > > not sure Valve has any real financial motivation to care.They don't > > make money off Community server, UGC highlander teams, or the number > > of maps being played. From an economic perspective I don't think TF2 > > as a whole would experience a drastic paradigm shift if ALL > > community servers were suddenly shut off. > > > > I think it might be the intention all along to slowly ween the TF2 > > community off the importance of community-ran servers, and that's tragic. > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 1:11 PM, Tim Anderson > > wrote: > > > > > To the TF2 team, > > > > > > It has now been over a year since the decision to essentially ban > > community > > > servers from quickplay by defaulting to official ones. Here are > > > some > > facts > > > of what has happened since then. > > > > > > - Player gain dropped 4% from the year before. > > > - UGC highlander teams dropped 17% > > > - Highly reduced map variety from community servers. > > > - Even top non-quickplay servers have drastically fewer players > > > than in 2013. > > > > > > You may have guaranteed new players a vanilla experience, but this > > > is ruining the experience for the rest. > > > > > > Maybe nothing is being done because you do not see enough > > > complaints > > about > > > this from reddit or spuf. This is because the problem is obvious > > > when someone connects to a pay to win server while it is not as > > > obvious > when a > > > server is dying over the span of several months because official > > > ones > are > > > getting all the new players. > > > > > > Most of the people that I talked to even knew about this change so > > > the thought about complaining about it never crossed their minds. > > > But just because they never knew about it doesn't mean it wasn't a problem. > > > > > > I hope you realize that this change is doing more harm than good. > > > It > may > > > have stopped some complaints but this is hurting TF2 in the long run. > > > ___ > > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list > > > archives, please visit: >
Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban
Yes, I meant to imply that this change was a start to "fixing" abusive Community Servers without shutting the whole thing down. Not a great start but at least it's something. I don't know how one would ensure that you never end up on one of the "Premium Features" servers though. For every check you can put in place, someone would just program around it. On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 1:30 PM, Paul wrote: > Disabling the HTML MOTD on Quickplay clients is already done. > > On 5 February 2015 at 21:26, Gordon Reynolds > > wrote: > > > I believe the change is going to stay in place because TF2 is just not a > > high priority any longer. By ensuring the vast majority of players end up > > on Valve servers they don't have to worry about abusive servers mucking > up > > the experience (of getting people into the game and hooked into the > > Mannconomy ASAP) with weird MOTDs, "Premium Plugins", etc. > > > > However: there must be some better options than what currently exists now > > (disabling MOTDs and stuff is a start, sucky, but it's something), but > I'm > > not sure Valve has any real financial motivation to care.They don't make > > money off Community server, UGC highlander teams, or the number of maps > > being played. From an economic perspective I don't think TF2 as a whole > > would experience a drastic paradigm shift if ALL community servers were > > suddenly shut off. > > > > I think it might be the intention all along to slowly ween the TF2 > > community off the importance of community-ran servers, and that's tragic. > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 1:11 PM, Tim Anderson > > wrote: > > > > > To the TF2 team, > > > > > > It has now been over a year since the decision to essentially ban > > community > > > servers from quickplay by defaulting to official ones. Here are some > > facts > > > of what has happened since then. > > > > > > - Player gain dropped 4% from the year before. > > > - UGC highlander teams dropped 17% > > > - Highly reduced map variety from community servers. > > > - Even top non-quickplay servers have drastically fewer players than in > > > 2013. > > > > > > You may have guaranteed new players a vanilla experience, but this is > > > ruining the experience for the rest. > > > > > > Maybe nothing is being done because you do not see enough complaints > > about > > > this from reddit or spuf. This is because the problem is obvious when > > > someone connects to a pay to win server while it is not as obvious > when a > > > server is dying over the span of several months because official ones > are > > > getting all the new players. > > > > > > Most of the people that I talked to even knew about this change so the > > > thought about complaining about it never crossed their minds. But just > > > because they never knew about it doesn't mean it wasn't a problem. > > > > > > I hope you realize that this change is doing more harm than good. It > may > > > have stopped some complaints but this is hurting TF2 in the long run. > > > ___ > > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > > > please visit: > > > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > > > > > ___ > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > > please visit: > > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > > > ___ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban
Disabling the HTML MOTD on Quickplay clients is already done. On 5 February 2015 at 21:26, Gordon Reynolds wrote: > I believe the change is going to stay in place because TF2 is just not a > high priority any longer. By ensuring the vast majority of players end up > on Valve servers they don't have to worry about abusive servers mucking up > the experience (of getting people into the game and hooked into the > Mannconomy ASAP) with weird MOTDs, "Premium Plugins", etc. > > However: there must be some better options than what currently exists now > (disabling MOTDs and stuff is a start, sucky, but it's something), but I'm > not sure Valve has any real financial motivation to care.They don't make > money off Community server, UGC highlander teams, or the number of maps > being played. From an economic perspective I don't think TF2 as a whole > would experience a drastic paradigm shift if ALL community servers were > suddenly shut off. > > I think it might be the intention all along to slowly ween the TF2 > community off the importance of community-ran servers, and that's tragic. > > > On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 1:11 PM, Tim Anderson > wrote: > > > To the TF2 team, > > > > It has now been over a year since