TF2 Emergency Meeting Voting / Notes

[Jeff7890110]

Hello TF2 Community,

During the meeting, you heard that eGO has requested that we decided to keep a maximum of two, of our four servers. This thread is the voting for which two servers we keep. The maximum number of votes will keep the server. So for instance, if 2Fort-15, Hightower-20, Harvest-18, Payload-35, then we will be keeping Payload and Hightower. Please vote for only for two. This poll will close on Saturday, October 24th, at 12:00 AM. No exceptions.

List of the servers and current standing; Game Tracker Link

 

[Jeff7890110]

Bump

 

[Vincent]

I'm so very new to TF2, but I've been trying play on the eGO server and learning the game, the servers are a crap ton of fun when playing with others, get on the servers and bring friends with you<3

 

[Buster]

I don't play TF2 much so I don't feel comfortable voting on the servers, what I can say is try to be less selfish because this could be the rise or the fall here.

 

[Larry_Da_Lobster]

There is no reason to get rid of two servers. Especially considering these servers are not resource intensive on the box.

Just because a server isn't doing well doesn't mean you should give up on it. Hightower/2Fort have been around for years and are still among the most popular servers on TF2. Removing them just because the results of a poll says otherwise is ridiculous. Especially considering the poll doesn't even target the daily players which play the server.

At least attempt to revive the server before simply removing it.

• None of the TF2 server name's have been updated with new website/nor have you tested changing the server name for improvements. (adding tags in name and on the server???) FAST RESPAWN, NO CARTS are a few examples I found within minutes of actually searching.
• Features In Server Name to have the server appear in the browser ████ seems to be quite popular after a quick glance.
• Comparing our current server features to other servers which are very popular
• Idling on Servers (Nobody will ever join a server with zero players) I don't mean random fast fill attempts. Focus on one server getting to a self-sustaining population.

These are all ideas that can be pushed with server updates and commits. You guys are most knowledgeable of the game and should know what players enjoy. Look at the top TF2 servers and see what makes them unique and successful

Hightower/2fort have the least votes yet within the past month they have reached the highest rank out of the four? You can't just expect to throw something out there and hope it works. Focus on one server at a time and see if any improvements occur (player count/retention occur)

Don't even say the game is dead or dying as it averages 60,000+ players a day.

 

[DrkChocolate]

There is no reason to get rid of two servers

We did not decide or want to get rid of them. We were told by leadership that we were to pick 2 servers to remove to reduce our workload, so we are following that directive to the best of our ability.

Hightower/2Fort have been around for years and are still among the most popular servers on TF2.

All of our servers are popular maps or modes.

Removing them just because the results of a poll says otherwise is ridiculous. Especially considering the poll doesn't even target the daily players which play the server.

The poll is for our members to pick the ones they most enjoy to play since we need their help to repopulate the servers. The few non-members that still show up on our servers have refused to become members, so they will have to abide by the members decision. I don’t like having to pick 2 to go away, but our members should be the ones most invested and interested in keeping them so we want their opinions.

At least attempt to revive the server before simply removing it.

We have been attempting to revive our servers for some time, but we have a very small staff and a small active group of members. As you can see from the following graph, 2Fort was trending down(which is good), Harvest was trending down or at least staying level, but Hightower was trending up. The majority of Hightower’s regulars left us for another server, so it’s really been tough to improve. When we added Payload to replace the failed Jailbreak server, we had to spend a lot of time on it getting it debugging and getting it running properly, so the other servers suffered. Then the Halloween update hit and we lost more players to casual. We were in trouble. So leadership decided the best thing for us was fewer servers to try to service.

None of the TF2 server name's have been updated with new website/nor have you tested changing the server name for improvements. (adding tags in name and on the server???) FAST RESPAWN, NO CARTS are a few examples I found within minutes of actually searching.

We had already requested that and quite a few other things that we have been waiting to be implemented, and some things that have been implemented.

Look at the top TF2 servers and see what makes them unique and successful

We have been looking as we have the chance, and will keep looking. We will try to implement what we can. Except of course what we hear the most complaints about - our rules.

Hightower/2fort have the least votes yet within the past month they have reached the highest rank out of the four? You can't just expect to throw something out there and hope it works. Focus on one server at a time and see if any improvements occur (player count/retention occur)

Again we would love to keep all four and work on getting them all in a better place, but that’s not what we have been told to do. We were told to pick 2 to keep, so we are attempting to do that in the best way possible - by getting the most data possible from those who should be the most invested and interested in keeping them - our members.

Thanks for your input, Larry!

 

[Architect of Life]

It concerns me that the server with the least consistent success is currently leading in the poll. Hightower and Harvest appear to be no-brainers from my POV.
Best of luck DrkChocolate I know it's not fun to deal with this kind of stuff.

