Confusion Reigns On This Empire

Discussion in 'Community Discussion' started by KatydidBuild, Jul 22, 2020.

  1. then u prove there's new update except regularity server Vallina update that effort for dev puts in server
    you keep ur thing, i keep my thing. that's it. idc
    im not make any more suggestion because all they would go into trash.
  2. Edit: Added Graphic of EMC Decline: Showyourself Replies Over Time

    The 10 year history of this wonderful community engaging activity, and how it is an indicator of the decline of our server. I talk more in depth about this in the spoiler.



    OP:

    EMC is in a transition period right now, and although change is going on, since it is at a slower pace, it seems there hasn't been, but there been quite a bit. We've also had some great discussions these past few months, from what I've seen since I returned to activity in June. We also know the Chicken and Moople are doing their best to develop EMC's future :) however the discussions we must have to help EMC as a community, shouldn't be just to "add something to the dev to-do list" but rather help steer EMC together community, staff, dev and admin members of the community to a spot in which EMC is comfortable with player/retention growth and can further enhance the gameplay for us through updates/events which bring the community together. This transformative change and discussion should not be done by a single side of the community, but all participating members (community, staff, dev and admin), however, from what I've seen, even the forum activity has dwindled that sometimes there isn't even worthwhile discussion present, where years ago it would have dozens of thread pages.


    Threads with more than 3 pages within the thread since 2020:

    Empire Official
    Empire News
    Wastelands Reset Incoming! (July 2021 - 70 replies)
    Halloween Event 2020 (Oct 2020 - 66 replies)
    Wastelands reset scheduled with 1.15 update! (Mar 2020 - 119 replies)
    Empire Events
    2021 Share the LOVE Valentine Event (Feb 2021 - 130 replies)
    Day 4: Stockings to Hang (Dec 2020 - 75 replies)
    [CONTEST] Build a Gingerbread House! (Dec 2020 - 77 replies)
    [EVENT] Day of Chance - PVP (Murder that Moople!) (Aug 2020 - 296 replies - ongoing event)
    [Event] Online Graduation (May 2020 - 66 replies)
    [Event] Easter Wonderland Egg Hunt (Apr 2020 - 65 replies)
    Empire Updates
    1.19(.2) The Wild Update - 6/26/2022 (70 replies)
    (1.18.2) 1.18.1 Caves and Cliffs: Part 2
    Miscellaneous Update - 5/28/21 (116 replies)
    1.16.4 Nether Update - 12/19/20 (129 replies)
    Empire update to 1.15! (Mar 2020 - 295 replies)
    Help/Support
    None had over 3 pages of replies (which is good in this situation ;)

    Empire Community

    Introduce Yourself

    EMC SYS 2022(92 replies - still active) (edit (115 final)
    W1ther's (Oct 2021 200 replies)
    Official EMC SYS (2021 Edition) (200 replies)
    [AMA] 8 Years on EMC + giveaway (by BrenJone - Aug 2020 200 replies)
    EMC SYS (2020 Edition) (298 replies)
    EMC Show YourSelf (2019 Edition) (463 replies - but outside scope of study-Jan 2019)

    Observation: we've lost 100+ replies of activity in each yearly show yourself thread the past 3 years, and 2022's is following the trend. Meaning that if 2023's where to follow suit, there would be near 0 activity. It won't, however it does show the critical situation in which our dear servers finds itself in.

    Share your EMC Creations
    None had over 3 pages of replies
    Out of the 71 threads created after Dec 31, 2019, 16 or 22% had either 1 or 0 replies on it.

    Public Member Events
    [Giveaway] Random Shulker Boxes (May 2022 61 replies)
    [Event] Belac555's 2222 days Event! (Jan 2022 83 replies)
    [Giveaway] My Whole Storage (Dec 2021 101 replies)
    [Event] The Smooth Stone Trials (Dec 2021 71 replies)
    [Giveaway] 12 Days of Christmas + More 6Million rupee Giveaway (Oct 2020 109 replies)
    Giving away a million rupees for my birthday or something idk (Sep 2020 60 replies)
    Piwi Day 2020 - Year of Retro Piwi (May 2020 60 replies)
    {Giveaway!} DA Koolaid Klan (Jan 2020 73 replies)

