Why is SMP6 so dead? What can I do to revive it?

The MPO (which I'm a City Hall Member and Founder of) is on there, and it used to be a very active outpost, but despite my attempts to recruit more active members and the fact that it has nearly 50 official members now, not a single one that I know of is active there anymore, or even on SMP6. Even in its major cities, the streets are just so empty and feel so abandoned. I remember back in 2015/2016, SMP6 was home to many events as well as being a place where many active staff members were from. All of that has died too. It even used to have many good malls, but now many of those are poorly stocked, don't have items from newer updates, and some of them even at risk of becoming derelict. Now I've not seen that many new players on SMP6 stay very long either like what used to be the case. Even people like finch, Foxy, Breezy, etc. either have left, or else aren't as active or have moved to other SMPs. Now when I log into SMP6, I see either a dead SMP that would be empty without myself, very few others who are mostly either new players that don't stay long, a few people I've had multiple serious issues with in the past and am now ignoring, or even a combination of those two groups.

So, why is SMP6 so dead nowadays? Is there anything I can do to recruit more new, active MPO members and hopefully bring SMP6 and the MPO back to life? Even I haven't been as active because I don't have the courage to be active to work on my projects often, because the only people who are around (when even that) are usually the ones who I'm extremely uncomfortable with and/or those new players who don't stay long (some disappear in minutes/seconds, if not as soon as they join; most last just hours to a week at the most). Plus, the fact that the MPO is such a huge outpost with good transportation systems, several towns/cities, many naturally generated structures to explore, and every biome excluding the new ones coming up in 1.13 surely should encourage a lot more people to join (there's even that info in the thread and my signature, and I still lurk on forums a lot).

I actually think with SMP6 public works and insanely active players like MrClydeBarrow and Velma_T_Jinkies who I see on constantly, SMP6 is one of the more active servers.

I know, but that's not all the time, that's only a few people, and half of those people are the ones I don't get along with and am ignoring (Velma and Skitzie are part of the other half because they're actually super nice). I wouldn't be too surprised or disappointed if Clyde and some of the others are ignoring me too, and even if they're not, I still wouldn't be surprised or disappointed if they're mad at me anyways. Let's hope it doesn't turn into another violent/rude disagreement, though.

EDIT: I hope this isn't against EMC rules or taken as offensive/defamatory/inflammatory, but I feel as if people might have better responses than the one quoted if they know what I'm talking about.

Also, sorry for double posting, but this is also a lot of why I'm not as active. Not only is it hard to take the general loneliness, but the fact that the main exception is a group who I seem to have a strong mutual dislike with makes it even more discouraging. I hope the disagreements are peaceful from here on because if another major disagreement/argument happens again in the foreseeable future, that'll probably be my last straw and cause me to leave altogether for a long while (even if I don't get banned as a result) (and that'll be both my third major argument and third major "official" break. Purely coincidental, but the third time for both would be a big deal and likely have me seriously upset & defamed).

And for those of you who are concerned that I may be defaming myself; I don't care, I've already done stuff to deserve it, my reputation is probably partly ruined anyways, I'm probably (but I have no way to know for sure) on the staff watch list, and I'm not really able to live too happily or socially active IRL either. If you think I'm nice anyways, thanks, but I honestly don't feel like I am, and sometimes even question whether I can be (I want to be though, and I usually try).

EDIT: And sorry for getting off-topic, and sorry if that breaks EMC rules and/or unnecessarily defames/provokes someone. I just felt the need to explain.

I hope so. Spring months tend to be very busy, and so does the late Autumn/early Winter holiday season that includes Thanksgiving and Christmas, but SMP6 seems to have been somewhat dead in January and February too (unless I just don't remember properly).

Just wait until June. Activity spikes everywhere in June-September, and at other times during late afternoon EMC time. Saturdays are generally the really active days.

But yeah, SMPs seem to go through cycles of inactivity. SMP8 has had a few since I moved there.

One idea could be just saying Hi to the players that are on when your on. Doesn't help increase number of players, but might help with the quality of life with the players we do have.

Of course some players are totally newbies and might drive ya crazy, or they might hate people and just want to play alone haha. But at least you'd be acknowledging them.
(I'm also saying this to myself.... because sometimes I'm a grouchy old man that wants his privacy)

But yea, what Slvr said. Outside of spending your own $$$ on digital advertising, I don't know of a way increase player numbers.

So this is the other thread BK meant...

I feel the same thing about SMP2 sometimes and IMO it simply boils down to: be there, be active, and DO something.

• For starters actually play the game and don't go AFK to chat on the forums or discord.
• When new players come along greet them. Maybe try to start conversation (but also be careful not to get too intrusive either of course).
• Try to get a conversation started in community chat. Or just share some random banter yourself (always making sure not to overdo it. not many people enjoy a monologue going on for 20 minutes or so).
• Maybe organize an ad-hoc event? That's an idea I'm toying with for later the evening (assuming SMP2 is kinda dead at that time).
• If at first you don't succeed: try and try again!

(I'm actually serious about that last item).
That's my plan of action anyway.

