EMC this is my final post

DISCLAIMER
I feel that I need to finally let all my opinions be heard in one place. This post is not meant to bash, harass, or discredit anyone. I just have to get all this off my chest. Rant style. Please don't criticize without reading the whole thing

TLDR
EMC is not what it used to be

MAIN MESSAGE


Hello everyone.

For those who may not have come across me in their time playing on this server, I am Cyberazaz101. I joined the Empire over 7 years ago, since then the Empire in my opinion has seen its rise as well as the fall, sadly the end is closer than the start. I have several reasons I believe this to be the case. I want to see if anyone shares my beliefs, or if me simply bringing this up will attempt to solve the problem. The Empire when I joined was a very different place than it is today. I remember my first day on SMP6, I completed the sandstone maze tutorial and the moment I was teleported to the town spawn, there were 8 people lined up and personally welcomed me and gave gifts and advice to succeed on the server. This made me feel welcomed and like the server actually cared.

This brings me to the first point, newcomers aren't welcome. As my experience shows, the Empire used to praise a new player; however, now the server is deathly silent when a new person comes, they may get a single "Welcome!" but that's all they get. No guides, no gifts, no personal interactions. The automated system may give them the guides and items they need now, but part of multiplayer is the community and interactions with others. EMC I feel has lost its once humble, kind, and warm personality.

Second point which I don't have a good solution for, the currencies are getting more and more worthless as time progresses. Inflation is a lovely thing ain't it? Back when I joined EMC in 2012, a single diamond was 35r. At the time, this was market value or just above. The daily 100r that were awarded as login bonus actually could get you a few items of worth. However, with the value of the rupee plummeting the 100r daily means nothing. Last time I was actually in-game and active a single diamond was a staggering 150r. The rupee has lost most of its buying power, but this is nothing in comparison to its easily forgotten cousin, the Token. I was so excited when the bosses and enraged came out with their Token currency. However, even though that update was around (5-5.5?) years ago, the only use for tokens thus far is Avalaunchers and Res Biome Change. We have been promised various uses for Tokens, only to keep having those plans pushed back or straight up forgotten. I understand it takes time to code, test, and implement custom plugins of this magnitude, however I don't think this excludes the fact that why would you add a currency that serves no purpose as of yet?

Third point -- the most controversial I feel - is that promises keep being made and broken for YEARS. Okay, again, I understand it's hard to write custom plugins, however I'm gonna say one thing that is a ghost story on the Empire. Dragon Tombs. I know, some of you probably ave no idea what this is. There was a grand update that was planned by Aikar and his fellow developers to make this grand dungeon like experience using the Dragon Fragments/ Dragon Stones to unlock these custom dragon fights for unique loot. The symbol for the longest time of EMC was the Ender Dragon for this reason. Sadly, as time has gone on the update has all been abandoned and forgotten. Leaving us with these useless fragments of a broken promise. Okay, enough about Dragon Tombs, anyone remember the EMC Games? There was a GREAT event back in (2015?) that was modeled after the Olympic games and was a great test of everyone's skills at the base skills of Minecraft. We were promised this would be an annual or perhaps bi-annual event. However, it was never to be seen again like the Creature Capture event.

Fouth point, the rules on some mods are too strict and need to be loosened. For those who don't know, I was banned a while back for using the "Printer" function on the mod "Schematica." According to the rules on EMC, this is to be never used; I disregarded it and got banned. A predictable outcome I'm sure, but if they actually listened to my suggestion maybe I wouldn't have been banned in the first place. For those who wonder what my suggestion to this specific situation was I'll put a spoiler at the end for you. I digress, I feel the mods that are allowed on EMC are good, I feel they need to reevaluate the rules on several of them or give specific restrictions rather than blocking off whole sections of mods for the sake of ease.

Fifth and final point, the population is too spread out and it's killing EMC. Back when we had literal hundreds of unique players a day we needed all of the SMP's (1-9) as well as Utopia. However, as the Empire has dwindled in the past over this "large update" the population has thinned to maybe at most 10 on a server at any given time (Not including events). This is sad when you know what it used to be like. Chat was alive, the shops were booming, new builds popping up, it was great. Now, the chat is dead, little shops are pushed out of business by the large over-priced shops, and there is empty res after empty res. I feel we need to compact some of the lesser servers into one server. You can still have the same worlds (as to not destroy the wilds/town), just make it all connect up into one "hub" server and easy teleporting between ALL residences.

To sum up my long rant here, EMC... you were once this great titan, no one would dare to take you down. But through your growth spurts, you forgot who you truly were. Now you're withering, and the crew is abandoning ship in droves.

Does this mean I'm leaving EMC? Yes and no. Yes, I'm done being active and logging in consistently. I am not leaving for two main reasons. This place is my home for Minecraft, I'm lost without EMC. And Second, all my builds are here in the Wilds of SMP7.

So sort-of goodbye EMC, let's hope you at least end on a high note.

