Let's talk again!

[Vatumok]

Ignore the clickbait meme title :D
Before we'd used to have a lot of drama and the positive of that was having community discussion often, right now we don't really. I think it's important that in a time like this we are mostly on the same page if we want to grow.

What I'm going for with the community is a relatively small sized group (10~ stable playercount on each server would be amazing already in my opinion) focussed on a mature audience but younger people should be accepted and helped rather than dismissed by the older peeps. Mainly focussed around Minecraft, that doesn't have to mean much, that's just where we are at the moment. For the rest we can encourage people here to try other multiplayer games together (like League, but the possibilities are almost endless).

I made this thread mostly to improve communication between players and the admin team. This is for if you have any suggestions, ideas, complaints or questions you want to tell/ask me. Discussion is of course also appreciated. Don't be afraid to speak your mind but please remain civil. If you don't want to post in public you are always welcome to send me a PM on the forums or on discord.

Kind regards.

 

[rosekill]

Getting 10 people onto AoD is going to be pretty hard.

 

[SirComputer]

"Let's talk again!" "Let's not!"

You can ask me stuff too I suppose, like why I'm currently being awful at advertising... Speaking of that though, your suggestions and opinions for that would be appreciated. Of course, we can't do everything, but it would be nice to hear some other people's opinions.

 

[snowma]

Ok, I wasn't going to say anything but I am really REALLY concerned with the amount of questions Notme has for Ogarci about the new SMP. AND I DON'T THINK I'M THE ONLY ONE THINKING THAT RIGHT NOW.

But seriously you've banned 3/4 of the drama :3

 

[Psycho]

Pretty much expected a drama thread, but ended up disappointed.

Have you guys thought of ways to improve player activity with the AoD server? There was this recent thread that Mulbery created regarding that server but it hasn't received a reply from any AoD staff.

I doubt that a 10 player-per-server expectation is probable especially at the current rate that the Minecraft servers are going unless changes occur. Player retention for new players seems impossible if the servers just stagnate and think that everything is all fine.

When will the community host other games besides Minecraft and TTT? O know that we've had discussion threads about new games to host, but unfortunately they never come to fruition. Perhaps look through those discussions and follow through with a new server?

When will RoF get Vaults?

 

[Vatumok]

Have you guys thought of ways to improve player activity with the AoD server? There was this recent thread that Mulbery created regarding that server but it hasn't received a reply from any AoD staff.

There aren't a lot AoD staff members at the moment so it's not that weird there hasn't been a reply. We have been talking a lot about what to do with AoD though, it's not easy though and we definitely need player input. Mul's suggestion is maybe a bit too extreme for now.

I doubt that a 10 player-per-server expectation is probable especially at the current rate that the Minecraft servers are going unless changes occur. Player retention for new players seems impossible if the servers just stagnate and think that everything is all fine.

That is more a goal that I want to work towards. I know it's optimistic in the current state but before we can improve we have to decide on where exactly we want to go with the community.

When will the community host other games besides Minecraft and TTT? O know that we've had discussion threads about new games to host, but unfortunately they never come to fruition. Perhaps look through those discussions and follow through with a new server?

Pretty much when someone wants to host other games. It's not very easy to start up in a new game and it requires staff, there is no point in forcing people that are not interested to manage servers they don't like. If someone has an idea + plan and is willing to put work in setting up a server then I'm all for it.

 

[Hex]

Pretty much when someone wants to host other games. It's not very easy to start up in a new game and it requires staff, there is no point in forcing people that are not interested to manage servers they don't like. If someone has an idea + plan and is willing to put work in setting up a server then I'm all for it.

I'm always here if you guys ever want to try out another gmod gamemode. Just an FYI, I know LUA very well, and I have a small staff team from a previous server I owned that I'm still close with. I do think we need more places to put our server out there into. I'll always be interested to help out the EscRes community. I have the time, I'd have to take a break from the MC servers, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

EDIT: I'd like to put into here that I've owned and managed a DarkRP server, and a Prop Hunt server for almost a year and a half. It was a fairly popular server, and I'm sure I could get a few players to try out whatever gamemode you guys would ever try out. I've also coded my own addons for garrysmod (I'm also an official dev on the gmod discord server) and have a nice knowledge of how everything works in the game. I love garrysmod and would thoroughly enjoy running a server for the EscRes community.

