I deffinently can't agree with whole of Nath's post but neither to denie some of his statements, and because most of negative aspects of his post is already pointed out (if not entirely focused there)
I think It's time to see the possitive/correct ones too.
We have a bigger problem: the bedrock/foundation of the community. I fundamentally believe that if the foundation is not fixed, no other efforts will result in meaningful results. It doesn't matter if we launch 10+ servers when we have a failed foundation. It doesn't matter if we hire the best developers, and write the most amazing scripts; if the foundation is broken, things will fail.
Is there anybody trully believes that we don't have a faulty foundation?
Players and their RP are the center of a RP server, and admins/developers are "the help," the people who provide tools for RP and support/encourage RP.
What Nathan has written in his post is a North Korean interpretation of the subject: the
Glorious Leader HQ is the most important part, while RP and RPers are not even mentioned. This is distortion and/or substitution of notions.
The HQ serving as the "foundation" is not supposed to be the case in a RP server. The purpose of a RP server is to provide a place for people to RP, and not a platform for "interaction", or even "cooperation" with HQ. The ideal scenario is that RPers do not even notice the existence of staff, a structure that exists outside of RP.
Again, returning to the "beloved example," the RS4 to RS5 transition.
1. People lost their RP tools, the money, the scripted items (drugs, guns, etc.), the houses/bizzes. If you used that in your RP, if you relied on those decorations, can you continue your RP when they suddenly go missing? RP items should not disappear because of events outside RP.
2. RS5 on release was so bugged that you had no ability to claw your way back to what you used to have within a reasonable amount of time. Moreover, groups that due to the nature of their RP could continue their RP without money, couldn't continue because of bugs or missing RS4 features.
3. Official groups and other key RP makers were told they were not getting anything at all "for free," including their official status.
What prevented SA-MP server of the time from doing what MTA:SA server of the time did (solving problem of data loss by giving $ back)?
We at MTA, too, suffered because of this data loss, but we just restored everything we could and gave everyone a compensation of $100k, which is more than most had before the data loss.
Doesn't matter what. They removed money from people, removed other RP tools, discouraged RP and encouraged the grind of scripted jobs. Can you be surprised that people, who wanted to RP, went to a place where RP is encouraged...
What was done to at least somehow "massage" these problems away, alleviate them? On time, nothing. Did SA-MP fail or did it simply arrive at its logical conclusion after the screws were tightened to the max? What happened? A disaster or things that would normally happen in such an environment? The latter.
If you cannot commit to keeping players' assets, how do you expect them to commit to your server? Is it reasonable to expect loyalty from players who you're not loyal to? How do you build trust in this situation?
I saw many "realistic" economies fail due to everybody starting from 0. Where is realism in
everybody being a poor peasant? Some server leaders (I'm not talking about any Argonath server) say, "well, what am I going to do if people reach end-game quickly?" I say, "make more 'end-game' content."
If it's a RP server, the RP in it should be the main priority. Virtual money are virtual to us, but real money for the characters within RP. Is it good RP if your character is ascetic, because you the player consider the money fake? No. Look at the west, and most of the rest of the world. Money is a god, a target for worship. Remove it, and it's immediately harder to parody reality.
We need decorations that stay in place while the performance is underway, regardless of external reasons.
If I recall correctly the forums were down for almost a month just a while ago? Is this trully something we entirelly reject to reflect on?
I would make the current forum an archive, and make a new one from scratch. A rather simple way to turn a new page. Not sure what the actual plan for it is, though.
To be honest I actually have more faith and feeling more comfortable than ever before with the current CM team (specifically about Brian as I had the luck to meet him a little) but It comes to a point that you guys are actually lacking power to cover your own duties & this is due to a faulty foundation, not your personal fault, this is what Nath is trying to say. (I hope)
Local history provides clear examples of what not to do and what to avoid, so it would actually take a great effort to step on the same rake again. I don't think the MTA:SA HQ wants to do that.
Encourage RP and support it. That's it. No need for "radical transparency," as Nathan suggested, because once the new server is up and available to public, everything hidden will be revealed anyway. Having access to the final product is as transparent as it can get, much more transparent than a "window inside HQ," or any other "communications." It's usually very obvious if RP is a priority of the server's author(s) or not, because
if it is, there is no reason to conceal it or disguise it in some way.
I guess time will tell whether it's something we want to play or not; I certainly don't think anything is doomed or whatever, and I don't admire Nathan's logic of previous team bad = this HQ deserves shit (it is funny though
). I wouldn't even say the previous HQ, or the HQs before it were that bad (or bad at all, to be exact) either; the game those people were playing was rigged from the start, and many of them ended up as victims of it at the end of the day.
Until I see that there is an inability to comprehend the purpose of the server and its priorities (and I haven't seen that so far), I am optimistic and don't see a reason not to be.
Think I'm done posting my demagoguery on this subject, and I'll just sit back and wait to see what happens.
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