An Open Letter

it's downright insulting at times. being told 'yeah well we're doing it anyway, fuck off if you don't like it'. i've been here for 3 years now and in some cases it feels like i don't belong here anymore because we're now looking to have a big playerbase in a network instead of an actual community.

i understand entirely you can't please everyone. i understand it's also unreasonable for yall to cater to my every demand. however i dont think its unreasonable to ask yall acknowledge my (and everyone's) opinion without telling me to just go away if i don't agree. if i (and everyone else who's been here longer than me) mean that little then the TF that actually kept people in is dead. and it will continue to stagnate. yall can throw reasons like 'its because the freedom aspect doesnt work' but when the existing community goes, the fault lies with you.

In a server that's designed like TF to be an entirely free and open experience, both in terms of gameplay and profits, community is basically what we're trying to focus towards. Yeah, I have no problem with trying to add a few more numbers to TF. The more the merrier. But to me the way they're doing it and the direction I feel like it's going to go is your basic network server with paid ranks and multiple minigames and gamemodes and all that overdone stuff.

If Ryan and the rest of the high ranks are genuinely planning on going down a route like this, or in any way similar, it would be nice to at least let us know. Not trying to point fingers and start a rumour, but this conclusion is really the only one that makes sense in my mind.

I don't know if Ryan wants more players on the server, because in my perspective, it looks like that he wants the server to die. Just look at him, he keeps telling people to leave.

Lack of community input is not beneficial to the server at large. People will stop playing if things are added that they do not like. Community is what TF is about. By trying to make TF "mainstream" by becoming a generic network server, you are tearing at the very fabric of this server. Those giant networks like hypixel don't have the 'close-knit community' atmosphere that servers that were always a niche gamemode like TF has. TF has always been a niche server and it has worked for all these years. By adding something drastic and new (e.g gamemodes) and telling people "if you don't like it, then leave" is not good for the playerbase, but since you can't cater to everyone, it is wise to have community input when making drastic changes such as a new gamemode instead of announcing it without input from the playerbase and then expecting us to be in full support or leave and aggressively defending it when there is expected backlash. Going a direction like that will only hurt, not grow and help the community.

OP requested move

I'll write a better reply when I'm on my desktop and not on mobile.

As I said since day 1, I'm here to try to increase our player base and make the server a viable thing to run, which being brutally honest right now it isn't.

There is a fine line to strike between pleasing the community, and doing what I can to try to bring more players on to the network which we need to have developers interested in sustaining the server, and for me to be able to justify the huge cost tf is to run and maintain...

I again made this all clear from the start, and while the community is important, so is having actual players playing. Otherwise this will end up like any other stubborn community, nothing but an archived forum.

I don't expect people to agree with everything I do, and criticism is one thing, however in the most recent case that went from criticism to actively being disrespectful and in some cases attacking our servers, which is why I've pushed back hard and those involved will be sanctioned.

People come and go from tf, I don't like it when people leave but as I've said from the start, if people don't like the direction I'm pushing down, don't feel obligated to stay for my benefit.

↩ @'Ryan' i agree, my basic reasoning is that its important to have a strong community but you cant have a community without people in it
people saying that "listening to the community" is more important that raising the playerbase i think might have a rude awakening when the playerbase leaves and there are no new players to replace them
players come and go and if there arent players coming then there will definitely be a server going (down the drain)

Constructive criticism is one thing, which I entertain, downright disrespect and actively going out of your way to find flaws with, exploit, and crash a TF server is another.

The plans to expand TF into a network haven’t been secret in any way. Ryan has stated many times that this was his end goal, and when it was said initially it was ignored for the most part. Now that the plan is well in motion, there seems to be a huge community backlash.

I’d also like to point out that this wonderful and rich community being talked about here lives in the forums and in discord - not in game. A lot of the people I saw posting on the official announcement have not been in game for a considerable amount of time. As such I feel the need to question the nature of this community - if it does not play the actual game and only talks on the forums/discord, then what is the issue when it comes to editing the game?

If the active community on the forums and discord played the game, we wouldn’t need to do any of this. Perhaps you don’t want to play, don’t find it interesting anymore, or don’t find it fun anymore. If this is the case, then let us do what we think is best for TF’s future, and move it forward.

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↩  RedEastWood Constructive criticism is one thing, which I entertain, downright disrespect and actively going out of your way to find flaws with, exploit, and crash a TF server is another.

I seem to recall giving my opinion in a way that wasn't disrespectful nor did it make me go out of my way to find flaws. you then said the whole 'if you dont like it then leave' thing..

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↩  RedEastWood The plans to expand TF into a network haven’t been secret in any way. Ryan has stated many times that this was his end goal, and when it was said initially it was ignored for the most part. Now that the plan is well in motion, there seems to be a huge community backlash

Is it really news to you that we didn't read what Ryan put fully? Are you forgetting we were literally weeks following Seth's deletion, we had no other alternative and Ryan was kind enough to host temporarily, and showed that he was good enough to be an owner during that period? Shit was chaotic. Forgive me for not reading everything he put and forgetting the things I did read.

