ProblemThere is apparently a dwindling playercount in the mod.
CauseYou might say that it's because Vice City is an old-ass game, and VC:MP is outdated or buggy. Or that we have outdated gamemodes. Fine, but that's always been the case. People have been making that same argument since the day that VC:MP was born.
Take a look at the official VC:MP forum. This is the first point of contact for anyone new to the mod. It is a graveyard. It's a boring, semi-forgotten wasteland of half-literate randomers. I put it to you that
this is the main problem.
If you searched 'Vice City Multiplayer' on Google, and found that forum, would you be interested to explore the mod and its community? Fuck no.
The biggest draw of the mod is its community, but for potential new players, the community is barely visible.
Problem 2The VC:MP forum is dead.
CauseThe developers kept the official forum under lock and key from the community. In what other platform do the product developers have control over the product, but also 100% control and responsibility over the marketing, PR and community management around the product? None. Why? Because they're product developers.
My assumption is that the devs hoped to be impartial towards the community, to give the community a game to play, but prevent any individuals or groups from monopolizing or regulating access to that game. That is a laudible, but incomplete approach. For it to work, they would need to find another way to stimulate balanced community activity. Just making boards on a forum and allowing people to post is evidently not enough.
SolutionCreate a community management team.
The community management team should be responsible for representing the official voice of VC:MP. They can endorse events, partner with other event organisers, and also coordinate and create official VC:MP events. They are responsible for keeping the official forum interesting and active, engaging every segment of the community - not just those which are dominant.
I would suggest the following leadership structure:
Community Admins
These are normal Community Managers, but with a bit more responsibility. They have full access to moderate the forum, create and modify boards and categories, create and set membergroups, and administrate users; they're responsible for settling any disputes or deadlocks among community managers; they're responsible for creating and maintaining an official VC:MP ethos. They have the same voting power as the Community Managers.
Community Managers
Permanent (unless voted out) members of the community responsible for creating official events, endorsing partner events, driving activity on the official forum.
Community Leaders
Temporary leaders who are brought in to help manage particular events or campaigns. E.g. There might be an official VC:MP Ladder event, and the community managers want some people to help manage it, so they bring on temporary Community Leaders.
Who?The initial batch of Community Managers can be partially appointed, and partially voted in. It would have to be in discussion with Stormeus or Maxorator. Here is my suggestion for the appointees:
Community Admins
Morphine
Thijn
Charley
Klaus
Community Managers
aXXo
Krys
AngelofDeath
Aaron
Siezer
Wilson
jah (just kidding)
Gangstrag
Sevrin
Halchter
FaF
Xmair
How?The only way for this to happen is to convince the developers that this is a good idea.
Vote agree on this post to voice your support, and anyone who has access to Stormeus or Maxorator, get this in front of their faces.After 12 years of witnessing people complain about inactivity in VC:MP, I think it is time that take this issue into our own hands.