Leadership's Guide to Quick Play, Recruiting, and Server Ranks

[vudu]

Hi guys, There has been a lot of confusion on WHY we change servers and what Quick Play is and all that stuff so here is some info that should help alleviate questions


What is Quick Play?

Quick Play is a system VALVe created to allow players to instantly start playing a TF2 match. When you start TF2, you can click on "Start Playing" where you have the option to choose from a few different server types.

You can find more info here.

Why is Quick Play good?

Quick Play has a direct correlation with server ranking. If your server is quick play eligible it is MORE likely that pubs will join your server. If that happens, then server rank will go up (more players on server = higher rank).

Why is server rank important?

Server rank is important because more players will join your server if it is higher ranked. This is partly due to it being perceived as "better" by the community and partly because Quick Play will weight your server as "better" when looking for a player match.

Why do we want more players to join the server?

This gives us more ad revenue. This also gives us an opportunity to recruit members. Members sometimes donate to eGO which also helps pay for the servers.

What happens if we don't have good server ranks or we don't have a lot of recruits?

eGO has a limited amount of funds per month. If we aren't consistently helping to offset costs (by recruiting and having ad revenue) then we will end up losing servers. Personally, I like to play on a variety of servers instead of just having 1 or 2 options. The best way to ensure that our servers are "safe" from being taken away AND to ensure we have the option of adding NEW servers is to make sure server ranks are good and we have good recruiting numbers.

Can we get rid of Quickplay? Can we switch to this custom map?

Right now? No. Our server ranks are not where they need to be. We need to do everything we can to increase our server rankings. Once we have a stable rank (think sub 200 on all servers) then we can pitch new servers to Council.

 

[Shiznoe]

Thanks vudu!

 

[Brandon]

Finnaly learned what quickplay is ;D

 

[Juannson]

There isn't much about recruiting but good post vudu and the rest of leadership! Just remember more recruits = more admins = more activitys

 

[Kazoo]

Thank you so much for this post. It is very informative and clearly explains why we need the Quick Play system.

 

[OzytheNerfer]

Having decent servers like we used to would probably help recruitment as well as ensuring people don't rage quit (or disconnect) due to lag. Just a thought.

I saw 4 or 5 people do this on Foundry earlier.

 

[Goz]

Thanks for clearing things up vudu.

 

[Mithos Riot]

Nice FAQ.

 

[vudu]

Feel free to ask more questions too. I'd be happy to answer

 

[Deviant1]

Gracias senor!

 

[GamingRobot]

Needs to be linked in the TF2 FAQ

 

[Noise]

Regarding 2fort, If I remember this was one of our highest ranking servers for tf2, and I think it was in the 100's or something because it was that pro. That was without Quickplay.

Plus Idk if people are confused over it, they may just prefer fast respawn times over slow ones, such as myself.

http://www.edge-gamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=201184

that thread talks about the respawn times, and if you look at that poll, the people who voted for fast respawn times has over 4 times as many voters as the ones who voted for slow.

 

[Whisker Biscuit]

While I still don't agree with this at all (all I can see is "need more ranks" in this), why not ask the (your) community first? I can see these types of changes being made after you warn us of pending changes, but doing it without consulting anyone outside of leadership and dropping a "we need ranks" bomb leaves people to draw their own conclusions as to why something's being done. One being "eh, just do it anyways; the community will forget eventually."

The main issue I have with this reasoning is that 2fort was already the highest ranked of our TF2 servers, and was almost always filled if I recall correctly. What that equates to in my opinion is risking the community to try and raise our ranks for more money. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the TF2 division technically one of the divisions that costs eGO the least? Money is money, I'm aware, but I don't think you need me to connect the dots on a conclusion someone could draw from that with no prior information.

 

[WyrmMage]

Eventually the people who want to have faster respawn will just leave or give up trying to get it back, so essientially that part of the community will be gone by the time we can try to form a new community vudu. Also, our ranks would go down as soon as quick play was off again, so even if we did start to rebuild that community, it would eventually be dissolved because our rank wouldnt stay in the low 200s anymore. I am sorry, but I agree with whisker about how this was dropped without much notice or warning. This is a big deal, and even if we shouldnt be a part of the decision, we should be notified beforehand. This happened one day and now I feel incredibly bored whenever I try to fill 2fort early. Its probably too late to get back a lot of our old 2fort regulars. I understand why quickplay is being put on the for front of the priorities, but thinking that its possible to ever regain that community is a fairy tale. We cant go back to instant respawn ever if server rankings are a priority. Its a harsh truth. We would need more members and dedication to the server which would have to surpass what we have for valve maps. Im trying to word this properly but chemistry is calling me and I am sorry if that last bit wasnt that clear.

 

[noblenote]

Merci!

 

[MSK Impostr]

Choose Your Own Adventure!

Depending on your attention span, please choose either the Long Version or the Short Version.

LONG VERSION

I'm going to have to agree with both WyrmMage and Whisker here. The changes that have occurred have rocked the community that I have worked with for more than 2500 hours over the past few years. I'm good friends with many of the regulars, a large portion of which have stated that they have no intention of returning now that fast respawn has been removed.

What bothers me the most about this decision is the disturbing reification of server success by the council. Server rankings are statistics. They may be based on real systems, but they are by no means valid for altering the course of an entire community. What matters when dealing with communities is the people on the ground level, those who are effected most by changes like these. From the standpoint of a higher level administrator, these changes may seem distant and of little importance in relation to the totality. But as someone who has worked on the ground level within the 2fort community for far longer than most people would be willing to admit, this change has had large and quite possibly irreversible effects.

SHORT VERSION

I guess my takeaway point here is that a community which is based on something as arbitrary as rankings is as flimsy as it is pointless. 2fort fast respawn is a casual grindhouse, which attracts people who are looking for just that kind of experience. Chances are that the people who find it are the ones who were looking for it in the first place. Making ourselves into another cookie-cutter standard 2fort server does nothing to differentiate us from the thousands of other identical servers, it just increases the number of people who will randomly join, and most likely will never return. We need to worry about the community that we already have, instead of worrying about the community that we might have in the future.

I suppose I have more to say, yet haven't quite been able to fully articulate my thoughts as of now. Feel free to contact me via steam if you'd like to chat more about this, or if you have any questions.



-MSK Impostr-

 

[Raynor]

i dont like the fact that respawn timers have to be default. 2fort fast respawn was perfect before this quickplay was enabled

 

[tr.BOB]

I mean the instant respawn is what led me to the ego community, i enjoy fast/instant respawn and to take that away from all of us that built and were part of that community is pretty annoying to me, such a knee-jerk reaction to change the server is kind of slap in the face of the all of us fast respawn folks. Thats how i feel.

tr.BOB

 

[Additional Pylons]

thanks for the post! it does settle some of my rage over respawn times. Lets hope we can make ranks to get some fast respawn servers again!

 

[Flippy the Squirrel]

So, (1) Impostr, you can't call a post "short version" if it's almost as long as the "long version"

(2) From a detached and emotionless perspective, I understand that server rankings are important to the long-term survival of eGO, and I respect that.

(3) That having been said, I just can't seen to bring myself to launch TF2 lately. It's just not the same without seeing the same bunch of friends. For me, it's about the regulars, and not the pubs.

I hope that, once server rankings are where you want them, then something like 2FortIR can come back. I agree that it's not a big stats-buster, but it was a long-term continual community of close-knit players who helped to show those pubs who did join what eGO was truly all about.