Five years on EMC

I have no idea whether this is going to turn into a rant, or whether it will be long, or what it will be But I decided that I'd just write something. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns into a obituary; a post-mortem on my time on EMC.

Two weeks ago I got a notification telling me that I'd been a member here for five years. EMC was a very different place when I joined in 2012. The community was different, the staff were different, I had to sign up on the site before I could get ingame. JustinGuy (who is he?!, you all ask) hadn't yet posted his latest status update.

I joined weeks after smp8 and smp9 were created. However I joined smp7. I managed to convince quite a few of my friends to join and we developed a bit of district right at the northern edge of town. I originally planned to build a mega tower mall thing on my res. I got as far as building the third floor before it sat unfinished for months. This is a common theme with my projects. I've now got like 6 residences, and none of them have anything finished on them.

For the april fools of that year, the staff disguised themselves as mobs and wreaked havoc in town. I remember people in town talking about how annoyed aikar would be that his res was being destroyed. Little did they know at the time that it was aikar doing to the destroying (I think).

But probably the most significant thing I've done on EMC was joined the Last Light Outpost. I joined in May that year. The is probably the largest outpost to ever have existed on EMC; and we still have the largest thread on the EMC forums. Most of my posts and likes come from that thread.

In the space of a few months, that thread amassed hundreds of pages. The outpost amassed dozens of members, and it expanded massively. We'd host frequent parties, and the discussions on expansions, and everything else, were incredibly infatuating.

Dragon tombs was announced about here.

At the end of the year, we held the LLO olympics. It was an ok event, but it suffered from a low turnout. It was probably around this time that the idea of outposts and wild communities started to wear thin. At this point, I started my own, semi-private outpost, named Sunstreak Islands (shoutout to penfoldex for the name ). It was fun, but I've hardly been there for years.

However, one new cool thing came up here. A few of us began plotting a new type of outpost. It become known as the New Republic. The idea was to replicate politics and economics within EMC. It lasted for over six months, and few very rapidly. It was probably one of the more exciting things I've been involved in. However, in the end it fell apart. To this day, I still think it would have worked. The biggest issues involved were the complexities of the system, and the involvement of one large faction.

To me, this marks the point where the wild become neglected, and EMC began to change more noticeably to what it is today.

Since the beginning of 2014, I've done basically nothing on EMC. I check the forums every day by habit, but nothing new really comes up. I've built a few things, but they all sit part finished.

I've been hugely active on the forums in the past, I was once on the highest posting members list, however I'm way off it now. Luckily, I think I might be fairly high on the most likes list. Most of my posts were made in the first two years that I was here.

Despite my age, I don't think I've every exceeded 200k rupees, which seems to surprise some people. I've never really been involved in the town aspect of EMC, I've always been involved in the wild, where rupees don't matter much.

Before I launch into the more critical part, I have to say one thing. There's something about EMC, I can't quite work out what it is, but there is something that's made me stay here for five years. Yeah, I've been drifting away a bit, but I'm still here.

I'm going to be entirely honest now. (this is the ranty complainy bit now) I'm not really sure why I'm still here. I log about once a month, roam around a bit, check on my reses and then log out again. I habitually refresh the site quite a few times a day, but there's never anything of much interest (or substance).

Way back in 2012, we were promised a cool new way to defeat the ender dragon and get rewards to create new things like Empires. A few years after this, it was revealed that major work hadn't even progressed towards this goal. Now, even more years later, it doesn't look much closer to happening. I don't want to be too critical of the staff, because they do a pretty decent job, but their ability to prioritise just seems a bit questionable to me.

Other things always seem to get in the way, and in many cases they don't offer anything good. A perfect example of this would be the anti-grief update. In my opinion, it was a horrible implemented idea, they goes against everything aikar was arguing for since I can remember. I don't want to hijack my own thread, so I'll just link you to where I wrote fairly extensively on the topic.