 

[Simon]

It concerns me that the server with the least consistent success is currently leading in the poll. Hightower and Harvest appear to be no-brainers from my POV.
Best of luck DrkChocolate I know it's not fun to deal with this kind of stuff.

I was kind of shocked by this too - I thought Hightower was the one that consistently kept going at least half decently with our pubs (although I’d love to see 2fort survive, I know we need to pick wisely)

Are we encouraging known regular pubs from the servers to come and help vote on this decision?

 

[DrkChocolate]

I was kind of shocked by this too - I thought Hightower was the one that consistently kept going at least half decently with our pubs (although I’d love to see 2fort survive, I know we need to pick wisely)

Are we encouraging known regular pubs from the servers to come and help vote on this decision?

If it was just my own desires, I would pick 2Fort too. It’s my favorite of the older 3. I don’t care for Death Match style play, but it is popular and Harvest has a regular crowd that likes playing on it. That’s why it has held its own. I was seeding 2Fort to help it. The weeks it went up were probably weeks I wasn’t able to get on as much.

 

[Misterboy]

There is no reason to get rid of two servers. Especially considering these servers are not resource intensive on the box.

It seems like you're going after TF2 leadership over a situation you have no idea about lol. Clearly I don't think it would be their first choice to remove servers from the division.

 

[Charli]

Servers cost money to keep up.

I'd also like to put some graphs out here for info. This are from 2017, but I hope you understand how the game really hasn't changed since then.



Straight up, this will be the largest percentage of players. 2fort has been, and always will be, king. This is also supposedly what our target audience is for players.



This is realistically what we should be looking at for what our competition is, it also represents what people look for in a community.

 

[4g0tt3nSou1]

As it's been laid out, of course, we'd like to keep ALL of the servers. But as has been said, there are some realities that have to be looked at. I can say firsthand we all do what we can to keep servers going. But TF2 LE and its staff can only accomplish so much. A fair example, we ping people in the TF2 groups to hop on different servers with us, which has varying success. We also do our best to show love to all servers equally, regardless of personal opinion on each. We always typically join a random one of the four servers both Pre and Post-event, to continue the previous note. Some go further to directly message friends to join with them. This is only SOME of the many examples that I, and other staff members, including TF2 LE can provide.
even if we decide to just mess around; do the conga around the entire map; we try to push energy further into the game.

The sad but simple fact is the game is mainly maintained by its communities that still maintain servers. And the data clearly shows where things look weakest. It doesn't tell the entire story as the passion TF2LE puts into everything. Thanks to people like Drk, to this day we get new people into the eGO TF2 Community, and even further into TF2 in general.
The Effort is there, The passion is there, The player base is still there. Hightower, 2Fort, Harvest, they all got players who choose our servers over others.
But there is more to it than that.

I missed the meeting, so this news comes as a shock for me, but while it's sad there is definitely room we can grow from. Sometimes it's what you need. It sucks. It sucks HARD. But if we have to cut a server to continue the mission TF2 as a division sets out to do; It's worth it. Personally I wish we'd start a tad slower. We cut one to start. It sucks, but the payload server might make a decent first choice. It's not a bad server, and it could be better than the other 3 (It's too new to tell.), but it's not something as deep-set in the community as our other three servers.
I can't emphasize enough that it sucks cutting servers, but Drk's right. This isn't some outrageous request.

Further, we likely will be able to take back on a third server again later, after more focus is given directly to the other two, as from there we can re-expand at a rate that we can support.

In any case. Words are cheap. The last thing on the matter I should say, is I'm gonna throw up my TF2. and go hop on. I deeply encourage those who read this and those who already put in there two cents, to join me/us. You want to really help the community; show an empty server some love.
Arbiter already put some powerful advice into seeding servers, and that is the kind of help some servers need right now.
Hope to see you there.

 

[PastryFoxy]

We appreciate the replies and ideas, thoughts. It ain't pretty. Having been out of commission for the past ~2 months to come back to this was a bit of a kick in the crotch. But, it is what it is, so if our decisions lead to increased success in the long run, we can see about inching towards reopening a server or so. As you may know, my focus and area has always been the TF2 events, so I'm genuinely surprised and happy the event server will be left up.

An idea is I will put more effort and aggression in pushing events out, because that's one reason I was moved up; with input from our members/regulars/core admins, I'll see what events/gamemodes can be put together.

You want an event/gamemode? As I said, any messages/posts you direct at me, I'll note and put an event in the works if you're unable to host it/assemble it yourself. OBviously, a good idea will be to try to make a regular/frequent event of whatever servers are closed. I haven't been around near as long as Drkie/Jeff/Doggies, so I ain't near the management they are, but I'm going to do my damndest where I can.