DGA where should it go? (for everyone who has partaken and run dga)

this is a thread to openly discuss DGA with everyone who has taken part in the creation, support efforts and momentum towards dga, ALL OPINIONS ARE VAILID (unless your a troll then gtfo).

currently, dga's numbers are in decline.
due to the fact that everyone who is currently helping out or has helped out, is burnt out (from what i can see) and the massif advances in technology/Internet have not helped either.

i am asking everyone who has access to this forum to please place your input, this is important.

moving on:

i propose we start having a real Darwin based Internet presence.

by this i mean we start looking at hosting a server locally in Darwin and start providing service to online gaming in the next 7 months.

where has this idea come from? the ovious trends of Internet speeds and the new DSLAMS that will be implemented in the next 5-9 months (hopfuly). with this internode has shown Great interest.

from what information i have gathered internode provides local routing amongst all of there current hardware, with this we could host and run a server based in Darwin.

granted this whole idea is dependent on Internode providing the correct services but if this implemented DGA can have a massif leap forward into becoming what it was sought out to be.
a epic lan.

from that we could branch off into bi-monthly ladder matches with various games where the matches are held over a 2 month period and of course the finials played at DGA its self.

a question you may as is "Why now why not just get a server down south?"

its expensive, not easy to support over long periods, and is not something you would want to pass on to the next generation of DGA committee members at a moments notice.

this is just one idea and i know allot of people will double up on similar ideas, but lets get them down on paper and start getting back on track... properly.

thanks for your time

- DragonXR

Quote from dragon xr;394951:
this is a thread to openly discuss DGA with everyone who has taken part in the creation, support efforts and momentum towards dga, ALL OPINIONS ARE VAILID (unless your a troll then gtfo).

currently, dga's numbers are in decline.
due to the fact that everyone who is currently helping out or has helped out, is burnt out (from what i can see) and the massif advances in technology/Internet have not helped either.

i am asking everyone who has access to this forum to please place your input, this is important.

moving on:

i propose we start having a real Darwin based Internet presence.

by this i mean we start looking at hosting a server locally in Darwin and start providing service to online gaming in the next 7 months.

where has this idea come from? the ovious trends of Internet speeds and the new DSLAMS that will be implemented in the next 5-9 months (hopfuly). with this internode has shown Great interest.

from what information i have gathered internode provides local routing amongst all of there current hardware, with this we could host and run a server based in Darwin.

granted this whole idea is dependent on Internode providing the correct services but if this implemented DGA can have a massif leap forward into becoming what it was sought out to be.
a epic lan.

from that we could branch off into bi-monthly ladder matches with various games where the matches are held over a 2 month period and of course the finials played at DGA its self.

a question you may as is "Why now why not just get a server down south?"

its expensive, not easy to support over long periods, and is not something you would want to pass on to the next generation of DGA committee members at a moments notice.

this is just one idea and i know allot of people will double up on similar ideas, but lets get them down on paper and start getting back on track... properly.

thanks for your time

- DragonXR

Sounds great.

My suggestion is to add some more content to the site.
Eg; add new photos of the server hardware, setup etc and eventually pics of people and everybody packed in the room.

I think people outside of DGA view it as a close closed off club that kinda makes them not come in and try it out as they would feel awkward.

Another suggestion. If you start getting some decent numbers. Maybe have a hall of fame section for people/teams that win comps. Alot of people want their 15mins of fame and something to show off on their social media estate.

Basically, need a certain motivation for them to keep coming back time after time.

biggest thing for numbers: get the word out and keep it out there. Your best numbers, while I've been coming along, have followed lots of talk in the forums and facebook. Otherwise it looks like you guys aren't interested which obviously encourages the same from potential attendees.

Buzz, buzz, motherfucker, you can't beeat it ;)

Biggest problem i have is purely timing, i have no issues cruising along to a DGA when i have the time, but end of the month always seems to be busy weekends for me.

The local server sounds like a good idea, especially the gaming Finals actually needing to be at DGA to compete would add that extra level of competition feel.

Great idea, Dragon.

I think having the Darwin-based Gamers@Octa4/GU servers in the early days did big things for keeping the community tight-nit between DGA events. It helped promote those events, grow the community, and keep people interested.

