How can we be successful/popular?

[derigin]

This is a loaded question, I'm sorry, but it's an important one to ask. We've noticed over the last year that the success and popularity of our server has decreased gradually. The reasons for that are numerous, and many are outside of our control (the game losing interest, people moving on, etc.). On the other hand, there are things that we can control, or at least adjust to make it so that process wont spiral out of control (eg. burn out, advertising, etc.). So the question I pose to all of you, what would make us more successful/popular? Or, better yet, on a personal level what would make you stick around longer and maybe play the game more?

[chandlerprice100]

I'm not sure what to say. I've seen it steadily happen since I left, but I'm uncertain why. The reason I myself left is sort of a bad example (a big mistake of mine and a small misunderstanding of the staff can have powerful cumulative consequences), but perhaps a good way to find out why the server is losing popularity is to ask people who've left why they did so. Another good thing to try is asking your new players how they found and why they like escapecraft. To decide how to evolve and adapt as a server, ask your players what they want from escapecraft.

If publicity is your issue, a good free place to start is youtube channels/videos about escapecraft and its awesomeness.

[derigin]

I don't know how well we can do to find out why the people who are gone left us (because I doubt many of them have stuck around the forums), but I think your suggestion about finding out how people found us and why they stayed would make a good question thread as well.

[random980]

A good way to be more successful/popular would definitely be some advertising, especially back onto IC and what ever happened to our escapist series? If our new Let's Play idea takes off that'll definitely help as well. Add something new to escapecraft. When we implemented PVP, Creative, Enigma and FS, along with our survival maps the server really took off, it's been well over a year since the server has done something to that extent and removing PVP more recently hasn't helped with the decline of interest either. We really need to finish off any half-done projects we have as well, or re-purpose them if certain plugins are the cause of it being incomplete.

As far as people staying and leaving, I know most of the USSR members leave due to burn-out, boredom and certain people they dislike being promoted, also most of us have moved on to a great faction server. As far as people staying, well it's just like any other game, people come and go and eventually get bored. We call ourselves a survival server yet it only feels like a feature we have along with everything else, maybe if we put more emphasis on our survival game type rather than try to be a jack-of-all-trades, we could draw more and new people in who are specifically looking for a innovative survival type server, or do the opposite and put more emphasis on actually being a server that can do everything and promote it as such.

[Byroe]

the reason why myself and many other oldies left was alienation from the server.

[Josh349]

I would like to suggest two things, as well as agreeing with the point made about Youtube, videos with nice editing certainly do attract a lot of people.

My first suggestion is to do with the site itself, its an amazing hub, complete with dynmap, forums, stats, achievements, wiki and everything you need to know. But when I search for the site using a search engine, the site is only 5th in the results, i'm convinced that some simple SEO (such as tags, site description etc.) would greatly boost that.

My second suggestion is to utilise sites such as planetminecraft.com where servers are listed, i'm sure your aware of the votes system, and how many servers offer ingame rewards for daily votes which then rank them higher up the directory list which loads of people use.
Having experience of running Minecraft servers in the past - whenever the server was quiet, I just bumped forum topics like this one, and almost instantly 2-4 new members would join - Now as you can see from that topic I set up - my graphics skills are appalling, but if we could set up topics on a few forums and directories (I would love to help out), and maybe organise a new trailer (maybe have some fly-by's with Camera Studio ) I think the server would be loved by many more people.

I personally view Escapecraft as a hidden gem, you don't really need to add any new features, the server has tons of cool features. But the server is hardly advertised on any directories, which are simple to set up and get listed on and extremely effective. Some simple SEO would also benefit the site.

[vallorn]

the reason why myself and many other oldies left was alienation from the server.

Could you expand on that?

[Byroe]

Some servers i have been on do things to make their players fill like they actually make a difference in the server and are a part of the community rather than just a player, such as this map made by a another minecraft server.


We should do something like that to make people believe that what they do on the server makes a difference and that they are not just building another junk town, but rather developing their area, and naming their towns so that everyone can see them from the map.

[comic_sans]

ctrl+f update

No results

Wow, really? Quick updates are the main thing; longer standing players will stick around for people, but when you're not in the treehouse, you just wanna make stuff with your friends and play whatever is new. Server pop usually gets cut in half after every update, seemed to start back when we delayed updating to 1.2 for 3 weeks, didn't see it hit 50 again more than twice after that, and I think those were special events days.

And yes, I understand, we wait on lots of server modifications to update. Maybe that's a big problem.

[Garretfire]

The quick updates are a big problem, we tend to lose lots of players when we dont update within the first few weeks. I think I have declined in activity is because Escapecraft has lost its appeal, I no longer feel as if I even want to play there. And then on top of that there is a continuous circle. Players leave, then other players leave because everyone else does. I worked hard on Fire City for nearly 7 out of the 8 weeks I have as my playtime, but I no longer feel as if there would be any point to continue to build. I have not had new residents for quite a while, and many, many of the ones I have have left. Youtube would help greatly, but I would also propose maybe another PVP world to be opened? We have many small pvp events and such, but when you think about it, the server started to decline when PVP was destroyed. The staff are all awesome except for some, who I will never name but may be obvious to some, others not as much. I also think it would be time to close some worlds. Like forever. Some worlds are not used hardly at all. Skylands? Who lives or uses that anymore? New worlds would get people playing again. As far as plugins go, maybe its time to get rid of those plugins that no one uses? There has got to be a few that we dont need or use anymore. New plugins would possibly bring back some players, but you have to be careful to make sure that the plugins are updated regularly and quickly. I will try to make a ongoing list of everything that people suggest. Thanks, Garretfire

[Garretfire]

If those of you with ideas would PM me with them all in a list, I will make a public one. Thanks

[RobipodSupreme]

Perhaps more regular temporary server b4 the main one updates? It would keep people playing with the same people, so they're more likely to think "hmm... Escapecraft" even when it's out of date.

