This is actually a discussion list for server related things, which has wide scale. Bugfixes aren't our thing usually, unless they affect servers somehow aka maps or weapons that can cause issues etc but rocks having wrong shape aren't our thing.

As for topic, i'm not sure about others but the quickplay change only hurt us legitimate server running people who didn't tease our users with shit like stupid mods or paid features or advertisements. Right now from full 4x24 servers on daily basis, we've come down to 1 full at evening. Hits kind of a bad place as quickplay was nice to fill up the rest of the slots. There has been people playing on the empty ones every day but when no one else joins, they will go and find a new server that is nearly full. Thats just the way it is.

I've complained this before and i just wanted to say this again but pulling a stunt like this really isn't the thing that you want to do to people like me who run servers. We have (well, had), a lot of people who wanted to play on our servers, just because they were watched on and troublemakers were removed quickly. Now, they fade away from the game eventyally because there isn't the same spirit anymore while playing. No friends, because not all of them can fit into a _one server_. Personally i've lost my motivation towards TF2 also. Played like 5 hours max in the last 2 months.

So while you want to do the Valve way, you should really think about the better way.

-ics

James Haikin kirjoitti:
This mailing list is for bugfixes and technical support, not for politics and drama.

-James


On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 4:46 PM, Robert Paulson <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

    I don't see how there could be a better place to discuss this.
    This quickplay problem affects srcds servers and this is a mailing
    list for servers that is visited by the people responsible for
    this change.

    If Valve does not realize this is a problem, that is even more of
    a reason to keep talking about it.

    I don't think Valve doesn't care, they just don't know it is a
    problem. Otherwise they wouldn't have wasted their time making
    quickpick.

    They need to realize it is causing a net loss of players and
    quickplay options and quickpick didn't solve the issue.


    On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 4:33 PM, James Haikin <[email protected]
    <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

        I'm just sick of people bitching about something that Valve
        has shown no indication of changing, in a place where it's
        rather patently inappropriate for the discussion to be taking
        place.

        -James


        On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 4:31 PM, Robert Paulson
        <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

            "Empirical" evidence was already offered which you thought
            were "my" players, as if I had tens of thousands of
            players. Those numbers are pulled straight from Steam.

            What's the point of trolling this discussion? Don't you
            have anything better to do?


            On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 4:14 PM, James Haikin
            <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

                Why hello there, anecdotal evidence. If you could go
                ahead and get us an actual cross-section of the
                playerbase, that'd be greeeeeat.

                -James


                On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 4:10 PM, Robert Paulson
                <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>
                wrote:

                    It might not cause more players to magically
                    appear, but more of them will end up in better
                    servers than the official ones. Community servers
                    offer additional value that keep people playing
                    TF2 longer.

                    I know quite a few people who have stopped playing
                    after their favorite server emptied out because of
                    this change. They would rather not play TF2 than
                    play on an official server which are laggy and
                    full of hackers and griefers.


                    On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 3:58 PM, Alexander Z
                    <[email protected]
                    <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

                        Fixing quickplay, however you want to see it
                        "fixed", won't cause more players to magically
                        appear.
                        TF2 is running on borrowed time, and the
                        playerbase will only be getting smaller with time.


                        On 25 April 2014 23:42, Robert Paulson
                        <[email protected]
                        <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

                            Those aren't "my" player counts, those are
                            the global player counts.


                            On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 2:32 PM, James
                            Haikin <[email protected]
                            <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

                                Hint: they DGAF about your player count.

                                -James


                                On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 2:30 PM,
                                Robert Paulson <[email protected]
                                <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

                                    When will Valve realize was a bad
                                    decision? Player counts haven't
                                    been this low since last year, and
                                    there is no new FPS game.

                                    For those people claiming player
                                    counts get lower until summer
                                    vacation, they didn't drop as much
                                    as last year.

                                    After the change, the weekly high
                                    dropped by 5000. Compare to last
                                    year in the same time frame there
                                    is barely a 1000 player
                                    difference. How much more obvious
                                    does it need to get?

