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Well, Assist has been on Sourceforge since 2009, I know it was "Deploy" before that and it wasn't hosted on Sourceforge at first. I would guess that mAAp has been a part of Assist (and thus 2.5) since 2008. If that's not enough time for something to catch on, then I don't know how it would ever catch on. Even if we're talking just from January 2012, that's almost 6 months of it being a mandatory download.

Another "test" I did recently was run my mAAp only rotating server (changing maps every 40 minutes) for 2 days. Guess what? Not a SINGLE user joined it. I checked the logs, twice. I also ran the server twice, once for a day, the second time for 2 days. No users.

Hmm, maybe I'm ignorant, but was there any signifiicant 2.5 community before 2.8 died?

Depends on the time frame. In the time right before auth went down, not really. A couple of servers were up, but not much.  But 2.5 was still kicking and alive when 2.8.5 was out. We had more people on 2.5 than we do now. We had several tournaments and a lot of clans. The AA we have now is a shell of what 2.5 used to be, even when 2.8.5 was out. That's how many players AA has actually lost.

That's how many players AA has actually lost.

Fucking Battlefield and other pussy FPS-es. Those are the real source of evil in this world, i tell ya! ;-DDD.

There is much for me to respond and before I go further, I will just say before hand that if what I write offends anyone, well, my apologies. But I am straight shooter and I need to vent. So here it goes:

To Jared

I disagree with you. Looking at what competition does gives a new perspective. As a dev you get too involved in your own little world and you may miss things. The new perspective allows to come to the project with new ideas, new things to try.
So again, I disagree with you.

The point of CMS is to showcase the game. There are many games who use this method to showcase the game to visitors. Just one example is http://www.runescape.com/
What RS has done is not necessarily good, not necessarily bad, however it is an example.

Not sure if you took the time to read my previous posts. If not, let me clarify that I am very much familiar with how all the forums and CMS softwares out there work. I have created many websites (including the ones as part of my consulting business), moderated many different websites. So I know very well how those softwares I mentioned work.

I do marketing for a living. Two of the most important aspects of marketing:

-name recognition. In the case of a game, that means having players aware of the game. Both new and old players. In the case of Assist, having players aware of the existence of Assist.
-direct marketing. Direct marketing means that you have to actually reach to players, to players communities and introduce them to Assist and so forth.

To Spanky

reward should be the growth of the community. Many of us have done and continue to do stuff for games free of charge. It is part of the deal when you volunteer, when one wants to contribute.

Concerning the mAAp maps, as far our servers are concerned, just looking at our Dallas 1 server, 34 % of the time the server is on Ice.
But I do understand your frustration as well.

To all

Yes, Assist may have been on Sourceforge since 2009, but that doesn't mean anything. Sourceforge is about development. No player would go there without a good reason.
And talking about the time since January 2012, from personal experience, from looking at forums at Battletracker and other sites, the only reason people find about Assist is either because they stumble upon one of the threads or recently because some of us go on forums and advertise and answer questions about Assist.
Bottom line is that doesn't work well. To have a constantly growing community, there is need for constant advertising, And advertising doesnt need to cost any money.

Bottom line is that at end of the day, it needs to be decided whether the community and the dev want for Assist to grow or not. And if it is a yes, then all legal means should be used to grow the community.

Finally finish this long post by saying this. Personally, I would like to see the Assist/2.5 community grow and I do what I can to help with that. This includes submitting ideas/suggestions/proposals.
One may not like my ideas and that is just fine, but don't just say "your suggestions suck". Say "your suggestions suck" and then go ahead and post your own ideas and suggestions on how to grow Assist/2.5.

By the way, I am still waiting to see some constructive posts on how to further grow Assist/2.5

Done venting!!

Spanky, I definitely understand where you are coming from and as I said, I understand the frustration.
As i mentioned, our Dallas server 1 is about 34 % of the time on a mAAp map.
But as others have said, having a server on the mAAp files doesn't create gaming. Seeing someone in a server that is what attracts other players.

On the advertisement issue, advertising to the same old folks is not a recipe for success. Bring in new blood, new players who may or may not have heard of Americas Army. Get the name of Assist out there by posting the info on any gaming websites, have banner exchanges with other gaming communities or gaming sites.

That is also where my suggestions for the website come in. When visiting a game site, people want to see immediately the game action, not read forums. Oh, and while on the subject of forums, I would also suggest to restrict the reading access of guests.

name recognition for a person or a product is done the same as everything: advertising and promotion.
We have a marketable product. AA2.5 is marketable just fine.  Website is an integral part of any marketing/advertising/promotion. You could have a great product, but a site that is not appropriately tailored will do nothing.  While you can have a great site, poor product and tons of downloads.
Yes, the point is to get people in game, however you cant separate site and game. Both site and game are tight together.
And how much of a result you get from new site features depend on the feature and how the marketing is done.

You seem to have a good background of the business (both marketing and gaming). Since you don't like any of my suggestions, how about you open a thread and post your suggestions/ideas on how to grow the Assist community?
I never said my ideas/suggestions are perfect, however at least I have constructive suggestions and ideas.

Like I said in my previous post, I am getting sick of people who write "this sucks", " I don't agree", but then no one is posting any ideas/suggestions on how to bring in more people (new players and old players).

True that compared to the newer games, AA2.5 is not that, however it is still have much qualities and much fun for players.  You both say that advertising is not going to work. My answer is when has advertising been fully tried? The only advertising I have seen is posts on BT forums.  There are many more ways and locations to advertise than the BT forums.