To pull a few ideas out of that thread though. The demographic of EMC's community have changed a lot. When I originally joined, most people were after a community experience, but still that vanilla experience. A huge proportion of the community were involved in the wild. But now, the only thing I see on the forums are auctions. Any activity in wild related threads is met with an incredibly lukewarm response. People just don't seem to care much about the community aspect of the wild.

In my five years here, I've learnt a lot, had an awful lot of fun, and made quite a few good friends. I do very much appreciate what EMC has done for me, and I recognise that it has played a significant role in my life for the last five years. However, I'm beginning to think that my time here is coming to an end. I wouldn't be surprised if, in the future, my visits become separated by days. I don't think I'll be missed by many people.

TL;DR: I joined EMC five years ago. I now obsessively stalk the forums but hardly play ingame. yay

I can relate to that TL;DR. I like to poke my head around here occasionally.

I remember all those update promises way back when haha. I guess priorities have changed =P

I'll miss u bb

Same. Besides Minecraft losing any and all of its appeal to me and being butchered with needless updates, EMC has drifted far from what I stayed here for when I signed up five years ago.

We went from a vanilla survival experience in the wild to 'WE'VE GOT GOT NON-VANILLA GIANTS YOU CAN HUNT WITH UR FRIENDS' which I've never had anything but zero interest in. I remember when HellHounds got added, and all they were to me were a surprise pain in the arse nobody even asked for.

We went from fun wild communities full of dozens of active people to largely dead outposts that occasionally, you'll prod with a stick and it'll move around again for a bit before going back to wait for death to come collect it. And like you said, when something new comes up in the wild there's little to no response to it. I've got to heavily agree on the detraction from what the wild was made for.

You can say 'Empires is coming', 'Empires is under development', 'Empires will replace the anti-grief update because that thing was only temporary!' but I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's been this way for years. There's no point saying those empty words over and over again if nothing is actually going to come of it. I'll bet I leave the forums before Empires is ever released; just like Dragon Tombs. And I'll bet that just like Dragon Tombs, they've had the community under the impression that it was under development, and then eventually spring a "actually lol we haven't worked on anything at all llmmmaaaooo u just got prankled' on us again.

Town also used to be a fun community where you'd just sit down and talk to people for a bit, maybe ask for a few shop recommendations, and build on your res. Now all I ever see is people saying 'come to my res my mega mall brings all the boys to the yard' and 'check out my auction so I can get mad rupees: [link]' before disconnecting. Everything is so damn boring. The humour's not exactly for me, but I guess that's one thing SMP8 can be proud of - not losing its sense of community and having an active chat.

Ugh. I'd write so much more but it's 2AM, I'm writing two essays and something else simultaneously as well as this, and I can't be bothered adding more detail lol.

TL;DR: I've never related to a TL;DR more than this one.

First off: I am celebrating my weekend "Shell style" and yah, you get the idea I hope and if not: come online later this Eastern weekend and we'll discuss it

Thanks for taking the time to post MBA, I really enjoyed this. Now, this may come as a surprise to some but I don't necessarily agree with you on all points. But that doesn't change the fact I enjoyed reading your post, and I can seriously relate to some aspects myself as well.

But first and foremost: Congratulations on your 5 year anniversary! Impressive and I love it!

But bewarned, competition is at hand Just you wait and I might just one day catch up to you (3 years from now no doubt)!

(if you now think: Shell, you're overdoing it... Some players tend to believe me when I say that someday I'll catch up ).....

I love reading these kinds of stories, but I also need to share that I am a little bit jealous. I honestly wonder what would have happened if I had discovered EMC sooner than my previous server. Well, one thing I am pretty sure off: some of my friends would probably not have been here.

But man... I somewhat envy you MBA, honest..

EMC by nature is special. It's the combination between staff, community and Minecraft (<= obvious statement there) but before you go "No Sherlock, Shell" (=Extra Mild Chat) think about it. There is this combination which seriously fits together.

Things have shifted, have to agree.

