Now that we have multiple servers available, it's time to start engaging in Plan 9: That is, DDT games are intended to provide wacky fun for a wide audience, and to help BYOND succeed. Wacky fun has definitely been accomplished with LRS, so next up is the BYOND success part.
Today I started experimenting with making the Test server Member only, and it's been quite nice. Intelligent people having a good time, with not a single spam incident of any type. Ah, this is what friends and gaming are all about!
So starting now there will only be one public server for the foreseeable future. The Test server and any other servers we put up will be Member only.
Member servers get these benefits:
- Access to the development team while we work on this. For myself, at least, when I'm logged in it will be to the Test server. And I frequently implement player suggestions and fix player-reported bugs within minutes of them being made on the Test server.
- Early access to new modules. Starting now, new modules will be delayed a week before being available on the public server. (However, general bug fixes and improvements to existing modules will generally be available within a day).
- Strict moderation of the Member servers. While the public server will have the player-run admin abilities available, we're not going to spend time doing admin duty on it, or banning people. It'll be up to the players to keep bad apples kicked out. However, on Member servers anyone who knowingly disrupts the playing experience in an unacceptable manner will be banned from all Member servers.
- In the near future we are also likely to add some form of player ladder or at least win tracking, which will be Member only.
Please keep in mind that a free and fully functional version of the game is available, and anyone can play. But if you really like the game and find yourself wanting to play it more, please consider getting a BYOND Membership. You'll help out BYOND while helping yourself! And I guarantee you'll have a smoother, more enjoyable experience.
And if you really can't afford the cheap cheap price of membership, we'll even help you out!
This weekend I will be posting some requests for sounds, and we may have requests for other things in the future. We'll pay either through PayPal or by donating membership or extending membership. If you have been particularly helpful on LRS (bug reports and module suggestions that get used), we may also choose to donate a membership to you.
Before anyone complains about the Membership focus of this, please consider: We're not asking for a dime for ourselves. In fact, we're offering to give away money and memberships! This is all about making BYOND successful. We want to help BYOND in any way we can, and help find a model that other games can consider using as well.
Jul 30 2005, 2:00 pm
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Gughunter
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Sounds great to me! Let me know if you'd like me to send something via PayPal, or if this will be handled by DDT's bursting coffers...
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Just to be clear, will BYOND Members be able to host their own LRS servers in the future? I really like watching people play, but I feel guilty taking up an entrance slot with limited positions in limited servers.
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Strict moderation of the Member servers. While the public server will have the player-run admin abilities available, we're not going to spend time doing admin duty on it, or banning people. It'll be up to the players to keep bad apples kicked out. However, on Member servers anyone who knowingly disrupts the playing experience in an unacceptable manner will be banned from all Member servers.
Are you sure that's a good idea? If you're trying to attract people to BYOND with LRS, anybody you pull in will most likely spend some time as a non-member before becoming a member. In other words, the first thing that one of those people pulled in by LRS will see is an unmoderated server, which has a pretty good chance of being unpleasant. While the idea of a new online edition of Wiz-War will probably pull people in, if they have an unpleasant experience, why would they stay? | |
Only One public server? Well thats gonna suck.
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If you're going to make only one public server, there shouldn't be a limit to how many people can be on. Why limit it to eight anyways?
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Guy: Let me know if you'd like me to send something via PayPal, or if this will be handled by DDT's bursting coffers...
We'll talk! We do actually have slightly bursting DDT coffers (must be from the BYONDscape percentages), but it's in a form that Tom wouldn't be happy with us spending...:) ACWraith: Just to be clear, will BYOND Members be able to host their own LRS servers in the future?...I feel guilty taking up an entrance slot with limited positions in limited servers. I don't know whether we'll allow others to host. Depends on how things develop and what makes sense. We're groping along here to figure out what will most motivate people to spend a couple of bucks to become Members. However, we have a lot of server capacity available now (thanks Nadrew and Mike!), so if existing Member server(s) are full we'll crank up more. Wizkidd: While the idea of a new online edition of Wiz-War will probably pull people in, if they have an unpleasant experience, why would they stay? It's a good question. But if we don't provide a clear distinction between the experience of a Member and non-Member, what will motivate people to be Members? I do want to advertise to Wiz-War fans once the game is further along (perhaps even Google ads and the like), and am open to figuring out how to provide them a good experience, while also motivating people to become BYOND Members. Aaiko: If you're going to make only one public server, there shouldn't be a limit to how many people can be on. Okay, I'll remove the limit. Just remember, you asked for it...:) | |
It's a good question. But if we don't provide a clear distinction between the experience of a Member and non-Member, what will motivate people to be Members?
