Addressing the decline of EscapeRestart/Blocktopia.

[Sploorky]

just cut all servers, leave forums + ts?

most games dont even require dedicated servers anyways, if people really wanted to play minecraft, ttt, or starbound, they could find a regular server and give out the ip to friends.

if its an issue of "well we can't grow then", it's not exactly like we're growing now... we should focus on expanding the community when people in the community are happy.

edit: I should say, I don't necessarily think that would fix anything, it just seems like the best attempt to me.

 

[JKangaroo]

Hopefully this actually turns into a meaningful discussion, but from the posts I see so far, it hasn't, at least quite yet, and has basically gone off topic already. I'm rather disappointed by that, and the people doing it know exactly who they are.

And though I'm replying now, I know this is going to be a bad post on my part, because I have no idea how to tackle this issue, or how to respond, and I probably won't even recheck what I write, since I know It's just going to run into a tangent. That's why I've tried to stay away from these threads, and for that I apologize.
But I'm going to do so anyways.

Anyways, I wish this was actually raising awareness to an issue, or that this will raise more discussion, or whatnot.
But frankly, it's not. I'm tired of these threads. Tired of them. One crops up probably every few months or so with the same issue, repeating the same arguments, looking back at the "glory days," etc etc. Sure we come up with a few ideas to fix things and revitalize the community again, heck, the transition from Blocktopia to EscapeRestart was one of those ideas. And despite all this another comes up again, things fall back into a state of disrepair, and we get another one of these threads, once again repeating the same issues, the same solutions, etc etc, and eventually just falling into uncivil arguing, annoying and pointless memes that contribute nothing to the conversation, and overall toxicity.
I am sick. of. it.

We've become a broken record at this point.
When I read this post, I get the same sense of nostalgia we tend to have.
We, as a community, miss Classic Minecraft. We miss the past. We miss the "glory days" of being a thriving community.
Understandable? Yes, obviously. It's nice being apart of a community with new, friendly faces, something always happening, and a game you enjoying always being available to go to.
But being news that we haven't heard before? No.
Our community was just as said before: a classic community. Our legacy started in classic, and as Mojang began to draw away from classic and pushing premium, our community slowly began to die, sticking to that legacy we longed to hold onto.
Is it possible to revitalize and start a new legacy? Of course, that's what we've been trying to do, and I hope we CONTINUE to do, but as of this point that legacy is what seems to be the driving point of this post, and that's something I feel we, as a community, need to stop.

Now before I go on, I have to admit, I'm not the most aware of what goes on in the community. I'm not the most informed, nor do I tend to pay that much attention to what actually goes on unless it's relevant or interesting to me.
Because of that my view of events or opinions are probably skewed.

But with that, let's see what I think contributed largely to our success as a community in our past:
-Classic Server List: Let's be honest, we were a classic community. Many members remaining today were around for classic, and came from classic. Classic was easy to get into, and easy to spread word of mouth because of one simple fact: All classic servers existed on a preexisting list. You could easily go on the MineCraft website and scan through pages of pages of different servers filled to the brim with players. Due to this, one could easily pick up and play on almost any server. Easy advertising, easy access.
You know what we don't have now? That exact server list.
Due to this it's harder for us to advertise, and get players to even take a look at us. In fact, I don't even know how we advertise. It's an issue we've talked about, but something I'm not sure how many of us know how the community is tackling said issue.
-We were a minecraft community: We started around the beginning and peak of Minecraft itself. That was several years ago now. The fact we've survived so long on a single game is mindblowing, seeing how quickly some mutiplayer communities or games go even after a few months. And still we exist, even though Minecraft is slowly dying down as "what's popular." (it's still quite popular, just slowing.) A lot of us started with Minecraft from this community. A large part in our decline were players who couldn't afford or didn't own premium when we switched from Classic to Premium. That was an issue people had. Now that we have other gaming servers, some players can't reach those, like myself who would love to play TTT with friends, but I don't own Garry's Mod, and probably won't for awhile. That is another barrier which classic lacked, if we want to continue that topic of "classic."
Unlike Minecraft, we're not exactly committed to any one game or can base ourselves around said game. We're too spread out for such a small community.

