This is madness!
This is where I brutalize the masses.
Changing the rules for in-game administration
Mar 4th
There are 2 myths widely believed regarding what the job of in-game admins is:
- To ensure that all people who missbehave in any manner are denied access to our game servers, thus keeping the game servers for the part of the community that knows how to behave and show respect.
- To show and teach gamers how they should behave and punish those who refuse to learn.
Both are incorrect. About 10 days ago I made some big changes to the list of in-game admins for Gamers-Cy’s Counter Strike servers. A lot of admins that went inactive or just wouldn’t cut it for the position were removed and I added a few more under a trial period. I then gathered everyone and over coffee gave them some directions as to how they should be administrating when they are in game.
Possibly the most discussed issue of what I said is that I demanded from them to ban anyone without hesitation whenever he or she gives them a reason, even if that reason is something as small as a single line of light swearing. I also demanded that noone hands out bans that are longer than 4 days each. The result was that over the last 10 days a total of 34 bans were made with the average ban duration being 26 hours and 41 minutes.
What I have been asked numerous times over the last 10 days is why did I decide on this course of action? The reason for that is that I believe that in-game admins are not there for the 2 reasons that people believe so, that I gave above. In a small community, of a small country such as Cyprus where everyone knows everyone, we are not here to be picky and choose our market, rather than we are here to serve and allow everyone to enjoy high-quality, professional gaming services for free. Having said that in arguement of why we are not handing out permanent bans to people, the problem comes down to being able to provide these high-quality services while still allowing access to to people that interfere with our quality. There is no doubt obviously that someone that cheats or constantly swears does not allow other players to enjoy their game to full extend. This is why I decided to flood people with temporary bans of small duration. In-game admins are not here to teach “bad people” what their families and teachers failed to do so, but are here to show people that we don’t care who or what you are in your life outside the game, but when you are using our services then we demand a certain set of manners and respect to other gamers that will allow everyone to equally enjoy the game. What I expect from this is that in the long-run, after all these “bad people” have been given temporary bans a few times, most of them will learn to control themselves while in our servers.
Left 4 Dead: First Impressions
Feb 19th
Lately I’ve been playing a bit of Left 4 Dead. I never was a big fan of Counter Strike so I guess I needed something to break out from the CS madness around us. All I can say is that L4D is awesome. Here are some of the reasons why I think this game has a long way to go:
- Teamwork: Of course teamwork is a decisive factor in who wins a game of Counter Strike as well, but when it comes to CS you can often see solo players taking the team on their hands. In L4D that’s almost impossible. If you are either survivor or infected, going solo is going suicidal.
- Aim vs Luck: L4D does not allow for lucky headshots to decide the outcome of the game. People with good aim will always be ahead of the game, but how often do CS players get angry because of that lucky single shot from a mile away or through a wall that hits them right on the forehead? Uh..!
- Spectator Friendly: It may not be as easy to follow as Counter Strike, but it’s definately not as hard as Quake 3, as everyone is familiar with the whole human vs zombie idea. Spectator friendliness is in my opinion one of the biggest factors when it comes to organizations such as ESWC to choose their pool of games.
- 4v4 mode: Counter Strike is played 5v5 while L4D is played 4v4. Anyone else thinking that having teams of 4 makes no difference in how the game can be considered as a team game, but this mode increases the earnings of gamers from tournaments? To put it simply, a cash prize of 1000$ going to the a winning team consisting of 5 players makes for 200$ per player, while to a team of 4 this is 250$ (25% increase). This can be well used for promoting e-sports, since if L4D replaces Counter Strike the gamers on the spotlight will be earning more, making the advertising of computer games as a sport easier.
- Lobbies and Games: Creating a lobby before starting the game allows for the players to gather and ready up before starting their campaign and helps people play with their friends. Sure this is nice, but I see a networking issue here that we didn’t see in any game earlier. That is, allowing the lobby leader to host the game locally. A lot of people now have broadband lines capable of hosting a game without bandwidth or latency problems. People can therefore easily gather up in a lobby and play the game from start to end without going through the hassle of agreeing on a server.
- Sound: Being able to understand sounds is important and needs a lot of practice. Sure sound is important in most games, but Counter Strike doesn’t really require you to understand the exact position of your enemy since if you know the general direction he is there’s normally a distinct point of entry. L4D however has a lot of open areas where the infected can be at any direction and at any height and being able to understand their exact location and catch that boomer mid-air before he falls on your teammates is impressive
Of course the game is not perfect. It needs improvements like:
- Campaigns: It was release with just 2 campaigns. TERRIBLE. Those 2 got boring already. It would be nice to have variety.
- Server Selection: A lobby leader has a choice of either hosting the game, or to look for a dedicated server. There is no option to specify server. Since a lot of times we can have a game between real life friends who are not together for LAN, it would be nice to have the option to specify that we wish to play on the Gamers-Cy server.
Overall in my opinion the game is much more enjoyable than Counter Strike and I think we’ll be seeing more of it as time passes. Hopefully it will make it into next year’s ESWC We’ll see…
Yet another site design
Feb 14th
I got in my hands yesterday yet another site design that could potentially end up being our new web site. There is nothing complicated about it and even though personally I prefer the last design we worked on with my designer I understand that in this business simplicity and usability are the keys. I think with some changes to this draft we can give gamers a very easy to use and learn to use community portal. They have already been given a taste of a similar design being put into action for the web-site of Kinx Gaming (http://www.kinxgaming.com).
Clubbing in Nicosia
Feb 8th
It’s been a few years since I’ve last been clubbing and yesterday I thought I should try it. I went to two clubs, names of which I’m not going to mention. At first standing there in the first club was dissapointing. The club was full with people yet hardly anyone was dancing or having fun. It felt like youth nowadays thinks that it’s a social obligation to be clubbing. I mean why else would so many people go to just stand there, not having fun, not enjoying the music and unable to talk? So we made the early call of leaving, but gave a chance to a second club. This one was smaller, playing RnB instead of commercial music like most clubs do, and I must admit that even though the situation was not as good I first expected it to be, it was a relief after seeing what I saw earlier. At least a few people still go clubbing for the fun of it.
Conclusion, I felt sorry for what I saw last night. To me it seems like a lot of young people do not know how to have fun but spend their weekend nights doing things that are considered to be “cool” among them, and that’s just sad.