You have justified his point even farther. I'd probably stop now if I were in your shoes. If not, continue digging that grave.
Addressing the decline of EscapeRestart/Blocktopia.
- Thread starter Chips
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Y
YouWould
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As has been said several times already, may we please stop bickering and attacking each other? It's inappropriate, immature, and quite frankly not necessary.
Now, I really think the servers should be evaluated at the end of every few months, preferably a day or two before meetings (Including TS and Forums). The Server and Head Admins should decide what major changes/improvements should be made, and if the server needs major alterations/removal (Possibly added/removed servers decided annually or twice a year).
Just my initial thoughts, I'll try being more in depth later.
Now, I really think the servers should be evaluated at the end of every few months, preferably a day or two before meetings (Including TS and Forums). The Server and Head Admins should decide what major changes/improvements should be made, and if the server needs major alterations/removal (Possibly added/removed servers decided annually or twice a year).
Just my initial thoughts, I'll try being more in depth later.
And again, this thread derails into shitposting. Can we get some real opinions from you guys instead? I'm looking at you rosekill and Jubjubers .
I for one believe we need to stop grasping onto dead hope. The minecraft side of the community is dieing. One change I think should happen, although we've started as a minecraft community, is that we should transition into league. It's quite obvious that within this community, league is just as popular as minecraft and yet the latter is in its decline. Why? Because it seems league is more fun and minecraft is more social. (This would be just temporary though, or if enough people demand we stick to it, we can try and make it work.)
Blah blah blah, if minecraft is more social then why are we so low on players. Simple. We've outlived our glory days and it's time to move on. Our servers are no longer original. How many SMP's are there? How many CMP's are there? Although we do have AoD and Rof, they've become very inactive. There's nobody left to talk/have fun on the two servers. This in turn results in more people leaving. There's also the fact that, because we're burned out/getting older/interested in other games, we'll leave minecraft behind.
What I'm getting at here is: Minecraft is dieing out within this community. It's time we moved on. Maybe keep one or two servers for minecraft and see how that goes, otherwise, focus on other games.
If we can snag a completely new game right at the start (which is also free preferably) and work on it as much as possible, we'll have new and original servers in no time and be able to relive the glory days.
I for one believe we need to stop grasping onto dead hope. The minecraft side of the community is dieing. One change I think should happen, although we've started as a minecraft community, is that we should transition into league. It's quite obvious that within this community, league is just as popular as minecraft and yet the latter is in its decline. Why? Because it seems league is more fun and minecraft is more social. (This would be just temporary though, or if enough people demand we stick to it, we can try and make it work.)
Blah blah blah, if minecraft is more social then why are we so low on players. Simple. We've outlived our glory days and it's time to move on. Our servers are no longer original. How many SMP's are there? How many CMP's are there? Although we do have AoD and Rof, they've become very inactive. There's nobody left to talk/have fun on the two servers. This in turn results in more people leaving. There's also the fact that, because we're burned out/getting older/interested in other games, we'll leave minecraft behind.
What I'm getting at here is: Minecraft is dieing out within this community. It's time we moved on. Maybe keep one or two servers for minecraft and see how that goes, otherwise, focus on other games.
If we can snag a completely new game right at the start (which is also free preferably) and work on it as much as possible, we'll have new and original servers in no time and be able to relive the glory days.
this thread reminds me of something... something snappy.. and sort of flashy.. you could almost say..
SNAPFLASH.
:^)
That's all I got. Sorry that I derailed this even further but by this point I feel like we've beaten this dead horse until we're just beating the dust of its' bones.
SNAPFLASH.
:^)
That's all I got. Sorry that I derailed this even further but by this point I feel like we've beaten this dead horse until we're just beating the dust of its' bones.
