SG keeps pushing!

[Dominic]

Hello everyone,

 

We just wanted to bring you guys an announcement about plans we currently have going on in the background, with something of a community update to go along with it. Firstly, it feels almost obligatory now to mention this every now and again: but Steam-Gamers is here to stay. We know this can be a persistent question in people's minds with our lower population numbers in recent times, along with many other communities shutting down around us. However, we have every intention of keeping things up and running, and we're still actively working on new stuff to bring to the table. 

 

@Caution and I have struggled with activity in recent months, so we honestly have to give a massive amount of credit to our extremely strong board of Directors; @jazzy, @Elfbarf, @Zero Two, and @Karma, along with the entirety of our AO and TA team. They're really to credit for SG still providing that sense of community that many people are seeking. And that is what our goal was yesterday, that is our goal today, and that will be our goal tomorrow. We simply want to provide a place for people to game with one another and form friendships. We fully intend on continuing on for that reason.

 

In the coming weeks, we have a few different things that might be brought to life. Though at the moment we're just vetting ideas and working through discussions. These ideas include: an ARK: Survival Ascended server, reigniting our Squad server, and potentially launching some new CS2 stuff. We have a few ideas in mind for that piece, but we're still just working out whether or not continuing in CS2 is of much use. This is the part where we, as always, would love to hear your input as community members, and definitely feel free to mention anything else you'd like to see! While we don't want to do too many things at once, we're probably looking to offer you guys at least a couple more things.

 

Along with that, we're planning on running a community meeting quite soon here, probably in collaboration with one of the gaming events we usually run on Discord. So feel free to save your input for then if you aren't much of a typing person. Additionally, with all of these things in mind, please note that we're always looking for new staff members to bring on board. Whether you're interested in being a Server Admin to give input at a higher level and moderate our Discord, stepping up to Administrative Officer to help with the actual management of our servers, or if you have technical skills that could assist our Technical Team in keeping the gears turning! We appreciate all the help we can get, so please reach out.

 

Within the next 7 days, expect the following:

 

- A community meeting announcement with a date attached

- Some possible new promotions 

- A final announcement on at least one of the mentioned servers

- Exciting news about our Supporter rank

 

Thank you everyone, and happy gaming!

[Steven.]

Rust.

[Ejivis]

Thanks for the update!  Look forward to more info soon.

 

I like the idea of a Squad server.  I love the idea of a Hell Let Loose server though.  Wish they would let you setup your own.  It really is a shame how HLL does things with their servers.

[FanService]

I might have a reason for you to keep me around again let's go!!!

[Spiritwind]

" lower population numbers in recent times"

"struggled with activity in recent months"

 

It's been going on for years.  Not in recent times or months.  The crazy thing is, nothing is changing. 

 

People are not leaving because the supporter system needs a rework.  People are not leaving because the right people aren't being promoted.  People are not leaving because you haven't rebooted the same server for the 10th time.  People aren't leaving because of the community name.  People are leaving because of poor leadership and a lack of direction, organization, and sense of community.  Hell, the only thing you need to do to become BD now is to have gotten banned at one point and then just be active in discord.  It's a toxic environment, with the only people sticking around being those that feed on the constant narcissistic backslap that seems to go around, and a limited few who just miss the old days, hope that some day things will get better, and don't want to see it gone forever.  

 

There really is just a point where you have to sit down and look at what SG has become under the current leadership.  Just because it has a server up and some people that talk in discord does not mean its surviving.  

 

At the time of writing this, in the last 12 hours, only 1 person has attempted to connect/join an SG server.  That is where we are at.  That is the state and health of the 'community'.

 

Community Faith in SG leadership < 0

 

Honestly, at this point, why don't we just have a timer and if you play on an SG server for 30 minutes, you automatically get Admin.  Would save you guys some time.  Reminds me of joining a desperate 12 year olds minecraft and they scream 'if you stay I'll give you admin' into chat.  

 

[Ejivis]

40 minutes ago, Spiritwind said:

At the time of writing this, in the last 12 hours, only 1 person has attempted to connect/join an SG server.  That is where we are at.  That is the state and health of the 'community'.

 

This is not really fair.  The discord had MANY people in voice channel playing games (non server hosted) just a couple days ago.  Many times events are hosted that have people in the discord doing things together.  

 

Also, servers have had a decent population based on circumstances.  GMOD TTT has been doing fine.  The VRising server had a good player base.  Insurgency is coming along.  

When it comes to CS2, most servers are not consistently populated due to how Valve has treated community servers.  But, I play retakes with my friends and we have full servers whenever a couple of us get on.  The issue is that those on CS do not want to join 0 person servers considering the state of everything.  

[Spiritwind]

1 hour ago, Ejivis said:

This is not really fair.  The discord had MANY people in voice channel playing games (non server hosted) just a couple days ago.  Many times events are hosted that have people in the discord doing things together.  

 

Also, servers have had a decent population based on circumstances.  GMOD TTT has been doing fine.  The VRising server had a good player base.  Insurgency is coming along.  

When it comes to CS2, most servers are not consistently populated due to how Valve has treated community servers.  But, I play retakes with my friends and we have full servers whenever a couple of us get on.  The issue is that those on CS do not want to join 0 person servers considering the state of everything.  

You don't need admins, higher ranking staff, or a rework of the donations system for people playing in voice chat on discord.  

[Dominic]

3 hours ago, Spiritwind said:

" lower population numbers in recent times"

"struggled with activity in recent months"

 

It's been going on for years.  Not in recent times or months.  The crazy thing is, nothing is changing. 

