Who is SG for?

[Gentoo]

Curious as to who the target demographic of the community is. I mean this relatively, obviously, everyone is a potential member. What niche is the community looking to fill?

 

Understandably, the answer could still be everyone, but that begs the question of what the community has to offer relative to other larger communities with similar servers and more active development. I don't mean this in a passive aggressive way before anyone gets their panties bunched. Previously, it's been somewhat clear what and who we're geared to, and during my time as SM it was something we specifically looked at every time we made changes to the server or moderation. As of recently, likely because I've been distant, it seems that this isn't so much of a focus or it's more difficult to discern.

[20 scrolls]

Gamers I think

[Bondairy]

Just now, 20 scrolls said:

Gamers I think

do they play steam games?

[Kieran]

For me. All of it.

[Infinityward]

Ukrainians 

[kabLe]

You answered the question yourself. SG is for anyone and everyone who wants a chill environment to come shoot the shit and play video games. That’s what it’s foundation was and continues to be. The demographic of online gaming has changed over the years and we do our best to keep up with those changing demographics. Seeing how online gaming is moving from community based dedicated servers to general gaming via the use of discord as a HUB I’d say that’s the current direction we are leaning towards to attain. 
 

I agree that during your stint in staff we focused mainly on CSGO as that was our bread and butter but I think it’s fair to say the time of us being a strictly CSGO community is over. This is a transitional period and we are seeing highs and lows. Just as we did during the transitional period from different owners, css to csgo, etc

[Gentoo]

1 hour ago, kabLe said:

You answered the question yourself. SG is for anyone and everyone who wants a chill environment to come shoot the shit and play video games. That’s what it’s foundation was and continues to be. The demographic of online gaming has changed over the years and we do our best to keep up with those changing demographics. Seeing how online gaming is moving from community based dedicated servers to general gaming via the use of discord as a HUB I’d say that’s the current direction we are leaning towards to attain. 
 

I agree that during your stint in staff we focused mainly on CSGO as that was our bread and butter but I think it’s fair to say the time of us being a strictly CSGO community is over. This is a transitional period and we are seeing highs and lows. Just as we did during the transitional period from different owners, css to csgo, etc

i appreciate your efforts to take the topic seriously and provide something resembling an insightful answer. Unfortunately, this was about the answer I was expecting but not quite what I was hoping for, but I'll attribute that to my vague phrasing.

 

During my stint as SM it was difficult to compete with many of the larger established communities as their servers had much more active paid devs, not to discount the talent and dedication of our own, but it was simply impossible to keep up or surpass them in terms of new features or even general integrity and bug squashing. Most communities were already using the same base plugin as us, making it even more difficult to differentiate ourselves and offer something worth having. As a result, we looked at what outlets we had to separate ourselves from these servers and dig out our own little niche. Things like a wider map variety, fine tuned balancing, willingness to mess around with new ideas and events, and, prominently, our tolerance for tomfoolery and non-traditional playstyles in contrast to sterilized, polished, and heavily moderated servers of other communities allowed us to keep a solid foothold with our own culture and direction.

 

With that being said, I think much of this carries over to the community as a whole. What are we doing to dig out our own niche? Is there something we offer that other communities aren't? Is there some sense of culture or direction the community is aiming towards that would cater towards players ostracized by other communities? Or is everything riding on the idea that we might strike it big with an upcoming game like we've failed to do repeatedly over the years. Not that we shouldn't be putting our all into new projects and games, but is there any focus in the meantime on what we have, or are we just in some awkward limbo until that hopefully comes to fruition?

[kabLe]

9 minutes ago, Gentoo said:

i appreciate your efforts to take the topic seriously and provide something resembling an insightful answer. Unfortunately, this was about the answer I was expecting but not quite what I was hoping for, but I'll attribute that to my vague phrasing.

 

During my stint as SM it was difficult to compete with many of the larger established communities as their servers had much more active paid devs, not to discount the talent and dedication of our own, but it was simply impossible to keep up or surpass them in terms of new features or even general integrity and bug squashing. Most communities were already using the same base plugin as us, making it even more difficult to differentiate ourselves and offer something worth having. As a result, we looked at what outlets we had to separate ourselves from these servers and dig out our own little niche. Things like a wider map variety, fine tuned balancing, willingness to mess around with new ideas and events, and, prominently, our tolerance for tomfoolery and non-traditional playstyles in contrast to sterilized, polished, and heavily moderated servers of other communities allowed us to keep a solid foothold with our own culture and direction.

