HL2RP Why do HL2RP servers Fail?

Simple question, I hope to get lots of answers. I would love to know why you think these servers fail, and how you notice they are beginning to die etc.

 

Well, i think it is if the playerbase getting lower or staying low, for example, when a server gets popular, and it is for about 1 - 4 months, and the playerbase starts to get lower, it starts to die, and if a server comes up, does not get players for a /long/ time, it dies.

 

What do you think causes these players to leave my friend?

 

Well. It can range from a number of things.

• Poor Quality
• Poor Administration
• Boring RP
• Lack Of Playerbase

And so on. Just usually depends.
Hell, I've seen people rage quit because of their low ranked MPF unit gets pk'ed due to blatant stupidity.

 

Good on you.

 

I think in some cases it has to do with whether or not the staff constantly feed events to the playerbase or they get bored and leave, which isn't by itself necessarily a good thing. There'll always be times when nothing is going on, and players could use that time to do stuff themselves and keep each other entertained instead of leaving because nothing is going on.

 

HL2RP in particular is a very boring thing to roleplay, it's exciting and new if you're someone who hasn't played. I personally believe that once you've played it for a long time you know what you're gonna get in HL2RP, just be the average Citizen that gets shit on everyday and you have to apply on the forums with a ridiculous application length for a faction. For me, HL2RP stopped being fun when I knew it was going to be the same god damn thing over and over again.

 

A lot of it could/can be blamed on the admins. Sometimes people will depend too much on admins to give them some event, rather than making their own roleplay scenario. Or owners make shitty decisions and the admins get pissed and leave. I've seen it so many times, owner makes one mistake and everyone goes "wtf asshole xddd" and then slowly it collapses.

 

HL2RP/Gmod Serious RP in its entirety is utterly boring.

Players have no sway in the story of whats going on, or overall arcing plot of the server. (If there even is one.) Most writers now are pitiful and can hardly churn up a paragraph of a RP sample if you asked them to, alongside many other factors that drive serious players away from them. Alongside the elitist mindset where if you're new you're gonna be laughed at in OOC and have a admin generally degrade you like you're a child and show frustration at questions over helping someone.

There's a lot to blame, honestly. Most just move on from HL2 to something better, to continue writing elsewhere or pursue another avenue of gaming. It's natural for things to eventually die out, I'm sure Cloudsixteen will eventually take the hint and expand into other avenues as well.

 

not all of it lol

 

Yes, all of it. In comparison to a plethora of other Roleplaying games - It just staggers.

 

You make some good points, I do hope C16 branches out. All of the servers now of days are generic, the servers which think of new ideas that are not half bad are ran by terrible owners etc. I hope one day someone will make a half decent server.

 

/me would minge

 

maybe for all serious roleplay, but for hl2rp, it eventually degrades into a routine if not cared for properly, especially since the story of old mopey dopey citizen Joe and his citizen life are vastly different from Gordon Freeman's life.

To me, it really depends on how the server manages itself, you have your regular cookie cutter server that dies after all the good roleplayers leave and all the shit roleplayers ragequit. But you also have unique servers that have unique selling points, these servers are where the possibilities for something going wrong really branch out, a majority of them being from admin and owner negligence, or a lack of new things to do.

So, my tip for you, if you ever host a server, make sure your serious about it. This may not be a popular opinion, but, treat server owning like a part time community service job, be in for the reward of donations and a good server by providing entertainment for your playerbase.

 

Owners throw up a basic server without ever attempting to actually do anything with it, and no one joins because it's boring as all hell. PassiveRP exists, but it can only keep you going for so long. Especially when the servers are borderline empty 24/7.

 

I've run many, many servers over the ages. There are many things that will cause one to shit itself and fall into the gutter; however, none as common as the following.

People get burned out. Staff, owners, players, it gets burned out pretty quick without an arcing storyline - if it's just the same, the same again and again, nothing changes - people burn out. I burn out quicker than others, which is why I always need very strong staff to rely on - but usually, it's just a gradual cycle that starts, and keeps cycling over and over.

 

I don't think it's the fact that it's got to do with HL2. IMO any fictional universe can work as long as you've properly designed a story within it. Problem with HL2RP and other serious roleplay is that it's open for whoever wants to join, and there are many characters to deal with. Instead of telling a story, you've got to worry about keeping the players happy so they don't dump your server, and in reality a number of them (not sure if to say most) aren't there to tell a story but just to play a HL2-themed RPG of sorts by satisfying their script hunger.

If you mean failure in the way that it's not satisfactory to people, then I'd say the way to go is to create something private with people you know aren't either assholes (in a manner that it'd ruin the game) or dunces. Far easier to manage and in this instance you can actually have an overarching story, rather than catering to everyone just to have a maximum number of players. Sure less people might have a chance of joining into the good roleplay since it's private, but at least you could guarantee all players in it enjoy themselves.

 

The tide comes in, but must always got out again.
HL2RP has been around for some time now. People come and go, that's just the way it is. But there comes a time where there's just nobody to replace the people that are leaving. They look for new kinds of servers, new opportunities and even games. With all the MMO's coming out, and with more MMO's supporting a Roleplay community there's less and less attraction to a game like Garry's Mod.

