Pros: Massivecraft has a quirky mixture of people that are die-hard LOVING of RP and die-hard LOVING of PvP, as well as people that are in the middle of this divide. That being said, the server literally has something for everyone.
The architecture is AMAZING in many places. There is an incredible and dedicated staff that is committed to making the server the best possible place that it can be. There are also some pretty fun events for different seasons!
The Lore is one of the most detailed and advanced lores that have ever existed on a server and definitely more advanced than many other forms of media as well.
The little bit of PvPing that I've done has both been an incredible annoyance and yet, slightly fun. I can definitely see why people would be attracted to it. With the different stats and traits that exist in order to make pvp more specified, people can literally fight however they want! If people want to beat someone to death with an axe, they can, if they want to raise an army of dogs to do their bidding, they can! It's a great variety of skills and possibilities.
That being said....
Cons: The mixture of PvP and RP makes an inevitable and unfortunate feeling of inferiority to some people and a feeling of superiority to others. Also, people that are hardcore RP do not feel that they should be required to train skills in order to survive in their factions (factions that many times have walls that, without enderpearls, would be impenetrable). The hardcore PvP scene constantly calls them down for being "crybabies" or "p***ies" that should just suck it up and train their skills. The hardcore RP scene constantly calls the PvP scene out on being "a**holes" or "try-hards" that should just leave them alone and let them have their fun. Is either side technically right? Yes, and no. Yes, PvPers should respect the wishes of a faction that wishes to be strict RP and should leave said factions alone and yes, RPers SHOULD be able to defend in case of attacks. No, PvPers should not think any less of RPers that wish to be left alone and no, RPers should not down people for having fun in their own way. This is the divide that exists on the server and needs to be abolished before the server could be considered "perfect" community-wise. (However, if a perfect balance were to ever exist between the two communities, something else might also come up which causes a new split but meh, I like to be optimistic.)
The architecture, though amazing, seems hectic and confusing. The city also never seems to be completed, I understand that the build team wants to make the city perfect, however, with ever changing views and ideas, the city can realistically never be "perfect." Instead of constantly changing and moving things in the city, focus on perfecting certain areas in the city (preferably the areas used for housing) and then when satisfied, move on to other parts.
The lore is amazing, however, the amount of detail needed to create a character (specifically one that will "make it" in the society) is almost too much. The character application form almost deters me from wanting to RP at all, mostly due to all of the nit-picking on minor details. The most difficult part of the form in my opinion is trying to match everything up with the dates already pre-set in the lore. It becomes a major hassle to try to work around the dates and times already in the lore, especially if you want to make an interesting character that's not "cliche". The other major complaint with the lore is the fact that there are parts that are completely re-written, making people who have had characters approved before the rewrites completely non-compliant. (This is the reason that I've decided to not make another character until the lore rewrites settle down honestly, one of the recent rewrites makes my character non-compliant.) The final con is more of a personal dislike as opposed to a factual one, I dislike the idea of letting a lot of people have high social standings. It used to be extremely difficult to become a noble, but now it seems like quite a few people are able to do it without having much difficulty. Once again, this part is simply how I, alone, feel as opposed to how other people in the community feel.
The PvPing is varied and, at times, fun. However, I feel like it should be brought to attention that there are wasted resources being used in the PvP arenas. Not many people actually play in the arenas, and the ones that do, often end up spending a rather large amount of time waiting for an opponent. More often than not, the person spending time waiting will often leave before finding an opponent. There are many reasons that I've heard that players don't want to use the arenas. These reasons are that the arenas are too small and the PvPers prefer the faction-based combat in the main continents.
I have some solutions to quite a few of the cons that I've listed, if enough people want to hear them, then I will consider releasing the solutions on a separate thread at a later time! If I was supposed to do that here, erm... well, just let me know and I'll edit this with the solutions! Thanks for taking the time to read all of this!
