Sell the server?

[mousEtopher]

most of the answers even from admins i hear have to do with this being a 20-year old dying game. what a convenient statement. how about that gaming has never been as big as it is right now especially blizzard? not to mention the world is always growing in pop. sure, it would take some work but with the right team sharing the efforts it's doable. this game could be much healthier with 5x the pool and it wouldn't take long.

Sorry to be dismissive Nedro, but we've just heard it all over and over again. "If only admins did xyz, the server would be restored to it's former glory." We know what the server needs, tk and masta and others have outlined elaborate plans again and again, but what it boils down to is what it needs is more than any of its volunteer staff has available to sink into it.

We might actually have more people contributing in the past year or so than ever before -- Tora organized tons of tournies and gave away gobs of cash prizes, Lance made & has hosted a great hostbot for months, Rit has done a great job managing social media, I've continued to expand & improve the website, iL has of course invested hundreds of hours into maintaining/migrating/improving the server, blid is blid, more people are streaming than ever before...

None of it has really made a long-term difference though, for the reasons blid said. New players face so many obstacles before they can even start playing the game, hosting and color glitches and no one around to talk to, never mind play with, and there's no easy fix for it. I provided on-demand support to newbs via a bot for several months straight earlier this year, and it is a lot of work. And to be clear, new players are coming in -- the website gets hundreds of daily page views and there have been thousands of downloads this year alone. If we wanted more we could run Facebook ads at any time, which have a proven track record. The problem is they leave just as fast (for completely understandable reasons) and until there's a real solution for that everything we do really only serves to improve the server for its (ever-dwindling) existing playerbase.

[Certified MENSA Genius Brain (smart)]

Well, I think hosting and color issues aren't quite that bad now... I don't play on Win7/10 and don't know if the fixes are perfected or included in the patches but I know there was a long thread where someone was releasing numerous different color/display fixing patches.  I know that iL has included UPnP in the latest Combat releases.  For constructive feedback that might be easy, here's an idea, what if there was a new player's guide?  Like when you install combat, something pops up, short and to the point, that gives new users a little direction?  (As far as Nedro's issues, I get that that stuff is annoying but I really don't think the other players want server level punishment for anything other than hacking)

[shesycompany]

change the language to offer more places in the world...idk

sigh yeah a noob will more than likely just give up.

i can get it to work in dosbox +custom win98 to auto boot it,but the problem is connecting dbox to a network... messes that idea up even i cant pull it off yet.

can use dos since it can be config'ed to auto connect to a host and just let them play dos lol.

[Certified MENSA Genius Brain (smart)]

(pop up that wont close and keeps poping back up)Hello new user!!  Before You PLay, Read this dfirst (really please read or you wont know whats going on ya dumb noob, lol)

Welcome to this community, Warcraf 2 (War2 for short, not wc2) is a classic game that is stil lgreat today, and we here have been playing this fuckin shit for 20 years now.  And our commuynity is TOXIC hahah!!

Anyway long storey short the pros here dont have time for you.  We Will berate you and boot you from our games, until you get good, because ne wplayerrs liek you just get in the way.  BUT DONT Dont let that stop you from playing. BEcause some day you can become a pro too and call people "noob lord scurb ass" which will make this all worth it

Anyway, when you log in, join the channel "The Chamber" which is a pretty badass name by the way.  We are putting all the noobs on a train straight to THE CHAMBER.  Here you can find other new players to play together .  Theres a bot there and if you tell the bot your skype name or something and what kind of games youre looking for it will tweet other new players and and thers a whole system worked out.    Antoher thing you can do, is join games called GOW with pros in them and watch.  Tell them you are a watcher and ally everyone and don't build and watch and learn.  Pratcie against the computer and against other nobs, or, ask a pro maybe to help train you.  Tell him you can be the next "swift" they'll know what that means

[Sentinel1]

The only way the server would ever evolve past what it is now, in general, is if there was a huge influx of new users at roughly one time.  That way there are plenty of 'newbie games' where people of similar skill levels can play each other and learn slowly. Because as it is now, the chances of a new player signing on, playing a game with people who a) let them play, or b) don't just run them the fuck over, is very very low. 

I dont see any tutorial or instructional video or anything else coming close to matching the effectiveness of easily playing with players of a similar skill level. 

I will say that it seems in the past 6 months or so since I came back there have been more new users signing on than there's been in a long time, and a few of them have stuck around and become competitive enough.  Im pretty sure Talrand, for example, said he just came like 4 months ago or so.  And I posted before about how often I see users I've never heard of hosting private games with newbie settings like Fast speed, probably playing their friends. 

So there have been some new users, but I think it would take a much higher volume to make a real difference.  And that isn't really anything to do with blid or anyone else.

[Nox]

The probleme is the communauty itself.

The communauty is blind by ther love and respect of this staff.

I dont know how to explain it after 2 years, i try from every point.

