I look at the changes that have occurred on MassiveCraft from both an outsider position, due to my recent inactivity on the server as a result of my schoolwork and athletics taking priority to games, and an insider position, being able to call myself a "a former member of the player versus player game style" and my involvement and countless wars this server has gone through, a veteran of three years, and a former staff member.
I've seen the ups and downs of the MassiveCraft economy.
I've seen the ups and downs of the MassiveCraft community.
I've seen MassiveCraft from a player's point of view.
I've seen MassiveCraft from a staff member's point of view.
To put it humbly, I have seen MassiveCraft from many points of views at many different times, and would say I can adequately speak on the general consensus of views held at those times for which I was a part of.
When I first joined the server, things were very different. The Regalia of today was virtually nonexistent. In its place was a town called Silver edge, but never really held as much RP as Regalia does today. The worlds Ceardia, Daendroc, and Ellador were the only existing survival worlds. Factions beyond 100 members were rare, anymore was unheard of. The roleplay and player versus player communities were not as divided as they are today, and an us, not me mentality seemed to permeate the server. Each faction that actively engaged in fighting had their own fair share of fighters, and power was spread between many factions on the server, not just consolidated into five or less like today. One could argue that money meant more, and I sometimes feel inclined to agree.
For the past two years roughly, the server has divided into two different groups; those who prefer the player versus player environment, and those who prefer the roleplay environment. Both care deeply about the type of game style they enjoy, and would do anything to continue promoting it and keeping it alive. PVPERS come off as brash and rude, when in reality they just want to ensure the survival of their preferred game play style. Some feel cheated, others feel ignored. A common view held by many was that the staff had forgotten about them. The saw the server as increasingly moving to be roleplay centered, and they worried about PVP being forgotten, or put on the backburner. So they became as vocal as to be expected. Some did it correctly, by voicing concerns and proposing solutions, others did it incorrectly by attacking the group of people that they felt took away the attention of the staff. I'll be the first to say it as an ex-PVPER; we treated the role-players like shit. A large majority of PVPERS would never admit this in the recent past, but the PVPERS that do remain on the server are an honest bunch, and have no problem acknowledging this shortcoming. For that, I am truly sorry.
But we can move on now. And begin to repair the divide. Because we all have a common goal; supporting the server in the face of a damaging EULA. We put aside our difference, and we continue to show the staff that we care about the server, and we do everything to insure it continues. We voice our concerns in a concise manner. We tell them what we see wrong, why we see it as wrong, and give them possibilities on how they can fix it to work for us all, and not just a handful of people, and we let them work on which solutions are possible. We work to build coalitions and friendships between unlikely allies, rather than tear each other down in a race to see who benefits the most from server changes. And maybe most importantly, we continue donating, so Cayorion can continue working on improving MassiveCraft, which is his livelihood.
If you've read this far, you've most likely gotten the meaning of my message, but you're wondering how it applies to you, and how you can be involved.
Not me, us.
I've seen the ups and downs of the MassiveCraft economy.
I've seen the ups and downs of the MassiveCraft community.
I've seen MassiveCraft from a player's point of view.
I've seen MassiveCraft from a staff member's point of view.
To put it humbly, I have seen MassiveCraft from many points of views at many different times, and would say I can adequately speak on the general consensus of views held at those times for which I was a part of.
When I first joined the server, things were very different. The Regalia of today was virtually nonexistent. In its place was a town called Silver edge, but never really held as much RP as Regalia does today. The worlds Ceardia, Daendroc, and Ellador were the only existing survival worlds. Factions beyond 100 members were rare, anymore was unheard of. The roleplay and player versus player communities were not as divided as they are today, and an us, not me mentality seemed to permeate the server. Each faction that actively engaged in fighting had their own fair share of fighters, and power was spread between many factions on the server, not just consolidated into five or less like today. One could argue that money meant more, and I sometimes feel inclined to agree.
For the past two years roughly, the server has divided into two different groups; those who prefer the player versus player environment, and those who prefer the roleplay environment. Both care deeply about the type of game style they enjoy, and would do anything to continue promoting it and keeping it alive. PVPERS come off as brash and rude, when in reality they just want to ensure the survival of their preferred game play style. Some feel cheated, others feel ignored. A common view held by many was that the staff had forgotten about them. The saw the server as increasingly moving to be roleplay centered, and they worried about PVP being forgotten, or put on the backburner. So they became as vocal as to be expected. Some did it correctly, by voicing concerns and proposing solutions, others did it incorrectly by attacking the group of people that they felt took away the attention of the staff. I'll be the first to say it as an ex-PVPER; we treated the role-players like shit. A large majority of PVPERS would never admit this in the recent past, but the PVPERS that do remain on the server are an honest bunch, and have no problem acknowledging this shortcoming. For that, I am truly sorry.
But we can move on now. And begin to repair the divide. Because we all have a common goal; supporting the server in the face of a damaging EULA. We put aside our difference, and we continue to show the staff that we care about the server, and we do everything to insure it continues. We voice our concerns in a concise manner. We tell them what we see wrong, why we see it as wrong, and give them possibilities on how they can fix it to work for us all, and not just a handful of people, and we let them work on which solutions are possible. We work to build coalitions and friendships between unlikely allies, rather than tear each other down in a race to see who benefits the most from server changes. And maybe most importantly, we continue donating, so Cayorion can continue working on improving MassiveCraft, which is his livelihood.
If you've read this far, you've most likely gotten the meaning of my message, but you're wondering how it applies to you, and how you can be involved.
- Continue donating. Show your support.
- Hold civilized and meaningful discussions with people on topics important to you. Discourse is fine. Criticize the idea, not the person behind it. No one deserves to have their person brought into a discussion of ideas.
- Be kind to one another. Know that whenever someone proposes something, they just want to continue playing the type of game they enjoy, just as you do.
Not me, us.
The economy of MassiveCraft is delicate. I applaud the staff for the hands off approach they take. The reason the MassiveCraft economy is so delicate can be chalked up to a few things.
- Specialization does not exist per say. Sure, one can specialize in only producing armor, but nothing keeps me from making the same armor and selling it cheaper than you, therefore driving down the price. Anybody can make anything on MassiveCraft. Nothing keeps me from making armor one day, weapons and tools the next, building materials the third day, and selling voting items the fourth day. There is no entry level to pass, because one is not needed when one can produce whatever they want. This leads to large amounts of supply regardless of large or little demand, and large amounts of surplus which is either severely marked down to be sold instantly, or is stockpiled to be sold at a later time at a lower price.
- Supply and demand don't interact like they do in real life. Had this been real life, every time a war started, production of weapons and armor would have increased, which is did for the most part, so that part was semi right. On the other hand, when wars ended, production should have decreased significantly, which it didn't. Armor and weapons and raw materials were constantly produced, but the demand did not exist for those items at their average market value, so the price was lowered multiple times, driving down the average.
- Items and money do not leave the server like they should. Hopefully this is about to change though. Armor and weapons should be destroyed frequently, and new items should have to be bought or made frequently.
- Promote darkrooming as the first source for repairing armor. People should darkroom to repair armor before they utilize /fix. /fix was in my view always supposed to be the quick but expensive way to fixing armor, which is what it is now becoming. If /fix is ever altered, a money cost should always be included. This a good money sink, and makes people think twice before just using /fix as a quick way to repair their armor.
- Do not alter armor durability, but instead take a look at how much armor damage axes and sword do. I'll admit, I have not seen firsthand results of armor damage since the 1.9 update, but from what I have heard, armor goes quick. I implore the staff to either look at MCMMO configurations, and consider a nerf in armor damage values there to help mitigate the effect, or ask the tech staff to code changes that will allow them to manually alter sword and axe damage to armor as part of a MassiveCore feature (?)
- Remove the donation options that give armor and weapons. See this post for a full explanation and an example on how much harm this will do to the server's economy.
- Change the MassiveRestore algorithm to work in a tiered reduction when it comes to ore replenishment rate. This is probably one of my favorite ideas in recent times. So much so that I'm considering making a separate post just for this so it can be viewed by more people. How this work is as follows: I know some worlds restore on a monthly basis, and others a two-week basis. The idea is the same regardless of the time. On the first restore, let's assume that 100% of ores that existed when the map was created are restored. If 33654 iron ore blocks existed on the map when it was created, 33654 iron ore blocks will exist on the map after the initial restore. Now, let's say that after the second restore, only 80% of the original ores were restored. So if 33654 iron ore blocks existed when the map was created, only 26923 iron ore blocks exist now. A 20% decrease continue say one or two more times, for either a 60% or 80% decrease total over the course of three or four months. After the set amount of months, the cycle resets, back to 100% being restored on the fourth or fifth month in this example, and then the amount decreases again. This way, resources become scare and harder to find, raising price temporarily, but never completely run out, and always come back strong. An extreme shortage at the lowest percent followed by an extreme boom followed by a slow recession, and then the cycle repeats.