One of your long time supporters,
- Cyberazaz101

Okay so I was banned for utilizing the "printer" function of "Schematica", even though I turned down the block placing speed to the normal speed of a player and the range was technically lower than the furthest a person could reach (4 blocks). My proposal was to make the speed slowest possible (which I found to be around 2 b/s (Blocks per second) which is about the same speed a clicker would go, and the range of 4 or lower. The printer should only be used for personal builds, not for businesses, contests, or other things of the like.

There's a reason all I ever do is stay on the Forums.
I'm going to be frank; through observation, I've realized EMC is a shadow of what it once was. I came when it was already withered to heck, so I didn't notice.
But you can see the signs everywhere. The numbers that the forums show for daily players is too high. There are a staggering number of registered players, but very few playing ones. It's subtle, but there.

I agree with some parts, and honestly some parts I just know are true but don't wanna agree. I miss the crazy active community, and reading this made me sad. Like previous comments said you can just tell. I know some people are holding off about logging in until the update but still. At least everyone tried y'know?

I have some other opinions but as someone who likes to just come on for my people, speaking for myself, I don't mind a lot of the so called "issues" because they do not affect me as much but still I understand the points.

edit: after talking to others bout this thread I would like to note that the few people who are still in the community are pretty strong players and are a good well rounded piece to the puzzle. In some cases quantity is better than quality but I would rather have genuine players than toxic ones. (which I know you cannot control who joins but y'know) I feel like we still have some time to change the things we don't like though, especially community wise. I think everything just needs some love and some work, that's all. never, ever a bad thing though to change things up C:

I wholeheartedly agree. I haven't been active ingame for over a year, but I stick around (if you can call it that) on the forums because of the people.
Anyway, there's my monthly post. Time to disappear back into the shadow realm.

I understand things change, but I was always hoping that EMC would grow up as all of us grew up too. But we grew up and moved on and EMC stayed trying to be it old self. I may return if things come back, but I'm not foreseeing that.

I couldn't agree more

Cheers old friend!

I agree. I think we have enough players who want to better the community and who are actually willing to do so. The problem falls when people want change but either cannot accept that it is needed or do not want to input enough effort to do so. As for the welcoming players, I try my best to always say hello and bring people whatever they need. The other day Nick and I gave a new player tons of materials and things to help them and I've still been helping them since. I somewhat think it is more of a bond thing than anything. That is how you introduce yourself to people and create friends from it. I apologize for rambling but this is something I am passionate that we could still change and really try to bring life back to. We need more people with the "let's take action mind set". Too many things have happened and I adore this place too much to not want to help and give back.

I 100% agree, even with losing several key players over the years, we still have a decently strong community in my eyes. If we really wanted to, we could help the server grow again. It does make me sad to see some people give up on this place, it's where I grew up and maybe none of you will agree with me but this place is like my home, I've met so many life-long friends here. I think if we all joined together we could let the server have a really bright future before everything crashes down completely.

But the sad thing in all this is nothing will change. Everyone gets hyped up for change when someone leaves, then forgets and moves on like everything else, thus repeating the cycle.

Not speaking for everyone but I don't think everyone forgets, I just think not everyone know's how to go about such things and just keeps it in the back of their mind.

What we really need is some dedicated people, a new system, and a few staff of all levels actually dedicated to it. Not just a "yeah! we're in!" I like seeing actions.

Well yes, I do too. I'm already a dedicated person if that's a start, and we will see if any new staff are chosen anytime soon with all the events coming up. I would love to help the community more than being just a player in it. Yes, a new system too would be an idea.

not going to get into the most of this here right now

but what i want to say is im sad too see you go cyber, for a long time i didnt know you super well but in the last year to each and a half ish, had alot of fun chatting with you too! you were the first and i think still only EMC'er i met who played wizard101,

thanks for the fun conversations if you ever want to chat my discord is jewel_king#8332

hope to see you around some time

What you mean "played" more like still plays

I have a a vast experience of witnessing great community servers shut down and die out, and oddly enough a year or more after I join... I joke about how I am a bad luck token for servers aha.

Although I have no spot in here at all to speak my mind because I have only been here for less than 2 years, I don't believe I'll see myself getting much further past those 2 years. The bigger they are, the bigger the fall, and that's my opinion with EMC.

My thing is, nothing lasts forever, and it sucks, but that's life and how it has been working for thousands of years. EMC will never reach the place it once has; will it die? Maybe not, but in some cases you could just consider it dead.

I as a whole have ceased playing minecraft, not only because I have real life passions I want to pursue but also because I'm deathly bored of it. I started playing in early 2013 and continued, with a break in 2016, then a return in 2017 and finally the end. I can't focus on video games anymore, they don't appeal to me as much as they used to and they are staying with my adolescent life. I need to grow, and I'm just going to say I'm perfectly fine if my 10 hours a day on minecraft never comes with me.

Basically, I am on my way out more than the server.

I think it's safe to say that modern EMC has more of an active community on the forums than it does ingame. I do not blame you for leaving, I have merely been around since early 2015, I saw the days when EMC was busy, but just a year after that, things changed.

