Third Party Opinions

[Zephyr 14]

I was browsing Reddit, and I noticed a thread where quite a few people weren't happy with the Lotus servers. The things that they were complaining about (mainly false player counts) were ironically the very things that have been put in place to bring people to your servers. I was just curious if knowing that many people have blacklisted your servers because of false player counts would change your opinion of them.

Just a thought - try removing the false player counts for awhile and let Reddit know about the changes. Letting them know that you heard them could get more donators in the long run.

[Lemon Jelly 26]

did you see afronanny post in that thread? I dont think they'll be back joking aside I could see this helping anyways because even with the false player count people are leaving immediately when they find out no ones in there.

[Zephyr 14]

I know that Redditors love to know that they made a difference. If Lotus says "Hey, we listened. Try us out again." I think it would generate a massive positive buzz for them.

[Zephyr 14]

Regardless of their intelligence, that post got a big response. I don't like it when the servers I play on have a bad reputation, and I just thought I'd present options for improving them like I have in the past.

• No one liked the false player counts
  
• Quite a few didn't like the video MOTD
  
• Most indicated that they were okay with bots
  

Now you know peoples' biggest complaints about your servers. You're free to address them or ignore them.

[Gotcha 6,307]

What's a Reddit?

[Krash 1,040]

How do magnets work?

[Mana 3,867]

I was browsing Reddit, and I noticed a thread where quite a few people weren't happy with the Lotus servers. The things that they were complaining about (mainly false player counts) were ironically the very things that have been put in place to bring people to your servers. I was just curious if knowing that many people have blacklisted your servers because of false player counts would change your opinion of them.

Just a thought - try removing the false player counts for awhile and let Reddit know about the changes. Letting them know that you heard them could get more donators in the long run.

Most people really don't care. Our servers get full everyday. We could probably do without it as we have multiple servers in the top of Valve's ranking system.

19:14:24 Last Successful Rank Callback:
        <TAB>- Rank: 9
        <TAB>- Total Connects: 4831786
        <TAB>- Total Time Played: 57907 Hours 15 Minutes (3474435)
19:14:21 Last Successful Rank Callback:
        <TAB>- Rank: 10
        <TAB>- Total Connects: 4630396
        <TAB>- Total Time Played: 120968 Hours 13 Minutes (7258093)
19:14:18 Last Successful Rank Callback:
        <TAB>- Rank: 6
        <TAB>- Total Connects: 5015230
        <TAB>- Total Time Played: 252207 Hours 43 Minutes (15132463)
19:14:15 Last Successful Rank Callback:
        <TAB>- Rank: 4
        <TAB>- Total Connects: 5162727
        <TAB>- Total Time Played: 293480 Hours 44 Minutes (17608844)
19:14:13 Last Successful Rank Callback:
        <TAB>- Rank: 5
        <TAB>- Total Connects: 4917415
        <TAB>- Total Time Played: 330546 Hours 35 Minutes (19832795)
etc

But I'm not retarded. It would be stupid to remove them when lots of others do it. Like the clans whose servers say 35/36 when empty. Ours should only boost counts when there's players/bots on the server.

Just a thought - try removing the false player counts for awhile and let Reddit know about the changes. Letting them know that you heard them could get more donators in the long run.

Our UK servers have not used fake players for quite a while now. Worked out OK. I am adding them back now, let's see what works better...

[Zephyr 14]

Ours should only boost counts when there's players/bots on the server.

Are you saying that they should only boost counts when there's a mix of players and bots? That's not what it does.. it keeps boosting counts long after the bots are gone.

[v(•̪●)v 0]

Are you saying that they should only boost counts when there's a mix of players and bots? That's not what it does.. it keeps boosting counts long after the bots are gone.

Yeah, the count stays at 23/24 regardless of the number of players until it hits the threshold of players to boost it up into an actual count of X/33. If the count were 16/24 with 8&8 bots, I think people would have less of a shit fit over it. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem like much of an issue once you make the connection 'ok 23/24, nobody's playing, time to go somewhere else for a while'

[Mana 3,867]

Yeah, the count stays at 23/24 regardless of the number of players until it hits the threshold of players to boost it up into an actual count of X/33. If the count were 16/24 with 8&8 bots, I think people would have less of a shit fit over it. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem like much of an issue once you make the connection 'ok 23/24, nobody's playing, time to go somewhere else for a while'

That's not the behavior I'm seeing. Which server?

