I am in need of some help / ideas as to ways to keep players on my 1.12.2 Survival / Griefing server. It is relatively new, and with little players on it most people are deterred from staying. How can I shift the focus from the player count to the gameplay?
This sounds to me like the root problem is one of acheiving 'critical mass'; until you have that 'critical mass' of players that make your server interesting there is little to encourage newcomers to stay… (The problem is not peculiar to MC, every bar or social club [in which I include such things as bookclubs and Boy Scout troops] startup faces something similar.)
The most common 'fix' of which I am aware involves using a core of 'early adopters' (which in the case of your server would be yourself and your immediate friends/partners) who create enough of the initial community 'infrastructure' (which is as much player/player interaction as actual builds) that new arrivals find a community with which to interact. [To my mind, it is the nature of this community that is the primary distinction between servers and the primary reasons why players will prefer one over another.]
Another issue may depend on what you mean by "Survival / Griefing server";
if griefing is considered normal behavior, the number of interested non-griefers will be small (IMO) and – as most griefers do not like building sandcastles, only kicking over the work of others – they will have no incentive to stay until others have created things for them to grief. [Nor would using a world editor to provide a number of grief-able structures be likely to attract them as most griefers (in my experience) derive much of their 'fun' from knowing they are seen as the south end of northward walking onangers. (This is distinct from the folks who enjoy TNT quarrying and the like, who are often useful and contributing members of a community.)]
if griefing is but strongly discourage by social pressure, the need for a viable community already existing in order to retain players is magnified as only with strong social sanctions in place will there be much motivation to build anything (or otherwise invest one's time).
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"Why does everything have to be so stoopid?" Harvey Pekar (from American Splendor)
WARNING: I have an extemely "grindy" playstyle; YMMV — if this doesn't seem fun to you, mine what you can from it & bin the rest.
This sounds to me like the root problem is one of acheiving 'critical mass'; until you have that 'critical mass' of players that make your server interesting there is little to encourage newcomers to stay… (The problem is not peculiar to MC, every bar or social club [in which I include such things as bookclubs and Boy Scout troops] startup faces something similar.)
The most common 'fix' of which I am aware involves using a core of 'early adopters' (which in the case of your server would be yourself and your immediate friends/partners) who create enough of the initial community 'infrastructure' (which is as much player/player interaction as actual builds) that new arrivals find a community with which to interact. [To my mind, it is the nature of this community that is the primary distinction between servers and the primary reasons why players will prefer one over another.]
Another issue may depend on what you mean by "Survival / Griefing server";
if griefing is considered normal behavior, the number of interested non-griefers will be small (IMO) and – as most griefers do not like building sandcastles, only kicking over the work of others – they will have no incentive to stay until others have created things for them to grief. [Nor would using a world editor to provide a number of grief-able structures be likely to attract them as most griefers (in my experience) derive much of their 'fun' from knowing they are seen as the south end of northward walking onangers. (This is distinct from the folks who enjoy TNT quarrying and the like, who are often useful and contributing members of a community.)]
if griefing is but strongly discourage by social pressure, the need for a viable community already existing in order to retain players is magnified as only with strong social sanctions in place will there be much motivation to build anything (or otherwise invest one's time).
I agree, servers that start out as a group of friends playing together seem to grow the quickest and last the longest. And griefing does seem to be a difficult concept to maintain on servers, it's a nice or interesting idea I should say, but it's just pure insanity whenever I've tried it. It's almost like the top 1% (people who have all gear because they've been on there since Day 1) and anyone who's new is like the bottom 99% of society (new players with no gear and background on the server), the top 1% are eager to interact with the new players, and that just leads to rage quits lol
I think the problem for a lot of players is a lack of direction. My server is also fairly new and has a low player count but we still have a number of returning players, and I believe that this is because of our ranking system. Our ranking system has rewards for each rank and there are 50 in total (we also have prestiging) so players always have something to be working towards.
I've also had multiple spawns on my server, and in my experience there is a relationship between what your spawn is like and the percentage of players who choose to return (or at least stay for a while.) When we first started, our spawn was very small and didn't look great either, so not many people stayed. Now though, our spawn is a lot better (albeit there could be improvements made) and we find that people stay for longer.
I hope this helps, and thank you to ScotsMiser because I also found your resposne to be useful for my situation.
I've noticed a lot of servers in the past didn't have ranking/reward systems for joining, but many of the newer servers have adapted this feature. I think it's great, it's nice to know a server and its community cares if you care enough to come back. The difference between these servers is whether these reward system kill the server or not imo is what makes it a great sever (ex. diamonds for joining defeats the purpose of mining or even getting Fortune pics)
I am in need of some help / ideas as to ways to keep players on my 1.12.2 Survival / Griefing server. It is relatively new, and with little players on it most people are deterred from staying. How can I shift the focus from the player count to the gameplay?
Any ideas would be appreciated.
As someone who's played Minecraft since around 2011 and been an admin/mod on many servers in the past, I can definitely say that the advice that ScotsMiser and Nozzergirl gave is true and very good as well. If you look above I specifically pointed out key points that I think are true or good in each of their statements, hope it helps. Good luck with your server!
Hello Forum!
I am in need of some help / ideas as to ways to keep players on my 1.12.2 Survival / Griefing server. It is relatively new, and with little players on it most people are deterred from staying. How can I shift the focus from the player count to the gameplay?
Any ideas would be appreciated.
This sounds to me like the root problem is one of acheiving 'critical mass'; until you have that 'critical mass' of players that make your server interesting there is little to encourage newcomers to stay… (The problem is not peculiar to MC, every bar or social club [in which I include such things as bookclubs and Boy Scout troops] startup faces something similar.)
The most common 'fix' of which I am aware involves using a core of 'early adopters' (which in the case of your server would be yourself and your immediate friends/partners) who create enough of the initial community 'infrastructure' (which is as much player/player interaction as actual builds) that new arrivals find a community with which to interact. [To my mind, it is the nature of this community that is the primary distinction between servers and the primary reasons why players will prefer one over another.]
Another issue may depend on what you mean by "Survival / Griefing server";
Absolutely some good advice. Appreciate it
I agree, servers that start out as a group of friends playing together seem to grow the quickest and last the longest. And griefing does seem to be a difficult concept to maintain on servers, it's a nice or interesting idea I should say, but it's just pure insanity whenever I've tried it. It's almost like the top 1% (people who have all gear because they've been on there since Day 1) and anyone who's new is like the bottom 99% of society (new players with no gear and background on the server), the top 1% are eager to interact with the new players, and that just leads to rage quits lol
I've noticed a lot of servers in the past didn't have ranking/reward systems for joining, but many of the newer servers have adapted this feature. I think it's great, it's nice to know a server and its community cares if you care enough to come back. The difference between these servers is whether these reward system kill the server or not imo is what makes it a great sever (ex. diamonds for joining defeats the purpose of mining or even getting Fortune pics)
As someone who's played Minecraft since around 2011 and been an admin/mod on many servers in the past, I can definitely say that the advice that ScotsMiser and Nozzergirl gave is true and very good as well. If you look above I specifically pointed out key points that I think are true or good in each of their statements, hope it helps. Good luck with your server!