Management Team & Server Update

[Backy 104 / 3,438]

Hello,

 

I just wanted to give you all a little update. Some of you have probably already heard it on discord or seen the roles here on the forums, but to make it official, Vanya will be taking dogan's spot as co-server manager. dogan has stepped down due to his own reasons, although some of the ones cited by him include focusing more on Unloze - which makes sense for him since he is also admin there and it's a better time zone/server location for him. Anyways, whoever wants more information on why dogan is stepping down, feel free to ask him. Regardless, we have lost an important member of the team who handled a lot of the "maintenance" things and kept the server running smoothly behind the scenes. I hope everyone is appreciative of the work he did and realizes that we do have a gap to fill. 

 

As I am still quite busy 'irl' and honestly don't know much or deal with things such as ftp access and technical things of that nature, our technical assistants and others with higher access will obviously need to pick up some slack. Vanya has thankfully volunteered to pick up the responsibility of helping to manage the server "officially", although obviously he has already done a lot. And before anyone asks, the 2 other options were xen, who is not really an option due to being too busy, and Soft Serve, who explicitly declined the opportunity. I am saying this so that there is no confusion about who was picked and why and/or there being any rumors of favoritism or other things of that sort. At the moment, we simply have few people who are qualified or even want to deal with the responsibilities of managing the server or even being an admin. Anyone who wants to play a larger part, speak up.

 

Anyways, things will go on as they have. Obviously we haven't been doing too well lately, so we encourage everyone to play on the server or even chat there instead of on discord if you can. Any bit of activity helps and remember that the server is the glue that holds our little sub-community together. We also remind you yet again that anyone is welcome to apply for admin and we more than encourage you to do so. Admins are simply community members who take their enthusiasm for the server a step further and actively help to keep it running smoothly. The stigma about admins being people who enjoy punishing others, barking orders, or being strict individuals needs to stop because it simply isn't true. Just because some admins happen to fit that bill doesn't mean that it is the description for the "job".

 

Basically, we need your help, and we are asking you for it. All of the suggestions that you have given us are useful to some degree. Although the complaints some of you have that "we do not always consult you all on everything" are invalid because you all should be smart enough to realize that you cannot ask everyone about everything when it comes to matters of scale. Therefore, admins are pseudo-elected representatives at least in the sense of our little sub-community. All we can do is do what we think is best according to what we have been suggested, what we personally enjoy, and what we have learned from experience. No more admins vs players rhetoric please because it is simply false, immature, and gets nothing accomplished. If you want to be more involved and have a say in things, then actually step up and help out by putting in the work on the admin team and you will be guaranteed to have a voice in shaping the server. We need help on the admin team, and we are asking you all for it. Those of you who don't want to help, then you have no more right to complain about things meanwhile remaining un-helpful and expecting us to do all the work while everyone reaps the benefits. This is a gaming community after all. We are doing this voluntarily not because we necessarily want to, but because someone has to do it for things to function.

 

P.S. We are aware of the torchlight situation and we are working on it. We also have the best and brightest of the .com overlords looking into it (including Roy himself). We will do our best to bring back our beloved robot ASAP.

 

Thank you for your understanding,

Happy Holidays 

Edited December 18, 2018 by Backy

[Malal 145 / 0]

35 minutes ago, Backy said:

it's a better server

 

[Malal 145 / 0]

37 minutes ago, Backy said:

Those of you who don't want to help, then you have no more right to complain about things

also this is retarded

i might not want to play gfl when theres 2 people on vs unloze 40 but that doesnt mean i cant criticize and give feedback

i dont have any loyalty to gfl sure, doesnt mean i dont want it to be the best it can

 

[Backy 104 / 3,438]

We are talking about things that go beyond useful suggestions and become mindless complaints thrown at the admin team or the server itself. We are also speaking in a hypothetical sense here. Of course anyone is welcome to suggest or critique anything. But in reality what are they doing other than barking orders and not actually acting? Would we be encouraging people all the time to give feedback, actually listen to the feedback + make changes, and want you all to apply for admin if we didn't believe that? Do you expect for people (us admins) to do all this for you for free when we are asking for your help and this is a community run server?