I wish I could give you a decent answer, however, all I can say is it's complicated (below is simply my take).

General MC Population

When MC first came out, it was only available on PC - now there are so many platforms to choose from: xbox, playstation, switch, and pocket/handheld. In my opinion, it's not that less people are playing the java version, its that the players are more spread out now. I have yet to see hard evidence that minecraft is "dying," or the population or popularity is "dying." In fact, from what I'm seeing, there is a HUGE increase in number of players from 40 million in 2016 to 55 million in 2017. So if this isn't the issue, what is?

Part of the issue: most players are interested in coded mini games - minecraft started of course with survival, which is what made it popular. After that initial popularity, mods and plugins were made by thousands of people, just like with any other game, which was then used to eventually create more and more complex mini games. This trend has taken years to unfold, but I believe that's where we are at with (the java version 0f) minecraft. There are a few major servers I could mention - but if you notice, one of them was extremely popular (30-48k users at one time) because of its coded games, but then another server took over that number one spot (around 30k) because their games were simply: more fun.

EMC Specific

I have spent a number of years extremely active on both smp1 and Utopia and as Slvr has stated and ellis highlighted above, these things are cyclical.

I have an ongoing theory that smp popularity/activity has a lot to do with staff presence on that server. I noticed this in particular over the last year when smp7 was seriously lacking in activity until JD spent a lot of time in game there. Now I believe it to be the most active server right now. This can be said of other servers / staff participation as well, but is certainly not the only factor.

Other factors include but are not limited to: player participation, events (both staff and player - keep in mind there used to be more PvP events on smp6 but PvP has since moved to games server), economy IE good malls, outposts, and public farms. The latter two are the wild cards, which fluctuate population hourly or daily given the fact that you may not want to actually "live" on the server where your farms and outposts are.

Ultimately, the only "short answer" is: You have to be extremely active to get more player participation in my opinion. Recruit often, update threads, hold events, build awesome builds and POST THEM on sites such as planet minecraft - which I've always thought our build team should do because they are amazing. Post emc videos on youtube, stream emc content, join other minecraft discord groups, go to minecraft conventions. This is how you boost numbers specific to EMC.

TLDR - Be active, and people will be active also. Less active means less activity - which starts a domino effect!

Smp6 dose seem to not have many people on but to the USA I'm at midnight time

Regardless of how you feel about peeps on there, they're still active.

I do agree that the time of year may be a factor. The first two spring months tend to be very busy for many people, and the summer vacation season in the Northern Hemisphere (depending on the grade and area) is in May-July or June-August.

Posting outside of EMC is a great idea Toade. For my day job we call places like planetmc and /r/Minecraft “watering holes”. Go where the people you want hangout. Of course gotta do it in a authentic low key way... not like omg plz join my server so we can be friendzz way lol.

Yup, absolutely - and honestly I believe in "if you post, they will come." Simply posting a cool build (without a download) gets people interested in wanting to SEE the build or even try and get a schematic of it lol - so really, other than mentioning what server the build is on, you don't need to do much else.

I'll punch in, after all. . . this will always be my home server.

From the get go, I started on Smp6. So yes I too have seen the fluctuations in general activity, player counts, and so forth that you mention. Toady worded it perfectly. As simply stated above it could just be the time of year for many. The shifting never stays the same nor can you expect it to stop. But anyway, we all have our reasons. It's just how it is buddy.

I admit it, I'm not as active here on EMC as I would personally hope to be, as I have been in past years. I'm working regularly now so gotta take that into consideration. And has since been changing from there. I spend more time outdoors doing things I enjoy, and make it less of a priority to be online. I go to town for golf on the weekends, or out to eat some evenings just to be around people, may go home to hang with the family. In the variety of opportunities I have, and what I prefer to do nowadays, it has changed dramatically in the past year.

Looking back, yeah I miss it to an extent. The people are what I miss most about it, and the good times. Helping players work towards a mutual goal, pitching in to repair the wilderness outposts (Smp6), and maintaining a constant friendly relation between the common player it all was great. Priceless in the end and thankful for the experience.

I have been trying to return partially active in the past month moving forward, but it's simply making time for it, interests, and responsibilities of course.

Don't lose hope though We3. . . it's like ocean waves, they just keep on rolling. Be the wave.

I am not as active as I would like to be but in the short time that I have been back I have decided to start taking condensed online courses to get a real full time job where putting in 40-50 hours a week will lead me somewhere instead of spending that time in a mom and pop pizza place wasting time. I should be a bit more active in about 18-24 weeks

I don't think that it's something that you have much control over. I've been on SMP6 since 2015, and I've noticed a decrease in participants myself. There could be a lot of reasons why this is happening. Though, I don't think that a single person, or a small group of people can fix it.

Let's also remember that people are still in school and may be swamped with schoolwork; they're probably too busy finishing up the semester to come online. Just a thought.

Yeah... I'll just come on whenever I feel am in the mood for it, leave if I get bored, and probably be less active until late May/early June (and even during summertime I'll probably be less active, as I'm getting older now and my June will be extremely busy).

Requested thread closure.