dyno (dyn00mite) founder of http://www.CMWgaming.com here... I've been encouraging all admins to remove remove their servers from GameTracker. Here's why I suggest doing it:
1: What good does it do for my community?
In BF3 my group had the #1 server (for a time), 2 in the top 25 and then some more in the top 150 and was actually pretty proud of it. But you know what that got us? Not a damn thing. Players don't care if you're #1 or #500... the only thing they care about is population and rules. Remove your servers from GameTracker so you can sleep a bit better. From conversations with other group leaders it seemed like many of us were putting too much work in keeping that ranking up. Some where saying that "we gotta wake up early to put people in that server. Don't want ranking to go down!". Just asinine.
2: What harm does it cause my community?
There was a time when nearly all servers in the BF3 top 25 were empty or nearly empty. For those that remember it you will recall there was some easily exploitable bug which required less than (according to NFO) 1mbps of traffic to crash the entire server! It seemed like an attacker was just going down the top servers clearing them out one at a time.
3: Who actually uses GameTracker?
Server admins. I can count on one hand the number of players we've had join our group that found us on GameTracker, even when we were at the top..... Even with our web address in the title we just never received referrals from GameTracker. Not only that but it's these same admins who can quickly "check out the competition" to see what's working and what's not. I know I do... thanks for the quick info.
Server auto added and you can't remove it? Follow these steps:
Many of you might have fallen victim to GameTracker's automatic server adding (we did) which will then prevent admins from removing servers from GT at all. There is a solution to this, block all GameTracker IPs.
In your GameServer or Managed Firewall panel add the following IP addresses and BLOCK all traffic:
Code: Select all
208.167.241.190
208.167.241.185
208.167.241.186
108.61.78.147
108.61.78.148
108.61.78.149
108.61.78.150
I did bring this up in another section and the reasons for keeping GT enabled was to enable the community to see what works / what doesn't in regards to maps. Solution for that: There is the BF map stats, and GameMe available to keep track of that stuff.
For the admins who keep their servers added to GameTracker: What value does it bring to your community?