Area 51 Servers

If I am going to be honest over here, this community hasn't been improving a lot since a couple of years (member wise).
Yes we may have all the fancy servers on many different games but this isn't enough.

This is how we can improve the server:

1) Make the Steam group open to the public. I rather prefer a community that is open rather than have you guys invite people to it as it shows if the community is growing or not. The more people that represent [GR] the better as it will boost player count in many other Area 51 "dead" server. I may understand that you guys would rather prefer an enclosed community with trusted members but remember that if the people see that our community is open instead of being closed to people who care about it, they will come back to play on the servers once more. Who knows they may even donate, cause realistically let's be honest here, you guys made these servers to make money, so let's improve on that factor and maybe more cash will flow towards your guys way in order to sustain you and even improve the server gear.

2) Expand to other games. I'm not talking about making more TF2, HL2:DM Servers. I'm talking about other games such as Garry's mod and CS:GO. Yes you guys do have 2 CS:GO servers but I want to see more. If I would be honest with you, a Prop hunt server for Garry's mod would be your best bet for a successful start.
I want to see Gmod servers soon. Prop hunt and TTT would be ideal.

3) Do giveaways, for example you can announce a points giveaway on the Steam group and if the deathrun server reaches let's say 20 players you giveaway points to players in order to keep them coming back to the servers.

4) Remove any dead servers for example the HL2:DM Deathmatch mod. I mean I would understand why you would want to keep a server but honestly, it's just a waste of space. Look at the player count for the past month.

It only reached 4 players. When I set-up a prop hunt server for Gmod, I instantly got like 10 players.
Keep expanding servers but get rid of waste servers.

At the moment these are the only ideas I got in my head.
If you think I'm trying to say this community is bad (player count wise) then you're correct.
It is bad as it's not growing and it's dying out slowly. I'm trying to make a difference here by giving you guys easy and simple idea's which could boost your community a lot.
So listen to these idea's and you'll be happy and also have no regrets.

Anyone else agree with most of this? I am all for removing older servers that are dead. I just have not had anything to replace them with, so they are just running.

I'm not 100% on making the GR group public yet, so I'm curious to see if anyone else has any comments on that.

As for GMOD as an example, I was able to get it setup on the server and Prop Hunt is running (IP: area51servers.com:2311). We will see what happens and if it gets any attention from the community.

As always, the more suggestions the better. I can't read the minds of all 400+ members on the steam group.

I agree even if I am not here. It seems very logical to do. But as for opening up the group to the public,I am not fully sure on that. Maybe lower the amount of server hours played down to like 15,yeah that's five less but if you wanna go lower go for it. If i had time to come back every once and awhile I would but with it being my senior year and with everything else I have going I on I don't have time. Maybe in the summer when I am not working I will come back when I can, we will just have to wait and see.

As for opening the group, I don't have a preference but I don't honestly have a reason to say no.
Dead servers are useless, not new information there, so popular votes for replacements? or suggestions? Why was the steam group exclusive in the first place? I never did know..

I've asked on here and made announcements and discussions on the steam group page, but still no suggestions. I'm not sure what else to add. It's not like we don't have server space or are running out of resources. I just need to know what the community is interested in.

However, it seems like most people are just playing the default gametypes in the current games, and running a server without something unique is kind of pointless and gets lost in the list of 1000s of servers. That was why DR was popular. It was unique, and players back then actually had to look through the server list to join intead of using quickplay and hitting "find a game".

Lastly, about the group: whether it is public or private at this point isn't going to help too much. I got 1 response out of 400+ members on the last discussion topic. If the group doesn't even respond to questions, why would those people invite more to the group?

No one responded because they think the community is dead + tons of people don't respond to stuff like that in Steam Groups... unless you have 100k people in a group.

I don't see the stuff that gets posted on steam because I never am on.

I am up with Demon on removing older servers.

It would rather be wise to keep the deathrun for both games, cheat server for HL2DM.

I played Gmod but instantly stopped due to the garbage community it had.

Peter Brev wrote:I am up with Demon on removing older servers.

Yes, we can do that, but replace with what... that is the question. If there's no replacement, ill just let what we have run until we have ideas/suggestions.

Minigame like in CSS for HL2DM.

How about instead of rushing new servers into the server list you focus on the current servers and improve them to the brink. Work on them for a bit, add some cool shit to them and then when you get players work on new servers...

Demon wrote:How about instead of rushing new servers into the server list you focus on the current servers and improve them to the brink. Work on them for a bit, add some cool shit to them and then when you get players work on new servers...

I agree

I can see the circle that Ant is going in and I think it annoys me as much/more than him.

Everything said here is good, but no real suggestions are being made for what to do.
That said I honestly don't know either x.x.

I guess the two tracks to go down is add store crap or tweak the gameplay in some way. I'd vote for altering gameplay in some way to make it more fun/exciting as that's a longer effect than store-based stuff. It's also harder, and I haven't been on any of the servers to know what to add. But things that make the game faster or more exciting can go a long way. I know with bhop servers giving players a way to go faster easier makes things a lot more fun.

So yeah.. Above all make sure servers run smooth and keep bugs and ugly things to a minimum (I don't imagine it's a problem but always good to keep in mind) and keep things interesting.

I know this is a bit old, but how's the progress here? How about running some Insurgeny servers? Coop is my favorite My server is full every day. Ranked 14th right now on Gametracker.com. Think we've been 2th as well. I honestly think Area51 should focus on games that people actually play. HL2DM died long time ago. So I would say make two Insurgency servers with PvP and Coop, if there is any interests for that.

Consider some deathrun and I will consider some mapping.