Learning about EMC

Discussion in 'Community Discussion' started by JDHallows, Jul 22, 2015.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
Page 1 of 2
  1. Hello EMC community!

    I have been an EMC member for almost 4 months now, and have learned a lot about this server. However, I feel like I am still missing so much of the server at the same time. So, the purpose of this thread is I want learn more about not only the history of EMC, but also about the people who have made it what it is today.

    So, this thread is mainly for those who have been with the server for a long time and for those who know its history. (PS if there are other threads like this one, or ones that hold some EMC history, I would love to see them, so please post some links!)

    Hopefully this thread will grow over time, and will become a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the history of EMC!
    JDHallows, Jul 22, 2015
    #1
    AyanamiKun, HelloKittyRo, BlinkyBinky and 1 other person like this.
  2. PenguinDJ, Jul 22, 2015
    #2
    ww2fan168, 607, ShelLuser and 1 other person like this.
  3. And well, the people what made EMC what it is today... Well.. Obviously the staff and senior staff have a big hand into all this, don't get me wrong, but in the end it's mostly players like you and me. Think about it... New player comes along, and who will greet 'm? Ayups. Lets say that new player starts asking questions in town chat, who are going to answer him?

    So in the end its the community which made and makes what it is today. And we're all part of it 8)
    ShelLuser, Jul 22, 2015
    #3
    607 and M4nic_M1ner like this.
  4. Once upon a time,
    There was a cow. He was not a normal cow. He was an IceCreamCow. He founded a server that is today known as Empire Minecraft. Whenever this Cow died in the wilderness, he dropped (what I believe is one of the first promo's or rare items) IceCreamCow's hide and flesh.
    ICC and his friends like to play with the Empirians, so they would mess around with them. (Temp bans and such.)
    They decided to share their experiences and server with the world, and thus, EMC was born.
    (someone better jump in and tell about Aikar taking lead and such)
    ChamelonNYC, Jul 22, 2015
    #4
    Kytula and DeathPunchKitty like this.
  5. uh, this great leader came out of no where, JustinGuy. He sorted all the problems and starvation happening in EMC. However this created a huge surge in population on EMC everyone flocked there. This was too much for JustinGuy too handle. JustinGuy loved EMC and made a great leader of what EMC once was but this new EMC was just too far beyond JustinGuy's scope.

    Emc started to deteriorate and people started to leave. One of JustinGuy's "warlords" or right hand men, if you will, made a proposition to the great leader. "Emc must not go out like this, we must restore its glory." Aikar burst forward. Aikar was by no means not known at this point but after this proposition that inevitably lead to the hand over of the EMC server to Aikar, well let's just say Aikar would never be forgotten in EMC history.

    JustinGuy agreed to the proposition and handed over the keys to the kingdom. Aikar reopened the gates and brought in the best jesters, playwrights and scientists that could be found in all the land. People once again returned to EMC in numbers never before seen. This surge of population didn't have the same consequences this time. Instead of being a burden on the server it propelled the power of the server forward and ushered in an a new age of EMC that we all call home today.

    -my take on what happened after the last post lol
    Gawadrolt, Jul 22, 2015
    #5
    Kytula and DeathPunchKitty like this.
  6. PenguinDJ, Jul 22, 2015
    #6
    DeathPunchKitty, Gawadrolt and codygraw101 like this.
  7. You should rename this to EMC- A Time Tested Server or something like that :)
    ChamelonNYC, Jul 22, 2015
    #7
  8. Okay. I wanted to provide some links to important things, and then realised something. Perhaps the most important thread that hasn't been mentioned yet was removed from the public to view. That's an odd way of censoring things... how will the newer members feel? They'll never know exactly what happened here, while it was super important. What am I talking about? This, of course.
    Sorry for my perhaps harsh reaction, but I don't recall this thread being removed. Yeah, closed for further replies, sure, but removed altogether?...
    607, Jul 22, 2015
    #8
    Hashhog, ShelLuser and M4nic_M1ner like this.
  9. The mystery is killing me.
    Gawadrolt, Jul 22, 2015
    #9
  10. The link says that the thread was called "Restructuring of the Staff Team"

    Was this an important moment in EMC history? I have not seen much about past staff members anywhere, actually. Especially the retired ones.