I mean, a SMP out of thousands? A build server out of thousands? A TTT server out of thousands? A Jailbreak server out of hundreds? Kind of unoriginal, and original used to be our complete forte previously. But not anymore

I can understand the feeling about TTT or Jailbreak (even though I don't know what jailbreak is I believe it's apart of Gmod), but our minecraft servers? We've already had this discussion again, and the reason we keep them.
Build is obvious. I really doubt anyone here in the communities cares that the build server is "one out of thousands." I can go into singleplayer and build for pete's sake.(but that would be boring) The reason we keep is around is because it's relevant, and easy to access, in order to build things for our other servers. That's a very, very good, and understandable reason why we keep Create as an active server.

And as far as I can remember with the community transition, other servers that weren't there during the transition and were decommissioned, like SMP, would only come around again should the development by the staff feel its worthy of being released. Otherwise they would work on it on/off, and it wouldn't be released until ready.
Personally I'm fine with SMP, I think having one come around every now and then I good, as SMP can be fun for a time. Kami's Realm is certainly what keeps me around playing Minecraft, as I'm enjoying my time with my Terrama family. But then again, that's just me, one of many other people in this community.

with devoted developers, eager to help out

That's probably one of the more major problems we have.
Do we... even have any developers? Sure I know (or at least think) server directors and staff are involved in developing stuff for servers, but do we have any dedicated developers in title? If my memory is right, didn't TNT basically die because its main developer kind of disappeared or stopped making updates?

We do need developers. But really that's all I can say on the topic. I don't know where to get developers. I don't know what servers we can have. I don't know what games we could branch out to to make interesting server ideas for or whatever. I don't know how to develop myself. I'll leave that to other people.

...
There's more I want to say, and that I should say, but I don't even know what to write anymore.

 

[Infected_alien8_]

Its almost as if ttt died...

Yeah because exams came and people like me and mooglie who usually organize people joining the server to encourage more people to join are too busy to do so! XD But yeah I understand, TTT is empty pretty much constantly right now, but I'm confident that once summer hits that will change again. I just don't think we should include TTT on the death list just yet! ;D

might be a cultural thing but does america have exams year-round?

I'm English XD (sorry if I'm misunderstanding this or something haha)

EDIT: And yeah sorry if this seems like I've swayed the thread off topic but I was kind of trying to prevent people from spending time having a discussion about 'fixing TTT' or something when I personally think it should be fine ;p
JKangaroo (just to explain myself, sorry XD)

 

[Jubjubers]

can we assume that the community is deciding to pull a grumpy toddler and push their plate of shitservers+curlyfries away because they don't want to eat it?

 

[Ltin]

Please. No more. That's the 2nd post of the "bt has major problems" type in 2 days. NEW RECORD

Completely original servers, in a tight community where a lot of people knew each other, ...

Unfortunately, while ideal, this is pretty difficult. I don't have any good ideas for servers. I doubt most people do. But this idea of original servers relies on a specific medium. Minecraft.

7,661

That is the number of copies of minecraft sold in the last 24 hours.

According to a gamesbeat article from a little more than a year ago,

People buy up to 16,000 new copies of Minecraft for PC every day

The community isn't increasing in size nearly as much as it once was. This combined with those that get bored with the game and stop playing, results in a much more slowly or not at all growing players base, dominated by advertised servers all offering the same thing.

ES is expanding into other games which could also hold other servers. But most games aren't as well suited to the 'easily modifiable to the point of a new game' idea as minecraft. Sure there's Garry's mod. Anything else?

The tight community simply has to just happen. You can't force that, otherwise you have no community, as they all leave in anger.

The common denominator with these sorts of threads seems to be a wish for the 'old days'. The old people, the old games, the old atmosphere.
kinda reminds me of Cars actually. Which is a good analogy.

Lets say for a moment that we are Radiator Springs.

We had large amounts of players and were publicly visible (in the server list) and amazing and yeah woo best community ever!

Then some guy with a bunch of money builds a big server with lost of different games and a huge player capacity, and people start bypassing us.

So What's next? It will happen. We will be back and better than ever. but different than we were before.

Or maybe we die. We have to end sometime. Maybe this is our time. Or maybe it isn't, who am i to tell the future.

and on a final lighter note

We're escaping the inevitable, but not restarting what could be.

Even if i don't agree with it, that was the best sentence I've seen all week (granted, it just started, but still)

i have no idea how on topic this is

 

[Jubjubers]

Ltin i don't think i've ever seen you on a server

 

[Jayfeather]

Please. No more. That's the 2nd post of the "bt has major problems" type in 2 days. NEW RECORD


Unfortunately, while ideal, this is pretty difficult. I don't have any good ideas for servers. I doubt most people do. But this idea of original servers relies on a specific medium. Minecraft.

