Discussion: Player Retention Rates

Global chat just for new members could be a comprise between the two parties who think it'd help them learn and those who want it as a perk still. Maybe a month or 2? I feel like a week might be a bit short to learn everything. Especially if they can only play on weekends.

If my time as a contributor (August 2014 - August 2016, technically May 2012 - August 2016) taught me anything, they do pretty much nothing.

Or, they get asked to do stuff, and then the staff don't do anything with the things they produce and ignore you when you ask why.

A few days ago, I followed two players through the tutorial. One player was skipping through the tutorial with a friend, and the other player was reading everything. Since the player that skipped through everything finished the tutorial first, I followed her to her residence. That's when I saw her using illegal mods to destroy things without looking at it (using an aura thing or whatever it's called). Then, I said that someone (note that I didn't even say a name) was using illegal mods, and then her friend defended her and probably reported me because Baradar joined later.

The player with illegal mods left to join a different smp, and then the player that read everything probably quit EMC already (I'll have to check later).

I'll add more input to this thread later.

So if EMC server had custom blocks coded in with a download of the textures you could simply download the custom textures and add them to the mod's folder for them to work?

My thoughts are if it's not too difficult to do this then we could set up a competition for players to design a selection of blocks leave the coding to the coders and have a unique set of blocks to EMC that I would like to think would add a new dynamic to the game.

When I first joined, I had no idea how any Minecraft server worked. I was completely new to multiplayer Minecraft on PC. I was looking for a server that didn't allow PVP, because I could just foresee those kinds of servers being unkind and very vulgar (they are, in case you were wondering) and so when I saw EMC, I immediately joined up. The big text introducing me to the tutorial daunted me, but at the same time, it made me curious.

And, not wanting to become an extremely annoying member of society, I dutifully read all the rules in tutorial, screenshotted useful hints, and even bookmarked the wiki. Because I was new, I was hesitant to talk (I joined on SMP2) and just generally kept to myself. As a new player, I was interested in EMC because it had a survival aspect. And despite the number of people online, I could build and gather materials with relatively zero annoyance. I quickly built up my res (though that's now gone, as I moved to SMP8) and found the place just... fun. It was what I loved most about Minecraft (vanilla survival, well, mainly vanilla) plus the ability to work with other players.

What I think deters newer players now, however, is because the majority of servers are not nice like EMC is. They are open to griefing, allow PVP, and many don't care or regulate the language and actions of their players anyway. Strict hierarchies develop on these servers, and it's nearly impossible for an unranked player to get very far at all. These are the kinds of servers these players get used to, and then they expect every server to be that way. And when they find one that's not... it bores them. There's no conflict or drama happening, normally. Griefing isn't allowed. Players don't swear or tease each other commonly in chat. There are tons of rules that are actually ENFORCED, whereas in the aforementioned servers, there may be rules but they are hardly enforced.

That's just what I think deters most players. Because 99% of the new players that do stick around for more than 2 seconds I find have mannerisms consistent with those of players from factions and PVP servers. Two players I followed into frontier once even ran from me because I had a sword in my hand. Sad, isn't it?

Also I just thought of something. It could serve like a free trial in a way. Liked the global chat? Become a supporter! Just explain that the global chat was to help them get accustomed to emc.

When I first joined EMC ( Using my main account then which is my alt now, CatNapInn aka xXSushi_KatXx ) I was on like all day ( besides school days). I was always active but once a year passed I still played but not as much and I usually dont get on a lot unless im bored, there is an event I am going to or hosting, holiday ( promos....hehe xD and spreading holiday joy, yay... ). I honestly dont know what happened but I guess im not in to minecraft as much anymore or maybe my interests have been changing.

If I ever had permission to release sneak peaks on what I do, I would show you snippets of you work load periodically every 3 months. There is a work load. There is 'stuff' planned. I don't have the authority or authorization to tell you what they are and how they will be used. If you have /p Roslyn lately, youll find that I am on Stage quite often tinkering with builds and mechanics. I do agree that it is a bit silly that there is no transparency within the development of our work and it does create mistrust with the community if its worth it to look at us. If you want to take further inquires about the Team. I'd take that on with B4DMAN5IMON or Krysyy as its not my place to give you the answers you want. I hope this clears up any confusion you may have had about the team and its work.

Please consider evaluating a "weight" of a residence to first reset empty or almost empty ones.

Does the JRE just-in-time compile to native code?
Is it that good so it can get max performance out of the hardware?

That's true, in C++ you need to plan how and where the mods can "snap in". But you can do that and achieve much more consistent and safe mod interfaces.
When you decompile MC you get (more or less obfuscated) java source code. If you have C++ source code, you can also mod any way you want.
Besides native C++ polymorphism, one can easily design classes / objects that can be modified during run time.

The advantage of C++ is that you can design performance critical pieces of code so that you get maximum performance out of the hardware while still keeping high level coding which is readable and maintainable.

Do you mean risk of forgetting to add interfaces or levels of redirection for later modification?
Or other risks?
Development time yes, but it should add value.

Now, I do share your opinion on this but I also think it's important not to continue reflecting on the past as well. Things can change. I don't know if they did, but neither do you

I think you were still contrib when I was a contrib and so you saw some of the stuff I did No: we keep that between ourselves. Sure, there were definitely plenty of issues which I think were handled poorly. But in all honesty: Matheus was going through some rough patches back there. And I get the strong impression that Krysyy wasn't ready to drop & replace him "just like that", which I think also means something. Leniency goes both ways ya know, staff (as amazing as this may sound) are still people too. Maybe a bit moldy here and there

But in the mean time some things did change. Sure, I still think it's a bit much to have 2 people overlook the whole thing. But the other side of that argument is that when done right 2 people can also support each other. When one is going through a rough patch in real life the other can pick up during their absence. Not much overhead there.

However, most of all: I don't think it's fair to keep reflecting on the past. Yes, bad stuff happened and all that. But you also need to give them a fair chance to fix things.

Look: if the staff can say to us players: "ok, you made some horrible and stupid mistakes by disrespecting our rules but we're ready to give you a second chance" (referring to ban appeals) then shouldn't we players be able to say the same thing back to staff? That sounds fair, doesn't it?

At least give them a chance to work on it and let by gone's be by gone's.

+1 to this. The single chest and couple of signs you get on a new res currently is out of date. Give players a simple house, give them teleports with explicit instructions on how to use them/return to town. And most importantly: Automatically give them a residence upon finishing the tutorial. Don't make them find/claim one themselves.

That's already in effect.

I don't know what the deal is or if it still happens, but I've seen quite a few new players have to find their own residence. I've had to explain the process of claiming a residence and I've seen other people explain it also. These are people that literally just finished the tutorial.

Smells like a bug of some sort.

Did you happen to try and use /p on any of them? I can't help wonder if they might have visited before, left and came back at a later time to eventually finish the tutorial (my theory is that they might have come back after the initial derelict timer of 10 days).

I don't think I ever checked their /p. I just know I saw them finish the tutorial and then they'd ask how to find a residence. I'd tell them to type /home and they wouldn't have one so I'd have to explain how to find one.

*ignores all that code talk above*

Getting close to my 4 years on here, and I've noticed a lot of changes in player rates, types and general online players.
When I first joined in early 2013 there was always someone doing something, always someone trying to start a conversation in chat and new players stuck around. Over the years these types of things have sort of dwindled, sometimes you will find the new players doing skin competitions or such, I'll usually go because they remind me of when EMC used to have that kind of stuff all the time.

Something I think can be blamed outside of EMC is the shift of type of servers. in 2013 there were a lot more survival, skyblock etc.. servers that had decent communities. Then all of a sudden these huge minigame servers and faction servers appear out of nowhere and the survival and skyblock servers died out, the actual minecraft community started being based around more minigames and PvP instead of survival

This itself, had, and still has, a direct impact on EMC, the new people that join either bought minecraft looking for one of those servers or came from one, maybe we will occasionally get one person who is looking for a good survival server. The people from these other servers generally don't like EMC because "No PvP?! survival sucks" or "Where are the minigames?", then in turn leave never to return.

I see people blaming EMC for not keeping the community around when, in truth, the community isn't staying or joining back because the entire focus of minecraft has been taken away from survival and onto minigames or PvP, and EMC can only do so much to accommodate that.

Disagree with everything I just said? Cool, do tell me, I love a good debate.

I disagree. I don't think the biggest problem is attracting new players. I think it's keeping old players. I didn't join EMC or even start playing minecraft until the end of 2014. By then, these servers had already come out with all the mini games and such. What attracted me to EMC was the community and friendliness. The EMC banner clearly states No PVP, family friendly server, etc. I don't think people come to EMC looking for those things if they can read. What has also made me almost stop playing on EMC all together is the community. No one talks anymore, except to new people or on group chat. No one helps anyone unless they're new. Chat is nowhere near like it was when I first joined EMC. It has become afk players, people that just want to be by themselves so they don't talk, or people are out in the frontier or waste and can't talk. I never understood why that was a supporter privelage because it discourages people from having conversations.