omg!!!!!!!!!!! ww3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let me preface this by being 100% honest and saying that I'm most definitely instantly biased towards option 4... and I'll explain why, but I'm also going to address some issues with the classic server concept so that I'm not a total shill.
I don't think this is true, in WW3's case, because of the inherent us vs them S2K.
You slap a WW3 server up and I can guarantee people would keep that shit going for months and months.
Correct; but only in certain circumstances... it depends on a lot of factors.
@Shapok is correct in referencing past attempts over the last couple of years (since 2018 I believe?) in bringing back the "classic formula" WW3, a few of which I have been involved in, in varying capacities!!!
Probably the most successful (despite being very short-lived) of these attempts was the August 2021 revision at a different community. A lot of hard work went into that from myself, the staff team and the players despite having very little to work with from the get-go, as well as struggling with debilitating issues (namely inexperienced upper management for one, who spawned some of these issues of their own accord, communication breakdowns between my temporary replacement whilst I was on LOA with COVID and the staff team, development issues that proved elusive and so forth).
The metrics from this revision were, when we were full steam ahead and I wasn't busy coughing my lungs up with COVID, 35 player average during peak times (6pm-11pm for us, roughly) keeping in mind we only had 40 player slots. And this was starting off from an incredibly lacklustre launch two weeks prior... I think we managed a 15-17 player peak during the first launch week, which then steadily grew as we learned where/what our strengths and weaknesses were and made a plan of action.
We held that 35 player average for a month, then I caught COVID, went on LOA (whilst still doing what I could in an advisory role, when I could) and the rest is history. Such is life. Some things were not handled the best way, and that includes me and some of my day-to-day decisions as well, and things could've been done differently but at the end of the day it's all a learning experience. We learn and we move on to the next thing.
edit: My point is, the interest for WW3RP is still 100% there, most definitely. And that month of going from strength to strength showcased that. If that can happen in a community where I had minimal resources to work with from the very get-go, then it can most definitely be pulled off here. Nebulous remains an active community and the staff are no strangers to launching servers here, and the community also has the benefit of having resources to work with.
I'd want to find the balance between it becoming a toxic mess ánd the shitshow where people felt like some sort of elitist just because they RPd. Big shock, the kind of RP we've done on Nebulous, be that HL2RP or WW3RP or w/e, it wasn't exactly the super duper serious RP you'd see in purist servers, so lets stop pretending.
Always an issue in the main, open servers... one end of the spectrum where you have people that want to just fuck around, not RP (or just do the bare minimum of RP) and be toxic and the other end being the people who thought they were God's gift because they do paragraph RP and max out the 1024 character limit of the chatbox with their /me's that are mostly just filler. That being said, they both bounce off each other, and I personally haven't found a way to get people to just be nice to each other without tedious micromanagement and mediation a lá being a babysitter.
It should not be the staff's job to micromanage petty conflicts between players, which plays into the next branch of the same issue... the varying attitudes across the playerbase. You'll have toxic cliques, elitist cliques and every other kind of clique in between; people who just wanna play the game, to name one. One thing I've noticed is that people are very easily wound up on WW3RP, and GMod in general, over the littlest things and this has been a consistent issue with WW3/GMod for a number of years/iterations, now. Unfortunately, it is pack and parcel of an open server, as everyone who plays will have differing maturity levels and skin thickness. It iz what it iz, literally. It's something you can mitigate, but it's not something you can eliminate.
This is where closed-off servers that require a whitelist to play are more enticing in this instance— players can be vetted and vouched for (some would call this circlejerking?) and they will more than likely all be similar-minded. It doesn't remove the issue entirely, but it lessens it as a whole.
Furthermore, the inherent nature of option 4's concept is a breeding ground for taunting and banter that goes too far. People need thick skin to play the gamemode and can't be wound up as easily as they usually are. Staff will obviously do what they can to keep it under wraps, but they can't be there watching everything 24/7. It's a shame because the gamemode is genuinely fun, but this whole us vs them mentality and general toxicity across the board just ruins the experience for a lot of players, and generally speaking too.
I don't see why we couldn't try and combine some of the options together? Do the fourth option as the permanent server with the "fully serious" act dropped, but then occasionally organise whitelisted events a la the first option for proper, serious roleplay hours.
I like this idea. I'm sure this has been a part of the classic concept since its first inception back in 2011/2012 (BnT?) as "operations", which were originally just S2K fests with respawn waves given to either side until the Neb 2016 iteration where
@Roosebud and co turned operations into a hybrid of the classic S2K fests with heavy roleplay elements, most notably during the Armenia campaign on rp_pripyat.
It worked pretty well, but that's probably just my rose-tinted glasses speaking. I imagine it was more than likely a nightmare to manage behind the scenes from time-to-time. I'd like to see more of these operations with more focus given to RP whilst also retaining the classic respawn-wave-deathmatch-the-enemy malarkey to some extent... there's a time and place for both, and I'm sure we can work out which is which when/if it comes to it.
I think it'll end up better if we simply try to accommodate the two supposed "types" of WW3RP players instead of forcing everyone to focus on roleplay and then constantly complaining that the faction that has shown a clear interest in the other side of the server doesn't like the main focus being shoved down their throats. Much better to accommodate that from the very beginning.
The devil you know, some people just aren't in the mood for heavy RP 24/7 and that's OK. I'd rather accommodate both sides and have a "lighter" experience whilst still being able to engage in the serious, heavy RP with people who actually want to. Compromise rather than force, it's a game after all, we're all adults now... the majority of us OGs are, anyway. People are a lot more receptive to change and ideas when you sit down with them in a level-headed manner and just discuss them, instead of stomping on their neck and insisting that they must engage in mandatory 24/7 heavy serious roleplay. That's not how it works, and it never will work that way. Just my two cents. I welcome people who may have different opinions to discuss this with me.
Personally speaking? I have a lot going on in my life, adult responsibilities, work, yada-yada. A plug-and-play experience like option 4 where I can just log in and play the game with the homies keeps things nice and simple. Never been too much of a fan of closed-off event servers... mainly because my shit work schedule means I can never make them and my FOMO kicks in :sob:. Closed-off event servers need a lot of work and dedication from the staff and playerbase, and if the dedication isn't there, the execution isn't going to be there either. Players might not wanna play/can't make it, same for staff, staff might get burnt out... the same can be said for main, open servers, but the latter is usually more forgiving in how much you can salvage and recover from a shitty launch.
Furthermore, it's less of a headache for staff to manage. All you need is faction leads, branch leads, COs/NCOs and staff; with some oversight, you're good to go. Minimal reliance on the playerbase, which is another key point to bring up... look at FrundTech, look at Stasiland. Numerous "key" players applied for businesses and whatnot for the Stasiland launch, got them, and then just never logged on... or interacted with their businesses. Hype does a lot to a person. I want to be optimistic and say that wouldn't happen again, but I don't particularly like eating my words.
I'll have more detailed feedback on the actual ideas themselves in a later post.