    Last night, I went looking at EMC museums, and I was surprised to find that they were not, imo, very informative. Mostly, they just had promos, special items, and staff/admin heads. When going to a museum, you expect to learn about the history of whatever topic the museum is about. Knowing the promos and seeing staff heads is interesting, but its not very informative.

    I want to learn about what I missed during these past years. The timeline that Penguin posted was very helpful, since it shows major moments in EMC history. But even that is just the basic timeline.

    I want to know, what was JustinGuy like? It seems from what I read that he became overwhelmed by the number of new members that joined. But I want to know, who was JustinGuy? Who was ICC? I know about them, from snippets I get from other players who were here during that time. Yet I don't know what EMC was like pre-Aikar (I know he was involved early on, but it doesn't seem like he was here from the very beginning?)

    I also would like to learn about who the staff were before they became staff. What was it like for them joining this new server, and then down the road becoming staff, and then Senior Staff for some of them. Lastly, how did Krysyy start out as a regular player, then became staff, then Senior Staff, and then an admin?

    On a final note, I would like to say at the end of this wall of text ;), that this thread has inspired me to make a new museum for EMC. But not one that just has promos and staff heads, but that actually tells the history of EMC. That is the kind of museum that EMC needs, because I think it is important for new members to know how this awesome server started, and how it went from a couple thousand members to over 300k! That to me is an amazing story, and it is one I am looking forward to learning.
    JDHallows, Jul 22, 2015
    #10
    Hashhog, Kephras, ShelLuser and 3 others like this.
  11. Also, does anyone else think the thread name should be changed? So that perhaps it can be found easier for future reference, and new members?
    JDHallows, Jul 22, 2015
    #11
  12. Don't forget we have some awesome p!ayers on this server
    BotBerrii, Jul 22, 2015
    #12
    AyanamiKun likes this.
  13. Wow, really cool initiatives right there! I respect your healthy curiosity!

    The thread was about ICC, then the co-owner of EMC I believe, being demoted to regular member. There was tons of uproar caused by it, and drama arose, which was probably why it was removed in the first place.
    People were banned, even a staff member and community favourite (ISMOOCH, he was unbanned soon after, after lots of protest), and dozens of key people of the community left, and many of them went to ICC's own server (or, as he referred to it, "Greener Pastures").
    It was all quite shocking and was a bit scary, but we got through it, and have hopefully learnt from it.

    Another really interesting part of EMC history is David Copherfield, most commonly referred to as he who shall not be named. But I wasn't around during that time either, so I hope we'll be able to get someone else to tell us more about him, and the Delta Team.
    607, Jul 22, 2015
    #13
    AyanamiKun, M4nic_M1ner, TeleportEntry and 4 others like this.
  14. You know, I am extremely pleased to see you jhall, asking about our history. I have been around for a very long time, not quite since the beginning though. Even if I wasn't very active in the community, and as such my memories may be off, I hope you'll find what I have written to be of some value.

    When I first joined EMC, JustinGuy was still the owner of EMC, although he was more inactive. Aikar, I believe, was a staff member when I joined, although older members could verify with my joining date. The servers 8-9 were non-existent, and I remember when they were initially launched. The servers, even with the addition of 8 and 9, were always full. I lived on smp1,and getting on after school was always difficult. I ran a small, but profitable shop at my res and enjoyed the challenges of stocking my shop. There were always people talking chat, having fun and throwing parties etc.


    Jumping a bit further ahead, I remember when a notice went live from JustinGuy that he would no longer be running EMC, and IceCreamCow took over. He had been a moderator before owner, and a RL friend of mine had been banned by him while he was a moderator(funny story, btw). ICC was a very carefree man. People would flood onto Utopia so we could have a bit of fun blowing up residences with lots of tnt, and many drop parties were held by other staff members. I got something very special once, but it got taken away after the party. JustinGuy, when I met him, seemed as being somewhat reserved. There are people older than I who could give you more info on him. I suggest Hash98, if you can catch him that is.