    Community Discussion

    I got res 607 :) (Aug 2020 65 replies)
    [poll] How old are you? (Aug 2020 69 replies)
    [Poll] What year did you join EMC? (Aug 2020 72 replies)
    Formal Complaint (June 2020 74 replies)
    Quarantine and Dragon Tombs (Mar 2020 74 replies)
    Dentures (Jan 2020 67 replies)

    Supporter Discussion
    Seven threads created since Dec 31, 2019 - 5 in 2020, 2 in winter of 2021

    Marketplace Discussion
    [POLL] chickeneer fixes the economy thread (June 2022 84 replies)

    Frontier and outpost
    [Established] Farmland (May 2020, 73 replies)
    The Button (Apr 2020, 60 replies - locked)

    Actually didn't expect any to be here, but happy to see that at least one has been showcasing their creations on the forums :)

    Player Guides, Tips and Tricks
    Surprised about this, only 2 post since the section's creation has made it past 60 replies, one of them being the pinned post. Underrated and underused section definitely since there are a lot of hidden gems there.

    Suggestion box
    Only 2 or 3 threads had over 60 replies, but not sharing here since, its not necessarily an indicator of a "good idea", rather either controversial point or where there is an extremely broad topic.

    Didn't check other sections


    As for new player handling, I think EMC’s branding should be revamp/updated to modern Minecraft culture. It has always been a server catering to more mature/professional behavior audiences and super family-friendly, however I feel like there are more “new returning players” than “actual new players”, so before anything is done with tutorial or such, maybe redefine/clarify some of EMC’s goals as a community and server administration after Empires update is implemented and the short and long term plan for the server as a whole, so that marketing and community members can act accordingly and target a specific section of the younger Minecraft generation needed to grow again and stabilize.

    One of the more clever/intriguing ideas I’ve seen in a while was mentioned by a new player in chat a few weeks ago. Separate Waste instance completely from town and /frontier… meaning that /frontier only players are able to be transported to the waste directly without leaving their outpost/going to town. It would work as

    Lives in /frontier outpost - does /waste
    mines for an hour with a friend who lives in town and does /waste exit or /back
    Appears back in their outpost without having to travel to town unnecessarily

    It would open easy item transportation between town and frontier, but at this point in time, I feel like that would be a good feature, than something to worry about “due to the economy”
    I trust Chicken’s plan, so we just gotta be patient since changes don’t happen over night. I do realize this thread is over 2 years old, but hopefully we’ll get an update of EMC’s future and Empires Update soon
  3. so emc is developing, as you say
    but only chicken and moople,...
    so, did emc need more devs to make it better or not? cause i was in other server where development are lots of thing because they have a decent developer

    (no worries, im wiriting more, just wait)
  4. alright, this would connect more post

    im not against emc devs, just giving them thing needed to aware that. Chicken is busy, and moople need to finish her course. Development is bit slow, but how about we accelate it? with more devs.

    I likes emc being innovation, and it;s going better.
    What we have is a family friendly, a low grief rate as base. we can just develop more on it, draw more new player while satisfy initial player
  5. When I made the post originally, I was frustrated over the constant need to explain the terms to new players.
    The outpost term is over-used for official needs is well described by cyber as being saturated

    to the point where everything is an outpost. It does seem that one of these other server ideas might just have the desired effect of keeping the Waste separate as an ideal and the Wild Frontier as being the intended exploration and building place.

    I have experienced this on another server and the Waste does tend to get a little messy. But realistically that is the point. Perhaps this is another way to get to the direction I was describing.
    Tuqueque likes this.
  6. As for nomenclature

    I would do:

    I normally refer to the Minecraft overworld as the wild,

    Dimension World
    Wild Frontier - Right now: /wild and /frontier, but normally refer to it as frontier
    Nether Frontier - /nether
    End Frontier - vanilla portal from Wild Frontier, except for Utopia via /endertopia

    Wild Waste - /waste
    Nether Waste - /nwaste
    End Waste - vanilla portal from Wild Waste

    I personally don’t mind that some people use older terms, but yes it’s confusing, however I’m not sure if an “official EMC Dictionary” will help lessen the confusion since people will just continue to use the old, if any change.

    As for the word outpost, I do agree it should change

    Empires refers to the group of people, such as a guild/clan - I would keep it the same.
    the land which Empires will be able to own is planned to be Outpost, however spawn/teleport locations when you do /frontier n/e/s/w/ne are also called outposts, which I find confusing.

    The spawn should refer only to /frontier or /wild C (center 0,0).
    Outposts should refer to the server owned structures in which you enter each cardinal section of their respective world (what you see when you do /wild n )
    I would add the term “Territory” for land claims that will be owned by Empires.

    I would not like to use the same term for the group of people, and the land they own, since Empires are supposed to be able to own more than 1 piece of territory

    PS for aletrirex: EMC doesn’t have the ability to hire a full time developer to help improve the server, so it has relied over the years by a series of volunteers which offered the time for us to have even more fun. Yes, having more developers would “solve” the issue, but throwing money at problems, usually does not solve it.
  7. I had sort of forgotten about this post, until it just hit my alerts feed as someone liked one of the posts.

    This is still very much an issue. Some days ago, a wither was spawned in the waste and was left there to attack other players. The wither was hovering in spawn, no damage could be dealt to it and it could move to attack players. It meant that spawn could not really be used.
    suggestions at the time were to pm ss, however, both Elfin and Chicken had both made comments about being unavailable recently. It should not be the players job to track who is available to be contacted when server issues arise.
    The wiki page to find out how to contact staff is only in one very difficult to locate place, to prove it, I spent 2 minutes (timed it) trying to locate the page to link it here. I ... failed to locate it and I know that it exists, :confused: somewhere. This is frustrating to all players, as you have to ask in chat, "Hey whats that link to pm staff again?"
    I don't remember that there is a pm "all staff" with a current issue, but there really should be. The closest is a comment on Discord which someone who is staff might see.

    [suggestion]
    Please add a button across the top of the website with how to report a game issue: the pm can be sent to all staff and whomever is available can send it to whomever needs to deal with it. Include the pmss, pmmod and pmdev links, since they are very difficult to locate. Add the warning that staff will prosecute players who false report, but since a login is required to send the message in the first place, there won't be many joke reports.

    There is a 'contact us' button that uses an email, but it is for the business side of the server, it seems.
    FadedMartian likes this.
  8. I can't speak for all staff abilities but I don't think mods would have any way to help with this wither situation than normal players, so pmss.emc.gs really would be the best option for something like this unless one happens to be in game :)

    as for finding the link, clicking on a senior staff's forum DM button will initiate a pmss.emc.gs :)
    (if you see anywhere specific one the wiki that you think the link is missing from though, let us know! :D)
    Joy_the_Miner likes this.
  9. I love this chart, and it's quite accurate too (assuming it's based on real data), but sadly, we must all grow up and the people who were once active on here are going off to college, university, or have jobs that consume all of our time, myself included. :\

    When I joined EMC in 2015, I just entered my 3rd year of college, and I had a lot of free time. Here I am 8 years later and the circumstances have changed. I'm fully employed, and while I make a good amount of money (yay), it takes all my time and energy away. Recruitment of the younger generations would be nice, but... unlike when EMC first came out in 2011... the Mincraft server landscape is quite saturated these days, and most servers need more than just a gimmick to "hook" new players and keep them around.

    Just my own thoughts! ;)
    Tuqueque likes this.
  10. Yes I'm quite happy how that graph turned out. I included the link directly to Desmos (only use it in a computer, you will not be able to see what's happening in Mobile), so anyone could see my work and verify any numbers if they wanted to. Data should be accurate, unless I typo'd any numbers, which I made sure to double check always.

    Yeah, this chart is is a potential indicator of server health, however it is also affected by other multiple factors, other than player activity... but it is good for a business to be aware of stuff like this so it can improve.