                                    2014
                                    http://i.imgur.com/xoUEHbr.png

                                    2013
                                    http://i.imgur.com/Rp9y2kD.png

                                    data from steamcharts.com
                                    <http://steamcharts.com>



                                    On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 9:18 PM,
                                    E. Olsen <[email protected]
                                    <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

                                        I think the issue here,
                                        is...there really is no longer
                                        any reason for valve servers
                                        to be the "default" servers
                                        once a player has 8-12 hours
                                        in the game.

                                        The minority of players who
                                        only want those random pub
                                        games on valve servers now
                                        have that option - but the
                                        players who stick around in
                                        the long-term will be the ones
                                        that find a "home"
                                        server/group of servers, not
                                        those looking for the "x-box
                                        live" experience of random
                                        games with random people every
                                        time. Honestly, if the TF2
                                        team could see the chaos and
                                        lack of teamwork that valve
                                        servers actually seem to
                                        encourage, I think they would
                                        take a step back and realize
                                        that it really doesn't do the
                                        game any justice. There is a
                                        reason some of the newer
                                        players have taken to calling
                                        community servers "pubstomp"
                                        servers - it's because
                                        community servers are where
                                        they fist come up against
                                        actual, cohesive teamwork -
                                        and they're used to a bunch of
                                        random players just doing
                                        they're own thing.

                                        Frankly - I firmly believe the
                                        long-term health of the game
                                        rests with community servers
                                        who provide diversity,
                                        supervision (to get rid of the
                                        plethora of hackers/griefers,
                                        etc.), and a much better
                                        experience overall (not to
                                        mention higher skill levels).

                                        In short - I agree with Mr.
                                        Paulson - give the new players
                                        a a few hours of "mandatory"
                                        play on valve's servers to get
                                        their feet wet in the game,
                                        and then open quickplay up to
                                        "all servers" by default and
                                        allow them to see all the
                                        diversity that's out there.
                                        You've given the players the
                                        "option" of going back to
                                        "valve-only" if they should
                                        want it, now lets rollback the
                                        "mass punishment" (that was
                                        really killing a mosquito with
                                        a sledgehammer), and give the
                                        server operators a fair shake
                                        again.


                                        On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 11:14
                                        PM, Chris Oryschak
                                        <[email protected]
                                        <mailto:[email protected]>>
                                        wrote:

                                            It would be really nice to
                                            get some input on this
                                            from Valve.  Since the
                                            change every day gets
                                            worse and worse for player
                                            activity on my servers
                                            thanks to the QP changes
                                            and lack of new players
                                            having the ability to find
                                            my servers.
                                            You can view the beautiful
                                            downward trend caused by
                                            these changes:

                                            http://i.imgur.com/uvlq056.png

                                            If anyone else is running
                                            the Player Analytics
                                            plugin just edit
                                            "data/sessions.php" and
                                            change "30 DAY" to "90 DAY".
                                            I'd love to see the same
                                            trends from other
                                            communities to help
                                            reinforce this bad change
                                            for all server ops.





                                            On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at
                                            9:09 PM, Robert Paulson
                                            <[email protected]
                                            <mailto:[email protected]>>
                                            wrote:

                                                As I said before, the
                                                problem is not that
                                                the official servers
                                                only option exists,
                                                the problem is that it
                                                is on by default.
                                                People too lazy to use
                                                the browser are too
                                                lazy to use options.

                                                Again I would like to
                                                suggest automatically
                                                un-checking the
                                                official servers only
                                                after 4-5 hours of
                                                play. Anything that
                                                requires manual
                                                intervention will not
                                                solve the problem.

                                                For anyone arguing
                                                community servers are
                                                inferior again, I
                                                refer you to this post.

                                                
https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg74795.html


                                                On Mon, Mar 24, 2014
                                                at 5:03 PM, 1nsane
                                                <[email protected]
                                                <mailto:[email protected]>>
                                                wrote:

                                                    What about
                                                    something similar
                                                    like before where
                                                    valve servers had
                                                    an advantage over
                                                    community servers
                                                    with new players
                                                    being sent to them
                                                    (due to the valve
                                                    server score boost)?