Edited December 18, 2018 by Backy

[Ninja Chris 249 / 0]

1 down, 1 to go.

[_William_ 36 / 1,309]

I think at one point one has to realize that it does not matter how much ftp/settings/management work you do, a server is only build around the community and the players. Nide and unloze are perfect examples. All different settings, but active communities. In my opinion, seeking more authority representatives is the wrong approach. We shouldn't be discussing who can fill in Dogans gap or who can manage what as much as we should discuss how we can build a community in unity. Gfl is way to split as it is. There is a big conflict of interest. So I propose a bit of a different idea. How about organizing more "smaller" events throughout the week, just to encourage players to join? Nobody will join if it's 1 player on the server but if people know that others will be there, we definitely come. I can guatantee it. Players attract players. It doesn't even take hard work, just throw in random smaller events. Doesn't have to be with rewards even. I do realize that weekdays are not optimal but even if only 20 players join, that is a victory in my opinion! It can be chill, minor tryhard, autism. Whatever. Just organized. Why would anyone join a server with 0-3 players when they can join a server with 40+? Not even gfl admin join the server at those moments. I believe myself to have an entirely different mindset from gfl and wouldn't fit in the admin team, let alone be wanted. But I am sure as heck ready to join and play if I know that there are or will be players on the server. 

[willywilson 199 / 5,575]

I couldn't agree more with william, and I think we should just try to get more people to join and populate. I'd love to play more on gfl, but there often isn't a single person on when I have time to play, and if there are and I can't play I'd be happy to sit in spec just to bump up the numbers a bit, but unfortunately this is rarely the case. I think we should encourage people from the cs go server to join us and play more with us

 

Also I don't agree with william on doing minor events, that might ruin the sanctity of our current events which bring people onto the server, if we have events everyday, people just might stop showing up altogether, I think we need people who are willing to sit on the server and bring people on, I know it takes a lot of time, and it'll be a slow trickle at first, but I think crobat could help provide some help and insight, he repopped sG from 0-30 constant when he was an active adviser through the slow build up, instead of mini events. 

 

I also suggest we start to partner with cs go ze and encourage people to come onto our server when their server is filled, or to do events after their events to keep the fun going (ex: they're doing santa ex on sunday we all know they won't win, so we can ask them to tell their players to come here after the event if they want to beat santa ex, and do a mini event just to encourage new players, and just show them when you play on css, winning is possible to encourage them to stay as they associate us with beating hard maps they can't on cs go, I know we had the event last weekend, but I'm just using it as an example or a potential idea we could expand upon in the future to encourage new people) We're part of the gfl community, I feel if we started to work more with cs go we could get more people, another thought, if we asked them to change their "server full" message instead of linking to their discord, telling them to come onto css! 

 

Also I'm aware of the negative stigma associated with cs go players, and with new people in general, but we're not doing ourselves any favors with it, it's either we go out on a shield of being better than everyone, or we open up our doors and are welcoming of new people. CSS in general isn't getting many new players, and while it'd be great to have a server full of pros 24/7 I think brining in new people is more important, and then teaching them is perhaps most important. 

Edited December 18, 2018 by willywilson

[Backy 104 / 3,438]

I think you guys are missing the point here. The CS:GO ideas could be something, but I'm not sure if people would want that shared networking. And I am also unsure whether players from that game would want to regularly play here enough for it to matter.

 

This is simply an announcement letting you all know about the change in management. The rest is a cry for help because many of the admins are tired of their responsibility and without admins obviously the server cannot function. We are not "trying to get more admins" as an approach. If people don't fill in roles as admin then those who want to "retire" cannot do so.

 

Thank you for the suggestions but like I said, it doesnt help much. Anything that you have said, we already know and have tried. Remember that we pioneered almost all the settings and/or methods used by other communities. Also, our responsibility does not involve constantly slaving away to barely keep a server alive. If people want to play the server then they should do so without the need for admins to have to force it back to life (which we already do and is the only reason this community didn't already die - also the reason why many admins are burned out).