 

People are not leaving because the supporter system needs a rework.  People are not leaving because the right people aren't being promoted.  People are not leaving because you haven't rebooted the same server for the 10th time.  People aren't leaving because of the community name.  People are leaving because of poor leadership and a lack of direction, organization, and sense of community.  Hell, the only thing you need to do to become BD now is to have gotten banned at one point and then just be active in discord.  It's a toxic environment, with the only people sticking around being those that feed on the constant narcissistic backslap that seems to go around, and a limited few who just miss the old days, hope that some day things will get better, and don't want to see it gone forever.  

 

There really is just a point where you have to sit down and look at what SG has become under the current leadership.  Just because it has a server up and some people that talk in discord does not mean its surviving.  

 

At the time of writing this, in the last 12 hours, only 1 person has attempted to connect/join an SG server.  That is where we are at.  That is the state and health of the 'community'.

 

Community Faith in SG leadership < 0

 

Honestly, at this point, why don't we just have a timer and if you play on an SG server for 30 minutes, you automatically get Admin.  Would save you guys some time.  Reminds me of joining a desperate 12 year olds minecraft and they scream 'if you stay I'll give you admin' into chat.  

 

 

So I'm going to go down this rabbit hole with you once again.. without saying 'you need to resign' or 'get rid of the higher-ups' - please tell me what you would do with the community if you were in a leadership position. I am not saying that in a condescending way or to come across dismissive. I am literally begging you to just tell me what you think is being done wrong. GFL, the biggest community when CS:GO was in a good position, has just closed its doors. Edge Gamers, the second biggest if not the actual biggest, has one server left in CS2. You're speaking to us as if we've been dealt a grand hand and are throwing it to the wayside. Please.. I am begging you to respond with something of meaning that anyone can actually gain something from.

[Ejivis]

3 hours ago, Spiritwind said:

You don't need admins, higher ranking staff, or a rework of the donations system for people playing in voice chat on discord.  

Having an infrastructure does not hurt you.  Setting yourself up for the future is not a disadvantage.  Although unlikely, Valve could release an update soon that revitalizes CS2 community servers.  Or, another game could come out that takes the community server aspect by storm.  Being proactive is always better than being reactive.  There is nothing being done so far with the admin and staff hierarchy that is not potentially beneficial for the future.  

[Spiritwind]

On 7/16/2024 at 2:40 PM, Dominic said:

 

So I'm going to go down this rabbit hole with you once again.. without saying 'you need to resign' or 'get rid of the higher-ups' - please tell me what you would do with the community if you were in a leadership position. I am not saying that in a condescending way or to come across dismissive. I am literally begging you to just tell me what you think is being done wrong. GFL, the biggest community when CS:GO was in a good position, has just closed its doors. Edge Gamers, the second biggest if not the actual biggest, has one server left in CS2. You're speaking to us as if we've been dealt a grand hand and are throwing it to the wayside. Please.. I am begging you to respond with something of meaning that anyone can actually gain something from.

You know, I honestly don't know.  Gaming has since evolved past large group social seeking gaming into more of a private party social gaming.  Server browsers are all but gone, nearly every game supports private party groups, and there is no longer a need for giant networks like this, except in very niche games, and even then, everyone is familiar with clients like discord that even though people might join a server, they aren't going to seek out the community or the discord for that server beyond basic support.  People are also in dozens of discord servers.  I can't name how many I've joined, used for a single day for support in some way, and haven't opened that discord since.

 

Pretty much the only appeal communities like SG have are people in our generations, who seek out the nostalgia of it, or communities centered around social differences or beliefs.  

 

 

 

My honest opinion, servers aren't really needed anymore, expect for what the community wants to do.  SG does not have to have a counter-strike server.  It does not need to have a rust server.  But, if the community wants to have one, then by all means, keep one active.  Gaming Communities are no longer measured in success by their servers.  Servers in general are becoming outdated.  People are also no longer interested in the 'gaming community' that runs a server either.  It's just another brand in the mass of brands.  Chances are the next time they play the game, they'll just click the matchmaking button with whatever settings they want.  Short of survival games, there is literally no need or desire to join the same server in modern gaming.

 

Instead, I think we should be focusing on both discord and the website/forums.  SG right now has very limited, if not any, discoverability.  Short of typing Steam Gamers, you'll have trouble finding anything regarding it on Google difficult.  When was the last time someone put work into SEO?  I know it was mentioned that the website is a technical nightmare, but honestly, it's probably far more important than anything else that could be done.  What can we offer to bring more traffic here?  Perhaps a resource network of how to run and operate your own gaming server?  Maybe some useful SG plugins for games that you have to come here to download for your own server?  Not sure if that would cause member retention, but at least it'd be some traffic.  

 

There is still a need for a social setting like the forums though.  If there wasn't, Reddit would not still be around.  

 

You have to come to a realization though Dom, Steam-Gamers is all but dead.  It hasn't been months or a short time.  Its been years, and it has been in a constant decline even under your leadership.  I'm not saying you have to resign, I don't think it'd make a difference at this point.  What was done is done.  But, what you guys are doing isn't going to bring new players.  You can probably count the amount of people excited by your announcement on a single hand.  Do something different to expect different results.  Right now you are doing the same exact thing as Edge Gamers, and they are dying.  You are doing the same thing as Hellsgamers, and they are dead.  You are doing the same thing as 99% of other gaming communities that no longer exist, and SG is all but gone because of it.