    My residence on smp1, 308, was somewhat special although I never realized it. It was around the corner from the EMC Graveyard and a giant parthenon built by NurseKillJoy, a former staff member. I'm not very sure how it was to become staff, as I'd surely never be accepted. Two good friends of mine, ArtemisV and JackBiggins, were or still are staff members so you could ask how it was for them. I suppose it's different for every person since they all have different personalities and different perceptions and experiences with the community. Krysyy was also a staff member when I joined, and I recall her frequent promotions over the time i've spent here on EMC. I actually posted a question on her profile page not long after I had joined, if memory serves me correctly. You can follow that story if you wish. It leads to a very old and unfulfilled idea of mine.

    I never met Copherfield. I have heard the rumours and discussion of the Delta Team, and seen the two being thrown around as insults on older threads. I do, however, have a history with another person who in my mind shall not be named. ShaunWhite may or may not be able to recall an incident I had, but Shaun is a retired staff member so I don't think you'd be able to ask him about it. I don't talk about the person publicly because all I ever receive is criticism, so if you wish to hear about it PM me on site and I'll tell you.

    Hope you enjoyed my wall of text and may we talk again soon. :)
    P.S. It sounds better if you read it out loud.
    Traynfreek, Jul 22, 2015
    #14
    AyanamiKun, DeathPunchKitty, M4nic_M1ner and 1 other person like this.
  15. The staff seemingly dodging EMC's history(it's what it seems like to me) makes me think that the history of EMC is full of wonderful drama that they look upon as the dark days. Whatever happened must have been pretty morbid if no one wants to enlighten us on the history of EMC. Which honestly, is a huge shame. Would be great if this information was not only available but on the wiki. They say time heals all. Maybe one day us new people will get to actually know what happened during the "erased" days of EMC. heh

    Until then I guess we get to speculate, spread rumors and see EMC's history slowly, or quickly who knows, deviate from what actually happened in the minds of the players that are truly curious about it.
    Gawadrolt, Jul 22, 2015
    #15
    Hashhog and M4nic_M1ner like this.
  16. Now let me clear something up that some members of the community seem to have somehow twisted. We do not avoid talking about the past, nor do we think of it as the 'Dark Days', etc. However, there is no point in focusing on the past. It only drags people down and upsets others that do feel strongly about it. Now then...

    *Pulls out story book*
    Once upon a time there were two guys that loved to play games, Justin and Jeremy. They started a community called the GameKrib network. After some time, they decided to start Empire Minecraft with players from that community, hence why you see a lot of GameKribJeremy, GameKribJim, etc. on the Empire. JustinGuy is the owner of Kalland Labs, LLC. Kalland Labs, LLC is what officially owned Empire Minecraft. Jeremy, known as GameKribJeremy or IcecreamCow, was his right-hand man, but not an actual owner of the business. That doesn't detract from the fact that the 2 both put incredible effort into EMC, each in their own area of expertise.

    JustinGuy was the Aikar of the old Empire. I met him during a not so convenient time for me and ignoramoose. We had lost our residence due to a small EMC bug and JustinGuy put forth incredible effort to fix it. He had my respect before that, but that day was when I truly loved JustinGuy <3. IcecreamCow did more of the community side of things, like choosing staff, running some funny and cool events here and there, handling drama, etc. He was always up for a joke and I can't tell you how many times he tried adding excrement to the Sphinx build I did for /shop because 'everyone poops'. It was a lot =P. Both of these amazing guys are something special =). The pre-Aikar days were a lot like the present days, just less code to do cool things so you often had to do them the hard way. EMC was simpler for sure. Example: Moving animals between residences by holding wheat. Eggification didn't exist.

    However, the one constant in life is change. JustinGuy had this little thing called real life sneak up and steal his time away. He had a spawnling during his time on EMC and anyone that has a newborn baby knows how taxing that can be on your life. Throw in some relocations due to his job, maybe a promotion?, and the maintenance of EMC eventually became too much for JustinGuy to handle. He felt that the players deserved more than passive coding here and there. About this time, Aikar was starting to take over the code side of things after he and Maxarias gained the rank of Admin in February 2013 and so Aikar of course had a deep connection to EMC. He didn't want to see it go to another company or shut down altogether. So he purchased it from Kalland Labs, LLC in early December 2013.