If you can run servers in Darwin that provide clearly superior pings to the locals than ones in Adelaide/Melb, then you're going to get a lot of Darwinites playing on them.

By simply having the servers names and MOTD's setup nicely, you've just set yourself up to "get the word out" via the best channel possible; multiplayer gaming.

Is there some way to get your routing done in Darwin that I'm unaware of?

To my knowledge, having a server in Darwin is just going to double your pings as your traffic will go to Adelaide and then back.

I assumed that had changed that, hence the talk of a Darwin-based games server.

If that hadn't been considered, and nothing has changed, then you're best getting the servers in Adelaide.

But then there's no reason for Darwin gamers to play on your servers over anyone elses.

thought you could manage your own routing if you had static IPs?

Isn't all the ATM packets directly routed to Sydney first considering that we're just a suburb in their system?

Your PPP session is terminated in adeliade same with your ATM packets.

currently, dont know if there is any current local routing, however once the lines are upgraded, and the equipment i brought up to scratch i think it would be in the providers best interest to do local routing for business.

cant find where on whirlpool, but internode has shown interest in the upgrade of Darwin's internet (the black spot project)
internode provide local routing with allmost all of their client's and this will be implemented this year.

even if i setup the servers in Darwin and the servers are stored on a online or offline state, the hardware is still there, and if worse comes to worse, we still have a Dedicated gaming server for dga.

any other ideas that DGA could use?

I know node offer local routing if they have their own hardware but don't know if it applies between normal internet connection as I've only enquired about dedicated links between office sites. Node have bump a couple of the DSLAM upgrades off the agenda and have added the darwin exchanges to the list (was all of them including palmerston based on the list I saw) now that the competive backhaul due here some. Added bonus is I think we might be on the next stage of the NBN roll out but that not affect us until late next year.

There is local routing in darwin but i have only seen it work on business connections rather then personal adsl i know when the NBN comming it will all be local.
If node Dslam up here (which they are planning too) all node clients will be on local routing..
Maybe you could ask node for some type of hosting sponsership i know they are always keen to promote themselfs in NT.

some thing i would suggest, is maybe smaller lans more often, and then 1 big one a month, so say 1 fortnight run a small lan 10-15ppl sorta size, and then the normal monthly lan the other fortnight. would probably be hard to find a small venue though.

I haven't quite read the entire thread but I read the first few posts about the Competition Finals being held at DGA its self but a good idea too would be to hold competition events within DGA its self with Randomized teams for certain specific games, that way it forces people into breaking out of their bubbles and being introduced to new players within the LAN its self. This will force them to become more social with each other and then you don't end up with elitist teams who only stick to their groups, and allow players to enjoy them selves and feel more involved with the DGA Community.

This would be also a good way to help with new-comers who really do want to meet the majority of the people at DGA and will also help spread word around. The main problem is people feeling like their left out during DGA's, meaning their not enjoying it to the full potential, leaving them to thinking "Hey, I would enjoy this more on the Internet back at home".

Now I don't know if this ideas been pitched already, but I thought I would share my view.

Darwin is on the internode DSLAM upgrade list so we will have local routing and annex m. This is all DGA will need to host a local game server for CS clan matches/wars and stuff like that.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1414951&p=37#r732

Alice Springs has local routing now. Pinging from ASP Telstra adsl connections to darwin based ethernet/shdsl connections has a round trip of 20ms.

End of the day DGA has to offer what sitting at home in my jocks cant.

I can play games drink piss and sleep in my own bed, without the headache of packing up my pc and lugging it too another venue.

Not a negative comment, but more so there needs to be something (beyond face to face) that a Lan can provide that sitting at home cant. Figure that out, and the numbers will grow again.

Just got gamers underground, even though I am not attending DGA that frequently anymore, I will still like to make a contribution. This is constructive critisism, but some of you may not take it too kindly, but please, hear my word.

1. Don't play WoW at a LAN, this is one of the reasons why I am not attending, and this is the same reason for some of my other friends. If your going to play a net game, stay home, before you give me shit about the games we play being net BUT also LAN, this is true. But the beauty of a LAN is the atmosphere, competativeness (terrible spelling) and the fact we get 0 ping and no one from the outside world can join our servers, and also to meet up with friends and meet new people.

