Archived Longevity Of Massivecraft - Reality Check

[Aeyris]

Hey all,

As many players have probably noticed, the minecraft community has started shrinking, especially factions.

Likely this shift reverberates from community members going to college, starting careers; even getting married.

Thus, a symptom of this reality; is that our server has seen a dwindling in numbers for the past many months. I have many personal anecdotes and opinions on this issue - but I'm more interested in hearing others before I blabber.

@MyCatBubbles @Genecide65 @jes_ @Saharen @Sevak @Jareth

idk pls tag some other poeple who are interested in the server.

 

[Aeyris]

@falconhand

 

[MyCatBubbles]

bring back pets

 

[Aeyris]

bring back pets

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Clever idea, pls apply for staff

 

[Neckerei]

I feel like the crisis has really brought alot of people on and back. I could be wrong though

 

[Aeyris]

I feel like the crisis has really brought alot of people on and back. I could be wrong though

Click to shrink...

To a certain extent, Personally, I feel enthusiasm for it has dwindled - however, it must be noticed the boost if gave to the factions world was measurable

 

[Aeyris]

imo, massive needs to diversify to attract as many players as possible

 

[Mojavens]

Staff just needs to release new content sooner instead of working countless hours coding a big new plugin idea (magic no offense)

 

[Mojavens]

like release some new magic words already or bring back cannons already but we've already recently had a ts talking with marty about these kinds of things that need to be changed

 

[Mojavens]

they just released slums which is great but we need to get more hype before releasing something like making videos on youtube before a release date or have countdowns

 

[Aeyris]

all true, another thing I want to note is that we could probably divert a lot of the traffic in tickets to a dichotomous key like page (Sorta like a diagnostic for issues)

I just feel that perhaps massive staff uses more brute force in completing tasks then necessary. Help Chat is good; but in practice i don't think it covers all the complexities of massive.

@Omnomivore

 

[Maytee]

IMO, I'd like to see the Cannons plugin released before MassiveEmpires. Being able to operate cannons would bring a welcomed refresher to all of the factions worlds. Not to mention they'd be pretty rad to use while defending your faction in CoK.

 

[falconhand]

Tbh we just need to attract far more players. When people claim that the economy sucks or pvp is dead, think of how it would be with 3-4× the players. If our amazing community, some of which are incredibly skilled, were devoted to creating ads and content, it could make a huge difference since the Massive Craft name would be more well known. I am personally working on a promotional video, and if others did as well, we could attract significantly more players.

 

[FireFan96]

https://www.massivecraft.com/stats-month

While this graph just shows total player count, and not any specific server community, it still shows that on average Massive is just maintaining the amount of players it has. (surprisingly to me, we got more players during the beginning of the school year than in the summer)

I'm inclined to believe Minecraft java is losing people, but that may be because the mobile versions are more readily accessible to play, and so people play those versions for convenience. While getting players to Minecraft java and Massive is a good goal, there's no reason to start hiding in bunkers now waiting for the end to come.

 

[Genecide65]

Honestly ive accepted this already so now im just trying to have as much fun as I can now with my buds instead of worrying about the inevitable future.

 

[Casander]

MassiveCraft should invest more time and money in marketing the Magic Plugin. I haven't seen anywhere when searching for a magic server that of MassiveCraft, I only got here conveniently cause of factions. But overall I think if MassiveCraft advertised more on other server-hosting sites more effectively and over the net more players would be joining, especially for the Magic Plugin.

 

[Conflee]

The servers that suffer most from the "Fall of Minecraft" are the Spammy, Copy-Paste servers, like the 87 MILLION random small servers using the factions plugin, or the 90000000 BILLION random crappy survival servers run by 9 year olds. The niche servers, like the few actually good RP servers, the few big/good Factions servers, and the big Minigame servers, will still thrive.

 

[_Torivor]

One problem I see is what people think when they read the server's description for the first time. Roleplay is often seen as Mary-Sue Hitmen and Mages in a world where you can do anything you want with little consequence. The factions on this server can be seen as a little bland compared to other servers with OP Factions and constant raids. Before we had MassiveMagic what really pulled in players was the vampire plugin. That was something new to many people, and if they didn't hear anything bad about it from somewhere else it's likely they will join to see what it is. The same thing started happening when MassiveMagic was released. But both Factions and Roleplay are something many people know about, many people confuse with other forms of the plugin, and MassiveCraft's way of using it.

