Running the Server...Evil Style!

How I would improve War....Evil Overlord Style.

Challenge accepted - @PorkChops30 & @meltingangel ...proposing my own Evil-licious ideas.

In this thread, I will examine the opportunities within War and how we can improve the management of the game.

Grab a soda, cue the Rock Music, Explosions, and World Champion Denver Broncos Cheerleaders...Professor Evil is in!



Video games are big business.

- In 2012 hugely popular first-person shooter romp Call of Duty: Black Ops II brought in $1 billion in only 15 days, which was quicker than 2009 Hollywood mega-hit Avatar.

What’s more, companies spend millions of dollars not just making games, but also marketing them.

- Rockstar Games’ 2013 actioner Grand Theft Auto V had a total development and marketing outlay of around $290 million, which made it the most big-ticket gaming title ever produced.

With such high stakes, the effectiveness of video game marketing can make or break a new release or an existing game.

There are even times when the right campaign may help throw a low-budget hit into the limelight, with smash success Angry Birds a case in point.

Gaming Administration has changed a lot over the last 20 years...



Evil's 5 Best Practices for Successful System Administration

1. Rule #1 Break all the rules....know your Metrics

Yes, you know what the swap usage is today because there’s a problem with the disks thrashing and it’s causing the server to go slow.

You’re responsible for the system. So get/build/buy a system to monitor, measure, and record that data so you can have Dashboards that show monthly productivity, this will help you predict the next time you need to finance hardware upgrades, or to prove that the issues are caused by.

Even if you are just running a single server it’s good practice to always have data points and metrics.

A shortlist of things to start monitoring/recording/charting/graphing on a monthly basis:

• # of Donations
• Average amount of Donations
• Load average
• Memory usage
• Number of new users
  
• Number of total players
  
• Disk storage (monthly in GB) and also daily rolling average if files are uploaded and deleted regularly)
• Logins per day/month by user and IP address
• Anything you feel is necessary

Once you have consistent information, you’ll start seeing patterns and can look for things out of the ordinary. It’s also good for correlating data to behaviors when you’re troubleshooting issues and aren’t sure where to start.

Spend a portion of your time understanding the Data!

Rule #2 Project Manage Like a BOSS!

- Even for small, one-person projects.

1) Write up a small scope of work, write requirements

2) Get sign-off from stakeholders on their expectations... I call this concept player life cycle management. In this phase, we ask new, veteran, and players who have written outro's what they want and we try to improve the game based on their feedback. This will make us a player centric server that is continuously evolving and satisfying our paying customers who are at the center of our universe.

Our stakeholders are our game playing customers.

@PorkChops30 recommended surveying new players how to improve the game, we should do that!

We should also survey veteran players on the features they want.

And lastly, we should also survey the players who have written Outro's.

3) Plan a schedule, and record your activities.
- Every activity is givin a production schedule and tracked for the entire team to see.

4) Be transparent, post the completed tasks on the newsletter in it's own section
- No one reads twitter, broadcast the important milestones, accomplishments, and failures on the monthly newsletter.

5) We spend our time working on the games that players play and have a high payoff to our customers. We give them what they want.

6) We take risks.

7) We aren't afraid to fail. If we fail, we do it quickly and move on.

Rule #3 Develop a System for Day-to-Day Production.
Operate like a production shop.

- Every week has a To Do List of tasks that must be accomplished.
- A great tool for visually managing projects is Kanban board.


Here is an example of a more sophisticated Kanban board.



Current state developers: When I walk into the office and knock the donut box out of the developers hands.........and I ask what are you working on....and they respond I have no idea.

That won't fly in Evil's future state: Here's what I expect when I walk in...Yes Sir Evil Sir! Here is what I, Mr Developer, planned to work on today Sir!

- Which one should I deprioritize in favor of this one Sir?
- Oh, so it’s more important than this one, but not as important as these two Sir?
- That’s fine Sir, I can requeue that lower priority one and get to it later Sir.

4. Set Expectations.....

It took me a while to really understand why this is important.

- Everyone has a job description.

- Everyone has metrics that tells on a monthly basis whether they are doing better or worse than they
were last month and we talk about it as a team.

- You need to be able to communicate expectations.

I’m personally a big fan of Toastmasters for this, as it’s the cheapest and most effective way to improve your ability to communicate.

I would create the following positions:

1) Marketing Manager - Manages all advertising.
- I want to see DanTDM with his 11 Million members watching War videos and playing.
- I want to see youtubers sought after to advertise our game
- And we want to grow the number of new players that login to play our game.

2) Player Manager - We manage the user experience from intro, to veteran, to outro....ie cradle to grave.
- In all phases, we ask players what do you like, how can we improve, and what do you not like.
- We take suggestions and create a Que. All ideas that are rejected are not included in the list and the person suggestion is giving a reason why their idea might not work.

3) Mod Manager & Trainer (I would expand the current role) - Actively recruits mod applicants to apply rather than waiting for users to apply.
- We budget time to develop future Mods.
- Mods are assigned a buddy who helps them through their 90 day trial phase.
- Our training program, with guides, mentors, and classes, for mods has milestones, goals, and training curriculum.
- We treat our mods with respect and help them grow.

4) Manager of Process Improvement
- We assign someone to help us oversee our processes and refine them.

5) Project Manager
- As important as the Developer, the PM helps to maintain the work que, milestone dates, production schedule, release, testing, and scope of the work.

6) Fundraising Manager - Sole job duty to develop fundraising ideas and encourages people to donate.

7) Finance Manger - Manages the financials and evaluates costs for hardware, budget shortcommings, and in partnership with Fundraising Manager develops ideas to increase fundraising through ideas and plans.

5. Preparing for the Future
- Using data we prepare for the future and continuously improve.

THIS IS WAR!

Hope you found this thread informative, funny, and Evil-licious.

EVIL

 

Thanks! I'll let the Mods decide where this thread goes.

 

I believe if we change we have a chance.

#EVILDoesn'tSurrender

 

Write a thread on how you would save it. @PorkChops30 , @meltingangel ,and I challenge you....

You have 90 days to turn around the server or it dies. What would you do?

 

Long time since I last saw you my friend. People forget all the history.

 

Sure!

Not long.... I like to ponder then write. Putting ideas down isn't time intensive. Deciding what to write is where I focus my time. That and how to tell a story or craft an argument.