You won't hear me say for good or for bad because I love EMC and I still frequent EMC, it is my favorite past time after work: hopping online and doing stuff. EMC is my everything where Minecraft is concerned and Minecraft is my most played game.

But yeah....

I have to agree that I too get the impression that sometimes things seem more self-centered now. Even though some things are said to be about groups most around EMC seems to become self centered. I can see why, but... I can also see why not.

Killing the Ender dragon, spawning a wither? You won't hear anything about it in town. I can understand why this is so, it's not necessarily a bad thing. But it also moves away from vanilla Minecraft as well as group interests. "Who summoned the wither, can I help?", you can forget about those scenarios on EMC.

When beacons still spread around your residences I "did something". I didn't only make it so that the beacons on my 2 residences could be turned on and off. I also gave all my neighbors access, and let them know about it.

Before mobs couldn't leave your res I once spend 10 minutes pushing chickens into a moat to get 'm back onto a res.

These days? Why care about your neighbors, your stuff won't influence them anyway. Animals? They can't leave residences, meh, not worth your time.

Now... please note: I can see why. Animals not leaving your residence is also a good thing. Those beacons likewise.

Honestly: the other side of the medal would be a staff controlled operation where staff would get involved with just about everything. I have my way with words, yet I realize that doesn't apply to everyone. So who do you call? Staff

I'd rather have player <=> player interaction and less staff influence (note: staff as staff, not staff as regular players. Trust me on this: there's a HUGE difference).

This isn't a black/white thingie. But you do make a good point: things changed. And in my opinion not always for the better. Easier isn't always better.

You still fly your Elytra

(sorry, sorry, no offense but I had to )

I think it's not so much sharing the news which was a bad idea, but not getting any updates about at all which is creating some negative effects. It's one thing to make a bad call, it's another to live up to it.

The cat has been out of the bag yet staff never acted on that. I live IT, so when Aikar said that all projects are combined, that Anti-Grief is an integrated part of the bigger picture and the way he explained and worded that? I'm a believer, no more questions asked. (I still am).

But what about those who aren't? I've mentioned this a few times before: why not sometimes throw out a bone every once in a while? People only got a glimpse on Dragon Tombs progress after that poll and when Anti-Grief became a thing.

Sometimes sharing a little bit of information can help cool down anxiety. Not sharing anything at all... yah.. let's not go there.

And for those who don't believe Krysyy I'd like to point your attention to the 1.9 Minecraft snapshots: when observer blocks became a thing.

Initially they released a 1 power output. As in: place redstone dust around them and only 1 block would be powered. People build whole farms around that concept (note: while this was all in snapshot stage!).

So in the next snapshot they fixed things. The signal was never meant to be 1 level powered, but 15. Let's just say this created a ruckus. Look it up, I'm sure you'll find it.

So yeah....

At 4 years here, I understand some of the stuff you said. Whilst I wasn't around when DT was first announced, it's still been an awfully long time since it was. EMC way back when was a lot more community and out of town stuff based, but over time EMC has became, essentially, a fully blown economy server. I rarely ever post auctions, because that's not what EMC should be about, but me not posting auctions doesn't really do much to the nearly 5 a day that get started.

Congrats on 5 years mba2012.

I read that as apples.

Boy, I can't express my loathing for losing my apples to extensive exposure

Its been a really long time since ive been active at all, but i used to really be. Honestly I just clicked on the first name I still recognized. So far still the only two names I still recognize are Krysyy and the Op, im gonna try to find some more people.

First, while I agree it is likely a different staff than when you started, the staff is really good on this server when it comes to in game issues and assisting people.

Any player that has been involved for 5 years will be missed in some way. I am always taken but the good ole stories and history of emc. ...and while I think that there may be less activity in the wild I think some players still want that. I have a fairly active wild "outpost" on smp1 now with my kids, wife and a couple other people who've joined us. We each have our own desires of how to get the most out of this game and emc. I love the economic aspects of it but don't want that to cause issues with the community which seems so great.