Jubjubers
Best BuildBox Guy 2011 - 2013
we're a community with teamspeak and forums
the game servers we own have no purpose than to hopefully gain new members, which hasn't worked
we're a league of legends community with some small part of it casually playing Minecraft
we have an identity but holistically just can't accept it yet
we want to think of ourselves as a game server community when really we're just a community of people playing a game that already has servers
so if we accept that we aren't the game server community we once were, we can move on and start doing better things than forcing TTT and Minecraft down the throats of the community
tl;dr, move away from game servers, save $$, and offer community instead of game servers and advertising, because it doesn't work in gaining new players
you don't have to own servers to be a successful community. ive known communities that shut down their game server but kept a teamspeak and people were able to play whatever games they wanted with each other
blocktopia doesn't have the power to create a 50 player/50 player server
the game servers we own have no purpose than to hopefully gain new members, which hasn't worked
we're a league of legends community with some small part of it casually playing Minecraft
we have an identity but holistically just can't accept it yet
we want to think of ourselves as a game server community when really we're just a community of people playing a game that already has servers
so if we accept that we aren't the game server community we once were, we can move on and start doing better things than forcing TTT and Minecraft down the throats of the community
tl;dr, move away from game servers, save $$, and offer community instead of game servers and advertising, because it doesn't work in gaining new players
you don't have to own servers to be a successful community. ive known communities that shut down their game server but kept a teamspeak and people were able to play whatever games they wanted with each other
blocktopia doesn't have the power to create a 50 player/50 player server
first part: thank u
second part: that's what we tried to do, hence the entire overhaul and the opening of the TTT, Starbound, and eventually Jailbreak server. And we were supposed to really keep only 1 or 2 of the more popular servers and open the SMP for some amount of time, if my memory serves me right. But we wound up keeping RoF, Create, A+T, and opened the SMP server. Now, I'm not saying this lineup of servers was a bad choice, but A+T is really supposed to be a Community Event server (like Hunger Games, puzzles, etc.). Create had a decent following, not sure what ever happened to that. RoF, again, not sure what happened. Kami's felt the same fate that many recent SMP's felt.
It's too late to say what we should have done, but maybe it's time to do an Overhaul Redux. Starting with, like you said, keeping only one or two servers, keeping A+T locked up in a closet to be dusted off and brought out for certain Events, and moving on to more games. League obviously has a huge following in this community, among many other games. One major thing I wish we would have done is worked more diligently on releasing the other servers we said we were going to (and worked to maintain the one we actually did release, which I don't think has been touched in a month).
Maybe that's what we can do, though. Take a break from it all, take down the servers (or at least work on them when there's downtime), and prepare servers with a select group of people to determine how things are going to work out. The worst thing that can happen at that point is the new, fresh server will fail and we'll have to resort back to our worn out servers. But we can always come together (especially us staff!) and rebuild something that came crashing to the ground.
Medication-induced post over, see you sometime later.
Hi guys, there's an understandably great deal of emotion and anger in this thread, and that makes this response particularly hard to write, but I'll give it a go.
TheOnes, Blocktopia, EscapeRestart, whatever you want to call it, it is something very dear to us all. We've had a lot of fun across the servers over the years, and nobody is debating the fact that the quality of service that we provide has decreased significantly in recent years. It isn't a pleasant fact, but it is one that we as an administration team are well aware of, and have been for quite some time. Unfortunately, try as we might, there is never going to be the community you saw in TheOnes, and there is never going to be community you saw in Blocktopia's early years. That isn't to say we'll never have the same fun, but things have changed, and an awful lot of people neglect to accept that fact. Minecraft has changed, the gaming industry has changed, and to some extent our members have changed. Minecraft's playerbase demographic is spectacularly different now, and, though I hate to say it, there are places out there that can provide a better service for that new demographic than us. These places are called businesses.
There are places out there that are paying their devs, are paying their tech's, and are taking a nice slice of profit at the top. I don't mention this because I think I am wonderful and should be paid for all my wonderful work... I mention this because, for many people, the community that they want EscapeRestart to be is one led by experts. Unfortunately, you're stuck with people like me. I'm a student, not a specialist in marketing , programming, management, or public relations. I do the best I can, because that's all I can. Don't take this as an excuse - when I accepted the role of Community Admin I took on the responsibilities of running the community, and fully accept that many things do not happen when they should do, and that is down to me, but simply put there are a whole lot of people better equipped to create a community than I. There is however a pretty simple solution to helping the community in this respect -> you.