7,661

That is the number of copies of minecraft sold in the last 24 hours.

According to a gamesbeat article from a little more than a year ago,

The community isn't increasing in size nearly as much as it once was. This combined with those that get bored with the game and stop playing, results in a much more slowly or not at all growing players base, dominated by advertised servers all offering the same thing.

ES is expanding into other games which could also hold other servers. But most games aren't as well suited to the 'easily modifiable to the point of a new game' idea as minecraft. Sure there's Garry's mod. Anything else?

The tight community simply has to just happen. You can't force that, otherwise you have no community, as they all leave in anger.

The common denominator with these sorts of threads seems to be a wish for the 'old days'. The old people, the old games, the old atmosphere.
kinda reminds me of Cars actually. Which is a good analogy.

Lets say for a moment that we are Radiator Springs.

We had large amounts of players and were publicly visible (in the server list) and amazing and yeah woo best community ever!

Then some guy with a bunch of money builds a big server with lost of different games and a huge player capacity, and people start bypassing us.

So What's next? It will happen. We will be back and better than ever. but different than we were before.

Or maybe we die. We have to end sometime. Maybe this is our time. Or maybe it isn't, who am i to tell the future.

and on a final lighter note

Even if i don't agree with it, that was the best sentence I've seen all week (granted, it just started, but still)

i have no idea how on topic this is

actually the problem was caused by stagnation which is what you're suggesting as always

these threads are useful because they demand action

 

[Chips]

Please. No more. That's the 2nd post of the "bt has major problems" type in 2 days. NEW RECORD

Then would you rather remain quiet, knowing what's knocking at the door, trying to tell yourself everything is fine, when it's really not? There's obviously something that needs to occur to make more members happy, or to 'revive' the community.

 

[Ltin]

Ltin i don't think i've ever seen you on a server

Username≠Ltin

Then would you rather remain quiet, knowing what's knocking at the door, trying to tell yourself everything is fine, when it's really not? There's obviously something that needs to occur to make more members happy, or to 'revive' the community.

I guess you are right here.
I think i'm just kinda annoyed by how frequently it seems these threads pop up.
Something does need to be done, you're definitely right, but simply identifying the problem is only one step. Unfortunately, step 2 can be a bit more difficult.

 

[Jubjubers]

Username≠Ltin

I guess you are right here.
I think i'm just kinda annoyed by how frequently it seems these threads pop up.
Something does need to be done, you're definitely right, but simply identifying the problem is only one step. Unfortunately, step 2 can be a bit more difficult.

you're really acting like there's something we, as players within the community, can do that we haven't tried.

 

[YouWould]

I'm glad this thread's popped up, I'd really like to share my full opinion about this before it becomes a hellhole again.

Fall 2013: A 13 year old who's owned a $26 game for eight months, after being banned from his favorite server, goes in search of a new server.

This, of course, was me. I searched for a list of Minecraft servers with the thing I wanted at the time: Nothing too intense, just a simple creative server. So, I join this server and look at the lobby, and right-click the Buildbox sign. I fly out of spawn to see nothing else but (of course) a build of a penis. That was when I found out the server had very accepting and responsive staff. That's what first got me interested. I later branched out to RoF, AoD, DoD... and roughly a year after I joined, I decided I should take up staffing. The process was quite simple, and I must say this is what really maxed out my interest in the server: It wasn't something that was pay-to-win, or something where you can just become a Moderator overnight. Not a place where annoying people were everywhere, ready to contest your every single word (I wish I could say that last part was still true, but I guess I'm not that lucky).

I wish there was a switch that could bring me back to January so I could advocate against the overhaul. Yes, we were probably bound to die anyhow, but I don't think the goal was this. Our community will live on, but I doubt it will be anything worthwhile. We're just going to become another server that's been toyed with and resurrected too much.

 

[Doxxieh]

do you think people just log in and play with themselves?

You don't need to log in for that, trust me

 

[Iguana]

Unfortunately, a lot of users here have to just accept the fact that Minecraft is not even 1/10th the level of amusement as it used to be and accept it as fact. Are we gonna shut down their servers? No. Are we gonna get a steady influx of new players to them? Probably not. Are we wrong in stating this as fact? Definitely not.

