I like realism, but at the same time its a real pain in the butt. What most of you dont realize is the amount of time and effort that has gone into starting our realism night, keeping it going, and most recently starting the campaign. Frankly, weve even had to take breaks from realism alltogether to increase attendance because our members started to grow tired of it and now some of you want a realism server?
A lot of you have been playing in non-eGO realisms and dedicated realism servers and theres nothing wrong with that. I get the invites from a lot of you to join and normally its right after the eGO realism. The reason i decline is because im flat-out tired. Every week basically 2 to 4 TAs have to answer questions, hear complaints, run the mods (every round and most of the time more than once a round), and try to keep our own members in line for hours at a time. When you have responsibilities invested in the game as opposed to just playing it, you get worn out. As any of the CINCs we have had so far can tell you. I cant think of one CINC that has volunteered to give it another run. But you guys have always been able to look forward to Saturdays and even when we dont feel like it we show up for all of you.
Its written in numerous places in eGO that youre here to #1 have fun and #2 admin. Running the realism doesnt apply to this. I cant speak for anyone else, but the reason i keep doing it is for all of you. Realism isnt a new invention but for some odd reason its the craze all of a sudden. What you fail to see is that eGO is about everyone, not just your liking.
Yes, Kalt is to my liking and frankly its to a lot of peoples. But realism is almost a completely different game. Theres a rank structure, there are additional rules, and mods. What you want is to make a public server into a private club. Like someone mentioned, most realism servers have passwords (even if theyre realism 99% of the time) and the only people who play in them are well versed in realism. However, you cant expect the random DoD player to hop in a realism server and if a vote passes be told to line up on the wall, dont talk, stay on the allies, wait to get picked for a team, no you cant have that gun, no that part of the map isnt allowed, not you cant hit the skybox, oh yeah ff is on, if you die you have to wait until everyone else dies and comply 100% of the time.
I made a reference to the jail server for a few reasons. i believe that the jail server is a blight because of the complexity required to play it, the lack of knowledge the admins possess, the unwillingness of pubs to comply, and because a majority of admins see it as an easy place to get a kick or a ban in. If we do have a realism server i guarantee that it will be more of a burden than a blessing. I know youre thinking "If that was true then why are so many realism servers successful?" -- That answers itself, because realism units operate realism servers and frequent other realism units servers.
Kalt died because of low numbers and because for the large part it was forgotten. However, it hasnt been completely forgotten by our members. Some of us have made every effort to attend Kalt night. There have been numerous threads about kalt, and countless posts. This very thread should be a triumph for Kalt instead of a struggle.
After months, MONTHS of trying to show up to Kalt night in efforts of bringing back that server leadership decides to give us some options and what i had hoped would one day be a "heres Kalt, have fun, dont let it die" has turned into "heres another chance to have realism 24/7 or when the majority votes for it!" Well im not buying it.
I have a ton of respect for everyone in our division, but sadly my optimism stops there unless proven otherwise. I can count about a dozen pubs whom i truly respect because i know they have an equal amount of respect for me, and largely i base the amount of respect i have for a person based on their merits and attitude.
What im hearing here is a group of my very good, DoD veteran friends wanting something im strongly opposed to-- which makes it hard for me to argue with them. I understand your love of realism but at the same time i hope you can understand the time, commitment, and hassle that realism is.
Like i stated earlier but i didnt expand on was the fact that it takes several minutes to get our own members in line for a realism. People who have been playing since the very beginning but for some reason still dont hear or dont want to listen to commands. Now, what im understanding is that this same group of people is expected to run a (yet to be created mod) to allow for a majority vote, designate at least two admins to run the mod, and then somehow keep all of the pubs and members from leaving the server, or w/k/b if they do not understand or conform to realim rules.
Heres why i think we should have Kalt back:
1. Many of our members have wanted Kalt to return.
2. Running any variation of Kalt will require no additional mods or admin training.
3. Member commitment will likely keep the server maintained (like Anzio).
4. Cooperation from pubs is the same as other servers.
5. If it dies again leadership could have its cake and eat it too.
6. Pubs who frequent eGO servers will also help maintain kalt.
7. many more
Heres why i dont think we should have a realism server:
1. It will require mods we do not have
2. Admins will have to be trained or retrained to handle server-specific commands and rules (like Jail school)
3. The chance of losing pubs or members on map switches or realism initializations is high
4. The server will require password protection.
5. Most DoD players are not highly active in realisms.
6. Realism units endorse cursing, we will be entering into a field that is largely contrary to eGO rules and expecting visitors to obey them.
7. The complexity of realism for casual players and admins may dissuade them from returning.
8. Our current realism mod is prone to errors and crashes the server.
9. In addition to new admin commands and training admins we may be required to use a rank structure outside of e, eG, eGO.
10. The server would require at least one admin to be present 24/7 to operate the server.
11. The server would not be condusive to pubs who are not familiar with realism but joined before the vote carried over.
12. The amount of contest bans and ban requests will likely increase because of the complex nature of realism and the subsequent rules.
13. Admins not from DoD may not be familiar with new rules and cause problems (like some other divisions causing problems in Jail).
14. itll be like jail except in DoD-- can you stand that amount of shame?
