Nearly everyone who has ever played 2.02 vastly prefers it over the official 2.01 patch. However, due to the small Open Play community, most players who did not wish to join ClanWars reverted to 2.01. It was simply too difficult to find an Open Play game of 2.02. At last, the time has come to give new life to the currently-small 2.02 community. I hope that everyone who is aware of 2.02 will revert again to this patch, allowing our new attempt to grow the 2.02 community to succeed. Don't dismiss this idea before entirely reading this topic, because it surely is possible to achieve, as you will soon see.
Every one of you knows that last time was not an easy job. Don't give yourself illusions; it will not be an easy job this time either, but we composed a plan to make sure the project has a kick-start right from the beginning, and to make sure that we can succeed to get a growing community of 2.02 players again. These are the goals, the people who are interested in the details should keep reading!
Now, how are we planning to do this?
First of all, we are going to reorganize the 2.02 players list thread that is placed in the mess hall. We will make a new thread and delete the old one there to start with a clean sheet, and everyone interested can come there to join the 2.02 community. We have already managed to gather a core of around 30 players that are willing to play the 2.02 version in open play. Of course, we're hoping to see many more signing up in that thread, so we can start with a reasonable amount of players right from the start.
Of course this isn't everything, but first we want to consolidate everything we managed to do last time. After that, we will start expanding the 2.02 community with players recruited from 2.01; a goal that should be doable in time.
These are the lines along which progress shall be made, but of course there is also a number of practical things that will be organized to let everything go smoothly. In general, there are 5 practical things that are going to be done and that are absolutely necessary: First of all getting enough activity to play 2.02 all day, by help of an Xfire clan (see below for more details about joining such Xfire clan), secondly by approaching the matter on a very structured and patient way, thirdly by organizing 2.02 parties and tournaments for the 2.02 community, fourth by recruiting 2.01 players and last but not least by gathering people willing to help organising the 4 previous points.
Mustering enough activity to play 2.02 ALL day
Last time, the 2.02 open play community depended on its 2.02 parties to keep it active. Maybe this will be so again for the very beginning, but the idea is to gradually build towards an open play community like the 2.01 one, with players being able to play games all day. This may sound unbelievable but we've found a very simple system to get this done.
I'm sure most of you around here are familiar with Xfire. For those who aren't, Xfire is a chat program that has been adapted to gamers who can use it to chat with each other in-game. Some time ago Xfire launched their "Xfire Clans" option, which we're going to use our advantage here. What we have done is this: we have created a clan called "2.02 Open Play Community." We plan to invite everyone who signs up in the 2.02 Open Play List. Therefore, we will in the topic also ask you to add your Xfire name there. The ones familiar with Xfire will know that you can see EVERY member of that clan who is online, even without having all the people added to your own friends list. You can always chat with them, and thus you can ask all 2.02 open play players online for a 2.02 game right then and there. That way, you don't have to search through every lobby again; you can just start talking with another person from the 2.02 community, and you ask them for a game. If you want 2vs2, you can gather 3 other people and you're good to go. With a bit of time, it will be easy to gather player for Nanduhirion games as well. Of course, you won't know everyone in the list, but just talk to them, that's what you also do in 2.01 open play. You just join a game. With Xfire you can also see who is already on RotWK and you can ask those to join their game as well; either way, it should be much easier to get a game on 2.02 with this option.
Of course we will ask EVERY 2.02 open player to download Xfire to achieve this. You can download Xfire on www.xfire.com. It's entirely free, is safe for your PC, and is similar to Windows Live Messenger, but adapted for gamers so that you can run it inside RotWK! For those who do not know how to work with Xfire, do not worry! An entire topic for the subject can be found in the Mess Hall, and you can find the link to that topic at the bottom of this newspost. In that topic everything you need to do to join our Xfire clan (from downloading to accepting a clan invitation) is clearly explained, so it shouldn't give any problems.
Making an Organized Approach
We want everything well organized in this attempt, so what we are also going to do is set up a forum for the 2.02 open play community in the Clan forums. We just created the 2.02 Open Play clan, which we can use to put all the details in one place. That way you don't have to go through all the forums to find the things you need, and it won't get into a mess that way. As you can see, it will be very easy for all of us. This forum is still validating, as soon as it is up we will update you and make sure you get a link.
Tournaments and Parties
Of course we will still be hosting 2.02 parties to get some bursts of activity. In addition, 2.02 tournaments are held on a weekly basis. That way you can still play 2.02 on some competitive way as well, aside from Clanwars.
People for the Organization
Obviously an organization needs people, and thus we're still asking for some volunteers to help us do a few things. The first thing that we ask, is for a few people on Xfire to help us compose the Xfire clan, especially people with many 2.02 players in their friends list are useful for this, because the more 2.02 players we know of, the more 2.02 players we can add into our clan. We'd also like some people to help a bit with the forum things - we need some people to try and get as many 2.02 players as possible to come to GR.org and to officially sign up on our 2.02 list. Again, this is because we want to know everyone involved in the project, and because that way the 2.02 forums might get more active. Lastly, we need some people that are still playing 2.01 for the moment. From those people, we ask (as above) that you tell the nice people you meet about 2.02. You don't need to do anything special: you just play 2.01 games, and when you meet nice people you add them to your friend list, and tell them about 2.02 in time.
