A few weeks ago, another new server was posted in the EIS forum. The main game consisted of primarily inexperienced players, who are mostly personal friends of the sysop, (who also plays on his own server, btw, but nobody has objected because of the manner in which he conducts himself).

I would like to post his announcement and the subsequent discussion as a case study in how such things should be done, not only for your benefit, but for anybody out there that wants to run a "friendly game."

http://www.eisonline.com/twforum/topic. ... C_ID=11734

I have been playing in his game now for several weeks, and made a number of nice friends; also, a few other "pro's" showed up to lend the n00bs a hand, and because the game is about to be rebanged around the first of Janurary, we even started going to war a little.

Nobody has had their feelings hurt, there hasn't been any negativity at all, and even though the sysop got invaded, he smiled and said "good job" and "what can you teach me so next time the invasion isn't so easily accomplished." As you see, he even set up a forum just for this game, so people could discuss the events in the game.

Solon, i think most of your problems stemmed from your APPROACH to (what you saw as) the problem. Rather than accuse me of cheating after I ran SST overnight in a 3-week-old game and doubled the number of fighters on the V screen, he asked me, "How did you do it?" When one of the more notorious hellraisers showed up in his game, brimming with hostility and smack-talk, he explained to the guy that this was a newbie game where people paid tolls if possible, etc., and the guy went somewhere else to play. No need to whack him with the ban stick.

Maybe you made some mistakes in the way you approached the "problem players" on your server, but there's no reason not to learn from the experience. If you have a high-speed, dedicated server, there's no reason it can't be successful and popular; you just need to have clearly-defined rules, and then STICK to them. And i recommend that any game you host where you don't want killing going on, that you make it a private game. Then you can invite the folks from your public games that meet your selective criteria.

The fact that you are tussling with Jhereg really doesn't help your image much. He happens to be one of the most highly-respected people in Tradewars because of his level-headed sense of fair play and decency. His mentor, Zentock, (although often derided for his staunch views on ethics and courtesy) has been an inspiration to many of us that play on the Phoenix Rising team, and while it's been suggested elsewhere that you visit Merlin's Keep to perhaps meet a like-minded sysop and players, hook up with Zentock when you're there, too. =)

Good luck with your server.

galaxi

Very well put Galaxi

Well written post, galaxi. Thank you for the history, and (even though not directly directed to me) the other stuff.