 

With that being said, I think much of this carries over to the community as a whole. What are we doing to dig out our own niche? Is there something we offer that other communities aren't? Is there some sense of culture or direction the community is aiming towards that would cater towards players ostracized by other communities? Or is everything riding on the idea that we might strike it big with an upcoming game like we've failed to do repeatedly over the years. Not that we shouldn't be putting our all into new projects and games, but is there any focus in the meantime on what we have, or are we just in some awkward limbo until that hopefully comes to fruition?

I apologize that I didn’t provide the answer you were looking however my answer still stands. You mention everything that was done to set ourselves apart from other communities within the context of CSGO. I believe I answered you in that our overall big picture focus is no longer on simply being a CSGO community. In the micro, we have an entire team dedicated towards specific servers. I’m sure you know that each manager is responsible for the innovation on their managed server. Being that there was some burnout we have recently had some turn overs and new promotions aimed at the goal of expansion beyond any specific game. 
 

I’m not sure what you are asking I guess. Are you looking for upcoming plans on our established servers, plans for new servers?

 

I don’t think we are exactly targeting players who are ostracized by other communities. If someone finds that their current community is no longer a good fit we will welcome them. If someone has no community to interact with, we will welcome them. Whether they play Destiny 2, Valorant, CSGO, etc.. we will welcome them. The direction is a gaming HUB. Me being a bit lower on the totem pole I can only speak for what I’ve seen and have discussed with others but as a whole I think everyone on the team would agree with that sentiment. Some people are more focused on that macro goal while some are focused on the micro regarding their managed server(s).

[Gentoo]

7 minutes ago, kabLe said:

Some people are more focused on that macro goal

Looking for what's going on here specifically. As you said earlier, managers would do things to set their servers apart. So what's being done to set the community as a whole apart from others? You've said that our focus has shifted away from CS:GO, but without a clear new direction (other than 'upwards and outwards lol') it seems at a surface level to be discounting their shrinking popularity and resigning them to their fate. I was specifically looking for non-game answers, but you're welcome to bring those in if you can and feel they're relevant. 

 

Current servers aside - why hang out here instead of EGO? Is there a focus or active efforts on the staff being more friendly? Is these services or platforms offered unique from other communities? Am I more free to speak my mind? Is it easy to get involved if I want to make friends or help the community in some way?

 

I understand this is a bit open ended, but if I had a specific point to make or facet to encourage, this thread would be in suggestions box lol. Just looking for something a bit more grounded than 'we want everyone here and we're doing whatever we can to make it happen!' but it's understandable if that's not an answer you have.

[kabLe]

1 hour ago, Gentoo said:

Looking for what's going on here specifically. As you said earlier, managers would do things to set their servers apart. So what's being done to set the community as a whole apart from others? You've said that our focus has shifted away from CS:GO, but without a clear new direction (other than 'upwards and outwards lol') it seems at a surface level to be discounting their shrinking popularity and resigning them to their fate. I was specifically looking for non-game answers, but you're welcome to bring those in if you can and feel they're relevant. 

 

Current servers aside - why hang out here instead of EGO? Is there a focus or active efforts on the staff being more friendly? Is these services or platforms offered unique from other communities? Am I more free to speak my mind? Is it easy to get involved if I want to make friends or help the community in some way?

 

I understand this is a bit open ended, but if I had a specific point to make or facet to encourage, this thread would be in suggestions box lol. Just looking for something a bit more grounded than 'we want everyone here and we're doing whatever we can to make it happen!' but it's understandable if that's not an answer you have.

I wish I could give you more specific information however I’m not the one who should be delivering any specifics on works in progress. I will defer to the Board to handle that. What I can tell you is that we are focusing on specific endeavors aimed towards the macro however these things take time to fully think out and implement in a meaningful way.

 

As to your point on why choose SG over other communities, that’s kind of subjective. Some people look to join a community where there is a clear and quick pathway through staff positions so that they can do server or community related things. I personally would not fit in at EGO, never have never will. I enjoy the looser moderating style that SG tends to have and the tighter community feel that you get over a place like GFL where it’s more sub communities per server under one larger community. We obviously strive to be inclusive towards different types of people but that’s much easier said than done. 
 

Id be interested to hear why you specifically prefer SG over another community that you could have joined and worked towards bettering. Without feedback, we can only go off what we see and hear throughout our hallways. Do you think our staff is too strict these days? Too loose? I’d personally say your more free to speak your mind over a community like EGO but that’s just me. You’ve already achieved getting involved with the community on a deeper level and in turn I’m sure you’ve made your share of friends. Do you think that was difficult or easy? What in specific do you think we could do better to improve the overall atmosphere?