    This data should prompt a plan of analysis, such as:
    This graph prompts: EMC is bleeding players fast -> pertinent questions...
    1. Why is it happening?
      1. Relevant analysis/variables (maybe this is just a decline of server forums, rather than of player activity, verify through other means, and plan attack strategy)
      2. Controllable and uncontrollable factors
      3. Who,what,where,when,why - is leaving?
    2. How can the bleed be stopped?
      1. Within the controllable factors, which can help here?
      2. Is there more than 1 demographic which is leaving? do they have different reasons?
        1. From the controllable/persuadable factors, which needs to be improved?
    3. How can server be filled again? (New influx strategies)
    My analysis:

    Part 1
    • Uncontrollable factors: Survival Minecraft's popularity within different demographics as an entertainment option
    • Controllable factors: server development and goals, marketing/branding, features/uniqueness both for sever, forum and community, moderation/staff behavior/presence
    Consumer Profiles:
    A. Young Adult(<30): Probably joined EMC before/during college and were a big portion of player base in "Golden era".
    Possible Reason for leaving?
    Uncontrollable: Starting out professional life/studies, lots of changes: from new places, new friends, new interests,
    Controllable: Little free time they have, they feel they have a more valuable time elsewhere (ie Tiktok,Movies,Other Games, Other Minecraft Servers)
    Action -> Make sure their time is valuable, interesting and fun here.
    B. Adult /Families

    Possible Reason for leaving?
    Uncontrollable: Adult or Family duties
    Controllable: they feel they have a more valuable time elsewhere
    Action -> Make sure to have play-your-way gameplay for any difficulties - in-game or otherwise
    C. Younglings

    Possible Reason for leaving?
    Uncontrollable: Parent don't want them to play, all young-targeted media competition (from movies, games, tablets, other types of servers, and competition within survival minecraft etc.)
    Controllable: For those that do like Minecraft, AND are interested in survival multiplayer - is EMC Fun/attractive? is the barrier of entry too high? ; does it have enough visibility/reach? Are retention strategies good?

    Questions to keep in mind? ->
    For each consumer profile:

    • Does EMC have enough features to seem interesting to them?
    • Does EMC provide a valuable experience for their time?
    • Is EMC comparable to competition? Is it lacking or better? Where can it improve?
    • For Development, is EMC shooting themselves on the foot, by using the latest MC version? (ie. most popular servers have at least 3 versions compatibility? ie: is it more valuable to update to latest mojang version or focus on separating themselves with unique/custom-coded features?
    • What parts of the community are most important for their time? ie. Discord, Game, Forum, Events, Gameplay-specific features?
    Part 2 & 3

    • How to make EMC interesting for those that lost interest?
      • Prioritize Development based on which target audience?
      • My 10 year thread had probably the most discussion with similar topics within the most recent months, so just putting it here, as it has some ideas of actions EMC could take fed by community.
      • Chicken's fix economy thread, also had good (specific) discussion.
    • How to make EMC interesting for Profile C?
      • Are features attractive?
      • Are EMC's most valuable assets/features being marketed with appropriate efforts?
      • How to improve retention rate? (ie. New Tutorial)
      • Are features confusing? (as going back to original topics of this thread)
    • Actions to take such as
      • New EMC Roadmap
      • Community Engagement - Discord
      • Study Community
        • Events
        • Gameplay
        • Wants/needs? Is community happy/bored/enthusiastic?
          • About which specific features/areas?
      • Have clarity of what type of gameplay does EMC wants to provide... More challenging gameplay/complex features may be attractive to A and B consumer profiles, while probably alienating C.
        • Examples:
        • Have discussion with community, where decision makers can see whether or not community wants complex/drastic changes to gameplay (in a layered way) so that EMC can start heading to a unique gameplay experience.
          • However, with current disinterest and lack community engagement - as seen in the graph and forum activity in these threads or recent discussions- is hurtful. -> Take further steps to hear everyone, make sure to not alienate those whose voices are not loudest or don't engage that much in chat/forum.
          • (but also consider, which player-types EMC wants to cater to, what features are more important )
      • Market and (re)brand EMC to the new discussed goals/vision so that outsiders or players who left, say "Hey, EMC is looking cool, I'll give it a try"
    EMC (as a business) 's worst decision right now would be indecisive and live by inaction. It has taken steps to head in the right direction, but also proactive effort must be put forth in every aspect, to beat and exit its current (decline/stagnation) trend. And hopefully members of the community rise to the occasion to help shape EMC's future.