2. I have noticed the water mark on the DGA website says "last edited Jan 17 2011" This is pure proof your just copying and pasting the timetable along with the contests, and may I also point out Dragon that's also why people keep asking you "Is there a SCII 2v2 comp?" and Im one of them, dont get shitty with them when that is on the website.

3. STICK TO THE SCHEDULE! Even if there are prizes and giveaways on the timetable, but cant be done at the LAN, thats fine, just host a tournament for the fun of it. Another reason why I don't come along.

4. I have no clue what happened to the whiteboard we used to have, or maybe Im oblivious, do poles to see what games people have installed or have, even though some games can be pirated and given to people, its still VERY time consuming into the night.

That's all I have to say, please note I AM VERY WILLING TO HELP WITH THE LAN!!! Whether its setting up or organising the timetable of games, Thank you for reading and plz take on board on what I said

And PLZ tell me if there are some facts I may have misinterpreted or somewhat false

I agree that WoW is one of the most played games at DGA along with other games very much alike, I'm up for alot of Q3A/CSS Action. I host an online server for Q3A (have ever since 2007 with a pause in it while I moved to the rural area) - When I lived in Knucky's Lagoon, only 5 kilometers away in Karama players got 160ms, and I'm very much aware of the ATM Packets coming from Adelaide, and on 3G Wireless it's worse becuase it can stay in Perth for 6+ months at a time, and ping to a sydney server is 180ms and over, and locally can be 250>320ms, but no longer being on 3G that is not a problem for me (They finally put a CMUX/ISAM 2.7 kilometers from me, which has 18 kilometers of fiber back to the Noonamah exchange), Ping now (for locals and southerns) are lower than ever before, what used to be 130 for players in SA is now seeing 75/85 while Bald Eagle from Fanny Bay to Acacia get's a nice 100-105ms where before was 160+. however having said that Xolares has joined my server from Palmerston and get's 180-200ms (caused by population overflow at the exchange so I was told)

I have asked about and even researched about ATM Routing, but there were no signs of getting Internet routed from Darwin anytime soon, so we too could have <30ms over the 60 kilometer distant across town, Maybe then my Gaming NT Q3A Server would be more successful.

Quote from Unseen;395042:
End of the day DGA has to offer what sitting at home in my jocks cant.

I can play games drink piss and sleep in my own bed, without the headache of packing up my pc and lugging it too another venue.

Not a negative comment, but more so there needs to be something (beyond face to face) that a Lan can provide that sitting at home cant. Figure that out, and the numbers will grow again.

I think you hit the nail on the head.

Things that make me want to go to a LAN:

1. Social aspect of seeing gamers that you haven't seen IRL since the last lan.

2. Competitive play with very low ping and the ability to yell and cheer across the room.

3. Showing off your PC and looking at other peoples rigs.

I don't know what your current strategy is but I think you need to be recruiting 15/16/17 year olds who haven't been to a LAN before. That's how old my friends and I were when we got into LAN gaming.

I haven't lived in Darwin for years but I will be heading back up there soon and wouldn't mind getting involved.

Over the last 18 months I have been to a few LANs in brisbane and here are some things I noticed:

1. Tightly run and well organised schedule.

2. Projector showing schedule, basic info, current round/game info and intranet site address.

3. Intranet site with schedule including version numbers and patch files, DC++ client download and instructions, and other general event info to save the organisers from repeating themselves 1000 times.

4. DC++ for file sharing.

5. There was always an organiser who was "on duty" at the time and not playing any games.

Quote from Wishful Thinking!;395062:
I have asked about and even researched about ATM Routing, but there were no signs of getting Internet routed from Darwin anytime soon, so we too could have <30ms over the 60 kilometer distant across town, Maybe then my Gaming NT Q3A Server would be more successful.

I am pretty sure you have seen this mate http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1414951#r28391366 but as soon as the nextgen backhaul gets lit and these dslam's are installed you will get local routing I am sure.

yeah I saw that.

