State of the Servers

[Orange juice :l]

I feel like we're missing the point by a wider margin with every page. The whole point was that while there was (and clearly still is) a great deal of very vocal discontent, the whole idea that everyone seems to share of Saxton Hale's popularity causing the decrease in popularity of other modes is unfounded. So really, what's causing MM8BDM to die? Is Cutstuff over and done with MM8BDM? We can't force people to play things they don't find fun. Does MM8BDM need a new home, with people that don't find it stale/dead?

[MusashiAA]

I feel like we're missing the point by a wider margin with every page.

My topic in a nutshell. And by the same people, too.

I actually have decided to not state an opinion about any mods from now on or until I have made my own mod/gamemode. The latter will never happen, so there you go.

[Shyster]

Whatever the cause and effect of Saxton and the decline of MM8BDM, at least not having any cutstuff veterans on the Saxton servers makes them actually somewhat fun to play on. There's nothing more satisfying that beating up on an incompetent Hale sometimes.

On topic, I think the separation of an original core of players from the game to their only presence being on that game's forums is inevitable. I've seen it happen before on this one flash strategy game I used to play. When time passed, the only real interest in the game was indirect because of the existence of a forum community wrapped up in the forum itself. I guess people can get tired of a game, but not a message board.

[Dr. Crasger]

I don't think people always have the patience (or, with school being in full force, time) to sit and wait in an empty server they want to play and wait for playmates to come. It can take quite a while, and by the time people actually show up, you may not even feel like playing anymore.

This is just how I feel all the time now. I'm sick and tired of Saxton Hale.
Not that into vanilla, I just wish there were more new PWADs that had exposure. Like LMSGames, KY Classes, the 'main mappacks' (i.e, AMP, Sharp, CSCM, DRSG, etc.), MMSP, MMXSP, MMU Classes, Lobsticle Course, and many more. It seems like the state of the multiplayer community has come to a halt and the only mod that's still going and working is Saxton Hale. (by going and working I mean the one that's actually being played.

[OtakuAlex]

I don't think people always have the patience (or, with school being in full force, time) to sit and wait in an empty server they want to play and wait for playmates to come. It can take quite a while, and by the time people actually show up, you may not even feel like playing anymore.

This is just how I feel all the time now. I'm sick and tired of Saxton Hale.
Not that into vanilla, I just wish there were more new PWADs that had exposure. Like LMSGames, KY Classes, the 'main mappacks' (i.e, AMP, Sharp, CSCM, DRSG, etc.), MMSP, MMXSP, MMU Classes, Lobsticle Course, and many more. It seems like the state of the multiplayer community has come to a halt and the only mod that's still going and working is Saxton Hale. (by going and working I mean the one that's actually being played.

I also wish more mods would get exposure, but if people are truly are sick of Saxton, someone should host a server with some of these mods to get them more exposure and many who are sick of SH would come.

[CopShowGuy]

I usually check doomseeker daily for a good non-saxton hale server.  I just don't want to play it.  I miss playing on crowded servers that are more vanilla.

[Knux]

Yeah, I think this thread has run it's course. All I hope is to never see one of these again.

[MusashiAA]

I've always thought of this kind of thread as an appeal to a mayority that doesn't exist, which is why I tried my best in discussing the issue rather than discussing how many people care about it.

I think Saxton has its own playerbase, and we should respect that. After all, they count as MM8BDM playerbase, like it or not. We have people that like vanilla DM, people that like vanilla TLMS, people that like Classes DM, people that like Classes TLMS, people that like Saxton, and people that like Classes Saxton: they are all having fun with what the MM8BDM community has come up with, and that shouldn't be discriminated.

Maybe the Saxton playerbase is a lot more commited to playing the game than us, despite what we think about the game mode itself. As you may know from my thread, I have a very negative opinion about Saxton Hale in general, but that doesn't mean people can't enjoy it and that I don't understand that. They enjoy it for their own reasons, and that can't be bad. There is only one active Classes Saxton server, and apparently that is all the Saxton playerbase needs.

Then the question at hand should not be centered towards Classes Saxton "stealing" the other server's players. It should be centered towards what happened to the rest of the MM8BDM playerbase, determining if the current behavior of the playerbase is normal, and coming to terms with that. Many reasons have been given as to why there's not many people playing other modes besides Saxton-related servers, and I've seen this behavior repeat for a long time now some time after the latest vanilla version's release, so I guess it is normal for our game to have a few people playing a match of something sometimes while a consistent group of people play Saxton almost every day.

[Orange juice :l]

Then the question at hand should not be centered towards Classes Saxton "stealing" the other server's players. It should be centered towards what happened to the rest of the MM8BDM playerbase

This is the idea I was trying to get across. Of course, there are still people who are complaining about their favorite servers being empty whilst Saxton is full, so I suppose not everybody else realizes it. Your favorite modes aren't going to be played unless you're there to fill them up. And what if it doesn't fill up regardless? Well, I'm sorry to say, but it looks like your fellow players have all left and your game mode is dead until you can recruit some new blood.

[Tengu]

I think the core idea here is that the majority of the regular Cutstuff forum-goers don't actively play the game. From what I can tell, most of the players don't even have forum accounts.

[Rui]

I usually ask some of my friends to play with me on dead servers. the other day i was playing on an empty classes server with a friend, and before i knew it 3 or 4 more players randomly joined in. maybe servers need a bit of a jump start, you know

[Deviddo]

Typically once you get 2 people into a server, that's all it needs for that jumpstart.

[Sir Lemon]

I don't know about you guys but I love me some Vanilla DM...and boy, is that hard for me to get started. I've not been nearly prolific enough on the matter.

I believe Kapus already said it, sitting around in a server waiting for it to fill up is not the most exciting thing and I've done this on occasion. Sometimes, though, if I'm willing to wait a good chunk of time (and most of the time I start thinking of better things to do) I can actually get some good DM action going.

Right on Rui, that's the way to do it. My usual method now is grabbing some friends, occupying an empty server and waiting for folks to roll in. That's been the best way to do it, pure and simple.

That's not always possible for me to do, though, as people are sometimes busy with other things.

Deathmatch servers do pop up fairly often but I usually refrain from joining due to it being filled with beginning players. I have no problem with new players whatsoever but playing against them just makes me feel like a bit of a bully and before I know it, the server is cleared out. So, that's another server to scratch off the list.

I also thought Hotel would be a nice place to frag some folks but apparently not. I get kicked for not roleplaying or something (for the record it wasn't the host that kicked me for breaking the "rules" it was a few of the players there).

Now I know if I go sit in a duel server people will show. There's a pretty good level of interest for Duel and all it takes is one other guy to get things going. DM's a bit tougher than that; same is likely true for CTF, TDM or anything else that needs more players in general.

I think that if more people grabbed their friends when they're available and populated some servers, we'd see a nice flow of action from the other gametypes and if you're sick of vanilla we got all these other mods and maps to toss in for a little spice.

Couldn't hurt, eh? I'm always down for a game if you guys are.

[OtakuAlex]

Well, Sir Lemon, I think the reason it's hard to get people into a Vanilla DM server is because they want something interesting added into the mix, even a wep pack would do. I don't generally like DM matches, but I'd join one if there were some cool, OP weapons everywhere for us to kill each other with. I actually remember there being a DM server with Unreal Weps that was rather popular (though, I don't know how long it lasted), I wonder what happened to it.