So... that escalated quickly!
I am going to add my two cents about a topic I've been thinking since quite a while already.
Gamemode: I agree with aXXo's statement on VCAD's / KoTH's and so forth being difficult towards newbies due to their nature.
I do also consider that RPG is digging a grave slowly, and it's way far from what it used to be (PunkNoodle, Gohan, Milko are just a few who came here through that hole).
Most of you see may latinos in Brasil RPG, but these latinos ain't newbies, they are actually just people that meet in a server where their language could be spoken. VCCNR becomes then often the server that brings more newbies towards the community, but it's a low percentage since playerbase in this server is low and newbies wouldn't join an empty server.
Perhaps admins are too strict on newbie hackers? We see someone flying around in god mode, it's an easy ban. With the UIDs available to us, that newbie is gone forever.
It's the natural chaos loved by GTA Players. We do that on GTA Single Player - demolish everything and make sprees on cops. A lot of players in their history mention "hacks", "bans" and general "fooling around" they did when they were kids. But the new kids don't get that chance due to improvements in administration.
I sort of feel like this is correct. Surfing around other games that lack player base, bans are enforced according to the experience of the player and the broken rule. A simple hack, easily discoverable, might be worth a 1-day ban, and so that boy will join again the day after, this time without a cheat - that instead of a 1-2 weeks ban, able to piss him enough not to join the game ever again.
However...
LinkAnything else:I felt the need of bringing back Charley's idea. It's never late to re-think about a thing
we have not tested yet.
Cause
You might say that it's because Vice City is an old-ass game, and VC:MP is outdated or buggy. Or that we have outdated gamemodes.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.
More than the servers themselves, I agree with the bold statement. We could simply do the experiment, and search Vice City Multiplayer like any newbie would do:
Dig into the forum a little bit, you will figure out how abandoned it looks like. There's even a topic posted 15 days ago asking for help and nobody did reply, lol.
There's a complete debate on the topic posted above, where main points about the disadvantages of not having an active forum are exposed. Charley is someone that's been around for quite a while, and knows about dealing with dead games and declining playerbases. Perhaps bringing his idea again might help us recognize his experience on the matter and listen to him, something that we did ignore earlier and since then no changes have been brought to VC-MP - instead, just a worse income of new players.
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.