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↩  RedEastWood I’d also like to point out that this wonderful and rich community being talked about here lives in the forums and in discord - not in game. A lot of the people I saw posting on the official announcement have not been in game for a considerable amount of time. As such I feel the need to question the nature of this community - if it does not play the actual game and only talks on the forums/discord, then what is the issue when it comes to editing the game?

What's your point here? They can't challenge what you're doing because they're inactive? If that's the case let's ban them from voting on apps, suggestions, etc as well as disallow them to talk about anything related to TF in a critical way.

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↩  RedEastWood If the active community on the forums and discord played the game, we wouldn’t need to do any of this. Perhaps you don’t want to play, don’t find it interesting anymore, or don’t find it fun anymore. If this is the case, then let us do what we think is best for TF’s future, and move it forward.

So tl;dr the gamemode we hate is our fault for not being active enough, we should be quiet because we're too inactive to know what's happening and we need to move on?

Red seriously I get you're frustrated by this. I truly do, I've managed servers before and I know full well how it feels to put in effort just to be chatisised and whatnot. However, you've gotta stop this whole attitude of downright trying to tell us we need to just 'leave it', saying it's our fault for not playing enough, telling us to like it or leave, or being downright aggressive.

This is just my opinion, in the interest in not making another thread like the debacle from a few nights ago I likely won't be responding.

Alright so whether you'll respond or not I'm just going to drop a few thoughts on this.

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↩  Luke Is it really news to you that we didn't read what Ryan put fully? Are you forgetting we were literally weeks following Seth's deletion, we had no other alternative and Ryan was kind enough to host temporarily, and showed that he was good enough to be an owner during that period? Shit was chaotic. Forgive me for not reading everything he put and forgetting the things I did read.

I believe to the best of my knowledge that it has been stated since. I wasn't around, or very active in the servers affairs around this November time, being a mere discord lurker. However in times more recent Ryan has referred to the server as a network rather than just a standalone server and the possibility of expansion into a larger network with more servers has definitely been brought up in recent months.

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↩  Luke What's your point here? They can't challenge what you're doing because they're inactive? If that's the case let's ban them from voting on apps, suggestions, etc as well as disallow them to talk about anything related to TF in a critical way.

So I don't want to like.. completely remove the votes of more inactive players or whatever, but I do think the inactivity should at least be taken into account. Not like completely invalidating them if their activity index is 2.99 instead of 3, but rather just take it into account when weighing up what they're saying and stuff. What I'm trying to say is very hard to put into words right now so I apologise.

Everyday we strive further and further away from the reason everyone joined this community in the first place.

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↩  RedEastWood The plans to expand TF into a network haven’t been secret in any way. Ryan has stated many times that this was his end goal, and when it was said initially it was ignored for the most part. Now that the plan is well in motion, there seems to be a huge community backlash.

I don't mind TotalFreedom expanding into a network, the problem is how the plan is being executed.
I want a completely whole new direction for the Skyblock server, instead of making it survival, it should be free-op. Skyblock is an idea that has been overused and most servers don't expand on the concept. Although that Free-OP Skyblock is just going to Skyblock but with OP. For some reason, like the 1,000s of servers I have played or seen on Youtube, none of them even thought of the idea of Free-OP Skyblock and because of that, Skyblock should be Free-OP

↩  characterslimits TF is not just FreeOP... As videos own other thread highlights we've been about freedom and community historically. That doesn't mean that's the route we're going to stick to strictly and the freedom game mode already exists, the point of skyblock and other game modes is to offer additional options for those who don't want a freedom game mode which is already a fair chunk of our community.

↩ @'Ryan' yes but there's no reason to play totalfreedom skyblock over a better and more populous server. i'd say 80-90% of active players on the freedom server only play to talk to other players and on the skyblock server that ability is severely limited. imo at least the chats from skyblock and the freedom server should be linked so that those players who want something more from the totalfreedom name don't miss out on the reason that they're here in the first place.

↩  jwmphall That has absolutely nothing to do with my point, or the point of this thread... I'd suggest you read through the main announcement thread because everything you've asked has previously been answered in that thread and I'd like not for this thread to end up the same mess as the other one.

↩ @'Ryan'

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↩ @'Ryan' offer additional options for those who don't want a freedom game mode which is already a fair chunk of our community.

↩  jwmphall players who want something more from the totalfreedom name don't miss out on the reason that they're here in the first place.

↩ @'Ryan' That has absolutely nothing to do with my point

??? how does that have nothing to do with your point ???
no offense but i think you need to relax and be more open to suggestions; i am trying to help!

↩  jwmphall I'm trying not to de-rail another thread, because I don't then want to be given shit when I or someone else moderates and locks it.

As I've said, your question has been asked and answered in the other thread. I don't want to re-hash that here.

↩ @'Ryan' Why don't you make a 2nd Skyblock gamemode, so that way, we choose between if we want normal Skyblock, or Free-OP Skyblock

↩  characterslimits There are various other gamemodes currently in the works. As I said on the original skyblock thread, the current Skyblock was us taking over an existing server to bring it into our network as a new gamemode. We will be looking at how to improve the current gamemode in due course, and will look at options if the demand is there for other alternative gamemodes on the same theme like you'd suggested with your AllOP SkyBlock idea.