 

So once again, thank you for the suggestions but that's not the goal of this post. This was initially going to be locked because it is merely an announcement. There is nothing much left to discuss; we simply need to act. Fresh admins and people to play on the server is obvious, and we can't do anything about either unless the community steps up.  

 

If someone does have good ideas that they want to actually help implement and have a plan for instead of speak about hypothetically then that would be a great help and we would try out anything. Having a lot of great ideas and talking about them is different than actually implementing them and having the population base for them to even be used. To be honest we are not lacking in ideas or creativity. The admin team already has multiple ideas that could be done and have been done but without people to regularly implement them or use them (players), what's the point.

Edited December 18, 2018 by Backy

[_William_ 36 / 1,309]

Well, I'll be a bit bold and reply that you also missed the point of our messages. 

However, that aside I want to say that it doesn't matter what methods you tried back in the days years ago when gfl "pioneered" everything. This is new gfl, new state. I didn't mean events every day of course. Can be that you have a week with two events (one weekend and one midweek) for instance once in a while. It's really nothing "hypothetical" and it could easily be implemented, give me event manager role and I can prove that. It's all about having players on gfl. Currently we have 15+ gfl players playing on unloze, imagine if we had a gfl event today. You don't even have to advertise them as events if you feel like it ruins the "sanctity " of current events. They can be mini events or anything. 

I really don't know you simply expect the community to "step up" just like that. Do you want me to organize our own event and message all gfl players to come some random thursday to tryhard a map with me or just socialize? Because eventually I might just do that to be honest. 

Don't see this as a suggestion. At this point, what can do more harm. 

Sorry for crashing the announcement thread, feel free to remove my posts if you want to keep it clean here. 

[Backy 104 / 3,438]

We already have tried all of these things. People simply don't play on the server though. Or they come for a bit and then leave. At the moment for example everyone is playing L4D2 or something and enjoying that together. How do you magically want us to force people to come to the server.

 

I don't mean to be rude, but you don't seem to understand. Also, I'm not referencing old GFL. I'm talking about current GFL where many things were indeed started by us.

 

We cannot and do not want our regular players to be forced to play here. If they want to play then they can play. And if they don't want to then what are we going to do? Tell them that if they don't fill the server then they are banned? Without the server base of players any measures taken to fill it are extremely ineffective and unsustainable. We know this because via these efforts is how the server is alive today. Otherwise it would have died long ago due to the incompetence going on at a certain point in the .ru era.

Edited December 18, 2018 by Backy

[jayz 8 / 2,305]

At this point the idea of the plugins and settings being the cause of the population decrease is pretty asinine. as William stated, the true problem is the community. This isn't some attack towards the players or the admins, this is me stating that the community is unable to come together and populate the server. Of course this is difficult to overcome as most of our regulars are either bored of the game or have certain real life affairs. This doesn't really matter though because like you said: "We do not want our regular players to be forced to play here". It's inconvienient but some people have more important things to do than play a zombie gamemode on a 14 year old game. One idea to consider is having some admins that are still committed to the server try and advertise through discord or the steam group what map they're playing, how many people are on, etc. You could try picking some maps from the admin nomination list. There might be a few players that have never played that map before and want to see what it is. Who knows?

 

Realistically, I feel you guys should just start to accept the fact that the game itself is dying and people are leaving in favor of CS:GO (At least on GFL this is the case.). I know you guys are committed to reviving the server that you care about and I can respect that. However, there's going to come a time when all of the other remaining CS:S servers are going to suffer the same result. While it may seem hard to realize, It would just be better off to accept the fact that there really is no solution here. GFL CS:S was big for a few years but now it's starting to wither away. The same thing happened to PlagueFest and the same thing will probably happen to all of the other CS:S servers in the future.

 

Believe me when I say I love the community and have respect for the players, but I just don't think we can revive ZE to the same level it was years ago. 

[bAka 31 / 2,875]

I think CSS ZE is not dying in the near future, there is a ton of new ideas coming out, plugins that make the game enjoyable (Top Defender plugin for example), new maps that can be ported from CSGO, there are still good mappers that can do that. There is still alot of population from EU playing this game. The problem here is the timezones from both servers, most of the Regulars of the 'old GFL' back in the days lost all their interest in this game. I think there is still hope here, I think asking for help on the CSGO side should actually be pretty valuable. 

