ID:2428923
 
Ok. Short and sweet, I've been banned for multikeying. Nothing new or special. However, the scenario by which I got myself banned has brought me to realize just how non-user-friendly the entire platform is.

Never before have I heard of multikeying. Maybe that's because I've always been a moral player, as cheesy as that may sound.

To me, the byond launcher is just another launcher like any of the other dozen or more launchers I may have for other games at any given time. So, just like any other game, I made multiple accounts. Why? Because I have the right to protect my privacy if I see fit, or in my case, simply fool metagamers who learn new player habits and exploit them until the quitting point. There's no better way to crash-course yourself into learning how to play than to do it from several aliases so that you can't be targeted by such people who would recognize you. How else are you really supposed to thoroughly understand the nature of something you are attempting to understand thoroughly? I don't print out guidebooks for every game I play or take notes. I learn by experience.

I finally got around to caring enough about one particular server to attempt applying to join their dev team. I wanted to contribute and learn from their experience to improve the game for everyone out of passion for the project.

So, I refreshed myself on the rules, (which are constantly being tested and others like my violation are undetectable, therefore nonpunishable offenses without a report.) and followed their instructions: AHELP IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS LINKED TO THE SERVER

I'm beginning to think that's in their rules just to fool genuine people like myself who actually give them the benefit of the doubt.

So I wasn't given a chance to explain my side except for the fact that I was unaware of certain functions of gameplay, thanks to so many players skipping it, and teaching me to do so as well. Having only played ss13 style games for a year or so, I thought it was completely normal to have backup accounts so you could continue to learn or contribute via rule abiding gameplay. It's exactly how every other multiplayer game I've played has functioned (especially rp-related games), but when I come over to ss13... I'm not sure where I am or who is thinking under what pretenses. I simply do not know the principles or workings behind running a server and general 'etiquette' beyond: Don't metagame!

This is normal for casual gamers who switch between multiple games, rather than dedicating all their time and mental capacity to being able to play just one game to the utmost it has to offer (leading to inevitable burnout). I'm a person behind a keyboard, made to feel like a person getting behind the steering wheel of a semi truck because 'everyone's time must be respected, except for my own'.

If I had understood and respected their rules, my play time would be somewhere around 20 hours? That's 20 rounds give or take. Because if you die, you don't get to come back without their rarely expressed permission to do so. So instead, because I wanted to play, I squeezed 300 hours of play out by rejoining every round I had time to participate in with a fresh character and objective (over 9 months).

Doesn't this make complete sense when attempting to learn how to play a game that permadeaths you 20 minutes into each session, leaving you with nothing learned and no interest to come back?

If you can't come back to play for an hour or more and actually learn, you aren't playing a game any more. You're participating in someone's over-sized dollhouse.

I had no idea 'notes' existed until joining forums to make an appeal.

Long story short, they all voted against me, where they would normally give griefers at least a neutral and a few negative votes. I am confirmed not a griefer, not a metagamer, just someone who didn't know better and brought higher standards of gameplay during an apparent 9 months of 'breaking the multikey rule'.

I really thought without any hesitation that my relatively clean record and my feats in respectable gameplay would prove my simple arrogance for something non-malicious.

Instead I was told I needed a ban to "Take time off so you can learn the rules, since you clearly don't understand them."

Is this not a meme? Is this not a joke? It is, I think. And it explains why the ss13 community as a whole struggles to grow its population. I was able to spend 9 months or more playing on a server with a rule they have no ability to enforce, only breaking it because it's the logical thing to do which had been suggested by other similarly minded players. Isn't it pretty simple to see how and why a 'community driven game' was easy to overlook for potentially being broken or lackluster for so long?

This is a reputation I had optimistically ignored until now, because I got to enjoy my cake until expressing a desire to improve everyone's cake.

Do note that all this took place directly after enough encouragement from staff to give them a shot. In doing so, the only mistake I made was bringing attention to myself via the A-help inquiry states on their rules.

They failed to see human circumstances, or simply did not bother reading my earnest case. It's a pity.

Here were my last moments with a server I spent nearly 300 hours on before gaining enough confidence to at least sign up for contributing.

https://imgur.com/a/0mgEQLj

All I've witnessed from the start of my experience with the most popular server until the end, is the total denial of any errors or poor choices besides the occasional server reboot bug. "Everything is working as intended" right up until the changelog that admits the mistakes without shame.

So now I've got time off to lose any incentive to care about their server, forget how all the rules work, and completely forget anyone I had any semblance of a connection to. Nobody is ever going to 'spend their time studying the rules' on their ban time. Nobody's going to cram or make flash cards or test themselves to meet some anonymous bloke's desired standards.

Byond experiences should not feel like a day at the DMV. Minor misunderstandings such as these with any real games would usually net me free digital currency, a gift card, or even a free access key to one of their products. At least a coupon towards my next purchase. Nothing like that here, just the jury and a judge trying to run an anonymous LARP daycare.

Every time I got a 'bwoink' for the dozens of vague rules I got warned for breaking really made me stop and wish I had picked up actual LARP as a hobby instead. Being in the park, swinging foam at each other under the sun while our costumes melt sounds so much more reasonable than dealing with these non-sequitors.

That is my final point before I am left with nothing but utter confusion as to why people would decide to cull their playerbase like this. With a max population of 200 and average of 80-97 players online, can you really sit and think, "Oh they always come back" or "They'll be replaced by newcomers" ... In an increasingly outdated game with a niche appeal, you'd think there'd be a stronger sense of community.

