[Suggestion] EMC 'reform'

I've been talking to some other EMC members recently, and I've come up with the idea of a 'slight' 'reform' of EMC (with help, of course ). This would require a lot of work, and I know I'm going to get shot down by staff and some community members alike, but I thought I'd give this a shot.

My first suggestion: Updating the EMC logo. Y'know that big picture that says 'EMPIRE MINECRAFT' at the top left corner of the site? Yeah, I've gotten bored of it and it doesn't look as nice as it did four years ago. I say we ditch it in search of something better looking. This could be provided for by a professional graphic artist (of which there are plenty, all with varying levels of skill and styles) or through a community contest - whichever entry is voted the best by the community gets to be the new EMC logo until we 'need' a new one. I put this one first because its the easiest out of all my suggestions.

My second suggestion: Updating the site. This site is running on an outdated version of Xenforo, which I recall Aikar promising to fix a long, long time ago. Sure, it'd be hard, but if EMC assembles a decent lineup of developers (and there are plenty of those on EMC) to help update the code in the in-game plugins, there's no excuse for that process to not be completed in a few months. I'd also like to suggest updating the theme to a better-looking one (Flexile is really stale, in my opinion) to look more like a 'modern' server. There are plenty of web developers who could be paid to make a prettier Flexile-style theme or something like that.

My third suggestion: To put it bluntly, making useful things and small projects, instead of things like Dragon Tombs, among other things on the development roadmap, which have been proven to not be feasible for EMC's development team (Dragon Tombs has spent three years in development hell, with promise after promise failing to be delivered). When Justin managed EMC's development, he made small features that were pretty cool and changed things in a nice way. Dragon Tombs is a big project, and to be honest, the whole idea bores me - and I know its the same for many people, whether they admit it or not.

100% agreed.

Small but important and engaging updates is what EMC needs right now in my opinion. Like I've said before I've never been too keen on dragon tombs, has never been that appealing to me.

Id just like to say that I actually feel where you're coming from, just not as extreme seeing as how I don't have 300k people to please...

my 2 cents on this post.

i hate how little people understand how much work actually goes into this server and everything thats linked to it.
i did not understand it my self until i became a mod,
its really easy to tell other people how to do things. but doing things for one self. that usually is a whole other matter.

You did it again. You took the words right out of my mouth. Lol

http://empireminecraft.com/threads/emc-dragon-tombs-info.14398/

It's been 'nearly' 3 years, there are pictures of The Dragon Tomb on that thread posted in August of 2012

It just seems like these suggestions would benefit you of all people more than anyone else, because only you seemed to be bothered by this. The 3 years I've been on Empire Minecraft, I haven't really noticed any sort of major difference in the logo that would make it "ugly" or less enjoyable to look at. This is the same with the website its self. The website is perfectly fine the way it is right now, though it is a little outdated. It's, for the most part, just a forum/information website that really doesn't need any further updates. Some of these projects take a relatively long time to make, and as new Minecraft updates get released, the Dev Team has to pay attention to getting the server ready and by the time they've updated the server, they have to update the projects they're currently working on, too.

The forum works fine for me as it is. I really would NOT enjoy learning a new forum system but that is just my opinion. Other people may feel differently.

Can you help us understand?

Emc is a special place. its place i my self tried to create, but was never able.. why? i cant for the life of my program anything. when i joined EMC i found my home. i found a place where everything i had dreamed to make.. was alive and thriving fine.
so it gets me real mad to see things like this

you need to pay those artist.. btw.

i think the player that is writing this post does not understand that the work on the server is voluntary, and running this server costs money. if you take the cost of running the server it costs over $1000 per month and we need more than supporter income to meet the costs.

so it could be more than 1000usd.
/rant over



now to you SkyDragonv8

ill give it a fair try to help you understand.. from my view as a new mod.

Aikar programs things him self. its not just a on button. he actually writes the codes to keep this place going.
i cant tell you what he does, cause i have read what he says and sometimes, my non programming mind just cant follow or understand.
and he has a day job. ergo he works, a lot, then he comes home and has to do all these things to just simply keep the server going. and most of them are not something i could do.. or even think about doing.. let alone imagine were possible or needed to be done. all that is done in his spare times.
i felt it was easy to say.. "omg why isn't 1.8 here??" .. until i became mod and saw how much work actually needed for it.
and still everyday, i am amazed and stumped on things needed to be done and the things Aikar and his team do.

krysyy, the community manager,
the other side of this important coin.
from what i see, shes swamped to. all the time. and her work ranges from a-z in the field that Aikar doesn't do.
she works on the vouchers, she handles complaints, she makes sure we(the mods) are doing what we should amongst other things i am not listing here.
she went for a short vacation, and she had to work like a dog when she came back to work up the lost work.

those 2 sometimes are over worked in my opinion on a server that is amazing, and i fear that its becoming to much work, and all tedious work. that might just make them go.. which i don't want. they are brilliant.

Then we have Senor Staff. these are more trusted staff that have the server in they'r hands. they do little things that they can to help fix, build, and maintain. they help with reports that staff are not able to handle them self. cause mods cant do it all tbh. there are some.. things in this context that i cant talk about. just trust me when i say.. its needed and i love that about this server.

the staff.[that's me] they help with day to day communicating to the players. deal with people, in both good and bad ways.
now i am not a favorite mod, and sometimes i'm just swamped. people want to talk to me. people need my help. need me to delegate problems.

this is how i see it. before i became a mod, i believed i was the only one with a problem. my problem was the only thing needed to fix atm. and it should be taken care of.. NOW!
now i'm on the other side.. and i see that i might have 10 people trying to talk to me.. all thinking that exact thing that i used to think. now think this.. we have over 300.000 registered players..

i hope i managed to clear things up and i hope my words helped.

Nice... XD

Good morning !!

I've recently completed 1 year with emc. I have zero experience with other servers. I bought mine craft because I read about this server online. In that one year I probably saw Aikar and Krys in chat maybe two or three times. I always thought it was because of my odd work schedule. And didn't think much of it. Now that I am a Mod I see that they are ALWAYS working on somethin for the server when not working RL jobs. So much so that it amazes me they have a real life job. All I can think about is what can I do to help ?

As to the OP
The logo is a brand. You don't just Change brands with out a lot of thought and input. It would me like passing a Mcdonalds and seeing a new logo.

Small things get added everyday there is always something going on to make our game play better. Just like everyone I would like to kill dragons. And claim land (where is my empire ?) but many many small things come up and need to be handled also.

I work RL 50 hours a week. Every spare moment I have at work is doing something to help here. Forum responses reports messaging players and other mods alike about one thing or another. Change is happening. Watch for it.

Good morning!

There are 2 versions of the logo by the way. (Not including the play.emc.gs logo)

I know what you mean. I used to run a server back when MC was ß1.8-1.0, so I know what goes on to maintain a server.. I used to be Schrödinger's Staff but that to step down when I accepted the same job at another server, "conflict of interests" you know the whole shpeel.

EDIT: Ooops, I clicked the post before finishing my post.. xD ..But yeah, it does take a lot of work to run a server.. xD

EDIT 2:

I just wanted to comment on this, but didn't want to make a new post being that I just posted something.. Actually, it would depend on the contract made for the artist. I believe that the spriter's on Dragon Cave are not really paid for their work, but it is exposed to everyone that uses the site, so it a way, it gives the spriter's exposure..