Yep, you. At the end of the day, this is a community led environment, always has been always will be. There is no owner, no hidden overlord calling the shots. What makes the community is you, us - the people in it. And it is for that reason that this thread has been so interesting to read through, as we get to see both sides of the community coin. On the one side, we have the helpers. The people doing everything they can, and using their knowledge and voice to try to help us out, and to keep the community moving. Some might have very specific ideas, others generic, and some none at all, but regardless, they use their voice, and their voice is heard. This voice is the spirit of the community, and us Admins are sworn to listening to it. Sometimes we get somewhere with what we hear, others we don't, but constructive thread creators and participants are what makes the community a community, not a faceless dictatorship. But then the coin flips, and we get to see the more ugly side of EscapeRestart. The behaviour of some members within this thread has frankly been absolutely deplorable and toxic to the community. The attitudes of some are, in no uncertain terms, unacceptable in a community like this. Stay Classy, and do remember that you don't have nine lives. It's all good preaching community death, but with some of the stuff here I am in no way surprised that people aren't sticking around. Don't expect any free passes - if you are damaging the community atmosphere, you will not be welcome.
But to return to a more positive note, I should reassure you that I am pursuing many of the topics and suggestions of this thread further, particularly in streamlining our server lineup and looking to reduce our monthly bills. There's still a great deal that can be done to help the community, and I can promise you all that we are not in danger of completely dying out any time soon. A lot has changed, and I'm sure we'll see even further chance, but in one form or another, we'll always be waiting on the other side :) .
This has been a very busy and eventful thread thus far, so I have tried to address your issues in a concise a manner as possible. Any more specific questions about the thread or my response and just hit me with a tag - I'll try to reply as soon as I can.
TheOnes, Blocktopia, EscapeRestart, whatever you want to call it, it is something very dear to us all. We've had a lot of fun across the servers over the years, and nobody is debating the fact that the quality of service that we provide has decreased significantly in recent years. It isn't a pleasant fact, but it is one that we as an administration team are well aware of, and have been for quite some time. Unfortunately, try as we might, there is never going to be the community you saw in TheOnes, and there is never going to be community you saw in Blocktopia's early years. That isn't to say we'll never have the same fun, but things have changed, and an awful lot of people neglect to accept that fact. Minecraft has changed, the gaming industry has changed, and to some extent our members have changed. Minecraft's playerbase demographic is spectacularly different now, and, though I hate to say it, there are places out there that can provide a better service for that new demographic than us. These places are called businesses.
There are places out there that are paying their devs, are paying their tech's, and are taking a nice slice of profit at the top. I don't mention this because I think I am wonderful and should be paid for all my wonderful work... I mention this because, for many people, the community that they want EscapeRestart to be is one led by experts. Unfortunately, you're stuck with people like me. I'm a student, not a specialist in marketing , programming, management, or public relations. I do the best I can, because that's all I can. Don't take this as an excuse - when I accepted the role of Community Admin I took on the responsibilities of running the community, and fully accept that many things do not happen when they should do, and that is down to me, but simply put there are a whole lot of people better equipped to create a community than I. There is however a pretty simple solution to helping the community in this respect -> you.
Yep, you. At the end of the day, this is a community led environment, always has been always will be. There is no owner, no hidden overlord calling the shots. What makes the community is you, us - the people in it. And it is for that reason that this thread has been so interesting to read through, as we get to see both sides of the community coin. On the one side, we have the helpers. The people doing everything they can, and using their knowledge and voice to try to help us out, and to keep the community moving. Some might have very specific ideas, others generic, and some none at all, but regardless, they use their voice, and their voice is heard. This voice is the spirit of the community, and us Admins are sworn to listening to it. Sometimes we get somewhere with what we hear, others we don't, but constructive thread creators and participants are what makes the community a community, not a faceless dictatorship. But then the coin flips, and we get to see the more ugly side of EscapeRestart. The behaviour of some members within this thread has frankly been absolutely deplorable and toxic to the community. The attitudes of some are, in no uncertain terms, unacceptable in a community like this. Stay Classy, and do remember that you don't have nine lives. It's all good preaching community death, but with some of the stuff here I am in no way surprised that people aren't sticking around. Don't expect any free passes - if you are damaging the community atmosphere, you will not be welcome.
