Return of the vibe

[Gator]

I'm sure some of you out there might share the same feeling, SteamGamers just seems - Dull anymore. I mean like, back in '09, It was just all fun. SG seemed highly involved with CS:S. I understand that as times go forward, and newer games come out with modern player-bases, It would seem logical to move on. It doesn't feel much of a gaming community, It honestly just seems like a regular life-style forum anymore.

 

Some things I think that could be done to return the fun of SteamGamers is to have real events, not the events that are done in the group page. That recent classic ZE maps event was epic. If there was more events like that, It would be seriously epic. Event's wouldn't be like long things but back when that like 64 slot server event on ZE happened, I forget the name, It got many people to play and enjoy the community. Bi-Weekly events like before would probably help the player-base too.

 

We should also get more people on vent, unless no one is on as a way to rebel against not having mumble. Ventrillo is their for a way to people to talk, it would probably be used. The obvious won't be stated but, it was fun to play in the massive events with all the laughs, screams and low mic chatter.

[Maniac]

Ya sg's been pretty gay lately, don't even feel like going on vent much anymore

[Zeke]

Minecraft and Minigames are both doing pretty well though.

[jazzy]

the problem is that all of the members on the forums no longer play SG, but because SG is so big, pubbers generally don't come on the forums because they don't feel the need to, i mean back in da day, errybody knew errybody. i doubt half the people in MG even know who haggard is, or astrum, or anyone for that matter.

 

not to mention we have so much less actual activity in the servers as it is, there's so much wide variety of games that don't cater to our playerbase that we have no need to expand (the equivalent of getting players from bf3 servers is like expecting players from l4d1/2 servers)

 

this is no longer a golden-age of SG and events aren't going to bring sg back to it's prime time, half of our servers are dead, we lose playercount day by day and our averages are garbage, and it's not just school, but if we don't pick up donations soon then we won't make it to summer.

 

sg's gonna go out in a fucking whimper if people don't get off their ass and start maintaining servers to a respectable amount, or you might as well just recycle servers no one manages any longer, or even hand them off to other admins that would.

the best thing to do right now is to re-expand and devote more time, i should rephrase in saying events would work, but it would require more devotion than simple ze shit. we need to edit sourcemod motd's to include these new events and that means quit using images as banners and actually get our web designer(s) to develop a page that's more modular than a jpeg, spamming sm notifications would be nice. maybe even re-expanding back into TF2 as a proper server could work.

 

the whole entire reason we're here is because we pioneered zombie mod and escape in a way that we were special. SG has no more individuality anymore. i think it might be time we invest in actually hiring someone to make something innovative, maybe a new RP mode, or gmod gamemode, or even a new cs:s mod. because this isn't working, we have history but that doesn't mean shit. there are much much much much more dedicated servers out there than us that try hard to add new content. we use to have people making maps CONSISTENTLY for MG, JB, etc, but not anymore, we carry no new maps, and the only content we provide is trails and hats.

 

all i know is that the minute cs:go comes out, if we're still around, we better be paying up sourcemod developers to port over gamemodes that we use. we need that giant chunk of playerbase, and we need it bad.

 

anyway, a good start would be readding CA's, and making them into committees of about 5 people each dedicated to maintaining a server, and having a fucking requirement of basic SM knowledge, not know how to code, but just knowing what to do and how to catch sm errors.

 

and if worse comes to worse, and this place does die, well, you could always clear the ban list.

[Huwajux]

Long text

You act as though this is the only time we've had a drop in our playerbase, where the servers aren't filling up and other external factors are creating a diversion of populace (in this case it's BF3, but just wait till we have Skyrim released). I've been here for almost 4 years now and your post isn't the first of it's kind, and I doubt it'll be the last. The cycle repeats every year, and I hate to continuously play this card, but it really is because school and work is starting back up. This doesn't just affect our playerbase either, it affects every higher up. On top of that we all have our own personal issues that we have to deal with, which can come and go at any moment.

 

I'm not having a go at you either, because I recognise and understand your concern. It's just that it's the same every year, whereby we have a sustained influx of players on our servers during the summer, and then we clear out as soon as real life shit starts up again. Posts like yours are almost like the withdrawal symptoms of the community, since everything was going so well and now we have to adjust to a fraction of what we had before.

 

I'm not saying you don't bring up any valid points either, because you do. What I'm stating is that time is a precious reserve we don't have right now, and the place may look like it's dying because of it. I have a week off from uni and I am returning home today, so I should be able to try and detect what needs doing around here and attempt to make a difference. The problem here is that there are some things I cannot do alone, and even if I can, they may turn out poorly unless I have the critique from other higher ups to help me. In turn everything works against us, even if some of us manage to create some breathing room.

 

Something I will grant though, that I've brought up with my fellow AOs+, is the almost widespread sense of apathy people seem to have, even before school/work began. It's clear some people have lost their passion for helping the community, and kind of just sit there. It's not that work isn't being done, it's just that there is a lack of initiative to keep driving the community forward, and as a result it has led us to become stagnated.

 

This doesn't mean, however, that I am agreeing with your doomsday prophecy. These are issues that certainly need to be addressed, and if not taken care of will indeed be detrimental to the community as a whole. In other words, I am not dismissing any present issues we may have, I am simply stating that they are not fatal.

 

In addition, regarding your suggestion to the reinstatement of the CA rank, that is why we have this section. It seems superfluous to have a rank dedicated to suggestions, when we have a section purely for that reason, whereby people are not limited by their rank within the community in order to put something forward.

[Mr.Jesus]

TL;DR, Vent looks like shit with "Clusterfuck channels" and we have yet to give a BF3 server a trial run.

[Maniac]

I would love to see new players on vent and a better player base, hopefully we can do something with csgo

[jazzy]

longer text

 

Perhaps you're right and I'm just being paranoid. As for my CA suggestion I meant as more of a rank concurrent to TA just as a group effort between 3-5 people making sure the server stays maintained. Think of andre and ze, just that you have 4 andres to make sure the server is stable and content is being added, as it is not out of the norm for people who maintain servers become inactive or just plain uninspired (not trying to bark at Andre at all, as he has done great strides in ze). As for CA perhaps I should've used a different word other than CA as I understand it was used differently, just couldn't think of another rank name to represent what I was trying to convey.

 

Anyway, was definitely not trying to start something, was just trying to address issues that scurred me, sg is a great community but I wouldn't want to see it dead, maybe next time i should stat check better

[Im a Jackass]

We have had drops befor like this. I remember jail break had 0 people on it for a long time some time in 09 or maybe early 10. But any way Bf3 just came out so alot of people are playing that. When mw3 comes out as well that will also keep people away from css. All in good time it should come back up but SG does seem a bit dull now. Most of the servers dont even have any one in them even the good servers that always do such as ZE,Jail. MG is doing good and some times Death run. But other than that not alot of stuff is happening right now with the servers. Maybe in a month of two people will start coming back when they get bored of bf3.

[alb]

it's just been a bad couple months with the constant ddosing, issues with amit, removal of one of our dedis, etc.

 

the servers still crash constantly, just gave it some time to stabilize. it'll get better.