[MP2]

I have been inactive on these forums for years now as have many other people. Life takes over and games no longer have as much of a place in your life as they did before. SA-MP and GTA in general hold a lot of nostalgia for myself. I have played GTA from a very young age and SA-MP inspired me to learn programming.

While unfortunately I do not really play SA-MP anymore, I have been developing a server for the last 5 years on and off. At this point I view it as more of a personal project than anything of possible value or a potential success. Whether or not I ever launch it as an actual server is always a question in my mind. I am working on it alone and not as often enough as I would like to. Also I wonder if I have left it too late.

I have seen many “Is SA-MP dead?!” topics while peeking at the forums over the last few months and this is not another one of those topics. I personally think the English player base has suffered losses as time has gone on as it would do for anything, but SA-MP is still thriving.

I am interested in the community’s view on this and have made a short survey:
https://*******/forms/Ire0cFwAfVYn3wBk2

If you would be willing to answer a few questions it would give me an insight into the current situation.

I look forward to seeing the results and hope they are inspiring.

Thank you, Mike.

EDIT:
I have enabled the results to be shown after the form has been filled in. If you go to the above link you should be able to go to the results now.

[Splodyf23]

I very literally came to the forums to make a similar thread, and uh, In my opinion samp hasn't really died. I mean it actually puts most of Triple A games to shame, I mean GTA V Online on the PC has 50-60k players at any given time, and SAMP has 35-39K , not bad considering the two games are almost a decade apart . SAMP has not died yet, but surely there's a decline from the playerbase it used to have in its heyday

[MP2]

I would agree with you on that. In fact I would rather play SA-MP than GTA Online right now.

[R4nd4ll]

Hey man.

I would like to give a small hint for every server's owners.

1- Don't be a friend with your admin team.
2- Don't be too kind with your team.


Anyway, I really respect your opinion to come back and start working on your community.

I am always here to help.

Good luck.

[Chrillzen]

The English side of SA-MP is quite dead compared to before, yes.

[dugi]

Yes, the English player base decreased significantly over the years, there's only a handful of mainly English communities left.

Most new players these days seem to be from developing nations where they can't get computers that are able to run latest games because of high cost so they play in slightly older games.

[Vince]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MP2 I would agree with you on that. In fact I would rather play SA-MP than GTA Online right now.

GTA Online is a shitshow. The people that play it are generally the same people that need to justify spending $75 on a bunch of virtual pixels while boasting that they get "free" updates.

[vassilis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vince GTA Online is a shitshow. The people that play it are generally the same people that need to justify spending $75 on a bunch of virtual pixels while boasting that they get "free" updates.

This. I am in the exactly same mood/state(5 years developings, deleting-recreating, mapping, scripting, nostalgia, curiosity, motivation lost inbetween, afraid of playerbase, etc) as you MP2. Personally, i am doing it for my personal satifaction and i am curious to see how far i can go with my script(from scratch -- > to public server). I think you should do the same and wait to see how far you can reach with it.

[adri1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugi Most new players these days seem to be from developing nations where they can't get computers that are able to run latest games because of high cost so they play in slightly older games.

Old game don't mean that are only played by poor people. There a lot of examples of old games and low graphics and they are played a lot.

I don't need a games with high graphics to play it, I need a game funny and entertaining if is a single player game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vince GTA Online is a shitshow. The people that play it are generally the same people that need to justify spending $75 on a bunch of virtual pixels while boasting that they get "free" updates.

GTA Online started good, but now is more like a freeroam, I only play stunt races on GTA:O.

[MP2]

Interesting results from the survey so far had 32 responses. Thank you to everyone that responded. I will share the results in a few days.

[Kalcor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugi Yes, the English player base decreased significantly over the years, there's only a handful of mainly English communities left.

I saw this happening a long time ago. It's part of the reason why SA-MP development went off the rails.

Even since 2007 I knew most players would eventually be playing RP. It's just the most unique aspect of Samp, something difficult to get out of other games.

The problem was that most of large English role play servers weren't run by decent people. They were often attacking other servers or attacking SA-MP, so I had to throw many of them off the lists. That only left strict role playing servers like LS-RP standing. Some players tried to migrate there but it wasn't the style of RP they were looking for. The influx of light RP'ers probably drove some of the existing LS-RP players away too.

I started working on my own English language light RP server after 0.3.7 was released, but eventually got burned out trying to do both scripting and SA-MP development at the same time. Some servers spent years working on their scripts and I was trying to throw something together in a few months.

