Felent Deram Gaming
FDG (random meh)
A phrase or multi-phrase consisting of 1-3 word(s) that can be easily have an acronym would generate the easiest word of mouth.
One major addition that is and has been very much needed is the pushing of the social media tween teen crap that seems to be the disconcertingly relevant these days.
Social media is highly used by the age denomination this gaming community seemingly has come to ask for (10-16)
Getting a working media personnel(staff) dedicated and only doing social media hype would promote the growth of the community.
Deeper transparency on what is happening with 'pre' and actual servers.
An actual update of what is happening and actually going on before a server is released would generate more inflow as it shows progression and those behind the scenes are actively up to things. In other words the content that is being constantly generated.
A weekly "nothin's going on but these people are now staff and these people are not" is awful, boring and makes it feel like the existing servers are stagnating.
At least bluff-n-fluff about there being minor bug fixes and optimizations to make it seem there's apparent work being done. (while I know there's uber-tons of work going on server to server, it still makes good for the 'image' to give something the players can see as tangible change and progress, even if its not legitimate. While you may argue this creates a false image of the community no-one can prove you didn't update the server to handle xxx better.)
It can be said that in a weekly meeting report that 'xxx server updates xxx xxx and xxx' is boring, however it shows the servers are evolving. Look at the iphone, it updates needlessly and people eat that crap up each revision.
Things like 'tnt updates! xxx has been tweaked, xxx is upcoming xxx is under development'
Instead of how infection was released unstable because people were tired of 'soon' and the hype train was all but dead.
That would be multitudes harder for something like an smp or story based server naturally. Other servers for tf2 and such would have hard times as well, but teaser updates, plugin updates, and other crap are still easily able to create hype.
Seriously we have some people who are still around in the community that are not staff who are waiting for tnt who have sat patiently waiting and waiting, and they were just barely confirmed that it would get a release as a whole. As well as people that stuck around just for infection, rejoined because they heard infection was coming back, then re-poofed.
As the number of adults and adult aged players come into the community I feel it is essential to the growth of the community that it is offered an area that is age restricted access. Not on the servers mind you, the forums.
This would allow a place for those adults, to be adults. One can say go be adults someplace else, however that defeats the purpose of wishing for and attaining a higher growth. I hate to say this, but adults and working teens are what fill donation jars if your not pay-to-win.
This was established as an all ages minecraft gaming community, not a young nor teen age's minecraft gaming community.
Another relevance is that cursing is allowed to the extent is has been, but we have ten, eleven, thirteen and so on year olds in the community. Cursing shouldn't be allowed in the general forums and in game to the multitude and commonality it has been and not be fairly as widely accepted as it has. It's not a debate of maturity, its a debate of vulgarity and the garish way people believe they are allowed to conduct themselves. Even finding myself using way to many in general banter. That rule of 'moderation' seems whole heartedly ignored.
Creating some kind of system where those weekly votes for server staff. The ones that only two to five people aside from staff vote on. Creating or making those integrated and mandatory in some way or another. We cannot progress when we don't know who is doing good and only hearing about the bad. It becomes a frustration when all those things are is complaint forms. Perhaps some other form of integration along the likes of 'hows my driving. please call with complaints and complements'
While it is in the best interest to create an atmosphere with as little as censorship and control as possible to allow a sense of comfort there is something as too comfortable.
I'm not saying anything is really wrong with the community, as we all know boats with holes sink. However a boat in minecraft will never sink no matter how many holes. Figuratively that's how I have seen the community. There are parts missing that would sink any other boat however this place has happily stayed afloat strong.
I really don't like telling people how to run their anything, nor do I really have the grounds to expect people to adhere or obey things I've said. I've only merely pointed out some observational thoughts about things that would be progressive and that could shape a ever growing community into an even larger conglomerate.
As a tack on to this I will address my opinions on the league of legends banter that seems to be going back and forth.
As I've stated before I see no issues with league becoming an integrated part of a gaming community. Key word involved, gaming, not just league. I will not support a change of this community fully dedicated to it. Much like other games that would be involved in an evolution a subforum is sufficient.
League has a fully functioning and official community forum. The Blocktopian or whatever interim name it is using for the then existing community, should be a united community under the banner of gaming. While it shouldn't matter the scope of the games involved as a gaming community evolves since new games are always hitting the market.
This attitude of literal hate that passes back and forth between cliques and individual gaming groups is appalling and shows a great indignity to the group itself. I am here for no few individuals, no few games, no few servers, I am here for Blocktopia, to enjoy the community and the content herein.
While every individual has every right to have particular distaste for an individual or game and so on, why must you so coldly treat others who wish to call you comrade. There are countless other forums, and countless other places to idle or be active at your computer. Yet we all decide to converge here and come back again and again, evolving as people and evolving as a community. Is it so hard to ask people to be a little less arrogant, biased, hate filled and be a little more open minded, tolerant and accepting of one another.
If only for the prosperity of this place we all keep coming back to.
