Hi all, [TB]Gwydion here. I'm the poor sap currently chosen to be the *cough* leader of Team Banzai. I posted a similar message in many of the TWL units' forums, but I wasn't able to get them all so I'm putting it here as well. My hope is to explain a little bit about the Banzai Institute and its purpose, and to pass along a few words about our server rules to head off any potential future problems. Our Mission Statement reads as follows:
"The Institute was founded on May the 5th, 2002 to create a single place on the web where new MechWarriors can come to learn the skills and techniques needed to become competitive in the online gaming environment.
The Institute is not a unit or a clan, although it is operated, managed and supported primarily by Team Banzai, which is a combat unit. The Institute is intended to be neutral ground where MechWarriors of good heart and noble intent from all units and all backgrounds can come together, learn from each other, and share ideas and information."
We're not there yet, but we are trying.
When a new player comes to the game online now, in a lot of cases he or she is going up against players who have been honing their skills for years. In other words, the learning curve for online play gets steeper every day. When a new player can't at least be competitive it's easy for them to get discouraged and move on to something else instead . We don't want that to happen, we want MW4 to continue to grow, or at least not to diminish, especially now that we know MW5 will be a very long time coming.
Don't get me wrong, we think the newer players should certainly be exposed to and fight against veteran players, they won't learn anything or become competitive otherwise, but when there are large numbers of people from any one unit on a team, especially if they are on comms together calling targets, it can get very ugly. Because of this, we have rules on our servers that prohibit this type of team unbalancing. The complete rules can be found in the Lobby Forum at http://www.teambanzai.net, but the pertinent ones are as follows:
"Stacking Teams - Don't do it. This includes unbalancing teams by joining the team that's already up a player or two as well as "clanned" players all joining the same team; take it somewhere else."
"Don't Use Open Games as League Practises. - If you want to use our servers for a league practise, email gwydion@teambanzai.net and we'll see how we can help. No calling targets on voice-comms. No having 4 or more of your team on one side without an equal number on the opposite team as well. Team Banzai doesn't do it, and we expect other "clanned" players not to, either. At all times remember that our servers are meant to be a haven for new players, not a killing field for jaded vets."
We understand that due to team size and join-in-progress, loading up one side may be inevitable occasionally, we just ask that you not do it intentionally.
I'm not singling any unit out with this post, as I said, I actually tried to sign up and post this same message in as many units' forums as I can find so there are fewer misunderstandings during the games. Basically if you bring a lot of players, which you are perfectly welcome to do, we ask that you try to split up so it doesn't turn into a slaughter that makes people leave in frustration. I know it's great to paste a team really bad, but please save it for the league matches or the other servers that don't attempt to cater to the less experienced pilots.
As you can see from the Mission Statement, we want pilots from all units to feel at home on our servers, and I invite you all to come by and play whenever you want, just please follow the rules and remember what we are trying to do. Yes, to be competitive newer players will need to know how to fight against organized teams, just let them learn how to use the mech first. You may even see some new players with potential that you'd like to recruit. We at the Institute would like all units to view us as a resource to the community, so please stop by our forums as well. Share some of that MW4 knowledge you've been building up over the years, submit some cool configs or mech or strategy guides. The better our content the better we can fulfill our mission, and (we hope) the better off and longer lasting the MW4 community will be.
Thanks for listening (er...reading), hope to see you all out there.
Post edited by Gwydion at 7/9/2003 11:35:53 PM
"The Institute was founded on May the 5th, 2002 to create a single place on the web where new MechWarriors can come to learn the skills and techniques needed to become competitive in the online gaming environment.
The Institute is not a unit or a clan, although it is operated, managed and supported primarily by Team Banzai, which is a combat unit. The Institute is intended to be neutral ground where MechWarriors of good heart and noble intent from all units and all backgrounds can come together, learn from each other, and share ideas and information."
We're not there yet, but we are trying.
When a new player comes to the game online now, in a lot of cases he or she is going up against players who have been honing their skills for years. In other words, the learning curve for online play gets steeper every day. When a new player can't at least be competitive it's easy for them to get discouraged and move on to something else instead . We don't want that to happen, we want MW4 to continue to grow, or at least not to diminish, especially now that we know MW5 will be a very long time coming.
Don't get me wrong, we think the newer players should certainly be exposed to and fight against veteran players, they won't learn anything or become competitive otherwise, but when there are large numbers of people from any one unit on a team, especially if they are on comms together calling targets, it can get very ugly. Because of this, we have rules on our servers that prohibit this type of team unbalancing. The complete rules can be found in the Lobby Forum at http://www.teambanzai.net, but the pertinent ones are as follows:
"Stacking Teams - Don't do it. This includes unbalancing teams by joining the team that's already up a player or two as well as "clanned" players all joining the same team; take it somewhere else."
"Don't Use Open Games as League Practises. - If you want to use our servers for a league practise, email gwydion@teambanzai.net and we'll see how we can help. No calling targets on voice-comms. No having 4 or more of your team on one side without an equal number on the opposite team as well. Team Banzai doesn't do it, and we expect other "clanned" players not to, either. At all times remember that our servers are meant to be a haven for new players, not a killing field for jaded vets."
We understand that due to team size and join-in-progress, loading up one side may be inevitable occasionally, we just ask that you not do it intentionally.
I'm not singling any unit out with this post, as I said, I actually tried to sign up and post this same message in as many units' forums as I can find so there are fewer misunderstandings during the games. Basically if you bring a lot of players, which you are perfectly welcome to do, we ask that you try to split up so it doesn't turn into a slaughter that makes people leave in frustration. I know it's great to paste a team really bad, but please save it for the league matches or the other servers that don't attempt to cater to the less experienced pilots.
As you can see from the Mission Statement, we want pilots from all units to feel at home on our servers, and I invite you all to come by and play whenever you want, just please follow the rules and remember what we are trying to do. Yes, to be competitive newer players will need to know how to fight against organized teams, just let them learn how to use the mech first. You may even see some new players with potential that you'd like to recruit. We at the Institute would like all units to view us as a resource to the community, so please stop by our forums as well. Share some of that MW4 knowledge you've been building up over the years, submit some cool configs or mech or strategy guides. The better our content the better we can fulfill our mission, and (we hope) the better off and longer lasting the MW4 community will be.
Thanks for listening (er...reading), hope to see you all out there.
Post edited by Gwydion at 7/9/2003 11:35:53 PM