Just recently a GearEx member asked me , if I'm frustrated about the lack of resonance at times regarding our Steam Group. "Not at all" I answered, first because it is not about me and second because I`m quiet experienced regarding community related activities - which means, I know what to expect and what not. Specially as noone can avoid the daily intrusions of life. As I mentioned elsewhere, my main intention is to bring ppl together and after I heared about Emillio and his ESR Group (and also had to dig a little to even find them), I felt inspired to do something about what I consider as a sign of the times : that many individuals are spread loosely at their favorite Platforms in our multimedia realms but rarely come together - even at a community like here @ S3 Forum. Founding a Steam Group as one way is relatively easy for example - you just have to deal with the basic functions for a few hours, set up a calendar and some topics at the discussion board, befriend drivers you like or have met online already & get out invitations: thats it ! Okay, some PR in the sense of being available and motivating members is of use as well Anything else then belongs to the common sense, motivation & willingness to cooparate of all members, specially of those who actively participate, giving support, because noone should be forced (or feel dutybound) to do what he doesn`t like or what he or she doesn`t feels capable of. I persönally refuse to be the leader of the dance in this context. Its a mutual concept I want not an authoritarian one... The actual positive effect I definitely see is this: By the exchange of activities of GearEx and ESR and their members (and any other group to come) , by making it a little more public via S3 (many thx for providing the space here Devs ) there are about a hundred ppl + who know about each other more or less or have direct contact even, befriended each other via Steam , S3 and R3e. Means, there is a pool of drivers now who - in terms of fair and clean driving- can trust and rely on each other . And via the "Star" System at R3E Server Lobby its very easy to always join a group of friends to race with in an appropriate way. My experience so far is that by building a mutual little network like this, the risk to get trolls and crashkids onboard decreases, even on public servers. In this context I often have to smile if Im ` asked if we use Teamspeak or will get a Dedi prior to making a decision to join or not - because ask yourself : What is the most valuable resource ? A Dedi ? Teamspeak ? A league ? Or rather a reliable, active pool of friends who you can share your passion with ?
What with RD, S3, Ronin, Steam x3 groups, Email, work, it's like another job interacting with everything. And I already have 2 jobs.
So far I love the group - being in a different time zone than most of the group is a bit difficult but I love that as the weeks go by there is almost always a server with a star when I play. Running these types of things like machwebb says can be a full time job sometimes. I've done it for years with FPS games. So in other words, great work getting it to this point. Its working great. As far a teamspeak, wouldnt hurt but my experience is only a small percentage would use it. A dedicated server, maybe but seeing as we live all over the planet it may go unused at times and the way it is now you can still have some public people jump in. just my 2 cents - love the way its working so far!!
"reliable, active pool of friends who you can share your passion with ?" That is what i am after. My work schedule is all over the place ( even right now i am working till 2am lol ). The time i can invest in the game ( or any game ) is minimal. So having events presented in the way its done via steam with ESR/gearEx is working great for me. When i can make an event i know i will be racing with good peoples.
In casual style racing communities like this, i like to have TS, it just makes much more easier to communicate during race,and adds some fun factor as well for me. With dedicated servers i would say to wait until it gets released and tested. If the public servers will stay alive, atm for this amount of ppl i think it is not urgent to have our own server running.