This time I don’t have this huge story to tell or anything, I just wanted to point out that after being inactive on Otfans for a while I decided to check out the Lounge - more specifically the Computer and Internet section (Yes, I’m a nerd. Isn’t it obvious?) - and I found a couple of threads that seemed interesting.
Anyhow, this guy Anco has a problem so I try to help him out with it, and of course it only took a few minutes before I got flamed for telling him to google processes he weren’t sure what they did. The response was pretty much “Don’t tell him to use google, be constructive!“. Since I’m such a nice guy I clarified my message with how to proceed and why (as detailed as I could), but I’d like to offer my sincerest apologies to the jackass who gave me a lesson in Cocksmoking because I think I forgot how to explain how to type the URL in the addressfield.
Sorry Scottie, but in the future perhaps you should consider being constructive yourself. :-)
There are two types of OT Server owners, the ones who maintain a server for fun, to obtain all the items and achieve all the goals he or she never could in regular Tibia for varying reasons. Then there’s the people who want to create the server for the community to use, either as a free alternative to ordinary Tibia or as a partially seperate game with custom content such as using a different map.
When we look at free alternatives to other games, such as EVEmulator or the EVERLAST Server for EVE Online who together barely have 1600 members we quickly realize that there are far less people interested in making their own EVE servers. Even WCell for World of Warcraft with their 600 registered members is a relatively small community. Sure, there are bigger ones out there such as Emupedia but they host a wide variety of projects for various games, so measuring their membercount (62000) wouldn’t be accurate. Digging deeper into the “private server” sphere we can find the Battlenet emulator PvPGN with it’s 1094 members.
No matter how you look at it, you’ll end up with the same conclusion as me. OpenTibia is rather unique. I’m going to assume that all the members on Otland were at some point registered on Otfans when I measure OpenTibia’s followers in the tens of thousands (10,495 members have visited Otfans in the past 14 days, they have over 39000 registered members). I have never encountered a larger and more concentrated “private server” community than the one of OpenTibia.
I can imagine it’s hard being the administrator of a website such as Otfans, you have to make tough decisions that affect thousands of users and set a good example not only for your followers, but also for colleagues in the same field. Even though I appreciate most of the changes made on Otfans while I’ve been a member I can’t help to think that some things could’ve been handled smoother.
From what I’ve read, the initial dispute between Otfans and Otland was surprisingly enough based on an immature brawl between staff members on respective sites. Although I can understand the tension between the parties I do think it’s about time they start a dialogue about cooperation rather than censoring the other’s name on their forums. An everlasting dispute will reflect negatively on both communities in terms of members, development progress, and general welfare.
Being a newbie is never easy, you have all these questions and no clue where to start looking for answers. When it comes to OpenTibia it’s even worse! The populus resents their former selves as if they are the plague, and not just any plague, the one of curiousity!
It’s time to start thinking about what we really want. Do we want Otservlist filled with servers of all kinds - like we all remember it was - or do we need to divide it into the two categories it currently seems to consist of? I vote no for an Otservlist with Elite and Newbie categories. It’s come to the point where it is nearly impossible for a newcomer to find answers and to evolve as an OTserver administrator.
Clean up the Tutorials section on Otfans, encourage and reward users who collaborate with real guides and not flimsy rantings about how to post. Nobody gains from telling people where to ask questions rather than answering them and then, for future reference, explaining where questions on the subject should be asked.
Another hot topic is the XML format which alot of users resent. I don’t see why people wouldn’t be allowed to choose other than the developers lacking time or being plain lazy. It’s easy for new users to understand and edit, it doesn’t decrease performance for the average user who - admittedly - only use the server to connect by himself or perhaps show some friends on a LAN party.
Should the user be advanced enough, or gain the skills required to run a database, good for him. Should he decide to run a popular server online with the XML format, too bad for the users, but the fact remains that performance is not everything.
From my point of view (Note that I don’t actually have statistics on this) there has been a notable decrease in user growth within the whole community the last year or so. And if you ask me it’s because of both the hate against our less knowing members and the constant battle between Otfans and Otland.
To round this entry off I would like to reach out to the staffs of the involved sites and urge you to come to your senses, nobody gains from this. Where did the fun times go when it was all about making a server just like (and now with the additional goal of being better!) Tibia? Remember that we do have a common enemy of sorts.
There, I got it off my chest.