I don't really know where the head admins are, I'll presume they're catching up on life before making any further sweeping changes, and I don't know where the server admins are either, but for now me and Sploorky have for the most part accepted that a certain branch of this community is dead and to just roll with whatever we have. In our eyes we're not trying to force some new swaglord Minecraft server or branch into another game but rather trying to preserve Teamspeak and to a lesser extent with us, the forums, as a communal place where you can find your pals you used to play with. If people are bored of our servers then I'm 95% sure they've already left, and if not then they're hanging onto whatever friendships they have here. With that we're just really having a Teamspeak server with private channels so that you can just bring your friends from other communities or games that you yourself have branched into and just use the rooms to communicate and nothing more. Personally I have no real "stick" to this place anymore and thus want to focus more on making everyone else's internet life more bearable, so letting you go your own way and providing a place to talk to your new friends that you make along your own internet journey is 100% fine with me.

 

[Naoh]

A lot of people seem to think this thread is some sort of joke, or trying to make it into a joke. Or just disliking every post in the thread. (looking at you rosekill) This thread is not a joke, nor should it be made into one. OP is actually making a lot of meaningful points.
I for one highly support the idea of creating something original. Everyone talks about the Classic Servers, and how cool they where. Do you remember why they where so cool? They where original. That's what set us apart from everyone else. TNT was a server that no one else had. We had amazing Devs, and a great staff team. I don't have a solution, but I do think that creating something special would be a lot more meaningful than making another server that wouldn't create much interest for new players.
Like I said, I don't know what to do about the lack of draw, but I think that we should try something new. I still have faith in Minecraft, because of the crazy large playerbase it has. To the HS, please, please, consider the points OP has made.

 

[Iguana]

Nobody is really making this thread a joke, it's just this sort of thread is beaten harder than a dead horse that crossed over with a child slave. We've heard this shit like once a month, so sometimes people just make trollposts, it's not like it's difficult for me to scroll past and identify a serious post, that takes a few seconds.

 

[Doxxieh]

As long as teamspeak remains intact, and my buildbox/Create plots will be in some way available for me to store locally, I can quite honestly say I'm not bothered what happens to this community. In my opinion it's far from being resurrected into the community it once was. But as it has been said, some people will want to stay around for one reason or another, so it'll never fully die, even if it's reduced to nothing more than a Steam group with a TeamSpeak server.

 

[parquette]

Blocktopia has literally become the Incredibles just now... and I just happen to be on the side of classic minecraft fans.

Let's be honest, Classic TNT was different from any Minecraft we have played before. It is the minecraft server a lot of us started with and will always remember in future game days to come. What I am about to say is for all of you Star Wars fans!!! Remember hearing people that saw the first 1970's Star Wars film in theaters for the first time saying that it was like nothing anyone had seen before? It's because it was original, and had it's foundations of likeability that kept fans continuously coming back to watch it all over again. You diehard Classic Minecraft fans (including me) are exactly like those original Star Wars fans. Classic TNT was nothing we have ever played before because it was original, small, homey, and fun! This community over the years has had it's fair share of laughs, but the activity on the server has, yes, declined with the new servers. We don't have TNT or Scottish Kilt based classic servers anymore (I actually also enjoyed the special titles on Scottish Kilt they gave you if you requested it [mine was Indy Fan]) which is sad because they were imo the best Minecraft playerbase. I like to think of us Classic fans as old timers who lived in the golden age of Minecraft classic :)

I would really like to somehow and someday go back to them for the joyful playing and awesomeness they had, and I hope someday Blocktopia (Blocktopia was an awesome name, and I am sticking by it) recreates their iconic and 'once as solid as steel' server.

From a huge fan of classic--- parquette

(P.S. Naoh was the one that introduced me to Blocktopia, and I thank him for that!)

 

[_ChoasLego_]

Blocktopia has literally become the Incredibles just now... and I just happen to be on the side of classic minecraft fans.

Care to explain?

What Blocktopia/ER needs is more outside exposure. Originality is also what can set us apart, but we need better/wider advertising to attract new players.

 

[Jivvi]

My personal opinion is that we should withdraw for a bit. We're don't have any gravity as a community; and we're not retaining members. If we set up a proper little system in something like Steam, we can sit there indefinitely while the community drifts around for a bit. If we find a decent platform to sit on and stay there (sit there with a nice neat steam group, organise events and stuff on free/common games, throw in a movie night, whatever people do with their time), we might accumulate members. On top of that, I think it'll actually focus in on the people a bit more. People often leave because the forums are stagnant and the servers are haphazard in terms of activity and people (omg his base is illegal by one block, pls dedicate hour to investigate). If people set up little rings of stuff they do; eg tf2-heads who live in places within reasonable ping of each other, or league people who continue flooding the respective areas with dank memes; we might attract people through what's really been our forte most of the way - the community itself. (besides czs)

edit: also hosting costs

 

[Notme]

What happened to plans of advertising our community?
Since we lost our high density influx of new players, when classic died, we should increase our area (Advertising pls), if you catch what I mean.

 

[Vatumok]

I hope people now understand why I was upset at some of the decisions made in the whole 'overhaul' situation.
There is just so little fun to do at the moment, servers are basically unplayable (low amount of players, bad gameplay). The only thing to do is post on the forums and play other games over steam or something.

The thing is that the ER administration needs to stop being scared and try something new, it's not going to work this way. Cut the servers down to 2-3 maximum with unique, attractive gameplay. Stop with throwing in a lot of other game server that can't be supported without a bigger playerbase (or focus on other games instead of MC).

 

[Jubjubers]

Pixar movie allegory thread

 

[snowma]

I've got absolutely fuck all solutions but the fact that there's a fuck ton of people commenting/rating posts keeps me comforted that we aren't exactly on the brink of collapsing.

 

[ChocoFox]

Not sure if my opinion is valuated here, but I just want to say the following:

1. I have joined this server approximately 2 years ago hoping to play Classic TNT. I had searched the internet for a server to no avail that publicly offered "TNT Wars", until the BT IP address popped up on the Google search.

2. When I joined the Classic TNT server was already gone. I was very disappointed back then, and I went to play on BuildBox server instead, and there, many players told me that Classic TNT was undergoing development and updates, and that it would be up soon.

3. The hope of Classic TNT making its reappearance from the vanishing act that I never saw actually clung me onto BuildBox, building various cannons and showing them off to fascinated players on the mechworld that existed at BuildBox back then, and occasionally chatting with the moderators about the progress of Classic TNT.

4. I had stayed put ever since - playing on BuildBox, now Create. Although I found out a long time ago that the magical reappearance of Classic TNT would most likely not be witnessed soon, I truly enjoyed the solitude of the servers at times, and the small community that is - frankly unique.

5. To me, I just want to say that this server, though not very big, has an understanding community. When I play on Create, I often would see the same players and chat with them, and I appreciate that.

A small community that is more bonded in my opinion would be better than a large community that is dispersed.therefore, addressing the issue of declination of this server, I don't think it will happen, and I hope it stays that way.

Thank you for reading my opinion.

 

[parquette]

The Incredibles. Pixar Superhero movie. About superheroes that worked in the 60's, but were later told by the government to quit their hero-work to become normal average citizens. 2 characters from this film are doing hero-work secretly to relive the 'glory days'. Personally the Classic TNT days imo were the glory days of Blocktopia. Btw, you don't really see him much, but Wolfmann74 (he's a friend of mine) stated to me last night that he wishes TNT would come back. Just saying I'm not the only one. He also stated that the new Blocktopia just doesn't appeal to him much, because it isn't the same as it used to be.

And I agree with Naoh, nobody is really taking this seriously. Forgive my ranting mood please

And I think Steam is another factor. We are so concentrated on other games that nobody is really putting effort into minecraft Blocktopia. Imo, there is only 1 Blocktopia, and that is Minecraft Blocktopia.

(btw if we do have TNT come back, could it please be done in Classic TNT styhle? With lava explosions and cannons?)

Oh and as a sidenote, this community had a homeliness as I have stated in other threads. The community was "home" for me when it came to Minecraft. This community over the months has been so concentrated on expanding to other types of games and thinking more about the money and amount of people instead of appealing to the people we already have. This is not appealing to me one bit. I am one of those "old timer" Blocktopia players that first played when C TNT played, and there has been many noticeable changes, 1 of them is the people.

And I know that swearing IS allowed on this community to express irritation or moods of some other kind, but over the years this opportunity has been taken advantage of, and almost EVERY OTHER chat message I see has the f word in it, or the s word, and I don't like playing with people like that. The old Classic TNT server didn't have that much swearing in it, and it was enjoyable for everyone. It was friendly, and fun to interact with people. The chat has become less and less enjoyable to read, and more pitiable every time. I'm not the only one that hates this factor, and I know it. It's also hard to tolerate it because if I want to read the chat and I am against cussing, the chat will be overloaded with the f and s and every other form of cruel language. Yes I am basically saying the community is getting less and less friendly, and to me this is sad. Btw, please forgive me putting all of my thoughts in a very harsh manner, but I just couldn't keep it inside anymore.