Anyway, if anyone out there is running, or thinking of running, a light RP server for English speaking players, I'd be happy to sponsor the server for a while with server listings, promotions here, even pay for a dedicated server if needed. Contact me if you have something in mind.

Although the big Russian servers don't cause me any problems, they don't provide much feedback so I don't know which direction to take SA-MP in. That's what I rely on the English speaking servers for.

[Meller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalcor I saw this happening a long time ago. It's part of the reason why SA-MP development went off the rails. Even since 2007 I knew most players would eventually be playing RP. It's just the most unique aspect of Samp, something difficult to get out of other games. The problem was that most of large English role play servers weren't run by decent people. They were often attacking other servers or attacking SA-MP, so I had to throw many of them off the lists. That only left strict role playing servers like LS-RP standing. Some players tried to migrate there but it wasn't the style of RP they were looking for. The influx of light RP'ers probably drove some of the existing LS-RP players away too. I started working on my own English language light RP server after 0.3.7 was released, but eventually got burned out trying to do both scripting and SA-MP development at the same time. Some servers spent years working on their scripts and I was trying to throw something together in a few months. Anyway, if anyone out there is running, or thinking of running, a light RP server for English speaking players, I'd be happy to sponsor the server for a while with server listings, promotions here, even pay for a dedicated server if needed. Contact me if you have something in mind. Although the big Russian servers don't cause me any problems, they don't provide much feedback so I don't know which direction to take SA-MP in. That's what I rely on the English speaking servers for.

So the server listings aren't broken but.. you require a server to pay to be promoted in the internet and hosted lists? Or well, in this case being donated to be in there?


K.. always thought the internet list was bugged but seems like not :d

[Kalcor]

The internet list was attacked with hundreds of fake servers. What motivation is there to bring it back when it needs constant monitoring? It's actually better for players if the server is paying to be on the list. Nobody would pay to list a fake server.

It's possible the internet list could come back at some point. I'm not motivated to monitor the list after 10 years of blocking bad servers. There are people who volunteer to do it but they get bored of it quickly. It's just not something anyone wants to do.

[Vince]

At last a valid explanation. This should've been communicated way sooner, just sayin'.

[Freaksken]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalcor ...

I love that there's finally some communication.

[Meller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalcor The internet list was attacked with hundreds of fake servers. What motivation is there to bring it back when it needs constant monitoring? It's actually better for players if the server is paying to be on the list. Nobody would pay to list a fake server. It's possible the internet list could come back at some point. I'm not motivated to monitor the list after 10 years of blocking bad servers. There are people who volunteer to do it but they get bored of it quickly. It's just not something anyone wants to do.

When I look at it by that way.. yeah, you're right. Wouldn't it be possible to have a server confirm its activity by having an amount of userpeak (not userbase), and like, time since bootup? Don't believe that this would be effective but wouldn't it work out somewhat well?

[KingHual]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meller When I look at it by that way.. yeah, you're right. Wouldn't it be possible to have a server confirm its activity by having an amount of userpeak (not userbase), and like, time since bootup? Don't believe that this would be effective but wouldn't it work out somewhat well?

all of that can be spoofed so no

[Crystallize]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalcor I saw this happening a long time ago. It's part of the reason why SA-MP development went off the rails. Even since 2007 I knew most players would eventually be playing RP. It's just the most unique aspect of Samp, something difficult to get out of other games. The problem was that most of large English role play servers weren't run by decent people. They were often attacking other servers or attacking SA-MP, so I had to throw many of them off the lists. That only left strict role playing servers like LS-RP standing. Some players tried to migrate there but it wasn't the style of RP they were looking for. The influx of light RP'ers probably drove some of the existing LS-RP players away too. I started working on my own English language light RP server after 0.3.7 was released, but eventually got burned out trying to do both scripting and SA-MP development at the same time. Some servers spent years working on their scripts and I was trying to throw something together in a few months. Anyway, if anyone out there is running, or thinking of running, a light RP server for English speaking players, I'd be happy to sponsor the server for a while with server listings, promotions here, even pay for a dedicated server if needed. Contact me if you have something in mind. Although the big Russian servers don't cause me any problems, they don't provide much feedback so I don't know which direction to take SA-MP in. That's what I rely on the English speaking servers for.

Would love to make something of what you request.

[Sew_Sumi]

Bring back the old days of the official list.

[Crystallize]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sew_Sumi Bring back the old days of the official list.

Couldnt agree more.