But to return to a more positive note, I should reassure you that I am pursuing many of the topics and suggestions of this thread further, particularly in streamlining our server lineup and looking to reduce our monthly bills. There's still a great deal that can be done to help the community, and I can promise you all that we are not in danger of completely dying out any time soon. A lot has changed, and I'm sure we'll see even further chance, but in one form or another, we'll always be waiting on the other side :) .
This has been a very busy and eventful thread thus far, so I have tried to address your issues in a concise a manner as possible. Any more specific questions about the thread or my response and just hit me with a tag - I'll try to reply as soon as I can.
wow i said this earlier where are my five likes
The forums would be good to diversify; maybe dedicating subforums to games that may be less popular within the community, but are still well-liked. Examples might be robocraft or tf2 or wow or terraria. Having dedicated sections to a lot of different sections may help appeal / appear welcoming to passers-by because they can see that they can meet a bunch of people with similar interests. (eg anime subsection, more limelight for the creative corner, stuff that isn't games) (might also give the forum mod role a bit of scope too). why keep trying and failing to be whatever we're trying to be now when we can let the community shape itself a little.
SirComputer
Rainmaker
The staff team are currently discussing and making improvements to a forum thread to post in places like PMC etc, thanks to Psycho! So please be patient, less of the memes, less of the arguments, and if you're being serious in this thread, thanks for voicing your opinions about this, and we hope others will too.
...Not all of us are as hyper-religious as you?I should have made a point then ended. Sorry about that
But yes, most kids don't have their parents looking over their shoulder. I'm just saying that if their was more friendly chat, this would be a happier place. But words like the f and s words are the ones I'm mostly concerned about. Along with saying Jesus's name harshly in situations like "What the heck man?! Like (here is where the Jesus' name is misused) why?!" is also inappropriate. I'm just trying to help the community.
I wouldn't worry, you aren't the only one who has addressed this before but the only one to do so in this thread which has set off a lot of people. Whilst I understand where you are coming from you are fighting a losing battle with the majority of players who do and will occasionally swear, myself included.
I think ER has much bigger problems then people swearing and throwing the word Jesus around. Whilst it might not be everybody's cup of tea I can't see cutting out swearing making this place happier. It's not a dig at you but sadly controlling peoples use of language would probably cause more issues then keeping it as it is.
I can't agree here. The community was exclusively Minecraft before we started opening up to other games. Blocktopia/EscapeRestart has never been a League community. No one is trying to "shove Minecraft down people's throats", we're a Minecraft community trying to become something more.
JKangaroo
Your Local, Neighborhood Marsupial
Do we know this for certain?
And though that question I guess is meant for what I quoted, I really want it to be more like:
Number of community league player <> or = number of community players who don't play league or play other games, which includes minecraft.
Because as far as I can tell, there are just as many of us who don't play league or have no interest in playing it, don't enjoy playing league, or may not like the community. Not really exact numbers, more of a personal observation (which is probably skewed anyways).
But to an extent Noah is right. We were, and currently are, still a minecraft community slowly moving away from Minecraft into other games that other members enjoy. That's why we opened other servers, or are trying to branch into other games.
Not just Minecraft, which obviously people are getting tired of. Not just League of Legends or MOBAs in general, as people may just be as tired or may not enjoy said games.
Different games across different genres for different people.
And frankly, I would be quite sad if we turned into a so called "League Community." We aren't one currently, we're a group of people who enjoy different games but enjoy each others company in these games and on these forums. Minecraft is just a group of us, just as League is just a group of us.
