v16 Comments etc, yepyepyep! Options

[jutzy]

in regards to comps, this is a side affect of me trying todo so much that i get bogged down whilst other gets pushed aside, if anyone thinks they can help and has experiance in the area, please let me know, id like to bring more people on board

thanks

What type of stuff? I know you guys get bogged down with stuff even with people just not being able to get on the network/being able to access a game.

I love respawn and wouldn't mind helping in any way I could.

I wish i was 18 and had p's because i want to come down earlyer and help out if i was permitted by the admin staff.

But deadman if u need help me and/or sharks will be willing to help out any way possible.

but overal it was pretty epic and i enjoyed the lan... and to whomever i pissed off with my chair in the annexe i apologise...

I might suggest that the player limit be reduced back to 450 players because theres not much room with 500... and only 407 people checked in so?

[wolfmother]

This is just a general discussion point and not directly related to v16 but more to Respawn itself.

It frustrates me that Respawn has turned into a massive Leech fest where it seems only 40% or so come to play games. In my previous threads I've been told Respawn isn't going to be "competition focused" and that people come for the "LANning atmosphere/party", in other words, leech a shitload and maybe catchup with a few onlines mates.

In posting this, I know I will get flamed by the Respawn veterans that come to respawn just to leech. But I'd really like to see Respawn become more gaming focused because it has so much potential.

This is a really difficult topic to deal with and my experience with lanning has mostly told me that there's nothing that any individual person or group can really do about it. In the time I've been attending, the admin team have tried just about everything to get people to play more games at various times (reminding them over the PA to play something, starting specific games and asking people to join, holding more competitions, holding competitions with bigger prizes/cash prizes, etc) and to be honest I don't think there is any correlation whatsoever between these activities and the number of people who enter into the comps.

The most ridiculous moment of the LAN was when TF2 was about to start with a $300 prize and only a single team had entered. People were so averse to playing a reasonably popular and well-liked game (that has previously had a substantial number of serious teams entering) that they were essentially giving up a significant amount of free money. Then there are other games at other LANs which were barely promoted and had almost no prize and got a dozen teams or players entering - but the events before and after that got nothing.

I think the whole thing has more to do with the zeitgeist than the actions of the admins or individual players: a LAN is a social event and interest in the activities that go on within it naturally waxes and wanes over time. The reason Respawn isn't a competition focussed LAN is because most of the players don't seem to really want that, and the admins trying to go against that isn't going to help anyone.

Extreme LAN is an interesting example because they put a lot of work into actively pursuing people running filesharing and shutting down hubs etc. The practical upshot of this was that not only did the quality of the LAN suffer but there was still just as many people filesharing, and even those that did give up on it still didn't play games. That's just one of the things people are interested in, and IMO telling them to be interested in something else is futile and unproductive. Sucks, but that's life.

[Shub0xx]

This is just a general discussion point and not directly related to v16 but more to Respawn itself.

It frustrates me that Respawn has turned into a massive Leech fest where it seems only 40% or so come to play games. In my previous threads I've been told Respawn isn't going to be "competition focused" and that people come for the "LANning atmosphere/party", in other words, leech a shitload and maybe catchup with a few onlines mates.

In posting this, I know I will get flamed by the Respawn veterans that come to respawn just to leech. But I'd really like to see Respawn become more gaming focused because it has so much potential.

This is a really difficult topic to deal with and my experience with lanning has mostly told me that there's nothing that any individual person or group can really do about it.

There are ways for admins to "police" filesharing, by blocking ports etc, but most of the time this doesn't work because when 1 port gets blocked, the hub "creator" can just pick another random port and continue sharing.

I know for certain I'd hate to be the one trying to shut down ports to block filesharing, because that's all I'd be doing all weekend, rather than having a good time playing games.

[wolfmother]

This is just a general discussion point and not directly related to v16 but more to Respawn itself.

It frustrates me that Respawn has turned into a massive Leech fest where it seems only 40% or so come to play games. In my previous threads I've been told Respawn isn't going to be "competition focused" and that people come for the "LANning atmosphere/party", in other words, leech a shitload and maybe catchup with a few onlines mates.

In posting this, I know I will get flamed by the Respawn veterans that come to respawn just to leech. But I'd really like to see Respawn become more gaming focused because it has so much potential.

This is a really difficult topic to deal with and my experience with lanning has mostly told me that there's nothing that any individual person or group can really do about it.

