Endless "Networks"

[Miles]

Hey everyone, for those who don't know me, I'm Miles. I've been around since ASG, which would place me at an almost 2 year veteran of Garry's Mod RP. In this time I've staffed and GM'ed countless servers, and help found and create a semi-successful Garry's Mod community. I've learned a lot about how to run a community, and while my opinion can be taken as a grain of salt, I ask that you follow along for a bit.

Now that we've established who I am, lets establish why I'm here.

I'm here to talk about Endless "Networks". Yes, those quotation marks are intentional, but I'll get back to that in a moment, Endless Networks, or EN as we all know is a GMod RP base community. While we've made attempts and are making attempts to expand to other games, they've almost always failed. As of late, we have 3 active servers; CW, FO & IM (I don't know the status of Halo & HL2/Crusaders). CW being the server ASG was known for, then Axiom and now EN. As for FO and IM, they're relitavily small servers, but they have a chance on going somewhere with time. And while I am biased, I do believe they BOTH have the potential to grow EN.

So let's get down to the real reason I'm here now that you know everything you need to. Endless "Networks". The reasons for the quotation marks is because so far, we've done NO networking whatsoever. Which, mind you is fine, as EN is relatively new. The problem is, I don't think the community is willing to open the doors to new players. Especially, new high ranking players, who have positions among the community. I can understand the hesitation however, of course we don't want random people getting high ranks. But I'll explain how that could all be avoided, and more importantly, how EN could live up to her name.

Follow along, as here are the basic points that I have in mind:

• Have a clear distinction between Server ranks and Network ranks. What I mean is, if we truly begin to bring in new servers not started by EN, we need to let both parties know that they're rank is simply a server rank, and has no power in the community. Too many people over the years have gained positions that should be earned, and the easiest way to resolve that is to purge the old system of ranks.
• Create a entirely new process/system that looks for new potential servers to join our Network. This system would involve mature and experienced members of EN, and these people would work to achieve a common goal; say, a new server every 3 months. I don't expect people to work for EN, but sitting down on a Saturday night going through potential servers is fun yet rewarding process.
• Network out of GMod! I understand, Minecraft is coming! But that's not only a project 2 years in the making, but one that continues to dissatisfy no matter what the product is. An easy way to network outside of GMod, is to again, play the game! "Hey, let's play this CS:GO jailbreak server tonight" or "Let's check out this small Battlefield community".
• Create a sense of community! So far, I've witnessed half a dozen controversial conversations, and I've been part of EN for 3 weeks. 2017 just started folks, and while I hate to start another confroversial conversation, I think this is an important topic. Our main goal, hopefully, is to provide a fun experience to literally everyone. Without a community to do so, that goal won't be achieved.
• Stop worrying about the player base! I know, wow, I just committed a sin, but I'm serious. Worrying about players is important, but we've done little to fix our low player count. If we're so in chaos about players, let's look for servers with a dedicated population, who can contribute to our community, both finnacnily and physically (players).

Overall, I understand the hesitation, the resistance, the #GameRebels (haha I'm going to die). But calling EN a "Network" is extremely hypocritical if we can't even unite the community. I'm obviously not expecting us to go and pull in half a dozen servers, but I just want to throw the thought out there. And yes, many of you are happy with the current situation, and I respect that. But, I can hopefully hear your constructive comments civilly down below.

Please don't kill me, I love you all -Miles

 

[The Evonation]

You make very valid points with this post. 1+

 

[Scotty]

You forgot to add make Scotty honorary founder of everything onto your list of stuff

 

[Matt6868]

A lot of these point are valid... I agree we need to come together..+1

 

[David]

no more war. +1

 

[Jordan]

I just want to point out @Miles , that our intentions are indeed to expand

Have a clear distinction between Server ranks and Network ranks.

We really don't want to complicate things. We have our Higher management, (Global ranks, Founders, supervisors) Lower management, (Individual server management), then the lower staff.

Create a entirely new process/system that looks for new potential servers to join our Network. This system would involve mature and experienced members of EN, and these people would work to achieve a common goal; say, a new server every 3 months. I don't expect people to work for EN, but sitting down on a Saturday night going through potential servers is fun yet rewarding process.

Much easier said than done. We are indeed looking to expand outside of our current community. However, players bringing server ideas to us need to make it without a doubt that it will gain users. One of the biggest issues with starting a new server in this community is that it will "water down" our current servers.

What I mean by this is, that we aren't really bringing in new players. What is happening is that users from our other current servers will check out or new server, which then in turns make our other servers have a lower population.

Network out of GMod! I understand, Minecraft is coming! But that's not only a project 2 years in the making, but one that continues to dissatisfy no matter what the product is. An easy way to network outside of GMod, is to again, play the game! "Hey, let's play this CS:GO jailbreak server tonight" or "Let's check out this small Battlefield community".

Again, something we are already looking into. With Minecraft being in development, and other games on its way such as GTA5, and more. This also, however, takes a lot of time. As our community is mainly focused on Garry's Mod, we have to go outside of our scopes to attract new players to join our community to try out our newer games. Not to mention, it also costs more money and time.

Create a sense of community! So far, I've witnessed half a dozen controversial conversations, and I've been part of EN for 3 weeks. 2017 just started folks, and while I hate to start another confroversial conversation, I think this is an important topic. Our main goal, hopefully, is to provide a fun experience to literally everyone. Without a community to do so, that goal won't be achieved.

Trust me, I could go on a rant about this. This is one of the reasons why some people don't want to join our servers. One of the biggest things I find is that users complain and make the biggest deal out of some of the most simplest things. It rather is annoying TBH.

One thing I miss about the Game Rebels community. Although it may have been a smaller server, we all got along, we all played as friends. We all had fun. Period. People ask me where the Game Rebels users are constantly. They came. We brought over about 29 people. Only about 3-4 are left in the CW server. A few are in our Imperial server. The rest just simply did not like the player base at all and the hostility that they showed. Something which I really want to work on.


With all that said, I think it is also important to get our current servers all fixed, and ready to go before we move forward. Although there will always be things to work on, it is important that the biggest of tasks get completed before moving on to other larger games.

 

[Miles]

@Jordan Thanks for responding and taking a look at it, appreciate it!

 

[Valerie]

I agree with a good amount of the things you said here, Miles. But, I think we should focus on getting everything on track right now before expansion. For example, First Order, Imperial, and (maybe, not completely sure) Halo are all bleeding out a bit right now. We should focus on strengthening current assets first.

 

[Miles]

I agree with a good amount of the things you said here, Miles. But, I think we should focus on getting everything on track right now before expansion. For example, First Order, Imperial, and (maybe, not completely sure) Halo are all bleeding out a bit right now. We should focus on strengthening current assets first.

I do agree, I just want to make sure the point is out there

 

[Gen]

Lets expand once we have established ourselves in gmod we still struggling a bit though