Noonamah Exchange isn't mentioned. However, I don't see why it would be still routed from SA, While (to be), Palmerston only 15 kilometers down the Stuart highway towards town gets locally routed, so I think the Noonamah one will get upgraded too. This would give the northern territory so much more opportunity to do more things.

I would imagine telstra would purchase to use some of the nextgen rollout also. So they in theory would do local routing cause in the end it is cheeper for a lot of packets.

yes, they would be insane not to have apart of it. Let's hope Gilard can stay in power long enough before an election is called, and Abbot get's in, and stops what is currently done, and just use that.

I read around 25Th November 2010 that a crew of 19 men are on their way to Darwin from Tennant Creek rolling out fiber, wonder how they are going with that at (I think) 2KM/day

I agree with Bald eagle points, wow at lans is shit because half the people didn't want to play lan games.

Need an organised competition of some sort. The main reason I came to my first lan was because of local competition (SC2), but any good lan game. I remember the days of AOE2, GTA CS - games that you can hear to screams of your enemy and him bashing his keyboard.
I think the major problem is getting a game of some sort organised and running. Even when we play that Warcraft ship game, at like 2am, takes about a 1hr to get everyone to want play it.

I love the guys at DGA and work you put in and I guess at the end of the day its hard to get everyone to agree on a game

P.S file sharing another reason to attend.

Quote from Fool32;395071:
I agree with Bald eagle points, wow at lans is shit because half the people didn't want to play lan games.

Need an organised competition of some sort. The main reason I came to my first lan was because of local competition (SC2), but any good lan game. I remember the days of AOE2, GTA CS - games that you can hear to screams of your enemy and him bashing his keyboard.
I think the major problem is getting a game of some sort organised and running. Even when we play that Warcraft ship game, at like 2am, takes about a 1hr to get everyone to want play it.

I love the guys at DGA and work you put in and I guess at the end of the day its hard to get everyone to agree on a game

P.S file sharing another reason to attend.

Q3A is always an option :P - I spent the following day digging out detailed statistics for each player. It would be great to have a CTF/TDM in it, as we've only ever done FFA due to lack of interest :P

Firstly to the current and past organisers I commend you - been there done that and fully appreciate where you are coming from.
Being of the old school, as several of us are, I can safely say that what primarily took me away was the lack of ground level support combined with simply growing out of it.
The few that got heavily involved were ridiculed by many yet those few continued to try and put on the best event possible that culminated in an EVO. The comraderie (spelling) is what really made the Big DGA lan's of the past. Clan wars got the adrenalin pumping.

Trying to please everyone simply cannot happen but what it did do was lead to better Lans, that is until I believe the pandering to the wishes of others got out of hand.

It got to a stage that if some of us were not sharing massive movie or game collections bitching would start, if servers or infrastructure failed or wasn't up to scratch again the bitching would start.

Solutions : No crystal ball here.
I would begin by returning to the old school way and modernize it.
Set up an intranet, limit leaching and time frames for leaching.
Set up a projector with real time information and in-game play.
Prepare your Lan several months out with 1 Major tournament (squad based) and 1 major single player.
Set up ranking rounds via your server idea to determine seedings.
Photos, Photos and more photos - i noticed the website does not have any there anymore ??

Now I understand that these things may have already been attempted in 1 way or another but you have to stick to your game plan and do not deviate to pander for others, there opportunity will come next lan.

As Kurt said what can I do at DGA that I cannot do at home with less hassle. Many of us now have children, mortages or like me are just too dam old to be bothered anymore.

Maybe have a Back to the Future Lan and get all the Old School Crew back together to kickstart DGA again. The Syndicate, TOB, Screaming Buckets just to name a few..... check out the Archived DGA Forums here and you will see what I mean.

