Why people make dedicated servers for other gamers to play for free?

[league_of_stoners]

I played Killing Floor 2 for awhile and I realised there's no option to create a room in game. I could always join servers created by other players. Creating a server isn't very hard, but it is fairly complicated. There are other games like Minecraft, Counter-Strike and Half-Life that operates similarly, where a server is available to play only if somebody created it.

Question: Why do players create dedicated servers (sometimes 100% uptime servers) for other players to play for FREE? I have heard rumours about them earning revenue but I'm not sure how it relates with opening free servers for other people.

[babadoctor]

I played Killing Floor 2 for awhile and I realised there's no option to create a room in game. I could always join servers created by other players. Creating a server isn't very hard, but it is fairly complicated. There are other games like Minecraft, Counter-Strike and Half-Life that operates similarly, where a server is available to play only if somebody created it.

Question: Why do players create dedicated servers (sometimes 100% uptime servers) for other players to play for FREE? I have heard rumours about them earning revenue but I'm not sure how it relates with opening free servers for other people.

because some people dont want to keep their computer online 24/7 or they dont have a powerful enough computer

[Guest]

They ask for donations about 99% of the time so its not really free, plus its fun to run a server and play with other people.

[A_Train]

It's like paying a monthly fee for WoW or a subscription based game, but instead of the rules making you, you make the rules. (Also, most people get money from donations to at least run the server and big server (mostly Minecraft) owners make enough money to live off of from pay to win style servers. (They break the Minecraft ToS, but Mojang isn't too forceful on their rules in the ToS)

[Penny5837]

I played Killing Floor 2 for awhile and I realised there's no option to create a room in game. I could always join servers created by other players. Creating a server isn't very hard, but it is fairly complicated. There are other games like Minecraft, Counter-Strike and Half-Life that operates similarly, where a server is available to play only if somebody created it.

Question: Why do players create dedicated servers (sometimes 100% uptime servers) for other players to play for FREE? I have heard rumours about them earning revenue but I'm not sure how it relates with opening free servers for other people.

I host, but no one joins. I usually just spread it with my friends and leave it on. If someone joins, and doesn't mess with my stuff, they can stay.

[CoffeeandBagels]

I ran a Counter-Strike 1.6 server back in 2012. It didn't cost me much and running it allowed me to be in complete control of my CS experience. If anyone else wanted to come play, they were more than welcome. Even when I wasn't on.

[league_of_stoners]

It's like paying a monthly fee for WoW or a subscription based game, but instead of the rules making you, you make the rules. (Also, most people get money from donations to at least run the server and big server (mostly Minecraft) owners make enough money to live off of from pay to win style servers. (They break the Minecraft ToS, but Mojang isn't too forceful on their rules in the ToS)

This makes sense. But for a game like Killing Floor 2, which isn't made into a pay-to-win game, what incentives do they get in return? Relying on donations is very risky and I believe not many people would rely fully on donations.

[league_of_stoners]

I ran a Counter-Strike 1.6 server back in 2012. It didn't cost me much and running it allowed me to be in complete control of my CS experience. If anyone else wanted to come play, they were more than welcome. Even when I wasn't on.

Speaking of complete control, what does it actually mean? What is the 'thing' that you want to control? I know you could kick players and stuff but how does having your own servers gives you the power to activate cheats, mods, your own maps and whatnot?

[Guest Kloaked]

because some people dont want to keep their computer online 24/7 or they dont have a powerful enough computer

 

Reread the post, and the title while you're at it.

[league_of_stoners]

Reread the post, and the title while you're at it.

I would like to know what incentives are they getting from it. I know what dedicated means.

[CoffeeandBagels]

Speaking of complete control, what does it actually mean? What is the 'thing' that you want to control? I know you could kick players and stuff but how does having your own servers gives you the power to activate cheats, mods, your own maps and whatnot?

For one thing, don't underestimate the importance of being able to kick and ban people, especially in a game like Counter-Strike 1.6. Also, 1.6, all customization was completely done with a complex array of server plug-ins. So to answer your question, you could do all of that. But me, I was just interested in these things:

   -Control over the map list.

   -The ability to eliminate what I felt was harrasment

   -The ability to add bots (which proved to be too complex)

[Centurius]

I would like to know what incentives are they getting from it. I know what dedicated means.

What motivation does anyone have for pretty much anything? Fun. In my case I like playing with other people, I love tinkering with software and server code and I can afford to keep running it off of my income so that's all the incentive I need.

[EChondo]

For me when I used to host I did it because the servers I was running also hosted my email and websites, so having a game server or two running as well didn't increase the electricity bill by much and the games I hosted I used to fill a gap. By that I mean I hosted game modes that people wanted to play, but wanted to play with a smaller group of players or wanted the game modes to be a bit different out of the norm so I would edit it enough to make it different than the bigger community servers.

