On the Collapse of Purge

[iLoveNapalm 134 / 3,969]

Recently, Da Pain Wayne issued a public statement on behalf of the future of our Purge server. The message unfortunately read that the Purge server will be officially closing indefinitely on September 29, 2022, essentially concluding the life of the server. As someone who was very invested in this server both in the actual server (9th highest play time, to which I never afk-ed) and here in the forums, I would like to issue a sort of "case study" to see where things went wrong, from someone who experienced it first hand, to prevent such disasters from occurring in the future. I would also like to say, if you do at all disagree, please reply to exactly what you disagree with and I will most likely reply when I'm not busy. Although I do have school and work, I really do find this topic interesting as it provides for great insight into situations in real life as well. Let's not pretend that we can't learn anything valuable from our interactions in GMOD, there are great pieces of advice that can be taken away from this. It may seem silly to take a game so seriously but there really are very valuable lessons to be learned from this "game". So, hopefully without making this too long, I would like to list off a couple reasons as to why I believe the Purge server died.

 

1) Uneventful Launch/Early Launch

Right off the bat, although the launch was able to amass about 50 players from what I can recount, the server was still far from being anywhere near finished. To begin, there was no experienced and explicit Developer Server Manager. I understand Da Pain Wayne was given the server to sort of "try out coding on his own" but there could have been a safety net at least, no? Already at launch, Salad had to give everyone on the server 40k just to start actually playing the game, that's just a dreadful miscalculation of the economics of the server. $40,000 is a lot of money, that's no small number, something major wasn't looked at. Even things like guns being cheaper than the ammunition was just appalling to see, even when we were told the Purge server was in development for 3 months and not one person caught that. So to me and of course many others, the launch seemed early and, if you will, subpar. So, I don't know if the launch was rushed or just things could not get done in time during the testing phase but, one thing is for certain, the server should not have launched when it did.

 

2) Inadequate MOTD

This is one thing I really tried to push for, I even offered to completely write the MOTD from scratch because it really was lacking in many regards. As far as I can remember, with the bases that I built (which are not hard to build at all) were not once successfully raided. I recall once it was only me in the base, and maybe 5 or 6 raiders came in with guns blazing and they really did try; I took them all out before they even got past the first fading door. I would go as far to say if there was anyone inside the base that was not afk, defending the base would be incredibly easy and raiding it, for all practical purposes, would be impossible. Of course you "could" raid the base, but I suppose you also "could" win the lottery 20 times in a row, so just because the possibility exists, it does not mean it should still be allowed; which is what Da Pain Wayne said when I told him to make my bases illegal. In the very beginning of the server, the MOTD also did not have any rules regarding Black Out bases, Crouch Bases, and other easily exploitable bases that I told Wayne to outlaw immediately, which too took some convincing. Due to the permitted one way props and bases such as mine, the raiding economy (percentage of bases successfully being raided compared to those that were started) were abysmal, hence why we had what I call, "Hermit Crab Gameplay" where everyone just stayed in their base and collected money from printers. There simply weren't enough bases being raided and thieves had no chance to possibly raid such bases. It really did suck the life out of you to raid these one way bases (which by the way, my bases weren't one way bases and I still call them "impossible" to raid). I recall Da Pain Wayne saying that he wanted to keep the rules simple, but this simply isn't possible with Dark RP, let alone Purge. There are dozens and dozens of roles, which all need rules, so inherently, the rules can not simply be simple. The rules are meant to be thorough, it is not an easy game mode to grasp, there are rules that must be followed. Not only were rules missing, some of the ones were just illogical to begin with. "Your base must be possible to raid with reasonable measures" was a rule, I mean, who is to decide what's reasonable? The admins would have differing opinions, the people on the server surely would have differing opinions. This vague syntax is there simply to avoid getting specific, which as previously mentioned, is a necessary evil for DarkRP servers that was for some unknown reason, avoided.

 

3) Bad Attitude Towards Criticism/Players

There's no hiding it, harsh criticism is not particularly welcome here, hence why I don't plan on joining or playing on any more GFL servers until there is a change from the top-down. Although it may seem like a contradiction that I said I left GFL but still post in the forums, I see it as I fled X country but am still writing in their newspapers from a distance. But, not to belabor the obvious or get off track, criticism and suggestions were either ignored or taken into effect long after they were suggested (which does not help, at all). I'm not saying 100% of the suggestions were ignored, some actually went through rather quickly. But really, most suggestions just took way too long to add. And again, I understand Da Pain Wayne was a new coder and it was his first time, but with all due respect, it doesn't mean the criticism isn't valid. He had his undeniable faults too, he is not infallible. At the essence of any server, the players are what make it great, not the admins and not the server manager/s. The same applies to a business, the factory is nothing without its workers, so, like a floor manager should listen to his/her employees, the server manager ought to listen to his/her player base. They make the server be, they are the most important. Some fictitious role online does not make one man more enlightened than another, so why are players not being treated with respect? These are your constituents that buy VIP every month and give you money, you have a duty to listen to these people. They keep the servers afloat, not the admins. 

 

I talked about this previously in my "Beginning of The End" post that I wrote back in April 17 where I wrote just about the same contentions, to which I do believe looking back at it now, definitely had some truths to it. (Also don't lock this post as you did the last one, I want to disagree with people and have discussions, just disagree with me and write why so we can discuss this openly and freely.) Let me make this clear too, I am criticizing the higher ups and Da Pain Wayne, but I do not hate these people nor have any malice/ill will against them. I just disagree and want to bring a difference of opinion to the table. Diogenes said "Of what use is a philosopher who doesn't hurt anyone's feelings?", so, let me disagree with you, and you disagree back. And from there, we get the beauty of free speech, honorable and fair disagreements where in the end, we can reach a logical conclusion that will benefit us both. The entity of knowledge is not a zero sum game, if I learn something, you can too. So, let's teach other and further our education, if I'm wrong, tell me why. But now, when there is this constant belief that GFL and it's higher ups are infallible, I begin to question the integrity of the community as a whole and how we view those with arbitrary and constructed roles above us. What's wrong with admitting faults? What's wrong with being wrong? When I criticize, I often see the response, "well we tried and that's just how it is", I view that as defeatist and incredibly unhealthy. There is always hope and this server definitely had some. There was great potential and look where we are now, it really is a sad thing. Again, I'm the 9th most active person on that server, even when I quit that server early and still manage to be top 10 to this day. I love Purge/DarkRP, hence why I started the suggestions thread, and of course when I saw indications of the downfall, I wrote that "alarmist" post to try and curb it, which of course was to no avail. You say I criticize because I dislike the server and it's admins/higherups, I say I criticize because I love the server. When I poured hundreds and hundreds of hours into our TTT MC and yet criticized it heavily, it was because I loved it and wanted to see it thrive, otherwise why would I play? There is no ill will and I'm no hater. When Rousseau published beautiful essays like the Discourse of Arts and Sciences where he criticized the world and how people are becoming increasingly dependent and obsessed with entertainment in 1750, he too was regarded as a critic and a know-nothing. But, he said explicitly he writes the essays to improve people's lives and question their own actions to better themselves. 

 

Besides that, there are maybe a dozen more reasons I can give as to what contributed to the downfall of Purge, but I would be surprised if people read all the way here, so I doubt anyone would really be interested in my whole theory (but if you are, reply to this and let me know so I can tell you). To some it's already comical the amount of time and energy I sink into such matters but I really do enjoy engaging in discussions with others, whether they agree, disagree, or most of the time, a little bit of both. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, disagreements, or really anything at all, please reply to the post. I like to engage with people and disagree, I love it. So if you disagree about anything at all, let it be known, I would like to be proven wrong. Criticize me as a person for all I care, more power to you, I have my undeniable faults. I would also like to say, if you had any negative experiences with Purge, please, let it also be known. I'm sure higher ups will see it and hopefully change their mind on some things. After all, these people are supposed to listen you.

[Joshy 4,364 / 44,927]

Saw your thread 

 

6 hours ago, iLoveNapalm said:

(Also don't lock this post as you did the last one...

 

🔒...............................🙃

 

I'm just kidding

🔓 😛

[iLoveNapalm 134 / 3,969]

18 hours ago, Joshy said:

Saw your thread 

 

 

🔒...............................🙃

 

I'm just kidding

🔓 😛

no need to lock this time i guess lol. either people agree with me or it's just too long for people to read and disagree idk, or its just not well written 

Edited September 24, 2022 by iLoveNapalm

[BestKevin 89 / 1,644]

I agree

[The1337Gh0st 238 / 8,594]

On 9/23/2022 at 10:19 PM, iLoveNapalm said:

no need to lock this time i guess lol. either people agree with me or it's just too long for people to read and disagree idk, or its just not well written 

 

 

I thought it brought up some pretty interesting points for a "history of the server" post

 

should've just went ahead and included your theory though! 

[iLoveNapalm 134 / 3,969]

10 minutes ago, The1337Gh0st said:

 

I thought it brought up some pretty interesting points for a "history of the server" post

 

should've just went ahead and included your theory though! 

I mean generally speaking, it's long enough already and I would be willing to say that a very small minority of those who clicked on the post actually read the whole thing, so I didn't find it necessary to include. But at the heart of it, the theory evolves from just bad management. I mean that really is the root of the death. I'll go into further detail below but for those who don't want to read the whole thing, there are two ways to effectively kill a server, unplug it,  and assign a bad server manager. 