...I wanted to second the HellHounds, even as a less than 6 month player of both minecraft and on emc, they can really be a pain. With that said I actually love the addition of the mini bosses, extra mobs and stuff.

I also just wanted to add that I know things have had to change. Players come and go. The game changes around you and the game ages for better or worse. As a player of World of Warcraft from Beta until about 8/9 months ago I saw so many things I loved, hated, impacted my game and so on. With that I got a lot of memories, saw many cool things and met lots of players in game. For emc to survive, it will take change and changes that sometimes will not always be what everyone likes. In the end those things will either fail or be successful.

I can't state much on DT as I really just don't have enough background or knowledge on it but I see empires as a huge thing for helping to bring back more play in the wild. The ability to get to/from an outpost will be huge and will allow much deeper use of distance from spawn points. I mean all the spawn nether portals are claimed by someone that has been in game for years and even creating a tunnel off it for my own rail could be taken as a grief. This is not to complain but just to understand new players have to go further out to create an outpost or risk being denied. Then getting there takes excessively longer and many times can't even have a method of auto travel built due to existing protected builds. ...WHICH I love. I do not want anyone messing with other peoples builds, but just making a point. I noted my "outpost" in quotes above because I know it would be declined if I requested it. Heck, partially because players have left that would have to approve it due to location. Once empires exists I'll get myself way away from anyone else so I am not messing with other stuff. This will still allow me quick access to town and waste lands.

I would love to see more use of the wild, more activity on the server and even more events in town. I'm not sure I know what can bring that back. I don't know if empires can do it as new players don't usually stay long enough to go to the waste lands yet alone move on to bigger things. I wish I could help with ideas, but here is where I reach out to the people who really "built" emc like several of the posters to help all of us understand how to try to bring emc back. It may not be possible, not due to emc but just due to MC. Eventually all games die and people move on to the next new things even if it is very similar. As Metallica says "Sad but true".

It's really interesting to see EMC change through 5 years, according to your rant.

I experienced a little of the non-auction era when I first joined. I remember looking at so much interesting threads about different topics. I agree with you though; everyone seems focused on making the most rupees (Auctions), not necessarily the community aspect. It's kind of sad to people that actually care, but are drowned out in auctions.

With all due respect, I have to disagree with this as auctions are a requirement of the game these days and actually offer the best bulk deals for people to share what they have spent time and effort getting in the game. Just like money, rupees are not the root of all evil. I would love a spawn res but I need millions of rupees to even get a shot at it.

I think its a bit much to lump anyone trying to increase what they have in to a "don't care" group. In my 5 months I've helped build a large section of road and a lot of terraforming for a large outpost being built, dug and made a 7000 block under ocean rail system to my "unrecognized outpost" and a 3000 block rail system to find us our own nether portal. I have involved my family and some friends which is now up to 7 players who all but 1 has a build in the wild. We have started building a city for villagers with a rail station, castle, large over water bridge and several new buildings and farms. To boot I have been a supporter since my second month on and have been involved in many conversations on the forums, pms and in game. I've tried to help out several new members with everything from materials to getting around. I hardly think I could be considered not caring about EMC today or its future. The fact that I have a shop does not make me the enemy.

The other things I think that the longer term players do need to also keep in mind is it sure is easy to knock people trying to get rupees when you have millions. I don't want you to change that and I am happy for those of you that have done well and played a long time. You deserve all you have. Just don't rag on new players for wanting to also be able to be successful. Those of us who starter later are at even more of a disadvantage as we have to compete with players who have so much they don't care about profits. All the best properties are taken and now held ransom or in use. Again, I'm not asking someone to walk away from stuff, but when I have played Minecraft for 6 months and EMC for 5 months my rupee pool can't compete with others in auctions for cool promos or new items. I don't complain, I get in the next one or try to get it myself. If you wonder why some new players do leave maybe this type of issue is part of that. Making a new player who is trying to get some wealth or to obtain certain things being made to feel like they are playing wrong or negative to the community and server is not going to stay.

I rarely rant, sorry for it... ...enough from me.