the decision to essentially ban > community > > servers from quickplay by defaulting to official ones. Here are some > facts > > of what has happened since then. > > > > - Player gain dropped 4% from the year before. > > - UGC highlander teams dropped 17% > > - Highly reduced map variety from community servers. > > - Even top non-quickplay servers have drastically fewer players than in > > 2013. > > > > You may have guaranteed new players a vanilla experience, but this is > > ruining the experience for the rest. > > > > Maybe nothing is being done because you do not see enough complaints > about > > this from reddit or spuf. This is because the problem is obvious when > > someone connects to a pay to win server while it is not as obvious when a > > server is dying over the span of several months because official ones are > > getting all the new players. > > > > Most of the people that I talked to even knew about this change so the > > thought about complaining about it never crossed their minds. But just > > because they never knew about it doesn't mean it wasn't a problem. > > > > I hope you realize that this change is doing more harm than good. It may > > have stopped some complaints but this is hurting TF2 in the long run. > > ___ > > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > > please visit: > > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > > > ___ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban
Basically i went from 4x24 slot full servers to maybe 1 full server daily due to this quickplay change. Even the regulars disappeared. It may be soon too late to revert the change that has done irreversible damage. -ics Tim Anderson kirjoitti: To the TF2 team, It has now been over a year since the decision to essentially ban community servers from quickplay by defaulting to official ones. Here are some facts of what has happened since then. - Player gain dropped 4% from the year before. - UGC highlander teams dropped 17% - Highly reduced map variety from community servers. - Even top non-quickplay servers have drastically fewer players than in 2013. You may have guaranteed new players a vanilla experience, but this is ruining the experience for the rest. Maybe nothing is being done because you do not see enough complaints about this from reddit or spuf. This is because the problem is obvious when someone connects to a pay to win server while it is not as obvious when a server is dying over the span of several months because official ones are getting all the new players. Most of the people that I talked to even knew about this change so the thought about complaining about it never crossed their minds. But just because they never knew about it doesn't mean it wasn't a problem. I hope you realize that this change is doing more harm than good. It may have stopped some complaints but this is hurting TF2 in the long run. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
Re: [hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban
I believe the change is going to stay in place because TF2 is just not a high priority any longer. By ensuring the vast majority of players end up on Valve servers they don't have to worry about abusive servers mucking up the experience (of getting people into the game and hooked into the Mannconomy ASAP) with weird MOTDs, "Premium Plugins", etc. However: there must be some better options than what currently exists now (disabling MOTDs and stuff is a start, sucky, but it's something), but I'm not sure Valve has any real financial motivation to care.They don't make money off Community server, UGC highlander teams, or the number of maps being played. From an economic perspective I don't think TF2 as a whole would experience a drastic paradigm shift if ALL community servers were suddenly shut off. I think it might be the intention all along to slowly ween the TF2 community off the importance of community-ran servers, and that's tragic. On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 1:11 PM, Tim Anderson wrote: > To the TF2 team, > > It has now been over a year since the decision to essentially ban community > servers from quickplay by defaulting to official ones. Here are some facts > of what has happened since then. > > - Player gain dropped 4% from the year before. > - UGC highlander teams dropped 17% > - Highly reduced map variety from community servers. > - Even top non-quickplay servers have drastically fewer players than in > 2013. > > You may have guaranteed new players a vanilla experience, but this is > ruining the experience for the rest. > > Maybe nothing is being done because you do not see enough complaints about > this from reddit or spuf. This is because the problem is obvious when > someone connects to a pay to win server while it is not as obvious when a > server is dying over the span of several months because official ones are > getting all the new players. > > Most of the people that I talked to even knew about this change so the > thought about complaining about it never crossed their minds. But just > because they never knew about it doesn't mean it wasn't a problem. > > I hope you realize that this change is doing more harm than good. It may > have stopped some complaints but this is hurting TF2 in the long run. > ___ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, > please visit: > https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux > ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
[hlds_linux] Rethinking the community quickplay ban
To the TF2 team, It has now been over a year since the decision to essentially ban community servers from quickplay by defaulting to official ones. Here are some facts of what has happened since then. - Player gain dropped 4% from the year before. - UGC highlander teams dropped 17% - Highly reduced map variety from community servers. - Even top non-quickplay servers have drastically fewer players than in 2013. You may have guaranteed new players a vanilla experience, but this is ruining the experience for the rest. Maybe nothing is being done because you do not see enough complaints about this from reddit or spuf. This is because the problem is obvious when someone connects to a pay to win server while it is not as obvious when a server is dying over the span of several months because official ones are getting all the new players. Most of the people that I talked to even knew about this change so the thought about complaining about it never crossed their minds. But just because they never knew about it doesn't mean it wasn't a problem. I hope you realize that this change is doing more harm than good. It may have stopped some complaints but this is hurting TF2 in the long run. ___ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux