Custom/community servers. BAD IDEA!

OP is acting like the choice between them doesn't exist. 

- Both rented and officially hosted servers can be running next to each other

- In fact, that has been the case for years - unfortunately OP started playing BF when it already started going downhill. He simply never had the experience others had, like in 1942, Vietnam... and so forth

- Most official servers got completely dropped at some point by EA and had several issues like base rapes etc. Most clans manage this better.

- From my experience, most admins are quite fair and sure... when there are 5 servers left to play on, a ban could mean you are left with nothing to play. 

But, in that case:

• The game is already pretty much dead and it's mostly the fault of EA to not host a few more servers, NEXT to rented servers from clans and enthousiasts
• Developers just drop server support after years, this happens in virtually any online game. Without the clans still hosting a few fan servers, nobody would be able to play
• Lastly you can always host your own server if you get banned from 5 other servers which makes me really wonder if that isn't your own fault

Anyways, I get the frustration but I don't agree with the way you provide a solution. In fact, officially servers are mostly horrible with very little to no admin support. 

This is just my opinion based on hosting servers myself and playing Battlefield since the '42 demo and having 200+ minimum hours experience in almost every BF game.

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@DeeCay_DK_81 wrote:
@PaperAssassin-PC I call BS... On PS the official servers were thriving from around 2013 until 2016 at least... Once BF1 came out the official servers had a natural dip in playercounts and official servers were sparse.
I get it ppl tend to avoid badmins and therefore I am looking forward to the
2+ gazillion posts here on bad servermanagement once Portal comes out...

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@DeeCay_DK_81 back when RSP came out in BF3 we actually had a listing of "Community approved" rented servers that offered a solid play experience without and Badmin behavior. It was a good addition to the forums since the servers were permanent.

As long as me and my friends can still create our own Portal Server for FREE and play with the AI Soldiers

I don't really care about whether or not they do add paid servers that stay up longer at that point.

But if it took away the ability for us to create FREE Portal Servers... It is NEVER worth that risk!

Me and my friends would probably demand refunds for the whole game at that point.

If you don't like the servers available to you, create your own and recruit players to join.  Of course you have to put in the work finding and keeping players, should you be short of friends...but that's part of the process and one which could be rewarding to anyone passionate about the game.

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@Fringerunner wrote:
@ragnarok013 Not to mention they were usually a *lot* more effective at moderation as large clans usually ran them and the rules were clearly posted, and there was one or more people with admin rights on 24/7.

Yea, the badmin meme had it's place sometimes, but it's a shame BF friends never did a "why always me" (at least i can't remember one) episode to balance it out, first thing to mind when someone does a private servers were bad blanket statement is "maybe the only constant factor was you?" because I've genuinely missed rented servers.

Not to mention once you'd found a few solid servers you liked to come back to a lot, you usually had some opposition that made the game fun.

Well, unless you showed up with a guild group and kinda trounced the home team, then you decided to show up later solo or duo maybe and you'd have 2+ squads hunting just you, never mind the objectives.

I actually though that was fair mind you!
Some of those "rivalries" (we'd usually laugh/banter about it in chat after the round was over) was one of the best parts about those private servers.

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@Fringerunner I agree. I think people focus on the outlier Badmin as if it were the rule rather than the exception. After the initial spat of Badmins occurred in BF3...mostly because until that point Console players had never had their own player admined servers...it settled itself down. Players soon found that being a Badmin made their server a pariah and people avoided them making the monthly investment a waste if nobody played their server. 

Solid Community run servers however have greatly extended the life of older Battlefield games. Until Gamespy shut down BF2 had a large amount of players (there are solutions that allow BF1942/2/2142 to be played today but those player numbers are small but you can still play them with other players), and even today you can still find populated BC2 and BF3 servers a decade+ after the games' launches.  If permanent rented servers ever make a reappearance this will be a boon for the game's long term health, and throw in crossplay and even console players can enjoy their games years after end of life when those games died with the new console launches in the past.

Still today we have both official servers and rented servers side by side in BF4 for aka Playstation.  It is not like they mutually exclude each other.

Matter of fact, it makes sense to have both side by side, as the official typically runs vanilla maps, while the custom/community servers often offer experiences beyond and frequently better than what just the vanilla gives alone.

No matter how hard we want to please all the players, you always have some that wants it different or looks at the world very differently than you do.  Hence also the ones jumping to the wrong conclusions why they may have been kicked by an admin or not.  The conspiracy theories are running rife among some players for sure.  Often rooted in just minor misunderstandings if diving into root cause analysis.

So please, do not let the great pleasure of many be spoiled by a few unruly elements.