Notme
Self-Aware Forum AI
I think fixed version may be closer to truth - they seem to be more organized that other games sub-communities - MC players seems to be mostly causal guys, who like to play on MC from time to time.
Also most of them staffed some Blocktopia servers in past
Enderfive
sarcasm incarnate
While mostly everything that I'd want to say has been said already by people who can word it better than I can, there is one thing I'd like to address as the matter seems to keep coming up in this thread (and most of the others like it).
I completely agree that when TheOnes/Blocktopia/EscapeRestart was a Minecraft-exclusive community, that was when the glory days were. The servers were constantly filled with players, new ones kept coming daily, the fun factor was extremely high because of the originality, good organization and the wonderful community we offered. I came here for the first time in early 2011, played a few rounds on Classic Lava, then left. The impression those few rounds gave me, however, was enough to make me remember Blocktopia when I got bored with Survival Singleplayer a year later, so I came back and stayed. The old(er) players will always remember those years as the time when the times were best, because that's when they were best. So, in a way, I understand everyone that says we should return to our roots, back to doing things the way we did them when we still had the Classic servers.
However, those people forget why we don't do things that way anymore in the first place. Times have changed. Conditions have changed. Most of the things that the community built its success on have changed. Blocktopia did so well because Minecraft was growing very, very quickly. There was basically free advertising done by Mojang in the form of the classic server list.
Those two things aren't true anymore, as much as I don't like that. Minecraft's growth has started to decline, which means less new players. The players that are new either sit in singleplayer or go to some really, really big communities, such as Hypixel or Mineplex, because they have much, much more appeal than a community where the servers are constantly empty and forum discussions become toxic in a matter of days or even hours.
We also don't have free effortless advertising anymore, and though that could be solved more easily, then it's somewhat futile when the players that do come don't stay.
tl;dr: Minecraft is on its way out. No matter how many threads and posts are made about this, it won't change. I think it would be somewhat more peaceful to accept that rather than to desperately try and cling to the old days, which, quite frankly, just aren't here anymore.
I completely agree that when TheOnes/Blocktopia/EscapeRestart was a Minecraft-exclusive community, that was when the glory days were. The servers were constantly filled with players, new ones kept coming daily, the fun factor was extremely high because of the originality, good organization and the wonderful community we offered. I came here for the first time in early 2011, played a few rounds on Classic Lava, then left. The impression those few rounds gave me, however, was enough to make me remember Blocktopia when I got bored with Survival Singleplayer a year later, so I came back and stayed. The old(er) players will always remember those years as the time when the times were best, because that's when they were best. So, in a way, I understand everyone that says we should return to our roots, back to doing things the way we did them when we still had the Classic servers.
However, those people forget why we don't do things that way anymore in the first place. Times have changed. Conditions have changed. Most of the things that the community built its success on have changed. Blocktopia did so well because Minecraft was growing very, very quickly. There was basically free advertising done by Mojang in the form of the classic server list.
Those two things aren't true anymore, as much as I don't like that. Minecraft's growth has started to decline, which means less new players. The players that are new either sit in singleplayer or go to some really, really big communities, such as Hypixel or Mineplex, because they have much, much more appeal than a community where the servers are constantly empty and forum discussions become toxic in a matter of days or even hours.
We also don't have free effortless advertising anymore, and though that could be solved more easily, then it's somewhat futile when the players that do come don't stay.
tl;dr: Minecraft is on its way out. No matter how many threads and posts are made about this, it won't change. I think it would be somewhat more peaceful to accept that rather than to desperately try and cling to the old days, which, quite frankly, just aren't here anymore.
Psycho
Insufficient Data
If that's the case then should we start advertising it as EscapeRestart Gaming Community? I think it would get a few hits when someone Googles "Gaming Community". Perhaps we could also update the current forum logo and replace the website link with "Gaming Community" or something?
Sploorky
Member
my post was more to the effect of inner-community workings than outer-community advertising. If gaming community gets more hits, then Id say go for it, but i dont know the first thing about advertising.
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