[motormaniac]

We have no control over updates in any respect. Mojang updates whenever they jolly feel like it, tell nobody, and go on their merry way. We have to wait on plugin writers to update their plugins before we can do anything.

[Elcquid]

Man, these updates are killing me. I haven't updated, and have had 4 consecutive visits (over a period of weeks) where nobody has been on, server or IRC.

[SMWasder]

We have no control over updates in any respect. Mojang updates whenever they jolly feel like it, tell nobody, and go on their merry way. We have to wait on plugin writers to update their plugins before we can do anything.

We can set up temporary servers with few to no plugins in the meantime though.

[RobipodSupreme]

^
Yeah, that's all I was saying motor. There needn't be any plugins, it's happened before, with PvP temp servers filled to the brim with shenanigan and LOL.

[Josh349]

How about a permanent world with no plugins that always runs on the latest snapshot (or release)? I know it does take away from the value of the main world but we could perhaps link the chats together and make it just like another Tolteca or Borjan etc, just no plugins, therefore griefing will happen, and its pure survival!

We could then have regular server events (e.g. horse racing, building competitions with the various shades of clayblocks are 2 new features in the latest snapshot) would be really cool and would probably attract a lot of people.

[Garretfire]

I do like this idea of just having normal Minecraft world. Server plugins are awesome, thats taken for granted, but once and a while good ol' regular MC is awesome too.

[tanisjihanis]

Some servers i have been on do things to make their players fill like they actually make a difference in the server and are a part of the community rather than just a player, such as this map made by a another minecraft server.


We should do something like that to make people believe that what they do on the server makes a difference and that they are not just building another junk town, but rather developing their area, and naming their towns so that everyone can see them from the map.

I'll second this sentiment.

[Garretfire]

I did also feel as if what I did on the server was a waste of time. Nobody would see it, nobody would care. Perhaps we let players make impacts on something that will will be part of places people cannot build in. Like the spawns or something.

[Losarot]

I think a large part of all of it is due to the inevitable come down from Minecraftmania. The big push in popularity that Minecraft saw over the last year or so and the fact that the big rush from all of the hype is dying down can certainly be one reason.
Another reason the big push kind of hurt things is that all sorts of servers popped up all over the net, not to mention those insane mods like Tekkit and FTB that came out all dragged off various players who wanted something they offered.
Me personally I only left due to time restrictions, I have been really ill this semester and had to focus even more on school. I plan on coming back , but like Garret said maybe a slimming down of our server along with a retooling of focus, i think alot of folks dont build for the right reasons, i personally build for my own enjoyment.
Even if the community is getting smaller that doesnt always mean that its a bad thing.
Lets try not to be so down

[Garretfire]

Yeah, I used to build for enjoyment too. i probably would again maybe.

[Volstag9]

This is not why I left, but I think the reason no one goes here anymore is the fact that you are still on 1.5

I know this is because of the plugins but other servers get by on barely any plugins. Why does this server need so many?

[RobipodSupreme]

^

It does seem to be just slowing us down in updating horrendously. I know a lot of work goes into updating, for which I salute the admins, but can we shave down the number we have? It would make updates so much faster and save so much work.

[rygy9]

Whereas many are stating reasons NOT as to why they left, this is the reason I left:

I sort of "won" the game. Meaning, I attained enough resources so that I never had fear of dying, needing to mine, get more resources, or build at all. Many of the older players are leaving because of this, but another major reason is the land. I built my small abode in the first town on the server, Solake. Since the beginning (of Escapia 3), it's been harder and harder to get myself to play. There's never action around me, and I'm literally living in a museum world. There are actually parts of my house that I can't use because they're cuboided. I don't see anybody, ever.

In short, there are ways to bring players back temporarily to the server, but there is only one way as I see it to rejuvenate the community...

It's time for a wipe.

Many may not see eye to eye with this decision, but as I haven't played on the server in months, this is just my honest opinion on the matter. The wipe from Escapia 2-3 was one of the most exciting things I experienced on the server, even though I was sad to see 2 go, and missed it dearly. But the wipe brought new worlds, terrain, cities, communities, friendships, and experiences.

TL;DR... a wipe is in order, if you want to drag the older community that we all know and love back.

P.S. Also horses help.

[Byroe]

Quote

Rygy is right, everyone has everything, there is no reason to play anymore. Escapecraft has turned into a puzzle server rather than a survival server, and the only way to fix it is to Killitwithfire wipe the map.

also, if a few of the thousands of useless plugins we use were removed, tha'd be nice.

[disarmedfetus]

TL;DR... a wipe is in order, if you want to drag the older community that we all know and love back.

P.S. Also horses help.

I agree. also maybe a pvp faction server? everyone loves faction and pvp so why not both. just take away the over powered enchantments on swords and armor. so no faction could be over powered

[motormaniac]

I agree. also maybe a pvp faction server? everyone loves faction and pvp so why not both. just take away the over powered enchantments on swords and armor. so no faction could be over powered

Not to burst your bubble... but we had pvp, and it was a mess. People complaining about stuff stolen, griefing everywhere, hacking in some instances. Bottom line, pvp has been suggested many times and shot down because running it is more tedious than it's worth. In the future, once we've got survival completely in order it may be considered again. But for now, I can 99% promise you we won't do it soon.

Edit: Woo 400th post!

[dandres]

I agree with Rygy

[SMWasder]

. There are actually parts of my house that I can't use because they're cuboided.

I know that's not really the thrust of your post, but we can sort that out for you if you want.