NOGAMES is a world-class TF2 player of 4 years with over 3 years of server administration experience. His favorite class is the soldier. He currently enjoys daily matches of DOTA 2, prefferably as Yurnero the Juggernaut. When away from the PC he spends his time working to pay off the server bill or finds himself studying at his university. He is the second and current proprietor of the infamous TF2 micspam server, The Weeabootique. He also runs various other game servers which can be browsed at the Weeabootique group page.

This guide is dedicated to all of those servers who lived and died over the years.
RIP

I would also like to offer my thanks to Pads AKA Sakuya Izayoi who agreed to me taking the Weeabootique a few years ago. I have learned alot in my time running this server. Finally I would like to thank all of the admins on The Weeabootique who help me keep our players happy.

Hello, and welcome to my guide on how to run a server. You may be asking yourself: Why did this guy open with such an intimidating quote? Assuming you actually run your server for a few months, you'll come back to this quote and realize it is exactly right. My aim is not to dissuade you from running a server, rather I hope to educate you on the harsh reality of what running a server entails. Everyone who reads this will probably have his or her own reasons for running a server. Clans, friends, profit, they're all good reasons for opening a server. Yet, you should take a moment to ask yourself, "Whats in it for me?" If you cannot find enjoyment in some aspect of TF2, do not start a server. This should be obvious but hey, people do crazy things. Now assuming you actually do like trading or playing TF2 you will need to decide on what kind of server you want to run. In the next section I'll introduce you to different options available to you.

Assuming you don't have the bandwidth to provide a great experience for your players, to start the first thing you will need is a server provider. There are hundreds of companies out there waiting to take your money and provide you with what they all claim to be the best servers. My reccomendation is to read some reviews before settiling on a provider. Choosing a good host is crucial to running your server without tearing your hair out. I can reccomend NFOservers[www.nfoservers.com] as a great host. Every question I've sent to them they have had an answer back within half an hour or so. Fast support for troubleshooting or emergencies is just as important as a good server.

Try to pick a server that fits within your budget. Assume that you will recieve no financial help for running the server, even if your friends tell you they will help pay for it. Many providers do however offer a link associated with your account where friends or your clan can donate if they wish. Don't spend more than you need to on hosting. Even good hosting can be found for relatively cheap and a virtual dedicated server will run you less than $50 USD per month.

To explain this briefly: managed hosting is where your host takes care of the behind the scenes stuff for your server, usually automated, and you just tell them what game you want the server to run and edit your configuration files. This is by far the most convenient option available. You likely won't have to worry about updating your server manually and any major issues should be handled adaquately by your customer support. And unmanaged server leaves you with a machine upon which you must install everything manually, update it manually, and troubleshoot it on your own. I highly reccomend managed hosting for those who are new to hosting a server.

To run your server effectively look into installing Sourcemod[www.sourcemod.net] which will allow you to easily manage administrators, handle bans, and configure new plugins to make your server unique! Various plugins to meet most of your needs can be found here[forums.alliedmods.net].

Why should people play on your server over any of the other thousands already available? What do you have to offer? Will your players be friendly and inviting or hyper competitive and serious? These are the sort of questions you need to ask yourself when trying to form an identity for your server. You can make clear the goals of your server in the message of the day (motd) for your server. This is the one used currently on my primary TF2 server.


As you can see it clearly defines the rules for the server and the approach we take on in game etiquette. We run a micspam server so we ask players to not use their mics for talking. We also ask players to refrain from using pornographic images in their sprays or chat macros. Finally, we offer convienient options to contact us with any questions or concerns. An effective motd will provide players with a proper first impression on what your server offers.

So now you have a brand spankin' new server and are ready to get right down to enjoying the sweat of your brow with some game time. You should obviously invite your friends to join you, however you may want to expand your horizons and look to inviting others to try out your server. Advertise what makes your community unique. Find your niche and let it be your selling point. Take to the web and grow your server so that it can be a 24/7 24/24 server rather than a 24/7 0/24 server. To start you off with some ideas, you could run a tournament server, a micspam server, a trade server, or a 24/7 server for a single map. There are always people looking to belong to a new group of fun people.

You must assert your authority as administator. If you are paying the bills, do not hesitate to issue bans or kick offensive players. When your server grows large enough offer trusted friends the position of volunteer moderator and configure your server such that they may kick or ban hackers or offensive players. You poured blood, sweat, tears, and hard earned money into this server, keep it to your liking.

Lets get back to community. The group of people you play with will probably rarely acknowledge the fact that you provide them with a place to play. They will not know how many hours you spent uploading maps, configuring files and plugins, and tailoring to their and the server's needs. This is the harsh truth of running a server.
In my experience I have recieved complaints, hate mail, death threats, hacking threats, etc. People are jerks but you cannot change that. The best advice I can offer is to stand your ground, and tell them to make like a bird and flock off if they don't like how you run things. Again, you're paying for the server so you make the rules.

Good people do infact exsist and you will have players who offer their own insightful thoughts. You should keep an open mind and respect players' inputs on the server. Remember that they are your audience that actually gives a damn and cares about whats going on with the server. You might learn about a cool new map or plugin from people you weren't friends with before so keep your profile iniviting to comments and new friends.

As a good admin, you should reward your loyal players with fun events and out of the ordinary fun. You could always buy a server-wide gift from the Mann Co. shop or spontaneous events like gimmicky maps or game modes. Keep things interesting!

Congratulations, today you will join the rest of us in hell. As most admins will probably be able to tell you, large updates tend to break stuff. It may take a bit of time to get things in proper working order and people will probably bother you all night until you get your server up and running in a reasonable condition. Take it from me, set your Steam Friends to offline mode and work quickly and effectively on your own. Otherwise you'll be dealing with a million messages a minute of SERVER WHERE???? Attatched below is an example of typical update spam:
Not fun to deal with while you are making sure all your plugins and what not are working properly.

When Sourcemod inevitably breaks you'll want to check the latest sourcemod snapshots[www.sourcemod.net] and the forums[forums.alliedmods.net] for any breaking news on how to fix your broken plugins. An effective remedy on update day is to disable Sourcemod entirely until a stable snapshot is released. Remember, without Sourcemod you and your admins will have some difficutly managing the server.

To conclude I would like to thank you the reader for taking some time to educate yourself on running a server by reading my guide. I hope to in the near future expand upon this guide in more detail going into the more technical aspects of running and maintaining your server. I plan on including useful commands and plugins that will help make your job a bit easier. Hopefully this was a satisfactory introduction on what it takes to get your server going. If you do plan on starting your own server I wish you the best. It is not an easy job, but with (perseverance) you can do it too.

Any requests for expansion on this guide or comments are welcome and I will read all of them. If you found this guide useful or entertaining please feel free to rate it up or favorite it.

-NOGAMES