 

[Hex]

...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=104625632

I seriously urge you to look into Extreme Football Throwdown as a Garry's Mod server to host. (I can help staff it if that's an issue.) I also recommend joining it to get familiar...it's basically the only reason why I even have Garry's Mod still in my Steam library. But anyway...

(Copy and pasted from a different discussion:) It's a relatively small gamemode, mind you, but it's incredibly fun (and so hectic that it's hilarious) and has a lot of potential for growth. Player retention is also quite good. I'd recommend ya'll check it out. It's worth noting that there's a huge learning curve to it, but it's still a blast, nonetheless.

There's one server in particular that has even created a friggin' league for it, which I've participated in. Said league definitely made the gamemode more entertaining and challenging, so it's something to think about in addition to the gamemode if enough people are remotely interested in it.



Edit: Hexical_, my man.^^^^^^

That's an interesting gamemode. I've only hosted a DarkRP server and a Prop Hunt server, but that actually seems very very easy and lightweight compared to those two. It seems hella fun too, I'd love hosting this, but the problem would be getting a playerbase on it, since it seems to be a fairly un-popular gamemode

 

[Haysagar]

Ok, I wasn't going to say anything but I am really REALLY concerned with the amount of questions Notme has for Ogarci about the new SMP. AND I DON'T THINK I'M THE ONLY ONE THINKING THAT RIGHT NOW.

Same. can we just ban him kappa :^)

WTF WHY DOES IT MAKE K A P P A INTO AN IMAGE?

 

[Notme]

3 things: Why you all are so lazy to vote (MinecraftServers allows you to vote anytime you want):
Top voters this month - 96 votes, if whole Minecraft staff voted religiously (or staff and regulars voting very regularly), we would have over 300 votes now.
[xtable=skin1]
{tbody}
{tr}
{td}Notme{/td}
{td}13{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}_Kaito_Kid{/td}
{td=@x15}7{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}ComputerGuy_{/td}
{td=@x15}6{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Hexical_{/td}
{td=@x15}6{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Bhyldir{/td}
{td=@x15}5{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Willchill{/td}
{td=@x15}5{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}SirComputer{/td}
{td=@x15}4{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Unusual_dude{/td}
{td=@x15}4{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}lizthehedgehog{/td}
{td=@x15}3{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Aothex{/td}
{td=@x15}3{/td}
{/tr}
{/tbody}
[/xtable]
Second thing:
Minecraft Servers: 605th place and top 1.5%. Exactly 41 050 servers. Half of them are offline
Minecraft Forums: 103rd place and top 2%. Exactly 9 150 servers.
Planet Minecraft: 438th place and top 0.3%. Exactly 160 506 servers.
Global Minecraft stats. There are ~150 000 servers and ~150 000 - 500 000 players online depending on time. So average is 3 players per server.
Minecraft isn't dead. Playerbase distribution is extremely unequal.
This means only less than few hundred servers can enjoy stable popularity trough whole day at minimum at least 10 players in whole lobby.

Third thing:

Ok, I wasn't going to say anything but I am really REALLY concerned with the amount of questions Notme has for Ogarci about the new SMP. AND I DON'T THINK I'M THE ONLY ONE THINKING THAT RIGHT NOW.

But seriously you've banned 3/4 of the drama :3

Same. can we just ban him kappa :^)

WTF WHY DOES IT MAKE K A P P A INTO AN IMAGE?

Don't worry, I'm not spying or anything, just being curious.

 

[Jayfeather]

Memes

If you're going to pick a direction, I'm glad you're at least committing all in on it. it probably won't grab anyone outside of Minecraft, but maybe picking the game as a strength and building on it will have more success than divisive interests.

Age wise... I'm pretty sure it's gonna be hard to pander towards the older when the community is so extremely young

 

[Iguana]

#RAXOLIVESMATTER

 

[Hex]