Adding things for members is good, but taking away such important things from non-members is definitely bad. Administration is very, very important to a game. Giving members extra modules, extra servers, and a high score board: those are all good ways to enhance the experience of a member without actively making the non-member's experience worse. Taking administration a way from non-members makes their experience with LRS much worse than it needs to be. I know that personally, if I, as a non-member, had bad experiences with non-member games of LRS, I probably wouldn't be so motivated to sign up for a BYOND membership so that I could try out member games of LRS. However, if I had a good time in the non-member server, and I knew that I could have an even better time in the member servers because of extra modules and the high score board, that would motivate me to sign up for a BYOND membership. I do want to advertise to Wiz-War fans once the game is further along (perhaps even Google ads and the like), and am open to figuring out how to provide them a good experience, while also motivating people to become BYOND Members. Again, you're attracting brand-new users here. Realize that their first experience with BYOND will probably occur on the non-member LRS server. Also realize that while many Wiz-War fans may try LRS out, the non-member portion of the BYOND community will outnumber them, and therefore, if a Wiz-War fan trys LRS out, the most likely scenario is 1 Wiz-War fan playing against 3 non-member BYONDers. If they have a bad first experience with the BYOND community, which a lack of administration will inevitably create, they'll have a bad first impression of LRS and of BYOND. They won't play LRS because they dislike its community, nor will they stay with BYOND. Administration on the non-member server would make a huge difference. | |
Administration on the non-member server would make a huge difference.
Probably not even doable though in any realistic manner. Administration is possible of Members because there are a finite number of Members. However, the public server has full admin controls, so players can kick problem players at any time, which may work better than other forms of administration given potentially infinite players anyway. I'll keep thinking about it. | |
The only thing I have a problem with is the members only scoreboard. I only ask that you consider making it for non members and members combined, or a seperate board for each.
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Player-run administration on completely open servers is frequently a recipe for disaster. It may be possible to implement it otherwise, but my experiences with My Life As A Spy have made me quite wary of the idea. Handling votes-to-kick and votes-to-reboot at the IP address level instead of the key level would help a bit (MLAAS used keys), but not entirely (trolls often have like-minded friends).
Perhaps you could implement a mix. There could be LRS moderators who, when present (and not idle!) on the public server, cause all the player-run admin controls to be disabled. When they're logged out or idle, however, the player-run admin controls are enabled so that problem players can still be dealt with. There are still problems with that scenario, like finding regular players who are trustworthy enough to handle moderation, but it's a start. There's also the Slashdot model, where long-time posters who have had their posts moderated upwards receive mod points that they can then spend on other people's posts (to moderate them up or down - modded-down posts get hidden, modded-up posts become more visible and increase the chance that the poster gets mod points themselves). Translated into a game moderation framework, the game could award mod points (or whatever you want to call them) for non-idle time spent on the server, and penalise mod points for getting booted. In the best case, you solve the moderation problem and the finding-moderators problem in one stroke. In the worst case, you turn into Slashdot. ;-P | |
As an added request, can you make a real forum?
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While the public server will have the player-run admin abilities available, we're not going to spend time doing admin duty on it, or banning people. It'll be up to the players to keep bad apples kicked out.
I can't STRESS how horribly I disagree with this. You're considering ways to motivate Wiz-War fans who have never played BYOND or LRS before to play, and get in with BYOND Members...this will either kill the experience for the Wiz-War fans entirely, or make them desperate to subscribe to BYOND Members immediately. The non-test server already has issues with players that don't respect the game or each-other. And the thing is that there is a lot of them. The last thing I want to see is one or two Non-Members who are civil, being outnumbered by four people who call everyone else "gay," and "fags" constantly. With what I have seen of one Wiz-War board, this isn't their nature. When those players get in the game, they will either hate how the players act and leave, subscribe to BYOND Members so they don't have to deal with them, or try to bring civility in...and depending on if they tolerate it or not, they could end up going against one troll, and so all the other trolls call a vote to kick on him. A good experience, eh? I see the public server one step away from this currently. I know who these people are, and I'm used to seeing my fair share of these kinds of people. The fact that the server will be run by the players (the trolls outnumbering those civil, so the trolls running them. The jerks you've had to administrate already), leads me to believe you're bringing a blind eye into the situation. And when the Wiz-War fans see this behavior not only allowed, but 'seemingly' the main part of the playerbase, that could prove bothersome. What's the solution though? A sign that says "to play intelligent players, subscribe to BYOND Members," or what? Will it come to the point where one seeks to level the playing field, they'll need to drag a Member into the Public server? Or are we screwed unless we subscribe? The bad players certainly threaten the experience for 'me.' What about the Wiz-War fans? | |
Or are we screwed unless we subscribe?
To some degree, yes. Subscribe and you'll have a better experience, to be absolutely sure. And thankfully, it's extremely cheap to do so and you get lots of extra BYOND benefits. I'm open to having some people be admins for the public server, though I'm not going to do it. Who volunteers? | |
I'll volunteer.
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I volunteer but i just want to play.
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Thinking further about it, I'm willing to be persuaded that the public server should be made as pleasant an experience as possible...but that means there has to be some other substantial differences that will be a driver for people getting Membership.
The drivers I can see are: - Easier to find a game. - Latest content, faster. - More content. So I'll set it up so people can admin the public server, but the time delay for new modules will increase to a month, and we will determine what content will not be available on the public server. Certainly any rankings and the like, and any additional game modes, and possibly some unique modules. | |
how do u start up the games
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Paleknight - LRS is still in testing, so it's not publically downloadable.
Deadron - That sounds reasonable, and I'm more than happy to help out on the public server as an admin if you want. | |