I agree with you on most parts. When I was talking about the hate I was referring to a projects development thread rather than the actual advertisement thread. Alot of newbies get hated early on in either their projects discussion thread, or their mapping showoff because they don't live up to some peoples expectations which seem to expect that everyone starts as a pro. Also I rarely see the really good mappers reply to a noob mappers thread and if they do it unfortunately is far away from being constructive feedback.
Kind regards,
Damon
Typical community degradation.
Older members lose their enthusiasm, passion and patience and lash-out; as that's the typical human response to frustration.
But to keep this OT specific;
As I mentioned in another thread - this community is self cannibalizing due to monetization.
Take a step back and ask yourself
why you're developing you're own OT server...
@Codex NG touched on it perfectly:
I think we all hang around otland for different reason..
Some for the money they can and do make from short to long term servers, projects or gigs.
Some for the notoriety they get for releasing their work, fixing / updating existing works or creating new things.
Some for the education they receive from developers, artists, writers & dreamers from all over the world.
While others are here for a few of the above mentioned or none at all.
When I was big into OT Servers back in '07-'08, the feeling in the community was everything was about notoriety and just doing something awesome.
Making a name for yourself and making a popular server was enough self-satisfaction.
Now the feeling I get - is it's all about maximizing profits:
- Download and run servers packaged with multiple donations methods out of the box.
- Micro-transaction item shops being standard.
- VPS services being marketed as a hosting requirement.
What confuses me is the fact that OT profitability has absolute shitty returns -
and its such a bloody niche market.
The mix of knowledge you need in SQL/PHP/C++/LUA/Tibia to make a moderately successful OT, could be put into making a phone app with insanely better micro-transactional return rates.
All in all, this thread points out the problems - but isn't recommending any solutions.
Here are my solutions, which I'm following myself as best as I can:
The Community:
Ignore unconstructive negativity -
don't let idiots screw with your motivation and passion you have towards your creation.
Reply to questions that you
can answer on the support board -
the guy asking the question, was you; once.
Share what you can, there is really no benefit to keeping it to yourself -
new ideas, concepts and simple yet beautiful mechanisms; keep this game fresh.
Degradation of the Player Experience
Honestly; would you play your own server? If the answer is no, then please just stop what you're doing -
you are literally the problem, the topic of this thread.
Monetization should be an after-thought, something that
might need to do if your server explodes with popularity and you are operating at a loss -
Majority of OTs are literally P2W garbage-fests (F@#$ the players all the way to the bank?)
Be realistic about what you can achieve and deliver -
This thread says it all.
Degradation of the Player-base
We have such a niche market
(Sub-community of a sub-community):
Gamers > MMO Players > Tibia Players > OT Players
Honestly, I think the solution here is the flash client -
then the market could literally be anyone with an internet browser.
I'd really love for it to be side-by-side with the OTClient project, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of enthusiasm for the idea.
Degradation of Self
Be self-aware and try to eliminate bias in your own opinions.
If you're opinion isn't constructive or positive, just... don't -
a low quality server is destined to fail, regardless of what you do or do not post.
If you've lost the enthusiasm for OTs, move on. Try not to turn into part of the problem -
insert spiritual buzzword nonsense here.
In the end, this is a community like any other.
Keep your morals in check, be in this for the right reasons and just be one friendly bastard.
And yes, monetization is indeed a pain in the ass. Imho there are way easier ways to make some money and you will even have the assurance of being paid for your work.
