[jessay]

I mention both in the topic because they are actually very similar in the requirements.

When starting either a Hosting Company or a Gamer Community you have to really display some patience. You must also be willing to spend money and not expect any returns for at least a year. Basically when you start your hosting company or gamer community you need to make sure you have enough funding to run either or for a minimal of one year. This must also include the ability to operate without receiving one single dollar, pound etc. Time is the only way you will truly become a community or a solid hosting site.

As time moves on your status from noob to real-deal slowly changes. Your site becomes cached and day by day your page ranks increase. Day by day you are hopefully adding content to your site. That is the second most important thing you must do to your site. Even if you do not have a community you must continue day by day as if you are maintain and operating a fully active and functional one.

Acting as if you are already in high gear will allow people to join in and this allows the user to join rather to start. Some forum users prefer to comment on a topic rather then being the presenter or the creator of. So these are just some generic tips as we start to prepare our guides for the angrygaming site I figure I would share some.

[Morrison]

If you want to run a gaming community it also become handy if you search for Ranking Lists according the games you like to run,and @ your own site in there to attract more people ill put some examples below:

Gemesite's99

TOPDOD

Gamesites200

All you need is a smal banner and a catchy advertisment slogan to put it in there those site's above provide the dimensions needed.

just and idea
regards

Morrison

[Eccentric Warmonger]

Here are my suggestions (from what I have learned)

1. Have a strict game plan and do not deviate from it. For example, before you purchase anything sit down and decide how much money you want to spend on this adventure. Determine the name of your community, the rules for your community and how you plan to grow.

2. Decide up front whether you want to rent a game server (usually shared hosting) or run your own dedicated server.

Dedicated:
Dedicated servers cost a hell of a lot more and are usually an expensive monthly fee (between 100-300 USD). However, when you get a dedicated server you have complete control. You can install more than one game, you can run stats or anything else you want. But, the catch is you must know and understand how to run commands (IE: Linux or Windows). These are usually set up by big gaming communities and not by someone just starting out.

Game Servers:
Renting a game server is different than a dedicated server, with a game server you purchase a spot on a server from a company (Angrygaming is a perfect example) and they set up your game for you. You only get one game on the server, but you do not need to understand how to do work in linux or windows server. These usually cost between $.80 ~ $1.00 (USD) per slot depending on where you go. So for example, a 32 player TF2 server could cost you anywhere between $25 ~ $32 dollars a month. Most companies will give you a discount if you pay for a year up front. Most companies will let you run the game server however you choose, IE: mods, maps, ect. This is usually what new communities do when they are starting out.

3. Select a game you want to host, this should be a game that you personally or your community founders all enjoy playing. Do not pick a game just because it is new! Pick a game you are familiar with when starting a new community.

4. Get a good website up and running before you purchase the dedicated or game server. I currently use phpbb as the backbone to my site (www.eccentricgamers.org), but there are so many options like: Joomla, Drupal, vBulletin, phpbb, phpbb Nuke, ect. The list goes on and on. Some of these are free and others you have to pay for. Once you select which backbone software you want to use then find a good theme. Google works for this. Find a good hosting company (Angrygaming offers a web hosting package along with a stats package).

5. Do Not expand to quickly. Let your server and community start to get popular before you expand into other servers, or different games.

6. Lastly, be patient. I have been running my community for 6 months and I must say it has been depressing at times. The servers sit empty some nights and that just drives me crazy. The best thing I can suggest is just go with the flow and have fun running the community. Donations will start to flow in once you set yourself apart from the rest and start getting regular players to your servers.