 

I hosted CS:S(Surf RPG mostly), TF2(Trade and RPG), HL2DM(RPG and reg. deathmatch), and Minecraft(personal use for friends). A lot of people joined, played, and had a good time. The games just slowly shrank over the years that there wasn't a point hosting them after a certain point. I actually plan to start hosting again in a year or two for newer games(KF2, CSGO), depending on a few things(money, time, new Internet packages).

 

As for why I hosted these servers? Well it's just because I wanted people to have fun, it's really just that. I'm sure bigger server groups do it to create a community that then turns into a forum and getting donations and having simple ads on their forums probably brought in enough money to offset the cost of running the servers and maybe a bit more to pay the few people running things. Also having a big community probably feels good to do, something that brings people together? Not really sure, but hey there are nice people in the world.

 

I never really asked for donations since it only cost me my time setting the servers up/maintaining them and the extra $10-$20 more a month in electricity cost because the servers ran harder.

 

Right now I'm still hosting my own email, few websites, and a personal teamspeak server.

[league_of_stoners]

 

 

I have a question, what does hosting your own email means? And hosting websites. Im currently working on my Final Year Project, which is a website I hosted in localhost. I know nothing about hosting on other servers, having my own .com, and what does hosting even means. I would appreciated if you could give me some answers 

[EChondo]

I have a question, what does hosting your own email means? And hosting websites. Im currently working on my Final Year Project, which is a website I hosted in localhost. I know nothing about hosting on other servers, having my own .com, and what does hosting even means. I would appreciated if you could give me some answers 

Hosting my own email is exactly what it says. I have my own private email. I don't use gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc. And since I have my own private email server all the emailing I do goes from my server, to the destination, and replies get sent back to me, and all of it is stored locally on my server. None of it gets touched by anything else. Obviously someone can try and intercept all my emails, but I don't have anything of value and it's not like I'm the owner of a Fortune 500 company lol.

 

Now why do I host my own email? Well I like creating email addresses specifically for each service I use, so for example: linustechtips@Example.com, netflix@Example.com, hulu@Example.com, I do this because when I start getting spam emails I know which email is compromised OR if the service sold my information. I've already caught one service that sold my email address that I created for it. Also I have complete control of all the hardware in my server array.

 

As for explaining how to host your own domain, it'll take a lot of explaining on my part, but you can read about it here: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/webmaster/article.php/3473271/So-You-Want-Your-Own-Domain-Huh.htm

 

This guy can explain it a lot better than I could, so sorry for kinda leaving you hanging there, but he talks about Virtual Hosting, so renting server space from someone rather than having the physical server in your garage/bedroom, which can be better since you don't have to worry about electricity costs, increased ISP service costs for renting static IP's, and keeping the servers cool. If you're just starting out I'd do virtual hosting.

[Thespragg]

I run a minecraft and Ark dedicated server, for me when the server was active I was making the money back in donations (and have a friend who gets around $1000 a month from his server now) and I also run my own websites and business projects off the back of the server, meaning it basically pays for itself and is pretty fun to hop on and play with other people on a server that has only mods that I chose or people specifically wanted.

[ThomasD]

What motivation does anyone have for pretty much anything? Fun. In my case I like playing with other people, I love tinkering with software and server code and I can afford to keep running it off of my income so that's all the incentive I need.

Really not that much different than why some people host friends over for a weekly poker night, wargames, etc. or like to be a gamemaster for paper and pencil RPGs.  They enjoy the activity along with the companionship/camaraderie.

 

The only real big differences being that a server can run 24/7 largely unattended, and is also minimally disruptive to everyone else who lives in the home.

[Penny5837]

Now why do I host my own email? Well I like creating email addresses specifically for each service I use, so for example: linustechtips@Example.com, netflix@Example.com, hulu@Example.com, I do this because when I start getting spam emails I know which email is compromised OR if the service sold my information. I've already caught one service that sold my email address that I created for it. Also I have complete control of all the hardware in my server array.

I'll have to do this. If only I could get exchange server 2007 to work

[Centurius]

I'll have to do this. If only I could get exchange server 2007 to work

Plenty of (free) alternatives to Exchange.

[Penny5837]

Plenty of (free) alternatives to Exchange.

I have an Exchange key though... I'd like to use whats given to me.

[rattacko123]

I played Killing Floor 2 for awhile and I realised there's no option to create a room in game. I could always join servers created by other players. Creating a server isn't very hard, but it is fairly complicated. There are other games like Minecraft, Counter-Strike and Half-Life that operates similarly, where a server is available to play only if somebody created it.

Question: Why do players create dedicated servers (sometimes 100% uptime servers) for other players to play for FREE? I have heard rumours about them earning revenue but I'm not sure how it relates with opening free servers for other people.

I ran my server just for fun, and messed with mods. Some people have good computers and run it 24/7 but I shut mine down because my computer was pretty noisy while running the server, and multitasking was slower. I'm probably too lazy to set it back up again.