3 things: Why you all are so lazy to vote (MinecraftServers allows you to vote anytime you want):
Top voters this month - 96 votes, if whole Minecraft staff voted religiously (or staff and regulars voting very regularly), we would have over 300 votes now.
[xtable=skin1]
{tbody}
{tr}
{td}Notme{/td}
{td}13{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}_Kaito_Kid{/td}
{td=@x15}7{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}ComputerGuy_{/td}
{td=@x15}6{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Hexical_{/td}
{td=@x15}6{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Bhyldir{/td}
{td=@x15}5{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Willchill{/td}
{td=@x15}5{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}SirComputer{/td}
{td=@x15}4{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Unusual_dude{/td}
{td=@x15}4{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}lizthehedgehog{/td}
{td=@x15}3{/td}
{/tr}
{tr=@x15}
{td=@x15}Aothex{/td}
{td=@x15}3{/td}
{/tr}
{/tbody}
[/xtable]
Second thing:
Minecraft Servers: 605th place and top 1.5%. Exactly 41 050 servers. Half of them are offline
Minecraft Forums: 103rd place and top 2%. Exactly 9 150 servers.
Planet Minecraft: 438th place and top 0.3%. Exactly 160 506 servers.
Global Minecraft stats. There are ~150 000 servers and ~150 000 - 500 000 players online depending on time. So average is 3 players per server.
Minecraft isn't dead. Playerbase distribution is extremely unequal.
This means only less than few hundred servers can enjoy stable popularity trough whole day at minimum at least 10 players in whole lobby.

Third thing:


Don't worry, I'm not spying or anything, just being curious.

Right, I understand where you are coming from, but in my personal experience, some days I just forget to vote, as I don't hop on every day, also you seem to vote 2 times a day and time it right, whilst most of us don't. I do think our staff should vote more, but you cant expect us to vote everyday, and you really can't expect us to vote on that one page by timing it right everyday. Also some staff have a lot going on at the moment, like SalientGorilla.

 

[Notme]

Right, I understand where you are coming from, but in my personal experience, some days I just forget to vote, as I don't hop on every day, also you seem to vote 2 times a day and time it right, whilst most of us don't. I do think our staff should vote more, but you cant expect us to vote everyday, and you really can't expect us to vote on that one page by timing it right everyday. Also some staff have a lot going on at the moment, like SalientGorilla.

I vote once per day lol - today is 16th.
If you have time to staff or just play regularly, then you have time to vote - it takes around minute to vote.
If Minecraft Forums says I already voted, then I skip Planet Minecraft and go straight to Minecraft Servers as on that site I don't have to remember when I voted last time (no timing required here).
/vote command just should open 3 voting tabs in browser.

Or another solution would be reminder:
"Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?" every time you log in like greeting message or something, it could also appear as tip, that would appear for example once per 30 minutes or hour.
Green would mean you already voted here today, and red that you didn't vote yet.
MinecraftForums/PlanetMinecraft links would wait exactly 24 hours to change colors to red after you voted here last time, and MinecraftServers link would be red every time as soon as you login on servers first time on next day.
/vote command would include timers for 3 voting servers, so you can know when to vote in advance.

So it would be like this:
Someone logs on for example at 10 AM: greeted by reminder: "Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"
Someone votes on MinecraftServers and now its all green.

Then someone logins same day at 9 PM: "Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"
Planet and Forums went red - timer clocked 24 hours. Someone votes on these sites.

And then someone logins next day: at 1 PM
"Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"
and votes on Minecraft Server.

And then logins at 7 PM: "Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"

And last time at 10 PM: "Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"

This would mean, that someone doesn't have to remember if he voted on MinecraftServer already, or how long he has to wait on MinecraftForums/PlanetMinecraft - server would remember that for him.

This could be implemented on Lobby/AoD/RoF/Create/LoP.
Reminder would appear as soon as you login on server and would also appear as tip every 30 minutes or so.

Runemen this is simple suggestion you cookie.

 

[Rune]

Right, the most important question for me to the staff is what are you guys doing for advertising? You had this huge fanfare of an advertising team and a whole debate about server names being advertisable or not but it feels like nothing has not really been done.

I do believe that SirC's comments are just being sarcastic about how he is bad at advertising but really, list to me what this advertising team has done so far?

And if you are waiting for LoP to be released then start advertising, is that really a good idea?

Secondly, I don't think a lot of people care about voting because it isn't mandatory and also, its just irritating to do. In my opinion, I don't think voting can change much in the rate of players coming into the community but I could potentially be wrong.

 

[Hex]

I vote once per day lol - today is 16th.If you have time to staff or just play regularly, then you have time to vote - it takes around minute to vote.
If Minecraft Forums says I already voted, then I skip Planet Minecraft and go straight to Minecraft Servers as on that site I don't have to remember when I voted last time (no timing required here).
/vote command just should open 3 voting tabs in browser.