But i will said it again, and again, and again, cuz someone have to do it.

The communauty is blind by ther love and respect of this staff, and by this aspect they keep believe they deserve to be here because they always have keep the server ( Alive ) for all those years.

But the reality, here, in 2016 is not what it should be.

First, at the moment we talk, there thousand and thousand of FREE GAMES, all over internet. FREE games in HD build with new generation of materials.

Now we got this game, from 1998, probably build in 32 bit on something like that, a basic game with tower and catapults.

Im gonna told you something guys, im gonna told you a secret, pro RTS player are playing game with 4 races and more, each race probably have 60 differents units, they have tournament with big cash prize, big announcement, ALL BIG EVERYTHING!!!

Now we got us, with our suppose 20$ tournament.

Hey seriously, i got no hate, just some major props for xora.

But i told him since the start, its gonna go no where, your dropping your money out of the windows, but i still respect, good luck.

And i was right, War2 have never been so dead, i have play all the week and i have never seen the game so dead.

By this fact i even get the #1 spot in the ladder, dont even ask yourself why it been so easy, BIG LOL....

But, you guys will keep to listen those admins who are telling you everything is good and everything have never been so great.

We got socal media, we got cash prizeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee tournamenttttttttttttttttttt, we got strong newbs!! We got, super patch uselesss patch!!!!!!!!!!! We gotttt.... Wait.... WE GOT FUCKING NOTHINGGGG!!!!!

And im gonna told you why, cuz those admins dont even BELIEVE IN THIS SERVER, those admins dont even believe IN YOU GUYS!!! Those admins DONT FUCKING CARESS, they just let this server ( Alive ) by paying a dumb domaine a 8$ per month and dint Cares about nothing else..

They dont want us to improve, they dont want us to get more, they are just LOSER who totally got nothing IN THERE LIFEE... BUT TOTALLY NOTHING, and they take this game in hostage cuz it's the only thing they got!!!!!!!!!!!! But they are so loser and coward they cant even take cares of the only thing they got... THey want the shyne but they dont want to work hard for it.

Let me told you something guys, your also cowards, you all have been give your life for this game, the last 15 years of your life have been givin to this game, all those face i see over and over everyday since the 15 last years, those guys can play 16 hours per day like robots.. And i dont said im better then them, i did that too long time ago, i have past 16 hours per day on this game, losing everything in my life, i did too, but at least, i stand up like a man, and i said the truth, and ive try to made big change, and it work, but even with all those changes, something has never change, and this is your dumb lazy fucking staff who dont fucking cares about you! Now, im told you this again, and to save ther face, that staff gonna stand up togheter and work for the 2 next month. But in 2 months, they gonna leave us again, like every fucking time, and you will keep this pathetic run all of your life... Playing something for no reason like fucking robots, FUCKING ROBOTS.

[Certified MENSA Genius Brain (smart)]

The only way the server would ever evolve past what it is now, in general, is if there was a huge influx of new users at roughly one time. 

This is right on, and we've talked about this before, whether to do some kind of big coordinated ad buy all at once, and one of the things people always said was that it'd be great if hosting and the color/display stuff was worked out first before we did that.  There was a reddit thread one time that brought in a huge stream of views (not sure how many translated to downloads) before it got deleted or something.  If we could get a just slightly viral thing like that, or if we could find some streamer with 20k viewers who used to play and would be willing to come back and play for a week while streaming, anything like that could be big.  We just a) need something like that to happen, and b) need to be ready if it does.

[Nedro]

Who even fucks around like that as a watcher?

This is rhetorical right? It was a top 10 player not a rando. Admins have told me it's hard to police without proof. When I told two separate admins I have proof via video they go mysteriously quiet. The job of an admin is to deal with things not practice avoidance.

if it's someone they do know and like that's screwing around

In this case it's not. I hope that's clear now.

I can only imagine the butt saltiness if that person were to be suspended.

I really hope this isn't a significant reason used by admins to not take action. What about the saltiness the rest of the community deals with because users are allowed to act this way? A precedent must be set.

the reasons not for policing that stuff has nothing at all to do with this being an old game and everything to do with we, as a community, have always decided not to police that stuff.  blizzard never did and the vast majority of players never wanted to.

By saying Blizzard never did is comparing apples and oranges. The size and age of the community are entirely different. I imagine you may use size/age as reasons to support your own argument. If it's 2000 with games running around the clock and someone wants to watcher kill  on a semi-regular basis fine, who cares? If it's 2016 and it's done knowing that the user is recording, that's ridiculous. That's dividing the community.  These types of players have very little to offer a healthy player pool. Anyone who chooses to do nothing about it is taking the game in the wrong direction.

I encourage you to ask, if it weren't always done this way, how would we start?

[Nedro]

I really appreciate that recent responses are getting more constructive. If I had a tiny hand in that, I'm glad I spoke up.