 

[Enkiduu]

https://www.massivecraft.com/stats-month

I feel the need to point out that this data isn't enough to draw any conclusions. I check on this stat page every so often and have been doing so for years. Sometimes it drops, sometimes it rises. There was a period about 2-3 years ago when the server barely kept above 200. Considering that, you can say it's improved a lot since then.

I'm not gonna give any reasons for rises and falls since I don't know enough to make a statement on that, but Massivecraft is planned to be here for a long, long time. We've got very professional and competent staff leading this place, staff who are aware of potential problems and will continue to guide it in a direction that will ensure its longevity.

 

[Aeyris]

The niche servers, like the few actually good RP servers, the few big/good Factions servers, and the big Minigame servers, will still thrive.

Click to shrink...

Massivecraft is definitely unique, and for certain, there are a group of players who do indeed find Massive very appealing, myself included. But niches also make it hard to diversify our player base. Sure, there is a very loyal group to this server, but over time, it will inevitably grow smaller. This is why I see the value in appealing to more players, to build on what we already have. Why settle for okay?

I think my title is misleading, I'm not claiming that server is on fire and about to disappear. My hope was to have a group discussion on ideas to strengthen the position of the server in the long term because the facts are undeniable.

 

[ezalB]

I personally believe that MassiveCraft as a server, we really do have to get out there. I'm not offering any hard solutions, because personally, I don't know any, however, someway or something to attract new players would really do it.

I suppose the reason I remember joining was seeing the Vampire plugin and races plugin. I really thought these were some of the coolest plugins (back then). But, if I were to join now, as a new player, i'm not sure i'd want to stay. I'm not entirely sure if it's the ease of access to the community, or the ease of access of information for new players, but, either way I probably would have left. (I'm sure as heck staying here now though.)

Back in the day, there used to be a hub room with a few different hallways to go down. I remember once upon a time there may or may have not been one that said "mini-games" (Might be wrong here, but I could've sworn I remember something.) Maybe this would be a step in the right direction, some sort of C.T.F. mini-game to catch new players? A lot of the largely popular servers nowadays are centered around these mini-games. I certainly remember being younger and enjoying them before, I logged on here for the first time (And had my life sucked away).

((I'm not at all in the factions scene, or staff scene however, so I don't know how realistic or correct my view is.))

 

[Ninja124r]

dead

 

[RedSentinel]

Personally, I see about two maybe two and a half more years.

 

[DolittleGuy]

Personally, from just helping a player like. Start off yesterday, I'd have to say a wiki area for all the ins and outs of RP and such would be reeeeaaaally helpful. Because explaining how to do everything in chat is hard. That's me though.

 

[Conflee]

Personally, from just helping a player like. Start off yesterday, I'd have to say a wiki area for all the ins and outs of RP and such would be reeeeaaaally helpful. Because explaining how to do everything in chat is hard. That's me though.

Click to shrink...

I could get behind this. A "Beginners Introduction Course" or something displayed at the top of the home page, and the sidebar, detailing the basics of emotes, etiquette, Do's and Don't's for skin and name choices, ETC would be amazingly helpful.

 

[fantuinn]

CoK

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god why is this abbreviation so bad

 

[BogeyBanshee]

I think they're doing something about it. Notice how they've started trying to gather content creators of Massivecraft. Entertainment is advertisement. YouTube, Twitch, Snapchat even, Deviantart, Tumbler, all of those things advertise Massivecraft when these creators share art, screenshots and videos.
Any one of us could create a tutorial on how to play massivecraft, I even wrote a script for it on a restless night, if I ever got around to making one.

 

[Conflee]

I think they're doing something about it. Notice how they've started trying to gather content creators of Massivecraft. Entertainment is advertisement. YouTube, Twitch, Snapchat even, Deviantart, Tumbler, all of those things advertise Massivecraft when these creators share art, screenshots and videos.
Any one of us could create a tutorial on how to play massivecraft, I even wrote a script for it on a restless night, if I ever got around to making one.

Click to shrink...

oh god you reminded me of my Aloria Explained series I had half-scripted and never made oh god XD