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Over the past few months, OzzyGaming and our FiveM server/team have gone through many changes. Some we are happy and proud of and some that are upsetting.

Over recent weeks, our community has been facing increasing server attacks, advertisements, doxing, poaching and general propaganda from a new FiveM community in the region, named ‘Australis Gaming’. Australis is a community founded almost exclusively by former disgruntled OzzyGaming staff members. While we don’t wish to name or accuse individuals of this community, we are certain as to their members being behind this due to multiple reports from loyal community members reporting their poaching attempts telling people to join Australis.

A lot of misinformation has been spread about OzzyGaming and we would like to clear up these stories. Australis representatives have been coming onto our services and advertising the following:

“OzzyGaming staff are banning anyone who plays on Australis!”
False. G_yShLoPYXQnWSAH299NgbLma1PUL8IhFKQCBE06L4STSEj0TcLhR15S2Lhd1x5dt3A22O7UIyoYpOpsrg8EUbm1dth1itCv5IcXZePDSOBn3AH-aKL3m4HvPFSIJrKKLtENITGb

This is simply a lie. The spirit of FiveM is to be a collaborative community. We here at OzzyGaming welcome you to play any game and any server you enjoy and experience what other communities have to offer. We welcome competition from other servers as it makes us strive to be better, on our own merits. Us banning someone for playing on another community makes no sense and has no benefit.

What has happened is many well-known players have decided that they would like to ‘go out with a bang’ when going over to Australis. Taking the opportunity to break rules, RDM, hack and give out money etc. As such, many of these players have been legitimately banned for those reasons.

We have a policy within our staff team, like any other gaming community that you cannot be staff in two different communities. We also have a policy that you cannot be a business owner in multiple communities. This is simply a case of ensuring that people in a position of power are dedicated and contributing members of the community. Again I must stress that staff and business owners can play whatever server they like and will not be removed or banned.

“Boss is leaving OzzyGaming to go develop at Australis”
False. G_yShLoPYXQnWSAH299NgbLma1PUL8IhFKQCBE06L4STSEj0TcLhR15S2Lhd1x5dt3A22O7UIyoYpOpsrg8EUbm1dth1itCv5IcXZePDSOBn3AH-aKL3m4HvPFSIJrKKLtENITGb

The core executive team are OzzyGaming veterans, dating back to early 2015 when we were an Arma 3 Altis Life community. None of us have any intention of going to any other community. If we ever got bored, we would most likely get out of the gaming community stuff altogether rather than move elsewhere. Boss is the backbone of our FiveM development and the community really appreciates his work. We found it funny and interesting that this kind of propaganda is being used. It's a real show of talent of what Boss offers here at Ozzy!



“OzzyGaming is dead, there’s nothing to do and they aren’t adding anything new”
False. G_yShLoPYXQnWSAH299NgbLma1PUL8IhFKQCBE06L4STSEj0TcLhR15S2Lhd1x5dt3A22O7UIyoYpOpsrg8EUbm1dth1itCv5IcXZePDSOBn3AH-aKL3m4HvPFSIJrKKLtENITGb

I think it is fair to say that OzzyGaming is leading development for FiveM in Oceania. Not only have we been consistently leading server population over the past months, but many existing servers are implementing features that OzzyGaming uses, trying to be like us you could say.

FiveM in general lacks the replayability of game modes such as Altis Life that a lot of our community members would be used to. Mainly due to the limitation of 32 players and its non-combat focus. In saying that we are constantly updating our game and adding many new features that pop up in the FiveM community and things requested by the community.

At the end of the day, more or less every server running the same game mode is going to be fundamentally the same. New servers can be fun for the first week while you grind, but then it just becomes more of the same. People stay for the community, not the features.

“If you join Australis, we’ll give you +1 cop rank of what you are in Ozzy!”
Maybe true? Image result for shrug emoji apple

I would be worried about how disciplined, structured and fair a police force would be when they simply give out promotions and ranks just to join their server from another community.

This is a direct attempt at poaching members by offering rewards to move over there and it’s honestly a sad and disappointing tactic. If you are going to make a server, you want people to be attracted by their own free-will by simply being better. If you need to bait people into joining, you must not have much faith in your product.

OzzyGaming entered the FiveM market with no experience or playerbase in the game and have grown to where we are today without any of these tactics and I think that really speaks for itself.

“Ryan is making a profit by using his own servers and is breaching FiveM policies”
False. G_yShLoPYXQnWSAH299NgbLma1PUL8IhFKQCBE06L4STSEj0TcLhR15S2Lhd1x5dt3A22O7UIyoYpOpsrg8EUbm1dth1itCv5IcXZePDSOBn3AH-aKL3m4HvPFSIJrKKLtENITGb

Ryan (Server owner) is also the owner of his own server hosting business, Faded Servers and has been hosting OzzyGaming services on his servers since late last year.

Faded servers are clearly advertised on our website. Ryan invoices OzzyGaming for the market rate of the servers and services that we use. If anything we get a better deal with extra bandwidth and obvious technical support benefits. Servers cost money and we would be paying the same if not more by using another server provider. While yes, Ryan does make a small profit through the sale of the dedicated servers, I would personally rather be supporting Ryan’s business over other international businesses. We could switch server providers and our donation goal/expenses wouldn’t change.

This has no relevance to FiveM and their policies. Our donations and expenses are meticulously tracked on spreadsheets and are available to all of our admin team. We make very clear in our continual donation updates that we limit our donations and OzzyGaming does not make a profit, nor are any of our staff paid. We also work closely with FiveM management to ensure we do not breach any policies. It is a hard balance between providing incentives for donating and being perceived as pay to win, a balance we are constantly changing. We appreciate every single donation and the entire executive team has high ethical values.

“OzzyGaming players don’t roleplay, our rules are better/more strict at Australis”
False. G_yShLoPYXQnWSAH299NgbLma1PUL8IhFKQCBE06L4STSEj0TcLhR15S2Lhd1x5dt3A22O7UIyoYpOpsrg8EUbm1dth1itCv5IcXZePDSOBn3AH-aKL3m4HvPFSIJrKKLtENITGb

This is an interesting and counterproductive point to make. Australis members are coming to poach OzzyGaming members, the same players that they complain about not roleplaying. Again, all player-bases have issues, not everyone enjoys the same thing and there are always some bad apples. Rules are a great start but they don’t fix much.

I have about 5 years experience in RP communities and I have never heard someone say “Wow, my community has great role play”, It simply doesn’t happen. Everyone starts off in unicorn land talking about how they are going to be different, but it doesn’t last. At OzzyGaming we are trying hard to update our game to stop exploiters, hackers and general bad sports. We update our rules as needed through consultation with the whole community. Our growing staff team tries their best to be firm but fair.

Our support system does work. Respecting that the community is run by a team of volunteers and that staff are just community members like everyone else, we try our best.

“The executive team is a very closed group and won’t listen or let anyone else in”
False. G_yShLoPYXQnWSAH299NgbLma1PUL8IhFKQCBE06L4STSEj0TcLhR15S2Lhd1x5dt3A22O7UIyoYpOpsrg8EUbm1dth1itCv5IcXZePDSOBn3AH-aKL3m4HvPFSIJrKKLtENITGb

This one was actually quite hurtful to hear because it originates from one person we really liked.

We won't mention their name as we are not here to defame any individuals. But shortly after the formation and early popularity of our FiveM server, we welcomed a member into management as he showed high promise and initiative. A manager in a sense is responsible for all aspects of the server they manage; The Executive team is merely here to provide guidance and support when needed. This member in question had the means and the authority to change any aspect of the server they wanted. This person explained one day that it was necessary for them to leave temporarily due to personal reasons, which is fine. Our role is purely voluntary. The Executive team as a whole were deeply upset about the circumstances and offered our support as we viewed this individual as a friend. His leave gradually turned into permanent leave. Unbeknownst to us, he seems to have felt another way.

Yes, The senior staff team are a close group of friends as we have been part of the OzzyGaming community for years. We enjoy playing other games with each other and sometimes enjoy some private time, just like every other friendship group. But it is unfounded to say that we won’t let anyone else in. We make time to speak to anyone and everyone in the community. We work with and promote anyone who shows a real passion for the community and we have a history of doing so. OzzyGaming staff are entrusted with many tools and are given the microphone to provide a real voice for the community.

I didn’t want to have to write this essay and talk down another community as I don’t enjoy being negative but it has really become a case of defending ourselves and our community. OzzyGaming has not and will never participate in or endorse poaching or defamatory behaviour towards other communities. We have a long and proud history of working and allying with other competing communities and it is a shame this one bad apple has deemed it necessary to attack us.

Australis has been covertly recruiting/’poaching’ our members under the radar for at least the last month to the best of our knowledge. As well as spreading the above misinformation around our community and doxing our members and it simply needs to stop.

It’s a shame it had to come to this as we have tried both friendly and serious communication with Australis management to no avail. We have decided it is best to publicly respond and get on top of the situation through this announcement. To reiterate, no one will ever be banned for playing on other servers. We respect and appreciate every single member of this community whether it's your first day, a veteran, a staff member or a donator, everyone is equal. We do not want a single person to leave and strive to improve wherever we can to make your time here more enjoyable.

I would like to thank our loyal community members for coming forward with information regarding recent events and would encourage anyone to record and report any future occurrences. This has caused enough disruption now and everyone would like to get back to being friends. The executive team will also be holding a Q&A session this Friday at 9PM AEST for any issues relating to the community.

While we are deeply disappointed with their tactics, we wish Australis all the best and hope they can succeed as a community on their own merits. How Australis plans to run a gaming community is entirely up to them but we kindly ask that OzzyGaming be left out of it.

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Kind Regards,
Zaydan
OzzyGaming Community manager
Posted on behalf of the full executive team.