20.02.2015, 19:50
A name that is reasy to remember
You want to try have a name that is somewhat catchy and easy to remember. Your community members will thank you for it one day.
An optimized and well thought-out experience
You want to not only create a neat script that functions according to your desires, but you want to do some research. How have other communities(if applicable) managed the same scenario? Don't rename your commands just for the sake of being different. Please remember that a lot of the users have habbits and you want to encourage them. Also, at the same time, you want to guide your players THROUGH your server and its features. Don't simply make a script and drop the player into the unknown and be like, go figure it out.
A good sense of english
This one only applies for an english community, but I'm sick and tired of seeing communities with horrible grammar. It hurts my eyes.
Developers who don't simply copy paste
You need developers who clearly understand the material. Don't just seek for developers who take the majority(80%) of their code from this website and simply copy and paste it and adjust it a little to make it work with your own systems, because they will rely solely on this community to create the features in the first place. They should be well versed in the pawn language pdf and other important resources required to handle and write proper code.
Security awareness
Often, communities lack security awareness. What I mean is, they develop a UCP but never actually know that there are things such as XSS, RFI, LFI, SQL Injections and more. Your community entrusts you with their personal data. A lot of users will use their common password that they have grown used to and use at other places. Protect their data.
A mature and supportive staff
You need mature players who are seasoned enough to know the ropes of the game you're offering. You want them to be able to support your players and that are willing to go the extra mile simply to make a new player understand the ropes. This is especially important when a new player joins your community and is unaware of the rules and simply creates a bad experience for others. The common mistake most communities make is get rid of such players, however I encourage you to teach them. This will build a strong image of your community and create more advertisement, by having loyal players that believe in you.
Keep it interesting
Especially the beginning of a community can be boring. Not enough players, nothing to really do, the community lacks people. Everything seems unbearable and there is really not much of a point to play. This is among the hardest challenges you'll face. You have to think of ways to keep your community going. This is extremely crucial.
A community
You need a community. People that play and enjoy your game. They are the key ingredient. You can have a crappy script, but a great community. Do not underestimate their value. Every single one of these players should be treated as a customer. You want to make sure your product is not the only thing you have to offer. Keeping a good image and having loyal customers goes a long way. Apple does this pretty well. They overprice their hardware but their image easily makes up for that. You see what I am trying to get at?
Creativity
This one is really broad and I couldn't even begin to cover it all, but in general, you need to be creative in all departments of your community. Be it events, features, factions, roleplay oppertunities, deathmatch oppertunities.. it really depends entirely on your server.
Intelligence, common sense and a well versed knowledge of all areas in your community
This is probably one of the most violated things. You want to know scripting enough to be able to judge your scripters performance. You want to know enough about administrating to see if your administrators are doing their job well. You want to know enough about security to ensure you aren't hiring security unaware scripters. Be mindful! A lot of scripters are good but are oblivious to security! Know where your data is stored and how. How your server operates. Have some technical knowledge. Have a sense of human relation and possibly some background information into marketing. A lot of the skills there come in handy in running a community and lots more.
I am sure I missed a few key elements, but these are the ones I can think of now. I've gathered this and probably more from running roughly fourty or more of my own communities. The more experience I had, the more successful the communities. This is a really hard thing to do, especially since there are already a lot of good "brand names" established in each gametype. So you'll face a hard competition, just like a company would in real life.
Good luck. You will need it.
You want to try have a name that is somewhat catchy and easy to remember. Your community members will thank you for it one day.
An optimized and well thought-out experience
You want to not only create a neat script that functions according to your desires, but you want to do some research. How have other communities(if applicable) managed the same scenario? Don't rename your commands just for the sake of being different. Please remember that a lot of the users have habbits and you want to encourage them. Also, at the same time, you want to guide your players THROUGH your server and its features. Don't simply make a script and drop the player into the unknown and be like, go figure it out.
A good sense of english
This one only applies for an english community, but I'm sick and tired of seeing communities with horrible grammar. It hurts my eyes.
Developers who don't simply copy paste
You need developers who clearly understand the material. Don't just seek for developers who take the majority(80%) of their code from this website and simply copy and paste it and adjust it a little to make it work with your own systems, because they will rely solely on this community to create the features in the first place. They should be well versed in the pawn language pdf and other important resources required to handle and write proper code.
Security awareness
Often, communities lack security awareness. What I mean is, they develop a UCP but never actually know that there are things such as XSS, RFI, LFI, SQL Injections and more. Your community entrusts you with their personal data. A lot of users will use their common password that they have grown used to and use at other places. Protect their data.
A mature and supportive staff
You need mature players who are seasoned enough to know the ropes of the game you're offering. You want them to be able to support your players and that are willing to go the extra mile simply to make a new player understand the ropes. This is especially important when a new player joins your community and is unaware of the rules and simply creates a bad experience for others. The common mistake most communities make is get rid of such players, however I encourage you to teach them. This will build a strong image of your community and create more advertisement, by having loyal players that believe in you.
Keep it interesting
Especially the beginning of a community can be boring. Not enough players, nothing to really do, the community lacks people. Everything seems unbearable and there is really not much of a point to play. This is among the hardest challenges you'll face. You have to think of ways to keep your community going. This is extremely crucial.
A community
You need a community. People that play and enjoy your game. They are the key ingredient. You can have a crappy script, but a great community. Do not underestimate their value. Every single one of these players should be treated as a customer. You want to make sure your product is not the only thing you have to offer. Keeping a good image and having loyal customers goes a long way. Apple does this pretty well. They overprice their hardware but their image easily makes up for that. You see what I am trying to get at?
Creativity
This one is really broad and I couldn't even begin to cover it all, but in general, you need to be creative in all departments of your community. Be it events, features, factions, roleplay oppertunities, deathmatch oppertunities.. it really depends entirely on your server.
Intelligence, common sense and a well versed knowledge of all areas in your community
This is probably one of the most violated things. You want to know scripting enough to be able to judge your scripters performance. You want to know enough about administrating to see if your administrators are doing their job well. You want to know enough about security to ensure you aren't hiring security unaware scripters. Be mindful! A lot of scripters are good but are oblivious to security! Know where your data is stored and how. How your server operates. Have some technical knowledge. Have a sense of human relation and possibly some background information into marketing. A lot of the skills there come in handy in running a community and lots more.
I am sure I missed a few key elements, but these are the ones I can think of now. I've gathered this and probably more from running roughly fourty or more of my own communities. The more experience I had, the more successful the communities. This is a really hard thing to do, especially since there are already a lot of good "brand names" established in each gametype. So you'll face a hard competition, just like a company would in real life.
Good luck. You will need it.