Also can someone pm me the link to the thread on reddit? I would like to read some fan commentary but when I try to go there the page doesn't even bother loading...

[Krash 1,040]

That's not the behavior I'm seeing. Which server?

Also can someone pm me the link to the thread on reddit? I would like to read some fan commentary but when I try to go there the page doesn't even bother loading...

Me as well.

And HLSW ftw.

[Zephyr 14]

That's not the behavior I'm seeing. Which server?

At the time when I made my comment, I was using the Steam server browser to view how many players were on Stocks 4. It reported that there were 32/33, and there were actually 28.

By the way.. what exactly do false player counts accomplish? Do they boost Valve server ratings without actually needing players? Every time I join a server that reports many more than are actually joined I immediately leave.. and it seems that I'm not in the minority.

[v(•̪●)v 0]

That's not the behavior I'm seeing. Which server?

That's how the vast majority of the lotus servers show for me in the Steam browser, but here is a condensed list from my favorites -

Then connect and...

Pretty much across the board, 8v8 and fewer than the difference to make up 23 as spectators (if there are any specs period).

[Mana 3,867]

At the time when I made my comment, I was using the Steam server browser to view how many players were on Stocks 4. It reported that there were 32/33, and there were actually 28.

Yes that is normal. Read what I wrote again.

By the way.. what exactly do false player counts accomplish? Do they boost Valve server ratings without actually needing players? Every time I join a server that reports many more than are actually joined I immediately leave.. and it seems that I'm not in the minority.

Valve rank is on the steam backend. It only counts real players who connect. Not bots or the like. Also only those with access to the server can see what rank the server has in Valve's system. There is no reason to boost it.

And yes you are the minority. Player count boosting is not meant to get you in the server, but rather have people who don't care enough to help start the server out each day. And it clearly works or no one would be doing it.

And HLSW ftw.

Not really, it's pretty shitty. Select multiple TF2 servers to send one command to all of them? Nope "HLSW doesn't support rcon access for this game." so then I have to click on every server and send the same command. Just wastes time.

[Zephyr 14]

Yeah, the count stays at 23/24 regardless of the number of players until it hits the threshold of players to boost it up into an actual count of X/33.

I apparently didn't understand what you meant by "actual count".

And yes you are the minority.

...The whole point of this thread was to bring to your attention that people hate false player counts. Out of 134 comments, not one of them supported, or was even neutral toward false player counts.

Player count boosting is not meant to get you in the server, but rather have people who don't care enough to help start the server out each day.

I still don't quite get it.. People will join a server that they think is full, then they stay even when they find out its not what they expected?

And it clearly works or no one would be doing it.

There's another side to that coin.. There are a lot of successful servers out there that don't use false player counts, too.

[Lemon Jelly 26]

here's the link to the reddit thread Once again, fuck LotusClan.

[DeJaDeW 83]

3081 public/1078 private TF2 servers (game-monitor.com), pick one & play.

[DrkEagle 15]

Diquebutt 2 points3 points4 points 2 days ago[-]

Their servers aren't worth playing even when there are people on. You dont' advance skills, you don't have fun. They're full of really bad players. Not new people, just really bad players. I'm sticking to TeamPlayerGaming and whatever else I can find.

* permalink

chewbacca77 0 points1 point2 points 2 days ago[+] (0 children)

chewbacca77 0 points1 point2 points 2 days ago[-]

Oh, that's not true for all of their servers. I'll admit that most of them are filled with bad players or stackers, but their Stocks 4 server has some really good competition in the evenings.

I can get 15 other West Coast players and go fuck up any of their 16 players.

Those guys are trolls who got owned from Lotus regulars and got mad so they have to go complain about a stupid issue and if they're gonna be like that, I don't want them around at all. If you're complaining that Lotus is filled with bots, it's because you have no life (like me sometimes) and are playing at 1-4am local server time during the week.