    More time passes and some major changes come to EMC. Aikar was owner, with IcecreamCow and Maxarias as Admins. However, with every change of leadership, there comes a change of vision. Aikar and Icecreamcow's visions did not meld together. Time passes and the visions differed even more. As a result, IcecreamCow spent less and less time on EMC, focusing on his own project where he could see more of his vision. (I'm only stating the facts. Do not start drama over this.) Because of a conflict of interest with 2 separate servers, Aikar and IcecreamCow went their separate ways in April 2014. This was quite a shock to the community and the original way in which it was presented resulted in less than cordial response. Some moderators that didn't agree then decided to abuse their powers by banning people left and right by request which resulted in them being banned for abuse of power. All this just added to the fuel of what was supposed to be a business decision to remove a personal conflict of interest and promote the well-being of the server. However, as is normal, change is a hard thing to cope with and the community took some time to bounce back and cope with the changes.

    The thread 607 mentioned was deleted and another was put in its place that focused on the more positive aspects of the split of Aikar and IcecreamCow in order to remove the business side of the decision that the community expressed dislike for. Aikar focused more on his vision with less deviation from his ultimate goal and the results have been pretty wonderful. We now have an active developer team that helps Aikar come up with and implement amazing ideas to help the players. We continue to grow and our population stays at a steady increase, apart from the trolls and griefers.

    My personal story:
    I joined EMC in January 2012 and made my home on smp2. Ignoramoose (my now fiance) was the one to find the server for me. Time passes and back them smp2 was THE economy giant and we started our Blue Ribbon Hotel project aside from other things. Ignoramoose asked JustinGuy directly if he needed more help moderating the forums, since back then Moose was just sitting at his computer all day (cushy state job and all that). JustinGuy and IcecreamCow made him moderator. A few months passed and I was in college. I became an EMC addict =P. I would text Moose to kick someone that was misbehaving, etc. I applied for staff in July 2012 and got it in November 2012. It was a long 4 month wait.

    Those that know me know that I am not a very technical minded individual. I love collecting things and was one of the first major hoarders on the server. I had a shop in the shape of a TARDIS, a sheep farm, etc. However, people evolve and overtime I evolved into wanting to run more and more events or building things for the server on stage (before build team existed). I logged on and spent my time just talking to players or helping newbies find their way back home.

    We went to Minecon at the end of October 2013 and I was the Red Dragon (whoop!). While we were there, Aikar explained that he'd be taking over as actual owner of EMC. I was ecstatic to see that we'd have some active coding again. JustinGuy was already caught in the throes of real life obligations. In addition, Aikar and Maxarias asked me if I'd consider being Senior Staff. They knew that I had a shop in 're-model', but didn't know that I hadn't intended on opening it as a shop again. It's (still) set to be a Doctor Who museum =P. So ignoramoose, GameKribJim and I all became Senior Staff and learned just how fun creative mode is. Basically I did the same thing I'd been doing before, just without having to go refill my inventory all the time. I ran neat events like the Empire Games (basically olympics), etc.

    After IcecreamCow and Aikar split, I guess Aikar chose me for my good looks =P. Nah, jk. During my time as Senior Staff, I became interested in how we attained players, how we could optimize the server attainment and raise retention rates, etc. Basically I wanted the Empire to grow. I guess you'll have to ask Aikar if that's the reason I was chosen to help on the business side of things with an Admin title in April 2014, but that's the story I tell myself =P.

    /end storytime
    Krysyy, Jul 22, 2015
    #16
    Sazukemono, Hashhog, AyanamiKun and 11 others like this.
  17. I was a newer the player while the whole copherfield thing went down, but here is an important link:
    http://empireminecraft.com/threads/the-truth-is.11902/
    Copherfield saw some legitimate and illegitimate problems with EMC, and he decided to seize the day if you will and use the drama to try and draw people to his "higher society." I like to compare it to communist dictators in a sense, they start out calling people idiots, and using that they come in and try to put in place their system that works better in the books but not in reality. :p A lot of members have turned him into a humorous incident, and it is mostly behind us now. If you think you know better, then you probably do. I wasn't an active forums member during that incident.
    Gibabyte, Jul 22, 2015
    #17
    Hashhog, ShelLuser and 607 like this.
  18. JustinGuy wasn't overwhelmed by new players. He became preoccupied with real life stuff. He had a child during the time he was admin and his free time to develop and play EMC became nonexistent.
    It's true that EMC was in decline when Aikar took over. Servers were empty and the forums were inactive. However, that's not why Aikar took over. I'm not sure exactly why the servers were in decline, but as I said above, Justin couldn't devote adequate time to the Empire and decided they'd have to sell the server to another company or shut it down altogether. Aikar 'saved' EMC by buying it from Kalland Labs (JustinGuy).

