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- Apr 16, 2007
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How to successfully grow your server popularity.
Many of us get into having our own servers, because we have lots of crazy ideas for training areas, weapons, monsters or mobs.
However it takes a lot of work to make gradual changes.
So before you start working on all your changes, work with your team, brainstorm as many ideas as possible.
Then rate each idea on how hard would it be.
When your first started it can be so easy to get lost in trying to accomplish changes that take a lot of time.
Where as you may feel more confident and more capable if you deal with a lot of small changes.
But in the end no matter how fancy your server design is.
It's really about your people and security skills that matter.
On one hand, you need solid gm's who are just there to catch/watch for hackers.
They aren't good with other people, but they know what to watch over for.
So you set them in scheduled blocks, rotating who watches which areas of the server.
Help them out, train them how to watch for hackers/glitches.
Have a bug tracking web app, so that users and gm's can track glitches/hacks/etc.
Limit their power to giving/getting items. They are there to be invisible, unheard, and just track/block hackers.
However the other type of gm's I find just as important.
They are the ones who organize events, contests, games.
As your server get's bigger, you can't just disappear socially.
I find it, the more organized you are, the more you make sure the painful crap for kal is seamless.
The more loyalty and fans you will get.
For example, Castle War on so many servers is poorly organized, no one know's when it is, etc.
Make it seamless, learn how to schedule it to happen automatically without you being there.
Or make sure that someone who has the power to start/end war is there on a regular basis for all castle wars.
Figure out what time zone most people are at, and then schedule the war for then.
Castle Wars have many many ways to cause problems.
It can crash your server, people complain of unfair wars, or people sinning during war.
You must be prepared to take the time to manage these important events to make sure they are seamless.
Prove that you are well organized and disciplined to make sure these are fun for the users, regular, organized.
I find it helpful to have checklists. To make sure each step is remembered correctly.
Make it easy for people to sign up for wars/alliances.
Automate Guild Reset Time, so that gm's don't have to manually do anything for that.
Do more than just sit there, and plan the next server change.
Plan social events, holidays, keep players having fun.
And you can give random items, or have a contest, just prizes make it harder to avoid corruption.
Corruption does happen, and it's something you have to watch out for.
Yes it's your server, but once people know you treat a certain group of people unfairly, then you will lose respect.
It is very hard, but you as server owner/gm must always be completely fair.
It's a lot of work running a server, not even discussing new mods, or what not.
There's also regular maintenance, keeping the database running smoothly.
Having every 2-3 weeks, an off day, so that you can do maintenance or just leave the server down.
Make sure you have regular backups of both the database, and all the server configuration files.
Try to make it easy for people to update to the newest version of the client.
The more you work to automate and make it easy, the less stress you give players.
I hope this helps.
Good luck, server owners!
Live with honor
Many of us get into having our own servers, because we have lots of crazy ideas for training areas, weapons, monsters or mobs.
However it takes a lot of work to make gradual changes.
So before you start working on all your changes, work with your team, brainstorm as many ideas as possible.
Then rate each idea on how hard would it be.
When your first started it can be so easy to get lost in trying to accomplish changes that take a lot of time.
Where as you may feel more confident and more capable if you deal with a lot of small changes.
But in the end no matter how fancy your server design is.
It's really about your people and security skills that matter.
On one hand, you need solid gm's who are just there to catch/watch for hackers.
They aren't good with other people, but they know what to watch over for.
So you set them in scheduled blocks, rotating who watches which areas of the server.
Help them out, train them how to watch for hackers/glitches.
Have a bug tracking web app, so that users and gm's can track glitches/hacks/etc.
Limit their power to giving/getting items. They are there to be invisible, unheard, and just track/block hackers.
However the other type of gm's I find just as important.
They are the ones who organize events, contests, games.
As your server get's bigger, you can't just disappear socially.
I find it, the more organized you are, the more you make sure the painful crap for kal is seamless.
The more loyalty and fans you will get.
For example, Castle War on so many servers is poorly organized, no one know's when it is, etc.
Make it seamless, learn how to schedule it to happen automatically without you being there.
Or make sure that someone who has the power to start/end war is there on a regular basis for all castle wars.
Figure out what time zone most people are at, and then schedule the war for then.
Castle Wars have many many ways to cause problems.
It can crash your server, people complain of unfair wars, or people sinning during war.
You must be prepared to take the time to manage these important events to make sure they are seamless.
Prove that you are well organized and disciplined to make sure these are fun for the users, regular, organized.
I find it helpful to have checklists. To make sure each step is remembered correctly.
Make it easy for people to sign up for wars/alliances.
Automate Guild Reset Time, so that gm's don't have to manually do anything for that.
Do more than just sit there, and plan the next server change.
Plan social events, holidays, keep players having fun.
And you can give random items, or have a contest, just prizes make it harder to avoid corruption.
Corruption does happen, and it's something you have to watch out for.
Yes it's your server, but once people know you treat a certain group of people unfairly, then you will lose respect.
It is very hard, but you as server owner/gm must always be completely fair.
It's a lot of work running a server, not even discussing new mods, or what not.
There's also regular maintenance, keeping the database running smoothly.
Having every 2-3 weeks, an off day, so that you can do maintenance or just leave the server down.
Make sure you have regular backups of both the database, and all the server configuration files.
Try to make it easy for people to update to the newest version of the client.
The more you work to automate and make it easy, the less stress you give players.
I hope this helps.
Good luck, server owners!
Live with honor
the better security you can implant on the server.. and automate it the better. 