Saturday with Sach: Defining Community
I've been involved in the Minecraft community for a very long time. Years, even. The game itself has grown and evolved in some fascinating and amazing ways, but the one thing that continues to amaze me even after all this time, is the Minecraft community.
Many talented people have made (and continue to make) incredible things within, and around, the game: complex mods which can add every conceivable customization, videos that range from hilarious musical parodies to in-depth play sessions and tutorials, adventure maps and texture packs which demonstrate mind-blowing levels of creativity, and so much more. People pour their hearts and souls into these projects, and the end-results show it. Many of them develop a fiercely loyal fan-base, eager to see their next big creation. My job has been - since August of 2011 - to bring these sorts of awesome creations to the attention of the community, so they can share in the experience, and maybe see something they might not have otherwise had the joy of knowing. Not every creation shown in this way has been popular, but for the most part, I've taken immense joy in seeing these amazing creations get an outpouring of support and praise from new and returning fans alike. Nothing brings a smile to my face quite like seeing all of you get excited at a community-made project, and getting involved with it.
There has always been one particularly sensitive topic over the years, despite my best efforts - multiplayer communities. In the past, it made more sense to me why that was the case; for the most part, multiplayer servers have spent years being tightly-knit groups of friends, and while the occasional server(s) would come by, luring in many new players with a neat new game mode idea, or creative building project, or even just as a hub for fans of a particular personality, they have changed a great deal over time. Many multiplayer communities have - much as every creative project in Minecraft - grown beyond their origins, into something much bigger.
THE COMMUNITY NEVER STOPS GROWING
The Minecraft community is an ever-growing body of people, from all walks of life, and from every corner of the planet. As that body of players grows, more and more of them begin congregating into sub-communities of their own, each with their own culture, likes, dislikes, and personality. Part of that growth has seen the rise of incredibly large multiplayer community servers, each with their own culture, activities, and themes. In the interest of representing the community as it grows, I feel it is important to take a look at these servers - all of them, not merely a select few - and show them to the community at large, much as I have with videos, mods, maps, and the like.
From my perspective, a massive and dedicated community of players centered around a particular style of play is no less remarkable than a highly polished animation, or a deeply engrossing mod. I'd like to show more of these servers in the future, hopefully for others to enjoy, but at the end of the day, that isn't my call to make - it is yours.
YOU DECIDE - A POLL
I have always done my best to bring the very best of the community to the community, because you are the lifeblood of Minecraft, and deserve both the recognition and attention that brings. Part of that responsibility is making sure the community spotlights I'm bringing you will be something you will enjoy, and that has not changed since I first came to the Minecraft Forum. Many people feel I am inaccessible, or do not listen to what the community wants. Quite the contrary - I spend a considerable amount of time reading your comments in every single article I've ever written - and many recent comments made me reconsider my stance on spotlighting servers of any kind, going forward. It isn't up to me to decide what you like, so I will now ask you directly.
I have posted a poll asking whether you would like to see multiplayer servers be added to Community Creations spotlights from here on. Please leave a vote on whether you would like that or not, and if you like, feel free to leave a comment in the article as well! I will read them all, and take your feedback into consideration.
The poll is at the top of this page (or, if you are reading this from the front page, can be seen by clicking here). Please leave a vote, make your voice heard, and I will move forward with your feedback as the deciding factor!
I will, within reason, attempt to answer questions in the comments section as well, if it helps to clarify something you might be wondering about. No one in this community deserves to feel as though they are unheard, or that they do not matter. Every single one of you matters!
Click here to vote and comment!
"It isn't up to me to decide what you like, so I will now ask you directly."
Actually it is, its your show, if you wanted to talk just about skinz you could
doesn't mean ill watch it every time.
I think that its the information you provide that makes it the best, its a complete
cross section of the hole community and that's why servers would be good too.
Also server soft's like MCPC+ and bukkit and the such would be cool,
iam running MCPC+ server and hardly hear anything about it. (the dev.) I mean.
keep up [That great work] your awesome.
oh and I thought you moved to Germany for some reason, you'd mentioned
that you had a new place and had to "do it up" or am I confused and it was
Texas ?
Doglok
I'd believe most servers would be happy to deal with this, and even if it means going down for a short while. Since when it calms down a bit and they are able to manage the amount of players it would still be a mammoth long-term boost for smaller servers. Contacting the server owner beforehand would be a great idea though, just so they can be monitoring at the time.
Like the majority have posted around here, I would encourage the posting of smaller servers who show something special but are struggling to get it well known. If they truly have something special then the players brought in will pretty much keep the server set for life.
Ask the server owner if they wish to be spotlighted, and if it will cause issues.
There is also issues of possible favoritism. How do you find these servers and decide on them.
