General Uselessness and Team Switchers on Dustbowl

[sokO]

Many admins are on your server at a time, usually 2-3. I am tired of people doing absolutely nothing and then team switching and admins not doing anything about it. I do understand administrators kicking for general whining and complaining. I do appreciate that. It helps keep the server clean.

To the actual rant now.

There was a guy on today, dustbowl, complaining about our team sucking because we could not cap the last flag. IN CHAT: "Man you guys suck, I am going red."

I asked in chat (speaking in general) for an admin to take care of this and no response. I asked again, no response. What about demomen putting stickies in front of spawn? Can the admins do something about that? I tried to switch to spectator and then I WAS CALLED OUT. By then I was mad and I just left.

Final rant.

Uselessness: Alot of it on dustbowl. Teleporters leading only a few feet away, sentries facing walls near spawn, GAH! Can we do something about this? Can the admins step up and do their part on these things? Can we not ignore each other? Can the =(e)='s contact an admin besides sitting there?

You guys run awesome servers and I like that. Props to you guys for putting up with things like this, sometimes.

Cheers mate!

 

[Booster37]

I can answer this for you:

I'm a dustbowl regular. It's by far my most played map. When I go on, I try to enforce as much as I can while still being able to play my game.

Now, to the issues. Check my PM on how to contact an admin.

Whenever I see someone complaining about their team, I kindly ask them to be more respectful, as I'm sure the players are trying their best, and some might have just purchased the game. When I'm in game, if the teams are only one player uneven, and I see someone jump in spec, cause an autobalance, and they jump on the other team, if I catch them, they'll know this is Sparta (by that, I mean I kick them). However, I'll only kick people doing this after the first offense, which I'll simply give a warning to them and everyone in the server.

As for spawn camping, even with demomen, this is allowed on our servers. RED Team has no violation for camping, as their goal is to keep you from capping. BLU, however, only have one violation, and that is if they camp spawn and ignore the goal, which is capping the final point, the offenders will be kicked. Believe it or not, I've seen this happen once.

As for uselessness, I understand that this can be irritating. If an Engineer sets up at the second point during setup, that's fine. Let them play their game, like if thy would let you play theirs, as long as it's good wholesome fun. We all know that the Engineer is the grief class of choice. The way I look at it, if it does nothing for the team, at all, it is useless. If an engi sets a tele exit in the shaft with the one way gate and not near the heat of the battle at the first point on the first and second stage, that's fine. It's his tactic. Now, if it goes backwards for no logical reason, or if sentries are in an area where there is no possible way it will help the team, then that's a problem and it should be addressed.

Hope this answers your questions.

 

[Flippy the Squirrel]

Thank you for your candid feedback, Blocker. As administrators on the eGO servers, we take our roles very seriously and walk a fine line between management and tyranny at all times. Too much, and we're branded despotic children with control issues; too little, and we're useless do-nothings. It's a tough line to walk, but we do walk it because of how strongly we believe in the freedom of all players to have a good time on our servers.

Team Fortress 2 is a relatively new game, and the fundamental axioms for what is good and bad play have not yet become features of the community zeitgeist. That takes time, and things like the facing of teleporters and other minutia will become less of an issue over time. I'm glad to see, by the way, that there is someone else who takes the time to rotate buildings and teleporters (I'm assuming) before placing them. I always try to do so, and I encourage others to do so when I can.

As to the individuals who are less than enthusiastic about their own team's performance, if it's a member of eGO (denoted, as I'm sure you know, by either =(e)=, =(eG)=, or =(eGO)= before their name), then please do flag an admin and let them know. We hold them to a higher standard, and we'll make sure to put them on the right track.

Regarding those individuals who have not joined eGO, and who speak in such disparaging terms of their own team, there's not much that can be done to correct this, other than to lead by example and encourage those players to take an active role in changing their team's fate. I've had many very rewarding games that started with very angry players who were casting vile aspersions towards one another and turned into real pleasurable experiences, simply by taking the lead and saying, "hey, man. Instead of complaining, let's figure out how to turn this around. What can you do?"

If you need to contact an admin, I'd encourage you to use the admin reporting feature of our servers. In order to do this, simply preface your team chat with an ampersat character ("@"). Make sure to use team chat, as I don't think it'll work with all chat, and you'll just end up broadcasting to the whole server. You won't see the results, but it will be broadcast to any administrator on the server (the =(e)= members won't see it, but others will). They'll be more than happy to help, assuming there is anything they can do, to help improve the experience.

Finally, I'd like to thank you again for your concerns, and invite you to sign up for eGO. It's obvious that you care about the experience here, and we can use people like you. Over time, if you prove yourself to be what we're looking for, you can be in a position to make good things happen, and there's not much that feels better than that.

If you think you're up to it, check out Sixxgunn's Recruiting Forum, read the stickies there, and join up!

EDIT: My mistake. It appears you're already a member of the clan. Is this correct?

 

[EyelessHunter]

First of all, you need to relax. It's only a game and it's about having fun. Second of all, demos can put stickies in front of the spawn if they please. Third of all, we can't tell people how to play. They have the freedom to put their teleporters whereever they want to.

 

[Smash2K]

Blocker, I'm with you on that for the most part, but even I have to admit that theres really nothing we can do about people playing "wrong." We can't even get people to stop firing through the gates, let alone force them to play as a team. It is just a game, but I agree it can quickly lose its fun after being repeatedly abused by players. Sadly, to this day, I have yet to find a multi-player game without a bunch of "punks" (as I believe we call them around here) running around ruining it for at least one or more people.

