I see a future for n00bfest! Ever since we moved the servers to Dallas, TX, alot of us get high pings, High FPS, etc... So now what, move servers when it lags again? Man! Have'nt we been through this enough? There is a fix right? I believe there is! I feel latency, quality, performance, experience, and many other factors have a big ordeal to do with gameplay and the outcome of your game. Full main servers have gotten so laggy sometimes, that the elite server is the only place I go; and even though it's well to see full servers, it's not fun when 32 players are in and I can't move due to high ping or loss. I know this has always been an issue with us, and I think designing a system to handle that type of load would be a benefit, such as building a dual-dual core system, and sending it in to a hosting company for co-location. Maybe an East coast, West Coast type deal for each server. Maybe even purchasing many systems and using it for co-location would be better. We could save HUGE AMOUNTS of money on our server prices, expand to multiple areas, and better yet we could put more than one game type or game server depending on the resources needed for each individual game at peak times.Getting top-notch performance with the systems we buy, we can build them to what our load balancing specs require.

When it comes down to it though, I really think we're not saving what we could be saving, and I think even with or without sponsors, we can get where we want to be. We can stop relying on other people to solve our problems, and manage them ourselves, putting one to two servers on each box per location, thus giving us more servers, more options for players, more players, more income, and the best gaming experiences all around the Unites States, or even further. In a brief summary, I think buying or building a server, and sending it in for co-location would be ideal for expanding, and matching performance with price, and I think this is what really matters most.

I know that sponsorship is a good thing too, but how far does it go when servers lag, people find other places to play, new games to play, or a different mod. Never have we really gotten a server to last for a long period of time, and i think a prime example is the Quake III or Source servers. But what if we had three main servers, located in different parts of the country? Could you imagine this for all of our servers? Just imagine refreshing the "Internet" tab on Steam... The biggest part of this is pricing/performance ratio. prices go u for more performance. Nonethless, imagine having two servers of our own that are co-located elsewhere two seperate sides of the country. With decent hardware, it would cost virtually nothing to expand our community, and could handle more than one game at a time, without losing performance until a certain level. So you say, "We'll do this!", but how do you know how much your system can take holding a 32 man main server? You do one 32 man main cz server, then you put a dedicated Halo or dedicated... Source... or whatever. Watch during peak times... What are the results? What other game uses less resources that could be handled on the same server, and even though results will vary... is this a bad thing? Would'nt it be great to pay $74 x 2 for two dedicated servers that could hold 4 servers total. or 4x $74 servers that could hold up to 8 servers, or even more? And just imagine Ventrilo servers, for huge clans or free small Teamspeak servers on each box. Not to be conceited, but, this is what I do. I design these ideas for people for marketing strategies, and what it really all boils down to is a formula. Every marketing idea has a formula. How does this formula sound compared to most other ideas:

Expansion=Players
Players=Money

So if these two bases are true, which we all know they are. Then why would'nt this be a great idea? Are'nt we aiming for this formula in the first place:

Money=Expansion=Players=Money=Expansion=Players=Money=Expansion=Players=Money.

It's a cycle that every business basically routes to, but, of course, with changed variables. This brings me to the biggest part of the proposal.

If we can succeed at this formula, which we already do very well at, why not expand for more players, to get more money? To get more players, to get more money, to enhance not just a group's, but a whole country's gaming experience. Why can't WE be the leaders in gaming experiences? We can, and I KNOW if we follow this through, we WILL succeed. Of course, a main server move will be mandatory, but it's nothing we have not been able to overcome yet.

Maybe you'll say...
"We don't have the people or admins to run this particular server!"

So what! If the server is a dud, no loss. It didn't cost a single dime.
But what if it isn't? What if it's a WONDERFUL server that people want to play at? This in turn, restarts our cycle, since we didn't lose money, and we didn't lose players from the dud server, we gain players and money from the successful ones, which keep our gears turning.

I think this a VERY successful opportunity for n00bfest to grab onto, since there are NO communities in the WORLD that act this way. A prime example is FILEPLANET. We always download our patches etc through there. Have you realized though, since FILEPLANET came to be, how much harder it was to download patches, or demos, etc? Consider us the FILEPLANET of gaming servers; n00bfest being a name known to most or all gamers as the community to go to for superb in-game performance, or experience.

I hope to God, that most of the n00b members have read this post, and support it. I don't think many of them feel like being stuck in Condition Zero, or... any other one game. And even though we do have a few servers out, it's not really enough to keep a steady community forever, with new games coming out, members may come and go. So what if we could offer the gamers out there, one or maybe two servers that they know of they can go to, and still be on n00bfest's grounds, so they don't feel like they are leaving such a decent and highly respected community? I don't mean servers for rent. I mean public servers where anyone in the world can come to. I hope you all support my proposal, or information if you'd like to call it that, and run with it. We could very well be,

"The REAL-LIFE experience for gamers all around the world..."

