ShelLuser

I suppose I fall into the 'geek' category. I'm an IT professional and I basically learned most of it myself. "In my days..." we didn't have much I(C)T studies; perhaps apart from learning how WP5.1, Lotus 1-2-3 and dBase worked.

Messed with computers most of my life (started with a C64, BBC Electron and later expanded to 286, 486 and the more modern machines) and often went way beyond merely "starting programs".

Main hobbies: Scooter, synthesizers / sound design, Minecraft, watching a movie with my gf on a Saturday evening (<3), reading.

About synthesizers:

My tools of trade are Ableton Live (suite edition) powered by the midi controller known as 'Push'. Reason, which is plain out a music platform of its own and Max... the multimedia visual programming language which pretty much allows you to build anything you want. It's also incorporated into Live and known as Max for Live ("M4l").

For the record: I own both... M4l as well as full Max license. This stuff goes deep.

About Minecraft:

My girlfriend introduced me to Minecraft in March 2014, and I was quickly hooked. Especially the redstone parts managed to grasp my interest, even though I had little clue on how to use them.

3 days after discovering Minecraft I discovered the multiplayer communities, found a server I took a liking to and it was a very nice and educational experience. Eventually I lost my motivation; partly because of the way the server was run but mostly because of an upcoming map wipe. After playing and working very hard for 6 - 7 months only to realize that it would all go kab00m was too demotivating for me.

"If I need to start all over anyway, then why not look around for other alternatives?".

This is where I found the Empire. December 2014.

I've been online for nearly 2 months at the time of writing, and I've now reached a point where there's no more doubt in my mind anymore: this is where I belong.

Update:

It seems that my opinion is shared by "the powers that be", because on March 2015 I got invited to become part of the EMC Contribution Team, an invitation I obviously took on both handed. I'm very excited, mostly because I take joy in the fact that people recognized and appreciated the things I've done so far; and have now put an official "label of approval" onto it.

Update:

As of October 2016 I quit said contribution team because I didn't feel motivated enough anymore. EMC is all about having fun for me, and as soon as something stops being fun then that's where I'll have to draw the line. For me a title becomes meaningless if you can no longer enjoy it, and I'm not really the kind of guy who needs to have status symbols. I'd rather let my actions speak for themselves

Update (17th November 2016):

It appears there are some wild rumors going about regarding me leaving the contrib. team, and I feel I need to squash those because after my last somewhat critical public remarks (critical is -not- the same as negative!) some people apparently thought that I somewhat became anti-EMC or something.

Yes, I might sometimes criticize the staff and/or their actions. But that does not mean that I suddenly started hating on them or something. That's plain out ridiculous.

Update (20th January 2018):

As of some time I can no longer like other peoples posts. Nor can Aya who has been somewhat associated with me ever since we met (none of us mind). But if you wonder about it, now you know why.

Update (1st February 2018):

I'll still be doing plenty of posts (and occasional tutorials) on the Empire, but have decided to limit myself to EMC topics only. Every other project which addresses Minecraft in general will be posted to another location:

http://www.planetminecraft.com/member/shelluser/

Think about redstone tutorials, plugin reviews, command block tips and tricks, and even a way to create your own Herobrine mini boss If you're looking for me then that's where you'll find me.

Update (August 2018):

Having been honored with the 'Member of the Month' award earlier this year led me to re-evaluate some aspects and I decided to try and discuss my previously mentioned withdrawn like ability with the staff. And we came to both an understanding and mutual agreement which fully resolved that problem.

Update (September 2018):

I'm a little bit in a pickle right now because the person who sporadically plays using the AyanamiKun account has shared some discomfort with me regarding some previous aspects. They found "another place" and intend on playing a bit more frequently "over there". Where this leaves me, I dunno, but the one thing I do care about is GRIP (even though it's pretty dormant) and I've made preparations to secure the community efforts no matter what.

tbh this is pretty much the only place you'll read about this and this is also all I'm willing to share. But being me I just had to share it somewhere, even though I'm convinced no one is going to read this

Update (late September 2018):

I am no longer actively playing on the Empire. No hard feelings, I still respect & admire this place, but on the other hand I also think the developers are turning the survival experience into something unrealistic and highly unbalanced; this isn't expanding Minecraft; it's contradicting it (hostile rabbits? yah, duh!).

One of the reasons I took a liking to EMC in the first place was because it didn't alienate players from Minecraft itself. I can no longer say that.

Update (2019 - now):

Despite everything I said above I cannot help shake of the feeling that no matter what: I had a good time. And it was all provided to us for free. Yah, I can't let that slide by.

I've had some luck on both the stock exchange as well as spiking up interest in my (small!) IT business and getting someone crazy enough to buy it from me.

Of course they were after my customers but heck, that's business for you (and I not only informed said customers, I also helped 2 of them move onto another provider for a small fee. Should I ever re-start a business of my own they're seriously going to consider jumping back). Time will tell of course.

But because of this I kinda felt like having fun. Both Aya and myself are now protected under the cloak of the permanent derelict protection. For the record: no abuse (or overuse). Aya always fancied a quarter (4 resses) and she got 'm (again) on SMP8. Me? Yah, I'm happy with one on Utopia and one for myself on SMP2. .. and my 2 official 'previous' resses of course. As for the 3rd derelict voucher.. I don't even recall what I did with that but I do know that it went to a good cause (I probably undersold it because at this point in my EMC life I don't care about money so much anymore).

Then I decided that I should talk it out with staff and I did. I got to understand their point of view and they honestly saw mine for what it is. Results? Aya has normal forum access again, no holds barred, but staff would appreciate it if we didn't bid up against each other anymore also because in the end we kinda share the same assets.

I do miss the sprees but then again I also understand staffs point of view (somewhat). They have a point when they worry about "foul" play, in the sense that an auction gets more value while in the end most in-game money comes from the same source (it wouldn't be the first time when Aya or me dumped some extras onto the other to cover for costs).

It's a fair point I suppose.

In the overall I'm slowly picking up some pace again. I won't be involved as much as I was at the start (so I think) but ... EMC is special in its own way.

Comments about staff leaving?

Note: I'm only talking about the staffers who some people started asking me questions about. Questions I never addressed until now.

Yah... I can understand the motivations behind it. Because in the end the whole show is ran by one person and their will is law. And honestly? They're not very flexible about new ideas if you ask me. In fact... they're more like a control freak. When things get out of their control they don't try to deal with it and steer things into the right directions but instead try to enforce whatever they want.

Works great if you're into that kind of thing, but for creative people who try to go broad it's a nightmare.

Supervising people isn't only about telling them what you want them to do and spelling it all out, it's also about putting trust in them to do the right thing. Even if that sometimes goes outside of your comfort zone, especially if you're well aware that the intentions are all the same.

Comments about 1.12 vs. 1.14?

"Overspecialize, and you breed in weakness". No offense intended!

EMC has some very interesting custom features but in the end it's also limiting them from upgrading. That's roughly all it is. And the stories about "instability" only get you so far, especially if you take into consideration that the Spigot project is already using 1.14.

That's the project EMC is build on. Well, it's based on Paper and PaperMC is based on 1.12 whereas Spigot, the project they forked, is now 1.14.

At this time I don't understand anymore. What does better speed gain you if you're way behind the facts?

... overspecialize...