I've been looking around at the DP community so far via forums, irc, teamspeak etc. The main thing I have been seeing is that people that used to play are still all over the forums talking about the game and attempting to make ideas to make it better.
IMO I don't think the game needs to be made better, people just have to stop making horrible excuses of why they don't play anymore. The number one excuse so far I've heard from so many people is that they don't play because no one else plays...
How does that make any sense? A major contradiction it seems to be. DP is a super fun game and always has been, many people though have been turned onto other games such as LoL and just other fps games.
Irc has even become super dead lately. Now I know another reason at the moment why people don't play much is because there are no more American match servers. Superman is working on this though and I talked to him on irc and he told me that they're paid for the next 3 years. It's just a matter of getting his website back up.
This game can be still played once they do come back up, it was dead before the US servers were taken down anyway. This thread might seem completely pointless at the moment but I've talked to a lot of people who do still want to play the game, but no one is ever on.
Take the initiative yourself and start getting back into the community with irc and even contacting your former friends or clan mates. We can get the ball rolling again but we have to do something ourselves. There isn't going to be just one or two people that will make this game active again.
Taking small steps is the best way to get back into it i think. I have some good ideas that I will list and maybe it will get people rethinking about the game.
1. Let Superman get his servers back up.
2. Get back on irc regardless of who is on or not.
3. Contact your friends and clan mates somehow through email, testing, just do something. Tell them to start playing again.
4. Maybe clipz and some other good mapmakers can design some new fun maps that everyone will want to play.
5. Start communicating more with one another about playing the game and just sit tight until Superman does get his servers back up..they will be back..
6. Maybe even mix up teams instead of having the same people in the same clans. it could spark a new scene. Just start talking to people on irc that you never really clanned with.
They're not the best ideas I know but they're so simple and basic and I think that's all this community needs at the moment is just a motivation to want to come back.
If you're still on the forums you're obviously still around so why not just get back on irc? It is such a good way to communicate to others and always has been one of the best ways of getting matches and what not.
I know a lot of people that still want to play this game and even have told me to let them know when people start playing again. lol it doesn't work like that though, you have to start playing yourself in order for people to come back. Let others know you're still playing the game and I'm pretty sure if they still want to play that they will come back to the game.
I really think we need to stop with trying to change the game too as I mentioned earlier. This game is great how it is. Some of the better players don't want to play because they say there is no "Challenge" well if that's another reason then why not join a clan with players who are not nearly as good as you so you can help them out, and play against a team that you might not win against because of your teammates. I think trying to win against another team when your teammates suck and get grabbed/capped on is a fun challenge.
Now I do realize that older players won't be around because, well they're older and have gotten their lives together and have more important things to do. As of right now though all we need is 3 to 4 teams with at least 4 players to get the game to START being fun, playable, and competitive again. It will only grow from there. Obviously training pub newbies isn't the way to go. So people who were and are experienced with this game should start off slow like I said then maybe slowly pick out some pubbers that have potential, train them and maybe if each team gets enough you can have them all make their own clan.
^That idea there seems like it would be good if it could be done, it's kind of like populating the DP matching scene.
PM me on IRC I'm usually always on, and I idle #paintball and #ballers mainly.