 

I dont know,

- Like try to Recruit more EU players so they can fill up the server when the NA players are sleeping

- More active Admins

- Implement something new

- Something that can attract easily the players, like point rewards, I dont know

- More interaction's here on the forums (posts, threads, etc)

- Someone that is really determined on moving forward with this, staying active as much as possible

 

There is such a big community behind this server,  GFL steam Main group is over 190k members

 

[Backy 104 / 3,438]

@jayz

Like I told you on the server i agree with most of what you said. We aren't living in denial or delusion, we know what's coming eventually. We are just doing our best to keep the community together and squeeze out every last bit we can from this server and game mode we all love so much. The alternative would be to give up and do nothing.

 

@bAka

Thanks for the suggestions brother but I think if you look closely a lot of the things you suggested we already do, have tried, or pioneered ourselves. I know that many of you naturally try to compare this server to European ones, particularly Unloze, but things aren't exactly comparable (apples to oranges). Some of the things you suggest we can try to put more emphasis on again. In addition the CSGO thing has been thrown around by several of you, but rember that its not that simple. Although in theory it seems like a good idea, think about why those people play that game instead of this one. Most of the people came on later and CSGO was their first main CS game or main ze experience. Do you really think those people will spend their free time coming to populate a struggling server and game ad compared to playing full servers with the game they are familiar with? I know that we have sniped several wonderful people from CSGO but they are few and far between. Also in general, they are among the most fervent or avid fans of the mod who wanted a more pure experience; few people are like that. So although we can and likely will try more cooperation with the CSGO server and community, measure your expectations. As for implementing new features and things of that nature, like jayz and other said, I agree that the problem is not server features. We had arguably the person who has contributed the most plugins and QoL ZE botox and things didn't go particularly well. Shiny features are nice and all but we already used those tricks in the past to even get this far. There aren't many more reasonable ideas to implement that wouldn't be too far detached from the core game mode. 

 

 

So once again, in general, thank you all for your suggestions. But like many have said, the issue is not really settings or rewards, and things of that nature. It is a more fundamental issue. It is an old game and people don't want to play it exclusively forever (which is inevitable and perfectly understandable). 

 

Also if I seemed like I am trying to only push my point of view or seem insensitive to some of the Europeans, here are some things that may help you all understand the differences between our server and the other ones (mainly eu). Most of these things are simple realities and cannot be changed:

 

- Eu has always had more tightly knit sub-communities. NA in general is focused on having more and more instead of better and better.

- In general I have noticed eu video game players stick to older games for longer and/or are more dedicated in general (NA gamers xd). Naturally eu has many more players especially when you include Russia and the fact that the servers left are mainly eu.

- no Steam is very effective for the eu region

- Unloze is newer. As communities age they lose momentum (especially after going through many shaky times and changes as ours has).

- Time zone. Naturally Europeans will have time to hop on and play games first. So they go to Unloze, and all is good. NA, SA, etc who can play go to the servers that are populated (eu). Why would someone go sit in an empty server? Problem is when it comes time for our server to come alive, making the jump essentially happens when Unloze loses momentum. Again, why go play with 5 people for hours to pick up momentum until people decide to switch over. Therefore this goes back to the point that admins are burned out, yet few want to populate and help (the people who do are already mostly admins), and more people don't want this commitment. Therefore the vicious cycle of HAVING to do this everyday feels like a chore.

 

For the record, I'm not blaming Unloze or Europeans (throwing this in preemptively just in case someone somehow chooses to interpret it as such). It's just how things are and I am personally grateful for any server that continues to allow people to play Zombie Escape (wherever it is and whatever game its on CSS, CSGO, etc).

Edited December 22, 2018 by Backy

[CNe7532294 171 / 4,777]

Ain't nobody got time 4 dis wall of text. Just come on. Plain and simple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS: On a side note, where do I go for stats? Is the old forum dead or migrated (PM me for this if want).

[The Q-man 77 / 2,806]

@CNe7532294

https://stats.gflclan.com/hlstats.php?mode=players&game=css-ze