                                                    Except this time
                                                    just make it so
                                                    all new players
                                                    get sent to valve
                                                    servers by
                                                    default. And then
                                                    after a certain
                                                    amount of hours
                                                    played it either
                                                    defaults to all
                                                    servers or pops up
                                                    a message asking
                                                    if community
                                                    servers should be
                                                    included and
                                                    explaining a
                                                    little bit about
                                                    the other
                                                    quickplay options
                                                    and how to access
                                                    them.

                                                    I talked to plenty
                                                    of players who
                                                    weren't aware that
                                                    quickplay search
                                                    can be customized
                                                    or that you need
                                                    to click on the
                                                    gear icon to bring
                                                    up advanced search
                                                    options. There's
                                                    plenty of people
                                                    who hate crits or
                                                    default respawn
                                                    times and yet
                                                    they're not even
                                                    aware of this
                                                    functionality
                                                    being part of
                                                    quickplay. Or
                                                    perhaps that's on
                                                    purpose and maybe
                                                    that's the reason
                                                    why the icon is so
                                                    tiny...


                                                    On Thu, Mar 20,
                                                    2014 at 7:31 PM,
                                                    Jason Tango
                                                    <[email protected]
                                                    
<mailto:[email protected]>>
                                                    wrote:

                                                        As we approach
                                                        the 2-month
                                                        mark since
                                                        Valve's
                                                        servers were
                                                        made the
                                                        "default"
                                                        servers for
                                                        all quickplay
                                                        players, can
                                                        the TF2 team
                                                        give us a time
                                                        frame when
                                                        they will
                                                        return the
                                                        system to a
                                                        "level playing
                                                        field" for all
                                                        servers?

                                                        As it stands,
                                                        the players
                                                        who want to
                                                        avoid all
                                                        community
                                                        servers now
                                                        have the
                                                        ability to do
                                                        so simply by
                                                        clicking the
                                                        "Official
                                                        Server Only"
                                                        button, so is
                                                        it really
                                                        necessary to
                                                        keep driving
                                                        nearly all
                                                        quickplay
                                                        traffic away
                                                        from community
                                                        servers?

                                                        In fact, a
                                                        better
                                                        question would
                                                        probably be -
                                                        is it in TF2's
                                                        best
                                                        (long-term)
                                                        interest to do
                                                        so? Helping
                                                        players find a
                                                        "home" server
                                                        where they
                                                        become a
                                                        "regular"
                                                        creates
                                                        long-term
                                                        players, and
                                                        since so much
                                                        emphasis (in
                                                        the design of
                                                        the UI) has
                                                        been placed on
                                                        guiding
                                                        players to use
                                                        quickplay, the
                                                        longer that
                                                        community
                                                        servers are
                                                        effectively
                                                        excluded from
                                                        that traffic,
                                                        the more
                                                        long-term
                                                        players the
                                                        game will
                                                        likely lose.

                                                        The players
                                                        that only want
                                                        random games
                                                        with random
                                                        people on
                                                        Valve servers
                                                        now have the
                                                        option to make
                                                        sure that's
                                                        all they get,
                                                        but preventing
                                                        the rest of
                                                        the player
                                                        base from
                                                        experiencing
                                                        all the
                                                        diversity that
                                                        the TF2
                                                        community can
                                                        provide is
                                                        both
                                                        unnecessary
                                                        and unfair to
                                                        those of us
                                                        who have never
                                                        broken any
                                                        rules, or
                                                        violated any
                                                        policies.

                                                        With that in
                                                        mind, please
                                                        consider
                                                        leveling the
                                                        playing field
                                                        again asap by
                                                        including all
                                                        community
                                                        servers by
                                                        default, and
                                                        let the
                                                        players decide
                                                        for themselves
                                                        if they don't
                                                        want to be a
                                                        part of that
                                                        community.

                                                        Thanks, guys.




                                                        
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