    Here's a quote from Aikar:

    "EMC would of shut down in 2012/2013 (believe me, I've seen the graphs after Justin left EMC before I joined, it was a sharp decline and only stabilized once I joined the team and started fixing the incredible broken state EMC was in. Bugs and lag made the server unplayable. 12 TPS was "normal")"
    Or wait for the truth and not spread rumors... The 'Dark Days' of EMC were when the servers were inactive (just before Starlis bought EMC.

    And as I said, most info is on the timeline. All events listed there have links you can view for more detailed info. That "other thread" really shouldn't be restored; all players need to know is that ICC was demoted and a large part of the community left with him.
    PenguinDJ, Jul 22, 2015
    #18
    607 and Gawadrolt like this.
  19. Thanks so much for clearing some of this up. In response to your last statement about the deleted thread, I somewhat agree that the thread itself should not be reopened. However, I do believe that rather than deleting it like it never happened, something different should have been put in place of it, explaining what happened, but not allowing comments to be made on it.

    I can see that EMC has had some tough and dark moments, but I think that it is important to remember these times as a community, because it is part of EMC's history.

    Edit: I also would like to add that I love the response that this thread has gotten. EMC's history is very important and I think it is necessary that we remember what happened.
    JDHallows, Jul 22, 2015
    #19
    DeathPunchKitty and Gawadrolt like this.
  20. I joined on February 8th, 2012. Minecraft was much simpler, EMC was much simpler, and things were very different. There were less staff, the community was much more tight-knit, and there's something I miss about it a lot.

    JustinGuy was very active when I joined (as was EMC, and it was one of the biggest servers around before the big 'game server networks' came around after Bungee was published). He'd publish updates pretty much everyday, he'd log in pretty much everyday, and when he logged in the chat would explode. He would answer people's questions about new features, he'd let people take virtual selfies with him, he'd visit outposts and such, and he used to welcome whoever posted an introduction thread. About a month later, Aikar joined the staff team as a moderator and was soon introduced as Justin's 'co-developer'. Justin's activity then plummeted, until eventually it was announced real life had him pre-occupied, and Aikar would be taking over. It was around this time Dragon Tombs was announced. He eventually announced in return in August (?) 2013, along with a new in-game project. That night, the server he logged into was full for hours... which hadn't happened since about April 2012. He was never seen again, apart from a post advertising a project he had started with his friends that crashed and burned in September 2013. Eventually, Aikar (January 2014-ish?) announced he was taking over as the lead developer and owner of EMC, while it's future looked shaky and the whole server was in decline and growing increasingly inactive. And that was the end of JustinGuy...

    IceCreamCow was the co-founder and was essentially co-owner of EMC. He was very active within the community until the end of his term as an administrator. Eventually Nick5013 (who was out to cause trouble no matter who was staff except him) and Olaf_C started a group (that I learned of and joined) in February 2014 to address some problems they had with him (I was also banned for about 2 months because I took that whole thing too far, and also sincerely regret doing what I did >.>). Fast-forward a month later, and Aikar demoted him, seemingly without warning. It was a shock throughout the community and caused some people to leave and arguments erupted between loads of people. He didn't ask for his position back and instead put his focus on his own server. He visits here under the name GloriousKoch nowadays. As much as I disagree with the way he did some things, I miss him. He was always overly-kind to me and offered me more 'second chances' than I deserved from him.

    Onto David Copherfield. He was a well known member here and started the 'Delta Team', back when the people of EMC were more interested in structured guilds/clans and not outposts (and then political-experiment-outposts), which from what I can remember, was pretty big. He eventually used his influence here to advertise his own server, before making a leaving post. He came back some weeks later on an alt account with a disrespectful thread that hurled insults at EMC. He was then banned. I joined the server he made (without knowing until days later :p) and found out he was demoted from the server he owned. The whole thing is laughable, really. I feel sorry for the poor guy.

    Good Lord, that's enough writing for now >.>
    synth_apparition, Jul 22, 2015
    #20
    AyanamiKun, 607 and Gawadrolt like this.
Page 1 of 2
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.