Perhaps a more integrated revision to the way servers are hosted could benefit the platform as a whole. Nurture the servers with potential, educate or verify the staff to be capable, develop proper procedures and assist with development or marketing strategies. What happens in byond games is certainly unlike any other kind of game and I believe it to have so much untapped potential; unfortunately held back by inadequacy and simple lack of public interest due to said inadequacy.

The current state of servers does not allow for a happy medium between wholesome, smaller scale communities, and machine-like higher population 'dwellings'.

The difference between these two statuses, "Low-pop" and "hi-pop" can be a matter of 10 players in a small server. A medium server goes about 30-50 and a "popular" server can rack in a couple hundred people, but still falls below 100 in a reliable cycle every 24 hours.

This simply cannot continue! I don't want to see this gem in the rough of a platform based community fizzle out simply for becoming outdated or usurped. Yes, I'm primarily referring to the ss13 side, as it is easily the only thing keeping byond going.


I'd like to see everyone's thoughts as to why things are the way they are, and if they can change.
You do realize BYOND has nothing to do with the games created on it, it's simply an engine and website that lists games other people create and host... right?
Stop being apart of such a cancerous community. If every decent human being stopped playing games with cancerous communities, the only ones left would be the cancer, and IDEALLY the game devs would notice how toxic their community has gotten and FINALLY decide to take action, or let their game flounder into nothing.

My best advice? Move on. We get nothing but people complaining about SS13 for one reason or another here on the BYOND forums. SS13 is its own entity at this point in time. I'd hardly call it a "success story" myself, but that's just my opinion.
In response to Nadrew
Nadrew wrote:
You do realize BYOND has nothing to do with the games created on it, it's simply an engine and website that lists games other people create and host... right?

Seeing how I was banned from playing byond games, that's a lie. Who bans people from playing games in a game engine? Terrible business.

But I guess I'm that bad of person. See how long I had this account? I could post things on these forums to be that bad guy y'all want me to be. But nah I'm not that. J/S. Welp goodbye to this alt, death by corruption.

I don't care for your forums, or your discord community obviously.
http://prntscr.com/mmz40w
But yeah just clearing up that lie of yours.

I have my games community on a discord that knows of this, and endless logs of you mods showing your true colors in the 'unofficial' byond discord. J/S. I'm not alone y'all will atone.
In response to Wizard Baird
u tell them lying niggers whats up
Make your own ss13 server, with blackjack and hookers.
In response to NSBR
NSBR wrote:
Make your own ss13 server, with blackjack and hookers.

In response to Nadrew
Nadrew wrote:
You do realize BYOND has nothing to do with the games created on it, it's simply an engine and website that lists games other people create and host... right?

Then why does it not have a 'compile to exe' function?
In response to NSBR
NSBR wrote:
Then why does it not have a 'compile to exe' function?

In response to NSBR
NSBR wrote:
Then why does it not have a 'compile to exe' function?

Because Lummox hasn't decided (or had the time to work on) making it available to the masses. It would require rethinking how ads are handled and the sort. Having it ad-free either requires disconnecting it from the hub entirely (no listing, keys, subscriptions, etc), or making sure that game can generate revenue enough to support the hub traffic it creates.

The existing exe system works fine for those who use it, and is still an option.

You're also free to make your own, as long as it includes the entirely of BYOND in an unmodified way (in compliance with the terms of service). You can turn client.authenticate off and ignore BYOND entirely if you build it right.
In response to Nadrew
Why not make it available, with the ads then.
In response to Nadrew
Nadrew wrote:

The existing exe system works fine for those who use it, and is still an option.

I agree, and I also wonder why it's even needed before you have a finished product. To be honest I'd rather have BYOND games that are in their infancy stay more hidden within the community for testing and critiquing... if every half-complete game was floating around in .exe form, that would not reflect so great on BYOND as a whole. Of course, what should be obvious has already been said: BYOND is just the platform and website, and people should understand that the games created with it are not therefore affiliated with it. But we all know people often fail to understand that, and it seems prudent to keep the experimentation and learning stages away from the public eye.
In response to Magicsofa
lol what you've said is full of contradictions. If byond doesn't have anything to do with it, then what should it care what owners do with their games? If I want to share a shitty game, I'll share a shitty game.
I was saying that people shouldn't blame BYOND for our crappy games, but they do anyway. It's not contradictory to acknowledge that fact and do some damage control.

Anyway, I was just pontificating. Nadrew's explanation is the realistic one.
In response to NSBR
NSBR wrote:
Why not make it available, with the ads then.

That's where development time comes in, it would require changing things on a pretty fundamental level on BYONDexe's end.
In response to Nadrew
Nadrew wrote:
NSBR wrote:
Why not make it available, with the ads then.

That's where development time comes in, it would require changing things on a pretty fundamental level on BYONDexe's end.

you know nothing about programming
In response to Nadrew
I know it would require changes, but it'd be for the good of the engine. And you can see by the compile to exe feature request thread that many devs want it. Feature requests with way less support and way more difficulty were implemented before this.
It really comes down to what Lummox is working on at the time, just like moving to website changes it requires a big shift in gears on how he's working and he doesn't like switching back and forth when he's working on bigger things (and he has something of a roadmap of where he puts his focus).

He hasn't really touched BYONDexe in a while (and hasn't really had to, since it works for those who are using it), but will likely get back to it at some point and do something like this. He's said time and time again he wants to do so, but the time vs. benefit cost just isn't weighing in favor of it for the time being.
It is very apparent that most of the users want compile to EXE prioritized over everything else, if Lummox isn't willing to or interested in fixing the website.

I don't think engine changes matter if devs are struggling to get people to even launch their games in the first place. We certainly aren't getting players from within BYOND, and getting them from outside of BYOND is an uphill battle.

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