Hello Recently I decided to return to EMC after a long break. After having used a couple of hours running around and hopping through the smp's, I sadly felt that the activity has decreased a lot. I'm not implying that EMC is dying because it isn't, I'm pointing out the fact that there now only is a fraction of people online in general compared to one year ago. I remember the times where the smp's had room for 60 players and often those 60 slots were full constantly. What has happened? Is it MC in it self that has a lower playerbase? What's more surprising is that I don't see anyone discussing this in either the forums or ingame. Haven't any of you old veterans felt this? Maybe it dosen't bother you?
As much as I hate to say it, EMC is slowly dying, let's face it. However, that is not entirely our fault. Minecraft itself is dying off. Many players prefer minigame or pvp servers, not the survival we have here.
It's been talked about before in these two threads....Just go back and read through them. I don't think we nee a third thread about this. https://empireminecraft.com/threads/idea-player-retention-rates.69215/ https://empireminecraft.com/threads/discussion-player-retention-rates.69141/
To be fair though, one of the linked threads is locked, and the other is almost a month since last post. What harm is a third thread going to do?
There isn't anything wrong with it. But I do feel that whats been said and what could possibly be said again on this new thread is in these two links. Worth a good read for JoxBax since he's asking what's up.
As previously stated, it seems like the general population prefers PvP and minigames, and aren't willing to invest the time and energy needed to make EMC worth it to them. It's not that we're doing anything wrong, it's just that people are looking for something other than we can offer. However, some of our future updates seem promising, I feel like Empires will bring back older players, the games server will attract new ones, and Dragon Tombs will be a mixture of both.
Agreed, well said. I am an older player, I know what you mean, there is really nothing we can do about it; MC will eventually die of, just like everything in the virtual world.
I like how you gathered these statistics with hardly any playtime on Emc. You've only logged in 30 minutes this whole year and that was just jumping smps for the most part with little interaction with the community. Yes when you were active about 2 years ago we had somewhat bigger crowd "230 daily players" but bigger doesn't always mean better. Most young players like big minigames servers cause easy/fast pace entertainment which last until the player gets bored and waits for new minigame. I like to believe the Emc is more about the Community than what's the newest feature/minigame on the block. I would say become more active on Emc and you'll find why players hang around Emc cause you either find a group of friends to play with, Enjoy Staff/Player Ran events, or other activities on here. Play it your way...
I disagree. A huge reason why I barely come on anymore is the community. You can't get anyone to respond to you. Hardly anyone answers questions. People want to stay in their group chats and so the chat stays dead. I had to jokingly offer a free orebuster in the chat the other day just to get anyone to talk.
True. I haven't been on long, just recently celebrated two years, and I noticed since about last year EMC just doesn't seem as bustling and popular anymore. It's so quiet in the chat that the fun is kind of lost. I used to have so much fun having lively conversations with others and making new friends. The community was what convinced me to stay on EMC. I feel like maybe that's one of the factors on why a lot of people are derelict/inactive. Without anyone to talk to or just staying in your small group, it's simply log on, build, and go. Events seem to be the only way to get people to go on and it's a real shame. I love EMC and would love to see more people joining and rejoining.
The other day I was asking if anyone sold stone brick, and the chat was silent. Then I said I would buy a stack of stone brick for 100k and finally got one person to talk. One thing also I've noticed it that on the welcome threads new players make we are very good at welcoming them and saying if you have questions just ask! But then when new players ask questions, all you get is the same, dead response: go read the wiki. When I first joined EMC over 5 years ago, you had to sign up on the website first and then you could play on the server. In the time I left this changed I think in order to make signing up for the Empire easier and encourage the growth of members. My biggest problem with this is the forums are a whole new side to EMC that make a whole. There are some amazing members of the community you will only meet through forums. And by not setting up new players with the forums right away, the new player become secluded to their own server and their own res and their own chat channels and rarely communicate with anyone in the community. I'm not normally very critical of the EMC community because frankly if I didn't enjoy myself I would leave. I also understand my opinion is not very valuable seeing I'm just another member. But I do think there are specific areas that EMC can do in regards to bonding the community together through the use of forums and in game conversation.
