Table of Contents
- Embodiment of Server Doctrine
- Highly Responsive to Players
- Subterranean Administration
- Unique Fantastic Objective
Embodiment of Server Doctrine
Congratulations, you decided to host a server for some reason. Maybe you want to test something. Maybe you want to get to meet people.
Or maybe you think you can do it better than those other guys.If you agree with that last statement, then you are most likely wrong. Leave it to the players to decide that.
Remember, you are offering the players a free service. The players are more important than you are. Do not expect the players to entertain you.
You are there to entertain
your players. It's like starting a restaurant, putting your feces in the food, and pleasuring yourself as the customers try to eat it. If you don't care about what the players think of your server, you aren't fit for hosting a server.
Highly Responsive to Players
Naturally, since your server exists for the benefit of the players, the players should have some say in how the server is run. You should consider what they say about the server, the build, and the other players. If several players complain about the build, there is clearly something wrong. If everybody complains about a particular player, then you need to have a talk with that player.
Fix the problem before your players go elsewhere.
Subterranean Administration
In addition to the content of your server, administration will have a huge impact on how people view your server. While people tend to have different standards for who to admin on their server, I recommend that you do not make people administrator on any of these bases.
- The person is a friend or family member.
- The person won a challenge or got a certain score ingame.
- The person asked for it without giving a good reason.
You should judge people only by what they can contribute to the server. Did somebody help fix your events? Admin that guy. Did somebody build something big for you? Admin him too. Did a person make an addon exclusively for your server? Holy stuff, admin that guy as well.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with picking an admin because you trust they'll keep the players under control.
Unique Fantastic Objective
Since you're hosting a server for the benefit of the players, ask yourself.
"What can my server offer that the others can't?"Have you come up with an answer for that? No? Then you need to start over again.
Have you finally come up with something unique? Oh, we can check our ping with a chat command that anybody can add to their server? That's great. Start over again.
Wait, you're hosting a freebuild now? Get out of my sight.
Think about the games you like to play. Why do you play those games instead of something else? If they did not have the features that made them unique, would you still play those games? It's like taking the motion control away from a Wii, and then asking people whether they want to play on the Wii or a Playstation.
The reason why people like the Wii is because it has something unique. Of course, there are people that would prefer the Playstation over the Wii anyway, but hopefully you understand the point.
If your server does not have anything unique, it will see many, many less players. This is something I have even experienced myself.
I once hosted a server that played like a puzzle game. Players could paint themselves various colors. If they touched a brick of the same color, that brick would disappear temporarily. The server had quite a few players.
Another time, I hosted a Mirror's Edge server that, while it still saw plenty of places, was somewhat less popular than my puzzle game.
And, even later after that, I hosted an ordinary racing server. I never had more than 8 players at a time.