I hope the topic will at least be discussed amongst the whole of n00bfest, or even brought up. I'm here to keep n00bfest a growing community, and let them all know how even though you can leave for a while, you always get home-sick, and come back to the people you love and care about. Let's make this more than just an opportunity for us. Let's make this an opportunity for every gamer out there!

Hell Yeah!

I'm dead serious when I say I mean no offense with this, but could you sum it up a bit more concisely? Not even that it was too long, I don't mind the read, but I fail to determine what your basic idea is.

Thanks

Corpsehumper said he dreamed about n00bfest conquering the gaming world, I think the post is pretty self-explanatory...

Ok.

its still to bloody long

I haven't experienced that much lag since the last move to Clanservers. For now, Clanservers is functioning pretty well for us. There is one proposal to lower the slots of the sometimes chaotic 32 player main server, which will also help to fill Elite 2 and the upcoming Funmaps 2 servers.

I think it's nice to have vision for these kinds of growth plans. The painstaking part of these things is the waiting. n00bfest has grown considerably over the past two years, after a few years of simple, localized success. Now it seems ot be in an atomic reaction growth cycle, with no end in sight.

The one concept that I disagree with is "players=money". The fact of the matter (for now) is the formula actually equates to this:
more players=more expense=more cost

The money only comes from those few players who have vision enough to contribute to the community while it's growing. They are the ones who know that it will one day become something greater than a simple clan/community. They're willing to invest their time and/or money into the growth of n00bfest.

Clanservers is a great option for us right now. They have offered to give us a 10% price break on all their published prices. This helps with server funding, because people subscribing and sending in money for servers via paypal are getting some of that contribution stripped away because of paypal's fees. Now with the price break from Clanservers, that paypal fee is no longer a factor. We can offer servers to our subclans at the same price as Clanservers, with one distinct advantage... the subclan doesn't have to know jack-shit about configuration. n00bfest admins configure and setup the servers for them just the way they want it.

Switching to a co-location scenario is something that is indeed a possible plan for n00bfest. For now, I think it's premature. With contributions as they are currently, we're at a break-even point. n00bfest is not a profit-making machine just yet. The relationship we've built with Clanservers is something that can catapult us to the next level. I think Clanservers has the ability to serve our needs for some time to come, while we explore and grow. They have also expressed a willingness to work with us already, so they may be our long-term solution provider if they're willing to continue to grow and adjust the relationship with us.

The next step is still uncertain. When we make decisions based on what we "think" the people want, they have always failed. We have to wait and listen to the voice of the customer (the players) and see what they cry-out for the most, then give them what they want.

If we assume that co-location will gain us anything (for now), we run a tremendous risk. Co-location does not guarantee lag-free playing. The servers we rent now are co-located machines on some of the best backbone providers in the world. For the most part, we enjoy lag-free playing now, except for some spotty performance in the main server from time-to-time that needs to be analyzed for cause. We'll have the same issues with our own co-location. It'll lag now and then, and we'll have to do ping trace graphs to determine where the breakdown is happening, and then complain to our backbone provider that they have a switch or a router giving us problems. It's that proactive approach to our existing provider that can help us better prepare for managing those problems on our own in the future.

Also, co-location and improved performance do not guarantee us more players instantly. n00bfest is a long-term success story because of it's steady growth and determined leadership. Experiments have gone wrong, servers and flopped, and bargain-basement dedicated sourcing was a dismal failure. It's painful sometimes to hold back those ambitions and the thoughts of exponential growth. Unfortunately, it's just the cold hard fact (for now) that n00bfest is a non-profit venture. We've gone to name-brand server providers now, which was a quantum leap in performance for us. We have the ability now to grow as fast as our internal sponsors can fork-up cash. Until we catch that revenue wind of sonsorship, though.... we're still just dreaming of a tree that is not yet ready to bear it's fruit.

I believe it's possible, though. Don't get me wrong. It's just not time yet. If you look at the sites that draw real advertising revenue, they have massive amounts of traffic coming through. n00bfest has enough traffic to begin to be taken seriously, but it's not in the same cetegory yet. Forum traffic is not considered "real" traffic by many advertisers. They know that forums represent return visits and repeated views. The stats are unrealistic and not an accurate picture of the public they want to touch.

Perhaps the motd could be used as a more accurate advertising venue. Or better yet, sprites within the maps could be sold. We have already been experiementing with adding "n00bfest" labels within the maps. Adding a sponsor's poster on a wall in Office or Dust2 would get tens of thousands of views each month, by thousands of unique visitors instead of hundreds of regular forum visitors. THERE is the real concept for the next generation of advertising revenue creation in the gaming world. The problem we have is (and I've discussed this with potential sponsors) there is no existing yardstick for measuring this type of advertising or establishing it's value yet. We're in uncharted waters.

The advertisers (Bawls, for one) are excited about the idea of advertising with n00bfest, but they have no idea how to handle it yet because they've never seen anything like it before. They don't know what n00bfest can do for them yet, so they don't know how to establish or assign a value to it yet. But they know as well as we do what possibilities lie before us.

Let your brains chew on that for a while, and we'll talk again soon.