[Sentinel1]

honestly nedro I cant even remotely empathize with your point of view.  i haven't been killed as a watcher in years and I've seen it happen a few times at most.  just seems obvious its the type of thing that should be self-policing, especially when its something so minor.  doesnt make sense to have blid babysitting dumb shit like that.  are we going to ban people who bs others too?  should we ban paperboy and swift for pausing all the time?  should we ban people who rage-hide peons at the end of games?  maybe - but from games, not the server.

[Nox]

At some point yes there some idiot player like PB who deserve big time banning, but these staff are not gonna ban those peoples because they are consider OLD players. Letting happen this kind of thing for more then ten years and thats what we got, new peoples who fear that game after 3 days, same thing with peoples who dont use anti hack. There ton of player who try to be legit while other one dont fucking cares and do what they want.

Useless staff ever, dont even know what they are doing with this server and using favoritism.

AND THE LAG, omg everyone lag in this fucking stupid 32 bit game.

Oh i forgot, they allow, different version of the game so custom player can keep hacking and by the same way it created a big latency issue will bring amazing unplayable lag.

So actually they are creating future hacker and lagger and they let it happen.

Great staff, let's be honnets, GREAT STAFF.

[Certified MENSA Genius Brain (smart)]

I really hope this isn't a significant reason used by admins to not take action. What about the saltiness the rest of the community deals with because users are allowed to act this way? A precedent must be set.

Feel free to conduct a survey or something but it's my belief the vast majority of the community does not want server admins policing unpleasant behavior, and prefers them only to police hacking. 

Backstabbing someone are not against rules because backstabbing someone dint need to use secret software to have an advatange against someone.

Backstabbing someone is totally legit, if you dont like to get backstabb dont play with backstabber.

Yes this is totally fair since the game allow you to do it...

It's not a hack it's not a cheat it's just a bad behavior, if you dont like to play with peoples of this kind your always able to do your own job and ban them, if they smurf, ban smurf.

Don't think it's a loophope, I don't even think DISCING is against the rules. Just against the general server 'nice guy' etiquette.
Personally I think youre overreacting. Yes, pball games are easiest to bs on, but its for a reason - they are generally hyper dynamic and all end within 2-3 minutes. Not much time is lost here...

It's also allowed to stay after the game is "over" on chop farms (with farms behind the woods), which may cost everyone a lot of time to sapp the way to them/get air... especially if the game ended early. so the "loss" here is even bigger...
It's allowed to ruin games as a watcher, which can also be very impactful and the general time loss would also be bigger here.


Personally, yes, I am defending backstabbers and don't think anything should be changed regarding that matter. You just, errr, ban the dude next time.

[Nox]

I really hope this isn't a significant reason used by admins to not take action. What about the saltiness the rest of the community deals with because users are allowed to act this way? A precedent must be set.

Feel free to conduct a survey or something but it's my belief the vast majority of the community does not want server admins policing unpleasant behavior, and prefers them only to police hacking. 

Backstabbing someone are not against rules because backstabbing someone dint need to use secret software to have an advatange against someone.

Backstabbing someone is totally legit, if you dont like to get backstabb dont play with backstabber.

Yes this is totally fair since the game allow you to do it...

It's not a hack it's not a cheat it's just a bad behavior, if you dont like to play with peoples of this kind your always able to do your own job and ban them, if they smurf, ban smurf.

Don't think it's a loophope, I don't even think DISCING is against the rules. Just against the general server 'nice guy' etiquette.
Personally I think youre overreacting. Yes, pball games are easiest to bs on, but its for a reason - they are generally hyper dynamic and all end within 2-3 minutes. Not much time is lost here...

It's also allowed to stay after the game is "over" on chop farms (with farms behind the woods), which may cost everyone a lot of time to sapp the way to them/get air... especially if the game ended early. so the "loss" here is even bigger...
It's allowed to ruin games as a watcher, which can also be very impactful and the general time loss would also be bigger here.


Personally, yes, I am defending backstabbers and don't think anything should be changed regarding that matter. You just, errr, ban the dude next time.

Hey blid do you take time to read your peoples??? I literally write ** AT SOME POINT **

And PB is someone in the ** AT SOME POINT ** Level.

That dude is total trash but when we said trash we said TRASH.

Nobody have never do nothing against him, even if he ruined thousand and thousand of games in the ladder.

I can understand in team games where its maybe  funny, but in 1v1 competitivly, never i will endose this kind of behavior and yes i will ban those trash for a week, and second offense will be  2 week, and third offense will be 1 month, everytime it will be the double.

Period.

[Nox]

And by banning this kind of trash i will double my customers, because making one mother fucker happy make 30 future player hangry, so i will be smarter then you and ban that fucking mother fucker and keep that 30 future players, but you got some love for the old school dumb fucker, aint you? dumb ass.

[Sentinel1]

lol