Or another solution would be reminder:
"Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?" every time you log in like greeting message or something, it could also appear as tip, that would appear for example once per 30 minutes or hour.
Green would mean you already voted here today, and red that you didn't vote yet.
MinecraftForums/PlanetMinecraft links would wait exactly 24 hours to change colors to red after you voted here last time, and MinecraftServers link would be red every time as soon as you login on servers first time on next day.
/vote command would include timers for 3 voting servers, so you can know when to vote in advance.

So it would be like this:
Someone logs on for example at 10 AM: greeted by reminder: "Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"
Someone votes on MinecraftServers and now its all green.

Then someone logins same day at 9 PM: "Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"
Planet and Forums went red - timer clocked 24 hours. Someone votes on these sites.

And then someone logins next day: at 1 PM
"Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"
and votes on Minecraft Server.

And then logins at 7 PM: "Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"

And last time at 10 PM: "Did you vote today on MinecraftServers/PlanetMinecraft/MinecraftForums?"

This would mean, that someone doesn't have to remember if he voted on MinecraftServer already, or how long he has to wait on MinecraftForums/PlanetMinecraft - server would remember that for him.

This could be implemented on Lobby/AoD/RoF/Create/LoP.
Reminder would appear as soon as you login on server and would also appear as tip every 30 minutes or so.

Not all the staff are on everyday for one, you cant just say if they have "time to staff then they have time to vote" There are staff that are busy with other things in life and do things, also staff take breaks, etc. Your idea is great and I'm not sure how hard it'd be to implement since I have no clue about Java, but I imagine that would increase votes. When I hop onto the server I usually vote, but like I said, somedays I just forget, its really just a silly mistake. You cant expect staff to be on top of things 100% of the time, especially voting when there's lots of variables. If you vote once a day, then how did you manage to almost double the votes anybody else has on that one website?

 

[Hex]

I do believe that SirC's comments are just being sarcastic about how he is bad at advertising but really, list to me what this advertising team has done so far?

I know we haven't done much, and it's really a little all of our faults as we didn't know where to go besides small ads that really doesn't get put into our communities face. We are now working on other things too, which will hopefully be done sooner or later. The name thing, I don't even know what happened to that, I think everybody just moved on from it and forgot tbh.

We actually have done paid reddit ads about 3-4 times though, i'm pretty sure thats it atm. We are planning to do things with YouTube now and that's in the works and being talked about atm.

Voting gets you players if people vote. People look at the minecraft server pages all the time, and they are heavily dependent on voting. We would probably notice a increase of players if more people voted, but I do agree we should make voting more fun and rewarding and not seens as a mundane task. If you have any ideas that would be great to shoot to the advertising team!

 

[Notme]

Not all the staff are on everyday for one, you cant just say if they have "time to staff then they have time to vote" There are staff that are busy with other things in life and do things, also staff take breaks, etc. Your idea is great and I'm not sure how hard it'd be to implement since I have no clue about Java, but I imagine that would increase votes. When I hop onto the server I usually vote, but like I said, somedays I just forget, its really just a silly mistake. You cant expect staff to be on top of things 100% of the time, especially voting when there's lots of variables. If you vote once a day, then how did you manage to almost double the votes anybody else has on that one website?

That's why I suggested voting reminder on servers. This way you don't even have to remember to vote.
Voting link could just lead straight to what Mulbery created and I improved.
It could be reachable trough /vote command and it would be part of our forums.


Also I have most votes, because I vote every day - 14 votes in 16 days (for few days I didn't knew, that you don't have to time your voting on Minecraft Servers).
On other hand this table just may be broken.
Others vote like every 3 - 7 days it seems.

 

[Hex]

That's why I suggested voting reminder on servers.

Also I have most votes, because I vote every day - 14 votes in 16 days (for few days I didn't knew, that you don't have to time your voting on Minecraft Servers).
On other hand this table just may be broken.
Others vote like every 3 - 7 days it seems.

Ah it just really offput me that you had 14 votes on this one page, but anyone else has 7, even on the other minecraft voting pages. Thanks for clearing that up. I do agree with your suggestion, it would help me out a lot with the forgetting part. We still do have staff that aren't on every day though, so it will never really be a 100% thing where all the staff vote. I will try and vote more by setting a reminder on my phone =)

 

[Infected_alien8_]

On other hand this table just may be broken.

Pretty sure that table is a liar because I vote and I'm not on there

 

[Hex]

Pretty sure that table is a liar because I vote and I'm not on there

That's another thing... My name doesn't pop up from time to time on the table, even though I'll see it the previous day, for whatever reason.

