An attempt at objectivity and discussion

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Hello. I will keep my post as brief as possible, but as this is a complicated issue with a lot of history, please bear with me if it gets a bit lengthy

Recently, there was a thread that was locked. In this thread a discussion took place about why 24/7 servers tend to have the most population within the NA community. In the final post made before the thread was locked, some things were said that I do no believe accurately reflect the history of the issue. I felt the need to post this thread because that final post was made by the current lead of the Dev Team, and forum members who are not fully aware of the history of the issue may take that post as an unbiased source of information, given his position.

The post in question:
We need to bin the fallacy that NA players want anything different from EU players and look at why certain servers may have become the default choice for players in those communities. There is no secret about historic abuse that may have contributed to the current state. No corrective action is really possible or even sought, but as a community we absolutely must remain aware that the situation in NA is not entirely the result of a natural community consensus it is to some degree the result of the will of a few being imposed on the will of the many through a campaign of harassment, where the message being sent was very clearly play our way or we will ruin the game for you. That others have attempted the same tactics with less success is not a defense of this behavior.

The implication of this post is rather clear, that the currently popular 24/7 servers (read: [tR]Deathstar - AoD has fallen off a bit recently) are only popular because of some sort of insidious campaign of blackmail and unsavory behavior, rather than simply being a result of player preference. I do not believe this is an accurate portrayal of what happened, and would like to provide some evidence to validate this belief.

The following screenshots are from this thread that was posted in 2016:
aodleadership.jpg

In this post, a leader of AoD's MBII division makes the argument that AoD's 24/7 server being populated is simply a result of player preference.



viserys.jpg

In this post, the former head of the Development team explains that he also believes that 24/7 servers are a result of player preference. He also mentions {BG}, who used to run a popular 24/7 server for the EU community.



catlady.jpg

In this post, Catlady, another former dev, also makes the point that if you want a different map or server to be populated, you simply not play on that server or map, and can try populating whatever you want to play yourself.



The following screenshots are from this thread that was posted in 2018:
mandatory1.jpg

mandatory2.jpg

In these posts, we have two developers posting about how they believe the solution to the issue is making RTV mandatory, with a clearly different viewpiont from the posts I shared from other developers.


eezstreet2.jpg

eezstreet3.jpg
eezstreet4.jpg
eezstreet5.jpg

In these posts we can see a developer who clearly does not agree with the idea that RTV should be forced, and also believes that 24/7 servers are largely a result of player preference.


tempest1.jpg
tempest2.jpg

Finally, in this post, we can see yet another developer who does believe that RTV or rotation should be forced, and also believes that if players want to play on a server, they simply need to populate it.




In closing, I did not post this thread to be inflammatory, or to personally attack anybody. I am simply trying to make the point that this issue is a difference of opinion among community members, and has been from some time, and is in no way driven by a small group of players imposing their will upon others with unscrupulous methods.

If after viewing these screenshots, community members or developers still believe that [tR]Deathstar's population is only a result of these tactics, I would challenge them to explain why they believe only [tR]Deathstar's success is accredited to these sorts of actions, and not other formerly successful 24/7 servers such as AoD's Pandemonium or {BG}'s old server.

The discussion used to simply be about player preference, why that preference exists, and how to possibly encourage players to play on a wider variety of maps and servers. I do now know why some developers and community have decided to adopt the new position that server population is only a result of clans using terror tactics, but I believe it is a very disingenuous representation of the issue at hand, and very damaging to any attempts made by community members to have a realistic and constructive discussion about potential ways to solve this issue.

In the threads I linked, many suggestions were made, such as clans like AoD and tR agreeing to host RTV events on certain days. I would like to reopen the discussion on this issue so that more constructive ideas like this can be put forth. I have been in contact with some of AoD's leadership recently for reasons unrelated to these threads, in an attempt to help them schedule public events for the NA community with tR members. I don't think it is that unrealistic to think that tR and AoD could have some internal discussions about providing RTV only servers during special times like Friday or Saturday night.s There are plenty of possible solutions to this issue, we just need to be able to discuss them openly and objectively without flinging mud at each other.

I hope this thread can remain open and be a place for constructive conversation within the community for how to move forward together.
 
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Puppytine

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I spent so much time and some many letters expressing my view on this matter in the past, in numerous previous threads, so I don't know what to say now, except from briefly repeat my main argument:

Don't take away freedom of choosing from the community. Right now, when all three kind of servers co-exist, 24/7 servers, rotation servers and RTV servers, players have maximum freedom of choices.
They can pick anything. But if RTV will be mandatory, that would mean that variety of choices are reduced, not extended.
24/7 servers are only popular because people want them, that's it.
This whole situation is extremely ironic in the context of the fact that tR not only provides Deathstar-only servers, but RTV servers as well. Owners of tR literally spend their own money so you can play on RTV servers, but for somebody, it's just seem not enough.

00abc57a5480.png


I don't understand why this dark attempt to enforce both the servers' owners and the players to play Movie Battles in the way some small group of people considered the only acceptable way is still alive, despite the fact that many members of the community thinking about it only as a bad joke.

 
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