Yes, I think scrambling up teams is somewhat shit. I mean c'mon who deosn't like to be on the same side as their friends, I think games like counter-strike: source are perfect for gettin a team together and thrashing everyone. It's what I miss from DGA, the competetive atmosphere, bring it back. The vibe was pretty good with DGA, but it died, I will attempt to bring along several friends to the next one and see if we have any success

Quote from Bald Eagle;395084:
Yes, I think scrambling up teams is somewhat shit. I mean c'mon who deosn't like to be on the same side as their friends, I think games like counter-strike: source are perfect for gettin a team together and thrashing everyone. It's what I miss from DGA, the competetive atmosphere, bring it back. The vibe was pretty good with DGA, but it died, I will attempt to bring along several friends to the next one and see if we have any success

+1
And Q3A :D

Quote from Bald Eagle;395084:
The vibe was pretty good with DGA, but it died, I will attempt to bring along several friends to the next one and see if we have any success

so you are going to organize a game/match-up outside of a schedule the event already has put together?

even though it is true there is no official schedule, and i'm all for you organizing your events,
this is a perfect example of what i have encountered in the last 2 years.

if we organize a schedule, another group or person usually decides they don't want to play.
with the limited numbers we have already, this drags the "group gaming" experience.
Fine if somebody doesn't want to play a certain game, but it becomes a problem when a group has the same mentality and attempts to persuade other attendee's to play there game.
which usually ends up with my self or the other organizers just giving up. (were not your parents)

for the organizers to attempt to make a good playlist for everyones taste, we are having to choose from the massive amount of games that exist in todays gaming industry, Its not a easy task anymore.

Thus we have been encouraging groups at DGA to schedule there own mini events, all we ask for is a heads up so we can organize around your plans :)

So when you have organised what game you want to play and compete in Bald Eagle, or any one else for that matter.
just throw up a private message on the DGA website. We will get back to you and setup your event as best as we can.

Just offer tits and cash that will attract gamers to one game.

Boze and hookers lol for winning

Quote from dragon xr;395099:
so you are going to organize a game/match-up outside of a schedule the event already has put together?

even though it is true there is no official schedule, and i'm all for you organizing your events,
this is a perfect example of what i have encountered in the last 2 years.

if we organize a schedule, another group or person usually decides they don't want to play.
with the limited numbers we have already, this drags the "group gaming" experience.
Fine if somebody doesn't want to play a certain game, but it becomes a problem when a group has the same mentality and attempts to persuade other attendee's to play there game.
which usually ends up with my self or the other organizers just giving up. (were not your parents)

for the organizers to attempt to make a good playlist for everyones taste, we are having to choose from the massive amount of games that exist in todays gaming industry, Its not a easy task anymore.

Thus we have been encouraging groups at DGA to schedule there own mini events, all we ask for is a heads up so we can organize around your plans :)

So when you have organised what game you want to play and compete in Bald Eagle, or any one else for that matter.
just throw up a private message on the DGA website. We will get back to you and setup your event as best as we can.

Ok, here are my list of games I think we should list on the white board, we will do a pole on what games people like to play on the whiteboard:

Fun and games:

Quake 3
Armagetron advanced
Counter-Strike: source
Battleships (war3 mod)
starcraft (preference of 1 or 2)
COD4(original or Promod)
Left 4 Dead (peference of 1 or 2)

List of games to play in tournaments:
Quake 3 (dueling format)
Counter-Strike: source (teams of 5)
Armagetron Advanced
Starcraft 1 or 2 (1v1 or 2v2 format)

I hope this helps, BTW, I wont be at DGA till about 10pm, Ive got work from 7pm - 10pm, but in future LANS I will help organise them.

Quote from Bald Eagle;395151:
Ok, here are my list of games I think we should list on the white board, we will do a pole on what games people like to play on the whiteboard:

Fun and games:

Quake 3
Armagetron advanced
Counter-Strike: source
Battleships (war3 mod)
starcraft (preference of 1 or 2)
COD4(original or Promod)
Left 4 Dead (peference of 1 or 2)

List of games to play in tournaments:
Quake 3 (dueling format)
Counter-Strike: source (teams of 5)
Armagetron Advanced
Starcraft 1 or 2 (1v1 or 2v2 format)

I hope this helps, BTW, I wont be at DGA till about 10pm, Ive got work from 7pm - 10pm, but in future LANS I will help organise them.

Sounding very nice.
+1 Q3A and even more +1 for Dueling Q3A :D

DGA  I signed up when I got back to Australia, fully committed to attending once again! I think my last DGA might have been about 20
But for some reason you kept holding them when I was out of town/away
And now I am off overseas again midnight tonight ><
When I get back I am happy to help. I miss it!
Does anyone play League of Legends? Or HoN?