So I offered to make a steam group for Dyno for jail break for pretty much the same reasons as mg, easier connectivity between peeps and communication. Obviously JB isn't in major need of players, it has a steady flow already but it's always worth keeping track of who through a group, also better when it's not so active or there is some kind of event / update that can just be pushed straight out to people. So with that in mind, I'd like to encourage you to join http://steamcommunity.com/groups/EGNJB# which is the JB group, and any current JB staff that join let me or Dyno know so i can promote you to moderator etc.

Hate to be negative but Dumb Idea, we have the forums for a reason and the main elevated steam group. I must be missing something.

2018 Goals for EgN
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You're right, we do have the forums.
What's easier in game to find online staff, forums or a steam group? How much easier is it to add someone / direct people to someone?
How often do people look at the forum compared to how often they are on steam?
What will they see first, a forum announcement they might not know about unless told or look for it, or an announcement on steam popping up?
If staff are online on steam, they are instantly accessible, if they aren't on the forums, they are not.
Yes we have the main group covering the entirety of egn, but who knows which people belong to which server?

Steam groups, in terms of how EGN is setup with multiple different managers etc. spread out steam groups makes life a whole lot easier for managers to keep track of their individual player base and can instantly target the people they need to. Steam has it's flaws, but the pros out way the cons in terms of comparison to the forum. Forum is a communal place, everything from everyone goes here, yes it has sections but it's not as direct as steam. People who are active on steam, wont always be active on the forums, they will however be active on steam, and egn's main group isn't targeting individual servers to populate them etc. it is announcing generalised things such as meetings and updates.

It's important to use as many form factors to keep a player base, because some people would prefer a steam group to signing up to a forum they might not use.

Think of it like social media, why would a company need twitter if they have facebook? Extra advertising, promotion and information for consumers, that's how they sell more.

I'm all for communication. Communication is the difference between a thriving community and a self-destructive mess.

That being said, consider the following:

1. We already have an EgN steam group. Creating more steam groups only serves to dilute the community and makes our outreach efforts that much harder.

2. Compare the functionality of a new steam group to our forums. Literally every EgN member has a forum account. A voluntary steam group would get only a fraction of these users. Communication would be inherently limited in this new steam group relative to the outreach potential of our forums.

3. Staff (and most players) aren't always online on Steam. It's like the difference between a phone call and a text. If I call you, and you don't pick up, I'm shit out of luck. If I text you, even if you don't see the message right away, I know at some point you will get my message and hopefully respond. This is the difference between messaging a staff on steam and PMing a staff on forums. Not only that, but PMs are documented, and recorded. There's provenance connecting your communication to the staff member. Steam messages, on the other hand, self-delete after a given period of time. There's no way to archive correspondence and this has the potential to be very problematic, as if everyone used Steam chat most arguments would devolve into claims of hearsay.

In short, I appreciate all attempts at improving communication within this community. But creating dedicated steam groups goes against this goal.

1. We may have a steam group already, but, one that not all people will be joining. With single purpose groups, we can traffic unique players from individual servers therefore only growing EGN while at the same time, actually using the group to target those individuals, unlike the current steam group which doesn't focus a whole lot on trying to populate any servers, that i've seen.

2. Yes, literally every MEMBER does have a forums account, not every player that is on jail break does because they wont see use in using it. Steam groups have the beauty of being able to be there and not used but still beneficial, which yes the forums are but if they can't be bothered to sign-up then they will only go for things pushed at them, which is where announcements come in.

You've also said the outreach POTENTIAL, there is potential to outreach across EGN, but how much of that potential is directed at keeping the servers alive and encouraging players to join? How much of that potential is bought in BECAUSE of active servers? most likely all of it, because forums don't come without a server but if unique players aren't joining the forum but join a targeted group what do you get? more forum traffic, bigger community, bigger main group.
It will all go in a circle, and before you wonder how if I've said some of those players wont join the forums, then I say server based events requiring the use for prizes or just plan and simple asking them to.

3. You're right, not everyone is always on steam, but it's a hell of a lot easier to go onto a group to add one of them regardless then it is to find them through the forums, literally 2 clicks. I further don't see why recorded PM's would be necessary. The purpose of a steam group wouldn't be "add me to argue" it's "add me so you can tell me about an mfker" it's not about having chats, and if in the case you have that issue where you need the security, group chats can be monitored simply by having 1 person in there and using it as a help hub where someone could always be to offer an opinion which would be free from arguments because they can individually be banned without disrupting their forum status.

If you can somehow think of a scenario that would happen on EGN's Jail break that would cause a problematic chat I'd like to hear it, worst case scenario, staff filtering donations, wouldn't happen, just put it on the front of the page in big ass letters with a donation link. Anything beyond that is basically tit for tat and can be screenshot by players if they want to report, which in that way of thinking makes it easier for you because they are forced to report it before it disappears.

The idea of focus groups is not entirely for communication, it serves more benefits than that, i'll go back to my advertising ideology, the more of something you having putting pressure on someone, the more relevant that thing/object is to them and will most likely buy into it. More meaningful groups, more coverage, more interest, more players, bigger community. Whether or not people see this the same is up to them, but that's the basic idea to anything requiring a user response otherwise we just wouldn't have marketing.

I agree with this 100%. If you want "better communication" get on Teamspeak, it's there for a reason so use that instead of coming up with lame excuses to make dumb steam groups that some people including myself do not want to be part of. Hate to seem rude or straight forward but thats the truth of it. The teamspeak needs to be used.

Declined the invite to this group. Use the EgN group.

Edit: Better time would be spent giving an in game option to join the steam group.

You're ignoring the fact I've said this isn't entirely for communication purpose telling me you've just posted through ignorance....teamspeak has it's issues, segregated players / members in locked rooms with no contact until you get perms wooo, and again, not everyone wants to get teamspeak, especially not with discord around and don't like the idea of downloading something when they can do it easier.

Furthermore, you don't get more people into teamspeak by just having a teamspeak you source players through any form factor. Also think about what you said at the end, "teamspeak needs to be used" well who's doing anything about that? no one, at least this would be a step towards get more people on to use it, why are you ignoring that fact?


You've not even bothered reading anything discussed.