Afronanny said, as well as a few other names I saw there posted that I recognized, the servers are ->usually<- almost always full, unless it starts to get late during the week local server time. Or if a few of us are there playing well and happen to kill the server (I am guilty of that occasionally). It might drop down to under 24 human players and a few bots join in. If it's a decent hour of the night, the server will usually fill back up either during the same map, or I'll usually try to votemap to a different map and it gradually fills back up.

[Mana 3,867]

...The whole point of this thread was to bring to your attention that people hate false player counts. Out of 134 comments, not one of them supported, or was even neutral toward false player counts.

Even if all of those comments were unique people who hated our servers for this reason. Why would I care about this very tiny minority that don't even feel like it's worth posting about it on our forums? Since the last stat reset there's been about a million players who played on Lotus. And like I said before, most people just don't care. This is why threads discussing this issue rarely pop up on our forums. There's been less than 10 of these threads in the past 2... maybe 3 years?

Wouldn't you agree that 134 out of 993,818 would be a VERY VERY VERY tiny minority?

I still don't quite get it.. People will join a server that they think is full, then they stay even when they find out its not what they expected?

Absolutely. Especially if it has bots. But works even without bots. Bots just have a higher chance of keeping them around since they can actually play.

[Krash 1,040]

Yes, and just by seeing that thread i can agree with Afronanny that that site is full of morons.

'Deceptive, and fasilfying player count'

'Seeing bots is aggravating, especially with the fake ping'

'Whats the point of a high rank???'

Dear god, people just need to

[Bombz 31]

Fake counts can probably influence the popularity of what is otherwise already popular servers. But they're bad if you're starting out and have no player base.

[Zephyr 14]

Even if all of those comments were unique people who hated our servers for this reason. Why would I care about this very tiny minority that don't even feel like it's worth posting about it on our forums? Since the last stat reset there's been about a million players who played on Lotus. And like I said before, most people just don't care. This is why threads discussing this issue rarely pop up on our forums. There's been less than 10 of these threads in the past 2... maybe 3 years?

Well.. that's one way to look at it. But most people don't have the dedication to seek out your forums to complain about an issue. They'll see something they don't like in game, blacklist your server, and find a new one. End of story. That thread on Reddit should be important to you because it represents general opinions of the TF2 community toward your servers.

Wouldn't you agree that 134 out of 993,818 would be a VERY VERY VERY tiny minority?

The problem with this is that you don't know the opinions of everyone else. The important statistic here is that 0 out of 134 people don't mind false player counts.

Again. They're your servers, do what you want with them. I'm just trying to present a business opportunity for you. If Reddit knew you changed because of them, you'd get more players.

[Jonnyp 9]

Well... stats can be twisted to portray anything.

Out of those 134 people, how many people would be active on lotus servers if the false player count was removed? I'm guessing almost none.

Out of those almost none people who would be active on lotus, how many would contribute back to the servers? I'm guessing almost none.

Maybe you're right in saying that the majority (lets say 90%) of the people who join a server with a false player count will leave after realising it was false. But if the player count was genuine then those 10% of people who would stay would never have joined the server in the first place.

I could go on... but I would bore you in to submission

[Mana 3,867]

Well.. that's one way to look at it. But most people don't have the dedication to seek out your forums to complain about an issue. They'll see something they don't like in game, blacklist your server, and find a new one. End of story. That thread on Reddit should be important to you because it represents general opinions of the TF2 community toward your servers.

Some people on reddit != TF2 community at all.

1) Valve added automatic global blacklisting to servers where the average connection time is under 15 minutes (1 point per minute, upto 45 max points per player). Did we have a single server autoblacklisted? Nope.

2) Valve added clientside blacklist, did our server go empty? Nope.

Most TF2 players just don't care. If they did, there would be no such thing as fake players.

Again. They're your servers, do what you want with them. I'm just trying to present a business opportunity for you. If Reddit knew you changed because of them, you'd get more players.

Ugh again... Why would I care what some people on some site other than my own think? People who play TF2 AND use reddit are a tiny minority of the TF2 community.

[DrkEagle 15]

I think it would be funny if you did a ad advertisement on reddit.