It will be my one year anniversary on EMC in a couple of weeks, and I am really excited about it. I did not play on EMC the entire time, but I had a lot of fun. Looking back at the past year, EMC was a big part of my life and it has become very important to me. Looking forward to the next year, I have big plans, hopes, and dreams for my EMC future. However, it was not always like that for me on EMC. I remember the first day I joined EMC. It was St. Pattys day, and the Pot o Gold promo was released. I remember going through the helpful, but long, tutorial, and then suddenly spawning on a 60x60 plot in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. Not only was this my first time on EMC, this was actually only my second or third week of playing Minecraft at all. My experience before EMC consisted of playing on Easy difficulty on a single player world. Thus, I knew very little about Minecraft in general, let alone EMC. Now there was a lot of help on the forums, and there was reading material available to me in-game. However, there was one problem that I faced that nothing had prepared me for: I didn't know what to do. I had all these options, this large plot of land, and this huge community of people, and I did not know what to do. A year later, I know now that this is a common issue amongst new players. Every day, somebody new joins the Empire on my home of SMP 7. Of those 'newbies', the most common question I see is "What do I do?". Often, this question goes unanswered, because how do you answer it? Sometimes the person can find something to do, sometimes they are determined to try different things out until they discover their plans, and sometimes they leave, because without a purpose to play, what do they do? Now, how to answer this problem, I am not certain. That is what this post is for. I want us as a community to collaborate and discover how to fix this problem. Do you already have an answer when someone asks this question? Do you have an idea that could help to solve this problem? Please chime in with your comments or ideas so we can find a way to give new players a purpose, without stealing the experience of learning that we have each had on EMC.
minecraft is the only game ive ever experienced where people WANT to be coddled and handed everything. in an rts theres like a 2 minute tutorial that explains nothing and then you are thrown in chaos. in a fps you are taught how to aim and shoot and once again thrown into the melee. in a moba you are taught how to play one champion then ranked against other noobs that also have no clue whats going on. only in mmorpg's have i ever seen any kind of realistic tutorial explaining the game in its entirety and even then its less then comprehensive. the problem is not new players not being able to learn how to play minecraft the problem is lazy or too young to understand gamers entering an open world. its like giving a toddler a college degree and then expecting them to do well in their field, if you dont put in the work its not other gamers responsibility or even the server owners to teach you the basic mechanics of the game (thats why there is single player and thats why the game makes you join single player before you join a server)
Me personally did not face this problem when I first joined. I remember the first thing I did when I joined was go to /waste and died 10 minutes into playing! After that I just made a small shop and got decent profit. Once that started to grow I decided to make a mall with 25k ( that is NOT a smart thing to do my friends). From then I just continued to grow and now I am here. Now, when new players join and they don't know what to do. Well the answer is what isn't there to do? Minecraft and EMC gives you so many options! One, you can go into the frontier and build a house and start a farm. You can start a residence and get involved with the communities events that there are every week. You can be like me and start a small shop and become a millionaire and own a business. The options are endless, well not really but you get what I mean. Most players, and humans in general, are used to having everything thrown at them and given to. Well that won't get you far on this server. For one, we like our stuff! A stack of logs or two is okay for me to give knowing my funds but being asked to give up my valuables is a pet-peeve of mine. This may sound silly but if you get out of the habit of asking for things here all the darn time might help you out side of our community. In the end of the day, we have to leave our screens and go outside and live a life! Not saying everyone does ask for everything like a king/queen but it helps, or does not help. So my answer to new players is to have fun and be creative! Minecraft is a game meant to express your creativity and to have fun! If you want items, go to /v +mall ( or +shop ) or go to /shop! Leave a finger print on this server with a building so people can say "Wow! YourNameHere built this? I want to be like that!" and then you just made a player become a member of our family here and possibly have them donate to this great server. That is all.
when I started I was like DUDE! and ran at the waste then I got smart found a favorite shop and moved my res 4 times. lol. I really was soooo poor (I still am)
EMC is the first minecraft server that I have joined. Back then, I didn't even have a Minecraft account! I used an account that belongs to a random person which forgot to log out of minecraft, and the IGN's Inkybear. I tried to log on, and I spent half an hour trying to finish the tutorial, but keep getting lost in the sims. Then, like all of us, got spawned onto this huge plot of land. At first, I just ran around randomly, then read the introduction book and started building a simple house. I got more and more involved, until I reached the point where I don't have the wits to continue on without a secure account. Thats when I bought minecraft. I hid everything valuable I earned into a chest in a buried chest in the waste, but the me back then didnt know about the smp systems. When I started playing as Dim5678, I looked everywhere in smp4, and didnt find the chest. I was sad. I quit EMC for about a month, then restarted after seeing the qualities of the other servers out there. I then restarted my life in EMC, and came to know about the forums. I almost read through the entire wiki this time, and learned about a lot of new info. So I think the thing is that most people don't like the servers where you have to put all your time in being afraid that they will lose everything, but instead likes the minigame servers where there isn't really any long term bonds.
I live on smp1 and as soon as a new player asks "What should I do". We all answer "Go to /waste, gather material, sell to make some money and have fun. You should always have fun, though it might be more fun with some money in your pocket Also, I should warn people about marlix and Momentus, i've heard some people who go out and say "Hey a big zombie, I can kill it!" Usually that does not go that well.
I explain to players that this is a "play your own way" server, then I go on to explain exactly what that means: They can battle hostile mobs if they choose, build a house or other structure on their res - maybe pixel art, open up their own shop, establish an outpost in the Frontier where they can build larger structures their res can't accommodate, or do none of those things and just jump around smp's talking to people and make friends - or any/all combinations. Minecraft is a creative game where there are virtually limitless possibilities. *side note- I thought the number one asked question is "can i join a town?" ;p -ET
You all are lucky with the tutorial you have now! The one before the last was VERY interactive and I almost gave up on the locking chest part and the first thing I did when I spawned in was "Oh I have wood! Let's make a house! Yay!" If you ever have visited my first res on smp6 you notice that really bad wooden shack yeah I haven't changed the res sense. And because I had very little knowledge from the 2-3 years before when I first got mc I knew that you always want a bed, torches, and a shelter well, that's what I did so really it's all a matter of experience or just play around in sp before joining a server
I have to agree; I've seen this question a lot myself as well. However... I don't think it has always something to do with the player being lazy. Maybe a little hasty in going through the tutorial perhaps, but even then: there is a lot of information to find in the tutorial, so I can well imagine that not every player will have the patience to read through it all. Not to mention those players who might feel a bit overwhelmed. No, I think the question has more to do with "So how does this work?". Sure, players understand that they should mine to gather resources: but where? "What do I do?" can just as well mean: "What do I do to gather resources?" or "what do I do to start?" or "where do I start?" (those are some of the questions which I've seen passing by as well). As mentioned above I also often refer players to the wastelands (while making sure to mention that they need to return to the outpost before being able to teleport back) or (sporadically): I refer them to the new players guide.
when I joined I had found it in a book and I was so thrilled to join I spent all day during school reading the page forums and wiki. I failed the test science but when I joined I only made a few mistakes (a satck of cobble for 1k r lol) and got onto it
When I joined,this server was so easy. But EMC has its own unique system that I haven't see on other servers. I love the system. But I do help players when I actually helped someone made their shop or store.
I think the rules about mining and such regarding the Frontier could be more clear for new players. I know that I had thought that mining wasn't allowed period in the Frontier.