 

[Notme]

Ah it just really offput me that you had 14 votes on this one page, but anyone else has 7, even on the other minecraft voting pages. Thanks for clearing that up. I do agree with your suggestion, it would help me out a lot with the forgetting part. We still do have staff that aren't on every day though, so it will never really be a 100% thing where all the staff vote. I will try and vote more by setting a reminder on my phone =)

well it doesn't need to be 100% efficient - for example: if 40 players played on our servers given day, and 20 people voted, then it would be fine.
For now voting efficiency is shamefully low.
MF/PM/MS vote count is 102/107/100 for each voting server now. This is 6 votes per day. And we have 50 - 100 or so regulars.
Average of 20 votes per day should be our goal - smart reminder should help us with that - as I shown example above it would display minecraft voting sites in red/green color depending, if you already voted here.
And max possible votes depends on how many unique players login on our servers.

Wonder if we could have it on forums somewhere on sidebar.
This would need communication between voting sites/our server lobby/our forums.

 

[Rune]

well it doesn't need to be 100% efficient - for example: if 40 players played on our servers given day, and 20 people voted, then it would be fine.
For now voting efficiency is shamefully low.
MF/PM/MS vote count is 102/107/100 for each voting server now. This is 6 votes per day. And we have 50 - 100 or so regulars.
Average of 20 votes per day should be our goal - smart reminder should help us with that - as I shown example above it would display minecraft voting sites in red/green color depending, if you already voted here.
And max possible votes depends on how many unique players login on our servers.

Wonder if we could have it on forums somewhere on sidebar.
This would need communication between voting sites/our server lobby/our forums.

I honestly do not think voting would be effective in boosting the player count since if you look at the top servers, they have thousands/millions of votes.

It would take a long time for us to reach page 1 if our player count remains the same and I do understand that potentially, our player count could increase BUT:

We cant keep our new players on the server

Secondly, I just dont like how you are presenting voting as a mandatory task or a task that we must do. Your suggestions just discourage players from voting instead of encouraging.

Voting should be made fun if we are going down that route, not boring or that it looks like it is mandatory. Yea, it should be quick and easy but not in your face.

We go on these servers for fun, not as a chore to vote.

 

[Hex]

I honestly do not think voting would be effective in boosting the player count since if you look at the top servers, they have thousands/millions of votes.

It would take a long time for us to reach page 1 if our player count remains the same and I do understand that potentially, our player count could increase BUT:

We cant keep our new players on the server

Secondly, I just dont like how you are presenting voting as a mandatory task or a task that we must do. Your suggestions just discourage players from voting instead of encouraging.

Voting should be made fun if we are going down that route, not boring or that it looks like it is mandatory. Yea, it should be quick and easy but not in your face.

We go on these servers for fun, not as a chore to vote.

I think hes more talking about the staff needing to vote more than anything, not the players, because it should be something that we as staff members do to support the server.

I do agree, we need more player retention. I actually see new players at least once a day on Create, but they never stick around that long. We need to fix that, same goes for AoD and somewhat RoF, but RoF seems to have a decent player base most of the time.

 

[Notme]

I honestly do not think voting would be effective in boosting the player count since if you look at the top servers, they have thousands/millions of votes.

It would take a long time for us to reach page 1 if our player count remains the same and I do understand that potentially, our player count could increase BUT:

We cant keep our new players on the server

Secondly, I just dont like how you are presenting voting as a mandatory task or a task that we must do. Your suggestions just discourage players from voting instead of encouraging.

Voting should be made fun if we are going down that route, not boring or that it looks like it is mandatory. Yea, it should be quick and easy but not in your face.

We go on these servers for fun, not as a chore to vote.

We don't have to be in top 10, top 100 would be nice place to be. I think more people would join us, if we were on top 100.
My voting suggestion is here, so people doesn't have to remember to vote - servers and if possible forums would remind them to vote.
Even if there is "vote" button at top, people don't remember if the voted earlier today.

I think hes more talking about the staff needing to vote more than anything, not the players, because it should be something that we as staff members do to support the server.

I do agree, we need more player retention. I actually see new players at least once a day on Create, but they never stick around that long. We need to fix that, same goes for AoD and somewhat RoF, but RoF seems to have a decent player base most of the time.

Yep, primarily its for staff and regulars. There should be bigger rewards for top weekly and monthly voters, so new people would want to vote too.