Free users are where the paid users come from. Nobody here bought the game without playing it for free first. (if someone can contradict me on that one, I'll be most surprised). If free users are left on free servers where griefing is rampant (because nobody cared about how the game plays there), that doesn't really give them much incentive to buy it. Sure, you could argue that they'd pay to get away from it, but really, we all know that is a **** poor "drive" to get people to buy. "Hey! check out this game! It's mostly cripped for free, because we don't really care about you unless you pay, so... go buy it!".
Free users are equally important as paid users. People really need to get off their high horse and realize that one simple point.
(the same goes for non-ops and ops on servers)
In the end, I wholeheartedly agree with the paid only servers, for the reason of being much more efficient on keeping out griefers. But I most certainly do not support, IN ANY WAY, leaving free users/servers to rot.
And I say that free users should realise they'll never get away from griefing unless they loosen the locks on their wallets. Inevitably if you play an open free version of the game, you're going to end up with more trouble makers, thing is: they've been successfully dealt with. A prime example being the reddit public server. Sure they might have some grief scars on the server but for the most part griefing is dealt with.
And I say that free users should realise they'll never get away from griefing unless they loosen the locks on their wallets. Inevitably if you play an open free version of the game, you're going to end up with more trouble makers, thing is: they've been successfully dealt with. A prime example being the reddit public server. Sure they might have some grief scars on the server but for the most part griefing is dealt with.
We do get the occasional griefer (usually the overnight crowd), but we have a few ways of combating it:
1. Crapton of OPs. Sure, this is a sticky situation sometimes, but 99% of the time, things work out perfect. That and a lot of us (me included) do a lot of clean up duty. I find myself just going on to fix things here and there. There are about 3-5 OPs on at any given time. And if not...
2. IRC channel tied to the server. We have it set up (thanks to Adura!) to where the server console is output to an IRC channel, and vice versa. So if someone on the server spots a griefer, say so, and/or say people's names. We'll get "ding'd" in IRC, and immediately hop on.
3. Regular map backups, plus a constant backup repository website. If need be, we can rollback. Or even make special cases of just using Omen to clear up any floods or something like that. And with the maps constantly being sent to the repository, anyone can grab maps from certain time intervals, and look for/see griefing going on. Of course, that's extremely impractical/stupid, but me being a bit of a cartographer weirdo, I actually enjoy that kinda thing :tongue.gif:. Oh, it's also good for seeing exactly how something was laid out pre-grief, for repairs.
Free users are where the paid users come from. Nobody here bought the game without playing it for free first. (if someone can contradict me on that one, I'll be most surprised). If free users are left on free servers where griefing is rampant (because nobody cared about how the game plays there), that doesn't really give them much incentive to buy it. Sure, you could argue that they'd pay to get away from it, but really, we all know that is a **** poor "drive" to get people to buy. "Hey! check out this game! It's mostly cripped for free, because we don't really care about you unless you pay, so... go buy it!".
Free users are equally important as paid users. People really need to get off their high horse and realize that one simple point.
(the same goes for non-ops and ops on servers)
In the end, I wholeheartedly agree with the paid only servers, for the reason of being much more efficient on keeping out griefers. But I most certainly do not support, IN ANY WAY, leaving free users/servers to rot.
We do get the occasional griefer (usually the overnight crowd), but we have a few ways of combating it:
1. Crapton of OPs. Sure, this is a sticky situation sometimes, but 99% of the time, things work out perfect. That and a lot of us (me included) do a lot of clean up duty. I find myself just going on to fix things here and there. There are about 3-5 OPs on at any given time. And if not...
2. IRC channel tied to the server. We have it set up (thanks to Adura!) to where the server console is output to an IRC channel, and vice versa. So if someone on the server spots a griefer, say so, and/or say people's names. We'll get "ding'd" in IRC, and immediately hop on.
3. Regular map backups, plus a constant backup repository website. If need be, we can rollback. Or even make special cases of just using Omen to clear up any floods or something like that. And with the maps constantly being sent to the repository, anyone can grab maps from certain time intervals, and look for/see griefing going on. Of course, that's extremely impractical/stupid, but me being a bit of a cartographer weirdo, I actually enjoy that kinda thing :tongue.gif:. Oh, it's also good for seeing exactly how something was laid out pre-grief, for repairs.
"Hey, check out this game, you can actually play it for free, unlike all these hundreds of other games you have to buy first!".