HA/CA/SA LAN meeting

OldBloke · October 25, 2009, 06:34:25 PM

Attendees: TeaLeaf, OldBloke, Gandalf, Smilodon, Whitey, Armitage, Benny, Blunt, Sheepy

Absentees: Penfold, Lameduck

Chair: TeaLeaf
Minutes: OldBloke

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We discussed the state of play for the new games that we considered as possible dMw runners ...

Modern Warfare 2

It was decided that the lack of dedicated servers was a major roadblock to us adopting this game. This is a huge disappointment as it was looking like a very worthy successor to CoD4. We agreed to pursue this only if a dedicated server or an acceptable workaround is released.

Left 4 Dead 2

Benny stated that, unless anything prevents it, he intends to move his section across to the new version soon after release. Although this new version has come along relatively quickly the current version is getting stale and player numbers have dropped.

ARMA 2

Whitey and Armitage are still supporting this game as suitable for dMw adoption. It's buggy release version has been patched and it was agreed that we should try another push with the members. It is fortunate that Steam are currently offering this at a special price hence the posts in the forum asking members to support a relaunch within the community.

AION

We have attracted over 30 members into the Dead Men Legion and good things are expected of this MMORPG. We took the decision to adopt the game formally but only if b00n agreed to lead on it - which he subsequently did (welcome b00n :byebye:)

Gaming - Section Admin Reports

L4D (Benny) - Still good fun but numbers are tailing off and it's starting to get stale. Section should be revitalised by the arrival of L4D2.

WOW (Gandalf) - Still growing and still very popular. The additional levels of responsibility added to the guild have helped the administration of the section.

COD4 (Armitage) - Despite its flaws this game is still very popular with the members and regularly attracts guests to the server.

CSS (Blunt) - Only really well attended for the Friday night session which is still very much enjoyed by the members. It was agreed to continue this but the private server must be used to allow for the relaxed rules on language.

Dead Men Racing (Lameduck) - OldBloke spoke in Lameduck's absense to report that LFS was still the racing SIM of choice in this section. Other SIMs had been given a fair crack of the whip but nothing can compare to the overall package that LFS offers. The server is active every night and the one hour long race held on Thurday nights is as popular as ever.

Admin Activity

TeaLeaf reminded the meeting that we have over 50 admins within the community. When he recently asked them to attend a meeting (or to forward their points of view to him if they couldn't make it) only a handful replied. Considering both TeaLeaf and Oldbloke were recently beaten up for not listening to the community this was particularly disappointing. TeaLeaf reminded the Section Admins that it was their responsibility to actively promote their own section and to ensure that their admin team were also active and contributing to the section's growth.

New Structure - Feedback

It was agreed by all that the new structure was working well and that it was other underlying issues that had prompted Ninja's strongly worded response to its announcement. There are other threads already in existance to deal with the suggestions that came out of that particular thread.

Funding

An exact figure that takes into account the income from LAN XVI will be posted soon but the meeting was reminded of the necessity of keeping a healthy contingency fund should we need to quickly find new hardware or new hosting arrangements. We are not looking to run a savings account so we will, therefore, be looking to spend some of our funds on increasing the amount of RAM in all our servers and to purchase the latest VB forum upgrade. As promised we will explore all avenues the new software offers to ensure that our subscribers are given added value for their support.

Website review

Smilo is very pleased with the feedback so far and particularly the offer of help with design etc. A 'bump' for any additional comments will be made before the real work begins.

Hosting new games

The meeting again endorsed the early adoption of public game servers for games that appear to fit our ethos.

---- End of Minutes ----------

Addendum: After the meeting TeaLeaf and I discussed how the community might benefit from having a gaming committee (one of the suggestions arising from the Ninja thread) whose role would be to keep abreast of the upcoming game releases and, if they tick all the boxes on a dMw template (yet to be designed), then Whitey would be asked to put up a server. Having spoken to GhostMjr earlier in the day it was obvious to me that he would be an obvious choice as one of the committee. Apart from the fact he is always gaming - he reads most of the gaming magazines cover-to-cover, attends gaming fairs and exhibitions, is active in the Steam and other game related forums and even cornered a Valve representitive at a recent launch to ask about Valve's plans for the future. We managed to speak to him at breakfast on Saturday morning and asked him if he would consider taking this role on for the community and who he thought could work alongside him in this task. He agreed to take on the role and suggested that T-Bag was the only person he considered to be as knowledgeable as himself in these matters so we will approach him too once we have a final brief worked out.

Penfold · October 25, 2009, 07:18:52 PM

Sounds good guys.

I like the idea of a gaming committee and agree that Ghosty is probably a good choice and I know he'd be enthusiastic about it.

Was there any discussion on things such a Membership Committee/Secretary to try and draw in new members for example? Did you come up with a formalised role for Smilo etc?

OldBloke · October 25, 2009, 08:00:37 PM

Quote from: Penfold;293829... Was there any discussion on things such a Membership Committee/Secretary to try and draw in new members for example? Did you come up with a formalised role for Smilo etc?

Smilo is formally a CA without a formal portfolio

No discussion on membership sec. I bet it was on the agenda somewhere but after 3 hours and countless pints it just might have got overlooked :blush:

Penfold · October 26, 2009, 11:16:22 PM

NP

Does Ghosty get an official title and do I announce it?

TeaLeaf · October 27, 2009, 09:44:12 AM

Not sure it needs a special badge title, just a forum section for new game discussion and a private area within that forum he can access, via password etc.

Penfold · October 27, 2009, 09:56:55 AM

That's what I meant. We won't badge up up per se but I'd like to acknowledge it in news / announcements.

We can then give him his little playground.

If no one disagrees I'll post the announcement?

TeaLeaf · October 27, 2009, 11:04:46 AM

Go for it.

Benny · October 28, 2009, 12:02:32 AM

As per discussion I've tidied up my section. Stickies removed where possible. A few threads renamed etc.

Could someone delete the ladder subsection please and that's me in order for now.

Cheers

(I'll do the L4D2 later this week)

TeaLeaf · October 28, 2009, 08:21:05 AM

L4D Ladder sub-section deleted.

TeaLeaf · October 28, 2009, 08:27:29 AM

I currently have an assignment I'm trying to get finished, but I'll be posting up the LAN accounts and a Community FUnd update towards the end of the week. Highlights from the figures as supplied by Ninja are:

Total takings inc auction & donations Ã,Â£722.62
expenses Ã,Â£26.62 (prizes)
Net Cash received Ã,Â£696
hosting paid Ã,Â£270
Net cash bankable Ã,Â£426

expected future costs:
refunding Penfold for LAN insurance etc