Every one of you knows that last time was not an easy job. Don't give yourself illusions; it will not be an easy job this time either, but we composed a plan to make sure the project has a kick-start right from the beginning, and to make sure that we can succeed to get a growing community of 2.02 players again. These are the goals, the people who are interested in the details should keep reading!
Now, how are we planning to do this?
First of all, we are going to reorganize the 2.02 players list thread that is placed in the mess hall. We will make a new thread and delete the old one there to start with a clean sheet, and everyone interested can come there to join the 2.02 community. We have already managed to gather a core of around 30 players that are willing to play the 2.02 version in open play. Of course, we're hoping to see many more signing up in that thread, so we can start with a reasonable amount of players right from the start.
Of course this isn't everything, but first we want to consolidate everything we managed to do last time. After that, we will start expanding the 2.02 community with players recruited from 2.01; a goal that should be doable in time.
These are the lines along which progress shall be made, but of course there is also a number of practical things that will be organized to let everything go smoothly. In general, there are 5 practical things that are going to be done and that are absolutely necessary: First of all getting enough activity to play 2.02 all day, by help of an Xfire clan (see below for more details about joining such Xfire clan), secondly by approaching the matter on a very structured and patient way, thirdly by organizing 2.02 parties and tournaments for the 2.02 community, fourth by recruiting 2.01 players and last but not least by gathering people willing to help organising the 4 previous points.
Mustering enough activity to play 2.02 ALL day
Last time, the 2.02 open play community depended on its 2.02 parties to keep it active. Maybe this will be so again for the very beginning, but the idea is to gradually build towards an open play community like the 2.01 one, with players being able to play games all day. This may sound unbelievable but we've found a very simple system to get this done.
I'm sure most of you around here are familiar with Xfire. For those who aren't, Xfire is a chat program that has been adapted to gamers who can use it to chat with each other in-game. Some time ago Xfire launched their "Xfire Clans" option, which we're going to use our advantage here. What we have done is this: we have created a clan called "2.02 Open Play Community." We plan to invite everyone who signs up in the 2.02 Open Play List. Therefore, we will in the topic also ask you to add your Xfire name there. The ones familiar with Xfire will know that you can see EVERY member of that clan who is online, even without having all the people added to your own friends list. You can always chat with them, and thus you can ask all 2.02 open play players online for a 2.02 game right then and there. That way, you don't have to search through every lobby again; you can just start talking with another person from the 2.02 community, and you ask them for a game. If you want 2vs2, you can gather 3 other people and you're good to go. With a bit of time, it will be easy to gather player for Nanduhirion games as well. Of course, you won't know everyone in the list, but just talk to them, that's what you also do in 2.01 open play. You just join a game. With Xfire you can also see who is already on RotWK and you can ask those to join their game as well; either way, it should be much easier to get a game on 2.02 with this option.
Of course we will ask EVERY 2.02 open player to download Xfire to achieve this. You can download Xfire on www.xfire.com. It's entirely free, is safe for your PC, and is similar to Windows Live Messenger, but adapted for gamers so that you can run it inside RotWK! For those who do not know how to work with Xfire, do not worry! An entire topic for the subject can be found in the Mess Hall, and you can find the link to that topic at the bottom of this newspost. In that topic everything you need to do to join our Xfire clan (from downloading to accepting a clan invitation) is clearly explained, so it shouldn't give any problems.
Making an Organized Approach
We want everything well organized in this attempt, so what we are also going to do is set up a forum for the 2.02 open play community in the Clan forums. We just created the 2.02 Open Play clan, which we can use to put all the details in one place. That way you don't have to go through all the forums to find the things you need, and it won't get into a mess that way. As you can see, it will be very easy for all of us. This forum is still validating, as soon as it is up we will update you and make sure you get a link.
Tournaments and Parties
Of course we will still be hosting 2.02 parties to get some bursts of activity. In addition, 2.02 tournaments are held on a weekly basis. That way you can still play 2.02 on some competitive way as well, aside from Clanwars.
People for the Organization
Obviously an organization needs people, and thus we're still asking for some volunteers to help us do a few things. The first thing that we ask, is for a few people on Xfire to help us compose the Xfire clan, especially people with many 2.02 players in their friends list are useful for this, because the more 2.02 players we know of, the more 2.02 players we can add into our clan. We'd also like some people to help a bit with the forum things - we need some people to try and get as many 2.02 players as possible to come to GR.org and to officially sign up on our 2.02 list. Again, this is because we want to know everyone involved in the project, and because that way the 2.02 forums might get more active. Lastly, we need some people that are still playing 2.01 for the moment. From those people, we ask (as above) that you tell the nice people you meet about 2.02. You don't need to do anything special: you just play 2.01 games, and when you meet nice people you add them to your friend list, and tell them about 2.02 in time.
Learn more about Xfire
Sign up for the 2.02 Open Play Community
Attached image(s)
Posts: 3,163
Game: