Hi gang! It is venting time, and also time to slightly overdo things a little bit. What do Sun Solaris, FreeBSD and the Empire Minecraft server have in common? I'm in a very good mood right now and this was long coming. Let's make it official... Shell's 10 8 reasons why I favor Empire Minecraft over any of the other Minecraft servers out there. Why 8? Because I just checked Google and Bing and all my hard work got buried under. So 8 it is Warning: Bias involved. 10 8 reasons why you might want to play on Empire Minecraft ... by ShelLuser 8 Mumble So this is something I'll have to cut short because I honestly never used it. But I do know it really lives amongst several players so obviously I could not make my top 10 8 without mentioning this one. Hope you can excuse me for keeping it short though 7 tutorial The tutorial most definitely isn't perfect. I myself can't stand to see the amount of players who take off into the Frontier and more than often are never heard from again. Thing is: I investigated, and not just several weeks ago but a few days back (time of writing). There is no easy solution here because it's all right there: "We recommend you....". When people don't read.... For some the tutorial is a boring piece of work but when I got onto the Empire for the first time it was the thing which caught my attention. Something to help me get going, I really liked it! Read all the signs or run through and see what happens. Fact is that all the knowledge is there if you need it. And there's them eastern eggs I think the tutorial is a solid reason why you might get started to play on the Empire. 6 The chat Town chat, economy chat, local chat, group chat and residence chat. And let's not forget about Shell chat! ok, ok... so according to the poll: Shell you're overdoing it chat! But seriously, I like our options. A chat for every occasion, and you can even turn it off if you want to. The chat is what helps brings people together, and I really appreciate it and the way it works. I'd especially like to point out group chat which is what my friends and me have been using a lot when we got started. Just /invite someone over and no matter where you are: you can chat. Your friends can be fighting the Ender Dragon while you, safely at your res., could be cheering them on! "Is it dead yet? No? It killed all of you? Oh, how sad!" <packs up gear to go to the End> 5 town "Is there a town I can join?" "you're already in town!". Our town world is a place of solitude, protection and teleportation fun. Some players may get a bit ticked off by the flat, uninviting and boring world (hey: I am honestly just reciting comments!) but if you look beyond this you'll learn that EMC doesn't offer their way or the highway: they offer you a chance of going your way. Don't like the flat "boring" and non-hostile world? The /waste or /frontier is but one command away. Both are good for building and exploring and both can be lots of fun. Just remember: The wastelands will get reset from time to time so if you are a nutjob like me then do keep in mind that there might come a time when you'll lose everything if you're not quick enough to get your stuff back. But it is your call... And town does not reset. Something I seriously appreciate. Play, be active, don't go derelict and your build can survive even the ongoing onslaught of parrots 4 Developers This was a dilemma. Seriously. I know it may look disrespectful to leave the developers out of the top 3 but... Please keep in mind that I am approaching all this from a player perspective. I most definitely appreciate the developers, I deeply respect them and their work, but in all honesty... How often do you interact with a developer in their role as developer? I sporadically PM them to inform them about a bug or a glitch which me or a friend of mine found but that's it. In day to day gameplay you normally don't interact with the dev. team. I know of players who never ever interacted with them and also of some players who are even a little hesitant with PM'ing them (which is understandable, they might use their fork()'s (such bad pun on my end ) As such... no disrespect intended here, but I do think 4th is fitting. 3 Community I LOST ALL MY STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 STUPID SERVER!!!!!! ALL MY STUFF GONE I HATE U STUPID SERVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Other server (I am not just making this up, but the exact context obviously differs a little bit): >Grow up >reported >spam much? get a life >yeah <bleep> you too, <bleep> >cant take the heat, <bleeping> Empire Minecraft: > (as in: nothing. Let them rage, have their vent, let them cool down, all good). > i feel you, happens to all of us sometimes. (player extends on this and chats) > say, easy with the spam... some mods may get angry > what did you lose, maybe i can help? I have seen #3 too much not to mention. And not just on the server I play on mind you Get involved with the community as a whole and you'll see. Every SMP has their own community, the whole forum is a specific community of its own and yeah... Note: I decided to let this run with the forums instead of mentioning those separately. 2 Staff Some players are still haunted by some of my critical remarks it seems but sorry to say: I'm not taking anything back other than those remarks I already did. Yeah, I have shared some criticism in the past and I still stand by everything I said. But I'm not blind either At the time of writing... meh, it just ended. Too late. Darn you staff for ruining my post! See what they did? ok, ok, ok, sorry, sorry, sorry.. bad pun!! http://events.emc.gs/ You do realize that Chin's fire floor even dates from a time when I came onto this server? Most likely even sooner but... Seriously: you try starting something, then keeping it up for 2 years, then we'll talk. And before we go the "but they're staff" route: why do you think that the lack of a green hat would stop you from doing something like that? It doesn't! I think there are some players out here who are more famous than some staff (with all due respect guys!), yet the main difference is that staff has several obligations (and restrictions!) to work with. Oops... did I share something I'm not supposed to know? Seriously though.. there's more than meets the eye. I myself don't always agree with some things but you got to admit: they do make it work and help to keep it working. And that deserves , no, demands respect. In more ways that you may realize. Aya has been to servers where some players got kind of pushy so to speak. And not the kind of "5 out of 10" kind of servers. I myself have come across servers where you never got any free time for yourself. You log on, you play for 5 minutes. WHAM. a friend who also happens to be staff pops up to mine. Now, that can be fun and it often is. But honest guys.... Sometimes I go online and I just want to chat and afk and do nothing (afk also implies these forums of course). 1 Play your way Seriously.... This is not a marketing phrase but this is reality. Play on the Empire your way (even if that way is no way, the way outta here but... I hope you'll reconsider ). Do you want to get involved with the community? The microphone is right here, these forums for example. But perhaps you don't want interaction, you simply enjoy playing as if things were single player yet also heavily enjoy the interaction going on in chat for you to watch (if you recognize yourself here, yeah, this is for you ). It gets better... You're not a player of many words, you're about action. Advertising, lets get the rupees in: the E channel, or microphone, is open you go! And this is only scratching the surface. EMC is an economy server. Fun fact: I never bothered with this too much myself (those pesky buyers who make me having to restock (just kidding!!)) but I know plenty did. Whether it's mining and selling to shops or setting up shop yourself. EMC provides. Go right ahead, there's always an opportunity somewhere. So yeah.... I have only done this three times. Which is why this is somewhat special to me, I can rant a bit more often, but not to this extend. First time was on a Sun forum, long before Oracle had taken over. The second time was on the FreeBSD forums (approx. 4.5 years ago) so I think it's only fitting and deserved to repeat history and do it again Only this time reducing things from 10 to 8 because everyone seems to be doing top 10's these days. And there you have it. Now time for sleep, tomorrow a report and then... Weekend & cave exploration time!
When I am bored now days i come here to see if shell has posted anything because I know by the time I'm done reading his long and fun rants I would have forgotten my boredom
Hmm, this is a good list. I would have to say you hit every aspect of EMC and what makes it so great. Nice job Shell
Didn't you already have one of these threads? I'm not complaining at all, just wondering. It's nice to see more love for the empire.
I bought minecraft to play on this server. I happened across it when looking for minecraft and economy. I have never played on another. I was given the chance to serve the community and it was the best time in this game I ever had. I got to see things that I never would have guessed happened behind the scenes, The people here are what makes this what it is. The staff and the players. Thanks for writing this shel, As always I enjoy reading your posts.
Absolutely not. I'm quite serious about this one, I think these are some of the better highlights we have on the Empire. Sort off... I have done a rant somewhere last year about why I think the Empire server is as great as it is, but I haven't done a top 10 8. A rant is simple: you start writing, think things over and just continue as you go along. A top x is more difficult because you'll need to come up with every detail before writing it (somewhat). And well... I was dead tired last night and I felt like it I couldn't agree more! Thanks for your comment and thanks for the feedback!
I am in 'that' mood. If Krysyy can bump threads then so can I (ok, now that was bad pun but only to those who know the actual context (which most of you do not, even if you think you do). You really think I sometimes mention 'bad pun' just for the pun of it?). Either way.... uh oh More seriously though.. I had people ask me on discord about this, briefly. So I figured.. Why not back up. At the risk of spamming a bit (this is the major risk with players such as myself: I do not discriminate between stuff I am passionate about) but if you wonder about this then.. There are a few things I am passionate about. Minecraft (leads up to EMC), Unix (leads up to FreeBSD (started on Solaris)) and Modeling languages (UML, SysML, etc.) (leads up to commercial software products such as Visual Paradigm). Note: the only reason I mention the latter is because they allow you to use it free of charge and I know it's a good deal. But yeah, some people kept wondering about Shell and his top 10 (I don't do these too often). SO for those of you: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/10-dos-and-dont-for-freebsd.65618/ I do these things more often. And before anyone jumps on me for mixing personal passionate topics: why assume this only went one way? Why the bump? Because in true US fashion (I LOVE some people trying to get me into US customs, you know who you are!!)... I took a dare I never understood that game, I still don't but I do like to think that I'm getting a feel for it. And the dare was? Come up with a top 10 We now return to our regular scheduled program (edit): for now
