http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=809727

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I think one of the reasons they are hated so much is because it's kind of a cheap tactic to get players and replaces real, effective ways to get people to play. It's a lot easier to run a plugin and forget about it than to come up with creative ways to attract everyone. I remember back in the day when we did things like Penguin Party on Friday nights and would fill the server and attract regulars.  Personally, I'd rather play on seevers that distinguush themselves in these ways.  I guess it's all a matter of preference.

 

i totally would.i have a bottle of crown that wants more friends.

Well, I think we have had these discussions when the bot count was down on the low level.  The servers were dead.  We changed it and copied some strategies of other servers and suddently we have great traffic again.  I doubt administration is going to change it back and I dont think they should.  There isn't Steam TV.  We cannot get new regulars by purchasing radio time to advertise "fun, drunk, anal sex" nights...the only way to reliably  get regulars is by getting ppl to come in the front door, THEN show them what a fun environment we have.  Nobody likes to try a new restuarant that is always empty.  I like Bike's idea of having Fun nights, and admins who create an environment that people want to play in.  I just think that if you look at the results alone, you would see that the benefits outweigh the costs of some guys complaining about how we wasted 45 seconds of thier life.

If you move the servers to show true player counts you place the burden of starting the servers up every night on teh admins and loyal regulars.  By showing a fake player count you atleast shift some of that burden to the public players who join, WILL STAY, and start the server rolling.  I think the results speak for themselves in the last 2 months.

So here is my rant: The person that joins a game with 8-10 people and doesn't stay because they have been "FOOOOLed" is either a 1.) whiner who is hard to please anyway 2.) takes the game way to seriously 3.) is a drifter who doesnt have server preferences and won't contribute to the community.

Server info cannot be trusted.  There are even player plugins that fake server info, so the only way to know for sure is by joining.  I'd argue that people that implement them to that extreme are the fatasses.

I created the WDFnews.com steam group originally for two reasons, one because the other group was a pDs one that doesn't encompass the community as a whole (I felt awkward joining it considering I was in another clan but still felt like I was an active community member), and two because it is a great way to keep people informed about events that could get people involved with the servers and setting up events.  Over time, the only event that became apparent was "PIGPILE TEMPEST" or "FILL 'ER UP".  That wasn't exactly what I had in mind.  Although it did occassionally get people to play, over time joining a game simply to fill up the count is hardly an incentive.  Penguin Party friday was something else I tried to do in order to get everyone interested in playing.  It was fucking awesome too: we had a system where the player that spent the most time with us that night would get a special health ability that no one else got for the whole week.  We had Nite's diceroll with some cool abilities, original Murdy maps.  Honestly, nothing else was like that.  That was before TF2, but the idea behind it was the same. 

I guess, I just don't buy the whole idea that the benefit comes at the expense of pissing some others off.  When was that ever the system before?  I'll admit, I don't play on the servers often at all.  Part of this reason is because of the player count plugin, but I do have personal preferences for specific maps and server sizes.  It just seems sad that it went from originality at the expense that it requires a lot of focus and planning to get everyone to play, to leaving it up to a player count plugin that only works with certain people and pisses others off.  In other words, not for everyone.

I mean, damn.  This is the community that had the best server in the world for HL2:DM a few years ago, and that game at the most quarters the population that TF2 has.  I fucking miss the past and if there is only one reason why I sound so grumpy about stuff now, it's because I don't want to see that epic originality that we, the community created, deteriorate to things like this.  I remember people absolutely raving about the servers.  Now, it really is a blow to me to see that people bitch about it in the steam forum.

Sorry if that sounds harsh.