I hope to see you on the forums, at least, if not, then I wish you a very happy rest of your life! ^^

What even happened to the EMC games/olympics? I heard it was planned for early 2019 then it never happened.

Also, I think the server's player count will decrease further, because:
-> Server is on 1.12, which may turn new players and older players alike off the server.
-> The people who played on EMC at its peak (2014-2015?) have aged significantly, and likely have IRL commitments now or just simply "grew out" of minecraft.
-> New players join a SMP and realize there's only a few players on that SMP, which isn't really appealing to new players - which is why I agree with the idea of joining all the SMPs together.
-> As the server player count drops less people will buy supporter vouchers/whatnot which could therefore result in less work being done on the server.

By less work being done, I mean promos being left running in /promo or shopworld for months overtime. Lack of promos being released in general. Less updates.

I agree. You're not alone. It's been hitting hard for a while now, and harder for some than others. Not that I am simply stating, I can do better, but, yes, there are a number of things that should have been handled differently. I know we're only human. We're not hardwired and free of error. Mistakes were made, and I can make peace with that. What I can't is, how we resolved? Did we learn from our pasts and take a better step? I don't know if I am alone with this feeling of emptiness, but for my experience, EMC feels driven apart. Ultimately, I think that is what is killing my experience overall.

Empire Minecraft welcomed me on March 23, 2013.

I do remember a day in age when EMC was bright, beautiful, and blossoming into something wonderful. New players were treated like fresh air blowing in on a warm sunny evening. And it was nice, a truly dedicated community, with an atmosphere filled with players who didn't know each other, but they seemed to play together as if they did. I remember those days. A many lots of us on Smp6, would gather up and wait for him or her to enter town at the old spawns with offerings; whether it be food and gear or simply being there for someone. It was paradise in Minecraft.

Nowadays when I see a new player joining, I always try to notice and give a warm welcome, offering help if they want it. You don't know who they are. It could be a legend returning or a youngin who's just started the game and wants to be online with other kiddos. I have been on (not all) numerous of our servers in these past weeks, seen new players join, and not a single other, had said anything to give a damn about welcoming them. Frankly, that is disturbing to see how low the bar has dropped to new people. Is it too much to ask for? I admit I don't always charge in to give gifts and a handshake, but I do offer up my time to guide them with any and all questions/information to get them situated. I take it as a failure upon myself for every player that walks out because I couldn't show them, what this place has been for me. One guy standing out from a dwindling crowd makes it so evidently clear that we are not the rise. We're sinking, and it's 100x harder for players like me to keep new players from being lost forever.

The market doesn't bother me all too bad as it once did. Sure some change there, some here, some useless tokens tossed, and those nice long walks I use to take outside the Empire Shop looking at the staff thrones. Ah, good times. I'm drifting out of using the markets now.

Third point - Now we're getting somewhere. I've gotten to the moment where I would rather have an official statement released from staff, telling us there will be none of these special updates than to get my hopes up and they be diminished afterward. I can relate to your emphasis on YEARS here. It's not funny anymore. Dragon Tombs was out of this world. The community could have come up with all the ideas and it'd still been a huge hit. Experienced groups of players coming together for a boss showdown. . . Although we never got to enjoy this, I got a taste of what it might have been like - fighting alongside many of my fellow friends killing the first giants and marlix. Originally, those fights were fun, challenging, and of course rewarding. Now it's just. . . meh.

Banned for schematica printer - huh, a little harsh. I'm sorry that happened to you. I have often been curious why it couldn't be allowed if you had legitimately gained the materials yourself for a design that was your own, while plenty within said limits to ensure you're not rule-breaking or cheating within the posted rules. That's that.

That last bit is right on point and touched close to heart. Like the tip of a very large iceberg sinking the s.s.EMC. I remember a chat bursting with conversations, with humor, and yes, spam too. Builds were growing as fast as trees do. Shops and malls spread throughout into a complex economy. The wheels were not just turning, they were full steam ahead pushing EMC to new heights. Empire Minecraft seemed invincible, yet tight-knit, and humble. Now I imagine dead bushes blowing across the town streets. Crows on the lampposts, and a struggling new player with neighbors who are derelict in each direction. Nobody to come to their aid. The remains only of what used to be. We may have grown into a large empire, but we're not so large anymore. We lost something crucial along the way. I hope the server ends on a high note as you worded it, but I'm worried it's going to implode on itself. I'm not going to jump ship just yet, but beware, I'm on the edge.

Hats off to you Cyber for everything! We had some good runs back in the day and I'm grateful to ya. Cheers, and good luck with your lifelong road ahead. You'll always have friends here.

You guys are making me sad, but what's more sad is how dead SMP6 is. That used to be my home server. I began on it in early 2015, and after seeing how I was usually the only person on there (who was not an alt, idling...), I "jumped ship" and moved to SMP1. Well... I did that earlier this year, hoping to start a "new life". It's really sad to see EMC go this way, because I was planning on playing on the server more often and become more active. Though, 1.12 is still here... Less people are coming on, and I even hired someone to build a res for me, but now it's more or less "What's the point?"... :\

I have a legitimate worry the Forums may blow.