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28th
August, 2005 - Gamerz is going official!
Ok folks, up until now Gamerz has been essentially a registered
domain with this website and forums. I have held off doing anything
apart from what I have been doing until any development requires
more things to be done. Well a major breakthrough has occured!
I have been discussing with RaveN, the head admin of iPGN, and
here is the deal Gamerz and iPGN have worked out "in principle".
Demolution and Astr0 has been kept in the loop and they know what
is going on too.
The Deal
1. Permanent Loan of boxes and
equipment to iPGN by Gamerz
a. The initial arrangement is that Gamerz provide a box to iPGN
on "permanent" loan to run UT game services on.
b. If Gamerz folds iPGN keeps the box.
c. If iPGN folds the box is returned to Gamerz.
d. Each box supplied may be subject to different conditions decided
on jointly by iPGN and Gamerz.
e. The initial box is to run the 3 current instances of UT that
iPGN is currently running.
f. If the initial box is capable of running other game services
concurrently without detriment to the UT services iPGN is welcome
to do so.
2. Hardware Specs
You (iPGN) provide me (Gamerz) with the ideal hardware specs for
a new box that would ideally run the following:-
1. UT CTF up to 20 slots
2. UT TTM up to 14 slots
3. UT WAR up to 20 slots.
4. Run other iPGN game services (or user services) as it sees
fit.
5. Also throw in an optional extra that iPGN may need - such as
a Gigabit switch, 4 port KVM switch, etc - Gamerz may be able
to provide this as part of the initial "perm" loan deal
too.
6. Gamerz will finance the purchase of parts, building & construction
of the box as well as the delivery costs to iPGN.
(The hardware specs have been provided and can be seen in Announcements.)
3. Setup and Maintenance
1. iPGN sets up the box with their preferred distro of linux.
2. iPGN have root access to the box.
3. iPGN provide Gamerz with 4 accounts - 3 for each UT occurrence
and a 4th for UT test purposes to be used occasionally when testing
is required.
4. Gamerz will update and maintain the UT services thus taking
the load off iPGN.
5. iPGN look after their other game instances running on the box
(without interference from
Gamerz) and ongoing "health" of the box in toto.
4. Ongoing Admining and running
of UT services
1. Gamerz takes care of appointing admins for UT. I have been
toying with the idea of 3 per UT service with one Admin as the
head admin so 10 in total.
2. Gamerz will set-up rules, guidelines and polices for Gamerz
admins.
3. Gamerz admins must conform to iPGN's policies, procedures,
etc. and is answerable to iPGN.
4. There will be two types of Gamerz admins - Sys Admins (for
taking care of the running of the UT services) and PR Admins who
maintain and enforce the rules for general players of UT. There
may be instances of cross over where a Gamerz admin has both roles
- however I myself am not in favour of it as I have found most
Sys Admins lack the people skills and most PR Admins lack the
technical skills. There have been the odd exceptions.
5. A listserv be setup (which Gamerz can do) so that all relevant
iPGN admins and all Gamerz admins remain current with what is
going on and inform the group of changes.
6. iPGN and Gamerz jointly decide on the liaison people between
both orgs. I think it should be 2 or 3 people from each. With
one from each as the "head" - buck stops with him/her.
What this Means
It means Gamerz becomes responsible for running the UT services
provided by iPGN. Gamerz is not me - it will be comprised of official
paying members. More about the Ganerz structure shortly in Announcements.
The members are those people who decide to join the Gamerz Association
and the benefits of membership are being discussed in Announcements.
In an nutshell, it is the UT community and its players (through
Gamerz) that will run, maintain and expand on the UT services.
Gamerz will admin the UT services so we can decide and control
the mods, anti-cheats, the enhanced stats, etc.
It is a win-win deal for Gamerz and iPGN. Over the past 5 months
UT has arisen from the ashes and has become one of the most pupular
games on iPGN. The UT servers need upgrading and needs the new
mods. Gamerz takes the burden off iPGN for doing this and by doing
this continues to popularise the iPGN gaming network as well as
making the UT playing experience even better.
Calling in all pledges plus donation
and membership drive
People have pledged money to Gamerz. This has been done over
a period of time based on the initial idea of Gamerz. The essential
idea of Gamerz has not changed - gaming servers run by gamers
- but how we are going to kick this off has changed to a certain
extent. Some people may not like the current deal and withdraw
their pledge - fair enough.
But we are going to need a little bit more money than already
pledged - plus there are ongoing annual fees and responsibilities
a registered Association has to adhere to under law - I will post
info about this in Announcements
soon.
So for those people who have pledged and are still willing -
get ready to send your cheque, money order or a direct deposit!
There will be a membership structure with costs and annual cost
of membership. There will be benefits to membership of course.
So we will have to go on a membership drive.
In addition we will also go on a drive for donations.
Read about the membership and donation drive (and what has already
been pledged) in Announcements.
What needs to be done
1. Form an Association - Gamerz Associantion Inc.
2. Create a bank account with the Sydney Credit union (very low
fees)
3. Decide which spec for hardware to use (I already have the basic
hardware spec from iPGN) through a Poll.
4. Money drive - don't msg me or anything about this yet - I have
to do a form for this - as it all now becomes accountable.
5. A helluva lot more!
More info coming as I have time! Follow progress in the Announcements
forum and participate there
as we expand on the the things that need to be done. I will need
your help, input, suggestions, ideas, etc to take Gamerz to the
next step - I can't do this alone.
Also, a lot of what has been written on these pages has to be
reviewed, reworked and of course, with your input, changed.
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