There are ways for admins to "police" filesharing, by blocking ports etc, but most of the time this doesn't work because when 1 port gets blocked, the hub "creator" can just pick another random port and continue sharing.

I know for certain I'd hate to be the one trying to shut down ports to block filesharing, because that's all I'd be doing all weekend, rather than having a good time playing games.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was getting at. Even then, that can cause performance problems on the switches, and even the most complicated and performance-crippling filtering system will still be quite easy to get around (wouldn't life be great if Conroy understood this?)

[Zantikk]

My point wasn't to block filesharing.

I understand that around 95%+ of the people that come Respawn fileshare, regardless if they play games or not.

My idea is to promote a larger population of Respawn who actually come to play games and compete in the competitions. My initial idea was to adjust the signup so that it is easiar for teams to get into Respawn and actually compete in the comps (this idea was highly debated in another thread).

It really is a confusing situation and I guess it really is up to the admins to decide what to do from here.

As for Respawn 16, I really enjoyed it. Another successful event with a great CoD4 comp.

My dislike was the shoutcasting over the PA. Yea I enjoyed GameStah casting the CS Final, but not everyone wants to hear it, especially when I'm playing the COD finals. It would be better if you could broadcast the shoutcast over the network (maybe through VLC somehow?). Same goes for the cast over the PA for the COD Grand Final.

[Shub0xx]

My dislike was the shoutcasting over the PA. Yea I enjoyed GameStah casting the CS Final, but not everyone wants to hear it, especially when I'm playing the COD finals. It would be better if you could broadcast the shoutcast over the network (maybe through VLC somehow?). Same goes for the cast over the PA for the COD Grand Final.

For someone who has never really played CS, I had no idea what they were talking about, and then at times all I could hear was a mumble.

I like the thought of broadcasting thru VLC. That way those who want to watch/listen can, and those who don't really care don't need to listen to the commentary.

[SirSquidness]

It would be better if you could broadcast the shoutcast over the network (maybe through VLC somehow?). Same goes for the cast over the PA for the COD Grand Final.

How would a small chill-out lounge work, with a small seperate PA system set up so that people who wanted to watch/listen could go and sit down, watch it and hear the commentary?

[ThirtySix45]

I come to leech but I love the games like Tron. Its easy to jump into while your system is being taxed by DC++.

my GF was disappointed by the chick comp. next time she'd like to see a games list before the event. She didnt even have the games installed so couldnt play.

[Shub0xx]

It would be better if you could broadcast the shoutcast over the network (maybe through VLC somehow?). Same goes for the cast over the PA for the COD Grand Final.

How would a small chill-out lounge work, with a small seperate PA system set up so that people who wanted to watch/listen could go and sit down, watch it and hear the commentary?

That sounds like a possible solution. If I may make a suggestion, put up a poll on this question, and let it run until a month b4 the next respawn, allowing the admin team to guage a response from members.

This gives you all time to make the needed arrangements if required.

[mojo]

Wasn't there a source tv network setup for exactly this sort of thing? If not there's no reason why the cs commentary can't be done over vlc or something like than..

One thing that really annoys me is steam, I actually love steam- but its barely works half the time on lans. It actually worked fine for me this time, but countless people seemed to be having problems. Get some more internet access

Overall it was an alright event, atmosphere was a bit dull at times D:

[Sharks]

Steam is usually the users fault when they don't take a minute to boot their computer up, let steam offer to run in offline mode, run it, then plug their machine in. The games do LAN in offline mode...

[mojo]

Sharks, the system is far from perfect. I've been lanning since Steam before steam was introduced.. I don't think I've been to a lan where there's been no problems with steam... It should work a lot better than it does.

[Jen]

Oooh, had I known it was that nasty bugger, I'd've understood completely. I've had issues with Conflicker in the past, with it bringing down corporate networks that I've been working on, so I understand his concern.

Yes. It has come into the venue before and whilst we can attempt to trace the source, it sends out packets of data that have spoofed information so its a pain the backside to catch. But thankfully a quick thinking admin put the conficker patches and repairs on the FTP for people to grab and confirm their machine was not the leading cause of issues. I can assure you the "RAGEBOAT" issue is a hot button one and one that will be discussed at length. We really thank you guys for being so blunt and honest with us. Without this, I know that from a group point of view, we'd never know whats wrong.

Cheers

[Andrewzor]

I for one come to Respawn to file share and play small games like Tron, you really think banning file sharing even though its probably not possible is going to help your cause?

I'm sure there are alot of people like me out there

[Genome]

*More Games, less leeching*

I really really wish this was the case. The only time I'm leeching at Respawn is because I can't find anything I want to play at that time, and am probably bored of Tron by that point. Obviously for a lot (most?) people leeching is the big drawcard, and what mainly if not exclusively for. It just saddens me because this is the biggest, most regular and successful LAN in Victoria, and maybe Australia (dno about fragfest/SGL). With such huge numbers and such a capable admin team, you can see so much potential for competitions, but relatively little results despite their efforts.

One big question I have is about internet games and how this can be approached. Someone mention using Steam offline in this thread, but I was under the impression that you guys opened a port or something to allow limited net access for steam to work? With games like MW2, BFBC2 and soon what will be one of the biggest competitive games around, SC2, all requiring some form of online access, is there any way the net can be set up through the uni so that bandwith is allocated specifically to allow these games to run? Otherwise I fear some of the great existing and upcoming games will never see the light at Respawn, and we'll be playing TF2, COD4 and WC3 for longer than we might wish.

[dead_man]

*More Games, less leeching*

I really really wish this was the case. The only time I'm leeching at Respawn is because I can't find anything I want to play at that time, and am probably bored of Tron by that point. Obviously for a lot (most?) people leeching is the big drawcard, and what mainly if not exclusively for. It just saddens me because this is the biggest, most regular and successful LAN in Victoria, and maybe Australia (dno about fragfest/SGL). With such huge numbers and such a capable admin team, you can see so much potential for competitions, but relatively little results despite their efforts.

One big question I have is about internet games and how this can be approached. Someone mention using Steam offline in this thread, but I was under the impression that you guys opened a port or something to allow limited net access for steam to work? With games like MW2, BFBC2 and soon what will be one of the biggest competitive games around, SC2, all requiring some form of online access, is there any way the net can be set up through the uni so that bandwith is allocated specifically to allow these games to run? Otherwise I fear some of the great existing and upcoming games will never see the light at Respawn, and we'll be playing TF2, COD4 and WC3 for longer than we might wish.

whilst we try to allow steam access to login at the LAN, it gets fairly hard have 400 odd ppl loggin in over either 3g or a 768k connection, and this is where most of the problems occur afaik.

ill be taking down all of your suggestions for our next meeting, if there is anything else please PM me.

[wolfmother]

I for one come to Respawn to file share and play small games like Tron, you really think banning file sharing even though its probably not possible is going to help your cause?

I'm sure there are alot of people like me out there

Read a little more carefully . I'm not saying there are staff who want to block filesharing, but the fact that it is simply not technically possible means that that doesn't even matter.

[wolfmother]

My point wasn't to block filesharing.

I understand that around 95%+ of the people that come Respawn fileshare, regardless if they play games or not.

My idea is to promote a larger population of Respawn who actually come to play games and compete in the competitions. My initial idea was to adjust the signup so that it is easiar for teams to get into Respawn and actually compete in the comps (this idea was highly debated in another thread).

It really is a confusing situation and I guess it really is up to the admins to decide what to do from here.

Read that again They've tried everything under the sun to promote the competitions (and more gaming in general) and there still seems to be absolutely no relationship between these efforts and the number of people who actually participate.

The team signup idea does sound like a very nice convenience and something that is definitely worth bringing up, but I do doubt that it would change the general direction of the LAN (short of turning it into something like AusHalo where you have to be in a team to register, but that wouldn't work nearly as well for a BYOPC/PC LAN as it does for an XBox one).

[Sharks]

People could have/should have spammed their games/servers on the forums.

I always get the desire to play games like SA-MP at respawn but never get around to installing it/not sure about the server files. People enjoy mindless violence. It allows for people to play/game/get involved but still enjoy other aspects whilst not needing a beasty computer to run GTA4/Saints Row 2.

I think if people knew how appealing/fun games like Flatout 2 were, they would actually take 30 minutes to play it and maybe even enter the fun comp. (I orginially joined the competition for Flatout2 but had to pull out so I could go to the shops)

[Alioth]

Was good trip.
No real down points, though I would like to see more non-gaming based comps or random prizes.
Admins did a good job having to put up with everyone's crap.