Most players have a hard time finding a good and fare one. Many will have a hard time believing that you can. On a regular basis.
With out your choices being the product of questionable influence. Advertisements, freebees, Blatant suck up. Even out and out bribes aren't beyond the realm of possibility. I'm not saying you would ever fall for such things. But still you are going to be wading through a sewer. Don't be surprised if you get some Sh*y on your pants leg.
Frankly Sach you are probably better off starting one of your own.
Then do spotlights on other servers.
The objectivity coming from being a competitor is far better than trying to be an impartial observer. It's easier for others to understand.
And by knowing both sides of the multyplayer world you will get a more neutral response from the community. The admen won't try as hard to influence a competitor and you will be able to give a more complete review of the server.
And it'll allow you to provide the community with and ad receive from the community a more neutral response.
I wish that they hadn't phased out classic..
I always thought that the concerns against self advertisement (that are the basis of many server-related threads being closed, moved or deleted) need too be toned down to more acceptable levels. Often there's genuine quality in the work shown by a server staff that should deserve more attention. By including a multiplayer server in community spotlights they will finally have an opportunity to get recognition among members of other communities and other minecraft playstyles.
The only thing that shouldn't happen is a move into multiplayer favored content, as happened with many other games in the past. Single player communities are usually less vocal and participant of online activities (including forums and whatnot). But these are sizable communities still. Often larger than the multiplayer ones. Let's not forget, for instance, that a large and representative number of minecraft youtubers are singleplayers. These are the people that most helped spread the word about minecraft, the people that explored the game mechanics to its fullest and shared their acquired knowledge in constructions, traps, grinders, redstone, and a host of other marvels.
I'm only mentioning this because I've seen this happen before. What starts as a good intention, ends up consuming everything else around it. And I would hate to see online services around Minecraft becoming yet another multiplayer exclusive.
The amount of time, money, coding knowledge, and dedication required to run a functioning server aren't luxuries I have. It's part of why I find successful servers so amazing.
I can understand that. Question though: what qualifies as advertising, in this respect? Would my coverage of maps, mods, videos, and texture packs not also count as "advertising", since I am showing off their work, with the hope that others will enjoy it?
Modded/themed servers are perfectly fine. Many are quite remarkable!
Cracked servers are...well...cracked. So no, that's not happening.
- Do bigger servers have a better chance? Smaller servers?
- As far as small servers go, what are your terms for "unique"?
- Would you take in submissions for servers, or search them out yourself?
Some things to look for in servers:
1. Really cool plug-ins (economys, factions)
2. Great community (lots of helpful admins)
3. Map (is the lobby just a bedrock cube or a detailed dungeon?)
4. Games/Things to do (is it maybe a awesome build but thats it? Or do they have places sectioned of where you can invite friends to assist you in a build, or go visit your favorite one?)
The example for number 4 would be for a build server. However, there are so many ideas for servers I just thought that would be the easiest one to grasp.
1.add your server to the server tab at the top of the page.
2. start up a thread in the server forums about your server
3. keep that thread updated with what your doing on your server
(not just hey come to our server and play)
4. in that thread explain what makes your server different to the 100's of others out there
5. get someone(or do it yourself) to make a youtube video showcasing what makes your sever different
6 add that video to the videos page and into your thread about your sever
7. be on your server whenever you can , make your players happy , see what needs to be changed, get them to spread the word about your server.
This will help your servers popularity a lot more than a single showcase spotlight.
and your server may then be good enough to appear in a spotlight anywhere
its no good just starting up a server and waiting for people to join, that's not how it works
If you do get spotlighted it'll attract the bad as well as the good. eg: people logging on and Wreaking havoc destroying your world. then your players will leave because all their hard work and time has been for nothing. there are those out there that are purely and simply griefers and will stop at nothing once shown that xxxxx server is great, go there join... not to mention rival servers and their devoted members, there's any number of reasons why limelight publicity is bad, and totally unstable.
doing all of the above, your server thread will remain in the recent threads and be active always updated and people posting comments etc and you posting back.
so your servers will then show up regularly in at least 3 places on this site (even more if you do or get someone to do the videos) or now live streams (as of 1.7.3 one button press streaming, once its all set up)
that my opinion, thanks -Gwain
I suppose that's a fair question. However, I think there is a critical difference. With a mod, a map, or the like, you're showing off someone's creative work. With a server, it's not really the same thing. A server is just a group of people. A community, certainly, but it isn't a creation in itself. If it were a feature of something impressive on a server, that would be different. That's not showcasing the server itself, though. Which, I suppose is what I'm getting at. No server, in itself, isn't any more impressive than any other, and any creation on a server should be able to stand on its own merits. Showcasing the server itself is sort of like admiring an artist's studio, rather than what they've painted.