Hi, long time no see. 
I still see people asking "anyone still playing?" and "let's play tonight!" on this forum, and the facebook group.
For those who weren't there (where were you?), during summer 2008, we actually had XMP games EVERY wednesday night (8 pm PST). For proof, see XMP videos on my youtube channel (you'd have dig past my recent vids):
http://www.youtube.com/user/takwu0
How did that happen? How can you make it happen again? Well here are the simple steps:
1: Make it regular
Preferrably weekly. Monthly might sound nice, but people forget or cannot make it. Setting it weekly allows people to come back every week. If they miss a week, they can still come back the next week. Most people have work/school/life scheduled by the week, so it makes things simpler.
Another thing is the time. Don't change it. People came at 8 pm last week, they expect to come again at 8 pm this week. If you change it, they see empty server, they don't come back, ever.
And don't forget to let everyone know about this schedule too. Post a new thread here, facebook it, email/phone/visit every XMP player you can.
2: Be there
I mean it. Be there, no matter what. If you miss it, don't expect anyone else to be there. And expect next week to be worse. Even if you made it, but LATE, you still lost a few players, which sometimes means ALL players.
What if the server is empty? JOIN ANYWAY. You are not there until you are in the server. No one sees you on MSN/Steam/whatever chat program. You have to be in the server, even if it means you're alone for a while... which leads to the last step:
3: Stay there
Ok, so I joined at 8 pm, no one joins, and it's 9 pm already, do I quit? NO. Be prepared to be there for AT LEAST 3 HOURS. I found it helpful to have something else to do while I waited, like play on my DS or do Econ homework, while I was in the server alone.
On some wednesdays, I would be there for 3 hours and no real XMP games. Maybe 1 or 2 players would come and we deathmatch for a bit. So it was boring. But it pays off. THAT'S HOW the 10-player games happen the next week, or even at the last hour of the night.
If you follow the 3 simple steps above, you will have some epic XMP games going on within a few weeks. If it didn't happen, you DID NOT do the 3 steps. You can quote me on that.
I stopped doing that since my first final exam times (around Dec 2008) and no one else stepped up to do it (at least not as religiously), so it was over. I graduated now but still looking for a full time job. Once I do I will try this again (and maybe even consider that bot project again...). Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in some XXXMP actions, you know how to set it up now.
I still see people asking "anyone still playing?" and "let's play tonight!" on this forum, and the facebook group.
For those who weren't there (where were you?), during summer 2008, we actually had XMP games EVERY wednesday night (8 pm PST). For proof, see XMP videos on my youtube channel (you'd have dig past my recent vids):
http://www.youtube.com/user/takwu0
How did that happen? How can you make it happen again? Well here are the simple steps:
1: Make it regular
Preferrably weekly. Monthly might sound nice, but people forget or cannot make it. Setting it weekly allows people to come back every week. If they miss a week, they can still come back the next week. Most people have work/school/life scheduled by the week, so it makes things simpler.
Another thing is the time. Don't change it. People came at 8 pm last week, they expect to come again at 8 pm this week. If you change it, they see empty server, they don't come back, ever.
And don't forget to let everyone know about this schedule too. Post a new thread here, facebook it, email/phone/visit every XMP player you can.
2: Be there
I mean it. Be there, no matter what. If you miss it, don't expect anyone else to be there. And expect next week to be worse. Even if you made it, but LATE, you still lost a few players, which sometimes means ALL players.
What if the server is empty? JOIN ANYWAY. You are not there until you are in the server. No one sees you on MSN/Steam/whatever chat program. You have to be in the server, even if it means you're alone for a while... which leads to the last step:
3: Stay there
Ok, so I joined at 8 pm, no one joins, and it's 9 pm already, do I quit? NO. Be prepared to be there for AT LEAST 3 HOURS. I found it helpful to have something else to do while I waited, like play on my DS or do Econ homework, while I was in the server alone.
On some wednesdays, I would be there for 3 hours and no real XMP games. Maybe 1 or 2 players would come and we deathmatch for a bit. So it was boring. But it pays off. THAT'S HOW the 10-player games happen the next week, or even at the last hour of the night.
If you follow the 3 simple steps above, you will have some epic XMP games going on within a few weeks. If it didn't happen, you DID NOT do the 3 steps. You can quote me on that.
I stopped doing that since my first final exam times (around Dec 2008) and no one else stepped up to do it (at least not as religiously), so it was over. I graduated now but still looking for a full time job. Once I do I will try this again (and maybe even consider that bot project again...). Meanwhile, if anyone is interested in some XXXMP actions, you know how to set it up now.
![[DS] Calico](/data/avatars/s/42/42055.jpg?1424422865){kind=avatar}
