I am sick of the admin restrictions with ranked servers. Some of the steps involved were never worth it to begin with but we are still stuck doing dumb-ass ticket systems in this old game for something nobody wanted to begin with all so whitenamed scrubs can find a game. Would be best if activision or sd could just turn it off instead of the players supporting it all these years have to be stuck in dead end discussions because of the senseless risk involved in what would otherwise be a no-brainer decision (going unranked).
We have our own clan discussion about the matter, let’s see where we are early next month and which server admins, if any, are willing to give up ranked.
In AUS/NZ we are having problems just getting enough people together for our weekly Tuesday games on the Love Shack. For us the discussion is too late Damned shame cause I love this game!
In that case the community has already judged by keeping their ranked filters on.
Would be best if activision or sd could just turn it off instead of the players supporting it all these years have to be stuck in dead end discussions because of the senseless risk involved in what would otherwise be a no-brainer decision (going unranked).
It’s not a trivial risk! Look at what happened to W:ET. For years it was the only shooter to rival Counter Strike in popularity and now it’s playerbase is an empty husk because the servers went overboard with distasteful custom trash that took hours to download. It became impossible to find servers that just supplied the stock content of the game they wanted to play.
People play W:ET to frag nazis and score xp in 3 or 6 map campaigns, not because they want to play in silly macdonald hats in subtracted waffen SS cubes where the most inane soundbites are played which took them hours and countless disconnects to finally transfer before they could enter the server.
Do the players need to scream it in your face? THEY DO. NOT. WANT. IT. Only the very small and very vocal minority on the forums want it.
The average player goes to the server browser, selects an almost filled server and wants to play within seconds. If not they’ll just leave and go for a different game that can gratify their need for instant action.
sereNADE, you use IRC? Might be nice to make a discussion channel so could talk some ideas over and stuff and invite some community members (modders, server admins and other key figures)?
I find shocking that you guys scorn so much the casual players, who are sometimes very bad because they don’t really involve in ETQW and are happy when they got a new medal.
An who cares, after all ?
I think that’s something important for ETQW that there is several communities, rankers, promod, custom.
[QUOTE=rUBBEN;381426]I find shocking that you guys scorn so much the casual players, who are sometimes very bad because they don’t really involve in ETQW and are happy when they got a new medal.
An who cares, after all ?
I think that’s something important for ETQW that there is several communities, rankers, promod, custom.[/QUOTE]
May I be the first to say, what?
There have been some digs made towards ‘white name scrubs’ but that isn’t the intention or purpose of this discussion.
I think for some here they just want to see ET:QW continue for longer, the communities you mention are currently miles apart from each other, needlessly because of ranked servers. Ranked servers have created a barrier between playing the base game and trying something different.
This thread is about discussing ideas to remove that barrier to make it easier for all to enjoy this game still without harming the said game.
Yes ok I understand chris, I just noticed that we don’t have to be scornful towards that casual players that are happy to get medals, it’s just another way to play, I didn’t mean to say this thread was bad, my poor english doesn’t permit me to really express myself well
Those bloody basterds who want their medals deserve to die from a painfull fire exposition I say!
mMmM I dont really care, I play what I want when I want, this solution might be cool but should have happened at least one year ago, where were the “big server’s admins” back then? Heh I dont even remember when it was but when I used to run SF we already had a custom server and tryed to get some people on from time to time, indeed it fialed hard because except for Nirvana, people never managed to move their arses to play custom maps, now isnt the time to cry… Should’ve done that years ago IMO. Sorry if it sounds rude, it is meant to be rude, because it’s what I think, and by far I’m not the most involved in custom contents… I just saw that when I tryed to support it a bit more and except for the “allways the same group of guys” no one showed up, because it was custom etc etc…
But well, going unranked might : get all the newbies to play some custom contents and be happy with it / get some people to rent new ranked servers which will quickly become more popular than the “old ones” (bh , Villa, OMS, FC and some other usualy full servers) / just never happen because admins of these said popular server will never all agree to go unranked / Divide by zero and bring the world to its end.
One game i play (albeit rarely) which has imo successfully merged custom and base maps is CS. While yes, there are some server’s which have gone a bit over the top (Seen some server’s which blast out hardcore german club music and all character models and maps have a simpson theme). Logically, i can’t see why it isn’t possible to merge them both in ET:QW (Some of the custom maps are up to (and even better than) base map standards imo, Maridia for example). Realistically, i doubt it would actually happen which is sad, as map makers wouldn’t be able to get fully appreciated for their hard work (I’ve tried making a map and i got completely lost, but may attempt again if i have time). Sad especially when nirvana is getting smaller and smaller
Honestly, without systematic change, I don’t see the reward for risk as being worth it at this point. Custom maps and mods are sidelined because the engine or game doesn’t seamlessly transition to custom content and I doubt it supports redirecting to a dl server. Without that incentive, why risk further fragmenting the remaining players for minor benefits.
Perhaps it’s possible to get a couple of unranked servers going for a little while if you make a concerted effort, but my guess is that you won’t be able to keep them viable for a longer period of time.
You can question the motives of people that go for rank or medals or whatever (I do!), but if you go unranked, you won’t see them join your server and my guess is that you’ll find yourself playing with the people that are on your friends list and the occasional, accidental tourist when the novelty wears off.
No new players, no server, it’s that simple in my view.
It’s not about making people move from one server to another, it’s trying to get existing servers to drop ranked for the good of mankind, they are a lot of misconceptions about unranked servers and user generated content which would need to be addressed first however, some of the replies this far are a prime example.
If it doesn’t work so be it, worth a shot though no? This defeatist attitude by some here is bit disappointing.
Also care to explain what the novelty is that would be wearing off? Most servers I’d imagine would continue to operate using the same settings and such but be paying less for the server?
Wasnt drunk at all, but meh, and if people doesnt play other maps / mod with this move it’s just a useless point then… Or maybe a first step in the right direction, but it’s clearly too late…
So yeah great idea that I fully support indeed, but either unrealistic or simply not worth anything.
Of course it’s too late, I don’t think anyone here is under any illusions that such an idea will make ET:QW popular again but it may open the eyes of those left to try new things and stick around a short while longer and if it would bring a few old faces back for a moment even better.
That or we could play all those other awesome MP games at the moment like, erm…
This thread started out as a discussion regarding changing over to unranked in order to have better games and more custom maps. It has kinda morphed into a discussion about other things along the way. Which is good. I guess the central question is how to keep the game going in the face the dwindling playerbase. If there is a way. Maybe we need a seperate thread ?
Yeah, that’s what I thought. The problem there is, once you say, “you need to download a mod”, the average gamer’s eyes glaze over and you get, “whatever” and back to vanilla. It might just come down to asking people that do visit the servers straight up, “would you be willing to download a map pack to play a new campaign. We’re keeping all of the stock maps. Just adding one campaign to the mix.”
The reason the servers that are popular now are popular is because they have active members. BH has BH members playing, Crypt has Crypt members playing etc. People are only looking for other people. I’ve seen some strange servers that probably haven’t seen a player in months (if not years) become populated, because someone joined it and then someone joined them.
I’ve had it happen to me, just trying to get my settings proper after a reinstall. Joined some random server just to test things out and someone joined. Then another and another. That’s why I say, players go where the people are and why my main concern is that they can see where the people are.
If someone joins a populated server and they see the exact same QW they know and love, I really don’t think anyone is going to know or care if it’s ranked or not. If we can get to that point, then we are one step closer to getting people to try something new.
Damned shame cause I love this game!
