*AuthorTopic: Streamers and the Community  (Read 2239 times)

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Aron Times

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Streamers and the Community
« on: June 10, 2016, 09:32:49 AM »
Hello, Hyperion Gaming.

Let me begin by saying that your 32-player servers were what made me start playing on other 32-player servers. I had previously dismissed them as mindless spamfests, as most 32-player servers from before I started avoiding them had instant respawn. Instant respawn is the only setting I don't like in TF2. I like random crits, bullet spread, and damage spread, but will play on servers with those turned off. However, I refuse to play on servers with instant respawn.

The best part is that there aren't a lot of Engie and Spy copycats on your servers. I've had a lot of problems with copycats who think that Engie Aron or Spy Aron could use 19484573947839 extra Engies and Spies to help him by stealing his metal and increasing enemy paranoia. I am often forced to switch class when this happens. It also feels weird that there are Medics on my team not named Aron Times. I have a lot of hours on Medic but sometimes, I want to derp around and play something silly like Sniper, my worst class.

I've had a lot of fun on your servers ever since I started playing on them about a month ago. I've been looking forward to playing on them more often but have found that both of your TF2 servers (payload and full rotation) are dead at certain times of the day. They're still up, but no one's playing on them. I usually have to wait later in the day before I can play Hat Fortress with you motherlovers.

I've also been watching a lot of Twitch streams lately. On April 2014, Valve added Twitch integration to TF2, bringing much needed traffic to TF2 streams. Beginning about three weeks ago, I started watching TF2 streams more often and have interacted with most of the casual streamers (anyone who doesn't primarily play competitive TF2).

Here's what I've noticed about them:

1. Almost all of them started playing on Valve servers.
2. Griefers, trolls, cheaters, and other troublemakers started harassing these streamers while they were playing on Valve servers. Some were even stupid enough to DDoS the Valve servers the streamers were on (good way to get VAC'd, IMHO).
3. To counter this, streamers with the resources to do so set up their own private servers for them and their fans to play on.
4. However, most of these newly-minted server operators have little experience managing a TF2 server. Some of them are experienced sysadmins, but community management plays a large part in running a server, and this is something that isn't taught anywhere and must be learned the hard way.

Now, this is where you, and several other community servers come in:

1. Most community server groups have one or more servers that lie unused. In your case, both your Payload and Full Rotation servers are deserted most of the day, but remain up and running.
2. The servers these streamers have set up are redundant. It's kind of like reinventing the wheel, or some other metaphor that escapes me right now. There are many, perfectly serviceable servers that are empty most of the day. Their own servers are empty most of the day, when they're not streaming. I've found that several streamers are online when your servers are deserted.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

It's like of like some new kids moving into town. They're into basketball or baseball or football or whatever sport requires a dedicated playing field. They decide to build their own basketball court, baseball diamond, football field, etc., at their own expense, when there are already pre-existing playing fields in town which are unused most of the day.

Sure, some people have enough resources (time and money and connections) to have their own playing fields, but most people don't, and it would be a huge waste of resources to build another basketball court when there's a well-maintained but unused basketball court just a short walk away.

I'm asking for your permission first because the presence of a Twitch streamer will draw lots of people in, including troublemakers who just want to ruin other people's day. You'll get a flood of new players, but you'll also have to be more vigilant than usual to keep the trolls and griefers and other ne'er-do-wells from shitting in your doorstep.

Are you okay with this, Hyperion Gaming?

Disclaimer: This isn't an official request. I don't represent anyone on Twitch or anyone involved in TF2. I'm doing this on my own initiative because I discovered that there is no one else trying to coordinate casual pub play in TF2. Most of the people doing stuff for the community focus solely on competitive TF2, which I'm not a huge fan of.