I lost interest in EMC but honestly the fact it kept me here so long means it is a great server and I have just drifted out of the range of people who love it, not the server drifting out of the range of what people love (if that makes sense)? So yeah most of the old community is gone but not because of the EMC staff/devs. They are largely focusing on the same things they always have I feel and though I have had a few disputes with them they have always done a net good job and would always recommend EMC to a new minecrafter!
I was only given this account a few weeks ago and havent been on EMC long so I really dont have a big say in this but I have noticed the silence within the smps. I join and say Hello and get responses but that is about it. I say anything more the chat is dead silent and it starts to feel like a ghost town sometimes. It feels like I am just talking to myself, I keep talking anyways cause im mad ( mad as in crazy, look at the name ) xD I still love EMC though. Fun events both held by players and staff and building what I want on my own grief proof res! It is just sometimes quiet....
I've been on EMC for 2 years now, but I'd also like to add that it have been 2 continuous years. I'm pretty often online, usually daily. It heavily depends and differs. It depends on time, people present, possible events, etc. How long have you been running around and on what SMPs? I mean, Krysyy held her 5 year anniversary today so I could well imagine that if you weren't on the SMP it was held on (SMP4 for Firefloor for example) then yah... Things could seem very quiet and desolate indeed, because half the server was 'elsewhere'. One year ago you say? Would that be that time when I was the sole ruler of SMP2 because there was no one else around but me? Quite frankly I think it's merely the time you picked (or something else, see my hints above) because I sure don't recognize the things you're saying. EMC is pretty stable where player amounts are concerned, and better yet: as far as I can tell it has slightly gone up instead of down. During the past weeks it often (almost daily) peeked above 200 players during primetime. That's even more than last year where it sat around 180 - 190. You say 60 players, I also don't recognize that from happening as casually as you describe. Now, I do hop across servers, yet not as often as others. But I do often check the server overview as well as peek on other SMPs from time to time (/who smp4, for example to check if I missed Aya coming online). What I see is that most servers vary between 0 and 20 players. Sometimes it goes even higher but that doesn't happen too often, but obviously it depends. There's more... Sometimes I also log on during the day (my local time, for example around 15:00, which would be 9:00 EMC time). Not exactly primetime, as mentioned above I've also had experiences where I was the only one on SMP2. Yet despite the fact that this is hardly "EMC primetime" I often still see around 100 players online. That's a little more than 30 - 40 which you normally get. I'll even make a prediction: around May / June we'll see another period where player amounts will drop a bit more, we'll get more threads about "EMC is dying" and I'll probably post another funny screenshot with me being all alone on the server. Guess what: I've done such a screenshot 2 times "in a row" already (with roughly 1 year in between ). Around the Holiday season player amounts rise, then it slowly drops a little because of several reasons, then we'll mostly peek around the weekends (150 - 170, maybe less) and around the vacations things will go up again. Summing up: I don't see much difference at all from last year and the year before. I simply see the same cycle happening, as it always has so far. Up, a little down, and a little up, and down and back up and yah... Maybe it's because work is kinda rough atm, so I had to cut my playtime a bit short so far
Empire Minecraft went from a survival server with cool builds to an economy server with too many special/promotional items. I RARELY ever see messy residences anymore (at my residence, only the surface is clean) because everyone is building malls (or everyone is only on the server to make rupees, resulting in nothing being built). Skin competitions, advertisement spam, "come to my residence" - I never see these anymore. What I do see now are a lot more advertisements for auctions. Has anyone here seen the official promotional video for EMC? It shows a lonely player getting invited to EMC, and that player gets to show off his/her creations and do community-based stuff. It doesn't show the player getting rich by selling rare promotional items. Remember that this is just what I think. There is no right or wrong response to why or why not EMC is dying. -