Your intentions are good but I'm just too lazy to really read all of that, I read up to the power players money thing and I get what you're saying, but I didn't read some key details probably cuz you started talking about not paying for servers when I jumped down a paragraph and I was like "wtf did I miss..."

Well one way we could advertise some sponsors would get them to sponsor a tournament. Not a small tournament like we have been having, but a big one. By big I mean we go through out all the CZ servers we can find and advertise for it. There is a high chance we will get kicked/banned from the servers, but there is also a chance we could recruit several teams to enter in the tournament. Now if we could get say 20 teams, hell that is like 14 more teams than we have already have. Run the tournament over a several day spread, and perhaps it might boost our popularity over night.

I fully agree with that. I would be more than happy to go and get banned from a few servers.

The thing is, advertising options are quite limited. All we can do is advertise in the servers, because anywhere else it costs extra cash that no one has. But the little things do count, and I think Bawls would be a great sponsor too. What would also benefit us would be if we advertised n00bfest at other gaming events, or even if n00bfest sponsored some people. But that's also in the future as well.

good idea brand

Advertising is thin because n00bfest is almost too unique. I'm not saying that's bad by any means, but potential sponsers don't see the meat. We're a huge community that offers 2 things. Servers and forums. You all should take a look at sites like Gotfrag, easports, col, and team 3d. These sites all have cash flowing in because they jam pack as much as they can into the site. Articles,product reviews, interviews, demos, tips, tricks, how-to's and private lessons with top players. If n00bfest is to go "mainstream", it will need to offer some familiarity with the other gaming sites out there. I want to state I'm not saying we need to clone them, but nobody is going to take a risk on something this unique, because like Corpse says, they don't know how to handle it.

Have we tried adsense, and other long term cheapo marketing ideas? I also believe that one of the previous threads about holding a convention. I think if we are at least going to localize ourselves for the time being, that we should keep a steady hold of events and programs for members, For instance, have we thought about asking ClanServers to sponsor a Tournament or to possibly mention any n00bfest upcoming events, how about making deals with these particular companies to put us out in the open more, and maybe even after some time you can charge a fee for membership, etc or whatever depending on the case of access... and this is just ideas that i have gathered since cakd was around. I realized that holding a place to play wasn't as easy as i thought it was, but nonetheless, we restricted admin by paypal funds. I just really think we should give ourselves the chance to profit from what we put in. And even though it is more of a lifestyle than a job or career, why not be rewarded for this. wouldn't subscription services be a good thing. Can you see any abusers with admin who actually payed money to be an admin. Rules will be followed better, enforced more, and losing this privlege would not be in one's interest. Just a few more ideas... and if I may, as long as this thread remains active, i'd like to post many other strategies or ideas that you may not have thought about, or may tickle your fancy (or fanny, if you want)


When i made the thread I didn't expect many people to know where I was heading with it, and no offense, but it was more-so directed to those who have been here since or circa day one. Not many remember Southern Alabama n00bfest, and me, who was once a proud bama citizen in the small town of opp and elba, not many places I could relate to that I could express how i really felt.

Corpsehumper, what do YOU feel n00bfest needs? What do the ELDERS THINK, let's ALL get together and discuss as a whole, I think that maybe even holding admin meetings once a month are in order. This would help establish relationships with admins to each other and ensure knowingness of all rules or updates that could be going into effect, posting is a bit time-consuming, and if voice were active in discussions, i believe we could all sit down together and say, where do we stand as a community? just a thought.

i think all these servers are kinda detracting(is that a word) well unattracting ppl to the servers and kinda making them more empty

but funmaps 2 sounds good awp/aim maps for once

I think your idea would have been better without that. I don't ever think n00bfest should charge members a fee for entry, it almost removes from what n00bfest is.

I can't help but think Acid's last post was a little narrow-sighted. Doesn't paying to be in n00b pretty much go against everything n00bfest is?

http://n00bfest.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=931



And what qualifies us to have an opinion on this subject? Rank? Time? Money? Posts?

This is an open forum, if you didn't want the insight of the community as a whole, maybe the suggestion box would have been a better place to suggest this.

Im not saying that i didnt want the insight of others, i simply said i didnt expect many to understand, therefore not many can commensurate on my point, maybe it does defeat what n00bfest stand for, but these are future options... not something that goes into effect immediately. You guys are missing the entire point, these are just my views on things, not to say they are wrong or right. Sometimes people run out of money and can't help anymore, at least we'd have something to fall back on. I'm just giving ideas and not persay to the exact detail, such as but not limited to subscription services for admin, for being a n00b. These are not set ideas, just roundabout thoughts to ellaborate on.

Even so, charging members for authority isn't what n00bfest does. And if it did act that way, which is how countless other servers do, and they're at just the same level we are, then I wouldn't be able to play here on principle. I haven't been here long, but I wouldn't want to stay if I had to pay. And that is a player's standpoint. I think a better plan would be to gain money while still appeasing the players.

we could try a mass email using n00b members email lists invite people to come to n00bfest and play cz
its free and its easy who can argue with that