 

To start off, Da Pain Wayne does not take criticism well. Let's talk about the elephant in the room, from the start of the server, Da Pain Wayne said "It's my server and I'll run it however I want". Already, this isn't a good philosophy for a server manager to have. Anytime I ever told him "X server has this, why don't we", I was always told "this is a different server, I don't want it to be like all the other ones". I understand the want and need for diversity, if every server is the exact same then it would be boring. Having said that, there are some necessities every successful server has (i.e. banned one ways, banned bases, etc.), which Da Pain Wayne had no interest in replicating, which killed the server (one ways destroy raiding economy as do unfair bases, which are all mentioned in my main post, sorry it's long). 

 

To go further down the list, expanding into my No Dev SM clause, Da Pain Wayne effectively was thrown into the deep end of the pool with no safety net. Like the analogy would include, Da Pain Wayne could've learned to swim right then and there and he (the server), would've been fine. But on the other hand, if Da Pain Wayne can not learn to swim quickly and there is no safety net around him (Dev SM), then he drowns (server dies). I find this analogy beautiful. You would never throw a kid into the deep end of the pool and not look after him to make sure he doesn't drown, so why was Da Pain Wayne thrown into the deep end of the pool without an adult watching him? Again, I'm sure the intention was he would "learn how to swim" but clearly, this was not the case. And worst of all, there was no call for help. Not once was there any indication of Da Pain Wayne asking for help, even when I made my Beginning of the End post, not only did he think the ship wasn't sinking, he thought everything was fine. Everything seemed rosy to him and Salad. Whether it was his pride (which I'll get into later as to why it was a huge problem), something clearly went wrong and of course, went unaddressed by Da Pain Wayne and Salad. This too is a huge problem in GFL, there is literally 0 transparency. Let's not play pretend, behind the curtains of GFL, there is rot. There are a lot of problems that are actively being kept away from players, which by the way, is also a huge problem, but that's another topic for another day. 

 

Next, one of the biggest detrimental and ironic killers of purge was Pride. To which, let it be known, Salad is at fault here too. On launch, Da Pain Wayne and Salad were happy that the server was almost full and they were boasting around saying how Purge was going to be the next showpiece of GFL. From the start, I saw that this server is not sustainable. The launch was abysmal, and better yet, the figure we got from Da Pain Wayne as to how long the server was in development was 3 months. And of course, that's a minimum, I'm sure the real number is higher but, we have to work with the number we were given. The server was in development and testing for 90 days, and there were rules missing, countless exploits, atrocious economy and really the list just goes on and on. There was nothing to boast about, I hope Salad and Da Pain Wayne have come to their senses and now see the irony in being prideful in something that was doomed to fail. To be honest, it was pretty embarrassing to see such a thing from two people who have A LOT of power in GFL. Never in this life is it good to celebrate a race before it's over, so if they do take responsibility for the death of Purge, as they should, then they at least learned something. Which too is something I'm not seeing out of them. 

 

There hasn't been an apology or even a comment from Salad or Da Pain Wayne as to why they think the server died. Lest we forget, the death of this server was not random, no matter what excuses they give. When the population started to dip a little when I wrote my Beginning of the End post, it was just brushed off as "finals starting". These people always seem to have an excuse. You know, they say there are 3 things a human needs, food, water, and someone else to blame. There is a relationship between the server's management and its death, and I will die on that hill. At the end of the day, just as Loke and Jinzu were responsible for the death of TTT MC, which I also did warn against them at the time, Salad and Da Pain Wayne are to be held responsible for the bitter death of Purge. If they had any care for the server, at least they would issue a public statement as to what went wrong, but nothing. They completely abandoned ship. Very sad. I mean I'm top 10 for play time in Purge and I never afked overnight or anything in that regard. I really did want to play the server. I was happy that GFL would try out Purge/DarkRP again and maybe it would work this time. But, GFL constantly struggles with this one problem. Appointing proper higher ups/Server Managers. Not all higher ups are bad by nature, but there is a pattern in some higher ups and how they are blind to the problems around them. 

 

They become a fish who can not see the water, a captain who can't see the boat sinking. Just look at flying4assasin, he was the reason I got removed from CR, and I told everyone that he is not to be trusted. And then after some leaks and investigation, look at where our beloved flying4assasin is now. He's effectively community banned, completely tossed aside. And at the time of the CR election, his word was taken over mine. He was viewed as some sort of victim. Isn't it time we begin questioning why his word was taken as gospel and why I was thrown aside? Why are the higher ups and staff always protected, it really seems like they have diplomatic immunity. It's like they are above the law. But, believe me, not all higher ups are bad, I'm good friends with some and some even supported me in my CR race, but a lot of what goes on in GFL behind closed curtains is grim. So by nature, the stinky rot of GFL management stretched all the way down to Purge and someone who most definitely should not be in power, got it.