As for people not doing anything about lame team members, thats even more sad. I find myself frustrated when I try to coin up some team work, that at times I feel I'm being nothing more than a nuisance asking for class support or covering fire. The admins do their job by keeping the riff-raff out, but it shouldn't be their job to motivate the team also. I wish that more players, namely =(e)=, would stand up and say something when theres an engy intentionally making pointless teleporters, or any gameplay for that matter, that isn't helping the team. For people like this, there is no need to jump down their throat, it is their choice, but I have a feeling if they get encouraging words from more than just one person, it becomes more apparent that its not one person complaining, but rather the team as a whole asking them to participate in the common goal.

You seem like a good/helpful player, I look forward to seeing you around the servers so we can run some serious circles around these slacking engineers. Of all classes, they're prolly the easiest to take down with team work.

 

[sokO]

In response to Flippy: Yes, I am in =(e)=. Or was, I could not keep up with the community so I just took of the tag. It is not a regular thing for me to check the forums, and I MAY reconsider joining (if possible).

I do believe you took this the wrong way Eyeless Hunter. I am trying to bring my concerns to the table so maybe we can work around them, not say how bad the servers you run are. (Did I mis-read your post :\?)

The only eGO server I play on is dustbowl, and I play a lot. I just wish admins would be more alert of their surroundings so they know what is happening. And when I talk about engineers making teleporters, I mean this is crazy. I try and motivate the team as much as possible, and it usually comes down to me and one medic left at the last cap winning the game. People intentionally do this stuff all the time, and I don't think others notice it (I sure do!).

Cheers all, see you on dustbowl

 

[Endiment]

You saying that (e)s do "nothing" is the greatest falsehood I've ever heard. I can and do take over situations even when admins are present, if I feel that a satisfactory time period has elapsed for them to reach a decision and take action yet nothing has happened.

If someone isn't a team player, you can't just kick them because they're not doing your interpretation of their role. If you're getting backstabbed all the time, don't take it out on your Pyro because he may be busy getting ubered and taking down sentries. If the engy builds in the wrong places, try telling them that a better sentry spot is on top of the shed instead of behind it. For all you know they don't know where the best sentry spot is.

There is, however, griefing, which mainly occurs on Warpath or Badlands or an equivalent. A teleporter entrance will reside at the middle point, yet lead back to the first spawn. This kind of behavior is dubbed griefing and is a ban-worthy offense.

 

[Mr. Chair -TR-]

Bottom line, I aint kicking anybody for sucking. If the pyro's running around with his ax rocking the air guitar at the entrance to your spawn, well, he's having fun, leave him alone. I'm not kicking him for that.

Engis setting up at 2nd point at dustbowl at the beginning of a round? I've done that many times myself if I see that my team is gonna lose 1st point in seconds. It doesnt take a genius to figure out when your team's gonna get rolled before it happens. I dont know, you wont find me kicking for anything like that.

Guys calling out their team, on the other hand, get verbally rolled. I dont care how bad they are, if you're on the team, you're part of the team, and therefore saying the team sucks mean you suck. Deal with it. Be a leader for once. Do something about it yourself before telling them they suck and joining the other team. I've seen Drunken Sailor get the worst group of losers ever collected on one side of 2fort and turn them into an efficient capping machine.

 

[Lafinass]

[quote1206578022=Smash2K]
We can't even get people to stop firing through the gates, let alone force them to play as a team.
[/quote1206578022]

Says you. I only warn once.

 

[OfficerFriendly]

The only time I kick people is if they are causing a disruption on purpose. One guy running around with his melee weapon out doesn't mean anything other than a laugh to me but if he/she is only there to cause trouble i.e. hidding the intel in a corner so it can't be capped or a group of guys just running around spamming chat and not doing anything helpful then they will be dealt with. We don't care about skill only fun!

 

[sokO]

[quote1206629679=Mr Chair]Guys calling out their team, on the other hand, get verbally rolled. I dont care how bad they are, if you're on the team, you're part of the team, and therefore saying the team sucks mean you suck. Deal with it. Be a leader for once. Do something about it yourself before telling them they suck and joining the other team. I've seen Drunken Sailor get the worst group of losers ever collected on one side of 2fort and turn them into an efficient capping machine.
[/quote1206629679]

I am a leader. Most of the time I am the only one calling tactics, doing something. I don't switch teams, and I think you misread that also. I think you guys are more worried about defending yourselves then actually paying attention here. Greifing is the new thing, if you guys have not noticed. I can tell when someone is doing absolutely nothing for a reason. Medics bonesawing each other in spawn, people spamming medic in spawn, running around stealing healthpacks after sticky jumping continuously. Take time to think about all of this, please.

 

[sokO]

Re:OfficerFriendly

That's what I am getting to here. What EXACTLY do you guys call fun? People running around in spawn? Is that fun? I'd say uselessness is not fun. Especially when people do this on purpose. I can tell, and I try and warn the admins, who basically ignore my chat messages.

 

[Flippy the Squirrel]

Blocker, I think this discussion has reached the end of its usefulness. We are very careful to monitor people's behavior on our servers. If someone wants to get on a server and spend all their time building sentries that do no good, that's their business. If their behavior becomes an impediment to the balance of the population's fun, then we take action.

The flip side of that, and something it sounds like you should be careful of, is players who become upset because others aren't driven to do things the same way they are. Take a look at our ban forums, and you'll see that immature players with no tolerance make up just as many bans as those who are griefing or generally causing problems.

We are happy with how we manage our servers. If you would like to play on them, that is great. If not, we're sorry to see you go, and hope you find happier hunting grounds elsewhere.

Thank you for your concerns, but I think we've reached the end of the road here.