JtE can't last forever. But when is it time for it to go?
I have been thinking about this for some time now. I really haven't talked about it that much because I don't want to sound like an old crab, but JtE's time is coming. Face the facts! I've decided to talk about this due to the recent news of an old server possibly coming back and the news of a very nice update to minecraft itself. After reading through Chillingworth's thread about old servers, I realize that many of you are not satisfied with the current SMP, JtE. Many of you desire a structure similar to Primordia. This news caused me to further question some people and analyze JtE itself. I won't say any names right now until the people I questioned want to be associated with this, but here are some points that we discussed:
1. Player Count - Obviously the player count is down from the opening of JtE. That is perfectly normal for any server, but from what I have observed, the player count is reaching all time lows. I've been on a lot more this past week due to school being out and I've noticed very low player counts not only on the weekdays, but also on the weekends. The player counts remind me of the last days of the previous SMP, when I was one of the very few who still played.
2. PvE - I've always taken into account who is on the server. I hardly ever see people on that I would normally see on the old SMPs. One of the people who I actually interviewed was a very active player on the previous SMPs and she was also active for the first few weeks of JtE. I recently went looking for her since I noticed that she was hardly ever on JtE. I found out she was very active in AoD/PTNT/RoF. She said that JtE just lost its touch and it wasn't as fun as Primordia and one of the previous SMPs. I found this very upsetting that she no longer found joy in Blocktopia's SMP.
So I talked to her a bit more about the PvE VS PvP issue. She said that many players didn't like PvP because they would always get killed. I feel that the players that said that didn't give PvP a try. It is the truth that when I first started PvP, I would get killed due to other players or nature. But I didn't give up. I slowly learned the ropes and ways to deal with PvP. Many people think PvP means they are in combat 24/7. This is simply Not True. I would like to make a metaphor. Have you taken Biology at your school? Do you at least know what evolution/natural selection is? In Minecraft SMPs, PvP is the natural selection. It keeps people from creating too many clans, too grand of a city, too much of this and too much of that. If you took Biology, you also learned that when a population gets too large it collapses. Snowfall was growing exponentially, then it collapsed and many people in its clan didn't come back to JtE. (Not the best metaphor but you get the idea.) In the previous SMP, I made some decent towns. They weren't grand but they were nice. It was much more of an accomplishment then, than it would be in a PvE server. I was proud that I gathered all the those materials and built the buildings with the danger of an attack. I never actually liked to participate in PvP, but it gave me a challenge that was fun.
Another thing in JtE that ruins the fun is the Nether Network. It is very convenient and it makes travel easier, but let's face it. It's much more of a challenge to transport everything in the overworld and it's more fun too. If we had PvP, another NN would not be made I think. If one was made, it would be a hotspot for combat and many would not travel it. PvP would make travelling fun again!
3. Pre-Made Towns, Trades, Emeralds - At first I thought all of these trades and pre-made towns and emerald being a major currency would be awesome, but it's not. The trades were somewhat useful in the beginning, but now they're just blah. I think they were actually too useful I think. They discouraged players from getting things on their own and they took the fun away. I don't think the trades are that good anymore now that we all have loads of supplies. This also made emeralds not rare, which isn't that big of a deal but still meh.
4. Quests - I can't say too much on this topic since I really didn't do any quests, but they are gone now anyways. Many people complained of the glitches, and I just found them unattractive. There were a lot of quests that I just felt looked stupid.
5. Minecraft is being Updated - As we know with the previous SMP, updates can make our SMP server outdated. Another reason for updating the last SMP was the fact that it lacked natural cocoa and emerald ore. Right now JtE lacks natural quartz and it will lack naturally spawned horses, mules, and donkeys soon enough. This also brings up the issue of resources. As we all know, resources like glowstone cannot be found in the nether in great quantities anymore.
6. Application Process for Towns - When I first started Elysium, I thought this would be great, but it's not. I've created many successful towns in the previous SMP, but this time I had trouble doing it. The main reason: I had no way of creating a TAG with a clan chat that would bond the new members to my clan. Let me explain. If you were a new player to Elysium, and two people called out your name in the chat. They each asked you if you wanted to join their clan. One person had a very fancy TAG and had chest protection and a clan chat. The other person didn't have a TAG or any fancy chat, but they had a very nice up and coming town that you couldn't see from the spawn. Who would you choose? I would choose the person with the fancy book cover, the TAG. See what I mean? This gave the smaller clan a disadvantage right off the bat. I also just really enjoyed the clan chat in the previous SMP. It was very convenient and we created a nice town even without the incentive of something like the clan chat or chest protection.
I understand that there are other opinions out there so please post away if you disagree! I encourage those who Agree to also post. Everyone's opinion is critical!
) People can get a LOT of progress during summer. Then PvP, here we come! during the school year. 