Furthermore, the current player base is at the throats of its fellow players. Minges are rife, administrators are inexperienced or simply ignorant. Even the most steadfast players - hell, even myself included fall to mingery in order to scratch that ever-growing itch for some enjoyment on a Serious Roleplay server.
It comes to the point where more servers are becoming friends exclusive, and on already existing servers groups are forming on an ever growing rate to support people of a singular interest as the next. This all facilitates to an elitist experience that makes any new player to the server that's prepared to interact with others feel unwelcome, and often enough either leave or stay long enough to take after them.

Returning back to the initial paragraph, because HL2RP has been around for so long there's simply a lack of interest, nothing new is ever done because doing something new with the HL2RP universe is so difficult without angering a group of hidden lore-purists. Recently there has been an influx of "Beta styled" HL2RP servers and the issue is most of them are just done wrong. Asides from that very little changes with a Beta styled schema. This is because the basic premise of the gameplay remains the same. Walk around a poorly made city map cram-packed full of poorly placed props.
Though I hold man gripes, personal and other such with ShockCoreGaming's Combine Military Roleplay, it is the only community to have done something truly original with Half-Life 2 at its base in some time. Though not my proudest moment, I'm still glad I contributed to it in some way.

And let's not talk about the Lesbomancers.

 

I personally believe the answer is as simple as the current playerbase of Gmod Serious RP.

The majority of clockwork players are a few things. These traits can either describe a player, or describe a part of them while some others may also apply to them. I don't know any other terms to use other than the ones I will use, because they're the most simple and easy to identify by the most of us. Some of these might sound like the typical beating of a dead horse. Here are these traits:

-Toxicity. Many players tend to only play the game to cause grief or drama to other players. They will use any excuse they can to cause controversy within a server. ((Example: Inciting players to leave a server over a dispute with a single admin))
-Mingery. Seriousness is no longer a concern with a vast majority of players. This includes serious characters who tend to speak in modernized internet speech, no matter the schema. An unserious character is not the same as a minge character. An unserious character is a character who's personality is typically jokative or light-hearted while being immersive, where as minge characters simply ruin immersion.
-Power tripping. "Game mechanics" are now the main focus in servers as opposed to the quality of roleplay. Not just by the servers themselves, but by players. "Economy", "gun distribution", etc are what contribute to this trait. Roleplay no longer becomes a story about characters, but simply a contest to earn items or supremacy. The mindset to "win" is a major contributor. If they lose a character or items, they tend to leave.
-Ignorance. This is the one that will sound the most ridiculous. Most people do not create characters anymore to show the actual diversity of the HL2 universe, they are simply made to cater to their strange fetishes. I have nothing against homosexuality or "gender equality" at all, but when the population consists of 90% 15-17 year old males playing homosexual female characters, the immersion kind of kills itself. Not to mention the fact most of these boys don't try and display the fundamental social and mental differences between a male and female. What I mean by what I said, is that a female will act different than a male in many aspects simply due to biology. Some may act like men, but not by the amount they do in HL2. It's gone from coincidental to purely comedic. Why is this ignorance? Because people don't understand their own characters they are playing.
-Hackers. You'd be surprised how many people hack to get advantages in servers.

Quite honestly, I'm kinda sick of people blaming the servers for the problem, because they aren't. They are an issue themselves, but they are not the root cause of the problem, which are the players themselves. No matter how well a server may execute their plans or systems, it will still fail because of the current playerbase's traits. That, and everyone wants to complain about the issues, but either never wants to fix them or wont be allowed to fix them.

Time and time again have @ShadowOfDoubt and I try to create some form of asylum for those who wish to escape servers like SCG, but are only met with the same problems they come with, because of the playerbase's inability to work with what they are given, or lack of patience. Nobody is perfect by any means, and I do not expect the Gmod serious RP community as a whole to shape up everything, but there's a reason why there are considerably less servers than there used to be, and why quality is as bad as it is now.

The only reason why the current servers that are vastly populated have so many people is because they are allowed to exercise those harmful traits without fear of repercussion. Why don't people leave if they fall victim to it? Because of our addiction to the game. I hate to break it to you, but if you spent 15+ hours per day on Gmod looking for the good RP experience like I did? You are addicted. That's a separate issue and doesn't really matter, but it's why you keep playing even though all the servers aren't good.

What is the fix to this? One of two things. Either by leaving Gmod entirely, or by actively trying to promote removing these traits, even in ourselves. I can name two of those that apply to me, or did at one point. We can't sit here and pretend we aren't the problem ourselves. Why have so many "Let's bring C16 players together" servers failed? Because of the inability to just /remove/ people that need to be removed, due to fear of backlash or whatever else. Let's face it. We're not all like-minded individuals like we think we are, but there sure are as hell some very bad eggs that are roaming around in the community in general that still get their hands on these servers and destroy them. It should no longer be an issue to identify these kinds of people, the only thing in your way of removing them is yourself. If your server dies as a result, then your playerbase was too toxic to continue wasting your time anyways. Integrity is key to what's really important, not trying to please everyone.

 

Drama kills communities, and the CW HL2RP community is plagued with it. Everyone is an asshole who are out to get eachother and treat each other like utter shit. There's probably be some nicer exchanges in war, for Christ sake's.

That, the internal political bullshit and the fact that people are more interested in killing eachothers characters and gathering weapons and not actual RP is one of the few reasons why I feel they die easily.