The proposal: I am proposing that a system be integrated into the TF2 server community that would allow community server owners to run "official" community servers that would have access to contract progression like a standard Valve server. The stipulation would be that in order to host an contract capable server, the server owner would need to pay a fee to Valve in addition to signing a contract which ideally would be negotiated through some members of the community and Valve directly.
The contract would ensure a quality of server for public players to join, with the overall intention of being allowed to use that server as a gateway to the "true community" servers should a user want to explore more. The reasoning: TF2 is a mess, which has been brought up here many times before with no progress. I recently attempted to play through some of the Jungle Inferno contracts when they were first available only to find most Valve servers are horrible quality. I consistently ran into rampant racism, players getting kicked / punished for trying to play the objective, trolling, flaming, so on and so forth. There are also hackers but that is its own mess right now. The game itself sees spikes in player activity that fades away in time, leading to the assumption that players come back to see the new things and get turned off again. A large portion of my community have said they only play TF2 in said community, and if they had Valve servers as their only option, would cease playing the game entirely. In addition, I and a number of my peers feel that this quality being presented to your average player is simply unacceptable when the alternative in the past commonly was a well moderated community server that encouraged consistent members, friendships, and play. However having done some of these contracts, I also understand the concern that anyone could pop up a server and rig the system in their favor, which has been done in the past. This is why I and others feel that a fee along with a contract that could penalize bad actors would benefit the TF2 community overall as well as Valve. Someone even proposed that this system in CS:GO could allow for community run 128 tick servers which have been sought after for years, another example of a possible mutual benefit. The pros: -Better moderation would allow for true hackers, trolls, and other riff-raff to not bother otherwise innocent players -Better handling of situations like the heavy over-healing being left on a weekend -Community servers flourish friendships, which lead to people staying in the game longer and learning at a better rate than they would from a community server -The above has benefits to the pro/comp TF2 community which has been consistently dying off / running out of fresh talent since the start of quickplay. The cons: -Punishment for bad actors would be important, and would depend on the rules that would be set in place. -While a "official" server should be limited in mods, it is important that a community run server at least have access to proper moderation tools with Sourcemod, and at least a chat ad system for helping direct potential players to their other servers. Final notes: This is being presented as is, however I am welcome to discussion and debate. It should be noted that in the past, this mailing list has devolved to pessimism and otherwise unhelpful discussion. I extend this offer of discussion to Valve directly, either by email personally or a discussion in the servers.tf discord channel. Thank you for reading, have a pleasant day. -- *Matthew (Rowedahelicon) Robinson* Web Designer / Artist / Writer Website - http://www.rowedahelicon.com/
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